Former Tamil policeman knifed to death in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 09:30 GMT]
Unidentified persons forcibly entering the house of a former Tamil policeman attached to Batticaloa police station Tuesday early morning dragged him away and knifed him to death at a place around 100 m from his house in Thaazhangkudaa in Batticaloa district, his relatives said.
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Railways Dept rules out sabotage in Yarl Devi fire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 03:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Railways ruled out sabotage but said it has sustained damages in the region of 25 million rupees due to the fire that broke out Sunday morning in Thaandiku'lam bound Colombo Yarl Devi intercity express train. The fire destroyed two wagons including the canteen.
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SLA launches search operation in Eastern Muslim villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 03:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police Sunday evening launched an extensive search operation in the Muslim villages in Ea’raavoor Pattu division in Batticaloa district for arms which had not been surrendered during the amnesty period that ended Sunday afternoon. Soon after the ceremonial surrender of some weapons by some militant armed Muslim groups at an event held Sunday in Kaaththaankudi Grand Mosque in the presence of the Eastern DIG Edison Gunatilake and Provincial Minister Mr. M. L. A. M. Hisbullah, hundreds of SLA soldiers backed by police personnel surrounded several Muslim villages in E’raavoor Pattu and conducted the search for hidden weapons.
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Eastern armed Muslim groups surrender weapons

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2009, 11:23 GMT]
Eastern Muslim armed groups Saturday afternoon initially handed over dozens of automatic weapons including sixteen T 56 rifles to the police in response to the amnesty period that ended on July 4 afternoon 3:00 p.m. The event took place in Kaaththaankudi Jumma Meera Mosque in the presence of the Eastern Deputy Inspector General of Police Edison Gunatilake and Provincial Minister M. L. A. M.Hisbullah.
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Fire in Yarl Devi train bound for Thaandiku’lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A fire broke out onboard Yarl Devi inter-city train bound to Thaandiku'lam in Vavuniyaa district Sunday morning around 10.30 a.m on its way from Anuradhapura to Saliyapura. The blaze damaged at least two compartments of the train including the canteen, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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SLA bars upcountry Tamils from viewing Tamilnadu TV programmes

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 14:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police have ordered Tamil residents in Hatton police division to dismantle dish antennas from their residences as a part of security measure, effectively barring them from viewing TV channels aired by several TV stations operated in Tamilnadu in India, sources in Hatton said.
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Rehabilitation symbols: How minds work in naming barbed-wire camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Four major internment camps meant for the civilians of Vanni and envisaged as long-term detention-villages as a part of Colombo’s structural genocide of Tamils, have been named after Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnampalam Arunachalam, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Lakshman Kadirgamar. All four of them belonged to two aristocratic families of Jaffna that had settled in Colombo. They served more to Colombo than to Tamil homeland. Two of them never spoke Tamil, but all of them in some way served Sinhala interests. The message is subtle: Look upon the supremacy of the Colombo-centric system and be subservient, never think of your own system, writes TamilNet’s regular political commentator in Colombo.
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SLA fired 5,600 shells within 15 hours: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 14:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired at least 2,600 Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets, more than 1,000 artillery shells and at least 2,000 heavy mortar shells from 6:00 p.m. Monday till 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, LTTE officials in Vanni told TamilNet. Most of the shells fired by the SLA hit civilian shelters in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, Thaazhampan, Ottaip-panaiyadi and Iraddai-vaaykkaal areas.The Tiger officials put civilian casualty figures at more than 200 killed and said three medical centres treated hundreds of wounded civilians throughout the day. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Ottaip-panai and iraddai-vaaykkaal areas by deploying cluster bombs, LTTE officials further said.
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Yaazhtheavi extension to Thaa'ndikku'lam cancelled last minute

