SLA detains three in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2001, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army arrested three youth Sunday night in Jaffna town. Nallaiah Navanilavan, 20, Kandasamy Kunaaharan, 27 and Gnanamuttu Anton Amalathaas, 23, were cycling towards the town when they were halted and arrested by soldiers near the Chundikuli checkpoint last night around 7.30 p.m. relatives said. They are being held at the 51-2 brigade headquarters in Jaffna town, according to them.
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SLA arrests three in Jaffna, one missing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2001, 18:28 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army arrested a village officer at his home in Jaffna Thursday morning around 7 a.m. Nagalingam Sunthararajah, 44 was arrested by a SLA special forces motorcycle unit which neither gave a receipt nor reason for his arrest, his relatives said. Sunthararajah is the village officer for section J.486 in Jaffna.
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Bribe demands worsen villagers' woes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2001, 01:24 GMT]
Jaffna Municipal Council Mayor Mr.N.Raviraj alleged Tuesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are demanding bribes from civilians who are seeking permission from the SLA to go back to their war ravaged towns in Thenmaradchchi in Jaffna peninsula to collect personal belongings.
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Thousands march for peace, self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 12:23 GMT]
More than twelve thousand people marched in Vavuniya and Mannar Saturday urging the Sri Lankan government to stop the war, start Norway mediated peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and recognise the Tamil peopleís right of self determination. Thousands marched through the Vavuniya and Mannar towns and in Murunkan. Christian and Buddhist clergymen, Members of Parliament of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, local leaders of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Peopleís Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam etc., teachers, traders, students marched crying slogans and carrying banners and placards.
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Youth shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 16:27 GMT]
A youth was shot dead by the Sri Lanka army in Nanthaavil, north of Jaffna town Friday morning. SLA sources told Tamilnet that the youth was shot near the checkpoint at the Amman temple in Nanthaavil. The area was searched by the SLA following the incident.
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SLA tenders qualified apology as officer retires

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2001, 21:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa town Wednesday tendered a qualified public apology for massacring hundreds innocent civilians of this eastern district in the past in a handbill and over loud hailers. The SLA handbill, among other things, states "on some occasions people had to be murdered on the orders of certain commanders".
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Court to hear Mailanthanai massacre case

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2001, 23:34 GMT]
(Newsfeature) The Mailanthanai massacre case in which 21 Sri Lanka army soldiers are accused of hacking to death 35 Tamils, including women, in a remote Batticaloa village on 9 August 1992 will be taken up for hearing in Colombo Monday lawyers appearing for the families of the victims said. "Justice delayed is justice denied. As with most cases in which SLA soldiers have been accused of massacring innocent Tamil civilians, a patently deliberate procrastinating strategy drawing on untenable pretexts is causing inordinate delays. This benefits the perpetrators of the murders," Mr.N. Kandasamy, a senior human rights activist in Colombo who has been monitoring the case for nine years told TamilNet Sunday.
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'Pongu Thamil' demos in Batticaloa and Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 17:09 GMT]
Demonstrations were held Wednesday in Vavuniya and Batticaloa in support of the Pongu Thamil rally in Jaffna. Hundreds of undergraduates of the Eastern University in Batticaloa and the College of Education in Vavuniya gathered for peaceful rallies urging the Sri Lankan government to start peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and to recognize the Tamil people's right of self determination.
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Youth identifies farmer's killers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 06:07 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers allegedly involved in the murder of a young farmer, Arunasalam Chandramohan, in Sithaandy in the eastern Batticaloa were identified by a fourteen year-old witness in an identification parade held before the Batticaloa Additional Judge, on Wednesday.
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Hundred thousand displaced by floods

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2000, 19:04 GMT]
Nearly one hundred thousand people have been rendered homeless as heavy rains continue to lash in the eastern Sri Lanka, government officials in Batticaloa said Monday. Many roads are submerged in floods in Batticaloa, Ampara and Polonnaruwa Districts and several rivers have swollen with floods, officials said. Two people have been reported killed in the floods.
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Dozens killed in blasts

