PTA arrests expose covert operation - paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 January 2002, 00:49 GMT]
(News Feature) The arrest last week of members of an elite commando unit of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on suspicion they were planning to assassinate the Prime Minister has blown the cover of an important covert operation to assassinate senior members of the Liberation Tigers, the Sunday Time reported this week. The arrests of members of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) group came despite efforts by the SLA high command to prevent the raid on the soldiers’ safe house, the paper said.
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UNICEF vehicle for Mutur held up in Colombo port

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 January 2002, 19:05 GMT]
The vehicle donated by the UNICEF to the North-East Provincial Ministry of Health to conduct mobile medical service in the villages in Mutur east region in Trincomalee district is being held up in the Colombo port for more than five months. "We are unable to get clearance from the authorities concerned to remove the vehicle from the port," said an official of the NEPC Health Ministry Sunday.
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LTTE removes 132,328 APLMs, booby traps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2002, 16:19 GMT]
The de-mining division of the Liberation Tigers has removed 132,328 anti-personnel land mines (APLM) and booby traps left behind by the Sri Lanka army in the villages and towns of the Vanni region in northern Sri Lanka according to the Voice of Tigers news broadcast Tuesday.
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Army tightens security in Mutur

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2002, 09:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police have tightened security at sentry points at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura and civilians were thoroughly searched before they were being allowed to enter government held region in the Trincomalee district, said sources.
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Ranil urged to disarm EPDP

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 December 2001, 19:57 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students' Union (JUSU) Friday requested the Prime Minister to take immediate steps to disarm all para military Tamil groups including the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) in areas held by government troops. "The retention of arms by such para military groups, including EPDP constitutes imminent danger to Tamil civilians and journalists in the Jaffna district," the JUSU said in a memorandum sent Friday to the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe.
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TNA urges Prime Minister to respect Tamils' verdict

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2001, 20:17 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance Friday appealed to the Prime Minister to respect the verdict of the Tamil voters in the Northeast province at the last parliamentary election. A TNA delegation Friday evening told the Prime Minister that "the Tamil voters in the Northeast have very substantially endorsed the policy enunciated in the election manifesto of the TNA, despite the numerous hardships, restrictions and denial imposed upon them even in respect of the exercise of their franchise. The TNA looks forward to the early commencement of the visible implementation of the policy envisaged in its manifesto".
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Colombo announces month long ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2001, 12:38 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Friday responded to the ceasefire unilaterally declared by the Liberation Tigers by announcing a ceasefire from midnight 24 December to 24 January. The month long ceasefire declared by the LTTE also comes into effect from the midnight of 24 December. The United National Front government sources said that the ceasefire announcement was initially expected to be made Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s return from Delhi.
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SLA arrests three from LTTE held region

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 December 2001, 03:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Wednesday arrested three officials of a rural development society in the LTTE held region north of Batticaloa. Relatives who came to see them in detention Friday said that the officials were taking money for work on a World Bank funded road project in the village of Kaddumurivu, 62 kilometres north of Batticaloa, when the army intelligence unit at Oddamavadi arrested and detained them for interrogation. The SLA later handed over the three to the Valaichenai police, accusing them of carrying money for the Liberation Tigers. Government officials in the eastern town, however, said that the money was for the road project in Kaddumurivu under the North East Irrigation Agriculture Project (NEIAP) funded by the World Bank.
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Tamil Parties Alliance reiterates its commitment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2001, 14:49 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil Parties Alliance (TNA) at its first meeting held Tuesday strongly reiterated that "it has come together and obtained the mandate of the Tamil people in the Northeast to pursue the policies enunciated in its election manifesto, in relation to the resolution of the Tamil national question, which primarily requires the immediate commencement of negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with international third party involvement, and to facilitate the commencement of such negotiations, the lifting of the proscription imposed on the LTTE in Sri Lanka."
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School boy killed in retaliatory shelling

