SLAF bombs Puthukkudiyiruppu in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 October 2007, 21:30 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers dropped more than twenty four bombs in two sorties Friday morning, targeting civilian settlements in Vea'naavil and surrounding areas, sources in Vanni said.
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"Separation inevitable if power continues to polarize with ethnic hegemony" - Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 13:07 GMT]
Mano Ganesan MP, the leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), engaged in monitoring abductions, addressing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, at the UN office in Colombo, on Thursday, said that the Tamils would be forced to seek separation as the only alternative if the Sri Lankan government failed to satisfy the "Sri Lankan dream," which he described as a dreamland with political power sharing between all the ethnic communities, where there are no places for war, abductions, extra judicial killings and where there is no room for polarization of political power with ethnic hegemony.
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UN Human Rights Commissioner arrives Tuesday for Sri Lanka visit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2007, 02:54 GMT]
High Commissioner of Human Rights in the United Nations, Ms Louise Arbour, is to arrive in Colombo Tuesday on a five-day official tour to Sri Lanka. She is scheduled to meet relatives of abducted civilians in Colombo on October 11 and in Jaffna on October 12. She will be meeting government leaders, representatives of human rights institutions and political parties during her stay in Colombo.
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MP condemns SLA ban on construction of houses for Batticaloa IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2007, 10:41 GMT]
Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S. Jeyananthamoorthy, speaking to media this week, condemned the ban imposed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA ) for constructing permanent houses for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at Naavaladi Junction within Vaaharai District Secretary's administrative area in Batticaloa District.
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Sri Lankan minister contradicts diplomatic immunity of SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 08:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defense spokesman and a Cabinet Minister, Keheliya Rambukwelle, at the weekly press briefing in Colombo on Friday warned the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that their officials and vehicles would be checked at any checkpoints when they travel North. The Sri Lankan minister, by his statement on Friday, has contradicted the diplomatic immunity, provided to the SLMM according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a well-placed diplomat in Colombo said.
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Kilinochchi protest rally condemns Fr.Pakiyaranjith's killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 11:05 GMT]
More than 2500 people joined in a protest rally held Monday afternoon 2:00 p.m. in Kilinochchi condemning the brutal killing of Rev.Fr.Nicholaspillai Pakiyaranjith, Mannar Coordinator for the International Humanitarian Organization, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), by an alleged Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) on 26 th September, and the killing of number of other humanitarian workers in North and East recently.
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Sri Lanka’s Humanitarian Crisis discussed in Swiss seminar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2007, 13:46 GMT]
Centre for Just Peace and Democracy (CJPD), in collaboration with the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), and Sri Lanka and International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples (LIDLIP), Switzerland, hosted a seminar on “Humanitarian Action in the Undeclared War in Sri Lanka,” on 22 September 2007. Local and international activists, UN agencies and other humanitarian agencies discussed the present ground situation in Sri Lanka and explored ways to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population.
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Batticaloa hospital staff stage token strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 September 2007, 04:42 GMT]
The doctors and supporting staff of Batticaloa Teaching Hospital staged a token strike Thursday protesting against the shortage of doctors demanding immediate appointment of additional doctors.
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LTTE condemns killing of Rev. Fr. Packiyaranjith

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 September 2007, 10:27 GMT]
Displacing the people by deliberate shelling and then killing the humanitarian workers who rush to assist the displaced is a strategy of "genocide," charged the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a statement issued on Thursday, condemning the killing of Rev Fr Packiyaranjith on Wednesday by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Deep Penetration Unit (DPU). Expressing "deep shock and sadness" at the death of a humanitarian worker and a religious clergy, the LTTE urged the International Community to strongly condemn the killing and other brutalities against humanitarian workers.
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Tamil sovereignty, basis of peace talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, urged the UN General Assembly which has gathered for its 62nd session in New York, USA, to recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle. The LTTE statement characterized the confidence of some members of the International Community on Sri Lanka's latest All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which has not brought any constructive outcome to date, as a misplaced confidence.
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LTTE's patience intentional - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 08:18 GMT]
"Without caring for International policies and passive requests, the Government of Sri Lanka is continuing its genocidal war against the Tamil people. The concerns raised by the International Community have failed to make any dent on the ethnic cleansing by Colombo government which has proved itself a terrorist-state. Some International governments, without understanding realities, give aid to the deceitful purposes of the Sinhala government, which will only escalate the island's ethnic conflict to hitherto unseen heights," said LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Wednesday.
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Puthukudiyiruppu children malnourished

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 01:13 GMT]
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in a a six month long research involving 5250 children in the administrative area of Regional Health officer of Puthukudiyiruppu in Mullaitheevu district, Wanni, has found widespread serious malnourishment among the children.


