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[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2001, 20:38 GMT]
More than five thousand civilians fled their homes in Pooneryn north following heavy shelling and bombing, aid agency sources in the north said Monday. They said that Sri Lanka Air Force jets bombed the area since Friday. The Sri Lanka army had fired mortars and artillery on civilian settlements in the northern parts of Pooneryn. The attacks are in retaliation to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA in the Agni Khiela I Operation last week, sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2001, 06:30 GMT]
Mr. K. Pooranampillai, 92, a former principal of Hartley College, Point Pedro (1943-1967), and later at St. Johns College, Jaffna (1967-1976), affectionately known as KP, passed away in UK at his daughter's residence on 22 April. His funeral took place in Falkstone, Kent on Saturday. Many past pupils of Hartley College now resident in UK attended his funeral.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2001, 06:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over 26 bodies of Sri Lanka army soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kilinochchi Sunday morning, ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunwardena told Tamilnet. This brings the total bodies of SLA personnel handed over by the Tigers to the ICRC to 56. The Tigers handed over the bodies of 30 government troopers Saturday morning.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Saturday afternoon said that the Sri Lankan army was pushed back to its original position in the early hours of the morning today. The statement said that the SLA’s 55, 52 Divisions and the elite 53 special forces Division, suffered more than 2400 casualties in ferocious counter offensives by the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers. “LTTE commando units have started clearing the area, about 2 square kilometres, vacated by the army in the Eluthumadduval sector, in southern Jaffna. Decomposing bodies of soldiers and their weapons are scattered everywhere in the area, according to LTTE field commanders”, the statement said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:27 GMT]
"Thirty bodies of SLA soldiers were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni region Saturday morning", ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 10:33 GMT]
Eight civilians, including a 3-month-old infant, were seriously wounded Saturday when the Sri Lanka army's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa town fired heavy artillery on villages across the lagoon in the district's western hinterland. The SLA opened up with heavy artillery fire on the villages of Mandapathadi and Kannankudah around 10.30 a.m.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 03:38 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) The Norwegian peace initiative suffered several body blows this week as amid a bloody Sri Lanka Army offensive in the Jaffna peninsula, the government ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire, saying it was Ïirrelevant" to the Norwegian facilitated peace process, and insisted the Liberation Tigers would remain proscribed until they proved they were "sincere and honest" about negotiations, thereby rejecting two issues the LTTE insists are pre-requisites for succesful negotiations to be held.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 16:05 GMT]
Heavy fighting continued for the third day in the southern Jaffna peninsula, with both the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army troops using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said Thursday. LTTE casualties on Friday night stood at 48 killed, they said. The SLA continued to suffer casualties as troops attempting to dig into a captured salient 1km inside the LTTE's defence lines near Eluthumadduval, the sources further said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 12:52 GMT]
Eastern university undergraduates and teachers demonstrated Friday urging the people of Batticaloa to observe the Buddhist Vesak festival as a day of mourning. Thirteen people, including nine children from an orphanage, were shot dead by Sri Lanka army soldiers in Batticaloa town during the Vesak festival on 17 May last year following a blast. The SLA sought an apology for the massacre from the people of Batticaloa in January this year, blaming a drunken commanding officer for ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Meanwhile, the SLA warned civilians in Batticaloa Friday not to move about near its camps and positions in the district after dark. The army increased search operation in the eastern town this week.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 03:23 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers recovered the bodies of thirty Sri Lanka army soldiers from the battlefield in Jaffna south, the Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Friday. The radio denied a report by the Special Media Information Centre of the Sri Lankan government that the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed two busloads of its troopers behind the lines on Thursday. The VOT said that heavy fighting was raging in the southern parts of the peninsula for the third day.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 16:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in press release issued from their headquarters in the Vanni Thursday evening that fierce fighting continues in southern Jaffna. "More than 300 Sri Lankan army soldiers were killed and over 1200 injured in the ferocious fighting that continues for the second day in the southern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. The Government troops have suffered massive casualties as the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers offered stiff and determined resistance to the offensive assault launched by the Sri Lankan army", the statement said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 13:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers directed heavy mortar and artillery counter barrages on the positions the SLA is trying to consolidate in the Muhamalai-Eluthumadduval sector in Jaffna Thursday. Civilian flights from Jaffna to Colombo operated by a company owned by the Sri Lanka Air Force was cancelled Thursday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. Passengers who went to board the AN-28 at the Palaly military base this afternoon were turned back. "The SLAF is in urgent need of more flights for casualty evacuation and logistical runs", a member of a Tamil group working with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna said. The state owned Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation called on civilians Thursday morning to donate blood for the wounded soldiers. Hospital sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 1100 wounded SLA soldiers have been flown out of Jaffna for treatment in civilian hospitals in the southern parts of the island, including the capital.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 06:37 GMT]
