Rivals join to pressure Sri Lanka's tea companies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2001, 22:16 GMT]
Long time political rivals in Sri Lanka's plantation sector, Mr.Arumugam Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress and Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, the leader of the Upcountry People's Front, joined forces Tuesday in a march from Holbrook Bazaar to Agarapatana in the Nuwara Eliya district in the island's tea producing central province.
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SLFP stages massive show of strength

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2001, 16:25 GMT]
In a massive show of strength the Sri Lanka freedom Party (SLFP) gathered more than hundred thousand supporters and members for its golden jubilee celebrations and 13th national convention Sunday in Colombo. The SLFP, the chief constituent and convenor of Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance (PA), was established in 1951 by the President Chandrika Kumaratunga's father Mr. Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (1899-1959) and was led by her mother, Sirimao Ratwatte Dias Banadaranaike (1916-2000), after his death. Addressing the rally at the Colombo racecourse grounds, the Sri Lankan President reiterated her stand on the ethnic conflict that peace talks could begin with the Liberation Tiger without her government declaring a cease-fire.
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Suicide among children, young on the rise in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 March 2001, 12:59 GMT]
There is an alarming increase of suicide among children and young people in Vavuniya, according to study released this week. The Vavuniya Medical Officer of Health and the Nelukkulam Public Health Inspector, the researchers who did the study said that war related poverty, stress and displacement were the main causes for suicide among the young. Seventy-nine children under 10 who had attempted to commit suicide were admitted to the Vavuniya Hospital last year.
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Plantation protest spreads

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2001, 17:55 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed in Hatton, a main town in Sri Lanka's tea producing central province, Friday in support of a spreading protest by plantation workers demanding a long due wage raise of four hundred rupees. More than 2000 tea workers in Kandy district went on strike Friday and held protest fasts in local Tamil temples, a spokesman for the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) told TamilNet.
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Media helps us stay on track- Col. Anthonis

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2001, 23:36 GMT]
The condition of education in the north and east was discussed by the Sri Lanka army at its headquarters in Colombo said Colonel V.L Rohan Anthonis, the commander of the 23-3 brigade in Batticaloa, addressing a meeting with local journalists and school principals Monday. He emphasised that students should not take part in anti-government activities. "We want to make sure we are on the correct track" officer said, speaking about the importance of monitoring the media. Col. Anthonis, a former cricketer from St. Thomas' College, the island's most prestigious private school for boys, claimed that he and his staff look up the press daily to check whether army has wronged anyone in Batticaloa.
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Vanni ban leaves little to take

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2001, 18:37 GMT]
A note at the bottom of a circular by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence listing the things that are not allowed to the Vanni sent to government officials in Vavuniya, reveals the extensive and arbitrary manner in which Colombo's economic embargo is imposed on the northern region.
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Collusion, apathy said skewing medical legal reports

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 February 2001, 22:02 GMT]
"There is inordinate delay in getting medical reports on rape and torture from the Batticaloa hospital" said Suganthi Kandasamy, state counsel, addressing a seminar on Community awareness and aspects of the law Sunday in the eastern town. She noted that it is very difficult to prosecute cases involving torture and rape in Batticaloa because medical legal reports are either not available or in some important cases, even the preliminary examination of the victim is not done by medical officers assigned for the purpose at the Batticaloa hospital.
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7000 more soldiers needed to end war - PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 February 2001, 17:30 GMT]
"About 3500 youths have been enlisted in the Army in the recent days following a request by the government. The enlistment of 7000 others in three-year period would help to end the war," said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister (PM) Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Sunday while addressing a gathering after declaring open a new operating theatre in the army hospital in Colombo. The operating theatre has been constructed at a cost of 6.2 million rupees by the institutions coming under the Plantation Ministry.
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Man "arrested" in Anuradhapura missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 February 2001, 15:25 GMT]
Thabirajah Yogarajah, 30, who was allegedly arrested by Sri Lankan police personnel in Anuradhapura on 19 February has been reported 'missing'. According to a witness, Yogarajah, a native of Kantalai in the Trincomalee district who had recently been living with his wife and two children in Ukulankulam in Vavuniya, was arrested while he was travelling from Colombo to Vavuniya.
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Plantation protestors light lamps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 February 2001, 21:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's plantation sector workers lit lamps Wednesday night in Hatton, a large town in the island's tea producing central province, on the third day of a protest fast campaign demanding an increase on their current daily wage of 101 rupees (1.14 US Dollars). Hundreds of workers, mostly ethnic Tamils, joined the 'satyagraha' fast Wednesday afternoon despite being advised by their trade union, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), that they should not stay away from work. The CWC is major coalition partner of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) government in Colombo.
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'Pongu Thamil' draws thousands in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 05:07 GMT]
More than three thousand students, staff and people took part in the 'Pongu Thamil' (Tamil Upsurge) program Tuesday at the Eastern University in Batticaloa. An effigy of Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was hung near the campus entrance. Hundreds of people and school children from nearby villages and towns began arriving at the University from early morning. The program began at 9.31 a.m. with the lighting of a flame aloft a pedestal near the stage.
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State to reconsider indictment on tortured prisoner

