SLA soldiers enter university premises, open fire, arrest lecturer, student

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 December 2005, 07:30 GMT]
Hundreds of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who entered the premises of the University of Jaffna Tuesday noon opened fire in the air, charged tear gas and attacked the students. The soldiers arrested Mr. Manickavasagar Ilampirayan, the lecturer of physical education and a student, Mr. Gowri Senthooran, university staff said. Hundreds of students who gathered in front the university building have launched a protest setting up road-blocks. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials have rushed to the site to diffuse tension. The University administration has condemned the conduct of the SLA soldiers, who entered the university premises on Tuesday for the first time since 1995.
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LTTE confers National Patriot title to sportsman Gunaratnam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 December 2005, 17:01 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Sunday conferred "Nattupattalar" (National Patriot) title on the departed veteran sportsman Mr.A.S.Gunaratnam. Attorney-at-Law Mr.K.Sivapalan read out the statement issued by the LTTE Trincomalee district political secretariat conferring the title at an event held Sunday morning at Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall where the body of late Mr.Gunaratnam was kept for paying last respects by the people of the east port city, sources said.
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Veteran NorthEast sportsman dies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 December 2005, 00:00 GMT]
Mr.A.S.Gunaratnam, retired Assistant Director of Sports in the North East Provincial Education, Cultural, Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry and currently Assistant Director of the North East Youth Affairs Ministry passed away Friday in Colombo after a brief illness. He had been a colorful personality in the field of sports not only in the North East but also at the national level. He had been fluent in all three languages, Tamil, Sinhala and English. He was 68 at the time of his death, family sources said.
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New SLA sentries in Mannar town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 December 2005, 02:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has established several new sentries in Mannar town and its suburbs, and has blocked the road leading to the office of the Superintendent of Police from use by the public as a part of strengthening the security of the district, sources said.


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Vavuniya abduction discussed in LTTE, SLMM meet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 11:53 GMT]
Members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) met with representatives of the Liberation Tigers in the Puliyankulam office of the LTTE 5 p.m. Monday and again at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The discussions centered on the disappearance of Sinnathamby Ganeshalingam alias Farook, a senior cader of PLOTE on Monday 1.30 p.m. Vavuniya. Vavuniya district Political Head of the LTTE, Gnanam, said that he had told the SLMM that LTTE has no involvement in the reported abduction.
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Senior PLOTE cadre abducted in Vavuniya, 3 arrested

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 December 2005, 09:28 GMT]
A senior cadre of PLOTE, operating with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniya, was reported missing Monday noon. Unidentified persons riding in a van allegedly abducted the senior cadre, a central committee member of PLOTE, police said. Meanwhile, three men riding in a van were arrested by the Police around 1:30 p.m. at Kidacheri in Vavuniya. The police alleged that the arrested persons were involved in the abduction of the PLOTE operative.
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Claymore attack on unmanned SLA post in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 December 2005, 06:12 GMT]
A claymore mine went off Monday morning around 7:00 a.m. at an unmanned SLA post on Vavuniya - Mannar road at Varikuddiyoor, 12 km northwest of Vavuniya town, poice said. Additional troopers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Special Task Force (STF) and policemen were deployed and the security was beefed up in Vavuniya on Monday.
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Policeman killed, LTTE cadre abducted from Vavuniya Hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 December 2005, 10:20 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed an armed policeman, Mahes Ranasinghe, inside the Vavuniya Hospital premises and abucted Ms Gunaratnam Puveneswari who was undergoing treatment at the hospital under police custody. The incident took place around 2:45 p.m. Sunday at ward no 1. Mr Ranasinghe was killed at the entrance to the ward while four unarmed policemen were guarding the patient inside the ward, police said. Puvaneswari, who took cyanide when Sri Lanka Navy arrested her with four others on board a boat in Mannar sea last Tuesday, was taken away by the men who entered the ward.
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CID to interrogate LTTE cadres in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 December 2005, 13:49 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate Thursday agreed to an application by Police to send the five alleged LTTE cadres arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Tuesday evening to Colombo for further investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The five, including two women, were arrested in Pallimunai Sea in Mannar district when they were traveling in a boat, police said.
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Grenade explosion in Vavuniya, civilian killed, seven wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 December 2005, 10:56 GMT]
A civilian was killed and seven persons, including a Sri Lanka Army soldier, were wounded near Vavuniya bus stand around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday in a grenade explosion that took place on the pavement, Vavuniya Police said.
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SLN arrests five LTTE cadres in Mannar Sea, one takes cyanide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 December 2005, 16:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLAN) Tuesday evening around 4.30 p.m.arrested five LTTE cadres including two women traveling in fibre glass boat in Pallimunai sea area in Mannar district. One political cadre, Miss Gunaratnam Puvaneswary alias Uthaya, (20), took cyanide and was immediately taken to Mannar hospital. She was later taken to Vavuniya hospital in critical condition, Mannar Police said.


