500,000 palmyra trees said destroyed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 June 2002, 02:19 GMT]
Around half a million palmyra trees have been destroyed by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the practice continues even after the ceasefire agreement came into effect, press reports quoted Mr Sivapatham, Head of Palmyra Development board as telling BBC radio. The local populace seems to be losing faith due to the armed forces continuing to build new bunkers during the peace process, he added.
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Tamil students' rallies, protests in Northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 13:27 GMT]
Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies Thursday to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, bombing of schools, chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools. Student leaders who addressed the rallies demanded that Tamil students too be granted equal opportunities in education by Colombo, denied them for more than three decades under partisan education schemes.
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Monitors say Navy restrictions violate truce

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 00:19 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s gazette notification of fishing restrictions issued last week under the Prevention of Terrorism Act conflicts with the provisions of the ceasefire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers, press reports Thursday quoted international truce monitors as saying.
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Sri Lanka tightens fishing restrictions under terrorism act

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 05:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has issued a gazette notification retrospectively dated 23 May, 2002 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act specifying areas in the Northeast that have been restricted for fishing. The government will appoint a Competent Authority in charge of the newly demarcated restricted areas under this gazette notification. The new PTA regulation includes punishment for those violating restriction on fishing in the specified areas.
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Four returning refugees drown

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 June 2002, 12:21 GMT]
Four Tamil refugees coming home from India drowned in the seas off Mannar on 23 May when the boat up to seventeen people were travelling in capsized in strong winds, press reports said. The dead included a five-month-old baby and her mother. Two other women also drowned.
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More Tigers begin political work

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 May 2002, 16:03 GMT]
Scores of cadres from the Liberation Tigers’ political section arrived in Jaffna and Vavuniya earlier this week, Tamil press reports said. Forty-nine LTTE cadres arrived in Jaffna this week whilst twelve entered Vavuniya. More LTTE volunteers are expected to arrive in Vavuniya and Mannar soon.
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Conditions "not conducive for refugees’ return" - UNHCR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 May 2002, 02:37 GMT]
Despite the voluntary return of 71,000 internally displaced people [IDP] to their homes this year, the United Nations’ leading refugee agency maintains that “conditions in Sri Lanka are not yet conducive to promote or facilitate large-scale, organised [displaced people’s] return or repatriation of refugees,” a UN working group said this week. The report said that major concerns remain regarding the risk of landmines and unexploded ordinance in both actual and potential areas of return.
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SL armed forces said violating children's rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2002, 17:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army and the Special Task Force haven't come up with a schedule for leaving more than eighty schools occupied by them in the districts of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai although they should have started doing so soon after the ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers came into effect on 24 February 2002, Northeast Provincial Education Ministry officials said Wednesday.
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Thousands at May Day rallies in Northeastern province

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2002, 19:05 GMT]
More than ten thousand people took part in the May Day rally in Kumarapuram in southern Trincomalee Wednesday afternoon. Thousands also gathered for May Day rallies in Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaithivu, Kilinochchi and Jaffna. Mr. Karikalan hoisted the flag of the Liberation Tigers at the rally of more than fifteen thousand in Palugamam, 30 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
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Tamil journalists still face danger - RSF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2002, 19:02 GMT]
The Reporters Sans Frontiers, the French media watchdog, said in its annual report on press freedom released Wednesday that working conditions for Tamil journalists remain very dangerous in Sri Lanka, especially when they report on human rights violations. "They are easily accused of supporting the Tamil Tigers guerrilla movement. The 1998 Emergency Law allows security forces to arrest anyone suspected of maintaining relations with this banned separatist organisation. But how can anyone work in the north and east of the country without having contacts with the Tamil Tigers, who are everywhere?" the RSF report said.
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More LTTE cadres arrive in Vavuniya, Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2002, 14:53 GMT]
Twenty-four cadres from the Liberation Tigers' political section entered the government-controlled towns of Mannar and Vavuniya Tuesday to begin work under the terms of the indefinite ceasefire which began on February 23, reports said. They are part of the 100 cadres scheduled to enter government controlled territory 60 days after the truce began, in addition to the fifty who assumed duties a month ago.
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Muslims hail SLMC-LTTE agreement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2002, 22:31 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s Muslim community this week welcomed the landmark agreement signed between the largest Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Liberation Tigers. Mr Vellupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the LTTE, met with Mr Rauf Hakeem, leader of the SLMC last weekend and the two leaders agreed to cooperate closely on affairs related to Sri Lanka's Muslim community.
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Crowd confronts SLA for delaying LTTE arrival