At least 1058 Sri Lanka army troops were wounded in Wednesday's massive onslaught against the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the Jaffna peninsulaís southern sector, military sources in Jaffna said. A large number of these were airlifted to government hospitals in Colombo and Anurudhapura. Many of the seriously wounded were also sent to the government general hospitals in Jayawardhanapura and Ragama near Colombo. Others have been admitted to provincial hospitals, according to medical sources. About 100 more are expected to be airlifted to Colombo later today for treatment, the sources added. Casualties started rising when several advancing SLA troop concentrations were hit by heavy artillery fire from the LTTEís gun positions in the rear, military sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 03:15 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy sailor was killed and two were wounded in a clash with the Sea Tigers in the sea off Pallimunai, a suburb of Mannar town around 7.20 a.m. Thursday morning. Police sources in the town said that Sea Tiger craft attacked an SLN patrol in the Pallimunai sea that attempted to intercept a group of Liberation Tigers who were headed towards the Mannar town. The wounded SLN personnel were brought to the Mannar base hospital.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:11 GMT]
Heavy fighting between the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops continued Wednesday night with both sides using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said. Over 100 SLA troops have been killed and 400 wounded in 24 hours of pitch battle in the Kilaly-Eluthumadduval-Nagar Kovil axis, the sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:03 GMT]
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.S.P Thamil Chelvan Wednesday welcomed the delegation of Sri Lanka's catholic Bishops who are on a peace mission in the Vanni Wednesday, church sources said. Mr. Thamil Chelvan met the bishops for two hours in Mallavi, they added. The Catholic Bishops are on a mission to the Vanni to discuss prospects for bringing about a peaceful settlement to Sri Lankaís ethnic conflict.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 14:37 GMT]
More than 400 Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded in less than eight hours of fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Eluthumadduval and Kilali in Jaffna, military sources in the north said. Officials at government hospitals in Anuradhapura and Colombo said preparations are underway to receive more later this evening. The SLA spokesman, however, claimed that only 78 soldiers were wounded and 30 were killed. Op. Agni Khela I (Fire Flame), launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the SLA to retake JaffnaÌs southern sector and Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the peninsula which Tigers overran in April 2000.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 11:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army offensive south of Eluthumadduval and Kilaly slowed down this afternoon amid heavy resistance and counter fire by the Liberation Tigers, sources in Jaffna said. At least 84 SLA troopers were wounded and 28 killed in eight hours of fighting, military sources in the north said. Shelling continued in the Nagar Kovil sector.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 10:13 GMT]
A spokesman for Non Government Organisations in Trincomalee said Wednesday that the instruction issued by the Governor of the Northeastern province Maj.Gen. (Ret.) Asoka Jayawardena that all NGO in this eastern district should not function without the Government Agent's authority is a step to restrict and interfere in their activities under the guise of monitoring their rehabilitation and development works. "The Sri Lankan government has generally neglected reconstruction, rehabilitation and development work for more than a decade in the Tamil areas of the district. The NGOs have tried to fill this gap in a very limited way despite restrictions on their work. Getting the GA, whose Sinhala chauvinist proclivities are only too well known, to supervise our work is an insidious tactic to further undermine the Tamil areas of Trincomalee", added the spokesman.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 04:21 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted in Nagar Kovil and the Eluthumadduval area in Jaffna when Sri Lanka army troops attempted to push south along the coast around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, sources in the northern peninsula said. The SLA's thrust towards the coastal villages of Kudrappu and Maamunai and south of Eluthumadduval was met with heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers, they added. Meanwhile, the army banned on all fishing in the Jaffna lagoon until further notice Tuesday evening.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 00:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge Tuesday vowed to defeat the Liberation Tigers and safeguard the territorial integrity of the country, the state-owned Daily News reported Wednesday. Describing the LTTE as an "unprincipled terrorist organisation," she saluted Sri Lanka's military for "continuing to fight tooth and nail to wipe out the LTTE from the face of our dear motherland."
