SLA soldiers remanded for firing at Jaffna civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 16:30 GMT]
The Jaffna additional Magistrate, Ms Srinithi Nandasekaran, Wednesday ordered remand till December 23 for three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army when they were produced by the Jaffna Police in connection with the shooting incident that had taken place in Jaffna bus stand Tuesday evening, causing injuries to civilians, legal sources said.
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Parents of Jaffna missing protest against HRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 08:33 GMT]
The Jaffna Missing Persons Association and Mothers’ Front held a protest in front of the office of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) in the northern town Wednesday. The protesting parents of the 234 young Jaffna men and women who went missing after they were arrested by the Sri Lanka army in 1996 and 97 accused the HRC of sidelining their issue in its recent work on the human rights situation in the northern province.
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Departing Vanni SLA commander commends LTTE’s cooperation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 06:01 GMT]
“During the last 13 months of my service in Vavuniya, the Sri Lanka Police and the LTTE’s political cadres, who are working in the SLA-controlled areas, cooperated with me. The problems that arose with respect to the LTTE’s peace-related political activities and other issues were solved with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, and we were able to maintain peace and order in Vavuniya,” said Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala, the outgoing Vanni commander of the Sri Lanka Army, during a Police farewell given to him in Vavuniya Monday, sources said.
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Jaffna undergrads condemn army firing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 16:45 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students' Consortium Tuesday in a press release condemned the action of the Sri Lanka Army for having opened fire at a newspaper seller at the Jaffna bus stand and causing injury to a private bus conductor. The JUSC further blamed the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) for aiding and abetting the army in this regard.
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Thenmaradchchi civilians assault EPDP members

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 16:14 GMT]
Members of the public Tuesday evening assaulted a group of members of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which works closely with the Sri Lanka Army, when they were engaged in distributing handbills with the assistance of soldiers of the SLA at the common market in Kodikamam in the Thenmaradchchi division of the Jaffna district. The EPDP cadres later complained to the SLA officials that some persons had assaulted them, police said.
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TNA, LTTE urge end to southern instability

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 15:37 GMT]
The political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, responding to a question at the press briefing he held Tuesday afternoon in Kilinochchi, said that if the current political crisis in the South were to continue indefinitely, it would seriously impact the peace process and the LTTE would carefully study its options, the Voice of Tigers radio said Tuesday.
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SLA sentry fires on paper seller, injures commuter

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 12:50 GMT]
A commuter in a bus was seriously wounded when a Sri Lanka army soldier opened fire on a paper seller in Jaffna town Tuesday around 5.45 pm. Police and military dispersed a group of angry civilians that surrounded the sentry point near the town’s main bus station in which the soldier was on duty. The shooting followed an argument between a person who was selling 'Eelanatham' newspaper near the sentry point and the soldier who had ordered the paper seller to leave place, commuters who witnessed the firing said.
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Manalkadu villagers say SLA laid new mines

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 04:49 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army Monday visited Manalkadu, a village on the southeastern coast of Jaffna district, and asked the residents to make statements to the effect that SLA did not lay mines in their areas. However, several residents of area Tuesday reiterated that they had seen army soldiers laying new mines and ordered them not to enter area where mines had been laid, sources said.
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Nordic Tamil healthcare professionals confer to help North East

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2003, 22:35 GMT]
Nordic Tamil Medical Professionals came together for a conference to discuss the health issues facing the Tamil community in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The conference was held on 6th of December. Speakers were Doctors and Dentists from Norway and the United Kingdom who had returned to the North and East of Sri Lanka during 2003 to undertake a variety of health projects. The conference was organised by the Norwegian Tamils Health Organisation (NTHO).
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Displaced Kinniya Tamils want permanent solution

