Hoodlums search, rob Tamil passengers in trains

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 02:30 GMT]
Incidents of Tamil passengers robbed by Sinhala gangs in trains running between Vavuniyaa, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, and Colombo have escalated at alarming rate, according to civil sources. Sinhala hoodlums enter trains when the trains stop at Ragama, Veyangoda, Maho and Anuradhapura stations, and subject Tamil passengers to search amid security provided by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police, civil sources said.
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Kaarainakar SLN sailor commits suicide

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 17:03 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailor attached to Kaarainakar SLN base in Jaffna shot himself to death Friday night, according to the statement made by the Officer-in-Charge of Kaarainakar SLN base to Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts) police. Gun fire was heard Friday night after which the body of the SLN sailor was found with gunshot wounds by the SLN in Kaarainakar, the statement said.
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Slain parliamentarian Maheswaran’s death anniversary held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 16:24 GMT]
Hundreds of people from different parts of Jaffna peninsula took part in the first death anniversary of Mr. Thiyagarasa Maheswaran held Sunday around 9:00 a.m in the Trustee Board Hall of Kaarainakar Sivan Koayil in his home town. He was gunned down while observing prayers in Colombo Ponnampalavaa'neasvarar Koayil on January 1 this year.
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Gampaha police arrest 14 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, with the assistance of home guards, Saturday arrested 14 Tamil residents during a search operation conducted in several parts of the Gampaha town and its suburbs. The police said the arrested residents were taken in for questioning as they failed to prove their identity and to justify their presence in the location. However, civil sources said the arrested Tamils have been working in buisness establishements in Gampaha for several years.
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US at fault for not stopping Colombo's abuses- Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 14:40 GMT]
Asserting that “there have been several disturbing examples of the US national interest standing in the way of actions to defend human rights,” Saturday’s Boston Globe editorial blames the United States and Europe for failing to do enough to intervene, asserting that “[t]he United States and its European allies have gone only so far in trying to halt the Darfur genocide,…[or] the Sri Lankan government's abuses of civilians in its counter-insurgency war against the Tamil Tigers…”
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Colombo steps up bombardment on Vanni, 3 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 05:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Saturday a coastal area in Mullaiththeevu where thousands of civilians, recently displaced, had established temporary shelters. The bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats, lighting up the stretch using para lights, causing panic among the refugees and the fishermen engaged in fishing at 4:55 a.m. The bombers arrived again at 5:35 to bomb the area with 8 eight more bombs, targeting the temporary shelters of refugees. The SLAF bombers attacked Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi five times within four hours in the morning. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an artillery barrage from all the frontiers of Vanni from 4:20 a.m. till 5:50 a.m.
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11 Tamil youths arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 00:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested eleven Tamil youths traveling in Colombo bound Vavuniyaa passenger Yarldevi train at Gampaha railway station Wednesday evening. The police searched all compartments of the train and subjected every commuter to severe questioning, sources said.
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Police officer released on bail, nine remanded in extortion case

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 00:04 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate allowed the Officer-in-Charge of Police Special Crimes Branch of Western Province on surety bail for Rs. 200,000, and ordered remand for nine other suspects, including two police constables, when they were produced in court Wednesday on a police report that they extorted money from a Tamil businessman. The suspects demanded a sum of one million rupees from that Tamil businessman for his release otherwise he would be implicated for engaging in 'terrorist' activities, according to a police report furnished in court, legal sources said.
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Colombo's military campaign will not resolve conflict - British Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 11:53 GMT]
The current approach by the Government of Sri Lanka, to defeat the LTTE militarily before developing a political solution, does nothing to win the hearts and minds of conflict-affected civilians in the north and it will not resolve the underlying conflict, said Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Bill Rammell, while responding to the concerns raised Thursday evening by British Parliamentarians at an adjournment debate on Sri Lanka at the UK Parliament. However, another response by the minister exposed the fact that the British Government still has faith in the APRC myth created by the Rajapaksa regime.
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Visit of 'strategic partners'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 12:19 GMT]
The Defense Advisers/Attaches of seven countries, USA, UK, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives were taken on a one day tour to Vanni by the Colombo government on Monday. Suffering from heavy military debacles and facing serious economic crisis, the Colombo government is badly in need of parading strategic partners and abettors to attract means and justification for its genocidal war before time runs out, note political observers. The visitors represented three of the Co-Chair countries, USA, UK and Japan and four South Asian countries having maritime boundaries.
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Robert Blake: U.S. 'development' doesn't seek majoritiarian inroads to East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 09:35 GMT]
Responding to an article that appeared in TamilNet on U.S. enthusiasm in 'developing East' to link it with markets in Western province, ignoring the Tamil perspectives on development, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, in an article that appeared in U.S. Embassy's blog has defended that the U.S. development program has a goal of "fostering economic development, good governance and stability while preserving the existing ethnic balance in the east." Disagreeing with the perspective shed by the Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian Ariyanethran, the U.S. Ambassador says that meaningful development can take place in the East before a political solution is agreed upon.
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India, US, UK, Pakistan officers visit Vanni command HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 16:16 GMT]
Military representatives from seven countries – India, the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh and Maldives – Wednesday visited the Sri Lankan military command centre coordinating Colombo’s offensive into the Vanni. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence said the foreign defence attaches/advisors visited the Vann Security Forces HQ as well as the HQs of the SLA’s 57 and 59 Divisions.
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Sivaram murder trial fixed for June 2009

