AI lauds UN Human Rights Committee ruling on missing Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 14:27 GMT]
Amnesty International welcomed the recent ruling by the UN Human Rights Committee in the first case from Sri Lanka submitted under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) concerning the “disappearance” of Thevarajah Sarma in favour of the relatives of the victim. The UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that the Government of Sri Lanka is responsible for the “disappearance” and is under an obligation to provide Thevarajah Sarma’s family with an effective remedy.
Full story >>

Gambling youth killed by suspected Islamic militants

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 06:23 GMT]
A Muslim youth was killed and three wounded when gunmen suspected to be militants of an Islamic fundamentalist group lobbed a grenade and opened fire on the four who were gambling in Saddam Hussein Village, a suburb of Eravur town, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday night around 11.30, Police said. An armed Islamic militant group has been active in Muslim towns and villages north of Batticaloa since early this year, warning Muslims against gambling, drinking, prostitution and un Islamic religious practices in local Mosques.
Full story >>

Thenmaradchchi IDPs demand army withdrawal from their houses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 14:32 GMT]
The Consortium of Thenmaradchchi Civil Organizations in Jaffna district Tuesday handed over a memorandum to the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) with copies to Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the Jaffna head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that it would launch a mass agitation bringing the civil administration and public transport system in Thenmaradchchi division to a halt if the houses and lands of internally displaced people (IDP) are not returned by the Sri Lanka Army.
Full story >>

SLA, LTTE to meet again in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 13:34 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa said Tuesday they will meet Sri Lankan armed forces again after a long gap on Friday 3 September. The decision was announced following a discussion between Col. Ramesh, special commander of LTTE forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai District and Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde, head of the Nordic monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Kokkaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
Full story >>

Destroyed major bridges in Jaffna to be renovated

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2004, 15:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army's Jaffna area commander Major General Sunil Tennekon at a conference held at the Jaffna district secretariat on Monday assured the civil authorities that the SLA would extend its support to renovate major bridges in Jaffna district. These bridges were destroyed in the war, civil sources said.
Full story >>

Estate youths seek greener pastures

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2004, 05:15 GMT]
Growing population of young adults within the community of plantation workers in hill country towns of Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Bandarawela and others see education as their best opportunity to break out of the miserable living conditions their parents endure. More are seeking lower-middle class employment in and out of their estates. "Out of the thirty staff running this show room, fifteen are children of plantation workers," said Malar Rani who attends to the stream of visitors inspecting the merchandize displayed at the Laboakellie tea estate, located 15 km north of Nuwara Eliya town.
Full story >>

SLA detains TNA MP at Omanthai checkpoint

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2004, 13:23 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning the Omanthai checkpoint in the Vanni region Friday detained Mr.M.K.Eelaventhan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) national list parliamentarian, and his family members for more than one and a half hours under the pretense of checking his family members' identities, sources said.
Full story >>

VVT celebrates revival of traditional temple festivals

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 08:38 GMT]
For sea faring residents and fishermen from the town of Valvettiturai located in the northern shores of Jaffna, temples dotting the town's landscape provide solace and protection from the dangers that accompany their trade. Boat festivals, where the elephant-faced god 'Ganapathi' is taken around the town in a boat shaped vehicle, are being celebrated with renewed cultural traditions, in the current climate of peace.
Full story >>

Jaffna displaced to file FR applications in Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 15:21 GMT]
About one hundred internally displaced families (IDP) who have been refused permission to resettle in their homes and do cultivation in their agricultural lands in high security zones in Valigamam north in Jaffna district are to file fundamental rights violation applications in the Supreme Court.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka Internet disruption said not caused by Indian ship

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Telecom Thursday decided to withdraw its case against the Indian ship accused of severing the island's main link to the Internet after conclusive evidence that the vessel had nothing to do with the damage caused to submarine fibre optic cable landing point last Saturday night. The Indian ship, MV State of Nagaland, was nine nautical miles away from the Mt. Lavinia Landing Point at the time of the incident, lawyers representing the vessel's owning company said.
Full story >>

