Sri Lanka security forces ban pavement business in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 11:34 GMT]
Citing security reasons, Sri Lanka Security forces on instructions from higher authorities in the Defense sector banned pavement businesses along roads and lanes in Wellawatte in Colombo district with effect from Thursday. Police have removed all structures put by pavement hawkers, sources said.
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8 Batticaloa youths arrested in Colombo Fort

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 04:59 GMT]
Eight Batticaloa Tamil youths from displaced families residing in Batticaloa and who had arrived in Colombo to obtain Passports to travel to a Middle East country for employment, were arrested at Fort Railway station Wednesday early morning, relatives said in a complaint.
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Youth abducted in Kotahena

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 01:00 GMT]
A Tamil youth from Batticaloa district, a resident of Poaratheevu, recently captured from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), was abducted in Kotahena, Colombo on the 14 January by group of five men operating in a white van with license plate number 2534899, the relatives of the youth stated in a complaint lodged with P.Rathakrishnan, Deputy minister and an Upcountry United Front (UPF) parliamentarian.
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Pilfering of goods at KKS Harbour adds to material loss

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2008, 12:03 GMT]
Construction contractors and traders in Jaffna made representations to Government Agent (GA) Jaffna that millions of rupees worth of essential goods and construction materials are routinely pilfered in Kaankeasanthu’rai (KKS) and Mayiliddi harbours located in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ), sources in Jaffna said.
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LTTE refutes SLAF claims of air strike on Tiger leadership

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 13:11 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan Wednesday evening refuted the claims by the Sri Lanka Air Force that it had hit a location of the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Pirapaharan Wednesday morning. Stating that Colombo was spreading false propaganda, Mr. Ilanthirayan said the SLAF attack targeted civilian settlements at Vaddakkachchi twice between 11:10 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. and in the evening between 5:15 and 6:00 p.m.
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"International HR intervention, only over our dead bodies" - Weerawansa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 10:12 GMT]
"As long as there is JVP in Sri Lanka, no one can intervene and subject the Sri Lankan leaders to international investigations on Human Rights," declared Wimal Weerawansa, the Propaganda Secretary of the Sinhala extreme nationalist party, in a protest against UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, held in front of the UN office in Colombo Wednesday 10:00 a.m., sources in Colombo said.
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Tamil youth reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 19:35 GMT]
A young construction worker from Jaffna working at the site of Colombo Mahavidyalaya Mawathe has not returned home after leaving his workplace for lunch Friday, the relatives of the youth complained to Deputy Minister Rathakrishnan, sources in Colombo said.
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Two SLA troopers wounded in Moneragala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 12:26 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army troopers were wounded when a group of attackers opened fire on a SLA unit engaged in a search operation in a jungle area near Kithulkotte in Thanamalwila Police division Tuesday noon, Police said. Meanwhile, informed sources in Colombo said around 8,000 security personnel comprising SLA troops, Special Task Force, Police and homeguards, have been deployed in the jungle areas in a search operation. Around 2000 Sinhalese men were to be recruited to Civil Defence Force as homeguards in the district, informed sources further said.
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Court orders 2nd identification parade in Maheswaran case

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 15:52 GMT]
The Colombo Additional Magistrate Ravindra Premaratne Monday ordered that the sole suspect arrested in connection with the killing of Colombo district parliamentarian, Mr.Thiagarajah Maheswaran, on January 1 at Ponnambalavaneswarar Temple should be produced in court on January 25 for a second identification parade, legal sources said.
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GOSL to unveil monument for Indian soldiers

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 12:17 GMT]
A monument to soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) who lost their lives, while serving under the Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord in North East of Sri Lanka, is to be opened on February 4, Sri Lanka's Independence day, sources in Colombo said. The monument is located near the Sri Lanka Parliament Complex. Several Indian Military officials have previously made statements to the Indian media of the indifference Sri Lanka had shown towards casualties India suffered during the peace keeping operation.
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Extortion of money from Tamils in Colombo on the increase

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 11:54 GMT]
Extortion of money from affluent Tamils residing in Wellawatte, Bambalapitya and Dehiwala in Colombo has been on the increase in recent days, according to media reports. Gangs posing as police officers and CID personnel have been waylaying Tamils walking along roads in evening in these areas threatening them with death if not yielded to their demands.
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Colombo plans to handover Cement Factory in Jaffna to Indian firm

