Army uses civilians as human shields - MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Joseph Parajasingham MP (Tamil United Liberation Front, Batticaloa District) has written to Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga requesting her to bring to a halt the practice of subjecting youths to hard labour under inhuman conditions by Sri Lankan Army (SLA).
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Valaichenai food restriction eased

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The supply of dry rations to Vakarai, in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area, 60 km north of Batticaloa, which was suspended on an order made by Brigadier R. H. Silva, Brigade Commander of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Valaichenai, was restored today, said sources in Valaichenai.
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Security pretext for extortion - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
"The the arrests and detention of Tamils has become big business" said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham TULF MP for Batticaloa speaking on the adjournment motion on mass arrets and detention of Tamils in the Sri Lankan Parliament today.
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Fr. Weber passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Rev.Fr. Harold John Weber, the American born Jesuit priest who worked for more than five decades for the development of sports in the Batticaloa died last night around 8.30 p.m. in a private nursing home in the eastern town. He was 84 years old at the time of his death.
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No confidence motion against Gen. Ratwatte?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) will seek an adjournment debate on the indiscriminate arrests and harassment of Tamils in Colombo and other parts of the country when the Sri Lankan Parliament resumes sittings tomorrow.
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13,000 disappearances in 7 years: MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
"Thirteen thousand people have disappeared in the Eastern Province since 1990. There are 8,500 widows in the East of whom 70% are between 18 and 21 years [old]. There are 6000 orphans," said Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP Joseph Pararajasingham at a meeting held this week at the Ramakrishna Mission in Colombo organised by the Past Pupils of Northeast District Schools Organisation.
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Police torture suspected in detainee's death

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A person who was arrested by the Sri Lankan Police yesterday in Batticaloa was found dead in his cell. Sources in the eastern town said there is reason to suspect Police torture was the reason for the death.
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Batticaloa MPs decline dinner invitation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The three TULF MPs from the Batticaloa district, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, P. Selvarajah and K. Thurairajasingham decided to keep away from a dinner for the government Parliamentary group hosted by Sri Lankan President this evening against the wishes of the party's secretary general Mr. R. Sampanthan.
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Passengers turned back at Manammpiddi

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Passengers in buses, lorries and private vehicles who travelled up to Manammpiddi, on the Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa border, in the hope that the negotiations that Ports Minister M.H.M. Ashraff had with Sri Lanka Government authorities would have led to the lifting of the travel restriction in and out of the Batticaloa District, were turned back by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the border and ordered to return to Batticaloa today.
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Protests against vehicle ban

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A meeting of the Batticaloa Traders' Association at Lake View Inn in Batticaloa town, drafted a memorandum to be sent to the Government Agent Batticaloa, and the Batticaloa District Civil Co-ordinating Officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), protesting against the regulations stopping vehicular traffic from Batticaloa to other parts of the Island at Mannampiddi on the Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa District border, said sources in Batticaloa.
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Pararajasingham protests over new abductions

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham TULF MP for Batticaloa district protested against the abduction of Tamil youth in Batticaloa by unidentified members of the Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil paramilitary groups in a fax to the Deputy Minister for Defence Mr. Anuruddha Ratwatte.
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Ten Batticaloa traders missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Ten milk traders from the western hinterland of Batticaloa who went to collect milk near the Sinhala border yesterday have gone missing said sources in the eastern town.
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New restrictions on Batticaloa traffic

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
All lorries from Batticaloa to Colombo will be detained for 24 hours at Manampittiya and will be released to proceed to Colombo only after vehicles are searched by the Sri Lankan Army and the Police. This new rule came to effect last Friday.
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Government indifferent to war zone students' hardship

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The cut off marks for admission to Sri Lankan universities, released to the press last evening by the Ministry of Education, shows the indifference of the authorities for the trials and hardship of the people living in the northeast, said Ministry of Education sources today.
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Forced labour on Eastern road

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The people of Kirankulam were again taken by the Special Task Force today for making a by road for its camp at Kurukkalmadam, about fourteen kilometers from Batticaloa town.
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Villagers forced to work on STF defences

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The special Task Force forced all adults between 18 and 50 years in the villages of Kirankulam south of Batticaloa town this morning around 7 a.m. to engage in hard labour in and around their camp.
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Tamil MP protests over budget

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
"Are you treating us as a separate people living in a separate nation or as a people living in a united Sri Lanka" asked Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham addressing Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Finance Prof. G.L Pieris while speaking on the budget vote in Parliament today.
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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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Pararajasingham calls for talks with Tigers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham MP for Batticaloa said today that the international community and the Sri Lankan government have now realised the truth and the reality that no solution to the ethnic problem can be found without the participation of the Liberation Tigers.
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TULF internal rifts emerge

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Trouble brewed in the Tamil United Liberation Front as a section of the party's politburo spoke out strongly today against the leader Mr. M Sivasithamparam, Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam and Mr. Sampanthan whom it accused of being a 'pro-Chandrika coterie'.
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