18 wounded in bus explosion in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 07:07 GMT]
Eighteen civilians were injured in a bomb blast inside a bus in Colombo Mount Laviniya Saturday around 10:45 a.m. Most of the victims were bystanders. The passengers had a providential escape as a woman traveler alerted the conductor and the driver of the bus about an unattended parcel underneath a seat in the Colombo bound bus coming from Morattuwa. The explosion took place after the passengers have got off the bus and while the driver was taking it to a safe location, police said. The blast in Colombo has taken place a day after the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aerial bombardment on civilians in Vanni took the lives of 8 and injured 14, which included many children.
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International bias contributes to 'vicious cycle of violence', says Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2008, 02:37 GMT]
“The International Community and India, which provide tacit support to Sri Lanka's belligerency, fail to stop or condemn attacks on civilians by Sri Lanka armed forces. But, whenever an attack takes place in the South it gets the prominence of news and International response is prompt. Then, as an occasional passing reference, the antecedents are cited. There is a definite pattern in the international behaviour related to events in Sri Lanka. By such one sided approach, do they encourage retaliations to take place in the South?” asks Jaffna district parliamentarian K. Sivanesan.
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8 civilians killed in SLAF bombardment in Poonakari, children among victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2008, 05:37 GMT]
Eight civilians including a 6-month-old infant, a 4-year-old boy, their mother, a 8-year-old girl and an English teacher were killed, 14 including four children and another teacher were wounded in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aerial bombardment of a civilian settlement at Kiraagnchi in the Poonakari division of Ki'linochchi district Friday at 8:10 a.m. Three houses were fully destroyed and many houses have sustained damage in the indiscriminate aerial bombardment in which more than 20 bombs were dropped by four bombers. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan ministry of defence in Colombo claimed that the SLAF had attacked "an inland sea tiger base" at Kiraagnchi.
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NE Bishops scheduled to meet UN special envoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2008, 00:33 GMT]
A delegation of bishops from Northeast are scheduled to meet Angela Kane, UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs who arrived in Colombo Wednesday morning for a week-long fact finding mission in the island, sources close to the Bishops said.
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Kosovo’s victory has lessons for other liberation struggles - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 16:16 GMT]
Describing Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday and the ensuing international recognition as “a powerful shot in the arm to peoples resisting and seeking independence from tyrannical regimes,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper this said that “whilst every situation and every circumstance is unique, there are important lessons from the Kosovan march to independence for liberation struggles everywhere. The paper pointed out that just a few years ago, the idea of Kosovan independence had been dismissed by the international community and the Kosovan Liberation Army had been condemned as terrorists by the United States and other countries.
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Shutdown paralyses Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 13:28 GMT]
A shutdown launched Thursday in Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district in protest against activities of Suffi sect Muslims by orthodox Muslims paralyzed Kaaththaankudi, with all private and public institutions closed, sources in Kaaththaankudi said. The protest was triggered by the return of Sufi sect Muslims who visited their head quarters in Kaaththaankudi with heavy police escort, following the verdict of Colombo Supreme Court in favour of their writ application requesting rights to engage in their religious activities in Kaaththaankudi, the sources added.
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CPA withdraws from monitoring Batticaloa elections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 12:56 GMT]
Pointing out that armed groups are allowed to participate in the forthcoming local council elections in Batticaloa, Colombo based Centre for Policy Alternative(CPA) headed by Dr.Pakyasothy Saravanamuthu announced Thursday that it is withdrawing from monitoring election related acts of violence in the district, civil society sources in Colombo said.
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Delay in issue of text books affects education in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 05:47 GMT]
Nearly half the student population in Jaffna peninsula schools is yet to receive their free text books from the Sri Lanka government although nearly two months of the first school term have elapsed, educational society sources in Jaffna said. The Jaffna Department of Education has requested the Northern Province Governor to take steps to expedite distribution of free text books.
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UN envoy arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 04:20 GMT]
Ms. Angela Kane, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs arrived in Colombo Wednesday morning for a week long visit to Sri Lanka. Her visit is under the direction of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Kane is expected to have consultations in the areas of her responsibility that covers review of the work of United Nations Country Team in Sri Lanka, UN High Commission in Colombo said.
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Dry fish Trader shot dead in Negombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 03:39 GMT]
Unidentified men operating in a white van shot and killed a dry fish trader Tuesday night 10:00p.m. in Negombo, Negombo police said.
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Tamil youth missing in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 08:34 GMT]
A Tamil youth from Mu'rakkoddaagncheanai in Ea’raavoor police division in Batticaloa district has been missing since 11 February after leaving his home around 10:30 a.m, the youth's relatives said. The youth is mentally ill, and his relatives believe that he may have travelled to Vavuniyaa or Colombo.
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Vavuniyaa residents appeal for resumption of train service

