"Can trust only when Joint Mechanism comes" - Col. Bhanu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 08:39 GMT]
“We can talk about having faith in this process only when the Joint Mechanism for Tsunami Reconstruction is implemented. The suffering of Tamils and Muslims who were affected by the Tsunami in Batticaloa/Amparai is immense. Some of them say they should have died in the Tsunami than face the privations to which they are subjected today as refugees. We explained to the Norwegians the urgent need for a joint mechanism to help these people”, said Col. Bhanu, special commander of LTTE’s armed forces in Batticaloa/Amparai, speaking to journalists after meeting Mr. Eric Solheim, special Norwegian peace envoy who visited Batticaloa Tuesday.
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Polannaruwa magistrate visits Karuna Group / ENDLF camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 13:31 GMT]
Acting magistrate for Polannaruwa visited the place where the Karuna Group/ENDLF camps were attacked in the early hours of Friday morning. She inspected the five bodies, including that of a man identified as 'Vijayan', which were in huts in Vannaanthuraiyadi in the general area of Aralanganwila. However Informed sources in Sorivil said there were nine bodies in Vannaanthuraiyadi early Friday morning. Police said the attackers got away. ENDLF is a paramilitary based in South India.
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Nine killed in attack on paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 02:22 GMT]
At least nine were killed in an attack on the camps of a paramilitary group in Sorivil in the Welikanda area, 80 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa Thursday morning, civilians in the area said. "We can neither confirm nor deny the reports of the attack", a senior military officer in the east said. The bodies of nine paramilitary cadres who were killed in the assault were lying near a river in Sorivil (Soruwila in Sinhala), an interior village in the Polannaruwa district. The ENDLF/Karuna Group set up five camps in the area recently, according to civilians in the area. Three paramilitary camps in Vannathuraiyadi near Sorivil were attacked. The other camps had supplies, according to villagers.
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Man shot in Batticaloa suburb

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 April 2005, 11:17 GMT]
A man was shot and critically injured in Thiraimadu Colony, an outer suburb of Batticaloa town Tuesday close to midnight, Police said. He was identified as Mr. Selvamani Yogeswaran, 36. ‘The cause for the shooting is not clear but could be paramilitary related’, according to Police sources in Batticaloa. Two men who went to his house Tuesday night had called Mr. Selvamani out and shot him.
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SLMM official: ‘Government must disarm Karuna Group’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 17:03 GMT]
The Sunday Times this week published transcripts from the Presidential Commission into the killings of LTTE officials and supporters in Sri Lanka’s restive east, in which the head of the international ceasefire monitors in Batticaloa, Mr. Steen Joergensen, confirmed the presence of anti-LTTE paramilitaries in government-held areas. However, the Sri Lanka Army's senior most officer in Batticaloa, Brigadier Laksiri Amaratunge, denied the charge.
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Truce monitors saw Karuna cadres in Army area - report

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 18:02 GMT]
The head of the international ceasefire monitors supervising Sri Lanka’s three year old ceasefire told a President Commission investigating deadly attacks on members and supporters LTTE that cadres of an anti-LTTE paramilitary group had been seen operating in a government-held area, a Reuters report said Friday.
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Two paramilitary cadres shot in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 07:51 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on two paramilitary cadres in Nagar Iluppaikulam, about 8 kilometres southwest of Vavuniya, Friday around 12.30 p.m. One of them was admitted Vavuniya hospital with five gun shot wounds. The other is missing, Police said. Both are cadres of the EPRLF (Varathar Group), a paramilitary that operates with Sri Lankan armed forces in the island's northeast.
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Ex-Razeek Group cadre shot dead in Kattankudy

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 05:21 GMT]
An ex member of the Razeek Group was gunned down by an unidentified gunman in Kattankudy, 5 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Friday morning around 7 a.m. The man was traveling in a bus from Batticaloa to Kalmunai when he was shot dead with a 9 mm pistol, Kattankudy Police said. Many cadres of the paramilitary Razeek Group were absorbed regular soldiers into the Sri Lanka army’s National Guard Battalion since 2000. Others work as informants with the Sri Lanka military intelligence.
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Ex EPRLF cadre gunned down in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2005, 13:49 GMT]
An ex cadre of the EPRLF was shot dead in Akkaraipattu, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Tuesday around 5.30 p.m., Police said. He was cycling on the Akkaraipattu-Saahamam road when he was gunned down by an unidentified person. EPRLF is a paramilitary that operates with the Sri Lankan armed forces.
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EPDP cadre shot dead in Kommathurai

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 17:41 GMT]
A person believed to be close to the EPDP was shot dead in Kommathurai, 17 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Friday evening around 6.30 by unidentified gunmen. The man identified as Mr. Puththirasihamani Kuhathasan, 23, was walking along Uma Mill Road in Kommathurai when he was gunned down, Police said. Kommathurai is a village garrisoned by the Sri Lanka army.
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LTTE delegation in Finland, meets with Foreign Minister and Åland representative

