Tigers overrun Pallai SLA base

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
The combat formations of the Liberation Tigers overran the massive military base at Pallai and took control of the town and its surrounding villages today the organisation said in a press release from its London offices. The Tigers said with the fall of Pallai town, the Liberation Tigers have secured a strongly entrenched foothold in the Thenmarachchi division of the peninsula facilitating their advance towards the capital of Jaffna.
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School shifted due to Navy bombarding

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 April 2000, 13:11 GMT]
The Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) in Ilankanthai has been shifted to a safer location in the interior for fear of further attacks by Sri Lanka Naval gunboats Department of Education officials in Mutur said today. The classes for the children were conducted under trees following the SLN attack yesterday as there are no buildings in the interior for running the school they said.
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SLN shells village, two killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 April 2000, 05:53 GMT]
Two civilians were killed and another wounded yesterday morning when the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboats shelled Ilakkanthai, a fishing hamlet in the Mutur area, about 15 km. south of Trincomalee.
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Kumaratunga blames UNP for army woes

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 17:00 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President, in her first address to the country on the fall of the Elephant Pass-Iyakkachchi base, charged that the setbacks suffered by the army were mainly due to its weakening for eleven years by the UNP regime. She reiterated her stand that she would negotiate with the Tigers only if they laid down their weapons. She wowed to wrest the north and east back from the LTTE.
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Ex-service personnel called up

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 15:53 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President today called up all retired and pre-maturely retired security forces personnel for active service in the war against the Liberation Tigers. The unprecedented call had to be made to meet the severe manpower shortages faced by the army as a consequence of a series of major reversals in the battle fields in the northern theatre SLA sources said.
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Chandrika, Ranil to discuss crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 14:05 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga invited the leader of the opposition Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe today for talks on the military crisis in the north. The talks are scheduled for May 3 at the President's official residence in Colombo.
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Jaffna emergency relief will continue - UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 12:55 GMT]
The United Nations Resident Co-ordinator for Sri Lanka said in a press release today that the UN will continue its emergency relief programs in Jaffna. The UN statement comes in the wake of reports this morning that the UN is pulling out of the northern peninsula as a consequence of the deteriorating security situation there. However, the statement said that the UN is pulling out staff working on rehabilitation and de-mining programs from Jaffna.
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Tigers advance towards Pallai -radio

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 April 2000, 07:59 GMT]
The fighting units of the Liberation Tigers engaged operation in "Unceasing Waves 3" have advanced one and a half km. from Puthukadu junction towards Pallai, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said in its noon news broadcast Friday.
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Convene Parliament now says UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 18:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition party today demanded that the government should immediately convene the Parliament to debate the war situation and the fall of the Elephant Pass base. The United National Party (UNP) said that if the government refused to do so it will convene the Parliament at 10 a.m. on May 3.
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SLA denies officer helped Tigers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 17:18 GMT]
The SLA today denied a headline story in the Daily Mirror, an English daily published in Colombo, which claimed that a high ranking military officer was being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police for allegedly supplying sensitive information to the Tigers during the Battle for the Elephant Pass base.
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Colonel arrested for selling army drugs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 16:22 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka army personnel including an officer were taken into custody by the military Police today for allegedly selling expensive drugs from the military hospital in Colombo to private parties. The officer, a Colonel at the army headquarters, was produced before the Colombo magistrate today by the Police.
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Garrison's fall angers village mob

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 11:53 GMT]
Fifty youth from the east who were on a cultural program in the northwestern province sponsored by the Sri Lankan government's Youth Affairs Ministry to promote ethnic harmony were sent back to Batticaloa yesterday after being threatened in a Sinhala village by a mob angered by the fall of the Elephant Pass base.
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Tigers begin advance on Pallai centre

