Two SLA troops, policeman killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2001, 12:03 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers and a policeman were killed and a security assistant (Home guard) was wounded in two separate attacks by the Liberation Tigers on Friday in the northern Vavuniya region, local police sources said.
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Vavuniya quota fuels less vehicles, more corruption

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2001, 10:24 GMT]
The restrictions on the issue of fuel to the public in the Sri Lanka army controlled areas of the Vavuniya region is contradictory to the principles of governance and therefore should be removed forthwith, said the Union of Christian Churches in Vavuniya in a letter addressed to Major General S.H.Shantha Kottegoda, Commander of the Security Forces in Vanni this week.
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MP slams Sri Lanka's judicial system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"In Sri Lanka the Tamil people are denied the exercise of their sovereignty through the judicial system because fundamentally it is made to work against them. The security forces and the laws of the land are meant to protect the people. But in Sri Lanka the law is harnessed only to protect the security forces. .
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SLA soldier, 2 policemen killed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 11:30 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and another wounded when Liberation Tigers attacked troops on rout-clearing operation, at Arippu in the Seruvila area, 30 km. south-east of Trincomalee town, around 8 a.m. Thursday, police sources said. The soldiers were from Mahindapura camp. Meanwhile a Police constable, M.A.Mohideen, 33, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Eravur, 14 kilometers north of Batticaloa around 8 p.m. Thursday, said police sources in the eastern town.
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Missing Vaakarai youth said killed by SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 06:10 GMT]
Three youths who were reported missing after they were arrested by a Sri Lanka army deep penetration team in Vaakarai, 64 kilometres north of Batticaloa on 22 May, are dead, according to relatives. The Sri Lanka army's 23-2 brigade had informed the ICRC on Wednesday that the three men were killed. However, the army had not told the ICRC how or where the men had been killed. Last week the SLA informed the Human Rights Commission office in Batticaloa that they were not aware of the whereabouts of the three men.
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Norway's Foreign Minister to Visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2001, 13:50 GMT]
Norway's Foreign minister Thorbjørn Jagland will arrive in Colombo Thursday to review the peace process in the island, according to a press release issued by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Wednesday.
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SLA bid to relocate Trinco IDPs opposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2001, 06:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces told government officials in Trincomalee to transfer over 1500 internally displaced Tamil persons from Alles Garden refugee camp to Kuchchaveli, 38 kilometres north of Trincomalee town. "The security forces in Trincomalee have taken this step to ensure the security of army and navy camps in the area", a government official said.
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Mannar rape and torture suspects score one

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 21:11 GMT]
The Mannar judge M.H.M Ajmeer instructed the Superintendent of the Anuradhapura prison that the 14 Police and Sri Lanka Navy personnel accused in the rape and torture of two women in Mannar on 19 March need not be produced in court Wednesday following an interim order by the Court of Appeal, legal sources said Tuesday.
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ICRC transfers bodies of LTTE killed by STF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 11:35 GMT]
The bodies of 11 Liberation Tigers who were killed Monday in an attack by Special Task Force commandos in Kanjikudichcha Aaru, 84 kilometres south of Batticaloa, were handed over to the ICRC Tuesday Mr.Harasha Gunawardene, the press officer of the ICRC in Colombo told Tamilnet. All the bodies were transferred to the LTTE today, he said. He added that the body of a Tiger trooper was handed over to the LTTE Monday.
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Six troopers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 06:15 GMT]
Six soldiers were killed and ten were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a Sri Lanka army patrol around 8 a.m. Tuesday at Kaavathamunai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldiers were from the 23-2 brigade in the Valaichenai Paper Mills. A Muslim civilian was killed and 15 were wounded in the village of Kaavathamunai in retaliatory shelling from the 23-2 brigade camp. Kaavathamunai is a Muslim village near Valaichenai.
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Trinco military steps up security

