Contain threats against media, RSF appeals to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 16:12 GMT]
Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressing concern over escalating threats and violence against media personnel in Sri Lanka, in a press release issued Tuesday appealing to Mr Rajapakse, said: "Mr. President, it is not yet too late to restrain those of your close associates and political allies who sow trouble and fear among journalists," and added, "The violent behaviour of the men employed by some of your ministers is bringing the government into disrepute, a situation that will be hard to redress if nothing is done."
Full story >>

Batticaloa candidates to be provided police protection

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2008, 13:14 GMT]
At a conference held Monday at Batticaloa district secretariat chaired by Mr.Sunderam Arumainayagam, the Government Agent(GA), the officals decided to provide protection to the candidates contesting in the March 10 local council election. Two policemen will be assigned for each candidate.
Full story >>

Maheswaran’s remains cremated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 18:58 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians took over the casket containing Maheswaran’s remains from his family Thursday around 2:30 p.m. at his residence in Wellawatte and the cortege, and the funeral procession went along Galle Road and several areas in Colombo to reach Kanaththai cremation grounds in Borella. Homage was paid to the Tamil parliamentarian, who was assassinated while worshiping in Colombo Ponnampala Vaa'neasvarar temple on New Year Day, before the body was cremated.
Full story >>

2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
Full story >>

Maheswaran MP assassinated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2008, 04:37 GMT]
Colombo district Tamil parliamentarian of the opposition United National Party, T. Maheswaran, was shot at Ponnambala Va'neasvarar temple at Kochchikkadai in Colombo Tuesday around 10:00 a.m., while he was paying homage at the shrine, and succumbed to his injuries at Colombo hospital. The shooting, which also claimed the live of his bodyguard, comes a few hours after the parliamentarian had said that he would reveal details on how abductions and killings in Jaffna are managed by the Sri Lankan establishment through the EPDP paramilitary, from Colombo. Eleven days ago, the government of Sri Lanka had reduced the Ministerial Security Division guards provided to the MP from Eighteen to two.
Full story >>

Batticaloa elections: Colombo's rehearsal for paramilitary politics

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 December 2007, 19:55 GMT]
In the backdrop of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government announcing local government elections in the Batticaloa district, three Tamil paramilitary-cum-political parties, the EPDP, PLOTE, EPRLF (Naba wing) and the yet-to-be-registered TMVP of Pillayan's group revealed that they had reached an agreement to form an electoral alliance after a meeting summoned at the Batticaloa office of the EPDP Saturday. A spokesperson of the paramilitary coalition told media that although the four outfits had agreed on principle, the final decision would be taken after consultations with their respective leaders and key operatives.
Full story >>

3 EPDP paramilitaries, girl killed in Claymore ambush

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 December 2007, 09:36 GMT]
A Claymore attached to a bicycle, parked by a woman in Kuruma'nkaadu in Vavuniyaa exploded targeting an EPDP paramilitary vehicle at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, killing three paramilitary men and a girl. The ambush has taken place 200 meters from the paramilitary camp, Police said.
Full story >>

UNP candidate in Jaffna shot dead

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2007, 17:20 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen following a prominent member of United National Party (UNP), shot him dead Friday around 5:30 p.m as he was riding on his motor cycle in Chuzhipuram area in Valikaamam. Muthukumar Sivapalan, was rushed to Moo’laay hospital with serious injuries and later transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, sources in Jaffna said. During the last election campaign, Mr. Sivapalan had strongly worked against the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) led by Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the present Sri Lanka government, Tholpu’ram residents said.
Full story >>

EPDP office in Colombo attacked, secretary killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 03:13 GMT]
A bomb exploded inside the Colombo office of pro-government paramilitary group-cum-political party, EPDP, at Isipathana Mawatta in Colombo-05, Wednesday around 8:30 a.m., seriously wounding three persons, including an EPDP cadre, initial reports said. One of the wounded, a coordinating-secretary, succumbed to injuries at Colombo hospital. Police alleged that the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber who was blown into pieces in the explosion.
Full story >>

