SLA aircraft damaged on landing, troops escape injury

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 18:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force's (SLAF's) AN-32 aircraft carrying 55 soldiers from Colombo Ratmalana airport to Palaly airport in Jaffna veered off the runway during landing and crashed into a nearby a signpost Saturday injuring one soldier, said security sources in Jaffna.


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Jaffna under tight security following Subathiran killing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 17:45 GMT]
Additional government troops and police personnel were deployed Saturday in Jaffna town and its suburbs following the killing of a senior member of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Varathar wing Mr. Kandiah Subathiran alias Robert, sources said


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LTTE blames SLN for sinking of merchant vessel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 16:19 GMT]
In a press release issued Saturday by the Political Head Quarters of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Kilinochchi, LTTE said that it had informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that SLN's sinking of LTTE's merchant vessel today is "a gross violation of the ceasefire agreement and if any harm were to befall the crew of the LTTE vessel then the sole responsibility for the events lay with the Sri Lanka Navy and that this incident would have very grave consequences."
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Road closure by SLA halts temple festival in Kalkudah

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 11:37 GMT]
Trustees of Munai Murugan temple in Kalkudah, 35km North of Batticaloa town, said Saturday that devotees have no access to the temple and that the popular annual temple festivals cannot be held due to the closure of the main road leading to the temple by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).


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SLN sinks LTTE vessel in international waters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 09:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka navy Saturday intercepted and sank a merchant vessel of the Liberation Tigers travelling in international waters, 266 miles off the Trincomalee coast, LTTE sources said. The twelve crewmen of the ship had donned life jackets and jumped overboard when SLN gunboats began firing on their vessel and were arrested by the Navy, they said.
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SLN harrassment may lead to confrontation at sea- Thamilselvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 03:48 GMT]
Thamilselvan, leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) told head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) General Tryggve Tellefsen who led a delegation of SLMM members to Kilinochchi Friday that increasing intereference with LTTE vessels in LTTE areas, investigation of these vessels, and continued harrasment of sea-tigers will inevitably lead to confrontation if these SLN activities are not checked, local papers reported.
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EPRLF Varathar wing senior member shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 03:10 GMT]
An unidentified sniper is reported to have shot dead Mr. Kandiah Subathiran alias Robert, the most senior member of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (Varathar wing) Saturday morning around 6.30 when he was doing physical exercise in the upper floor of the EPRLF (Varathar wing) office which is located along the Jaffna hospital road, police said.


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PA urges UNF not to give into LTTE's demands

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) which governed Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2001 demanded the United National Front (UNF) government to place the armed forces on red alert as the PA believed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has reverted its position to Tamil homeland policy and its demand for an institution with more administrative and political powers is a step towards LTTE's goal for a separate state, Tamil Eelam, polical sources in Colombo said.


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LTTE demands release of cadre arrested one year ago

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 June 2003, 11:25 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday said it would release the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldier, Mr.S.T.Ruwankumara, who is in its custody in Trincomalee district in exchange of its cadre Kururathan now in remand for more than a year, sources said.


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Mandoor STF attacks Temple devotees

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 June 2003, 03:57 GMT]
Devotees of Kannakai amman temple in 15th Colony in Mandoor, who were on their way to obtain provisions from Vellavelly, Kambiyirakkam village for the final festival were beaten by the Special Task Force (STF) soldiers stationed in Mandoor, security sources said.


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LTTE demands release of political official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 11:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demanded the release of its Puliyanthivu, Batticaloa district head of political wing, Sathiyaraj, as a condition for releasing the two Sri Lanka Police officers LTTE arrested in Chenkaladi Tuesday, security sources in Batticaloa said.


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Hartal observed in Batticaloa and Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 11:33 GMT]
Batticaloa district Peoples Coalition organized a hartal (work stoppage) in Batticaloa and Amparai districts Thursday protesting the recent arrests of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political officials, increasing road checks on the civilians by the Security forces and the rise in random killings, sources in the eastern province said.


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Jaffna, East undergrads condemn arrest of LTTE official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 01:57 GMT]
Undergraduates of University of Jaffna expressed their support to the protest fast being carried out by the fellow students of the Eastern University campus condemning the arrest of the Pulliyanthivu, Batticaloa district, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sathiyaraj by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), student union sources said.


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LTTE insists on draft framework for interim administration to resume talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 11:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka Wednesday reiterated its position that it would participate in the negotiating process only when the Sri Lankan government puts forward a clearly defined draft framework for an interim administrative structure for the Northeast.
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Disappearance investigations need GoSL, LTTE support - ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 03:19 GMT]
On the appeal made at the fifth round of talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin on 7, 8 February 2003, International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) came forward to provide assistance in investigation of the people who disappeared in Northeast after 1990, said Filipa Nato Marques, the resident representative of the ICRC in Batticaloa district during a press briefing held Tuesday evening at the ICRC office in Batticaloa.


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NGO to assist farmers affected by HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 00:15 GMT]
An international non-governmental organization ACTIONFAIM has formulated a scheme to provide livelihood assistance to resettled villagers in Thenamaradchchi division in Jaffna district who are unable to cultivate their agricultural lands occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), divisional secretariat sources said.
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De-link Tokyo aid from globalization agenda say scholars, NGOs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 16:19 GMT]
The needs assessment for spending funds pledged by donors for development and reconstruction in Sri Lanka this week should be de-linked from the globalisation agenda of the super power said two civil society groups at the conclusion of the two-day aid conference in Tokyo Tuesday. In a statement issued from Tokyo Tuesday they said the blue print for economic development presented to the donors by Colombo would exacerbate poverty in the countryside.
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Sri Lankan Prime Minister's concluding remarks in Tokyo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 11:32 GMT]
"Sri Lanka has to overcome the delays, the blockages and the inertia of its bureaucratic apparatus and transform it into one capable of speedy implementation where work is done efficiently and effectively. This requires significant political resolve and I intend to provide the leadership necessary to achieve this result," said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister in his statement to the concluding session of the Japan aid meeting on 10 June.
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Pongal festival celebrated in Vattapallai Amman Temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 02:27 GMT]
Thousands of devotees from different parts of Northeast joined in the pongal celebrations held at Vattapallai Amman Temple, a popular hindu temple in Vanni, Monday. The prevailing climate of peace after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of SriLanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was the reason for such large gathering of devotees at the temple festival, sources said.


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Armitage addresses Sri Lanka donors' conference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 00:59 GMT]
Noting that the momentum of the Sri Lanka peace process is slowing, US Deputy Secretary of State Armitage said the international community needs to provide an infusion of moral and material support to move the parties and the process forward when he addressed the Sri Lanka donors' conference in Japan, Monday. But, he said, "no matter how much we pledge at this conference, it is ultimately the prime minister, the president of Sri Lanka, members of the LTTE, and most importantly of all the people of Sri Lanka, who will have to deliver on the promise of peace."


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