Extortion by SLA suspected in release of Jaffna youths- MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 00:27 GMT]
Family members of 44 youths who were recently allowed to leave Jaffna prison have complained to a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian that they had paid sums of up to Rs.70,000 to brokers acting as intermediaries between the relatives and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel in Jaffna, to obtain the youths' release. Meanwhile, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, claimed that the youths had confessed to being members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and had accepted to undergo rehabilitation at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre in Thellippa’lai, under SLA supervision.
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Ganesan protests Kane's failure to meet Tamil, Muslim party leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 12:31 GMT]
Civil Monitoring Commission Convener and Western People Front leader Mano Ganesan expressed his protest over the failure of United Nation's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ms Angela Kane to meet with Tamil or Muslim party leaders during her week long visit to Sri Lanka. Ganesan said the visit, where she met only Sri Lanka Government officials, opposition party leaders, and the extremist JVP leaders, was a "one-sided affair" and "too political."
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Sri Lanka C.I.D., Police treat Tamils like stray dogs- Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 13:50 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a press release issued Saturday, said that "[T]he Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has very clearly contravened the accepted norms, rules and regulations in conducting this arrest [of two tamils] let alone the civility and decency. They have failed to inform the police of the area where the ‘arrested’ persons were living at the time of ‘arrest,' and questioned whether the arrests were "deliberately done on purpose to put fear into the minds of Tamil Citizens."
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Two Tamil youths arrested in Kandy town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 08:38 GMT]
Two Tamil youths were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted in Kandy town from Thursday night till Friday morning. They are being detained in Kandy police station and being interrogated. Police said they were arrested when they failed to provide satisfactory reason for the stay in the location and also to prove their identity.
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International bias contributes to 'vicious cycle of violence', says Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 02:37 GMT]
“The International Community and India, which provide tacit support to Sri Lanka's belligerency, fail to stop or condemn attacks on civilians by Sri Lanka armed forces. But, whenever an attack takes place in the South it gets the prominence of news and International response is prompt. Then, as an occasional passing reference, the antecedents are cited. There is a definite pattern in the international behaviour related to events in Sri Lanka. By such one sided approach, do they encourage retaliations to take place in the South?” asks Jaffna district parliamentarian K. Sivanesan.
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Violence, paramilitary activity on upward trend- CMEV

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2008, 16:54 GMT]
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) in a report issued Monday on the ground situation in the east in relation to the forthcoming local elections, expressed concerns of "continuing trend of paramilitary activity, reports of abduction, extra-judicial execution, intimidation and extortion attributed to 'unidentified armed men' and the inability of the law enforcement agencies to pursue investigations."
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24 Village-divisions in Trincomalee deserted due to conflict

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 February 2008, 14:47 GMT]
A preliminary report released by the Department of Census and Statistics in Colombo revealed that villages in 24 grama niladhari (village level) divisions in the Trincomalee district have been deserted due to the displacement of residents following the conflict. 20 GN divisions are Tamil areas. Other four are Sinhala divisions, media sources said.
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Suspects remanded in attempted murder of Sarath Fonseka

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 February 2008, 12:27 GMT]
Colombo Fort Magistrate Mr.Namal Bandara Thursday ordered further remand till February 27 for two suspects in the suicide attack attempt made on Sri Lanka Army Commander Sarath Fonseka on August 25, 2006 near the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army. The army commander escaped. But 11 soldiers of the SLA were killed and 25 injured, legal sources said.
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Tamil civilian from Ratnapura reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2008, 01:59 GMT]
A familied man from Happugastanne, Ratnapura, who moved to Colombo five months ago to Colombo and living in Grandpass has gone missing since Sunday, the victim’s relatives reported to Deputy minister Rathakrishnan Wednesday morning.
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Sooriyaarachi to be laid to rest Wednesday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2008, 21:51 GMT]
The remains of former Port Development Minister and Sri Lanka Freedom Party-Mahayana Wing (SLFP) (M) Coordinator Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, who was killed in a car accident Saturday at Thambuththegama, Anuradhapura was kept in Jayaratne Funeral Parlour in Borella Sunday morning for viewing by public to pay their homage, and was later taken to his residence in Kandana, sources in Colombo said.
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Kudos to wider Tamil identity