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Norwegian Tamils protest against Sri Lanka Rights violations

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 September 2007, 12:27 GMT]
Around 200 Norwegian Tamils of Norwegian Tamils Federation (NTF) gathered in front of Norway Foreign Ministry in Oslo Friday between 10:00 to 11:00 a.m, before a scheduled meeting of the Sri Lanka Minister of Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe with Norway Foreign Ministry Officials, urging Norway to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to immediately stop the ethnic cleansing of Tamils in Sri Lanka, sources in Oslo said. Norwegian Special Envoy to Sri Lanka Peace Process, Jon Hanssen Bauer addressed the demonstrators before receiving a memorandum from the protesters.


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LTTE's Rights group draws attention to plight of Tamil people

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2007, 13:42 GMT]
The Office of the LTTE Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, in a detailed report released Saturday before UN Human Rights Council session, drew attention to the human rights violations committed by the Sri Lanka State on the Tamil people, and said that more than 1974 Tamil civilians have been killed and 842 Tamil civilians were either arrested or abducted in the 21 months from November 2005 after Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse came to power. The Rights Group called upon the "international and UN representatives who visit Colombo, to also pay a visit to the Tamil homeland and to find out first hand the ground situation."
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Colombo aims to carve out Sinhala district between North and East - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 19:46 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka is giving in for the demands of the extreme nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), with its plans afoot to carve out a Sinhala district between Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province and Mullaiththeevu in the Northern Province, aiming to split the geographical contiguity of the Tamil homeland, charged R. Sampanthan, the senior Tamil parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), addressing the Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday. The attempt to create a Sinhala district would spoil the chances for a negotiated settlement, Mr. Sampanthan further warned.
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Account freeze by Sri Lanka violates UN Declaration- TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 September 2007, 10:46 GMT]
Freezing of Bank Accounts of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Colombo for more than one year without any charges being filed, and denying the TRO "day in court" to defend against the "false allegations," are violations of Declaration on the "Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly's Resolution 36/55 of 25 November 1981," said TRO officials in a media release issued Tuesday.
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4500 civilians displaced from Musali to Naanaaddaan in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2007, 00:54 GMT]
More than 4500 civilians were forced to flee Musali division in Mannnaar district Saturday when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) moved in, without any direct confrontation, into the area located south of Mannaar-Madawachchi Road where Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) were known to have been present in pockets of areas. No Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) were maintained by either warring party in the said areas. The coastal villages located between Mannaar and Puththa'lam. Naanaaddaan MV school and Don Bosco technical college where 1136 IDPs of 327 families were residing have been surrounded by the SLA and the Sri Lankan police.
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SLA orders government officials to resume census work in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 September 2007, 06:15 GMT]
In a meeting held Saturday within Palaly High Security Zone (HSZ), Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander Major General G.A.Chandrasri issued strict orders to the Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna and to the District Secretaries (DS) to commence immediately the task of compiling of Census and Statistics of all civilians in the peninsula.
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Food crisis in Jaffna worsens

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2007, 21:35 GMT]
Contrary to pronouncements by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the government officials claiming that ship loads of food items are being sent to the North, an acute shortage of essential items prevails in the peninsula, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA uses Muslim villagers as human shields in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 September 2007, 12:33 GMT]
Around fifty Muslim families in the Muslim villages in Musali division in Mannnar are being used as human shields by the Sri Lanka Army that entered the area Saturday morning. Meanwhile, the Tamil civilians in Mu'l'likku'lam village, are moving to LTTE controlled area, sources in Achchangku'lam in Naanaaddaan division said. The area concerned is accessible to both LTTE and SLA but there has been no resistance from the LTTE, the sources added.
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