Opposition leader's helicopter makes emergency landing

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2008, 18:00 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, opposition leader and the leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Monday was provided with a helicopter to attend election rally in Batticaloa district. However, the helicopter developed engine trouble on Wickremesinghe's return trip back to Colombo Monday evening, and landed at Mahiyangana in the south.
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Court orders Colombo to expedite resettlement in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2008, 17:54 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday directed the Defense Secretary to expedite the resettlement of the first group of identified displaced farmers in their agricultural lands located in the high security zone (HSZ) in Jaffna district to start their cultivation in time. The SC issued the directive when the fundamental rights applications filed by Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Maavai Senathiraja and two farmers. All three petitioners are among the displaced persons from the high security zone, legal sources said.
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Tigers attack SLN point in Mannaar city

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2008, 03:33 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) mounted a raid on a coastal point of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Koanthaippiddi in Mannaar city in the early hours of Monday around 2:00 a.m. and seized arms and ammunitions from the point, killing three SLN personnel, according to LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthiarayan. The LTTE unit which engaged in the attack has recovered the body of a slain SLN trooper, he said. Meanwhile, the Tigers also launched an artillery attack on the installations of the Sri Lanka Army and Navy in Mannaar.
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Ethnic divide reflected in Sri Lanka media coverage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 17:56 GMT]
The polarization between Sri Lanka’s ethnic communities is also reflected in coverage of the island’s protracted conflict and has rendered ‘the truth’ an inevitable casualty of war, several speakers argued last week at the annual conference in London of the International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATAJ). The day-long event at the University of Westminster was attended by one hundred invited participants and was addressed by journalists, academics and media activists, including Mr. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Uthayan newspaper, Mr Chandana Bandara, senior producer with the BBC’s Sinhala service and Mr. Bhagwan Singh of the Deccan Chronicle.
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Most incidents of election violence directed towards UNP -PAFFREL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 15:10 GMT]
Commenting on the sharp rise in the incidents of election related violence in the East Peoples Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL), a monitoring group has stated that so far Forty one complaints of election related violence have been reported from the three districts in the East.
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41 civilians arrested in Ratmalana, 24 in Minuwangoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 10:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police, assisted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in two separate cordon and search operations, took into custody 65 civilians for questioning. 41 were arrested in Ratmalana in search operation conducted Sunday for about five hours from 5:00 a.m. 24 civilians were arrested in Minuwangoda from Saturday night till Sunday early morning, reports from Colombo said.
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No monitors from EU, Commonwealth Union for east poll

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 06:03 GMT]
European Union and Commonwealth Union have informed the Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections that they are not in a position to send monitors to supervise east provincial election scheduled to be held on May 10. Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake is reported to have told media persons that EU, and Commonwealth Union have not accepted the invitation sent by him due to practical difficulties such as recruiting personnel.
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Tamil woman, man reported abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 02:04 GMT]
Unidentified men have allegedly abducted two Tamil civilians, a woman and a man, in Colombo in two separate incidents on 28th and 29th of April, sources close to the victims said.
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2,000 Sri Lankan soldiers killed last year – Fonseka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2008, 01:46 GMT]
Over two thousand Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and four thousand wounded in the battles of 2007, the commander of the SLA, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told a conference at Army Headquarters last week, the Sunday Times reported. He claimed over five thousand Tamil Tigers were also killed last year. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has forbidden military officials from giving interviews and launched a hunt for those leaking details to the media. The government has instructed ambulances transporting wounded soldiers from Ratmalana airport to hospitals in Colombo not to use their sirens, the paper said.
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Large-scale search operation in Colombo: 84 taken to station, 15 detained

