Maharaja TV abductee released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2006, 09:22 GMT]
The IT employee of Maharajah TV who was abducted Friday morning was released Friday night around 10:30 in Wellawatte, Colombo. Sri Lanka Army Military Intelligence operatives blindfolded the abductee and questioned her about her previous engagement at Central Bank as IT consultant, informed sources said.
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Private air line employees abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2006, 07:24 GMT]
Three employees, including a woman Finance Director of the Aero Lanka Air Line have been abducted in Colombo by unidentified persons who came in a white coloured van on 22 August, according to a complaint lodged with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
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Second Jaffna evacuation planned - UK mission

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 11:06 GMT]
The British High Commission in Colombo said this week that a second evacuation from the Jaffna peninsula is being organized for foreign nationals and advised those wishing to leave to stay in close contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Government Agent (GA) in Jaffna "The evacuation is on a voluntary basis and while all reasonable efforts will be made to ensure the safety of any operation, evacuees should be aware of the risks involved with the evacuation process," the UK mission said.
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Maharaja TV employee abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 10:26 GMT]
A Tamil woman, employed in the computer section of the Maharaja Televion (MTV), was abducted Friday around 7:30 a.m. in Wellawatte, Colombo. Six armed men, riding in a white-van, abducted Thavarajah Thavamani, 26. More than 10 Tamil civilians, including three females, have been abducted in Colombo city and its suburbs during the past week alone, humanitarian sources said.
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SLA refuses permission for NGO convoys to enter Batticaloa LTTE areas

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 11:19 GMT]
Mr.G.Nagarajah, President of the Consortium brought to the notice of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials in Batticaloa district that local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have suspended their services following the refusal by the security forces to allow food convoys to enter LTTE held areas through border check points on Wednesday.
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Jaffna students stranded in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 06:01 GMT]
About thirty Tamil students from Jaffna district who came to attend the All Ceylon English Day contest have been stranded in Colombo with out necessary transport arrangement. However the English Day contest was also cancelled due to the volatile security situation in the capital. These students arrived in Colombo before the war between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) broke out in the first week of August.
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Abducted youth being trained in Polannaruwa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 11:05 GMT]
A number of youths from Amparai district abducted by Army-backed anti-LTTE paramilitaries are undergoing weapons training at military bases in Polannaruwa District, LTTE officials who met with the United Nations’ child agency, UNICEF, said this week. Many youth had been brazenly picked up by unmarked ‘white vans’ in Army-controlled parts of the eastern districts, they said, urging UNICEF to visit the training sites.
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Judicious political pressure saves journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 07:42 GMT]
Political pressure from Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP), parties allied with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, including the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the timely action by the top leadership of the Asian Broadcasting Coorperation to mobilise political pressure saved the life of Kuruparan Nadarajah, the Tamil news manager of Sooriyan FM, who was being interrogated after being abducted by the Special Counter-terrorism Unit of Sri Lankan military intelligence, sources said.
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Abducted Tamil journalist released

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 03:28 GMT]
Nadarajah Kuruparan, News Manager of Sooriyan FM Radio broadcast from Colombo, who was reported missing since Tuesday morning, was released in the early hours of of Wednesday. "I have returned home safely" said Kuruparan to his listners over the radio, with out elaborating further details about the abduction.
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Media Organizations demand release of abducted journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 12:51 GMT]
More than hundred journalists from print and electronic media demonstrated in front of in front of the Fort Railway Station, Colombo, condemning the abduction of Nadarajah Kuruparan, a veteran journalist and the News Manager of Suriyan FM Radio broadcast from Colombo, Tuesday noon.