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2001, 11:29 GMT]
“The Tamil people have totally lost faith in the Sri Lankan government. The Liberation Tigers observed a ceasefire unilaterally for four months because they felt that the Tamil people should not continue to suffer and to create a climate conducive for Norway’s peace efforts. By rashly rejecting their ceasefire and stubbornly refusing to reciprocate it, the government displayed its gross insensitivity to the agony of the Tamil people”, said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, in a comment sent to the Tamil press Tuesday.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 20:07 GMT]
"Tamil medium national schools in the northeast province have not been supplied with computers and printers although the Ministry of Education has long since distributed them to national schools in other parts of the country", said the President of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Mr.S.Thandayuthapani. "The computers and printers were promised last year and teachers were trained for handling them. We have got nothing so far despite several appeals," he added.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 14:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, stated that the organisation had decided not to extend its unilaterally declared cease-fire that expires at midnight on the 24th April 2001. "We are compelled to make this painful decision as a consequence of the hard-line, intransigent attitude of the Sri Lankan government which has not only refused to reciprocate positively to our peace gesture but intensified land, sea and air attacks causing heavy casualties on our side. It has become impossible to contain the military assaults of the enemy with our self-restrained defensive tactics without resorting to counter-offensive operations. Under such dangerous conditions we can no longer sustain our self-imposed truce which the enemy has been exploiting to its own military advantage", the LTTE's statement said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 15:52 GMT]
Tamil party leaders Sunday strongly condemned statements made by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, that the war against the Liberation Tigers has begun and that his government will not declare a ceasefire again. “ The Prime minister’s pronouncement on Friday makes it amply clear that the Sri Lankan government is not interested in peace negotiations at all. The PM is a confidante of the President. His renewed belligerence shows that the government is on the war path again”, charged a spokesman for the alliance of ten Tamil parties.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 11:17 GMT]
A widow who reported sexual harassment a group Special Task Force (STF) commandos was severely assaulted by them and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital Sunday morning. The woman, Mahendran Nageswary, 37, Saturday complained to an officer at the STF’s main camp at Karaithivu, 46 kilometres south of Batticaloa, that a group of STF commandos from Kaluwanchikudy were harassing her. The woman was beaten up by the STF personnel who had been intimidating when she returned home Saturday evening. The commandos beat up woman’s son too when he had tried to help his mother who had fallen on the ground unconscious, hospital sources said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 21:00 GMT]
"Wild animals are roaming in many abandoned Tamil villages in the Trincomalee district. Entire populations of these were forced to flee their homes due to military actions more than fifteen years ago. Around five thousand displaced are still living in fifteen welfare centers and the rest are living with their relatives in Trincomalee town. Several Tamil villages in the district, particularly in the Kuchchaveli division, are without basic facilities such as schools, and dispensaries. There is little hope that any funds for development would be allocated to such areas by the District Co-ordinating Committee because there aren't any Tamil MP's on it", said a senior Sri Lankan government official in Trincomalee Sunday.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army launched an intense artillery and aerial attack Saturday on the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the southern Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna town said. Heavy artillery and multi-barrelled rocket launchers (MBRLs) targeted LTTE defences in the Eluthumadduval and Pallai areas, they said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 22:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers stationed at the 23-3 Brigade HQ in Batticaloa fired several rounds of shells towards the villages of Kannankudah, Thaandiyadi, Arasadithivy and Kokkaddicholai in the western hinterlands of the district Friday night residents said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 16:49 GMT]
