Sri Lanka faulted for public use of ICRC's confidential findings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 16:12 GMT]
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in a press release issued Wednesday, faulted Colombo for making misleading public references to ICRC's confidential findings on "disappearances and unexplained killings," and for disclosing that U.S. embassy also had access to the confidential reports. "Extra-judicial killings and disappearances are part of a terrible pattern of abuse in Sri Lanka, which must be stopped," said Jacques de Maio, the ICRC's head of operations for South Asia.
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Arthur C.Clarke passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 07:33 GMT]
Dr. Arthur C.Clarke, a scientist and famous science-fiction writer, passed away after a brief illness Wednesday around 1:30 a.m. at a private nursing home in Colombo.
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UPFA-TMVP councilors take oath in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 15:44 GMT]
The Mayor, Deputy Mayor of Batticaloa Municipal council, chairmen and deputy chairmen of other eight local councils and the members of all nine local councils elected from United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPAF) and the paramilitary-cum-political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), took their oaths in the presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential secretariat Tuesday. Key Paramilitary operative, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, who was present at the presidential secretariat was greeted by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Fuel crisis hits Jaffna public transport

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 14:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Electricity Board (SLEB) which supplies fuel and oil to Jaffna Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) informed Thursday that it may have to suspend supplies to Jaffna SLTB if the arrears of 51 million rupees due is not paid, Koa'ndaavil SLTB head office sources said.
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Bail denied for Maheswaran murder suspects

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 16:50 GMT]
Chief Magistrate Raveendra Premaratna Monday denied the bail appeal submitted on behalf of Francis Sutharsan, the second accused charged in connection with the assassination of T.Maheswaran, Colombo district United National Party(UNP) and Member of parliament, legal sources in Colombo said. The magistrate instructed the police to continue to keep the suspect in detention until further notice. Maheswaran was shot dead on New year day within the premises of Ponnampala Va'neasvarar temple, Colombo.
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"Green Channel" at Madawaachchi checkpoint for doctors

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 12:17 GMT]
New security arrangement introduced by the Sri Lanka security establishment came into effect from Monday for medical officers serving in district government hospitals located Mannaar and Vavuniyaa easing their traveling difficulties to report for work from Colombo and other areas in the south while passing through Madawaachchi Sri Lanka Army check point, media reports said quoting health ministry officials.
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Boston Globe advocates "Self-rule in a confederal structure for Tamil region"

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 10:01 GMT]
Pointing to Sri Lanka's documented pattern of "abductions of civilians by security forces," and Rajapakse Government's complicity in "large scale disappearances," Boston Globe in an editorial Monday said: "[t]he bottom line is Sri Lanka's conflict is political, and it must be resolved by political means. A lasting solution will require that the central government grant meaningful self-rule to the Tamil region, perhaps in a confederal structure that maintains the unity of the country. Continuing attempts to resolve the conflict militarily can only produce more suffering and more war."
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Abductions escalate in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2008, 09:48 GMT]
Armed men in police uniform arriving in a van bearing registration number 250 7363 Sunday around 7:00 a.m at Sangamiththa Mawata in Colombo abducted a Tamil youth who had come from Jaffna with his mother to go abroad, according to the complaint made by the his mother to Kotahena (Koddaagncheanai) police. Meanwhile, a Tamil student of Moratuwa University, abducted on March 4 from Colpetty in Colombo, is still missing. Abduction of Tamils in Western Province by armed men in white van have escalated in recent days despite the global attention on Sri Lanka's Human Rights violations.
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Assault on media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 16:08 GMT]
While the 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department catalogued the deteriorating climate for media freedom in Sri Lanka, State intimidation of, and violence on journalists continue in 2008. Unidentified men have broken into the houses of journalists Munusamy Parameshwari in Gampola, and Sashi Kumar and Sunetra Athugalpura in Gonawela, Kelaniya in three separate incidents in the last two days, according to media reports. Parameshawari's relatives were assaulted before the attackers got away, reports added.
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Anura Bandaranaike passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 March 2008, 10:32 GMT]
Anura Bandaranaike, the brother of former SL President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the son of two former Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, passed away after brief illness at a private hospital in Colombo Sunday at 2:45 p.m. Mr. Bandaranaike, the 59-year-old son of the world's first woman prime minister, a former Foreign Minister and a former Opposition Leader, had walked away from the Sri Lankan parliament after crossing over to the opposition during the final voting of the latest Sri Lankan Budget in December 2007. His father, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, was assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk when Mr. Anura Bandaranaike was 10 years old.
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Mihin Lanka flies into turbulance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 23:41 GMT]
Eleven months after beginning operations, Mihin Lanka, a low cost Air Lines fully owned and funded by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), is facing a loss of Rs.300 million, and if the economic performance does not improve soon, the airline may face bankruptcy, airline industry observers in Colombo said.
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Ganesan assails Sri Lanka's rights record

