Arrested student leader said being tortured

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2001, 02:06 GMT]
(News Feature) Krishnasamy Thivyan, the former secretary of the Jaffna University Students Union who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army has been tortured in military custody, fellow students said Wednesday. In a statement published in Jaffna's Tamil Daily, the Uthayan, the students also said that Thivyan, who is being held by the SLA at its Kankesanthurai, had survived earlier attempts on his life by the security forces.
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SLA arrests University student

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 July 2001, 11:19 GMT]
Former secretary of Science Faculty, Jaffna University, was arrested by Sri Lanka Army in Kokuvil Jaffna on Monday, 2 July, and is being detained at the detention center in Kankesanthurai, sources said. University students and staff boycotted classes yesterday, July 4th, in protest.
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State to reconsider indictment on tortured prisoner

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 08:47 GMT]
The state counsel in the Colombo High Court moved Friday for a date to consider withdrawing the indictment on a Jaffna youth who was tortured in detention and is currently being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) at the remand prison in Kalutara. The report of the judicial medical officer who examined the prisoner two years after his arrest said in his report that the youth, Thambiraja Pathmanathan, 29, of Puthu Veethy, Aarukaal Madam, Aanaikottai, had been burnt with cigarettes and had scars on his head and other parts of the body from injuries caused with a blunt weapon. “At least 16-18 PTA cases involving torture are heard in the Colombo High courts every week. But in many instances the medical reports of the prisoners do not give the correct picture,” an attorney at law who appears for Tamil political prisoners said.
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Over 18,000 arrested under ER, PTA in 2000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:54 GMT]
(News Feature) More than 18000 persons, mostly Tamils, were arrested under the draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year said a senior human rights worker in Colombo Wednesday.
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'Jaya Gold' resumes humanitarian mission

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2001, 23:01 GMT]
The vessel 'Jaya Gold' chartered by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) has recommenced its weekly humanitarian voyages, transporting patients from Jaffna peninsula for specialized medical treatment in Colombo hospitals, sources said.
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Police tortured say young Jaffna women

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 17:20 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court last Tuesday discharged two young girls from Jaffna charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), on the ground that the Police had obtained confessions from them under duress. Mariyathas Mary Sharmila,18, of Alvai north and Shanmugam Sharmila, 21, of Sivankoviladi, Madduvil south told the court that they were severely tortured by male Police personnel during their detention.
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ICRC escort for ships suspended

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2000, 15:26 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross has suspended its escort to the passenger vessel City of Trinco and as the well as the voyager 'Jaya Gold' until further notice, said ICRC's spokesman Harasha Gunawardene. The two ships had been transferring seriously ill patients between Jaffna and Trincomalee.
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TULF, PLOTE claim massive election fraud

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 18:23 GMT]
"More than ninety thousand votes of the total of about two hundred thousand votes said to have been polled today in Jaffna were rigged" said the leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) Mr.Dharmalingam Sidarthan, the chief candidate of the ex-Tamil militant group contesting the elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament. Mr.Sidarthan told TamilNet Tuesday evening that he has requested the Commissioner of Elections not to declare the results of the Kayts and Kankesanthurai polling divisions in Jaffna because of the massive rigging.
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Rigging feared in Jaffna 'cluster booths'

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2000, 21:39 GMT]
Jaffna goes to polls tomorrow amidst fears of widespread rigging. Officials at the Jaffna district secretariat said that voter turn out is expected to be low mainly due to the fighting between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan army in the southern sector of the peninsula.
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Grenade attacks in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 October 2000, 09:23 GMT]
Three members of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), a pro-government ex-militant group were seriously wounded in a grenade attack in Jaffna. The attack took place between Nachchimarakoviladi and Poonarimarathady on the Jaffna-Kankesanthurai road, about 4 km. off north of Jaffna town around 12.30 p.m. Thursday.
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Government officials to treat elephant in LTTE area

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 June 2000, 12:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers gave permission to government officials to take steps to treat a wounded elephant lying in the jungles of Sagamam in the eastern Ampara district, ICRC sources said. The Sagamam area is under the control of the Liberation Tigers.
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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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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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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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ICRC ship aborts Jaffna trip

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 May 2000, 09:23 GMT]
'Java Gulf', the vessel operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the embattled Jaffna peninsula will be returning to Trincomalee port later Friday afternoon because the ICRC was "unable, at the final moment, to secure agreement with the Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers regarding the port of disembarkation" a spokesman for the organisation said.
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ICRC vessel to anchor off Pt.Pedro

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 May 2000, 14:35 GMT]
The Java Gulf, the ship operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross for humanitarian and medical purposes between Trincomalee and Jaffna set sail around 6 p.m. Wednesday from the eastern port. Patients at the Jaffna teaching hospital who are in need of urgent medical attention will be evacuated tomorrow ICRC sources said. The Java Gulf will drop anchor off the Pt.Pedro jetty and not at the Kankesanthurai (KKS) harbour sources said.
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ICRC ship cancelled

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 May 2000, 14:11 GMT]
Mr. Harasha Gunawardene, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Colombo told TamilNet that his organisation's weekly ship service between Trincomalee and Jaffna was cancelled Monday due to security reasons. The ICRC ship was to sail from the eastern port town of Trincomalee to Kankesanthurai (KKS) harbour.
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Tigers train guns beyond harbour

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 May 2000, 18:06 GMT]
Artillery shells fired by the Liberation Tigers hit coastal areas to the west of Kankesanthurai (KKS), Sri Lanka army's only harbour in Jaffna, yesterday sources contacted by phone in the northern peninsula said Sunday. The shelling indicates that the LTTE has moved its field guns closer to the sprawling military base complex in Palaly and Kankesanthurai the sources said.
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Artillery fire closes Jaffna air, sea ports - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2000, 16:03 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military has suspended operations in Jaffna's lone sea port and cancelled flights from the single airstrip on the peninsula after both came under direct artillery fire, the Liberation Tigers said Friday. The LTTE said in a statement from its London offices that its guns had hit the runway at Palali airbase and military installations at Kankesanthurai sea port. Meanwhile, advancing columns of LTTE troops captured the areas of Madduvil and Sarasali today, the organization said, adding that fighting was raging at the strategic Sarasali junction.
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Palaly shelling cancels Jaffna ship

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2000, 07:33 GMT]
'The City of Trinco', a passenger ship to Jaffna that was scheduled to depart this morning from the eastern port of Trincomalee was canceled by the Sri Lanka Navy for security reasons officials said. The ship was to set sail with 350 passengers to the Kankesanthurai harbour (KKS), located in the sprawling Palaly base complex in the northern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. The Liberation Tigers say that their artillery units have been firing on the base since Wednesday.
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