Jaffna faces humanitarian catastrophe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Closure of A9, the only trunk road to Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka, more than 10 weeks ago, has halted the flow of essential food provisions, and medical supplies to Jaffna Peninsula, and if urgent steps are not taken, the residents will face severe humanitarian crisis, civil society leaders in Jaffna warned Monday. Jaffna residents face malnutrition and imminent starvation; and shortage of medical supplies and doctors, have wreaked havoc with the peninsula's fragile health care system, hospital and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) sources said.
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LTTE to focus humanitarian issues, CFA implementation in Geneva

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 06:37 GMT]
S.P. Thamilchelvan, the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers, before leaving Kilinochchi Tuesday morning, with Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar and the LTTE delegation, for talks in Geneva, told media that the Tigers were participating in the talks respecting the call by the International Community. "Agenda for the talks has not been worked out," Mr. Thamilchelvan said. "However, on our part, we have prepared to focus the urgent humanitarian crisis caused by the Sri Lankan state terrorism in the Tamil homeland," he told media adding that the Tigers were also prepared to focus the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement.
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Paramilitary cadres burn Tamil dailies in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:58 GMT]
Fifteen paramilitary cadres alleged to be belonging to Karuna group, stopped a private bus and a van transporting Tamil dailies Virakesari and Metro News from Colombo to Batticaloa and Amparai, near the Kiran Regional Secretariat, and set fire to the news papers in a compound opposite the Secretariat Monday around 3:50 a.m., civil sources from Kiran said.
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Ruling SLFP, opposition UNP sign MoU

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 October 2006, 08:04 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Monday signed a 10-clause Memorandum of Understanding to implement a four point common national agenda. The UNP, under the 2 year long MoU, said it would "extend support to the Government in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict while opposing terrorism in all its manifestations and upholding human rights."
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Aid workers' postmortem scheduled to begin this week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 12:42 GMT]
Postmortem examinations on eleven bodies of seventeen aid workers killed in Muttur in the first week of August exhumed and kept in Colombo police morgue would begin in the presence of Australian forensic experts who are expected before the end of this week, sources in Colombo said.
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US should support "confederal Sri Lanka"- Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2006, 12:16 GMT]
The Boston Globe, in an editorial appeared in the 22 October edition, said that Washington should prevail on Colombo to "withdraw its armed forces from the Tamil areas in the north of the island," and urge Colombo to open A9, to demonstrate Washington's seriousness towards advocating a "permanent peace that provides for Tamil self-government and human rights in a confederal Sri Lanka."
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US says backs Sri Lanka, urges talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 October 2006, 22:41 GMT]
As the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers prepare for their first face-to-face talks since February, the United States Saturday, whilst supporting the negotiations, threw its weight behind the Colombo government. "We have excellent relations with the government of Sri Lanka. I have met with President [Mahinda] Rajapakse. We are signaling our strong support for the government of Sri Lanka. We do not recognise Tamil Tigers and we don't support them,” Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told a round table of South Asian journalists.
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Rajapakse briefs JHU, UPFA allies on MoU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 October 2006, 16:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse in the capacity of the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) briefed the constituent parties of his United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and all monks party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) in two separate discussions held Saturday on the details of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the SLFP and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), political sources in Colombo said.


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3 abducted Tamils found shot to death in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 21:33 GMT]
Three Tamil residents in Colombo, abducted by unidentified persons driving a white van on Thursday, were found shot to death in Piliyandala and Ragama areas, Police sources said. People Vigilance Committee (PVC), a Committee comprising a number of political parties and civil right organizations in Colombo, in press release issued Friday said, nine Tamils have been killed and thirty-three have disappeared in the last few weeks in Colombo. The release added that nine persons have been released after paying ransom.
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Two SLN Dvora vessels damaged in sea clash - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 14:09 GMT]
Liberation Tigers officials in Kilinochchi said Sea Tigers retaliated a Sri Lanka Navy flotilla that launched an attack on Tiger vessels in the seas off Tiger territory in Nagarkovil. Sea Tigers chased the SLN flotilla towards Kudathanai in North. Two Dvora Fast Attack Crafts were damaged in the confrontation, they said.
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UNP leader meets Buddhist prelates over MoU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 22:06 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Thursday met with Mahanayaka Thera of Malwatte Chapter and Mahanayaka Thera of Asgiriya Chapter separately and briefed them about the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the two major political parties Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and UNP to forge a national consensus to identified six issues giving top priority to the ethnic conflict.
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US diplomat meets Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe, Hakim

