More crimes committed in Jaffna -SSP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2003, 20:34 GMT]
Jaffna district Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mr. Harold Anthony said at a press conference held Tuesday at his office that crime in the peninsula is on the increase and a special police team has been assigned to arrest the trend. Officers in charge of all police stations in the Jaffna district participated at the press conference, sources said.
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Valikamam north IDPs picket demanding resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2003, 14:24 GMT]
Hundreds of internally displaced families of Valikamam north Tuesday held a two hour picketing campaign in front of the Jaffna district secretariat, demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their lands occupied by the Sri Lanka Army.
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Jaffna Protesters demand permission to resettle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2003, 11:08 GMT]
Valikamam North residents should jointly support and participate in the protest to be held today in front of Jaffna secretariat demanding permission to resettle in their homes that lie within the High Security Zone (HSZ) demarcated by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said Maavai Senathirajah, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in an appeal to residents in Jaffna, local press reports said.


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Paramilitary operative killed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 09:43 GMT]
A member of Razeek Group, a paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa was shot and mortally wounded by unidentified an unidentified gunman in a suburb of the eastern town Monday around 1 p.m. Police sources said. The Razeek Group operative was at a hairdresser’s saloon in Puthur, a high security zone suburb of Batticaloa when he was shot at, according to them.
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Sri Lanka hit by worst floods in fifty years

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 00:39 GMT]
At least one hundred thousand families were rendered homeless and about one hundred and fifty people died in flood and earthslip following continuous torrential rain now the country is experiencing. Five districts in the down south of the island Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Hambantota and Matara have been badly affected by the floods, government sources said Sunday.


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SLA bike patrols horrify Vadamaradchy residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 00:28 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has resumed its ' field bike group ' patrolling in several parts of the Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district causing fear among Tamil people. The field bike group patrolling of the SLA was stopped with the signing of the ceasefire agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), civil sources said.


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Mallakam residents picket against new SLA camps

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2003, 12:18 GMT]
Hundreds of residents of Mallakam area, north of Jaffna district Sunday held a two hour picketing campaign from 9 to 11in the morning protesting against the establishment of two new camps of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), one in the Mallakam court complex and the other in the abandoned railway station building. However, the construction work on the new camps is continuing, sources said.
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Protest against closure of schools in HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2003, 03:23 GMT]
Students and parents of six schools located in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) demarcated High Security Zone (HSZ) in the Thenmaradchy in Jaffna peninsula are planning to protest against the closure of their schools, press reports in Jaffna said.


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Vesak Massacre remembered in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2003, 18:19 GMT]
In Aayiththiyamalai, a village in the district’s interior, 16 kilometres west of the eastern town, a special service was held Saturday at the local church for ten orphans who were massacred by Sri Lanka army soldiers and Policemen during the Vesak festival in Batticaloa town three years ago on 17 May. Sri Lankan armed forces, however, celebrated Vesak, the annual Buddhist light festival as usual in Batticaloa this week.
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LTTE, SLA hold discussions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2003, 17:10 GMT]
A three-hour discussion was held at the office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna Saturday afternoon between the representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the presence of the head of SMM Jaffna, sources said.


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LTTE office escapes damage as grenade fails to explode

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2003, 13:14 GMT]
A grenade was thrown at the main entrance to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administrative office in Thamaraikerni in Batticaloa district at 2.10pm Saturday. The 15 year old, J.R type grenade, generally used by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), failed to explode and no one was injured, security sources said.


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Sri Lanka's govt. abandons Trinco coal power plant project

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2003, 12:39 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) Government has abandoned the proposal to construct a thermal coal power plant in Trincomalee following strong protests by environmentalists and the people of Trincomalee. The 300 megawatt plant is now planned for construction in Hambantota, deep south of the island, power and energy ministry sources said.


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Work resumes at port as SLA withdraws trawler restriction

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2003, 16:40 GMT]
Unloading work in the Point Pedro harbour in the Jaffna district returned to normalcy Friday evening when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) temporarily withdrew its restriction following a boycott campaign launched by the workers, sources said.


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Colombo launches stopgap measure in north

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2003, 12:34 GMT]
A military officer appointed by Colombo to assess the number of houses and properties occupied by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) in Jaffna began work Friday, according to SLA sources. The officer, Lt. Col. M. G. Ratnayake, who was appointed to the position Wednesday by Colombo, will receive applications from civilians in Jaffna whose homes and lands are still occupied by the military, the sources said. The stopgap measure to get the stalled peace talks back on track by Colombo got lukewarm reception in the northern town.
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Peace mission brings Gujarati cyclist to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2003, 01:52 GMT]
S. Kumar Soni (30), an Indian citizen from Gujarat, currently on a world cycle tour promoting peace, arrived in Batticaloa today, sources in Batticaloa said.


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Pall of boat massacre memory hangs over islands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 May 2003, 13:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala pilgrims now freely visit the Buddhist shrine in the island of Nainathivu, off Jaffna, after almost two decades. But the pall of Sri Lanka Navy presence continues to cast a shadow on Tamils who are still subjected to checks and regulations. Eighteen years ago, on 15 May, thirty eight Tamil passengers, including a two year old child, travelling in boat called ‘Kumudhini’ from the island of Delft to the Kurikkatuvan Jetty on the island of Punguduthivu were hacked to death at sea by armed persons suspected to be Sri Lanka Navy personnel.
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Peace snag said rooted in Sri Lanka's constitution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 May 2003, 00:02 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Mr. Jan Peterson accompanied by his deputy Mr. Vidar Helgessen Wednesday morning arrived in Colombo to hold crucial talks with the leaders of the government and LTTE to in a bid to restart Sri Lanka’s stalled peace talks. Japan and Norway are keen that the LTTE take part in crucial aid conference next month in Tokyo. The Tigers, however, say Colombo should first establish legally operable bodies and procedures to ensure a direct say for Tamils over the utilization of funds pledged by donors for reconstructing the war torn northeast.
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HDU sounds alarm on removal of ‘safety fences’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 May 2003, 10:01 GMT]
Humanitarian De-mining Unit (HDU) officials in Kilinochchi said Wednesday that an NGO operating in the Vanni had created a dangerous precedent when it recently removed fences demarcating areas infested with mines and unexploded ordnance in Sannaar, on the northern coastal sector of the Mannar district. “The NGO had apparently removed the demarcating fences to show that the Sannar area is safe for rehabilitation work”, the HDU officials said. The HDU is an arm of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).
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SLA's night trawler ban provokes protests in Pt.Pedro

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2003, 17:02 GMT]
Unloading of cargo from merchant vessels in Point Pedro harbour came to a standstill on Tuesday due to the boycott by the owners of trawlers. The owners have launched the boycott protesting against the order by the 524 Brigade commander of the Sri Lanka Army that trawlers will not be allowed to anchor in the jetty during nights, sources said.


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Kumaratunge acted contrary to constitution - Peiris

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2003, 13:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s United National Front government Tuesday said the taking over of the Development Lottery Board that comes under a minister in the UNF cabinet by President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge is contrary to the constitution of Sri Lanka.
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