Civilians hit by SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 June 2000, 11:22 GMT]
A civilian was killed and two others were wounded when shells fired by the Sri Lanka Army hit the Madduvil area in the Thenmaradchi sector of the Jaffna peninsula Sunday, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said.
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India extends $100 million credit to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 June 2000, 19:40 GMT]
India's Minister of External affairs of India, Sri Jaswant Singh said his government would extend to Sri Lanka a credit facility of 100 million US dollars, according to a statement regarding his visit to the island issued Monday by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry. The statement had been approved by both governments, officials said.
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Casualties from Jaffna fighting

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 June 2000, 12:08 GMT]
Twenty-five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, including a senior officer, were killed and about 50 others were wounded in the heavy fighting that erupted at Sarasalai in the Jaffna peninsula yesterday, SLA sources in Colombo said.
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SLA assault repulsed -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2000, 15:21 GMT]
An offensive assault by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Sarasalai area of the Jaffna peninsula was repulsed Friday with heavy casualties, the Liberation Tigers said in a statement from their London offices. Civilian settlements in Maduvil and Sarasalai had been hit by artillery and rocket fire, killing six civilians and wounding scores, the statement added.
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Minister killed in bomb blast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2000, 08:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Minister of Industries C.V.Gooneratne was killed in a bomb blast in Golumadama Junction, Galle Road, Ratmalana, about 15 km. south of Colombo, around 2 p.m. today police said. Initial reports said at least 20 others, including Deputy Mayor of Dehiwala-Mt.Lavinia, were killed and 27 others were wounded in the explosion. The Mayor of Dehiwala-Mt.Lavinia was seriously injured in the blast.
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Sri Lanka marks War Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2000, 08:16 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government observed Wednesday as Ranaviru Day ('War Heroes' Day) in several parts of the island. A two-minute silence was observed at 9.30 a.m. Addressing the ceremony at her offices in downtown Colombo, President Chandrika Kumaratunge said the event was initiated by her government "to salute members of the Sri Lanka Armed Services and the Police who are dead, missing in action, disabled and those who are fighting a valiant battle on our behalf to keep the nation together".
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Feeding Mars in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2000, 23:59 GMT]
Jaffna has been supplied by air and sea for almost a decade. However, this is the first time the sea and air supply facilities of the SLA in the northern peninsula have been threatened directly. Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister acknowledged last week that the Liberation Tigers are firing a large number of shells on the Sri Lankan army's Palali base complex, which includes the Kankesanthurai harbour.
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Tigers sink Sri Lankan gunboat

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 June 2000, 07:09 GMT]
A Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC) of the Sri Lanka Navy was sunk by the Liberation Tigers off the coast of Vadamaradchi East in the north of the island this morning, security sources in Colombo said.
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Eight youths arrested in round up

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2000, 10:26 GMT]
Eight youths were arrested when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Police conducted a cordon and search operation in Kokkuvil, a village 4 km. north of Batticaloa this morning.
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Mannar SLA shooting victims identified

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2000, 18:20 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army handed over the bodies of five Tamil youth to the Mannar hospital this morning. The SLA told the hospital that the youth were shot dead in a house in Thalvupaadu, four kilometers west of Mannar town, when it was surrounded by troops around 5 a.m. Friday morning on receipt of information that Liberation Tigers were in the village. However, one of the youth shot dead was identified as K. Pirapaharan, a school teacher, by his sister and another was identified by his brother as Victor Sebamalai who had not returned home after reporting to the military intelligence unit at Mannar for an inquiry on May 31.
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Editor's Guild challenges censorship

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2000, 12:19 GMT]
The Editor's guild has filed a fundamental Rights application in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the Regulation making powers of the President under Section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance. This is the section under which the government has imposed the wide ranging censorship of the news, and banned the publication of three newspapers.
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'Behaviour in combat' booklets for SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 June 2000, 23:12 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Thursday handed over to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) 20,000 booklets and 6000 posters depicting basic rules for Behaviour in Combat. Ms. Isabelle Barras, Head of Delegation, ICRC Colombo, stressed that such publications, produced with the assistance of the ICRC, are principally designed as support material for instruction of the Law of Armed Conflict within the SLA.
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Ratwatte explains SLA activity in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, who returned from Jaffna Wednesday after directing military operations there told state run TV that he has ordered the Sri Lanka army not to pull back any further in Jaffna. He said that the Liberation Tigers had shelled Palaly and the army had to counter it. The Minister urged the public to persuade deserters and soldiers who have not reported to duty after going on leave to go back to the front if they happened to see them.
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Two women assaulted in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 16:48 GMT]
Two young girls arrested by Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Sunday, were admitted to Batticaloa hospital Wednesday after they were severely assaulted in army custody, legal sources said.
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Passengers say Jaffna situation grim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 11:05 GMT]
Students, government officers and Tamil expatriates from Jaffna who arrived in Trincomalee Wednesday on the passenger ship 'City of Trinco' said that civilians continue to live in fear and uncertainty in the peninsula. A group of university students and officers who spoke to TamilNet this morning said that the Jaffna municipal area is generally deserted and that the curfew imposed by the Sri Lankan army is lifted for only three hours from morning 9 a.m. to 12 noon during the day.
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SLA search in Colombo's business hub

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 May 2000, 19:03 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army cordoned off and searched Sea Street, the island's 'gold market', in the heart of Colombo's business hub Tuesday. More than thousand businessmen and shop assistants in this predominantly Tamil sector of the capital's business district were lined up for identification by 'spotters' who had come with the army. More than thirty youth, including five girls were arrested.
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Grenade attack wounds five soldiers

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2000, 19:08 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded in Mannar town Monday when a grenade was lobbed at them during a search operation in the suburb of Emil Nagar around 6.45 p.m. The condition of two soldiers is serious, Mannar Police sources said.
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MSF brings Jaffna wounded to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2000, 17:19 GMT]
Four civilians wounded in shelling in the Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna were transferred from Mallavi to Vavuniya hospital Monday by Medicins Sans Frontiers. The four are from the village of Madduvil south which was captured by the Liberation Tigers when they advanced on Chavakachcheri and its environs on May 19-20. They were brought overland through the Vanni from LTTE held sectors of Jaffna by the MSF.
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SLA silence stymies UNHCR effort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 May 2000, 15:32 GMT]
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a press release issued in Colombo Sunday that it did not receive a response to a request it had made to the Sri Lankan government on May 6 that "military actions be suspended for the period of the LTTE declared cease-fire" on May 27 Saturday, "in the interest of the civilians, who may be moving during that time". The UNHCR had also asked the Sri Lankan government to indicate a safe route to areas held by the army but had got no reply from the Ministry of Defence according to the press release.
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Shelling thwarts civilian evacuation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 May 2000, 18:12 GMT]
The evacuation of an estimated 15,000 civilians from the embattled Chavakachcheri sector failed Saturday, as heavy shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) prevented them moving to designated points where UNHCR officials were waiting, following the declaration of a ceasefire by the Liberation Tigers, the LTTE said in a statement. The LTTE urged international governments to "prevail on the Sri Lankan armed forces to desist from using civilians as human shields and subjecting them to indiscriminate artillery and aerial bombardment".
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