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 17:31 GMT]
The fighting formations of the Liberation Tigers are advancing on the centre of Pallai said the Voice of Tigers (VoT) in its night news broadcast today. The Tigers have asked civilians living in villages between Pallai and Kodikamam to move out to safer areas to ensure their safety, according to the radio.
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32 detained in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 16:52 GMT]
Thirty-two people, including three women, have been detained by the Counter Subversion Unit (CSU) and police in the northern town of Vavuniya, said the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) there.
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SLA soldier killed in Sithandy claymore blast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 16:03 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and another wounded in a claymore mine attack at Sithandy, a town 15 kilometres north of Batticaloa, around 9.30 am this morning. The soldiers were on a route clearing patrol on the Valaichenai road when they were caught in the attack, sources said.
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Tigers cremate SLA dead -radio

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 11:53 GMT]
The decomposed bodies of a large number of Sri Lanka army soldiers in Elephant Pass, Iyakkachchi and Kurinchathivu were cremated there with due military honours by the Tigers said the Thamil Eela Vaanoli, the commercial broadcast of the Voice of Tigers in its evening news bulletin today.
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Road writing provokes STF wrath

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2000, 10:45 GMT]
Seventeen civilians who were severely assaulted by the Special Task Force (STF) commandos were admitted to the Batticaloa hospital today. They had been beaten up during a search operation in Kirankulam where writings hailing the Tigers for overrunning the Elephant Pass base had appeared on the Batticaloa - Kalmunai highway yesterday.
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Threat to Jaffna and Palaly real - Ranil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2000, 13:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka's opposition leader Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe said today that the fall of the Elephant Pass -Iyakkachchi military base complex poses a real threat to Jaffna and Palaly, the peninsula's main military garrison.
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Tigers hand over SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 April 2000, 06:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over the bodies of 126 soldiers who were killed at Elephant Pass to the International Committee of the Red Cross at kilinochchi around 12.30 p.m. today. ICRC spokesman Harsha Gunawardena said that the bodies are being transported to Vavuniya and that it is expected that the convoy would cross the lines late this evening.
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SLA admits loss of Iyakkachchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2000, 20:47 GMT]
Addressing the first press conference since the fall of the strategic Elephant Pass base this evening in Colombo, the commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lt. General Sri Lal Weerasooriya, said that his troops withdrew from Jaffna's gateway garrison on April 22 to an area northwest of Iyakkachchi and that this was done to safeguard Jaffna.
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ICRC discusses body handover

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2000, 15:26 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have approached the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regarding the handing over of the bodies of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops killed in the fighting at Yakachchi-Elephant Pass, an ICRC spokesman told TamilNet Monday.
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Tigers list captured weapons

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 April 2000, 09:08 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers gave details Monday of weapons captured from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base at Iyakkachchi-Elephant Pass which was overrun Saturday. Captured equipment included three 152 mm. long-range artillery pieces and an undisclosed number of tanks, according to a statement issued by the LTTE today.
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Tiger flag hoisted over Elephant Pass

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 April 2000, 10:13 GMT]
One of the senior military commander of the Liberation Tigers Col.Banu hoisted the Tiger flag over Elephant Pass around 9.30 a.m. this morning, LTTE sources in London told TamilNet.
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Elephant Pass overrun - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 April 2000, 10:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base complex at Yakachchi and Elephant Pass was overrun by the Liberation Tigers Saturday following two days of heavy fighting, the LTTE said in a statement from its London offices. Over one thousand SLA troops were killed in the ferocious battle and the remaining troops of the 54 division fled in disarray, the statement said. “The fall of this crucial base at the gate of Jaffna will facilitate the LTTE to gain its strategic goal of liberating Jaffna,” the organisation said.
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Norwegian delegation to meet LTTE leader -paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2000, 19:02 GMT]
Following an invitation by the leadership of the Liberation Tigers, a Norwegian diplomatic team is to visit the Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission in the near future, reported Tamil Guardian, a London based newspaper, this week.
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Fall of Yakachchi "imminent" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2000, 15:20 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base at Yakachchi is "on the verge of collapse" following a multi-pronged assault by the Liberation Tigers in which several peripheral camps were overrun, the LTTE said in a statement issued from its London offices Thursday.
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ICRC medical supplies blocked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 April 2000, 12:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan troops this week prevented the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from taking its MoD authorised medical supplies for its mobile and primary health clinics in the Vanni, the ICRC spokesman Harsha Gunawardena told TamilNet Thursday. He expressed concern for the civilians in the Vanni who relied on the ICRC facilities.
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Second MSR breach isolates Yakachchi - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2000, 19:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday that they had overrun several Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in their latest offensive which began in the Thenmaradchi sector of the Jaffna peninsula Tuesday and had completely cut off the SLA's base complex at Yakachchi with the capture of six kms of the A9 highway. A division of SLA troops were isolated and "in crisis" the LTTE said in a statement from its London offices.
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Ex. Jaffna Commander heads northern authority

