Civilian killings soaring under Rajapakse - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2006, 19:26 GMT]
Pointing out that the killings of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan security forces and Army-backed paramilitary groups have shot up since President Mahinda Rajapakse assumed power last year, the Liberation Tigers said this week that in keeping with the agenda of Sinhala extremist forces, Rajapakse is determined to pursue the military option to the ethnic conflict. “All attempts by the LTTE to value, abide by and protect the CFA have been undermined by the military option pursued by the Rajapakse regime,” the LTTE said in a statement Monday.
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"Death Won't Deter Us," - Diaspora Tamils mark 83 Black July Genocide

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 July 2006, 09:28 GMT]
The 1983 Black July anti-Tamil pogroms in which more than 3000 Tamils were killed and billions of rupees worth of property were destroyed by Sinhala thugs, sections of Sri Lankan armed forces, and ruling UNP party cadres, fuelled the Tamil armed struggle towards a defensible Tamil homeland. Thousands of Tamils fled the island to Tamil Nadu state in India, Europe and elsewhere. The recent extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the NorthEast, during the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), have added significance to the widespread observance by the Tamil diaspora of the 23rd year remembrance of the anti-Tamil pogroms.
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SL President Rajapakse addresses APC, Expert panel

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2006, 09:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, Tuesday morning addressed All Party Representative Committee on Constitutional Reforms and the Panel of Experts at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, parliamentary sources in Colombo said. Without spellingout specifics Mr Rajapakse laid a broad framework for the APC to begin work, saying, "The international community, notably India and the Co-Chairs have endorsed our approach - a solution to the national problem must exclude any division of the country," and wished the committee success in "formulating a political and constitutional framework for the resolution of the national question."


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Two bodies exhumed from Kaithady site

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 11:54 GMT]
Two bodies that were suspected to be buried in Kaithady site were exhumed from the shallow grave near Kaithady bridge Thursday in decomposed state, civil society sources from Jaffna said. A wrist watch was found from one of the bodies. One body was recovered Wednesday near the site where the body of the disappeared Hindu priest was discovered by workers who went for sand mining in the area earlier this week.
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Body found buried in Kaithady

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2006, 17:13 GMT]
A body in decomposed state was found buried Wednesday near the site where the dead body of the Hindu priest was discovered in Kaithady a sub-division of Jaffna district which is under the full control of the 52nd division of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sources in Jaffna said. The body was discovered in shallow grave in the waste land 200 meters away from A9 highway near Kaithady bridge. Evidence of a mass grave also found, said sources in Jaffna. The body has been sent to Jaffna Hospital for identification, sources added.


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Halo Trust employee missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 14:43 GMT]
An employee of Halo Trust, an NGO engaged in mine clearing operations in Jaffna, is reported missing from Saturday night, sources from Jaffna said. Gunaratnam Logithas, 23, from Kaithady in Jaffna district, was travellling to Chavakachcheri from his home in his motorbike when he was reported disappeared.
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Intelligence Chief Zacky in Jaffna to step up campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) Brigadier Rizvy Zacky, a hardliner, has been recently posted as Brigadier General Staff Officer (GSO, Intelligence) at the Sri Lanka Army Head Quarters (SF HQ) Jaffna in a major reshuffle of the SLA and Intelligence apparatus. Execution-style killings of five students in Trincomalee and three women members of a family in Jaffna mark a stark change of pattern in the escalation of intensified serial killings of non-combatant civilians in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the NorthEast. The pattern of violence also marks the return of hardliners who seems to prefer terror to subdue a population.
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Rights Group faults AG for Chemmani prosecution delays

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 January 2006, 12:10 GMT]
Noting that "six years after the exhumation of the graves however, the police were only able to tell the court that as there have been no instructions forthcoming from the attorney general’s department, they have been unable to proceed with the case," the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), in a press release issued Thursday, accused the Attorney General's Department of "failing in its duties promptly and effectively prosecute perpetrators of serious crimes," and urged the AG's Department to "immediately initiate effective legal proceedings on the basis of the Chemmani exhumation."