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2008, 11:29 GMT]
The management of the Kaangkeasanthu'rai (KKS) Cement Factory located in the High Security Zone, 17 km northeast of Jaffna city, is to be handed over to the India's Birla Corporation Limited, according to Sri Lanka's Minister of Construction and Engineering Services Rajitha Senaratne. A team of officials of the Birla Corporation Limited, one of the biggest cement production companies is expected to arrive in Colombo on February 4, on the Sri Lankan Independence Day, to hold talks with SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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APRC: key to peace or an albatross?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2008, 01:02 GMT]
J.R. Jayawardena's Government claimed that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed in August 1987 fulfilled the promises made in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, to 'devolve power' to the Tamil people. The Liberation Tigers dismissed the legislation outright, and said it allowed "perpetuation of the domination, oppression and exploitation of the Tamil masses by the racist Sinhala state," and N. Satyendra, a constitutional scholar and attorney who represented ex-militants in Sri Lanka trials, ridiculed the legislation as a "comic opera."
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Court fixes inquiry into Mano Ganeshan's petition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 January 2008, 12:41 GMT]
A Writ Application filed on Thursday by Colombo district parliamentarian Mr.Mano Ganeshan, leader of the Western Peoples Front, in the Court of Appeals against the reduction of his security personnel and withdrawal of the back-up vehicle allocated to him, is listed to be taken up for inquiry on January 24, legal sources in Colombo said.
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U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander visits Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2008, 13:05 GMT]
Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Robert F. Willard, visited Sri Lanka on Thursday and Friday to meet Sri Lanka Navy leadership and the Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the SL armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa. He also visited Trincomalee to discuss "U.S. - Sri Lankan cooperation against LTTE terrorism," according to a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo. Reaffirming the support of the United States to Sri Lanka in defending against terrorist activity through cooperation on maritime security, he noted that improvements in human rights protection could lead to enhanced cooperation, the press release added.
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India admits helping Sri Lanka Navy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2008, 20:47 GMT]
A day after Colombo praised the Indian Navy for its role in "breaking the LTTE's backbone", India on Wednesday acknowledged, for the first time in recent years, its active role in countering the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka Navy Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda had told the Colombo Post on Tuesday that Tiger supply vessels and floating warehouses containing 10,000 tons of war-like material had been destroyed thanks to Indian help. His Indian counterpart, Admiral Sureesh Mehta spoke in sync and said, "We support by checking our activities on their coast and their activities on ours. In this way, we help ourselves by helping them."
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Norwegian Tamils march against abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 21:56 GMT]
Abrogation of the CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka has removed the only reporting body of human rights and humanitarian law violations that take place in Sri Lanka, said K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, addressing four hundred participants, mainly members of the Tamil diaspora, who participated in a march carrying torches towards the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, expressing solidarity with the Tamils in the homeland Wednesday evening.
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NGOs curtail Jaffna activity after SLMM's withdrawal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 17:49 GMT]
Many International Non-government Organizations (NGOs), including Danish Demining Organization, serving in Jaffna peninsula closed their branch offices with the departure of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Thursday, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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SLMM bids farewell

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:41 GMT]
In a press statement issued by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the Nordic Monitors whose functions were terminated by the unilateral termination of the CeaseFire Agreement (CFA) by Sri Lanka Government, Maj.Gen Solvberg, the Head of Mission, thanked the GOSL and the LTTE for inviting SLMM to serve them, and said "Future heroes in Sri Lanka will be those who recognize the complexity of the situation, and prove able to manage this complexity in a way that reduces rather than increases human pain, fear and hopelessness – those capable of respecting people with different perceptions, and bringing them together."
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British Group urges Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:21 GMT]
British Tamil Forum (BTF), an umbrella community organization, in a press conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Central London to coincide with the Thai Pongal day Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. urged Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines, Sri Lanka's national carrier, claiming that its profits fund Colombo's war against Tamils. Ivan Pedropillai, chairing the meeting said, the abrogation of the CFA by the government of Sri Lanka is a precursor to an "unfettered and all out war on the Tamils living in the North of Sri Lanka. The Tamils from Sri Lanka cannot and will not continue to pay in Foreign Exchange for this deplorable war upon their own kith and kin."
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