East elections, perversion of democracy, says Tamil Arasu Kadchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2008, 04:19 GMT]
Outlining the reasons for not participating in the forthcoming local elections in the east, a press release issued by Mavai Senathirajah, General Secretary, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) in Colombo Wednesday, said: TMVP, an armed paramilitary group which is aligning with the ruling party in the forthcoming elections is openly brandishing weapons and has a strong presence in Batticalo district. The release added that in this climate of fear, elections will be a perversion of democracy, and ITAK has decided not to participate.
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Paramilitary operative shot dead in Chengkaladi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2008, 13:47 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed a paramilitary personnel belonging to Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) Wednesday night 7:05 p.m. at Siththaa'ndi in Ea'raavoor police division in Batticaloa district.
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Abducted UPFA candidate released, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2008, 10:30 GMT]
A United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate abducted Friday from his house by unidentified armed men in a white van was released Saturday around 9:30 p.m after being severely assaulted, in a coconut plantation area in Mayilaampaavea’li in Ea’raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, sources said.
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Armed men abduct paramilitary UPFA candidate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2008, 08:05 GMT]
A man appointed by the TMVP paramilitary group to contest in Batticaloa Municipal Council Elections under the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ticket was abducted by unidentified armed men, around 10 p.m., Friday, Kaaththaankudi police said.
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Karuna implicates Gotabaya in false passport – report

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Tamil paramilitary leader Karuna (Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan) was sentenced Friday to nine months in prison for entering Britain on a Sri Lankan passport under a different name. Pleading guilty, Karuna had implicated the government of Sri Lanka and the defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of providing the travel documents including the diplomatic passport for him to enter the UK, the BBC Sinhala service reported.
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Paramilitary operative shot dead in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2008, 13:41 GMT]
An unidentified gunman shot and killed a operative of Karuna paramilitary, identified as Panneerchelvam, Friday noon at Aalaiyadiveampu in Akkaraippattu police division in Ampaa’rai district, Akkaraippattu police said. The victim was walking with a friend towards Karuna group camp when he was shot. The killer, following Panneerchelvam on foot, took his T-56 assault rifle and escaped from the site after gunning down the paramilitary operative.
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Youth shot dead by paramilitary in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2008, 15:19 GMT]
A youth about to participate in a cricket tournament was shot and killed Sunday morning 11:00 a.m. in Mausoor Mowlana playgrounds, Maruthamunai within Kalmunai police division in Ampaa'rai district.
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Norwegian Tamils march against abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 21:56 GMT]
Abrogation of the CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka has removed the only reporting body of human rights and humanitarian law violations that take place in Sri Lanka, said K. Sivapalan, a senior attorney-at-law from Trincomalee, addressing four hundred participants, mainly members of the Tamil diaspora, who participated in a march carrying torches towards the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, expressing solidarity with the Tamils in the homeland Wednesday evening.
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British Group urges Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 12:21 GMT]
British Tamil Forum (BTF), an umbrella community organization, in a press conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Central London to coincide with the Thai Pongal day Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. urged Tamils to boycott Sri Lankan Airlines, Sri Lanka's national carrier, claiming that its profits fund Colombo's war against Tamils. Ivan Pedropillai, chairing the meeting said, the abrogation of the CFA by the government of Sri Lanka is a precursor to an "unfettered and all out war on the Tamils living in the North of Sri Lanka. The Tamils from Sri Lanka cannot and will not continue to pay in Foreign Exchange for this deplorable war upon their own kith and kin."
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Muslims demonstrate against Pillaiyaan group in Aaraiyampathi

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 17:06 GMT]
Muslims in Eastern province observed total hartal Monday condemning paramilitary shooting on Muslims emerging from a Mosque in Karbala village in Aaraiyampathi Saturday evening, injuring three persons including a chief Mawlawi. The Muslim Mosques Federation in Kaaththaankudi had called for the hartal and more than 1000 people marched in a protest demonstration arranged by the federation.
