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| Corpse of a Tamil youth with gun shot wounds |
27 May
● SLN soldiers confiscated all outboard engines belonging to Neduntheevu fishermen while allowing passenger transport by boat between Kurikaduvan in Punkudutheevu to Neduntheevu. Neduntheevu residents trapped in the Jaffna peninsula for three days were able to return to the islet. SLN commanders summoned fishermen for a meeting and accused residents of not providing vital information on impending attack by the Tigers and of failing to co-operate with the troops. The Commanders then ordered all fishermen to handover the outboard motors to the SLN camp.
26 May
● Eighteen elite STF commandos were wounded when the STF launched an offensive into LTTE controlled Kudumpimalai (Thoppigala) jungles. 18 STF personnel were wounded in LTTE mortar and artillery attack.
● Unknown men in a white van, pretending to be CID officers, took away a trader, Nadarajah Swaranathan, 43, in Dehiwela, Colombo, according to complaints made by his wife to the Dehiwela police.
● The SLA and police arrested eleven Tamil civilians in a cordon and search operation in Poonagala estate, Bandarawela. The operation was conducted on a tip off that several LTTE cadres had infiltrated in the tea estate.
● Unidentified persons shot and killed a mother of six children, Mahendran Thankeswary, 45, of KaliKoyil Veethi in Kathtankudi, Batticaloa, when she went out on a personal errand.
25 May
● Fourteen Tamil civilians aged between 18 and 26 were arrested in Wennapuwa, Puttalam, in a cordon and search operation by the SLA. All were employees at a local shoe factory and are natives of Hatton and Pussellawa. Among them four are women.
● The ICRC Batticaloa representative handed over the bodies of six LTTE combatants shot dead by the SLA on Wednesday in Eravur, Batticaloa. The SLA said it had shot and killed seven who launched a hand grenade attack on its troopers as they were engaged in a search. One body was handed to the dead man's mother from Thalavay, who identified her son's body. Two of the LTTE combatants killed were females.
● The SLA command at Palali extended the nightly curfew into the next morning in Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. The announcement did not say how long the extended curfew hours would continue.
● Unidentified armed men opened fire on the SLA sentry post in front of Chavakachcheri Divisional Secretariat, Jaffna, within the SLA HSZ, killing a trooper and seriously injuring another.
● Three Tamil traders arrested by Wellawatte Police in a lodge in Colombo on January 27 with a consignment of wristwatch batteries were released on a report from the Attorney General that they did not commit any offence, after four months in detention under the Emergency Regulations. Nithiyanandam Mayuran, 32, Gopalan Senthooran, 28, and Gopalan Gangatharan, 24, owners of business establishments in Thirunelveli, Jaffna, had gone to Colombo to buy goods in short supply in Jaffna.
24 May
● The Sea Tigers attacked Delft islet off the Jaffna coast, inflicting heavy losses on the SLN (see separate story).
● Two SLA soldiers were reported killed in Mesalai, Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. The killings, not officially confirmed by the SLA, took place a day before an SLA trooper was killed and another injured in attacks by unidentified armed men in Thenmaradchi.
● A SLA soldier succumbed to his injuries and six people, including three soldiers, were injured after a bomb attack targeting a bus carrying SLA soldiers through the capital Colombo. The bomb, attached to a bicycle, was detonated near the main entrance to the Colombo port. The dead soldier was identified as Corporal Nanayakkara.
● A female IDP and her brother were killed on the spot when a SLA DPU triggered a claymore mine targeting their motorbike near Kunchukulam on the Vavuniya-Mannar border. The two siblings, Nathiya Selvarajah, 22, and her 24-year-old brother, Kobi Selvarajah, were on their way from Nadankandal to Kunchukulam to check their vacated house.
● Four people, including a child and two women, were shot dead by a home guard at Keppitgollawa in Anuradhapura. One of the women killed was the wife of the home guard, who fled after the shooting. Police began a search operation to apprehend the home guard.
● The courts released four Tamils who had been arrested and held under the Emergency Regulations on the basis that there was no evidence against them. Velupillai Rajkumar, 21, and Gnanaseelan Gajendran, 21, natives of Jaffna, had been arrested in Jaffna. Separately, Kanthasamy Ravichchandran, 36, of Kaarainagar in Jaffna and Tharmalingam Thirukumaran, 26, of Vavuniya had been detained since March 30.
