UNP protest blocked

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2000, 18:16 GMT]
A group of about thirty United National Party MPs were blocked by the Sri Lankan Police from staging a protest this morning at Independent Square near down town Colombo against the promulgation of the draconian regulations under the Public Security Ordinance.
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Censorship seen heralding authoritarian rule

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 May 2000, 09:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's new censorship laws will lead to an authoritarian rule in the country, a press freedom organization said Friday. The Free Media Movement said the government was using Sri Lanka's ongoing conflict as a cover for its "repressive political project".
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Censorship on foreign media

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 May 2000, 17:27 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Government Thursday followed up the tough security measures it announced Wednesday night with renewed press censorship on the foreign media. Sri Lanka's local media have been subject to censorship since last year. However, Colombo-based foreign media had been exempted.
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SLA builds bulwark as Tigers advance

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 May 2000, 12:24 GMT]
The Operational headquarters of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that the Sri Lanka army was pushed out of Pallai, Pulopalai and Iththaavil by the Liberation Tigers yesterday in a press release issued Monday afternoon. The SLA, according to the release, was forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. Sources in Jaffna, meanwhile, said that the SLA is constructing a massive bulwark to stall the advancing Tigers.
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Eight Tamils arrested in city

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 May 2000, 07:13 GMT]
Eight Tamil youth, including two girls, were arrested in Colombo Saturday night. The boys and girls were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Police during a search conducted in several lodges in the suburb of Bambalapitiya.
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Ex-service personnel called up

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 15:53 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President today called up all retired and pre-maturely retired security forces personnel for active service in the war against the Liberation Tigers. The unprecedented call had to be made to meet the severe manpower shortages faced by the army as a consequence of a series of major reversals in the battle fields in the northern theatre SLA sources said.
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Chandrika, Ranil to discuss crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 14:05 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga invited the leader of the opposition Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe today for talks on the military crisis in the north. The talks are scheduled for May 3 at the President's official residence in Colombo.
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Convene Parliament now says UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 18:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition party today demanded that the government should immediately convene the Parliament to debate the war situation and the fall of the Elephant Pass base. The United National Party (UNP) said that if the government refused to do so it will convene the Parliament at 10 a.m. on May 3.
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SLA denies officer helped Tigers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 17:18 GMT]
The SLA today denied a headline story in the Daily Mirror, an English daily published in Colombo, which claimed that a high ranking military officer was being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police for allegedly supplying sensitive information to the Tigers during the Battle for the Elephant Pass base.
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Colonel arrested for selling army drugs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 16:22 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka army personnel including an officer were taken into custody by the military Police today for allegedly selling expensive drugs from the military hospital in Colombo to private parties. The officer, a Colonel at the army headquarters, was produced before the Colombo magistrate today by the Police.
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Threat to Jaffna and Palaly real - Ranil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2000, 13:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka's opposition leader Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe said today that the fall of the Elephant Pass -Iyakkachchi military base complex poses a real threat to Jaffna and Palaly, the peninsula's main military garrison.
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SLA admits loss of Iyakkachchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2000, 20:47 GMT]
Addressing the first press conference since the fall of the strategic Elephant Pass base this evening in Colombo, the commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lt. General Sri Lal Weerasooriya, said that his troops withdrew from Jaffna's gateway garrison on April 22 to an area northwest of Iyakkachchi and that this was done to safeguard Jaffna.
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Norwegian delegation to meet LTTE leader -paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2000, 19:02 GMT]
Following an invitation by the leadership of the Liberation Tigers, a Norwegian diplomatic team is to visit the Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission in the near future, reported Tamil Guardian, a London based newspaper, this week.
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Tripartite agreement necessary - Indian Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
The devolution of power in Sri Lanka should be done with the consensus of a tripartite agreement between the government, the United National Party and the Liberation Tigers and this is necessary for devolution of powers in Sri Lanka, said India's Foreign Minister Mr. Jaswant Singh.
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Forty Tamils arrested in Udappu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 14:33 GMT]
Forty Tamils were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police in Udappu in the Puttalam district, 120 kilometers north of Colombo today during a cordon and search operation in this costal village today. More than five hundred Police personnel from 25 Police stations in Sri Lanka's northwestern province were involved in the search operation.
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Bomb damages inter-city train

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2000, 18:35 GMT]
The engine compartment of a Colombo-Vavuniya Inter-city train was damaged when a bomb placed inside exploded at 10.30 pm today, said sources in Vavuniya.
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Special force to combat Tigers in capital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2000, 17:07 GMT]
A special Police unit has been formed to battle the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka's capital. Senior Police investigator Bandula Wickremasingha will be in charge of the unit Police sources in Colombo said.
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Eight SLA killed in Vavuniya attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2000, 07:56 GMT]
Six Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded when the reinforcements which were rushed to the Police sentry post at Arawantalawa that was attacked by the Liberation Tigers this morning were hit by a claymore mine this morning around 11.45 a.m.
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SLA seeks Special Forces recruits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 20:15 GMT]
The commando regiment of the Sri Lankan army which is part of the SLA's elite 53 division called for new recruits today. The call for new recruits comes amidst reports that a large number of the 53 division's commandos have been put out of action due to constant deployment in special operations against the Liberation Tigers. The US Special Forces trained brigades of the 53 division have taken the brunt of the LTTE's Unceasing Waves III offensive since 2, November 1999.
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25 arrested in search operation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2000, 18:02 GMT]
At least 25 Tamil youths and young Tamil women were arrested during a combined search operation by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and police in Keselwatte in down town Colombo, sources in Colombo said. The search began late in the night and continued till early hours of the morning today.
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