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 13:54 GMT]
At least 20 people including a candidate of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) for the Trincomalee electorate were killed Monday at 6.30 p.m. in a bomb blast at an election meeting at the Cultural Centre of Mutur, Police said. Forty-five people, including 7 policemen were wounded. The candidate Mohammed Lathif Faithullah was the Officer in Charge of the Police Intelligent service in Trincomalee district, said sources.
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Fresh SLA offensive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2000, 10:46 GMT]
Heavy fighting has erupted again in the northern Jaffna peninsula as government troops launched another offensive to regain control over territories it lost to the Liberation Tigers in the Thenmaradchi sector, in May this year.
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Civilians move, fearing barrage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2000, 15:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army opened up a heavy artillery barrage towards areas held by the Liberation Tigers, east and south-east of Jaffna town from around 8.10 p.m. Sunday night. Hundreds of civilians in Jaffna town's coastal suburbs of Paashaiyoor and Gurunagar sought refuge in temples and churches fearing the barrage.
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Farmer shot, refugee girl missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 August 2000, 12:57 GMT]
A farmer was killed in Vanthaarumoolai, 22 kilometers north of Batticaloa, around noon Sunday when he was hit by gun fire from a Sri Lanka army camp nearby. Meanwhile, a young girl has been reported missing since August 17 in Valvettithurai in Jaffna.
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Soldiers drank toddy, shot tapper - witnesses

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 August 2000, 20:30 GMT]
"I heard some gun shots near our house around 10.45 a.m on Wednesday. Some people came and told me that my husband was shot dead near the Sithaandy Murugan temple. When I ran to the spot, I saw some soldiers standing near my husband's body. Those who saw the shooting said that the soldiers had shot my husband" Selvarani, mother of four children, whose husband, Thiyagarajah Gnanathas, 29, was shot dead by Sri Lanka army soldiers on Wednesday at Sithaandy, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa.
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Santhiramohan pleaded to spare life

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2000, 11:51 GMT]
"I heard Santhiramohan pleading with the soldiers to spare his life. He was telling them he was poor and was married to a poor girl. Then there was silence. I came out of the thicket where I was hiding after some time when it appeared that the army had left the place.
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Beheaded youth's widow gives evidence

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2000, 18:33 GMT]
"A little boy came running home around 11 a.m. and told me that soldiers had lopped off my husband's head. I ran towards the field where he was working and saw some soldiers taking a human head in a white bag. In the field I found my husband's headless body" said Ambikapathy Santhiramohan, 20, giving evidence at the inquest into her husband's death before Acting Magistrate for Batticaloa, D.C Chinniah, last evening at the Eravur Police station. Ambikapathy was married four months ago to Arunasalam Santhiramoham, 20, who was beheaded in reprisal Wednesday following a firefight at Sithaandy, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa in which two Sri Lanka army troopers were wounded.
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Civilian beheaded in SLA reprisal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2000, 10:31 GMT]
Two civilians were killed in reprisal by Sri Lanka army troops around noon Wednesday following a fire-fight in Sithaandy, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa. Soldiers of the Morokkoddaanchenai SLA camp beheaded one of the civilians, Arunasalam Santhiramohan, 20 and shot dead the other, identified as Thiyagarajah Gnanarajah, 29, father of four. The SLA has taken Santhiramohan's body to the Morokkoddaanchenai camp.
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Two SLA soldiers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2000, 07:46 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed and one was wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a foot patrol on Uppodai road in Vanthaarumoolai, about 20 kilometers north of Batticaloa Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. Reinforcements were rushed to the area following the attack from SLA camps on the Batticaloa-Valaichenai road.
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SLAF searches suburbs of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2000, 13:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel and police sealed off Puthunakar, Sethukudha and Veechukalmunai, suburbs of Batticaloa, and conducted a house to house search operation from 5 a.m. till 11 a.m. Wednesday.
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