Mass arrests of Tamils increase in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
As the Sri Lankan offensive in the Vanni stumbles, Tamil people are being arrested in large numbers in Colombo. This long standing practice of mass arrest has been condemned by human rights organisations, but is part of the Sri Lankan government's strategy of harassing the Tamil populace into withdrawing their support for a separate Tamil state and for the Tamil Tigers.
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LTTE ranks swelling: Sri Lankan Military Intelligence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sources close to the Sri Lankan Directorate of Military Intelligence told Asia Week magazine that not only has the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) woefully underestimated LTTE troop numbers, but that the LTTE is continuing to attract large numbers of fresh volunteers. The MoD is also claiming fictitious military successes according to the Sri Lankan sources.
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Sri Lanka continues to disrupt education in Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government's embargo on the Tamil homelands has starved Tamil schools of books and equipment for many years. Recently UNICEF attempted to alleviate the situation by supplying 3,000 floor mats for the Tamil school children to sit on during lessons. According to reports from Vavuniya, the Sri Lankan government has also stopped these from being delivered, continuing the systematic disruption of Tamil youngsters' education.
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119 killed and 190 soldiers wounded say Military officials

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Reports coming from Vavuniya say that Wednesday's Tiger attack has left more than 150 Sri Lankan soldiers dead and another hundred wounded. A Sri Lankan defense ministry official has however said that they lost only 119 of their soldiers in the attack including a colonel and three other officers. The official also said that some 190 soldiers were also wounded. According to the LTTE, in the five hours offensive, 85 of their cadres were killed.
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Tigers Mount Massive Counter Offensive

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Reports coming from the town of Omanthai in Northern Wanni region suggest that hundreds of Sri Lankan military personnel were killed or wounded and a number of artillery guns were captured or destroyed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The attack came just a day after, the Sri Lankan military resumed its push against the Tigers in two flanks from Periyamadu and Nedunkerni towards the small village town of Puliyankulam.
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Will War bring Peace?

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan troops backed by heavy artillery, tanks and air cover, resumed their march from the towns of Periyamadu and Nedunkerni towards the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held town of Puliyankulam in northern part of the island. Military reports say that 13 Sri Lankan soldiers and an officer were killed while more than 60 were seriously wounded in the battle on Monday.
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Conscription on the cards?

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army has extended it's recruitment program, announced two weeks ago, to all sections of the army. However, as usual, only Sinhalese need apply. In the meantime it is understood that conscription is also being considered.
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Oil tank contracts to be awarded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is to award contracts to rebuild the oil tanks attacked and destroyed in October 1995. The contracts are worth over 40 million US dollars, and the government is considering tenders for the work scheduled to begin in September. However, the government has had to borrow 24 million US dollars, and raise the rest itself.
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Tigers step up activity in the East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil Tigers have stepped up their operations in the East of the Tamil homelands. In the past 2 days, a Sri Lankan police station has been attacked and police and army patrols ambushed. The attacks come after a comparative lull, indicating that the LTTE may be refocusing on the region.
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Colombo journalists challenge government claims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The LTTE said in a statement last week that during their assault on the Sri Lankan army base at Thandikulum, they had occupied the camp, killed hundreds of soldiers and destroyed vast quantities of equipment. This was promptly denied by the Sri Lankan government. However, a Colombo based newspaper with close ties to the military has revealed that the LTTE claim is not false.
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Ambush toll rise to 39 as LTTE escalate attacks in the East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Today's attacks on the Pulmoddai police station and on a Sri Lankan military patrol, just two days after the attack in Amparai, claimed the lives of 39 Sri Lankan soldiers and injured another five. Earlier, in the attack on the Sri Lankan military patrol in Amparai, 16 personnel including the members of Sri Lanka's elite Special task force were killed.
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Police may interfere with rape and murder investigation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Murugesupillai Koneswary, a Tamil mother of four children, was raped and murdered in her home by Sinhalese policemen on the May 17th, according to her neighbours. Amnesty International is concerned that the police may interfere with the investigation, reluctantly launched after local and international protests.
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Pakistan Story - A scandal in the making?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Pakistani military officials were involved in the planning stages of the Operation 'Sure of Victory' (Jaya Sikurai), reported a weekly owned by a militia collaborating with the Sri Lankan government in its drive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE also said in a statement on Friday that they had independent confirmation of Pakistani involvement. A claim that was denied by both Sri Lankan and Pakistani Foreign Affairs officials.
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Tamil youth sign up

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military offensive in the Vanni, apart from precipitating a humanitarian crisis, has another side effect the Sri Lankan government may not welcome: the youth of Tamil villages destroyed by deliberate Sri Lankan bombing and shelling are flocking to LTTE recruitment centres.
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Pakistan joins other foreigners in Sri Lanka's war

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil Tigers say they have independent confirmation that Pakistani officers are involved in planning the current Sri Lankan army offensive in the Vanni. The Pakistanis join several other foreign elements involved in Sri Lanka's war in the Tamil homelands.
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A Great Embarrassment for the Sri Lankan Military

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A Sri Lankan member of parliament, in a recent report, says that the food stock discovered by the military in the cooperative stores in the town of Nedunkerni in fact belonged to the cooperative stores and not to the LTTE as the Sri Lankan military had earlier claimed. The report states that the food was stored there for distribution to the displaced people and requests the military to the return the food to the cooperative stores.
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Sri Lankan MoD plays the numbers game

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
When Tamil Tiger commandos stormed the Sri Lankan Army's Thandikulum base, they clearly caught the Sri Lankan military off guard. Within hours the Tigers had penetrated 10 miles into SLA-held territory, and successfully overran their targets, inflicting severe casualties on the SLA. However, as soon as the assault began, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense swung into its public relations exercise.
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Political and military debacles: The Sri Lankan story

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
French essayist and Philosopher Paul Valery when writing about the First World war said 'History justifies anything, and teaches absolutely nothing: it contains and gives examples of everything.' This has been the story of Sri Lanka for the past few days.
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Casualties mount as LTTE maintain control of key town

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
As the battle for control of a key town in the northern Vanni mainland continued, the casualties are rising. Reports from Thandikulam say Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was still in control of some parts of Nochimoddai and the Sri Lankan military was massing troops for a counter offensive.
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LTTE blasts bridge, ammunition dumps and shoots down Helicopter Gunship

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Latest reports coming from Thandikulam in the northern Vanni mainland, 260 kilometres north of Colombo, suggest that hundreds of soldiers killed and many more wounded. According to Colombo sources the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has destroyed at least 5 battle tanks and two ammunition dumps that were located at Thandikulam and Samayapuram five kilometres north of the government held town of Vavuniya.
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Sri Lanka army launches another recruitment drive

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army has launched another recruitment drive, to replace it's losses in the war against the Tamil Tigers, according to the state-owned Daily News. Recruits are being sought for the army's Special Forces Units which have taken severe casualties in the past 12 months.
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