Mannar judge calls SIU bluff

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 18:36 GMT]
The Mannar district judge M.H.M Ajmeer Thursday told officers of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Police that he would have to dismiss about 200 cases filed by them as these have been pending for a almost three years without the Attorney General instituting proceedings against persons who have been charged under the PTA and the Emergency Regulations. The judge rejected the SIU's explanation that the cases are still before the AG's department.
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Search operation in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 14:09 GMT]
Five people were arrested during a combined search operation by Sri Lanka Army soldiers and police in the Mannar town Wednesday. The operation which began around 9 a.m. went on till noon, local residents said.
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Senior PLOTE member shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2001, 22:22 GMT]
A senior member of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the high security zone of the Mannar town around 8 p.m. Tuesday police said. The PLOTE maintains a camp in Mannar town close to the police station.
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Soldier, police officer killed in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 11:28 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed in a counter-ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Uyilankulam in the north-western Mannar District, around 9.30 p.m. Wednesday, army sources said. The soldiers were lying in ambush ahead of Uyilankulam forward defence lines, the source said.
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Arrests on the increase again in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2001, 09:09 GMT]
Fifteen persons arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in Vavuniya in the first two weeks of May 2001 are reported missing according to complaints lodged with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in the northern border town. Fifteen persons were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces last week as well, according to HRC sources in Vavuniya. They said that arrests and detention by the security forces have increased in Vavuniya in recent weeks. Many relatives are still trying to find the places where the arrested persons are being held. An HRC official said that efforts by his organisation to locate the missing persons were not successful.
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SLN brings 'spotters' in ambulance, arrests seven

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 May 2001, 11:50 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy arrested seven civilians from Pesalai, 16 kilometres west of Mannar town, during a search operation in the residential sector and the two refugee camps of the village Saturday morning. The Navy brought two hooded ëspottersí in an ambulance after it cordoned off the two refugee camps and division 5, 6 and 7 from 5 a.m. in the morning. The civilians who were pointed out by the two 'spotters' were arrested and taken away by the SLN. The search comes in the wake of claymore blast Friday in Thoattaveli, near Pesalai, in which two Special Task Force commandos were wounded.
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Barrage on Pallai, claymore blast in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 14:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army launched a barrage on Thambakaamam and Periyapalai in the southern sector of Jaffna which is under the control of the Liberation Tigers from Thursday night sources in the north said. The SLA sustained the barrage with heavy artillery from 8 a.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday morning. Meanwhile, two Special Task Force commandos were wounded when the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by a claymore mine blast in Thoattaveli, 10 kilometres west of Mannar on the main road to Talaimannar Friday afternoon around 3.30 p.m.
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12 soldiers killed, 21 wounded in Tiger ambushes

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 07:51 GMT]
Twelve Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and 21 were wounded in two separate attacks by the Liberation Tigers Friday morning, said army sources in the northern town of Vavuniya. Earlier in a claymore mine blast on the Vavuniya-Mannar road, a SLA soldier was killed and another was wounded.
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Emergency and PTA promote torture - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 20:50 GMT]
"No self respecting Tamil will vote for the extension of the Emergency and its regulations. The Tamil people have been denied their fundamental right of freedom from torture for more than 25 years. The Sri Lankan security forces behave as though no Tamil has this fundamental right which is guaranteed to every citizen of this country in the constitution. Can you tell me how many Tamils were not subjected to torture in custody? The most pernicious methods of torture are practiced on the Tamils by the security forces today. Therefore I ask: are the Tamils citizens of this country or should they determine their own citizenship?" asked 'Selvam' A. Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), speaking in Parliament Thursday on the vote to extend the state of Emergency.
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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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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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SLN, Sea Tigers clash in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 03:15 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy sailor was killed and two were wounded in a clash with the Sea Tigers in the sea off Pallimunai, a suburb of Mannar town around 7.20 a.m. Thursday morning. Police sources in the town said that Sea Tiger craft attacked an SLN patrol in the Pallimunai sea that attempted to intercept a group of Liberation Tigers who were headed towards the Mannar town. The wounded SLN personnel were brought to the Mannar base hospital.
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Trinco citizens call for UNHRC presence

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 16:49 GMT]
“The presence of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka should be made a reality to monitor crimes against innocent Tamils, especially women, by members of Armed Forces who are almost 100 percent Sinhalese”, states a memorandum sent to several international human rights organizations Friday by leading citizens of Trincomalee.
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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.
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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.
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Black badge protest a success- CTTU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 17:45 GMT]
"The protest campaign by Tamil students, teachers and principals condemning the atrocities committed on the two Tamil married women in Mannar in the north eastern province today was a success. Over fifteen thousand teachers and four hundred thousand students participated in the campaign," said Mr.T. Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) Tuesday.
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Police seek further imprisonment of Sivamani, Wijikala

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 13:33 GMT]
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Mannar Police Monday moved in the Mannar district court that Sivamani Weerakon and Nanthakumar Wijikala, the young women who were allegedly raped and brutally tortured in Police custody, be further remanded for fourteen days on grounds that they had confessed to offences under draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act and that they are suicide bombers sent by the LTTE to assassinate important persons. The SIU also stated that it was necessary to keep the women in custody because investigations about them are not yet over. Objecting to the SIU's application, Mr. K.S Ratnavale, the attorney who appeared for the accused, told the court, "this a funny application coming from the prosecution because the B report filed in court by the SIU moving for further remand has been signed by OIC Suraweera who has been accused of committing sexual offences against the two women. He should be the one behind bars".
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