Mannar judge calls SIU bluff

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 18:36 GMT]
The Mannar district judge M.H.M Ajmeer Thursday told officers of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Police that he would have to dismiss about 200 cases filed by them as these have been pending for a almost three years without the Attorney General instituting proceedings against persons who have been charged under the PTA and the Emergency Regulations. The judge rejected the SIU's explanation that the cases are still before the AG's department.
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ICRC dissemination program for Trinco LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 18:34 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross Wednesday held a one-day dissemination program for the combatants of the Liberation Tigers in the Mutur area, which is not under the control of the Sri Lankan army.
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Tortured Jaffna youth petitions SC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 08:44 GMT]
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Wednesday granted leave to proceed on a fundamental rights petition filed by a Jaffna youth who is being held in the Boosa prison, south of Colombo. The youth, Selvarajah Thamilchelvan of Pattarakalli koviladi, Thavadi South, Kokuvil, Jaffna states in his petition that he was hung upside down and severely tortured while in the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Police. Thamilchelvan said that TID officers repeatedly burnt his hands with cigarettes and covered his head with a plastic bag soaked in petrol while he was beaten with wires and poles- common method of torture by Sri Lankan security forces. The medico-legal report on Thamilchelvan states there are seven scars on his body, two of which are 14 cm 16 cm long and two 10 cm long.
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Batticaloa detainees list posted, three missing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 18:27 GMT]
The Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa Wednesday submitted to the district court a list of 21 persons who are being held in its special camp in the eastern town. A recently promulgated Emergency Regulation requires officers in charge of gazetted detention centres to submit to the courts a list of persons in their custody every fortnight. Judicial officers are also allowed to visit such detention centres. The CSU camp in the Batticaloa town is not the only gazetted detention centre in the eastern district, sources pointed out.
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SLA operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday morning launched a "limited" operation, advancing from their camp at Vavunathivu, about 5 km. southwest of Batticaloa town, into the villages of Navatkadhu, Karaveddi and Monkeykaddy in the district's western hinter land, said sources. No confrontations with the Liberation Tigers were reported, they added.
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Search operation in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 14:09 GMT]
Five people were arrested during a combined search operation by Sri Lanka Army soldiers and police in the Mannar town Wednesday. The operation which began around 9 a.m. went on till noon, local residents said.
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Lifting censorship said ill timed for SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 13:31 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday lifted the draconian censorship on reporting the war against the Liberation Tigers. The reason for the move is not clear, military sources in Colombo said. The censorship, imposed in May 1998, banned, among other things, reporting on military operations planned by the Sri Lanka army and on purchases of military hardware. However, the censorship generally inhibited the Sri Lankan press from candidly reporting about the Sri Lanka army and its military activities in the north and east of the island.
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Senior PLOTE member shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2001, 22:22 GMT]
A senior member of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the high security zone of the Mannar town around 8 p.m. Tuesday police said. The PLOTE maintains a camp in Mannar town close to the police station.
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Sri Lanka's decision seriously threatens peace talks: LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2001, 09:13 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal Saturday to lift the proscription of their organisation and said this had "seriously jeopardised" the prospects for peace talks. Expressing regret and dismay over Sri Lanka's decision in a statement issued from its Vanni headquarters, the LTTE leadership called upon the government to reconsider its position for the sake of peace and ethnic reconciliation. "If the Government adopts a hard-line position and refuses to review its decision on proscription, then it should bear full and total responsibility for the collapse of the peace efforts and the serious consequences that might arise from its decision," the Tigers warned.
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'Onward with the war' say Sinhala nationalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 May 2001, 16:45 GMT]
"The need of the hour is not peace negotiations but to prosecute the war correctly. We should not think about how to negotiate peace but only about conducting the war victoriously. Sri Lanka is the homeland of the Sinhala people. No part of it can be the homeland of a minority. Autonomy and self-determination should not be granted or recognised", resolved a conference of Buddhist monks, leading Sinhala Buddhist businessmen, intellectuals and retired senior officers of the Sri Lankan security forces in Colombo Saturday. The conference was organised, according to a spokesman, to "consider the implications of the forthcoming peace talks and the constitutional proposals on the country". Meanwhile, Colombo stated categorically Saturday that it will not lift the proscription of the Liberation Tigers as a pre-requisite for starting talks.
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Protest in Jaffna against SLA ban on fishing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 May 2001, 14:23 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty fishermen in Valvettithurai in Jaffna sat in a protest fast from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday demanding that the Sri Lanka army should lift the ban on fishing in the seas off the peninsula's Vadamaradchi division. A spokesman for the Valvettithurai fishermen told Tamilnet that the protest fast will continue until the ban is lifted and some of their reasonable requests are met. The SLA banned fishing in the seas off the coast from Sakkoattai to Thondamanar on 18 May.
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Thirty five under SIU, SLA detention in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2001, 15:16 GMT]
Thirty-five persons are being held in the Sri Lanka army's 21-1 brigade base and the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Police in Vavuniya, district court sources in the northern border town said Friday. All were taken into custody under the Emergency Regulations, they said. The detention of the thirty-five was determined when the Vavuniya district judge Mr. M. Ilancheliyan Thursday visited the two detention centres gazetted under a new Emergency Regulation. He instructed the officers in charge of the detention centres at the 21-1 brigade and the Police SIU camp to inform the Human Rights Commission of a person's detention within 48 hours of his/her arrest and to display a list of all persons in their custody at the district court every fortnight.
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'End war, recognise right of self determination'-teachers

