SLN assaults fishermen in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 17:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy assaulted and tortured four fishermen in the sea off Pulmoddai, about 50 kilometres north of Trincomalee Sunday morning Mr. R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance MP for the district, told TamilNet. He said that he has brought the matter to the notice of the local SLN commander. Meanwhile, in Jaffna the Sri Lanka army has barred five fishermen in a coastal settlement in Thumpalai, near Pt. Pedro, from fishing as punishment for setting out to sea one hour before the stipulated time.
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Moragoda hears Trincomalee fishermen's plight

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 16:14 GMT]
Officials of Trincomalee District Fisheries Co-operative Societies told Tamilnet Monday that they have informed the United National Front (UNF) government that Fishermen in the eastern district are not seeking any relief from the State but only want it to lift the restrictions and ban imposed on fishing in the region.
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Amnesty slams zero prosecutions for rape in military custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 12:48 GMT]
Complaints of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials increased markedly in Sri Lanka last year, Amnesty International said in a new report published Monday. Amnesty said rapes in the context of armed conflict "are now recognized as a war crime and, when committed on a systematic basis or large scale, a crime against humanity."
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Vanni citizens committee slams block on reconstruction

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 05:11 GMT]
(News Feature) The Chairman of the Vanni Citizens’ Committee, Rev M X Karunaratnam, last week said the Sri Lankan government’s much publicized easing of its economic embargo on the region was “mere eyewash.” He said the Vanni region’s infrastructure was devastated and it was impossible to improve it by rebuilding, as the requisite materials were not being permitted.
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Thondaman meets LTTE in Mutur

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 17:02 GMT]
Mr. Arumugam Thondaman, a senior cabinet minister of the United National Front government, had discussions with the Liberation Tigers in Sampur, a village held by them south of the eastern port town of Trincomalee, Sunday. Mr. Arumugan Thondaman who is also the leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress, a powerful trade union in the island's plantation industry, is the first minister of the UNF government to visit an area in the northeast province held by the LTTE. Mr. Arumugan Thondaman is the Minister for Housing and Estate Infrastructure.
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Kilinochchi struggles to limp back to life (photos)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 01:16 GMT]
The TamilNet correspondent for Vavuniya visited the Vanni recently after the Sri Lankan government eased the ban on local and foreign journalists visiting the LTTE held region. The following are a glimpse of the war-devastated land and its battle scarred life.
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HRC chairman meets Jaffna press, NGOs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 January 2002, 10:57 GMT]
A delegation from Sri Lanka's National Human Rights Commission on a fact-finding mission to Jaffna met local journalists and representatives of the consortium of NGOs in the northern peninsula Saturday. The journalists and NGO representatives told the HRC delegation which is led by its chairman Mr. Faiz Mustapha that human rights violations by the Sri Lankan security forces continue in Jaffna largely because of the arbitrary controls imposed on civilian life.
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Commandos camp in hospital despite peace promise

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 07:00 GMT]
In Thirukkovil and Thambiluvil, the large Tamil villages on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, few believe that the dividends of the current peace process in the war torn island would come their way. "We are like people in the land that time forgot. We have survived here amid draconian controls for more than sixteen years", says Mr. S. Vivekanandan, a local journalist. The only civilian hospital in this region is inside the camp of the Special Task Force (STF), an elite commando unit of the Sri Lankan security forces. The STF moved into the Thirukkovil hospital in early 1986.
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Opposition mounts to lifting of LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 01:54 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Sinhala right wing MEP, a constituent of the main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) are to jointly campaign against the de-proscription of the Liberation Tigers, The Island newspaper said Friday. The day after Sri Lanka’s newly elected United National Front (UNF) government said “deep thought” should be given to de-proscription, the JVP - the third force in Sri Lankan politics - said that they have initiated talks with the PA to oppose such a move, the paper added.
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SC orders compensation to woman raped at checkpoint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 19:33 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to pay one hundred and fifty thousand rupees as compensation to a Tamil woman who was raped by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka army at a checkpoint in Maradane, near downtown Colombo on 24 June last year in a fundamental rights application filed by her. Tamil political parties launched protests in the north and east against her rape and the rape and torture of two young mothers in Police custody in Mannar and the general harassment of Tamil women at Sri Lankan security forces checkpoints. The protests culminated in a general one-day shutdown in the SLA held parts of the north and east.
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Kadirgamar's conduct in peace initiative suspect -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 17:17 GMT]
"When your own conduct in the matter of negotiations with the LTTE with the aid of Norwegian involvement is subject to grave suspicion, I would consider it quite imprudent that you cast aspersions on the other party (the LTTE) and think that you can get away with it", the Tamil National Alliance's parliamentary group leader Mr. R. Sampanthan told former Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, while addressing the Parliament Thursday during the special debate on the Prime Minister's policy statement Thursday. The TNA leader said President Chandrika Kumaratunga "missed the wood for the trees" when she resorted to the military option against the Tamils.
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Ex-garrison town schools await succour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 13:31 GMT]
More than forty schools in the Kilinochchi education zone were damaged by floods in the region during the recent monsoon, officials said. Most of these schools were functioning in temporary sheds as their permanent structures have been destroyed in heavy bombing and shelling since 1996 when the Sri Lanka army captured and garrisoned the town. Education officials said they have not received funds for repairs although damaged to the temporary shacks and partially destroyed buildings in which children study has been estimated at 5 million rupees (53,000 USD). The Liberation Tigers overran the large SLA garrison in Kilinochchi in September 1998.
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LTTE welcomes de-proscription moves

