Sri Lanka's conditions for talks create an 'impasse' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 12:42 GMT]
The Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka has been delayed by the government’s failure to implement the terms of the permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers and is threatened by the hostile intervention of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, told the Tamil Guardian this week.
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Parliament to debate TNA motion on cease-fire agreement

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 22:21 GMT]
The adjournment motion submitted to the Speaker by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is scheduled to be taken up for a three-hour debate in the parliament Tuesday morning. The motion urges the United National Front government to take immediate steps to fully implement the confidence building measures embodied in the cease-fire agrement signed by the government and the Liberation Tigers in order to ensure that the objective of the agreement of finding a negotiated solution to the ongoing ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is fulfilled.
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SLA builds large camp in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 17:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is constructing a large new base on a 450 acre site near Chavakachcheri, taking in many homes and fields, residents in Thenmaradchchi said this week. Construction work started last Friday in Nunavil East to the north of the Kandy road.
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Kalkuda residents seek return of church, temples and homes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 20:35 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lanka army camp at Kalkuda junction , encompassing several public buildings including places of worship, a post office, a rest house and the thirty homes of local people, is being maintained in violation of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the Liberation Tigers, a petition to the international monitors by the village’s residents said Friday. Kalkuda is 32 km north of Batticaloa in eastern province.
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Truce monitors protest military conduct

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 10:38 GMT]
(News Feature) Tensions between the Sri Lankan armed forces and local residents increased this weekend in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts following new incidents of violence and harassment by the military, reports said Saturday. The vicious assaults of four fishermen by police commandos prompted the head of the local ceasefire monitors' head to plead with the security forces "to desist from violating the ceasefire and arresting and torturing innocent youths under various pretexts," press reports said.
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'Strategic’ camps to remain despite ceasefire terms - Army chief

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 May 2002, 01:07 GMT]
Amid renewed pressure for the Sri Lankan armed forces to vacate schools, places of worship and other public places as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, Army chief Lieutenant General Lional Balagalle said Friday that his troops would not withdraw from camps ‘of strategic importance and those within the high security zones.’ These withdrawals would happen only if “the two parties agree on disarmament,” he told the state-owned Daily News.
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"Rules for islands humiliating, wont enter" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 21:43 GMT]
"We will not enter the islands of Jaffna in compliance with the conditions that the Sri Lanka Navy has imposed on us now. The Navy's action is aimed at further subverting the peace process and creating a fear psychosis among the people of the islands," said Mr. Ilamparithi, the head of the political office of the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna, responding Thursday to the 12 conditions stipulated by the Sri Lanka Navy for allowing his colleagues to engage in political work in the islands of the northern peninsula.
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Sri Lankan troops ‘enter LTTE territory’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 20:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers crossed into territory held by the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa on May 24, violating the terms of the permanent ceasefire, press reports said Thursday. LTTE officials have lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) the reports added.
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Islands imbroglio continues amid new conditions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 18:52 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lanka Navy continued to resist entry of political cadres of the Liberation Tigers into the islands off the Jaffna peninsula, press reports said this week. In the latest development in the acrimonious and long running saga, the Sri Lankan government backed the Navy, insisting that the LTTE's activists must accept twelve conditions if they are to get access to the tens of thousands of Tamil people who inhabit the islands.
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Jaffna forces expand positions

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 May 2002, 00:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan armed forces in the Jaffna peninsula are building new camps and bases close to homes and schools, press reports said this week. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has begun constructing a new artillery base in Idaikurichchi, Varani, the Thinakural newspaper reported. The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) set up a new camp Suruvil, Kayts, the Uthayan reported. Meanwhile the military has declared new areas in Chavacachcheri as ‘military zones’ the Virakesari reported.
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Tamil mine-clearers struggle without equipment, funds

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2002, 18:20 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) The estimated 1.4 million pieces of live ammunition, including 86,700 anti-personnel mines, remaining in territory formerly controlled by the Sri Lanka Army are taking a long time to clear due to the lack of equipment and funding, according to the official in charge of clearing the unexploded ordnance.
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Linganagar Tamils complain army harassment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2002, 05:08 GMT]
The residents of Linganagar, a crowded suburb of Trincomalee town have submitted a memorandum to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the eastern port city that the Sri Lanka Army has not changed its routine checking and has not relaxed the ban on taking materials such as bricks, cement, tin sheets, poles and cadjans for repairing their houses even months after the permanent ceasefire came into effect.
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Proactive TNA role seen essential

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2002, 19:20 GMT]
Nineteen civil society groups in Trincomalee Wednesday urged the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to play a proactive role in bringing to light continuing violations of the ceasefire by the Sri Lankan security forces and to take concerted steps to counter the efforts of Sinhala nationalists to discredit and scuttle the peace talks to end the conflict.
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Civilians complain STF harassment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 May 2002, 01:14 GMT]
Civilians in the eastern province are complaining of increased harassment by the elite Special Task Force (STF), Tamil press reports said this week. Protests have been lodged with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) over the incidents, the reports said.
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Air Force flights are "negating confidence" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 May 2002, 10:33 GMT]
In the wake of a series of low-level flights over the Vanni by Sri Lanka Air Force surveillance aircraft which have raised fears amongst residents, the Liberation Tigers Monday lodged a formal protest with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The causing of panic amongst civilians by the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is "a negation of the confidence building exercise undertaken by the government of Sri Lanka," the LTTE said in a letter to the SLMM.
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Ratwatte, his sons remanded again

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 May 2002, 10:24 GMT]
The Teldeniya Magistrate Monday further remanded for former Deputy Defense Minister General Anurudha Ratwatte, his two sons Lohan and Chanuka and fifteen other suspects till May 22.The Magistrate, Ms Inoka Ranasinghe, discharged twenty-one suspects including nineteen Sri Lanka Army soldiers from the Udathalawinne massacre case in which ten Muslim youths were shot dead on the day of general election held in
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SLA said occupying 274 temples in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 May 2002, 05:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army continues to occupy two hundred seventy four Hindu temples in the Jaffna district, according to initial estimates, sources in the Ministry of Hindu Affairs said Sunday. The Sri Lanka army should have vacated 'places of religious worship' by 26 March 2002 under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers. The SLA continues to occupy hundreds of temples and churches in other parts of the northeastern province despite the lapse of 46 days since the deadline set by the agreement for vacating them.
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PA leader slams truce agreement

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2002, 00:49 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) party Thursday launched a bitter attack in Parliament on the permanent ceasefire signed by the ruling United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers in February, accusing the international truce monitors of being biased towards the Tigers.
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Thamilchelvan says A9 should be open 24 hours, slams SLN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 May 2002, 06:57 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers want the A9 road to be open 24 hours, on all days of the week, to ensure the free flow of goods between Jaffna and the other parts of the island," Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the LTTE's political division, told TamilNet Thursday.
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Jaffna forces strengthen defences

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 May 2002, 23:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s security forces in Jaffna have strengthened their defences and increased their security checks on civilians, press reports said Wednesday. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) are building new defence lines and bunkers in the Thenmaradchi, Vadamaradchi and Valigamam sectors according to the Tamil language Thinakkural.
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