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2001, 13:27 GMT]
"The war should be stopped. Tamil Students and teachers are suffering immensely because of this conflict. The Tamil people's right of self determination and their traditional homeland should be recognised", said Mr. S.Tharmarajan, the President of the Batticaloa branch of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union, addressing the 'Upsurge' rally and conference in the eastern town Friday. The general secretary of the CTTU Mr. Mahasivam, in his address called on the Sri Lankan government immediately lift the proscription on the Liberation Tigers and begin peace negotiations with Norwegian mediation.
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Program to curb child malnutrition in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 May 2001, 07:56 GMT]
Three infants who were in a critical stage of acute malnutrition were found and handed over to the Nutrition and Rehabilitation Centre in Puthukkudiyiruppu in the Mullaithivu district Thursday, according to the Voice of Tigers. The Socio-economic Development Organisation (SEDO) is currently engaged in identifying infants and children afflicted by acute malnutrition in the Vanni due to the economic embargo by the Sri Lankan government on the region, the radio said. The children and infants would be handed over to the care of Nutrition and Rehabilitation Centres until they completely recover, the VOT added, quoting Mr. Jude, the co-ordinator of the SEDO.
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Soldier, police officer killed in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 11:28 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed in a counter-ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Uyilankulam in the north-western Mannar District, around 9.30 p.m. Wednesday, army sources said. The soldiers were lying in ambush ahead of Uyilankulam forward defence lines, the source said.
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TULF urges Colombo to lift proscription of LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 07:21 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front said Thursday it would strongly urge the Sri Lankan Government not to delay the lifting of the proscription on the Liberation Tigers. The Senior Vice President of the TULF M. V.Ananadasangaree and the Secretary General Mr. R. Sampanthan issued a statement following a politburo meeting of the party in Colombo Wednesday. The party said that the Sri Lankan government should not “retard the commencement of talks” with the Liberation Tigers by “delaying a positive decision in regard to the termination of the proscription of the LTTE”.
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Arrests on the increase again in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2001, 09:09 GMT]
Fifteen persons arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in Vavuniya in the first two weeks of May 2001 are reported missing according to complaints lodged with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in the northern border town. Fifteen persons were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces last week as well, according to HRC sources in Vavuniya. They said that arrests and detention by the security forces have increased in Vavuniya in recent weeks. Many relatives are still trying to find the places where the arrested persons are being held. An HRC official said that efforts by his organisation to locate the missing persons were not successful.
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Trincomalee ambush toll rises

