Tamil suspects detained at Boosa camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil civilians arrested by the Sri Lanka's forces under the newly introduced Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) Act are now sent to Boosa detention camp located in Galle in the south of the island due to lack of space in Colombo jails. About sixty Tamils taken into custody in Colombo recently are likely to be sent to Boosa detention camp shortly, sources in Colombo said.
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10 Tamils abducted in 5 days in Colombo, Puttalam

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 08:27 GMT]
Eight Tamils have been abuducted in Colombo and two in Puttalam within the last five days. The abductors had released one of the victims after keeping him blindfolded for a full day. Nine of the victims are still reported missing, Civil Monitoring Commission reported Friday. The fate of Professor S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of Eastern University, abucted in Colombo's High Security area, is not known for almost a month since December 15.
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NorthEast demerger, breach of International Treaty- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 06:53 GMT]
“Not only the Tamil speaking people but also the International Community are unhappy with the de-merger of NorthEastern province. Though the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka told that former President J. R. Jayewardene’s step was defective and invalid, the Sri Lanka's President Mr. Rajapakse who wants to share no powers with Tamils, seized the opportunity quickly and declared the de-merger amidst the opposition from many of his own cabinet ministers and Members of parliament. Mr Rajapakse has not only betrayed the Tamil people, but also breached an international treaty, R. Sampanthan told in the Sri Lankan Parliament Wednesday.
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Supreme Court setting policy of SL Government- Kiriyella

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 January 2007, 12:02 GMT]
"Tamils did not demand a separate state in 1956. They only demanded their language rights but we denied their rights then. The Sri Lankan governments since independence in 1948 have not seriously attempted to solving this problem," Laxman Kiriyella, the United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian for Kandy district, said in Parliament Wednesday, speaking on the present state of affairs in the Northeast, parliamentary sources from Colombo said. "This government is reluctant to express its stand in important policy matters but uses the supreme court as a cover. Effectively, the Supreme Court is determining the policy of the government," he added.
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Vaharai tragedy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 January 2007, 02:05 GMT]
Following Sri Lanka's Military Commander Lt.Gen Sarath Fonseka's assertion that Sri Lankan Forces will evict Liberation Tigers from the East withn the next two months, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has intensified shelling and artillery attacks into Vaharai.
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44 Tamils arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 22:26 GMT]
Forty four Tamils were arrested in a sudden cordon and search operation conducted jointly by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Police personnel in Mount Lavinia, Colombo, from Tuesday night 10:00 pm until Wednesday early morning 4:00 a.m, sources in Colombo said. Most of the arrested were from NorthEast and Hill country areas. More than 100 security personnel were involved in this operation.
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49 Tamil youths arrested in Kalutara, Chilaw

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 19:39 GMT]
Forty-nine Tamil youths were taken into custody in two cordon and search operations separately conducted by the combined State security forces in the western and northwestern provinces Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
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2 Muslims shot injured in Kathankudy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 09:49 GMT]
Karuna paramilitary members arriving on motorcycles shot and seriously injured two Muslim civilians standing along Kathankudy Dean Road around 8:05 p.m Tuesday, Kathankudy sources said. The paramilitary personnel have also severely attacked two more civilians and the attacks have caused the Tamils and Muslims living on Kathankudy boarder to move to safer places.


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Shelters in schools affect education in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 02:42 GMT]
Education activities of children in Trincomalee district are badly affected due 17 government schools being used as temporary shelters for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), educational sources said.
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Mob led by SL Minister attack Journalists at UPM event