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HRCSL to formulate Rights education policy for Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 December 2005, 16:52 GMT]
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has been conducting a series of seminars with the aim of formulating a national level human rights education policy. The first seminar was held in Vavuniya Thursday, the second in Trincomalee Friday and the third in Batticaloa Saturday, HRCSL sources said.
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Indian Commander visits Vavuniya SLA frontlines

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 December 2005, 12:26 GMT]
General Officer Commander-in-Chief of Southern Command Lt. Gen. B.S. Thakker Thursday visited the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) front lines in Vavuniya and discussed with SLA Commanders matters related to security, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Rajapakse wins Sri Lankan Presidency

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 November 2005, 07:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s hardline Prime Minister has been elected as country’s fifth President. Results released Friday by the election commission indicated Premier Mahinda Rajapakse had received almost 50.3% of the vote, with his main rival, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, taking 48.4% in a hard fought race that has long been described as too close to call.
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Low voter turnout in Omanthai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 November 2005, 11:33 GMT]
No votes were cast until mid-day at the sixty two cluster booths near Omanthai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) checkpoint. However, few Omanthai residents turned up in the afternoon, sources in Omanthai said. Voting was brisk in Muslim and Sinhala areas in Vavuniya inside SLA controlled areas.
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"SL Government's speak soft, hit hard policy" - Taraki, 1992

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 November 2005, 03:33 GMT]
In the 10th June 1992 issue of Sri Lanka's English daily, Island International, late Dharmeratnam Sivaram, popular journalist and Senior editor at TamilNet, sheds light into the then Sri Lanka's President Premadasa and Leader of the House, Ranil Wickremesinghe's strategy of dealing with Tamil national question, a strategy of wooing Tamil votes with political rhetoric and to inflict military defeat on LTTE by planning to allow Sri Lanka forces to "smash their way into Jaffna."
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Electric fence claims Mannar Police officer's life

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 November 2005, 16:43 GMT]
Mr. Gunasingalage Gunatilake (33), a native of Middeniya in Tangalle area and Reserve Police Constable in Mannar, was electrocuted Saturday morning around 8.40 p.m. when he came in contact with live barbed wire fence of the Murunkan police post in Mannar district, said Police sources.
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Mannar court releases refugee returnees from TamilNadu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 November 2005, 16:38 GMT]
Mr.A.S.Johnthasan, Mannar acting Magistrate Saturday ordered surety bail for one person and released ten others when Talaimannar Police produced eleven refugees who were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) when they were returning to Sri Lanka from South India Friday, legal sources said.
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SLA soldier shot in Vavuniya, gunmen seize weapons

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 November 2005, 09:09 GMT]
Two motorbike-riding assailants shot and wounded a Sri Lanka Army soldier at a checkpost located in Ganeshapuram, 6 km northwest of Vavuniya town, around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The assailants, who seized two AK-47 rifles from the soldiers, fled away in their motorbike, Vavuniya Police said.
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LTTE-TNA conference concludes: "Tamil people have no interest in SL Presidential elections"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 November 2005, 11:56 GMT]
Emerging from the three and a half hour meeting with the Political Wing of the LTTE, Wednesday, R.Sampanthan, Leader of the TNA Parliamentarians, categorically declared to the media, "Nothing worthwhile would be achieved by supporting either of the two leading candidates in the Sri Lankan Presidential election." Mr Sampanthan, following discussions presided by S.P.Thamilchelvan, leader of the Political Wing of the LTTE, assured the press in Kilinochchi, that Tamil People are "not at all interested in the forthcoming Presidential election."
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