Police seek electronic media assistance to ensure security

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 19:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police has requested the electronic media to alert the people by making announcement every half an hour to ensure their safety when traveling in bus, train and other mode of transport. Electronic media has been running their services throughout day and night.
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Jaffna SLA Command announces security measures to Tamil dailies

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 17:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, informed the representatives of the editorial boards of the three Tamil dailies Uthayan, Valampuri and Yaazh Thinakkural published in Jaffna peninsula that the SLA has taken steps to provide police and SLA security measures for the offices of the three Tamil dailies, in a meeting held Wednesday at the SLA Head Quarters in Palaali High Security Zone.
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22 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo suburb

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 12:51 GMT]
22 Tamil youths were arrested Wednesday in Dehiwala, a suburb of Colombo, during a pre-dawn cordon and search operation by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police. The arrested Tamils were being detained at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Kalkissa (Mount Lavinia) police station for questioning, Police said.
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"Tamil eelam, not a hastily concocted concept"- Balakumaran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 01:05 GMT]
Balakumaran, Senior member of the Liberation Tigers, during an interview to an Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (ATBC) said that while support of the international community is necessary for achieving the goal of liberation, Tamil people should clearly understand that policies of the International community towards different nationalist struggles are often inconsistent and motivated by self-interest. He added that listening to other people’s dictates, and compromising the ideals only reflect the weakness of a liberation struggle, and expressed confidence on the strength and resilience of the Tamil people to confront obstacles in the marathon towards liberation.
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Dissolution of provincial councils to be challenged in court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 18:02 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday announced that it would file action against the dissolution of the Sabragamuwa Provincial Council and North Central provincial Council. Opposition leaders in these two councils have also announced their decision to take up this matter in courts, sources in Colombo said.
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Muslim Liberation Front urges Rajapaksa to disarm Pillayan group

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 17:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Liberation Front (SLMLF) Tuesday appealed to SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take immediate steps to disarm Pillaiyan group operating in Batticaloa as it has been proved beyond doubts that this group is responsible for the recent attack on Muslim people in Kaathankudy and Eraa'vur. SLMLF general secretary M.I.M.Cader addressing a press briefing in Colombo Tuesday said Muslim youths would take up arms if government fails to disarm Pillayan group.
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Tamil youth abducted in Mukaththuvaaram

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 14:08 GMT]
A Tamil youth, Thambiraja Suthaharan, was abducted by unidentified persons arrived in a white van from his house located along James Street in Mukaththuvaaram in Colombo city Tuesday early morning, according to complaints lodged with the police by his relatives.
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Shady force speaks of revenge, claims responsibility for bus bombs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 10:19 GMT]
'Ellalan Force', a shady identity in which name terror threats come from time to time in Colombo as well as in Jaffna, on Monday, claimed responsibility for the recent attacks on "transport vehicles" and said the attacks were "stern replies" to four Sri Lankan attacks, an aerial bombardment and three LRRP (also known as DPU) Claymore attacks, in which 26 Tamil civilians were killed.
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2 elected provincial councils in south dissolved

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 17:22 GMT]
Governors of North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) and Sabragamuwa Provincial (SPC) Council now being administered by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have decided to dissolve the elected administrations of these councils on the recommendation of the respective chief ministers. The dissolution would come into effect from Monday midnight, government sources said.
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Tamil youth abducted in Thampalakaamam