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:45 GMT]
The extension of Yaazhtheavi express train from Vavuniyaa to Thaa'ndikku'lam with effect from Thursday was cancelled last minute due to security reasons. Sri Lanka Railways inaugural event was arranged by the Transport Minister Mr. Dallas Alahaperuma. Thaandikku'lam is located about 3 km north of Vavuniyaa. Yaazhtheavi currently runs between Colombo and Vavuniyaa.
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Diaspora youth hunger strike ignites mass struggle for Eezham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 13:05 GMT]
The fast to death protest by Parameswaran Subramaniyan to draw attention of the International Community to the ongoing catastrophe in Sri Lanka, has reached the 13th day on Sunday. Thousands of Tamils of all ages and all walks of life have been pouring into the Parliament Square throughout the campaign, expressing their support to hunger strikers and their demands put forward to the British Government. The hunger strike launched by Parameswaran and Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel has become a key point of confluence drawing not only the first and second generation of Tamils in UK, but also attracting active participation of third generation of Tamils in the Eezham cause.
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'Three insults to Tamils for the traditional New Year'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 19:32 GMT]
Disguised insults meant against Tamil struggle this week bring out a picture of the attitudes operating in Colombo, New Delhi and Chennai, writes a political analyst in Colombo. “It is not exactly the Sri Lankan government, but the Sri Lankan state that is the core symbol of oppression in the island. Ethnic chauvinism is the cornerstone of this state. No liberation can come to Eezham Tamils unless this symbol is deconstructed. It is important for both Tamils and Sinhalese to see that accepting this symbol as it is now, or imposing this symbol as the basis of any political discourse, will never pave way for peace of both.”
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26 Tamils arrested in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:37 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police arrested 26 Tamils Tuesday in a joint cordon and search conducted in Kalmunai and Chammaanththu’rai police divisions in Ampaa’rai district. More than a hundred persons were taken into custody and released after interrogation. 25 of them in Kalmunai police station and 5 in Chammaanththu’rai police station have been detained for further investigation, sources in Ampaa’rai said.
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'Immediate ceasefire is the only way' - Jayalalithaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
"I strongly insist that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to save the Tamil civilians in the safety zone," said AIDMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a signed statement in Tamil, issued on Wednesday. Ms. Jayalalithaa in the strongly worded statement blamed Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Central Government of India for the current plight of Tamil civilians. "People of Tamil Nadu will wash their hands off of such elements whose hands are jointly at work causing misery to the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," she said.
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BDJU condemns attack on Muslim Tamil editor in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:36 GMT]
“Killings and abductions of media men and threats to their lives which have become daily events in the country have now reached Kaaththaankudi too,” the statement released by Batticaloa District Journalists Union (BDJU) said. The Union staged a silent protest demonstration Thursday in Kaaththaankudi condemning the attack on M. I. Rahamthulla, a Muslim Tamil editor of the Tamil weekly ‘Vaara Uraikal’ Wednesday midnight in his house on Dean Veethi in Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district.
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Muslim editor of Tamil weekly attacked in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:11 GMT]
A masked gang of five armed men forcibly entering the house of the Muslim editor, M. I. Rahmathulla, of the Tamil weekly newspaper ‘Vaara Uraikal’ on Dean Veethi in Kaaththaankudi Wednesday midnight heavily assaulted him, sources in Batticaloa said. The weekly which comes out every Friday exposes the political malpractice and corruption related to the Government Development Projects, Mosques and government administration in the area, the sources informed. The armed gang burnt the copies of the next issue of the weekly and destroyed the publishing implements including his computer.
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SLA arrests Mannaar hospital employee in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 13:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested a hospital employee from Mannaar government hospital who had gone on duty to Vavuniyaa government hospital where he was arrested by the SLA soldiers and handed over to Vavuniyaa police 22 March, according to the complaint registered by his father with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Monday.
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STF commando commits suicide in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 11:42 GMT]
A Special Task Force (STF) commando on road patrol in an area in Batticaloa police division shot himself to death Thursday, sources in Batticaloa said. The commando had lunch at an eatery at Thaa’ndavanve’li junction before killing himself with his own weapon in the evening, the sources added.
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Eastern University Tamil girl student commits suicide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 10:50 GMT]
A girl student of Eastern University set fire to herself Sunday around 9:45 a.m inside the bathroom in Women’s Hostel A in the campus, in her third attempt to commit suicide, sources in Batticaloa said. She succumbed to the burns while being rushed to Chengkaladi Hospital where her body is kept for post mortem examination. On 23 February the women hostel female warden was recovered dead from her room in the hostel while on 26 February a female student hanged herself to death in the hostel.
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STF, SLA conduct search in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 03:34 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers conducted a cordon and search Friday from 5:30 a.m to 11:00 a.m in Aarayampathi area in Kaaththaankudi police division in Batticaloa district. As no policeman or policewoman was engaged in this search fear and tension prevailed among the residents who were subjected to rigorous search and interrogation by the commandos and the soldiers who entered their houses, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Youth shot dead in Vaakanea'ri, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:49 GMT]
A 26-year old youth was shot dead in Mu'rththaanai area in Vaaknea'ri, Batticaloa Thursday by member of a paramilitary allied with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Batticaloa said.
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