Engineered Catastrophe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 11:52 GMT]
Batticaloa has turned into an area of humanitarian disaster, and a battle ground for refugee figures, as more than 100,000 residents of Paduvankarai districts were forced to flee to GoSL controlled regions by the shelling of Sri Lankan Armed Forces inside LTTE controlled areas during the first two weeks of March. The changing IDP numbers have swelled to 165,485. While UN appealed for "vital funds to boost its operations in eastern Sri Lanka" and leftist parties accused the Government of engineering "demographic change," Sri Lanka Government spokesperson K. Rambukwella dismissed the severity saying only 52,000 are displaced, contradicting his own administration's official figures.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Negombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2007, 09:26 GMT]
Wife of a Tamil resident of Negomobo, missing since January 11, last week complained to Negombo Police that her husband, Selliah Tharmarajah, 46, who was employed at a foreign employment agency, did not return home after he left home by bus with his national identity card to report for work in Colombo office.
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Bomb attack kills SLA soldier in Jaffna, civilian wounded in retaliation fire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2007, 07:34 GMT]
Unidentified attackers lobbed a powerful hand bomb into a Sri Lanka Army checkpost located near the SLA 51-2 Brigade Command in Jaffna city Saturday killing a SLA soldier and wounding four around 10:45 a.m. A civilian was wounded when SLA soldiers opened fire after the attack on the checkpost located along Navalar Road near the railway cross.
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SLA offensive thwarted, civilians saved - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 18:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who had taken more than 120 civilians as "human shields" against Tiger artillery fire and advanced into Liberation Tigers territory in Vavuniya-Mannar border Friday morning were forced to pull back their soldiers from Thampanai and Sinna Pandivirichchan at around 10:30 p.m after 15 hours of heavy fighting Friday. Liberation Tigers officials said they had defeated the two pronged offensive, without harming the civilians who were in the hands of the SLA. Around 60 SLA soldiers were killed, the Tigers claimed. Official figures from Colombo released Saturday said 14 soldiers were killed and 42 wounded.
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JVP holds district political conferences

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 11:33 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is to hold a district conference in Trincomalee Town Hall on March 28 evening as part of a series of meetings being held throughout the country educating the public regarding the current political situation. The theme of the conference is "Save the Motherland". One of the senior JVP leaders and a parliamentarian Mr.Wijitha Heart is to address Trincomalee conference, JVP sources in Colombo said.
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JVP holds protest demonstration against UN, Norway in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 16:01 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Marxist Sinhala nationalist party, staged a demonstration Thursday morning in front of the UN office in Colombo against UN interference in Sri Lanka's local issues and the proposed special UN Commission to examine human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Slogans against Norway's peace initiatives were also voiced in the demonstration attended by Wimal Weerawanse, Propaganda secretary, General Secretary Tilvin de Silva, parliamentarians, and Provincial council members of JVP, media sources in Colombo said.
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Supreme Court rejects Jaffna youth's FR petition

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 12:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court rejected Tuesday a fundamental rights application filed by a Jaffna Tamil youth who is currently being detained in Colombo magazine prison stating that the petitioner has failed to fulfil conditions needed to file such application, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Reckless Justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 02:23 GMT]
Discharge papers to release Mawbima journalist, Munusamy Parameswary, 25, who was arrested on 22nd November under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and held for nearly four months, on suspicion of "helping the LTTE and a suspected suicide bomber," were sent Wednesday morning, by Harshika De Silva, State Counsel representing the Attorney General (AG), to Colombo chief Magistrate Court. Parameshwari was released Thursday at 10:00 a.m..
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Colombo fails to release Parameswary despite Court order

