Picketing villagers bring Trinco-Vavuniya traffic to standstill

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 June 2003, 13:41 GMT]
Vehicular traffic between Trincomalee and Vavuniya through the Trincomalee-Anuradhapura trunk road came to a standstill Thursday when a group of Sinhalese villagers held a sit in protest across the road, demanding the release of a villager alleged to have been abducted by unidentified persons, police sources said.
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Sinhala opposition to Sri Lanka peace effort mounts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:32 GMT]
Opposition to Sri Lanka’s peace process gathered further momentum as a new Sinhala nationalist organisation comprising powerful opposition politicians and Buddhist monks wowed Wednesday to agitate for separating the northeast into two provinces. Agitation by Sinhala nationalists to de-merge the northeast would be another spanner in the works for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s effort to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers to end two decades of armed conflict that has ravaged the island.


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Curfew re-imposed in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 October 2002, 18:12 GMT]
Colombo north and central areas were again placed under curfew to quell further violence between the Sinhalese and Muslims, which has left one killed and at least a dozen wounded, police sources said. Muslims who took part in the funeral of the Muslim person who was killed in Thursday's clashes, attacked a Buddhist monk Friday. Another Muslim man was wounded when the Police opened fire to disperse the crowd.
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Anti-government demonstration in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2001, 09:45 GMT]
Thousands of demonstrators Thursday afternoon around 2 p.m. started marching towards Colombo Town Hall to attend a mass rally organised by the People's Alliance for Democracy, demanding President Chandrika Kumaratunge to reconvene the Parliament and cancel the proposed referendum for a new constitution.
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High security zones declared in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 July 2001, 16:56 GMT]
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge Saturday proclaimed some parts of the Colombo City as high security zones. "This proclamation has been made under Section 27 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act No.48 of 1979" a presidential secretariat release said.
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Tamil teachers join protest against rape

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 July 2001, 18:57 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) has appealed to its members and Tamil school children throughout the island to boycott schools on Friday 6 July to protest against the rape of a Tamil woman by policemen at a check post in Maradana, in capital Colombo on 24 June. A coalition of ten Tamil political parties and trade unions are planning to hold a protest rally in Colombo, and a general strike in the Northeast and the hill towns of the island. The twenty thousand member strong CTTU will be one of the trade unions joining the protest.
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Tamil alliance calls for 'Hartal' against rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2001, 14:09 GMT]
The ten Tamil party alliance said in Colombo Friday that itís calling a general shut down in the Northern and Eastern provinces on 6 July as a protest against the rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. Addressing a press conference Friday afternoon at the Grand Oriental Hotel in downtown Colombo, spokesmen for the Tamil alliance said that there would be a protest demonstration in Colombo and a strike in the tea and rubber plantations. They said that the rape of the Tamil girl at the Police checkpoint in Maradana in downtown Colombo on 25 June "once again underscores the fact that the draconian Emergency Regulations promote torture and rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces".
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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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Colombo bans public processions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 07:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government banned all public processions for a week under the Emergency Regulations Thursday. An official statement said that the ban commenced midnight of 9 May. The ban was promulgated in the Emergency Regulation No. 1 of 2001 (public precessions), according to the statement.
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Muslims protestors riot in downtown Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 10:21 GMT]
Riots broke out in downtown Colombo Friday as Muslims angered by Sinhalese attacks on their brethren in the provincial town of Mawanella this week stoned Sinhala owned shops and smashed up more than 12 vehicles. The Sri Lankan Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslims who demonstrated after Friday Jummah prayers in Maradana, Panchikawatta, Maaligawatte and Hulftsdorp.
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"Right to life not guaranteed in constitution"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 January 2001, 05:10 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan constitution does not guarantee the right to life. Many human rights violations and murders are possible due to such loopholes in the constitution. The Sri Lankan government refused to sign an international convention that would have obliged it to act responsibly on the question of human rights violations and missing persons. It is the governmentís duty to explain the fate of persons reported missing. But it does not do anything. This is the reason why it is possible not to take any action to bring those responsible for murdering journalists to book" said V.T Thamilmaran, senior law lecturer at the University of Colombo Wednesday, addressing the 90 days remembrance meeting for slain Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan in Colombo.
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Streets blocked by UNP protesters

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 17:49 GMT]
An estimated twenty-five-thousand people attended the mass protest campaign organised by the main opposition, United National Party (UNP) on Tuesday evening opposite Maradana railway station in Colombo.
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UNP protest petroleum hike

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 March 2000, 18:22 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) organised a protest march and a rally in Colombo today, protesting against price hikes in petroleum products and increased coast of living.
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Services hit hard by medical, railway strikes

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 1999, 19:53 GMT]
A number of essential services have been badly affected by widespread strikes launched by the Government Medical Officiers' Association and Sri Lankan railway workers.
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Arrests in Colombo continue

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 October 1999, 09:14 GMT]
About sixty Tamils, including 5 women were arrested when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Police conducted a cordon and search operation in the suburbs of Kotahena and Maradana in Colombo yesterday evening.
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Police fire tear gas at Colombo demonstrators

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 1999, 12:28 GMT]
Sri Lankan riot police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators who participated in a procession today, demanding the government to abolish the Presidential system in the country.
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Doctors vow to continue strike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 1999, 18:25 GMT]
Officials of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) said this afternoon that they would continue their strike until all their demands have been met. At a press briefing held at Regent Street in Colombo, senior officials of the GMOA said that they were determined to continue with their strike despite the state-sponsored intimidation to which their members had been subjected.
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Striking doctors surrender to police

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 1999, 14:48 GMT]
Thirteen members of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) including its President, Secretary and Assistant Secretary on whom warrants of arrest were issued by the Colombo District Judge on Friday, surrendered to the Maradana Police this morning through their lawyers.
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News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 May 1999, 17:40 GMT]
Vavuniya traders in unenviable position and A towel was found in the diesel tank of locomotive engine connected to the Yarl Devi express train bound for Vavuniya.
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Explosions shock Colombo residents

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 1999, 05:04 GMT]
Three explosions within two hours rocked the City of Colombo and the surrounding areas yesterday. A bomb exploded in a Colombo bound train at 9.25 p.m. injuring four and another bomb exploded in Pettah bus station at 11.05 p.m. killing one and injuring twelve passengers. A few minutes after this incident a transformer blew up in a nearby junction, said sources in Colombo.
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