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[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2001, 16:10 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate Friday instructed the Police to seize all illegal weapons and vehicles which play without number plates in the peninsula. Mr.R.T.Viknaraja, Magistrate made the order at the conclusion of the inquests held into the deaths of two Tamil National Alliance (TNA) supporters by armed cadres ofthe Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP).
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[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2001, 16:05 GMT]
Unidentified persons Friday morning attacked Dr. Wickremabahu Karunaratna, the leader of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), and his supporters at Wellampitiya in Colombo town when they were engaged in electioneering. Dr.Karunaratna was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, police sources said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 14:02 GMT]
The effigy of Mr. Douglas Devananda, Minister for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (North) in Peoples' Alliance Government who is the leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party was set on fire Thursday around 1.30 p.m. by Jaffna undergrads on the campus grounds of the Jaffna University in Tinnelvely, Jaffna. Meanwhile, people in the village of Pannaikattaiadi in Pt. Pedro in Jaffna beat up an armed gang of EPDP cadres who had allegedly attempted to kill a United National Party candidate Thursday morning around 11 a.m. The villagers seized two assault rifles and a pistol from the EPDP cadres and handed them over to the Police, sources said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 08:32 GMT]
Schools, shops, government offices and banks were closed in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna in response to a call by the Tamil National Alliance for a general shut down in the north and east to protest against the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime, for killing two civilians and attacking and grievously wounding four TNA candidates in Kayts, an island off the northern peninsula.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 07:43 GMT]
Angry villagers attacked two EPDP camps at Neliyaddy and Valvettithurai in Vadamaradchi in Jaffna Wednesday night and completely destroyed them, said sources in the northern town.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 04:46 GMT]
Two grenades were lobbed at the male students’ hostel of the Jaffna University Wednesday night around 9 p.m. Both grenades exploded inside the hostel compound. An undergraduate was wounded, student sources said. Windows in building and a section of the hall ceilings were shattered by the explosions. “The attack is clearly the work of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party goons. The EPDP is attacking us for opposing their terror tactics to intimidate the people in this election”, a Jaffna University Students’ Union spokesman said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 00:13 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance Wednesday appealed for a general shut down protest ('Hartal') in the northeast province condemning the brutal attack on its candidates and supporters at Naranthanai; Jaffna by armed cadres of the pro-government Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP). Mr. Anandasangaree, acting President of the Tamil United Liberation Front TULF), a constituent of the Tamil National Alliance made the appeal at a press conference held at the party's office in Jaffna at 3 p.m., Wednesday afternoon.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 00:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) informed the Supreme Court Wednesday that no more police transfers would be effected till 5 December except under essential and special circumstances. The IGP's assurance was conveyed to the SC through the Attorney General when the fundamental rights application by the main opposition United National Party was taken up for inquiry Wednesday morning.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2001, 00:12 GMT]
A twenty-year-old woman, Murugesu Kavitha, was killed and several houses were damaged in Mutur south when Sri Lanka Army soldiers fired artillery shells from their camps at Monkey Bridge and Kaddaiparichchan in Trincomalee district, residents said Wednesday.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2001, 11:32 GMT]
A military trained policeman was killed and two others were wounded when the jeep in which they were travelling was hit by a claymore blast set off by the Liberation Tigers at Dutuwewa, about 10 km. east of Vavuniya twon, around 10.45 a.m. Wednesday, security sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2001, 07:24 GMT]
A group of Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance candidates and supporters who had gone to Naranthanai in Jaffna for campaigning were attacked by armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Wednesday morning around 11 a.m with knives and other weapons. One TNA supporter, an employee of the Jaffna University was killed and about twenty others, including four TNA candidates were wounded in the incident, police sources said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2001, 12:25 GMT]
In a special appeal made Tuesday to the majority Sinhala people faced with crucial parliamentary election early next month in Sri Lanka, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), urged them to reject racist forces committed to militarism and war and to offer justice to the Tamil people to bring about peace, ethnic reconciliation and economic prosperity to the island.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2001, 22:27 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday reserved its order on the Fundamental Rights application filed against the State owned Lake House by the main opposition United national Party. The Deputy Leader of the main opposition United National Party Mr.Karu Jayasuriya has stated that the respondent institution has violated his fundamental rights by publishing distorted news and articles in its publications in favour of the ruling People's Alliance contravening the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2001, 16:41 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks protested in Colombo Monday against granting an interim administrative council to run the northern and eastern parts of the island. The Sri Lankan government alleges that there is an insidious conspiracy by the United National party against the Sinhala people to hand over the northeastern province to the Liberation Tigers. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sinhala nationalists say that granting the LTTE the interim administration is treason. The protest was organised by the National Movement for the Defence of the Unitary State.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2001, 16:44 GMT]
