Military blocking Valikamam resettlement - MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 July 2002, 05:51 GMT]
By refusing to allow displaced civilians to resettle in Valikamam north in the Jaffna district, the Sri Lankan military is violating the ceasefire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers, said Jaffna district parliamentarian Mr. G. G. Gajendrakumar, addressing a press conference Monday at the office of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).
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LTTE, SLN give evidence on Kayts assault

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 July 2002, 16:42 GMT]
The independent commission inquiring into the alleged assault of a political worker of the Liberation Tigers by Sri Lanka Navy personnel in the island Kayts in Jaffna visited the scene of the incident Thursday. The chairman of the commission, Air Vice Marshall (retd) Harry Gunatillake, urged civilians from the area to come forward without fear to give evidence about the incident.
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New Army fortifications in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 13:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka armed forces are hurriedly building fortifications and expanding their bases in the Jaffna peninsula while public buildings vacated by the military remain beyond the public use as the surrounding areas are declared high security zones, Tamil press reports said last week.
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SLMM head to visit Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 02:04 GMT]
The Norwegian head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General (Retd.) Trond Furuhovde will visit Trincomalee for two days. He is scheduled to meet representatives of several organisations at the Trincomalee office of the SLMM Wednesday, and the LTTE leaders at Sampoor in Mutur east Thursday, sources said.
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SLA takes over library, houses

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 July 2002, 06:48 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna Saturday marked the village of Amban and its environs as a high security zone. The SLA took over a public library and six homes in Thumpalai East near Pt.Pedro town Friday to set up defence positions in the area. Amban is on the southeastern coast of the Jaffna peninsula.
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Trinco arrests violate ceasefire agreement - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 20:37 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday expressed its strong disapproval of a tendency on the part of some sections of the Armed Forces, to take in custody unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers, who are entitled to freedom of movement in the north and east under the provisions of 1.13 of the cease-fire agreement. "The arrests of five unarmed members of Liberation Tigers Wednesday in Trincomalee by the security forces are a violation of the said provision of the cease-fire agreement," said Mr. Mr.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the TNA and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian in a statement issued Thursday.
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Civilians protest military blocks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 03:27 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Monday imposed a ban on civilian traffic on the Vankalavadi Road where one of its bases is located, the Uthayan newspaper reported. Civilians who use the road have been told to use a temporary road cleared through farmland, away from Navy sentry points to the south of the base.
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MoD says 'no case' amid public protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 01:18 GMT]
(News Feature) A Sri Lankan Defence Ministry inquiry into the assault of two senior political cadres of the Liberation Tigers on June 20 ruled that "there was no evidence ... to establish a case against any individual or person," state media reported. The Defence Ministry statement was issued Wednesday, the day after a massive demonstration in Kilinochchi to protest the attack by Sri Lankan naval personnel and members of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) on the LTTE cadres.
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Protests after troops injure 20

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 10:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar Sunday night. More than six hundred villagers began a protest Monday morning demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately. Shops were closed and the streets were deserted in protest against the assault.
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SLA takes over scores of homes in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 02:46 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army last week took over scores of civilian homes amid its efforts to expand its fortifications in the Thenmaradchi district of the Jaffna peninsula, Tamil press reports said. Sri Lankan forces have occupied 43 houses in one part of the district and have begun turning them into army camps, according to a complaint made to the District Secretary S Srinivasan. A new SLA base is being constructed in the village of Kaputhu also, the reports said.
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13 injured in attacks by Islamic extremists

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 June 2002, 14:56 GMT]
Thirteen Tamil civilians were wounded and one killed in attacks by armed persons suspected to be members of an extremist Islamic group in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa Thursday. Islamic extremists wounded four Tamils, one seriously, in a grenade attack in the morning and killed one and wounded nine hours after the Police clamped curfew Thursday afternoon to quell the violence. Ten Tamil women were abducted by the extremists in Oddamaavadi near Valaichenai, sources said.
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Independent probe into Velanai assault - SLMM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 June 2002, 01:18 GMT]
The head of the international ceasefire monitors in Sri Lanka, Major General Trond Furuhovde, has called on the government to appoint an independent commission into the assault of two members of the LTTE's political section in Velanai village on the Jaffna island of Kayts. “In addition to this, the Army, Navy, Police and LTTE will each do a separate thorough investigation on the alleged assault,” the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said in a statement Saturday. The SLMM also said it would establish a permanent presence in the islands.
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Tamils, Sinhalese welcome LTTE in Nainativu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 22:38 GMT]
Tamil residents of Nainativu and Sinhalese who are there on pilgrimage gave a rousing welcome to the Liberation Tigers when they entered Nainativu Wednesday. The Liberation Tigers began political activities in Nainativu, one of the main islands off the Jaffna peninsula, Wednesday.
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MP lists occupied temples, schools in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2002, 16:10 GMT]
Trincomalee parliamentarian R. Sampanthan Monday sent a letter by fax to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe listing schools, places of worship, private lands and public buildings in the Trincomalee district which have not been vacated by the State armed forces even one hundred and fifteen have passed after signing the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers on February 23. The list included five places of worship, twelve schools and eighteen public buildings and private lands which are still in the hands of State armed forces.
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Nine thousand SLA devices destroyed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 June 2002, 02:12 GMT]
The civilian demining unit of the Liberation Tigers in a single week unearthed and destroyed almost nine thousand active mines and pieces of ordnance left behind by the Sri Lankan Army in Vavuniya North.
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Fury after worship is blocked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 June 2002, 06:22 GMT]
Devotees who were prevented from travelling through a Sri Lanka army checkpoint in Omanthai staged an impromptu protest opposite the offices of the International Committee of Red Cross Monday. Over three hundred people were denied passage through the checkpoint after 1 pm for the annual Pongal festival at the Nagathambiran temple in Puthur.
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Quit notices on Linganagar Tamil families withdrawn

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 05:13 GMT]
The Trincomalee Divisional Secretary (DS) has decided to withdraw ejectment applications filed in the magistrateís court under the State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act against several Tamil residents who live on state lands in the Linganagar area, a suburb in Trincomalee, when the defense counsel submitted that the affidavits of the prosecution were bad in law and not in conformity with the land.
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STF disruptions continue in southeast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 19:28 GMT]
Commandos of the Special Task Force, the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan security forces, harassed and tortured a youth who went to get medicine in the Thirukkovil District Hospital in the Amparai district, according to a complaint taken up the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) this week. The STF has been encamped in the premises of the district hospital in Thirukkovil, the large Tamil village on Sri Lankaís southeastern coast, for more than 17 years, despite protests by residents and local human rights activists.
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New Army base in Columbuthurai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 20:50 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army is constructing a new base near the Maternity Home in Nedunkulam, Columbuthurai in the outskirts of Jaffna town, local press reports said Tuesday. The Army is bulldozing the walls, fences and trees on both sides of the Nedunkulam Road in preparation, the Uthayan newspaper reported.
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"LTTE too taking risks with peace" -TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 18:01 GMT]
"There must be no assumption that it is only the government of Sri Lanka which is taking risks; it must be realized that even the LTTE is taking risks when it is engaged in the peace process," said Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group when moving an adjournment motion Tuesday in the Sri Lankan parliament. He appealed to the international Community on behalf of the Tamil National Alliance not to take any step that would prejudice the legitimate struggle of the Tamil people for equality of this country.
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