'More booze than books' policy condemned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 17:38 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government sends liquor to Jaffna more regularly than school text books. On the average, three children in Jaffna receive only one textbook today. Even this limited number is not sent to the schools regularly. The government says there is no room in the ships to send textbooks to Jaffna. However, it sends a very large quantity of liquor to peninsula. This is being done with the clear aim of destroying our society", said V. Sothinathan, an officer of the government's Excise Department in Jaffna, addressing a conference Tuesday at the Jaffna University to take action against the sale of illicit liquor in the peninsula.
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Batticaloa shuts down for massacred children

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 02:43 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads Monday in the Batticaloa district to observe the Buddhist festival if Vesak as a day of mourning for the 10 children from an orphanage who were killed by Sri Lanka army soldiers on 17 May last year. The main road from Kalmunai to Batticaloa was blocked at Ondaachchi Madam, Kaluthavalai and Thalangkudah by villagers. Fourteen persons, including ten children who came to the Batticaloa town from an orphanage in Aayiththiyamalai, were shot dead during the Vesak festival by SLA troops last year.
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Bravery awards after SLA rout

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 20:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week saluted their units which participated in the rout of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive in the southern Jaffna peninsula two weeks ago, official LTTE sources said Sunday. The special award for bravery was awarded to the men and women who had defeated a three pronged assault by fifteen thousand SLA soldiers backed by artillery, naval gunboats and air power, they said.
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Tamil journalists slam draconian laws

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 15:00 GMT]
"The Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act are laws designed specifically to oppress the Tamil people", said Mr. P. Manickavasagam, the President of the Tamil Media Alliance, addressing a meeting in Batticaloa organised Sunday by the East Lanka Journalist Association to mark the World Press Freedom Day. "The Amnesty International has said in its report that the Eelam People's Democratic Party is suspected in the murder of Jaffna journalist Maylvaganam Nimalarajan.
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Talaimannar refuses to yield

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 20:20 GMT]
(News Feature) Two decades ago Talaimannar was a prosperous town. The only ferry service between India and Sri Lanka operated from here, carrying thousands of passengers from Talaimannar pier to Rameswaram in South India. One could buy a railway ticket to India from any part of the island and take the train to board the ferry at Talaimannar for the short journey across the Palk Strait. Today less than hundred and fifty families live in the Talaimannar pier.
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Tigers hand over 29 SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 11:01 GMT]
Twenty-nine bodies of the Sri Lanka Army soldiers killed in the Jaffna battle last week were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by the Liberation Tigers Friday, Mr.Thangan, the Head of the political administration of the LTTE handed over the bodies to the local ICRC representative at a meeting held at Kilinochchi at 9 a.m., according to an official statement from the LTTE head quarters in the northern Vanni.
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Attacks shatter Mawanella Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2001, 15:44 GMT]
Two mosques, sixty houses, forty shops and two Muslim owned fuel stations were burnt down Wednesday by mobs in the town of Mawanella, said Mr. Ali Sahir Moulana, a Muslim opposition Parliamentarian Thursday. He said that Sinhala mobs had carried out the attacks with the aim of destroying the basis of the Muslim people's economy in Mawanella. The town is on the main highway between Kandy and Colombo in the Kegalle district and is predominantly Muslim. Mr.Moulana said that the Sri Lankan government should take full responsibility for the attack on the Muslims in Mawanella and its environs.
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Sri Lanka's radical Marxists stage massive rally

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 19:55 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty thousand members and supporters of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lanka's radical Marxist party, took part in a massive May Day rally Tuesday in Colombo.
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LTTE accuses Sri Lanka of undermining peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 09:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Tuesday accused the Government of Sri Lanka of attempting to undermine the peace environment by its irrational and dangerous policy of war and military conquest. "By unleashing a major military offensive against the LTTE's positions in Jaffna, Kumaratunga government has seriously jeopardised the Norwegian peace initiative", the statement said.
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Revenge fire, bombing force 5000 to flee

