LTTE official killed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2006, 12:12 GMT]
An LTTE official, Major Kapilan, was killed and at least one cadre was wounded when Sri Lankan Intelligence operatives and paramilitary cadres ambushed a LTTE tractor in LTTE held area in Vadamunai near Welikande in Batticaloa-Polannaruwa border, Thursday around 9 a.m., LTTE sources in Batticaloa said. Sri Lanka Army's 23-1 Brigade camp in Welikande backed up the withdrawing ambush group with 5" mortar fire from their base, the sources added. Meanwhile, S.Puleedevan, the Director of LTTE's Peace Secretaraiat, speaking from Kilinochchi, condemned the attack on their cadres in the east and accused Colombo for playing "double game, betraying its pledge to cease the violent campaign."
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US joins Sri Lanka in Container Security, Megaports initiatives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2006, 11:48 GMT]
United States joined Government of Sri Lanka in inaugurating Container Security Initiative and Megaports Initiative Thursday, a press release from US embassy in Colombo said. The Megaports Initiative will deter possible terrorist acts involving the illicit shipment of radioactive and nuclear materials through the maritime shipping system.The Container Security Initiative will enhance global container security from the threat posed by terrorism and to promote the smooth movement of international trade, the release said.
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Ensure end of violence before talks - NPC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2006, 07:42 GMT]
National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Peace Group, in a press release issued on Thursday urged the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers to ensure that the present violence is ended. "It is only then that the decision to negotiate will become meaningful and a change of strategy will be demonstrated," the organisation said.
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Two UNP parliamentarians cross over

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 17:00 GMT]
Two senior opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians have crossed over to the SL Government. Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesighe on Monday has told Mr. Erik Solheim, the visiting Norwegian Peace Envoy, that he will withdraw his support for peace efforts if Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse tried to buy UNP members, sources in Colombo said.
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Journalist killed for reporting on paramilitary abuses- RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 18:23 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) in a press release issued Tuesday said that Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, a correspondent of the Tamil-language daily Sudar Oli was killed for writing about "abuses committed in his region by Tamil paramilitary groups," and that in Sri Lanka, "the impunity enjoyed by the instigators and perpetrators of these murders encourages more violence against the press."
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Intelligence Chief Zacky in Jaffna to step up campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) Brigadier Rizvy Zacky, a hardliner, has been recently posted as Brigadier General Staff Officer (GSO, Intelligence) at the Sri Lanka Army Head Quarters (SF HQ) Jaffna in a major reshuffle of the SLA and Intelligence apparatus. Execution-style killings of five students in Trincomalee and three women members of a family in Jaffna mark a stark change of pattern in the escalation of intensified serial killings of non-combatant civilians in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the NorthEast. The pattern of violence also marks the return of hardliners who seems to prefer terror to subdue a population.
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FMM condemns killing of Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 11:17 GMT]
Expressing shock and dismay at the killing of Tamil journalist Mr Sugirdharajan, the Free Media Movement (FMM) in a press release issued Tuesday in Colombo said, "It is time to put a complete stop to the impunity which has been the hallmark of attacks on the freedom of expression in this country and ensure that culprits are arrested and held account for their crimes."
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LTTE condemns Tamil journalist's killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 05:46 GMT]
Trincomalee district political section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tuesday condemned the killing of Mr.S.S.Rajan, Trincomalee correspondent of the Colombo based Tamil daily 'Sudar Oli'. "Para military groups collaborating with the Sri Lanka Army had committed this murder", LTTE accused in a statement released Tuesday, sources said.
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Tamil journalist shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 04:20 GMT]
Mr.S.S.Rajan, Trincomalee correspondent for "Sudar Oli," a Tamil daily published from Colombo was shot dead Tuesday morning around 6:00 by unidentified men close to his residence while waiting for transport to his workplace.
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LTTE, GoSL dialogue imperative for peace, says Burns

