Villagers in east surround SLA, smash MI camera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 March 2002, 17:36 GMT]
People in the village of Kinnaiadi, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, smashed up a camera belonging to the Sri Lanka army intelligence and refused to let the SLA interrogate three members of the Liberation Tigers who had visited the area Wednesday. The SLA unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the Kinnaiadi villagers to convince them that the three members of the LTTE would be released after being questioned briefly in the local army camp. The SLA then gave safe passage to the three across the lagoon to the region controlled by the LTTE.
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Paramilitaries handover weapons partly

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 March 2002, 20:50 GMT]
Tamil paramilitary groups operating with the Sri Lanka army began handing over a section of the weapons in their possession from Sunday in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa. The EPDP, a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, turned in the largest number of weapons to the SLA on Sunday, including mortars and Rocket Propelled Grenades. Addressing the function to mark the handing over of weapons by the EPDP Sunday, Sri Lanka's Security Forces Commander for Jaffna said that the group had rendered yeoman service to the army to fight the war in the north.
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Kumaratunga rails at UNF government

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 March 2002, 08:13 GMT]
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's efforts to promote amicable cohabitation between his United National Front (UNF) dominated Parliament and President Chandrika Kumaratunga of the main opposition People's Alliance (PA) suffered a setback this week when the latter launched a bitter attack on the government's conduct of the local council elections in which the UNF crushed the PA.
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Govt., TE request ICRC's help to open A9

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 March 2002, 12:05 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have officially requested the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to assist in opening the A9 highway to Jaffna from Killinochchi. "We received the official request from the government and the LTTE on Friday. However we have not decided on the date of opening the A9 highway," said Mr. Arjuna Ranawana, Information Officer of the ICRC addressing Trincomalee district journalists Saturday morning at Seven Islands Hotel.
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Legality of SLA's Buddhist shrines in NE questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 March 2002, 22:26 GMT]
Lt. Col. V. R. L Anthoniz, the commanding officer of the SLA's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa, addressing the press in the eastern town Friday to explain his position on the Annai Poopathy memorial said that he had advised the Government Agent of the district that the structure should be legal, with due permission from the Urban Development Authority (UDA). Mr. Paramasamy Wijendran, a journalist from the 'Thinakkathir', the Tamil daily published in Batticaloa, told Lt. Col
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Flame lit at LTTE war dead memorial in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 March 2002, 20:49 GMT]
More than a thousand people, Jaffna University and students undergraduates Friday gathered at the memorial for the LTTE's war dead in Kopay in Jaffna to clean the site and light the 'flame of sacrifice'. In 1996, the SLA destroyed and levelled with bulldozers Kopay war memorial, the largest built by the Liberation Tigers in the northeast. The SLA was criticised at the time for violating universal military norms on monuments for the war dead.
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Unenthused paramilitary turns in some weapons

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 March 2002, 19:49 GMT]
The People's Liberation Organization of Thamil Eelam (PLOTE), a paramilitary group operating with the Sri Lanka army, handed over some of its weapons in Batticaloa, Friday under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo. Mr. Raj Maama, the PLOTE chief in the eastern district told TamilNet that the weapons handed over today were from the group's camp at the Black Bridge entry point 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa.
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Four thousand demonstrate against SLA in east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 March 2002, 13:47 GMT]
More than four thousand people Thursday demonstrated against the Sri Lanka army in Kiran, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, blocking traffic on the main road to Colombo from the eastern town for more than an hour. The demonstration and meeting were organised by civil society groups, NGOs, students and trade unions in the area to condemn the SLA for stripping and pulling down Annai Poopathy commemoration pandols and decorations in the villages of Kiran and Santhively Wednesday.
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Explosion destroys Vavuniya ammo dump

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 19:20 GMT]
An ammunition dump of the Sri Lanka army exploded Wednesday evening in Vavuniya, military sources in the northern border town said. The SLA said that the reason for the explosion was not known but added that it may have been caused by accidental ignition. A large stock of 7.62 ammunition was destroyed in the blast, the sources said.
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SLA pulls down Poopathy remembrance pandols

