News vom 17.01.2006

[srilanka1998]

TAMILNET.COM

Mannar residents struggle to get petrol
[TamilNet, January 17, 2006 03:06 GMT]

Petrol station run by Manthai West Multi Purpose Co-operative Society is surrounded by camps and sentry points of the State armed forces and residents of Mannar town fear going to the station. This petrol station located at the entrance to the town serves a population of about forty thousand and about two thousand vehicles with fuel for domestic, agricultural and fishing and transport purposes, civil sources said.

The petrol station started functioning since the year 1964 had earlier sold monthly 215 thousand litres of diesel, 190 thousand liters of kerosene and 13,320 litres of petrol.

Residents are forced to use two other petrol stations, one run by the Manthai South MPCS at Uyilankulam, about 13.5 km off Mannar town on Mannar-Madawachchiya road and the other run by Mannar MPCS at Siruthoppu on Mannar-Talaimannar Road about 13 km off Mannar town, civil sources said.


Man found shot dead in Urumpirai
[TamilNet, January 17, 2006 03:09 GMT]

Body of Suppiah Murugan was found with gunshot wounds Monday night at Urumpiray Junction along Jaffna Palaly road in front of Urumpirai Hindu College, sources said. Mr Murugan is from Trincomalee and was presently a resident of Navatkuly.
Murugan was working as a cook at a resteraunt in Urumpirai.

The killing in high security zone where there is 24-hour surveillance by the security forces has shocked Urumpirai residents.

The body has been transported to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for postmortem examinations.


Ten civilians said arrested by SLN in Karainagar
[TamilNet, January 17, 2006 03:22 GMT]

Human Rights Commission in Jaffna received complaints Monday that ten civilians in Karainagar in Jaffna islets have been arrested by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) at 12.30 p.m. Monday, sources in Jaffna said. The arrests occured when Navy soldiers carried out cordon and search operation after discovering hand grenades hidden near a tree at the Valanthalai junction in Karainagar.
Two of the arrested, Vijayaratnam Sathees, 26, and Perambalam Arulrajah, 40, were working at a hair-cuttery in Valathalai Junction when they were arrested.

Three others arrested were school students who were walking from Karainagar School near the Valanthalai junction.

When the relatives inquired at the Karainagar SLN camp on the whereabouts of the arrested the SLN has denied arresting anyone.


Navy convoy attacked in Trinco, 2 civilians killed in retaliation
[TamilNet, January 17, 2006 06:19 GMT]

A cycle bomb placed along the Nilaveli-Trincomalee road near a bus depot hit a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) bus convoy carrying soldiers towards east port town at the third mile post junction Tuesday around 10:05 a.m. Sri Lanka troops fired in retaliation killing two Tamil civilians and injuring several Tamil civilians, four of them have been brought to Trincomalee general hospital. Initial reports said about eleven soldiers were seriously injured and are admitted to navy hospital, which is located inside the SLN eastern region headquarters in the east port town.
The cycle bomb, detonated by remote control, had missed the target, Sri Lankan defence sources said.

Meanwhile a SLAF helicopter landed in naval headquarters to airlift seriously injured sailors to Colombo.

One of the wounded civilians, shot in his head by the soldiers, is to be transferred to Colombo hospital in critical condition, medical sources said.

 

[srilanka1998]

'SLMM should exercise its CFA mandate'
[ LTTE Peace Secretariat ] [ 11:29 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

'Our leadership is deeply shocked and wishes to express its concern over the attack on the SLMM in Batticaloa and would urge SLMM to exercise more care and become vocal in its exposure of the elements responsible for this type of dastardly acts that are planned on a political agenda to do away with the presence of SLMM' said Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan in a meeting with the Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) today 17 January 2006 at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. In another meeting earlier in the day Mr.Hans Bratskar, H.E. The Ambassador for Norway had brief discussions with Mr.Tamilselvan on the visit next week of Mr.Erik Solheim, Norway's Minister for International Development who is scheduled to meet with the LTTE leadership to work out modalities on the proposed Government ' LTTE meeting on the implementation of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA).


Stop violence, start talks: World Bank
[ Daily Mirror ] [ 11:33 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

The World Bank has added its voice to the mounting concerns expressed over the present volatile situation in Sri Lanka with the Country Director warning that assistance provided by the international lending agency could see a dent if there was no immediate improvement. WB Country Head Peter Harrold told the Daily Mirror he hoped the upcoming visit of Norwegian Minister and special envoy Erik Solheim would facilitate the process for government and the LTTE to return to the negotiating table. 'As my international colleagues have commented, the current situation raises great concerns, and we strongly urge both sides to desist from violence and get down to peace talks and the review of the ceasefire agreement as soon as possible', Mr. Harold said. He said the level of World Bank assistance in its country assistance strategy depended heavily on the progress of the peace process.

 

[srilanka1998]

Balasingham to visit Vanni next week
[ TamilNet ] [ 12:39 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will visit the LTTE held region of Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, on 23rd January in a fresh effort to resume the peace process. Mr. Balasingham will assist the LTTE leader, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, during the forthcoming meeting next week between Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of International Development, and the LTTE leadership. Mr. Solheim, who is also the Minister in charge of Norway's peace process in Sri Lanka, during his visit to the island, will meet President Mahinda Rajapakse and other Sri Lankan leaders as well as the Tamil Tiger leadership.