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2001, 05:50 GMT]
Seventeen Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailors were killed and twenty-eight wounded in a claymore mine blast Wednesday morning around 9.45 a.m. near Thambalagamam on the Trincomalee-Habarana road. The SLN personnel were travelling in a convoy when a bus carrying them was hit by the blast, sources said.
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Deep penetration group kills one, takes three

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 17:44 GMT]
One civilian was killed and three were reported missing in an attack by a Sri Lanka army Deep Penetration team near Mathurankerni Kulam, 70 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday around 10 a.m. Yoganathan Kesavarajah, 24, had gone to chop firewood when he was shot dead by the SLA’s special penetration group. His wife is pregnant with their first child, relatives said. The three persons who are reported missing, had gone to collect honey in the jungles near Mathurankerni Kulam. Relatives said that the three were abducted by two SLA deep penetration teams.
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More SLA mine fields destroyed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 10:59 GMT]
A large number of anti-personnel landmine fields left behind by the Sri Lanka army were located and de-mined in twelve villages in the southern sector of the Vanni Western aid agency sources said Tuesday. They said that caches of mortar and artillery shells and explosives were also located and destroyed from these villages to ensure the safety of civilians who have begun to gradually resettle in this sector. The SLA was camped in the villages of the Vanni's southern sector from 1997 to November 1999.
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Bomb blast injures three

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 May 2001, 10:30 GMT]
Three people were wounded in an explosion at the Trincomalee District Secretariat complex around 3 p.m. Monday. The explosion was caused by an anti personnel mine, the police said. The District Secretariat is situated inside the Fort Frederick where the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army is stationed.
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New ICRC technology helps Jaffna amputees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2001, 05:33 GMT]
Mr. Serge Marme, Head of ICRC Sub-delegation in Jaffna addressing a press conference in Jaffna about the organisation's activities in the peninsula Saturday afternoon said
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SLN brings 'spotters' in ambulance, arrests seven

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2001, 11:50 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy arrested seven civilians from Pesalai, 16 kilometres west of Mannar town, during a search operation in the residential sector and the two refugee camps of the village Saturday morning. The Navy brought two hooded ëspottersí in an ambulance after it cordoned off the two refugee camps and division 5, 6 and 7 from 5 a.m. in the morning. The civilians who were pointed out by the two 'spotters' were arrested and taken away by the SLN. The search comes in the wake of claymore blast Friday in Thoattaveli, near Pesalai, in which two Special Task Force commandos were wounded.
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Barrage on Pallai, claymore blast in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 14:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army launched a barrage on Thambakaamam and Periyapalai in the southern sector of Jaffna which is under the control of the Liberation Tigers from Thursday night sources in the north said. The SLA sustained the barrage with heavy artillery from 8 a.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday morning. Meanwhile, two Special Task Force commandos were wounded when the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by a claymore mine blast in Thoattaveli, 10 kilometres west of Mannar on the main road to Talaimannar Friday afternoon around 3.30 p.m.
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Ban "major hurdle" to talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 09:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in a statement from Friday that Sri Lanka's ban on their organisation "has become the major hurdle for the initiation of peace talks" out of three factors as pre-requisite necessary steps, the other two being "removing the economic blockade in the Tamil homeland [and] declaring of an indefinite cease-fire". Giving details of the discussions between the Norwegian delegation and members of the LTTE's Central committee, the movement said in a statement from the Vanni Secreterait that "The international community should understand that we cannot participate in peace talks as an illegal, criminal entity with a distorted false label as 'terrorists'."
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"Mawanella" worm sends political message

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 09:16 GMT]
Hundreds of companies worldwide have fallen prey to another mass-mailing worm called 'Mawanella'‚ after the Sri Lankan village, press reports said Thursday. The worm carries a message protesting the attacks on Muslims, but does no real damage besides clogging networks with e-mail, the report by CNET News.com said.
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12 soldiers killed, 21 wounded in Tiger ambushes

