Clashes erupt off Point Pedro coast

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 15:33 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted between the Sea Tigers and the Sri Lanka Navy off the coast of Point Pedro, on the northern coast of Jaffna, Friday evening, sources in the peninsula said. Clashes in the seas off Manalkadu, in Vadamaradchi East, spread fled their houses.
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Sri Lanka military using "scorched earth policy" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 15:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army is deliberately razing Tamil villages to the ground as part of its military offensive against the LTTE in Muthur East region of Trincomalee. Through Norwegian facilitators, the LTTE has condemned in the "strongest possible terms Sri Lanka's 'scorched earth' policy of occupying Tamil civilian centers and rendering them uninhabitable," the LTTE's military spokesman, I. Ilanthirayan, said Friday.
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‘Coordinated, deliberate’ SLA campaign in LTTE areas - SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 14:05 GMT]
Amid the furore triggered by international truce monitors’ findings that Sri Lankan security forces carried out the massacre of 17 aid workers, other conclusions by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) lost focus, including the charge the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) carried out “deliberate, planned and coordinated offensive military operations” against LTTE cadres and civilians in LTTE-controlled areas from April 1, weeks after Norwegian facilitated talks in Geneva to de-escalate rising violence.
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Sri Lanka defiant over aid massacre charge

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 13:59 GMT]
Accused by international ceasefire monitors of being responsible for the massacre of 17 aid workers, Sri Lanka reacted with indignation, rejecting the findings and launching a blistering personal attack the outgoing head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Swedish Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricson. And whilst its senior representatives lambasted the SLMM, the Sri Lankan government slapped new restrictions on other international aid workers. Meanwhile, reflecting international reaction to the SLMM’s findings, the United Nations threatened to stop its agencies’ activities in the country, a warning it subsequently toned down.
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Sri Lanka's military conducting slow pogrom - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 10:36 GMT]
The deliberate displacement of over 160,000 Tamils by Sri Lankan military offensives and attacks this year combined with the purposeful blocking of food, medicine and relief supplies amounts to a 'slow pogrom' of the Tamils, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. "Whilst trotting out the tired counter-insurgency rhetoric of 'hearts and minds' and a glib insistence that Tigers, not Tamils, are the target, Sri Lanka's military has always been ready to punish the Tamils for the LTTE's violence," the paper said.
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One hundred Tamil civilians arrested in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 08:19 GMT]
About one hundred Tamil civilians were arrested Thursday in Vavuniya town in a combined cordon and search operation by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police. They were brought to Vavuniya Police Station and subjected to severe interrogation.
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SLA trooper killed in ambush, curfew re-imposed in Vadamaradchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2006, 04:55 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army Lance Corporal was killed and five troopers wounded in a Claymore blast when a group of SLA soldiers on a road clearing patrol were ambushed near Karaveddy Predeshiya Sabha (PS) office in Vadamaradchi, around 7:45 a.m., Friday. SLA announced over its radio that curfew has been re-imposed in Vadamaradchi sector from Friday noon and launched a cordon and search operation in Karaveddy. Several civilians were assaulted by the soldiers following the attack. Tension prevails in Vadamaradchi.
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SLA ban affects cultivation in LTTE held Batticaloa villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 23:55 GMT]
Cultivation of paddy in about fifty thousand acres and cash crop in around forty thousand acres in the LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district has been completely affected as the farmers are not allowed to enter the government controlled area to buy agro-chemicals, fertilizer for their crops and to purchase petroleum products for the use of tractors via SLA checkpoints located in Vavunativu, Chenkalady and Kiran Bridges and Vaharai road, pointed out Mr. P.Ariyanethran and Miss K.Thangeswary, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians at a conference held Thursday morning in the Batticaloa District Secretariat Auditorium.
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One soldier injured in Vadamaradchchi, Tamil youth shot dead in Kopay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 23:43 GMT]
Following a claymore explosion at Idaikkadu in Nelliyadi in Jaffna-Point Pedro Road Thursday soldiers manning the gateways to Vadamaradchchi, Vallai, Mulli in Kodikamam, and Aayam in Chavakachcheri road prevented the movement of about one thousand civilians for about three hours. SLA did not allow the movement of about hundred vehicles. One SLA sodleir was injured in the explosion.
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Army releases mutilated bodies, warns families

