Four Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 December 2006, 11:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka forces arrested four Tamil youths Sunday morning in combined search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and Police in Dehiwala area, suburb in Colombo city. The search operation was conducted between around 3:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.
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Germany wants peace conditions on Sri Lanka aid

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 December 2006, 18:04 GMT]
The international community should make further assistance to Sri Lanka dependent on the resumption of the peace process in the country, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul was quoted as saying in an interview to be published Sunday.
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Cargo ship caught up in rough seas at LTTE waters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 December 2006, 07:36 GMT]
Captain of the Cargo ship, drifting towards Mullaithivu shore, with fellow crewmen, is engaged in bringing the ship to operation Saturday afternoon, Sea Tiger officials said. 15 crew members have reached the shore. Earlier, Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told media that the cargo ship, caught up in the rough seas, had drifted into LTTE territorial waters off Mullaithivu and that the Sea Tigers were engaged in saving the crew members.
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Indian Prime Minister receives TNA leaders

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 07:48 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Friday received five Tamil National Alliance leaders R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathiraja, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Selvam Adaikalanthan and Suresh Premachandran at his office in New Delhi. TNA MPs told media that the meeting was very cordial and that they had brought focus to the humanitarian crisis in Vaharai and Jaffna where food is used as tool of war by Colombo. Dr. Manmohan Singh emphasized that he had conveyed to Colombo that there could be no military solution to resolve the Tamil national problem and that it should address the political aspirations of the Tamil people through a negotiated settlement.
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Abducted VC's mother appeals for son's release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 19:55 GMT]
Mrs. Saraswathy Sivasubramaniam, 75, the mother of abducted Vice Chancellor of Eastern University appealed to the abductors to release his son without harm when TamilNet talked to her and her extended family in South London Thursday. "For the last 28 years my son and his family have been living in Batticaloa, the foremost thing in his mind was the development of Batticaloa, especially modernizing the agriculture in Batticaloa," she said. Prof. Raveendranath is 55.
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Governor orders de-merger steps, keeps Trincomalee separate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 18:49 GMT]
The Governor of the North Eastern Province, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrama, with exclusive powers delegated on him by the Sri Lankan President, has ordered the officials of the NorthEastern Provincial Council (NEPC) to split the unified administration of NEPC into two separate administrations, breaching the core aspect of the 1987 Indo Lanka accord. One administrative unit is to be set up in Vavuniya, to look after the affairs of the Northern Province and the other unit is to be located in Kalmunani to administer the Eastern Province, excluding Trincomalee district, which is to be under direct rule of the Governor and the GA, both ex-military officials posted to civil positions.
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Basil Rajapakse visits Jaffna with Devananda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 13:43 GMT]
A heavily guarded Special Conference was held at the Jaffna Public Library Thursday from 10:30 a.m to 1:00 p.m, presided by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse, to discuss matters related to restore normalcy to Jaffna peninsula with the key Government officials of the peninsula, attended by minister and leader of EPDP, Douglas Devananda and a team of junior ministers of the relevant ministries from Colombo, Jaffna sources said. Diffusing the present critical situation in the matters of supply and distribution and resuming normalcy were the important subjects dealt with, in the conference, sources close to Jaffna Secretariat said.


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Armed men abduct 19 youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 09:07 GMT]
Armed men clad in military fatigues abducted 19 youths, 16 boys and 3 girls, from a private bus en route to Colombo from Kattankudy at Korakallimadu in Kiran, in Batticaloa district around 9:00 p.m., Wednesday. The abductions have taken place on Katankudy - Polonnaruwa route, heavily guarded by Sri Lanka Army soldiers. Parents of six children have lodged complaints with the Police.
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Solheim extols Balasingham's integrity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 02:07 GMT]
"I met so many other people in the Peace Process in Sri Lanka, of all communities. But I have to say that Bala is one of the very very few people who never lied to me in this peace process," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian International Development Minister, addressing the large crowd assembled in Alexandra Palace UK to pay respect to late Anton Balasingham, advisor and theoretician for the Liberation Tigers, Wednesday.
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Besieged Vaharai continues to starve

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 14:18 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians in the Sri Lanka military besieged territory Vaharai are again forced to survive without humanitarian supplies. Children are again forced search for fruits and catch fish and crabs on their own to eat as main meal. Parents continue to suffer from psychological trauma witnessing the plight of their children.
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Global appeal for release of Vice Chancellor Raveendranath