The Muslim dominated Balangoda town in the south of the country has been placed under police curfew from 8.30 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday following violent clashes between supporters of the ruling People's Alliance and main opposition United National Party Sunday early morning. A UNP activist was killed and two others were injured in the clashes, police said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 November 2001, 12:30 GMT]
Twenty thousand member strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) has appealed to Tamil people to vote for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the forthcoming general election "As the policy of the four party Tamil National Alliance is based on the decision taken at the 27th annual convention of the CTTU held March this year, the CTTU has decided to support the TNA at the forthcoming parliamentary election," said a resolution unanimously passed at the special executive committee meeting of the CTTU held at Trincomalee Sri Vigneswara Maha Vidyalayam Saturday night.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 November 2001, 12:09 GMT]
A military trained policeman was killed and four others were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked forwards defence lines at Parayanaalankulam on the Vavuniya-Mannar road, around 3.30 a.m, Saturday, security sources said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 19:27 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, the leader Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, who returned from a 12-year exile from the United Kingdom yesterday, addressed a massive public rally Friday evening in Kalutara, a large town south of Colombo. Mr. Amarasingha is the only surviving member of the JVP's politburo that was formed in 1969. In 1971 and 1988, Mr.Amarasingha, along with his comrades Rohana Wijeweera and Upatissa Gamanayaka, led two bloody armed insurrections to capture state power and to establish a communist regime in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka army crushed both rebellions, killing thousands of Sinhala youth.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 19:26 GMT]
The inquiry into the Salli habeas Corpus application was fixed this week for 15th January 2002 by the Eastern High Court in Trincomalee after the Court of Appeal withdrew (vacated) the stay order issued on the application by the Officer-in-Charge of the Navy detachment at Nilaveli, the first respondent, to the Colombo High Court that his case be transferred out of the eastern port town as his life was at risk there. In this Habeas Corpus application Ms Jayakili Pushparatha said that her husband Jeyakili of Salli disappeared in February last year after he was arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in Nilaveli, 13 kilometres north of Trincomalee town.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 18:16 GMT]
The Court of Appeal Friday dismissed two petitions filed by the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) seeking to order the Returning Officer to reject the nomination list of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) contesting the Colombo district.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 17:35 GMT]
The United National Party Friday vehemently rejected Sri Lankan government's assertions that it is involved in an insidious conspiracy with the Liberation Tigers against the Sinhala people. State run print and electronic media gave wide publicity since Thursday to a telephone conversation allegedly between ex- UNP Parliamentarian Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena and an agent of the LTTE.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 12:48 GMT]
(News Feature) The allegations of corruption in the Sri Lanka Army's purchase of thermobarric fuel air weapons, exposed locally by the Sunday Leader newspaper broke in the British press Friday with The Guardian publishing details of its own investigations into the transactions.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 09:31 GMT]
A youth arrested by the Police Thursday morning at Mailankarachchi, near Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north was Batticaloa, was found dead by a school Friday morning. The parents of the dead youth said that the Police had asked them to sign a document claiming that their son, Mahesan Manaalan, 24, was a member of the Liberation Tigers. They said that the Police refused them permission to release Manaalan’s body from the Valaichenai hospital this morning because they refused to sign the document. However, after the medical officer at the hospital refused to accept the Police claim on procedural grounds, the body was handed over to the parents later in the day.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 04:55 GMT]
(News Feature) Anticipation of an opposition victory in Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary polls next month is driving the present rally on the country’s tiny market despite the decline across Asia, with possibilities of peace efforts and a more market-friendly government drawing investors, Britain’s Financial Times reported Thursday. The respected financial daily said that while stocks on the Colombo exchange are looking over-valued, the market could keep rising if good news on the political front continues.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 03:57 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Thursday vowed to derail the proposed peace efforts of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) if the latter were to come to power in next month’s Parliamentary elections, the state owned Daily News said Friday. Kumaratunga also urged people not to betray the country by voting for the UNP. Meanwhile, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) stepped up its efforts to portray the UNP as unpatriotic and soft on the LTTE by presenting to Sri Lanka’s influential Buddhist clergy a tape of a conversation that reportedly took place between a UNP MP and LTTE officials.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 15:34 GMT]
