Police sexual assault on student sparks protest in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2005, 15:17 GMT]
Hundreds of people protested against Sri Lanka Police in Thaalvupaadu, a coastal village near Mannar town Friday evening, demanding action against constables who had sexually assaulted and grievously injured a school boy. The seriously injured student was admitted to Mannar hospital and then rushed to Vavuniya as his condition was serious.
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Two civilians decorating for Maveerar Day shot dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 November 2004, 16:52 GMT]
Two civilians who were decorating their neighbourhood for the Great Heroes' Day observations in Vanthaarumoolai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa, were shot dead Wednesday night around 7:50 by gunmen riding a motorbike.
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LTTE political activist shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2004, 05:42 GMT]
A political division cadre of the Liberation Tigers was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Vanthaarumoolai, about 20 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Monday morning around 10 a.m. A person who was riding with him on a motorbike was wounded in the attack. He was rushed to the hospital. Residents said that the body of the dead LTTE political activist was lying on the Batticaloa – Valaichenai main road which is regularly patrolled by the Sri Lanka army.


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SL propaganda aims to create fear psychosis in East- Ramesh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 15:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Special Commander to Batticaloa-Amparai district, Col.Ramesh denied recent reports in Sri Lanka Government media on fighting in Thoppigala jungles in Batticaloa district, and dismissed the reports as propaganda to create a fear psychosis in the minds of eastern Tamils, during an interview with United Kingdom based Vectone Broadcasting network, Sunday.


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Four Karuna group cadres further remanded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 13:23 GMT]
The Batticalo Magistrate, Mr. H.H.M. Ajmeer, on Wednesday ordered further remand until April 27 to the four cadres of the renegade Karuna group who were arrested by Sri Lanka police on March 31 with weapons on the Kalmunai-Batticaloa road, sources in Batticaloa said.
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‘No trace of ‘Karuna’ in Batticaloa’s interior’ – LTTE commanders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 14:23 GMT]
Special Forces commanders of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa told TamilNet Tuesday that all the LTTE military camps in the district’s interior have been completely checked and cleared. “We have recovered the Batticaloa-Amparai district armoury fully, except for a heavy mortar and some rifles. The ammunition stores are intact”, one of them said. He said that they found several vehicles set on fire in ‘Meenaham’, the LTTE’s largest military base in the east.
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LTTE recovers arms, cadres from Karuna group

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 2004, 14:31 GMT]
In commando style attacks on the Karuna group in Vakarai, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have recovered large quantities of arms and a large number of cadres, the ThamilAlai.com website (a shadow edition from the East of the Karuna group's TamilAlai) said.
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LTTE’s ‘Jeyanthan Brigade’ units lead Vakarai offensive

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 19:46 GMT]
Special units of the Jeyanthan Brigade, the most feared infantry formation of the Liberation Tigers, led the multi pronged offensive towards Vakarai Friday, according to LTTE sources in the east. Two counter attacks on the forward defence localities which the Tigers have consolidated at Kandalady, 64 kilometres north of Batticaloa, led by ‘Jim Kelly Thaaththa’ and ‘Robert’, deputies of renegade LTTE commander ‘Karuna’ (Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan), were beaten back Friday evening, according to the sources.
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Key Karuna Group commander wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 13:48 GMT]
A key commander of the Karuna Group was seriously wounded when troops of the Liberation Tigers advanced on Vakarai, 62 kilometres north of Batticaloa, in the early hours of Friday morning. ‘Barathithaasan’, commander of the Karuna Group’s Vinothan Unit, wounded in the abdomen, was admitted to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. “We will face problems if casualties rise in the coming days because most of our consultants and many medical officers and interns from the north have left”, said a doctor who works there. The Karuna Group forced Tamils of Jaffna to leave Batticaloa last month.
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Thamil Eelam sports festival begins in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 09:19 GMT]
The third annual Thamil Eelam national sports festival commenced in Kilinochchi Friday, organizers said. Commander of the Eastern Front Forces of the Liberation Tigers, Col. Soosai, was the chief guest at the inauguration of the festival on the Kilinochchi playground Friday morning. Several senior officials of the LTTE, including the head of the Sports Division, Mr. S. Paappa were present at the inauguration, sources said.


