SLA delays WB official access to school in Thellippazhai HSZ

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 15:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops deployed at the entrance to the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippazhai initially refused to allow the World Bank (WB) resident representative for Sri Lanka and Education Directors to enter Thellippazhai Union College located in the HSZ Tuesday. They were let in only after the World Bank representative said that he may have to refer the matter to the Secretary of Defence, sources in Jaffna said. The team of officials, after attending a meeting Tuesday on alleged malpractices in the free meal scheme of World Bank at the Jaffna Secretariat, were on their way to inspect the site of the scheme in Union College.
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UNICEF aid for Jaffna held back by Sri Lanka's Treasury

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2008, 01:08 GMT]
More than 10 million Rupees donated by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for educational projects in the Jaffna peninsula is being held back by Central Treasury since December 2007, seriously hampering a number of developmental projects, officials from the Department of Education in Jaffna said.
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SLA fired shells, rounds hit Madu Shrine premises - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 15:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched sporadic offensive pushes from Pa'ndivirichchaan targeting Madu on Tuesday and Wednesday, LTTE's Operations Command in Mannaar told media in Vanni. Meanwhile, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet that the SLA-fired artillery and mortar shells exploded inside the mess of the Madu shrines premises, in the vicinity of the well and on priests' quarters. All civilians, except the priests, have vacated the premises. LTTE has lost one fighter while facing the offensive initiated by the SLA, 1.5 km away from the Madu premises. The Tigers said 15 SLA soldiers were killed in two days in Pa'ndivirichchaan and 10 near Giant's Tank on Wednesday.
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'British assent to genocide in the East': readers' feedback

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Camouflaged with the provincial elections in Sri Lanka's East, under military and paramilitary terror, is the Sri Lanka's agenda to dismember the homeland of Tamil speakers that include Tamils and Tamil Muslims. The elections with a possible boycott of TNA, as a result of the intimidation of main Tamil opinion, is going to confer 'unholy legitimacy' to the government to complete its genocide and subordination of Tamil speakers in the East. It is unfortunate that the British provide a 'tacit assent' to this agenda, by discussing the elections rather than condemning it, writes a reader from UK, responding to a British press release on a meeting between British and Lankan foreign ministers.
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British, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministers discuss Elections in the East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 12:13 GMT]
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, and Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, on Tuesday discussed the "recent political developments" in the Eastern province, including the "importance of ensuring that the forthcoming provincial elections are credible," and conducted in a "secure environment," according to a press release issued Wednesday by the British High Commission in Colombo.
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Court grants permission to detain two Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 01:21 GMT]
The Fort Magistrate Ajith Anawaretna Tuesday allowed an application of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police to detain two Tamil youths arrested on suspicion that they had come to Colombo to carry out suicide attacks, legal sources said.
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Hizbullah crosses over to UPFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 16:20 GMT]
M.L.A.M Hizbullah, an executive committee member of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), on Tuesday, crossed over to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) strengthening Rajapaksa's alliance in the forthcoming Eastern Provincial Council elections. Meanwhile, informed sources in Colombo said that TMVP, the paramilitary-cum-political party, which had invited all its nominees in Eastern Provincial elections to hotels in Colombo was disappointed as Rajapaksa's promise on Chief Minister post and allocation of number of seats in Trincomalee district as it had demanded, faded away with Hizbullah's cross over.
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UNICEF Child Protection team visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 15:31 GMT]
UNICEF Child Protection Project residential representative in Colombo paid a visit to Jaffna Tuesday to learn first hand of the conditions of the children and mothers placed in the protective custody in Kurunakar Rehabiltation Centre due to death threats by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and SLA-backed paramilitaries, sources in Jaffna said. The representative met Jaffna Magistrate R. T. Vicknarajah and explored ways to attend to the needs of the children placed in protective custody.
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Expenditure reduction vital for Sri Lanka's economic growth– UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 12:11 GMT]
The economic growth of Sri Lanka is possible only by reducing expenditure and preventing waste, said Socio Economic Research report for South Asia released Monday morning by United Nations at the Law College, Colombo, sources said.
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Colombo offensive claims civil victims- Washington Post