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2000, 19:04 GMT]
Major General (Rtd) Sarath Munasinghe has been appointed the chairman of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority of the North (RRAN) by the Sri Lankan government.
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Tripartite agreement necessary - Indian Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
The devolution of power in Sri Lanka should be done with the consensus of a tripartite agreement between the government, the United National Party and the Liberation Tigers and this is necessary for devolution of powers in Sri Lanka, said India's Foreign Minister Mr. Jaswant Singh.
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LTTE launches fresh offensive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 17:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have launched a fresh major offensive thrust in the army controlled areas between Pallai and Yakachchi from this afternoon, the LTTE said in a statement issued this evening. The organisation said its forces are advancing deep into the area after capturing several square miles of territory.
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Forty Tamils arrested in Udappu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 14:33 GMT]
Forty Tamils were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police in Udappu in the Puttalam district, 120 kilometers north of Colombo today during a cordon and search operation in this costal village today. More than five hundred Police personnel from 25 Police stations in Sri Lanka's northwestern province were involved in the search operation.
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Ranil to brief Indian PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 13:57 GMT]
The leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition party, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi this week, a spokesman for the United National Party (UNP) said today. Mr. Wickermesinghe will brief the Indian PM on the current dialogue between his party and the Sri Lankan government about evolving a consensus on constitutional change aimed at solving the island's ethnic conflict. He will be arriving in Delhi tommorrow.
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Hindu orphanage in security zone robbed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 03:14 GMT]
The Ramakrishna Mission in Batticaloa was robbed at gun point by an armed gang last night around 10.30 p.m. The mission is located by the Police camp in Kallady, a densely populated suburb on the southern outskirts of the Batticaloa town. The Sri Lanka army has a base behind the premises of this Hindu mission cum orphanage.
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SLA blocking essential medical supplies - MSF

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 April 2000, 12:51 GMT]
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), the international aid agency said Monday Sri Lankan security forces were preventing it from taking urgently needed medical supplies into the Vanni region. The shortage of essential drugs in the region had become "critical" MSF said in a statement.
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Firefight at Muhamaalai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2000, 19:17 GMT]
A firefight erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and the Liberation Tigers in Muhamaalai at about 10 p.m. last night and continued until 5 a.m. this morning said residents in Eluthumadduval, a village by the strategic A9 highway southeast of Jaffna.
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Bomb damages inter-city train

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2000, 18:35 GMT]
The engine compartment of a Colombo-Vavuniya Inter-city train was damaged when a bomb placed inside exploded at 10.30 pm today, said sources in Vavuniya.
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Special force to combat Tigers in capital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 April 2000, 17:07 GMT]
A special Police unit has been formed to battle the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka's capital. Senior Police investigator Bandula Wickremasingha will be in charge of the unit Police sources in Colombo said.
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Death stalks Mannar fishermen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2000, 16:29 GMT]
The body of a young fisherman with gunshot wounds that was found floating in the sea between Nachchikudah and the isle of Iranathivu was buried by his relatives who identified the body as that of Chrishtie Cruz, 26, of Panangkattikottil, a coastal village near Mannar. Cruz had set out to sea on April 10.
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Soldier arrested for waylaying women

