SLA shelling kills two, injures eight

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 July 2001, 07:37 GMT]
Two civilians were killed and 8 others were wounded when a shell fired by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers hit Kinnaiyadi, a hamlet in Valaichenai, 30 km. north of Batticaloa around 7.30 a.m. Saturday, civilian and hospital sources said. Villagers said the shell was fired by troops stationed at the nearby camp at Kumburumoolai.
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Tigers attack Weli Oya FDL -radio

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2001, 17:36 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its night news broadcast that the Liberation Tigers attacked and destroyed the Forward Defence Lines of the Sri Lanka army between Mankindi Malai and Akkarai Weli in the Weli Oya region in the early hours of Friday morning around 2.30 a.m. The radio said ten bunkers on the FDL were overrun by Tiger troops and that four SLA soldiers were killed.
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Tension after dawn raid

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 July 2001, 08:47 GMT]
Thirteen air crafts including two Kfir jet fighters, one MI-24 Helicopter gun ship and one MIG-27- jet fighter were destroyed in the predawn attack on the Katunayake air base, about 35 km. north of Colombo, by members of the Liberation Tigers, according to official military sources in Colombo.
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STF forces villagers into hard labour

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2001, 15:40 GMT]
Villagers of Puthukudiyiruppu, about 12 km. south of Batticaloa, are being forced to carry out hard labour by the elite Special Task Force troops stationed in the village. The troops summoned 25 villagers to the camp on Sunday and ordered them to clear jungles and shrubs along Manmunai lagoon, said sources in the eastern town.
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Amnesty condemns police killings, ban on demonstrations

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2001, 19:55 GMT]
"The death of at least two people from bullet wounds and the injuring of well over 30 more as a result of police action against a predominantly peaceful demonstration in Colombo on Thursday constituted the use of excessive force on the part of the police," Amnesty International said in a press release today.
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Army suspect assaults journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2001, 20:48 GMT]
A journalist was assaulted in court premises by a suspect in the Mirusuvil massacre case Wednesday morning. The suspect is one of fourteen soldiers accused of massacring civilians in Mirusuvil. The incident took place when the accused were brought to the court in Point Pedro, where the Chavakachcheri Magistrate's Court is sitting under heavy security.
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APC damaged in claymore blast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 July 2001, 12:27 GMT]
A Special Task Force (STF) elite soldier was seriously wounded when an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) was hit by a claymore mine blast at Thetraathivu, about 20 km. south of Batticaloa. The attack took place around 10 a.m. Wednesday, police sources said.
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Arrested student leader said being tortured

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2001, 02:06 GMT]
(News Feature) Krishnasamy Thivyan, the former secretary of the Jaffna University Students Union who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army has been tortured in military custody, fellow students said Wednesday. In a statement published in Jaffna's Tamil Daily, the Uthayan, the students also said that Thivyan, who is being held by the SLA at its Kankesanthurai, had survived earlier attempts on his life by the security forces.
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Tamil student protests spread

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 July 2001, 19:42 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army and Police tightened security around the Jaffna University Wednesday. Soldiers and Police personnel were deployed on the roads in the environs of the campus and near its main entrance. The security forces set up roadblocks and checked civilians. Students of the Jaffna Technical College boycotted classes in protest against the closing down of the Jaffna University. Undergraduates of the Eastern University and the Vavuniya campus of the Jaffna University continued their protest boycott Wednesday. "The University is under siege by the army and Police," a spokesman for the undergraduates said.
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Deep penetration group ambush wounds 4 civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2001, 08:52 GMT]
Four civilians were wounded when the tractor in which they were travelling was hit by claymore mine triggered by a Sri Lanka Army deep penetration team in the Vaakarai region, about 75 km. north of Batticaloa local residents said. The incident occurred at Kathiraveli-Kattumurivu Kulam road, in the LTTE held area, around 3 p.m. Saturday.
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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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Salli woman challenges case transfer

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2001, 19:15 GMT]
The Colombo High Court Friday fixed the argument in the transfer application filed by the Commanding Officer of the Sri Lanka Navy detachment in Nilaveli, the first respondent in the Salli Habeas Corpus Application Case, for July 26. Nilaveli is 12 kilometres north of Trincomalee. Mr.Jeyakili was arrested by the Navy while fishing in the sea with two colleagues on 25 February 2000. The Navy released Mr. Jeyakili's colleagues two days later, but denied that it had arrested him. The fisherman is believed killed.
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Rights watchdog releases torture camp account