● A young Tamil mother taken into custody in Colombo two weeks previously on suspicion of being a member of the LTTE was released when the prosecution told the court there was no evidence to implicate her in any offence. Fort Police took Alagarajah Koushalya, 27, of Vepankulam in Vavuniya into custody with her three-year-old child in a cordon and search operation as she was in possession of three SIM cards for a cell phone in her handbag.
● Kandy Police town took four Tamil youths, natives of Vavuniya, Walapane, Ginigathena in Kandy, and Mahiywa into custody. All except the youth from Vavuniya were not in possession of national identity cards at the time of arrest. The youth from Vavuniya was visiting his sister but was found in another town and was taken into custody to find out the reason for his visit to Kandy.
23 May
● Ganeshan Ushananth, 30, a former employee of Jaffna Secretariat presently living in Colombo, was reported missing since Sunday, when he went to a shop near his residence. The father of one from Anaikoddai, Jaffna, who was working at a church in Colombo, had been receiving death threats on his mobile phone, his wife told the Colombo office of the SLHRC as she reported his disappearance.
● Sri Lanka security forces conducted a cordon and search operation in Anuradhapura town and arrested about 23 Tamil civilians, from lodges and rental houses. Most of them are said to be natives of Batticaloa and Vavuniya, while some are natives of Badulla.
● Twenty-five Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation by Sri Lanka security forces at Uddapu, a traditional Tamil village in Chilaw. One is a Jaffna native and another is from Trincomalee. Six civilians were natives of Thampalakamam, a Tamil village in Trincomalee and eighteen are residents of Uddapu. All were taken into custody as they failed to prove their identity and provide satisfactory reason for their stay in location.
● The police claimed three LTTE cadres and a SLA trooper were killed and a STF trooper injured in Chavukkadi, Thalavai, Eravur, Batticaloa. The SLA and STF had been conducting a search operation in the Chavukkadi coastal area after receiving a tip-off of LTTE presence, and a clash erupted during the search, the police said. The police claimed that many LTTE combatants were injured in the fight and that 6 claymore devices, 4 T56 rifles, mortars, rounds, machine guns, pistols and many hundreds of thousand rupees were recovered.
22 May
● The body of Thiruchelvam Thiruparan, 19, from Chunakam, was found dumped in shrub land near an Electricity Power Plant in the Jaffna suburb. He had gone missing in Chunakam while taking food to his father who works at the power plant. Thiruparan, who had been receiving continuous death threats, had obtained permission from the SLA to travel to Colombo with the view to escape death. He was killed two days after the travel permit was granted. He is the latest in a series of young men from the Inuvil and Chunakam areas who were killed within three days of obtaining permission to leave the peninsula.
● Six Tamil youths were taken into custody in Anuradhapura, on an anonymous tip that they were taking photographs of Anuradhapura police station with their mobile phone cameras while hiding in a bush. The arrested are said to be natives of Valaichchenai, Vaharai, and Batticaloa.
21 May
● Kayts police recovered the body of a EPDP member hacked to death at the beach in Naranthanai north in Kayts, an islet of Jaffna. Chithiravel Shanthakumar alias Vastin, 30, who left the office of EPDP Kayts the previous morning had been missing since then.
● Relatives told the SLHRC that two men from Karaveddi, Jaffna, had been missing since April. Sithamparapillai Vimalaraj, 17, a student on his way to his relatives house on April 25 by bicycle had gone missing in Charachalai, Thenmaradchi. Finansco employee, Krishnapillai Vivekanandan, 31, went missing on April 30 while he was on his way by motorcycle from his home at Karanavay north, Karaveddi, to his workplace.
● Four fishermen from Mannar, arrested by the SLN in Neduntheevu seas, were released unconditionally after being produced in the courts. The SLN arrested the fishermen and confiscated their boat on the charge that they had entered Neduntheevu seas without permission. The fishermen explained that they lost control of their boat due to the rough seas, and were set free. Another five fishermen who disappeared in the area have yet to be found.
● The body of Ananda Rajendran, 28, of Udaperadeniya, Peradeniya, was recovered from a drain in Peradeniya, Kandy.
● Mahendran Krishnaraj, 19, a fisherman was shot dead by gunmen in Kaluvankerni, Eravur, Batticaloa, while he was riding to his employer's house on his bicycle. Krishnaraj, who lived with his elder sister, was on his way after dinner to his employer so that he could go fishing with him early next day.
● Sivalingam Indran, 31, a fisherman and a father of a child of Kaluvankerni, Eravur, Batticaloa, has been missing since he left for Kathankudi on his motor cycle with money to buy a van. Relatives allege he was abducted by the Karuna Group, which has camps in Batticaloa.
