Central Bank instructs banks to monitor withdrawals

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 December 2007, 17:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Central Bank has instructed all state and private banks to maintain strict monitoring on persons withdrawing large sums of money or receiving large deposits from overseas. The Central Bank has issued this directive under the Suppression of Terrorism Financing, Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Transaction Reporting Acts.
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SLA, SLN conduct joint war rehearsals in Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 December 2007, 01:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors from Karaingar Naval base and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers stationed along the coastal areas, jointly conducted war exercises in the seas off the coast of Jaffna peninsula in Pannai, Araalai, and Karainagar areas since Saturday night up to Sunday morning, civil sources in Jaffna said. However, the SLA dismissed the threats insisting that the military activities were routine exercises.
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Sri Lankan forces arrest 1,500 Tamils in South, detention camps overcrowded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2007, 12:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces have arrested around 1,500 Tamil men and women in wide scale cordon and search operations within the last 48 hours in Colombo and other districts in South, Tamil parliamentarians told media in Colombo on Sunday. 351 of the arrested persons in Colombo, currently detained at Boosa detention camp, complained that many of them were arrested despite documenting their identity and that they have not been provided proper food and drink for the last 48 hours. 51 of the detainees, at Boosa, were females.
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Inquiry into FR petition against forceful eviction fixed for March 10

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2007, 10:13 GMT]
Three-member bench of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court this week fixed the inquiry into the fundamental rights petition filed in the forceful eviction of Tamils from lodges in Colombo for March 10 as the counsel for the petitioner agreed to consider the suggestion by the court to come to a compromise as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister had tendered an apology, legal sources said.
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TRO diligently complied with U.S. laws- President

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 19:09 GMT]
Dr. N. A. Ranjithan, President of TRO-USA, in an opinion column appeared in Cumberland Times-News, says, "As a charity registered in the U.S.A., TRO has diligently and faithfully been complying with the laws and all regulations related to registered charities. TRO-USA reiterates that it is NOT a "front to facilitate fundraising for the Libertarian Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)...I am deeply concerned about the future of Tamils in Sri Lanka, persecuted by their own government and left without many friends in the world. Now that TRO accounts are frozen, I hope and pray that some other organization will step in to fill the void."
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U.S. condemns attacks in Colombo, Ki'linochchi on civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 15:03 GMT]
The Embassy of the United States of America in Colombo, in a press release issued on Thursday, said the Government of United States strongly condemned the deadly attacks on civilians that occurred in a shopping mall, a government office on Wednesday in Colombo and on a bus carrying schoolchildren on Tuesday near Ki'linochchi. "Only a political solution, not a military one, offers a way out of the current cycle of escalating violence," reiterated the U.S. statement.
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"Avoid civilian casualties," EU tells warring parties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 11:43 GMT]
The European Union on Thursday said it remained "gravely concerned about the welfare of civilians caught up in the Sri Lanka's conflict - in the Wanni, in Colombo or wherever," and said it expected the parties to take the utmost care to avoid civilian casualties in accordance with international humanitarian law. The statement condemned Wednesday's "terrorist attacks in Colombo" and deplored "deliberate targeting of civilians."
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FMM deplores SLAF bombing of VoT

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 05:08 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM), in a press release issued Wednesday, deplored the attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on the Voice of Tigers radio station and said: "mindlessly bombing civilian run media infrastructure and killing media personnel in the process simply because one does not agree with what is broadcast is to callously disregard established international humanitarian law." The FMM also strongly condemned the censoring of BBC Sinhala programme “Sandeshaya” by Sri Lanka state radio.
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Sri Lanka borrows heavily from Iran, UK, and ADB

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2007, 03:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka this week borrowed $1.5 billion from Iran reportedly to fund infrastructure projects, including an expansion of the island's only oil refinery, press reports said Wednesday. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is this week providing $65 million “to improve secondary and tertiary education” and on November 16th Colombo borrowed 50 million pounds ($104 million) from the British government “to reconstruct 222 bridges and build two fly-overs around Colombo.” The loans mark the latest in a flurry of fund raising by Sri Lanka including $500 million in 5-year sovereign bonds that Sri Lanka sold in October this year.
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Police suspects bomb-parcel, Colombo in panic

