Wage controversy cripples Sri Lanka hospitals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 March 2004, 11:19 GMT]
All Sri Lanka government hospitals virtually dead for the last nine days in the island due to the strike by medical officers has been limping back to normalcy Saturday as the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) temporarily called off their trade union action Friday evening, health authorities said.


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Polling stations in SLA-controlled areas for voters in LTTE-held region

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 March 2004, 05:38 GMT]
According to decisions made at special meetings at the Secretariats in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, the polling stations for the voters in the Liberation Tigers-controlled areas are to be constructed in the Sri Lanka Army-controlled areas in clusters, sources said.
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Tamil unity is vital for struggle to succeed - Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 March 2004, 00:11 GMT]
"Tamil people are convinced and firm in their belief that only Tamil unity will propel us to succeed in our struggle. We can see their anguish and despair whenever they sense appearance of divisive tendencies within the Tamil community. We can be certain that Tamil people will reject all elements that can endanger Tamil unity," said Mr.Sivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) candidate in Jaffna, during a radio interview with International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Thursday.
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64,000 police officers to provide election security- IGP

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 March 2004, 14:09 GMT]
Close to sixty thousand police officers would be deployed to strengthen the security in all parts of Sri Lanka with the objective of ensuring free and fair elections, said the Inspector General of Police Mr.Indra de Silva addressing a press conference Friday.


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Japan to send Election Observers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 14:01 GMT]
The Goverenment of Japan has decided to dispatch an election observation mission to Sri Lanka for the general election on April 2nd. This the first time that Japan is sending such mission to Sri Lanka, according to political sources in Colombo.


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Will continue to espouse NorthEast unity - Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 04:21 GMT]
"I will carryout my campaign only on the basis of the LTTE's cardinal principles - find a political solution to the Tamil national problem based on the acceptance of the fundamental proposals regarding Tamil homeland consisting of North and East, Tamil Nation, Tamils’ right to self-government. If I am forced to deviate from these principles then I will not hesitate to withdraw my candidacy from the forthcoming elections," said Joseph Pararajasingham speaking to Canadian Tamil Radio (CTR).
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Polling stations in SLA side of checkpoints

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 03:18 GMT]
During a meeting with Government Agents (GAs) from Vanni electoral district and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commanders held in Vavuniya Wednesday evening it was agreed to locate polling stations in the SLA side of checkpoints at Omanthai, Madhu road and Uyilankulam, for residents of LTTE controlled areas in Vanni district to vote, sources said.


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Eastern poet decries regionalism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 16:20 GMT]
In a statement to Tamil media on the recent raising of regionalism in the East by renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Mr. Kasi Anandan, a well-known poet from the East, said that the more than 17,700 fighters from Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the liberation struggle did not do so for Jaffna or Batticaloa, but for Tamil Eelam. “I will never accept the division of Tamil Eelam as Jaffna and Batticaloa. The people of Tamil Eelam will live until their last breath for Tamil Eelam,” he said.


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Ammunition, grenades discovered in Omanthai well

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 11:54 GMT]
A demining official, Bala, attached to the Swiss Demining Federation (FSD), involved in demining in Vavuniya and Mannar, said Wednesday that deminers have discovered a cache of ammunition and grenades from a irrigation well located in a field behind the Omanthai Maha Vidiyalayam, sources said.
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Polling stations for voters in LTTE-held areas still in limbo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2004, 18:46 GMT]
The arrangements for opening and staffing polling stations in the Sri Lanka Army-controlled areas in the Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaithivu districts are complete, but no such arrangements have been made about opening voting booths for the voters in the Liberation Tigers-controlled areas, said the Returning Officer for the Vanni region, Mr. K. Ganesh
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Dissent within Karuna loyalists?

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2004, 09:58 GMT]
The website run from Batticaloa under the direction of renegade commander, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), which was disabled for several hours after posting a message that apologized to the viewers for carrying messages against LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan, has now become operational. TamilNet is unable to confirm whether it was the work of outside cracker.
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SLA soldier absconds after killing colleague

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2004, 02:08 GMT]
A.K.G.P.Vijitha Bandara (24), an Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier attached to the Jaffna based 512nd Brigade was shot to death by another soldier, Sumantha Kumara from the same camp during an altercation Saturday midnight, Jaffna daily Uthayan reported. Soldier Sumantha Kumara absconded after the incident and Jaffna police assisted by the SLA are searching surrounding areas to apprehend him, according to reports.


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SLA officer, soldier killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2004, 17:33 GMT]
An army officer and a trainee soldier were killed when a hand grenade accidentally exploded during a training session on Friday evening at the Boogoda Army camp in Anuradhapura, the Defence ministry said. Another officer was injured in the explosion.


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Karuna embezzled funds, feared disciplinary action before split - Karikalan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2004, 00:05 GMT]
Mr.Sivagnanam Karikalan, a senior leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from the East who was close to the renegade former Eastern commander of the LTTE, Mr. Karuna, in an interview with the Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (ATBC) Friday disclosed for the first time that the Batticaloa crisis was precipitated when LTTE leadership summoned Karuna to Vanni after discovering financial irregularities and receiving allegations of questionable conduct. Fearing disciplinary action Karuna defied Vanni command and took unilateral action to split, Karikalan said.
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LTTE ready to help facilitate voting - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2004, 00:10 GMT]
"We told the [Norwegian] delegation that we are agreeable to locating the voting booths in the no-man zone, inside our checkpoint area or in the checkpoint area of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and that we will provide our full support and required assistance to implement voting procedures, and supervise voting," said S.P.Thamilchelvan, leader of the LTTE's political wing, answering questions from the press following his meeting with the Norwegian delegation in Kilinochchi Thursday morning.
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SLA returns 11 houses in Maravanpulavu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2004, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) announced that it is returning eleven houses back to their owners in Maranvanpulavu area in Thenmaradchy, Jaffna, local media reported.
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Voters from LTTE controlled areas wont be checked - SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 13:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala said Tuesday that the military would not check people who come to vote at the 2 April general elections from the LTTE controlled Kilinochchi district. He told a group of academics and civil society leaders whom he met at the Sri Lanka Human Rights Office that if clustered polling stations for voters from Kilinochchi were to be set up inside the Sri Lanka army's entry point zone in Muhamalai in southern Jaffna, the military is ready to pull back its positions 500 metres away from the voting area.
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Thilak slams SLBC over Pathuman story

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 09:53 GMT]
The news that LTTE Trincomalee district military commander Colonel Pathuman has been killed in Vanni is a canard to create panic and confusion among Tamil people by some interested parties, LTTE Trincomalee district political head Mr.S.Thilak told TamilNet Tuesday afternoon. The State run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) in its noon news broadcast in all three media reported that Trincomalee LTTE military commander Colonel Pathuman had been killed in Vanni.
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SLAF soldier commits suicide in Palaly

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 03:40 GMT]
K.V.V.Srisena, a Sri Lanka AirForce soldier, stationed in Palaly Airforce Base in Jaffna district, committed suicide by shooting himself, according to media reports in Jaffna.
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Karuna feared expulsion, avoided direct contact - Ramesh

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2004, 21:04 GMT]
In an interview from Vanni to the UK-based International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) Radio, Col.Ramesh, the new Special Commander of the Liberation Tigers for Batticaloa-Ampara, said that Karuna took the unilateral decision to split on his own ignoring the advices of several senior commanders and administrateive heads.
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