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday stripped decorations and pulled down wood and paper memorials in the Kiran and Santhively, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, that were put up to mark the 14th death anniversary of 'Annai' Poopathy, the woman who fasted unto death in April 1988 in a protest against atrocities by the Indian army in the island's northeastern province.
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Elthumadduval families seek resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:03 GMT]
Seven hundred forty families displaced from the southern Jaffna have written to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urging him to allow them resettle in their villages of Eluthumadduval and Karambaikkurichchi as part of the effort to restore normalcy in the north and east under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between his government and the Liberation Tigers.
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Fifty thousand at Trinco 'Pongu Tamil'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 March 2002, 16:57 GMT]
(News Feature) More than fifty thousand people thronged the eastern port town of Trincomalee to attend the 'Pongu Tamil' (Tamil upsurge) rally held Tuesday, urging the Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and to recognise the Tamil people's right to self-determination.
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JVP demonstrates against cease-fire agreement

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 March 2002, 23:07 GMT]
More than a one thousand Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres and activists, including a large number of buddhist monks demonstrated Monday afternoon in Colombo protesting against the cease-fire agreement signed by the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers.
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Batticaloa GA complains ceasefire violation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 21:43 GMT]
The Government Agent for Batticaloa, Mr. S.Shanmugam, told Scandinavian cease-fire Monitoring Mission Sunday that the Sri Lankan army is violating the terms of the agreement signed by Colombo and the Liberation Tigers in the eastern district. He said that the SLA is harassing civilians at Mylambaveli, 8 kilometres north of against the terms of the agreement and that it is still imposing undue restrictions on the supply of unregulated commodities.
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"Ministry discriminates Tamil medium teachers" - CTTU

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) has informed the United National Front (UNF) government that it would launch trade union action if its fifteen demands are not met by March 25. The demands included that the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs should take immediate steps to stop all discriminatory acts of the Education Services Board (ESB) against the interests of Tamil medium teachers in the country. The Education Services Board comes under the purview of the Public Services Commission.
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Jaffna University undergraduate Thiviyan freed

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Friday discharged university undergraduate, Krishnasamy Thiviyan as two vital witnesses failed to attend the inquiry for the second time. When the prosecuting Counsel informed the court that the two army officers, cited as main witnesses in this case had gone to Vavuniya to attend courts, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharaja, High Court Judge made order discharging the accused stating, "this shows that the SLA witnesses were not interested in this case".
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"State forces' cease-fire violation would harm govt." -PM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 21:10 GMT]
"Cease-fire violations by the State armed forces knowingly or not, would cause irreparable harm to the Sri Lankan government," the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe told soldiers and commanders of the Sri Lanka Army at Palali main base in the Jaffna peninsula Thursday. Mr.Wickremasinghe arrived Jaffna morning by a special Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter accompanied by Defense Minister Mr.Tilak Marapane and Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Minister Dr.Jayalath Jayawardene.
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Pall over last obstacle on road to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 17:14 GMT]
The defence lines of the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army in Eluthumadduval are separated by less than 200 meters of the A9 highway. A high tarpaulin hides everything behind the SLA's defence position which straddles the road, the last obstacle on the northern peninsula's main land link to the rest of the island. "We have cleared all the mines on our side as you can see. We got ready to open the road to Jaffna soon after the cessation of hostilities was announced.
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US envoy's concern for children said hypocrisy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2002, 20:12 GMT]
"More than hundred and fifty innocent Tamil children under five are being held in Sri Lankan prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Scores of little children were massacred when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Nagar Kovil School in Jaffna. Thousands of Tamil children whose parents were murdered in cold blood by the SLA are destitute orphans in the northeast today. The US ambassador's humanitarian concern was blind to the plight of these Tamil children until this week.
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LTTE denies accusations of truce violations

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2002, 11:54 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Monday denied categorically the accusations levelled against the organisation that it is involved in activities that could jeopardise the permanent truce reached between the Sri Lankan government and itself and which came into effect on February 22.
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