SLFP stopped from joining protest against BBC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 16:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has sent a directive to the London based Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) officials not to participate in the Monday demonstration in front of the BBC world service offices in UK, party officials said. Sri Lanka media had previously accused BBC of biased coverage, for inflating the number of refugees displaced by the bombing campaign by Sri Lanka Air Force in Sampoor area on the 25 and 26th of April.
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Direct negotiations necessary to contain violence - Akashi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 15:21 GMT]
"It is important to have direct negotiations to de-escalate violence which have come very far", Japan's peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said Wednesday, speaking to journalists in Colombo before leaving to New Delhi. Meanwhile the Liberation Tigers have told the Japanese envoy that Colombo should cease all extra-judicial killings and stop deliberately creating obstacles to conduct a safe travel of their Eastern commanders.
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Jaffna Bishop appeals for urgent intervention of International Community

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 May 2006, 19:12 GMT]
"Tamil people are gripped with fear and insecurity due to the alarming escalation in Killings and abductions in NorthEast, including Jaffna, and in the South. People are scared of a major war exploding at any time. I appeal to the International Community to urgently intervene to pressure the parties involved to reduce the threat of war. In particular, the warring parties should be pressured to a implement the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) as agreed by both parties in Geneva," said Bishop of Jaffna, Rev. Fr Thomas Soundaranayagam, speaking to press in Colombo, Sunday.
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Kilinochchi relief organizaton urges immediate release of TRO workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2006, 12:46 GMT]
Killinochchi East Rehabilitation Organization (KERO), in a memorandum issued Friday, appealed to the Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to take immediate steps to release the abducted Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) workers from the custody of the para-militaries of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA). During a military operation on April 30 at Welikanda by LTTE against the paramilitary camp two TRO vehicles used by TRO workers at the time of abduction were recovered. SLA, paramilitaries and government media that they were not involved in the abduction, the memorandum pointed out.
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Tamil farmer arrested by SLA, reported missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2006, 11:51 GMT]
Mr.Visanthy Aloysius, a Tamil farmer of Vellalarkaddu in Nanattan division in Mannar district is now reported missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on April 29. He was arrested by a group of soldiers when he was going to Sooriyakaddaikadu to sell vegetables. Several villagers witnessed the arrest. Now, SLA officials are denying arresting the farmer, said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan and Mr.S.Noharathalingam, Wanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians in a letter sent Friday to the Sri Lanka President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse.
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International Community should protect Tamil media - TMF

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2006, 11:04 GMT]
"The threats, attacks, and killings of Tamil journalists carried out by the Sri Lanka Security Forces and the collaborating paramilitary have reached unprecedented levels. The entire Tamil media is being targeted and intimidated by Security Forces," said the Tamil Media Forum in its memorandum to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse handed over to Killinochchi Government Agent (GA) Mr. T. Rasanayagam Thursday at 11.30 a.m, said sources from Kilinochchi.


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CPJ condemns killing of Tamil-Language daily staffers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 May 2006, 23:33 GMT]
Condemning the killing of two journalists at Tamil Language daily Uthayan, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a media release issued Tuesday, called on Government of Sri Lanka to "fully investigate the attack and take measures to ensure the security of all media workers as more attacks undermine the increasingly unstable truce since planned peace talks faltered in April."
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SL Police abandons Sivaram murder investigation- RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 12:14 GMT]
"Violence between Tamil factions, sometimes manipulated by the security forces, has had particularly bloody results. The renowned Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram "Taraki", head of the news website TamilNet and editorialist on the Daily Mirror, was gunned down in Colombo in April. After arresting one suspect, police abandoned the investigation," said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its annual report for 2006 on Sri Lanka, issued Tuesday.
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Gajendrakumar complains of threat to life

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 10:54 GMT]
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance parlimentarian for Jaffna district, in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday, complained of harassment and death threats to domestic staff at his Jaffna residence. His residence in 3rd Cross street is located close to two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps, one at the 2nd Cross street-Main street junction and the other at the 4th Cross street.
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May Day observed as a day of mourning in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2006, 02:22 GMT]
Hundreds of people in the Vanni wearing black bands, observed the International Workers' Day as a day of mourning, starting in a demonstration march from the Kilinochchi public playground Monday morning around 10 a.m, carrying effigies of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, Wimal Weerawansa, Propaganda secretary of JVP, and other Southern Sinhala extremist political leaders, and marching toward a public meeting held at the Cultural Hall in Kilinochchi, sources said. The meeting ended with the burning of the effigies.


