17: Parliament is disrupted on the first day of sittings for the New Year as TNA and CWC MPs stage protests in the House, calling for a halt to the torture, abductions and killings of Tamil civilians allegedly by the police and the armed forces.

20: Anuruddha Ratwatte and his two sons are acquitted of all charges in the Pallethalawinna massacre, where ten SLMC supporters were gunned down in their vehicle during the December 2001 General Election campaign in Kandy. Five army personnel are sentenced to death for the massacre.

26: The LTTE releases National Child Protection Agency Police officer K.A.D. Sarath after more than four months in custody. Sarath along with two other police officers was detained in September 2005 by the LTTE when they unwittingly entered an uncleared area in pursuit of a British paedophile.

31: Ten years after the Central Bank bomb blast which left hundreds dead and injured, victims are remembered at a commemorative ceremony.

Two of the three justices of the Judicial Services Commission, Shiranee A. Bandaranayake and T.B. Weerasuriya resign, paralysing the body responsible for regulating the conduct of judges.

14: World renowned musicians Kool and the Gang and Al Mckay Allstars rock Valentine's Day at the CR and FC Grounds.

15: The country's best known prisoner, UNP national organiser S.B. Dissanayake, jailed on contempt of court charges for two years, is released on a presidential order before serving his full jail term, but without the restoration of his civic rights.

16: The UNP's nomination list for the Colombo Municipal Council election and the UPFA's list for the Gampaha Municipal Council elections are rejected on technical grounds, as hundreds of other nominations are handed in.

The deadly bird flu reaches India, prompting panic in Sri Lanka, and leading to a drastic drop in poultry sales. Over 75,000 poultry farmers are badly affected and hospitals countrywide are put on high alert.

22: The Government and the LTTE meet in Geneva for peace talks for the first time in nearly three years, coinciding with the four-year anniversary of the Ceasefire Agreement, and publicly uphold their commitment to the CFA.

2: Muttiah Muralitharan becomes the first bowler ever to take 1,000 international wickets, easily winning the race ahead of Australian greats Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

17: Chinthana Vidanage clinches a gold medal for weight lifting at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, becoming the first Sri Lankan to win gold after the legendary Duncan White won the 100 metre hurdles at the 1950 Commonwealth Games.

20: The Norochcholai coal power plant agreement is signed by the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments, after being hotly opposed for over 10 years due to environmental and public health concerns.

Shocking details of two multi billion rupee scams emerge; The first, a human smuggling operation in the offices of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs where prospective candidates have been interviewed for jobs in Alaska, and issued with forged visas. Almost 80 Sri Lankans have already left for the US on forged visas. In the second, the CID questions senior Treasury and Inland Revenue Department officials regarding the misappropriation of Value Added Tax refund money to the tune of more than Rs. 3 billion.

31: The UPFA secures an unprecedented landslide political victory, winning 222 of the 266 local bodies at the local council elections, leaving a stunned UNP with more than 200 council losses and a final tally of only 32.

1: Delon Weerasinghe wins the Gratiaen Prize for his play 'Thicker than Blood’.

5: More than 20 years after the 1983 Black July riots, President Mahinda Rajapaksa pays compensation amounting to Rs. 11.5 million to 100 victims.

8: The LTTE is outlawed by Canada, a major blow in its biggest international base.

12: A claymore bomb explodes in Trincomalee, killing a soldier and five civilians on the spot and injuring 50. Angry mobs destroy shops and vehicles. Twenty armed forces personnel die in violence this week alone.

14: With a fondness for playing with time, Sri Lanka once again moves the clock back half an hour as midnight strikes. The move costs the CEB Rs. 1.5 million daily due to the extra ½ hour of night time.

17: A surprise visit by a Justice Ministry team reveals that some of the country's top criminals are serving time in luxury at the Welikada Magazine Prison in a star class bungalow. Among them are drug kingpins, suspects in the Lakshman Kadirgamar assassination and the VAT scam.

20: The LTTE backs out of peace talks scheduled to be held on the 24th and 25th, citing the situation in the North and East and killings of Tamils.

