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.
Full story >>

Senior SLA Commander killed in bomb blast

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2006, 02:59 GMT]
A senior top official of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Major General Parami Kulatunga, who holds the third position in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command was killed in Pannipitiya, 15 km southeast of Colombo, in Homagama police division in Western Province, in a suicide bomb attack around 7:45 a.m. Monday, Police said. Maj. Gen. Kulatunga, Deputy Chief of Staff, has served as SLA Commander for Vanni High Command of the Sri Lanka Army.


Full story >>

SL police, civilian injured in Mannar gunfire

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2006, 00:36 GMT]
One police constable was seriously injured when unidentified persons fired at the combined Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police sentry located in the Mannar public playground Sunday night at about 8.30 p.m. One of the two Tamil civilians in a three-wheeler were injured in the retaliatory fire by the security forces and the other was arrested by the Police, civil sources said.
Full story >>

Ministers cancel visit to Pesalai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2006, 18:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Ministers Mr.Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Mr.Rischard Badiudeen and Mr.Felix Perera Saturday evening called off their scheduled visit to Pesalai and Vankalai after being notified about a firefight between the SLN soldiers and unidentified persons in Vankalaipadu coastal area, civil sources said. The Ministers had planned to visit the these areas after a conference held in the Sunny Village Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp in Mannar Saturday 3:00 p.m. to look into the difficulties faced by Mannar fishermen after SLN's fishing ban.
Full story >>

Fishing ban lifted in Mannar, victims receive compensation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2006, 16:15 GMT]
The ban imposed on fishing in Mannar Sea by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) will be lifted from Sunday, except for Pesalai and Pallimunai, Sri Lanka Government sources from Mannar said. The decision was taken at a discussion held Saturday evening in Sunny Village SLN camp where three Sri Lanka Government Ministers, Mannar officials and commanders of security forces participated, sources said.
Full story >>

Durban Tamils protest against Sri Lanka's Rights violations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2006, 11:34 GMT]
Representatives of the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee of South Africa (TCC), members of organizations supporting human rights in South Africa, and expatriate Tamils staged a peaceful march and placard demonstration in front of the Durban City Hall, South Africa Friday 23rd June 2006. More than 200 people protested the human rights violations of the Sri Lanka Government against Tamil civilians and European Union’s proscription of the LTTE, organizers of the event said.
Full story >>

Two SLA soldiers killed in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2006, 10:35 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were shot and seriously injured by unidentified armed men riding a motorbike, at Vepankulam, 5 k.m. west of Vavuniya, around 2.15 p.m., Saturday. The injured soldiers succumbed to there injuries at Vavuniya hospital, police in the northern town said.
Full story >>

SLN soldiers falsely implicate Mannar fisherman

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 June 2006, 15:59 GMT]
Mr.Anthony Balashankar, 35, Tamil fisherman and a father of five children, was arrested Thursday evening by the Sri Lanka Navy falsely implicating him that he was in possession of a grenade. The fisherman was produced in Mannar court Friday evening on a report that he was carrying a grenade with him at the time of arrest by the SLN soldiers. Additional Magistrate Mr.T.J.Pirapaharan remanded him till July 28, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Mannar SLN Commander ordered to appear in Court

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 June 2006, 06:10 GMT]
"Within few minutes after the fire fight between the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was over in Mannar Sea on June 17th morning, four navy soldiers who returned from the shore in motorbikes lobbed grenades through the windows into the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Pesalai and fired at random on the church doors," said five witnesses giving evidence before the Mannar Additional Magistrate Mr.T.J.Pirapaharan Thursday. The Talaimannar Police led the evidence of the witnesses, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Mannar SLN rampage causes $5m damage to property

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 10:35 GMT]
Outboard engines, fibre glass boats, fishing nets and other related accessories belonging to fishermen of Pesalai, and Vankalaipadu in Mannar districts costing nearly US$5m were burnt and destroyed in the arson following the fire fight between the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Mannar Sea last week, according to preliminary reports submitted by the Mannar Divisional Secretary to the District Secretariat Wednesday, civil sources said.
Full story >>

SL Navy desecrated island's biggest church - Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 18:03 GMT]
The biggest church in Sri Lanka “has been desecrated by innocent blood being shed [in it] by unjust aggressors, the Sri Lanka Navy,” Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, protested this week in a letter to the Vatican, through the Apostolic Nuncio to the island. “Today I buried the six civilians murdered by the Navy at Pesalai yesterday,” the outraged Bishop wrote Sunday. The local people are “mortally afraid of the Navy” and when they met the local Navy commander, 7,000 people of Pesalai begged to be allowed to flee to India or LTTE-controlled Vanni, he said.
Full story >>

