One killed, three wounded in Polannaruwa attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 06:37 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and two were wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers in Sungawil in the Polannaruwa district Thursday morning around 7.30 a.m. The Tigers hit an army post near the district border between Polannaruwa and Batticaloa. A security assistant at the checkpoint was also wounded in the attack. Sungawil is 21 kilometres northeast of the Polannaruwa town.
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Fire-fight amid Vesak gloom in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 12:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and one was wounded in a fire-fight with the Liberation Tigers at Kommathurai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa town, Tuesday night around 8 p.m. Fighting broke out when SLA troops lying in ambush by a crossing point between the district's large hinterland controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the coast dominated by the army opened fire upon detecting the movement of armed persons.
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Salli-sustaining the will to survive against odds

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 15:06 GMT]
Salli is an old coastal village on the northern side of the Trincomalee Bay. Like hundreds of other Tamil villages in Sri Lanka's north and east, Salli is a shadow of its former self. Last week the Sri Lanka Navy, which has ringed the village with four camps, ordered civilians here to stay indoors after 6 p.m.
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Batticaloa shuts down for massacred children

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 02:43 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads Monday in the Batticaloa district to observe the Buddhist festival if Vesak as a day of mourning for the 10 children from an orphanage who were killed by Sri Lanka army soldiers on 17 May last year. The main road from Kalmunai to Batticaloa was blocked at Ondaachchi Madam, Kaluthavalai and Thalangkudah by villagers. Fourteen persons, including ten children who came to the Batticaloa town from an orphanage in Aayiththiyamalai, were shot dead during the Vesak festival by SLA troops last year.
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LTTE accuses Sri Lanka of undermining peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 09:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Tuesday accused the Government of Sri Lanka of attempting to undermine the peace environment by its irrational and dangerous policy of war and military conquest. "By unleashing a major military offensive against the LTTE's positions in Jaffna, Kumaratunga government has seriously jeopardised the Norwegian peace initiative", the statement said.
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Canadian HC meets Thamil Chelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 04:21 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Tuesday that the Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ms. Ruth Archibald, had discussions with the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S.P Thamil Chelvan, last evening from 5.30 p.m. in the Vanni. "The Sri Lankan government and its army are now only keen on military action. This is harming Tamil civilians", Mr. Thamil Chelvan told the Canadian High Commissioner, the radio said. The VOT said that the long discussion between the Canadian High Commissioner and the LTTE's political wing leader was very "constructive".
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Revenge fire, bombing force 5000 to flee

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2001, 20:38 GMT]
More than five thousand civilians fled their homes in Pooneryn north following heavy shelling and bombing, aid agency sources in the north said Monday. They said that Sri Lanka Air Force jets bombed the area since Friday. The Sri Lanka army had fired mortars and artillery on civilian settlements in the northern parts of Pooneryn. The attacks are in retaliation to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA in the Agni Khiela I Operation last week, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA artillery attack wounds eight in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 10:33 GMT]
Eight civilians, including a 3-month-old infant, were seriously wounded Saturday when the Sri Lanka army's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa town fired heavy artillery on villages across the lagoon in the district's western hinterland. The SLA opened up with heavy artillery fire on the villages of Mandapathadi and Kannankudah around 10.30 a.m.
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Vesak should be day of mourning - eastern students

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 12:52 GMT]
Eastern university undergraduates and teachers demonstrated Friday urging the people of Batticaloa to observe the Buddhist Vesak festival as a day of mourning. Thirteen people, including nine children from an orphanage, were shot dead by Sri Lanka army soldiers in Batticaloa town during the Vesak festival on 17 May last year following a blast. The SLA sought an apology for the massacre from the people of Batticaloa in January this year, blaming a drunken commanding officer for ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Meanwhile, the SLA warned civilians in Batticaloa Friday not to move about near its camps and positions in the district after dark. The army increased search operation in the eastern town this week.
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Tigers step up counter fire on SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 13:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers directed heavy mortar and artillery counter barrages on the positions the SLA is trying to consolidate in the Muhamalai-Eluthumadduval sector in Jaffna Thursday. Civilian flights from Jaffna to Colombo operated by a company owned by the Sri Lanka Air Force was cancelled Thursday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. Passengers who went to board the AN-28 at the Palaly military base this afternoon were turned back. "The SLAF is in urgent need of more flights for casualty evacuation and logistical runs", a member of a Tamil group working with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna said. The state owned Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation called on civilians Thursday morning to donate blood for the wounded soldiers. Hospital sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 1100 wounded SLA soldiers have been flown out of Jaffna for treatment in civilian hospitals in the southern parts of the island, including the capital.
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ICRC outlines work in war zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
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SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting rise

