Exhumed Muthur aid workers' bodies buried again

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2006, 10:15 GMT]
Eleven bodies of seventeen aid workers of the French based non-governmental organization "Action against Hunger" killed in Muthur in the first week of August were brought back to Trincomalee from Colombo after second post-mortem held in the presence of an Australian forensic expert. Bodies of six aid workers were not exhumed as the court did not get the consent of their relatives.
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Home guard killed in Serunuwara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2006, 03:02 GMT]
A Sinhala home guard was shot dead by a group of unknown gunmen who attacked a home guard checkpost at Neelapola in Serunuwara police division in Trincomalee district Tuesday early morning around 12.40 a.m. by unidentified men, Sri Lanka security sources said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers retaliated but gunmen escaped, according to police sources said.


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Kuchaveli villagers under paramilitary threat- TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 12:38 GMT]
Many residents from villages in Kuchavel Pradeshya Sabha division, who have been returning to resettle after being displaced before 2002, are again fleeing the villages due to threat from paramilitary cadres, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader, Mr Sampanthan complaiend in a letter sent to Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse, Tuesday.
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Norwegian MP criticizes closure of A9

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 10:33 GMT]
Jan Bøhler, Labour Party parliamentarian and leader of the Oslo Labour Party, expressed concern about the failure of the week-end talks between the Sri Lanka Government (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and commended the efforts of the Norwegian Tamils supporting peace, Monday around 7:00 p.m in front of the Norway Parliament, source in Norway said. The GoSL blockade of the A9 landroute to Jaffna should be criticized by all who care about humanitarian issues, said Jan Bøhler in his address.
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Claymore attack kills SLA trooper, injures 3

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2006, 10:32 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and three others were seriouly injured when unidentified attackers triggered a claymore mine targetting a SLA foot patrol at Rangathgama junction in Poovarasankulam, Vavuniya around 8:45 a.m, Tuesday, police said.
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Rajapakse, Wickremesinghe to co-chair MoU monitoring committee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 14:47 GMT]
The high level committee appointed to monitor the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), is to co-chaired by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, political sources in Colombo said.


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Second post-mortems on Muttur aid workers' bodies held

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 14:35 GMT]
Second post-mortems on eleven exhumed bodies out of seventeen aid workers of a French based non-governmental organization "Action against Hunger," who were shot and killed in Muttur in the first week of August, were carried out over four days last week at Colombo police morgue in the presence of one Australian forensic expert, sources in Colombo said. Anuradhapura Judicial Medical Officer (JMP) Dr.D.L.Waidyaratne, who also carried out the first post-mortems on the bodies in Trincomalee general hospital in August, carried out the second one in Colombo.
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15 dead, 55 thousand families homeless due to floods in South

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 14:30 GMT]
Fourteen persons including an eight-year old child were killed and about fifty five thousand families have been rendered homeless in the south of Sri Lanka following heavy rain and landslides in the last two days, social services department sources said. Internally displaced persons about two hundred thousand people have been sheltered in temporary shelters located in schools and public buildings, according to the same sources.
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Stressed Sri Lankan negotiators throw journalists out

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 14:26 GMT]
Sri Lankan government delegates in Geneva to negotiate peace with Tamil Tiger rebels were ‘under a lot of stress’ and wanted journalists removed from their hotel, diplomats told AFP on Sunday.
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Tigers warn Sri Lanka on military provocation in Northern Front

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 09:04 GMT]
LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan, Sunday morning condemned the Sri Lankan armed forces for escalating the military hostilities by engaging in provocative offensive preparations and rehearsals in Northern Front in Jaffna while the Parties were engaged in talks in Geneva. Talking to media before entering the Conference Centre at rue de Varembé in Geneva, the Tiger military spokesman warned that any "Sri Lankan aggression, following the provocation, causing implications on the talks at this critical juncture, would have serious consequences."
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SLA intensifies deployment in Northern Front, curfew imposed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 05:59 GMT]
Amid reports of deployment of additional troops and military hardware in Northern Front, Sri Lanka Army, from Palaly military base, Sunday morning announced curfew in villages near Northern Front Forward Defence Line (FDLs). Meanwhile, Sri Lankan troopers engaged in a major training exercise throughout Saturday night in Palaly, Thondamanarau lagoon and Valalai area in Vadamaradchy sector of the Jaffna district. The SLA rehearsal comes following a sudden visit by Sri Lanka Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka to Palaly Saturday as Parties, the GoSL and LTTE delegations were engaged in talks in Geneva, Switzerland.


