Bishop calls for urgent help to Batticaloa IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2007, 10:23 GMT]
"Around 1,53,000 Internally Displaced People from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas, are suffering without sufficient food, drinking water and other basic facilities for the last four or five days. The International community and humanitarian organizations should step in immediately to help the destitute people," Rt. Rev. Kingsley Swampillai, the Bishop of the Trincomalee-Batticaloa diocese of the Catholic Church said to media, explaining the dire situation in Batticaloa district and conveying his open appeal, Sunday.
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Abducted TRO staffers final rites held

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 20:01 GMT]
The final rites for the seven TRO staffers abducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA)-backed Karuna paramilitary group in January 2006, and presumed murdered, were held on the Saturday, after three days of mourning, sources from Kilinochchi said. Framed memorials with photographs were taken to relatives home in Kilinochchi on Wednesday, 14 March, for people to pay respect. The pictures were taken in procession to the Kilinochchi Cultural Hall where the final ceremony was held.
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Rights questions bedevil Bogollagama UK, US visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 12:55 GMT]
"The five year old Ceasefire Agreement is in tatters and the Government [of Sri Lanka] seems more and more determined to pursue a military solution. But what are the costs? With widespread reports of abductions and disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture, today's Sri Lanka is beginning to look like Pinochet's Chile," says Allan Little, BBC's Hard Talk, in his introduction to an interview with Rohitha Bogollagama. The foreign minister has completed his visit to UK and is currently in US, and his visit is plagued by questions regarding the worsening Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka.
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19 SLA troopers injured in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 06:55 GMT]
At least 19 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were injured, 4 of them seriously, when SLA troopers and the Liberation Tigers exchanged heavy artillery and rocket fire along the forward defence lines of Thenmaradchi in the Jaffna peninsula from Friday evening. Heavy shelling continued till Saturday morning, sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo forcing refugees to return home- Rights Group

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 19:47 GMT]
"Sri Lankan authorities are using threats and intimidation to force civilians who fled recent fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war to return home," Human Rights Watch said today. "To pressure individuals to return home, government officials and military personnel have threatened to withdraw humanitarian aid, food and other essential supplies," the Rights body further said.
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SLA operation thwarted on southern front - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 13:42 GMT]
Hundreds of Sri Lanka Army troopers who advanced into Liberation Tigers territory Palamoddai, northwest of Vavuniya, were forced to hurriedly withdraw from the area, leaving behind military hardware as the Tigers put up stiff resistance against the SLA troopers between 12:00 and 3:00 p.m., said LTTE's Military Spokesman, Irasiah Ilanthirayan. Four SLA troopers were killed and 20 wounded in the operation. However, the SLA said it suffered casualties when LTTE attacked their positions.
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130 Tamils from government held Muttur villages return

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 11:44 GMT]
A batch of about 130 persons from 40 Tamil families displaced from their villages in government controlled territory in Muttur and Serunuwara divisions returned from Batticaloa to Killiveddy in Muttur police division Thursday around 11 in night in two buses for resettlement. Another batch of 147 persons from 47 Tamil families are waiting in Batticaloa to return to their villages, divisional secretariat sources said.
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Jaffna students denied permission to attend Trinco contest

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 00:05 GMT]
Tamil medium students selected from schools in Jaffna district to participate in the rescheduled 2006 North East Provincial Tamil Language Day competition scheduled to be held in Trincomalee on Saturday and Sunday have not been given permission to travel by sea to the east port town, education officials in Jaffna said.
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Ships meant for civilian use, carryout military tasks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 20:23 GMT]
While refusing to open the A9 land route, the Sri Lanka government (GoSL), under the pretext of shipping passengers and essential food items to Jaffna district, is using the ships to bring in the requirements of its armed forces occupying Jaffna peninsula, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The ship 'Ruhuna', the latest ship arriving at Jaffna, was taken to Kankesanthurai harbour, used exclusively by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), first unloaded the goods brought for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the SLN.
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6000 parcels to Jaffna shipped, another 5000 remain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 11:26 GMT]
The vessel "Merc Yala" carried six thousand parcels, a portion of the backlog of parcels lying in the Trincomalee general post office since January 13, when the ship left Trincomalee port Wednesday. About two thousand parcels were returned back to the post office due to lack of space in the vessel, which has also been taking a consignment of cement and flour to Jaffna district, postal departmental sources said.