“The presence of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka should be made a reality to monitor crimes against innocent Tamils, especially women, by members of Armed Forces who are almost 100 percent Sinhalese”, states a memorandum sent to several international human rights organizations Friday by leading citizens of Trincomalee.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 10:37 GMT]
Gunboats of the Sri Lanka Navy intercepted and attacked a Sea Tiger supply convoy of the Mullaitivu coast Friday morning and a fierce battle ensued in which four LTTE boats were sunk, military officials said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 23:09 GMT]
The United States should pressure the Sri Lankan government to cease its war and seek negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) urged a visiting senior US official Thursday. "It is impossible to seek peace while the government insists on continuing the war," Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Secretary General of the TULF told Mr. Adolfo Franco, Counsel for the International Relations Committee of the US Congress, who is in Colombo meeting political leaders with regards to the Norwegian peace efforts.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 13:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday condemned the wounding Monday of an American journalist by Sri Lanka Army troops who opened fire on Marie Colvin's party as "an act of cowardice" and praised the correspondent's bravery in crossing into the Vanni to examine the situation there for herself. Ms. Colvin had crossed the lines back into government-held territory with the hope the SLA would honour its unilateral New-Year truce, the LTTE said in a statement issued in the Vanni.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Shops, government offices and businesses were closed Thursday in the Batticaloa district to mark the 13th anniversary of Poopathy Kanapathipillai, the woman who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 during a month long mass protest against atrocities committed by the Indian army in the northern and eastern parts of the island at the time. Few people and fewer vehicles were on the roads. Special Task Force (STF) commandos forced shops to open in Kaluwanchikudi, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2001, 20:16 GMT]
The former officer in charge of the Mannar Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) N.P.N.Suraweera who is accused of torturing and sexually assaulting two women in custody on 19 March filed a petition Wednesday in the court of appeal that the case against him should be heard in Colombo and not in the district court of Mannar. The Sinhala nationalist politician lawyer Mr. S.L Gunasekera appeared for the Police officer. Suraweera said in his petition that the two women were not raped in custody and that they started saying so only after the Mannar Bishop who, according to him, has close links with the Liberation Tigers visited them on 27 March.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:57 GMT]
The Pt. Pedro Urban Council passed a resolution Tuesday that the Sinhala extremist party, the Sihala Urumaya (SU) should be banned. Mr.Mark Kumanan of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) proposed the resolution, which was adopted unanimously by the council. The EPDP member said that the Sihala Urumaya should be banned because it is attempting to scuttle peace talks to settle the ethnic conflict. The Sihala Urumaya is a racist anti Tamil group, Mr. Kumanan told the council.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this week that the involvement of a third party was crucial in any negotiations between them and the Sri Lankan government, and suggested that Norway might be fill that role as an extension of Oslo's present efforts to bring about talks between the two sides. In an interview to the Tamil Guardian weekly, the latest issue of which hit the newsstands in London Tuesday, the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said "In our perspective the third party involvement is crucial even after the commencement of the negotiations."
