High Court takes up Mylanthanai massacre case

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 September 2002, 14:09 GMT]
Thirty Tamil witnesses including thirteen women from Batticaloa were present in the Colombo High Court Monday to give evidence when the Mylanthanai massacre case was taken up for inquiry before a Sinhala speaking Jury. The HC Judge Mr.S.Sriskandarajah fixed October 2, Wednesday, the date to start the inquiry.
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SLA soldiers assault Tamil civilian

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2002, 17:57 GMT]
A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers Saturday afternoon severely assaulted a Tamil youth who was returning from Koddady in the high security zone in Point Pedro town after seeing his resettled relatives, said a complaint submitted to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna district. Twenty five year old S.Ravindran alias Kannan has been warded in the Valvettithurai government hospital with serious head injures, medical sources said.


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LTTE, GOSL exchange detainees of war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2002, 15:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Saturday that President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government was responsible for delaying the release of the last batch of Sri Lankan army and Navy personnel in their custody by not acting on the matter with "prudent and humanitarian consideration." The LTTE and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government exchanged prisoners of war as part of the peace building process to end the island's ethnic conflict Saturday in Omanthai, on the southern border of the Vanni region.
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ULF supports autonomous region demand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 September 2002, 13:15 GMT]
"The division of the country is inevitable if the majority Sinhalese fail to accept the concept of an autonomous region for Tamils," said the President of the United Left Front (ULF) Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaratne in an interview with the state run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) Saturday.


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Disabled Tigers return overland to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2002, 09:26 GMT]
Seven wounded and disabled Liberation Tigers recuperating at a rehabilitation centre in Mullaitivu Wednesday travelled through Sri Lanka Army controlled territory to meet relatives in Batticaloa, Tamil press reports said Friday.
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LTTE protests Jaffna cadres' harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 September 2002, 08:11 GMT]
Political activists of the Liberation Tigers working in the islands off the Jaffna peninsula under the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lanka government say they are being harassed by Navy personnel in the region, Tamil press reports said.
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Lt.Col Thileepan death anniversary concludes in NE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 September 2002, 20:10 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have begun peace negotiations with the United National Front government sincerely and with confidence that we can achieve full autonomy based on Tamil nationality, Tamil homeland and the right of self determination" said the Head of the LTTE's Judiciary Mr. Pararajasingham addressing the concluding ceremony of the week long observance in honour of the Tiger martyr Lt.Colonel Thileepan in Poonthottam, Vavuniya Thursday morning.
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SLA soldiers in LTTE security zone arrested

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 September 2002, 11:47 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Wednesday morning took seven soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army into custody when they entered a security zone between two LTTE camps at Kumburupiddy, 22 km north of Trincomalee town, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission sources said. “All steps are being taken to release the soldiers in view of the prevailing goodwill between both sides,” an LTTE official in Kilinochchi said.
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SL Minister slates island military

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 19:26 GMT]
“The Sri Lanka army is treating the people of Mandatheevu like slaves,” charged Mr. T. Maheswaran, Sri Lanka’s minister for Hindu Affairs who visited the island south of Jaffna town Wednesday. He said that the SLA has blocked more than three hundred IDPs who came back to resettle in the island from reclaiming their homes and lands.
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SLN blocks Delft islanders at sea

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 19:11 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy stopped civilians travelling in seven boats from the island of delft in Jaffna to the island of Eluvaitheevu off Jaffna Wednesday afternoon around 4 p.m. The civilians were on their way to attend the remembrance day celebrations of Lt.Col Thileepan who fasted unto death in September 1987. The SLN attempted to board the boats and tried to force the civilians to return back to Delft, press sources in Jaffna said.
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Navy intransigence, mines plague Muslim resettlers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 14:48 GMT]
(Feature) “Muslims are still unable to resettle in their villages even after six months of a stable ceasefire because of Sri Lanka Navy’s intransigence and land mines,” said Mr. M. M Saburudeen, the representative of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in the Mannar Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and Chairman of the Mannar Citizen’s Committee. “The premises of the Mosques in Talaimannar Pier and Konar Pannai are full of SLN mines. How can Muslims resettle in a place if they cannot pray in the mosque there for fear of the mines?” he asked.
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SLA dismisses A9 reports

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 11:40 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Wednesday dismissed reports in sections of the Tamil press that the A9 would be open 24 hours on all days of the week for public traffic. Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence officials said that they are working on having the road open round the clock on all days of the week. The Liberation Tigers say that limits on the traffic flow through the A9 should be removed.
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SLA escorts LTTE convoy to Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2002, 23:34 GMT]
A large number of Liberation Tigers from Batticaloa-Ampara district travelled to the Vanni region by road Tuesday, escorted by Sri Lankan troops. Sources said 285 LTTE members made the journey.
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New SL Navy base violates ceasefire - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2002, 11:42 GMT]
The political wing leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Mr.S.P.Thamilselvan said Tuesday that the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) is building a new camp on the island of Delft off Jaffna in violation of the LTTE's Ceasefire Agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka. He urged the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to take immediate action on the matter.
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Karainagar resettlers barred after dark by SL Navy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2002, 03:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has barred refugee families that recently resettled in their village in the island of Karainagar, west of Jaffna, from staying in the area after 6 p.m. Residents of the 45 Housing Scheme in Thoppukkaadu, Karainagar, said that the SLN ordered them to leave their homes at dusk everyday and return in the morning. The villagers complained about their plight to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday.
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SLA stops Sinhala tourists to Nagar Kovil festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2002, 17:04 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala tourists were blocked by the Sri Lanka army from taking part in the Nagar Kovil temple’s annual festival in Jaffna’s southeastern coast Sunday, sources said. The visitors from the southern parts of the island had come in 30 buses to see the ‘Ship Festival’ (Kappal Thiruvila) of this Tamil temple that lies close to the line of control in the northern peninsula.
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Peace pulls thousands to Kokkaddicholai festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 September 2002, 14:33 GMT]
The Chariot Festival of the Kokkaddicholai Thaanthonreeswarar Siva Temple in Batticaloa’s LTTE controlled western hinterland was celebrated Sunday. The prevailing peace between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo drew more than 25,000 devotees to the festival. According to local traditions, the temple’s original structure was built by provincial governors of the Chola Empire in the eleventh century. The island was a province of the powerful medieval Tamil empire for three centuries.
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Education said central to Tamil cause

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 September 2002, 16:35 GMT]
“The National Institute of Education (NIE) discriminates against Tamil medium education, distorts the island’s history taught in schools and is dominated by Singhalese. We can develop and improve our education system when the interim administration for the Northeast is established,” said Mr. Ilankumaran, head of the Education Division of the Liberation Tigers, addressing the inaugural meeting of the Jaffna Education Development Society (EDS) Sunday.
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Unidentified group assaults Hartley Principal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 September 2002, 13:42 GMT]
The Principal of Point Pedro Hartley College in Point Pedro, Jaffna, was severely assaulted by a group of unidentified persons Saturday night. Mr. Murugupillai Sripathi, 57, is warded at the Manthikai government hospital, two miles south of Pt.Pedro town.
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LTTE condemns Mannar anti-Muslim leaflet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 September 2002, 13:40 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers issued a statement Saturday condemning ‘disruptive forces’ behind a leaflet ordering Muslims to leave Mannar. The leaflet, issued surreptitiously in Mannar by a group called ‘Elalan Force’ last week, threatened that rivers of blood would flow if Muslim schools in the district do not shut down before end of September.
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