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 15:11 GMT]
67 academics, colleagues, and partners of Eastern University, across country borders, Tuesday jointly urged for the safe release of Professor S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, who was reported missing Friday in Colombo's High Security area. In September, an unidentified armed group kidnapped the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Eastern University, demanding Professor Ravindranath's resignation in return for the Dean's release.
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Humanitarian situation worsens in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 13:30 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians continue to stay in temporary refugee camps at schools and surrounding houses in villages Kathiraveli, Vammivedduvan and Palchenai in Vaharai region amid acute shortage of food and humanitarian supplies, a local NGO official told TamilNet. Many families from Vaharai were forced to leave behind their grandparents who were unable to walk long distances.
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Amparai LTTE commander orders release of 21 students

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 05:57 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Amparai District Special Commander Ram has ordered immediate release of 21 students and 2 teachers who were found in the custody of an LTTE unit in Amparai Tuesday, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told TamilNet. The cadres were removed from operational duty and an internal investigation was on, the LTTE spokesman quoted Commander Ram.
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University students protest supporting plantation workers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 02:24 GMT]
Large number of University of Colombo students held a protest rally Monday afternoon at 12:30 p.m near Thummulla junction in Colombo, in a show of support to demands for wage rise of the tea plantation Tamil workers, sources in Colombo said. The Students warned that if the government does not accede to the demands of the plantation workers the protest will spread to all the other universities.
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Battle for seats

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 23:27 GMT]
For the half million or so civilians in Jaffna, travel to a town outside the district has become an almost impossible endeavor. "This is the fourth day I am standing here in pouring rain and scorching sun to obtain tickets from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for a seat in their ship to travel to Colombo. We are standing close to where Jaffna Railway Station once stood. Getting out of Jaffna even for an emergency visit to Colombo has become a nightmare," says Sinnappu Rajadurai, 47, of Chankanai who stands in a line in front of the Sinhala Maha Vidyalayam in Jaffna.
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Reduced curfew hours bring little succor to Jaffna residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 20:09 GMT]
The reduction in curfew hours announced by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for Jaffna district brings little relief to the residents cut-off from rest of Sri Lanka, living with severe shortage of food and basic essentials, and gripped with fear of abduction by SLA and paramilitaries as part of the counter-insurgency campaign unleashed by Colombo, civil society sources from Jaffna said.
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Eastern University shuts down in protest against forced disappearance of VC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 13:39 GMT]
Students and academic staff of the Eastern University in Vantharumoolai, 17km north of Batticaloa, have shut down the University in protest against the reported forced disappearance of their Vice Chancellor in High Security area in Colombo, Friday. Vice Chancellor Professor S. Raveendranath, a founder member of the EUSL, was forced to submit resignation of his post in October to the University Grant Commission (UGC), to secure the release the Dean of the Arts Faculty, Bala Sugumar, who was abducted by the paramilitary demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor. The resignation, pending approval by the UGC, had forced the VC to function from Colombo till he was reported disappeared.


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Norwegian University appeals for the release of Vice Chancellor Raveendranath

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 09:53 GMT]
Norwegian University of Life Sciences has appealed to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to take urgent action to find the whereabouts of the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor S. Raveendranath, and ensure his safe return. The Vice Chancellor, who was reported missing while he was on duty in Colombo last Frdiay, was engaged in a sustained effort of building the academic capacities of the EUSL and was working with the Norwegian University in developing a master's degree programme i peacebuilding and development, said Professor Ruth Haug, Department Head of International Environment & Development Studies, Noragric Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
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Jaffna security arrangements add to Islets residents woes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2006, 16:48 GMT]
Recent relocation of Jaffna bus terminal to Pannai by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and overflow of traffic along outer peripheral roads due to reconfiguration of traffic flow including prohibition of parking, have created additional burdens to families from the islets entering and leaving Jaffna town, civil society leaders said. Restrictions of intra-islet travel, and of transport in interior land routes have added further hardships for the people in these areas.
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Red Cross hands over bodies of six LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2006, 11:15 GMT]
Batticaloa district ICRC handed over to M. Mathy, Karadiyanaru LTTE head of political wing, Friday around 11:00 a.m, bodies of six Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres killed in an ambush by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and its paramilitary troopers Wednesday at Miyankulam. The LTTE cadres, injured in an earlier battle, were being taken for treatment across the Colombo-Batticaloa road at Miyankulam, when they were ambushed, Batticaloa sources said. Miyankulam lies on the border between LTTE held area in Vaharai and SLA held areas.


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