Sri Lanka continues to violate state obligations towards Tamils, say Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 00:20 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka not only failed to carry out proper investigations into the assasinations of reputed Tamil leaders, parliamentarians, journalists and activists, but it has also failed to take appropriate actions to prevent the recurrence of such crimes against the ordinary Tamil civilians, all four Tamil parties in the Lankan parliament charged in a joint memorandum sent to SL President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday. The joint statement was issued by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF) and Western Province Peoples' Front (WPPF) that jointly staged a protest campaign within the chambers of the Sri Lankan Parliament.
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"The Tamils are getting a lesson in realpolitik"

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 11:35 GMT]
The United States’ singling out of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the spiral of violence in Sri Lanka has undermined the neutrality of the Co-Chairs of the peace process and will fuel the military repression from which thousands of Tamils are fleeing, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. In an editorial titled ‘Interests, not values’ the expatriate newspaper also criticised the US for not supporting efforts to get investment and reconstruction assistance to the war-devastated northeast, whilst blaming the LTTE for the continuing dearth of funding for the region.


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Tamil businessman abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 10:17 GMT]
A Mannar businessman involved in dried fish trade was abducted by an unknown group who came in a white van Friday morning at 8 a.m. in Crow Island Modara, Colombo, sources in Colombo said.
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4 killed, 34 wounded in Claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 January 2006, 15:34 GMT]
Three police constables and a sixteen-year old boy were killed and 17 Sri Lanka Army soldiers, 9 policemen and 8 civilians, including a woman, were wounded in a Claymore attack at Thandavanveli in Batticaloa town around 4:55 p.m. Thursday, police said. Two vehicles, an SLA truck and a bus, carrying soldiers and policemen for a clearing operation were caught in the explosion. The wounded soldiers were airlifted to Polonnaruwa and Colombo hospitals. Around 20 T-56 rifles and ammunitions, blown away from the hands of the troopers in the powerful explosion, were recovered by the SLA soldiers who rushed to the site following the attack. Tension prevails in Batticaloa town.
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Mannar Sinhala medical officers demand security

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 16:15 GMT]
Ten Sinhalese medical officers working in the Mannar general hospital left for Colombo Tuesday evening stating that they would not return for work until their security is guaranteed. Their action follows the grenade attack on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry located in the premises of the hospital which killed a SLA soldier, health department sources said.
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JHU demands Colombo to stop Balasingham's visit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 11:30 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist party of Buddhist monks, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Wednesday demanded the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to stop the visit of Chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr.Anton Balasingham , to Killinochchi. Venerable Athuraliya Rathana Thera, parliamentary group leader of the JHU addressing a press briefing Wednesday in the parliamentary complex said the present government is also trying to hand over the sovereignty of the country to the LTTE in the cover of peace process, parliamentary sources said.
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TRO(USA) to hold tsunami anniversary fund raiser

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 01:49 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (USA) is holding its annual fund raiser at the cultural hall of Murugan Temple in Lanham, located 20 km north east of US capitol, Saturday. Voluntary contributions from families are earmarked for the Senthalir Illam in Mullaitivu where more than seventy children perished during the tsunami, organizers of the event said. Cultural events from local children will dominate the evening as a mark of respect for the Senthalir children.
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State terrorism rising in NorthEast, say Tamil MPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 15:31 GMT]
"Violence and terror unleashed by the State armed forces is on the increase in the North East province. Fifty Tamil civilians have been abducted in the Jaffna district within few months. From December 1 to January 12 the State armed forces and para military groups in Jaffna have killed thirty-one Tamil civilians. Forty-two Tamils have been killed in other districts of the province," said leaders of Tamil political parties addressing a press briefing after their protest in parliament Tuesday morning.


