Co-Chairs' ambassadors meet Sri Lanka's President

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2006, 09:31 GMT]
Co-Chairs' ambassadors in Colombo Monday morning met with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and expressed their concern about the continuous hostilities between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) troops and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) even after both parties agreed to resume peace talks during the later part of October. The meeting comes following an urgent LTTE warning to the truce monitors Saturday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was readying for an offensive in the Northern Front.
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Rajapakse hails Sampoor ‘capture’

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 September 2006, 08:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops have advanced into Sampur village in the LTTE-controlled part of the eastern Trincomalee district and are consolidating their positions, the government said Monday in Colombo. LTTE political officials in Trincomalee said fighting was ongoing in the Sampoor region. “This is a severe breach of the ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan military taking LTTE-controlled areas,” S. Puleedevan, head of the LTTE peace secretariat, told Reuters. “They are not honoring the ceasefire agreement. They are forcing it to the brink of collapse,” he added. “On our side we are fully committed to it.”
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Fighting reported in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 September 2006, 13:05 GMT]
Fighting ensued for more than an hour between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam along the Northern Foward Defence Lines in Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. Heavy shelling was reported from Varani SLA camp towards the LTTE FDL positions.
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Fonseka vows to capture Sampur

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 09:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka vowed Thursday to take control of Tamil Tiger controlled Sampur in Trincomalee “within days” as a Sri Lankan military offensive against the enclave continued for the fourth day. “We have gone through half way and we will capture the whole area within a few more days,” Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told The Associated Press. Meanwhile aid workers alleged that Muslim families trying to escape the heavy fighting are being prevented from leaving by Sri Lankan security forces.
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Dozens killed in new Sri Lankan offensive on Sampoor

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2006, 11:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s military launched a major offensive Monday to capture Tamil Tiger controlled Sampoor in the Trincomalee district. Bombs and shells have killed at least 20 civilians and wounded 26 more, LTTE sources in Sampoor told TamilNet. At least 11 SLA soldiers were killed and 79 wounded, AFP reported. The objective of the offensive was to capture Sampoor and Thoppur area, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told The Associated Press. The LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasaiah Ilanthirayan told Reuters the Sri Lankan government was trying to resume a full-scale war.
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Oslo’s envoy returns as Sri Lanka expands offensives

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 21:03 GMT]
As Sri Lanka’s government widened its onslaught against LTTE held areas, opening new fronts in Batticaloa and Jaffna districts, in addition to its continuing offensive in Trincomalee district, Norwegian Special Envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer return home Friday.
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Thousands flee amid new Sri Lankan bombardment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2006, 11:20 GMT]
Six hundred Tamil families fled an intense bombardment of villages in LTTE held Eachchilampathu division Tuesday and sought refuge in Vaharai division in Batticaloa district. Continuous artillery fire from Sri Lankan military installations in Trincomalee and its suburbs and from Kallaru Army (SLA) camp drove the four thousand people from their homes. Sri Lankan troops at Kallaru are blocking international and local aid workers from reaching the displaced.
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Gothabaya visits Jaffna, confers with Jaffna SLA commanders

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 July 2006, 08:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Defence Secretary and the brother of the SL President, Gothabaya Rajapakse, on Sunday, paid a visit to the 51-2 Brigade Head Quarters in Jaffna town amid high security. Civilian traffic was blocked on the road when Mr. Rajapakse landed in the old Dutch Fort area of the town in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter and transported in an armoured vehicle towards the 51-2 HQ. Top officials of the SL Navy, Air Force and Army from Colombo were in Jaffna to confer future course of military actions, SLA sources said. The officials visited Forward Defence Lines in several locations in Jaffna Peninsula to give morale boost to the troopers.
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Acting Army commander takes over

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 July 2006, 21:49 GMT]
Major General Nanda Mallawaratchchi has been appointed as acting Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), taking over the responsibilities of Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who was seriously wounded by suicide bomber on April 24, the Sunday Times reported.
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Major General Kulatunga, Late Commander SFHQ-(W)