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 08:47 GMT]
The state counsel in the Colombo High Court moved Friday for a date to consider withdrawing the indictment on a Jaffna youth who was tortured in detention and is currently being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) at the remand prison in Kalutara. The report of the judicial medical officer who examined the prisoner two years after his arrest said in his report that the youth, Thambiraja Pathmanathan, 29, of Puthu Veethy, Aarukaal Madam, Aanaikottai, had been burnt with cigarettes and had scars on his head and other parts of the body from injuries caused with a blunt weapon. “At least 16-18 PTA cases involving torture are heard in the Colombo High courts every week. But in many instances the medical reports of the prisoners do not give the correct picture,” an attorney at law who appears for Tamil political prisoners said.
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Sri Lanka's PM decries insurrectionary Marxists

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 21:49 GMT]
"The murder of human beings is considered a crime in any society. It is totally against the principles of Buddhism" said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka Friday, addressing the opening of an exhibition of photographs of people allegedly killed by the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in Piliyandala, an outer suburb of Colombo, in 1988-89.
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SL diplomats, US officials visit north

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 17:35 GMT]
Fourteen diplomats working in Sri Lankan missions abroad visited Jaffna Friday to assess the situation in the northern peninsula. They had discussions with the Government Agent for the district, local officials and the public. Meanwhile, the deputy chief of mission of the US embassy in Colombo was also in Jaffna Friday along with two officials.
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Demonstration against British ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 12:53 GMT]
A big demonstration was held in Kokkadichcholai in the Batticaloa district on Friday urging the British government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the Terrorism Act and demanding the Sri Lankan government to begin negotiations with the Tigers. The protesters also burnt effigies of Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime MinisterRatansiri Wickremanayake, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte and Foreign Minister Luxman Kadirgamar said sources.
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UNP wants to know, Chandrika says opportunism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 February 2001, 17:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party said Thursday that the government should keep it informed of the Norway mediated effort to begin negotiations with the Liberation Tigers. Addressing a press conference in Colombo this afternoon, Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of the United National Party (UNP) said that the government was bound to do so under a bilateral agreement brokered by the British in 1997. During a phone in program Thursday evening on a state run TV channel, the Sri Lankan President dismissed the UNP’s claim, pointing out that the opposition leader did not abide by the terms of the agreement in the past unless it suited him.
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Over 18,000 arrested under ER, PTA in 2000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:54 GMT]
(News Feature) More than 18000 persons, mostly Tamils, were arrested under the draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year said a senior human rights worker in Colombo Wednesday.
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US security officials, ambassador visit Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:37 GMT]
The US ambassador for Sri Lanka, Ashley Wills, visited Batticaloa Wednesday with the mission’s Defence Attaché and its Regional Security Officer. The US embassy delegation held a two-hour discussion with SLA officers at the headquarters of the 23-3 brigade in Batticaloa town about the security situation in the district. The delegation also met Air Force and Police officers of the region thereafter. The ambassador later called on Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa. Security was tightened in places the US delegation was expected to visit in the town.
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Sri Lanka taps Lover's Day to fight war

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 14:35 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday launched "let's love our armed forces" campaign to raise funds for its cash strapped defence establishment. The program was started on Valentine's Day to "foster a bond of love" between soldiers fighting the Liberation Tigers in the north and east and the youth in the other parts of the island, according to the organizers of the campaign.
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Student signature campaign suspended

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 12:02 GMT]
A signature campaign, organised by the students of Vavuniya campus of Jaffna University, appealing to the British Government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the Terrorism Act was suspended Wednesday morning following intervention by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police said student sources. The police detained three students who were collecting signatures around 10.30 a.m. Wednesday and confiscated a list containing about 500 signatures, the sources said.
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