Global appeal for release of Vice Chancellor Raveendranath

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 15:11 GMT]
67 academics, colleagues, and partners of Eastern University, across country borders, Tuesday jointly urged for the safe release of Professor S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, who was reported missing Friday in Colombo's High Security area. In September, an unidentified armed group kidnapped the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Eastern University, demanding Professor Ravindranath's resignation in return for the Dean's release.
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Humanitarian situation worsens in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 13:30 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians continue to stay in temporary refugee camps at schools and surrounding houses in villages Kathiraveli, Vammivedduvan and Palchenai in Vaharai region amid acute shortage of food and humanitarian supplies, a local NGO official told TamilNet. Many families from Vaharai were forced to leave behind their grandparents who were unable to walk long distances.
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Ring tones remain dead in Jaffna mobile phones

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 01:09 GMT]
Officials of Dialog GSM and Mobitel, the two mobile telephone companies providing cellular telephone service in Jaffna Peninsula, denied widespread rumors Monday that the wireless service, disconnected in August, are to be restored soon, sources from Jaffna said.
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Battle for seats

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 23:27 GMT]
For the half million or so civilians in Jaffna, travel to a town outside the district has become an almost impossible endeavor. "This is the fourth day I am standing here in pouring rain and scorching sun to obtain tickets from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for a seat in their ship to travel to Colombo. We are standing close to where Jaffna Railway Station once stood. Getting out of Jaffna even for an emergency visit to Colombo has become a nightmare," says Sinnappu Rajadurai, 47, of Chankanai who stands in a line in front of the Sinhala Maha Vidyalayam in Jaffna.
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Reduced curfew hours bring little succor to Jaffna residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 20:09 GMT]
The reduction in curfew hours announced by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for Jaffna district brings little relief to the residents cut-off from rest of Sri Lanka, living with severe shortage of food and basic essentials, and gripped with fear of abduction by SLA and paramilitaries as part of the counter-insurgency campaign unleashed by Colombo, civil society sources from Jaffna said.
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Eastern University shuts down in protest against forced disappearance of VC

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 13:39 GMT]
Students and academic staff of the Eastern University in Vantharumoolai, 17km north of Batticaloa, have shut down the University in protest against the reported forced disappearance of their Vice Chancellor in High Security area in Colombo, Friday. Vice Chancellor Professor S. Raveendranath, a founder member of the EUSL, was forced to submit resignation of his post in October to the University Grant Commission (UGC), to secure the release the Dean of the Arts Faculty, Bala Sugumar, who was abducted by the paramilitary demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor. The resignation, pending approval by the UGC, had forced the VC to function from Colombo till he was reported disappeared.


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14,000 Civilians displaced from Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 00:37 GMT]
Nearly Fourteen thousand Tamil refugees have been displaced from LTTE-controlled Vaharai area in Batticaloa District towards the areas under the control of Sri Lankan Army (SLA), Koralai Pattu North (Vaharai), Regional secretariat sources reported on Sunday.
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Jaffna security arrangements add to Islets residents woes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2006, 16:48 GMT]
Recent relocation of Jaffna bus terminal to Pannai by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and overflow of traffic along outer peripheral roads due to reconfiguration of traffic flow including prohibition of parking, have created additional burdens to families from the islets entering and leaving Jaffna town, civil society leaders said. Restrictions of intra-islet travel, and of transport in interior land routes have added further hardships for the people in these areas.
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Red Cross hands over bodies of six LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2006, 11:15 GMT]
Batticaloa district ICRC handed over to M. Mathy, Karadiyanaru LTTE head of political wing, Friday around 11:00 a.m, bodies of six Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres killed in an ambush by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and its paramilitary troopers Wednesday at Miyankulam. The LTTE cadres, injured in an earlier battle, were being taken for treatment across the Colombo-Batticaloa road at Miyankulam, when they were ambushed, Batticaloa sources said. Miyankulam lies on the border between LTTE held area in Vaharai and SLA held areas.