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 10:44 GMT]
The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka failed to produce Mounasamy Parameswary in Colombo Courts by Wednesday evening despite a Supreme Court order Wednesday morning to release the Tamil woman journalist before the end of Wednesday, legal sources said. Ms Parameswary was arrested and detained without charge for more than three months.
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SLA introduces pass system to travel out of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 01:29 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command in Jaffna said it requires all persons wishing to leave Jaffna district to provide a surety to stand guarantee for the return of the applicant as an additional requirement to obtain a pass to travel out of the distriict. The travellers are asked to submit applications to the area SLA official through the Village Officer and the Divisional Secretary. Civil society sources expressed concern over the new regulations restricting the freedom of movement, and urged Rights groups to bring pressure on Colombo to stop the deteriorating human rights situation in Northeast.
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Colombo conspires to alter East's demography- NLF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 11:41 GMT]
Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the New Left Front (NLF) said at a news conference held Monday at Hotel Nippon in Colombo organized by the National Front Against War (NFAW) that Sri Lanka Government is conspiring to change the demography of the eastern province by forcibly driving out Tamil people and settling members of the majority community, media sources said.
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Sooriyarachchi remand extended, attends parliament under escort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 11:14 GMT]
Kaduwela Magistrate Tuesday ordered further remand for Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government till March 27. The court further said it could consider application by Mr. Sooriyarachchi to attend parliamentary sittings during remand period, legal sources said. Accordingly, Mr Sooriarachchi attended the parliament under escort Tuesday afternoon. Opposition parliamentarians greeted him with applause when he entered the well of the House, sources said.
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Eastern University reopens

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 00:17 GMT]
The academic activities of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) resumed Monday after nearly three months of closure, the Acting VC, Dr. N. Pathmanathan said. The university was closed follwoing the abduction of its Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. S. Ravindranath, on December 15 in Colombo.
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Jaffna bus service reduced due to lack of spares

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2007, 10:28 GMT]
Ceylon Transport Board (CTB), the only public transport means in Jaffna peninsula, will soon grind to a halt as spares and other essentials have ceased to reach Jaffna since the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) closed the A9 land route to the peninsula in August 2006, transportation officials in Jaffna said, Friday.
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38 civilians arrested in Mt.Lavinia

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 March 2007, 17:01 GMT]
Thirty-eight civilians, including twenty women of all three communities, were arrested Sunday in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka government troops in Mt.Lavinia police division in Colombo city, police sources said.
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Rights questions bedevil Bogollagama UK, US visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 12:55 GMT]
"The five year old Ceasefire Agreement is in tatters and the Government [of Sri Lanka] seems more and more determined to pursue a military solution. But what are the costs? With widespread reports of abductions and disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture, today's Sri Lanka is beginning to look like Pinochet's Chile," says Allan Little, BBC's Hard Talk, in his introduction to an interview with Rohitha Bogollagama. The foreign minister has completed his visit to UK and is currently in US, and his visit is plagued by questions regarding the worsening Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka.
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CID arrests Sooriyarachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2007, 09:34 GMT]
Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested Sripathy Sooriyarachchi Saturday in Colombo following his summon for investigation into alleged misuse of a government vehicle after his removal from the ministerial portfolio. The arrest comes after Mr. Sooriyarachchi, the former non cabinet minister of port development, who was sacked by the SL President Mahinda Rajapakse, exposed an alleged scandal by Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the brother of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, involving Rs.600 million in the purchase of Russian-made MIG fighter and weapons.
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Colombo forcing refugees to return home- Rights Group

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 19:47 GMT]
"Sri Lankan authorities are using threats and intimidation to force civilians who fled recent fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war to return home," Human Rights Watch said today. "To pressure individuals to return home, government officials and military personnel have threatened to withdraw humanitarian aid, food and other essential supplies," the Rights body further said.
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Sampanthan meets Akashi in Tokyo

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 11:17 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met with Mr.Yasusi Akashi, Special Peace Envoy for Sri Lanka in Tokyo Wednesday, TNA sources in Colombo said. The discussion, lasting about an hour, centered on the present situation in North East province where hundreds of thousands Tamil families are being displaced due to military operation from their own villages.
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Colombo traders shut down in protest against ransom demands

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 11:07 GMT]
"Members of the Karuna group, in collaboration with the police, demand ransom from us and though we have complained to the police along with phone numbers as evidence, no action has been taken," said Pettah and Fort traders in Colombo, taking part in the protest shutdown of their shops Friday, against the demands and death threats. All shops in Fort and Pettah were closed, and Kotahena police blocked traders from demonstrating in front of the police station, media sources in Colombo said.


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