Three Tamils arrested in Morawewa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2007, 20:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Security forces arrested three Tamil civilians in Gomarankadawela village in Morawewa division in Trincomalee district during a cordon and search operation Monday morning. Police sources said they three were taken into custody on suspicion, as they failed to provide satisfactory explanation for their stay in the area.
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TamilNet introduces computer-friendly transcription

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2007, 21:12 GMT]
Near accurate Tamil pronunciation is a challenge to English news reporting. Tamil words and place names have long been misspelt due to ambiguity in transcription. Conventional transliteration symbols are difficult to compose, store and retrieve. Known transcription systems are unaesthetic to look at and tiresome to compose due to mix-up of lowercase and uppercase characters. The TamilNet aims at presenting a standard transcription system to face the existing challenges and to cater to contemporary social and cyber needs.
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16 civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2007, 17:57 GMT]
Sixteen civilians, majority of them Tamils, were arrested in a four-hour cordon and search operation conducted in Colombo city by Sri Lanka's security forces Saturday. Twelve of them were taken into custody for alleged involvement in terrorist activities, police sources said.
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‘Come on you Sri Lankan Lions!’ – UK

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2007, 10:40 GMT]
The British diplomatic mission in Colombo shed diplomatic neutrality on Friday to support Sri Lanka's cricket team in their World Cup final against Australia, AFP reported. "We're hoping for a repeat of the 1996 World Cup final result. Come on you Sri Lankan Lions. Let's hear you roar," a message from the UK High Commission said.


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Paris Tamils in walking vigil, urge release of Tamil activists

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2007, 05:28 GMT]
Around 2000 French Tamils marched in Paris Wednesday afternon in a silent walking vigil, organized by French Tamil Students Forum. Demonstrants carrying placards stating "we are not terrorists," gathered at place de la République at 3:00 p.m. and walked towards Place de Bastille where a meeting was held.
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Canadian Tamil concludes fast, urges Canada to exert pressure on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 13:41 GMT]
A Canadian Tamil peace activist in Toronto, Dr. Sri Skanda Rajah, on Saturday concluded a six day Ghandian fast, he undertook to sympathize with the victims in NorthEast Sri Lanka. Urging the Canadian Government to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to help "stop the carnage, starvation and the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Sri Lankan armed forces," Dr. Sri Skanda Rajah said the fast was a spiritual exercise that transcended partisan politics and asked those who attended not to make political capital of the endavour.
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LTTE: Sri Lanka’s accusations of credit card fraud is ‘attempt to distract from rights abuses’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2007, 09:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, responding to allegations by the Sri Lankan Embassy in London that the Liberation Tigers were involved in organised crime in Britain involving the cloning of credit cards, dismissed the accusations and slammed them as an attempt by the Colombo government to distract international attention from widespread human rights abuses by its armed forces. Mr. Thamilchelvan said Sri Lanka's accusations which sought to implicate the hardworking and law-abiding Tamil Diaspora, stemmed from the "same chauvinism that caused the island’s protracted ethnic war."
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GoSL must pay compensation to Batticaloa IDPs- MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2007, 04:24 GMT]
One third of the Batticaloa Tamil population has been made refugees and, as a result, the educational, social and economical resources and growth of the Tamil people have suffered grave setback, P. Ariyaneththiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament for Batticaloa district said in a press communiqué Thursday. He urged the Sri Lanka Government authorities to take steps to pay compensation to those who suffered economic loss due to displacement.
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Norway dismisses lone activist’s agitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2007, 15:23 GMT]
A Norwegian speaker at a symposium organised by Sinhala nationalists as a “public awareness programme on how terrorism is being promoted in Sri Lanka” was dismissed by his government as a lone agitator making wild accusations. The Norwegian, Falk Rune Rovik, who alleges that Norway is financing the LTTE, was a murder convict and has been engaged by Sinhala ultra nationalists and promoted by Sri Lankan government ministries in anti-Norwegian and anti-LTTE propaganda. The activities of Mr. Rovik, who is scheduled to address a conference in Colombo Friday, has antogonized the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, according to Norwegian press reports.
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23 civilians arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 April 2007, 12:09 GMT]
Twenty-three persons, majority of them Tamils, were taken into custody in a cordon and search operations conducted in Trincomalee town and its suburbs by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Friday evening. The arrested are being detained in police stations and are being interrogated, sources said.
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SLA, police, arrest 6 Tamils in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 14:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took away six Tamils in a search conducted Tuesday from morning till evening in 4th, 5th and 6th Unit areas in Pavatkulam in Vavuniya district, in which all males in the areas were transported to Varikuttiyoor junction on Poovarasankulam-Chettikulam road, where they were produced before a person whose face and head were hooded, sources in Pavatkulam said. The hooded person identified five local males and one internally displaced person by nodding his head and the SLA and police brought the six civilians to Vavuniya, relatives of those arrested said.


