Funeral of two Trinco civilians killed by SLA held

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 17:02 GMT]
The funeral of the two Tamil civilians killed in retaliation by security forces in Uppuveli area, about two km off north of Trincomalee town following a claymore mine attack on a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN)convoy was held Thursday afternoon. Several hundred Tamil people participated in the funeral procession and the burial at Allesgarden cemetary in Uppuveli, about 3 km off north of east port town, civil sources said.
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4 killed, 34 wounded in Claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 15:34 GMT]
Three police constables and a sixteen-year old boy were killed and 17 Sri Lanka Army soldiers, 9 policemen and 8 civilians, including a woman, were wounded in a Claymore attack at Thandavanveli in Batticaloa town around 4:55 p.m. Thursday, police said. Two vehicles, an SLA truck and a bus, carrying soldiers and policemen for a clearing operation were caught in the explosion. The wounded soldiers were airlifted to Polonnaruwa and Colombo hospitals. Around 20 T-56 rifles and ammunitions, blown away from the hands of the troopers in the powerful explosion, were recovered by the SLA soldiers who rushed to the site following the attack. Tension prevails in Batticaloa town.
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10 civilians, 3 SLA soldiers, policeman wounded in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 15:23 GMT]
Ten civilians were wounded in a bomb attack on a Sri Lanka Navy Jeep and the retaliatory fire and assault on civilians by the troopers Thursday evening in Trincomalee district between Gandhinagar and Anuradhapura junction along the Trincomalee - Kandy Highway, 3 km southwest of east port town. SLA soldiers opened fire wounding civilians following the explosion. The bomb exploded Thursday around 4 p.m., according to the Police. Tension prevailed in the area.
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Search operation in Nanattan after grenade attack on army sentry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers launched a cordon and search operation in Nanattan village Wednesday following a grenade attack on a sentry of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Tuesday night around 11:00 p.m. No one was injured in the attack by unidentified persons, SLA sources said.
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Vakarai residents complain of increased SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 12:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has constructed three additional checkpoints along the road leading to Vakarai in Batticaloa district and travellers to the Liberation Tigers' controlled area are being subjected to increased harassment during security checks at these checkpoints, civil society sources in Batticaloa said.
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Nordic countries condemn attack on Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 07:30 GMT]
The contributing countries to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have condemned the attack on the Batticaloa district office of SLMM on Friday 13 January. Four vehicles parked in front of the SLMM office were damaged in the explosion. Batticaloa office of the SLMM is located on Lake Road, 50 meters from the paramilitary Razeek Group camp, which is attached to a Sri Lanka Army camp. The area, a high security zone of the SLA, also houses other paramilitary camps and ex-militant offices of EPRLF (Varathar faction), PLOTE and EPDP.
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Tamil MPs protest, SL parliament suspended second day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 06:43 GMT]
Parliamentarians of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Upcountry People's Front (UPF) and Western Province People's Front (WPPF) Wednesday resumed their sit-in protest in the well of the House for the for the second consequtive when the parliament resumed its sitting, Wednesday morning. Speaker M.J.M.Lokkubandara suspended the sitting for the day because of noisy protest by the Tamil MPs demanding the Sri Lanka Government to stop the killings, arrests and harassment of Tamil speaking people by the State armed forces, using Emergency Regulations, parliamentary sources said.
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State terrorism rising in NorthEast, say Tamil MPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 15:31 GMT]
"Violence and terror unleashed by the State armed forces is on the increase in the North East province. Fifty Tamil civilians have been abducted in the Jaffna district within few months. From December 1 to January 12 the State armed forces and para military groups in Jaffna have killed thirty-one Tamil civilians. Forty-two Tamils have been killed in other districts of the province," said leaders of Tamil political parties addressing a press briefing after their protest in parliament Tuesday morning.


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SLMM suspends operational activities in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 14:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) closed its office in Trincomalee until further notice at 4 p.m. Tuesday. SLMM's day to day activities in Trincomalee district will remain suspended until the office reopens, officials said. Recent spate of killings and a number of attacks including exchange of fire with the danger of innocent travellers getting caught in fire, make it difficult for the truce monitors to move around in the district, the sources added. The monitors have urged the Sri Lankan troops to abide by their responsibility of ensuring security to the civilians. The Tigers have also been urged to use their influence on the Tamil population to calm down the sitatuion, the sources added.
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Balasingham to visit Vanni next week

