Colombo losing political war- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 16:22 GMT]
In an incisive and pessimistic article in Wednesday's edition in a Colombo daily, Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda, Head of Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo, says, Colombo, with its militaristic approach to finish "LTTE terrorism once and for all," is fast losing the political war, has "heightened alienation of the Tamil citizens from the Sri Lankan state," erased distinction between the State and the regime marking an "authoritarian drift in governance in which liberal democracy is seen as an unaffordable luxury, and even a threat," and self-destructively "mirror-imaging the LTTE particularly in the area of human rights and humanitarian issues."
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SLN restricts Police vehicular access to Colombo harbour

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 15:30 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued a directive to the Sri Lankan Police establishment in Colombo to acquire permission from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) before entering the harbour using Police vehicles.
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Sri Lanka beefs up seacoast security in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 15:23 GMT]
The security of the Galle harbour and several fishing jetties in the southern coast of the country has been tightened with effect from Monday following the detection of two fast crafts speeding in the southern sea between Rakawa and Tangalle. Detachments of Sri Lanka Navy located in Galle and Tangalle have put on red alert with Dora gunship patrolling the sea, Colombo media reports said.
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"Disappearances and killings will continue" - Fonseka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 03:15 GMT]
Disappearances and killings of will continue as long as ‘anti-terrorist’ operations are continuing, Sri Lanka’s Army commander, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said this week in a interview to British investigative reporters. Asked about human rights abuses in the newly captured Eastern province, the commander replied: “This area is not a normal area. So people getting killed and some people going missing will happen as far as the anti-terrorist operations are continuing.”
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Dambulla court releases 22 Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 11:51 GMT]
The Dambulla Magistrate Monday released 22 Tamil youths who were arrested on November 6 when they failed to prove their identity with valid government documents. The Magistrate warned them that they should be armed in future with necessary documents to prove their identity.
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Claymore explosion in Yala amid tightened security

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2007, 20:21 GMT]
At least one construction worker was killed and another wounded in a Claymore mine explosion inside the Yala sanctuary, one of the island's main tourist attractions, Saturday evening around 6:45, Police said. The attack comes in the wake of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa advising his political adviser and brother, Basil Rajapaksa, a national list parliamentarian, to set a Joint Operations Command (JOC) in Thissamaharama. Mr. Basil Rajapaksa led a high-powered delegation to Thisssamaharama earlier in the day and decided to arm Sinhala farmers, in addition to setting up a JOC.
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Aussie doctor pays tribute to Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2007, 12:24 GMT]
Queensland Pediatrician and Director of Townsville Hospital's Neonatal Unit, Dr John Whitehall, who taught in Kilinochchi in 2004, in a recorded statement sent to the Sydney memorial held to mark the death of LTTE Political Head, S.P. Thamilchelvan, said the young Tamil leader reminded him of Nelson Mandela for the absence of "vindictiveness and bitterness," and for Thamilchelvan's "determination and desire for the welfare of all people."
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Fear grips Sri Lanka's southern villages- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2007, 03:22 GMT]
"Villages bordering the Yala sanctuary had been living on the edge since 15 October," reported a Colombo daily, after the Liberation Tigers overran the Thalgasmankada Sri Lanka Army (SLA) unit killing six troopers and injuring many. In the last three weeks, three had gone missing, and bodies of five cattle-herders have been found with cut injuries in Thissemaharama division situated in the constituency of the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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International community is letting war decide Tamils' fate - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2007, 14:15 GMT]
By allowing the Sri Lankan state free rein and supporting it to wage war, the international community has made any rights the Tamils secure depend entirely on the battlefield outcome, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. "The military has for two years blasted villages, driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and continues to abduct, torture and murder…For all the noise about human rights (and much of that has dissipated now), the state actually wants for nothing. Ironically, the more the international community is convinced the LTTE can be defeated, the freer the hand it will have."
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U.S. radars and dinghies to fight LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 November 2007, 13:24 GMT]
Radar-based maritime surveillance system and several Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) were donated to Sri Lanka Navy by U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O. Blake in a ceremonial function at Trincomalee on Thursday. Ambassador Blake expressed U.S. Government's hope that the radar system and the inflatable boats would help the Sri Lankan Navy to interdict arms shipments to the LTTE. The donation was part of U.S. programme to assist partner nations to deter global terrorist activity. Mr. Blake also urged Colombo to pursue a negotiated settlement and respect human rights, a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said.
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Sri Lanka restricts North East Tamils from visiting Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 16:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police has introduced new regulations restricting temporary stay for Tamil civilians visiting Colombo from North and East provinces for urgent needs, civil sources in Colombo said. The visting Tamils are asked to bring letters from Grama Sevakar (village level officers) of their respective areas, stating the reason for their visit to Colombo, and to register their presence. Meanwhile some Divisional Secretaries are reported to have instructed the GS officials in their respective divisions not to issue letters to persons who wish to travel to Colombo.
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Sivaram murder case inquiry fixed for February 11

