Pakistan ‘guiding’ Sri Lanka’s war

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:16 GMT]
A group of Pakistan Air Force officers stationed in Colombo have been guiding the Sri Lankan military in carrying out air-mounted operations against the LTTE, a former counter-terrorism chief of India’s External intelligence says. The Pakistani officers have also been involved in drawing up plans for a decapitation airstrike with bunker-buster bombs to kill LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan, B. Raman says. The appointment of recently retired Deputy Chief of the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) as Islamabad’s representative to Sri Lanka is a deepening of Pakistan’s support, he says, adding the move is a concern for India’s national security.
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Education International deplores Sencholai children killing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2006, 11:28 GMT]
“Education International (EI) is of great concern that in the recent escalation of hostilities, children are more often the victims. Education International particularly deplores the death of dozens of teenage school girls in the Sencholai children home in Mullaitivu as a result of bombings,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse.
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Swiss TRO sends fund for IDPs in Vaharai, Eachchilampathu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 07:05 GMT]
Swiss Tamil Rehabilitation Organization TRO) has donated a sum of Rupees Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand as a first phase to provide urgent food and essential items to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Tamil civilians now sheltered in temporary structures in LTTE held Eachchilampathu division in Trincomalee district and Vaharai division in Batticaloa district, TRO sources said.
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Tigers compelled to defend against Sri Lanka’s aggression - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 August 2006, 17:20 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s call for the LTTE to declare its commitment to the ceasefire, the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan said that it was the Colombo government which launched a major military offensive in Trincomalee against the Tigers and thereby triggered defensive measures by the Tigers resulting in an escalation of hostilities. "The Norwegian facilitators and the SLMM monitors are witness to the fact that Colombo deliberately chose to launch an offensive in Maavilaru despite the civil dispute being resolved peacefully," Mr. Thamilchelvan said.
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Sampoor threatens Trinco Harbour - Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 August 2006, 09:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday told the representatives of the Co-Chairs of Tokyo Donors’ Conference for the Sri Lankan Peace Process, that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Sampoor posed a threat to Trincomalee Harbour and justified the Sri Lankan armed forces offensive as "preventing" or "responding" to Tigers. However, informed sources in Colombo said the humanitarian crisis escalated by the Maavilaru offensive, initiated by Colombo and the targeting of civilians in air-strikes and the slaying of NGO workers in Muthur, were discussed at the meeting between the Sri Lankan President and the diplomats representing the Co-Chairs.
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Eachchilampathu IDPs face dire shortage of food

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 August 2006, 03:18 GMT]
About 12 thousand internally displaced Tamils from 2956 families trapped in LTTE held villages in Eachchilampathu division in the Trincomalee district following continuous aerial bombardment and artillery fire directed by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from its military installations in east port town and its suburbs have been facing starvation as food and essential materials are not supplied by non-governmental organizations and the government agencies since the fighting broke out, civil sources said.
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53 Division bears brunt of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2006, 12:10 GMT]
Amid continuing heavy fighting in the northern Jaffna peninsula, hundreds of wounded Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have been brought to hospitals in and around Colombo, with hundreds more awaiting transfer from Anuradhapura, medical sources in the capital said Saturday. While the government officially says 106 soldiers have been killed in a week of fighting, defence sources in Colombo said Friday the bodies of more than 400 soldiers had been brought to the south. They said the majority of the casualties have been borne by the SLA’s elite 53 Division.
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SLA allows travelling to Batticaloa LTTE areas for limited hours

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 August 2006, 14:08 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday agreed to relax the ban on travelling for limited hours to areas held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Batticaloa district following repeated requests made by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to President Mahinda Rajapakse, TNA sources said.
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Hartal in Mannar, demonstration in Musali condemning students' massacre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 August 2006, 15:06 GMT]
General shut down and demonstration was held in Mannar district Thursday condemning the killing of students in Puthukudiruppu Sencholai children home and Tamil civilians elsewhere in the North East by aerial bombardment carried out by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and artillery fire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources said.
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Stranded Tamil civilians in Vavuniya demand opening of A9 highway

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 August 2006, 12:30 GMT]
About six hundred Tamil civilians stranded in Vavuniya due to the closure of Vavuniya-Omanthai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) check point Thursday morning held a protest in front of the office of the Vavuniya District Secretariat demanding that they should be sent to their villages and towns in the districts of Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Killinochchi, sources said.
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Batticaloa protest march condemns Sencholai air raid

