Polling agents, coffins sent to EPDP stranglehold

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 14:26 GMT]
An opposition party candidate in the north said Tuesday that he would defy the stranglehold of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a key coalition partner of Sri Lanka’s ruling People’s Alliance regime, on the island of Neduntheevu (Delft) off the Jaffna peninsula by sending six polling agents along with six coffins and a doctor to thwart en bloc rigging there. Neduntheevu is held by the EPDP under the aegis of the Sri Lanka security forces. The EPDP attacked the TNA in the island of Kayts November with assault rifles and swords on 28 killing two and wounding four candidates.
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Rigging feared in 'clustered' polling centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 13:24 GMT]
Journalists, civil society leaders and politicians in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka island told independent and European Union polls observers to pay special attention to 'clustered' polling booths where thousands of Tamil voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers will have to cast their ballots Wednesday.
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EPDP on rampage in southeastern village

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 December 2001, 08:31 GMT]
Two Tamil National Alliance campaign offices were set on fire and three TNA supporters' houses were damaged by a group of heavily armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance regime, in Komari, about 96 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Sunday night, Police sources in Ampara said.
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EPDP fires on women's march, four injured

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2001, 10:51 GMT]
Four supporters of the Tamil National Alliance were wounded when gunmen from the Eelam People's Democratic Party opened fire on a march by more than a thousand women at Vinayagapuram, 78 kilometres south of Batticaloa, on the island's southeastern coast Saturday afternoon. People in the villages of Thirukkovil, Thambiluvil, Vinayagapuram, angered by the attack, burnt tires across the main road and smashed an EPDP campaign auto rickshaw. The wounded persons were admitted to the Thirukkovil hospital. The march was organised by a women's group in support of the TNA.
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School boy killed in retaliatory shelling

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2001, 09:05 GMT]
A 14-year old school boy, Perinpanathan Sivanathan (14) was killed and at least 15 houses were damaged when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers stationed at Kaddaiparichchan camp shelled Tamil villages in Muttur South, Saturday morning. Two civilians were also wounded in the shelling, villagers said.
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Jaffna students burn Tamil minister’s effigy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 14:02 GMT]
The effigy of Mr. Douglas Devananda, Minister for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (North) in Peoples' Alliance Government who is the leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party was set on fire Thursday around 1.30 p.m. by Jaffna undergrads on the campus grounds of the Jaffna University in Tinnelvely, Jaffna. Meanwhile, people in the village of Pannaikattaiadi in Pt. Pedro in Jaffna beat up an armed gang of EPDP cadres who had allegedly attempted to kill a United National Party candidate Thursday morning around 11 a.m. The villagers seized two assault rifles and a pistol from the EPDP cadres and handed them over to the Police, sources said.
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General shut in NE against EPDP atrocity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 08:32 GMT]
Schools, shops, government offices and banks were closed in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna in response to a call by the Tamil National Alliance for a general shut down in the north and east to protest against the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime, for killing two civilians and attacking and grievously wounding four TNA candidates in Kayts, an island off the northern peninsula.
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SLA shells Mutur villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 00:12 GMT]
A twenty-year-old woman, Murugesu Kavitha, was killed and several houses were damaged in Mutur south when Sri Lanka Army soldiers fired artillery shells from their camps at Monkey Bridge and Kaddaiparichchan in Trincomalee district, residents said Wednesday.
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LTTE leader makes special plea to the Sinhalese: 'reject racist forces, offer justice to the Tamils'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2001, 12:25 GMT]
In a special appeal made Tuesday to the majority Sinhala people faced with crucial parliamentary election early next month in Sri Lanka, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), urged them to reject racist forces committed to militarism and war and to offer justice to the Tamil people to bring about peace, ethnic reconciliation and economic prosperity to the island.
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Buddhist monks condemn autonomy for Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2001, 16:41 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks protested in Colombo Monday against granting an interim administrative council to run the northern and eastern parts of the island. The Sri Lankan government alleges that there is an insidious conspiracy by the United National party against the Sinhala people to hand over the northeastern province to the Liberation Tigers. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sinhala nationalists say that granting the LTTE the interim administration is treason. The protest was organised by the National Movement for the Defence of the Unitary State.
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Exiled Marxist leader addresses massive rally

