Colombo ‘in a military mindset’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2006, 13:50 GMT]
With Sri Lanka’s government refusing to disarm Army-backed paramilitaries whose ‘shadow war’ against the LTTE is spiralling into increasingly cycles of revenge killings, the Ceasefire Agreement is ‘falling apart,’ the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, said this week. Colombo’s support for the paramilitaries and the escalated repression against Tamil civilians in government-controlled areas of the Northeast means "we can safely assume that Rajapakse administration has not given up the military option," he told The Sunday Leader newspaper.
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Pre-planned element behind Trinco violence - fact finding report

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2006, 12:52 GMT]
The 15-minutes speed, with which the violence in Trincomalee town was triggered on 12th April, after a bomb explosion that killed five persons, indicate that there was an "element of pre-planning," said a report issued by Colombo based civil society representatives Friday. The report said over 20 civilians were killed, over 30 shops and 100 homes destroyed and more than 3000 persons are displaced seeking refuge in schools and places of worship in Trincomalee.
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Memorial for civilians killed in war opened in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 11:45 GMT]
"Innocent Tamils are being killed even now by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the paramilitary groups working with them. Erecting a monument in memory of the innocents alone is insufficient. Ending wanton killings is the need of the hour," said S. Thangan unveiling the plaque Wednesday, on the monument erected in remembrance of civilians killed by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the Indian Peace Keeping Force, at Kanthapuram junction in Akkarayan Kilinochchi district.


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EPDP cadre gunned down in Batticaloa market

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 04:58 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a senior paramilitary cadre of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) at Batticaloa public market around 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Batticaloa police said.
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Aussie TV exposes paramilitary presence in SLA controlled areas in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2006, 02:31 GMT]
Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Television’s Dateline program aired for the first time video footage from a training camp of paramilitaries from Karuna Group operating from Government controlled territory in Batticaloa. In the same program, Mr Gothabaya Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Defence and the brother of SL President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, denies any knowledge of existence of paramilitaries. Previously, Mr Gothabaya Rajapakse had claimed that Sri Lanka forces could win a war against Tigers with Karuna Group's support.
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Canada ban on LTTE brings war nearer - paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2006, 13:09 GMT]
By emboldening the hardliners in the Sri Lankan regime and the Sinhala nationalists who support it and, by destabilizing the balance of forces underpinning the peace process, proscriptions of the LTTE , such as Canada’s, are making war more, not less, likely, the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned Wednesday. “These forces will undoubtedly feel vindicated by the Canadian decision and take it, not unreasonably, as support for their uncompromising positions on the ethnic questions,” the expatriate fortnightly said.
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Paramilitary cadres gun down mason worker in Mavadivembu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 16:01 GMT]
Paramilitary gunmen shot and killed a 23-years old mason at Mavadivembu Monday evening around 6:30 p.m. at his mother's house while he was having a meal. Mavadivembu is located 22 km northwest of Batticaloa town.
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Three paramilitary cadres killed, one captured - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 06:03 GMT]
Three paramilitary cadres who were on a penetration mission into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled area in Pendukalsenai, west of Kiran in Batticaloa district, were killed when Tigers launched a counter-attack on the attack group, LTTE's Kudumbimalai area coordinator Oliyan told media Tuesday. One paramilitary cadre was captured by the LTTE.
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Youths shot, injured by gunmen in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 April 2006, 09:09 GMT]
Unidentified attackers riding in a van shot two youths in front of Karuvakerni school, 32 km north of Batticaloa town Monday around 9:45 a.m., Police said. Karuvakerni, a vilage on the outskirts of the Valaichenai town, has come under increased threats by paramilitary cadres.
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State orchestrated violence raises spectre of 1983 pogrom- TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2006, 01:26 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group in a scathing press release issued Friday accused the Sri Lanka Government of unleashing "State Terror" on Tamil speaking people with the intention of "ethnically cleansing" the Tamil dominated Trincomalee town
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Colombo attempts to force LTTE withdrawal from Peace Talks - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2006, 14:08 GMT]
Accusing the Sri Lanka Government of imposing impractical conditions as part of a deliberate attempt to force LTTE to withdraw from talks, Head of LTTE’s Political Division, S.P.Thamilchelvan said that recent one-sided actions by some members of the International community have encouraged Sri Lankan state to adopt a hardline stance and Sinhala extremists to unleash violence against Tamil community.
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Two LTTE cadres killed in paramilitary ambush in Vakaneri

