Tamil festival spurs war ravaged district

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 February 2002, 22:46 GMT]

The festival's cultural programs began with traditional Naathaswaram music. (Please click on the image for larger photo)

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Tamil festival for self-determination on 'pearl coast'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 February 2002, 19:28 GMT]
More than twenty thousand, including Muslims, thronged the seaside village of Mutharipputhurai in Mannar Thursday for the 'Tamil is our Being' (Thamil Engal Uyir) celebration. The organisers of the event made a declaration that the homeland of the Tamils and their right to determination should be recognised; that the Liberation Tigers should be accepted as the sole representatives of the Tamils and that the ban on the LTTE should be removed; that the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be repealed and all Tamil political prisoners held under this draconian law should be released.
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Amnesty slams zero prosecutions for rape in military custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 12:48 GMT]
Complaints of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials increased markedly in Sri Lanka last year, Amnesty International said in a new report published Monday. Amnesty said rapes in the context of armed conflict "are now recognized as a war crime and, when committed on a systematic basis or large scale, a crime against humanity."
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SC orders compensation to woman raped at checkpoint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 19:33 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to pay one hundred and fifty thousand rupees as compensation to a Tamil woman who was raped by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka army at a checkpoint in Maradane, near downtown Colombo on 24 June last year in a fundamental rights application filed by her. Tamil political parties launched protests in the north and east against her rape and the rape and torture of two young mothers in Police custody in Mannar and the general harassment of Tamil women at Sri Lankan security forces checkpoints. The protests culminated in a general one-day shutdown in the SLA held parts of the north and east.
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Judge rejects skewed reports on torture victims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 January 2002, 20:03 GMT]
The Trincomalee Magistrate Tuesday ordered that two Tamil youths, allegedly tortured in detention by the Sri Lankan security forces, should be examined by the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer, when it transpired during the proceedings that the District Medical Officers who had examined the young men had stated in their reports that there were no fresh wounds on the two suspects who have been arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA)
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Vanni flooding misery continues without relief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2002, 20:22 GMT]
(News Feature) The effects of heavy flooding two weeks ago in the Mullaitivu and Kilinocchi districts of the Vanni are still being felt across the regions, with roads rendered impassable, schools and settlements flooded out and residents suffering a lack of support from the government and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) based in the area, Tamil press reports this week said. Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected, with many being displaced from their homes and refugee camps as a result of the deluge. Vital supply routes have been cut, aid workers said.
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Vanni voters file FR applications

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2002, 17:13 GMT]
Three Tamil voters from Vanni region held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Wednesday filed fundamental rights applications in the Supreme Court praying to declare that the poll held on December 5 in the Vanni electoral district is null and void, and to order repoll as they with several other voters were prevented from voting by the Sri Lanka Army.
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Army tightens security in Mutur

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2002, 09:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police have tightened security at sentry points at Kaddaiparichchan and Mahindapura and civilians were thoroughly searched before they were being allowed to enter government held region in the Trincomalee district, said sources.
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Suicide on the rise among NE war victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 December 2001, 18:47 GMT]
“The rate of suicide and attempted suicide is on the increase in northeast province. The time has come for the provincial authorities to take immediate steps to arrest this trend by educating internally displaced persons and refugees through field officers of the social services department”, said Mr. S. Amirthalingam, Secretary to the Northeast Provincial Ministry of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Social Welfare inaugurating a three day workshop for social services and probation officers in Trincomalee from 19 to 21 December.
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EPDP rigs polls in Jaffna, Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2001, 09:15 GMT]
Police sources in Jaffna said that the Eelam People’s Democratic Party fired on an opposition candidate and lobbed a grenade at his vehicle near Vaddukoddai junction this morning around 9 a.m. They said that the EPDP had also fired on a bus in which voters were travelling near Chankanai and had smashed a Tamil National Alliance van on Stanley Road in the heart of Jaffna town. Meanwhile, an observer with the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an independent monitoring group, in Jaffna said that the EPDP cadres were seen rigging the polls in the island of Kayts, Velanai and at the polling centres at the Jaffna Hindu College, St. John’s College and the Nelliyadi Maththiya Maha Viththiyalayam. Some voters who went to these centres found their ballots already cast, the PAFFREL source said.
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Rigging feared in 'clustered' polling centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 13:24 GMT]
Journalists, civil society leaders and politicians in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka island told independent and European Union polls observers to pay special attention to 'clustered' polling booths where thousands of Tamil voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers will have to cast their ballots Wednesday.
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General shut in NE against EPDP atrocity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 08:32 GMT]
Schools, shops, government offices and banks were closed in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna in response to a call by the Tamil National Alliance for a general shut down in the north and east to protest against the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime, for killing two civilians and attacking and grievously wounding four TNA candidates in Kayts, an island off the northern peninsula.
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Police FDL attacked

