Colombo declines security assurance to Norwegian delegation

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 10:23 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry official who contacted the Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar in Colombo Sunday declined to recommend necessary security assurance for the Norwegian delegation to undertake a scheduled diplomatic visit to Kilinochchi Monday to meet with the political leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileealm, Norwegian press reported Monday citing the Ambassador.
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Foreign funds meant for Jaffna diverted to South

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2007, 01:26 GMT]
Funds meant for development projects in Jaffna peninsula set aside by World Bank, World Food Programme (WFP) and other foreign sources are being directed to southern Sri Lanka by the Government ministries handling the funds, civil society sources in Jaffna said. During the past 3 years, less than 15% of the development project targets have been completed in the tsunami affected Vadamaradchy east and north while more than 85% of similar targets in the South have been achieved, Jaffna secretariat sources said.
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LTTE: Sri Lanka’s accusations of credit card fraud is ‘attempt to distract from rights abuses’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2007, 09:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, responding to allegations by the Sri Lankan Embassy in London that the Liberation Tigers were involved in organised crime in Britain involving the cloning of credit cards, dismissed the accusations and slammed them as an attempt by the Colombo government to distract international attention from widespread human rights abuses by its armed forces. Mr. Thamilchelvan said Sri Lanka's accusations which sought to implicate the hardworking and law-abiding Tamil Diaspora, stemmed from the "same chauvinism that caused the island’s protracted ethnic war."
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Bail refused for former East Provincial Secretary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2007, 08:30 GMT]
Colombo Additional Magistrate Friday refused bail for Mr.L.S.C.Siriwardene, former East Provincial Education Secretary who is on remand in connection with allegedly accepting bribe of fifty thousand rupees from a volunteer teacher to give permanent appointment. The suspect was ordered further two week's remand.
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2 SLA troopers killed, 5 wounded in Claymore ambush in Welikanda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2007, 14:14 GMT]
Gunmen waiting in ambush after penetrating into Sri Lanka Army territory in Welikanda in Batticaloa Polonnaruwa border triggered a Claymore mine and killed two Sri Lanka Army troopers and wounded five Friday around 5:00 p.m. at Thirukonamadu. A SLA tractor transporting sand to fortify bunkers was damaged in the ambush, military sources in Colombo said.
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SLAF UAV reported missing in Kokkilai

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2007, 09:01 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was reported missing when it was on a reconnaissance mission over Kokkilai Friday noon, according to the SLAF sources in Colombo.
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Norway dismisses lone activist’s agitation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2007, 15:23 GMT]
A Norwegian speaker at a symposium organised by Sinhala nationalists as a “public awareness programme on how terrorism is being promoted in Sri Lanka” was dismissed by his government as a lone agitator making wild accusations. The Norwegian, Falk Rune Rovik, who alleges that Norway is financing the LTTE, was a murder convict and has been engaged by Sinhala ultra nationalists and promoted by Sri Lankan government ministries in anti-Norwegian and anti-LTTE propaganda. The activities of Mr. Rovik, who is scheduled to address a conference in Colombo Friday, has antogonized the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, according to Norwegian press reports.
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SL President leaves for Italy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 09:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa Wednesday morning around 11:00 a.m. left Colombo on a three-day official visit to Italy. Three Catholic ministers in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Messrs: Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Milroy Perera and Felix Perera also accompanied Mr.Rajapaksa, Presidential Secretariat sources said.
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HRW urges Pope to discuss human rights with Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 08:48 GMT]
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, Tuesday, urged Pope Benedict XVI, to raise the deteriorating human rights crisis in Sri Lanka with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is visiting Vatican this week. Sri Lankan military and police forces, as well as proxy armed groups, are engaged in serious violations of the laws of war and human rights, reiterated Human Rights Watch in the letter.
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AG urged to release detained Jaffna undergrad

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 10:24 GMT]
An appeal has been made to Sri Lanka's Attorney General to release Selvarajah Paheerathan, 26, an undergrad who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army eight months ago in a cordon and search operation conducted in the premises of the Jaffna University and later handed over to the Jaffna Police.
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Batticaloa infant succumbs to shelling injuries

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2007, 10:55 GMT]
A six month old infant injured during artillery shelling by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) towards Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) controlled Paduvankarai area in Batticaloa two weeks ago succumbed to the injuries on Saturday.