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2003, 15:12 GMT]
Hundreds of displaced Tamil families from Kadaloor and Upparu in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district, who have been staying as refugees at the Eechantivu Vipulananda Tamil Vidiyalayam, Sunday complained to the Trincomalee district parliamentarians, Messrs R.Sampanthan and K.Thurairetnasingham, that they should find a permanent solution to their problems as they had been displaced due to threat and violence thrice since 1990.
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Protesting minister blocks military vehicles in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2003, 09:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s minister for Hindu Affairs, Mr. T. Maheswaran, blocked military vehicles on Palaly Road, one of the main traffic arteries of Jaffna, Monday in protest against the Sri Lanka army for refusing to let him visit Keerimalai, a temple village inside the peninsula’s garrisoned northwest sector, on Sunday. The Minister and his supporters blocked Sri Lankan armed forces vehicles plying the Palaly Road with a bus from 8 a.m. to noon.
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Youth Forum to explain ISGA proposals

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2003, 02:35 GMT]
“The Interim Self Governing Authority proposal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has several good aspects, but some people who have only a cursory glance at the proposal are conducting a malicious campaign against it. It is our duty to explain the proposals to the youths of this country,” said Mr. Wimal Dharmasiri, the deputy commissioner of the National Youth Service Forum (NYSF), speaking at a conference in Batticaloa Sunday, sources said.
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SLA lays new minefield near Jaffna village

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2003, 14:29 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army is planting landmines in the vicinity of Manalkaadu, a village on the southeastern coast of Jaffna, residents told TamilNet Sunday. Three cattle from the village were killed in newly laid minefield on Saturday and another was blown up Sunday morning, according to them.
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Balasingham: LTTE seeks ‘new, creative’ relationship with India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2003, 10:09 GMT]
Asserting the importance of the role of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in bringing about peace and stability to Sri Lanka, the movement’s theoretician, Mr Anton Balasingham, Saturday urged the Indian government to rethink and re-orientate its approach towards the organisation. Speaking at the Remembrance Day event in London, Mr Balasingham said the LTTE welcomed the international community’s efforts towards promoting peace in Sri Lanka, but would not accept the terms of a political solution being dictated to the Tamil people.
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Lt.Col.Jeevan's second anniversary commemorated

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2003, 13:05 GMT]
The second anniversary of the death of Lt.Col.Jeevan and seven Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters who were killed during a battle with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) near Batticaloa-Colombo road in Vakneri on 6 December 2001 was celebrated in three locations in LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district Saturday.
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Asylum seeker says EPDP recruiting in India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2003, 07:22 GMT]
The EPDP cadre who sought asylum from the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochchi, Mr. Iyampillai Yogarajah, 33, told mediapersons in Kilinochchi Saturday that the paramilitary group recruited him from a refugee camp in India eight months ago. He said the EPDP is recruiting many Tamil youth like him from refugee camps in India promising good pay and perks. The paramilitary group works closely with the Sri Lankan armed forces in psychological operations, intelligence and counter insurgency.
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SLA soldier surrenders to LTTE in Muhamalai

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 16:33 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier has surrendered to the LTTE at their checkpoint at Muhamalai in the North Thursday, LTTE peace secretariat sources said, adding that the soldier has been handed over to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi.
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SLA permits work on Pt. Pedro landing points

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 13:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army gave permission on Friday to deepen fisheries landing points on the coast of three villages close to Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Soldiers from the SLA’s 52-4 Brigade worked with local fishermen Friday to clear the coral rock clogged micro breakwaters. “We do not have a war to fight now. Therefore would like to engage in development activities such as this”, Col. K. S Ratnayake, the commander of the brigade told TamilNet.
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'More aid if Colombo bans landmines’ - UN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 19:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka would get more funds for clearing mines in the northeast if it accedes to the Ottawa Convention banning the use of landmines said Mr. Ted Chaiban, the head of the UNICEF in Sri Lanka, in a brief presentation on behalf of the UN at the launch of ‘Mine Action Media Campaign’ at the Prime Minister’s office in Colombo Thursday. Sri Lanka is one of the 44 countries that have not signed the Ottawa Convention.
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Army deserter remanded for selling weapons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 15:10 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate, Mr.P.Subramaniam, Thursday ordered remand for an army deserter till December 18 when the Kodikamam Police produced him in court on a charge that the suspect had sold a T56 rifle and live rounds to four Tamil civilians before decamping from Jaffna district, legal sources said.
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