Mannar hospital staff protest against SLA presence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 11:25 GMT]
Nearly 250 employees including few medical officers Tuesday morning staged a walkout in protest demanding the withdrawal of State armed forces from the premises of the Mannar district hospital and to stop soldiers visiting the wards of the hospital with arms and other weapons. The protest was held from about 10 a.m. till 11 a.m., sources in Mannar said.
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Mannar residents struggle to get petrol

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 03:06 GMT]
Petrol station run by Manthai West Multi Purpose Co-operative Society is surrounded by camps and sentry points of the State armed forces and residents of Mannar town fear going to the station. This petrol station located at the entrance to the town serves a population of about forty thousand and about two thousand vehicles with fuel for domestic, agricultural and fishing and transport purposes, civil sources said.


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SLA trooper killed in Mannar grenade attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 17:36 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was killed Monday night around 8.50 p.m. when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at a sentry located in the premises of Mannar General Hospital, sources in Mannar said. A combined camp of the SLA and Sri Lanka Navy is located close to the Balamurugan Temple in the hospital premises, police sources said.


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SLN sexually harrassed women, beat men in Pesalai- NESHOR

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers forced women to sit on the hot sand with their face to the sand, "asked crude sexually motivated questions and dropped their trousers in front of the women," and beat all 42 men, nine of them severely, said North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESHOR) in a case report issued Saturday on the revenge attack by the SLN on residents of "Hundred House Scheme" in Pesalai following the claymore attack on SLN convoy which killed thirteen soldiers on 23rd December.
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Claymore remote detonation device found in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 15:29 GMT]
A remote control device and several parts of an equipment needed to detonate a claymore mine were found in a parcel abandoned near the Pesalai Peripheral OPD Unit Saturday morning around 9.30 a.m., sources in Mannar said. A minor employee of the Pesalai Peripheral Unit (PPU) OPD immediately brought to the notice of the medical officer in charge of that time after he found the parcel in the premises of the PPU, Police sources said. The medical officer promptly conveyed the message to the Mannar Bishop through Pesalai Parish Priest Rev.Fr.Vincent Patrick who informed the Police of the whereabouts of the parcel.


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24 Mannar Tamils seek refuge in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 12:39 GMT]
A group of twenty four Tamils including nine children from Selvapuram and Olathoduvai in Mannar district reached Rameswaram coast in Ramanathapuram Thursday, a daily in Tamil Nadu said. The influx has begun after a lapse of three years and refugees said threat of war, and harassment by the Sri Lanka armed forces after the recent attack on Sri Lanka Navy as the reasons for deciding to leave Sri Lanka shores, the paper said.
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Fisher families flee back to Vankalai following SLN threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:55 GMT]
About two hundred fisher families, residing in Siruthoppu near Pesalai since 1980, have returned to Vankalai about 20 km off Mannar town following intimidation and threats by sailors of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), civil society sources said. They took their fibreglass fishing boats and nets and other fishing gear in tractors and available means of transport. A SLN camp is located close to Siruthoppu, which is also called Vankalaipaddu since these fisher families arrived from proper Vankalai village twenty-five years ago, sources said.
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Nine SLN sailors killed, 10 wounded in Claymore blast in Chettikulam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 10:48 GMT]
Nine Sri Lanka Navy sailors were killed and ten wounded when their bus hit a Claymore mine in Chettikulam Thursday evening around 4:20 p.m., Sri Lankan naval sources said. The attack took place on Madawachi - Mannar Road. A Sinhala home guard was reported killed and a Muslim youth was wounded in SLN gunfire following the attack. Sri Lanka Army soldiers who cordoned off and searched the area have attacked civilian residents in Veerapuram village located close to the site of explosion. Tension prevails in the area, civilian sources said.
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Explosives found in bus, Murunkan Police detains driver, passengers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2006, 14:49 GMT]
The Murunkan Police on Friday morning around 4.40 a.m. detected explosives in a Mannar bound bus that left Colombo Thursday night and arrested five persons including the driver and the conductor of the bus. The explosives were discovered during an inspection at the checkpoint in Kaddaiadampan, a village in the Mannar, Police said. The Murunkan Police served three-day detention order on the driver who is a Sinhalese, conductor and three passengers for further investigation, legal sources said.


