Two Tamil youths abducted in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2006, 17:07 GMT]
A group of unidentified armed men Thursday early morning around 5.30 a.m. forcibly entered a house at Eluthoor area in Mannar town and abducted four Tamil youths. Two of the abducted, were released shortly. The two persons, still missing, have been identified as Rasanayagam Jeyasekar, 30, a father of one child and Francis Thurairaj, 26.
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8 white van abductions in Jaffna in 5 days

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 19:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and collaborating paramilitaries have abducted eight youths, including two students, in the Jaffna district between 20th and 25th December, according to complaints filed by the relatives with the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC), civil society sources in Jaffna said. SLA troops arrive in Buffel armoured cars with paramilitaries in white vans, and abductions take place either on streets in broad day light or at the victims' houses during night, the relatives of those abducted said.
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Child Protection Authority empowered - LTTE Political Wing

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 11:19 GMT]
The LTTE Political Wing, in a press statement issued on Friday, said the Tiger leadership had taken decisive steps to stop the practice of underage recruitment. The Tigers have strengthened the Child Protection Authority with certain powers to investigate future allegations of underage recruitment and to take immediate action to release them, the statement said. The statement also made reference to Tamileelam Child Protection Act 2006 (Act No. 03 of 2006), which was enacted in October by the Tamileelam legislatature, making education compulsory upto grade 11. The Act has outlawed recruitment of under-17s and participation in combat of under-18s.
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Armed men abduct 19 youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 09:07 GMT]
Armed men clad in military fatigues abducted 19 youths, 16 boys and 3 girls, from a private bus en route to Colombo from Kattankudy at Korakallimadu in Kiran, in Batticaloa district around 9:00 p.m., Wednesday. The abductions have taken place on Katankudy - Polonnaruwa route, heavily guarded by Sri Lanka Army soldiers. Parents of six children have lodged complaints with the Police.
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Reduced curfew hours bring little succor to Jaffna residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 20:09 GMT]
The reduction in curfew hours announced by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for Jaffna district brings little relief to the residents cut-off from rest of Sri Lanka, living with severe shortage of food and basic essentials, and gripped with fear of abduction by SLA and paramilitaries as part of the counter-insurgency campaign unleashed by Colombo, civil society sources from Jaffna said.
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INGOs strengthen security of Jaffna Offices

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 22:51 GMT]
Both International and local Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna are reinforcing security arrangements around their offices in the last two weeks due to violent incidents and abductions taking place close to their offices, sources in Jaffna said.
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Demonstration against abductions held in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 11:52 GMT]
The Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared, and the National Front Against War (NFAW) staged a protest demonstration Friday around 10:00 a.m at Peliyagoda circle on the Colombo-Negombo road calling for a stop to forced disappearances and to safeguard humanity, sources in Colombo said. The Protest was led by Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the patron of the Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared and the leader of the New Leftist Front party.
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UN: Karuna denies child recruitment, commits to collaborate with UNICEF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 17:45 GMT]
Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna), who leads the paramilitary Karuna Group operated by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), has contacted the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, on Monday, regarding the listing of his group to the UN Security Council, according to a press release issued by the UN office in Colombo. The move, comes following a report by Allan Rock, the Special Advisor to the UN Special Representative, who accused the Sri Lankan military for recruiting children to the ranks of the paramilitary group, in November when he concluded a 10-day mission to Sri Lanka. Tamil Tigers in October outlawed the recruitment of under-17s.
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More youths surrender to Rights Group in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 01:21 GMT]
The number of youths surrendering to the Human Rights Commission (HRC), Jaffna branch out of fear being abducted and killed by the Sri Lankan Forces, are increasing, human rights activists in Jaffna Peninsula said Tuesday.
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Widen focus beyond child soldiers to humanitarian issues, Rock tells UN

