'Tamils made to accept terror as normal'- Dean

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2001, 20:38 GMT]

>Dr. Yuvaraj Thangarajah, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the Eastern University. (TamilNet Library Photo)

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Vavuniya quota fuels less vehicles, more corruption

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2001, 10:24 GMT]
The restrictions on the issue of fuel to the public in the Sri Lanka army controlled areas of the Vavuniya region is contradictory to the principles of governance and therefore should be removed forthwith, said the Union of Christian Churches in Vavuniya in a letter addressed to Major General S.H.Shantha Kottegoda, Commander of the Security Forces in Vanni this week.
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MP slams Sri Lanka's judicial system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"In Sri Lanka the Tamil people are denied the exercise of their sovereignty through the judicial system because fundamentally it is made to work against them. The security forces and the laws of the land are meant to protect the people. But in Sri Lanka the law is harnessed only to protect the security forces. .
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Missing Vaakarai youth said killed by SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 06:10 GMT]
Three youths who were reported missing after they were arrested by a Sri Lanka army deep penetration team in Vaakarai, 64 kilometres north of Batticaloa on 22 May, are dead, according to relatives. The Sri Lanka army's 23-2 brigade had informed the ICRC on Wednesday that the three men were killed. However, the army had not told the ICRC how or where the men had been killed. Last week the SLA informed the Human Rights Commission office in Batticaloa that they were not aware of the whereabouts of the three men.
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SLA bid to relocate Trinco IDPs opposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2001, 06:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces told government officials in Trincomalee to transfer over 1500 internally displaced Tamil persons from Alles Garden refugee camp to Kuchchaveli, 38 kilometres north of Trincomalee town. "The security forces in Trincomalee have taken this step to ensure the security of army and navy camps in the area", a government official said.
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Six troopers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 06:15 GMT]
Six soldiers were killed and ten were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a Sri Lanka army patrol around 8 a.m. Tuesday at Kaavathamunai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldiers were from the 23-2 brigade in the Valaichenai Paper Mills. A Muslim civilian was killed and 15 were wounded in the village of Kaavathamunai in retaliatory shelling from the 23-2 brigade camp. Kaavathamunai is a Muslim village near Valaichenai.
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LTTE cautions against war zone resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2001, 18:10 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers called on the people of the Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna not to resettle in their villages as the area is still a war zone. The Tigers, in a leaflet released in Jaffna Friday, said "the enemy and his lackeys are trying use our people as human shields. We do not want our people to suffer again from the calamities of war and destruction. Therefore we request them not to resettle in Thenmaradchi until we issue an official announcement."
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Batticaloa detainees list posted, three missing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 18:27 GMT]
The Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa Wednesday submitted to the district court a list of 21 persons who are being held in its special camp in the eastern town. A recently promulgated Emergency Regulation requires officers in charge of gazetted detention centres to submit to the courts a list of persons in their custody every fortnight. Judicial officers are also allowed to visit such detention centres. The CSU camp in the Batticaloa town is not the only gazetted detention centre in the eastern district, sources pointed out.
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Sri Lanka's decision seriously threatens peace talks: LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2001, 09:13 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal Saturday to lift the proscription of their organisation and said this had "seriously jeopardised" the prospects for peace talks. Expressing regret and dismay over Sri Lanka's decision in a statement issued from its Vanni headquarters, the LTTE leadership called upon the government to reconsider its position for the sake of peace and ethnic reconciliation. "If the Government adopts a hard-line position and refuses to review its decision on proscription, then it should bear full and total responsibility for the collapse of the peace efforts and the serious consequences that might arise from its decision," the Tigers warned.
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TULF urges Colombo to lift proscription of LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 07:21 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front said Thursday it would strongly urge the Sri Lankan Government not to delay the lifting of the proscription on the Liberation Tigers. The Senior Vice President of the TULF M. V.Ananadasangaree and the Secretary General Mr. R. Sampanthan issued a statement following a politburo meeting of the party in Colombo Wednesday. The party said that the Sri Lankan government should not “retard the commencement of talks” with the Liberation Tigers by “delaying a positive decision in regard to the termination of the proscription of the LTTE”.
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Arrests on the increase again in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2001, 09:09 GMT]
Fifteen persons arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in Vavuniya in the first two weeks of May 2001 are reported missing according to complaints lodged with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in the northern border town. Fifteen persons were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces last week as well, according to HRC sources in Vavuniya. They said that arrests and detention by the security forces have increased in Vavuniya in recent weeks. Many relatives are still trying to find the places where the arrested persons are being held. An HRC official said that efforts by his organisation to locate the missing persons were not successful.
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Deep penetration group kills one, takes three

