Tigers claim Anuradhapura air base attack success, say 8 aircrafts destroyed

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 October 2007, 05:55 GMT]
Twenty-one elite Black Tiger commandos penetrated into the heart of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) air base in Anuradhapura at 3:20 a.m. Monday, destroyed and set ablaze eight aircrafts, including helicopter gunships, reconnaissance aircraft and a training aircraft, in a raid code named "Operation Ellaa'lan," Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said. Air Tiger aircrafts joined the attack at 4:30 a.m., providing support in the destruction of the SLAF base, and safely returned to their bases in Vanni, the Tigers said. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela said 3 helicopters were damaged, 13 airmen were killed and 18 wounded.
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Tigers launch air, ground attack on Anuradhapura air base

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2007, 23:47 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) launched an air and ground attack on Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) air base at Saliyapura in Anuradhapura in the early hours of Monday, Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet. Meanwhile, military sources in Colombo said two Russian built MI-24 helicopter gunships have been destroyed in the attack launched between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. A pilot, his co-pilot and two engineers who took off from the air base, were killed when their Bell 212 helicopter crashed at Doramadalawa, 13 km east of Anuradhapura, in Mihintale area. An indefinite curfew has been clamped in Anuradhapura. Residents have been asked to stay indoors.
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Artillery shelling shuts down A9 entry point

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2007, 18:41 GMT]
The entry, exit point between Sri Lanka Army controlled areas and Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled Vanni, has been closed Thursday as the parties exchanged artillery fire, sources in Vavuniyaa said. All traffic through the gateway including ambulances carrying patients in critical condition was blocked as shells exploded close to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) office in the no-man's land, sources in Vanni said.
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Missing Japanese, local project staff located

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 October 2007, 02:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka security forces located the two Japanese engineers and the 4 Sri Lankan project engineering staffers who were reported missing since Wednesday morning in the jungles of Morawewa area, 24 km northwest of Trincomalee town. The Japanese were working with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an aid implementing agency, at the time of disappearance.
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Tamil mother files FR petition in Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 04:15 GMT]
A 28-year-old Tamil woman has filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) violation petition in the Sri Lanka's Supreme Court to order her release immediately and compensation of Rs. 500,000 for illegal arrest and detention in Welikada prison. Ganeshanathan Sridevi gave birth to her fourth child in the police station during her detainment. She has cited Borella Police Chief Inspector Kamal Pushpakumara, Inspector General of Police, Defence Secretary, Commissioner General of Prisons and Attorney General as respondents in her petition, legal sources said.
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SLA mini-camp in Yala overrun - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 October 2007, 14:33 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) have overrun a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp near Yala sanctuary in southern Sri Lanka Monday evening, LTTE field officials in Ampaa'rai told TamilNet. 6 SLA troopers were killed, and many wounded in the raid which took place 40 km south of Poththuvil, the Tigers said, claiming that the camp was under their control for 3 hours during which time they seized arms and ammunitions from the camp. The Yala sanctuary, one of the island's main tourist attractions, lies on the southern end of the Ampaa'rai district.
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Four members of Sri Lanka's Rights panel resign

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 October 2007, 13:01 GMT]
Four key members of the Sri Lanka's Human Rights advisory committee set up by Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe to address human rights issues in Sri Lanka, resigned saying that their advice is not being taken seriously, media reports from Colombo said.
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Rajapakse to visit Iran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2007, 21:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse is scheduled to pay his first official visit to Iran from October 24 to 26. During his stay in Teheran Rajapakse is to hold talks with Iranian President regarding strengthening diplomatic ties including defence between the two countries, media reports in Colombo said.
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Court directs AG to file indictment against Kilinochchi Official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2007, 03:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to file indictment against the Kilinochchi Regional Assistant Commissioner of Local Government Mr.Kandiah Alvapillai Balasubramaniam who is being detained since his arrest on 26 June under the Emergency Regulations (ER). He was taken into custody by the Borella Police following the alleged recovery of a claymore mine concealed in the diesel tank in his vehicle that brought him from Kilinochchi to Colombo on official duty.
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Welikade detainees call off fast-unto-death campaign

