Religious delegation visits Madhu, meets LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 03:35 GMT]
A 60-member inter-religious delegation comprising 36 Buddhist monks, two Bishops and several catholic and muslim priests visited Madhu in the LTTE held Vanni Monday, sources said. The visit was arranged by the northeast Bishops Association.
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Thousands march for peace, self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 12:23 GMT]
More than twelve thousand people marched in Vavuniya and Mannar Saturday urging the Sri Lankan government to stop the war, start Norway mediated peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and recognise the Tamil peopleís right of self determination. Thousands marched through the Vavuniya and Mannar towns and in Murunkan. Christian and Buddhist clergymen, Members of Parliament of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, local leaders of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Peopleís Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam etc., teachers, traders, students marched crying slogans and carrying banners and placards.
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Administrative devices said undermining Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2001, 07:18 GMT]
Eechchilampattu, an agricultural region in the southern interior of the Trincomalee district, remains acutely underdeveloped because discriminatory administrative policies aimed at keeping it under the Seruvila local government body, local civil society activists said. Mr.S.Gunanayagam, a Justice of Peace and former chairman of the Kaddaiparichchan Village Council told TamilNet that the interior roads of the region are dilapidated or unusable and that there has been no local development work here for almost a decade because the Sinhala dominated Seruvila Pradeshiya Sabha refuses to allocate any funds for Eechchilampattu. "This is a general strategy adopted by Sinhala bureaucrats to undermine several isolated Tamil administrative units in the northern and eastern parts of the island", Mr. Gunanayagam said.
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Fishermen arrested in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2001, 15:17 GMT]
At least twenty-five Tamil youths are reported to have been arrested by Sri Lanka Navy personnel in the north-western Mannar district between 1 and 5 February. Their relatives have complained to the International Committee of the Red Cross that naval authorities have failed inform them where they are being held.
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Heads shaved to tighten Vanni embargo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2001, 18:40 GMT]
Four fishermen complained to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mannar Tuesday that the Sri Lanka Navy shaved their heads and assaulted them severely on trumped up charges that they were defying the Vanni embargo. Fishermen in Mannar complain that the SLN arrests and beats them up regularly, accusing them of smuggling essential commodities banned under Colombo's decade long economic embargo on the Vanni region. Meanwhile the SLN’s intelligence wing began deployment in the northern coastal parts of the Mannar island Tuesday. The deployment is aimed at monitoring and curbing sea borne infiltration by the Liberation Tigers from the mainland SLN, sources said.
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Embargo crippling life in Vanni-Bishop

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 January 2001, 20:37 GMT]
"The people in the Vanni expressed disappointment that the Sri Lankan government talks about peace only when it has to face an election and that once in power it seeks to solve the problem only by military means" said the Bishop of the Mannar diocese of the Catholic Church, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, on returning from a five day visit to the northern region controlled by the Liberation Tigers. The displaced civilians of the Vanni receive only 25 percent of the relief due to them from the government and most people there are unable to make a living or ply their trade because of the continuing economic embargo on the region, according to the Bishop.
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Mannar citizens’ committee lists killed, missing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 January 2001, 17:43 GMT]
Thirty two civilians were killed due to the actions of the Sri Lankan security forces while twelve were reported missing in Mannar from January to December 2000 according to statistics released Saturday by the Citizens’ Committee for the district. The Committee said that hundred and forty three civilians were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in this period and that only 70 of these have been released so far.
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"Peace efforts give us hope" - Bishop Raayappu Joseph

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2001, 08:31 GMT]
"Even though the path towards peace is fraught with obstacles, it is everyone's duty to take careful steps towards achieving peace. Statesmanship, courage, patience and unrelenting focus to reach an amicable solution amidst resistance from extremists, are qualities people are expecting to see in both Leaders," said Mannar Bishop Raayappu Joseph in his millenium message to the nation.
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Two soldiers shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2000, 08:01 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers attached to the SLA's military intelligence unit were shot dead by suspected members of the Liberation Tigers in the high security zone of Mannar town around 11.10 a.m. Tuesday, security sources said. Two soldiers were also wounded in the incident.
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Tigers ambush SLA convoy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 07:43 GMT]
Eight Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, including a lieutenant were killed and 17 wounded when a bus in which they were travelling was hit by a powerful claymore blast at Piramanalankulam, about 22 km. west of Vavuniya on the Mannar road, around 11.15 a.m. Thursday, security sources said.
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Clashes near Nagarkovil

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 01:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers and Liberation Tigers clashed in the Vadamaradchi East sector on the north-eastern coast of the Jaffna peninsula in the early hours of Wednesday, security and civilian sources said.
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Mannar Bishop requests prisoner transfer

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2000, 11:31 GMT]
Rt.Rev.Rayappu Joseph Bishop of Mannar has appealed to President Chandrika Bandaranaike to transfer all the Tamil speaking political prisoners to the prisons in the Tamil areas taking account of their safety in the wake of the recent killings at Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre in Bandarawela.
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Fourteen reported missing in November

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2000, 17:11 GMT]
Fourteen persons have been reported as missing to the Vavuniya Human Rights Commission by their relatives in November, said sources.
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Three LTTE members killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 07:33 GMT]
Three LIberation Tigers were killed and 3 military policemen were wounded in a fire-fight at Uyilankulam, 14 km. south of Mannar around 10 p.m. Tuesday, security sources said.
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Clash in Mannar sea

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2000, 21:37 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka Navy clashed in the seas of Pallimunai in the northwestern Mannar Monday morning, the Voice of Tigers radio said in its night news broadcast today.
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Policeman shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2000, 16:22 GMT]
A military trained policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Police Sector II at the 7th mile Post along Vavniya-Mannar road at 5.30 p.m. Sunday, said police sources.
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Grenade attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2000, 16:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a grenade attack on a sentry post at Temple road in Jaffna around 2.30 p.m. Friday said sources.
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Tigers shell Mannar SLN camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 15:23 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers fired mortars on the Sri Lanka Navy camp at Vangalaipadu in the north-western Mannar around 12.15 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Sources said the tigers fired mortars from two boats in the seas off Pesalai.
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Police name massacre victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 06:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan police has released names of 13 Tamil detainees massacred at the Bindunuwewa detention center in Bandarawela on Wednesday. The police said many bodies are charred beyond recognition by the fire at the Centre.
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SLA disarms TELO "in revenge"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2000, 13:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army troops Thursday raided the camps of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Mannar town and Vavuniya around 4 p.m. and seized more than 90 assault rifles from them. Prasanna, a TELO leader in Colombo, told TamilNet that the government is taking revenge on his organisation "for refusing to compromise the national interests of the Tamil people".
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