Sri Lanka's quick exit from Norway, a political blunder- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2006, 15:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka delegation left Thorbjørnrud Hotel in Jevnaker, Oslo, mid day Thursday, boycotting talks scheduled to continue until Friday, after being present at the talks venue for only half a day. "Sri Lanka displaying crass exhibitionism, has abandoned all norms of diplomatic protocol by disrespecting the efforts of Norwegian facilitators by making a quick exit from Norway. It is a major political blunder," said S.P.Thamilchelvan speaking to reporters at 4:00 p.m. Friday, sources from Norway said.
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Dispute over delegation makeup derails LTTE, GoSL meeting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 18:22 GMT]
Head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, met top Norwegian officials and the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for over an hour Thursday evening. Mr. Thamilchelvan told TamilNet that the LTTE had come to Oslo to discuss the future of the SLMM with Norway. However, although Head of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, S. Puleedevan, was prepared to meet his counterpart, Palitha Kohona, heading the Sri Lankan delegation, but as Colombo continued to insist senior members of the LTTE be included in LTTE delegation, the LTTE-GoSL meeting did not take place, Thamilchelvan said.
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Relatives of Negombo detainees protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 00:54 GMT]
Parents and relatives of nearly 250 detainees held in Negombo prison picketed outside the prison, Wednesday, protesting against the death of a Tamil woman detainee who died Monday due to lack of medical facilities, sources in Colombo said. The protest began at 9:30 a.m. and lasted till noon. Detainees are fasting inside the prison accusing the Sri Lanka Attorney General for violating their basic rights by holding them in custody for several months without filing any legal action against them, legal sources said.


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Claymore attack in Colombo, a covert act by Sri Lankan MI - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2006, 08:02 GMT]
"The Claymore attack in Colombo targeting a civilian bus Tuesday morning, is part of a Sri Lankan Military Intelligence (MI) designed covert programme to discredit the Tigers," LTTE's Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, charged Wednesday, when asked to comment on Sri Lankan reaction to the Claymore attack that targeted a civilian bus near Welisara Sri Lanka Navy camp Tuesday. The "covert programme" by the Sri Lankan MI also seeks to antogonize the Sinhala population against the Tamil people, Mr. Thamilchelvan further said from Norway's capital Oslo.
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Girl's death triggers prisoners' protest in Negombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2006, 19:17 GMT]
More than 250 Tamil youth and girls held in Negombo remand prison indefinitely, began a fast-to-death campaign inside the prison Monday, to protest against the death of a girl inmate who died Monday due to lack of medical facilities, sources from Negombo said. The protesting prisoners demanded they be produced in courts or be released on bail immediately, said sources from Negombo.
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Claymore blast in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2006, 01:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan military officials reported a Claymore explosion in SL capital Colombo, at Mahapage, 50 meters from the Welisara Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp in Ragama, on Colombo-Negombo Road, Tuesday morning around 4:45 a.m. A bus driver was wounded in the blast, which is the first claymore attack to be reported in Colombo.
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EU ban, one-sided and counterproductive - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 09:25 GMT]
The EU ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is "extremely harsh, unfair, untimely and one-sided unlike the Donor Co-chairs declaration," LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Ideologue, Mr. Anton Balasingham, has told the Colombo based weekly, The Sunday Times. It is a "misguided strategy," to assume that international proscriptions will "encourage" the penalised organisations to pursue the road maps and guidelines prescribed by the international actors, Mr. Balasingam said adding that the "anti-terrorist age," ban on the Tigers, ignoring the political context, historical background, was counterproductive and created serious obstacle to productive engagement.
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LTTE delegation leaves Kilinochchi for Oslo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 07:51 GMT]
A five member delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealm (LTTE) headed by its Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, left Kilinochchi Sunday to Oslo. Tamileelam Police Chief B. Nadesan, Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan accompanied Thamilchelvan with two others, sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Eight prisoners escape from Batticaloa jail

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 03:29 GMT]
Eight prisoners, many of them detained for more than a year without inquiries, broke out of Batticaloa jail, Sunday morning between 7:20 a.m and 7:30 a.m. One of the prisoners was pointing a handgun on the head of the security guard at the main entrance while the escapees got into an auto-rikshaw and fled from the high security area of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). SLA soldiers and the police launched a search operation in the area Sunday morning, sources from Batticaloa said.
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US: Tigers have ‘legitimate goals, unacceptable methods’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 00:48 GMT]
Reiterating the United States’ opposition to the Liberation Tigers’ use of arms, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, also said the US recognises the Tamils’ “legitimate desire … to govern themselves in their own homeland.” Furthermore, “they (Tigers) need to focus their vision on how to achieve their legitimate goals through a legitimate process of negotiation [rather than arms],” he said.