22: Major Percy Jagath dies in a claymore mine blast, the highest ranking army officer to be killed after the CFA came into effect four years ago.

23: Six farmers, among them three students, aged between 17-25 are gunned down on their way home from farming in Gomarankadawala allegedly by the LTTE.

25: Army Commander Sarath Fonseka narrowly escapes death when a suicide bomber throws herself at his vehicle inside Army Headquarters, killing eight people. Investigations reveal gaping security lapses. The military begins retaliatory aerial assaults in the north and east, as thousands of civilians flee the violence.

27: Five headless bodies of young men are found dumped on the roadside in Avissawella.

More than 100 people die in the bloodiest two weeks since the CFA, as battles between the security forces and the LTTE intensify with civilians also being caught in the crossfire.

2: Journalists gather outside the Fort Railway Station to remember their slain colleagues, the majority of whose murders remain unresolved crimes, as Sri Lanka prepares to host World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

Hours before its dawn however, press freedom is dealt a serious blow, as unidentified gunmen open fire on the Jaffna office of the Tamil daily 'Uthayan', killing two employees and injuring five others.

6: Celebrations of 2550 years of Buddha Jayanthi begin, marking 2550 years since the passing away of the Buddha.

The Supreme Court directs private commercial banks to cough up more than Rs. 1.5 billion as un-paid taxes on software imported by them for which proper duty has not been paid.

Eight youth are abducted from a kovil in Chavakachcheri in Jaffna and killed by unknown gunmen. Civil organizations accuse the armed forces of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

11: A mass disaster is averted as the Navy repulses an LTTE attack on a ship carrying over 700 security forces personnel. Eighteen Navy personnel and nearly 50 LTTE cadres are killed.

20: The UNP competing as an independent group clinches power in two crucial local bodies, the Colombo and Gampaha Municipal Councils.

27: A 22-year-old trishaw driver becomes the youngest Mayor in the history of the Colombo Municipal Council. Following the rejection of the UNP's nomination list for the CMC elections, the party backed an independent group hoping to substitute the winning candidates with UNP members. After weeks of confusion however, Uvais Imtiyaz assumes duties as Colombo Mayor.

30: The 25-nation European Union bans the LTTE, resulting in a freeze on its assets, cutting off of financial aid and weapons supplies.

31: Hours after the EU ban, Tigers shoot dead twelve civilians and injure two at Welikanda. The men who are reconstructing a tank in the jungles off Welikanda are abducted and shot at point blank range.

15:Shock and tension grip the country as more than 60 people including a large number of children and women are killed and more than 50 injured in the worst attack since the 2002 ceasefire, when the LTTE explodes two powerful landmines under a CTB bus packed with passengers in Kebithigollewa.

18: Anusha Kodituwakku becomes the first woman boxer to win a gold medal for Sri Lanka at the Asian Open Women's meet in Vietnam.

27: In the strongest expression of regret yet from the LTTE, the rebels' idealogue Anton Balasingham apologizes to India for the 1991 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Tiger suicide bomber, saying it was a 'monumental historical tragedy', which the rebels deeply regret.

28: President Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected the new SLFP leader ending a long drawn battle with former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga over the party leadership.

1: Journalist Lakmal Silva who was working for Ravaya, Swarnavahini and Shree FM is shot dead at Dehiwela, the fourth journalist to be killed in 16 months.

5: Sunil Perera, remanded on suspicion of spreading rumours of bomb attacks in schools, but later found to be innocent, dies of brutal torture at the hands of the Kuruwita prison guards. Mr. Perera was remanded after school authorities blamed him for making an anonymous call, but it was later found that the call he made was regarding the supply of balloons for a function.

12: The LTTE media coordinator and spokesman Daya Master is escorted to Colombo and undergoes emergency medical treatment at the Apollo Hospital. Citing the move as a goodwill gesture, the Government asks the LTTE to reciprocate by releasing National Child Protection Officer SI Bopitigoda, taken into custody last year. But no action is forthcoming.

20: Indictment is issued on PLOTE member Dharmalingam Siddharthan in connection with the abduction and killing of TamilNet website editor and Daily Mirror columnist, Dharmaretnam Sivaram. Mr. Sivaram was abducted in April 2005 and his body found near the Parliament the following day.

