Clash erupts again at Nagarkovil, A9 partly closed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2006, 04:02 GMT]
Clashes erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and the Liberation Tigers fighters, Friday night and Saturday morning, on both the sides of A9, in east and west of Muhamalai entry point. The civilian traffic from Jaffna to Kilinochchi via A9 entry point remained closed Saturday morning. However, the traffic in the opposite direction was flowing, travellers said. Mortar fire and artillery fire was reported in the area.
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South African Tamils protest against Sri Lanka's rights violations

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 22:58 GMT]
Representatives of the South African Tamil Federation, Dravidians for Peace and Justice, Tamil Co-ordinating Committee, supporters of human rights in South Africa, and concerned Tamils staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the United Nations building in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, protesting the human rights violations of the Sri Lanka Government against Tamil civilians, sources in South Africa said.
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Student forum appeals to international community

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2006, 18:59 GMT]
"We still believe that the international community would take into serious consideration the violence unleashed on the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka through its armed forces," said Mr.Puratchi, Trincomalee district head of the Thamileelam Students Forum addressing representatives of several social service organizations Thursday evening in Verugal, in the Eachchilampathu division in Trincomalee district.
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Stop violence, enter talks, Anti-war group tells GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Condemning the increasing levels of violence committed by Liberation Tigers and by the "armed groups and forces within and outside" Sri Lanka's Military, Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman of National Anti War Front, in a press release issued Thursday in Colombo urged the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka to "implement the agreements reached in the High Table in Geneva," and to "immediately resume the talks which were initiated in Geneva."
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‘EU proscription will seriously damage peace process’ - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 08:34 GMT]
Further international proscriptions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will seriously impact negatively on the already weakened peace process in Sri Lanka, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist Anton Balasingham said Thursday. Asked by TamilNet for his comments to press reports that the European Union (EU) would ban the LTTE this week, Mr. Balasingham warned that “the hardliners in the south are urgently seeking the international isolation of the LTTE as a prelude to taking up the military option in earnest.”
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Religious heads protest in Kilinochchi against civilian killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 18:17 GMT]
"International community and Human Rights agencies including UNHCR, UNICEF are keeping silent while Tamil men, women and children are being killed daily in NorthEast of Sri Lanka," said Janab. S. M. Shaheel, Islamic religious leader, participating in a non-violent sit-in demonstration staged in front of the UNHCR office in Kilinochchi Wednesday from 8.45 a.m to 1:00 p.m., said sources in Kilinochchi.
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Batticaloa protests against civilian killings, lorry burnt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 12:34 GMT]
Batticaloa district on Wednesday observed a general shut down against the recent spate of killings in Northeast. Schools, private businesses and public offices were closed and few vehicles plyed on the streets. Protesting youths set fire to a private lorry at Karvakerny around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, Eravur Police said.
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Private tutor shot dead at the Central Jaffna Bus stand

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 09:28 GMT]
An unidentified gunman shot dead Selvarasa Kirithas, 35, a displaced resident from Ilavalai, Wednesday morning around 8.45 a.m near Poobalasingham Book Depot at the Jaffna Central Bus stand, said police sources. The gunman, who shot Kirithas while he was drinking tea in front of a tea stall fled from the site in a blue color motorbike, civilians at the site said. The victim was a private tution teacher, the sources said.
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SL Navy, EPDP cadres present at massacre site - Amnesty International

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 08:13 GMT]
The Amnesty International has slammed the Government of Sri Lanka as having a record of "disturbing pattern of incomplete or ineffective investigations" of the extrajudicial killings and said it has received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), were present at the massacre site on Kayts islet. Thirteen civilians were massacred in three spots on the Kayts islet controlled by the Sri Lanka Navy Saturday night. The EPDP, a paramilitary and a political party in the ruling UPFA alliance of the SL President Mahinda Rajapakse, had exercised tight control of the Jaffna islets before the Ceasefire Agreement.
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LTTE report details 174 killings by SL forces, paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 07:17 GMT]
174 Tamil civilians have been killed, since Geneva talks on 24 February till 15 May, 2006, by the Sri Lankan armed forces and their paramilitaries, according to a 16-page report, with statistics, issued by the Political Head Quarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Tuesday. The report said unless the Scandinavian truce monitors become more proactive in ruling extrajudicial killings for what they are, a heavy burden will be on SLMM shoulders and on the shoulders of the International Community for failing to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Armed forces. The report details the pattern of paramilitary and Sri Lankan forces extrajudicial killings.
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General shut down paralyses Tamil areas in Ampara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 06:32 GMT]
General shut down was observed in the Ampara district Wednesday in response to the call by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), condemning the extra judicial killings of Tamil speaking civilians in the Northeast province. Normal life in Kalmunai, a major town and several villages, Thirukovil, Thambiluvil, Alaiyadivembu, Akkaraipattu, Karaitivu, and Paandiruppu in the district was completed disrupted, TamilNet sources said.
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Monitors confirm deep penetration, extrajudicial killings charges