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2000, 15:08 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was arrested by the Police yesterday for allegedly robbing two houses on April 11 and way laying four women on April 10 in Thampalakamam in the Trincomalee district. The arrest was made following a protest march by a large number of civilians in Thampalakamam on April 13.
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Three soldiers missing in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 April 2000, 11:46 GMT]
Two soldiers have been reported missing from the Sri Lanka army camp in Kalkudah, 35 km. north of Batticaloa, since Tuesday April 11, Police sources in Valaichenai said today. There is no indication of their whereabouts despite investigations by the army, according to them.
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Eight SLA killed in Vavuniya attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2000, 07:56 GMT]
Six Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded when the reinforcements which were rushed to the Police sentry post at Arawantalawa that was attacked by the Liberation Tigers this morning were hit by a claymore mine this morning around 11.45 a.m.
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Thirty-three SLA wounded in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2000, 07:27 GMT]
Thirty-three Sri Lanka army soldiers were injured and one was killed when the Liberation Tigers shelled SLA's current defence positions on the southeastern coast of Jaffna yesterday according to a press release of the Operational Headquarters of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence this morning.
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Six wounded in claymore blast

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 April 2000, 05:56 GMT]
Six military trained Sri Lankan Policemen were wounded when the jeep in which they were traveling was hit by a claymore mine blast this morning around 8.15 a.m. at Annamalai junction on the Mandur-Chavalakadai road, about 42 km. southwest of Batticaloa.
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A9 MSR remains cut - radio

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2000, 20:57 GMT]
The fighting units of the Liberation Tigers remained in control of a major section of the A-9 highway in the Thenmaradchi Division on the Jaffna peninsula despite determined efforts by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to recapture the road, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said in its night transmission Wednesday. Four SLA tanks were destroyed and five damaged in heavy fighting during the past two days, the radio said.
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Casualties mount in Trinco explosion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2000, 19:41 GMT]
Eight people including a policeman were killed and 72 others were injured in an explosion at a music consert in Trincomalee around 9.50 p.m today, according to hospital sources.
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SLN, Sea Tigers clash off Katpitty

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2000, 12:45 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) sailor was killed and four others injured when the Liberation Tigers attacked and sank a naval patrol craft off the north western coast of Katpitty around 6.30 a.m. today, navy sources said.
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'Hartal' protest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2000, 06:13 GMT]
Shops, offices and businesses were closed in Jaffna this morning in response to the 'Hartal' called by an alliance of forty NGOs including religious organisations and the Jaffna University students' union. The Hartal is being observed today as part of the continuing protest in the peninsula over the civilians who are awaiting the Sri Lanka army's permission to leave their villages that are situated close to the Elephant Pass garrison in Jaffna's southern sector.
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Two LTTE cadres killed -SLN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 April 2000, 14:48 GMT]
Two suspected members of the Liberation Tigers were killed when the Sri Lanka Navy fired at a boat off the coast of Kallaruwa, north of Trincomalee around10.30 a.m. this morning, said navy sources.
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More bodies appear in Mannar town

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 April 2000, 05:34 GMT]
The bodies of three youth were found in Mannar town this morning. All of them were shot in the head said Police sources in Mannar. The Sri Lanka army's military intelligence unit had arrested several youth in the Mannar town yesterday residents said. This is the second time during the week that bodies of unidentified youth have appeared in the high security zone of Mannar town. All bodies were found with gunshot wounds.
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SLA claims advantage on MSR

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2000, 15:14 GMT]
A senior commander of the Sri Lanka army (SLA) in Jaffna claimed today that his troops have recaptured the segment of the MSR that was controlled by the Liberation Tigers from March 27. Residents in Mirusuvil, however, said this evening that heavy fighting continues to rage on the A9. About 200 SLA soldiers were wounded and three tanks were damaged in fierce engagements near Muhamaalai today, according to SLA sources in Kodikamam.
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Protestors blockade Jaffna Kachcheri