Sri Lanka military ambushed as envoys visit rebels
[ Reuters ] [ 12:39 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Suspected Tamil Tigers ambushed military vehicles in north and east Sri Lanka on Tuesday, the army said, killing one soldier as Nordic envoys visited the rebels ahead of key peace meetings next week. The soldier died in a fragmentation mine blast on the northern peninsula of Jaffna and 12 sailors were injured in another mine attack near the eastern port city of Trincomalee. Two civilians were killed in crossfire there when the sailors and rebels exchanged fire, the military said. With the government and the Tigers unable to agree on even a venue for talks, analysts say repeated rebel attacks are aimed at forcing military retaliation they hope would win them sympathy -- but are stretching a four-year truce to near breaking point.


Scandinavian monitors pull out of Sri Lanka's Trincomalee district
[ PTI ] [ 16:58 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

Scandivanian truce monitors in Sri Lanka today announced their first suspension of work in the island's restive district of Trincomalee district after a bomb attack on a navy bus wounded 12. The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said their decision followed the escalation of violence in Trincomalee culminating in a bomb attack against a navy bus. "The SLMM has decided to suspend operational activities in Trincomalee until further notice," the SLMM said in a statement. "It is important to underline that the suspension is limited to Trincomalee district only and we plan to resume normal monitoring activities as soon as the situation calms down."


Nordic countries condemn attack on Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission
[ Embassy of Finland ] [ 17:11 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

The contributing countries to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission SLMM, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, condemn in the strongest terms the unacceptable attack on the Batticaloa district office of SLMM on Friday 13 January. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is an impartial, civilian mission that monitors the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement by the Sri Lankan Government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE, at the invitation of the parties to the Agreement. SLMM has always enjoyed the full confidence of the affected populations, and good cooperation on behalf of the parties to the Ceasefire Agreement. The contributing countries expect the parties to the Ceasefire Agreement to ensure the security of SLMM, in accordance with the Agreement, and to ensure that SLMM is given the opportunity to fulfil the responsibilities placed on the mission by the parties to the Ceasefire Agreement.

 

[arugam]

Friedlicher Protest

Below is a news report about yesterday's Parliamentary Adjournment.
I personally know what actually took place and the news story is incomplete in many details.
However I feel that any report about this peaceful protest in the islands democratic Parliament should have included an important matter:

The TNA MP's continued with their protest shouting slogans and holding placards which read
"Stop State Terrorism"
"Stop Harassing Tamils"
"Security Forces Quit North East"
and so on.

Photographs were taken with mobile telephones and will be published accordingly.

Violent excesses are reported in graphic detail.
Peaceful protests by Tamil Members in Parliament deserve similar coverage.

______________________________________________________________________



* Parliament adjourns after Tamil MPs' protest inside the House
Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 13:37 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

The MPs protested the deaths of TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham and five Tamil students in Trincomalee.
Jan 17, Colombo: The maiden Parliament session of the New Year was adjourned until tomorrow after Tamil Parliamentarians began shouting slogans against recent killings in the North and East.

The session started around 9.30 this morning, but MPs from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF) and Western Province Peoples' Front (WPPF) blocked the way through which the Speaker and Sergeant-at-Arms were to take the mace to the Speakers table.

To solve the matter, the Speaker adjourned the Parliament for fifteen minutes. After resuming the session, the same MPs again started to shout slogans against the killing of TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham and five Tamil students in Trincomalee.

The continued protest led the Speaker to adjourn the Parliament until the next day

 

[srilanka1998]

Letter from Trincomalee
[ BBC ] [ 21:02 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

Our departure was complicated by a virtual blockade of the city by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the extreme nationalist party, whose half-drunk supporters had surrounded our vehicle earlier that day and threatened to beat us up.As our vehicle was brought to an abrupt halt, we were quickly encircled. Some of the strikers covered their faces with scarves, one of them gripping a hacksaw in his right hand. Others started making calls on their mobile phones to summon reinforcements. One of the more thick-set protesters reached through the driver's window and seized control of the keys. Others threatened to harm our cameraman unless he handed over the tape - something which we refused to do. Instead, we reluctantly agreed to erase a short portion of film - deleting enough to satisfy the strikers' drunken self-appointed censor, but retaining enough to give viewers a brief sense of the mob's violent intent.


LTTE 'will not return to war' -Norway
[ BBC ] [ 21:45 GMT, Jan. 17, 2006 ]

The Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka says that the Tamil Tigers will not return to war. Hans Brattskar was speaking to journalists in Kilinoachi after meeting S.P Thamilselvan, leader of the LTTE political wing. He said that he had no reason to believe that the Tamil Tigers will go to war and was optimistic that the LTTE wants to come to the negotiation table. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) chief Hagrup Haukland who also had talks with the LTTE political leadership said that he is aware who is responsible for attacks against an SLMM office. He said 'it is not the LTTE. It is not the government, but we know who they are' However Haukland did not disclose who is responsible for the attacks. An explosive devise was set off at the Batticaloa SLMM office on Friday night.