SLMM seeks return of Pesalai market, library

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 August 2002, 20:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials in Mannar said Saturday they visited three places occupied by the Sri Lankan security forces in the region on complaints from the Church and a widow. The Sri Lanka Police occupies the public cemetery, market building and the public library in Pesalai, 14 kilometres west of Mannar town.
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PTA case without evidence dropped

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 August 2002, 19:18 GMT]
The Mannar Magistrate Thursday discharged a man charged under the Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) when the Attorney General withdrew the indictment against him. The accused was brought to Mannar Wednesday from Kalutara prison and produced in court Thursday.
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Peace draws 400,000 to forest shrine festival

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 16:38 GMT]
More than four hundred thousand Sinhala and Tamil devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka thronged the Madhu feast this year, which concluded Thursday. "The number of devotees is unprecedented. After a gap of nineteen years the devotees of the Madhu Maatha (Ave Maria) poured out their suppressed devotion. The hundreds of thousand faithful who flocked to the shrine have expressed their love for peace. Everyone who gathered here have shown that they are against war," Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar told TamilNet. The forest shrine of Ave Maria is in his diocese.
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SL forces urged to leave public, private property

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 15:15 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces occupy 160 public and private buildings and properties in the Mannar district, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission sources said. Following requests made by the SLMM and several civil society groups the Police, army and Navy vacated ten properties in Mannar town in accordance with the terms of the Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) between the government and the Liberation Tigers signed in February. The Police vacated some private homes it was occupying in Murunkan.
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Thadchchanamadu murder suspects identified

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2002, 19:48 GMT]
All the eleven suspects in the Thadchanamadu murder case were identified Wednesday before the Mannar acting Magistrate Mr.S.A.Johnthasan. All the fifteen witnesses who were present in the court identified the accused when the identification parade was held in five. The suspects were produced under heavy security.
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Stolen vehicles 'sold in north'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2002, 17:52 GMT]
People in the north of Sri Lanka should be wary of buying vehicles which could be stolen in the south of the island, the Vavuniya Magistrate warned. "People in Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar should think twice before purchasing a vehicle from strangers, as a gang is operating in selling vehicles which have been stolen in the south," Mr.M.Illancheliyan, said at a murder inquest.
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NE District Unions in new Consortium

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 August 2002, 01:56 GMT]
A new organisation, the Consortium of North East Thrift and Credit Co-operative Societies Unions (TCCS) has been formed with its headquarters in Trincomalee. Eight district member unions of the NorthEast province which had been aligned with the Sri Lanka Federation of TCCS Ltd with its headquarters in Colombo became members of the TCCS.
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Six arrested entering Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2002, 17:09 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam police arrested six people who entered LTTE-held Vanni without permission in two separate incidents on August 4, Tamil press reports said Monday. Among those arrested were three weapon-carrying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who attempted to infiltrate into LTTE-held areas.
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TNA to coordinate with LTTE offices

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 August 2002, 21:51 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Sunday that it would exert pressure on the United National Front (UNF) government to fully implement the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers. "We will inform foreign envoys in Colombo the urgent need for the full implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement by the UNF government," TNA parliamentarians told reporters.
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Govt, LTTE ‘steadfastly preparing for peace’ - SLMM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 July 2002, 15:26 GMT]
(News Feature) International monitors this week hailed the ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers and praised both sides for adhering to it. The agreement, which came into effect on February 23 (referred to as D-day in the document), has several deadlines by which specified actions to restore normalcy should be completed. The upbeat statement by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) comes as the last of the listed deadlines (D+160) looms on Friday, August 2.
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Tamil refugees rescued from mid-sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 July 2002, 16:20 GMT]
Nine Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who left Ramehswaram Wednesday night in a boat to Mannar were rescued by Talaimannar fishermen from a sandbank in mid-sea Saturday morning. The Mannar District Judge Mr.M.P.Mohideen Sunday ordered the Police to send these refugees to Jaffna district to be resettled in their own villages, Chavakachcheri and Ilavalai.
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LTTE express regret over sea incident

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 July 2002, 16:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its Political Head Quarters in Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka, denied categorically that they held two members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) as hostages during a confrontation with the government, last Saturday, in the Mannar seas.
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Controversy after Navy attacks LTTE trawler

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 July 2002, 01:39 GMT]
(News Feature) Following the Sri Lanka Navy’s (SLN) attack on an LTTE fishing trawler Saturday, the movement registered a strong protest with international monitors Sunday , describing the incident as a ‘serious violation’ of the ceasefire agreement. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) meanwhile protested that two of its monitors who boarded the trawler had not been allowed to embark before the crew took the damaged vessel to shore and said this was a violation of the ceasefire. The LTTE however said the monitors - who had checked and cleared the trawler - had been assured of their safety and that the vessel was being rammed by SLN gunboats during its travel to shore.
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Legal aid plan for internally displaced

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 July 2002, 20:53 GMT]
Over seven hundred thousand people are internally displaced in Sri Lanka as a result of the ethnic conflict and have been deprived of the rights and privileges enjoyed by other citizens, Mr. S. S. Wijeratne, Chairman of the Legal Aid Foundation of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said in his key note address at the inaugural event of the Free Legal Aid clinic held Saturday morning in Trincomalee.
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New Army fortifications in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 13:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka armed forces are hurriedly building fortifications and expanding their bases in the Jaffna peninsula while public buildings vacated by the military remain beyond the public use as the surrounding areas are declared high security zones, Tamil press reports said last week.
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Protests after troops injure 20

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 10:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar Sunday night. More than six hundred villagers began a protest Monday morning demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately. Shops were closed and the streets were deserted in protest against the assault.
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Colombo to recruit 1600 for STF

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 June 2002, 17:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Minister for Interior, Mr. John Amaratunga, told troops frontline in Mannar Thursday that his government will recruit 1600 to the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the island's military. Speaking among STF commandos and military trained Policemen manning forward defences on the border separating the Vanni region held by the Liberation Tigers at Kannatti, Mr. Amaratunga dismissed rumours that Colombo intends to downsize the elite counter insurgency force.
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"cease-fire agreement has not conferred normalcy on Tamils in northeast" -TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 19:24 GMT]
"The cease-fire agreement signed by the government with the Liberation Tigers 120 days ago, has not yet conferred on all the Tamil people of the Northeast all the freedoms to carry on a normal life, freedoms that have been conferred on all other people in all parts of the country, including the Northeast," the Tamil National Alliance delegation Wednesday told the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at a conference held at the parliament complex.
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"New fishing regulations breach cease-fire agreement" - SLMC MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 17:03 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka government's gazette notification of the fishing restriction issued last month is a clear breach of the cease-fire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers," said Mr.K.M.Thowfeek, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress parliamentarian for the Trincomalee district at a discussion organised by the Trincomalee Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) held at the Kinniya divisional secretariat Monday morning.
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Police officer remanded for harassing Indian fishermen

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2002, 16:42 GMT]
The Mannar District Judge Monday remanded a Sinhalese police officer for allegedly harassing Indian fishermen, robbing their catch and threatening them with death in the mid sea.
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