Rape by Sri Lankan troops resurfaces – in Haiti

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 07:31 GMT]
The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute ‘to the fullest extent of the law’ 108 Sri Lankan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors, including prostitution, the Sunday Times reported. The number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission. During the conflict numerous local and international NGOs protested both frequent rapes by security forces and the climate of impunity in which they occur.
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US Senator expresses concern of Sri Lanka's rights violations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 13:51 GMT]
Advocating for "international human rights field presence" in Sri Lanka, and asserting "there is no military solution to Sri Lankan conflict," the Democratic Senator from Vermont and Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, in a statement issued at the Senate sessions on 2nd November said: " We have been increasingly concerned with reports of abuses by Sri Lankan government forces - not from the LTTE or their supporters as some have inaccurately claimed, but from the United Nations, the Department of State, and international human rights organizations."
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UNP drops federalism

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2007, 11:15 GMT]
The decision by Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) to ditch the federal constitutional model as a solution to the island’s protracted ethnic conflict makes it the last of the major southern parties to embrace Sinhala nationalism again. In doing so, the former ‘pro-peace’ party may finally have resolved its ethnic dilemma.
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Tamil sovereignty, basis of peace talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, urged the UN General Assembly which has gathered for its 62nd session in New York, USA, to recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle. The LTTE statement characterized the confidence of some members of the International Community on Sri Lanka's latest All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which has not brought any constructive outcome to date, as a misplaced confidence.
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World must rein in Sri Lankan state – TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2007, 11:13 GMT]
Protesting that the Sri Lankan government had discarded negotiating a settlement to the island’s ethnic conflict, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)urged the international community to take a principled stand on the Tamil people’s right to self determination. Outlining the humanitarian and human rights crisis that has emerged in the wake of Colombo’s military project, the TNA also argued: “the Sri Lankan State will not conform to international norms or standards. It is only by the International Community … taking meaningful steps, can the Sri Lankan State be made to realize that it cannot continue with the present disastrous trend.”
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Sri Lankan military desecrates war cemeteries in Batticaloa - TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 August 2007, 07:03 GMT]
Tamils returning to their villages after months in refugee camps in Batticaloa were frustrated to find out that the cemeteries of their LTTE war dead sons and daughters have vanished without any trace, said Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran. Sri Lankan military has recently bulldozed and desecrated Tiger War Heroes Cemeteries in the district. The destruction of the largest war heroes' cemetery in Tharavai in Vadamunai region and the next largest cemetery at Thaa'ndiyadi in the western hinterland of the district "not only mark the SL forces' continued disrespect of the norms of the civlized world, but also reveal a colonization agenda in the near future," he charged.


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Kurankupaanchaan IDPs to be resettled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2007, 02:49 GMT]
Nearly three hundred families displaced from Kurankupaanchaan, a hamlet in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district in 1990, are to be resettled. A team of Sri Lanka government officials led by the Kinniya Divisional Secretary is to pay a visit to Kurankupaanchaan village during the weekend to see the ground situation before making arrangement for the resettlement, civil society sources said.
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Sri Lanka: ‘Holmes is a terrorist’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 13:38 GMT]
Stung by a top UN official’s criticism that Sri Lanka has one of the worst records in the world for humanitarian aid worker safety, the Colombo government Wednesday condemned him as a “terrorist” and said he had been bribed by the Tamil Tigers to tarnish the country’s reputation. Meanwhile the head of the government's peace secretariat accused French aid group Action Contre la Faim of being responsible for the massacre of 17 of their own local staff last year through "negligence" and "irresponsibility". International monitors have blamed government troops for the killings.
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Right to Protect

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2007, 01:01 GMT]
Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis Group, in the eighth Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture at International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) , Colombo, 29 July said "The State has a primary responsibility to protect the individuals within it. Where the state fails in that responsibility, through either incapacity or ill-will, a secondary responsibility to protect falls on the wider international community. That, in a nutshell, is the core of the responsibility to protect (R2P) idea" and that "Sri Lanka is anything but an R2P."
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SLA soldiers search Thiriyaai village

