Four SLA soldiers, policeman, civilian injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 August 2005, 07:52 GMT]
Four soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), a policeman and a civilian were injured in three separate incidents that took place Wednesday morning in Batticaloa district. They were injured in grenade attack and firing by unidentified men, Police sources said. All the incidents were reported on Batticaloa-Valaichenai highway within 17 km distance between Eravur and Valaichenai. Security is beefed up by the Sri Lanka Army and Police following the attacks along the highway.
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LTTE cadres, civilians attacked in Vaharai, one dead, three injured

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 August 2005, 09:03 GMT]
An LTTE cadre, Mr. Reagon, was killed and three persons including two civilians were injured when a group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers and paramilitary cadres, who had moved into the LTTE held area Kirimichchai in Vaharai from the SLA held Panichchankerni, shot at LTTE cadres and civilians, LTTE's Political Head in Batticaloa Mr. Ilanthirayan told TamilNet. The attack took place around 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials in Batticaloa refused to provide any detail of their knowlegde of the incident. In the meantime, civilians close to Panichankerni SLA base witnessed a group of attackers with military fatigues enter the SLA base following the attack.
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Trinco Tamil students boycott schools protesting army presence

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 August 2005, 10:12 GMT]
Tamil medium schools in the Trincomalee town did not function Monday when students boycotted their classes in a token protest to the presence of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and the Sri Lanka Police surrounding their institutions in large number, TamilNet sources said.
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Gurunagar displaced urge SLA to vacate their houses

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 August 2005, 20:34 GMT]
Civil groups in Gurunagar in Jaffna town have requested the Jaffna area command of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in writing to release their houses and lands occupied by the soldiers since 1996 as displaced families from the coastal areas are living in state lands without basic facilities, sources said.
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RDS members complain army harassment in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 August 2005, 20:26 GMT]
Officials of the Rural Development Societies (RDS) in the Trincomalee Town and Gravets Division Sunday complained that the presence of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in large number is disrupting normal lives in their areas. Soldiers are conducting cordon and search operations during nights and walk into the Hindu temples with shoes, they said.
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SLA informer shot and killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 August 2005, 11:26 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mr. Warnakulasooriya John Silva, 75 year-old Sinhalese in Thampalakamam Saturday night at 8:50 p.m. He was running a shop selling pots of curd in the area. He succumbed to gunshot injuries while being taken to Kantalai government hospital, Police said.
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Sri Lanka's business sector organizes seminar on SSCP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 August 2005, 14:58 GMT]
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has organized a one-day seminar to raise concerns over the Sethusamudram Canal Project (SSCP) creating much discussion and debate among environmental groups, buisness community, government officials and the general public. Environmental groups held two demonstrations in Colombo last week against the implementation of the SSCP arguing that it would cause serious damage to the fishing industry in the northern region and environmental damage to the island.
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Trinco students to protest against SLA presence around schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 16:04 GMT]
Trincomalee District Tamil Students Forum (TDTSF) has called Tamil speaking students for a token boycott of classes on Monday in protest to the presence of Sri Lanka Army troops in large number surrounding schools in the Trincomalee town thus violating the ceasefire agreement. Trincomalee has become a garrisoned city following the unlawful erection of Buddha statue, sources said.
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Thenmaradchchi residents complain of army harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 12:10 GMT]
Members of the Sri Lanka Army Intelligence Unit stationed in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district are reportedly harassing the residents whom they consider supporters of LTTE, human rights activists have complained to civil authorities.
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SLA bans outsiders entering Manatkadu at night