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2006, 05:29 GMT]
Two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres were killed Thursday around 8:45 a.m. when paramilitary cadres launched an ambush with the support of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers inside the LTTE controlled Vakaneri, 40 km north of Batticaloa, LTTE officials in Batticaloa said. One of the cadres killed in the ambush was identified as Ithayaventhan.
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Three business owners, retired Police officer, shot dead in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 April 2006, 03:22 GMT]
A reputed jewellery shop owner from Chavakachcheri, a mini-tractor owner from Sarasalai and a tailor shop owner from Usan, Mirusuvil, were shot and killed in three shooting incidents, by suspected paramilitary cadres working with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence, civilian sources in Chavakacheri said. Families fearing reprisals from the Sri Lanka military in Jaffna peninsula have again started moving into safer areas inside the Liberation Tigers controlled territories, passing the Muhamalai checkpoint after the reports of serial killings in SLA controlled Thenmaradchi sector of Jaffna district Thursday.
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Paramilitary MI handler shot in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 16:20 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and seriously wounded a senior Sri Lanka Army Military Intelligence officer, Kumara, 38, and his Muslim associate Gajan Ali in front of a house the officer uses to visit frequently in Mancholai, 5 kiliometers away from Miravodai SLA camp around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The officer was an experienced paramilitary handler, according to Muslim villagers.
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Two paramilitary cadres shot, injured in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2006, 18:08 GMT]
Ajith, and another paramilitary cadre belonging to Karuna group were shot by unknown gunmen while they were travelling through Karuvaakerni towards Valaichenai at 6.30 p.m., Sunday, sources in Batticaloa said.
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SL President pledges to end violence of Tamil armed groups - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2006, 18:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse has assured the LTTE leadership, through the Norwegian facilitators, that he will do everything within his powers to implement the pledges given by the government at the first session of peace negotiations held in Geneva in February this year. The President has instructed the military authorities to take necessary action to disarm Tamil armed groups and to put an end to the violence perpetrated against the Tamil Tigers and their supporters in the government controlled areas in the northeast. The development was reported after a meeting between the Norweign Envoy Mr. Hanssen-Bauer and the Chief Negotiator of the LTTE Mr. Anton Balasingham Saturday.
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Tamil nation in deep grief over Vigneswaran slaying - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2006, 18:07 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, in a letter to the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, expressed shock over Trincomalee Tamil activist Vigneswaran's slaying and said that the killing, in the context of what is taking place on the ground, rendered Colombo's pledges in Geneva on curbing paramilitary activities "meaningless." Describing Vigneswaran's slaying as a part of Sri Lankan military's "planned killings of Tamil activists in a systematic manner," Thamilchelvan says that the GoSL and its law enforcing authorities could no longer plead ignorance of Tamil activists killings.
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LTTE cadre killed in Panichchankerni - Elilan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2006, 15:07 GMT]
A Liberation Tigers cadre, Lt. Arulanantham, was killed Wednesday evening by artillery fire from Sri Lanka Army position in Mankerni, Trincomalee District Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S. Elilan, said in a letter to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Thursday. The artillery fire was used by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) when the Tiger cadres counter attacked a group of 40 armed men who launched an attack on a LTTE sentry post in Panichchankerni. Two paramilitary cadres were wounded according to eyewitnesses in Kirimichchai on Wednesday.
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Families of abducted TRO staffers to meet Colombo press

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2006, 02:50 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) and the families of seven abducted humanitarian workers, during the past 6 weeks, report no progress despite reduced exposure to media following the messages received through "third parties" that the abducted would be released if TRO and the families "kept quiet and did not to speak to the media," a press release from the TRO said Wednesday. The organisation has called for a press conference Thursday.
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Two paramilitary cadres wounded in Panichchankerni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2006, 18:23 GMT]
Two Karuna Group paramilitary cadres were wounded in Panichchankerni, 60 km north of Batticaloa, Wednesday around 5:30 p.m., when Liberation Tigers launched a counter-attack on the paramilitary cadres penetrating into the Liberation Tigers controlled area, eyewitnesses said. A key paramilitary operative, Chooty, wounded in his stomach was transported to the Kirimichchai SLA camp in a motorbike which the withdrawing paramilitary cadres hijacked from a civilian traveller.
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