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SLA soldier killed in Manalaru

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 June 2006, 15:43 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and another injured in a Claymore mine attack while they were returning to their camp after a road clearing mission at Kokkuthoduvai in Manalaru (Weli Oya in Sinhala) on Saturday 12.30 p.m., military sources in Colombo said.
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EU ban ‘will radically transform’ Sri Lanka’s conflict - paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 June 2006, 12:40 GMT]
The European Union's decision to proscribe the Liberation Tigers "sends an unambiguous message to all Sri Lankans that, when all is said and done, President Mahinda Rajapakse is being backed by the international community against the LTTE," the Tamil Guardian newspaper said in its editorial this week. Amid a slide to war, the EU move has "left the Tamils isolated and confronting the Sri Lankan state" and this will thus "radically transform the long-term strategies of both protagonists," the paper argued.
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New world bank country director appointed for Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2006, 03:40 GMT]
Ms Naoko Ishii has been appointed as the Country Director, Sri Lanka, with effective from 5th June, a memorandum from the World Bank Vice President for South Asia region Praful Patel issued Tuesday said. Ms Ishii will be replacing Peter Harrold who has held the post for the customary 3-year posting extended by a year, world bank sources said.
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Sinhalese should unite to fight the Tigers- Monks Front

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2006, 01:41 GMT]
"Japanese peace envoy, Yasushi Akashi, has limited knowledge of the history of Sri Lanka and that is why he says Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers cannot defeat the Tigers. Interference of international community prevented as from prosecuting a full intensity war against the Tigers in the past. We should not betray our country for the sake of foreign aid," said Ven. Dambara Amila Thero, head of National Buddhist Monks Front, presiding a meeting convened at the Bandaranaiyake Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo Wednesday evening, sources in Colombo said.
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Sinhala goons flock to A11 road in Welikanda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 June 2006, 14:47 GMT]
Hundreds of armed Sinhala goons flocked to the A-11 road in Welikanda around 7:45 p.m. Thursday, after a protest against the presence of the paramilitary group camps and the massacre of 13 Sinhala workers on Monday in the village of Omadiyamadu, once used by the paramilitary Karuna group. Senior Police officer in Batticaloa, S.M. Keerigala, has requested the police stations to block the traffic along A11 till normalcy until normalcy returned to the area, Police sources said. The traffic between Colombo and Batticaloa remains cancelled and Welikanda remains tense.
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Two EPDP cadres shot dead in Vavuniya, official wounded in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 June 2006, 07:43 GMT]
Two EPDP cadres were shot and killed at Pandarikulam in Vavuniya Thursday morning, Vavuniya Police said. Meanwhile, media coordinator of the paramilitary group in Batticaloa, was wounded in a grenade explosion in Batticaloa EPPD office.
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Mannar, Jaffna Bishops meet SL President

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 May 2006, 11:46 GMT]
Rev. Fr. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar, and Rev. Fr. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna, met Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday in Colombo, and discussed the ground situation in the Northeast, sources in Colombo said.
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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 May 2006, 10:50 GMT]
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Richard A. Boucher, will visit Sri Lanka on June 1, 2006 after attending the meeting of Tokyo donors co-chairs group, a press release issued by the US Embassy in Colombo Tuesday said. Mr. Boucher will meet with Sri Lankan government officials and businessmen to discuss the current political and economic climate in the country, as well as review the state of bilateral relations, the release added.
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Sri Lankan Government must make dramatic political changes - Co-chairs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 May 2006, 09:05 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka must show that it will address the legitamate grievances of the Tamils and the Tamil Tigers must re-enter the negotiating process, renounce terrorism and violence, said Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference. Colombo must immediately prevent groups based in its territory from carrying out violence and acts of terrorism. It must protect the rights and security of Tamils, ensure violators are prosecuted and must show that it is ready to make the dramatic political changes to bring about a new system of governance. The international community will support such steps; failure to take such steps will diminish international support, said the strong worded statement.
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Peace activists rally in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 13:23 GMT]
More than one thousand peace activists from National Peace Council (NPC), representatives from its branches in all districts, and members from organizations that advocate, peace, democracy and human rights, belonging to all ethnic communities protested against the killing of innocents in a deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka that is leading towards war, at Lipton Circle Monday between 11:00 a.m. and 01:00 p.m, sources in Colombo said.
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