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 07:51 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and 21 were wounded in two separate attacks by the Liberation Tigers Friday morning, said army sources in the northern town of Vavuniya. Earlier in a claymore mine blast on the Vavuniya-Mannar road, a SLA soldier was killed and another was wounded.
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Claymore blast hits SLA patrol

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 04:23 GMT]

Sri Lanka army (SLA) and Police personnel at the scene of the claymore blast in Pampaimadu Friday. (SLA Photo)

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Lifting of proscription essential for talks ñ Thamil Chelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 03:20 GMT]
"The removal of the proscription of the Liberation Tigers is an essential pre-requisite for talks", Mr. S. P Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the political wing of the LTTE told Norwegian Peace envoy Eric Solheim during discussions Thursday in Mallavi in the Vanni, according to the morning news broadcast of the Voice of Tigers Friday. The radio said that the Tigers had categorically told the Norwegian team that the LTTE would never take part in the talks as 'a proscribed terrorist organisation'. No final decision was reached during the five-hour meeting Thursday, according to the VOT. The Norwegian delegation and the Tigers also discussed the Memorandum of Understanding and a bilateral ceasefire, the radio said.
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Tamil Guardian website hacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 18:00 GMT]
The website of the Tamil Guardian newspaper was attacked and defaced by hackers Thursday. Visitors to the expatriate weekly’s website found an obscene message attacking the US government on the front page instead of the usual news and images of the paper’s printed pages.
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Douglas berates Jaffna press

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 13:05 GMT]
“I do not trust the press in Jaffna”, said Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, Minister for Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North and Tamil Affairs (North and East), addressing a press conference Thursday afternoon at his office on Stanley Road in the northern town. The road, in the busy heart of Jaffna town, was blocked off to the public from Thursday morning 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the afternoon by Sri Lanka army soldiers, Policemen and armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). The press briefing was called after the conclusion of the Jaffna electorate development meeting, which was boycotted by five Jaffna MPs who are protesting that it is not safe for them to be present in Mr. Devananda’s office cum camp on Stanley Road.
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Law of War workshop for SLN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 11:34 GMT]
A three-day workshop to the Sri Lanka Navy personnel on the International Humanitarian Law (Law of War) organized by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) was inaugurated at the Naval Base in Trincomalee Thursday morning. “Sri Lanka Navy Officers attached to the Naval and Maritime Academy are attending the workshop which is about the application of the Law of War to warfare at sea” said Mr. M. Pushparajan, Dissemination officer of the ICRC's Sub Delegation in Trincomalee.
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Two killed, Muslim town tense

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 13:31 GMT]
Oddamavadi, a Muslim town 34 kilometres north of Batticaloa, was tense Wednesday as following the murder of two cattle herders allegedly by Sri Lanka army soldiers from the Naavaladi camp. Shops in the Oddamavadi bazaar were shut down in protest Wednesday. The two men, Noor Mohammed Abdul Latif, 35, and Seeni Mohammdhu Sareef, 43, were taken out of their huts by armed men close to midnight and were beaten and shot to death, relatives said. The identity card of a SLA soldier and an army cap were found near the place where the bodies of the two herders lay this morning. A crowd that gathered round the bodies of the two herders Wednesday morning abused and attempted to assault SLA personnel who went to conduct inquiries at the scene of the murder.
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Batticaloa villages shelled

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 13:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stationed at the 23-3 Brigade Head Quarters fired several rounds of shells towards the villages of Kannankudha, Karaveddi and Thaandiyadi in the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district Wednesday noon, damaging some houses in the area, according to reports from the area.
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Thamil Chelvan's convoy hit by SLA claymore

