SLMM re-opens Trinco office, resumes monitoring

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 19:28 GMT]
Monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Trincomalee district Friday morning returned to their office, which is located along the Inner Harbor Road in the east port town. The office was closed on the orders of the SLMM headquarters since Tuesday evening following a cycle- bomb attack on a convoy of the Sri Lanka Navy injuring about eleven sailors and government troops killed two Tamil civilians and injuring six others in retaliation.
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Funeral of two Trinco civilians killed by SLA held

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 17:02 GMT]
The funeral of the two Tamil civilians killed in retaliation by security forces in Uppuveli area, about two km off north of Trincomalee town following a claymore mine attack on a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN)convoy was held Thursday afternoon. Several hundred Tamil people participated in the funeral procession and the burial at Allesgarden cemetary in Uppuveli, about 3 km off north of east port town, civil sources said.
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4 killed, 34 wounded in Claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 15:34 GMT]
Three police constables and a sixteen-year old boy were killed and 17 Sri Lanka Army soldiers, 9 policemen and 8 civilians, including a woman, were wounded in a Claymore attack at Thandavanveli in Batticaloa town around 4:55 p.m. Thursday, police said. Two vehicles, an SLA truck and a bus, carrying soldiers and policemen for a clearing operation were caught in the explosion. The wounded soldiers were airlifted to Polonnaruwa and Colombo hospitals. Around 20 T-56 rifles and ammunitions, blown away from the hands of the troopers in the powerful explosion, were recovered by the SLA soldiers who rushed to the site following the attack. Tension prevails in Batticaloa town.
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Two SLA soldiers killed, one wounded in Claymore attack in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 08:41 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and one soldier sustained serious wounds in a Claymore explosion that took place in Sarasalai, 4 km northeast of Chavakachcheri in Thenmardchi, Jaffna district, around 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Police said. The Claymore attack was reported after two civilian dead bodies were recovered Tuesday morning in Thenmaradchi.
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Colombo not forthright in paramilitary issue- SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2006, 01:59 GMT]
"The [Sri Lanka] government claimed that it had nothing to do with this [Karuna] group and was not aware of their existence. But when we visited the spot in the east and asked the Sri Lankan army where we could find Karuna, they told us where to go. So it was clear that the local army knew where he was," said Sunday Leader, a Colombo weekly, in the Sunday edition, quoting Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir as saying in an interview to the paper.
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SLN sexually harrassed women, beat men in Pesalai- NESHOR

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers forced women to sit on the hot sand with their face to the sand, "asked crude sexually motivated questions and dropped their trousers in front of the women," and beat all 42 men, nine of them severely, said North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESHOR) in a case report issued Saturday on the revenge attack by the SLN on residents of "Hundred House Scheme" in Pesalai following the claymore attack on SLN convoy which killed thirteen soldiers on 23rd December.
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Claymore remote detonation device found in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 15:29 GMT]
A remote control device and several parts of an equipment needed to detonate a claymore mine were found in a parcel abandoned near the Pesalai Peripheral OPD Unit Saturday morning around 9.30 a.m., sources in Mannar said. A minor employee of the Pesalai Peripheral Unit (PPU) OPD immediately brought to the notice of the medical officer in charge of that time after he found the parcel in the premises of the PPU, Police sources said. The medical officer promptly conveyed the message to the Mannar Bishop through Pesalai Parish Priest Rev.Fr.Vincent Patrick who informed the Police of the whereabouts of the parcel.


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Claymore mines recovered in Thambalakamam

