MP urges UN to persuade Colombo on safe-haven

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has urged Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to declare a safe-haven in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) besieged Vaharai region, for the protection of the civilians from artillery, multi-barrel rocket attacks, and aerial bombardment from the Sri Lankan forces. Government of Sri Lanka has earlier rejected the call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians in Vaharai.
Full story >>

SLA soldier killed in Vavuniya claymore attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:31 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and two wounded when a group of attackers triggered a claymore mine targeting a SLA vehicle in Pirappumadu, a predominant sinhala settlement, 11 km northeast of Vavuniya town, Thursday around 10:30 a.m., Vavuniya Police said.
Full story >>

Attacks against SLA in Jaffna continue

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 23:18 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade Tuesday around 7:30 p.m on the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post located near Arasady junction in Nallur, Jaffna, and in a separate incident Wednesday unidentified armed men opened fire on the SLA camp near Udupiddy junction in Vadamaradchi at 6:00 p.m, sources in Jaffna said. Information on SLA injuries are not available.


Full story >>

Outstation undergrads demand safe travel to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 23:16 GMT]
The special meeting, presided by the Jaffna University Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. K. Kumaravadivelu and attended by faculty heads and lecturers held Wednesday at Jaffna campus to explore ways to provide safe travel arrangements to the outstation students back to Jaffna, when the Jaffna University reopens January 22, ended without inconclusively, according to University sources. The Jaffna campus was closed indefinitely when clashes erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on August 11.
Full story >>

One killed, three injured, three missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 22:48 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a young woman around 7:00 a.m. Wednesday at Pt. Pedro, sources in Vadamaradchy said. In three other separate incidents in Jaffna three civilians were seriously injured in gunfire and knife attacks by unknown gunmen. Three youths were also reported missing in Kulappitty junction after being questioned by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers.
Full story >>

Kokupadaiyan villagers flee fearing air-strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 20:06 GMT]
The entire population of Kokupadaiyan village in Musali divisional secretariat division in Mannar district Wednesday sought refuge in adjacent villages due to fear following the aerial strike on Padahuthurai in Ilupakadaivai by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on Tuesday, sources in Mannar said. Kokupadaiyan village is located in the area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Ilupakadaivai fishing village is also located in the LTTE area.
Full story >>

Prices soar as stocks dwindle in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 12:24 GMT]
Prices of essentials such as fuel, food, medicine and other agricultural products have sky-rocketed in the Jaffna peninsula as remaining stocks have dwindled, despite assurances given by Maj. Gen. Chandarasiri Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander for Jaffna, to the Government Agent (GA) Jaffna Saturday at a meeting held in Kankesanthurai that there is sufficient stock of food and fuel, and that arrangements are being made to distribute them to residents across Jaffna, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

SLAF Kfir jets bomb Verugal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets bombed Verugal areas in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in Trincomalee district Wednesday around 10:00 a.m. SLAF claimed that identified LTTE targets were bombed. Casualty information was not released.
Full story >>

Vaharai residents celebrate New Year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 03:31 GMT]
The Federation of People's Organisations in Vaharai with the assistance of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), organised on the New Year day, a volleyball tournament, to bring cheer to the people remaining in besieged Vaharai, civil sources said. Some participating teams were formed from people displaced in August .
Full story >>

Jaffna education hit by A9 closure

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 02:19 GMT]
Scarcity of text books, writing implements, exercise books, and shortage of school uniform materials marked the dismal predicament of Jaffna students on the first school day as schools gates opened after New Year 2007, Tuesday, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Unlike their counterparts in the rest of Sri Lanka, students in Jaffna have been deprived of educational supplies due to closure of A9 highway by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
Full story >>

SLA launches artillery attack on LTTE territory in Vavunathivu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 12:22 GMT]
Soldiers from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Vavunathivu camp fired mortar and artillery shells from 5:10 a.m Tuesday on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas in Vavunathivu in Batticaloa, sources from Batticaloa said. SLA spokesperson Prasath Samarasinghe said the attack was retaliation to the LTTE artillery fire on Vavunathivu SLA camp areas from 5:45 a.m to 6:45 a.m Tuesday. He added that one SLA trooper was injured in the LTTE attack.
Full story >>