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 08:53 GMT]
A convoy of the Liberation Tigers in which Mr. S.P Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the political wing of the LTTE, was travelling towards Mallavi where he was scheduled to meet Norwegian Peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim was hit near Kokkavil by a claymore blast set off by a deep penetration team of the Sri Lanka army Tuesday afternoon, sources in Vanni said. A LTTE trooper was killed and two were wounded in the blast. They were travelling in a Mitsubishi Pajero that was providing security to Mr. Thamil Chelvan's vehicle, the sources added.
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Necessity for indefinite ceasefire to be stressed –paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2001, 11:15 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim will have meetings with Mr. Thamil Chelvan, head of the LTTE’s political section on 16 and 17 May in the Vanni. The meetings are expected to “focus on steps to bring about a suitable atmosphere for productive negotiations to be held between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government”. Meanwhile in its latest issue, the Tamil Guardian, the expatriate paper published from London, quoted sources in the Liberation Tigers, as saying “further discussions and clarifications on certain matters” had to be completed before the scheduling of peace talks could be considered. The LTTE sources, according to the paper, had dismissed as speculation reports in the Sri Lankan press that talks were imminent.
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3 SLA soldiers killed in claymore blast

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 May 2001, 17:22 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and four others were wounded when the Liberation Tigers set off a powerful claymore mine at Aluthnuwara in the east of the island around 4.30 p.m. Monday, army sources said.
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Police patrol ambushed

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 May 2001, 06:30 GMT]
A Police officer was killed and ten others were wounded in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers near Pachchanoor police post, about 3 km. south of Mutur town in the Trincomalee district, around 7 a.m. Monday morning, security sources said.
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'ER and PTA can only create a closed society'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2001, 23:00 GMT]
"There is a great divide between the Sinhala and Tamil media today. Both are totally alienated from each other. The government is confused about public information and official information. The state run media give only official information.
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TULF's bona fides questioned

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2001, 17:13 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Saturday called upon the Government and the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to take every possible step to facilitate the commencement of a constructive dialogue that would end the conflict "within the framework upon the basis of which the Norwegian initiative has commenced". Opposition sources, however, charged that the TULF has issued the statement "in cahoots with the government" to scuttle the UNP's no confidence motion. "We wonder why the TULF had to rush at this point to assert that 'the present is an opportune moment' to resolve the conflict?" they questioned.
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Kadirgamar's move said linked to no confidence motion

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 19:34 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Liberation Tigers not because of a genuine commitment to peace but to deftly pre-empt the support of minority parties for the opposition's impending no confidence motion against the government", a spokesperson for the ten party Tamil alliance told TamilNet in Colombo Friday evening. "The government is alarmed now that it might lose the support of at least a section of its main coalition partner, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress over the Mawanella pogrom. This is has created a serious crisis for the People's Alliance. Why should the Sri Lankan government, which consistently rejected the LTTE's ceasefire and refused to even partially lift the embargo on the Vanni despite facing greater military defeats than Agni Khiela I last year, jump the gun at this juncture to falsely declare that it had reached an understanding with the Tigers to begin peace talks?" the Tamil politician in Colombo asked.
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Fear of reprisal silences Trinco torture victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 18:56 GMT]
"Thirty to forty torture victims in Trincomalee district seek medical and psychological treatment every month. There are over five hundred torture victims in the Trincomalee district who do not get proper physical and psychological treatment", said Dr.E.Gnanakunalan, Deputy Director of Health Services in the Northeast Provincial Ministry of Health, addressing a seminar on torture victims held Friday morning at the New Silver Star Hotel in the eastern port town.
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12 SLA soldiers killed at Sungawil -VoT

