Heavy SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:11 GMT]
Heavy fighting between the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops continued Wednesday night with both sides using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said. Over 100 SLA troops have been killed and 400 wounded in 24 hours of pitch battle in the Kilaly-Eluthumadduval-Nagar Kovil axis, the sources said.
Full story >>

ICRC outlines work in war zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
Full story >>

SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting rise

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 14:37 GMT]
More than 400 Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded in less than eight hours of fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Eluthumadduval and Kilali in Jaffna, military sources in the north said. Officials at government hospitals in Anuradhapura and Colombo said preparations are underway to receive more later this evening. The SLA spokesman, however, claimed that only 78 soldiers were wounded and 30 were killed. Op. Agni Khela I (Fire Flame), launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the SLA to retake JaffnaÌs southern sector and Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the peninsula which Tigers overran in April 2000.
Full story >>

SLA operation slows as casualties mount

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 11:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army offensive south of Eluthumadduval and Kilaly slowed down this afternoon amid heavy resistance and counter fire by the Liberation Tigers, sources in Jaffna said. At least 84 SLA troopers were wounded and 28 killed in eight hours of fighting, military sources in the north said. Shelling continued in the Nagar Kovil sector.
Full story >>

SLA offensive in Nagar Kovil, Eluthumadduval

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 04:21 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted in Nagar Kovil and the Eluthumadduval area in Jaffna when Sri Lanka army troops attempted to push south along the coast around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, sources in the northern peninsula said. The SLA's thrust towards the coastal villages of Kudrappu and Maamunai and south of Eluthumadduval was met with heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers, they added. Meanwhile, the army banned on all fishing in the Jaffna lagoon until further notice Tuesday evening.
Full story >>

Tamil schools don't get computers

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 20:07 GMT]
"Tamil medium national schools in the northeast province have not been supplied with computers and printers although the Ministry of Education has long since distributed them to national schools in other parts of the country", said the President of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Mr.S.Thandayuthapani. "The computers and printers were promised last year and teachers were trained for handling them. We have got nothing so far despite several appeals," he added.
Full story >>

Little hope for resettling Tamil villages in Trinco

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 21:00 GMT]
"Wild animals are roaming in many abandoned Tamil villages in the Trincomalee district. Entire populations of these were forced to flee their homes due to military actions more than fifteen years ago. Around five thousand displaced are still living in fifteen welfare centers and the rest are living with their relatives in Trincomalee town. Several Tamil villages in the district, particularly in the Kuchchaveli division, are without basic facilities such as schools, and dispensaries. There is little hope that any funds for development would be allocated to such areas by the District Co-ordinating Committee because there aren't any Tamil MP's on it", said a senior Sri Lankan government official in Trincomalee Sunday.
Full story >>

Heavy shelling in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army launched an intense artillery and aerial attack Saturday on the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the southern Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna town said. Heavy artillery and multi-barrelled rocket launchers (MBRLs) targeted LTTE defences in the Eluthumadduval and Pallai areas, they said.
Full story >>

SLA shells Batticaloa villages - residents

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 22:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers stationed at the 23-3 Brigade HQ in Batticaloa fired several rounds of shells towards the villages of Kannankudah, Thaandiyadi, Arasadithivy and Kokkaddicholai in the western hinterlands of the district Friday night residents said.
Full story >>

Tigers slam wounding of US journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 13:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday condemned the wounding Monday of an American journalist by Sri Lanka Army troops who opened fire on Marie Colvin's party as "an act of cowardice" and praised the correspondent's bravery in crossing into the Vanni to examine the situation there for herself. Ms. Colvin had crossed the lines back into government-held territory with the hope the SLA would honour its unilateral New-Year truce, the LTTE said in a statement issued in the Vanni.
Full story >>

Batticaloa shuts down for 'Annai' Poopathi anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Shops, government offices and businesses were closed Thursday in the Batticaloa district to mark the 13th anniversary of Poopathy Kanapathipillai, the woman who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 during a month long mass protest against atrocities committed by the Indian army in the northern and eastern parts of the island at the time. Few people and fewer vehicles were on the roads. Special Task Force (STF) commandos forced shops to open in Kaluwanchikudi, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, sources said.
Full story >>