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2001, 09:05 GMT]
A 14-year old school boy, Perinpanathan Sivanathan (14) was killed and at least 15 houses were damaged when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stationed at Kaddaiparichchan camp shelled Tamil villages in Muttur South, Saturday morning. Two civilians were also wounded in the shelling, villagers said.
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General shut in NE against EPDP atrocity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 08:32 GMT]
Schools, shops, government offices and banks were closed in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna in response to a call by the Tamil National Alliance for a general shut down in the north and east to protest against the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime, for killing two civilians and attacking and grievously wounding four TNA candidates in Kayts, an island off the northern peninsula.
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Home Guards on the rampage in Serunuwara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 20:16 GMT]
Three houses belonging to Tamil villagers were burnt down and several civilians were severely assaulted by Police Security Assistants (PSAs or 'Home Guards') in LB 3 Channel area in Serunuwara division, in the Trincomalee District Tuesday night. Bicycles and motorcycles were also damaged by the PSAs, sources said.
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Protest against Police atrocity in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 16:33 GMT]
More than a hundred people demonstrated against the Sri Lanka Police in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa Wednesday, for indiscriminately shelling and firing on a Tamil neighbourhood Tuesday night, killing five persons, including an 11 year old boy, and wounding nine civilians. The protestors stood with the coffins of three persons who were killed in the incident across the main road in Eravur around 5 p.m., blocking traffic for more than half an hour.
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Four in family killed, eight wounded in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 17:42 GMT]
Four persons of a family, including an eleven-year-old boy, were killed and eight civilians were wounded when military trained Police in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa, opened fire indiscriminately in the Tamil sector of the town Tuesday night around 8 p.m. The Police had opened fire on suspicion upon seeing a car near a sentry in the town. The car belonged to a lawyer who was visiting a friend in the area. Relatives were able to bring only the bodies of the boy, Pathmanathan Suresh, 11, and Sinnathamby Sellathamby, 60 to the Eravur hospital. The bodies of the boy’s parents are still lying in their house, residents said. Only four wounded persons were able to reach the hospital, sources said.
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Claymore blast on MSR

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 06:56 GMT]
Three Policeman, including an officer were killed in a claymore mine attack by the Liberation Tigers at Poonaavai on the Medawachchiya-Vavuniya road, around 9.50 a.m. Tuesday, security sources said. The attack took place in the high security zone, on the Main Supply Route (MSR) to Vavuniya, near Sri Lanka Navy camp at Poonaavai.
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PM urges forces to defeat interim administration ‘conspiracy’

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 05:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, this week called on the armed forces to defeat the peace strategy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP). “Your alert contribution is sought to defeat the conspiracy to divide the country by giving an interim administration to the North and East and guarantee the unity of the country,” the Premier said in a message to the armed forces. The notion of an interim administration is part of the UNP’s strategy to de-escalate the island’s protracted conflict.
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Army intelligence operatives killed in explosion

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2001, 10:14 GMT]
Three members of the Sri Lanka Army’s military intelligence unit in Batticaloa were killed in an explosion in the high security zone of the eastern town around 10.15 a.m. Thursday. A senior member of the group ‘Vinobha’ (Thambi) was seriously wounded. A cashew nut seller was killed and eight civilians were wounded near Munai Street where the suicide bomb exploded. Shops and schools were closed in the town following the explosion.
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Policemen killed, UNPer assaulted in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 November 2001, 10:06 GMT]
A military trained policeman was shot dead by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Tuesday morning around 10.30 at a checkpoint on the main road in Vammiyadi, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa. Police at the checkpoint retaliated by firing at random in the area, killing a civilian who was identified as Subramaniam, 40. Meanwhile, Mr. Arasatnam Sasitharan, a UNP candidate for Batticaloa, was admitted to hospital after he was assaulted by a ruling party candidate and his armed bodyguards in the morning around 1.30 a.m.
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'Colombo lacks consistency, commitment'- TNA manifesto

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 November 2001, 15:29 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Monday said that the Sri Lankan State lacks comprehension and consistency in its "purported efforts to evolve a just solutionî to the Tamil national question. The Alliance released its manifesto in Colombo Monday evening. "The commitment of the Sri Lankan State (to peace) has been called into serious question," the Tamil alliance manifesto states. The manifesto reiterated that the ban on the Liberation Tigers should be lifted in Sri Lanka and that Colombo should stop the war and begin negotiations with Norwegian mediation.
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Five soldiers killed in Mutur attacks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 12:04 GMT]
At least five Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed Saturday afternoon in two attacks by the Liberation Tigers in Mutur, security sources said. Four soldiers were killed in a claymore blast and one was killed in an ambush in the general area of Mallikaithivu, on the coastal road from Mutur to Batticaloa
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