SLA imposes restrictions on deepening fisheries jetties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 08:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has imposed new restriction on fisheries societies in the Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district on deepening about 21 fisheries jetties, said Valvettithurai (VVT) Fisheries Co-operative Society. The SLA said that it would deploy a group of 15 SLA soldiers to each fisheries jetty area to supervise the deepening work for security reasons, sources said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka's PM visits military frontline

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2004, 16:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha Tuesday visited the military frontlines of Weli Oya. He inspected defences on the Forward Defence Lines that separate areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in this disputed region in the southern corner of the Mullaithivu district. Prime Minister Rajapaksha spoke to Sri Lanka army officers and the Sinhala settlers in Weli Oya during his visit. SLA drove out Tamils from fourteen villages in this region overnight in 1984. GOSL then armed and settled Sinhala convicts here amidst SLA camps.
Full story >>

Jaffna court postpones Habeas Corpus inquiry

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2004, 02:04 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Judge, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharajah, Monday put off the inquiry into a Habeas Corpus application filed by the father of a disappeared youth, after being arrested by the Sri Lanka Army in 1997, for October 18 as the defense submitted that the accused, Lieutenant Colonel Mahindaretna of the Sri Lanka Army, has been warded in the military hospital for kidney operation, legal sources said.
Full story >>

SLA support to paramilitaries endangers integrity of the CFA - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2004, 09:03 GMT]
In a letter to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) regarding the recent killings of two LTTE members in Batticaloa, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan accused the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) of accommodating and encouraging the activities of armed groups and warned that it is a serious threat to normalcy and maintaining the integrity of the CFA.
Full story >>

SLA trooper injured in attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2004, 08:45 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was injured Monday noon when unidentified gunmen fired on a foot patrol on the A 15 coastal road in Kayankerni, 46 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldier, Private Saman Kumara, was wounded below the knee, SLA sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>

Colombo said considering alternative to Nordic truce mission

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2004, 06:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka' Deputy Minister of Defence, Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, said Monday that his government is thinking of either enhancing the powers of the Nordic truce monitoring mission in the island or finding a more effective alternative to it.
Full story >>

Muslim towns shut down to mourn slain Tiger

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2004, 04:17 GMT]
Muslim towns and villages in the Amparai district observed a total shut down Monday in mourning for 'Bawa', the senior Liberation Tiger who was killed in an ambush north of Batticaloa last Friday. Traffic on the coastal main road of the district was completely blocked beyond Kalmunai for the shut down (Hartal). Large crowds of Muslims thronged to pay their last respects to 'Bawa' when his body lay at the LTTE's political office in Kalmunai and later at the Ramakrishna Mission in Akkaraipattu on Sunday.
Full story >>

Internet crashes in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2004, 17:52 GMT]
The Internet connection to Sri Lanka crashed completey from late Saturday night following major damage to the submarine cable that connects the island to the global network. Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) sources said that the damage was caused by a ship and that it may take more than 24 hours to repair the cable.
Full story >>

Parcel bomb defused in Eravur

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 August 2004, 09:30 GMT]
A parcel bomb is found in front of a shop in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa was defused by the Sri Lanka army Sunday morning around 8, Police said. A shopkeeper in Iyankerni, a large Tamil neighbourhood of Eravur town, had found a suspicious parcel lying in front of his shop early morning.
Full story >>

Soldier injured in grenade attack in Batticaloa north

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 August 2004, 08:57 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was injured in a grenade attack in Mankerni, about 47 kilometres north of Batticaloa Saturday morning around 6.30 p.m. Police in the eastern town said. The soldier was riding a motorbike with another trooper when unidentified assailants lobbed a grenade at them. The second soldier was unhurt, Police said. Residents of the area, however, said that an army captain was also injured in the attack. He was identified as Captain Wijeratna of Sri Lanka army's 55-2 Brigade in Valaichenai. The trooper is private Tennekoon.
Full story >>