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No progress on Humanitarian issues, CFA- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 18:07 GMT]
First day of talks in Geneva between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers, focusing on the urgent humanitarian issues and the re-opening of A9 concluded without the parties agreeing to any measures to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the Tamil homeland, Liberation Tigers Political Head S.P Thamilchelvan told TamilNet.
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3 SLA troopers injured in Eluthumadduval, 1 killed in Vadamaradchy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 17:18 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers were injured in a claymore ambush on their military vehicle in a depopulated area between Nagarkovil and Eluthumadduval behind the Forward Defense Lines (FDL) Saturday morning, military sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, an SLA soldier was killed when unknown gunmen hurled a hand grenade at a sentry near Saraiyadi in Vadamaradchy along Point-Pedro - Jaffna road Saturday afternoon, sources said.
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Jaffna Rights Group records 379 disappearances

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 14:01 GMT]
379 cases of disappearance of young men and women have been registered at the offices of the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) from December 2005 until now, officials at the HRC said Saturday. The number represents only the disappearances where there are no details of the youths available, and does not include those who were released, or who were killed and their bodies recovered later, sources said.
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Geneva Talks II begins

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 10:37 GMT]
"Developments in Sri Lanka in the past months have seriously endangered the peace process," said Switzerland Foreign Affairs Deputy Head Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini who gave the opening address wishing the facilitator and the Parties better understanding, in Geneva Saturday. Stressing the need for "confidence in the Norwegian Government as facilitator seeking ways to lead the delegations to a better mutual understanding, confidence in the other Party as a partner with whom one can engage," Ms. Heidi Tagliavini said the International Community the recent developments in Sri Lanka have caused considerable concern within the International Community.
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Is Colombo ready for a paradigm shift, asks TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2006, 01:26 GMT]
A full scale war is unavoidable if the southern polity fails to timely demonstrate that it is ready for a paradigm shift in the approach to solving the Tamil national question, said Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Jeyanandamoorthy, speaking to TamilNet after meeting the LTTE delegation in Geneva Thursday.
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Rajapakse, Wickremesinghe meet prior to Geneva peace talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 09:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Friday morning met at Temple Trees in Colombo and discussed the issues related implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the UNP and monitoring MoU's progress, political sources in Colombo said.
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EU allocates Rs.667m to help displaced Sri Lankan Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 00:26 GMT]
The European Commission (EU) is concerned about the upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka from the beginning of 2006 that directly affects thousands of civilians in the island, said the report of Louis Michel, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Activities, read by Julian Wilson Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, at a press briefing held Wednesday around 11:00 a.m at the EU office in Colombo.


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FMM condemns burning of 10,000 copies of Virakesari

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 09:39 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM)- Sri Lanka condemned the burning 10,000 copies of the Tamil daily Virakesari, and Metro News near Kiran Regional Secretariat 22nd Monday around 3:50 a.m. by paramilitary cadres alleged to be belonging Karuna group, in a statement released Wednesday in Colombo, political sources in Colombo said. Earlier in August, paramilitaries collaborating with the SLA threatened the owner of Surena Travels not to deliver to Muruges and Son Stores, Sudaroli and Thinakural news papers.


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NorthEast shuts down against de-merger

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 07:38 GMT]
The entire districts of NorthEast Wednesday came to a standstill following a shut down protest expressing Tamil opposition to Colombo's move to de-merge the NorthEast. Very few vehicles plied the streets, shops remained closed, businesses and private institutions remained closed and the Tamil towns in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna were deserted, despite the threats by the SLA and paramilitaries.
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