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 June 2001, 15:50 GMT]
Asian Human Rights Commission said Thursday it is issuing an eyewitness account of extreme physical and psychological torture, overcrowding and hundreds of disappearances/ extrajudicial killings at an illegal military detention camp in Wehera, Kurunegala district, 25 miles from Kandy run by the man being appointed Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia, Major General Janaka Perera.
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Five assaulted by Jaffna SLA warded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 June 2001, 15:16 GMT]
Five civilians who were arrested and severely assaulted by Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Sunday have been admitted at the Manthikai hospital in Jaffna. Hospital sources said they were suffering from serious head injuries. Four were arrested by troops during a search operation in Mandaan and one in Inparutti both in the Vadamaradchi division on Sunday. The four youth from Mandaan said they were taken to a local army camp and were severely assaulted. They said the SLA officer in charge of the camp was drunk at that time.
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Driver, schoolboy missing in Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 June 2001, 02:04 GMT]
The Mannar Citizens’ Committee Monday received four complaints about two disappearances and two arrests. Arumugam Thevarajah, 40, a driver who went to the Sri Lanka Army's pass office in Mannar town on 18 June to obtain a temporary resident permit to stay in the suburb of Panankattikottu, did not return home and is missing since then, according to a complaint lodged by his sister Kanapathipillai Thevanayagi. A fifteen-year-old student in Mannar has also been reported missing since 13 June. Relatives who fear that he might have been arrested and detained have sought the Citizens’ Committee’s assistance to trace him.
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Girl raped in Police checkpoint

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2001, 15:23 GMT]
Three Policemen on duty at a checkpoint in downtown Colombo were arrested Monday for gang raping a girl in the early hours of the morning on Sunday. The girl was returning from work with a boy when she was stopped at the Police checkpoint near the Central Theatre in Maradana in downtown Colombo around 4.45 a.m. The Policemen had allegedly gang raped the girl after forcing her inside their checkpoint by threatening her that they would arrest and detain her on suspicion that she is a spy of the Liberation Tigers if she refused to get into the bunker. Any member of the Sri Lankan security forces regardless of his/her rank can arrest anyone if she/he has “reasonable ground” to suspect that the person has links with the Liberation Tigers under the provisions of the Emergency Regulations (18.1).
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Tigers deny shutting down civilian crossing

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2001, 11:50 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers radio said in its morning news broadcast Monday that the Liberation Tigers denied a Sri Lanka army report that they had closed the main crossing point to the Vanni. No lorries from the Vanni came to the crossing point for civilians and international humanitarian agencies at Piramanaalankulam, 28 kilometres west of Vavuniya, on Saturday. The SLA Saturday issued a statement that claimed the lorries had not come because the LTTE had closed the crossing. “We are not aware of any disruption in the normal operation of the Piramanaalankulam checkpoint. The question of lorries coming from or going to the Vanni is a matter that comes totally under the purview of the Government Agent, not us”, the press officer of the ICRC, Mr. Harasha Gunawardene, told Tamilnet Monday, referring to the SLA statement which quoted the ICRC as saying no lorries had come from the Vanni on Saturday.
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LTTE claymore kills seven SLA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2001, 09:09 GMT]
Seven soldiers were killed and twenty-two injured when a Sri Lanka army truck was hit by a claymore mine set off by the Liberation Tigers in Madduvil, about 25 kilometres east of Jaffna town around 1.20 p.m. Monday, military sources in the peninsula said. Casualties could rise as several soldiers in the truck were wounded seriously, they said.
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SLN patrol boat captured - Mutur LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2001, 14:47 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Saturday that they captured a patrol boat from the Sri Lanka Navy Friday morning in a surprise attack in the sea off the Sampur coast, south of Trincomalee. The LTTE, in press note issued in Mutur Saturday, said that the Sea Tigers captured a grenade launcher, an outboard motor and a communication set from the SLN in the sea attack. SLN casualties are not known, the press note added. Sampur is controlled by the Liberation Tigers. Meanwhile, the TamilNet correspondent in Mutur said that Sri Lanka Navy gunboats opened fire on the Sampur village Saturday morning. Two civilians were wounded and a school and several houses were damaged in the SLN shelling, he said.
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Batticaloa gets 'Writing on the wall'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2001, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers nonchalantly pass by the large writings on the wall in Vathaarumoolai, 19 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The attitude surprises visitors and locals alike because these are larger than life graffiti of the Liberation Tigers which began appearing since early last month in many parts of the Batticaloa district's coastal region which is controlled by the Sri Lankan security forces. Some have been sprayed very close to army camps on Batticaloa coastal highway.
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