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2000, 13:18 GMT]
Hundreds of people blocked the entrance of the Jaffna Kachcheri from this morning demanding that the civilians in the war zone in Jaffna's southern sector be allowed by the Sri Lanka Army to move out of their villages forthwith to safer areas in other parts of the peninsula. An urgent note to the Sri Lanka army's 52-2 brigade in Kodikamam was sent by the Government Agent for Jaffna following the blockade urging the officers there to do the needful for the civilians' release. There was no reply to his note until 5 p.m. today, Kachcheri officials said. The blockade of the Jaffna District Secretariat continues.
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Will assist Pallai evacuation - Commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2000, 13:16 GMT]
The Operational Headquarters of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence said in a press release today that the Jaffna Security Forces (SF) Commander Maj.Gen Chula Senaviratne has arranged transport to move out civilians who are willing to leave their villages from the war zone near the Elephant Pass garrison in Jaffna's southern sector.
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A9 - SLA tries again

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2000, 09:06 GMT]
Heavy fighting broke out between the Sri Lanka army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers on the A9 highway between Eluthumadduval and Muhamaalai from the early hours of the morning today as the army made yet another attempt to recapture more than six kilometers of this road to the Elephant Pass garrison.
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Shortage of medical supplies in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 April 2000, 06:33 GMT]
Hospitals in Vanni have not received their first quarter allocation of Medicines, X'ray films and laboratory chemicals which is seriously affecting treatment of patients, hospital sources said.
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SLA seeks Special Forces recruits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 20:15 GMT]
The commando regiment of the Sri Lankan army which is part of the SLA's elite 53 division called for new recruits today. The call for new recruits comes amidst reports that a large number of the 53 division's commandos have been put out of action due to constant deployment in special operations against the Liberation Tigers. The US Special Forces trained brigades of the 53 division have taken the brunt of the LTTE's Unceasing Waves III offensive since 2, November 1999.
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Police killed in hill country attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 20:09 GMT]
A Policeman was killed and a homeguard was wounded when unidentified gunmen lobbed a grenade at a check-post in Sri Lanka's hilly central province in the early hours of the morning around 2.50 a.m. The masked attackers had removed two T. 56 assault rifles from the check post Sri Lanka Police sources in Gampola in the Central Province said.
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Villagers near garrison still trapped

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 15:01 GMT]
Mr.V. Puththirasigamani, the Divisional Secretary (DS) for the Pachchilaipalli region in Jaffna, said that 2704 civilians are awaiting permission to leave their villages that are situated close to the Elephant Pass garrison. He said that they are ready to leave their villages as soon as the Sri Lanka army grants them permission to move out to safer areas in the peninsula.
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Tigers list weapons taken from Dvoras

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 12:12 GMT]
The Tigers captured a 23 mm cannon and two 20 mm cannons and a large stock of other weapons, including five .50 Browning Heavy Machine Guns, from the Dvora Fast Attack Craft they sunk on Friday, 7 April said the Thamil Eela Vaanoli, the commercial broadcast of the Voice of Tigers, in its evening news bulletin today.
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Profit plans stymie passage to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 April 2000, 09:08 GMT]
The private operators of the passenger ship service to the north are quoting more than four thousand rupees (58 USD) for a return ticket to Jaffna from Trincomalee said a Jaffna Kachcheri official when contacted this morning by TamilNet over the continuing delay in obtaining the consent of the ICRC to escort such vessels. The official said "this ticket price structure is unfair". He added it could further compound the problem because the ICRC has no mandate, as far as he was aware, to escort a profit making passenger ship service.
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25 arrested in search operation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2000, 18:02 GMT]
At least 25 Tamil youths and young Tamil women were arrested during a combined search operation by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and police in Keselwatte in down town Colombo, sources in Colombo said. The search began late in the night and continued till early hours of the morning today.
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Dvora survivor swims ashore, helicopter hit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2000, 05:20 GMT]
A wounded sailor who escaped from one of the Israeli built Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FACs) that were sunk last evening by the Liberation Tigers swam to the Amban coast in southeastern Jaffna early this morning. The sailor, R.M.S.Seneviratna, 21, of Mihintale told the TamilNet's Vadamaradchi correspondent who spoke to him in Amban soon after he arrived in the village that only he and another survived the Tiger attack on their FACs last night. Military sources in Jaffna said that a helicopter gunship was hit and damaged by fire from the coastal anti-aircraft gun positions of the Tigers last night in Vadamaradchi east.
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Fighting on Nagar Kovil interior road

