The Lanka Academic
 
FEBRUARY 20, 2007 EST, USA
 
QUAERE VERUM
 
VOL. 7, NO. 320
TLA FORUM

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IN MEMORIAM

We have lost a great mathe- matician, engineer, scientist, an old timer of SLNet/LAcNet and a former LAcNet director. Pubudu Dayawansa (Daya) was instrumental in carrying out many LAcNet projects. He was responsible in setting up "Colombo Calling" a website that was designed to carry weekly articles from Sri Lankan Academic community and Human Rights activists. [ More...]
TLA FEATURE CORNER
Headline Summary
F R E E      C L A S S I F I E D S
T  O  P      H  E  A  D  L  I  N  E
FEATURE-Fury at detentions under Sri Lanka anti-terror rules
Reuters, February 21. BOOSSA, Sri Lanka, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Huddled outside a detention camp in Sri Lanka's far south, relatives of civilians held for months without charge say lives are being ruined by emergency regulations amid renewed civil war.

Some with babes in arms, others carrying a few packets of biscuits for a detained husband or brother, they swelter in the burning sun. Most have travelled all night to see loved ones imprisoned for suspected links to Tamil Tiger rebels.

But months pass and still no charges are brought, and relatives and rights groups are up in arms.

"They still haven't charged my brother!" said one woman, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid any retribution, after a weekend visit to Boossa detention camp a few kilometres from the island's historic southern port town of Galle. More... Discuss this story
Published: Tue Feb 20 18:55:24 EST 2007

Sri Lankan prisoners crucified after beheading in Saudi Arabia
lankabusinessonline.com, 21 February 2007 07:48:08. February 21 (LBO) – Saudi Arabia has 'crucified' four Sri Lankans after beheading them, including a man who was told he was only serving a prison-term, media reports from desert kingdom said.Agency reports quoting a Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh said the four Sri Lankans were executed in a busy market square Monday and their bodies were tied to a wooden beams or 'crucified' and put on public display to be a lesson to expatriate workers.

"Foreigners in the kingdom are implementing criminal plans made abroad," al-Riyadh had quoted Abdel-Rahman al-Luweiheq, who teaches at the Imam bin Saud University the Reuters news agency said. More... Discuss this story
Published: Tue Feb 20 22:17:46 EST 2007 Back to the top

Sinhala women too in LTTE - Gotabhaya
tamilcanadian.com, February 21, 2007. Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapakse said that an investigation into Sinhala LTTE cadres had revealed that there were several Sinhala women who underwent training in the handling of arms under the LTTE.

They have so far evaded arrest but will be tracked soon, he told The Island yesterday.

According to the information divulged by the male Sinhala LTTE cadres, now under the arrest, several female Sinhala cadres had undergone LTTE training in places yet to be disclosed. More... Discuss this story
Published: Tue Feb 20 19:42:06 EST 2007 Back to the top

How interrogation threw up concealment of explosives in LTTE boat
 hindu, Feb 21, 2007. CHENNAI/MADURAI: The team probing the matter of the boat apprehended by the Coast Guard on February 13 was in for a shock on February 19... Back to the top
Rumour sparks exodus from Lankan town
 Dawn, Feb 19. An exodus from the northern district of Vavuniya has begun following a rumour that Tigers will launch a major offensive after Feb 22, the date when the Norway-facilitated truce between the Mahinda Rajapakse Rajapakse government with the Tamil Tiger rebels is completing five years Sources said civilians had started leaving the region fearing a full-scale war in the area... Back to the top
Sri Lanka: World Bank to help rebuild lives of internally ...
 reliefweb.int, 20 Feb 2007. WASHINGTON, February 20, 2007: In support of the Government of Sri Lanka’s efforts to rehabilitate conflict-affected areas, the World Bank approved today a US$32 million credit to rebuild the lives of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the Puttalam district in the north west of the island... Back to the top
Lanka war set to shift to North
 hidustan times, Feb 20, 2007. A fresh round of fierce fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and the LTTE may begin next week, with the focus shifting from the Eastern coast to the Jaffna peninsula in the North of the country... Back to the top
SRI LANKA:On the Threshold of Open War
 PeaceJournalism.Com, Feb 19, 2007. In the week when the cease-fire would have completed half a decade, there was very little to celebrate in Sri Lanka... Back to the top
Sri Lanka 's Jaffna University reopens after six months
 Associated Press, Mon February 19, 2007 03:33 EST . - - JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lanka's Jaffna University reopened Monday, authorities said, after being closed in August following renewed fighting in the northeastern region between the military and separatist rebels... Back to the top
Ceasefire means war in Sri Lanka
 khaleejtimes.com, 20 February 2007. THERE is very little to celebrate on Thursday February 22, when we mark the fifth anniversary of the ceasefire agreement signed between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam... Back to the top
Pakistan Arms Aid Will Fan Sri Lankan War, Tamil Lawmakers Say
 bloomberg, Feb 20, 2007. Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan providing any military aid to Sri Lanka's government will serve only to fan the two-decade conflict with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Tamil lawmakers said. ``If Pakistan misinterprets the struggle for self determination as terrorism and provides military assistance to Sri Lanka, the government of Sri Lanka will face serious repercussions,'' TamilNet cited the lawmakers from the Tamil National Alliance as saying yesterday in a statement... Back to the top
SRI LANKA: Newsprint Shortage Adds to Curbs on Media
 ipsnews.net, February 19, 2007. COLOMBO, Feb 19 (IPS) - Residents of the embattled northern Sri Lankan town of Jaffna who get to see the ‘Uthayan’ newspaper often get a copy that is thumb-worn and soiled from having passed through the hands of many avid readers... Back to the top
Cricket-Sri Lanka look to deliver huge surprise
 afp, Feb 19, 2007. NEW DELHI (AFP) - Sri Lanka will be keen to maintain their recently-acquired reputation of doing consistently well away from home when they begin their World Cup campaign in the Caribbean... Back to the top
Srilankans executed in Saudi
 bbc, February 19. The Saudi Arabian interior ministry says four Sri Lankans convicted of armed robbery have been beheaded by the sword in the capital Riyadh... Back to the top
Arms smuggling: Sri Lankan held
 hindu.com, Monday, Feb 19, 2007. In a development seemingly linked to the recent seizures on the Tamil Nadu coast of arms and ammunition bound for Sri Lanka, the Special Narcotics Cell of the Customs on Sunday arrested Balan (50), a native of Kyps Island in Jaffna district of Sri Lanka, a naturalised American citizen... Back to the top
Antony sees threat in LTTE, African smugglers
 indianexpress.com, Monday, February 19, 2007. Antony today said the Indian coastline faces threat from African smugglers and LTTE infiltrators... Back to the top
Britain Not Considering LTTE Deproscription
 army.lk, 19 feb. THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT yesterday (18) scotched rumours that it was planning to deproscribe the LTTE... Back to the top
Sri Lankan air force bombs Tamil Tiger areas; rebels say 2 civilians killed
 Associated Press, Tue February 20, 2007 04:59 EST . DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan air force planes bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel training camp and a gun position in the north on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said, in the latest violence to hit the country... Back to the top
Coast Guard destroys seized LTTE boat
 hindu, Feb 20, 2007. Chennai, Feb. 20 (PTI): The Coast Guard today blew up an LTTE boat seized by them on February 13, at mid sea after finding that the gap between the fibre sheets of the boat was packed with gunpowder and could explode any time. Officials of Central and state agencies supervised the destruction process, a police press release said... Back to the top
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