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 11:50 GMT]
"...[U]nder a recent military offensive to wipe out those rebels [from LTTE], government forces have abducted hundreds of members of the Tamil minority group, including civilians, according to human rights groups. Many of the "disappeared" never turn up again," Washington Post said in an article in the Tuesday edition, adding, "Abductions are carried out in various ways, according to activists and relatives of those who have disappeared. Sometimes Tamil men of fighting age are rounded up at checkpoints, hurried into white vans and never heard from again. Sometimes they are arrested with little explanation in house-to-house raids at night."
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IIGEP ends observation role

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2008, 07:30 GMT]
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) on Monday said its members cease their mandate to observe the work of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI). The IIGEP will submit a concluding report to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and issue a final public statement before closing the office in Colombo on 30 April, 2008.
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Media groups condemn 'assault' on Thusara Peiries

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 14:04 GMT]
Free Media Movement (FMM), along with four other journalist groups, has written to Alok Prasad, the Indian High Commissioner to Colombo on Sunday seeking his intervention to acquire the master tapes of Thushara Peiris' controversial film from the Gemini Studios in Chennai. In its letter, the FMM maintained that its concern was "with the principle, not the content of the film per se" since it believed in the right to freedom of expression.
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TID seeks permission to seal Tissainayagam's house

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 12:20 GMT]
The Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police on Friday filed a motion in the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court seeking an order to seal the house of J.S.Tissanayagam a senior journalist and Sunday Times columnist now under detention since his arrest on March 6, legal sources said. Meanwhile, Free Media Movement (FMM), joined by four other journalists associations, embarked on a world-wide campaign to pressure Colombo to free the journalist who has been held in detention for more than three weeks without charges.
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Not possible to remain mute spectators: Ramadoss to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2008, 09:16 GMT]
Labelling Sri Lanka "a failed state, a condominium of anarchy, and a shame on humanity" that "terrorized its own Tamil citizens," Dr. S. Ramadoss, leader of Paaddaa'li Makka'l Kadchi (PMK, Toilers' Party) and a constituent ally of the Congress-led Indian government, said that it was not possible to remain "passing by-standers to this human tragedy at our doorstep" in his letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday. "The sixty million Tamils in India cannot wait and watch while their sisters and brothers are being decimated across the Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar," he said.
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Accident kills 3 robbery suspects with police uniforms

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2008, 16:01 GMT]
Three members of a gang that had been engaged in robbery were killed and five others were injured when the vehicle they were travelling in ran off the road at Mangala Wewa along Puththalam-Chilaw highway Saturday early morning. Police recovered a part of the loot along with a set of police uniforms from the damaged vehicle, media sources said.
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White van squad abducts 3 Tamil students in Moratuwa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2008, 11:31 GMT]
Three Jaffna Tamil youths studying at Moratuwa University are reported to have been abducted by an armed group of persons clad in civil dress on March 24 night around 7:30 p.m. from their residence in Moratuwa town in western province. The unidentified men arrived in a white colored van had sealed the residence where the students had been staying, according to complaints lodged with Colombo district parliamentarian P.Radhakrishnan by their relatives, media reported.
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Tamil civilian abducted in Kotahena

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2008, 05:41 GMT]
A Tamil civilian residing at Jampettah Road in Kotahena in Colombo city was abducted on March 18 morning around 5:00 a.m. by a group of unidentified armed persons who arrived in a van. The men dressed in civil stated that they had come from Kotahena police station, according to a complaint lodged with the Kotahena Police and the Civil Monitoring Committee in Colombo by his wife.
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SLA trooper electrocuted by high tension fence in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 17:19 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) trooper deployed at the Front Defence Line (FDL) area in Meesaalai North in Thenmaraadchi died Wednesday due to electric shock when he accidentally made physical contact with live electric fence wire, sources in Kodikaamam said.
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TID detains Tamil woman arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 02:40 GMT]
A Tamil woman residing in Modera, Colombo, since 2003 was taken into custody last week and is being detained by the Terrorist Intelligence Department (TID) of the Sri Lank Police according to a complaint by her mother handed over to Colombo district parliamentarian P.Radhakrishnan, media sources said.
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SL Police reduces checkpoints between Vavuniyaa-Madawaachchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2008, 01:46 GMT]
Vavuniyaa police have agreed to deploy more buses between Vavuniyaa and Madawaachchi to transport passengers to reduce travel delays, and also have agreed not to stop buses at several places for checking passengers and their belonging after they leave Vavuniyaa and before reaching Madawaachchi, according to Wanni district parliamentarian Mr.Sivanathan Kishore, media sources said.
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