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 17:44 GMT]
One civilian was killed and three were reported missing in an attack by a Sri Lanka army Deep Penetration team near Mathurankerni Kulam, 70 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday around 10 a.m. Yoganathan Kesavarajah, 24, had gone to chop firewood when he was shot dead by the SLA’s special penetration group. His wife is pregnant with their first child, relatives said. The three persons who are reported missing, had gone to collect honey in the jungles near Mathurankerni Kulam. Relatives said that the three were abducted by two SLA deep penetration teams.
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More SLA mine fields destroyed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 10:59 GMT]
A large number of anti-personnel landmine fields left behind by the Sri Lanka army were located and de-mined in twelve villages in the southern sector of the Vanni Western aid agency sources said Tuesday. They said that caches of mortar and artillery shells and explosives were also located and destroyed from these villages to ensure the safety of civilians who have begun to gradually resettle in this sector. The SLA was camped in the villages of the Vanni's southern sector from 1997 to November 1999.
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New ICRC technology helps Jaffna amputees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2001, 05:33 GMT]
Mr. Serge Marme, Head of ICRC Sub-delegation in Jaffna addressing a press conference in Jaffna about the organisation's activities in the peninsula Saturday afternoon said
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SLN brings 'spotters' in ambulance, arrests seven

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2001, 11:50 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy arrested seven civilians from Pesalai, 16 kilometres west of Mannar town, during a search operation in the residential sector and the two refugee camps of the village Saturday morning. The Navy brought two hooded ëspottersí in an ambulance after it cordoned off the two refugee camps and division 5, 6 and 7 from 5 a.m. in the morning. The civilians who were pointed out by the two 'spotters' were arrested and taken away by the SLN. The search comes in the wake of claymore blast Friday in Thoattaveli, near Pesalai, in which two Special Task Force commandos were wounded.
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Batticaloa villages shelled

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 13:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stationed at the 23-3 Brigade Head Quarters fired several rounds of shells towards the villages of Kannankudha, Karaveddi and Thaandiyadi in the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district Wednesday noon, damaging some houses in the area, according to reports from the area.
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Necessity for indefinite ceasefire to be stressed –paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2001, 11:15 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim will have meetings with Mr. Thamil Chelvan, head of the LTTE’s political section on 16 and 17 May in the Vanni. The meetings are expected to “focus on steps to bring about a suitable atmosphere for productive negotiations to be held between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government”. Meanwhile in its latest issue, the Tamil Guardian, the expatriate paper published from London, quoted sources in the Liberation Tigers, as saying “further discussions and clarifications on certain matters” had to be completed before the scheduling of peace talks could be considered. The LTTE sources, according to the paper, had dismissed as speculation reports in the Sri Lankan press that talks were imminent.
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TULF's bona fides questioned

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2001, 17:13 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Saturday called upon the Government and the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to take every possible step to facilitate the commencement of a constructive dialogue that would end the conflict "within the framework upon the basis of which the Norwegian initiative has commenced". Opposition sources, however, charged that the TULF has issued the statement "in cahoots with the government" to scuttle the UNP's no confidence motion. "We wonder why the TULF had to rush at this point to assert that 'the present is an opportune moment' to resolve the conflict?" they questioned.
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12 SLA soldiers killed at Sungawil -VoT

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 18:50 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Sungawil in the Polonnaruwa district around 6.40 a.m Thursday. The LTTE ambush unit recovered 3 bodies of the SLA soldiers killed in the attack, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said Friday evening.
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Tigers say discussing Norway ceasefire proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 09:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers, in an official statement released in the Vanni Friday, slammed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister for claiming that an agreement had been reached between the two sides. “It is premature and irresponsible on the part of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to falsely project to the world media that an agreement has been reached,” the Tigers said. However the movement also said “substantial progress” had been made on the Norwegian Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) after intense discussions for a considerable time with the Norwegian facilitators. The LTTE said Norway had Wednesday suggested a programme for bilateral cessation of hostilities which the movement said was “constructive” proposal, but which requires “further clarifications and discussions before final agreement.”
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