Demo in Jaffna against wrongs in graduate jobs scheme

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 August 2004, 10:03 GMT]
Hundreds of unemployed graduates demonstrated in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat Monday demanding government jobs. A spokesman for the protestors told TamilNet that Jaffna has been neglected in the Sri Lankan government scheme to give jobs to more than thirty thousand graduates in the island. "There 3400 unemployed graduates in Jaffna. But Colombo has announced the names of only 513 of these for employment", he said.
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BBC's Harrison leaves

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 August 2004, 00:04 GMT]
Frances Harrison, BBC's Colombo correspondent for the past four years and who is leaving Sri Lanka to her new assignment in Tehran, pointed out in one of her last reports filed that she was troubled by the hardships the family of a murdered Jaffna journalist went through: "As I leave Sri Lanka I have on my mind a journalist called Nimalarajan Mylvaganam. He worked for the BBC in the northern city of Jaffna," she said, adding that Nimalarajan's family had become part of her life during the first eighteen months of her assignement in Sri Lanka.
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Death at noon creates crack in Sri Lanka's defences

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 August 2004, 02:31 GMT]
Mr. Kandaiah Yoharasa alias PLOTE Mohan was the most dreaded Tamil paramilitary operative that ever worked with the Sri Lankan armed forces in their war against the Liberation Tigers. His name once evoked terror among the people of Batticaloa. He was an invaluable if not indispensable part of Sri Lanka's intelligence and counter insurgency operations against the LTTE.
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Karuna associate remanded in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2004, 02:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa Friday arrested a youth who identified himself as an associate of renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna'. The SLA, which found a 9 mm pistol in the youth's possession, handed him over to the Eravur Police. Batticaloa magistrate remanded him until 13 August later on Friday.
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SLA accused of distributing porn in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2004, 17:12 GMT]
''Sri Lanka military leadership in Jaffna is engaged in weakening the Tamil liberation struggle by introducing obscene literature and blue films to students and youths to corrupt their minds,'' said Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.S.Gajendran addressing a meeting of the International Thamileelam Students Federation (ITSF) Thursday, sources in Jaffna said.
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Jaffna Police to serve summons on SLA officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 July 2004, 00:29 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate Mr.P.Subramaniam Thursday directed his Registrar to serve summons through Jaffna district police on Lt. Colonel Dumminda Kepptigollawa, the Jaffna area commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and another SLA commander who have been cited first, second and third respondents respectively in the Habeas Corpus applications filed on behalf of missing seven Tamil youths, legal sources said.


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RSF urges Norway to press for journalists' safety in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2004, 11:07 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders Thursday urged Norway to press Sri Lankan authorities to fight impunity with which journalists are attacked in the island, particularly on its east coast. ''Since the killing of a correspondent in Batticaloa region at the end of May, without any condemnation from a single minister, two other journalists have been forced to flee the area and take refuge in the capital'', RSF said.
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SLA commander ordered to appear in Jaffna courts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2004, 00:48 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate Mr.R.T.Viknarajah Wednesday instructed his Registrar to issue notice on the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to appear in court on September 7 when it was brought to the notice of the court that the accused military officials in three Habeas Corpus (HC) applications failed to attend inquiry without reasons, legal sources said.


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Norway says peace hopes at new low

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 18:02 GMT]
Hopes that the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers would soon restart peace talks plunged Wednesday after a top Norwegian envoy said there is “little reason for optimism” and warned of a resumption of the protracted ethnic conflict.
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Usan IDPs complain harassment by SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2004, 14:38 GMT]
Several displaced persons from Usan village in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district Tuesday complained to civil authorities that soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army are threatening them for organizing a picketing campaign demanding the return of their houses and other properties now under their occupation, civil group sources said.
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Usan villagers to picket against SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 18:12 GMT]
Villagers of Usan area in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district are to launch a picketing campaign from August 5 demanding the return of their houses and school grounds. Currently the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupy these houses and school playground since the SLA captured the peninsula in 1996.


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Not a principled apology- Elilan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 01:33 GMT]
"We regard Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge's public apology for the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils as a deceptive attempt, driven by political expediency rather than principles, to placate the Tamils," said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) speaking as the chief guest at a public meeting in Trincomalee Sunday evening held at the Welikada Martyrs Memorial Hall in Trincomalee to remember the 21st anniversary of Black July.
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LTTE releases audio CD in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 00:38 GMT]
“ At a time when forces against Tamil unity are conspiring to destroy the Tamil nationalist movement, we have to unite and awaken Tamil national consciousness,” said Mr. K.V. Balakumar, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, speaking at an event to mark the release of an audio CD by the LTTE in Vavuniya Saturday with a view to raising Tamil national consciousness, sources said.
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Tamil conference slams Indo-Lanka defence pact

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 13:11 GMT]
The World Tamils Confederation came out strongly Sunday against any move for a defence pact between India and Sri Lanka, cautioning that New Delhi was being lured into a "trap to use its army to crush" Tamils in the island.
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World Bank to avoid LTTE - paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 10:58 GMT]
The World Bank would not provide direct funding to the LTTE and would continue its stance that all funding would be channeled through the Sri Lankan government, the Sunday Times reported this week. The Bank was responding to concerns raised by Sinhala nationalists, the paper said.
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North East Tamils mourn ‘Black July’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 07:12 GMT]
Tamils in northeast province Sunday observed a day of mourning to mark the pogrom against Tamils by Sinhala extremists assisted by the then Sri Lanka Government twenty one years ago on 23rd July, 1983. Several Tamil and civil group organizations in Jaffna called for people to close down shops and conduct prayers. More than thousand innocent Tamils in the southern part of the country, majority of them in Colombo were killed, many burnt alive or hacked to death, in daylight in the presence of State security forces during the ‘Black July’.
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Karuna meets with Sri Lankan ministers, US officials- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 00:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s tourism minister and brother of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, escorted the renegade LTTE commander, Karuna, to Singapore to address US officials on combating terrorism, The Sunday Leader reported this week, quoting government sources. Another government minister and a close confidante of President Kumaratunga, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, is to meet with Karuna, the paper also said.
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SLA turns down request to handback homes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2004, 09:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka army Saturday turned down a request by displaced residents of Eluthumadduval North in Jaffna to reclaim their homes occupied by troops since 2000. The area was taken over by the SLA after the fall of the Elephant Pass base in April that year.
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LTTE leader Lt Sellakili remembered

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2004, 14:20 GMT]
21st death anniversary of senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Lt. Sellakili was observed Friday in Jaffna, sources said. Lt Sellakili led the guerilla attack on a group of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on 23rd July 1983 at Thirunelvely in Jaffna town. 13 SLA soldiers were killed in the attack.
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EPDP protests against Norway

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2004, 13:27 GMT]
More than a hundred persons demonstrated in front of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo Friday. The demo was organised by the EPDP, a close ally of Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga, to protest against the killing of one of its cadres in Akkaraipattu on the island's Southeastern coast Wednesday. The protestors brought the body of the dead cadre in a coffin.
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