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 21:47 GMT]
In protest marches across Batticaloa district organized by the Federation of the Batticaloa District Civilian Organizations, in LTTE controlled Kokkaddichcholai area, hundreds of school children and district residents took part, condemning the Chencholai attack in which 61 school girls were killed in Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombing, Tuesday, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Sri Lanka says "talks offer" as fighting continues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2006, 08:11 GMT]
As heavy fighting continued between the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka’s military in the northern Jaffna peninsula, the government in Colombo claimed Sunday to have received on Friday an offer of talks from the LTTE and that it was accepting it. The government announcement came as press reports said the military’s air bridge to the Jaffna peninsula had been cut as the Palaly airbase continued to remain under LTTE artillery fire. The sea lines to Jaffna were also being disrupted by LTTE shelling of Trincomalee port.
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Allow free movement to civilians seeking safety, TNA appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 20:04 GMT]
Pointing out that the imposition of curfew in Jaffna Peninsula resulting in denial of legitimate right of civilians to move to safer areas is a severe violation of fundamental human rights, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members appealed to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to "issue directions that no restriction whatever be imposed on civilians moving to safer and more secure places in order to ensure their personal safety and security," in a letter issued in Colombo Saturday, TNA sources said.
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SLA allows food convoy after SL President's intervention

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2006, 00:18 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning the checkpoint at Mankerni allowed a convoy of lorries carrying dry ration and other food materials to enter the LTTE held Vaharai area at 5:00 p.m. Friday after Sri Lanka's President intervened on the request of TNA parliamentarian, Mr R Sampanthan, civil society sources said. The relief material was intended for distribution among the thousands of internally displaced Tamil civilians who fled from Muthur east and Eachchilampathu division in Trincomalee district following heavy aerial bombardment and artillery by the SLA, sources said.
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"Restrain armed forces from killing civilians," TNA urges Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 11:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday wrote to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse urging him to restrain the Sri Lanka armed forces from killing innocent Tamil civilians, and to ensure proper action is taken against those responsible for such crimes.
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Fighting rages close to Maavilaru sluice gate, 5 Tigers killed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 August 2006, 09:33 GMT]
Heavy fighting continued around 3:00 p.m. in Maavilaru . Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers were close to Maavilaru sluice gates. Five Tigers were killed and 12 wounded, according to LTTE sources. Heavy fighting is reported in Mahindapura and Maavilaru.
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SLA blocks food convoy to Vaharai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2006, 20:51 GMT]
S.Jeyananthamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament for Batticaloa District, accused the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) for stopping food convey of NGOs to the Internally Displaced People (IDP) in the LTTE controlled Vaharai area and worsening the already dire situation prevailing in Vaharai for essential supplies for the IDPs. Eight lorries carrying food and other essentials were barred from entering Vaharai by soldiers of the Kajuwatta Camp on the orders from Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence (MoD), civil society sources said.
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Tigers checkmate

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2006, 10:05 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' announcement that they would regard continued ground and air attacks by the Sri Lanka armed forces as declaration of war by Colombo, is an ominous development in Sri Lanka's continuing undeclared war. In addition to forcing the Government of Sri Lanka to choose between war and peace, Tigers have demonstrated their readiness to open multiple battlefronts in other strategic locations of the island to effectively counter the objectives of Sri Lankan military signified by the Trincomalee offensive.


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Bomb wounds EPDP official in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2006, 09:22 GMT]
A senior official of a pro-government paramilitary group and 9 other people were wounded in a bomb explosion in Colombo Tuesday. Sankarapillai Sivathasan, a senior advisor to the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and one its former a parliamentarians, was rushed to hospital. A security personnel and a 3-year old child in the vehicle were killed in the blast.


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UNP accuses Rajapakse Govt for acting on JHU, JVP advice

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2006, 17:38 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) in a statement issued Friday accused the Rajapakse government in Colombo for acting on the advice of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in ordering a military operation to capture LTTE controlled Maavil Aaru area "within 24 hours," disregarding the views of veteran military officers. After six days of fighting and suffering heavy casualties, the army has not yet reached the area, the UNP said. The UNP did not participate in the 6th All Parties Conference (APC) held Friday evening. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse also holds the military portfolio as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of Sri Lanka.
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