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 18:00 GMT]
Around 300 Tamils were taken into Jinthuppiddi grounds following a large-scale search operation conducted by the police with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) covering Kathiresan Street and Jinthupity Street in Colombo Saturday morning. 84 persons were taken in two buses to Pettah police station and fifteen of them were detained there for interrogations Saturday evening, Police said.
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Northern Front impregnable, say NTT panelists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 10:49 GMT]
Colombo was forced into staging Mukamaalai offensive to ensure safety to troops in Jaffna which had fallen within the range of artillery, panelists said during a Political Analysis segment of National Television of Tamileelam (NTT), participated by LTTE military spokesperson, Irasiah Ilanthiraiyan, and Chief-Editor of Viduthalaip Pulika'l, LTTE's official organ, S. Ravi, in the programme moderated by K. Veera, this week. Panelists added that Colombo's assertion that LTTE is moving troops between different Northern fronts is a figment of their imagination, and refuted the claim that the Sri Lanka Air Force has caused detrimental impact to LTTE's war machinery.
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Wimal Weerawansa decides to form new party

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 08:28 GMT]
The dissident group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has decided to form a new political party. The decision was taken at a meeting held on May 1st in Colombo with Wimal Weerawansa, dissident group leader in the chair as the current JVP leadership failed to meet the deadline issued by the rebel group to sort out differences among them before May Day. Ten dissident parliamentarians attended the meeting, reports in Colombo said.
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Amnesty: Rights abuses flourish in secrecy, denial in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2008, 02:57 GMT]
Noting that in conflict situations "without reports, pictures and film of the fighting and the violence, no-one knows enough to put the pressure on the participants to ensure human rights are respected," Amnesty International, in a media release issued Friday, said the need for such environment is "strong in Sri Lanka, where fatalities on all sides are believed to be very high with large numbers of civilians caught in the crossfire."
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JVP whips up anti-Indian rhetoric

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 May 2008, 10:11 GMT]
Somawansa Amarasinghe, the leader of the extreme Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which recently suffered a split, has whipped up anti-Indian sentiments in his May Day address calling for protests against what he labeled as 'Indian hegemonic foreign policy'. Stating that Sri Lankan forces 'liberated the East' not for the benefit of Indian geo-political and economic interests, but to resettle 'all ethnic communities' there, he said that the JVP would not allow separation of the country in the name of devolution proposals and proclaimed that the renewed JVP would become the locomotive of the future governance of Sri Lanka.
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Peace activist grilled by CID at Katunayake Air Port

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 May 2008, 01:04 GMT]
The coordinating officer of International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and Womens Alliance for Peace and Democracy (WAPD), Nimalka Fernando, was subjected to interogation by an official from Crimininal Investigations Department (CID) at Bandaranayake International Air port last week, sources in Colombo said.
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3 Tamil youths arrested in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 18:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested Thursday morning three Tamil youths in a joint cordon and search operation launched from 6:00 a.m to 9:30 a.m in Dehiwella, a suburb of Colombo. The youths, from Ki’linochchi, Point Pedro and Kayts of ages between 22 and 24, did not possess valid evidence to prove the reason for their presence in the area, Galkisse police said.
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CAFFE receives 38 election related complaints from east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 11:00 GMT]
Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), a monitoring group which has its headquarters in Colombo, said Thursday that it has received 38 complaints related to election violence from three districts Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Ampaarai in the east province till Wednesday night, media sources said.
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UPFA observes May Day in east, UNP prayer at Kelaniya Vihare

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 06:52 GMT]
The May Day of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa is being held at Dehiyatttakandiya in Ampaarai district for the first time outside Colombo. Earlier the UPFA decided to hold its May Day rally at Ampaa'rai town. Later it changed the venue to Dehiyattakandiya sans procession due to security reasons, party sources said. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) first decided to hold its May Day rally in Kurunagala town in the northwestern province without procession. Later it canceled the rally and decided to observe prayer at Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihare.
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Colombo invites neighboring states to monitor EPC elections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 06:45 GMT]
Sri Lankan Commissioner of Elections on Wednesday said India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan have agreed to send monitors to monitor Eastern Provincial Council elections.
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Colombo has failed to honour Kachchatheevu agreement after 1983 - CPI

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2008, 07:02 GMT]
Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja on Tuesday made a special mention during the Zero Hour in the Indian Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament of India stated that the agreement on Kachchatheevu and the historical waters between the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka, signed in 1974, didn't work after 1983. Mr. Raja said there is a grey area in the agreement with regards to the right of access to the island by the Indian fishermen and said that the agreement should be reopened and renegotiated in order to protect the rights of fishermen.
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