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Sri Lankan soldiers kill 5 in fire ambush in Chenkaladi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 April 2007, 08:16 GMT]
Five persons, including a 3-year-old baby boy, a 15-year-ld girl and another civilian were shot and killed by a group of Sri Lankan troopers at Kanapathipillai village in Chenkaladi division in Eravur Police division around 8:30 p.m. Friday. The Sri Lankan soldiers who had taken cover alongside a road had opened fire on two persons suspected to be carrying weapons, according to civilian sources in the area. The two youths said to be carrying arms were yet to be identified. However, Sri Lankan military sources in Colombo have claimed that all 5 victims were civilians and blamed the Tigers for the killings.
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TRO to assist IDPs in East through International, local NGOs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 April 2007, 06:14 GMT]
"There is an acute shortage of toilet facilities and 6,000 shelters in the East for Internally Displaced Persons, who languish without adequate food in Sri Lanka Army controlled areas, where the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) was blocked from attending the plight of the refugees," the organisation said a day ahead of the Tamil New Year, resolving to channel the humanitarian assistance through International and local organisations. Several camps lack roofs and 100 persons have to share a single toilet in average, although the NGOs have managed to put up 11,000 shelters and 1,600 toilets for more than 23,000 families that have sought refuge in the service centres.
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‘There is no ceasefire agreement with LTTE’ - Gothabaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2007, 17:02 GMT]
There is no ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government and the 2002 agreement was only being left in place to satisfy the international community, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said Tuesday. "There is no cease-fire agreement. There is no meaning in that," said Rajapakse, who is the brother and a close-confidant of President Mahinda Rajapakse told the Associated Press. He vowed to attack the LTTE’s northern strongholds, saying “it’s not good for the military to have relaxed periods.”
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Tamil trader, his salesman, abducted in Wellawaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2007, 08:09 GMT]
Unidentified persons in a white van, posing as officials of Criminal Investigation Department, abducted a Tamil trader and his salesman Sunday night in Wellawaya, in southern province, according to complaints lodged with Wellawaya police.


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Three Tamil civilians shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 21:16 GMT]
A group of armed men, alleged to be paramilitary cadres working for the Sri Lanka Army, shot dead three persons, a 20-year-old boy, a 48-year-old man and 68-year-old woman, and injured two at Kumankulam in Vavuniya Wednesday evening around 5:45. There have been at least five similar killings where 10 persons have been killed in the villages surrounding Veppankulam military camp.
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Stop alienating elected representatives from their constituents - TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 20:52 GMT]
"Tamil National Alliance (TNA) strongly condemns the sudden postponement of the Batticaloa District Development Committee (DDC) meeting scheduled for Wednesday at parliamentary complex, Colombo, by the President of DDC, Minister Ameer Ali, without informing Batticaloa district parliamentarians," a statement released by TNA Wednesday in Colombo said.
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Eastern Provincial Council Education Secretary arrested on bribery charge

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 16:07 GMT]
The Education Ministry Secretary of the de-merged East Provincial Council (EPC), L.S.C.Siriwardene, who was a former Government Agent of Amparai district, was arrested Wednesday around 11:00 a.m. in his office located in Orr's Hill area in Trincomalee town by a team of Bribery and Corruption Commission officials when he was allegedly accepting bribe, commission official Neville Guruge said in Colombo.
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Colombo court releases two Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 05:59 GMT]
Two Tamil youths from Jaffna, arrested and detained in Colombo on suspicion that they were members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were released Tuesday on the instruction of Colombo Chief Magistrate Sarojini Kusala Weerawardene.
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Rajapakse disregards disappearances - Civil Monitoring Committee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 19:54 GMT]
"The President of Sri Lanka has chosen to dismiss the present disappearances as not worthy of local and international attention," said a resolution passed by Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), which is engaged in monitoring involuntary disappearances, abduction, extra judicial killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions in Sri Lanka. This resolution was passed in an event organized by it in Colombo Monday, where family and friends of the disappeared gathered to express their grief.
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