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 16:22 GMT]
Popular military analyst and TamilNet editorial board member Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) murder case was taken up for inquiry Monday before the High Court Judge Mr.W.A.D.Ratnayake. The court announced that the inquiry in this case would commence on February 11 next year before a panel of Jury. Attorney General has indicted Arumugam Sriskandarajah for murdering Mr.Sivaram on April 8, 2005, legal sources said.
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Colombo issued diplomatic passport to Karuna- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 15:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka weekly, Morning Leader, in Wednesday edition, alleged that Sri Lanka violated norms of international diplomatic behavior by directing the British Embassy in Colombo to issue a visa in a false diplomatic passport to the leader of TMVP paramilitary group, Karuna, facilitating his escape to the United Kingdom.
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Kanimozhi Karunanidhi: Slaying of Thamilchelvan against the norms of war

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 17:05 GMT]
Thamilchelvan's killing was against the norms of conventional warfare, said Kanimohzi Karunanidhi, the daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi and a Member of Indian Parliament when speaking at a meeting in Thiruvaroor in Tamil Nadu, condemning the killing of the political leader and negotiator of Eelam Tamils, media sources in Chennai said, on Monday.
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Thamilchelvan killing, a barbaric act- Australian Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 15:45 GMT]
Australian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), in a media release issued Monday, condemned in the "strongest possible terms, the brutal assassination of the Political Wing leader and the Chief Negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by the Sri Lankan airforce," and said AFTA "salutes the Tamil political leader who had won the hearts and minds of all the Tamil people, diplomats in Colombo and many other international dignitaries." AFTA appealed to the "peace loving people of the international community" to "use their influence to persuade the Sri Lankan government to stop all its indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilian targets."
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‘Peace needs a paradigm shift in international approaches’

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2007, 00:18 GMT]
"A striking sentiment perceivable on stage and among the audience at the gathering in Olso to pay tribute to Thamilchelvan, was righteous indignation about the lopsided morality of International Community, in not responding effectively to the killing of an important political personality," K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, who attended the gathering in Oslo on Saturday, told TamilNet.
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Rape by Sri Lankan troops resurfaces – in Haiti

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 07:31 GMT]
The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute ‘to the fullest extent of the law’ 108 Sri Lankan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors, including prostitution, the Sunday Times reported. The number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission. During the conflict numerous local and international NGOs protested both frequent rapes by security forces and the climate of impunity in which they occur.
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UN Volunteer dies in accident with SLA vehicle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 16:12 GMT]
A United Nations Volunteer (UNV) working for Colombo UN office was killed when his motorbike collided with a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vehicle in Cinnamon Garden police area in Colombo 7 Saturday around 12:40 p.m. The victim, Roman Mirceski, is a Macedonian national, Police said.
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Thamilchelvan's assassination a major setback to Sri Lanka - NPC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2007, 13:03 GMT]
The National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based peace group, condemning the air attack assassination of Liberation Tigers Political Head and Chief Negotiator S.P. Thamilchelvan, Saturday said the assassination of the high profile personality, who had to walk a thin line between the LTTE's military interests and political realities, was a major setback to any possibility of a return to the negotiating table. Expressing fear of the danger of retaliation in a like or more severe manner, the NPC said it was dismayed that three decades of bitter experience has not taught the leaders of the country that the military option is a high cost and inhumane one unbefitting of a democratic society.
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56 girls arrested at Galkissa

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2007, 17:45 GMT]
56 girls, majority of them Tamils, were taken into custody in a combined cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Friday morning till noon at Galkissa, a town in the Colombo district. Majority of them are residents of northeast province. Some of them are working in businesses establishments, civil sources said.
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