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2006, 18:18 GMT]
Defence correspondents in Colombo describe Major General Parami Kulatunge RSP USP USAWC, as a hardliner and a close associate of the SLA commander Sarath Fonseka who was seriously injured in a suicide attack in front of the Sri Lanka Military Head Quarters in April 2006. Maj.Gen.Kulatunga took over as the new Commander of Security Forces Headquarters - Wanni [SFHQ-(W)] in August 2004, the position he held when he was killed in a bomb explosion in Colombo Monday.
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Direct negotiations necessary to contain violence - Akashi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 15:21 GMT]
"It is important to have direct negotiations to de-escalate violence which have come very far", Japan's peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi said Wednesday, speaking to journalists in Colombo before leaving to New Delhi. Meanwhile the Liberation Tigers have told the Japanese envoy that Colombo should cease all extra-judicial killings and stop deliberately creating obstacles to conduct a safe travel of their Eastern commanders.
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Civilian injured in Madhu claymore attack dies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 April 2006, 18:05 GMT]
Mr.M. Jeevananthan, a 24-year civilian who was seriously injured in the claymore attack by the Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Thetchanamadu area of Liberation Tigers controlled Madhu area, succumbed to his injuries Saturday afternoon, sources from Jaffna said.
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Muttur east attacks on civilian targets totally unjustifiable, Elilan tells Henricsson

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2006, 09:04 GMT]
Trincomalee Political Head of the Tigers, S. Elilan, who met Major General Ulf Henricsson, the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Thursday in Sampoor in Trincomalee, said the three pronged attack launched by the Sri Lankan forces on civilian targets in Muttur east following the bomb blast that injured Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is not justifiable. 18 civilians were killed, more than thirty wounded and many thousands displaced by indiscriminate airstrike and artillery fire by the Sri Lankan forces on Muttur east.
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97 Tamils arrested in Colombo suburbs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2006, 01:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Police arrested 97 Tamils from residences in Colombo suburbs of Bambalapitiya, Collpetty, Dehiwela and others Wednesday night through Thursday morning, and have detained them in Police stations across Colombo, said Deputy Inspector General of Police, Poojitha Jeyasundara. The security forces and police conducted thorough search of several residences and lodges, sources said.
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12 bodies of civilians recovered from Muttur east

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2006, 03:20 GMT]
Initial reports from Muttur east in Trincomalee district Wednesday morning said at least twelve bodies of Tamil civilians including men, women and children killed in Tuesday evening air strike by Kfir jets, and artillery attack by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were recovered from Muttur east area. More casualties are expected from Tuesday attack by government troops, a NGO source in the affected area said.
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SLMM condemns Colombo bomb attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 14:45 GMT]


Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is a press release issued from Colombo condemned the "suicide bomb attack that took place at the Sri Lankan Army Head Quarters," and urged the "Sri Lankan Government to equally refrain from any retaliatory actions at this stage and remain committed to the Peace Process."
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Bomb explosion in Colombo, Army Commander wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 08:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka was seriously wounded in a bomb explosion in front of the military hospital in Slave Island, Colombo around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Five SLA personnel and three civilians were killed and 27 others were wounded.
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Colombo ‘in a military mindset’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka’s government refusing to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries whose ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE is spiralling into increasingly cycles of revenge killings, the Ceasefire Agreement is ‘falling apart,’ the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said this week. Colombo’s support for the paramilitaries and the escalated repression against Tamil civilians in government-controlled areas of the Northeast means "we can safely assume that Rajapakse administration has not given up the military option," he told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
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Pre-planned element behind Trinco violence - fact finding report

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 12:52 GMT]
The 15-minutes speed, with which the violence in Trincomalee town was triggered on 12th April, after a bomb explosion that killed five persons, indicate that there was an "element of pre-planning," said a report issued by Colombo based civil society representatives Friday. The report said over 20 civilians were killed, over 30 shops and 100 homes destroyed and more than 3000 persons are displaced seeking refuge in schools and places of worship in Trincomalee.
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Trinco traders demand compensation, accuse armed forces of abetting violence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 16:23 GMT]
"Sri Lanka Government should urgently take steps to ensure safety of our business in Trincomalee. Thugs target our businesses whenever there is any explosion in the bazaar, and Government troops and Police rarely take any action to contain resulting violence and looting. This has been the case from 1977. Many of our shops have now been destroyed while the Police and troops looked on, this Wednesday," said several members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Trincomalee District (CCITD) in the presence of a Sri Lanka Minister and Security Forces commanders during a conference held Saturday evening, sources said.
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