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SLA offensives affect 14000 students in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 11:16 GMT]
The education of more than 14,000 students of 110 schools in Batticaloa district has been badly affected by the fighting between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), A. M. E. Paul, Batticaloa District Zonal Director of Education said. Nearly 4,000 students in Batticaloa town whose schools are being used as refuge for displaced people are unable to continue their education, the Director added.
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UK calls for truce, backs Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 23:13 GMT]
British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday called for the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to be implemented as a first step towards ending Sri Lanka’s conflict. “The only realistic way to get a solution is to come back to the 2002 agreement and make sure that it is implemented,” Mr. Blair said. Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told her Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama, “there can be no military solution alone to the conflict.” The emphasis on ‘alone’ is seen by some as British preparedness to endorse the Colombo’s war against the Tigers, provided a political solution is offered also.
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SLA trooper injured in mortar fire on Omanthai brigade base

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 10:41 GMT]
Mortar shells launched by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hit Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Omanthai brigade base Tuesday night around 12:00 p.m. seriously injuring a trooper, SLA sources said.
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Struggle will continue until CFA is annulled-JVP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 20:27 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said that its struggle will continue until the Sri Lanka government annuls the ceasefire agreement (CFA) it signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "We successfully obtained a ruling on the demerger of NorthEast province after nineteen years. We will also succeed in cancelling the ceasefire agreement very soon,"Wimal Weerawanse, parliamentary group leader of the JVP addressing a meeting last Sunday in Matara in the southern province said.
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Documentary on Black Tigers premiered in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 13:05 GMT]
For the first time the Tamil Tigers have allowed a foreign film team to "hand-pick, follow, interview and dig deep," into the lives and faiths of two female Black Tigers, according to the producers of a documentary film titled "My daughter the terrorist," which made its World Premiere to a full house at Parkteatret in the Norwegian capital Oslo Monday.
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Postman, civilian killed in DPU claymore attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 12:33 GMT]
A postman and another civilian were killed in a claymore mine attack carried out by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday morning at fourth mile post along Madhu-Parapukadanthan road in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory in Mannar district. The postman has been identified as Fernando Arulananthan Croos, 48, and the civilian has not been identified yet, sources said.


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TNA delegations meet British, Japanese ambassadors

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 09:59 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians appealed to the British Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Dominic Silcott Monday, urging the International Community to pressure Sri Lanka government to stop artillery attacks into civilian populated areas in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas and to provide the necessary facilities to the people displaced in the recent violence. The meeting lasted an hour starting at 2:30 p.m. Monday.
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751 IDPs return to Muthur Tamil villages from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2007, 23:16 GMT]
About 751 members of 348 displaced Tamil families returned Monday evening in several buses from Batticaloa to Killiveddy in Muthur division for resettlement in Sri Lanka government held villages. This was the first batch of several thousand IDPs who first sought refuge in Vaharai and then to Batticaloa following the military operations launched by the Sri Lanka Army in August last year on Muttur east villages.
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Elderly man killed, three injured in Amparai

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2007, 17:15 GMT]
A 60 year old man was killed while two students and a woman were injured when shells fell and exploded on Chempity area in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled area on the border of Batticaloa, Amparai districts, Sunday around 8:30 a.m, according to Amparai police. Meanwhile, five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers were injured when unidentified persons attacked an SLA patrol unit Sunday around 4:40 a.m at Komaskanthalawa situated on Amparai border.
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SLA forces exodus of Tamils in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2007, 01:34 GMT]
More than 100,000 people have moved out of Liberation Tigers controlled areas of Batticaloa district to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas as Sri Lankan armed forces continued shelling for the third consecutive day in their attempt to force evacuation of large section of Tamil population with the military agenda to capture additional territory, officials providing relief assistance said Sunday.
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