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SLA arrests 10 youths in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 18:22 GMT]
Ten youths, nine tamils and a muslim, were arrested in Uppukulam, in the northwestern district of Mannar during a joint house-to-house search by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police, Friday. The operation began around 6.30 a.m. and lasted till noon, sources said.
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SLN bans fishing east, west of KKS harbor

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 00:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Security Forces have banned fishing on seas east and west of Kankesanthurai Harbor High Security Zone (HSZ), stripping nearly six hundred fisher families from their livelihood, said K Thavaratnam, president of Jaffna District Consortium of Fisheries Unions. According to Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) officials the ban will be lifted only when violents incidents subside and Jaffna district returns to normalcy, Mr Thavaratnam further said.
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Claymore attack on SLA tractor in Vavuniya, 2 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2006, 07:23 GMT]
Two SLA soldiers were wounded in a Claymore attack on a SLA tractor at Thevakulam, near Ichankulam northwest of Vavuniya around 9:45 a.m. Thursday. One SLA sergeant with serious wounds was rushed to Vavuniya Hospital, Police said. Seven soldiers were traveling in the tractor.
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SLA's Deep Penetration Unit responsible for Claymore attack - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 January 2006, 13:40 GMT]
LTTE's Political Head of Mannar District, Mr. Iniyavan, said Wednesday that there were two Claymore mines bound to a tree and wired to a triggering device operated a few meters away from the spot where LTTE Vavuniya West Political Co-ordinatar Major Jeyanthan was killed with a civilian supporter riding in a motorbike Tuesday. "A deep penetration unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is known to operate from the Iranai Illuppaikulam SLA base," Iniyavan told TamilNet after showing the site to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) members Wednesday morning. The Claymore explosion that claimed the life of Maj. Jeyanthan, took place 4 km near Chinnavalayankattu, 47 km east of Mannar.
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Mannar court remands Tamil youth

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2006, 18:26 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate Mr.N.M.M.Abdulla Tuesday ordered remand till January 4 for a Tamil youth, a resident of Mallawarayan-Kaddaiadampan in Mannar when Murunkan Police produced him on a report that he was taken into custody for possessing a number plate of the LTTE organization, legal sources said.


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LTTE official, civilian killed in Claymore attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2006, 12:43 GMT]
Major Jeyanthan, Liberation Tigers Vavuniya West area political head and a civilian, Mr. Vinotharan Thevarasa, were killed when a Claymore mine exploded hitting the motorbike in which they were riding in LTTE controlled area at Chinnavalaiyankattu, 45 km east of Mannar town, LTTE sources said. The Claymore mine was allegedly exploded by a group of Sri Lankan soldiers around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, according to the sources.
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Pararajasingham was at peace with his life's work- Balakumaran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2006, 00:01 GMT]
“The murder of rights advocates in churches and holy sanctuaries is a historical phenomenon. From El Salvador’s Archbishop Oscar Romero to our own Joseph Pararajasingam, their lives did not end with death. On the contrary, they become alive into the collective consciousness of their people for whom they have struggled," said V. Balakumaran, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) talking during his weekly address to LTTE radio "Pulikalin Kural (Tigers Voice)" Saturday.
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Mannar skeletons sent for forensic tests

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2006, 11:45 GMT]
Mr.N.M.M.Abdulla, Mannar Magistrate Monday allowed an application by the Mannar Police to send the partially burnt human skeletons recovered on 25 December from a burnt out house in the "100 House Project" for medical examination to Karapitya hospital in Galle district. The skeletons were recovered two days after the claymore mine attack on a bus carrying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers that took place on December 23 afternoon near the housing project in Pesalai, legal sources said.
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Mannar youth missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2006, 11:35 GMT]
Mr.Navaratnam Thiyogu Vasanthakumar, 25, who was taken away by three masked men on the 26 December night has not returned home yet, his wife, Ms Siromi, 23, mother of four year old girl Monday lodged a complaint with the Mannar Citizen Committee, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC), civil society sources said.
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Mannar Police interrogates, detains photographer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 December 2005, 16:44 GMT]
Mr.Thevarajah Kirubakaran, 29, father of one child and a photographer by profession, was taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on December 29 at the site where a claymore mine was recovered near the Mannar Bishop's House and is being detained in the Mannar Police Station for further investigations. SLN handed over Mr.Kirubakaran to the Mannar Police on December 30, human rights sources said.


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Two Mannar fishermen reported missing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 December 2005, 16:39 GMT]
Mr.Jeyaraj Terrance aged 25, father of two children and Mr.Sanmugam Govindan aged 36, both fishermen from Kitaspathiri, Pesalai in Mannar district have been reported missing since December 28, sources from Mannar said. According to complaints lodged with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Mannar and Mannar Citizen Committee by Ms Subashini (25), wife of Mr.Terrance and Ms. Shanmugavelu (56), mother of Mr.Govindan, both had gone for fishing in Mannar Sea in a fibreglass boat on December 28 but have not returned yet, sources said.
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