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 18:50 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Sungawil in the Polonnaruwa district around 6.40 a.m Thursday. The LTTE ambush unit recovered 3 bodies of the SLA soldiers killed in the attack, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said Friday evening.
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Tigers say discussing Norway ceasefire proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 09:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers, in an official statement released in the Vanni Friday, slammed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister for claiming that an agreement had been reached between the two sides. “It is premature and irresponsible on the part of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to falsely project to the world media that an agreement has been reached,” the Tigers said. However the movement also said “substantial progress” had been made on the Norwegian Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) after intense discussions for a considerable time with the Norwegian facilitators. The LTTE said Norway had Wednesday suggested a programme for bilateral cessation of hostilities which the movement said was “constructive” proposal, but which requires “further clarifications and discussions before final agreement.”
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Emergency and PTA promote torture - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 20:50 GMT]
"No self respecting Tamil will vote for the extension of the Emergency and its regulations. The Tamil people have been denied their fundamental right of freedom from torture for more than 25 years. The Sri Lankan security forces behave as though no Tamil has this fundamental right which is guaranteed to every citizen of this country in the constitution. Can you tell me how many Tamils were not subjected to torture in custody? The most pernicious methods of torture are practiced on the Tamils by the security forces today. Therefore I ask: are the Tamils citizens of this country or should they determine their own citizenship?" asked 'Selvam' A. Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), speaking in Parliament Thursday on the vote to extend the state of Emergency.
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Balasingham denies agreement reached, expresses surprise

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 18:38 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday expressed surprise and concern at the Sri Lankan government's statement suggesting that agreement had been reached between the two sides on several matters. When contacted about the statement issued by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar Thursday, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's chief negotiator, emphatically denied that agreement had been reached on any matters and expressed surprise at Sri Lanka's statement, describing it as "recklessly premature" and "factually incorrect"
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SLMC slates government for Mawanella pogrom

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 17:26 GMT]
Mr. Rauff Hakeem, the co-leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the ruling People's Alliance's main coalition partner, Thursday slammed the government for not taking prompt action to stop the mass violence by Sinhala mobs against the Muslims of Mawanella. He accused the government of dragging its feet in taking action against the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim violence. He charged that transferring Policemen who were in Mawanella during the pogrom against the Muslims of the town was merely a temporary cosmetic measure.
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Ratwatte heaps scorn on LTTE's ceasefire-again

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 11:51 GMT]
"The LTTE's ceasefire was a myth. The troops involved in the Agni Khiela operation have been successfully extending their area of control", said Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, speaking on the extension of the Emergency Thursday. Two elite Divisions of the Sri Lanka army comprising more than ten thousand soldiers took part in Operation Agni Khiela I barely two hours after the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Liberation Tigers on 24 December 2000 expired last month. The Tigers routed the offensive in four days of fighting. Gen. Ratwatte lambasted further the Tigers and their unilateral ceasefire in his speech.
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Colombo bans public processions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 07:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government banned all public processions for a week under the Emergency Regulations Thursday. An official statement said that the ban commenced midnight of 9 May. The ban was promulgated in the Emergency Regulation No. 1 of 2001 (public precessions), according to the statement.
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One killed, three wounded in Polannaruwa attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 06:37 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and two were wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers in Sungawil in the Polannaruwa district Thursday morning around 7.30 a.m. The Tigers hit an army post near the district border between Polannaruwa and Batticaloa. A security assistant at the checkpoint was also wounded in the attack. Sungawil is 21 kilometres northeast of the Polannaruwa town.
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Bilateral cease-fire mooted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 17:12 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy, Mr.Erik Solheim Wednesday met the Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator, and political advisor Mr.Anton Balasingham in London, for lengthy discussions. They discussed a feasibility of working out a bilateral cessation of hostility between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to facilitate the peace process.
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Fire-fight amid Vesak gloom in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 12:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and one was wounded in a fire-fight with the Liberation Tigers at Kommathurai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa town, Tuesday night around 8 p.m. Fighting broke out when SLA troops lying in ambush by a crossing point between the district's large hinterland controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the coast dominated by the army opened fire upon detecting the movement of armed persons.
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'More booze than books' policy condemned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 17:38 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government sends liquor to Jaffna more regularly than school text books. On the average, three children in Jaffna receive only one textbook today. Even this limited number is not sent to the schools regularly. The government says there is no room in the ships to send textbooks to Jaffna. However, it sends a very large quantity of liquor to peninsula. This is being done with the clear aim of destroying our society", said V. Sothinathan, an officer of the government's Excise Department in Jaffna, addressing a conference Tuesday at the Jaffna University to take action against the sale of illicit liquor in the peninsula.
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Police refuse permission for Jaffna protest

