Fishermenís pass restriction to stay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 June 2002, 01:28 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Navy has refused to implement an agreement on passes for Tamil fishermen announced after a recent conference between the latter's representatives and the Defence Ministry officials in Colombo, sources said.
Full story >>

JVP opposes lifting LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 02:41 GMT]
Thousands of the public and supporters of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna demonstrated in downtown Colombo Wednesday against lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers and granting them the interim administration of the northeastern province. The protestors, including Buddhist monks, held up placards and shouted slogans against granting Tamils the right to self-determination.
Full story >>

Tigers start political work in Jaffna islands

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2002, 20:32 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers began political work in the islands of Jaffna Monday amid objections and hindrances by the Sri Lanka Navy. They were delayed at Allaipitti, the main entry point to the islands when the Sri Lanka Navy objected to the LTTE's women fighters wearing belts and refused to let them pass. The public welcomed the Tigers near the entry point when the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission resolved the issue.
Full story >>

India to train Sri Lanka Special Forces

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 June 2002, 12:07 GMT]
India is to provide combat training to special forces of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) following a request from the Colombo government, the Sunday Times reported this week.
Full story >>

Peace secretariat official's visit to China deplored

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2002, 18:25 GMT]
"It is most disturbing that a member of the Peace Secretariat has gone to China along with the Defence Minister and the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy presumably to procure arms and to modernize the Navy at the expense of the poor people of this country. This has to be viewed in the context that Tamil fishermen in the northeast view the Sri Lanka Navy as an undisciplined force," said Tamil Human Rights lawyer Mr.K.Sivapalan Saturday. Mr. Sivapalan is a member of the Trincomalee Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
Full story >>

Jaffna journalists said facing 'calculated discrimination'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2002, 18:18 GMT]
"Journalists in Jaffna do not have the same rights and privileges that their colleagues enjoy in the south. None of the governments that came to power in Colombo bothered to look into the grievances and problems we face here. We feel that the discrimination against us is calculated. In this context I would like to draw your attention to the tardy pace of the investigations into the dastardly murder of our colleague Mylvaganam Nimalarajan. This wouldn't have been the case if he had been a journalist in the south," said Velupillai Thavachelvam, the President of the Jaffna Journalists' Association, speaking at a conference Saturday called by Sri Lanka's media minister, Mr. Imtiaz Bakeer Makkar who is on a visit to the northern peninsula this weekend.
Full story >>

Amnesty to meet LTTE in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 June 2002, 11:49 GMT]
Amnesty International will, for the first time, meet the leadership of the Liberation Tigers during a visit to Sri Lanka this week, the London based human rights group said Wednesday. “[The delegates] will travel to the Vanni to meet with the LTTE leadership during the first week and then return to Colombo to hold meetings with the new Sri Lankan government,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Full story >>

"New fishing regulations breach cease-fire agreement" - SLMC MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 17:03 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka government's gazette notification of the fishing restriction issued last month is a clear breach of the cease-fire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers," said Mr.K.M.Thowfeek, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress parliamentarian for the Trincomalee district at a discussion organised by the Trincomalee Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) held at the Kinniya divisional secretariat Monday morning.
Full story >>

SLMM denies commenting on gazette

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 02:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Sunday denied a report by the Daily Mirror that Hagrup Haukland, Deputy head of the SLMM, had stated that the Sri Lankan government’s gazette notification of fishing restrictions issued last month conflicts with the provisions of the ceasefire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers.
Full story >>

Jaffna fishermen's protests set to continue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 June 2002, 14:41 GMT]
Fishermen continued their picketing campaign for the second day on Friday in Jaffna in front of the Secretariat (Kachcheri) and the Divisional Secretariat, demanding their freedom to fish without restriction in the northern waters. Since even the Friday protest failed to produce any result, the Federation of Fishermenís Unions said it has decided to continue with the protests on Monday.
Full story >>

