Maheswaran murder suspect indicted in High Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2008, 19:54 GMT]
The Attorney General Tuesday indicted Johnson Collin, alias Valentine, with the murder of Colombo district United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian T.Maheswaran and another devotee on January 1 while both were attending prayers in Colombo Ponnambalavaaneswarar Temple. Chandrakumar Mahindan was also killed in the incident along with Mr.Maheswaran.
Full story >>

Fuel crisis cripples IDP movement in Vanni - Ki'linochchi GA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2008, 11:24 GMT]
More than 100,000 Internally Displaced People in Vanni, languishing in dark beneath shrubs, bushes and in public buildings throughout Ki'linochchi district, and affected by various hardships imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has crippled the ability of the IDPs to move themselves and their belongings, according to the Government Agent of Ki'linochchi district. 134,868 IDPs belonging to 35,353 families are heavily affected by the economic blockade in Ki'inochchi district. Meanwhile the rainy season has begun in Vanni and more than 75 percent of the families are getting drenched by the torrential rain.
Full story >>

2 Tamils abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2008, 18:32 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were abducted by unidentified armed groups on Friday night in two separate incidents in Colombo police division, according to complaints lodged with the police by their wives Monday, human rights sources said.
Full story >>

Polling stations to be declared security zone

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2008, 12:03 GMT]
Five hundred meters surrounding each polling station in the North Central Province (NCP) and Sabaragamuwa Province (SP) are to be declared high security zone on the Election Day, August 23. This is consequent to the increase of violence preceding the elections to the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) and North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) scheduled to take place in five days. Elections Commissioner has also decided to strengthen the security of polling station by deploying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, sources said.
Full story >>

Colombo instructs Mullaiththeevu, Ki'linochchi GAs to work from Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2008, 10:37 GMT]
Government Agents of Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts are reported to have been 'advised' by the Colombo Public Administration and the Sri Lankan Home Affairs Ministry to work from Vavuniyaa due to 'tense situation' in the two districts, informed sources told TamilNet.
Full story >>

State terrorism against JVP, Wijitha Herat accuses Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2008, 13:17 GMT]
"The government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has unleashed state terrorism against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). I would say categorically to the government that it cannot suppress the JVP; the JVP has all powers and strength to defeat state terrorism in any form," Gampaha district parliamentarian and JVP Propaganda Secretary, Wijitha Herat, told media Friday, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Rehabilitation project for persons in protective custody stalls

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2008, 05:26 GMT]
The project to set up a Rehabilitation Centre in Kaarainakar for the persons placed in the protective custody of Jaffna Prison due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and SLA-backed paramilitaries has stalled due to objections from Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Colombo insists on housing the said persons in SLA's Special Rehabilitation Centre located in the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippa’lai, sources added.
Full story >>

Anarchy reigns in Sabaragamuwa - JVP

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2008, 05:22 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Sinhala nationalist party, alleged at a press briefing in Ratnapura Thursday that the government has unleashed anarchy in the Sabaragamuwa province against opposition parties contesting in Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) election which is scheduled to be held on August 23
Full story >>

UNP chief ministerial candidate injured in attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2008, 05:51 GMT]
Film actor cum politician Ranjan Ramanayake, United National Party (UNP) chief ministerial candidate in Sabragamuwa Provincial Council election, was injured Wednesday night when persons alleged to be supporters of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) attacked the convoy of UNP vehicles in Gal-Ela area in Ratnapura district, in Sabaragamuwa province. Two police officers of the police security team accompanying the convoy were also injured, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Bus accident in Anuradhapura, 5 killled 40 injured

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 10:21 GMT]
Five commuters were killed and forty wounded when a state-run Sri Lanka Transport Board bus collided with a private bus at Tirappane in Aunradhapura district Wednesday around 1:45.p.m., police said.
Full story >>

"End Minister's Anti-Media Campaign," IFJ demands Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 08:22 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a press release issued on Wednesday demanded the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to immediately intervene and order an end to Sri Lankan Labour Minister Mervyn Silva's anti-media campaign of 'interrogation and violence' against Sirasa TV, a Sinhala channel owned by Maharajah Organisation Limited, one of the largest privately-held corporation, in Sri Lanka. "Any encouragement of violence against the media is irresponsible and potentially life-threatening for journalists in a country that has long been considered one of the most dangerous for the media profession," the IFJ has said.
Full story >>

