Sinhalese reporters aid war effort

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The predominantly Sinhalese Sri Lankan government is manipulating information about the war in the Tamil homelands by banning reporters from the area and issuing false reports about events occurring there. The government is assisted by the fact that most agency reporters are Colombo based, Sinhalese and on its side.
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Mass arrests of Tamils increase in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
As the Sri Lankan offensive in the Vanni stumbles, Tamil people are being arrested in large numbers in Colombo. This long standing practice of mass arrest has been condemned by human rights organisations, but is part of the Sri Lankan government's strategy of harassing the Tamil populace into withdrawing their support for a separate Tamil state and for the Tamil Tigers.
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Oil tank contracts to be awarded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is to award contracts to rebuild the oil tanks attacked and destroyed in October 1995. The contracts are worth over 40 million US dollars, and the government is considering tenders for the work scheduled to begin in September. However, the government has had to borrow 24 million US dollars, and raise the rest itself.
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Colombo journalists challenge government claims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The LTTE said in a statement last week that during their assault on the Sri Lankan army base at Thandikulum, they had occupied the camp, killed hundreds of soldiers and destroyed vast quantities of equipment. This was promptly denied by the Sri Lankan government. However, a Colombo based newspaper with close ties to the military has revealed that the LTTE claim is not false.
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Police may interfere with rape and murder investigation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Murugesupillai Koneswary, a Tamil mother of four children, was raped and murdered in her home by Sinhalese policemen on the May 17th, according to her neighbours. Amnesty International is concerned that the police may interfere with the investigation, reluctantly launched after local and international protests.
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Pakistan joins other foreigners in Sri Lanka's war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil Tigers say they have independent confirmation that Pakistani officers are involved in planning the current Sri Lankan army offensive in the Vanni. The Pakistanis join several other foreign elements involved in Sri Lanka's war in the Tamil homelands.
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A Great Embarrassment for the Sri Lankan Military

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A Sri Lankan member of parliament, in a recent report, says that the food stock discovered by the military in the cooperative stores in the town of Nedunkerni in fact belonged to the cooperative stores and not to the LTTE as the Sri Lankan military had earlier claimed. The report states that the food was stored there for distribution to the displaced people and requests the military to the return the food to the cooperative stores.
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Political and military debacles: The Sri Lankan story

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
French essayist and Philosopher Paul Valery when writing about the First World war said 'History justifies anything, and teaches absolutely nothing: it contains and gives examples of everything.' This has been the story of Sri Lanka for the past few days.
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Casualties mount as LTTE maintain control of key town

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
As the battle for control of a key town in the northern Vanni mainland continued, the casualties are rising. Reports from Thandikulam say Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was still in control of some parts of Nochimoddai and the Sri Lankan military was massing troops for a counter offensive.
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LTTE blasts bridge, ammunition dumps and shoots down Helicopter Gunship

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Latest reports coming from Thandikulam in the northern Vanni mainland, 260 kilometres north of Colombo, suggest that hundreds of soldiers killed and many more wounded. According to Colombo sources the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has destroyed at least 5 battle tanks and two ammunition dumps that were located at Thandikulam and Samayapuram five kilometres north of the government held town of Vavuniya.
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