Tamils ignored in promoting Principals -CTTU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2001, 12:13 GMT]
The Educational Services Board under the Ministry of Education has promoted 200 Principals to Grade One post. One of them is a Tamil from Nawalapitiya in the central province, another is a Muslim. The remaining 198 are Sinhalese. "Not a single Tamil medium Principal in the northeast province has got promotion. In fact about 850 vacancies exist in northeast Tamil medium schools. On the whole about 1,500 vacancies exist throughout the island for Tamil medium principals in all grades," said Mr.T.Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union.
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Thileepan commemorated in areas under SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 16:43 GMT]
The commemoration of Thileepan, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers who fasted unto death on 26 September 1987, was observed Wednesday in many parts of the northeastern province of Sri Lanka which are under the control of the Sri Lankan army.
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"Government has ignored LTTE's Peace efforts" -Thmail Chelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2001, 23:03 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers observed a four-month ceasefire with the intention of bringing an end to the war, but the Sri Lankan government ignored our ceasefire. It is unfortunate that our efforts to bring peace did not succeed," Mr. S.P.Thamil Chelvan, political wing leader of the LTTE, has told Mr. A.P.Nanayakkara, leader of the Association of Families of Servicemen Missing in Action (AFSMA), who spoke at a news conference in Colombo on Tuesday.
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JVP wants "probation" government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 August 2001, 16:02 GMT]
The Marxist-Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Wednesday called for what they described as a "probationary" government. A party spokesman said that the JVP has submitted a proposal to the Sri Lankan government for the purpose. "The government should have cancelled the referendum instead of postponing it. If the parliament is reconvened it would be possible to consider the governmentÌs proposal for setting up of a constitution planning council," Mr. Wimal Weerawanse, Propaganda Secretary of the JVP, said.
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Two SLA soldiers wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2001, 16:02 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded and another was reported missing when the Liberation Tigers attacked an army detachment at Mahindapura, at about 10.30 a.m. Wednesday morning, local army sources said.
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Rape protest shuts down North and East

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2001, 09:47 GMT]
Shops, schools, offices, courts and banks were closed and streets were mostly deserted in Sri Lanka's northern province, in the Tamil, Muslim majority areas of the eastern province and in the Tamil towns of the central province Friday in response to a call for a general shut down by the alliance of eleven Tamil parties and by Tamil trade unions to protest against the rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. The Tamil parties held a protest demonstration in downtown Colombo Friday.
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Damage control as peace process hits the rocks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2001, 05:15 GMT]
(News Feature) The bi-lateral decision by Norway and Sri Lanka last Thursday, at the latter's insistence, to reduce the prominence of Oslo's peace envoy, Erik Solheim, has delivered an unexpected and severe blow to the Liberation TigersÇ confidence in the Norwegian initiative, political analysts said Monday. Sri Lanka's state-media Monday strove to give the impression that the process was still on track, but the LTTE's strongly worded statement Sunday and sentiments being expressed by Tamil politicians and media emphasised the depth of the crisis, they said.
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Jaffna hospital a human shield - doctors

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"The Jaffna hospital has been a human shield since 1996. As such the use of some of its buildings and passages is still prohibited. Our reasonable request to remove the Sri Lanka army camp near the Jaffna hospital in consideration of the safety of its patients and staff and to declare it and its environs as a demilitarised zone under the supervision of the ICRC has not been heeded until this day", said Medical officers in Jaffna who went on a protest strike along with their colleagues in the north and east of Sri Lanka Monday.
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Resident pass restrictions afflict Trinco too

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2001, 19:01 GMT]
"The Police exert pressure on Tamil persons who temporarily reside in Trincomalee town to return to their own areas when they go to police stations to renew their resident permits every month", said Mr. Soosaipillai Jesuthasan, Secretary of the Trincomalee District Refugees' Welfare Association speaking at a meeting between representatives of non-governmental organizations in Trincomalee and Mr.Selvakumaran, an official of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Monday.
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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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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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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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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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Trinco citizens call for UNHRC presence