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2001, 03:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Navy have stepped up security of their camps in the Trincomalee district, military sources said. The SLA Sunday deployed a bulldozer to clear shrubs along Koneswaram Road which leads to Fort Frederick, Trincomalee where the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army is currently stationed.
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MSR patrol wounds woman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2001, 12:49 GMT]
A woman was injured when Sri Lanka Army soldiers on a route-clearing operation from Vaakaneri camp, about 37 kilometres north of Batticaloa town on the Colombo highway, fired at random on either side of the road. The incident occured at Aalankulam, around 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Aalankulam is about 2 km. north of Vaakaneri. The SLA camp at Vaakeneri is one of the key points on the sole Main Supply Route linking the 23 division headquarters with two of its brigades (23-2 and 23-3) which hold the coast of the Batticaloa district from Valaichenai to Batticaloa town.
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LTTE cautions against war zone resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2001, 18:10 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers called on the people of the Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna not to resettle in their villages as the area is still a war zone. The Tigers, in a leaflet released in Jaffna Friday, said "the enemy and his lackeys are trying use our people as human shields. We do not want our people to suffer again from the calamities of war and destruction. Therefore we request them not to resettle in Thenmaradchi until we issue an official announcement."
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Four SLA soldiers killed in ambush

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, one military trained policeman and a
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Tortured Jaffna youth petitions SC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 08:44 GMT]
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Wednesday granted leave to proceed on a fundamental rights petition filed by a Jaffna youth who is being held in the Boosa prison, south of Colombo. The youth, Selvarajah Thamilchelvan of Pattarakalli koviladi, Thavadi South, Kokuvil, Jaffna states in his petition that he was hung upside down and severely tortured while in the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Police. Thamilchelvan said that TID officers repeatedly burnt his hands with cigarettes and covered his head with a plastic bag soaked in petrol while he was beaten with wires and poles- common method of torture by Sri Lankan security forces. The medico-legal report on Thamilchelvan states there are seven scars on his body, two of which are 14 cm 16 cm long and two 10 cm long.
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Batticaloa detainees list posted, three missing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 18:27 GMT]
The Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Sri Lankan Police in Batticaloa Wednesday submitted to the district court a list of 21 persons who are being held in its special camp in the eastern town. A recently promulgated Emergency Regulation requires officers in charge of gazetted detention centres to submit to the courts a list of persons in their custody every fortnight. Judicial officers are also allowed to visit such detention centres. The CSU camp in the Batticaloa town is not the only gazetted detention centre in the eastern district, sources pointed out.
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SLA operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday morning launched a "limited" operation, advancing from their camp at Vavunathivu, about 5 km. southwest of Batticaloa town, into the villages of Navatkadhu, Karaveddi and Monkeykaddy in the district's western hinter land, said sources. No confrontations with the Liberation Tigers were reported, they added.
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Lifting censorship said ill timed for SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 13:31 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday lifted the draconian censorship on reporting the war against the Liberation Tigers. The reason for the move is not clear, military sources in Colombo said. The censorship, imposed in May 1998, banned, among other things, reporting on military operations planned by the Sri Lanka army and on purchases of military hardware. However, the censorship generally inhibited the Sri Lankan press from candidly reporting about the Sri Lanka army and its military activities in the north and east of the island.
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Sri Lanka's decision seriously threatens peace talks: LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2001, 09:13 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal Saturday to lift the proscription of their organisation and said this had "seriously jeopardised" the prospects for peace talks. Expressing regret and dismay over Sri Lanka's decision in a statement issued from its Vanni headquarters, the LTTE leadership called upon the government to reconsider its position for the sake of peace and ethnic reconciliation. "If the Government adopts a hard-line position and refuses to review its decision on proscription, then it should bear full and total responsibility for the collapse of the peace efforts and the serious consequences that might arise from its decision," the Tigers warned.
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'Onward with the war' say Sinhala nationalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 May 2001, 16:45 GMT]
"The need of the hour is not peace negotiations but to prosecute the war correctly. We should not think about how to negotiate peace but only about conducting the war victoriously. Sri Lanka is the homeland of the Sinhala people. No part of it can be the homeland of a minority. Autonomy and self-determination should not be granted or recognised", resolved a conference of Buddhist monks, leading Sinhala Buddhist businessmen, intellectuals and retired senior officers of the Sri Lankan security forces in Colombo Saturday. The conference was organised, according to a spokesman, to "consider the implications of the forthcoming peace talks and the constitutional proposals on the country". Meanwhile, Colombo stated categorically Saturday that it will not lift the proscription of the Liberation Tigers as a pre-requisite for starting talks.
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