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 15:00 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army released the mutilated bodies of 16 Tamil youth in Vavuniya Wednesday, claiming they were Tamil Tiger cadres. The genitals of some of the youth had been hacked off and the faces of some bodies had been burnt off by acid, hospital sources said. The bodies of 10 youths have been claimed by their familes in Vavuniya, who said the youth had gone missing after leaving for work. The LTTE has accepted the bodies of the remaining six to see if they are those of 7 cadres who went missing on patrol earlier this week.
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LTTE seeks road supply to Jaffna civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 14:16 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are ready to allow food and medicine for the civilians in Jaffna to be transported by road through the Vanni, to ease the difficulties of the population there, LTTE officials told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Wednesday. Agreement on the use of a sea route to the peninsula is proving problematic as the Sri Lanka military is seeking to resupply its garrison there under the guise of aid for civilians, LTTE officials said.
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SLA refuses permission for NGO convoys to enter Batticaloa LTTE areas

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 11:19 GMT]
Mr.G.Nagarajah, President of the Consortium brought to the notice of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials in Batticaloa district that local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have suspended their services following the refusal by the security forces to allow food convoys to enter LTTE held areas through border check points on Wednesday.
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Seven Tamil civilians arrested in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 10:00 GMT]
Seven Tamil civilians were arrested Wednesday night during a combined cordon and search operation by SLA troops and Police along Vavuniya-Horowopottana road following the killing of a home guard by unidentified persons. The home guard was shot dead Wednesday evening.
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Fonseka vows to capture Sampur

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 09:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka vowed Thursday to take control of Tamil Tiger controlled Sampur in Trincomalee “within days” as a Sri Lankan military offensive against the enclave continued for the fourth day. “We have gone through half way and we will capture the whole area within a few more days,” Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told The Associated Press. Meanwhile aid workers alleged that Muslim families trying to escape the heavy fighting are being prevented from leaving by Sri Lankan security forces.
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SLAF bombs Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 07:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers dropped at least 3 bombs on the suburbs of Kilinochchi Thursday around 9:45 a.m. Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells hit 5 villages in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territory in Vanni for 6 hours from 3:00 a.m.
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IDPs face food and accommodation problems in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 07:45 GMT]
The Internally Displaced People (IDP) staying at the Palsenai Government Tamil Mixed School in Vaharai division in the LTTE controlled area in Batticaloa District have been facing food and accommodation problems, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Vaharai branch said on Wednesday.
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Jaffna students stranded in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 06:01 GMT]
About thirty Tamil students from Jaffna district who came to attend the All Ceylon English Day contest have been stranded in Colombo with out necessary transport arrangement. However the English Day contest was also cancelled due to the volatile security situation in the capital. These students arrived in Colombo before the war between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) broke out in the first week of August.
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Tamil man shot dead near Vavunatheevu SLA camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 22:14 GMT]
A Tamil man was shot dead by Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers near Vavunatheevu camp, 3 km. west of Batticaloa twon, at 7.35 a.m. Wednesday.
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Fisherman shot and hacked to death in Valaichchenai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 22:10 GMT]
A Tamil civilian Periyathamby Veluppillai, 27, a fisherman by profession and a father of two children of Kalmadu in Valaichchenai police area, was shot and hacked to death by soldiers of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and paramilitaries on Tuesday night around 8.00 p.m at Koraweli Road, Kannahipuram in Batticaloa district. He had been residing in 50 Housing Scheme in Kalmadu.
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Judicious political pressure saves journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 07:42 GMT]
Political pressure from Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP), parties allied with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, including the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the timely action by the top leadership of the Asian Broadcasting Coorperation to mobilise political pressure saved the life of Kuruparan Nadarajah, the Tamil news manager of Sooriyan FM, who was being interrogated after being abducted by the Special Counter-terrorism Unit of Sri Lankan military intelligence, sources said.
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