HRC to meet SLA commander on Jaffna road 'accidents'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 16:08 GMT]
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka is to take up the matter of increased involvement of army vehicles in road accidents in Jaffna district in recent times with the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lionel Balagalle following a report from its regional office in Jaffna, HRC sources said.
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SLMM political advisor meets Jaffna LTTE leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 14:29 GMT]
The political advisor of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Sri Lanka Mr.Geir Sjøberg Tuesday held discussion with the Jaffna LTTE leaders at the office of the Jaffna LTTE political secretariat. Jaffna district political head of the LTTE Mr.C.Ilamparuthi, women political head Ms Kayalvilzi and education head Mr.Kavianban participated in the discussion, sources said.
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Sinhala nationalists' convoy to LTTE camp turned back

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 11:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police Tuesday peacefully turned back a large convoy of vehicles in which activists of Sihala Urumaya (SU), an ultra Sinhala nationalist party, were travelling towards Kurankupanchaan Kulam in Southern Trincomalee, vowing to enter the camp of the Liberation Tigers, which Colombo claims to be in territory under its control. More than a hundred Buddhist monks and about three hundred SU activists began the drive to the LTTE's camp from Kantalai around 1 p.m. Tuesday with the slogan "The arms are yours, the land is ours".
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$649m aid committed to Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 09:40 GMT]
"The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, the World Food Program, the European Commission, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States have committed a total of US$ 649 million to the North East to date. The donor community stands ready to support reconstruction and recovery in the conflict-affected areas," said a joint donor press release issued from the offices of Worldbank in Colombo today.
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SLA expels resettled Kanchirankudah families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 07:23 GMT]
Ten Tamil families who resettled in Kanchirankudah in the Amparai district have been forced out of their homes again by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), which is saying the families could not live in their homes as these are close to the SLAâs camps, sources in Amparai said.
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SLMM holds discussion on SU threat with SLA, Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 05:54 GMT]
A conference was held following a message to the SLMM by the Defense Ministry Secretary Mr. Austin Fernando that SLMM should take appropriate steps in consultation with army, police and civil administrative officials if the Sinhala nationalist party Sihala Urumaya (SU) continued its foot march towards Kurankupanchchan beyond Soorankal, sources said.


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Colombo urged to act on church attacks

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2003, 20:25 GMT]
The National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan peace group called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government Monday to investigate and prevent recent attacks on Christian churches. Sinhala nationalists and powerful sections of the Sri Lankan Buddhist clergy charge that Christian churches, particularly evangelical groups funded from the west, are engaged in an aggressive effort to convert Buddhists to Christianity by what they claim to be "unethical" and "unscrupulous" means.
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Criminals terrorise Udupiddy under SLA's aegis

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2003, 18:22 GMT]
Civil society groups, residents and school students from Udupiddy in Jaffna Monday complained to the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that Sri Lanka army is providing special protection to local criminals who are on a bloody rampage in the village. One of the criminals attacked and grievously wounded Mr. A. S. Sivagnanam, senior resident of Udupiddy, with an army bayonet Sunday at the Veerapthirar Temple.
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Molest try fails, soldiers threaten woman

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2003, 16:29 GMT]
A young woman who reported an attempt by two Sri Lanka army soldiers to molest her Sunday morning in Manalkaadu, a village on Jaffnaís southeastern coast, was threatened by colleagues of her attackers not to speak about the incident to anyone, her family said. Relatives told TamilNet the womanís husband had fought off the two soldiers while they were trying to snatch her infant and to drag her into the shrub jungle by the road.
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TRO hands over ten houses to Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 October 2003, 18:06 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization in Trincomalee district Sunday handed over ten newly constructed houses to ten internally displaced families now resettled in war ravaged Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village, about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town. TRO launched this housing project funded by the America's TRO last April, sources said.
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SLA, Police torture Jaffna resident hung by feet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 October 2003, 11:37 GMT]
"Soldiers stopped me at the Maambalam junction last night when I was going home, dragged me inside a building there, hung me upside down by my feet and brutally assaulted me until I fainted, said Mr. Balasingham Daiyaniharan, 21, a resident of Ariyalai, in his statement to the Jaffna magistrate, Mr. R. P Vicknarajah, at the Teaching Hospital in the northern town Sunday noon. Three civilians and two journalists attacked and injured by SLA soldiers and Police Saturday night have been admitted for treatment at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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SED bank branch opened in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2003, 17:53 GMT]
Socio Economic Development (SED) Bank, which has its headquarters in Killinochchi, opened its first branch in the east of the island, Sunday. The General Manager of the SED Bank Mr.S.Sriskandarajah, declared opened the branch in Kadatkaraichcenai village in Muttur east in Trincomalee district.
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SLMM political advisor meets Mannar LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 18:27 GMT]
The political advisor to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Mr. Gejir Sebeasd Deniy, met officials of the Liberation Tigers in Mannar Friday for discussions about the ground situation in the district during the 17 months of cease-fire between Colombo and the LTTE. Head of the LTTE political division in Mannar Mr. C Amithaab, told Mr. Deniy that there weren't any problems with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the district only during the first five months of the cease-fire.
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Jaffna SLA trains for crowd control

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 08:37 GMT]
Units of the Sri Lanka army’s 51-4 Brigade in Ariyalai East are training for crowd control on the outskirts of Jaffna town from this week, military sources in the northern town said Friday. “The training was initiated to prepare the army too for tackling any civil unrest here”, said a source. “In Jaffna’s present political climate it would be counter productive to deploy the army even to assist Police for managing restive crowds”, Mr. M. K Sivajilingam MP for Jaffna told TamilNet, reacting to the report.
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SLA commander dismisses reports of new Trinco LTTE camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 18:11 GMT]
Maj. Gen. Sunil Tennekoon, commander of the Sri Lanka army’s 22 Division, in a meeting with journalists Wednesday night, dismissed reports in the Colombo press that the Liberation Tigers pose a very serious threat to the Trincomalee port by strategically ‘encircling’ it with several new camps, sources said.
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Kinniya under police curfew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 16:50 GMT]
The Divisional Secretariat division of Kinniya in the Trincomalee district has been brought under dusk-to-dawn curfew with effect from Thursday evening till Friday morning to defuse tension between Muslims and Tamils at the Faizal Nagar area following a land dispute, police said.
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TNA briefs new US Ambassador in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 15:36 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday told the new US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mr. Jeff Lunstead, that the US government should have helped to take forward the peace process by lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, TNA sources said.
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Kurankupanchan Martyrs’ tombs built in 1996 - Thilak

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 00:01 GMT]
Mr.S.Thilak, the Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Wednesday afternoon showed to the visiting Colombo-based journalists the tombs of two LTTE martyrs, Lt.Lingan and Second Lt. Ganesh, who were buried in the Kurankupanchan camp area in 1990, sources said.
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SLA bus hits woman in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:29 GMT]
A bus used by the Sri Lanka Army to transport its soldiers knocked down a married woman, Ms. Ramkumar Jesuranee, 27, of Kachchai in Thenmaradchi division in the Jaffna district, Wednesday night around 7 p.m., and she is now in a critical condition, police said.
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SLA said baulking shortest route to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 18:43 GMT]
The Consortium of Humanitarian Organisations in Mannar Wednesday called upon the Sri Lankan government and military to reopen the coastal road connecting the northwestern district with Jaffna. “The road has to be reopened as soon as possible to address the dire marketing problems faced by farmers in the district,” said Mr. Peter Sinclair, the President of the Consortium.
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