UNP leader slams Rajapakse regime for "notorious Human Rights record"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who attended a confluence of the relatives and friends of the missing persons, held in Colombo Monday, charged that the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regime was responsible for the bad reputation of the Sri Lankan state's Human Rights record. 88 persons have been either abducted or gone missing since August 2006 up to now, according to the records of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), an ongoing initiative by a few involved politicians.
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Resign post, get back to USA, UNP MP tells Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 09:52 GMT]
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse should immediately accept responsibility for the security fiasco of the Katuayake air base when it was attacked by the Liberation Tigers air wing, and relinquish his post and get back to USA, demanded Johnston Fernando, Kurunagalle district parliamentarian of the opposition United National Party (UNP) at a press meet held Monday noon, in the Sri Lankan Opposition Leaders office in Colombo.
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LTTE urges sports boycott of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 09:11 GMT]
The Tamil Tigers Tuesday backed an Amnesty International awareness campaign that has embarrassed Sri Lanka's government during the cricket World Cup and urged a full sporting boycott of the country, AFP reported. Amnesty’s campaign to build support for international human rights monitoring in Sri Lanka, using the topical theme of cricket, has drawn the fury of the Colombo government as well as the main opposition Sinhala parties.
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Indian High Commission's vehicle hijacked, driver released after torture

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 06:29 GMT]
A diplomatic van belonging to the Indian High Commission, on it's way to receive a diplomat from the International Airport in Colombo, was hijacked and the driver of the vehicle, S. Vishvanathan, was abducted by two attackers Monday midnight in Seeduwa Police area, southeast of Katunayake International Airport. The driver, badly beaten by the attackers, lost his two teeth and released around 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, Police said.
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30 killed, 41 wounded in bus accident in South

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 02:41 GMT]
Thirty passengers were killed and 41 injured when a passenger bus collided with a container lorry at Induruwa in the Kosgoda police area, Galle district, Tuesday morning around 6:30 a.m., police said. Sixteen passengers, in critical condition, were rushed to the Karapitiya and Balapitiya hospitals.
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Thousands of Tamils defy Paris protest bar

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 22:37 GMT]
Over 2,000 Tamil expatriates gathered in front of the Eiffel Tower Monday, despite the authorities’ cancellation of a planned protest rally to condemn the arrests by French police of several Tamil activists for raising funds for the LTTE. The protestors gathered in nearby public places, blocking traffic. Although the protest’s cancellation had been publicised on Tamil radio and television by the rally’s organisers who told expatriates that permission would be sought anew, several thousand people converged on the city centre, defying orders to disperse, to condemn the arrests on April 1, a week after the LTTE airstrike on Katunayake.
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Karuna threats prevent Batticaloa MPs from visiting electorates

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 11:57 GMT]
"Due to death threats from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) backed Karuna group in Batticaloa district, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians representing constituencies in the district have not been able to go to their electorates for the last six months, affected parliamentarians said. Batticaloa MPs have been unable to even participate in high level planning meetings where the district's urgent needs are discussed and decisions taken,TNA parliamentarians told media Sunday.
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Wickremasinghe instructs UNP MPs to cancel foreign trips

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 10:48 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has instructed his parliamentarians to be in the country during the month of May and to cancel all assignments abroad. Mr.Wickremasinghe has also declined to accept invitation extended by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union to attend an event abroad during this period, according to media reports in Colombo.
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UNP holds awareness meetings on current political, security situation

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 10:40 GMT]
Mr.Tissa Attanayake, parliamentarian and UNP general secretary addressing a meeting held in Colombo New Town Hall Saturday evening, asked the Sri Lanka government why it has not nullified the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) if the Government thinks CFA offers no benefit. UNP has been conducting a series of awareness meetings to brief the people about the current political and security situations in Sri Lanka.
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Two Tamil youths abducted in Kadawatte, Peliyagoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2007, 10:45 GMT]
Unidentified persons who came in white vans abducted two Tamil youths, one at Kadawatte and the other at Peliyagoda on Wednesday last week. Pathmanathan Pratheepan, 23, native of Mattakuliya and a resident of Peliyagoda was abducted at Peliyagoda junction after being assaulted and the other Ramiah Jeyakanthan, 24, resident of Wattala at Kadawatte junction when he was travelling in a bus, parents said in their complaints lodged with the police stations concerned, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).
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Three Tamils detained for questioning in Tangalle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2007, 03:15 GMT]
Thirty eight persons were arrested on Friday in a cordon and search operations conducted by the combined government armed forces in Tangalle, a town in Matara district in the southern province. Of the arrested nineteen were Tamils, and three Tamil are being detained for further questioning. The Kandy Magistrate released sixteen Tamils when they were produced in court later, sources said
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SLA searches offices of Jaffna daily

