Funeral of engineer killed in claymore explosion held in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2007, 15:10 GMT]
The funeral of the Mr. Lourdunayagam Princely, 27 year-old Mannar District Project Engineer of the World Bank (WB) funded North East Housing Reconstruction Programme (NEHRP), one of the five civilians killed in the Monday's midnight claymore mine explosion which targeted a private passenger bus bound for Colombo was held Thursday around five p.m. in the Mannar general cemetery amid large crowd of people of all walks of life, sources said.


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SLAF bombs Kilinochchi suburb, civilians wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2007, 03:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force bombers attacked Thiruvaiyaaru, 2 km east of Kilinochchi hospital, Thursday at 7:00 a.m. A 69-year-old man and a 26-year-old man were wounded in the bombardment. Tension prevailed in Kilinochchi hospital and many school children remained at home, sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Mannar Police suspends night bus services from Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 10:34 GMT]
Mannar Police Wednesday ordered suspension of all state and private sector night bus services to and from Mannar other parts of Sri Lanka along Mannar-Madawachchi and Mannar-Vavuniya roads due to security situation, transport service sources in Mannar said. State and private sector bus operators were instructed to reschedule their services between 7.30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
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Britain’s Liberal Democrats back Amnesty’s Sri Lanka campaign

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 01:38 GMT]
Britain’s third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats, came out strongly Tuesday in support of Amnesty International’s campaign to promote independent human rights monitors in Sri Lanka and called on all sides to respect international human rights and humanitarian law. The party said one of its MEPs, Saj Karim, Liberal Democrat Member of the Human Rights Committee, has tabled a key amendment to the annual European Parliament report into Human Rights.
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SLAF bombs Puthukudiyiruppu in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 17:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force bombers dropped bombs in various locations in Puthukkudiyiruppu Tuesday around 4:30 p.m., according to the residents from Kaivaeli village. Four bombers dropped bombs near civilian settlements as people sought refuge in bunkers.
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Sri Lankan military officials meet in Palaali

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 13:42 GMT]
A defence team comprising high level officials of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), were flown to Palaali airbase amid tight security Tuesday morning for an assessment of the air attack carried out by the Tigers on the High Security Zone Palaali garrison in Jaffna. A number of bombs dropped by the LTTE aircrafts had hit the military installations including the ammunition stores and camps along Kadduvan - Kankesanthurai (KKS) Road and in areas surrounding Mayiliddi harbour, according to a military official who did not wished to be named.
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4 civilians killed, 37 injured in claymore attack on bus in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 05:11 GMT]
Four civilians including a women were killed and 37 wounded when the civilian bus carrying Tamil and Muslim passengers from Mannar to Colombo was hit by a Claymore mine around 11:30 p.m. Monday at Andiyapuliayankulam along Mannar-Madawachiya road in Vavuniya. Relatives of the victims have blamed the Sri Lanka Army for the attack on the civilian bus.
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Tiger aircrafts bomb Palaali military base

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 22:09 GMT]
Two attack aircraft of the Liberation Tigers bombed the Sri Lankan military’s main base complex in the Jaffna peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday morning, inflicting heavy damage and casualties, LTTE military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet. Tamileelam Air Force bombers had hit an Engineering Unit of the complex and a military storage, the Tigers spokesman claimed. Meanwhile sources said continuous explosions were heard from inside the High Security Zone for five hours after the air raid. Military sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 6 of their personnel were killed. Informed military sources said more than 30 troopers were wounded the attack inside the HSZ.
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2 fishermen feared drowned in SLA mortar fire

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2007, 14:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) launched mortar fire on fishermen fishing in Uduthurai seas in Vadamaradchy east Sunday around 4:00 a.m. in which two fishermen are missing and their fishing boat burnt, sources in Vadamaradchy said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched heavy artillery barrage from the Varani artillery base on civilian settlements in Uduthurai, Vettilaikerny, Vatharayan and Maruthankulam in Vadamaradchy east, from Saturday 10:00 p.m to Sunday 4:00 a.m, damaging six houses, the sources added.
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SLA launches artillery barrage on Vavuniya villages