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 16:49 GMT]
“The presence of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka should be made a reality to monitor crimes against innocent Tamils, especially women, by members of Armed Forces who are almost 100 percent Sinhalese”, states a memorandum sent to several international human rights organizations Friday by leading citizens of Trincomalee.
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US urged to pressure Sri Lanka over talks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 23:09 GMT]
The United States should pressure the Sri Lankan government to cease its war and seek negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) urged a visiting senior US official Thursday. "It is impossible to seek peace while the government insists on continuing the war," Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Secretary General of the TULF told Mr. Adolfo Franco, Counsel for the International Relations Committee of the US Congress, who is in Colombo meeting political leaders with regards to the Norwegian peace efforts.
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Pararajasingham says prisons toll death knell for Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2001, 12:25 GMT]
"The prison is said to be a high security, safe place for prisoners. But judging from various attacks on Tamil prisoners detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations during the past eight years, prison has become a death knell for Tamil prisoners", said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, TULF MP for Batticaloa in a letter faxed to the Sri Lankan President about the brutal attack Saturday on Tamil prisoners held in the Negombo prison under the Immigrants and Emigrants (Amendment) Act No.42 of 1998. Fifteen Tamil prisoners who were on protest fast demanding that they be released on bail were injured when they were brutally attacked by prison guards Saturday. The condition of seven is serious.
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Mannar CSU rapes pregnant woman

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 March 2001, 18:07 GMT]
"Wijikala was screaming inside the building. I heard her pleading 'I have nothing to do with the Tigers. I am a family woman. Please do not do this to me'. Then some CSU men came out and told me that they were forcing Wijikala to have sex with them and threatened to rape me as well. One of the men tried to strip my clothes. When they saw that my son was asleep on my lap, a Policeman dragged him away into one of the buildings in the CSU compound as I begged them not to hurt him. Two men then pinned me down on the van's floor while another stripped me and raped me. I was screaming and pleading when a Policeman put his foot on my mouth to stifle me. Inside the building they forced Wijikala, who was standing naked, to strip my underwear. I was hung upside down in a knot from a pole placed between two tables, with my hands and feet tied. Then the men in the room poked our genitals and tortured us until dawn", said Sivamani Sinnathamby Weerakon, the young mother of three who was arrested by the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Police in Mannar on 13 March. Wijikala Nanthan, 22, of Alavetty in Jaffna who was arrested with Sivamani, is pregnant.
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Tigers extend cease-fire, warn Sri Lanka over attacks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2001, 11:44 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday extended their unilateral cease-fire for another month, till April 24, but warned they would resume armed operations if the Sri Lankan government refused to reciprocate and continued military operations against the LTTE. Pointing out that it has not launched any offensive operations either in the north-east or the southern provinces or capital, Colombo, during the three months of its unilateral cease-fire, the LTTE said in a statement that 133 of its fighters had been killed in attacks by the Sri Lankan military in the same period.
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Mutur magistrate sets a precedent

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2001, 10:23 GMT]
The Mutur Magistrate this week issued certificates that the deaths of seven Tamil farmers in the Poomarathadihchenai massacre in Trincomalee district were due to gunshot and cut injuries. Representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross on Thursday went to Poonagar and handed over the death certificates to the families of the dead, enabling them to claim compensation and relief. Magisterial inquests are not held for Tamils who are killed thus in border villages. As a consequence, hundreds of Tamil families in border villages that have lost their sole breadwinners are denied poverty relief as they cannot produce death certificates for the diseased required by the authorities to accept and process their applications.
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Tigers release four Sinhala farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2001, 12:38 GMT]
Four Sinhala farmers from Padaviya, a region lying close to the Mullaithivu district, were released by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni Thursday, Harasha Gunawardena, press officer of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Tamilnet. He said they would be handed over to their families in Padaviya tomorrow. Meanwhile, the chief incumbent of the Buddhist temple in Vavuniya Ven. Siyambalagaswewa Wimalasara Thero told Tamilnet that the release comes in the wake of a promise made to him by the Liberation Tigers when he met them in the Vanni on 19 February as a member of an inter-religious delegation.
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