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 21:38 GMT]
Heavy fighting broke out between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army (SLA) on the road between Eluthumadduval and Nagar Kovil in Jaffna's southeastern sector last night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. A SLA officer in Vadamaradchi east said that the fighting had broke out when the Liberation Tigers had attempted to advance on the interior road from their positions near Eluthumadduval towards Nagar Kovil.
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Bishop asked to mediate POW release

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 21:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Minister for Ethnic Affairs, Mr.Jeyaraj Fernandopulle wrote to the Bishop of Mannar today requesting him to mediate the release of the Sri Lanka army soldiers held by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni. Church sources in Mannar said that the Bishop is expected to leave shortly, once he obtains clearance to visit the Vanni.
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Two Dvoras sunk -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 17:00 GMT]
Two Dvora Fast Attack Crafts (FACs) were destroyed when the Liberation Tigers attacked a flotilla of Sri Lankan navy vessels off the coast of Vadamaradchi East in the north of the island this evening, the LTTE said in a press release.
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(Photos) Journalists condemn attacks

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 09:01 GMT]
The Vanni Journalists Association has condemned recent attacks on journalists, a news statement said. On Sunday a grenade was thrown at the house of a senior journalist in Batticaloa Mr Aiyathurai Nadesan, and yesterday, BBC's Sinhala Service correspondent Elmo Fernando was assaulted in Colombo. The association has urged the government to take immediate steps to prevent violence acts on media personnel.
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Jaffna Students In Boycott

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 08:51 GMT]
Jaffna University Students are boycotting lectures from today demanding army authorities to permit civilians held up in the war zone to leave the area.
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12 policemen, 4 farmers killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 April 2000, 07:53 GMT]
Twelve policemen, including an Assistant Superintend of Police (ASP) were killed, and three others were wounded in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Aralaganwila, in the Polonnaruwa District, around 11 a.m. today.
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(Photos) BBC reporter assaulted at rally

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2000, 16:43 GMT]
The BBC's Sinhala service correspondent in Colombo was assaulted this afternoon by protestors in the Sri Lankan capital agitating against Norwegian mediation to end the country's ethnic conflict and peace talks with the Liberation Tigers. The rally of Buddhist monks and Sinhala nationalist organisations also burnt the Norwegian national flag in front of the heavily guarded Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo.
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Jaffna refugees cross the bar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2000, 12:22 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army (SLA) allowed 1643 civilians to leave Kilali in Jaffna where they were blocked from proceeding to safer parts of the peninsula by the security forces since Sunday, April 2, amidst protests by human rights organisations and Tamil politicians. The released refugees began leaving the Kilali military encampment in the off monsoon shower from about 11 a.m. this morning.
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'Let them go' say Jaffna protestors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2000, 09:14 GMT]
More than eight hundred people staged a sit in protest today in front of the district secretariat of Jaffna town, urging the Sri Lankan government and the international community to guarantee the safety of civilians trapped in the battle zones of the peninsula's southern sector and to let them move out to safer areas.
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SLA battles to inch on MSR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 April 2000, 05:37 GMT]
Two attempts by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) yesterday to assault the positions of the Liberation Tigers on the A9 highway between Eluthumadduval and Pallai, south east of Jaffna, were counter-attacked and repulsed said the Voice of Tigers (VoT) in its morning broadcast today. The SLA in Jaffna, however, claimed that Operation Walikathara was on course but progress was quite slow due to stiff resistance and the high volume of artillery and mortar fire from the Tigers. The VoT said that Tiger troops damaged a SLA main battle tank in the fighting yesterday.
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Bill defeat - UNP wants Govt. out