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 16:17 GMT]
"We hope that the LTTE will understand that it will have no relationship with my government and, indeed, no effective relationship with any country in this world as long as it seeks to redress its own grievances through the barrel of a gun. Now, we understand the Tamil community here has legitimate grievances, and legitimate issues that ought to be addressed by the government. And there out to be a dialogue, a better dialogue, between the government and the Tamil community," said US Undersecretary of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, in a press briefing in Colombo Monday.
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Solheim to meet LTTE leaders in Kilinochchi Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 12:20 GMT]
Norwegian Minister of International Development and peace envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, will be traveling to Kilinochchi on Wednesday to meet with the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources from Kilinochchi said.
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Solheim to Participate in the Opening Ceremonies of Buddhist Temples

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 11:28 GMT]
Norwegian Minister of International Development Mr. Erik Solheim will attend the Opening Ceremony, on 26 January, of two Buddhist temples damaged by the tsunami. The temples have been reconstructed with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a press release issued by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Monday.
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Balasingham arrives in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 06:23 GMT]
The Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Anton Balasingham, arrived in Kilinochchi Monday morning around 9:00 in a Sri Lankan Air Force Helicopter. Mr. Balasingham will hold consultations with the leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, Monday, regarding the current state of the peace process. Mr. Balasingham, who will assist the LTTE leader during the forthcoming meeting with the Norwegian Minister of International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim, is expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday, LTTE officials said.
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US Tamils question timing of Ambassador Lunstead's speech

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 00:41 GMT]
Questioning Ambassador Lunstead's "reckless exercise at a time of great risk to the peace process, and just a few days before Mr. Erik Solheim’s visit, which everyone was looking to as the only way of defusing an extremely dangerous situation," US Tamils, in a memorandum to Secretary of State, Dr Condoleezza Rice and to Mr Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, said they hoped that Mr. Burns, who will be in Sri Lanka during Mr. Solheim’s visit, "will clarify to everyone what US policy is at this critical time, and help revive the peace track."
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"Back to war"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 21:06 GMT]
"Unlike Indonesia Sri Lanka has failed to usher in peace. Every opportunity for rapprochement has been squandered after the Tsunami...The Sri Lankan government and the LTTE are steeped in mutual suspicion and contempt and will not arrive at any resolution on their own. A new heavy weight mediator must join Norway's Herculean but waning peacemaking efforts, one whom both parties can respect as an honest broker," said an independent analysis that appeared in the Sunday online edition of "The News" of Jang Group.
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Jaffna University undergrads continue boycott

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 15:48 GMT]
The Jaffna University administration is awaiting for response from the Colombo Education Ministry for its representation that undergrads are boycotting their classes since January 16 demanding assurance for students' security. University authorities said the administration couldn't provide security to undergrads, academic and non-academicals staff under the current ground situation.
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Balasingham to arrive in Kilinochchi on Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 15:13 GMT]
Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and his wife Adele Balasingham will arrive in Kilinochchi Monday morning between 9 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. and will be received by Head of LTTE Political Wing, S.P Thamilchelvan, LTTE officials in Kilinochchi said. A Norwegian Embassy official will accompany the Balasinghams in a Norwegian Embassy facilitated transport in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter, LTTE sources said.
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Speech damages credibility of US role in SL peace, say Tamil Americans

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 15:34 GMT]
Tamil Americans in a letter to United States Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Jeffrey Lunstead, commenting on the Ambassador's speech on 9 January, and his subsequent clarification of 17 January, expressed concern that "his partisan message has done immense damage to the peace process and to the credibility of US role in it."
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Tamil MPs telecom link to Kilinochchi severed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 13:19 GMT]
Charging that disconnection by the Sri Lanka Telecom authorities of the telephone connection between the Tamil MPs' parliamentary complex offices to Kilinochchi region was politically motivated, Jaffna district parliamentarian, S Gajendran, demanded in a letter to Speaker Mr M J M Lokkubandara that he should take immediate steps to restore the lines, parliamentary sources said.
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Retired Navy Chief of Staff appointed NorthEast Governor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 12:18 GMT]
Retired Rear Admiral Mohan Wijeyawickrema Friday assumed duties as the sixth Governor of the NorthEast Province at the sub-office of the Governor's Secretariat in Colombo. Mr Wijewickrema retired as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) prematurely as his seniority was overlooked when Ms Kumaratunge appointed Rear Admiral Vasantha Karanagoda as the Commander of the SLN in 2005. The new Governor is scheduled to pay his first official visit to the Secretariat located in Trincomalee facing the Trincomalee harbor next week, officials of the Secretariat said.
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