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2007, 16:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday morning conducted cordon and search operation in Thiriyaai, a traditional Tamil village located about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Thennamaravaady road. The operation was launched following the attack on a group of SLA soldiers Sunday night in which one soldier sustained injuries.
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UK lawmakers urge LTTE de-proscription

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2007, 23:47 GMT]
Amid signs of greater British involvement in efforts to end Sri Lanka’s conflict, the UK government was this week urged by ruling and opposition lawmakers to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers in the interests of a negotiated solution. At a landmark debate on Sri Lanka’s conflict in the British Parliament on Wednesday, leaders of a newly formed all party group representing the interests of the island’s Tamils urged the Blair government to lift the ban on the LTTE and also called for LTTE political leaders to be allowed to address the British parliament to better understand their views.
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Villagers plead for opening of Puliyadyirakkam Road in Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 12:24 GMT]
Villagers in the LTTE held Madhu areas in Mannar district have requested the civil and military authorities to re-open the Puliyadyirakkam Road, the gateway to 13 Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions in the LTTE held territory. Madhu Divisional Secretariat area comprises 17 GN divisions of which four are in the government held territory.
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Fishing ban after sea skirmish between SLN, Sea Tigers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 14:14 GMT]
Following fire fight between Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sea Tigers in the lagoon seas south of Jaffna Peninsula, Tuesday afternoon, SLN has imposed fishing ban on fishermen from coastal areas of Pashaiyoor, Gurunagar, and Navanthurai Wednesday, sources from Jaffna said. More than 3000 fishermen have been affected by the ban.
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JVP, JHU, SMS file appeals in SC on CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 13:10 GMT]
Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Jathika Hela Urumaya, all monks' party and Sinhala Maha Sabha (SMS) have filed appeals in the Sri Lanka's Supreme Court challenging the order made by the Court of Appeal (CA) dismissing their petitions filed against the ceasefire agreement seeking it cancellation.
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Tamil student abducted in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 10:18 GMT]
Unidentified persons abducted a fifteen year-old student, a member of a resettled family in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village located about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town on April 10 night, according to a complaint lodged by his relatives with the Kuchchaveli Police and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
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‘There is no ceasefire agreement with LTTE’ - Gothabaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2007, 17:02 GMT]
There is no ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government and the 2002 agreement was only being left in place to satisfy the international community, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said Tuesday. "There is no cease-fire agreement. There is no meaning in that," said Rajapakse, who is the brother and a close-confidant of President Mahinda Rajapakse told the Associated Press. He vowed to attack the LTTE’s northern strongholds, saying “it’s not good for the military to have relaxed periods.”
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7 Sinhala civilians shot and killed in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2007, 13:42 GMT]
Seven Sinhala villagers, including a boy and 6 women, all civilians, were shot and killed by unknown gunmen at Awaranthalawa, located 13 km southwest of Vavuniya around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Police said.
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UNP holds awareness meetings on current political, security situation

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 10:40 GMT]
Mr.Tissa Attanayake, parliamentarian and UNP general secretary addressing a meeting held in Colombo New Town Hall Saturday evening, asked the Sri Lanka government why it has not nullified the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) if the Government thinks CFA offers no benefit. UNP has been conducting a series of awareness meetings to brief the people about the current political and security situations in Sri Lanka.
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UNP slams Rajapakse ‘single currency’ proposal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2007, 23:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party Wednesday attacked President Mahinda Rajapakse’s proposal this week for a common currency for South Asia as not only a breach of Parliamentary privilege but, ironically for a self-described defender of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, a surrender of the independence of the country’s economic policymaking.


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UNP, LSSP oppose referendum move to scrap CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2007, 16:49 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Chairman of the All Party Representatives Council (APRC) Tissa Vitarane have voiced their opposition for the proposal to hold a referendum to nullify the ceasefire agreement (CFA) signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe, the then Prime Minister and Velupillai Pirapaharan, Leader of the LTTE on 22 February 2002, media sources said.


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