SLA stops Elilan at checkpoint from visiting Pulmoddai

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2004, 10:14 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the east port town that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stationed at the north of the district had prevented him from going to Pulmoddai village to carryout political work on Thursday, sources said.


Full story >>

New Sri Lanka Army Commander assumes duties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2004, 14:06 GMT]
Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda who took his duties as the 17th Army Commander today (Thursday) admitted at a press conference that the statement by the Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera that Army personnel were involved in Karuna’s issue, was “an embarrassment to the Army”.


Full story >>

Kumaratunga says talks should restart without delay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 2004, 12:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Thursday told Norwegian facilitators of the the island’s peace process that peace talks between her government and the Liberation Tigers should be resumed without further delay. She denied accusations by the Liberation Tigers that the SLA was engaged in activities in support of renegade commander Karuna in the eastern province.
Full story >>

The cease-fire’s weakest link: Tamil paramilitaries

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 17:50 GMT]
When Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim flew into Sri Lanka this week, he was well aware that the problems that have bedeviled his government’s peace process thus far have now been eclipsed by new and far more severe one: a weak link in the formal ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers has finally snapped.
Full story >>

Thamilchelvan conveys LTTE’s stand on CFA, talks to Solheim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 08:37 GMT]
“If the Sri Lankan President and government are serious about the cease-fire agreement and peace talks they should stop sheltering Karuna and backing the murder and mayhem in which some of his henchmen are indulging Batticaloa. This is what we told the Norwegian facilitators today”, said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s political division, speaking to the press after meeting Norway’s special peace envoy Mr. Erik Solheim Wednesday in Kilinochchi.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka FCA holds exhibition of war and peace photos

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 06:35 GMT]
The Foreign Correspondents’ Association (FCA) of Sri Lanka will hold an exhibition of photographs by five photojournalists starting Wednesday at the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo. “The photos are of war and peace in the island, taken over the many years of conflict as well as in the past two-and-a-half years since the Tigers and Colombo signed a cease-fire”, the FCA said. The five photojournalists are members of the FCA.
Full story >>

Seven Karuna-cadres apprehended

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 02:05 GMT]
Batticaloa-Amparai district secretariat of the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) said today that they have arrested seven cadres belonging to renegade Karuna group who were working with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence, media sources said.
Full story >>

Jaffna court fixes inquiry into HC applications

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2004, 15:06 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Judge Mr.K.P.S.Varatharajah fixed the inquiry for July 28 into the six Habeas Corpus (HC) applications submitted by parents and relatives of 45 persons who are reported disappeared after the arrest by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during the year 1996, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Tamil journalists condemn slander

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2004, 14:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) and the East Lanka Journalists’ Association (ELJA) Tuesday condemned what they described as “attempts in a section of the Colombo to discredit independent Tamil journalists”. Referring to a report in the Tuesday edition of ‘The Island’, an English language daily published from Colombo, a spokesman for the ELJA said, “the paper refers to us as ‘supporters of LTTE leader Pirapaharan’. This is a dangerously mischievous report aimed at discrediting us and thereby justify the intimidation and murder of eastern journalists”.
Full story >>

‘SLA intelligence behind Batticaloa murders, confusion’ - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2004, 13:08 GMT]
“We have very reliable evidence now that the Sri Lanka army is using Karuna as a pretext to murder and to create mayhem in Batticaloa. We have indubitable proof that he is working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence. The Liberation Tigers will not recommence meetings with the Sri Lanka army while the Sri Lankan government and its military continue to harbour Karuna and continue to instigate murder and confusion in Batticaloa. We made this clear to the head of the monitoring mission today”, said Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan speaking to the press Monday in Kilinochchi.
Full story >>

SLA role in renegade affair said scuttling peace effort

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 18:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will take up the question of the Sri Lanka army backing renegade commander ‘Karuna’ with the Norwegian facilitators when they meet them next, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said Saturday. “The Sri Lankan government should come clean on this matter if it wants to preserve the bona fide on which the peace talks are based," they said.
Full story >>