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 17:20 GMT]
A Tamil youth S.Arumugam, a farmer in Thampalakaamam, was abducted by unidentified persons Monday morning around 11:00 a.m. The abductors arrived in a white van and took the victim by force, according to complaints lodged with the Thampalakaamam police by his relatives, sources said.
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White van gang abducts Tamil civilian in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 15:11 GMT]
Unidentified armed men in a white van abducted Sunday night the owner of a hair dressing saloon in Dehiwela while he was returning home after having closed the saloon, according to a complaint made to Dehiwela police. Policemen had gone a few days ago to the house of the person abducted and interrogated him, his mother Raasaathi complained to Deputy Minister P. Radhakrishan, Colombo district parliamentarian.
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International inaction reveal hollowness of external assurances - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 10:29 GMT]
By rearming and stabilizing the Sri Lankan state after the ceasefire and then encouraging a hardline approach to the Liberation Tigers, the international community is responsible for the catastrophe unfolding in the island, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. "Rather than seizing the moment [of the peace process] and making the restoration of the Tamils' dignity and self-rule their focus, the international community made the weakening and marginalizing of the LTTE their preoccupation" the paper said. "Presently, whilst an imposed solution is in the interests of everyone except the Tamils, a just solution is, conversely, in the interests of only the Tamils."
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250 Tamils arrested Monday in Colombo region

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Police arrested more than 250 persons in a search conducted Monday in Colombo, Avissawela, Buwakpitiya, Peliyagoda and Gampaha, Sri Lanka police spokesman and Senior Police Commissioner Ranjith Gunasekara said. Persons from outstations without documents of identification and proper reason for their stay were arrested, he said. More than 220 Tamils have been arrested in Avissawela and Buwakpitiya areas.
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Defense Ministry culpable of exposing journalists to reprisals- RSF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 20:32 GMT]
While noting that Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has added Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, to RSF's list of "Predators of Press Freedom," RSF in a press release issued Sunday, pointed to the ministry’s website "carrying virulent attacks on journalists critical of the government," and condemned the "defense ministry campaign against independent media, especially journalists who cover military affairs."
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Fourth Muslim journalist injured in post election violence- FMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 17:31 GMT]
Noting with disappointment continued violence in the eastern province, the Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo-based media watchdog, in press release issued Sunday, condemned the politically motivated attack on journalist M.A.C. Jalees, and said, "FMM holds the ruling party responsible for the anti-media activities and view these tactics as a part of increasing suppression of freedom of expression rights in Sri Lanka."
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Journalist Tissanayagam's detention extended by three months

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry has extended the detention order served on a senior journalist J.S.Tissanayagam and two other Tamils, V.Jasikaran and Ms V.Valarmathy for another three months as the earlier order had lapsed on June 5. The Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka Police produced three detention orders for each of the suspects instead of producing them before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Ms Kumari Jayewardene Friday, June 6, legal sources said.
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48 persons arrested after Katubedda blast produced in court

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:20 GMT]
48 civilians of 56 arrested in Moratuwa, Katubedda and its suburbs during cordon and search operation following bus bomb blast that took place Friday morning were produced in Moratuwa magistrate's court on Saturday. The court ordered further detention of them. Eight were released, legal sources said.
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JVP to file case opposing Indian power plant in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:11 GMT]
Parliamentarian Vijitha Heart, propaganda secretary of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said Saturday in Colombo that his party has been contemplating to file a case in the superior court against handing over several acres of lands in Champoor in Trincomalee district to India for constructing a coal power plant.
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Fein seeks SL Defence Ministry approval to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 02:37 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lanka Defence Ministry posting that labeled U.S. based attorney for a Tamil activist group, Bruce Fein, as "Carrion Bird of LTTE Terrorism," Fein said in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse that he accepts Sri Lanka Defence Ministry's invitation to "any interested party to visit Sri Lanka and see how the people of all ethnicities live in harmony in this country," and requested the Ministry to inform him the travel dates allowing him to obtain "direct and candid testimony of Tamil sentiments toward a unitary state as opposed to separate Tamil statehood."
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Don't visit Colombo, Ganesan tells NorthEast Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 16:58 GMT]
Accusing both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers for action irrationally, Mano Ganesan, leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) and the Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) said in a media release Saturday, "[n]either the government nor the LTTE have any control over blasts going on in the respective territories under their own control," and appealed to the Tamil civilians travelling from NorthEast to stay away from Colombo and the South as both areas are "unsafe and insecure for Tamil civilians."
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