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 17:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police in Jaffna Tuesday refused permission for a demonstration by people who were displaced from the Thenmaradchi division of the peninsula last May due to fighting between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army. Families displaced from Chavakachcheri sought permission this week to hold a demonstration on May 11 Friday to demand that they be resettled soon or be allowed to go to their homes and retrieve their belongings.
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Salli-sustaining the will to survive against odds

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 15:06 GMT]
Salli is an old coastal village on the northern side of the Trincomalee Bay. Like hundreds of other Tamil villages in Sri Lanka's north and east, Salli is a shadow of its former self. Last week the Sri Lanka Navy, which has ringed the village with four camps, ordered civilians here to stay indoors after 6 p.m.
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Armed guards for Vesak lantern

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 20:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers arrested five Tamils Monday morning in a cordon and search operation at Faizal Nagar in Kinniya Division, 15-km northwest of Trincomalee town. The arrested Tamils are said to be inmates of a refugee camp at Faizal Nagar where a large number of Tamil families displaced from Upparu village in 1998 live.
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Muslim, Sinhala shops burnt in Mutur

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 10:57 GMT]
Twelve shops were gutted by fire Sunday night at Mutur town in Trincomalee district. Police said that no one knew who started the burning of shops, some of which they said belonged to Sinhala traders and others to Muslims. The Mutur Police Station is situated about 50 meters from the scene of incident.
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Batticaloa shuts down for massacred children

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 02:43 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads Monday in the Batticaloa district to observe the Buddhist festival if Vesak as a day of mourning for the 10 children from an orphanage who were killed by Sri Lanka army soldiers on 17 May last year. The main road from Kalmunai to Batticaloa was blocked at Ondaachchi Madam, Kaluthavalai and Thalangkudah by villagers. Fourteen persons, including ten children who came to the Batticaloa town from an orphanage in Aayiththiyamalai, were shot dead during the Vesak festival by SLA troops last year.
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Bravery awards after SLA rout

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 20:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week saluted their units which participated in the rout of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive in the southern Jaffna peninsula two weeks ago, official LTTE sources said Sunday. The special award for bravery was awarded to the men and women who had defeated a three pronged assault by fifteen thousand SLA soldiers backed by artillery, naval gunboats and air power, they said.
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Tamil journalists slam draconian laws

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 15:00 GMT]
"The Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act are laws designed specifically to oppress the Tamil people", said Mr. P. Manickavasagam, the President of the Tamil Media Alliance, addressing a meeting in Batticaloa organised Sunday by the East Lanka Journalist Association to mark the World Press Freedom Day. "The Amnesty International has said in its report that the Eelam People's Democratic Party is suspected in the murder of Jaffna journalist Maylvaganam Nimalarajan.
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Talaimannar refuses to yield

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 20:20 GMT]
(News Feature) Two decades ago Talaimannar was a prosperous town. The only ferry service between India and Sri Lanka operated from here, carrying thousands of passengers from Talaimannar pier to Rameswaram in South India. One could buy a railway ticket to India from any part of the island and take the train to board the ferry at Talaimannar for the short journey across the Palk Strait. Today less than hundred and fifty families live in the Talaimannar pier.
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Security patrol shot in Batticaloa town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 11:47 GMT]
A military trained Sri Lanka Policeman was killed another wounded when gunmen suspected to be members of the Liberation Tigers opened fire on a patrol in the heart of Batticaloa town around 3.45 p.m. Saturday. Police sources in Batticaloa town said that two gunmen had come on a bicycle towards the Boundary Road-Trinco Road junction and shot the two Policemen who were on patrol duty there. The junction is in the high security zone of the town.
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Hartal in Ampara

