SLA positions bar temple access

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 02:27 GMT]
Claims by the Sri Lanka Army that its troops have moved out from temples and schools occupied Kommanthurai, located on the Valaichenai road between Vantharumoolai and Chenkalady is a sham since the sentries, roadblocks and restrictions on access to the area continues, local civil society leaders said.
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Tamil students' rallies, protests in Northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 13:27 GMT]
Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies Thursday to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, bombing of schools, chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools. Student leaders who addressed the rallies demanded that Tamil students too be granted equal opportunities in education by Colombo, denied them for more than three decades under partisan education schemes.
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Tigers prepare for economic development

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 May 2002, 20:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are making preparations for economic development and infrastructure reconstruction in the north and east, a senior LTTE official said Friday. Mr. S. Karikalan, deputy head of the LTTE's political section, was speaking at a seminar for Government departmental heads held in Kokkaddicholai, 16 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
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'Last chance for peace' - Karikalan

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 May 2002, 08:36 GMT]
"This is the last chance for peace. The Sri Lankan government should firmly grasp this opportunity and make the most of it to settle the conflict. We, the Liberation Tigers, are resolutely committed to peace.
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SLA recruitment campaign in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 May 2002, 20:39 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army called on Muslim and Tamil youth in the eastern district of Batticaloa to join up from Thursday. The SLA campaigned for recruits in the villages of Eravur, Chenkalady, Vantharumoolai, Sithaandy, Mavadivembu and Kaluwankerny in vans fixed with loud hailers Wednesday urging youth to enrol in the military.
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Despondent paramilitaries mull arms surrender

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2002, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has given 48 hours to Tamil paramilitary groups operating in the Batticaloa district to disarm or join the military and serve outside the Northeast, the regional Tamil daily, Thinakathir reported Tuesday, quoting sources in SLA's 23-3 Brigade Headquarters in the eastern town.
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Remembrance day for University Refugee Camp disappeared

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2001, 06:39 GMT]
Memorial functions were held Wednesday in Vantharumoolai and Valaichenai to mark the 11th anniversary of disappearance of 158 Tamils who were arrested by the Sri Lanka security forces from the Eastern University refugee camp on September 5, 1990. Posters condemning the security forces for the murdering the refugees were seen in several parts of these towns, sources said.
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Batticaloa gets 'Writing on the wall'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2001, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers nonchalantly pass by the large writings on the wall in Vathaarumoolai, 19 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The attitude surprises visitors and locals alike because these are larger than life graffiti of the Liberation Tigers which began appearing since early last month in many parts of the Batticaloa district's coastal region which is controlled by the Sri Lankan security forces. Some have been sprayed very close to army camps on Batticaloa coastal highway.
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Hundred thousand displaced by floods

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 November 2000, 19:04 GMT]
Nearly one hundred thousand people have been rendered homeless as heavy rains continue to lash in the eastern Sri Lanka, government officials in Batticaloa said Monday. Many roads are submerged in floods in Batticaloa, Ampara and Polonnaruwa Districts and several rivers have swollen with floods, officials said. Two people have been reported killed in the floods.
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Shelling kills child, injures 12

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 November 2000, 22:39 GMT]
A two-year old child was killed and twelve others were wounded, five of them seriously when Sri Lanka Army and Police shelled the villages of Ramespuram and Sunkankerny north of Batticaloa Sunday evening residents said. Thirteen houses were also damaged in the shelling.
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Hartal in Batticaloa to protest killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 May 2000, 13:00 GMT]
Shops and schools were closed, few reported for work in government offices and roads were generally deserted Wednesday in Batticaloa, Valaichenai and other towns in the eastern district. This hartal was in response to a call by a student organisation to protest against the indiscriminate shooting by Sri Lankan security forces on May 17 in which scores of civilians were killed and wounded. The Police failed in the morning to compel shops in Batticaloa town to open up for business.
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Road writing provokes STF wrath

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 10:45 GMT]
Seventeen civilians who were severely assaulted by the Special Task Force (STF) commandos were admitted to the Batticaloa hospital today. They had been beaten up during a search operation in Kirankulam where writings hailing the Tigers for overrunning the Elephant Pass base had appeared on the Batticaloa - Kalmunai highway yesterday.
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Eastern paddy fields flooded

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2000, 17:29 GMT]
Heavy rains lashing the eastern Batticaloa District for the past few days have affected 16,214 families, according to the Government Agent in Batticaloa, S.Pathmanathan.
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Kaluwanchikudy civilians injured

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 January 2000, 10:46 GMT]
Five civilians were injured, one of them seriously, when police opened fire at the Kaluwanchikudy market around 11 a.m today. Shops were closed and the situation remained tense in the town following the incident, sources said.
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Search operation in Karaithivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2000, 22:41 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) elite troops cordoned off the coastal village of Karaithivu near Kalmunai in the Ampara District and conducted a house-to-house search operation from 3 p.m. today said sources.
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Mother succumbs after forced home delivery

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 1999, 03:43 GMT]
A young mother died of complications after giving birth to a child in Kumaraveliyar, a hamlet in the Chenkalady Division in Batticaloa Sunday night, after the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers denied her family members to take her to the hospital.
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Troops assault civilians after complaints

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 1999, 22:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops Monday assaulted civilians who had recorded statements with the Chairman of the government-funded Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna Mr. Shanmuganathan Sreetharan, about their harassment by the SLA in Varani in the Thenmaradchi Division of the Jaffna Peninsula.
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Three homeguards killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 1999, 08:38 GMT]
Three homeguards were killed and another wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a sentry post at Padiyatalawa, about 65 km. south-west of Batticaloa, on the Chenkalady-Badulla road, in the early hours of the morning today.
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Two students arrested

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 July 1999, 09:00 GMT]
Two students were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Murakoddanchchenai, 40 km. north of Batticaloa on Monday, June 28, according to officials of the government funded Human Rights Commission.
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News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 June 1999, 13:14 GMT]
Jaffna EPDP councillor resigns; Blast destroys Transformer in Uva and the Sri Lankan Army at Kommanthurai camp collects civilian details.
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