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IFJ concerned for safety of news director Kuruparan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 09:24 GMT]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in a media release issued on Tuesday, said it was shocked by news of the disappearance Nadarajah Kuruparan, the news director of popular Tamil language radio station Sooriyan FM, whose car was found abandoned in Colombo only hours after he was seen leaving for work. Kuruparan's disappearance is "particularly worrying considering the current precarious climate in Sri Lanka," the IFJ President Christopher Warren said. "This is further evidence of the dangerous environment for journalists that has developed in Sri Lanka," IFJ president said.
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‘War not way to peace’ - India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 04:58 GMT]
As Sri Lanka’s military launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers this week, India re-iterated that war was not the way to resolve the island’s conflict. “We do not believe that war is the way out...We do not think violence, whether from LTTE's side or an armed conflict, can resolve any issue,” press reports quoted India’s Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran as saying in Delhi Monday. Meanwhile, The Hindu newspaper reported that, worried over the violence in Sri Lanka, peace-facilitator Norway and India “are engaged in quiet consultations to defuse the situation.”
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Tamil News Manager abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 02:50 GMT]
Nadarajah Kuruparan, News Manager of Sooriyan FM Radio broadcast from Colombo and the programme leader of popular weekly programme, Viluthukal, in Sooriyan FM, is reported missing since Tuesday morning around 4:30 a.m., Dehiwale Police said. Mr. Nadarajah Kuruparan, a senior Tamil news editor, was on his way to work in his car, when he was reported missing 300 meters away from his house, on Pinthali Road. Journalist associations and Free Media Movement in Colombo held an urgent protest calling for the release of Kuruparan in front of Colombo Fort Tuesday from 12:30 p.m. till 13:30 p.m.
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Only a phased peace process will work - Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2006, 06:10 GMT]
A lasting solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic question can only emerge out of a protracted peace process with interim agreements, rather than a quest for an up-front final solution, one of the country’s leading political scientists argued this week. "Protracted ethnic conflict always requires a protracted peace process. The peace process should [aim] for an interim settlement rather than a big-bang solution. We may have to go through a series of interim managements," said Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda, Head of Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo.
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76 Tamils arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2006, 05:27 GMT]
Seventy-six Tamils, including 8 women were arrested during a combined search operation by Sri Lankan Military troopers and Police in Colombo and its suburbs, Sunday. Road blocks were put up on main roads leading to Colombo centre and all vehicles were throughly checked, police said.
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ICRC ferry transports 150 passengers from Jaffna to Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 August 2006, 06:54 GMT]
A ferry, Seruwa, flying the flag of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) that left the port of Trincomalee Friday, is transporting 150 of aroud 5000 persons waiting for transport from Jaffna on Saturday. Foreign nationals from the International NGOs, except UN, ICRC, and a few other NGOs, are among the first to be transported from Jaffna, cut off by renewed fighting, sources at Jaffna District Secretariat said.
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Volunteer teachers hold protest march in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 22:39 GMT]
Batticaloa district volunteer teachers who have been on a hunger strike and picketing in front of the zonal education office on rotation basis for the last three weeks demanding permanent appointment held a protest procession Friday to draw the attention of religious leaders of all faiths, politicians, government officers in support of their demands. The agitation campaign, which was earlier called off following the announcement by Colombo, with the promise that interviews would take place between August 1 and August 8, resumed, as there was no interview letter issued by the Sri Lankan Education Ministry.
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Thamilchelvan thanks Nordic EU Members

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 13:37 GMT]
The outgoing Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Major General Ulf Henricsson and the newly appointed Acting Head of Mission, Major General Lars Johan Sølvberg, met Liberation Tigers Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi Friday evening. Mr. Thamilchelvan, on behalf of the LTTE leadership, thanked Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson for his courageous and determined efforts, at the risk of his own safety, to resolve the Maavilaru dispute and thanked the truce monitors of Nordic EU Member States for their "four and a half year profound service."
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3 Tamil youths abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 08:50 GMT]
Unidentified men riding in 3 cars abducted three Tamil youths in a lodge on Grandpass Street in Colombo 14, Wednesday, according to the employees at the lodge. The lodge owners have informed their relatives and police about the abduction. The abdoctors had claimed they were taking the youths for interrogation.


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STF kills 5 Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2006, 05:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) personnel who came from Navatkerny, a suburb of Batticaloa town, where an STF patrol was targeted in a grenade attack, shot and killed five Tamil youths in the nearby New Muhathuvaram Road Cemetery Junction, 3 km northeast of the town, Thursday night around 7:45 p.m. The killings were carried out by STF men as "revenge killings" for the grenade attack, civilian sources said. The STF has claimed that the killed persons were Tigers carrying weapons. Meanwhile, the STF trooper, wounded in the grenade attack at Navatkerny, later succumbed to his wounds when he was airlifted to Colombo hospital, medical sources said.
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