US envoy's concern for children said hypocrisy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2002, 20:12 GMT]
"More than hundred and fifty innocent Tamil children under five are being held in Sri Lankan prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Scores of little children were massacred when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Nagar Kovil School in Jaffna. Thousands of Tamil children whose parents were murdered in cold blood by the SLA are destitute orphans in the northeast today. The US ambassador's humanitarian concern was blind to the plight of these Tamil children until this week.
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SLA recruits, restructures for greater efficiency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2002, 12:14 GMT]
(News feature) The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is at the cross roads today, warily eyeing the prospect of a long peace and the schemes of the modern technocrats of the new government who might be inclined, as the negotiations progress, to prune its lavish budget and compact it to its 'natural size'. But the United National Front has sought to allay the SLA's apprehensions by promising to help it achieve greater efficiency.
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Despondent paramilitaries mull arms surrender

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2002, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has given 48 hours to Tamil paramilitary groups operating in the Batticaloa district to disarm or join the military and serve outside the Northeast, the regional Tamil daily, Thinakathir reported Tuesday, quoting sources in SLA's 23-3 Brigade Headquarters in the eastern town.
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UNF govt to reduce 2002 defence expenditure

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2002, 18:19 GMT]
The United National Front government (UNF) said Monday that the country's defense expenditure would be reduced in the new budget, which is scheduled to be tabled in parliament on March 18. "The current cessation of hostilities would continue even if the government and the Liberation Tigers failed to sign the Memorandum of Understanding before February 24. Both the UNF government and the LTTE would have to sign a common programme of action to make the cessation of hostilities a permanent ceasefire," said the Defense Minister Mr.Tilak Marapone addressing a press briefing Monday.
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People nab soldier for molesting girl

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2002, 19:12 GMT]
The people of Orr's Hill, a suburb in Trincomalee town nabbed a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army Monday evening around 4.45 when he allegedly attempted to molest a seven year old Tamil girl. The other two soldiers of the SLA who accompanied the suspect fled from the scene when the people of the area came to the rescue of the victim hearing her cries. The angry crowd later had tied the suspect soldier to a tree and sent word to the Trincomalee Police.
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Vavuniya-Trinco road opens after a decade

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2002, 19:11 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government re-opened the highway from Vavuniya to Trincomalee through Horawapotana Monday. The Sri Lanka army closed the road ten years ago. The highway is the shortest route- 96 kilometres - from Vavuniya to the eastern port town. A bus service to Trincomalee was started on the road Monday.
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Stringent embargo continues to afflict Mutur east

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2002, 07:33 GMT]
The embargo on the free supply of food, fertilizers, kerosene and most essentials, including boxes of matches and sugar, to Mutur east in the southern part of the Trincomalee district is still strictly enforced by the Sri Lanka army at the Kattaiparichchaan entry point, according to the TamilNet's correspondent in the eastern port town who visited the region Thursday. However, "Help for Peace" says a new signpost in English and Tamil at the SLA's Kattaiparichchaan entry point. From Tuesday, the SLA eased stringent controls on civilians from other parts of the district entering Mutur east following several appeals to the Sri Lankan security forces commander for Trincomalee.
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SLA assaults fishermen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2002, 18:04 GMT]
Two fishermen were severely assaulted by the Sri Lanka Army personnel Tuesday morning in the coastal village of Munai in Vadamaradchi, Jaffna, sources said. SLA soldiers assaulted Viknaraja Iyangaran, 16, and T. Tharmu, 40, who returned to shore in their traditional catamaran with. The soldiers confiscated their fishing gear and the day's catch in their vessel.
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Amnesty slams zero prosecutions for rape in military custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 12:48 GMT]
Complaints of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials increased markedly in Sri Lanka last year, Amnesty International said in a new report published Monday. Amnesty said rapes in the context of armed conflict "are now recognized as a war crime and, when committed on a systematic basis or large scale, a crime against humanity."
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HRC chairman meets Jaffna press, NGOs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2002, 10:57 GMT]
A delegation from Sri Lanka's National Human Rights Commission on a fact-finding mission to Jaffna met local journalists and representatives of the consortium of NGOs in the northern peninsula Saturday. The journalists and NGO representatives told the HRC delegation which is led by its chairman Mr. Faiz Mustapha that human rights violations by the Sri Lankan security forces continue in Jaffna largely because of the arbitrary controls imposed on civilian life.
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SC orders compensation to woman raped at checkpoint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 19:33 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to pay one hundred and fifty thousand rupees as compensation to a Tamil woman who was raped by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka army at a checkpoint in Maradane, near downtown Colombo on 24 June last year in a fundamental rights application filed by her. Tamil political parties launched protests in the north and east against her rape and the rape and torture of two young mothers in Police custody in Mannar and the general harassment of Tamil women at Sri Lankan security forces checkpoints. The protests culminated in a general one-day shutdown in the SLA held parts of the north and east.
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LTTE for strengthening UNF peace initiative -Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 11:45 GMT]
"We respect the reasonable feelings of the Sinhala people. We only want our people to live in their land with honour and freedom and to enjoy all their rights sans military restrictions and intimidation. We want our people to have the freedoms and rights which the Sinhala people are able to enjoy now.
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Mylanthanai massacre case before Sinhala Jury