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 April 2002, 05:30 GMT]
The arrival of the Liberation Tigers in the Sri Lanka army controlled part of the Mannar district under the terms of the cease-fire agreement signed by Colombo and the LTTE in February was delayed Tuesday over the list of names sent to the army by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The large crowd comprising community leaders, traders, civil society activists etc., from Mannar who were waiting at the SLA's Uyilankulam entry point to welcome the LTTE from 8.30 in the morning got into a heated altercation with the military over the delay in letting the Tigers pass through. A section of the public then came to blows with soldiers who trying to video film the crowd and attempted to grab the SLA's camera.
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CPJ criticizes tardy investigation of journalist's murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 March 2002, 22:36 GMT]
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report on 'Attacks on the Press 2001' released Tuesday that Sri Lanka Police ignored evidence suggesting that militias backed by a pro-government party may have murdered Nimalarajan in retaliation for his reporting on vote rigging and intimidation during the 2000 parliamentary elections in Jaffna.
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Cease-fire monitors visit Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 17:40 GMT]
Two Scandinavian cease-fire monitors were on a familarisation visit to Batticaloa Thursday. Mr. Lars Tio Beck, a Swedish national who earlier worked with a Norwegian non-governmental organization FORUT in Batticaloa in the early 1990s and Quaker Peace Movement and Mr. Ola Kristian Hegge, a Norwegian are to serve on the local monitoring committee to be established in Batticaloa and Ampara respectively.
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Monitoring Mission Chief arrives Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 March 2002, 12:06 GMT]
The Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Retired Norwegian Army General Trond Furuhovde arrived in Colombo Saturday morning, accompanied by four other Norwegian monitors. Monitors from Finland and Sweden are also expected to arrive shortly, government sources said. The sixteen-member Monitoring Mission comprising officials from Nordic countries was set up according to the permanent cease-fire agreement signed between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers last month.
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Ranil visits A9 entry point to mark MoU signing

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2002, 11:30 GMT]
(Photos) Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the main entry point on the A9 highway to the LTTE held Vanni region Friday afternoon to mark the historic signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a permanent cease-fire between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo. The Prime Minister was accorded a reception at the last SLA point on the edge of the no man's land supervised by the ICRC.
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A9 highway reopens

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 February 2002, 11:14 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's main A9 highway, the target of an abortive and bloody 18-month Army offensive in the mid nineties was reopened Friday morning from Vavuniya up to Killinochchi, as part of ongoing efforts to de-escalate the conflict. The move provides greater access for people and supplies to the Liberation Tigers held Vanni region on which successive government in Colombo clamped an economic embargo for more than a decade. Goods were scheduled to flow into the area Friday, while seven hundred people waiting on either side of the former separating line had been cleared to cross. "Civilians would be allowed to travel to and from LTTE held Vanni region through these roads after their identities are checked and only five days a week between 8 am and 5 pm," authoritative sources told TamilNet.
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'Poverty is prevalent in northeast'- ADB Director

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 February 2002, 17:38 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank's Country Director Mr.John R.Cooney said Thursday that about seventy percent of the people in the war torn northeast province in Sri Lanka are below poverty line and their average monthly income is less than one thousand rupees. "This is very much high compared to other provinces in the island". Mr.Cooney made this observation Thursday morning at the inaugural event of the Project Management Office of the North East Community Restoration and Development Project (NECORD) in Trincomalee.
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Tigers say ready to open A9 highway as scheduled

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 February 2002, 06:09 GMT]
In a statement issued in the Vanni Sunday, the political wing of the Liberation Tigers said that the A9 highway and the Uyilankulam road in Mannar would be opened on Friday 15 February. The two roads would be the only access arteries to the LTTE held Vanni region on which successive government in Colombo clamped a harsh economic embargo for more than a decade. The Vavuniya GA told TamilNet last week that the district secretariat was ready for opening the A9 on 15 February.
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