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Police located a suspected bomb parcel in Nawinna, 12 km southeast of Colombo Wednesday evening. Nawinna is located 5 km away from Nugegoda where a bomb explosion killed more than 15 persons earlier today. Panic spread across Sri Lanka's capital and the authorities in Colombo have announced that the schools in Western Province will remain closed for the coming two days.
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Bomb explosion in Colombo suburb, 18 killed, 40 wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 12:55 GMT]
A big explosion has been reported in a clothing emporium, No Limit, at Nugegoda, a shopping suburb of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, Wednesday around 6:00 p.m. Eighteen persons were killed and 40 wounded have been rushed to Kalubowila hospital, according to the police. A parcel bomb, placed inside the counter, has caused the explosion, according to the latest reports by the police.
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EPDP office in Colombo attacked, secretary killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 03:13 GMT]
A bomb exploded inside the Colombo office of pro-government paramilitary group-cum-political party, EPDP, at Isipathana Mawatta in Colombo-05, Wednesday around 8:30 a.m., seriously wounding three persons, including an EPDP cadre, initial reports said. One of the wounded, a coordinating-secretary, succumbed to injuries at Colombo hospital. Police alleged that the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber who was blown into pieces in the explosion.
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Airstrike on VoT, a war crime - RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 18:39 GMT]
A Sri Lanka military air strike Tuesday on the Voice of Tigers, the radio station of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), was a "war crime," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Three of the station's staff, who had not been given any warning, and six other civilians were killed in the bombardment by air force jets, the RSF said.
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Propping up genocidal Sinhala State counterproductive, International Community should change approach - Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 12:33 GMT]
The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V Pirapaharan, in his annual Heroes' Day statement placed a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the international community for the breakdown of the peace process. He said that the involvement of the international community to resolve the Tamil national question has been unhelpful and added that their failure to condemn unambiguously the military path of the current regime has created the present situation in the island. He asserted that the propping up of the genocidal Sinhala State by the international community through economic aid, military aid and subtle diplomatic efforts will be counterproductive.
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Rajapakse visits Iran for bilateral talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2007, 14:29 GMT]
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially welcomed his Sri Lankan counterpart, Mahinda Rajapakse, at the Presidential Office. Earlier IRNA quoting Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, said that Mr Rajapakse will be "heading a high-ranking political-economic delegation."
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Media groups stage protest rally in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 09:29 GMT]
Hundreds of media men and women from five media groups including Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA), and Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) held a protest rally Friday noon opposite the Fort Railway station condemning the burning of the printing press of the English-language news papers Morning Leader and Sunday Leader, and Irudina Sinhala weekly Wednesday early morning, civil society sources in Colombo said. The rally brought all vehicular traffic to stand still creating serious congestion on all major routes for more than an hour.
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Sri Lanka’s ban on TRO ‘final nail’ in coffin of peace process

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2007, 01:10 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisations (TRO) has condemned the Sri Lankan government’s banning of the charity, saying the Rajapakse regime had done so with the “ulterior motive of unleashing untold hardships on the Tamil people as part of [the government’s] continuing discrimination and oppression of the Tamil people.” The TRO, which has been the largest - and for long periods the sole - NGO assisting the hundreds of thousands of Tamils displaced by the conflict, said in a statement this week “With the banning of the TRO the final nail in the coffin of the peace process has been hammered home.”
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SLA Brigadier shoots wife, mother of two succumbs to wounds

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2007, 14:12 GMT]
Puththa'lam area Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Brigadier Chanda Rupasinghe was arrested by Sapugaskande Police in Kelaniya Police division Friday morning for allegedly shooting his wife and causing her death, Police said.
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Sea Tigers open fire on coastal sentry in Peasaalai

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2007, 06:32 GMT]
Six gunboats of Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), Friday morning at 7:50 approached Peasaalai in Mannaar and opened fired from their vessels from a close distance of 75 meters, on coastal naval and police sentry posts, Police said. The LTTE claimed to have caused damage to two SLN water jet boats and said there was no Tiger casualties. However, military officials in Colombo, who use to put the Tiger casualty figures high after the Anuradhapura operation and the recent setback in Mukamaalai, claimed that 17 Tigers were killed in the clash.
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Attackers hurl firebombs at SLFP rebel MP's house

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2007, 15:32 GMT]
Unidentified attackers riding in a motorbike hurled petrol bombs Thursday around 8:00 p.m. at the house of Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi, former minister who broke away from the SLFP. Nobody was wounded in the attack on his residence at Austin Place, Borella in Colombo, Police said. Earlier in the day, the SLFP-breakaway parliamentarian had accused that the SLFP should be held responsible for the loss of former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Informed media sources quoted Mr. Sooriyaarachchi as saying that certain SLFP leaders had opposed a move, within the SLFP, to appoint Lakshman Kadirgamar as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka when the JVP proposed his name to the post.
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