Ten civilians wounded in Vavuniya blast

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 July 2000, 15:39 GMT]
Three persons were killed and ten were wounded in an explosion inside a 'video-theatre' in Thonikkal, a suburb of Vavuniya town around 5.30 p.m Friday. Two children were among those killed in the explosion. Police said that the explosion was caused by a grenade. Two persons who were seen running away from the scene of the explosion were killed by a Police patrol who had gone to the video theatre minutes before the blast.
Full story >>

PTA seen promoting arbitrary charges

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 17:33 GMT]
A Tamil youth against whom Sri Lanka's Attorney General had filed six cases for killing scores of Sri Lanka army soldiers in 1992 in the Batticaloa district and for massacring Sinhala civlians in a village in the Polannaruwa district was released by the Batticaloa high court Wednesday.
Full story >>

I.C.R.C. to escort "CITY OF TRINCO"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government and the International Committee of Red Cross signed an agreement in Colombo Wednesday afternoon according to which the Jaffna passenger vessel " City of Trinco" will sail under the I.C.R.C. flag.
Full story >>

SLA takes action on Tamilnet report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 July 2000, 17:16 GMT]
The Military Police of the Sri Lankan Army arrested a corporal attached to the camp at Kalkudah, 34 kilometers north of Batticaloa, following a report by Tamilnet that he (the corporal) was forcing civilians in that village to work on the construction of a bulwark. Tamilnet reported that several civilians in Kalkudah had been beaten up by the SLA for not going to work on the bulwark round the Kalkudah army camp last week.
Full story >>

Four civilians killed in air raid - radio

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 21:02 GMT]
Four civilians were killed and two others, including a nine year old school boy were wounded in an air raid by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets at Chundikulam in the north-east of the island around 10.40 a.m. Saturday, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said in its news broadcast this evening.
Full story >>

"US should support all options"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 06:40 GMT]
"US should make clear that we would support all options including secession to be discussed in the negotiating process," said Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the United States, in a letter addressed to Hon Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.
Full story >>

Claymore blast wounds SLA officer

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 11:08 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Major and seven soldiers were critically wounded in a claymore mine attack by the Liberation Tigers at Serunuwara in the Mutur area, south-west of Trincomalee, around 12.45 p.m. Tuesday, security sources said.
Full story >>

Police fail to inquire into STF shooting

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 July 2000, 22:02 GMT]
The Vellaveli Police, who conducted an inquiry in to the killing of two Tamil civilians by the Special Task Force (STF) elite troops on 9 March, failed to produce their investigation report to the Anti-Harassment Committee which had its sittings in Batticaloa Monday. The Anti Harassment Committee ordered the Senior Superintendent of Police S.Sankar to produce the inquiry report by July 24.
Full story >>

SLA coerces Kalkudah civilians to build bulwark

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 July 2000, 11:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Kalkudah, 32 kilometers north of Batticaloa, is engaging civilians of this coastal village in forced labour residents said Sunday. Males in the village have been forced to work by soldiers at the construction of a sand bulwark ahead of the northern and western defences of the Kalkudah SLA base. A mason in the village who had refused to work for the army on Friday was severely beaten up by soldiers from the camp.
Full story >>

Two civilians killed in SLA ambush

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2000, 16:50 GMT]
Two civilians who were returning from a temple festival south west of Batticaloa Wednesday were shot dead by the Sri Lanka army. Velmurugu Charles Satkunam of Kaluwanchikudi and Ilyathamby Arumugam the 40th Colony were returning from the annual festival of the Thaanthamalai Murugan temple in the interior in the early hours of the morning today around 3.30 a.m. when they were shot dead by an SLA ambush party at Vaalakkaalai near the 39th Colony on the Ampara-Batticaloa district border sources said.
Full story >>

Police fire guns in hospital

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2000, 11:53 GMT]
Sri Lankan police, who brought the bodies of two of their colleges to the Kaluwanchikudy hospital, fired indiscriminately within the hospital premises, damaging an ambulance parked there said Mr.Pon.Selvarajah, a Member of Parliament for the Batticaloa District. The dead policemen had been killed in attack at Paddiruppu bridge on Monday.
Full story >>

CTTU members strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 July 2000, 16:14 GMT]
Schools in the northeast province did not function Friday as Tamil medium principals and teachers in the northeast province went on a one-day strike. Students did not attend schools responding to an appeal made by the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU). The protest was supported by Ceylon Muslim Teachers Union and Muslim Teachers Congress.
Full story >>

MP reads out raped woman's letter

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2000, 17:03 GMT]
Speaking on the extension of the emergency in Parliament Thursday, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Batticaloa Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham read out a letter written to the Sri Lanka's National Human Rights Commission by a seventy year old woman of Neervely in Jaffna who was raped and robbed by Sri Lankan army personnel on May 31. The MP said that he was bringing the letter to the attention of the house as the matter had been suppressed under the censorship. Mr.Pararajasingham pointed out that about 1500 Tamil youth have been detained for more than four years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act without trial.
Full story >>

Vanni medical situation dire say NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 July 2000, 20:47 GMT]
Hospitals, dispensaries and pharmacies in the Vanni region are on verge closing down due to the ban and restrictions on medical supplies imposed by the Sri Lankan Government, NGO sources said Wednesday.
Full story >>

Devolution proposals 'no basis for solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 09:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday the Sri Lankan government's devolution proposals were unacceptable as the basis of a solution to the Tamil national question as it "failed to address the national aspirations of the Tamil people" and it was intended to "promote the majoritarian [Sinhala] interests."
Full story >>

TELO cadres shot dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 June 2000, 15:44 GMT]
Two members of a pro-government group, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), were shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Kalladi, about 2 km. north of Batticaloa, around 3.45 p.m. Wednesday evening the police said.
Full story >>

Four more skeletons found in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2000, 17:25 GMT]
Villagers cleaning a compound in Kilinochchi, 45 km. south of Jaffna, found four skeletons, with their hands tied behind their backs in a toilet pit on Thursday, the Voice of Tigers said.
Full story >>

5000 Jaffna refugees sheltered in Pooneryn

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 June 2000, 14:56 GMT]
More than five thousand civilians displaced from the Thenmaradchi division of the Jaffna peninsula due to bombing and shelling have been housed in a transit camp in Pooneryn, international aid agency sources said Thursday. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross are providing limited emergency relief to the displaced civilians they said.
Full story >>

Relief provisions to Jaffna reduced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 June 2000, 11:15 GMT]
The Jaffna Government Agent (GA) was informed on Tuesday that relief provisions for civilians will be reduced to account for those who have fled the peninsula as a result of the war. Sources said about 5000 people who fled the war are currently housed in makeshift accommodation in the Pooneryn area.
Full story >>

CTTU will not support Defence Fund

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2000, 19:22 GMT]
The twenty-thousand member strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union has informed the President of Sri Lanka that its members would not contribute two-day salary each month as requested, to the Defence Fund as they consider the present war executed by the government is against the Tamil community. The Union has also threatened to strike if certain demands, including payment of arrears and distribution of textbooks, is not done by July 7.
Full story >>