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 13:32 GMT]
Administration and Publication offices of Jaffna Tamil daily, Yarl Thinnakkural ("Daily Voice") was cordoned off and searched by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Sunday morning, civil sources in Jaffna said. This is the third time SLA has intruded into the offices of the daily after 11 August when renewed hostilities broke out between SLA and the Liberation Tigers.
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More dissidents to rejoin UNP, says party secretary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 10:05 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said more dissidents who joined Mahinda Rajapakse's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are to lend their support to UNP at "an appropriate time," according to UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake who spoke at a meeting held Friday evening at Minuwangoda in the western province. One of the eighteen dissidents parliamentarians Edward Gunasekara last week returned to the fold of the UNP after relinquishing the Deputy Minister post for Railways.
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Attacks against civilians devised by Sri Lankan military intelligence - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 04:46 GMT]
Sri Lankan military intelligence has resorted to attacks against Tamil and Sinhala civilians to depict a bad pattern of deliberate attacks against civilians with a "sinister motive" of tarnishing the image of the Liberation Tigers, charged Irasiah Ilanthirayan, military spokesman of the Liberation Tigers, Saturday after the latest Claymore attack that targeted a civilian bus on Vavuniya Mannar Road.
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7 killed, 25 wounded, bomb targets bus carrying Tamil, Muslim civilians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 04:25 GMT]
A Claymore mine was triggered on Vavuniya Mannar Road, 25 km west of Vavuniya town, killing 7 and wounding 25, including four children, Police said. The bomb attack has targeted a Sri Lanka Transport Board (CTB) bus, carrying Tamil and Muslim civilians, travelling from Mannar to Vavuniya Saturday around 7:40 a.m. between Piramanalankulam and Puthukulam. 19 wounded patients were rushed to Vavuniya hospital, according to medical sources.
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Punguduthivu body may belong to Fr.Brown, say Jaffna clergy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 02:06 GMT]
The Catholic clergy of Jaffna peninsula suspect that the mutilated torso found at Punkuduthivu sea on 14 March 2007 packed in a military sand bag tied with a grindstone by barbed wire, likely belongs to the disappeared Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Jim Brown, sources close to the church in Jaffna said. The church has appealed to the Jaffna Magistrate to facilitate sending blood samples to an authorized lab in Colombo to perform DNA tests to identify the suspect body.
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Sri Lankan soldiers harass ex-president's grandson

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 16:36 GMT]
Ex-Sri Lankan president and late UNP stalwart J. R. Jayawardene's grandson, Amirith Jayawardene, was chased and harassed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Friday night in Colombo for having attempted to overtake a SLA Jeep.
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Torrential rain worsens Batticaloa IDPs woes

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 11:30 GMT]
More than 75 temporary sheds sheltering Internally Displaced People (IDP) in interim camps located in Kaluvanchikudy in Batticaloa district have collapsed due to heavy rain continuing for the third day, causing additional hardships, Kaluvanchikudy Regional Secretary said.
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16 Tamil civilians arrested in Wellawatte, Kataragama

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 10:43 GMT]
Three Tamil civilians including two women were arrested Friday morning in a cordon and search operation conducted in Wellawatte in Colombo by security forces. They are now being detained in the Wellawatte police station and subjected to interrogation, sources said. Meanwhile, thirteen plantation Tamils including two women were arrested in Kataragama in the south in a combined cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka and Police on Wednesday.
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Tamil youth killed in Kelaniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 10:40 GMT]
The body of a youth was recovered from the high security zone surrounding the Sapuskanda oil refinery of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation located in the Kelaniya police division in Colombo district Wednesday morning. Sapuskanda Police said the body belonged to a 26-year-old Tamil youth native of Chavakachcheri in Jaffna district but the police declined to give the name of the youth and other details, according to media sources in Colombo.


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