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 March 2005, 23:54 GMT]
"The Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) was supposed to bring normalcy. But, under the pretext of High Security Zones (HSZ), Tamil people were denied of access to their homes. The war-displaced people were then heavily struck by the tsunami that multiplied the hardships. The delay in institutionalising a Joint Mechanism and the continued Sri Lankan military support to paramilitary operatives in violation to the CFA clause 1.8 have created a collective sense of frustration in the minds of the Tamil People," Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, LTTE's Political Head explained to Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, who received the LTTE delegation in Helsinki on Wednesday.
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Gunmen fire on EPDP van, Policeman injured

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 March 2005, 11:59 GMT]
A Police sergeant was wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the van in which he was traveling with a group of EPDP cadres Wednesday afternoon in Aarumuhaththaan Kudiyiruppu, 12 kilomertres north of Batticaloa. The van was damaged in the firing but the six EPDP cadres in the vehicle escaped unhurt, Police said. EPDP is a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and operates as a paramilitary with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the northeast. The EPDP cadres were returning from Batticaloa to their camp in the Kommathurai Sri Lanka army garrison.
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Suspected paramilitary cadres kill pedestrian

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 16:48 GMT]
Gunmen suspected to be members of a paramilitary group shot dead a man Sunday evening around 4.45 in Chenkalady, 16 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Police said. The gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on Mr. Nadarajah Supenthiran, 26 of Kannankudah, an LTTE held village 6 kilometres west of Batticaloa town, at point blank range when he was walking down Kanapathipillai Road in Chenkalady, Eravur Police said.
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Sri Lanka army SF suspected in murder of civilians – LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Two civilians were knifed to death Saturday night in the Kudumbimalai area, about forty kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers said. “We strongly suspect the hand of Sri Lanka army Special Forces in the murder. Evidence points in that direction. The two men were persons who had volunteered from the Sithaandy village to help us stop the plunder of sand and timber from their area”, he said. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed Sunday that six were killed in clashes between LTTE troopers and a paramilitary group in Batticaloa on Saturday.
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Shooting in garrisoned village north of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 18:19 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot a person believed to have links with a paramilitary group in Kommathurai, 17 kilometres north of Batticaloa Thursday night around 8.20. The man escaped with gunshot injuries. His assailants had gone his house and shot him with a 9 mm pistol, according to Police. Most of Kommathurai is garrisoned by the Sri Lanka army.
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Three injured in predawn attack on paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 05:12 GMT]
Three paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group were wounded in a predawn attack by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Monday in Theevuchenai, an interior hamlet near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The wounded paramilitary cadres, including a man identified as ‘Mangalam Master’, were admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital Monday morning, Welikanda Police sources said. On Sunday, Sri Lanka army (SLA) spokesman denied a report in a Colombo weekend paper that the Karuna Group was running a camp in Theevuchenai, an area controlled by the SLA.
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Colombo paper exposes paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 10:55 GMT]
Colombo-based English newspaper, the Sunday Leader, in its latest edition, has exposed the presence of a paramilitary camp at Theevuchenai in the SLA-held area of the Polonnaruwa district. The paper said its reporters visited last week the village lying about 10 km north of the Harabarana-Valaichenai highway from Sevenapitiya.
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Paramilitary cadre shot in Batticaloa high security zone

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 15:42 GMT]
A paramilitary cadre was shot by an unidentified gunman in a high security neighbourhood of Batticaloa town Friday evening. The injured man, Mr. Jeyarajah Raju, 25, was rushed to Batticaloa Hospital, Police said. He is resident of Veechchukalmunai, a high security zone by the Sri Lanka Air Force base in Batticaloa. .
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Suspected paramilitary cadre shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2005, 02:10 GMT]
A person suspected to be a paramilitary cadre was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kaluthaavalai, 27 kilometres south of Batticaloa Tuesday night, Police said. The dead person was from Chenkalady, 16 kilometres north of Batticaloa, according to Kaluwanchikudi Inspector of Police (IP), Mr. K. M Samarakon.
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Crowds block Sri Lanka army garrisons in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2005, 06:06 GMT]
Crowds blocked Sri Lanka army (SLA) camps in Chavakachcheri with burning tires and logs Saturday in protest against the military for tear gassing and damaging property in the northern peninsula’s second largest town. Protestors stopped military traffic on the A9 highway through Chavakachcheri. Some set fire to two military sentry points in the town. Troubles erupted in this key town when a civilian was hit and wounded by a speeding Sri Lanka army vehicle Friday afternoon. SLA troops and Police tear gassed to disperse a crowd that tried to set fire to the vehicle. Two civilians were wounded Saturday afternoon when riot Police charged a restive crowd in Chavakachcheri.
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