MP accuses Colombo for "coward's war"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2006, 09:12 GMT]
Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has condemned Colombo Sunday morning for attacking Tamil women and children refugees in Vaharai. The entire Vaharai region has been under siege for more than 3 months. 40 000 civilians are tightly packed in the area and the Government of Sri Lanka has imposed a war on the civilian population, Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy said. The MP called on the International actors, monitors and the Norwegian facilitators "not to show bias in their condemnation of the attacks that targeted civilians."
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19 more Tamil refugees killed, new SLA offensive south of Vaharai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2006, 06:16 GMT]
19 Internally displaced people, who fled artillery bombing in Palchenai and Vammivedduvan in Vahrai region to Kandalady Government School, were killed and more than 25 wounded when Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells hit the school Sunday morning, according to LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan. Sri Lanka Navy gunboats were also engaged in firing shells towards densely populated refugee camps as Sri Lankan forces opened a new front towards Panichchankerni Sunday morning. Meanwhile, a Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation official in Vaharai told TamilNet all the five refugee camps in Vaharai were being targeted by artillery shelling forcing all civilians to flee.
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Karunanidhi orders explosives probe amid Delhi’s denials

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 December 2006, 02:24 GMT]
After police in Tamil Nadu found a vehicle carrying a huge quantity of explosives meant for Sri Lanka, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today ordered officials to ascertain whether any business house was exporting explosives without the Centre's knowledge. A Sri Lankan Government request for supplying the explosives, dated October 10, 2005, was carried by the vehicle's driver Ravi Verma, PTI said. According to the papers, the consignee for the explosives was a Sri Lanka naval base in Colombo.
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Food War

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 December 2006, 14:27 GMT]
Four months after the closure of A9, Jaffna’s economic lifeline, bakeries are closed, and shelves in the co-operatives and private shops are empty, as stocks have depleted and fresh supplies dwindled. Assurances given by the Government of Sri Lanka to provide sufficient food and essentials to Jaffna Peninsula have only brought in supplies of rice and lentils by sea. There's no sugar, oil, milk, the basics. People queue from morning until afternoon by the special military shops run by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) adjoining their camps for a rationed amount of essential commodities. Colombo appears adamant to continue to prosecute the food war with Jaffna residents.
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Avoid criticism, pay ransom, paramilitaries tell Tamil dailies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 December 2006, 12:34 GMT]
Following a 7th December press release by the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) that "pro-government militia led by Tamil warlord Karuna" has issued death threats to distributors preventing the circulation of the papers in Batticaloa, paramilitary TMVP office in Colombo placed conditions as they attempted to negotiate with the management of Colombo Tamil dailies of allowing circulation of papers in Batticaloa SLA controlled areas, Tamil media sources in Colombo said.
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SLA fired artillery shells hit school, 13 refugees wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 December 2006, 06:29 GMT]
Thirteen refugees, including a 4-year-old child, were wounded when Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells hit a school in Paalchenai, 8 km north of Vaharai Saturday, around 11:20 a.m., as SLA intensified a ground offensive from Eachilampattu, via A15 trunk road towards Verugal, 15 km northwest of Vakarai amid indiscriminate artillery barrage. Nine wounded refugees from the school where IDP families were staying, were rushed to Vaharai hospital, medical sources said. Heavy fighting was reported between Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka Army at Eachilamapattu.
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Demonstration against abductions held in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 11:52 GMT]
The Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared, and the National Front Against War (NFAW) staged a protest demonstration Friday around 10:00 a.m at Peliyagoda circle on the Colombo-Negombo road calling for a stop to forced disappearances and to safeguard humanity, sources in Colombo said. The Protest was led by Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the patron of the Committee for Investigation of the Disappeared and the leader of the New Leftist Front party.
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Re-opening of landroutes, non-negotiable humanitarian priority - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 10:15 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head, S. P. Thamilchelvan, Friday told media after meeting Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer in Kilinochchi, that the re-opening of A9 and A15 landroutes constituted basic humanitarian priorities for the survival of the civilian population. "It is critical that the International Community addresses the issue of Colombo's cooperation in re-opening of A9 and A15 landroutes ensuring the Tamil people their top-most basic humanitarian need," Mr. Thamilchelvan said. Tamil people are at the verge of losing hopes in Norwegian facilitators, the SLMM and the International Community for failing to condemn Colombo for refusing to re-open the landroutes, he said.
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War budget bares Colombo's intent - Senathirajah

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 December 2006, 01:09 GMT]
"This budget allows 140 billion rupees for defence which clearly exposes the intent of the Sri Lanka government to suppress the Tamils by waging war on them. Our people have been suppressed for the last 50 years by the successive Sinhala governments. Our youth were forced to take up arms because of such racist attitude," Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said participating in the debate on budget Wednesday in the Sri Lanka Parliament, Colombo sources said.


