'Sinister move' of Colombo disrupting Tamil contiguity at Kokku'laay - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 11:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government's cabinet decision on Thursday to bring Kokku'laay, the Tamil coastal village of Northern Province under the administration of the Sinhala dominated Padavi Sripura division of Eastern Province is a "sinister move, officialising the separation of the Tamil contiguity of the North and East," said Tamil parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan on Saturday. "The International Community, especially America, Britain and India, who often harp on the theory of development in the East, before reaching a political solution, should take a serious note of what they are actually abetting in Sri Lanka," he further said.
Full story >>

Australia asks citizens not to travel to North, NorthCentral, East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 10:07 GMT]
Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in a reviewed and reissued travel advisory for Sri Lanka, asking citizens not to travel to "Northern, north central and eastern areas (including Cultural Triangle, Wilpattu and Yala National Parks),...because of the very high risk of politically motivated violence. " The advisory added that "[a]ttacks in Colombo have become more frequent and have killed many civilians. Recent attacks have been directed against public buses and trains. Further attacks can happen at any time, anywhere in Sri Lanka. Australians could inadvertently become victims of violence directed at others.
Full story >>

Two Tamils abducted in Colombo Friday

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 03:01 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were abducted in Vaalaithoddam and Aattupattiththeru in Colombo city Friday afternoon by unidentified persons who came in vehicles, according to complaints lodged with respective police stations by the relatives, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

28 men, 7 women arrested following Kattubedda Claymore attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2008, 16:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka police imposed a curfew from Friday 9:00 a.m morning and launched a joint cordon and search operation, following the Claymore attack Friday around 7:45 a.m. on a bus in the area near the University of Moratuwa, in which 28 men and 7 women, most of them Tamil students of Moartuwa University, were arrested. The arrestees are held in police detention, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Claymore attack in Colombo kills 22 civilians, 50 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2008, 02:45 GMT]
At least 22 civilians, including 8 females, were killed and more than 50 wounded when a Claymore mine targeted a bus at Katubedda, near the University of Moratuwa, 18 km south of Colombo at 7:35 a.m. Friday, Police said. The wounded were rushed to Lunawa and Kalubowila hospitals. Police has clamped down a curfew in Katubedda area.
Full story >>

Death warrants to journalists?

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2008, 02:03 GMT]
The threats posed by the contents of two Sri Lanka Defense Ministry website articles "are in effect a death warrant to journalists and editors of the media," the Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo-based media watchdog, said in a statement issued this week. Noting that the articles make serious allegations against "former FMM Convenor Sunanda Deshapriya, Sunday Times Associate Editor and defence columnist Iqbal Athas, and eight news outlets," International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific said, “The Government of Sri Lanka must show it has the authority to order an end to these hate-inspiring attacks by defence personnel against independent media voices.”
Full story >>

7 injured in Police, STF baton charge on protestors in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2008, 08:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka police and Special Task Force (STF) commandos, in an attempt Tuesday to disperse the demonstration march of the protestors in Kaaththaankudi against the killing of the Muslim vegetable trader from Kaahthtaankudi Sunday in Batticaloa, assaulted the demonstrators causing injuries to seven, sources in Kaaththaankudi said. The police confiscated 3 motorcycles and 30 bicycles of the protestors.
Full story >>

Death toll in floods reaches 20 in south

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2008, 07:23 GMT]
Floods due to incessant rain in the south continued Wednesday and the death toll has risen to twenty. Most of the deaths took place in Kalutara district in the western province and second Galle district. About four hundred thousand peoples have been internally displaced and being sheltered in public buildings, schools and welfare centres, according to the officials at Sri Lankan social department.
Full story >>

Court refuses police motion against UNP demonstration

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 19:55 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate Tuesday rejected a motion filed by Welikada Police seeking the court to issue restraining order on the main United National Party (UNP) from holding demonstration against the increase of fuel price in the Colombo and other areas in the district. The court gave the reason for the rejection that the motion was against the Freedom of Expression enshrined in the Constitution under Section 14, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Colombo conspires Tamil - Muslim divide: Vaiko

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 12:47 GMT]
The General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Vaiko, on Monday strongly condemned the Sri Lankan minister Keheliya Rambukwelle for distorting his comments made in Oslo in April, to sound anti-Muslim. It was part of the 'scheming machination' of the Sri Lankan government to divide Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka, especially in the East, said Vaiko in a statement issued in Tamil.
Full story >>