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 09:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are preparing to appeal against their proscription under Britain's Terrorism Act and were putting together a legal team for this purpose, Tamil media sources said Tuesday, quoting the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham. "We are already in consultation with eminent lawyers in the field of terrorist legislation and we are advised to apply to the Home Secretary for de-proscription," Balasingham was quoted as saying by sources with the Tamil Guardian weekly.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2001, 16:47 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy gun boat was damaged and seven sailors were wounded in a sea battle between the Sea Tigers and the Navy off the coast of Chaalai in north-east of the island in the early hours of Monday, military sources said. Voice of Tigers radio said the fighting erupted when the SLN crafts engaged Sea Tiger boats off the coast of Mullaithivu around 1.45 a.m.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 18:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy bombarded Soodaikkudah, a coastal hamlet south of Trincomalee, Saturday afternoon on Tamil New Year, residents said. Four boats and a house were damaged when the Sri Lanka Navy gunboats shelled the village from 3.30 p.m. Saturday, according to them. People fled the village in November last year following persistent attacks by the SLN. They were sheltered as refugees in a school in Sampoor, a large village west of Soodaikudah until they resettled in February on an assurance the ICRC had obtained from the Navy.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 18:30 GMT]
A senior member of a Tamil paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army said Sunday that at least four among the ten purported 'Liberation Tigers' released by Colombo as a good will measure are actually persons closely associated with the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). "None of them are members of the Liberation Tigers. They were arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Police in September last year because of they are relatives and acquaintances of Jeganahtan Pathmanathan, a senior member of the TELO's Mannar branch who was arrested earlier for allegedly aiding an ex-LTTE member. Jeganathan is still in prison with his wife and two small children. There was no grounds for a case against the others", he said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 12:48 GMT]
"Ordinary citizens who are suffering have scant hope of obtaining even elementary justice at the hands of the traditional guardians of law and order. People have the perception that the judicial process too has been impaired", said the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka Sunday in a statement issued to the press Sunday.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 16:38 GMT]
The Tamil New Year begins Friday night at 9.27 p.m. People wear new clothes and visit friends and relatives. During the festive season there is great demand for new bank notes, which are gifted as good will money ('Kai Muluththam') to friends and relatives. Many indigenous festivities traditionally associated with the New Year have greatly diminished due to SLA restrictions and curfews.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 11:45 GMT]
The Sri Lankan security forces high command, in a clear signal that it was not comfortable with the limited ceasefire declared by Colombo for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, charged in a SLA news release Friday that the Liberation Tigers are taking advantage of the army halting offensive operations, barely 12 hours into the truce. The Police, army and the Special Task Force stepped up security in areas controlled by them in the north and east of the island Friday although the ceasefire came into effect from midnight Thursday.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2001, 15:11 GMT]
The students of the Jaffna University burnt copies of the 'Amuthu', a Tamil magazine published by the state run Lake House news papers Thursday evening as a mark of protest against its anti-Tamil stance, sources said. The 'Amuthu' is dedicated to propaganda aimed at subtly or balatantly promoting the policies of the People's Alliance regime and the activities of the Sri Lanka army. The magazine is edited by Mr. Manoranjan who is a close confidante of the Sri Lankan President and is a director of Rupavahini, the state run TV station.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2001, 13:10 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President extended the service of the Sri Lanka army's Chief of Staff, Major General Neil Dias, who was due to retire Thursday before she left to an undisclosed destination abroad. Maj. Gen. Neil Dias is one of the most battle experienced commanders of the SLA. Sources in the SLA headquarters in Colombo ventured to speculate that he might succeed Lt. Gen.Lionel Balagalle who is due to retire this year as the commander of the SLA. The extension of the battle hardened commander's service was seen by analysts as an indication of Colombo's determination to give optimum priority to prosecuting the war against the Liberation Tigers.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2001, 14:11 GMT]