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2002, 18:40 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Wednesday ordered that the Mylanthanai massacre case should be heard before Sinhala speaking Jury. In this case twenty one army personnel have been indicted with the murder of 35 Tamil villagers of Mylanthanai in Batticaloa district on 9th August 1992.
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Vanni ban relaxed, rules limit flow

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2002, 14:47 GMT]
Six hundred civilians would be permitted to travel from the LTTE held Vanni region through the Sri Lanka armyís entry point at Piramanaalankulam from Monday to Friday under new regulations by the Sri Lankan government which came into effect Tuesday as part of a move to ease the 12 year old embargo and travel restrictions in the war torn northern parts of the island.
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Jaffna students warn of protests

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 January 2002, 00:08 GMT]
The Jaffna Technical College Students' Union (JTCSU) has appealed to the Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe, to take immediate steps to release Jaffna university student Mr. Krishnasamy Thivyan who has been detained since 2 July 2001. "Students of the Jaffna Technical College and Jaffna Higher Technical Institute would organise a mass agitation in the peninsula if Thivyan is not released immediately," the JTCSU said in a memorandum sent to Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe Tuesday.
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PTA arrests expose covert operation - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2002, 00:49 GMT]
(News Feature) The arrest last week of members of an elite commando unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on suspicion they were planning to assassinate the Prime Minister has blown the cover of an important covert operation to assassinate senior members of the Liberation Tigers, the Sunday Time reported this week. The arrests of members of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) group came despite efforts by the SLA high command to prevent the raid on the soldiers’ safe house, the paper said.
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LTTE official visits SLA held areas in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 December 2001, 13:05 GMT]
An official of the Liberation Tigers visited areas held by the Sri Lankan security forces in Batticaloa south Wednesday. 'Thurai', the official in charge of the LTTE's dissemination division for the Batticaloa and Ampara districts had discussions with an officer of the Special Task Force (STF) at the Paddiruppu Bridge, a main entry point 24 kilometres south of the eastern town, around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning before proceeding to visit Kaluwanchikudy town and the villages to its north with a group of fighters.
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No security relaxation in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 December 2001, 20:39 GMT]
Until the modalities of a proper cease-fire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are worked out, there will be no relaxation in checking at roadblocks and sentry points in the Trincomalee district. Roadblocks and sentry points would not be removed immediately, police sources said.
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Two SLA soldiers killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2001, 14:43 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in a counter-ambush by the Liberation Tigers near Mahindapura SLA camp in Serunuwara division, south of Trincomalee district, around 7.30 a.m. Tuesday morning, security sources said.
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Five SLA surrender over Muslims' massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2001, 18:36 GMT]
A Lieutenant and four soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army were remanded by the Teldeniya Magistrate Monday in connection with the massacre of ten Muslim youths at Udawalathenne in Kandy district on 5 December, the day of the general elections. They surrendered at the official residence of the Magistrate through their lawyer and made statements about the killings. The Magistrate Mr. C. V. Rajapakse then ordered the suspects be remanded till 26 December. Meanwhile a high-powered team of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police led by its Director Monday questioned the former Deputy Defense Minister General Anuruddha Ratwatte about the whereabouts of his two sons.
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