Islamic group threatens journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 22:18 GMT]
Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, the correspondent for the Tamil dailies Virakesari and Thinakkural, in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, said Monday he was threatened by an armed group backed by local Muslim politicians for his coverage of a simmering dispute in the region over the creation of an administrative division which Tamils oppose on the grounds that it grabs their lands and is meant as another ethnic wedge to disrupt the contiguity of the Batticaloa district. Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy said that the group, comprising mostly Muslims who deserted the Sri Lanka army and ex home guards, vowed to kill him in a warning delivered Monday.
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Kumaratunga ally slams PA's chauvinism

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 16:55 GMT]
The Lanka Sama Samaja party (LSSP) Monday accused the main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunge that "it does not maintain a definite position regarding the ongoing peace efforts and the government's economic programme". The general secretary of the LSSP and a former minister in the PA government Mr. Batty Weerakone said the PA has joined the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to whip up racial hatred in the country, forgetting the economic problems of the masses.
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Sri Lanka tightens fishing restrictions under terrorism act

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 05:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has issued a gazette notification retrospectively dated 23 May, 2002 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act specifying areas in the Northeast that have been restricted for fishing. The government will appoint a Competent Authority in charge of the newly demarcated restricted areas under this gazette notification. The new PTA regulation includes punishment for those violating restriction on fishing in the specified areas.
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SLA threats stop war-dead remembrance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 18:16 GMT]
A function in Pt. Pedro, Jaffna, to mark the death anniversary of an officer of the Liberation Tigers had to be abandoned by his relatives and friends Sunday following intimidation and death threats by the intelligence unit of the Sri Lanka Army's 524 Brigade, residents said.
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SLA builds large camp in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 17:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is constructing a large new base on a 450 acre site near Chavakachcheri, taking in many homes and fields, residents in Thenmaradchchi said this week. Construction work started last Friday in Nunavil East to the north of the Kandy road.
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Ministry officials complain army harassment at Muhamalai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 17:57 GMT]
A team of officials from the Ministry of Social Services said Sunday that they were subjected to undue search by Sri Lanka Army personnel at the Muhamalai entry point in when they were on their way to Jaffna yesterday. The officials came to Jaffna Saturday with a consignment of tricycles, spectacles and sewing machines for war affected persons in the peninsula. They were on a two-day tour in Jaffna with Sri Lanka's Minister for Social Services Mr. Ravindra Samaraweera who arrived Saturday by air.
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Vehicle shortage hampers Jaffna development

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 17:53 GMT]
A persistent shortage of official vehicles for civil administrators is hampering rehabilitation and reconstruction work in war-ravaged Jaffna, officials in the northern town said. Four Divisional Secretaries in the Jaffna district have not been provided with vehicles for development work by Colombo. The official vehicle of the Chankanai Divisional Secretary (DS), which was commandeered by the Sri Lanka Army under Emergency Regulations for requisitioning of vehicles and property, is yet to be returned.
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SLA refuses to vacate Hartley College

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 14:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army refused to remove its camp from one of Sri Lanka's leading schools, the Point Pedro Hartley College in Jaffna. The SLA's Jaffna commander has conveyed the decision to the District Additional Director of Education this week.
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SLA holds Valaichchenai temples

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 11:39 GMT]
The Sri Lanka armed forces have not yet vacated several places of worship they are occupying in the Valaichchenai area, 32 kms north of Batticaloa district as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement signed between the government the Liberation Tigers, residents said.
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New licence rules hamper Jaffna travel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 11:47 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Army has ordered that all vehicles entering Jaffna through the Muhamalai check-point - and all vehicles on the roads in Jaffna - need to have Sri Lankan Motor Vehicle Authority-issued license plates. As a result, many people in the Vanni region are unable to travel to Jaffna, with only few vehicles having been able to obtain registrations with the SLMVA.
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SLMM frees arrested youths

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 11:35 GMT]
Four Tamil youths arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) and subsequently released without charge have protested their abductions to the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) office in Ampara, press reports said. The youths were released after the intervention of an SLMM official.
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Truce monitors protest military conduct

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 10:38 GMT]
(News Feature) Tensions between the Sri Lankan armed forces and local residents increased this weekend in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts following new incidents of violence and harassment by the military, reports said Saturday. The vicious assaults of four fishermen by police commandos prompted the head of the local ceasefire monitors' head to plead with the security forces "to desist from violating the ceasefire and arresting and torturing innocent youths under various pretexts," press reports said.
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SLMM chief in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 May 2002, 23:41 GMT]
The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Retd. Major General Trond Furuhovde Friday held extensive discussions with Sri Lankan Navy officials at the Karainagar naval base in the Jaffna district in a bid to defuse the ongoing tension over the Navy’s refusal to permit access to the islets off Jaffna for political cadres of the Liberation Tigers.
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'Strategic’ camps to remain despite ceasefire terms - Army chief

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 May 2002, 01:07 GMT]
Amid renewed pressure for the Sri Lankan armed forces to vacate schools, places of worship and other public places as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, Army chief Lieutenant General Lional Balagalle said Friday that his troops would not withdraw from camps ‘of strategic importance and those within the high security zones.’ These withdrawals would happen only if “the two parties agree on disarmament,” he told the state-owned Daily News.
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"Rules for islands humiliating, wont enter" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 21:43 GMT]
"We will not enter the islands of Jaffna in compliance with the conditions that the Sri Lanka Navy has imposed on us now. The Navy's action is aimed at further subverting the peace process and creating a fear psychosis among the people of the islands," said Mr. Ilamparithi, the head of the political office of the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna, responding Thursday to the 12 conditions stipulated by the Sri Lanka Navy for allowing his colleagues to engage in political work in the islands of the northern peninsula.
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Sri Lankan troops ‘enter LTTE territory’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 20:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers crossed into territory held by the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa on May 24, violating the terms of the permanent ceasefire, press reports said Thursday. LTTE officials have lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) the reports added.
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STF ‘deliberately’ violated ceasefire - SLMM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 20:13 GMT]
The arrest and torture of a member of the Liberation Tigers by the elite Special Task Force (STF) constituted a deliberate breach of the permanent ceasefire according to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), as the troops had penetrated over one kilometre into LTTE-held territory to carry out the attack.
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Islands imbroglio continues amid new conditions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 18:52 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lanka Navy continued to resist entry of political cadres of the Liberation Tigers into the islands off the Jaffna peninsula, press reports said this week. In the latest development in the acrimonious and long running saga, the Sri Lankan government backed the Navy, insisting that the LTTE's activists must accept twelve conditions if they are to get access to the tens of thousands of Tamil people who inhabit the islands.
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More Tigers begin political work

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 16:03 GMT]
Scores of cadres from the Liberation Tigers’ political section arrived in Jaffna and Vavuniya earlier this week, Tamil press reports said. Forty-nine LTTE cadres arrived in Jaffna this week whilst twelve entered Vavuniya. More LTTE volunteers are expected to arrive in Vavuniya and Mannar soon.
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SLA exacerbates war fear in east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 15:47 GMT]
Residents in the east coast villages of Kiran and Maankerni said Thursday the actions of the Sri Lanka army here is exacerbating fears among them that the war might erupt again soon. Soldiers from the SLA camp in Kiran, 28 kilometres north of Batticaloa, told people in the area Tuesday to make coffins and expect the war to break out again anytime. Residents of Maankerni, 47 kilometres north of Batticaloa, said that the SLA is photographing the members of every family in the village and has bulldozed the local cemetery to reinforce its defences.
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