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2007, 14:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army launched artillery barrage on villages Paalamoaddai, Kunchukulam, Navvi, Puliankulam and Semamadu from 6:00 p.m. Saturday.
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Sri Lanka steps up air strikes on Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2007, 13:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has stepped up bombardment on Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) territory in Mullaitheevu and Kilinochchi districts during the past week. A civilian was wounded Friday, when Sri Lanka Air Force bombers hit Puthukudiyiruppu 9th Division twice Friday. SLAF MiG and Kfir bombers were observed over Kilinochchi Saturday.
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Five civilians die in Batticaloa boat mishap

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2007, 20:19 GMT]
Five civilians, including a school girl, died when the boat in which they were traveling capsized due to heavy wind in Valaichchenai lagoon near Santhively in Eravur Police division in Batticaloa district, Tuesday afternoon.
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Norway dismisses lone activist’s agitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2007, 15:23 GMT]
A Norwegian speaker at a symposium organised by Sinhala nationalists as a “public awareness programme on how terrorism is being promoted in Sri Lanka” was dismissed by his government as a lone agitator making wild accusations. The Norwegian, Falk Rune Rovik, who alleges that Norway is financing the LTTE, was a murder convict and has been engaged by Sinhala ultra nationalists and promoted by Sri Lankan government ministries in anti-Norwegian and anti-LTTE propaganda. The activities of Mr. Rovik, who is scheduled to address a conference in Colombo Friday, has antogonized the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, according to Norwegian press reports.
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Muslim trader shot dead in Kinniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2007, 13:19 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead a Muslim civilian Wednesday night around 10 p.m.at Poovarasanthivu in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district. The victim has been identified as forty-eight year-old Abdul Hassan, a cattle trader.
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HRW urges Pope to discuss human rights with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 08:48 GMT]
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, Tuesday, urged Pope Benedict XVI, to raise the deteriorating human rights crisis in Sri Lanka with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is visiting Vatican this week. Sri Lankan military and police forces, as well as proxy armed groups, are engaged in serious violations of the laws of war and human rights, reiterated Human Rights Watch in the letter.
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Tamileelam flag on pitch prompts paper’s ire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 03:26 GMT]
The pitch invasion Monday by a man carrying the Tamileelam flag during the ICC Cricket World Cup Super Eight match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Grenada National Stadium in St. George's, provoked a furious reaction from a Sri Lankan daily Wednesday. Condemning the action as “a dastardly act,” The Island newspaper’s editorial said: “The LTTE has once again demonstrated its capability to gain access anywhere at will.” Sri Lanka’s top cricket body “must take up the issue with the ICC and the West Indies Cricket without taking it lying down in typical Sri Lankan style,” the editorial fumed.
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Killing spree escalates in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 16:06 GMT]
Four armed men, conversing in Sinhala and Tamil, entered the house of a former editor of a Tamil magazine in Vavuniya Monday night, shot and killed the father of one. The killers then instructed the victim's 7-year-old son, at gunpoint, to go to sleep, the grieving child told the district magistrate who conducted the inquest into the death of 32-year-old Chandrabose Suthahar, Tuesday. Killings were escalaing as never before on alarming rate in Vavuniya District, Manickavasagar Ilancheliyan, the district magistrate, told media appealing those concerned to act against the killing spree, after hearing the eyewitness boy.
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Woman beaten to death in Batticaloa, civilian knocked dead by army vehicle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 11:23 GMT]
A 22-year-old woman, beaten to death, has been found buried at Paalaiyadiththoni in Santhivelin in Eravur Police division Monday morning. Meanwhile, a pedestrian was killed, knocked down by a speeding Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vehicle along Batticaloa Valiachenai Road at Maavadivaembu Monday. Another civilian was killed in a separate accident on the same road, Eravur Police said.
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Two civilians shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 10:39 GMT]
Four unidentified armed men shot dead a woman and a young man Tuesday around 1:00 a.m. in a house at Kovilkudirruppu in Vaharai police division in Batticaloa district, police said. The armed men who had come to abduct the young man and had shot dead the two when the victims had argued with them, the police added.


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Armed men in white van abduct 2 civilians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2007, 20:39 GMT]
Unidentified armed men came in white van abducted a fisherman from Kolumbuththurai, Jaffna and a family man from Navatkuli in Thenmaradchy, their relatives lodged complaints at the Jaffna branch of the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
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