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2008, 21:39 GMT]
The decision of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which enabled Razeen Mohamed Imam becoming a national list member of the Sri Lanka parliament last Wednesday, is received with wide appreciation from different sections of the Tamil-speaking people, including the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. The 60-years-old lawyer Mr. Razeen Mohamed hails from Jaffna and is a member of the Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (the Federal Party started by the late S.J.V Chelvanayakam) for more than 30 years. He was also earlier a member of the Jaffna Municipal Council, elected through a Federal Party ticket.
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Paramilitary personnel shot dead in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 February 2008, 16:23 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed a paramilitary personnel belonging to Pillaiyan group of Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) Saturday noon in Thirukkoavil area in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaarai district, sources in Ampaarai said.
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Sooriyaarachchi killed in accident

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 February 2008, 08:38 GMT]
Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi, former Sri Lankan Port Development Minister and Chief Co-ordinator of Sri Lanka Freedom Party's (SLFP) Mahajana faction, a splinter group of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLFP, was killed Saturday at 1:40 p.m. when his vehicle met with an accident at Madegama on Anuradhapura Galgamuwa road, Police said. The driver of the vehicle and two of his personal guards were also killed in the accident when his vehicle, while speeding, slipped off the road and crashed against a tree, according to initial reports.
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Veeramunai NGO employees continue to be detained

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 February 2008, 13:54 GMT]
Six female employees at the Veeramunai office of a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) Social Welfare Organization of Ampaa'rai District (SWOAD), arrested by Sammanthurai police Tuesday afternoon are continued to be detained, civil society sources in Ampaa'rai said.
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GoSL, TMVP partnership complicates east elections- PAFFREL

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2008, 14:25 GMT]
People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), a citizen-based Election watch organization in Sri Lanka, in a Press Communiqué issued Wednesday said that "[T]here was general agreement that the security situation had improved, particularly with reference to the levels of violence," but added that "[I]t is possible that violence and election malpractices will surface as the election campaign gathers momentum, as the armed groups have not been disarmed. PAFFREL noted that "further complicating factor is that the government has apparently decided that its partner in the east would be the TMVP, which is the breakaway LTTE group in the east and which retains its arms."
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Sri Lanka parliament debates emergency extension motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 February 2008, 12:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Wednesday moved a motion in parliament to extend the State of Emergency for another month. The State of Emergency is in force in the island since August, 2005.
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TNA MP’s residence attacked, 2 youths shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2008, 13:35 GMT]
Unidentified men hurled a hand grenade Monday night 7:30p.m, near the residence of Kishore Sivananthan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, but no one was injured, Vavuniyaa police said. Meanwhile, two youths have been shot dead in Vavuniyaa in two separate incidents.
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New TNA, UPFA parliamentarians take oaths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2008, 12:38 GMT]
Mr.Raseen Mohamed Imam,60, was sworn in as the new national list parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) by the Speaker Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara in the parliament when it resumed its sittings Tuesday, A lawyer by profession 60 year-old Mr. Imam filled the vacancy created by the continuous absence of the Mr.M.K.Eelavventhan for more than three months, parliamentary sources said.
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APRC collaborated in a deception game: Kumar David

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 16:49 GMT]
"The Interim Report is a sham for two reasons; the Committee set aside its pervious 18 months and 63 meetings of deliberations and trotted out the Presidential diktat pretending it was its own finding, and secondly the APRC is collaborating in a deception game since this interim palliative is all that the government will ever want out of these worthies; the government will sell this interim hogwash to India and the Co-Chairs," says Prof. Kumar David in an opinion column that appeared in "Island" weekend edition.
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Police rescinds collecting personal details of Tamils in Modara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2008, 18:01 GMT]
“Sri Lanka Police has no authority to collect private personal details especially financial details even during the current State of Emergency in Sri Lanka,” Mr. R. Yogarajan, the Vice President of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) said in an interview to BBC Tamil service Thursday. The forms distributed to the Tamils by the police in Sinhalese language calling for personal details including place of work, phone number, and bank details, ending into the hands of criminal elements would be dangerous to the Tamils, Yogarajan told the BBC.
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