TULF's bona fides questioned

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 May 2001, 17:13 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Saturday called upon the Government and the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to take every possible step to facilitate the commencement of a constructive dialogue that would end the conflict "within the framework upon the basis of which the Norwegian initiative has commenced". Opposition sources, however, charged that the TULF has issued the statement "in cahoots with the government" to scuttle the UNP's no confidence motion. "We wonder why the TULF had to rush at this point to assert that 'the present is an opportune moment' to resolve the conflict?" they questioned.
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Kadirgamar's move said linked to no confidence motion

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 19:34 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Liberation Tigers not because of a genuine commitment to peace but to deftly pre-empt the support of minority parties for the opposition's impending no confidence motion against the government", a spokesperson for the ten party Tamil alliance told TamilNet in Colombo Friday evening. "The government is alarmed now that it might lose the support of at least a section of its main coalition partner, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress over the Mawanella pogrom. This is has created a serious crisis for the People's Alliance. Why should the Sri Lankan government, which consistently rejected the LTTE's ceasefire and refused to even partially lift the embargo on the Vanni despite facing greater military defeats than Agni Khiela I last year, jump the gun at this juncture to falsely declare that it had reached an understanding with the Tigers to begin peace talks?" the Tamil politician in Colombo asked.
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12 SLA soldiers killed at Sungawil -VoT

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 18:50 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Sungawil in the Polonnaruwa district around 6.40 a.m Thursday. The LTTE ambush unit recovered 3 bodies of the SLA soldiers killed in the attack, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said Friday evening.
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Tigers say discussing Norway ceasefire proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 09:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers, in an official statement released in the Vanni Friday, slammed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister for claiming that an agreement had been reached between the two sides. “It is premature and irresponsible on the part of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to falsely project to the world media that an agreement has been reached,” the Tigers said. However the movement also said “substantial progress” had been made on the Norwegian Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) after intense discussions for a considerable time with the Norwegian facilitators. The LTTE said Norway had Wednesday suggested a programme for bilateral cessation of hostilities which the movement said was “constructive” proposal, but which requires “further clarifications and discussions before final agreement.”
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Balasingham denies agreement reached, expresses surprise

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 18:38 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday expressed surprise and concern at the Sri Lankan government's statement suggesting that agreement had been reached between the two sides on several matters. When contacted about the statement issued by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar Thursday, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's chief negotiator, emphatically denied that agreement had been reached on any matters and expressed surprise at Sri Lanka's statement, describing it as "recklessly premature" and "factually incorrect"
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Ratwatte heaps scorn on LTTE's ceasefire-again

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 11:51 GMT]
"The LTTE's ceasefire was a myth. The troops involved in the Agni Khiela operation have been successfully extending their area of control", said Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, speaking on the extension of the Emergency Thursday. Two elite Divisions of the Sri Lanka army comprising more than ten thousand soldiers took part in Operation Agni Khiela I barely two hours after the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Liberation Tigers on 24 December 2000 expired last month. The Tigers routed the offensive in four days of fighting. Gen. Ratwatte lambasted further the Tigers and their unilateral ceasefire in his speech.
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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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Bilateral cease-fire mooted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 17:12 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy, Mr.Erik Solheim Wednesday met the Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator, and political advisor Mr.Anton Balasingham in London, for lengthy discussions. They discussed a feasibility of working out a bilateral cessation of hostility between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to facilitate the peace process.
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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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Bravery awards after SLA rout

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 20:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week saluted their units which participated in the rout of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive in the southern Jaffna peninsula two weeks ago, official LTTE sources said Sunday. The special award for bravery was awarded to the men and women who had defeated a three pronged assault by fifteen thousand SLA soldiers backed by artillery, naval gunboats and air power, they said.
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Tamil journalists slam draconian laws

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 15:00 GMT]
"The Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act are laws designed specifically to oppress the Tamil people", said Mr. P. Manickavasagam, the President of the Tamil Media Alliance, addressing a meeting in Batticaloa organised Sunday by the East Lanka Journalist Association to mark the World Press Freedom Day. "The Amnesty International has said in its report that the Eelam People's Democratic Party is suspected in the murder of Jaffna journalist Maylvaganam Nimalarajan.
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Talaimannar refuses to yield

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 20:20 GMT]
(News Feature) Two decades ago Talaimannar was a prosperous town. The only ferry service between India and Sri Lanka operated from here, carrying thousands of passengers from Talaimannar pier to Rameswaram in South India. One could buy a railway ticket to India from any part of the island and take the train to board the ferry at Talaimannar for the short journey across the Palk Strait. Today less than hundred and fifty families live in the Talaimannar pier.
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Tigers hand over 29 SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 11:01 GMT]
Twenty-nine bodies of the Sri Lanka Army soldiers killed in the Jaffna battle last week were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by the Liberation Tigers Friday, Mr.Thangan, the Head of the political administration of the LTTE handed over the bodies to the local ICRC representative at a meeting held at Kilinochchi at 9 a.m., according to an official statement from the LTTE head quarters in the northern Vanni.
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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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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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Offensive routed, over 2400 SLA casualties - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Saturday afternoon said that the Sri Lankan army was pushed back to its original position in the early hours of the morning today. The statement said that the SLA’s 55, 52 Divisions and the elite 53 special forces Division, suffered more than 2400 casualties in ferocious counter offensives by the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers. “LTTE commando units have started clearing the area, about 2 square kilometres, vacated by the army in the Eluthumadduval sector, in southern Jaffna. Decomposing bodies of soldiers and their weapons are scattered everywhere in the area, according to LTTE field commanders”, the statement said.
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LTTE hands over bodies of SLA to ICRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:27 GMT]
"Thirty bodies of SLA soldiers were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni region Saturday morning", ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet.
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Norway's peace initiative mired in blood

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 03:38 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) The Norwegian peace initiative suffered several body blows this week as amid a bloody Sri Lanka Army offensive in the Jaffna peninsula, the government ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire, saying it was Ïirrelevant" to the Norwegian facilitated peace process, and insisted the Liberation Tigers would remain proscribed until they proved they were "sincere and honest" about negotiations, thereby rejecting two issues the LTTE insists are pre-requisites for succesful negotiations to be held.
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