Maj. Gen. Kottegoda SLA's new commander

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 18:17 GMT]
Major General Shantha Kottegoda will be appointed as the Sri Lanka army’s 17th commander from 1 July 2004. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the commander in chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces, has approved his appointment despite speculation that she might extend the present SLA commander’s term for six months. Maj. Gen. Kottegoda, like his predecessor, is a senior intelligence officer. He was appointed to a special post as Overall Operations Commander (OOC) for the east after the LTTE crushed a renegade’s short-lived rebellion in the region.
Full story >>

Batticaloa turns nightmare for local journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 10:28 GMT]
A journalist in Batticaloa went into hiding Friday, fearing for his life after persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence threatened him with death, family members told TamilNet. The journalist, Mr. Thanthiyan Vedanayagam, was working as the Batticaloa correspondent for the independent Tamil daily ‘Thinakkural’. Two journalists fled the eastern town earlier this month after they too were threatened with death by persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence.
Full story >>

SL Government admits SLA complicity in Karuna affair

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2004, 10:39 GMT]
Contradicting Defense Secretary Cyril Herath who denied Monday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) gave shelter to renegade commander Muralitharan (alias Karuna), Information Minister of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Mangala Samaraweera, admitted to the press today that the SLA helped Karuna "escape and wage a covert war of attrition against the Tamil Tigers" according to a BBC report from Colombo today.
Full story >>

NorthEast prepares to celebrate Black Tigers Day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2004, 00:41 GMT]
Celebrations marking the Black Tigers day are to be held in different parts of NorthEast on 5 July, event organizers said. Key junctions and roads leading to celebration venues will be decorated and Sporting events, Poetry, Story writing competitions, and welfare activities to assist students in poor neighrborhoods will be held during the day, according to the organizers.


Full story >>

Karuna stayed with SLA in Colombo - Nilavini

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2004, 16:42 GMT]
A senior associate of the renegade LTTE commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna) said Monday that she and other associates of Karuna stayed in a house provided and protected by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in a suburb of Colombo. Ms. Nilavini (Charlie), formerly the commander of the LTTE womens' fighting formations in the Batticaloa-Amparai district who rejoined the tigers on Friday 18 June spoke to the press Monday about the renegade LTTE commander's activities with the SLA since he fled Batticaloa on 11 April.
Full story >>

Battle lines drawn to prove parliamentary majority

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2004, 14:49 GMT]
Opposition parliamentarians in the Sri Lanka's thirteenth parliament Monday handed over a memorandum to the Speaker Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara to safeguard the parliamentary democracy. 114 parliamentarians from the United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) signed the memorandum, parliamentary sources said.


Full story >>

World Refugee Day held in Trincomalee welfare centre

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2004, 00:46 GMT]
The World Refugee Day (WRD) was celebrated in Trincomalee Sunday morning in the welfare centre at Allesgarden, about three km off north of east port town where about 1665 persons of 437 displaced families live since 1993. Trincomalee district head of the UNHCR Ms Brita Helleland made the introductory speech at the event. This year theme of the WRD is "A place to call home: rebuilding lives in safety and dignity," UNHCR sources said.


Full story >>

SL propaganda aims to create fear psychosis in East- Ramesh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 15:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Special Commander to Batticaloa-Amparai district, Col.Ramesh denied recent reports in Sri Lanka Government media on fighting in Thoppigala jungles in Batticaloa district, and dismissed the reports as propaganda to create a fear psychosis in the minds of eastern Tamils, during an interview with United Kingdom based Vectone Broadcasting network, Sunday.


Full story >>

Southern intellectuals, artists participate in book release

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 12:54 GMT]
"A letter from Vanni (Vanniye sita liyuma)" and "Voice from the heart of the Silent (Handak Nathiyunge Hathawatha Sakshiye Handa)," two books describing the political and social liberation feelings of the tamil community were launched ceremonially today in Vavuniya with T.Gnanavel, Vavuniya district political head of the LTTE presiding the function at Muthiah Hall, sources in the Northern town said.
Full story >>