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 10:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has imposed ban on outsiders from entering Manatkadu area in Vadamaradchchi east division in the Jaffna district after 9 p.m. Only the residents of Manatkadu would be allowed to enter the village during night hours, security sources said.
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Kilinochchi to hold Tamil Resurgence celebrations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2005, 15:40 GMT]
In a press meet held at the Cultural Hall in Kilinochchi Tuesday, T Prabakaran, head of the Event Mobilization group, requested the attending journalists to provide publicity for the event to be held 1 September from 3 pm to midnight, and to publish historic articles describing the Tamil national movements in Kilinochchi district, sources attending the meeting said.
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Paramilitary operative killed in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2005, 04:58 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mr. Rajaratnam Sreekanathan, 58, an SLA intelligence operative from the paramilitary group PLOTE. The killing took place at his residence on 3rd lane at Kovilkulam, four kilometers southeast of Vavuniya town around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Police said.
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Manatkadu protestors lay siege to SLA camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 15:50 GMT]
Protestors at Manatkadu in Vadamaradchi East threw stones and burning-tires on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vehicles Wednesday night. Violent protests erupted in the area following reports that the two fishermen, who went missing on Sunday in the northern seas, and later said to be in the custody of the Sri Lanka Navy, were not handed over to their families Wednesday evening as promised by the Sri Lankan military officials. The protestors have laid siege to the 52-4 Brigade camp of the SLA at Manatkadu, villagers said. Tension prevails in the area.
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JVP demonstrates against direct talks between GoSL and LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 17:18 GMT]
More than five thousand activists of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna held a two hour demonstration in front of the Fort Railway Station in Colombo Tuesday afternoon opposing the direct talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Mr.Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP, speaking at the conclusion of the demonstration said that the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is at stake with the continued presence of Norwegian facilitators in the island in the name of monitoring Cease Fire Agreement signed by the then UNP government and the LTTE.
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Ex-SLA soldiers urged to help solve disappeared cases

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 05:31 GMT]
The North East Secretariat on Human Rights has appealed to ex-Sri Lankan military officials living overseas to come forward to help solve the cases of over 70 Tamil youths who were disappeared in the 1990s in Mandaithivu-Alappiddy-Mankumban areas, according to an interim report obtained by TamilNet's Kilinochchi correspondent.
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SLA bans transporting school building materials to LTTE held areas in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2005, 16:32 GMT]
Construction work of new buildings in two schools in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled areas in the Mannar district has come to a halt due to the ban imposed by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on the transportation of building materials through Uyilankulam and Madu road army checkpoints, sources said.
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NE Human Rights Secretariat calls for withdrawal of ER and PTA

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2005, 11:03 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights, in a press release issued on Monday called upon the international community to excercise pressure on Colombo to withdraw the Emergency Regulation (ER) which was recently reimposed in Sri Lanka. Also noting that the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) itself is a serious human rights violation, the secretariat said that the two pieces of legislation in force together will lead to a repeat of the large scale human rights violations. Since July 1st, more than 3000 arrests have been reported in the South, according to the press release. It also noted that the increased military presence in Trincomalee is continuing in spite of protest by the Tamils.
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STF soldiers attack cloth dealer in Thirukkovil

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 August 2005, 13:23 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) soldiers attacked Mr. R. Selvarajah Pragalathan, 22, a cloth dealer who had come from the Liberation Tigers controlled area to Sri Lanka Army controlled Akkaraipattu town to purchase cloths. Mr. Pragalathan, was attacked by STF soldiers stationed at Kanjirankuddah checkpost in Thirukkovil on Sunday evening around 3:00 p.m.when he was on his way back to his village, sources said.
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SLA soldier injured in grenade attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 August 2005, 10:02 GMT]
Two motorcycle-riding attackers lobbed a grenade into a sentry point of the Sri Lanka Army located on Kalliyankadu Cemetery Road near the Batticaloa Railway Station Saturday noon. An SLA soldier, Sanjeeva Prasanna Wikramarachi, 21, was injured in the attack. SLA Soldiers at the sentry point opened fire and beat civilian travellers with rifle butts following the attack, civilian sources said.
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SLA soldiers guard police stations in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 August 2005, 13:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army has decided to provide security to all police stations in the Jaffna district with immediate effect. Twenty soldiers are deployed in the premises of each police station. The Police has suspended traffic duty in major towns in the Jaffna district and also stopped investigating complaints in regard to minor offences, police sources in Jaffna said.
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