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 15:49 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Monday fixed the inquiry into Journalist Dharmaretnam Sivaram murder case for June 1st next year before Sinhala speaking Jury. The sole suspect, Arumugam Sriskandarajah, was produced in court under heavy security when the case was taken up, legal sources said
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SLA death toll hits 170 in Vanni, hundreds wounded, 36 bodies recovered - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials on Wednesday said that 130 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in the multi-front offensive push by the SLA in Ki'linochchi on Tuesday. More than 300 soldiers were wounded in the heavy battle that raged throughout the day till 4:00 p.m. on five main localities and along a wide stretch of the frontiers in Ki'linochchi. Meanwhile, in Ki'laali, 40 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 120 sustained injuries. 36 dead bodies of the SLA soldiers have been recovered so far, 28 in Ki'linochchi and 8 in Ki'liaali, in the clearing missions following Tuesday's fighting. There are young recruits of the SLA, including child soldiers, engaged in the front by the SLA in Ki'linochchi.
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Maheswaran murder accused refused bail

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 17:07 GMT]
Colombo High Court Judge, Sunil Rajapakse, Monday refused bail for the accused in parliamentarian T.Maheswaran murder case, and fixed the inquiry for April 27th next year, legal sources in Colombo said. The accused Johnston Collin Valentine was produced in court under heavy security. Maheswaran was shot dead on January 1 morning this year while he was attending New Year prayer poojah in Colombo Ponnambalavaaneswarar Temple.
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Tigers recover 8 SLA bodies, seize 18 weapons in Ki'laali fighting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 15:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) said Tuesday that they seized two Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, one AK-LMG, fourteen T-56 assault rifles and a 40 mm Grenade Launcher after repulsing an SLA-initiated offensive push that lasted for 9 hours from 1:20 a.m. Tuesday. The Tigers have earlier claimed that at least 40 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 120 sustained injuries. Information from Jaffna also indicates heavy casualties on SLA-side. The latest debacle of the SLA in Jaffna comes after a recent by the SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Fein responds: Professorial Nonsense on Stilts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 12:35 GMT]
Responding to the note on Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) website by the Secretary General Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha on the model genocide indictment against Sri Lanka officials, the former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein, says, the "Professor never denies the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides," but, "delivers an indictment against the LTTE as a purported defense to the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides." Fein adds: "The genocide prosecution sought against Sudanese President Omar Bashir has rejected such a defense theory to a charge of genocide."
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SLA soldier’s body recovered from well in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 10:43 GMT]
Chaavakachcheari police recovered the body of a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier from a well close to the SLA camp in Meesaalai in Chaavakachcheari, on being informed by SLA officials. Police are investigating into the cause of death of the victim, sources in Chaavakachcheari said on Monday.
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CID withdraws application to impound passports of 3 TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 09:41 GMT]
Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday withdrew the application filed at Colombo Magistrate Court to impound the passports of three Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians S. Jeyanandamoorthy, P. Ariyanethran and S. Gajendran, who have been grilled by the CID on allegations that they violated the Sri Lankan Constitution and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in speeches that they made at a Pongku Thamizh event held in Germany.
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Colombo-Vavuniyaa train service to resume

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2008, 13:35 GMT]
Direct train service between Colombo and Vavuniyaa, suspended ten months ago due to security reason, is to resume Tuesday morning, sources in Colombo said. The first train bound for Vavuniyaa will leave Tuesday morning at 5:45 am from Fort-Colombo, sources added.
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