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2000, 14:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition, the United National Party, boycotted Parliament this afternoon to protest against the government's refusal to step down over the defeat of a bill to dissolve the Paddy Marketing Board, a money losing public enterprise. According to the UNP, the Sri Lankan President who is also the Minister for Finance had stated in her budget speech on February 14 that the Paddy Marketing Board would be dissolved by her government. Therefore the defeat of the bill to scrap the PMB is in effect the defeat of the Statement of Government Policy argued the UNP.
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Four civilians killed in shelling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2000, 13:52 GMT]
Four civilians were killed and 11 injured when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) based in Naagar Kovil opened up a heavy barrage of shelling on a group of refugees taking shelter in a catholic church in the village of Chempiyanpattu in the Vadamaradchi East division, today, LTTE sources in London said.
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Civilians being used as human shield -LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2000, 08:49 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in a press release today that the Sri Lanka Army was holding thousands of civilians as human shields in the northern battle zones. The LTTE said that the ICRC and the UNHCR delegations in Jaffna were failing in their duty protect civilians.
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Heavy fighting again in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2000, 06:35 GMT]
Heavy fighting broke out this morning in Jaffna's southern sector between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army (SLA). Residents in Mirusuvil, a village by the A9 highway southeast of Chavakachcheri, said that both sides are bombarding each other's positions with heavy volumes of mortar and artillery fire since morning.
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Release refugee says Tamil group

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 April 2000, 04:25 GMT]
A Tamil group in Colombo called on the international community today to persuade the Sri Lankan government to let the refugees held up at Kilali in Jaffna by the Sri Lanka army proceed to safer areas in other parts of the northern peninsula.
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'Let us go' say Jaffna refugees

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 20:55 GMT]
"Do you intend to give us 2000 rupees to buy our coffins?" "Are you going to let us be used as human shields?" asked angry refugees from the war zones in the southern sector of Jaffna when senior government officials went to distribute dry rations among them this morning. More than three thousand civilians who fled the war have been blocked at Kilali by the Sri Lanka Army since Sunday. The irate refugees were reacting to reports in the media that the government had promised to give 2000 rupees (28 USD) as relief to each family displaced from the war zone near Jaffna's gateway garrison following representations made by Tamil Parliamentarians about their plight yesterday.
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(Photos) 10,000 Tamils demonstate at UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 18:07 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils marched to the United Nation in Geneva Monday and held a rally to protest human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government and calling for the island's conflict to be de-escalated. The organisers, the International Federation of Tamils, said over 10,000 people attended the event, which was addressed by several speakers, including Y.Gopalaswamy, leader of Tamil Nadu's MDMK party.
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Claymore hits navy convoy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 08:12 GMT]
Seven sailors of the Sri Lanka Navy were wounded and one killed when the bus in which they were traveling from Trincomalee was hit by a claymore mine this morning around 11.30 a.m. The navy convoy comprising three buses was attacked at Kittuoothu, about 54 kilometers west of Trincomalee, on the main trunk road to Colombo.
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Court orders compensation payout

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 06:44 GMT]
The Supreme Court has ordered the State to pay Rs.50,000 as compensation to Methodist Church Minister John Christopher Solomen of Kandy for unlawful detention by the police.
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SLA armoured thrust repulsed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 April 2000, 15:38 GMT]
Over one hundred Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and more than three hundred injured in the fierce fighting that erupted at Muhamalai yesterday the Liberation Tigers said in a press release issued from its London offices. The Tigers said they have destroyed 2 Tanks and damaged five others.
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SLA goes for Muhamaalai again

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 April 2000, 13:36 GMT]
Fierce fighting erupted again on the Main Supply Route to Jaffna's gateway garrison today when the Sri Lanka Army made another attempt from this morning to capture the segment of the A9 highway held by the Liberation Tigers.
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Tamil journalist's home attacked

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 April 2000, 05:42 GMT]
A grenade was lobbed at the house of senior Tamil journalist 'Nellai' G. Nadesan in the early hours of the morning today around 1 a.m. in the high security zone of Batticaloa town. Mr.Nadesan is a senior correspondent in the eastern town for several electronic media and political columnist for the Sunday edition of the Tamil daily, Virakesari . His home is in the high security zone of the Sri Lanka army's 233 brigade headquarters and is in the vicinity of the well defended camps of four Tamil para-military groups and the military intelligence in the heart of Batticaloa town.
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Offensive for MSR thwarted -VoT

