Batticaloa SLA, paramilitaries on edge

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 1999, 14:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army cordoned off the area around Loyds Avenue on the Batticaloa-Trincomalee road where the SLA convoy was attacked yesterday, and conducted a search operation from 11 a.m. this morning. The SLA searched the area for more than four hours.
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ICRC marks Geneva Conventions' 50th. anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 1999, 03:47 GMT]
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the modern Geneva Conventions, which falls on August 12, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched the 'people on war' project said the ICRC in a press release issued in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo today.
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Convoy blast kills eleven

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 1999, 11:56 GMT]
(2nd Lead) Eleven military trained policemen were killed and 19 wounded, 5 of them seriously, when a bus they were travelling in was hit by a claymore mine at Thandavanveli junction in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 12.10, today.
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Youth arrested over Kaithady blast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 1999, 21:16 GMT]
The SLA arrested and detained a youth from Kaithady east in Jaffna east this morning in connection with a bomb blast near one of its camps in the area on Sunday August 8.
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Views of Vanni crossing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 1999, 10:01 GMT]
(Photographs) TamilNet correspondents' views of the movement of civilians through the newly established crossing point between areas held by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers (LTTE).
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Crossing completed at Mankulam

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 1999, 16:10 GMT]
Ten lorries carrying essential supplies were sent under ICRC escort to the Vanni this afternoon by 4.30 p.m. Supplies from lorries that came from Vavuniya were unloaded and reloaded onto lorries from the LTTE held areas of the Vanni which came through the safe passage on the A9 at Mankulam around 3 p.m.
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Travellers use new access route

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 1999, 10:30 GMT]
Seven seriously ill patients from the Vanni came through the safe passage opened today at Mankulam on the A9. The 500 civilians who were taken from the Vavuniya for the crossing are in the process of moving through the safe passage to the side held by the Liberation Tigers now said sources.
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Further details of Vanni crossing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 1999, 14:47 GMT]
Five hundred stranded travellers from the Vanni who are currently housed in the 'Kolikoodu' transit camp in Vavuniya will be in the first batch allowed to return to the LTTE controlled areas on Monday, said officials in the northern town of Vavuniya.
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Access route to be opened on Monday

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 1999, 17:02 GMT]
A safe route to the LTTE controlled areas of the Vanni will be opened on Monday and the first batch of 500 civilians, out of the 2000 who are stranded in Vavuniya, will be allowed to cross over along with 10 truck loads of food, said K.Ganesh, the Government Agent in Vavuniya.
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LTTE, SLA de-mine to open access route

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 1999, 11:23 GMT]
Work on opening a safe passage for civilians on the A9 at Mankulam began at 11:30 a.m. yesterday. The ICRC delegate for Vavuniya, Sherine Pollini, and the ICRC delegate for Mallavi, Rene Walter, were present on either side of no man's land to witness the event and to facilitate the process.
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Army commandos assault TELO cadres

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 1999, 23:14 GMT]
Special Forces (SF) commandos of the Sri Lanka Army entered a TELO camp at Pandarikulam this morning, smashed it and assaulted eight of their members, said TELO sources. They said that two of the eight received gunshot injuries.
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Vavuniya traders demand access route

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 1999, 23:09 GMT]
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials in Mallavi and Vavuniya visited the LTTE and SLA Mankulam defence lines today while both parties were engaged in de-mining their respective areas, sources said.
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Special Forces commandos wounded in Vavuniya blast

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 1999, 06:54 GMT]
(Correction) Seven Special Forces (SF) commandos of the Sri Lanka Army were wounded this noon around 11.50 a.m. near Vavuniya town when the truck in which they were travelling was hit by a claymore mine.
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Access route to be opened on Sunday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 1999, 12:17 GMT]
The movement of civilians and food between the LTTE controlled areas of the Vanni and SLA controlled areas is set to resume on Sunday August 8, said government officials in Vavuniya today.
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Veppankulam blast was a claymore mine says Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 1999, 06:28 GMT]
The blast in which 12 Special Task Force (STF) commandos were killed at Veppankulam in Vavuniya was not caused by a suicide bomber said Police investigators this morning. Inquiries by the Vavuniya Police have revealed that it was a claymore type bicycle bomb attack.
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Safe passage can be opened next week -Balagalle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 1999, 13:15 GMT]
The commander of the Sri Lankan security forces in the Vanni, Maj.Gen. Lionel Balagalle, said this afternoon that the message from the Liberation Tigers regarding the opening of a safe passage for civilians through forward defence positions was received by the Sri Lankan army around 11 a.m. today. He said that a reply by the SLA to the LTTE's message consenting to open a passage at Mankulam on the A9 highway was sent forthwith.
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STF convoy attacked

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 1999, 07:11 GMT]
Ten Special Task Force (STF) commandos were killed and at least 22 wounded when a bomb exploded at Veppankulam, 3 km. north of Vavuniya around 12 noon today police sources said.
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LTTE agrees Vanni access point

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 1999, 23:40 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are agreeable to setting up a demilitarised zone on the A9 highway near Mankulam between the present forward defences of the LTTE and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said an official of the LTTE in London who was contacted by TamilNet tonight with regards to the SLA's latest proposals for an access route.
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"Deep concern over deteriorating situation"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 1999, 12:43 GMT]
The New York based international monitoring organisation, Human Rights Watch, yesterday urged the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers to" reach an immediate agreement which would guarantee safe passage of civilians and essential supplies" to the parts of the Vanni which are not under the control of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Jaffna HRC releases figures

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 August 1999, 17:12 GMT]
Ten people were reported missing and eight were said to have been arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in the Jaffna peninsula during the month of July according to the local office of the government-funded Human Rights Commission (HRC).
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