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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Jaffna NGOs threatened to withhold monthly reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2007, 10:38 GMT]
Consortium of non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna, announced Saturday that they will no longer make public the monthly reports to the media as they have been receivng death threats from unknown persons not to publish the reports, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The NGOs monthly reports, regularly released to the media, describe details of human rights violations including killings and abductions, the impact on escalating prices of goods due to shortage and other matters affecting residents' daily life in Jaffna district.
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Bomb blast kills 2 SLA troopers, 4 EPDP members in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 05:04 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and four Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP) members were killed at Kommanthurai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Batticaloa district Tuesday around 6:50 a.m, when explosives in a tractor blew up when the troopers opened fire as the driver of the tractor failed to stop on orders, Eravur police in Batticaloa said.
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SLA holds Tamil journalist, says RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said in a press release issued Friday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved in the abduction and disappearance of Subramaniam Ramachandran, a journalist working for Tamil daily, Yarl Thinakural. Ramachandran disppeared on 15 February after being questioned at the Kalikai junction, Vadamaradchy SLA camp, and RSF said his collegeues believe that he is being held in an SLA camp.
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Trader shot dead in Mallakam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2007, 12:20 GMT]
The owner of a private Telecommunication center was shot dead by unknown gunmen at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, sources in Jaffna said. Four armed men who arrived in two motorbikes while the owner was opening the center for business, shot the owner in point-blank range before escaping, according to eyewitnesses.
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TNA urges Australia not to send back 85 Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2007, 08:59 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians urged the Australian and Indonesian governments, in press communiqué released on Wednesday, not to send back the 85 Tamils intercepted by the Australian Navy in Australian Sea on 22 February citing that if they were sent back their lives will be in danger from the Sri Lankan armed forces and collaborating paramilitary groups.
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Teacher, 5 students injured in bomb explosion in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 February 2007, 16:33 GMT]
Five students including two girls, and a teacher were injured in a bomb explosion around 4:15 p.m Wednesday, in front of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post, which guards the Main Office of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) in the old Srithar theatre, located in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Jaffna town. SLA said that a hand grenade lobbed into the sentry, missed its mark, landed in front of the sentry and exploded. Eyewitnesses and the injured, however, said that no one had lobbed the hand grenade into the SLA sentry post.
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Jaffna journalists fearful amid threats, killings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 February 2007, 02:27 GMT]
The campaign of intimidation backed up by deadly violence has compelled Sri Lankan journalists of all ethnicities to flee Sri Lanka. But unlike their southern colleagues, journalists in the Jaffna have no easy escape and media institutions in the northern peninsula are appealing for international support in the face of threats by Army-backed paramilitaries.
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Media watchdog condemns paramilitary ban on papers

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 11:52 GMT]
Free Media Movement, a Colombo based media watchdog, Friday said it noted with deep concern the alleged ban imposed by the Karuna paramilitary group on the sale of Colombo Tamil dailies Virakesari, Thinakkural and Sudar Oli in the East. The paramilitary group, operated by the Sri Lanka Army, had banned the sale of the Tamil papers, except the EPDP paramilitary owned Thinamurasu and the Sri Lanka Government owned Thinakaran in Sri Lanka Army controlled areas of Batticaloa district. The group has issued death threats to news agents in Trincomalee in an attempt to block the distribution of independent Tamil papers in the district.
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Basil Rajapakse visits Jaffna with Devananda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 13:43 GMT]
A heavily guarded Special Conference was held at the Jaffna Public Library Thursday from 10:30 a.m to 1:00 p.m, presided by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse, to discuss matters related to restore normalcy to Jaffna peninsula with the key Government officials of the peninsula, attended by minister and leader of EPDP, Douglas Devananda and a team of junior ministers of the relevant ministries from Colombo, Jaffna sources said. Diffusing the present critical situation in the matters of supply and distribution and resuming normalcy were the important subjects dealt with, in the conference, sources close to Jaffna Secretariat said.


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Eastern University shuts down in protest against forced disappearance of VC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 13:39 GMT]
Students and academic staff of the Eastern University in Vantharumoolai, 17km north of Batticaloa, have shut down the University in protest against the reported forced disappearance of their Vice Chancellor in High Security area in Colombo, Friday. Vice Chancellor Professor S. Raveendranath, a founder member of the EUSL, was forced to submit resignation of his post in October to the University Grant Commission (UGC), to secure the release the Dean of the Arts Faculty, Bala Sugumar, who was abducted by the paramilitary demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor. The resignation, pending approval by the UGC, had forced the VC to function from Colombo till he was reported disappeared.