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 17:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this evening that they thwarted a two pronged operation by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) this afternoon to attack and overrun their defences on the A9 at Muhamaalai, about 14.5 kilometers south east of Chavakachcheri. They said that a main battle tank was destroyed and another damaged when their troops counter attacked the SLA. A South African 'Buffle' fitted with .50 heavy machine gun was also captured from the army in the battle they said.
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War zone refugees arrive

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 13:32 GMT]
More than five thousand Tamils in the Pallai and Pachchilaipalli areas in Jaffna arrived at Kilali late this morning, Catholic church sources in the north said. Most of the civilians were blocked at Kilali by the Sri Lanka army. Only about 200 families were allowed until noon to proceed beyond Kilali to Mirusuvil. The Catholic church is the only organisation assisting the people arriving from the war zone, according to the Tamilnet correspondent who was at Kilali and Mirusuvil today.
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Battles rage for MSR

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 08:58 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast today that Tiger troops on the A9 highway north of the Elephant Pass garrison repulsed an operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) yesterday to retake the sector of the road held by them now. The radio said that more than twenty SLA troops were killed in the fighting and that the Tigers had recovered weapons and equipment from the scene of the battle.
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Gun positions threaten Pallai hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 03:20 GMT]
The medical officer in charge of the Pallai hospital, Dr.Senthil Nanthan Ambikaipakan, said today that he cannot run the hospital anymore as doctors and other staff are scared to come and work there. He said that the immediate environs of the hospital have become a battle zone and therefore the institution has to be either closed immediately or it has to be taken over and run by a neutral humanitarian organisation. Meanwhile, patients who were brought to Jaffna from the Pallai hospital yesterday said that the Sri Lanka army (SLA) has moved several artillery positions into the environs of the hospital.
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Court discharges widowed-mother

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 23:41 GMT]
Meenambigai Manikampillai, a 45 year old widow and a mother of 5 children, who was arrested at Puttalam and detained by the police, was discharged by the Chilaw Magistrate, said legal sources in Chilaw.
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Case against CMEV withdrawn

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 20:49 GMT]
The criminal defamation suit filed against the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) by Chandrasiri Gunawardene, a People's Alliance (PA) member, has been withdrawn on a directive by the Attorney General, said legal sources in Colombo.
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Civilians asked to leave battle zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 18:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam (LTTE) asked the people of the Pachchilaipalli division near the Elephant Pass garrison in Jaffna to leave their villages by tomorrow afternoon and move to safety in Kodikamam. The Tigers said that they will hold fire from 6 a.m. in morning to 2 p.m. in the afternoon tomorrow to facilitate the movement of people out of Pachchilaipalli.
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Refugee crisis in Jaffna war zones

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 17:08 GMT]
Local officials and Catholic church sources said today that they are fast running out of rice gruel for more than 7500 persons displaced in the Pallai sector due to the fighting between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army. They said there aren't funds or supplies to feed the people who fled the shelling in Pallai and Maasar, north of the Elephant Pass garrison, since Monday, March 27 as all civilian transport has come to a halt because of the fighting on the A9 highway and the interior between Pallai and Eluthumadduval.
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Tigers take SLA uniforms, shoot soldiers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Two gunmen, suspected to be Tigers, shot at a Sri Lanka army patrol last evening in Puthur in Jaffna, wounding two soldiers in the ensuing fire fight. A Policeman was shot dead around 4 p.m. today on Aadiyapaatham street in Kalviankaadu, near Jaffna town.
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Pallai patient succumbs to injuries

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 13:53 GMT]
A seriously wounded civilian transferred today from Pallai to the Jaffna hospital died this evening. The woman, Rasalingam Sriranjani Rajeswary, was admitted to the Pallai hospital with severe injuries on March 28 when the fighting between the Sri Lanka army and the Liberation Tigers was raging in several sectors of the Thenmaradchi division.
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Sea Tiger strategies concern SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 12:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has banned fishing in the Jaffna lagoon for three days amidst apprehensions about further amphibious operations by the Sea Tigers aimed at cutting off the army's current supply route to Elephant Pass. Fishermen who went to the Gurunagar jetty in Jaffna town to put out to sea this morning were turned back by the army.
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