By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : The following were the key dates in Sri Lanka in 2007:
Jan 4: Army Chief Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka vows to take the north from the LTTE following capture of the east.
Jan 10-14: Hundreds of Tamils arrested from Colombo and suburbs.
Jan 12: Food supplies from India help bring down prices in Jaffna.
Feb 4: More than 300 Tamils arrested in and around Colombo.
Feb 9: Dissident ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Sripathy Sooriarachchy and Anura Bandaranaike sacked for charging that the Rajapaksa government is run by his brothers and that he entered into a SLRs.700 million deal with the LTTE prior to the November 2005 presidential election.
Feb 27: The envoys of the US and Italy hurt when the LTTE fires mortars at Batticaloa airport as their chopper lands.
March 6: Sri Lanka police chief admits that large numbers of armed forces personnel were arrested for extorting money through the abduction of Tamils and Muslims in and around Colombo.
March 8: 40,000 Tamils displaced in Batticaloa following military operations.
March 16: Tamil traders in Colombo’s main wholesale market shut down in protest against extortion and abductions.
March 25: Two light LTTE aircraft (Czech made Zlin Z-143) raid the Katunayake airbase adjacent to the Colombo’s international airport at night and return to their base in the Wanni.
April 3: President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposes Panchayati Raj and not devolution of power to provinces as the ideal solution for the ethnic question. Tamils disappointed.
April 24: LTTE stages air attack on the Palaly airbase in Jaffna district. The bombs fall on a nearby army camp and cause casualties.
April 28: As Sri Lankans watch the Cricket World Cup finals on TV, the LTTE attacks oil storage facilities near Colombo.
May 3: Colombo international airport shut at night following LTTE air raid on the adjacent Katunayake airbase March 25 and the raid on the oil tanks.
May 24: LTTE attacks naval base at Delft Island in the northwest.
May 31: Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan says Sri Lanka should not buy arms from China and Pakistan but should come to India for its defence needs.
May 31: Tamils from 68 lodges in Colombo evicted on 24 hours notice.
June 1: Two Tamil Red Cross workers abducted in Colombo and later killed.
June 4: India to rebuild Kankesanthurai harbour in Jaffna and conduct “coordinated patrolling” of the Palk Strait and not “joint patrolling” with the Sri Lankan Navy as reported in the media.
June 7: 500 Tamils expelled from Colombo.
June 19: Government blocks Tamilnet, a pro-LTTE website and source of news on the troubled northeast.
June 27: 300 Tamils arrested in Welikade area of Colombo.
July 5: LTTE announces that between July 5, 1987 and July 5, 2007, 322 Black Tigers or suicide cadres had sacrificed their lives.
July 14: Sri Lankan armed forces say that they would fittingly celebrate the capture of Toppigala in Batticaloa district, the last stronghold of the LTTE in the east.
Aug 2: Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) ministers resign complaining of insulting behaviour on the part of the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa. They later return.
Aug 20: Batticaloa pro-LTTE MP S. Jayananthamoorthy’s brother shot dead allegedly by Karuna’s group.
Sep 24: LTTE says that any future talks will have to be on the basis of the recognition of the Tamil sovereignty.
Oct 2: UN Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak begins talks with Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. He later says that the level of torture is great in Sri Lanka.
Oct 10: UN Commissioner for Human Rights Louse Arbour calls for a field office of the UN rights commission in Sri Lanka as the domestic human rights monitoring is not independent and reliable.
Oct 21: LTTE stages ground and air attack on Anuradhapura airbase causing damage of $40 million.
Nov 2: LTTE political wing leader S.P. Tamiselvan killed in Sri Lankan air raid.
Nov 7: Government sends away LTTE breakway leader Karuna to Britain on forged diplomatic passport.
Nov 8: US gives radars and dinghies to Colombo to fight LTTE.
Nov 27: Air force bombs Voice of Tigers radio station killing 11 people, mostly staff.
Nov 27: In his annual Heroes Day oration, LTTE chief Prabhakaran complains of bias against the Tamils on the part of the international community and asks the Tamils to continue to fight for an independent Tamil Eelam.
Nov 28: A female suicide bomber tries to kill Tamil minister Douglas Devananda. A secretary dies in the blast but Devananda escapes.
Nov 28: Parcel bomb in Nugegoda shopping complex kills 20 civilians including children.
Dec 1: 2,000 Tamils arrested in Colombo and environs but released on court orders.
Dec 5: Blast kills 16 bus passengers at Kabathigollawa in north central Sri Lanka.
Dec 16: “The Nation” weekly reports that Prabhakaran was injured in an air raid on Nov 28.
Dec 19: The government says that Prabhakaran was injured in an air raid on Nov 26.
Dec 22: LTTE denies that Prabhakaran was injured.