Two police officers seriously injured in claymore attack in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 09:23 GMT]
Unidentified persons triggered a claymore device Tuesday around 9:30 a.m at Thonikal area in Vavuniya, seriously injuring two police constables in an attack, targeting a police road patrol unit, Vavuniya police said. The injured were rushed to Vavuniya hospital first and then transferred to Anuradapura hospital for further treatment.


Full story >>

14 civilians killed, 35 wounded in aerial bombardment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 05:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force bombers Tuesday morning bombed more than 25 houses, killing at least 14 civilians, including 6 children, and seriously wounding 35 civilians at the coastal hamlet of Padahuthurai in Iluppaikadavai, 24 km northwest of Mannar town. Medical staff at two local hospitals in the area, Mulankavil and Pallamadu, were struggling to transport the seriously wounded, as an ambulance rushed from Mannar hospital, was blocked by Sri Lanka Army soldiers manning the Uyilankulam entry point.
Full story >>

UNP to submit fifth proposal to APRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 17:57 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) is expected to submit its own political proposals to the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) when it meets on January 8 in the parliamentary complex, political source in Colombo said. This is in response to a decision taken by the Experts Committee of the APRC on Thursday to stop all further discussions on its recommendations until all political parties participating in the APRC submit their political proposals to end the ethnic conflict.
Full story >>

3 attacks in Vadamaradchy stun SLA troops

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 16:23 GMT]
Three separate incidents of attacks on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers were reported from Vadamaradchy Monday. SLA foot patrols were attacked by unknown gunmen in Thikkam, and in Navindil in Vadamaradchy. In a third incident in a claymore attack in Inparutty, one SLA soldier was killed and four soldiers injured.
Full story >>

Battle for Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:35 GMT]
Vaharai, a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast, is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. More than 15,000 residents and IDPs are now trapped in Vaharai as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducts its brutal campaign to evict Tamils from the region, closing A-15 the main access road to the town, and imposing economic embargo, while Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfirs fly bombing raids terrorizing the civilians to flee. "They [LTTE] won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview Friday.
Full story >>

Claymore blast kills SLA soldier, injures another

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 08:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and another injured in a claymore mine attack at Naavalady in the coastal village of Inparuddy in Vadamaradchi north, on the Jaffna peninsula, around 7:30 a.m., Monday, SLA authorities said.


Full story >>

India, International community must act to deliver peace- Bishop

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 00:01 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam, the Bishop of Jaffna, in his New Year message, said that the International Community, in the dawn of the New Year, should, with India's active participation, positively assert itself with new vigor and put forward a just and fair solution to resolve the ethnic conflict. "This is the only New Year request I am placing in front of the International Community, when war clouds gather over Tamil areas, starvation threatens to engulf the Tamil people, spectre of infectious deceases spreading amidst shortage of medicines looms in the horizon, and fear and anxiety grips the Tamil people as they live day-to-day," the Bishop said.
Full story >>

Jaffna Campus to reopen 22 January

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2006, 13:14 GMT]
Jaffna University board of governors, at a meeting presided by the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kumaravadivel, decided to reopen the Campus on 22 January, administrators at Jaffna campus said. Sri Lanka Military Command has agreed to arrange sea transportation to the more than 800 out of district students to come back to the campus, officials added.


Full story >>

Curfew in Thenmaradchi continues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2006, 04:11 GMT]
The indefinite extension of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) curfew on Thenmaradchi from Thursday 9:00 p.m continued for more than 24 hours, causing untold difficulties to the residents of the area, confining them indoors, sources from Chavakacheri said. There had been no clashes or extraordinary circumstances calling for search operation in the area where the curfew is being imposed by the SLA, the sources added.
Full story >>