SLA, Police step up patrols, checking in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 July 2003, 13:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka army and Police intensified checking pedestrians and motorists at key points and junctions in Batticaloa town, heightening apprehensions among residents that the war era atmosphere was returning to the eastern town. Combined army and Police units patrolled the town Thursday.


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Preparations for Pongu Thamil continue amid sabotage attempts by EPDP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 June 2003, 20:01 GMT]
All roads will lead to Jaffna university medical faculty grounds Friday evening where the second Pongu Thamil celebration is scheduled to begin around 4 p.m., stressing the theme 'we want our land,' organizers of the event said.
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Remand extended for LTTE Putur political head

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2003, 18:02 GMT]
The LTTE's political leader for Putur, Batticaloa district, Mr. T. Satyaraj, who was arrested on remanded on June 6 until June 20, was further remanded for 14 days by the Batticaloa Magistrate, Abdul Gaffor when the case was taken up again Thursday, sources said.


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Paramilitary operative killed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 09:43 GMT]
A member of Razeek Group, a paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa was shot and mortally wounded by unidentified an unidentified gunman in a suburb of the eastern town Monday around 1 p.m. Police sources said. The Razeek Group operative was at a hairdresser’s saloon in Puthur, a high security zone suburb of Batticaloa when he was shot at, according to them.
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Eight PLOTE cadres injured in grenade attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2003, 14:20 GMT]
Eight cadres of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam, a Tamil paramilitary group, were wounded when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at them in front of their office in Batticaloa town Tuesday around 6.20 p.m. Sri Lanka Police in the eastern town said.
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Paramilitary operative wounded in grenade blast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 May 2003, 09:16 GMT]
An operative of the paramilitary, Razeek Group, was wounded in a grenade attack Monday night in Batticaloa town, Police said. The wounded operative is employed as a soldier of the Sri Lanka army’s National Guard (SLNG). Unidentified persons who lobbed the grenade at the soldier had got away, Police said. The Razeek Group worked with the SLA in operations against the Liberation Tigers in the eastern district.
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EPDP refuses to hand over RRAN vehicles

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 April 2003, 19:19 GMT]
The local government ministry of the North-East provincial council and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority for the North (RRAN) are in a dilemma to find ways to recover the pickup vehicles supplied to ten local bodies in the Jaffna district when the paramilitary group Eelam People's Democratic Party administered them, government sources said.
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EPDP cadre shot dead in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 April 2003, 08:49 GMT]
An unidentified gunman shot dead a prominent member of the EPDP in Akkaraipattu, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Friday around 11.45 a.m. Sri Lankan Police sources in the southeastern coastal town said. The EPDP cadre, Mr. Marimuthtu Rajalingam, 42, was the chairman of the Aalaiyadivembu Pradheshiya Sabha.
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Grenade attack kills two in Arayampathy

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2003, 20:36 GMT]
Alaguthurai Ganesan (30), a father of three children, and Mr. Vinoth, a member of the Varathan group were killed and eight people were wounded in a grenade attack, allegedly by the paramilitary Varathan group, and subsequent shooting in Arayampathy in the Batticaloa district on Sunday night, sources said.
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Paramilitary leader shot dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2003, 10:48 GMT]
An unidentified gunman shot dead the leader of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army (SLA) and the Special Task Force (STF), Wednesday around 11.15 a.m. in Aariyampathi, 8 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Police said.
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SLA vacated schools in HSZ still closed

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 March 2003, 23:31 GMT]
The Eluthumadduval North Maruthankulam Government Tamil Mixed School in the northern Jaffna district has not started functioning even after the Sri Lanka Army troops who occupied the school premises have vacated. Villagers complain that the school authorities are unable to repair the damaged buildings and restart the school, as the school is located in the Sri Lanka Army High Security Zone (HSZ).
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Weapons in Nimalarajan murder case sent to govt. analyst

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 February 2003, 18:06 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate, Mr.R.T.Viknarajah, hearing the case of the murder of the journalist Nimalarajan, Tuesday allowed an application made by the Police to forward the five 9 m.m. pistols with several rounds of live bullets, which had been recovered by the Sri Lanka Army from the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), to the Government Analyst for analysis and report.


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District-wide protests in Batticaloa over Manipay attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 February 2003, 15:33 GMT]
Massive processions and a campaign of wearing black waist-belts were held Wednesday in all Tamil regions of the Batticaloa district to protest the attack on February 12 in Manipay, where the Sri Lanka Army personnel and the paramilitary EPDP group assaulted unarmed women political cadres of the LTTE, civilians and journalists
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Kilinochchi protesters condemn SLA assault in Manipay

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 February 2003, 19:58 GMT]
Hundreds of residents of Kilinochchi and surrounding areas marched through Kilinochchi Saturday protesting the attack on Wednesday 12 February on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) unarmed female cadres in Manipay, Jaffna, by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and by the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) members. The march was organized by the Tamil National Uprising Front in Vanni, sources said.


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Protesters in Jaffna burn effigies, condemn Manipay attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 February 2003, 17:24 GMT]
Protest demonstrations were held Friday condemning the attack on LTTE women cadres, members of public and journalists at Manipay by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA), aided by members of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP). Effigies of President Chandrika Kumaratunge and the Jaffna area commander of the SLA, Major General Sarath Fonseka, were taken in processions and burnt down in Jaffna town, Udupiddy junction, Malisanthai junction and Methaikadai junction, sources said.
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Sri Lanka military 'jeopardizing' peace talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 February 2003, 06:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers this week condemned the attack Wednesday on their unarmed female cadres in Manipay by Sri Lankan soldiers and warned that such incidents would "seriously jeopardize" the Norwegian peace process, the London based Tamil Guardian reported.
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Gen. Nambiar visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2003, 17:54 GMT]
Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Satish Nambiar, the Indian defense expert invited by the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to report on high security zones (HSZs) in the North-East, visited Batticaloa on Friday morning and held discussions with Sri Lankan military and police officials and Tamil paramilitary groups, sources said.
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GOSL, LTTE hold high-level conference in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 January 2003, 16:35 GMT]
A high level conference between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE, observed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, was held from 10:15 am to 3:30 pm Thursday at the Vavunatheevu divisional secretariat, located in no-man’s land in the Batticaloa district, sources said.
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Sinhala opposition to Sri Lanka peace effort mounts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:32 GMT]
Opposition to Sri Lanka’s peace process gathered further momentum as a new Sinhala nationalist organisation comprising powerful opposition politicians and Buddhist monks wowed Wednesday to agitate for separating the northeast into two provinces. Agitation by Sinhala nationalists to de-merge the northeast would be another spanner in the works for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s effort to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers to end two decades of armed conflict that has ravaged the island.


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Govt. inaction in Nedunthivu condemned

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 19:46 GMT]
The Jaffna District People's Forum (JDPF) Sunday issued a statement expressing deep concern over the inaction of the Sri Lanka government, parliamentarians and welfare associations to provide peaceful life and relief to the people of Nedunthivu village as their picketing against the presence of para military Eelam People Democratic Party ( EPDP) entered fiftieth day Sunday, sources said.
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