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"Colombo on genocidal war path" - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2006, 23:50 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, in his address on International Human Rights Day held in Kilinochchi Sunday, stated that the Sri Lankan Government, depriving the Tamil people of their fundamental birthrights such as the "right to life, right to national identity and the right to homeland," and disabling the Ceasefire Agreement with its presently introduced "Prevention of Terrorism" act, was on a "genocidal war path," violating not only human rights laws, but also the Geneva humanitarian laws by carrying out bombardments on hospitals and schools. "Tamil people stand deceived by the membership conferred on the Sri Lankan state to the newly formed Human Rights Council."
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Official accused of issuing fake National ID card

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 December 2006, 12:13 GMT]
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka Police arrested a former Assistant Director of Department Registration of Persons accused of issuing a fake National Identity card to a suspect in connection with the abortive suicide attack on Defense Ministry Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse, media sources said.
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Two Allaipiddy refugee brothers shot dead, sister seriously injured

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2006, 17:01 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a 'white van' Sunday around midnight to a house on Navalar street in Navanthurai, Jaffna, sprayed bullets killing two brothers on the spot while seriously injuring the twin sister of one of the brothers, all siblings displaced from Allaipiddy, Jaffna police said. The seriously injured sister was rushed to Jaffna Teaching hospital.
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Two EPDP cadres shot, injured in Eravur

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2006, 10:00 GMT]
Two cadres of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) working with soldiers of the Komanthurai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp were shot and injured by unknown gunmen Sunday around 2:25 p.m at Thalavai in the Eravur police division in Batticaloa, sources in Eravur said. The EPDP cadres were returning from Thalvai in their motorcycle, when they were shot.
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Abducted youth escapes, surrenders to HRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 November 2006, 00:04 GMT]
A youth abducted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at gun point from his house at Sebastian lane in Kondavil East Jaffna on 11 November, surrendered Friday at the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Right Commission (HRC), officials at the HRC said. The youth said he had escaped from SLA's vehicle and went under ground for a week before surrendering. Jaffna Magistrated directed the police to place the youth in protective custody at Jaffna prisons, legal sources said.


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NorthEast mourns for Raviraj

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 16:51 GMT]
The people of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mulaithivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Amparai and Trincomalee districts observed hartal (general shut down) Wednesday mourning the loss of Raviraj, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian allegedly assassinated by Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) cadres operating with the Sri Lankan Army (SLA). The shut down was organized to condemn Raviraj's assassination and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artilery fire killing of nearly forty-two Tamil civilians including children in Vaharai in Batticaloa.
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Jaffna bids farewell to slain MP, relatives reveal assassination attempt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 13:17 GMT]
A key EPDP paramilitary operative with a handgun had been searching for Nadarajah Raviraj when the late Tamil parliamentarian visited his hometown last month, revealed relatives who attended the funeral of late MP in Jaffna. The entire Jaffna peninsula was at a standstill as the funeral procession paraded through the streets of Chavakachcheri to the cremation grounds located at Sri Lanka Army High Security Zone. Journalists were harassed by Sri Lankan soldiers after the funeral.
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Tamil Parliamentarian Raviraj assassinated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 03:43 GMT]
Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian was shot in Colombo around 8:30 a.m. Friday. The MP succumbed to his wounds at Colombo National Hospital. A lawyer turned politician, former mayor of Jaffna, Mr. Raviraj, elected twice, has been an outspoken parliamentarian who voiced against the extra-judicial killings and forced disapperances in NorthEast and Colombo. The parliamentarian took part in a demonstration Thursday against the Sri Lanka Army shelling in Vaharai where 47 Tamil civilians, Internally Displaced from Trincomalee, were killed, Wednesday.
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Ex-EPDP staffer shot dead

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 November 2006, 15:05 GMT]
A former worker at the Jaffna offices of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) was shot dead Saturday 7:00 p.m by unknown gunmen at her residence in Puttur, Valigamam East, sources in Jaffna said.
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