Britain to get tough with Sri Lanka - Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 13:51 GMT]
Britain will be pressing Sri Lanka’s hardline government for greater access for senior UN officials and would join European allies in taking a stronger position against Colombo over human rights abuses. In a meeting with Tamil Diaspora representatives at the British Foreign Office on Monday, Foreign Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said he would personally be attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next week to press the point. The government of President Rajapakse had “made political process secondary to military process,” the British Tamil Forum, a Diaspora advocacy group which attended the meeting, quoted the Minister as saying.
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UPFA, TMVP alliance implicates GoSL complicity, collusion with armed group - CPA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 13:37 GMT]
Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo based think-tank that undertook a fact finding mission to Batticaloa district between February 8 and 11, said Sri Lanka's ruling United Peoples Freedom Allilance (UPFA) government, by opting for the alliance with the armed TMVP group in Batticaloa municipal council election, finds itself in a position where it is increasingly difficult for the GoSL to deny the charges of "complicity and collusion with the TMVP." The CPA's statement has warned that there was a clear sense of inevitability that the elections will result in a TMVP "victory" as it is the only "political actor" allowed to move around in recently resettled areas.
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10 building workers arrested at Wellampitya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Ten civilians including 8 plantation Tamil youths were taken into custody by the police on Monday at a house construction site in Kumaradasa Place at Wellampitya in Colombo district, and are still being detained in the police station, police sources said.
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Faulty transformer triggers bomb panic in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 12:09 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Wellawatte bus stand area in Colombo city Tuesday morning around 9:00 a.m. when some noticed smoke coming out of a transformer located in the area. People fled from the area shouting that a bomb had been kept inside the transformer, sources in Wellawatte said.
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Fishing restrictions to remain- SLA commander

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 01:54 GMT]
Major General G.A.Chandrasiri, commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna at a meeting held Monday afternoon within High Security Zone (HSZ) in Palaly addressing the representatives of various civil groups said that until security in seas surrounding the peninsula improves, fishing restrictions in Jaffna will not be lifted, but added that he will take steps to ease travel for the sick to obtain medical treatment in Colombo.
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Jaffna Tamil youth reported missing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 19:09 GMT]
A Tamil youth Sathasivam Yogendran of Ward No: 4, Ve'lanai East in Jaffna district has been reported missing since February 16, according to a complaint lodged with the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) by his mother on Monday.
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Ganesan protests Kane's failure to meet Tamil, Muslim party leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 12:31 GMT]
Civil Monitoring Commission Convener and Western People Front leader Mano Ganesan expressed his protest over the failure of United Nation's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ms Angela Kane to meet with Tamil or Muslim party leaders during her week long visit to Sri Lanka. Ganesan said the visit, where she met only Sri Lanka Government officials, opposition party leaders, and the extremist JVP leaders, was a "one-sided affair" and "too political."
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Tyronne Fernando passes away

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 07:41 GMT]
Tyronne Fernando, an advisor to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka under the United National Party (UNP) government earlier, passed away in a private hospital in Colombo Tuesday morning, according to Sri Lankan presidential secretariat officials. Mr. Tyronne Fernando served as the governor of North-East Province Council (NEPC) from December 2004 till January 2006.
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Kurunakar parents approach Colombo HRC to file complaints

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 02:51 GMT]
The relatives of the two school students from Kurunagar, Jaffna arrested recently by Jaffna police have lodged a complaint at the National Head office of Human Rights Commission (HRC), Colombo stating that the office of Jaffna HRC has refused to accept their complaint.
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Runaway SLA soldier arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 13:40 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier who ran away Friday noon from his camp in Neerveali-Irupaalai area in Valikaamam East was caught two days later, hiding in the shrub jungle in the same area, in an extensive search operation launched by the SLA. The said soldier had run away in protest against the order transferring him to Colombo SLA Head Quarters, SLA authorities told Jaffna Additional Magistrate Mr. Vasanthasenan when he was produced before the magistrate Monday.
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30 civilians arrested in Colombo, Embilipitia