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2002, 13:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, Wednesday welcomed the Sri Lankan government's decision to review its proscription of the LTTE so as to pave the way for future negotiations with the organisation. Contacted by TamilNet over Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe's comments in Parliament Tuesday, Mr. Balasingham said the de-proscription of the LTTE was a long-standing impediment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. He also criticised comments by former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar urging the new government not to lift the ban on the LTTE.
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Don't exploit LTTE ban for narrow gains -Ranil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 14:28 GMT]
"We have no right to play around with this last chance we have to achieve peace in Sri Lanka. We also have no right to indulge in narrow political aims making use of the ban on the LTTE. Like with the war the economy has deteriorated by serious proportions. For the first time in three decades the country's economy is set to show a zero or even a negative growth. It may even be as much as seven points below zero. The country is near bankruptcy," said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Tuesday in his first policy statement to the Parliament since coming to power.
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LTTE for strengthening UNF peace initiative -Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 11:45 GMT]
"We respect the reasonable feelings of the Sinhala people. We only want our people to live in their land with honour and freedom and to enjoy all their rights sans military restrictions and intimidation. We want our people to have the freedoms and rights which the Sinhala people are able to enjoy now.
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Police translator found wanting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 11:25 GMT]
The East High Court Monday held that the policeman who translated the confession purported to have been made by a woman arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Tamil into Sinhala was not competent in both languages. The Police translator could not give the correct meanings of the Tamil and Sinhala words that were put to him by the Defence Attorney during the cross examination. In cases filed under the PTA, the confession of the accused is the sole production required for indictment.
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UNF govt. urged to repeal PTA, release detainees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2002, 19:44 GMT]
The All Ceylon Government General Employees Union (ACGGEU) Sunday appealed to the United National Front (UNF)Government to take immediate steps to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and to release all Tamil detainees held under the PTA in several prisons in the island.. A resolution to this effect stated that "the State armed forces use this PTA act to commit various crimes including torture and human rights violation on Tamil people under the pretext of safeguarding the sovereignty of the country".
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Kumaratunga claims authority “on all actions regarding war and peace”

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 January 2002, 00:30 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga this weekend warned that key decisions related to efforts to end the island’s protracted ethnic conflict would ultimately rest in her hands and not with the Parliamentary government. In an interview published in the Daily Mirror newspaper Saturday, she also questioned the competence of the newly elected United National Front (UNF) government to handle the ethnic question, while at the same time paradoxically saying that her Peoples’ Alliance (PA) - which was crushed at the last elections by the UNF - would support its efforts to find a peaceful solution.
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SC decides to hear Vanni,Batticaloa voters' grievances

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 January 2002, 17:40 GMT]
The Supreme Court Friday announced that the six fundamental rights (FR) applications filed by voters of Vanni and Batticaloa electoral districts would be taken up for inquiry on March 15. In these applications the petitioners residing in areas held by the Liberation Tigers have sought order of the SC nullifying the elections held in the Vanni and Batticaloa districts and to order new poll.
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Trinco fishing ban drives thousands to destitution

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 January 2002, 11:16 GMT]
(News Feature) More than five thousand fishermen of Kinniya, China Bay and Mutur in the Trincomalee district have been deprived of their livelihood due to the ban imposed currently by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on fishing in the Koddiyar Bay and in the waters off the eastern port town, fisheries officials said Thursday. Fishing is banned by the SLN in the waters off the coast from Mutur to Kinniya China Bay and the Trincomalee town. Inland fishing in the district is prohibited after dusk.
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