Mannar fishermen feared lost, return to Vankalaipadu

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 16:11 GMT]
Thirteen fishermen reported missing while fishing in Mannar Sea with their boats on Saturday during a fire-fight between the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) returned to Vankalaipadu shore Monday evening, sources in Mannar said. Mr.V.Visuvalingam, Mannar Government Agent, Ms Stanley de Mel, Mannar Divisional Secretary, representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and naval officers of the Vankalaipadu camp were present at the Vankalaipadu shore when these fishermen arrived from Vidathaltivu located in LTTE controlled Manthai West division.
Full story >>

Mannar Police arrest TRO volunteer

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 07:29 GMT]
One of the volunteers of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), engaged in providing assistance to injured civilians warded in the Mannar district base hospital, was arrested by the Mannar Police on Sunday evening, TRO officials said.
Full story >>

SLN assaults three Pallimunai fishermen

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 June 2006, 00:31 GMT]
Three fishermen from Pallimunai returning late Saturday around 7:00 p.m.after fishing in Mannar seas were severely assaulted by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers and have been warded in Mannar Hospital in critical condition, sources in Mannar said. Mannar residents have continued to seek refuge in the three churches in the area after the attack by SLN soldiers at the Our Lady of Victory church in Pesalai Saturday morning which killed 5 civilians and injured over 40, clergy in Pallimunai said.
Full story >>

Pesalai victims traumatized

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2006, 05:02 GMT]
Bishop Rayappu Joseph, one of the first persons to enter the church, Our Lady of Victory, after the attack targeting civilians who had taken refuge in the church, told media that the attack was carried out by men in blue uniform, alluding that the attackers were Sri Lanka Navy men. "There was no fight on land; no LTTE cadre was present at the attack site in Pesalai," the Bishop of Mannar Diocese told BBC Tamil Service Saturday. Fear has gripped civilians of Pesalai, who have no other place to seek safety, says Parish Priest Vincent Patrick. Nearly 3000 civilians, most of them women and children, were forced to remain inside the Church, for hours, among the flesh and blood of the victims.
Full story >>

3 SLN boats sunk, 12 troopers killed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 09:21 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel were killed and three "Blue Star" boats of the SLN were sunk in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled seas in Mannar districts when SLN boats interrupted a Sea Tiger movement, LTTE media unit said in a press note. Two Sea Tiger cadres sustained minor injuries in the defensive act, the Tigers said.
Full story >>

5 civilians killed, 44 wounded in Pesalai, SLN troopers lob grenades at church

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2006, 02:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) troopers shot and killed four fishermen at the shores of Pesalai in Mannar and lobbed at least four grenades Saturday morning into the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Pesalai, killing a woman and wounding at least 44 persons, half of them in critical condition. The four fishermen were killed at the shores of Pesalai, 15 km northwest of Mannar, around 7:00 a.m. Saturday, when the troopers began attacking civilians after a naval battle with the Sea Tigers near Pesalai. Six of eight missing SLN troopers were confirmed dead in the sea fight, according to SLN sources.
Full story >>

Mannar Bishop calls for end to violence

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 June 2006, 18:21 GMT]
Rt.Rev.Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar Diocese Friday said killings of civilians have increased several folds after the first round of Geneva peace talks and appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resume the stalled peace talks immediately, with the facilitation of the international community and to put an end to these killings. The Bishop was addressing a meeting held in the premises of Mannar St.Mary's Cathedral, Friday morning.
Full story >>

Three policemen wounded in grenade attack in Pesalai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 June 2006, 17:41 GMT]
Three policemen were wounded when unidentified men lobbed a grenade at the police sentry located in Pesalai in Mannar district Thursday night around 7.40 p.m. The injured were identified as Bandara, 44, Wijewickrema, 41 and Abeyaratne, 32, police sources said.
Full story >>

Grenade attack on shop in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 June 2006, 01:29 GMT]
Unidentified persons Tuesday night around 7.20. p.m. lobbed a grenade at furniture shop at Emil Nagar located in Mannar Hospital Road junction, sources in Mannar said. The furniture shop was damaged but no one was injured.
Full story >>