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Tamil MPs protest in parliament against killings in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 07:56 GMT]
Pandemonium prevailed in the Sri Lankan parliament Tuesday when it met for the first time in the new year 2006 following the protest held by parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF) and Western Province Peoples' Front (WPPF) against the killing of parliamentarian Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, rape and murder of a girl, Tharshini, in Pungudutivu, killing of five Tamil students in Trincomalee and several Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the paramilitary groups and the arbitrary arrests of Tamil civilians in Colombo, parliamentary sources said.
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Navy convoy attacked in Trinco, 2 civilians killed in retaliation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 06:19 GMT]
A cycle bomb placed along the Nilaveli-Trincomalee road near a bus depot hit a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) bus convoy carrying soldiers towards east port town at the third mile post junction Tuesday around 10:05 a.m. Sri Lanka troops fired in retaliation killing two Tamil civilians and injuring several Tamil civilians, four of them have been brought to Trincomalee general hospital. Initial reports said about eleven soldiers were seriously injured and are admitted to navy hospital, which is located inside the SLN eastern region headquarters in the east port town.
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TRO responds to media reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 12:37 GMT]
"The false allegations, complete fabrications, and twisting of facts reported in the articles are a weak attempt to malign the largest and most efficient NGO in the NorthEast. It appears that there is a coordinated malicious campaign by pro-government, anti-Tamil forces to malign TRO and the work that it performs. It is also disturbing that the increased levels of propaganda correspond to the diminished levels of peace discourse in Sri Lanka," said Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO registered with the Government of Sri Lanka, in a press release issued from Colombo Monday.
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Sinn Fein negotiator to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 11:09 GMT]
Mr Martin McGuinness, Chief Negotiator of Sinn Fein, the Political Wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from Northern Ireland will be visiting Sri Lanka from 17th to 19th January, a press release from Initiative for Political Transformation (INPAC) an NGO based in Colombo issued Monday said. Mr McGuinness is expected to meet leaders of political parties to share his experiences and "communicate his understanding of the issues affecting political, conflict, peace processes within the country [Sri Lanka]," the release added.
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Colombo security tightened after intelligence warning of attacks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2006, 17:56 GMT]
Security in Colombo and its suburbs has been strengthened following warning by government intelligence agencies warned of imminent "terrorist" attacks on government strategic installations. Additional Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) soldiers have been deployed at the Katunayake international airport, police sources said.
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Colombo not forthright in paramilitary issue- SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 January 2006, 01:59 GMT]
"The [Sri Lanka] government claimed that it had nothing to do with this [Karuna] group and was not aware of their existence. But when we visited the spot in the east and asked the Sri Lankan army where we could find Karuna, they told us where to go. So it was clear that the local army knew where he was," said Sunday Leader, a Colombo weekly, in the Sunday edition, quoting Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir as saying in an interview to the paper.
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LTTE condemns attack on SLMM office

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 14:19 GMT]
Expressing concern about the attack on the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) offices, and relief that no one was hurt in the attack, Head of the Liberation Tigers Political Wing, S P Thamilchelvan, in a letter to the Head of the SLMM, Mr Hagrup Haukland, Saturday said: "Our leadership views this attack as an attempt to wreck the ceasefire agreement. Our leadership also expresses the continued support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the SLMM to implement the ceasefire agreement in its fully intended meaning and to rectify the deteriorating ceasefire environment. "
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Governor to hold Conference on Trincomalee violence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 13:38 GMT]
North East Provincial Governor, Mr.Tyronne Fernando, has called for a conference to discuss the volatile situation in the Trincomalee district following frequent general shut down by rival parties. The conference earlier scheduled to be held on Thursday has now been advanced to Wednesday evening and will be held in Colombo, provincial council sources said.


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2 SLN troopers killed, 2 wounded in Kayts, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 08:39 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel was killed on the spot and three others were seriously injured in a roadside blast in Kayts, an island north-west of Jaffna town, around 1.30 p.m., Saturday. A wounded trooper, later succumbed to his wounds, naval sources in Colombo said. The naval troopers were on a road patrol in the area when the mine went off, according to military sources in the northern town.
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Disarm paramilitary, stop Claymore attacks - SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 10:59 GMT]
The Scandinavian truce monitors, who condemned the Claymore attack on Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Chettikulam on Thursday, have blamed the Government of Sri Lanka emphasizing that the current situation also stems from "the fact that alternative armed elements have been able to operate freely in the East" in Sri Lanka Army controlled areas. While urging Colombo to "face up to its responsibility" to disarm the paramilitaries, the truce monitors said that the LTTE involvement in Claymore attacks cannot be ruled out. The SLMM appealed to both the parties to come up with firm confidence building measures with the "truthful aim of reaching a peaceful solution."
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Senior Editor accuses SL President of issuing verbal threats

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 06:05 GMT]
Citing the complaint made by Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper Mr. Lasantha Wikramatunge to the Inspector General of Police alleging that President Mahinda Rajapaksa threatened him with abusive language over the telephone, Free Media Movement (FMM) in a press release issued in Colombo Friday said, the incident "serves as a sombre reminder of the insecure and dangerous situation that journalists in Sri Lanka has to face."
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Peace Group calls for urgent talks on CFA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Peace Support Group (PSG), a group consisting of civil society peace activists, expressed "deep sorrow and concern" at the escalation of violence in the NorthEast, reiterated the necessity to "return to direct talks as a matter of the utmost priority," and called upon the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers "to affirm their commitment to the maintenance of law and order in the areas under their control, and take all steps to prevent a return to armed hostilities," in a press release issued in Colombo Monday.
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