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UNP leader slams Rajapakse regime for "notorious Human Rights record"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who attended a confluence of the relatives and friends of the missing persons, held in Colombo Monday, charged that the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regime was responsible for the bad reputation of the Sri Lankan state's Human Rights record. 88 persons have been either abducted or gone missing since August 2006 up to now, according to the records of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), an ongoing initiative by a few involved politicians.
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Thousands of Tamils defy Paris protest bar

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 22:37 GMT]
Over 2,000 Tamil expatriates gathered in front of the Eiffel Tower Monday, despite the authorities’ cancellation of a planned protest rally to condemn the arrests by French police of several Tamil activists for raising funds for the LTTE. The protestors gathered in nearby public places, blocking traffic. Although the protest’s cancellation had been publicised on Tamil radio and television by the rally’s organisers who told expatriates that permission would be sought anew, several thousand people converged on the city centre, defying orders to disperse, to condemn the arrests on April 1, a week after the LTTE airstrike on Katunayake.
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Three Tamils detained for questioning in Tangalle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2007, 03:15 GMT]
Thirty eight persons were arrested on Friday in a cordon and search operations conducted by the combined government armed forces in Tangalle, a town in Matara district in the southern province. Of the arrested nineteen were Tamils, and three Tamil are being detained for further questioning. The Kandy Magistrate released sixteen Tamils when they were produced in court later, sources said
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Twelve Tamil civilians arrested in Munthal, Uddapu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 10:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police Saturday morning arrested 12 Tamil civilians in Uddapu and Munthal, Tamil villages in Chilaw division in northwestern province in a cordon and search operation. The arrested Tamils are natives of Trincomalee, Jaffna and Uddapu areas.
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16 Tamil civilians arrested in Wellawatte, Kataragama

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 10:43 GMT]
Three Tamil civilians including two women were arrested Friday morning in a cordon and search operation conducted in Wellawatte in Colombo by security forces. They are now being detained in the Wellawatte police station and subjected to interrogation, sources said. Meanwhile, thirteen plantation Tamils including two women were arrested in Kataragama in the south in a combined cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka and Police on Wednesday.
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Sinhalese appointed East's Chief Secretary

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 02:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has appointed Mr.Herat Abeyeweera as the Chief Secretary of the de-merged Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) on the recommendation of Provincial Governor Rear Admiral (retired) Mohan Wijayawickrema. The new appointment has come into effect from April 1 Sunday to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Mr.R.Thiakalingam who held the post for two months since the de-merger of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC).
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SLA orders Thampalakamam Tamils to register names

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 01:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Thursday ordered all residents of Thampalakamam, a traditional Tamil village, located along Trincomalee-Kandy road, about 24 km off southwest of east port town, to register their names with addresses and other related details with the police station located in Kovilady area before Thursday evening, civil sources said.
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Claymore mine found in Wattala, seven persons arrested

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 01:53 GMT]
A claymore mine weighing about 10 kg was recovered from the third floor of a building in Wattala, a town in western province Thursday on information received by the Sri Lanka Police, security sources said.
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‘Mahinda Chinthana’ to be basis for government’s proposal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2007, 23:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government will present its devolution proposals on May 1, the ruling SLFP’s General Secretary and Agriculture Minister, Maithripala Sirisena, was quoted by state media as saying Friday. The government’s proposals will be based on Mahinda Chinthana, the hardline Sinhala nationalist manifesto on which President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected in November 2005, the Daily News quoted him as saying. “Mahinda Chinthana accepts the devolution of power within one country and the proposals will be entirely based on Mahinda Chinthana and formulated within Mahinda Chinthana,” Mr. Sirisena said.


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