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 16:30 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces Saturday afternoon recovered two live claymore mines at a place close to Swami Malai, a resettled Tamil village in Thambalakamam division about 27 km off northwest of east port town along Trincomalee-Kandy main road. Both were defused by the army bomb disposal squad. Police sources said.
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Disarm paramilitary, stop Claymore attacks - SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 10:59 GMT]
The Scandinavian truce monitors, who condemned the Claymore attack on Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Chettikulam on Thursday, have blamed the Government of Sri Lanka emphasizing that the current situation also stems from "the fact that alternative armed elements have been able to operate freely in the East" in Sri Lanka Army controlled areas. While urging Colombo to "face up to its responsibility" to disarm the paramilitaries, the truce monitors said that the LTTE involvement in Claymore attacks cannot be ruled out. The SLMM appealed to both the parties to come up with firm confidence building measures with the "truthful aim of reaching a peaceful solution."
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Fisher families flee back to Vankalai following SLN threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:55 GMT]
About two hundred fisher families, residing in Siruthoppu near Pesalai since 1980, have returned to Vankalai about 20 km off Mannar town following intimidation and threats by sailors of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), civil society sources said. They took their fibreglass fishing boats and nets and other fishing gear in tractors and available means of transport. A SLN camp is located close to Siruthoppu, which is also called Vankalaipaddu since these fisher families arrived from proper Vankalai village twenty-five years ago, sources said.
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Nine SLN sailors killed, 10 wounded in Claymore blast in Chettikulam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 10:48 GMT]
Nine Sri Lanka Navy sailors were killed and ten wounded when their bus hit a Claymore mine in Chettikulam Thursday evening around 4:20 p.m., Sri Lankan naval sources said. The attack took place on Madawachi - Mannar Road. A Sinhala home guard was reported killed and a Muslim youth was wounded in SLN gunfire following the attack. Sri Lanka Army soldiers who cordoned off and searched the area have attacked civilian residents in Veerapuram village located close to the site of explosion. Tension prevails in the area, civilian sources said.
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Amnesty International concerned about escalation of violence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 22:01 GMT]
Amnesty International has appealed to the parties to halt the killings, abductions and "disappearances," being reported daily from the north and east of Sri Lanka. The Amnesty International, in a public statement issued on Wednesday said it was appalled by the news of the killing by unidentified attackers of Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingam, while he attended mass at St Mary's Church, Batticaloa on Christmas Eve. The deteriorating security situation will also drastically effect aid and relief operations to those displaced by the tsunami and by years of conflict who see no hope of returning to their homes, Amnesty has warned.
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Seven detained over Point Pedro claymore attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 January 2006, 13:33 GMT]
Seven residents of different Point Pedro suburbs who disappeared after being arrested by the Sri Lanka security after the Claymore ambush on a Sri Lanka Army convoy near the Regional Bus Depot, south of Point Pedro town which killed twelve Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are found to be detained in Point Pedro Police station, security sources said. Mr.Rohitha Priyatharsana, Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) visited the detainees Sunday, according to civil society sources.
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Two LTTE cadres die in SLA's claymore attack in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2006, 05:58 GMT]
The Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Thambalakamam jungle has killed two cadres of Liberation Tigers Friday early morning around 2 a.m in a claymore mine attack. The attack took place inside the LTTE held area, Elilan, Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for Trincomalee district, told TamilNet Saturday.
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Claymore defused in Eravur

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 11:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bomb squad Friday 1 p.m. defused a claymore mine found in Puthukudiyiruppu in Eravur along Batticaloa-Valaichenai highway at Thuraichsamy junction, security sources said. The Road Monitoring Patrol of the SLA located the Remote controlled bomb was buried along the roadside.
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Claymore attack on SLA tractor in Vavuniya, 2 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2006, 07:23 GMT]
Two SLA soldiers were wounded in a Claymore attack on a SLA tractor at Thevakulam, near Ichankulam northwest of Vavuniya around 9:45 a.m. Thursday. One SLA sergeant with serious wounds was rushed to Vavuniya Hospital, Police said. Seven soldiers were traveling in the tractor.
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SLA's Deep Penetration Unit responsible for Claymore attack - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2006, 13:40 GMT]
LTTE's Political Head of Mannar District, Mr. Iniyavan, said Wednesday that there were two Claymore mines bound to a tree and wired to a triggering device operated a few meters away from the spot where LTTE Vavuniya West Political Co-ordinatar Major Jeyanthan was killed with a civilian supporter riding in a motorbike Tuesday. "A deep penetration unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is known to operate from the Iranai Illuppaikulam SLA base," Iniyavan told TamilNet after showing the site to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) members Wednesday morning. The Claymore explosion that claimed the life of Maj. Jeyanthan, took place 4 km near Chinnavalayankattu, 47 km east of Mannar.
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LTTE official, civilian killed in Claymore attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2006, 12:43 GMT]
Major Jeyanthan, Liberation Tigers Vavuniya West area political head and a civilian, Mr. Vinotharan Thevarasa, were killed when a Claymore mine exploded hitting the motorbike in which they were riding in LTTE controlled area at Chinnavalaiyankattu, 45 km east of Mannar town, LTTE sources said. The Claymore mine was allegedly exploded by a group of Sri Lankan soldiers around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, according to the sources.
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Teachers demand release of arrested colleague

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2006, 17:16 GMT]
Trainee teachers at the Palaly Teachers Training college boycotted classes Monday demanding the release of fellow trainee Packianathan Kamalakannan who was arrested and being detained by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) following the claymore mine attack in Point Pedro on 27 December when twelve SLA soldiers were killed.
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Mannar skeletons sent for forensic tests

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2006, 11:45 GMT]
Mr.N.M.M.Abdulla, Mannar Magistrate Monday allowed an application by the Mannar Police to send the partially burnt human skeletons recovered on 25 December from a burnt out house in the "100 House Project" for medical examination to Karapitya hospital in Galle district. The skeletons were recovered two days after the claymore mine attack on a bus carrying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers that took place on December 23 afternoon near the housing project in Pesalai, legal sources said.
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