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2007, 10:40 GMT]
Tamil detainees at Welikade remand prison in Colombo have called off their fast-unto-death campaign on Saturday 6.00 p.m, after the visitng UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, assured them that their cases will be resolved within 3 months.The fasting detainees, since Wednesday, have been demanding Ms. Louise Arbour, to visit the Welikade prison, look into their plight and exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to expedite their cases that have been postponed fortnightly and not been heard for more than a year. She met five of the 86 fasting prisoners.
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UN alarmed by weakness of law, prevalence of impunity in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2007, 08:38 GMT]
Weakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity is alarming in Sri Lanka where critical elements for the protection of Human Rights have been undermined or compromised despite the existence of much of the necessary human rights institutional infrastructure, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, concluding her five-day mission to Sri Lanka on Saturday. The large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances, is particularly worrying in a country that had a long, traumatic experience of unresolved disappearances and no shortage of recommendations from past Commissions of Inquiry on how to safeguard against such violations, she said.
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Sea Tigers sink SLA vessel, recover 3 bodies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2007, 08:04 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and three dead bodies of the SLA soldiers were recovered by the Sea Tigers who sunk a SLA Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) in the seas off Paasaiyoor in Jaffna Saturday around 10:45 a.m. in a retaliation against an attack by three SLA vessels that entered the LTTE territorial waters, the Tigers said. Sea Tigers have seized weapons from the sinking vessel. Arrangements were underway to hand over the three dead bodies to the ICRC.
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Two Tamil civilians abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2007, 11:40 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians were abducted in suburbs of Colombo, one in Wellawatte Tuesday night, and the other Kotahena Friday, according to complaints with the police and the Civil Monitoring Committee on Missing Persons.
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Tamil telecom engineer arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2007, 05:38 GMT]
A young Tamil civilian, telecommunication engineer by profession, was arrested Wednesday night around 10.30 p.m. by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police. Ten TID operatives went to his residence located at Rudra Mawatte in Wellawatte and took him for further investigation, according to a complaint lodged by his relatives with the Wellawatte Police Thursday.
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Youth shot dead in Mutuwal

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2007, 01:33 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead a youth at Mutuwal in Colombo Wednesday night. The killers came in a three-wheeler had fired at the youth who was walking along the road. The victim was immediately taken to Colombo National Hospital but succumbed to injuries on admission. The body remains in the hospital and is yet to be identified.
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TNA parliamentarians visit fasting detainees at Colombo prison

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 14:46 GMT]
Three Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Sivanathan Kishore, P. Ariyanenthran and K.Pathmanathan visited Thursday the Tamil political detainees who have launched a fast-unto-death campaign at the remand prison in Welikada. The prisoners handed over three separate petitions to be forwarded to the visiting UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Attorney General C.R.de Silva.
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"Separation inevitable if power continues to polarize with ethnic hegemony" - Mano Ganesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2007, 13:07 GMT]
Mano Ganesan MP, the leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), engaged in monitoring abductions, addressing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, at the UN office in Colombo, on Thursday, said that the Tamils would be forced to seek separation as the only alternative if the Sri Lankan government failed to satisfy the "Sri Lankan dream," which he described as a dreamland with political power sharing between all the ethnic communities, where there are no places for war, abductions, extra judicial killings and where there is no room for polarization of political power with ethnic hegemony.
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Missing Tamil academic found dead in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 18:39 GMT]
A senior lecturer of the Science Faculty of Jaffna University, Ponniah Mahinan, who was reported missing since Saturday evening in Colombo was allegedly abducted and killed. The body of the victim with scratch injuries, located Sunday, was identified by his wife on Tuesday. The lecturer from the Department of Mathematics had come to Colombo from Jaffna to supervise paper corrections of GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of September and was staying at a lodge on Daya Road in Wellawatte.
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TNA delegation meets UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 16:24 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday evening met Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights at the UN office in Colombo and briefed her about the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, especially in the northeast.
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Fasting Tamil prisoners attacked in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 12:01 GMT]
A prison guard and Sinhala prisoners have attacked a group of Tamil detainees in Colombo remand prison in Welikade, when they went to seek medical treatment for sore eyes Wednesday morning. 86 Tamil prisoners have started a fast-unto-death campaign from 6.00 a.m. Wednesday, demanding the visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to visit the Welikade prison, look into their plight and exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to expedite their cases that have been postponed fortnightly and not been heard for more than a year.
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