The budget of the People’s Alliance was passed in the Sri Lankan Parliament Wednesday by a majority of nine votes amidst speculation that the opposition might woo the government’s Tamil and Muslim allies to defeat the ruling party. However, the opposition lost one vote from the minimum it expected to be cast against the budget today when the TULF MP for Batticaloa, Mr. P. Selvarajah left for India amidst charges that he had been inveigled at the eleventh hour to stay away from the crucial vote. Mr. Selvarajah was the only MP who was absent in the Parliament today during the vote. The Sri Lankan legislature has 225 members.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 18:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan armed forces will cease offensive operations for three days commencing at midnight April 13, to the traditional Tamil and Sinhala New Year, government sources said. The move was not a reciprocation of the Liberation Tigers unilateral ceasefire, now in its fourth month, the sources said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 17:45 GMT]
"The protest campaign by Tamil students, teachers and principals condemning the atrocities committed on the two Tamil married women in Mannar in the north eastern province today was a success. Over fifteen thousand teachers and four hundred thousand students participated in the campaign," said Mr.T. Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) Tuesday.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 15:12 GMT]
More than four hundred Tamils demonstrated against sexual violence by the Sri Lankan security forces in the heart of downtown Colombo Tuesday. The protest was led by an alliance of eleven Tamil political parties, including the Tamil United Liberation Front. " We are not, through this demonstration, making an appeal to the government. We believe that there is no point in appealing to this government about atrocities committed by the security forces against the Tamils. We doing this to impress upon the world our predicament" said the chief organizer of the demonstration, Mr. Mano Ganeshan who is the leader of the Democratic Workers' Congress.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 12:31 GMT]
People from the interior of the northwestern hinterland of Batticaloa began moving out of their hamlets from early morning Tuesday fearing an operation by the Sri Lanka army against the positions of the Liberation Tigers in Thoppikkal and Tharavai. Families in Miyankalkulam and Tharavai abandoned their homesteads and began arriving Tuesday morning in Thihilivettai, a village close to the SLA controlled main coastal road, 25 kilometers north of Batticaloa with their personal belongings and cattle.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 16:51 GMT]
Six civilians who were severely assaulted last night by Sri Lanka army soldiers in the village of Korakallimadu, 25 kilometers north of Batticaloa, complained to International Committee of the Red Cross Monday. One of the complainants said that the soldiers had threatened the villagers with dire consequences if the incident were to be reported to anyone. He said that more than ten persons were assaulted for raising the cry when soldiers from the Kiran Bridge camp had entered their houses and attempted to sexually harass young women late Sunday night.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 13:33 GMT]
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Mannar Police Monday moved in the Mannar district court that Sivamani Weerakon and Nanthakumar Wijikala, the young women who were allegedly raped and brutally tortured in Police custody, be further remanded for fourteen days on grounds that they had confessed to offences under draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act and that they are suicide bombers sent by the LTTE to assassinate important persons. The SIU also stated that it was necessary to keep the women in custody because investigations about them are not yet over. Objecting to the SIU's application, Mr. K.S Ratnavale, the attorney who appeared for the accused, told the court, "this a funny application coming from the prosecution because the B report filed in court by the SIU moving for further remand has been signed by OIC Suraweera who has been accused of committing sexual offences against the two women. He should be the one behind bars".