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 23:35 GMT]
International truce monitors this week said they believed reports Sri Lanka Army troops were conducting Deep Penetration raids into Tamil Tiger controlled areas, killing several civilians. Their comments came as the LTTE said its frontlines to the north and south of Vanni were attacked by infiltrating SLA soldiers. Meanwhile, the international monitors also said Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for extrajudicial killings with the troops so unconcerned as to the consequences as to not even provide plausible denials.
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Hartal in Batticaloa, Amparai against extra-judicial killings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 17:19 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians of the districts of Batticaloa and Amparai have appealed for a general shut down on Wednesday condemning the extra judicial killings of Tamil civilians in the North and East and the genocidal military operation now launched by the State armed forces against the Tamil people in the country, TNA sources said.
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Elilan turns down talks with Muslim civil leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 16:51 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), turned down a request made by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for a meeting between the LTTE and a delegation of Muslim civil leaders in Muttur to take steps to diffuse tension between the two communities, LTTE sources said. Elilan accused the Muslim leaders for serving their own self interests, and for not raising their voices against killing in Muttur east by the Sri Lanka military, sources added.


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Protests in Kilinochchi against extra-judicial killings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 10:49 GMT]
Demonstrations were held in Killinochchi town and Visuvamadu Tuesday morning condemning the extra-judicial killings of Tamil civilians in the North East by the Sri Lankan government troops. Protesters condemned the inaction of the international organizations to stop the massacres and appealed to the international community to intervene without delay to safeguard innocent Tamils from the attack by the Sri Lankan government troops and collaborating paramilitaries, civil sources said.
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3 SLA troopers, 3 civilians injured in grenade attacks, gunfire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 10:18 GMT]
In several incidents of continuing grenade attacks against Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Jaffna district three SLA soldiers received serious injuries in the last 24 hours, sources said. In the indiscriminate fire by the SLA soldiers after the explosions three civilians also were injured and have been admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, according to sources.
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International silence is encouraging killings - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 06:38 GMT]
The international community's continuing reluctance to criticise Sri Lanka’s leadership is encouraging atrocities against Tamil civilians, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “Emboldened by the manifest reluctance of international ceasefire monitors, leading members of the international community and southern liberals to condemn its actions, Sri Lanka’s military is now readily killing Tamil civilians with abandon,” the expatriate newspaper said in its editorial.
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Gunmen attack STF water bowser in Komari, one wounded

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 13:48 GMT]
A Special Task Force (STF) trooper was wounded and rushed to Amparai hospital after gunmen attacked a water tanker of the elite counter insurgency wing of the Sri Lankan armed forces, the STF, in Komari, Police said. The bowser was tranporting water to soldiers in the newly constructed STF camp, located one kilometer away from the tsunami destroyed old camp.
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2 civilians wounded in Claymore attack in LTTE controlled Vavuniya North

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 09:12 GMT]
Sri Lankan troopers who penetrated into LTTE contolled area in Semamadu, north of Vavuniya, exploded a Claymore mine towards a tractor with two youths. Two youths were wounded in the attack, one was seriously injured, Tamileelam Police sources said. The attack has taken place around 9:30 a.m. Monday.
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MP saddened by UNICEF, UNHCR's silence on Children's killing

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2006, 02:35 GMT]
"I am deeply concerned and saddened by the silence of the premier world organizations that advocate rights of children, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the UNHCR, on the escalating number of children being killed in the NorthEast in Sri Lanka by the State's security forces," said Pathmini Sithamparanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Jaffna, speaking to the press Monday.
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