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 16:19 GMT]
Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs Thursday held discussions with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. The discussions were centred on the proposed peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and on human rights situation in the country, diplomatic sources in Colombo said.
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Tigers, Norwegian facilitators agree on Geneva travel arrangements

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 14:31 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, after meeting Jon Hanssen-Bauer, the Norwegian special envoy to Sri Lanka peace process, in Kilinochchi Thursday, told media that the Tigers had given their consent to participate in the talks in Geneva, provided that the International Community, through Norwegian facilitators, guarantees a safe travel arrangement. Switzerland Ambassador also met the LTTE Political Head in Kilinochchi Thursday.
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US top official arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 08:52 GMT]
US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, arrived in Colombo Thursday around 9:50 a.m. on a two day visit. Mr. Boucher will discuss with the leaders of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) matters related to the peace process, human rights, and access to conflict areas, diplomatic sources said.
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Muttur aid workers' bodies exhumed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2006, 04:06 GMT]
The exhumation of fifteen bodies of the seventeen aid workers killed in Muttur town during the first week of August this year commenced Wednesday at four different cemeteries located in Trincomalee and its suburbs in the presence of Anuradhapura Magistrate, four judicial medical officers, and the representatives of the French based non-government organization Action against Hunger (ACF), civil society sources in Trincomalee said. Earlier two bodies of the aid workers were exhumed and sent to Colombo police morgue.
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Illiberal democracy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 16:08 GMT]
The electoral democracy in Sri Lanka, bolstered by regularly held "open, free and fair" elections, is often characterized as robust and vibrant by the international community. However, Sri Lanka has been plagued by decades of ethnic violence. Discriminatory legislation and a politicized judiciary have bred inequality, failed to deliver social justice, and have raised explosive issues related to sovereignty in the multi-cultural state. Reasons for Sri Lanka gaining increasing notoriety as a violator of international norms in human rights, and the State emerging as a killing field, can be traced to its polity's gradual, inexorable shift towards an illiberal democracy.
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Tigers ready for talks, Colombo should end offensives, air-strikes - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 10:08 GMT]
"Colombo drew first blood, launching major offensives and air-strikes into our territory in Vaharai, and in Vanni mainland, even after we made it clear that we were serious about the talks in Geneva, extending our full support and providing necessary assurances following the call by the International Community to engage in talks and cease all violence," LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan told TamilNet after meeting Japanese delegation headed by Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi at the LTTE Political Head Quarters in Kilinochchi Wednesday. Tigers are prepared for talks in Geneva, Mr. Thamilchelvan said.
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Passengers injured, vehicles damaged at Habarana

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 07:42 GMT]
Vehicles along key roads leading to Trincomalee and Batticaloa have come under attack by Sinhala gangs in Habarana area where more than one hundred Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel were killed in a bomb attack on Monday afternoon, civil society sources said. Gangs have hurled stones at vehicles belonging to Tamils and Muslims, sources added.


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Naval base in Galle attacked, mob riots in port city

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 03:25 GMT]
A 15-member attack team in five vessels entered the Sri Lankan naval base Dakshina, in the southern most port city Galle attacking four Sri Lankan naval vessels and installations. At least three explosive laden attack vessels, attacked naval crafts including a ship, and destroyed a Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and two water jet inshore patrol vessels anchored in the port base around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, according to informed defense correspondents in Colombo. Sinhala mob looted around 20 shops owned by Tamils in the JVP stronghold port city.
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U.S. Assistant Secretary Boucher to visit Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 12:45 GMT]
Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka Thursday and Friday in Support of Peace Talks, U.S. Embassy in Colombo said in a press release issued on Tuesday. Mr. Richard Boucher will meet with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Mangala Samaraweera, civil society leaders, NGOs and will travel to Trincomalee to meet with local government officials and civic leaders, according to the U.S. Embassy. This is the second visit by Mr. Richard Boucher to Sri Lanka this year.
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