SL crisis deepens as majority legislators stake claim

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2001, 12:17 GMT]
The majority of the members of the Sri Lankan Parliamentarian met in the legislature Friday and unanimously resolved to go ahead with the no confidence motion against President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government and defy any attempt by her to suspend Parliament again.
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Army, Police search TELO office

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 18:32 GMT]
The offices of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Vavuniya was searched by the Sri Lanka army and Police Monday, ahead of the public meeting by the Alliance of Eleven Tamil parties Wednesday in the border town. Soldiers and Policemen dug the floor of the office in several places, a local TELO official said.
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"Stop arms, promote peace", MP tells US officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 23:09 GMT]
"The war in Sri Lanka is escalating because countries that say that there should be a political solution to the island's ethnic conflict are providing arms and money to the government here. Some are even training the Sri Lankan army troops. These governments should stop giving military aid to Sri Lanka and exert pressure on it to seek a negotiated settlement to the problem", said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, speaking to US embassy officials who called on him Friday at his official in Colombo.
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Vavuniya pilgrim and child detained by Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2001, 21:01 GMT]
A Hindu pilgrim and his five year old child who were on their way to Kathirgamam were arrested and detained by the Police on 27 July at Nittambuwa, relatives told the Human Rights Commission office in Vavuniya Tuesday. Kathirgamam (Kataragama in Sinhala) is a pilgrimage centre in the in Sri Lankaís southern province. The shrine of the god Murugan here draws thousands of Tamil and Sinhala devotees.
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'Tigers should fight on until liberation'- TULF MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2001, 19:10 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers are fighting for the freedom of the Tamil people. They should continue their armed struggle until the Tamil people are liberated," said Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Jaffna, addressing a meeting by the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Vavuniya Friday to commemorate its leaders who were massacred in the Welikada jail in Colombo in July 1983.
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MOD clearance stipulated for Vanni travel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 July 2001, 15:54 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government introduced new regulations this week stipulating that civilians should obtain permission from the Ministry of Defence to travel to the Vanni. The regulation, which came into effect from 5 July, was criticized by Parliamentarians for the Vanni Saturday.
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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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Tamil parties criticize Colombo for re-imposing ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2001, 05:45 GMT]
Tamil parties Thursday criticized the Sri Lankan government for re-imposing the ban on the Liberation Tigers under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The legislation proscribing the Liberation Tigers lapsed Wednesday with the Emergency Regulations.
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Tamil alliance calls for 'Hartal' against rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2001, 14:09 GMT]
The ten Tamil party alliance said in Colombo Friday that itís calling a general shut down in the Northern and Eastern provinces on 6 July as a protest against the rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. Addressing a press conference Friday afternoon at the Grand Oriental Hotel in downtown Colombo, spokesmen for the Tamil alliance said that there would be a protest demonstration in Colombo and a strike in the tea and rubber plantations. They said that the rape of the Tamil girl at the Police checkpoint in Maradana in downtown Colombo on 25 June "once again underscores the fact that the draconian Emergency Regulations promote torture and rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces".
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Tamil parties sign no confidence motion