Heavy flood claims the lives of Eleven

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2008, 00:23 GMT]
At least eleven people have been killed and two gone missing in different parts of Sri Lanka due to floods caused by heavy rain, police said. Torrential rain has caused flooding and land slides in eight districts in southern, south-eastern, western and central provinces, displacing 150,000 people belonging to 47,000 families, according to the officials at the Disaster Management Centre in Colombo.
Full story >>

Abducted Pastor, Assistant released in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2008, 16:36 GMT]
A pastor of a Christian church Kanthiah Sivakumaran, 28, and his assistant Mariyappan Yuvaneswaran abducted by a group of persons who came in white van Saturday in Tabbowa in Puththa'lam district were dropped near in Puththalam town Monday morning around 11:00 a.m. On receipt of information police rushed to the site and took them for questioning, police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said in Colombo.
Full story >>

3 white van abductions in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2008, 16:31 GMT]
Three Tamils were abducted by unidentified men in Puththa'alm Saturday afternoon and Sunday, sources in Puththa'lam said. One was abducted by gunmen in a white van Sunday, and the other two Saturday afternoon while travelling in an auto-rickshaw, also by men who arrived in a white van.
Full story >>

SLMC responsible for inciting violence between communities – Amir Ali

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Rauff Hakeem, the leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), and Basheer Segudawood the chairman of the party are responsible for creating a conspiracy to initiate ethnic conflict between the Tamil and Muslim communities, charged Minister of Disaster Relief Services M.S.S.Ameer Ali at a conference held May 28 at Ea’raavoor police station attended by a number of senior government officials and media personnel.
Full story >>

Floods claim 5 lives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 17:27 GMT]
The South-west monsoon rains that has been pouring down non-stop for the past four days have claimed 5 lives while affecting 32,000 people belonging to 10,000 families in Ratnapura, Galle, Kaluthura, Gampaha and Colombo districts, Disaster Management Centre in Colombo said. The torrential rain may continue for another 5 days due to low pressure created by the South-west monsoon, according to Sri Lanka Meteorological Centre.
Full story >>

8 Tamil youths arrested in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 12:18 GMT]
Eight Tamil youths, seven from upcountry and one from Jaffna, were arrested in Dehiwala last Wednesday and are being detained in Dehiwala Police station. Police officers are conducting inquiries to ascertain their identities and the background. Those who can prove their identity would be released and the rest would be remanded with the permission of the court, police said.
Full story >>

Court remands two train commuters arrested in Puththalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 11:59 GMT]
Puththalam Magistrate Friday ordered remand till June 11 for two youths, a Tamil and Muslim, who were taken into custody by the police while they were traveling in a train bound for Colombo from Puththalam between Munthal and Mathurankuli railway stations, sources said. They were produced in court as they failed to prove their identity and the permanent address, sources said.
Full story >>

2 killed, 8 injured in Wellawatte blast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 16:13 GMT]
Two have been killed and more than 8 injured due to a grenade blast near a bus stop in Rajasinghe Mawatte on Galle Road close to Richard Peries supermarket at 9:00 p.m. Saturday night, according to Wellawatte police.
Full story >>

Court discharges Tamil undergraduate in Jeyaraj murder inquiry

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 04:37 GMT]
A twenty nine year old Tamil undergraduate arrested along with his father and mother in connection with the killing of Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was discharged on Thursday by the Mount Lavinia Magistrate when the police informed court that they had no evidence to associate the student in the killing, legal sources in Colombo said. His mother was later granted bail. However his father is still being kept on detention orders, legal sources added.
Full story >>

Colombo's contradictory positions on media freedom promotes impunity - NPC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 01:30 GMT]
Urging Sri Lanka Government to adopt a unified policy on media freedom, National Peace Council (NPC) in a media release issued Friday, condemned the killing of Jaffna journalist Devakumar, and the assault of senior journalist Keith Noyahr, and expressed concern on statements by Defense Ministry officials that staff of State controlled media have no right to criticize the State armed forces. The release also reiterated NPC's concern on the "continued incarceration of senior journalist J S Tissaianayagam, whose arrest and detention now continues into its third month without charges being made against him in a court of law."
Full story >>