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 11:34 GMT]
Thirty civilians, majority of them Tamils, were arrested in cordon and search operations conducted in the western province and Embilipitya since Sunday. Thirteen persons were taken into custody in house-to-house search conducted in the western province, and seventeen were arrested in Embilipitya, media sources said.
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FMM condemns Police Inspector for attack on TV journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 08:32 GMT]
A Senior Police Inspector of the Sri Lankan Police in Mount Lavinia, Mahesh Perera, abused and assaulted a news producer of the Sinhala language Derana TV, Sugath Dharmapriya, who was filming the bomb blast Saturday. When the journalist, thrown out on to the street by the police inspector, went to the Mount Lavina police station to lodge a complaint the Police officials there told the journalist that they do not entertain complaints against their superior officers. The same police inspector had verbally abused another TV journalist, Aravinda Sri Nissanka, a month ago, the Free Media Movement, a Colombo based media watchdog, said condemning the episode.
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SLA cordons, searches Dambulla town areas

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 02:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police launched a cordon and search operation Sunday night in Dambulla town and its surroundings. The police said the operation was initiated after the discovery of parcel of explosives near a public telephone booth in the town around 10:00 p.m Sunday night, media sources in Colombo said.
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Tamil youth abducted in Bandarawela

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 February 2008, 02:36 GMT]
A 20-year old Tamil youth has been abducted by a group of unidentified persons Sunday night around 7 p.m. He was forcibly taken in a white colored vehicle by the abductors, media sources in Colombo said.
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Tampoe: Sri Lanka is a virtual Police, Military dictatorship

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Prominent Trade Union leader, Bala Tampoe, says Rajapakse Government falsely states that their military objective is to defeat terrorism. The main objective is to wrest control from the LTTE the areas of North and east. "...[Colombo] can never achieve a proper political settlement till and until they recognise the right of self-determination, which is a democratic right, of the Tamil people and the Muslim people in the North and East, Tampoe says in an interview to Vikalpa, a citizen journalism initiative in Sri Lanka built on the effort pioneered by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think-tank.
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Pavement trader files FR petition on right to trade

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2008, 13:13 GMT]
One of the owners of pavement stalls demolished or forcibly removed in Colombo city citing security reason by the police, has filed a fundamental rights application in the Supreme Court Friday against the demolition of his stall. The petitioner Werehera Arachchige Palitha of Ragama has cited the Inspector General of Police, Officer in Charge of the Pettah police station, and the Attorney General as respondents, legal sources said.
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Fein challenges SL Ambassador on "right to secession"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 18:01 GMT]
"A debate between us would enlighten the American people, Congress, and the White House over a question central to the foreign policy of the United States: when should a right to secession from an existing sovereign be recognized? Tamil statehood, which would end a grisly conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sri Lanka, is too important to be left to sophistry," challenged Bruce Fein in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka's Ambassador to U.S., Bernard Goonetilleke, following the Ambassador's 25th speech in Washington, and 17th February article titled "Tamil homeland fantasy" in Washington Times.
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UN envoy visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 16:59 GMT]
Ms. Angela Kane, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs who is on a seven day visit to Sri Lanka, visited Batticaloa Saturday afternoon 2:00p.m. and met various dignitaries at the Batticaloa secretariat and learnt about the current situation prevailing in the district.
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SLA arrests several Tamils in Mt. Lavinia

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 16:07 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police launched a combined cordon and search operation Saturday in Mount Lavinia and surroundings in Colombo, and took several persons for questioning following the bus explosion that took place in the morning. Majority of the arrested are said to be Tamil civilians working shops and other offices in the locality, media sources said.
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Sri Lanka C.I.D., Police treat Tamils like stray dogs- Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 13:50 GMT]
Mano Ganesan, Leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), in a press release issued Saturday, said that "[T]he Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has very clearly contravened the accepted norms, rules and regulations in conducting this arrest [of two tamils] let alone the civility and decency. They have failed to inform the police of the area where the ‘arrested’ persons were living at the time of ‘arrest,' and questioned whether the arrests were "deliberately done on purpose to put fear into the minds of Tamil Citizens."
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