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 11:33 GMT]
Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will visit the LTTE held region of Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, on 23rd January in a fresh effort to resume the peace process. Mr. Balasingham will assist the LTTE leader, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, during the forthcoming meeting next week between Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of International Development, and the LTTE leadership.
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Mannar hospital staff protest against SLA presence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 11:25 GMT]
Nearly 250 employees including few medical officers Tuesday morning staged a walkout in protest demanding the withdrawal of State armed forces from the premises of the Mannar district hospital and to stop soldiers visiting the wards of the hospital with arms and other weapons. The protest was held from about 10 a.m. till 11 a.m., sources in Mannar said.
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Ground conditions will dictate process forward - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 10:09 GMT]
Unless there is a marked change in the ground conditions currently dominated by violent conduct by the Sri Lankan Armed forces and the paramilitaries, the patience of the Tamil population, facing killings on a daily basis in the SLA controlled Tamil homeland, will be put on a serious test, LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, told media following the meeting in Kilinochchi with the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Hans Brattskar and the Head of the Scandinavian truce monitors in Sri Lanka, Hagrup Haukland. LTTE Political Head further said that the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan would convey LTTE's stand to the Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim at the end of January.
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Two SLA soldiers killed, one wounded in Claymore attack in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 08:41 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and one soldier sustained serious wounds in a Claymore explosion that took place in Sarasalai, 4 km northeast of Chavakachcheri in Thenmardchi, Jaffna district, around 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Police said. The Claymore attack was reported after two civilian dead bodies were recovered Tuesday morning in Thenmaradchi.
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Tamil MPs protest in parliament against killings in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 07:56 GMT]
Pandemonium prevailed in the Sri Lankan parliament Tuesday when it met for the first time in the new year 2006 following the protest held by parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF) and Western Province Peoples' Front (WPPF) against the killing of parliamentarian Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, rape and murder of a girl, Tharshini, in Pungudutivu, killing of five Tamil students in Trincomalee and several Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the paramilitary groups and the arbitrary arrests of Tamil civilians in Colombo, parliamentary sources said.
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Navy convoy attacked in Trinco, 2 civilians killed in retaliation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 06:19 GMT]
A cycle bomb placed along the Nilaveli-Trincomalee road near a bus depot hit a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) bus convoy carrying soldiers towards east port town at the third mile post junction Tuesday around 10:05 a.m. Sri Lanka troops fired in retaliation killing two Tamil civilians and injuring several Tamil civilians, four of them have been brought to Trincomalee general hospital. Initial reports said about eleven soldiers were seriously injured and are admitted to navy hospital, which is located inside the SLN eastern region headquarters in the east port town.
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Ten civilians said arrested by SLN in Karainagar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 03:22 GMT]
Human Rights Commission in Jaffna received complaints Monday that ten civilians in Karainagar in Jaffna islets have been arrested by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) at 12.30 p.m. Monday, sources in Jaffna said. The arrests occured when Navy soldiers carried out cordon and search operation after discovering hand grenades hidden near a tree at the Valanthalai junction in Karainagar.
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SLA trooper killed in Mannar grenade attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 17:36 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was killed Monday night around 8.50 p.m. when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at a sentry located in the premises of Mannar General Hospital, sources in Mannar said. A combined camp of the SLA and Sri Lanka Navy is located close to the Balamurugan Temple in the hospital premises, police sources said.


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Muttur Magistrate directs SL Police to provide details of arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 16:23 GMT]
Mr.Manickavasagar Ganesharajah, Muttur Magistrate at a conference held Monday directed the authorities concerned to submit all names, other details of persons arrested, and the reasons for their arrests in Tamil areas in the government controlled territory in Muttur division. The failure to furnish these details with valid legal reasons could lead to serious human right violations, Mr.Ganesharajah cautioned.
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Norwegian Ambassador, SLMM Head to meet LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 11:11 GMT]
Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar, and the Head of Mission of the Scandinavian truce monitors, Hagrup Haukland, will be visiting Kilinochchi to meet the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, S P Thamilchelvan on Tuesday, according to the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. The LTTE is likely to press for urgent de-escalation of violence in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas of the NorthEast in the meeting viewed to be a preparatory meeting for the visit of Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim, expected to take place at the end of the January as announced by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
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Two civilians, one SLAF soldier injured in Trincomalee attacks

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 04:06 GMT]
An Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) soldier manning a checkpoint in Anpuvallipuram in Trincomalee district was injured when an unidentified person lobbed a hand grenade around 8.30 p.m. In a separate incident, two Tamil civilians, Selvanayagam Mayooran, 35, and Sabaratnam Mathivathanakumar, 32, were injured when unknown gunmen fired at them at 10.30 p.m. Sunday while they were going to their residences in Pallathoddam in Uppuveli Police division, sources in Trincomalee said.
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