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2001, 12:09 GMT]
A military trained policeman was killed and four others were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked forwards defence lines at Parayanaalankulam on the Vavuniya-Mannar road, around 3.30 a.m, Saturday, security sources said.
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'Colombo's largesse stained with Tamil blood' -Selvam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 21:35 GMT]
"Every rupee that the Sri Lankan government gives you through its quisling to buy your vote is stained with the blood of our people who were killed in places of refuge and worship, the tears of our women who were gang raped here in Mannar and in every part of the north and east. The Chandrika regime is liberally spending money through its Tamil lackey to bribe our people, to pacify them and thereby show the world that our struggle for justice is a terrorist problem. The people of Mannar have always been patriotic.
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Eight fishermen remanded in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 04:07 GMT]
Eight fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the sea off Pesalai in the Mannar Island Thursday. Meanwhile in Jaffna, three Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack in Allaarai in the Thenmaradchi division Thursday night. A woman soldier at the SLA’s Nagar Kovil garrison in Jaffna committed suicide Thursday by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, military sources in the north said. The soldier had been depressed, they added.
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Two SLA killed in blast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2001, 09:00 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed in a claymore mine blast by the Liberation Tigers around 6.30 a.m. Tuesday in Nochchikulam, 15 kilometres north of Vavuniya, in the Omanthai Forward Defence Sector. The soldiers were on a road patrol in the area when the mine was triggered, military sources said. Meanwhile the Tigers fired 120 mm mortars on the forward defences of the Special Task Force in Kattukkarai in the Mannar district around 7.30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
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Embargo, war caused 13, 379 civilian deaths - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2001, 03:05 GMT]
Thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts due to the war and the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government from 1990 to 1999, according to a press report in the Vanni published this weekend. Most of the deaths, destruction of civilian property and mass displacement tool place after the People's Alliance came to power in 1994, the report said. Four thousand eight hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Mullaithivu district between 1994 and 1999 due to the direct impact of the economic embargo on the Vanni, particularly due to the severe restrictions on medical supplies.
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Sinhala domination in N-E Youth Camp criticised

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2001, 21:21 GMT]
Tamil and Muslim youths participating in a youth camp organized by the Sri Lanka National Youth Federation in collaboration with the North-East Provincial Council inaugurated Saturday in Trincomalee protested against the organisers for not giving due place to the Tamil language and Tamil culture.
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Three school boys arrested in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2001, 09:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police arrested three schoolboys in Jaffna Thursday. The three are students at the Sri Parvathi Maha Vithiyalayam in Nayanmaarkattu near Jaffna town. Their parents informed the Human Rights Commission about the arrests today. Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Unit of the Police Thursday produced in the Mannar courts a youth who had been taken into custody for possessing a mobile phone. The Sri Lankan government prohibits the use of mobile phones in the northern and eastern parts of the island. Tamil civilians from other parts of the island are, however, allowed to carry their mobile phones when visiting the army controlled parts of the east or the Vavuniya town.
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Dialogue with LTTE vital for humanitarian ops. -ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 16:51 GMT]
"The LTTE is a major party to the conflict. As such the present dialogue with the LTTE is vital for the continuance of the ICRC's humanitarian services to the people in Vanni and the rest of the country," said Mr.Harasha Gunawardene, the ICRC's press officer, addressing a press conference held Wednesday morning at Trincomalee Seven Islands Hotel.
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