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 14:37 GMT]
More than 400 Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded in less than eight hours of fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Eluthumadduval and Kilali in Jaffna, military sources in the north said. Officials at government hospitals in Anuradhapura and Colombo said preparations are underway to receive more later this evening. The SLA spokesman, however, claimed that only 78 soldiers were wounded and 30 were killed. Op. Agni Khela I (Fire Flame), launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the SLA to retake JaffnaÌs southern sector and Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the peninsula which Tigers overran in April 2000.
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Tigers say Colombo bent on war, call off ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 14:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, stated that the organisation had decided not to extend its unilaterally declared cease-fire that expires at midnight on the 24th April 2001. "We are compelled to make this painful decision as a consequence of the hard-line, intransigent attitude of the Sri Lankan government which has not only refused to reciprocate positively to our peace gesture but intensified land, sea and air attacks causing heavy casualties on our side. It has become impossible to contain the military assaults of the enemy with our self-restrained defensive tactics without resorting to counter-offensive operations. Under such dangerous conditions we can no longer sustain our self-imposed truce which the enemy has been exploiting to its own military advantage", the LTTE's statement said.
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Trinco citizens call for UNHRC presence

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 16:49 GMT]
“The presence of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka should be made a reality to monitor crimes against innocent Tamils, especially women, by members of Armed Forces who are almost 100 percent Sinhalese”, states a memorandum sent to several international human rights organizations Friday by leading citizens of Trincomalee.
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Third party 'crucial' in any peace talks- Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this week that the involvement of a third party was crucial in any negotiations between them and the Sri Lankan government, and suggested that Norway might be fill that role as an extension of Oslo's present efforts to bring about talks between the two sides. In an interview to the Tamil Guardian weekly, the latest issue of which hit the newsstands in London Tuesday, the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said "In our perspective the third party involvement is crucial even after the commencement of the negotiations."
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SLA op. scares civilians from Batticaloa interior

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 12:31 GMT]
People from the interior of the northwestern hinterland of Batticaloa began moving out of their hamlets from early morning Tuesday fearing an operation by the Sri Lanka army against the positions of the Liberation Tigers in Thoppikkal and Tharavai. Families in Miyankalkulam and Tharavai abandoned their homesteads and began arriving Tuesday morning in Thihilivettai, a village close to the SLA controlled main coastal road, 25 kilometers north of Batticaloa with their personal belongings and cattle.
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Frustrated carnal marauding provokes assault

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 16:51 GMT]
Six civilians who were severely assaulted last night by Sri Lanka army soldiers in the village of Korakallimadu, 25 kilometers north of Batticaloa, complained to International Committee of the Red Cross Monday. One of the complainants said that the soldiers had threatened the villagers with dire consequences if the incident were to be reported to anyone. He said that more than ten persons were assaulted for raising the cry when soldiers from the Kiran Bridge camp had entered their houses and attempted to sexually harass young women late Sunday night.
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Tigers urge de-proscription and ceasefire for talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 10:20 GMT]
Mr. S.P.Tamil Chelvan, the Head of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has called upon the government of Sri Lanka to lift the ban on his organisation and reciprocate positively to the LTTE's unilateral cease-fire as essential pre-requisites for the commencement of political negotiations. This message was conveyed through the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Mr. Jon Westborg when he had lengthy discussions with the political leaders of the LTTE in Mallavi, Vanni, northern Sri Lanka yesterday and today morning, the organisation said in a press release Saturday.
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Ex-SLA commander pays missing youthís parent

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2001, 15:53 GMT]
Lt. Gen. Cecil Waidyaratne, a former commander of the Sri Lanka army Thursday paid 100,000 rupees as directed by Sri Lankaís court of Appeal to the father of a Tamil youth who went missing after he was arrested by the army in the Ampara district in June 1990. The decision of the court of appeal in the Habeas Corpus application on Kandaiah Yoganayagam, 31, is the first instance in which the Sri Lanka armyís high command has been held responsible by the Court of Appeal for the disappearance of a Tamil youth in the Ampara district. Human rights activists and Peace Committees in the district say that more than six thousand Tamil civilians were massacred or reported missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army and the Special Task Force commandos of the Sri Lanka Police in the Tamil villages and hinterland of Ampara between 1990 and 1993.
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Trinco lawyers condemn Mannar rape

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2001, 15:04 GMT]
"Lawyers cannot be mere onlookers when injustices are done to civilians by law enforcement authorities," said the President of the Trincomalee Bar Association Mr.Arumugam Jegasothy presiding over the special meeting convened Tuesday morning to pass a resolution condemning the brutal and beastly crimes committed on two Tamil women in Mannar by law enforcement personnel when the victims were under their custody.
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