Big demo, march in Pt. Pedro

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 10:08 GMT]
More than two thousand Internally displaced persons (IDP) and fisherman of Jaffna's Vadamaradchi region marched and demonstrated in Pt. Pedro Monday demanding that the Sri Lanka army (SLA) leave schools, villages and farm lands it has garrisioned and that the SLA should lift restrictions on fishing. The march was organised by the Federation of Vadamaradchi Public Organisations.
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Sri Lanka army SF suspected in murder of civilians – LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 March 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Two civilians were knifed to death Saturday night in the Kudumbimalai area, about forty kilometres northwest of Batticaloa, a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers said. “We strongly suspect the hand of Sri Lanka army Special Forces in the murder. Evidence points in that direction. The two men were persons who had volunteered from the Sithaandy village to help us stop the plunder of sand and timber from their area”, he said. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed Sunday that six were killed in clashes between LTTE troopers and a paramilitary group in Batticaloa on Saturday.
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War memorial declared open in Ithathavil, Pallai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2005, 12:39 GMT]
A memorial hall housing a destroyed SLA tank in Ithavil, a village along the A9, 3 km north of Pallai, was declared open Saturday morning 9.30 AM by LTTE's commander for northern front forces, Col. Theepan. The SLA tank which was destroyed in LTTE offensive "Unceasing Waves III" symbolises the landmark Ithavil battle that breached the Main Supply Route (MSR) life-line to the Elephant Pass (EPS) garrison, said LTTE's commander for northern front forces, Col. Theepan, who declared the memorial hall opened.
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Bid to convert French humanitarian fishing boat into SL Navy vessel exposed

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 04:19 GMT]
A concerted move bid by the Sri Lankan Navy to convert a French deep sea fishing trawler, SIMON KEGHIAN, which was gifted on humanitarian ground by a French Subsidiary company to help tsunami-devastated Sri Lankan fishermen in the South, has been widely exposed in French media. A leading French news site, Lorient Maville, reported on Thursday that the Sri Lankan Admiral-Commodore who inspected the ship was "very much impressed by the boat", which was later joined in the Sri Lanka Navy's boat squadron fleet for deep sea naval training and related exercises.
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Army circular creates stir in Jaffna education circle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 14:39 GMT]
Major General Sunil Tennekon, Jaffna area commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday instructed all Zonal Directors of Education in the Jaffna district in writing to submit their explanation in regard to the participation of students in school uniform during public agitations held so far. In response Jaffna education establishment has said that the army has no right to call for explanation from education officials except the education ministry, education sources said.
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NPC urges Colombo to disprove Government support to Karuna group

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 09:36 GMT]
Pointing out the existence of a camp manned by militants of the Karuna group in Government-controlled territory that borders the north east, the National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Sri Lankan peace group, in a media release issued on Thursday, called on the Government to disprove the allegations regarding its support for the Karuna group immediately and ensure that no such camps are permitted to exist in the territory it controls. Cease Fire Agreement between the GoSL and the LTTE in its clause 1.8 prohibits armed paramilitaries in the NorthEast. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been accused of collaborating with paramilitaries to promote internecine violence in the east.
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NESOHR Deputy refutes Kadirgamar's statement at the UN

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 23:56 GMT]
Mr. K. Sivapalan, Attorney-at-Law and Deputy Chairperson of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, on Wednesday refuted the recent statement made by Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar at the 61st Sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights. There were several misleading and wrong facts in Kadirgamar's address, Mr. Sivapalan, told the UN Commission.
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JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
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Sri Lanka’s referendum blues

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:23 GMT]
Opposition fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making serious moves to hold on to the reins of power were further exacerbated when thousands of posters calling for the immediate abolition the country’s executive Presidential system appeared in many part of the island’s capital and suburbs this week. The purple coloured posters were in the name of a nebulous organization called ‘People’s Movement for Democracy’. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says President Kumaratunga is planning to change the constitution to illegally perpetuate herself in power.
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Tamil journalists still feel insecure - SLTMA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 10:28 GMT]
"Tamil media journalists still feel insecure in the ceasefire situation and also they are facing discrimination language wise", said Mr.R.Barathi, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) in his annual report tabled at the annual general meeting of the SLTMA held during the weekend in Colombo.
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Jeweler shot dead in Oddamavadi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 07:15 GMT]
An owner of a jewellery shop was shot dead Monday night at his home in Meeravodai, a Muslim village 34 kilometres north of Batticaloa, by three men with a T – 56 assault rifle, Police said. The jeweler’s daughter was critically injured in the shooting. “We are investigating the motive for the murder”, a Police officer in Valaichenai said. Meeravodai is an out suburb of Oddamavadi town.