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2001, 20:38 GMT]
More than five thousand civilians fled their homes in Pooneryn north following heavy shelling and bombing, aid agency sources in the north said Monday. They said that Sri Lanka Air Force jets bombed the area since Friday. The Sri Lanka army had fired mortars and artillery on civilian settlements in the northern parts of Pooneryn. The attacks are in retaliation to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA in the Agni Khiela I Operation last week, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tigers hand over more SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2001, 06:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over 26 bodies of Sri Lanka army soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kilinochchi Sunday morning, ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunwardena told Tamilnet. This brings the total bodies of SLA personnel handed over by the Tigers to the ICRC to 56. The Tigers handed over the bodies of 30 government troopers Saturday morning.
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Offensive routed, over 2400 SLA casualties - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Saturday afternoon said that the Sri Lankan army was pushed back to its original position in the early hours of the morning today. The statement said that the SLA’s 55, 52 Divisions and the elite 53 special forces Division, suffered more than 2400 casualties in ferocious counter offensives by the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers. “LTTE commando units have started clearing the area, about 2 square kilometres, vacated by the army in the Eluthumadduval sector, in southern Jaffna. Decomposing bodies of soldiers and their weapons are scattered everywhere in the area, according to LTTE field commanders”, the statement said.
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LTTE hands over bodies of SLA to ICRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:27 GMT]
"Thirty bodies of SLA soldiers were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni region Saturday morning", ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet.
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SLA artillery attack wounds eight in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 10:33 GMT]
Eight civilians, including a 3-month-old infant, were seriously wounded Saturday when the Sri Lanka army's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa town fired heavy artillery on villages across the lagoon in the district's western hinterland. The SLA opened up with heavy artillery fire on the villages of Mandapathadi and Kannankudah around 10.30 a.m.
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Norway's peace initiative mired in blood

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 03:38 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) The Norwegian peace initiative suffered several body blows this week as amid a bloody Sri Lanka Army offensive in the Jaffna peninsula, the government ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire, saying it was Ïirrelevant" to the Norwegian facilitated peace process, and insisted the Liberation Tigers would remain proscribed until they proved they were "sincere and honest" about negotiations, thereby rejecting two issues the LTTE insists are pre-requisites for succesful negotiations to be held.
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Casualties rise as Jaffna battle rages

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 16:05 GMT]
Heavy fighting continued for the third day in the southern Jaffna peninsula, with both the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army troops using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said Thursday. LTTE casualties on Friday night stood at 48 killed, they said. The SLA continued to suffer casualties as troops attempting to dig into a captured salient 1km inside the LTTE's defence lines near Eluthumadduval, the sources further said.
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Vesak should be day of mourning - eastern students

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 12:52 GMT]
Eastern university undergraduates and teachers demonstrated Friday urging the people of Batticaloa to observe the Buddhist Vesak festival as a day of mourning. Thirteen people, including nine children from an orphanage, were shot dead by Sri Lanka army soldiers in Batticaloa town during the Vesak festival on 17 May last year following a blast. The SLA sought an apology for the massacre from the people of Batticaloa in January this year, blaming a drunken commanding officer for ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Meanwhile, the SLA warned civilians in Batticaloa Friday not to move about near its camps and positions in the district after dark. The army increased search operation in the eastern town this week.
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Tigers recover 30 SLA bodies -VOT

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 03:23 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers recovered the bodies of thirty Sri Lanka army soldiers from the battlefield in Jaffna south, the Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Friday. The radio denied a report by the Special Media Information Centre of the Sri Lankan government that the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed two busloads of its troopers behind the lines on Thursday. The VOT said that heavy fighting was raging in the southern parts of the peninsula for the third day.
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Tigers step up counter fire on SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 13:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers directed heavy mortar and artillery counter barrages on the positions the SLA is trying to consolidate in the Muhamalai-Eluthumadduval sector in Jaffna Thursday. Civilian flights from Jaffna to Colombo operated by a company owned by the Sri Lanka Air Force was cancelled Thursday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. Passengers who went to board the AN-28 at the Palaly military base this afternoon were turned back. "The SLAF is in urgent need of more flights for casualty evacuation and logistical runs", a member of a Tamil group working with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna said. The state owned Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation called on civilians Thursday morning to donate blood for the wounded soldiers. Hospital sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 1100 wounded SLA soldiers have been flown out of Jaffna for treatment in civilian hospitals in the southern parts of the island, including the capital.
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More than 1000 SLA wounded in aborted offensive

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 06:37 GMT]
At least 1058 Sri Lanka army troops were wounded in Wednesday's massive onslaught against the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the Jaffna peninsulaís southern sector, military sources in Jaffna said. A large number of these were airlifted to government hospitals in Colombo and Anurudhapura. Many of the seriously wounded were also sent to the government general hospitals in Jayawardhanapura and Ragama near Colombo. Others have been admitted to provincial hospitals, according to medical sources. About 100 more are expected to be airlifted to Colombo later today for treatment, the sources added. Casualties started rising when several advancing SLA troop concentrations were hit by heavy artillery fire from the LTTEís gun positions in the rear, military sources in Jaffna said.
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