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2001, 12:28 GMT]
"There are many laws and schemes for the protection of women. Appropriate action is not taken against those flouting them. On the contrary, at the highest rungs of the Government, such obvious offences are even denied, disowned and covered up. This creates in the public mistrust in the rule of law and becomes an encouragement for the criminals. The Government, instead of ensuring the safety of the public, is interested in protecting the security forces", the Mannar Women's Front said in a memorandum sent to the President Sunday.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 April 2001, 12:25 GMT]
"The prison is said to be a high security, safe place for prisoners. But judging from various attacks on Tamil prisoners detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations during the past eight years, prison has become a death knell for Tamil prisoners", said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, TULF MP for Batticaloa in a letter faxed to the Sri Lankan President about the brutal attack Saturday on Tamil prisoners held in the Negombo prison under the Immigrants and Emigrants (Amendment) Act No.42 of 1998. Fifteen Tamil prisoners who were on protest fast demanding that they be released on bail were injured when they were brutally attacked by prison guards Saturday. The condition of seven is serious.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 17:45 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers on Saturday released four prisoners of war who had been held by them for many years. They were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the northern Vanni main land ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet. LTTE sources said the POWs were released to show organisastion's support for the Norwegian facilitated peace talks and as a demonstration of its commitment to future peace talks.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 11:30 GMT]
"The Tamil women of this country have no faith in the President or the government because there is no justice when wrongs are perpetrated on them by the armed forces. The recent actions of the President are encouraging the army to further indulge in sexual atrocities against Tamil women. Although she is a woman the President does not bother to take even minimal action against the perpetrators of murder and rape. The President applauds the security forces and does what she can to cover up their heinous activities against the Tamil people. Sexual atrocities have been committed on Tamil women in Mannar many times in the past. But only the 19 March incident has come to light", said Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan Member of Parliament for the Vanni, speaking Saturday at the protest fast at the St. MaryÌs Church in Mannar town. More than three thousand people from many parts of the Mannar district took part in the fast to protest against the brutal rape and torture of two Tamil women in custody by the Sri Lanka Navy and the Counter Subversive Unit of the Police on 19 March.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 10:20 GMT]
Mr. S.P.Tamil Chelvan, the Head of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has called upon the government of Sri Lanka to lift the ban on his organisation and reciprocate positively to the LTTE's unilateral cease-fire as essential pre-requisites for the commencement of political negotiations. This message was conveyed through the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Mr. Jon Westborg when he had lengthy discussions with the political leaders of the LTTE in Mallavi, Vanni, northern Sri Lanka yesterday and today morning, the organisation said in a press release Saturday.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2001, 16:17 GMT]
Norway’s Ambassador in Sri Lanka Jan Westborg and an official of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo, Mr. Tomas Strangland held discussions with Mr. S. Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers, at Pallamadu in the Vanni this afternoon from 4 p.m., Voice of Tigers said in its night news broadcast Friday. The radio did not comment on the content or nature of the discussions between Norway’s Ambassador and Mr. Thamil Chelvan.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2001, 15:53 GMT]
Lt. Gen. Cecil Waidyaratne, a former commander of the Sri Lanka army Thursday paid 100,000 rupees as directed by Sri Lankaís court of Appeal to the father of a Tamil youth who went missing after he was arrested by the army in the Ampara district in June 1990. The decision of the court of appeal in the Habeas Corpus application on Kandaiah Yoganayagam, 31, is the first instance in which the Sri Lanka armyís high command has been held responsible by the Court of Appeal for the disappearance of a Tamil youth in the Ampara district. Human rights activists and Peace Committees in the district say that more than six thousand Tamil civilians were massacred or reported missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army and the Special Task Force commandos of the Sri Lanka Police in the Tamil villages and hinterland of Ampara between 1990 and 1993.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 20:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka's radical Marxist party, the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Thursday commemorated its cadres who were killed in the insurrection of 1971. More than ten thousand youth who took part in the JVP's armed insurrection to overthrow the Sri Lankan government and establish a communist regime in Sri Lanka were massacred by the army and Police. The Indian government sent in troops to aid the Sri Lankan security forces quell the rebellion.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 18:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Parliament Thursday passed a motion extending the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 22 votes. The United National Party (UNP), Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Tamil Eelam Organisation (TELO) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) voted against the motion. The solitary Parliamentarian of the Sinhala Urumaya was not present at that time of voting. 