EPDP wants interim administration for North and East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 02:15 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a pro-government paramilitary group-cum-political party, has proposed setting up an Interim Administration for the North and East as the way forward to resolve the ethnic conflict, the Daily Mirror reported. An interim administration for Northeast capable of effecting self-rule, especially towards restoring civil normalcy and the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of displaced people was the primary demand of the LTTE when it began the Norwegian-brokered negotiations with the then UNP government in 2002. The UNP rejected the notion, saying it would encourage then President Chandrika Kumaratunga to sack its Parliamentary government.
Full story >>

Rights group launches campaign against attacks on Journalists in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 08:03 GMT]
Expressing concern on the level of prevailing impunity of the killings of media personnel in Sri Lanka, the Asian Human Rights Commission, citing 11 cases where 12 Tamil media personnel were killed since 31 May 2004 till 29 April 2007, on Tuesday urged the public to write letters to the concerned Sri Lankan authorities demanding impartial investigation in order to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice. "Not a single person has been brought before the court," in the 11 cases, the AHRC noted and urged the public to forward a copy of their appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Full story >>

Karuna group member shot dead in Vaazhaicheanai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 13:40 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead Monday around 9:00 p.m a member of Karuna group at his house in Vinaayakapuram in Vaazhaicheanai in Batticaloa district, Kalkudaa police said.
Full story >>

Sign of the times in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 00:40 GMT]
Veteran Tamil Nadu activist Pazha Nedumaran’s attempted crossing of the Palk Straits in a bid to deliver emergency relief to Sri Lanka’s Tamils was thwarted last week when he and hundreds of volunteers were arrested. Whilst the attempted crossing and its ‘failure’ has been dismissed, especially in Sri Lanka’s south, as a stunt by mavericks on the fringe of Tamil Nadu’s politics, the event has both highlighted and boosted resurgent support in the south Indian state for the Sri Lankan Tamils’ cause.
Full story >>

EPDP member shot dead in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 September 2007, 17:39 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead a member of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) near the public market building located within Ea'raavoor police division Friday afternoon around 6:00 p.m., the Officer in Charge (OIC) of Ea'raavoor police station said.
Full story >>

EPDP member shot dead in Vaazhaicheanai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 September 2007, 11:20 GMT]
Unidentified armed men riding in a three-wheeler shot dead Thursday around 11:30 a.m, a member of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), selling 'Thinamurasu' Tamil daily in front of a studio on Vaazhaicheanai Main Street, spraying bullets with a T56 type gun, Vaazhaicheanai police said.
Full story >>

2 EPDP members shot dead in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2007, 12:57 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on bicycle shot dead two members of Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), using pistols, Thursday around 3:25 p.m at Aiyangkearni in Ea'raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, IPS Kirigala of Ea'raavoor police said. The victims were riding on a motorcycle when the killers follwed and gunned them down.


Full story >>

‘The gun is silencing the pen’ – Jaffna journalists

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2007, 11:49 GMT]
Following the recent murder of another journalist in Jaffna by suspected Army-backed paramilitaries, the Journalists Union there has appealed to the international community to defend media freedom in Sri Lanka. Despite international media watchdogs’ disquiet over threats to Sri Lankan journalists, paramilitaries are openly threatening media workers and civil society activists in the northern peninsula, reporters say. The journalists appeal was supported this week by an appeal to the government signed by the Tamil Nationalist Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party.
Full story >>

RSF condemns murder of Jaffna journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 01:12 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RSF - Reporters Sans Frontiers) the French based Journalist organization condemned the killing of young journalist, Selvarajah Rajivarman, who was killed in Jaffna Sunday by a lone gunman riding a motorbike.
Full story >>

SLN shoots dead Hindu priest in Velanai

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2007, 20:34 GMT]
The chief priest of Mudippi'l'laiyaar Hindu Temple in Velanai west was shot dead in the firefight between Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and a group of youths during a cordon and search operation Sunday around 10:00 a.m in Velanai, in the islets of Jaffna, sources in Kayts said. Meanwhile, unidentified armed men shot and killed a tailor shop owner at Naaranthanai in Kayts Tuesday evening, the sources added.


Full story >>

EPDP member shot, injured in Kayts

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 18:42 GMT]
Unknown persons shot and seriously injured an Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) member Monday evening in Kayts, an islet of Jaffna. Kayts police took the injured EPDP member to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where he is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit.


Full story >>