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Jaffna missing persons's parents protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2003, 10:23 GMT]
Parents, wives and children of persons who went missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna in 1996-97 demonstrated in front of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Justice Monday. In a memorandum to the Minister of Justice they allege that the disappearances were part of a “well planned plot” by the Sri Lanka army “in conjunction” with a Tamil paramilitary group. Mr.S. Satkunam, the secretary of the Missing Persons Guardian Association, was questioned by Sri Lanka Police who wanted the demonstrators to disperse.
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SLMM political advisor meets Mannar LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 18:27 GMT]
The political advisor to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Mr. Gejir Sebeasd Deniy, met officials of the Liberation Tigers in Mannar Friday for discussions about the ground situation in the district during the 17 months of cease-fire between Colombo and the LTTE. Head of the LTTE political division in Mannar Mr. C Amithaab, told Mr. Deniy that there weren't any problems with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the district only during the first five months of the cease-fire.
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SLA allows devotees into Ottahapulam Church after 14 years

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2003, 21:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday allowed Christian devotees to hold religious observances at the Ottahapulam St James' Church, located in the high security zone about one thousand meters away from the Palaly military base in the Jaffna district, for the first time in fourteen years, civil sources said.


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LTTE members further remanded in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 July 2003, 18:13 GMT]
Batticaloa magistrate, Mr. Abdul Gafoor, Tuesday remanded until 18 July all the members of the Liberation Tigers who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Police in the eastern town Monday night.
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Teachers, MPCS officials meet LTTE in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2003, 14:14 GMT]
Teachers from Kiran, Koralaipattu from Batticaloa district met with officials from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the Karadianaaru Thenaham Guest House Friday 7pm to discuss matters relating to education in their district, sources said. LTTE's Head of Education, Varathan, presided the meeting.


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Thousands gather to commemorate first Black Tiger

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 July 2003, 14:50 GMT]
More than five thousand people gathered in Nelliyadi, Jaffna Saturday evening to commemorate the first Black Tiger of the Liberation Tigers, Capt. Miller. “The Black Tigers are the strongest force of a much weakened people”, said Mr. Amithaab, an LTTE official in Jaffna, addressing a ceremony in Nelliyadi Saturday morning at the site where the first Black Tiger destroyed a Sri Lanka army position, killing more than fourty soldiers in 1987.
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‘Let my people lead normal lives’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 20:01 GMT]
“My people have endured great agony and suffering for twenty years. Let them lead normal lives like those in other parts of the country”, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph told a delegation of Sri Lankan armed forces and officials that is on a fact finding visit to the district on the island’s northwestern coast Tuesday. “It is imperative that they shouldn’t be made to wait any longer for their rightful share of the peace dividend which everyone outside the northeast has enjoyed for more than an year”, the Bishop said.
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Defying C.I dogma, massacre village rises from ashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 13:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army massacred seventeen villagers, including six children, and burnt and razed to the ground Thoni Thaattamadu, an impoverished Tamil hamlet on the east coast’s remote interior 16 years ago on May 27, 1987. The massacre was an integral part of a counter insurgency (C.I) campaign by Sri Lankan armed forces. The village remained a no go zone since then, until the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with Colombo in February last year.
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Church farm helps dispossessed, poor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 April 2003, 03:30 GMT]
The Methodist Church’s Jeevothayam Farm in Pariyaarikkandal, 28 kilometres southeast of Mannar town, has been a refuge for the dispossessed and the meek for more than quarter of a century. Tamils driven out of their homes in the island’s tea producing hills by Sinhala Buddhist nationalists in 1977, 81 and 83 found succour here before they went forth to settle and multiply in the inhospitable jungles of the Vanni.
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Undeterred by controls, Pt. Pedro celebrates tradition

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 April 2003, 13:40 GMT]
Pt. Pedro is the oldest harbour town on the Jaffna peninsula’s sea coast. The Portuguese called the town Puntas das Padras (rocky point) on account of the reefs that line its coast. Tamils, however, still refer to it by its old name Paruththithurai (cotton port in Tamil). This week the townspeople celebrated the annual chariot and water cutting festivals of one of their old temples that have lain long and neglected inside the SLA’s high security zone in Pt. Pedro.
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