"Economy in shambles, law and order breakdown"- opposition

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2001, 19:58 GMT]
"The economy is in shambles. There is no law and order. The government has no majority in parliament. The government is not in a position to present the budget," said Dr.Karunasena Kodituwakku, Media Spokesman and parliamentarian of the United National Party (UNP), addressing opposition demonstrators at Kolonnawa, an outer suburb of Colombo, Thursday. The Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) demonstrated against President Kumaratunga's government Thursday in front of the island's central railway station in downtown Colombo, despite reports that the party might help her stay in power.
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Search operation in Tamil suburb

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2001, 13:28 GMT]
All private boarding houses and lodges in the Wellawatte police area were searched by special police teams Wednesday night. All inmates were closely questioned and documents in their possession were thoroughly examined. The search operation, which commenced around 9 p.m. ended by midnight, Wellawatte police sources said. Wellawatte is a Tamil dominated suburb in the southern sector of Colombo city.
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Ferial Ashraff's convoy stoned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2001, 17:06 GMT]
A convoy in which the National Unity Alliance (NUA) leader and Sri Lankan cabinet minister Ms. Ferial Ashraff was travelling, was stoned at Oddamavadi in Batticaloa district Tuesday afternoon around 1 p.m., the police said. The Minister was travelling in a convoy of ten cars from Kattankudy to Colombo after holding special delegates' conference in the eastern province last week.
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Violations increasing in Trincomalee -HRC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2001, 12:21 GMT]
Complaints against armed forces, police and state institutions received by the Trincomalee regional office of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka this year up to June has increased by eight fold compared to last year, states a report to the Head Office of the HRC in Colombo. "In last year 28.5 percent complaints were against the Police, 21 percent against the three armed forces and the rest against the state institutions in the Trincomalee district " said the report filed by the Trincomalee regional office of the HRC.
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Power struggle for SLMC leadership takes new turn

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2001, 19:03 GMT]
The power struggle in the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress took a dramatic turn Monday when the Colombo District Judge Mr.Sunil Rajapakse issued an enjoining order restraining Mr.M.L.A.M. Hisbullah from representing or acting as the President of the SLMC. The District Judge issued the order according to the plaint by the General Secretary of the SLMC (Hakeem wing), Mr.A.L.M.Haffrath.
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Kumaratunga impervious to power sharing -legal expert

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2001, 15:41 GMT]
"The prorogation of the Parliament was legal but it was used to foist an unconstitutional action on the people," said Dr.Rohan Edirisingha, a legal and constitutional expert with the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, speaking at seminar for Tamil journalists Monday. Responding to a question on the prospects of a national government Dr.Edirisingha said: "President Chandrika Kumaratunga is totally unaware of the implications of power sharing." The two-day seminar Media Freedom and Human Rights was organised by the Tamil Media Alliance and the Home for Human Rights in Colombo.
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Search operation in Dehiwala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 August 2001, 15:18 GMT]
More than five hundred Tamils were arrested during a house-to-house search operation by Sri Lanka Army and Police personnel in Colombo's suburb of Dehiwala, in the early hours of Sunday. About one hundred of them were taken to local police station for interrogation, the Police said.
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Detainees transferred to Kalutara

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2001, 18:55 GMT]
More than thirty Tamil youths detained at the Batticaloa prison were transferred this month to the Kalutara prison, south of Colombo, according to the Up-country People's Front (UPF), which has brought this matter to the notice of the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
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Over 100 arrested in combined search

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2001, 17:18 GMT]
More than one hundred Tamils were arrested during a major cordon and search operation in Kochchikade, about 50 km. north of Colombo Thursday morning. More than one thousand Army and Police personnel were deployed during the operation, police said.
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Trincomalee Cadets win Championship

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2001, 06:51 GMT]
The Trincomalee district Cadet group emerged champions in the island in the 2001 National Cadet Camp organized by the St.John Ambulance Association and Brigade of Sri Lanka held at Labuduwa, a village in the deep south of the country.
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Buddhist monks protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2001, 19:47 GMT]
More than two thousand Buddhist monks demonstrated at the old Town Hall in Colombo Tuesday demanding that the government cancel the referendum. The monks are opposed to granting regional autonomy to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Buddhist organisations say that referendum would pave the way for Tamil self rule and separation.
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Tamil coalition to campaign against referendum

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 17:22 GMT]
A coalition of 11 Tamil and Muslim political parties Monday decided to campaign against the August 21 referendum for a new constitution. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Democratic Workers Congress Party, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), People's Liberation Organisation Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF), Democratic Worker's Congress were among the parties that participated in the meeting held in Colombo Tuesday.
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TULF calls for cancellation of referendum

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 August 2001, 14:51 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) has appealed to the President Chandrika Kumaratunge to cancel the August 21 referendum and reconvene the prorogued parliament. "In the event of the proclamation calling for the referendum not being revoked the TULF has decided unanimously to vote against the referendum", said in a statement issued Sunday evening by the Secretary General and the Senior Vice President of the party Messrs R.Sampanthan and V.Anandasangaree respectively.
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"Stop arms, promote peace", MP tells US officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 23:09 GMT]
"The war in Sri Lanka is escalating because countries that say that there should be a political solution to the island's ethnic conflict are providing arms and money to the government here. Some are even training the Sri Lankan army troops. These governments should stop giving military aid to Sri Lanka and exert pressure on it to seek a negotiated settlement to the problem", said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, speaking to US embassy officials who called on him Friday at his official in Colombo.
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TULF branches call on Tamils to oppose referendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 16:01 GMT]
The Batticaloa District Branch of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Friday decided to request the Tamil people to vote against the August 21 referendum "to register their protest to the People's Government as it has failed to solve the ethnic problem during its seven year rule". A resolution to this effect was unanimously adopted at the committee meeting of the TULF district branch Friday with Batticaloa parliamentarian Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham in the chair.
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Judgement on referendum set for Aug. 10

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 August 2001, 22:43 GMT]
The arguments for and against the cancellation of the referendum were heard by for the third day by the Sri Lanka's Appeal Court Thursday. The court said that judgment will be given on 10 August.
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Batticaloa workers said vulnerable to arrest, detention

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 August 2001, 15:50 GMT]
Ninety-three civilians in Batticaloa district arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces from January to 31 July this year are still in detention, according to Human Rights Commission officials in the eastern town Wednesday. Sixty-nine were arrested in Batticloa and twenty-four in other districts; the whereabouts of three persons arrested in Batticaloa is still not known, they said. Relatives said that the three have been presumed missing. Meanwhile Police sources in Colombo said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested 20 Tamils so far in connection with the attack on the Katunayaka Sri Lanka Air Force base and international airport on 24 July.
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Five home guards, policeman killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2001, 10:21 GMT]
Five home guards were killed in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Nugathenna in the Welikanda police area, about 65 km. north west of Batticaloa on the Valaichenai-Colombo trunk road around 9 a.m. Tuesday, police sources said.
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S.L President briefs diplomats

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 July 2001, 20:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga met diplomats in Colombo Monday to brief them about the referendum for a new constitution and the security situation following the attack on the island's only international airport by the Liberation Tigers. More than 30 ambassadors took part in the briefing Monday evening in Colombo, Sri Lankan government sources said.
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'Tigers should fight on until liberation'- TULF MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2001, 19:10 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers are fighting for the freedom of the Tamil people. They should continue their armed struggle until the Tamil people are liberated," said Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Jaffna, addressing a meeting by the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Vavuniya Friday to commemorate its leaders who were massacred in the Welikada jail in Colombo in July 1983.
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