Batticaloa fishermen demand equal rights

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 August 2002, 23:30 GMT]
A large number of Tamil fishermen in Batticaloa district Friday held a protest march demanding the government to lift restrictions on fishing and to provide the same privileges now being enjoyed by fishermen in the South. The fishermen also demanded the government to take immediate steps to stop foreign fishing vessels entering Sri Lankan territorial waters.
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International welcome for talks announcement

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 August 2002, 12:12 GMT]
(News Feature) The United States, Britain and Japan this week welcomed the announcement that the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers will commence direct talks in Thailand in mid-September. The governments also strongly endorsed the Norwegian facilitated peace process and applauded the efforts by all sides to end Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict.
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SLAF crash in Dodangoda

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 18:07 GMT]
A Sri Lankan Air Force Y-8 flight crashed in a paddy field in Dodangoda 51 kilometres south of capital Colombo in the district of Kalutara District Thursday afternoon, military officials said.
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Peace draws 400,000 to forest shrine festival

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 16:38 GMT]
More than four hundred thousand Sinhala and Tamil devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka thronged the Madhu feast this year, which concluded Thursday. "The number of devotees is unprecedented. After a gap of nineteen years the devotees of the Madhu Maatha (Ave Maria) poured out their suppressed devotion. The hundreds of thousand faithful who flocked to the shrine have expressed their love for peace. Everyone who gathered here have shown that they are against war," Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar told TamilNet. The forest shrine of Ave Maria is in his diocese.
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SL forces urged to leave public, private property

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 15:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces occupy 160 public and private buildings and properties in the Mannar district, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission sources said. Following requests made by the SLMM and several civil society groups the Police, army and Navy vacated ten properties in Mannar town in accordance with the terms of the Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) between the government and the Liberation Tigers signed in February. The Police vacated some private homes it was occupying in Murunkan.
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SLA opens road following protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2002, 14:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army opened the main road through Morakkoddanchenai, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, after twelve years following a sit in protest by villagers Monday. The protesting crowds surged ahead through soldiers when the SLA commander for Batticaloa, Lt. Col. V. R. L Anthoniz agreed to open an inner road as well.
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SLA troops 'provoking' LTTE, monitors told

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2002, 04:51 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Sunday protested to international ceasefire monitors and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commanders that government troops are engaged in provocative acts such as advances from their lines and the establishment of new positions closer to LTTE lines in Jaffna. Senior military commanders from both sides met under the auspices of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said.
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Morogoda visits Valikaamam-north, Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 August 2002, 13:51 GMT]
A senior minister of the United National Front government Saturday evening said in Jaffna that the resettlement of the displaced in Valikaamam north and Nagarkovil area will take place after the commencement of peace talks between the government and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE). Minister of Economic Reforms Mr.Milinda Morogoda told this to Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians during his visit to Jaffna Saturday to look into the prospects of allowing resettlement in high security zones in the peninsula, Tamil sources said.
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SLA urged to open road in Jaffna town

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 August 2002, 21:18 GMT]
A large crowd staged a token sit in protest in the heart of Jaffna town Saturday morning, blocking Sri Lanka army vehicles going to the Palaly base for about one and half hours. The protestors demanded that the SLA should open to the public a key road in the northern town's busy centre.
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Protest to demand road reopening

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2002, 00:36 GMT]
A protest demonstration will be staged Saturday if the public's demands for the immediate reopening of a section of the Palaly Road is not met by the Sri Lanka Army, the Valigamam South East Welfare Organizations Consortium said Thursday.
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Mylanthanai massacre commemorated

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2002, 00:08 GMT]
The tenth anniversary of the massacre by Sri Lankan troops of thirty nine men, women and children in the eastern village of Mylanthanai was marked Thursday by survivors who have been living in Kalmadu refugee camp. Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Army held a remembrance ceremony for the Army and Navy officers, whose deaths in a landmine attack on August 8, 1992, triggered the retaliatory massacre.
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Stolen vehicles 'sold in north'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2002, 17:52 GMT]
People in the north of Sri Lanka should be wary of buying vehicles which could be stolen in the south of the island, the Vavuniya Magistrate warned. "People in Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar should think twice before purchasing a vehicle from strangers, as a gang is operating in selling vehicles which have been stolen in the south," Mr.M.Illancheliyan, said at a murder inquest.
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Six arrested entering Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2002, 17:09 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam police arrested six people who entered LTTE-held Vanni without permission in two separate incidents on August 4, Tamil press reports said Monday. Among those arrested were three weapon-carrying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who attempted to infiltrate into LTTE-held areas.
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Trinco-Batticaloa highway to reopen

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2002, 12:47 GMT]
The A15 highway between Batticaloa and Trincomalee is to be reopened for public use following discussions between representatives of the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers, Tamil press reports said Monday. A significant portion of the 132 km long road is under the control of the LTTE.
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US teams train Sri Lanka navy, army

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 August 2002, 11:30 GMT]
A team from the US Navy special forces, the SEALS, will provide combat training for Sri Lankan Navy commandos this month whilst a US Army team has completed a course for Sri Lanka Army troops, the state-owned Sunday Observer reported this week.
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Hindu Minister visits devastated Nagarkovil village

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 August 2002, 20:48 GMT]
A group of civilians headed by the Hindu Affairs Minister Mr. T. Maheswaran visited Nagathambiran Temple located in Nagarkovil village, which is in a high security zone in the Vadamaradchi area of the Jaffna district Friday. This was the first time a civilian group had gone to Nagarkovil since its capture by the Sri Lanka Army two years ago, sources said.
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Meetings as troop relocation deadline is missed

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 August 2002, 00:32 GMT]
(News Feature) As the last of the stipulated deadlines for the Sri Lanka military to withdraw from civilian properties passed Thursday without the related terms of the government’s ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers being implemented, international monitors met with senior LTTE officers to discuss the truce while Tamil parliamentarians protested to the Prime Minister.
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Vadamarachchi fishermen flee threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 August 2002, 00:00 GMT]
Indian fishermen Wednesday chased away large numbers of fishermen from Vadamarachchi in Jaffna who had been engaged in fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters in about two hundred fifty boats.
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SLA restricts devotees to high security zone temple

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 July 2002, 20:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Wednesday informed the Hindu Affairs Minister that only eight devotees and a priest would be allowed daily to visit and conduct rituals at the Rajarajeswary Amman temple, which is in the high security zone in Valikamam North.
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Teachers union deplores correspondence in Sinhala

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2002, 18:08 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) Tuesday criticised education officials for sending letters and circulars to persons working in the Northeast in the Sinhala language despite a pledge by Colombo not to do so. "The Minister of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs directed the relevant officials in his ministry to correspond with Tamil medium schools in Tamil or English. But education officials still correspond only in the Sinhala language," said Mr.S.Thandauthapani, President of the CTTU.
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