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 01:35 GMT]
A memorandum signed by more than one thousand civilians appealing to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to remove the obstacles faced by people in the north at the various check points including the one at Madawaachchi, and to recommence the services up to Vavuniyaa, was forwarded to Colombo Tuesday.
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India's Peace and War

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 01:24 GMT]
The now defunct Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka was mooted and shadow-managed by the BJP government, according to Indian journalist, M.R. Narayan Swamy. Wickramasinghe and Pirapaharan were aware of this top secret mission of India, supervised by Vajpayee's Advisor Brajesh Mishra, but not J.N. Dixit who succeeded him with the change of government in May 2004. Dixit had to learn it from Wickramasinghe. The CFA signed in February 2002 was unilaterally withdrawn by the Sri Lanka government in January 2008. Swamy's revealing and the chronology of events implicate the Congress establishment and the ego war of the Chanakyas (Machiavellis) of New Delhi in belligerency returning to Sri Lanka.
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Tamil civilian abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 01:08 GMT]
A 39 year-old Tamil civilian was abducted by unidentified persons who arrived in a white colored van along Muhathurvaaram Road in Muhathurvaaram in Colombo Monday night around 8.30 p.m., media sources in Colombo said.
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Colombo TV news editor fears for his life

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2008, 15:11 GMT]
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a media rights watchdog, in a press release issued Monday, condemned "all attempts to intimidate, harm and harass journalists," including a news editor at Sirasa, the Sinhala language channel of MTV-MBC network, "and any acts by public officials or members of the public to undermine the safety and security of journalists and media personnel who dare to report the country’s inconvenient truths." Kedelpitiya, editor at Sirasa, complained of stalkers, and threats, following his work on the Action TV news program, which recently aired several reports on corruption allegedly involving powerful figures.
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Abductions on rise in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2008, 10:35 GMT]
Colombo based Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC) has reported that it has received 115 complaints regarding missing persons in the year 2007 in Colombo alone. There was a decline in the number of abductions in beginning of the New Year but it has increased in February. A 22-year-old youth has been reported missing since Saturday according to a complaint made to the Grandpass Police.
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Sri Lanka rejects Kosovo independence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 18:22 GMT]
While the United States and a number of European Union countries are expected to recognize Kosovo on Monday, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, reasoning that declaration of Independence can set "an unmanageable precedent in the conduct of international relations," said that Sri Lanka does not endorse the secession of Kosovo from Republic of Serbia. Questions raised by the birth of a new state towards demand for self-determination by similarly affected Tamils in Sri Lanka, may explain Sri Lanka's discomfiture towards Kosovo's independence, more than the outwardly expressed "concern" for the threat to international peace and security, political observers in Colombo said.
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Ministry reshuffle impacts relief supplies for Jaffna IDPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 16:46 GMT]
The distribution of relief supplies for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) within Jaffna peninsula has been seriously affected due to shifting of the responsibility from the Ministry of Nation Building to the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief services, Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K.Ganesh said, Sunday.
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Colombo banks demand police certificate to open accounts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 12:46 GMT]
Managements of some private sector banks are demanding Jaffna based Tamil civilians residing in Colombo district to produce police registration certificate in addition to other documents usually required to open current or saving accounts in their branches located in Colombo, civil society sources in Colombo said.
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3 Tamils abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 10:06 GMT]
Three Tamils have been abducted by unidentified men who came in white van in Colombo and its suburbs, Saturday night, according to complaints made with the police by their relatives.
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