RSF: Mahinda Rajapakse "directly to blame" for Wickrematunge murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 12:27 GMT]
Expressing outrage over the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued today, said: "President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka's image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished."
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Sunday Leader Editor assassinated

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2009, 05:59 GMT]
Lasantha Wikramatunga, the chief editor of the English Weekly Sunday Leader, who was shot by unknown gunmen Thursday morning, has succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. Mr. Lasantha Wikramatuga was shot while he was on his way to work around 9:30 a.m. The newspaper and its editor as well as the editor of Morning Leader have been harassed and threatened continuously during the last three years. All Leader publications are very critical towards the government and exponents of opposition political views. The killing has shocked the journalists who are critical of Rajapaksa government.
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Sri Lanka bans LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 17:01 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), one year after it unilaterally withdrew from the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the Tigers. The LTTE was banned in 1998, for the first time before Colombo embarked on the futile military exercise of 'Operation Jayasikurui' (Victory Assured) on Vanni mainland. Colombo had to lift the ban in 2002 before entering into the CFA agreement with the Tigers.
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Explosion disrupts coastal train service in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:46 GMT]
Coastal train services from Colombo to Matara were suspended immediately following an explosion that took place Wednesday night around 7:00 p.m., military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told media.
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SLA blocks gateway to Vanni civilians for 5th day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:22 GMT]
A woman, wounded in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment on 01 January succumbed to her wounds Monday night and other patients in need of urgent medical transport from Puthukkudiyiruppu to Vavuniyaa with ICRC escort remain blocked for days despite repeated attempts to access the road, which remained under Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery fire, as reported earlier. In the meantime, officials at the Government Agent's office in Vavuniyaa told media that the SLA has turned away humanitarian convoys despite their repeated attempts. Civilians in Vanni are refused essential supplies and refused critical medical transport, in violation to Geneva Conventions.
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2 Tamils reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 16:22 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians, one a 57-year old former manager of Mullaitivu branch of Peoples Bank, and the other a 29-year old owner of a Dehiwela eatery, are reported missing in Colombo since Monday, sources in Colombo said.
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106 civilians detained in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 15:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police detained 106 civilians when they went to police stations in the western province last Sunday to register their presence, civil sources in Colombo said. The civilians, 68 Tamils, 2 Muslims and 36 Sinhalese were detained for interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division as they failed to prove their identity with required legal documents, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said.
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U.S. statement: 'we don't advocate talks with LTTE'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 14:25 GMT]
The United States, a member of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan peace process following the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement brokered by Norway, in a statement issued after the Sri Lanka Army occupation of Ki'inochchi town in Vanni, said it does not advocate the Government of Sri Lanka to negotiate with the LTTE. "The fall of Kilinochchi represents an important point in the 25-year war that has divided Sri Lanka," the U.S. statement said.
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Britain says Ki'linochchi's fall calls for progress on political solution

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 08:06 GMT]
The capture of the former administrative capital of the LTTE by Sri Lankan armed forces makes it even more urgent that all parties achieve progress on setting out a political solution that addresses the "legitimate concerns of all communities," said a statement issued by the British High Commission on January 06. Tamil political observers note that the statement has come after two noteworthy observations in December: the British Defence Attache in Colombo taking part in a trip to Sri Lankan military command in Vanni on 15 December, and the British Minister of State at the Foreign Commonwealth Office, at an adjournment debate in British Parliament, exposing the fact that his government still had faith in the APRC myth created by the Rajapaksa regime.
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RSF condemns attack on Tamil-owned TV station

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 20:37 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued today, condemned the attack on Maharajah Televsions Network (MTV) near Colombo by heavily armed men early morning Tuesday. "Violence and threats against such privately-owned media outlets and journalists trying to impartially report on the conflict must stop," the RSF release said, adding , "[t]he network is one of the country's few, and very popular, independent news sources." Several Sri Lanka Government Ministers and Government owned media have previously charged the network for being not "patriotic" enough in reporting the war between Sri Lanka military and the Liberation Tigers.
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GA to discuss resumption of demining in Jaffna district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 19:21 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) is expected to hold a meeting next week with Jaffna District Demining Integration Committee (DDIC) attached to Jaffna Secretariat and the demining organizations, Halo Trust and Danish Demining Organization, to consider recommencing demining work in Jaffna District, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. The decision follows the permission issued by Defence Ministry to begin demining in eleven areas in the peninsula after a long delay due to the SLA refusal to continue demining, the sources added.
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SLA, LTTE clashes continue in Mukamaalai FDL