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 07:53 GMT]
A hartal is being observed in predominantly Muslim villages in the south-eastern Ampara district Saturday, condemning the violence in Mawanella town in the Kegalle district. Black flags were hoisted on shops, houses and at public places. Burning tyres were seen on main junctions, said sources.
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Five STF commandos killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 07:06 GMT]
Five Special Task Force elite troops were killed and another wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers near Thirukkovil about 25 km. south-east of Ampara around 8 a.m. Saturday. An armoured vehicle was damaged when the Tigers attacked reinforcements that were rushed to the area from Thirukkovil camp, sources said.
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Tigers hand over 29 SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 11:01 GMT]
Twenty-nine bodies of the Sri Lanka Army soldiers killed in the Jaffna battle last week were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by the Liberation Tigers Friday, Mr.Thangan, the Head of the political administration of the LTTE handed over the bodies to the local ICRC representative at a meeting held at Kilinochchi at 9 a.m., according to an official statement from the LTTE head quarters in the northern Vanni.
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Muslims protestors riot in downtown Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 10:21 GMT]
Riots broke out in downtown Colombo Friday as Muslims angered by Sinhalese attacks on their brethren in the provincial town of Mawanella this week stoned Sinhala owned shops and smashed up more than 12 vehicles. The Sri Lankan Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslims who demonstrated after Friday Jummah prayers in Maradana, Panchikawatta, Maaligawatte and Hulftsdorp.
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Sri Lanka said blocking Malaysia conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 00:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar has intervened to disrupt an academic conference in Malaysia which was to discuss the Sri Lankan conflict, a columnist in a Malaysian news website said Thursday. "[Mr. Kadirgamar] made a personal call to one of the [Malaysian] government ministers and urged him to cancel the conference," Professor P. Ramasamy wrote in an article published by Malaysia Kini.com. Academic sources in Malaysia contacted about the article told TamilNet that both Sinhala and Tamil delegates had been invited to attend.
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All detainees should be shown -district judge

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2001, 19:20 GMT]
Vavuniya district judge Mr.M.Ilancheliyan Thursday issued instructions that the names of all detainees in detention centres in the area under his jurisdiction should be given to the court every fortnight. The judge gave the directions to the security forces officials under the Emergency Regulations in gazette notification No.1128/22-2001 dated 06.04.2001 issued Wednesday. Mr.Ilancheliyan directed that proper guidance should be given to the officers in charge of detention centres to show all the detainees to the visiting magistrate.
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Attacks shatter Mawanella Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2001, 15:44 GMT]
Two mosques, sixty houses, forty shops and two Muslim owned fuel stations were burnt down Wednesday by mobs in the town of Mawanella, said Mr. Ali Sahir Moulana, a Muslim opposition Parliamentarian Thursday. He said that Sinhala mobs had carried out the attacks with the aim of destroying the basis of the Muslim people's economy in Mawanella. The town is on the main highway between Kandy and Colombo in the Kegalle district and is predominantly Muslim. Mr.Moulana said that the Sri Lankan government should take full responsibility for the attack on the Muslims in Mawanella and its environs.
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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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Sri Lanka's radical Marxists stage massive rally

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 19:55 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty thousand members and supporters of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lanka's radical Marxist party, took part in a massive May Day rally Tuesday in Colombo.
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LTTE accuses Sri Lanka of undermining peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 09:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Tuesday accused the Government of Sri Lanka of attempting to undermine the peace environment by its irrational and dangerous policy of war and military conquest. "By unleashing a major military offensive against the LTTE's positions in Jaffna, Kumaratunga government has seriously jeopardised the Norwegian peace initiative", the statement said.
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Canadian HC meets Thamil Chelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 04:21 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Tuesday that the Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ms. Ruth Archibald, had discussions with the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S.P Thamil Chelvan, last evening from 5.30 p.m. in the Vanni. "The Sri Lankan government and its army are now only keen on military action. This is harming Tamil civilians", Mr. Thamil Chelvan told the Canadian High Commissioner, the radio said. The VOT said that the long discussion between the Canadian High Commissioner and the LTTE's political wing leader was very "constructive".
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