Sri Lanka military responsible for actions of paramilitaries – judge

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2004, 11:27 GMT]
Vavuniya magistrate Friday observed that the Sri Lanka army should bear responsibility for the disappearance of Mr. Ariyathas Vijayakumar who was abducted by the paramilitary EPRLF (Varathar Faction) on 15 August 2000 in his findings forwarded to the Vavuniya High Court after preliminary inquiry into the Habeas Corpus application. The magistrate, Mr. Manickavasagar Ilancheliyan, said that the SLA’s position that it had no knowledge of the arrest and detention is untenable because paramilitary groups like EPRLF (V) worked with the military.
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SLA issues Karuna Group leaflets in Batticaloa town

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2004, 10:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka army troops distributed leaflets condemning the Liberation Tigers and their leadership Wednesday night in Batticaloa town. The leaflets bear the name of the paramilitary led by renegade LTTE commander, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna).
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Ex-LTTE cadre killed in grenade attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 October 2004, 07:35 GMT]
An ex-Liberation Tigers cadre, suspected to be a Sri Lanka army informant, was killed in a grenade attack in a high security suburb of Batticaloa town in the early hours of Sunday around 1.30, Police said. Unidentified assailants lobbed a grenade into the house where the ex-LTTE cadre, Mr. Sinnavan Maheswaran, 27, was staying at Boundary Road, Puthur. He was seriously wounded and died one hour later in Batticaloa hospital, Police said.
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Tigers kill two Karuna associates, wound six

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2004, 08:09 GMT]
Two associates of renegade Liberation Tigers' commander, 'Karuna', were killed and six wounded when an LTTE special forces group attacked the house in which they were staying in a village near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border in the early hours of Monday morning around 2 a.m. Police said. LTTE troopers left behind the 'Karuna Group' cadres who were killed and wounded in the pre-dawn attack in Nagastenne, an interior Sinhala village about 68 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa.
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STF kills assassin of LTTE activist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 October 2004, 07:47 GMT]
A political activist of the Liberation Tigers was shot dead by a gunman suspected to be a member of a paramilitary group in Akkaraipattu, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Saturday around 11.45 a.m., Police said. The gunman was later shot dead by a Special Task Force (STF) patrol that pursued and cornered him in a house. ''We opened fire when the gunman attempted lob a grenade at our commandos in bid to escape the round up'', said an STF officer in Akkaraipattu.
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Sinhala nationalist party faces further crises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 October 2004, 01:34 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a key Sinhala Buddhist nationalist group in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, said Friday that it had removed the party’s lay general secretary, Mr. Champika Ranawaka. The JHU was plunged in crisis following the resignation of its national organizer earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Mr. Ranawaka said that he was not going to accept the decision by the monks to remove him from the party. The JHU crisis has been further exacerbated by reports that it’s general secretary (clergy), Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero, is supporting the ruling party.


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Leading Buddhist monk MP resigns

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 October 2004, 09:08 GMT]
Ven. Kolannawe Sri Sumangala Thero, MP, the National Organiser of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party, resigned his seat in Sri Lanka’s Parliament Friday. Informed sources close to the JHU said long simmering contradictions between the party’s lay leadership and monks who were elected to Parliament led to Ven. Kolannawe Sri Sumangala’s resignation. Mr. Tilak Karunaratna, who led the party when it was known as Sihala Urumaya, left the JHU recently and joined the United National Party earlier this week.


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Suspected Karuna associates kill civilian

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 October 2004, 10:00 GMT]
A civilian was shot dead by gunmen suspected to members of the paramilitary lead by renegade Liberation Tigers commander ‘Karuna’ Sunday night around 8 in Omadiyamadu, an interior village near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The man was identified as Mr. Vannamani Dharmarajah, 40. Valaichenai Police said that they had no further details of the person.


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Tigers kill two Karuna group cadres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2004, 13:55 GMT]
Special Forces of the Liberation Tigers' Jeyanthan Regiment Saturday morning attacked a group of heavily armed paramilitary cadres northwest of Batticaloa, killing two and wounding three around 6.30 a.m., LTTE sources in the east said. The group of ten men from the paramilitary led by renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna' were in a safe house in Omadiyamadu near the Polannaruwa-Batticaloa district border, the sources said.
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Tigers kill paramilitary operative in Batticaloa jungle