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Seven civilians feared killed in SLA artillery attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 18:52 GMT]
Seven Internally Displaced civilians traveling from Kathiraveli to Vaharai in a two-wheel tractor were killed when an artillery shell fired by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) exploded on their vehicle at 5:00 pm Friday, injured passengers in the tractor told medical officials in Kathiraveli. The fellow passengers told the officials that they had to bury the dead before returning to Kathiraveli.


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Claymore mine diffused in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 15:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police, following a tip, recovered a powerful claymore mine weighing 2kg from Kandasamy Kovil Road in Vavuniya Saturday morning, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Eastern University Vice Chancellor reported missing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 05:41 GMT]
S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL), who was forced to resign his post recently following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group that abducted a Deen of the EUSL demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor, was reported missing since 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dehiwale Police in Colombo said. The VC was reported missing in High Security area in the Bauddhaloka mawatta.
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More IDPs arrive from Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 03:42 GMT]
Around 4000 people from nearly 1000 families from Vaharai area in the LTTE controlled Batticaloa district arrived to military controlled area on Thursday and Friday and the authorities made arrangements to house them in the villages of Mankerny, Vinayagapuram, Kiran, Chenkalady and Savukkady, S. Punniyamoorthy, the District Secretary of Batticaloa said.
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Declare Vaharai a safe zone ­-Trinco MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 00:23 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian for Trincomalee district, K. Thurairetnasingam, urged the International Community and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to convince the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), to demarcate a safe zone in Vaharai where thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDP) from Trincomalee district who had fled their homes due to SLA onslaught are currently trapped.
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INGOs strengthen security of Jaffna Offices

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 22:51 GMT]
Both International and local Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna are reinforcing security arrangements around their offices in the last two weeks due to violent incidents and abductions taking place close to their offices, sources in Jaffna said.
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Body with stab wounds found in Mirusuvil

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 15:38 GMT]
The body of a family man with stab wounds was found inside his house at Mirusuvil north, in an area close to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Front Defence Line (FDL) in Thenmaradchi north, by Kodikamam Police on information given by the dead man's neighbours. A motorcycle and another vehicle of the dead man had been stolen by the killers, the neighbours said.
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SLA shelling kills two civilians, injures three in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 12:22 GMT]
Kallaru Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Trincomalee launched shells Friday around 12:30 p.m on Kathiraveli civilian settlements in Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory killing two civilians and seriously injuring three, sources from Vaharai said.
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3 boats capsize, 14 feared dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 07:34 GMT]
Three of seven boats with Vahari Internally Displaced Persons leaving from Vaharai to Valaichenai Friday around 4:30 a.m capsized due to rough seas and overloading. Only two of the boats reached Valaichenai jetty safely while two boats are still missing. Five bodies were recovered near Valaichenai jetty where the third boat turned over and four persons including a 3 days old infant and a boy were saved. The first boat capsized within a short distance from Vaharai jetty at the start of the journey and the second boat drowned at mid sea between Vaharai and Valaichenai, sources from the region said.
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LTTE leader's condolence message on the demise of Anton Balasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 07:08 GMT]
LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan, bestowing the title of honour, Voice of the Nation, as a recognition for Anton Balasingham's service for the Tamil freedom movement, said: "There is a permanent place for Bala annai in the development and growth of our expanding movement. As elder statesman, as ideologue, as philosopher, above all as my intimate friend, he gave me inspiration and encouragement; gave advice and support. He shared my feelings and my burden. From the very inception of our movement he shared with me burdens of all the trials, tribulations, challenges and difficulties. He stood as the protagonist in the forefront of our political and diplomatic maneuvers."
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Anton Balasingham - The Times’ Obituary

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2006, 06:52 GMT]
In an obituary Friday, The Times of London described Mr. Anton Balasingham, the theoretician and chief negotiator of the LTTE who passed away Thursday, as “the one man the Tigers could trust with their destiny in what looked like being a breakthrough in talks.” At one stage in the Norwegian peace process, the British broadsheet noted, Mr. Balasingham had steered the Tigers away from their demand for independence. However, it said, “everybody underestimated the determination of hardcore Sinhalese organisations like the JVP and hardline Buddhist clergy to scuttle any deal that gave the Tamils even a hint of autonomy.”
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