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 19:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) suffered setbacks Tuesday in an attempt to enter Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Front Defence Line (DFL) areas in Mukamaalai while Jaffna-Kandy road was blocked for public transport for more than three and a half hours enabling ambulances to transport injured soldiers from Mukkamaalai FDL positions, sources in Thenmaraadchi said. Defence Ministry in Colombo, however, claimed that the SLA had advanced in Mukamaalai.
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Peoples support will help surmount challenges: LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 08:23 GMT]
Pointing out that Ki'linochchi was where Sri Lanka military has suffered previous historic debacles, LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan, in an interview with TamilNet on Monday dismissed the occupation of the town as an insignificant setback in the context of a liberation struggle, and said, Tamil people’s support has always been LTTE’s strength, and with the moral backing of the global Tamil community the movement will surmount current and future challenges. "We have taken forward our struggle for more than 30 years, solely relying on the support of our people," and reiterated that the Tigers were spearheading the Tamil struggle, which was based on legitimate political aspirations as defined by the democratic mandate in the elections of 1977.
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TNA accuses Colombo of war crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 21:06 GMT]
Describing several recent escalation in incidents where Sri Lanka Armed Forces have targetted Tamil civilian during festive days between Christmas and Thaipongal, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that the "stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas," ..."are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people." The release also noted with disappointment of the silence of the international community "whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place," and continuing military assistance of the international states to the Sri Lankan State "using various pretexts."
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Lift ban on the LTTE: Tamil Nadu BJP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 19:11 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in India, has given clear indications of the necessity for lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam according to news reports in the Indian media. Vaithiyalingam, a senior BJP leader and member of the party's national general council, proposed this idea. In an exclusive interview to a Tamil biweekly, he said that although his party did not believe in violent measures, it was unfair to impose the ideas of a Gandhian struggle on the people of Tamil Eelam.
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SL Police arrests 10 Tamils in Colombo, 8 in Kandy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 12:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took ten Tamils into custody Sunday morning in cordon and search operations conducted around Fort, Aattupattitheru, and Valaithoddam in Colombo city, sources in Colombo said. The operation was conducted on information received by the police after the explosion at Bankshall Street Saturday afternoon that injured three persons.
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'Annals of history'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 19:44 GMT]
The message of "veiled racism" in Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks Friday in his telecast address announcing the capture of Ki'linochchi town, betrayed the true intentions of him and his ilk, camouflaged in saintly wordings against separatism, terrorism, racism, North-South war etc, to hoodwink the outside world, writes a regular academic commentator to TamilNet from Colombo. "Unfortunately, those who claim to be at the helm of the international community, even though very well aware of the impossibility of the Sri Lankan state to satisfy Tamil aspirations, refuse to acknowledge the logic and legitimacy behind the ethnonational demand of Tamils to have political sovereignty to save themselves from genocide," he further writes.
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Tamil Nadu signals protests against New Delhi's inaction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 15:58 GMT]
Condemning the inaction by the Indian Central Government, even after the unanimous declaration by the State Assembly of Tamil Nadu to demand immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the Communist Party of India Tamil Nadu branch on Saturday announced it would launch a protest on January 06 in Tamil Nadu's capital city Chennai. Meanwhile, Pazha. Nedumaran, the leader of the Tamil National Movement has called for black flag protest against the Indian Prime Minister who is scheduled to visit the annual congregation of Non Resident Indians (NRI) on January 08. Meanwhile, the leader of VCK, Tholmavazhavan has said New Delhi's ignorance stands exposed as it failed to satisfy even the simplest demand to send its foreign minister to Colombo to stop the war.
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Bomb explodes in Colombo's top security area, 2 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 12:28 GMT]
Two persons were wounded and several vehicles damaged in a van bomb on Bankshall street in Pettah, Colombo 11 at 4.50 p.m. Saturday, Police said.
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Demonstration held demanding release of journalist Tissanayagam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 02:11 GMT]
A demonstration was held in front of the Colombo Fort railway station demanding the release of senior journalist Mr.J.S. Tissanayagam and two others, Jashiaran and his wife Valarmathi who have been in custody of the police since March 8 last year. The demonstration was organized by the Justice and Equality Movement in Sri Lanka, sources said.
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