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 December 2006, 03:47 GMT]
In the wake of his visit to Sri Lanka in November, the Special Envoy of the UN Under Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflicts, Ambassador Allan Rock, has recommended that the United Nations widen its focus from only recruitment and use of child soldiers at present to include the killing of children and the denial of humanitarian access for children. As part of his visit, Ambassador Rock observed the situation facing children in areas under embargo by the Sri Lankan security forces.
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HRW: Sri Lanka military complicit in forced child recruitment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 November 2006, 12:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces must immediately stop assisting abductions of boys and young men by the Karuna Group and help those abducted return safely to their families, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. A HRW report to be published next month says the Sri Lankan military and police are complicit and, at times, directly cooperating with the Karuna Group. “We have clear and compelling evidence that government forces are helping Karuna forces abduct boys and young men,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocate at HRW.
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Presidential powers can undermine CoI- Amnesty

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 November 2006, 15:23 GMT]
Amnesty International said that the Commission of Inquiries (CoI) consisting of 8 Sri Lankan nationals, and the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) of foreign nationals to act as observers, as announced by Sri Lanka's President, lack "credibility and confidence of parties to the conflict and sections of the society to be able to conduct meaningful investigations, obtain critical testimony or information from witnesses and gain the acceptance of its recommendations by all relevant parties," in a report issued 17 November, and declined to nominate an AI member to stand as candidate to IIGEP.
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Abducted youth beaten, released in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 07:16 GMT]
One of three youths abducted by armed men in a white van in Kulamangal, Mallakam in Jaffna district Sunday at 9:15 p.m. was released by the abductors in front of his home Monday early morning with severe bruises to his body, sources in Jaffna said. The victim was admitted first to Tellipalai Hospital and was later transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, hospital sources said.
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Opening A9 imperative to avoid humanitarian crisis, Bishop tells Envoys

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 17:04 GMT]
Bishop of Jaffna, Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundaranayagam stressed on the immediate opening of the A9 route as the only remedy for the humanitarian disaster prevailing in the Jaffna peninsula when Australian High Commissioner Greg French, Switzerland Ambassador Ruth Flint and the British Deputy High Commissioner Lesley Craig met the bishop Tuesday around 3:00 p.m at Bishop's House in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said.
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Two men abducted in Kokuvil, 3 youths surrender to HRC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 01:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers abducted a middle-aged man from his house in Potpathy Road in Kokuvil at 1:00 a.m. Monday, while unidentified armed men abducted another man from his residence in Kondavil West Jaffna Sunday midnight, civil sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, 3 youths surrendered to the Human Rights Commission offices fear for their lives from the SLA and collaborating paramilitaries, and several other youths are expected to surrender Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Two abducted youths found dead with cut wounds in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 16:46 GMT]
Two Tamil youths from Thirunelvely and Neervely areas in Jaffna, abducted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who arrived at the victims' houses in Buffel armored vehicles Friday night were found dead Saturday morning with severe cut wounds inflicted with a sharp instrument, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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UN considering resolution criticizing Sri Lanka's rights violations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 15:16 GMT]
The United Nation's Human Rights Council, created in 2006 to improve the United Nations' capacity to confront the world's worst rights abusers, is considering a resolution criticizing Sri Lanka, a European Diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told Washington Post, the paper reported in its Saturday edition.
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Tamil parliamentarian in Colombo faces death threats

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2006, 12:46 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Western Province People's Front parliamentarian and an active member of the Civil Monitoring Committee on Abductions, Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Killings, Thursday said that he has been facing threat to his life. Mr. Mano Ganesan, is one of organisors of the monitoring committee, with the slain Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj.
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White van squad abducts Jaffna deminer

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2006, 00:38 GMT]
An employee from 'Halo Trust', an International Non Governmental Organization (INGO) involved in the de-mining in Jaffna district, was forcibly abducted by unidentified gunmen from his home at Old Park road, Chundikkuli in Jaffna town, around 11:00 pm Wednesday, relatives said in a complaint registered at the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna branch.
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SLMM backs UN envoy on SL troops’ child conscription

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 15:05 GMT]
International monitors overseeing Sri Lanka’s shaky truce this week endorsed a UN envoy’s findings that government security forces were conscripting children for their paramilitary allies against the Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) says it also possesses evidence of military complicity.
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