USAID closes Trincomalee office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 06:23 GMT]
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is to wind up its development and reconstruction activities in Trincomalee district on the completion of its five year plan. The office of the USAID in Trincomalee town will be closed down Friday. USAID had opened Trincomalee office to carry out its five year development plan in the Trincomalee district in the year 2003, USAID sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka doesn't have Tamils on its side - India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka may win the battle against the Tamil Tigers but not the war as 'they haven't got the Tamil population on their side', India's National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan said in an interview with the Straits Times newspaper published Tuesday. Saying India understands the Tamils, Mr. Narayanan asked of Sri Lanka, “Do they want a situation like many countries have faced?” His comments come after a survey in a leading Tamil Nadu weekly suggested the majority of people there support the LTTE and want Indian intervention in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Abducted girl escapes in Vaazhaichcheanai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 08:08 GMT]
One of the five girl students abducted by unidentified armed men in a van Saturday in Paddiruppu area managed to escape when the van stopped at Kiraan Aachchiramam area in Vaazhaichcheanai police division in Batticaloa district, sources in Vaazhaichcheanai said. The fate of the other four girls remains unknown.
Full story >>

Tamil mother, daughter arrested in Moratuwa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2008, 02:36 GMT]
A Tamil mother and her daughter who were arrested at Moratuwa in a search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police Thursday night are still being detained in Mt.Lavinia Police Station, and are being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID), reports from Colombo said. Both were taken into custody following the recovery of explosives in their house located in Soyzapura Housing Complex, according to the Police.
Full story >>

5 Provincial Councils in south to be dissolved

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2008, 00:31 GMT]
The Sri Lanka government is likely to dissolve Western Provincial Council (WPC), Southern Provincial Council (SPC), Central Provincial Council (CPC), North Western Provincial Council (NWPC) and Uva Provincial Council (UPC) after the elections to the North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) and Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) scheduled to be held on August 23, informed political sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Government officials urge SLA to observe Safety Zones

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 08:10 GMT]
The target of the artillery attack of the Sri Lanka Army in the early hours of Friday in Mullaiththeevu was a residential enclave located within 500 meters radius of the Mullaiththeevu General Hospital, housing the Mullaiththeevu Government Agent (GA), the Medical Superintendent (MS) and many other government officials, who coordinate the essential services of the district. The attack was timed before a token protest scheduled for Friday by the government servants to voice against the killing of the Deputy Planning Director, Poonakari, in a claymore attack two weeks ago. TamilNet’s Vanni correspondent talked to the GA and the MS on Friday noon.
Full story >>

Batticaloa Tamil bus driver, conductor arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 04:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested Friday the driver and the conductor of a private bus that took passengers from Batticaloa to Colombo at Maradana and took them and the bus to Moratuwa police station around 5:00 p.m. The police, when contacted by the owner of the bus, said that the two were brought to the police station for interrogation, the owner of the bus said.
Full story >>

NPM opposes granting police, land powers to PCs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2008, 01:41 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM), an extreme Sinhala nationalist organization, said Friday that it would launch a struggle if the government accedes to the demand to devolve land and police powers to provincial councils. "Granting of such powers to provincial councils is tantamount to granting Tamil Eelam to Velupillai Pirapaharan,"said Dr.Gunadasa Amarasekara, President of NPM at a press briefing held in Colombo.
Full story >>

Japan funds construction of bridge in Badulla, agro-wells in Batticalao

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2008, 16:41 GMT]
The Government of Japan has provided US$175,000 through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP), of which 50% is allocated to "Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies" to construct a bridge across Badulu Oya in the Badulla District, and the remaining 50% to the "Lanka Jathika Sarvodaya Sharamadana Sangamaya Inc.", to ensure food security to the resettled IDP families in the Batticaloa District, a press release issued by the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said Friday. The Batticaloa project will also provide help to IDP families to enhance income sources in Manmunai South West to get back to normalcy.
Full story >>