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Abductees released, bus strike called off in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 January 2008, 10:35 GMT]
Paramilitary Pillayan Group that abducted a driver and two conductors, allegedly for criticizing the the group's activities in a private conversation at their working place, released the abductees Sunday evening after issuing stern warning against them, informed ex-militant sources in Batticaloa said. Employees at Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) depot in Batticaloa, called off the strike which was in force from early morning on Sunday.
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Paramilitary opens fire on Muslim worshippers at Mosque in Kaaththaankudi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 15:33 GMT]
Paramilitary gunmen from Pillayaan Group opened fire on Muslims who were emerging from a Mosque in Karbala village in Aaraiyampathi Saturday at 7:55 p.m. Three persons, including a chief Mawlawi were wounded, two of them were in critical state, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. Tension prevails in the village with longstanding settlement dispute between the Tamil and Muslim communities. Shops were closed and additional police and Special Task Force personnel have been rushed to the village, Police said.
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Mob smashes SLMC Hizbullah's vehicle in Vaazhaichcheanai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2008, 11:23 GMT]
An armed mob Saturday afternoon smashed the vehicle of M.L.A.M Hizbullah, a Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Executive Committee member and former minister when he went there to meet his party representatives for local election preparations as his party had decided to contest in five local councils. The SLMC has charged that the mob, linked to Muslim ministers aligned with the Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, was trained by the TMVP paramilitary group. Hizbullah has alleged that supporters of Ameer Ali, Sri Lankan minister of disaster relief services, were engaged in sabotaging the meeting he was conducting with the local Muslims.
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Residents catch paramilitary robbers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2008, 10:12 GMT]
Residents of Naavatkudaa area in Batticaloa district way laid and caught five members of the paramilitary Pillayaan group Tuesday around 8:00 p.m. as the paramilitary group was about to rob a house in the area, police said. Kanagaratnam Athiravan, one of the five caught, is the person in charge of Kalladi Pillayaan camp. The public got together and caught the robbers, who carried three T-56 type assault rifles with them, and handed the robbers with their rifles over to the Kaaththaankudi police.
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Family man seeks protection with HRC Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 17:20 GMT]
A family man from Navaali in Valikaamam sought protection with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Thursday as he was continuously threatened to death by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops and SLA-backed paramilitary men. The man was placed in the protective custody of Jaffna Prison. The number of civilians seeking protection with HRC is on the increase at an alarming rate.
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SLA in Jaffna disrupts mourning events for slain MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 16:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on Thursday forced shop owners in Jaffna city to keep their shops that were shut down to mourn the slain former Jaffna district parliamentarian T. Maheswaran, who was assassinated on New Year day allegedly by SLA-backed paramilitary men while he was worshiping in a Saiva temple in Colombo.
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2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
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Hartal for Maheswaran in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 05:58 GMT]
Vavuniyaa observed a day of mouring and a general shut down Thursday in protest against the killing of T. Maheswaran, the Tamil parilamentarian of the United National Party (UNP) in Jaffna on New Year day allegedly by Sri Lankan military intelligence backed paramilitary armed men.
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Colombo to annul CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2008, 15:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces as well as the Minister of Defence, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has decided to annul the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Sri Lankan Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela, has confirmed that a cabinet decision to withdraw from the CFA has been taken on Wednesday. But, he did not provide a date for the GoSL withdrawal. The February 2002 agreement, in its paragraph 4.4, specifies that the agreement shall remain in force until notice of termination is given by either Party to the Royal Norwegian Government.
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Maheswaran killing, disturbing erosion of democracy- FMM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2008, 12:50 GMT]
The Free Media Movement (FMM), a Colombo-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Tuesday, strongly condemned the assassination of United National Party (UNP) MP T. Maheswaran, and said the murder adds to the "incredible number of political killings and the suppression of those who seek to bring to light gross human rights abuses," in Sri Lanka, and FMM is "mindful that the Sri Lankan Police have been unable and unwilling to bring the killers of other high profile political figures."
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