UN envoy meets Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 06:12 GMT]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Louise Arbour, is due to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Thursday. She met Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe on Wednesday morning and discussed with him in detail the human rights situation on the ground, UN sources said.
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Welikade Tamil prisoners agitate to meet UN official

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 02:44 GMT]
Eighty six Tamil detainees in Welikade maximum security prison and forty Tamil prisoners from Magazine prison staged a token hunger strike Tuesday demanding that Sri Lanka Government arrange High Commissioner of Human Rights in the United Nations, Ms Louise Arbour, who is currently on a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka, to visit the detainees in the prison. The detainees said Ms Arbour should be told of the prison conditions, and the extended incarceration without the right to a trial, civil society sources in Colombo said.
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Tigers urge UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2007, 22:57 GMT]
Welcoming the "timely mission" by United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Liberation Tigers Human Rights spokesperson N. Selvy, Tuesday said the Tamils were expecting the UN High Commissioner to visit the LTTE administered Vanni to get an absolute assessment of the Human Rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan military and its paramilitaries in the Tamil homeland. Tamils, as a people, were disappointed as "the main violator, the Sri Lankan government itself," was exercising control over the itinerary of the visiting High Commissioner, Ms. Selvy said.
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India urged to pay compensation to family of slain trade unionist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2007, 18:42 GMT]
The World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), a forum of 34 organizations representing traditional fisher communities in Asia, has urged Indian and Tamil Nadu leaders to conduct an impartial inquiry and look after the family of a Sri Lankan fisherman trade unionist, 44-years-old Warnakulasooriya Canicius Fernando, who was shot and killed Friday at the gates of a restricted entrance of Mathurai Central Prision in Tamil Nadu, while he was visiting four Sri Lankan fishermen imprisoned in the Indian jail. The funeral of the victim, a father of two, has taken place in Munnakkarai in Negombo at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday.
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UN Human Rights Commissioner arrives Tuesday for Sri Lanka visit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 October 2007, 02:54 GMT]
High Commissioner of Human Rights in the United Nations, Ms Louise Arbour, is to arrive in Colombo Tuesday on a five-day official tour to Sri Lanka. She is scheduled to meet relatives of abducted civilians in Colombo on October 11 and in Jaffna on October 12. She will be meeting government leaders, representatives of human rights institutions and political parties during her stay in Colombo.
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MP condemns SLA ban on construction of houses for Batticaloa IDPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2007, 10:41 GMT]
Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, S. Jeyananthamoorthy, speaking to media this week, condemned the ban imposed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA ) for constructing permanent houses for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at Naavaladi Junction within Vaaharai District Secretary's administrative area in Batticaloa District.
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FMM condemns expulsion of British media team

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 October 2007, 09:21 GMT]
"Jaffna is one of the most dangerous places in the world today for media and journalism," said Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo based media watchdog, stating it was appalled by the gross violation of journalists' rights by the military command in Jaffna in expelling three journalists last week. The journalists from the British Quicksilver Media were traveling in Sri Lanka to produce a documentary for Channel 4 television in UK.
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Six upcountry Tamil youths further remanded

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 October 2007, 08:23 GMT]
Six Tamil youths, residents of Kandy district were ordered further remand by the Colombo magistrate's court Friday. They were arrested on September 30 at Ragama town in Colombo district in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and police.
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Tamil youth reported missing in Dehiwala

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2007, 16:15 GMT]
A Twenty-two year old Tamil youth residing in Dehiwala, a suburb of Colombo, has been reported missing since Thursday morning, according to a complaint lodged with the Dehiwala police on Friday evening by his parents.
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48 Tamils arrested in Wellampitya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2007, 16:12 GMT]
Forty-eight Tamil civilians were arrested in a combined cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police at Wellampitya, a town in Colombo district, from morning till noon Saturday. The Terrist Intelligence Division (TID) is interrogating those arrested at the Wellampitya police station, sources said.
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British documentary team forced to leave Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2007, 12:14 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has forced three female journalists, including two journalists from UK based Quicksilver Media and a Sri Lankan journalist accompanying them, to return to Colombo Friday, canceling their documentary mission in Jaffna for the British Channel 4 Television. On Thursday, an hour after arriving at a hotel in Jaffna city, with military escort, they were taken back to Palaali base where they had to stay overnight before returning to Colombo next day. The SLA officers in Palaali, upon the arrival of the documentary team, had offered accommodation in a military camp, but the journalists had declined to accept the offer, informed media sources in Colombo said.
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6 Tamils arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2007, 11:48 GMT]
Six Tamil civilians were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in a cordon and search operation conducted in Gampaha town, situated 24 km northeast of Colombo, from Friday night till dawn of Saturday. The detainees were all staying with their relatives and lodges at that time of arrest.
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US expresses concern over rights abuses in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 23:08 GMT]
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, R. Nicholas Burns, expressed "serious concern over credible reports of severe human rights abuses in Jaffna...," during a meeting with Sri Lanka's foreign minister Bogollagama in Washington D.C. Thursday, a press release issued by the State Department said.
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U.S. expresses rights concern, urges progress on power-sharing proposal

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 17:32 GMT]
U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns has expressed serious concern over credible reports of continued severe human rights abuses in Jaffna and other parts of Sri Lanka and ongoing threats to freedom of the press when he met Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, according to a media note released by the U.S. Department of State.
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SLA intelligence officer, soldier shot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 17:10 GMT]
An unknown armed person shot and wounded a Sri Lanka Army intelligence officer and a soldier at Maligawatte in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo Friday around 2:40 p.m., police said. The two military personnel in plain-cloth were riding in a three-wheeler along Jumma Masjeed road.
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2 SLA intelligence operatives shot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 15:17 GMT]
Unidentified men shot two intelligence operatives of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Maligawatte, a suburb in the Colombo city Friday evening around 3.30 p.m. They were immediately admitted to the Colombo national hospital with gunshot wounds. One of them is reported be in a critical condition, media sources in Colombo reported.
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Sri Lankan minister contradicts diplomatic immunity of SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 08:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defense spokesman and a Cabinet Minister, Keheliya Rambukwelle, at the weekly press briefing in Colombo on Friday warned the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that their officials and vehicles would be checked at any checkpoints when they travel North. The Sri Lankan minister, by his statement on Friday, has contradicted the diplomatic immunity, provided to the SLMM according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a well-placed diplomat in Colombo said.
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Colombo court releases 9 Jaffna youths

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2007, 00:33 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate Tuesday ordered the release of nine Tamil youths, detained in Boosa camp after being arrested during cordon and search operations in Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Colombo court releases 9 Jaffna youths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2007, 12:24 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate Tuesday ordered the release of nine Tamil youths, residents of Jaffna district, kept in detention in Boosa detention camp. Some of them were arrested in Colombo and its suburbs during cordon and search operation.
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Bail application filed seeking Ki'linochchi ACLG release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2007, 12:20 GMT]
The wife of Kandiah Balasubramaniam, Assistant Commissioner of Local Government in Ki'linochchi district who is being kept in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) since June 25 this year, has filed a bail application in the Court of Appeal Wednesday seeking the release of her husband.
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