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LTTE firm on venue, Co-chairs "committed and impartial"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 December 2005, 10:38 GMT]
"The Tamil leadership is firm and will oppose Colombo's effort on imposing geographical limitations and preconditions on the venue of talks on the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement and thereby alienating the Liberation Tigers from European countries," the LTTE Political Head Mr. S.P. Thamilchelvan told media after a two-hour-long meeting with the Co-Chairs' representatives held in Kilinochchi Saturday. Head of the EU Delegation to Sri Lanka, Ambassador Julian Wilson, speaking to the media, reiterated the Co-Chairs statement on Monday and urged the parties to "start talks on Ceasefire Agreement's Implementation immediately," adding that Co-Chairs were "committed" and "impartial."
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LTTE's Human Rights engagement on constructive track - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 December 2005, 11:21 GMT]
“While Colombo has been increasingly engaged in portraying Tamils’ struggle for self-determination as ‘terrorism’ in international fora taking advantage of the changed political climate following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the consequent war on terrorism, Liberation Tigers have exhibited genuine desire to adhere to the international human rights standards by closely engaging with UN agencies,” said Political Head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , S.P. Thamilchelvan, during his keynote address on Human Rights day event organized by the NorthEast Secretariat On Human Rights (NESOHR) in Kilinochchi Saturday.
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Colombo court to review Chemmani DNA evidence

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 June 2005, 00:12 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate Ms Kusala Weerawardene Monday ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to produce to the courts DNA reports on the human remains exhumed from Chemmani salterns on the next date of inquiry fixed for September 30, legal sources said.
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Convincing donors, Kumaratunge's goal- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2005, 00:45 GMT]
Accusing Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge for not taking constructive steps to establish the Joint Mechanism for post-tsunami reconstruction of NorthEast, Head of the Political Wing of Liberation Tigers (LTTE), S.P Thamilchelvan, in a recent interview with TamilNet, dismissed Ms Kumaratunge's positive statements on the Joint Mechanism as a mere tactic to influence the donors in the forthcoming aid conference to take decisions in her favor, and to attract international assistance.
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Drama spotlights problems of war-widows in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 December 2004, 03:06 GMT]
A drama program held at the Kailasapathy Auditorium of the University of Jaffna on Sunday at 10:30 am for the plan by the Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organization (TRRO) to benefit the women widowed by war, sources in Jaffna said.
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Protest paralyses Human Rights Commission office in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 March 2004, 15:52 GMT]
The Mothers Front and Missing Persons Guardians’ Association of Jaffna Monday began a sit in protest at the entrance of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission demanding that Colombo should make a concrete response regarding the fate of their children, spouses and relatives who went missing after they were arrested by the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna in 1996-97. The protesting organizations said that Maj. Gen (ret) Janaka Perera, currently Sri Lanka’s ambassador for Australia should be brought to justice as the officers and troops who carried out the massacres were acting under his orders.
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Skeletal remains unearthed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 04:04 GMT]
Construction workers unearthed human skeletal remains while they were laying the foundation for the common market in Kalviyankaadu in Jaffna on Monday, the Jaffna based Tamil language daily, Uthayan, reported Tuesday.
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Ariyalai skeleton find may lead to more human graves - Judge

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 July 2003, 11:45 GMT]
Jaffna High Court Judge, R.T.Wignarajah, Friday visited the site in Ariyalai Nedunkulam junction, west of Jaffna-Kandy road, where human remains were found recently, and said that there is visible evidence of the existence of three more human graves in the same area, local reports from Jaffna said.
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Sampanthan writes to PM on interim administration

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 14:28 GMT]
The parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan Monday sent a letter to the Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister urging him to act with “adequate clarity and certainty the commitment as stated in his 2001 general election manifesto that an Interim Administration will be set up for the northeast province and such a step will strengthen and consolidate the peace process.”
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Pirapaharan felicitates Kumar's family

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2003, 00:28 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , awarded the 'Maamanithar' medal to Yogaluxmi Ponnambalam, wife of late Kumar Ponnambalam, in honor of her husband in a special function held in Kilinochchi, Sunday, sources said. Late Kumar's children, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a lawyer and Tamil National Alliance (TNA)Parliamentarian, and Mirnalini Ponnambalam, a physician, accompanied their mother to the function.
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Workshop on welfare of war affected children held

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 April 2003, 00:30 GMT]
A workshop on the welfare of war-affected children, organized with the assistance of the UNICEF, is being held Thursday and Friday at the Tamil Eelam Economic Development Organization's (TEEDOR's) Conference Hall in Kilinochchi. Representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Peace Secretariat of the Sri Lankan government, Government agents, Education Officials and Medical Officers of the North-East, representatives of NGOs are participating at the conference, sources said.
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Trinco beach human skeletal remains sent to JMO

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 February 2003, 17:44 GMT]
The Trincomalee Magistrate and Additional District Judge Mr.S.Thiagendran Monday ordered the human skeletal remains recovered from the sea beach of the east port town last Wednesday and Thursday and soil samples of the site to be sent to Colombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) for full report. The Judge further returned an open verdict as no evidence was produced in court regarding the identity of human skeletal remains, legal sources said.


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