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Colombo assails SLMM, accuses media bias in refugee figure dispute

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 April 2006, 16:58 GMT]
While Sri Lanka's President Mr Mahinda Rajapakse drew attention to "propaganda war," Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told the state-run weekly Sunday Observer that the Sri Lanka Government "categorically denies" and dismisses as "outrageous," accusation by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that security forces were involved in extra- judicial killings in the North-East. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, said State's attempt to accuse foreign media of bias is a precursor to enforcing self-censorship. The State wants to deter foreign press from exposing military excesses of Sri Lanka armed forces, he added.
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Sivaram memorial held at Colombo Tamil Sangam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 April 2006, 15:05 GMT]
Speaking at the one year memorial event held at the Colombo Tamil Sangam by the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance Friday evening, C.A. Jothilingam, a popular political analyst, called for making Sivram's death anniversary, a Day for remembering all journalists slain for their writings in Sri Lanka.
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TamilNet editor's murder still unpunished, impunity prevails in Sri Lanka- RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2006, 11:35 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Sri Lanka Free Media Movement (FMM) all voiced outrage on the lack of progress in the investigation into the murder of Dharmaretnam Sivaram and and said "the current serious crisis in Sri Lanka - the result of unacceptable terrorism - in no way justifies the impunity prevailing in the murders of journalists and human rights activists," in a press release issued Friday.
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Decapitated bodies feared belonging to disappeared Tamils - Chandrasekaran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2006, 12:15 GMT]
"We fear that the five decapitated bodies found near Kaduvela in Avissawela may belong to Tamil civilians who have been arrested during searches and disappeared from Colombo," said Leader of Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) and parliamentarian P.Chandrasekaran in a letter sent to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday, sources in Colombo said.
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GoSL duplicity incompatible with peace process - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 07:56 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), which has been inciting violence with it's paramilitaries in total violation to the ceasefire agreement and working hard to sever the relationship between the LTTE and the international community, has shattered all the goodwill gestures, said S.P. Thamilchelvan, Political Head of the Tigers in a letter to the Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen Bauer on Tuesday. The Political Head of the LTTE also said that the International Community should come forward to pressure the GoSL, to calm the current tense situation and bring to an immediate end to the violence.
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SL President meets Muslim educators

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2006, 11:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse met with members of the All Ceylon Muslims Educational Conference (AMEC) for discussions centering on issues faced by muslims in educations at the Presidents house Monday morning, Education officials in Colombo said.
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Colombo ‘in a military mindset’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka’s government refusing to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries whose ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE is spiralling into increasingly cycles of revenge killings, the Ceasefire Agreement is ‘falling apart,’ the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said this week. Colombo’s support for the paramilitaries and the escalated repression against Tamil civilians in government-controlled areas of the Northeast means "we can safely assume that Rajapakse administration has not given up the military option," he told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
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Colombo expects EU to ban LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 07:46 GMT]
Head of Sri Lanka Government's Peace Secretariat, Dr. Palitha Kohona told media in Colombo that the EU was considering imposing a ban on the LTTE. Responding to a question at a press conference held at the Sri Lankan Information Department Sunday morning, Dr. Kohona, said that the "recent conduct" of the LTTE is a minus point for the Tigers as the EU was evaluating the events taking place in the North and East.
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Pre-planned element behind Trinco violence - fact finding report

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 12:52 GMT]
The 15-minutes speed, with which the violence in Trincomalee town was triggered on 12th April, after a bomb explosion that killed five persons, indicate that there was an "element of pre-planning," said a report issued by Colombo based civil society representatives Friday. The report said over 20 civilians were killed, over 30 shops and 100 homes destroyed and more than 3000 persons are displaced seeking refuge in schools and places of worship in Trincomalee.
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ITAK administration in Trinco UC begins

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 15:09 GMT]
Mr. S.Gowrimuhunthan of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) Thursday took oath as the Chairman of the twelve-member Trincomalee Urban Council and Mr. Kanthasamy Selvarajah Vice-Chairman. Mr.K.Sivapalan, senior attorney-at-law administered oaths to all the twelve members of the Trincomalee UC in Tamil language at an event held in Trincomalee Town Hall in the presence of religious leaders of all the four faiths, sources said.
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