Police sabotage rape trial, threaten MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Koneswary rape and murder case was postponed again today at the Kalmunai courts this afternoon as an Assistant superintendent of Police failed to turn up due to "unavoidable circumstances".
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SLAF say missile brought gunship down

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The SLAF confirmed that a missile fired by the Liberation Tigers brought down the Mi 24 helicopter gunship over the Kokkilai lagoon.
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High Tamil infant mortality rate being induced?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Colombo based Tamil groups have protested against the preference shown by the government to Sinhalese candidates in the appointment of midwives to the northeast.
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Batticaloa Council demands use of Tamil

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Batticaloa Municipal Council passed a resolution that all entries made at the Sri Lankan Police stations in the Batticaloa district should be recorded in Tamil.
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Sinhala colonisation threatens Muslims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Irakkamam, an old Muslim settlement in the Ampara district is threatened with Sinhala colonisation backed by the Sri Lankan army which has been encroaching into its environs since 1990. Several community leaders and educated youth of the village have spoken against this and written to the Tamil press about the imminent danger they face from Singha Gama - the Sinhala settlement that has sprung up nearby in recent years.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers ambushed a Sri Lankan military vehicle in the North and the Sri Lankan security forces in the Jaffna town went on full alert after an attack on the Jaffna Prison.
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Complete package delivered to PSC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The PA government officially presented its complete devolution proposal to the Parliamentary Select Committee this afternoon. The Committee will meet again on Oct.21 to discuss the modality of presenting the document to Parliament.
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Sinhalese must unite - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Lankadeepa, the Sri Lankan Sinhala daily with the largest circulation, exhorted the Sinhalese in its editorial today that they should bury their differences and unite to fight the Liberation Tigers.
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JVP seeks Tamil support

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna told the Sinhala press today that his 'party' was going to hold propaganda meetings in the main towns of the northeast to muster Tamil support for the group's campaign against the devolution package proposed by the PA regime. The JVP is a militant left wing Sinhala revolutionary group that led two bloody insurrections to capture state power.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A PLOTE militant suspected of several murders is organising a satyagraha campaign to aid his election campaign and the LTTE have destroyed two SLA trucks at Omanthai.
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Sinhalese doctors quit over 'army vulnerability'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Fourteen Sinhalese doctors along with some of their Muslim colleagues working at the Mannar base hospital vacated their posts on Friday. On their way to Colombo, they reported to Sri Lankan military officials in Vavuniya that they were abandoning their posts due to a major threat from the Liberation Tigers which the Sri Lankan security forces were facing in the Mannar island, where the base hospital is located.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
An MSF delegation visits a hospital in trouble. The Sri Lankan government continues to avoid negotiations with the LTTE and a Muslim delegation returning to Jaffna gets a pleasant surprise.
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Wounded soldiers condemn Sri Lanka's war

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Speaking at a public meeting held in the Ampara town hall recently, Commander H.K Dayaratne, president of the association representing the permanently wounded soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, condemned Sinhala politicians for opportunistically seeking political advantage by carrying on with the war in the Tamil homelands.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military is restricting the amount of food allowed into the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. In Trincomalee district, the LTTE has released 12 detainees and the Sri Lankan navy has arrested 98 Tamil fishermen - for fishing.
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Relatives of Jaffna's 'disappeared' protest

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Parents and relatives of Tamil civilians who have 'disappeared' in Sri Lankan army custody staged a protest on Sunday in the premises of Jaffna's St. James Church, and vowed to continue their struggle for justice. Several hundred Tamils have disappeared after being arrested by the Sri Lankan army, which captured the Jaffna peninsula in early 1996.
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Buddhist clergy stage protest rally

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The interim report of the Sinhala Commission continued to create powerful reverberations in the Sinhala polity as more than 1500 people, including five hundred Buddhist monks, gathered yesterday to muster public support for the 'Sinhala cause'.
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Tigers repulse SLA assault

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
In heavy fighting on Tuesday, Tamil Tiger forces drove back a renewed Sri Lankan army assault in the Puliyankulam area. SLA units which had bypassed Puliyankulam were advancing on Kanakarayankulam when LTTE forces counter-attacked, inflicting heavy casualties and capturing a large quantity of weaponry.
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Sri Lanka plans referendum to split the east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 1997, 12:01 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government's cabinet held a very crucial meeting yesterday (29 September) to map out a strategy for conducting a referendum in the island's eastern province. The proposed exercise came under fire from community leaders in the east who heard about the cabinet's discussions on the matter.


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Heavy going for SLA armour

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 1997, 12:00 GMT]
With the monsoon underway, heavy rain is affecting the fighting in the Vanni region. The rain is turning the terrain around Puliyankulam into a sea of mud, which is posing new difficulties for the hard pressed Sri Lankan forces there. The conditions are also said to be affecting the Tigers.
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Massacre in eastern Tamil village: 8 killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 1997, 12:05 GMT]
Muslim policemen and homeguards have run amok in a Tamil village, killing at least 8 civilians. The surviving residents of the "4th colony" village, Amparai district, have fled the area. The attack is believed to have been carried out in reprisal for the killing of two Muslim homeguards. The 4th Colony has been sealed off by members of the Special Task Force, a police commando unit, which controls the area where the massacre took place.
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