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 14:08 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front and Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a meeting with visiting officials of the European Union, pointing to the culture of impunity prevailing in Sri Lanka, rejected Colombo's proposal to appoint a SAARC commission to monitor rights in Sri Lanka as a "ploy to buy time," and flayed Judge Tilakaratne's investigation into disappearances as an exercise to "deceive the nation and the international community." Judge Tilakaratne had earlier commented that most people listed as disappeared and abducted have either "returned home or gone abroad," the press release issued by Ganeson Saturday said.
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Police arrests 2 Upcountry Tamils at Monergala bus stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 March 2008, 13:25 GMT]
Moneragala Police arrested a Tamil youth and his younger sister at the main bus stand Friday afternoon, media sources said quoting Police sources. Both siblings are being detained in the police station and interrogated by the Terrorist Investigation Department as they failed to prove their identity and the purpose of their visit to Colombo, the Police said.
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SL Minister implicated in bribe attempt to silence massacre witness

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 19:52 GMT]
The inquiry into the massacre of five Trincomalee students took a dramatic turn Thursday when an exiled medical practitioner father of one of the student victims, in a video conference before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), revealed that a prominent Cabinet Minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, after the massacre, had proposed to offer a house in Colombo to the family if they were willing to "forget the mistake that had taken place."
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United States stands by HR Report: U.S. Embassy tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 15:16 GMT]
The U.S. Embassy in Colombo, on Friday, issued a press statement saying that the U.S. Government was standing by its State Department issued 2007 Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka. The U.S. statement comes, following reports Friday that Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Rohita Bogollagama, had called on U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake, registering his protest to the Human Rights report issued by the U.S. State Department.
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Colombo irked by US Rights report

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 14:53 GMT]
The 2007 Country Report of Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department has created shockwaves within the Rajapakse Government according to Media reports in Colombo Friday. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had called on the US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert O Blake, to register “Sri Lanka’s serious concerns” on the report, Colombo media reported.
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Armed men abduct Tamil trader in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 14:48 GMT]
Armed men who arrived in a white van in a Colombo suburb have abducted a 65-year-old Tamil trader, Govindasamy Rajanathan, from his residence on Galpotta Lane in Koddaagncheanai (Kotahena), a suburb of Colombo Friday early morning, according to a complaint made to the Civil Monitoring Committee. The victim's family has also lodged a complaint at Kotahena Police.
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SLRC Deputy Director attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 08:24 GMT]
A group of unknown men Friday morning around 8:45 a.m. attacked the Deputy Director of Sri Lanka state-owned Rupavahini Cooperation (SLRC), Anurasri Hettige, the trade union leader and a JVP supporter, at Kottiyawatta. Employees at the SLRC have started a protest against alleged targeted attacks by unknown men on journalists and staff of the station, who participated and covered a spontaneous protest on 27 December when Mervy Silva, the SL Minister of Labour was retaliated when he reportedly went amok on a news editor at the station.
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215 Tamil civilians in detention camps in Boosa

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2008, 04:40 GMT]
138 Tamil civilians including nine women are currently being detained in Boosa detention centre under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER). 77 Tamil civilians including 6 women are being detained in PTE detention centre located in Chaitiya Street in Colombo city, media reports quoting civil sources said.
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Public Transport crisis feared in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2008, 16:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Electricity Board (SLEB) which supplies fuel and oil to Jaffna Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) has informed that it may have to suspend supplies to Jaffna SLTB if the arrears of 51 million rupees due is not paid, Koa’ndaavil SLTB head office sources said. Already 40 buses in the three depots of Jaffna SLTB are not functioning due to lack of spare tires, and if SLEB suspends supply the entire bus service may ground to a halt, the sources added.
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