Sri Lanka requests UK to ban LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 July 2000, 21:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka has a made a formal request to Britain to have the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam proscribed under the new Terrorism Law passed recently in United Kingdom, states a press release issued Friday by the Foreign Ministry Office in Colombo.
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PTA seen promoting arbitrary charges

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 17:33 GMT]
A Tamil youth against whom Sri Lanka's Attorney General had filed six cases for killing scores of Sri Lanka army soldiers in 1992 in the Batticaloa district and for massacring Sinhala civlians in a village in the Polannaruwa district was released by the Batticaloa high court Wednesday.
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'Autonomy package' - Much ado about nothing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
"If Prabhaharan had not pulled out of talks with the UNP government in 1990 and with the PA in 1995, he too would have been doing this futile political jig in Colombo, going from pillar to post like us in search of the political solution" said the leader of an ex-Tamil militant group reacting to Sri Lanka's main opposition party's decision announced Tuesday that it will not support the constitutional reform package in Parliament.
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I.C.R.C. to escort "CITY OF TRINCO"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government and the International Committee of Red Cross signed an agreement in Colombo Wednesday afternoon according to which the Jaffna passenger vessel " City of Trinco" will sail under the I.C.R.C. flag.
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More UNP politicians join SLFP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2000, 17:09 GMT]
More activists of the United National Party, including a parliamentarian are due to receive membership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), a major constituent of the ruling Peoples' Alliance, at a ceremony to be chaired by the President Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, SLFP sources said.
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SLAF jet crashes in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2000, 09:59 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force jet crashed during a training mission at Katunayaka air base, south of Colombo around 2 p.m. Sunday.
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Vavuniya HRC records 55 complaints

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 21:00 GMT]
Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Vavuniya received 55 complaints regarding arrests by the Sri Lanka Army and Police during July. The HRC has not been able to find the whereabouts of three of them. Thirty-three are detained by the security forces, and 19 have been released after being questioned, Mr.Sreetharan, the Chairman of the HRC in Vavuniya said today.
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UNP leader walks out of talks with govt.

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 10:37 GMT]
The leader of the Sri Lanka's main opposition party Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe walked out of talks between his party and the government on constitutional changes aimed at resolving the island's ethnic conflict Friday evening in protest against allegations in the state media that he has links with the Liberation Tigers. Mr.Wickremesinghe told the government delegation led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike that he will not take part in talks on the proposed constitutional changes until his name is cleared by the authorities, according to a spokesman of the United National Party.
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Ponnambalam case officer "partial"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2000, 16:29 GMT]
Lawyers representing the family of slain All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader, Mr.Kumar Ponnambalam has requested the Attorney General to replace the police officer conducting the investigations into the killing with one who would be "impartial", legal sources in Colombo said.
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Court releases tortured Batticaloa youth

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2000, 08:53 GMT]
The Batticaloa High Court Wednesday released two Tamil youth who had been tortured by the Sri Lankan security forces while in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The state counsel said that the Attorney General is withdrawing the cases against them and another youth as Senior Superintendent of Police, Bandula Kumara, the chief witness had died. The two youths had been hung by their toes and beaten with pipes, choked in bags filled with petrol and chilli fumes pulled over the head and by immersion in water according to medical reports submitted to the courts by the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Batticaloa and the Assistant Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo. The ear drums of one of the youth had burst and bled heavily due to the torture according to the medical reports.
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Foremost place to Buddhism guaranteed -SL govt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Government Wednesday said that there is no truth in newspaper reports that Buddhism has no place in its proposed new constitution. Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka MP, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs said that the government's proposals for constitutional change do not alter the "foremost place" given to Buddhism in Sri Lanka's constitution. Tamil political parties say that Article 9 of Sri Lanka's constitution that guarantees Buddhism the foremost place is a major obstacle in drawing up even a "minimally acceptable" scheme for regional autonomy.
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"US should support all options"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 06:40 GMT]
"US should make clear that we would support all options including secession to be discussed in the negotiating process," said Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the United States, in a letter addressed to Hon Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.
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Streets blocked by UNP protesters

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 17:49 GMT]
An estimated twenty-five-thousand people attended the mass protest campaign organised by the main opposition, United National Party (UNP) on Tuesday evening opposite Maradana railway station in Colombo.
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Unidentified men abduct youth

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 17:39 GMT]
Unidentified men in a white van abducted a Tamil youth at Old Moor Street in Colombo's business suburb of Pettah, Monday night around 8.30 said sources. The youth is a native of Nainatheevu, an island off Jaffna town.
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Thalaimannar SLN officer under investigation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 11:07 GMT]
An officer of the Sri Lanka Navy base in Thalaimannar, 337 kilometers from Colombo, on the northwestern coast of the island, accused of helping persons in Mannar to take commodities such as cement and spare parts for vehicles to the Vanni region controlled by the Liberation Tigers. The officer was taken in for questioning on information provided by a person arrested by the Navy for transporting these banned commodities by sea, Police investigators in Mannar said.
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Army gives armoured vehicles to STF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
The Special Task force (STF), the elite arm of the Sri Lankan security forces, was given ten armoured vehicles by the Ministry of Defence Wednesday to beef up its operational capabilities against the Liberation Tigers in the eastern province and the southwestern sector of the Vanni. The STF is a specially trained and equipped unit of commandos drawn from the Sri Lankan Police. The operational responsibilities of the STF have been increased due to the withdrawal of Sri Lankan army troops from the east and Mannar in recent months to stall the advance of the Tigers in the Jaffna peninsula.
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Fighting erupts in Nagar Kovil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 July 2000, 14:12 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted in Nagar Kovil on the southeastern coast of the Jaffna peninsula from the early hours of the morning Tuesday when the Sri Lanka army launched an operation into territory held by the Liberation Tigers. The SLA said that the operation is still in progress. Thirty seven SLA personnel, including three officers, were wounded in counter attacks by the Liberation Tigers according to the SLA.
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Sri Lankan inflation on the rise

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 19:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka's annual inflation rate increased by 0.3 percent in the June quarter, according to a report from the Department of Census and Statistics. This rate is based on the basis of 12 months' moving average and went up to 3.7 percent, from 3.4 percent in May 2000.
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Devolution proposals 'no basis for solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 09:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday the Sri Lankan government's devolution proposals were unacceptable as the basis of a solution to the Tamil national question as it "failed to address the national aspirations of the Tamil people" and it was intended to "promote the majoritarian [Sinhala] interests."
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Monks call for political opposition to devolution package

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 June 2000, 18:52 GMT]
A leading Buddhist monk, Venerable Maduluwe Sobitha Thera, appealed on Thursday to members of Parliament belonging to the two major Sinhala dominated political parties not to become traitors to their own community by supporting the devolution package prepared by their leaders.
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