Roundup at Jaffna bus station

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 December 1998, 18:28 GMT]
Nearly 50 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers who came on bicycles rounded up bystanders and passengers at the Jaffna Bus Station and conducted a search operation today. The operation went on for several hours, said sources.
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Forensic expert arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 1998, 12:52 GMT]
Mr. William De Hagland, director of the International Forensic Programme (IFP), who is on a official visit to Sri Lanka met officials from the Humans Rights Commission (HRC) and the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU), said sources.
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Black day for human rights

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 December 1998, 11:11 GMT]
The Consortium of the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Jaffna will mark International Human Rights Day as a "Black Day". This will be done as a protest against the Sri Lankan government's attitude towards human rights violations.
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EU Ambassador visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 December 1998, 08:38 GMT]
Llkka Uusitalo, the European Union Ambassador for Sri Lanka told the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna that he understood that most of the persons arrested by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the police in the peninsula are civilians. He said paramilitary Tamil groups operating with the SLA are also responsible for grave human rights abuses.
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Relatives to visit Lion Air graves

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 November 1998, 09:48 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are to hand over the wreckage of the Lion Air passenger plane which crashed into the sea off the north western coast of the main land, sources in Vanni said.
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Amnesty seeks safety guarantees

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 October 1998, 00:08 GMT]
Amnesty International, the London based human rights organisation said today that the Sri Lankan government "must guarantee" the safety of forensic experts to enable international observers to participate in the exhumations of the alleged mass graves at Chemmani.
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U.S Bishop's concern over atrocities

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 October 1998, 03:58 GMT]
Bishop Felton Edwin May of the United Methodist Church of the Washington Episcopal Area has expressed his concern to the U.S State Department over the alleged mass graves of up to 400 civilians in Chemmani, Jaffna, and other human rights violations by Sri Lankan forces, said sources close to the Church today.
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New Zealand Tamils appeal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 October 1998, 23:04 GMT]
New Zealand's Tamil community appealed Sunday to the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Conference over the alleged mass graves of civilians killed by Sri Lankan troops in Jaffna, said the organisers of the event in a press release issued yesterday.
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Massive protests in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 1998, 12:29 GMT]
Over 2000 demonstrators were arrested this morning by Police in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, during widespread demonstrations protesting against the killings by Sri Lankan troops of over 400 Tamils whose bodies are said to have been buried in mass graves in Chemmani on the Jaffna peninsula.
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"People with us" - Jaffna LTTE commander

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 1998, 11:47 GMT]
The Jaffna district military commander of the Liberation Tigers, in a brief but exclusive interview with the TamilNet's Vadamaradchi correspondent said today that his units had hit an SLA supply convoy in the rear in Thenmaradchi while the Kilinochchi base was under attack last week. He requested that his name be withheld.
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Foreign Minister's unsettling breakfast

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 1998, 04:34 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar had an acrimonious question and answer session at the Asia Society in New York last week, according to informed sources. The Foreign Minister was in the US for the opening of the UN General Assembly, and spoke at a breakfast meeting at the Asia Society in one of a regular series of talks by Asian foreign ministers.
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Demonstration over Jaffna mass graves

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 1998, 17:51 GMT]
More than five hundred people took part in the march and sit in today to protest against the government's apathy towards the Chemmani graves and missing persons in Jaffna organised by the Jaffna NGO consortium, Mothers Front, the Missing Persons' Guardian Association (MPGA) and a large number of public interest groups.
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MPGA concerned for Chemmani evidence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 1998, 19:40 GMT]
The Missing Person's Guardians Association - Jaffna (MPGA) sent a letter to the National Human Rights Commission today urging it to take action on the Chemmani mass grave issue without any further delay in view of reports that there are secret moves to destroy the evidence about the Chemmani mass grave.
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Government delays mass graves inquiry

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 1998, 17:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Army soldier, Somaratne Rajapakshe, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Krishanthi Kumaraswami, is reported to have asked for his relocation.
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Other mass graves in Jaffna -TCHR

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 1998, 18:19 GMT]
The Tamil Centre for Human Rights said that it believes that there are mass graves of Tamil people murdered by Sri Lankan troops in areas of the Jaffna peninsula other than Chemmani. The TCHR also said it was concerned the evidence at Chemmani was being destroyed.
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Jaffna human rights investigators transferred

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 1998, 18:46 GMT]
The co-ordinator, Mr. Senaka Dhisanayake and his associate Mr. Lohan Chandrasekare, of the Jaffna office of the Sri Lankan government appointed Human Rights Commission have been transferred. The transfer order, issued by the Commission's head-office in Colombo, asked the two to cease their activities in Jaffna and report for duty in their previous working places.
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Amnesty concern for prisoner's safety

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 1998, 01:15 GMT]
Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog has expressed concern for the safety of former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Lance Corporal Somaratne Rajapakse, the soldier who revealed the existence of mass graves in Jaffna.
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'Chemmani graves' soldier treated

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 August 1998, 09:26 GMT]
The former Sri Lankan soldier, who said he could identify the Chemmani mass graves is expected to be released from hospital today following treatment for injuries he sustained when his prison guards attacked him.
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Parents of Disappeared Demand Investigation

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 August 1998, 13:16 GMT]
The body 'Parents of Disappeared Persons' has collected 10,000 signatures backing its petition to the Sri Lanka Government (SLG) demanding that the alleged mass graves at Chemmani be excavated, said sources in Jaffna.
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Mass graves road closed

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 1998, 23:59 GMT]
"Why is the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) keeping the Kaithady-Nallur Road passing through Chemmani closed? This has led to suspicion and unease in the Jaffna public, and the SLA should take steps to open it as early as possible" said a resolution passed by People's Power Forum (PPF), a civic organisation in Jaffna, headed by former Jaffna Municipal Commissioner, Mr. C. V. K. Sivagnanam, when it met on Sunday.
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