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Payilvan dies, sectarian violence flares up in Kattankudy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 22:50 GMT]
Sectarian violence between orthodox Muslims against the Islamic sect, Sufi, that preaches pantheism, resurfaced in Muslim town of Kattankudy in Batticaloa district Thursday following the death of M. S. Abdul Payilvan, one of the leaders of Sufi sect and the President of All Island Tharikathul Mufliheen, and his burial in Kattankudy. The orthodox Muslims observed a Hartal demanding the removal of the body from the burial grounds. Three houses belonging to the followers of Payilvan were set ablaze on Thursday night, Police sources said.
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UN: Karuna denies child recruitment, commits to collaborate with UNICEF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 17:45 GMT]
Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna), who leads the paramilitary Karuna Group operated by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), has contacted the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, on Monday, regarding the listing of his group to the UN Security Council, according to a press release issued by the UN office in Colombo. The move, comes following a report by Allan Rock, the Special Advisor to the UN Special Representative, who accused the Sri Lankan military for recruiting children to the ranks of the paramilitary group, in November when he concluded a 10-day mission to Sri Lanka. Tamil Tigers in October outlawed the recruitment of under-17s.
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One Tamil youth dead, another injured in SLN shooting in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 14:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) cadres shot dead a Tamil youth and seriously injured another, Thursday around 8:30 a.m on the Crow Island beach in Modara police division in Colombo. The SLN allege that when its cadres approached the youths to inquire about their suspicious movement on the beach, the youths attemted to pull their guns resulting in the shooting in self defence by the SLN marines, Modara police said.
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Aid groups protest Sri Lanka’s obstruction of aid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 11:54 GMT]
Several Western aid groups this week warned of a struggle to conduct humanitarian work in Sri Lanka’s Tamil areas, citing official bureaucracy that has paralysed their work. Speaking to AFP news agency, they protested the Sri Lankan government’s “strategy of preventing the presence of international actors” amid escalating conflict and said aid was being blocked from reaching Tamils in LTTE-controlled areas.
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Students, teachers wounded in artillery fire in Kallar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 11:02 GMT]
11 students and two teachers were wounded when artillery shells hit Somadevi Sinhala School around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Sri Lankan military sources said the Tigers were targeting the Mahindapura SLA camp with artillery fire, but the shells had missed the target. Three soldiers were wounded, an hour later when the shells hit the SLA camp, according to the SLA.
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SLFP, UNP MoU monitoring committees meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 01:17 GMT]
The two high level committees appointed by the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by these two parties met Wednesday morning for the first time in the Sri Lanka parliamentary complex, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Viral fever spreads in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 01:04 GMT]
More than 15,000 people in the Jaffna peninsula are suffering from Chikungunya viral fever but Panodol and Paracetamol, recommended by medical authorities, are not available in the open market due to the inability of the traders to transport these medications from Colombo for the last four months, said civil society sources in Jaffna.
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Pope's envoy, US Embassy Officials visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 December 2006, 00:15 GMT]
The resident representative of Vatican to Sri Lanka, Rev. Mario Zanari, visited Jaffna Wednesday to observe the prevailing situation in the Peninsula and the hardships faced by the people in the aftermath of the closure of A-9 road in August, Bishop's house sources said. Four Officials from the US Embassy in Colombo also arrived in Jaffna for a fact-finding mission.


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Engage in peace talks, Thondaman tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 11:52 GMT]
"Sri Lanka Government should give up the idea of proscribing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who fight for the rights of the Tamils and engage in peace talks instead," said Arumugam Thondaman, the leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and a minister in the Sri Lanka government (GoSL), in a statement released Tuesday in Colombo.
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Sri Lanka reinstates Prevention of Terrorism Act

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2006, 09:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayake, announcing a cabinet decision, Wednesday said the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would be implemented in full force. The PTA, introduced in 1979 as a temporary measure, and permanently enacted in 1982, was not applied following the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The cabinet decision, viewed as a major breach of the CFA, gives excessive powers of arrest and detention to the Sri Lankan armed forces.
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Two shot dead, one seriously injured in two incidents in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 December 2006, 09:25 GMT]
Two armed men on motorcycle shot dead a youth and seriously injured his cousin Monday night around 7:00 p.m, near Lourdes Church at Thumpalai in Point Pedro while two gunmen on motor cycle shot dead Tuesday morning a trader at Viyaparimoolai in Point Pedro.


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