22: The first batch of over 200 of an estimated 80,000 Sri Lankan housemaids arrives virtually empty handed with harrowing tales of a desperate escape from war-torn Lebanon.

The Lanka Indian Oil Company stops fuel sales at its outlets following a dispute with the Government over the latter's non-payment of a fuel subsidy amounting to $71 million. Motorists face untold hardship as long queues form at CPC filling stations, unable to cope with the sudden increase in demand.
24: More oil troubles as Ceylon Petroleum Corporation workers launch a two-day strike over the appointment of Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Committee chief Asantha de Mel as Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal. Filling stations are shut down as transport comes to a virtual standstill.

23: The Mavilaru water crisis begins as the LTTE prevents farmers from repairing a leak in a water pipeline running through LTTE areas, cutting off water to 1500 people and 30,000 acres of paddy land in government-controlled areas in Trincomalee.
28: As one of the most sensational murder cases of recent years draws to a close, Shramantha Jayamaha is sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment for the killing of Swedish fashion designer student,Yvonne Jonsson at the Royal Park condominium in Rajagiriya last year.

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara create history with their partnership of 578, in the first Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa, the highest ever partnership in both Test and one day cricket.

1: An LTTE attack on a troop carrier carrying 854 unarmed service personnel at Trincomalee harbour is repulsed, but an artillery attack on the navy base kills four sailors and injures 30.


3: LTTE artillery fire falls on schools sheltering refugees in Mutur, killing 17 Muslim civilians and injuring 60.

6: Seventeen aid workers of the French charity Action Against Hunger are killed in Mutur. The aid workers, were in Mutur to provide humanitarian assistance to the families displaced by the fighting between the government forces and the LTTE. The Government and the LTTE trade charges.

9: The political arm of the Karuna faction, the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), opens its first political office in Colombo at Schofield Place, Kollupitiya amid tight security, as residents fear attacks by the LTTE.

9: Following heavy ground battles and aerial bombardment of Tiger positions by the Air Force and Army with high casualties on both sides, the Mavilaru anicut is opened by the army.

12: The deputy head of the Government Peace Secretariat Kethishwaran Loganathan is shot dead at his residence in Dehiwela allegedly by the Tamil Tigers.

Government loss in tax revenue and non collection of taxes in the past four years is revealed to be a staggering Rs. 389 billion, with 93 institutions having evaded payment of this massive amount as at May this year.

14: The Government comes in for international condemnation following the death of more than 60 youths in LTTE controlled Mullaitivu, in Air Force strikes. The LTTE claims the young girls and boys killed were orphans in a school in the area while the government says those killed were young rebel cadres.

14: Pakistani High Commissioner Bashir Wali Mohamed narrowly escapes death when his convoy is caught in a claymore mine explosion at Kollupitiya which leaves 7 dead.

The toll from the week-long battle for Jaffna increases with 650 Tigers and 106 soldiers killed.

26: SI Bandujeewa Bopitigoda is released from LTTE captivity one year after his arrest on September 7, 2005. Bopitigoda was detained along with two of his colleagues when they strayed into LTTE territory while hunting for a British paedophile in Mannar.

28: At the end of the South Asian Games hosted in Sri Lanka, 14-year-old Mayumi Raheem sweeps the boards with ten medals, including three golds, for her stellar swimming performances.

4: Sampur is captured by the Government, removing the strategic threat to the Trincomalee harbour and adjoining naval base.

18: In a horrifying reminder of the Gomarankadawela massacre in April, ten Muslims are hacked to death in Pottuvil as they carry out repairs to the Radella anicut.

5: In the first ever human torch incident in the country, 45-year-old three wheeler driver Raymond Ferreira sets himself ablaze in protest of what he calls Norway betraying Sri Lanka's national interest.

11: Muhamalai becomes a killing field as the military suffers its worst ever reversal during the four-year ceasefire, when 133 officers and soldiers are killed and almost 500 injured in a disastrous assault on LTTE positions.

12: The thirtieth Inspector General of Police Victor Perera assumes duties.