111 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 89 voted against.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 18:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, flatly denied that the security forces had raped two women in detention in Mannar, interrupting the All Ceylon Tamil Congress MP for Jaffna, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy, who was on his feet in the Parliament Thursday speaking on the destruction of Tamil temples in the north and east and the rape of women in Mannar. "The statement of the Deputy Minister of Defence is tantamount to a gross intimidation of the judicial process. It shows that the government is more eager to justify such atrocities by its security forces than it is to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to book", Mr. Vinayagamoorthy told TamilNet Thursday evening.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2001, 18:26 GMT]
There was tension in the Sri Lankan capitol Colombo Wednesday morning after several unauthorized structures, including a Buddhist shrine were demolished by workers of the city's Urban Development Authority. Thousands of angry protestors led by buddhists monks blocked the traffic through Punchi Borella junction protesting against the destruction of the Buddhist Vihare.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2001, 17:14 GMT]
"A true and comprehensive peace cannot be achieved through armed conflict. To be clear -- no one can 'win' the war in Sri Lanka. Rather, the road to a true and genuine peace can only be achieved through good faith negotiations without pre-conditions. As an initial first step of goodwill by both sides to the conflict, an internationally monitored cease fire should be agreed to by the parties to the conflict and unconditional discussions on a comprehensive settlement should begin," said Rep. Gilman at a congressional briefing on Sri Lanka held in the committee room of the House International Relations Committee in Washington D.C. last Thursday. Gilman is Chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2001, 15:04 GMT]
"Lawyers cannot be mere onlookers when injustices are done to civilians by law enforcement authorities," said the President of the Trincomalee Bar Association Mr.Arumugam Jegasothy presiding over the special meeting convened Tuesday morning to pass a resolution condemning the brutal and beastly crimes committed on two Tamil women in Mannar by law enforcement personnel when the victims were under their custody.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 21:23 GMT]
Over ten thousand Tamils rallied outside the United Nations building in Geneva on Monday calling for international pressure on Sri Lanka to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers and to support of the Tamil right to self-determination. Tamil expatriates converged from several European cities by special trains and busses to take part in the annual peace march through the main streets of Geneva to coincide with the occasion of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), organisers said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 20:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday refuted allegations by Amnesty International that they had recruited young children as combatants, describing the accusations as "malicious". The LTTE does not recruit combatants under the age of seventeen, sources close to the Tigers quoting senior LTTE officials as saying Monday.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 16:53 GMT]
A simmering dispute over the dismissal of 36 employees of the Jaffna Municipal Council’s (JMC) Health Department was turned into a political contest and intrigue between the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Monday in Jaffna town. More than three hundred employees of the JMC went in a procession Monday morning to the Nallur Kandasamy temple in support of the council’s administration. Another group of employees, mostly from the JMC’s health department, marched through the town against the council’s administration. They handed over copies of a memorandum listing their grievances and demands to the Jaffna district judge and the government agent. Later they sat in front of the JMC in a protest fast. The protestors are not demanding their reinstatement but want the TULF administration of the JMC dissolved.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 20:39 GMT]
"It would be pertinent to raise the question as to whether pugnacious statements made by persons in high positions and the expressed determination of the Government to continue with the war, contributes towards the unleashing of brutality such as rape and torture on unarmed Tamil civilians particularly Tamil females. It would appear that some service personnel think that if a Tamil is implicated even falsely with the LTTE any crime can be committed against such Tamil person" said the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, in a letter to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 17:27 GMT]
The District Medical Officer of Mannar in his medical report to the Mannar court this weekend on Wijikala Nanthakumar, the pregnant woman who were arrested on 19 March by the Counter Subversive Unit, said that there were abrasions on her genitals and that there was bleeding in her vagina during examination. Dr. G.Somasekeram, the Mannar DMO who submitted the report on Saturday after examining Wijikala Nanthakumar on 30 March said, "From the history given by the subject and (from) examination I come to the conclusion that Nanthan Wijikala was tortured and raped".
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 03:08 GMT]
“The atrocities of the Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Mannar district are growing bad to worse daily. All my efforts to get the Sri Lanka Navy to respect the basic human rights of the people so affected by the prolonged war are proving futile. I have again appealed to the Commander General of the Sri Lankan Navy for redress in the name of the civil public of Mannar,” Rt.Rev. Rayappu Joseph Bishop of Mannar said in a statement issued Saturday.
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