Police ordered to halt temple withdrawals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police in Batticaloa said Saturday that it has stopped work on vacating four of its camps in the district situated in places of religious worship on orders from the Inspector General of Police (IGP). "We just got the orders and stopped dismantling the defences. We do not know the reason," said the Officer in Charge of the Maamangam Pillaiyar Temple Police camp Saturday.
Full story >>

‘SLA constructions undermine truce’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:04 GMT]
The construction of new camps and bunkers by the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna was undermining the restoration of normalcy and violated the spirit of the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE an the government, the head of the Liberation Tigers' political section in the northern peninsula, Mr. T. Ilamparithi, told a press briefing Saturday.
Full story >>

Jaffna court seeks EPDP's weapons list

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 12:26 GMT]
The Jaffna magistrate Mr. R. T Vignarajah Friday directed the Sri Lanka Police to serve notice on the Eelam People's Democratic Party's (EPDP) deputy organiser for Jaffna, Mr. K. Manipallavarajan, to appear in court on Monday, 10 May with the list of weapons the paramilitary group had in its possession when the journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, was murdered. Mr. Nimalarajan, Jaffna correspondent for the BBC, the Tamil daily, Virakesari and the TamilNet was killed at his home on 19 October 2000 by gunmen suspected to be members of the EPDP, a key ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Full story >>

Development Forum awaits 'urgent change'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 23:54 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government needs to move faster in securing peace and implementing economic reforms, the Vice President of the World Bank's South Asia region, Mieko Nishimizu, said Thursday in her concluding statement to the Sri Lanka Development Forum meeting in Colombo.
Full story >>

Jaffna fishermen tell Colombo to lift controls

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 15:59 GMT]
Hundreds of protesting fishermen paralysed the Jaffna District Secretariat and blocked traffic in a busy part of the northern town Thursday, demanding that Colombo should do away with restrictions on fishing. Colombo promised to lift draconian controls on fishing in the Northeast within ninety days when it signed the cease-fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers on 24 February. Tamil fishermen, however, say that many restrictions remain. "Don't sell our seas to China", the protesting fishermen shouted, objecting to an alleged proposal by the Sri Lankan government to allow the Chinese start a fisheries project on the Jaffna coast.
Full story >>

Tamil students' rallies, protests in Northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 13:27 GMT]
Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies Thursday to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, bombing of schools, chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools. Student leaders who addressed the rallies demanded that Tamil students too be granted equal opportunities in education by Colombo, denied them for more than three decades under partisan education schemes.
Full story >>

Disabled soldiers march for peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 18:33 GMT]
Sri Lankan soldiers maimed in the war against the Liberation Tigers Wednesday marched in downtown Colombo in support of the current peace talks to end the island's conflict. They handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Full story >>

Sivasithamparam's funeral in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 18:08 GMT]
The funeral of the TNA leader Mr. Murugesu Sivasithamparam will be held at his birthplace Karaveddy in Jaffna district Sunday noon, party sources said. Mr.Sivasithamparam body now lies at his residence at Havelock Road, Thimbirigasaya, in Colombo.
Full story >>

Donors seek ‘meaningful and lasting reforms’ first

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 12:50 GMT]
(News Feature) Donors to Sri Lanka should see practical implementation of the government’s stated commitment to reforms before providing funding, the Vice President of the World Bank’s South Asia region said Wednesday. Furthermore, without peace, any prosperity would be fragile, just as without growth ‘with equity to all,’ peace would be vulnerable, Ms. Mieko Nishimizu said, addressing the Sri Lanka Development Forum meeting in Colombo.
Full story >>

Senior Tamil leader Sivasithamparam dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 03:04 GMT]
Mr. Murugesu Sivasithambaram, President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the main constituent of the Tamil National Alliance, passed away peacefully early Wednesday morning around two at the age of seventy-nine. The death occurred at the Colombo national hospital after a brief illness.
Full story >>