Tigers say ready to open A9 highway as scheduled

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2002, 06:09 GMT]
In a statement issued in the Vanni Sunday, the political wing of the Liberation Tigers said that the A9 highway and the Uyilankulam road in Mannar would be opened on Friday 15 February. The two roads would be the only access arteries to the LTTE held Vanni region on which successive government in Colombo clamped a harsh economic embargo for more than a decade. The Vavuniya GA told TamilNet last week that the district secretariat was ready for opening the A9 on 15 February.
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Jaffna supply snag despite A9 euphoria

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 February 2002, 18:49 GMT]
The Pt. Pedro jetty in Jaffna will now operate till 10 p.m. Sri Lankan government officials in the north told TamilNet Sunday. The move would increase the quantum of supplies that can be unloaded from ships, they said. But shippers are reluctant to hire additional vessels to increase supplies to the peninsula as the A9, the main highway to Jaffna, is expected to reopen after the Liberation Tigers and Colombo sign the Memorandum of Understanding on a ceasefire, according to a senior official. An entry point on the highway for civilian traffic into the Vanni is scheduled to open on 15 February at Vilakkuvaiththa Kulam, 18 kilometres north of Vavuniya.
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45,685 sick civilians treated by LTTE - radio

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2002, 13:33 GMT]
Mobile medical units of the Liberation Tigers treated 45,685 civilians in the Vanni last year, according to a Voice of Tigers report this week. The civilians were mainly from the remote parts of the region, with little access to the mobile medical services of the ICRC. The largest percentage of these patients was treated for anaemia, the report said. Malnutrition and anaemia are rampant among children and adults in Vanni, induced by the decade long embargo clamped on the region by successive governments in Colombo and the acute shortage of food, medicines and drugs, including aspirin.
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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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'Torture Elimination Day' mooted

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 February 2002, 15:41 GMT]
The Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission and the JanaSansadaya (People's Dialogue), a Sri Lankan organization specializing in monitoring torture said the island's 54th Independence Day should be observed as 'Torture Elimination Day'. In a joint statement thetwo organizations said "The theme for the day is "Implement Act 22 of 1994", which was issued under the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This theme has been chosen to highlight the widespread practice of torture in the country, against Act 22 of 1994".
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“Remove fishing ban , release PTA suspects" -TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2002, 15:51 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance ( TNA ) Sunday appealed to President Chandrika Kumaratunge to exercise her wide power to release all Tamil political prisoners who have been detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA ) under the general amnesty. The TNA further appealed to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe to take urgent steps to remove fishing ban in Jaffna district.
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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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Northeast GAs brief Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2002, 14:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe held discussions Thursday with the government agents of the north and east about situation in their administrative districts in the context of easing the economic embargo on the Vanni and relaxing the restrictions on Tamil civilians in other areas, including Jaffna. The Government Agents for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu told the PM that there has been no significant improvement yet in the supply of essentials and medicines on which the decade long embargo was lifted earlier this month.
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Thondaman meets LTTE in Mutur

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 17:02 GMT]
Mr. Arumugam Thondaman, a senior cabinet minister of the United National Front government, had discussions with the Liberation Tigers in Sampur, a village held by them south of the eastern port town of Trincomalee, Sunday. Mr. Arumugan Thondaman who is also the leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress, a powerful trade union in the island's plantation industry, is the first minister of the UNF government to visit an area in the northeast province held by the LTTE. Mr. Arumugan Thondaman is the Minister for Housing and Estate Infrastructure.
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Kilinochchi struggles to limp back to life (photos)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 01:16 GMT]
The TamilNet correspondent for Vavuniya visited the Vanni recently after the Sri Lankan government eased the ban on local and foreign journalists visiting the LTTE held region. The following are a glimpse of the war-devastated land and its battle scarred life.
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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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Commandos camp in hospital despite peace promise

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 07:00 GMT]
In Thirukkovil and Thambiluvil, the large Tamil villages on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, few believe that the dividends of the current peace process in the war torn island would come their way. "We are like people in the land that time forgot. We have survived here amid draconian controls for more than sixteen years", says Mr. S. Vivekanandan, a local journalist. The only civilian hospital in this region is inside the camp of the Special Task Force (STF), an elite commando unit of the Sri Lankan security forces. The STF moved into the Thirukkovil hospital in early 1986.
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Kadirgamar's conduct in peace initiative suspect -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 17:17 GMT]
"When your own conduct in the matter of negotiations with the LTTE with the aid of Norwegian involvement is subject to grave suspicion, I would consider it quite imprudent that you cast aspersions on the other party (the LTTE) and think that you can get away with it", the Tamil National Alliance's parliamentary group leader Mr. R. Sampanthan told former Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, while addressing the Parliament Thursday during the special debate on the Prime Minister's policy statement Thursday. The TNA leader said President Chandrika Kumaratunga "missed the wood for the trees" when she resorted to the military option against the Tamils.
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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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Police translator found wanting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 11:25 GMT]
The East High Court Monday held that the policeman who translated the confession purported to have been made by a woman arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Tamil into Sinhala was not competent in both languages. The Police translator could not give the correct meanings of the Tamil and Sinhala words that were put to him by the Defence Attorney during the cross examination. In cases filed under the PTA, the confession of the accused is the sole production required for indictment.
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Mutur ICRC office open again

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2002, 12:36 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Monday reopened its office in Mutur town, south of Trincomalee, according to a press release issued by the organisation. The Mutur office was closed down in September last after unidentified men attacked it with grenades, damaging the office building and a vehicle.
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"Lift ban on LTTE, postpone local elections" -TULF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2002, 21:30 GMT]
The Tamil United National Front (TULF), main component of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sunday appealed to the Government to lift the ban imposed on the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka before the commencement of peace talks and not to hold elections to local authorities in the northeast province. " At the last general election the Tamil people have overwhelmingly endorsed the lifting of the ban on the LTTE in Sri Lanka prior to the commencement of peace talks. Furthermore the TULF urges the Government to postpone the holding of the local poll in northeast as the conduct of the election in the current situation could have the effect of retarding negotiations between the Government and the LTTE", said a press release issued by the TULF Secretary General of the TULF Mr. R.Sampanthan Sunday.
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SLA persists on restrictions in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 January 2002, 19:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa said Wednesday that government officials have to obtain due clearance from its brigade headquarters in the eastern town to transport relief supplies to refugees and the poor who receive assistance under the state's poverty alleviation program. The Government Agent for Batticaloa, Mr. Sinnathamby Shanmugam, said that the SLA is still stipulating that government departments in the eastern district should obtain due permission from the military for taking essential goods and food to areas that are not under its control.
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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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