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 June 2001, 13:28 GMT]
Three Tamil parties in Sri Lanka’s Parliament signed the no confidence motion against the ruling People’s Alliance government in Sri Lanka Thursday. The Tamil United Liberation Front, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress which together have nine seats in the legislature. However, a spokesman for the radical Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna which has ten seats, and hence holds the key to the numbers manoeuvring in the Sri Lankan Parliament, said Thursday that it would announce its decision on Saturday.
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MP slams Sri Lanka's judicial system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"In Sri Lanka the Tamil people are denied the exercise of their sovereignty through the judicial system because fundamentally it is made to work against them. The security forces and the laws of the land are meant to protect the people. But in Sri Lanka the law is harnessed only to protect the security forces. .
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Emergency and PTA promote torture - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 20:50 GMT]
"No self respecting Tamil will vote for the extension of the Emergency and its regulations. The Tamil people have been denied their fundamental right of freedom from torture for more than 25 years. The Sri Lankan security forces behave as though no Tamil has this fundamental right which is guaranteed to every citizen of this country in the constitution. Can you tell me how many Tamils were not subjected to torture in custody? The most pernicious methods of torture are practiced on the Tamils by the security forces today. Therefore I ask: are the Tamils citizens of this country or should they determine their own citizenship?" asked 'Selvam' A. Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), speaking in Parliament Thursday on the vote to extend the state of Emergency.
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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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Colombo set on war path say Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 15:52 GMT]
Tamil party leaders Sunday strongly condemned statements made by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, that the war against the Liberation Tigers has begun and that his government will not declare a ceasefire again. “ The Prime minister’s pronouncement on Friday makes it amply clear that the Sri Lankan government is not interested in peace negotiations at all. The PM is a confidante of the President. His renewed belligerence shows that the government is on the war path again”, charged a spokesman for the alliance of ten Tamil parties.
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SLN, Sea Tigers clash off Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2001, 16:47 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy gun boat was damaged and seven sailors were wounded in a sea battle between the Sea Tigers and the Navy off the coast of Chaalai in north-east of the island in the early hours of Monday, military sources said. Voice of Tigers radio said the fighting erupted when the SLN crafts engaged Sea Tiger boats off the coast of Mullaithivu around 1.45 a.m.
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Tamil parties protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 15:12 GMT]
More than four hundred Tamils demonstrated against sexual violence by the Sri Lankan security forces in the heart of downtown Colombo Tuesday. The protest was led by an alliance of eleven Tamil political parties, including the Tamil United Liberation Front. " We are not, through this demonstration, making an appeal to the government. We believe that there is no point in appealing to this government about atrocities committed by the security forces against the Tamils. We doing this to impress upon the world our predicament" said the chief organizer of the demonstration, Mr. Mano Ganeshan who is the leader of the Democratic Workers' Congress.
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Tamil women have no faith in President - MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 11:30 GMT]
"The Tamil women of this country have no faith in the President or the government because there is no justice when wrongs are perpetrated on them by the armed forces. The recent actions of the President are encouraging the army to further indulge in sexual atrocities against Tamil women. Although she is a woman the President does not bother to take even minimal action against the perpetrators of murder and rape. The President applauds the security forces and does what she can to cover up their heinous activities against the Tamil people. Sexual atrocities have been committed on Tamil women in Mannar many times in the past. But only the 19 March incident has come to light", said Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan Member of Parliament for the Vanni, speaking Saturday at the protest fast at the St. MaryÌs Church in Mannar town. More than three thousand people from many parts of the Mannar district took part in the fast to protest against the brutal rape and torture of two Tamil women in custody by the Sri Lanka Navy and the Counter Subversive Unit of the Police on 19 March.
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Tamil parties join hill country protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2001, 14:38 GMT]
"Many want the Tamils to be slaves in this country. The Tamils of the north and east have problems and the hill country workers have their problems. We should give a fitting answer to the injustices committed against the estate workers by throwing out those who are trying to oppress us", said Selvam Adaikalanathan MP, the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, addressing the Ceylon Worker's Congress' Satyagraha (fast) campaign in Hatton Saturday. The Satyagraha for a 4.5 Dollar raise in monthly wages has been on for 20 days with no solution in sight. It has snowballed into an unprecedented protest movement in Sri Lanka's tea producing hill country, cutting across party and trade union differences. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, said that the plantations have lost 400 million rupees so far because of the protest movement.
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SLA detains eight from refugee camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 March 2001, 12:29 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army arrested thirteen persons from the Poonthottam refugee camp in Vavuniya between Monday 5 March and Thursday this week, a human rights activist in the northern border town told Tamilnet Saturday. Troops rounded up the Poonthottam junction on Monday and arrested 10 young men and women when they were ascertained to be inmates of the refugee camp from their special identity cards. Five were released the following day. Relatives said the SLA has so far not permitted them visit the others who were detained. The army searched the Poonthottam refugee camp both during daytime and nights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, arresting three.
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SLN clubbed, murdered father of seven -MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2001, 22:01 GMT]
The murder of Kandaiah Uthayakumar, father of seven, who was arrested Wednesday 28 February by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Savalakaadu in Mannar should be investigated and the persons responsible should be brought to book, said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni, in an appeal sent to the Sri Lankan President Sunday. He told TamilNet that the SLN personnel had surrounded and searched Uthayakumar's house around 9 p.m. Wednesday. They had accused Uthayakumar of smuggling banned commodities to the Vanni and assaulted him in front of his crying children.
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