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Three injured in predawn attack on paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 05:12 GMT]
Three paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group were wounded in a predawn attack by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Monday in Theevuchenai, an interior hamlet near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The wounded paramilitary cadres, including a man identified as ‘Mangalam Master’, were admitted to Polannaruwa Base Hospital Monday morning, Welikanda Police sources said. On Sunday, Sri Lanka army (SLA) spokesman denied a report in a Colombo weekend paper that the Karuna Group was running a camp in Theevuchenai, an area controlled by the SLA.
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SLA assures protection to Jaffna journalists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 17:41 GMT]
Major General Sunil Tennekon, Jaffna area commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sunday assured the Jaffna media personnel that his command is prepared to provide security to them and their equipments when they discharge their duties on the ground. He held a wide-ranging discussion, which lasted for about an hour with a delegation of Jaffna District Media Association (JDMA) at the office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) following allegations that soldiers had attacked journalists in Jaffna in recent times when they were performing their duties.
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Colombo paper exposes paramilitary camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 10:55 GMT]
Colombo-based English newspaper, the Sunday Leader, in its latest edition, has exposed the presence of a paramilitary camp at Theevuchenai in the SLA-held area of the Polonnaruwa district. The paper said its reporters visited last week the village lying about 10 km north of the Harabarana-Valaichenai highway from Sevenapitiya.
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Tamils risk turning violence inwards- Prof Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:20 GMT]
Although the three years of relative peace after the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the United National Party (UNP) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) has demonstrated that violence and war is not necessary to mediate relations between warring parties, the same period has "also proved that Tamil society ran the risk of turning violence inwards, against itself," writes Prof Uyangoda in an article appearing in the Saturday edition of Daily Mirror.
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"No hope for Tamils within a united Sri Lanka" - Verena Graf tells UN Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 21:28 GMT]
"The developments during the last three years compounded by the post-tsunami experiences raise the specter that time is running out; that there is no hope for the Tamils within a united Sri Lanka, that their only chance lies in fighting for external self-determination," Ms. Verena Graf, Secretary General of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, a Geneva based NGO with Special Consultative Status at the United Nations, said in her oral statement on Friday at UN Commission's 61st session on Human Rights.
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Jaffna SLN misdemeanors laid bare

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 16:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers were caught by officials of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) near Crow Island in Jaffna Thursday with fish forcibly seized from local fishermen, sources said.
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Mathakal fishermen protest against navy assault

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 16:10 GMT]
A group of fishermen from Mathakal, a coastal area in Jaffna district, Thursday morning held a protest in front of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in the area against the assault on about fifteen fishermen while fishing in sea by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel who were patrolling in a Dora boat. The assault took place Thursday early morning, fisheries sources said.


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Sri Lanka clamps restrictions on post-Tsunami coverage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 11:09 GMT]
Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka’s media watchdog, Thursday slammed the Government of Sri Lanka for imposing unacceptable restrictions on foreign journalists covering post-tsunami rebuilding and recovery efforts in the island. In a statement issued Thursday FMM said a Canadian TV journalist has been asked by the Sri Lankan embassy in Ottawa to sign a letter of agreement accepting the restrictions as a condition for issuing him a visa. FMM said that conditions such as these “did not exist even during most of the period of armed conflict in Sri Lanka”.
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Red Cross signs MoU to reconstruct tsunami hit medical institutions

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) and the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) have undertaken to reconstruct, renovate, repair and equip General Hospitals, Base Hospitals, District Hospitals, Rural Hospitals, Peripheral Units and Central Dispensaries in the tsunami affected areas throughout the island.
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