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 19:27 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, the leader Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, who returned from a 12-year exile from the United Kingdom yesterday, addressed a massive public rally Friday evening in Kalutara, a large town south of Colombo. Mr. Amarasingha is the only surviving member of the JVP's politburo that was formed in 1969. In 1971 and 1988, Mr.Amarasingha, along with his comrades Rohana Wijeweera and Upatissa Gamanayaka, led two bloody armed insurrections to capture state power and to establish a communist regime in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka army crushed both rebellions, killing thousands of Sinhala youth.
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Jayakili Habeas Corpus to be heard in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 19:26 GMT]
The inquiry into the Salli habeas Corpus application was fixed this week for 15th January 2002 by the Eastern High Court in Trincomalee after the Court of Appeal withdrew (vacated) the stay order issued on the application by the Officer-in-Charge of the Navy detachment at Nilaveli, the first respondent, to the Colombo High Court that his case be transferred out of the eastern port town as his life was at risk there. In this Habeas Corpus application Ms Jayakili Pushparatha said that her husband Jeyakili of Salli disappeared in February last year after he was arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in Nilaveli, 13 kilometres north of Trincomalee town.
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Negotiations to end war said treason

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 17:35 GMT]
The United National Party Friday vehemently rejected Sri Lankan government's assertions that it is involved in an insidious conspiracy with the Liberation Tigers against the Sinhala people. State run print and electronic media gave wide publicity since Thursday to a telephone conversation allegedly between ex- UNP Parliamentarian Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena and an agent of the LTTE.
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SLA bribery for Shmel rockets exposed in Britain

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 12:48 GMT]
(News Feature) The allegations of corruption in the Sri Lanka Army's purchase of thermobarric fuel air weapons, exposed locally by the Sunday Leader newspaper broke in the British press Friday with The Guardian publishing details of its own investigations into the transactions.
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Ten TNA offices attacked in Ampara

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 12:04 GMT]
Ten campaign offices of the Tamil National Alliance in the Ampara district were attacked between 8 p.m. Wednesday night and 3 a.m. Thursday morning. Three were burnt. Mr. Henry Mahendran, spokesman for the TNA in Ampara blamed the Eelam People’s Democratic Party for the attacks. He said that the number plates of the vehicles in which the assailants came were covered. The TNA has complained to the Police in Kalmunai about the attacks.
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President vows to exterminate LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 02:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday stepped up its rhetoric against the Liberation Tigers vowing not to rest until the movement “was exterminated.” “Now I stress that we are determined more than at any time in our struggle to wipe out terrorism and we will continue to wage war against the Tigers to a logical conclusion," President Chandrika Kumaratunga was quoted by the state press as saying at an election rally of her ruling People's Alliance at Hanguranketha on Tuesday night. She also reiterated her accusations against the main opposition United National Party (UNP) saying it was in league with the LTTE to divide the country.
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Home Guards on the rampage in Serunuwara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 20:16 GMT]
Three houses belonging to Tamil villagers were burnt down and several civilians were severely assaulted by Police Security Assistants (PSAs or 'Home Guards') in LB 3 Channel area in Serunuwara division, in the Trincomalee District Tuesday night. Bicycles and motorcycles were also damaged by the PSAs, sources said.
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Election violence complaints nearing 1000

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 21:54 GMT]
The United National Party's chief candidate for Jaffna Electoral District, Mr.Maheswaran has complained to the police that his party's polling agents and supporters who went to Kayts in Jaffna to monitor postal voting have been threatened by armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). He said his party agents have been told not to visit the Kayts area either for canvassing or to monitor polling. 243,000 public employees are eligible for postal voting which began today.
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SLA soldier killed in Trinco settlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 16:57 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and another was wounded in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers in the Left Bank- 3 (LB-3) Channel area in the Serunuwara division of the Trincomalee district Tuesday morning, security sources said. A four year old Tamil girl was seriously wounded in retaliatory fire by the army. The injured child was immediately taken to Trincomalee hospital from Mutur, medical sources said. LB3 is one of several state sponsored Sinhala land encroachments in the Allai irrigation project in the Mutur region which were legalised and protected by Colombo despite protests by Tamil politicians.
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PM urges forces to defeat interim administration ‘conspiracy’

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 05:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, this week called on the armed forces to defeat the peace strategy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP). “Your alert contribution is sought to defeat the conspiracy to divide the country by giving an interim administration to the North and East and guarantee the unity of the country,” the Premier said in a message to the armed forces. The notion of an interim administration is part of the UNP’s strategy to de-escalate the island’s protracted conflict.
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