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2004, 19:03 GMT]
A close associate of renegade Liberation Tigers' commander 'Karuna' was shot dead by LTTE's special jungle warfare units operating in Kulaththu Madu near Vakaneri, 40 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Friday night around 11 p.m. according to well informed sources in the eastern town. The dead paramilitary cadre was identified as 'Ruben'. LTTE sources in Batticaloa said he was involved in the murder of one of their supporters in Kiran recently. Kiran is a village controlled by the Sri Lanka army.
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Youth shot in Kiran, two killed in Ampara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 08:17 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded a youth in Kiran, 28 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday night, Police said. In another incident two Singhalese were found shot to death on the Akkaraipattu-Ampara road, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Tuesday night around 10 p.m. Police investigating the murder said murder was over a private feud. Mr.Kanapathipillai Vivekanandarasa, 19, the youth who was shot in Kiran, told Police that he was not affiliated to any party or paramilitary and that he was a salesman.
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Paramilitary cadre shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 September 2004, 09:45 GMT]
A member of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Jaffna Monday afternoon, Police said. The man, identified as Valli Sundaram, was riding a motorbike on KKS Road between Maruthanamadam and Inuvil when two gunmen on a motorbike fired on him with a handgun, according to Police.
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TNA MPs meet Swiss Ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2004, 10:35 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Foreign Affairs Committee which met with Swiss Ambassodor to Sri Lanka, Mr. Bernadino Regazzoni, at the Switzerland Embassy in Colombo Friday expressed their concern on the reluctance shown by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government to take steps to restart the peace talks, and urged the ambassador to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to actively seek ways to resume talks.
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EPDP central committee member gunned down in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 09:52 GMT]
A central committe member of the EPDP was shot dead in Colombo Thursday afternoon, Police said. The senior EPDP cadre, Mr.Somasunderam Varunakulasingham, 39, was being driven home in his car around 3 p.m. when unidentified gunmen shot him in Vihara Lane, Wellawatte, a predominantly Tamil suburb of Colombo. EPDP is a key ally of President Kumaratunga and is a paramilitary.
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Karuna's brother killed in LTTE operation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 05:34 GMT]
The deputy of renegade Liberation Tigers commander Karuna was killed in an ambush by LTTE forces in the Maduru Oya sector on the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border in the early hours of Thursday, according to well informed sources in the eastern district. An LTTE official said there was an operation by their special forces in the interior jungles northwest of Batticaloa against some elements of renegade commander Karuna's paramilitary, which the Tigers say is working with the Sri Lanka army. 'Reggie', the deputy leader of the paramilitary, is the elder brother of Karuna.
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EPDP blocks Norway embassy with coffin

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 September 2004, 13:29 GMT]
A large group of EPDP cadres blocked the main entrance of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo Monday for more than two hours with the coffin of one of their colleagues who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Puttalam two days ago. The EPDP protested in front of the Norwegian mission from against the killing of its cadres, urging Oslo to take concrete action to stop the assasinations. EPDP cadres burnt the effigies of LTTE leaders, accusing them for the killings. EPDP is a key paramilitary in Sri Lanka. It is also a close ally of President Kumaratunga.
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Tigers to meet SLA in Batticaloa Wednesday

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2004, 14:18 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa will meet Sri Lankan armed forces on Wednesday, 22 September, informed sources in the eastern district said. The meeting was postponed twice since last month. Tigers indicated the new date following the return of Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of LTTE's political division for Batticaloa-Amparai District on Thursday.
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Solheim discusses peace impasse with editors

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2004, 10:59 GMT]
Norway's special peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim Friday had discussions with editors of the Sinhala dailies Lankadeepa and and Lakbima and the Tamil dailies Thinakkural and Sudar Oli about the current peace impasse in Sri Lanka. He said that he was unable to meet the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), President Kumaratunga's main coalition partner that is stridently opposing peace talks with the Liberation Tigers.
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Bodies of two believed killed in Pullumalai attack found

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 September 2004, 16:41 GMT]
The bodies of two men believed to be those of paramilitary cadres who were killed during an attack on an LTTE border post in Pullumalai, 65 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, last Tuesday were found in the jungle, Police said. Villagers found the bodies half buried in Tempitiya, 9 kilometres from Pullumalai, last evening, the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Maha Oya Police station said. Tigers charge that the attack on their border post in Pullumalai was led by Sri Lanka army commandos. Sri Lankan armed forces have a camp in Tempitiya.
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EPDP cadre gunned down in Kayts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2004, 14:45 GMT]
A member of the EPDP, a paramilitary working with the Sri Lanka army, was gunned down by unidentified men in Kayts Saturday night around 7 p.m. Police in Jaffna said. The EPDP cadre was identified as Mr. P. Aruldas. Two persons who were injured in the Kayts shootout have been admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, according to Police.
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