16: An LTTE suicide bomber rams a truck into a navy convoy, killing 94 sailors and injuring 116 at a troop transit point in Habarana. The attack claims the highest number of Navy casualties since the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement.

18: Sea Tigers mount an abortive suicide attack on the 'Dakshina' naval base in Galle.

22: In a historic move, the UNP signs an MOU to support the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government for a period of two years on six key national issues including electoral reforms, conflict in the north and east and nation building.
Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga is appointed a Senior Consultant to UNESCO for Education in Asia.

15: The LTTE brings into effect a 'Child Protection Act', banning child recruitment and labour and making education for children until the age of 16 compulsory in areas under its control

29: The much-awaited Geneva talks between the government and the LTTE end in failure as the LTTE delegation walks out in protest of the Government's refusal to reopen the A9 highway.

An estimated 18,000 people lose millions of rupees after investing in an illegal pyramid scheme— Seagull Softwares posing as a business process outsourcing outfit.

Thirteen people including a child die and 225,000 are rendered homeless as floods swirl across ten districts, including Colombo, Gampaha, Galle, Puttalam and Kurunegala.

3: Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene is declared Captain of the Year at the International Cricket Council (ICC) annual awards.

The Government seeks India's help to rush urgent supplies of food, medicine and other essential consumer items to Jaffna, where food shortages have led to a humanitarian crisis.

7: More than 60 Tamil civilians are killed and close to 600 injured when heavy shelling from government controlled areas hits 2 schools in Vakarai used as temporary shelters for some thousand people displaced by the fighting in Sampur, Trincomalee.

18: Eleven people are killed in a collision between a private bus and two vans in Kurunegala. This is another in a series of bus accidents throughout the year which has left several people dead.

19: President Mahinda Rajapaksa marks his first year in office by launching work on a $125 million airport in Weerawila, set to become an international terminal by the end of 2009.

25: The Prime Minister and all parliamentarians get a double pay hike with arrears while in the future their pay will be adjusted according to comparative posts in the judiciary according to two resolutions rushed through Parliament.

30: Five security forces personnel on a cordon and search operation are run over by a train at an unprotected railway crossing at Wedikanda, the fourth such accident at this crossing in recent times.

1: Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa — younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa — escapes unhurt when an LTTE suicide bomber attacks his convoy at the Piththala junction in Colombo 3.

The ban on smoking and consumption of liquor in 'enclosed public areas' comes into effect. Offenders could face a fine of Rs. 2000, one year's imprisonment or both.

A strike by more than 250,000 estate workers demanding higher wages begins, crippling the tea industry.

6: Following the attack on the Defence Secretary, new emergency regulations to suppress terrorism are promulgated.

6: A powerful explosion in Dehiwela blows up a pipeline supplying water to Colombo and its suburbs. Water supply to tens of thousands of homes is disrupted as a result of the sabotage.

7: LTTE artillery fire rains on a school in Trincomalee, killing four including a teacher and injuring several more.
9: Susanthika Jayasinghe clinches the silver medal of the 100 metres sprint at the 15th Asian Games at the Khalifa stadium in Doha, Qatar.
11: More than 500 candidates in Kantale and Batticaloa are unable to sit the G.C.E. Ordinary Level Examination due to the volatile security situation.

13: The two men who snatched a gold chain off a woman rescued from the 2004 tsunami and then pushed her back into the raging waters to meet her death, are sentenced to death. The trial makes history as the first murder case to be conducted in Sri Lanka sans a post mortem.

15: Eight displaced civilians including a child fleeing the fighting in LTTE-controlled Vakarai drown when their boats capsize in rough seas.

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's appointment as a Consultant for UNESCO for South Asia is suspended as complaints accusing her of gross violations of human rights and press freedom pour in.

15: Eastern University Vice Chancellor S. Ravindranath is abducted by unidentified persons in Colombo.

Hospitals in Colombo are full with patients infected by the crippling Chikungunya, Swahili for 'that which bends up'. Transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes, the disease spreads like wildfire in Colombo, the most severe symptoms being debilitating joint pain. Paracetamol and Ibuprofen, the only pain relievers being prescribed are in short supply.