Sinhala nationalists support Mannar rape accused

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2001, 20:16 GMT]
The former officer in charge of the Mannar Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) N.P.N.Suraweera who is accused of torturing and sexually assaulting two women in custody on 19 March filed a petition Wednesday in the court of appeal that the case against him should be heard in Colombo and not in the district court of Mannar. The Sinhala nationalist politician lawyer Mr. S.L Gunasekera appeared for the Police officer. Suraweera said in his petition that the two women were not raped in custody and that they started saying so only after the Mannar Bishop who, according to him, has close links with the Liberation Tigers visited them on 27 March.
Full story >>

Third party 'crucial' in any peace talks- Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this week that the involvement of a third party was crucial in any negotiations between them and the Sri Lankan government, and suggested that Norway might be fill that role as an extension of Oslo's present efforts to bring about talks between the two sides. In an interview to the Tamil Guardian weekly, the latest issue of which hit the newsstands in London Tuesday, the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said "In our perspective the third party involvement is crucial even after the commencement of the negotiations."
Full story >>

LTTE to appeal against UK ban

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 09:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are preparing to appeal against their proscription under Britain's Terrorism Act and were putting together a legal team for this purpose, Tamil media sources said Tuesday, quoting the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham. "We are already in consultation with eminent lawyers in the field of terrorist legislation and we are advised to apply to the Home Secretary for de-proscription," Balasingham was quoted as saying by sources with the Tamil Guardian weekly.
Full story >>

SLN, Sea Tigers clash off Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2001, 16:47 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy gun boat was damaged and seven sailors were wounded in a sea battle between the Sea Tigers and the Navy off the coast of Chaalai in north-east of the island in the early hours of Monday, military sources said. Voice of Tigers radio said the fighting erupted when the SLN crafts engaged Sea Tiger boats off the coast of Mullaithivu around 1.45 a.m.
Full story >>

Released prisoners not LTTE members

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 18:30 GMT]
A senior member of a Tamil paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army said Sunday that at least four among the ten purported 'Liberation Tigers' released by Colombo as a good will measure are actually persons closely associated with the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). "None of them are members of the Liberation Tigers. They were arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Police in September last year because of they are relatives and acquaintances of Jeganahtan Pathmanathan, a senior member of the TELO's Mannar branch who was arrested earlier for allegedly aiding an ex-LTTE member. Jeganathan is still in prison with his wife and two small children. There was no grounds for a case against the others", he said.
Full story >>

Judicial process impaired, scant justice- Bishops

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 12:48 GMT]
"Ordinary citizens who are suffering have scant hope of obtaining even elementary justice at the hands of the traditional guardians of law and order. People have the perception that the judicial process too has been impaired", said the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka Sunday in a statement issued to the press Sunday.
Full story >>

Tamils observe New Year amid fragile truce

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 16:38 GMT]
The Tamil New Year begins Friday night at 9.27 p.m. People wear new clothes and visit friends and relatives. During the festive season there is great demand for new bank notes, which are gifted as good will money ('Kai Muluththam') to friends and relatives. Many indigenous festivities traditionally associated with the New Year have greatly diminished due to SLA restrictions and curfews.
Full story >>

SLA sounds alarm on first day of truce

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 11:45 GMT]
The Sri Lankan security forces high command, in a clear signal that it was not comfortable with the limited ceasefire declared by Colombo for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, charged in a SLA news release Friday that the Liberation Tigers are taking advantage of the army halting offensive operations, barely 12 hours into the truce. The Police, army and the Special Task Force stepped up security in areas controlled by them in the north and east of the island Friday although the ceasefire came into effect from midnight Thursday.
Full story >>

Maj.Gen. Neil Dias' term extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2001, 13:10 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President extended the service of the Sri Lanka army's Chief of Staff, Major General Neil Dias, who was due to retire Thursday before she left to an undisclosed destination abroad. Maj. Gen. Neil Dias is one of the most battle experienced commanders of the SLA. Sources in the SLA headquarters in Colombo ventured to speculate that he might succeed Lt. Gen.Lionel Balagalle who is due to retire this year as the commander of the SLA. The extension of the battle hardened commander's service was seen by analysts as an indication of Colombo's determination to give optimum priority to prosecuting the war against the Liberation Tigers.
Full story >>