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2007, 14:43 GMT]
An armed mob led by Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Labour, Mervin Silva, arrived at the open air stage at Super Market Square in Nugegoda, the site of the first public event organised by the newly established United People's Movement (UPM), and attacked the journalists who were present at the site to cover the event which was about to commence at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday. The UPM is a political platform that seeks to establish consensus among especially the Southern polity on a Federal System of Governance, as against war and any other undemocratic, non-negotiable conclusion to the on going NorthEast conflict.
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40 Tamils arrested in Colombo suburbs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2007, 11:28 GMT]
More than 40 Tamils were arrested Tuesday in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police from Monday night until morning Tuesday in areas of Minuwangoda, Negombo, Wattala and Gampaha in the western province following the explosion in Wattala Monday morning of a transformer supplying electricity to the area.
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SOS from Vaharai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 January 2007, 13:49 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, in an urgent press release has said that 15,000 Internally Displaced Persons, denied food by the Sri Lanka Army obstruction of the transport of food to Vaharai, are on the verge of death due to starvation.
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Three Tamils shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 07:41 GMT]
Three civilians were found shot dead in Trincomalee Friday night. Their bodies were found Saturday morning with gunshot injuries, one at Chelvanayakapuram, about 2 km north of eastern port town and the other two at Allesgarden, where two Sri Lanka Navy sailors were wounded in a claymore attack Saturday. Uppuveli Police, conducting investigations into the killings said the victims, between the ages 19 and 30, were Tamils.
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Remains of Padahuthurai victims laid to rest

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 01:02 GMT]
Hundreds of civilians, religious leaders and civil representatives bade farewell to 13 of the 16 civilian victims killed Tuesday in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment at the Mother Velankanni Church at Nochchikuda, Wednesday, sources in Mannar said.
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MP urges UN to persuade Colombo on safe-haven

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has urged Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to declare a safe-haven in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) besieged Vaharai region, for the protection of the civilians from artillery, multi-barrel rocket attacks, and aerial bombardment from the Sri Lankan forces. Government of Sri Lanka has earlier rejected the call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians in Vaharai.
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Vaharai residents celebrate New Year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 03:31 GMT]
The Federation of People's Organisations in Vaharai with the assistance of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), organised on the New Year day, a volleyball tournament, to bring cheer to the people remaining in besieged Vaharai, civil sources said. Some participating teams were formed from people displaced in August .
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Battle for Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:35 GMT]
Vaharai, a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast, is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. More than 15,000 residents and IDPs are now trapped in Vaharai as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducts its brutal campaign to evict Tamils from the region, closing A-15 the main access road to the town, and imposing economic embargo, while Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfirs fly bombing raids terrorizing the civilians to flee. "They [LTTE] won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview Friday.
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India, International community must act to deliver peace- Bishop

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 00:01 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam, the Bishop of Jaffna, in his New Year message, said that the International Community, in the dawn of the New Year, should, with India's active participation, positively assert itself with new vigor and put forward a just and fair solution to resolve the ethnic conflict. "This is the only New Year request I am placing in front of the International Community, when war clouds gather over Tamil areas, starvation threatens to engulf the Tamil people, spectre of infectious deceases spreading amidst shortage of medicines looms in the horizon, and fear and anxiety grips the Tamil people as they live day-to-day," the Bishop said.
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MP slams aerial bombardment on water refinery

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 10:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), in its latest bombing raids in Vaharai on Thursday, completely destroyed a water refinery constructed by the UN agencies to remedy the drinking water shortage in the area near Verugal Murugan temple, charged S. Jeyanandamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa. In a press communiqué issued on Friday, the MP said: "the bombardment on the water refinery is not only a Ceasefire violation but is a human rights violation and a war crime too."
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Vaharai IDPs rally, demand International relief, re-opening of A-15

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 December 2006, 11:28 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils, most of them Internally Displaced Persons in the Sri Lanka Army besieged Vaharai region, Friday at 10:00 a.m. marched from Vaharai school IDP camp towards the Vaharai Hospital in a prosession, and handed over an appeal addressed to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, calling on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to allow the International Relief to reach Vaharai and re-open the A-15 access route, that has remained closed by the Sri Lanka Army for the last 2 months. The IDPs also raised concerns over the alleged move to select Sampoor region to set up a Coal Power Plant preventing the internally displaced people of the area from resettling in their own lands.
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