Mr.Somawanse Amarasinghe, the self-exiled sole surviving member of the 1980s politburo of the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) arrived Colombo Thursday morning by a Sri Lankan Airlines flight from United Kingdom after a 12 year-long absence Mr.Amarasinghe is billed to address an election rally in support of the JVP at Kalutara in western province Friday, party sources said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 15:33 GMT]
A petition seeking interim injunction order against the State owned television station- Rupavahini prohibiting it from telecasting programmes in support of the ruling People's Alliance, seventy two hours before the date of poll has been filed in the Supreme Court Thursday. Mr. Srinath Perera, President Counsel and a UNP candidate contesting the forthcoming general election from Colombo district has filed the petition.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 15:29 GMT]
Police Election Secretariat Thursday said that it has received 1090 complaints related to election violence since the nominations were filed on 27 October. 62 complaints were received during the twenty-four hours that ended at 6 a.m. Thursday the police said. Meanwhile the European Union Observers' Mission visited the northern town of Vavuniya Thursday and discussed measures to ensure fair and smooth polling with the Returning Officer, S.Ganesh.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 12:04 GMT]
Ten campaign offices of the Tamil National Alliance in the Ampara district were attacked between 8 p.m. Wednesday night and 3 a.m. Thursday morning. Three were burnt. Mr. Henry Mahendran, spokesman for the TNA in Ampara blamed the Eelam People’s Democratic Party for the attacks. He said that the number plates of the vehicles in which the assailants came were covered. The TNA has complained to the Police in Kalmunai about the attacks.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 02:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday stepped up its rhetoric against the Liberation Tigers vowing not to rest until the movement “was exterminated.” “Now I stress that we are determined more than at any time in our struggle to wipe out terrorism and we will continue to wage war against the Tigers to a logical conclusion," President Chandrika Kumaratunga was quoted by the state press as saying at an election rally of her ruling People's Alliance at Hanguranketha on Tuesday night. She also reiterated her accusations against the main opposition United National Party (UNP) saying it was in league with the LTTE to divide the country.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 20:16 GMT]
Three houses belonging to Tamil villagers were burnt down and several civilians were severely assaulted by Police Security Assistants (PSAs or 'Home Guards') in LB 3 Channel area in Serunuwara division, in the Trincomalee District Tuesday night. Bicycles and motorcycles were also damaged by the PSAs, sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 20:13 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Wednesday appealed to the Tamil people to consider the forthcoming general election in the Northeast province as a referendum in support of the policy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that any future peace negotiations should be held with the Liberation Tigers only and no parallel talks should be held with any other Tamil groups.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 16:33 GMT]
More than a hundred people demonstrated against the Sri Lanka Police in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa Wednesday, for indiscriminately shelling and firing on a Tamil neighbourhood Tuesday night, killing five persons, including an 11 year old boy, and wounding nine civilians. The protestors stood with the coffins of three persons who were killed in the incident across the main road in Eravur around 5 p.m., blocking traffic for more than half an hour.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 14:04 GMT]
Police in Jaffna arrested two United National Party candidates and detained a vehicle of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Wednesday in Jaffna following clashes in which a car was attacked and about seven persons were injured. Armed cadres of the EPDP, a major coalition partner of the ruling People's Alliance regime, attacked a campaign car of the UNP on Stanley Road in Jaffna town. The UNP car was damaged and three persons in it were assaulted by the EPDP cadres, Police sources said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 21:54 GMT]
The United National Party's chief candidate for Jaffna Electoral District, Mr.Maheswaran has complained to the police that his party's polling agents and supporters who went to Kayts in Jaffna to monitor postal voting have been threatened by armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). He said his party agents have been told not to visit the Kayts area either for canvassing or to monitor polling. 243,000 public employees are eligible for postal voting which began today.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 21:44 GMT]
The Supreme Court Tuesday decided to inquire into the fundamental Rights application filed by Trincomalee's Senior Superintendent of Police against his transfer after the dissolution of parliament. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Mark Fernando, P.Edusuriya and Hector S.Yapa directed that the transfer of the petitioner be suspended till November 27, and put off the inquiry for a later date.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 17:42 GMT]
Four persons of a family, including an eleven-year-old boy, were killed and eight civilians were wounded when military trained Police in Eravur, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa, opened fire indiscriminately in the Tamil sector of the town Tuesday night around 8 p.m. The Police had opened fire on suspicion upon seeing a car near a sentry in the town. The car belonged to a lawyer who was visiting a friend in the area. Relatives were able to bring only the bodies of the boy, Pathmanathan Suresh, 11, and Sinnathamby Sellathamby, 60 to the Eravur hospital. The bodies of the boy’s parents are still lying in their house, residents said. Only four wounded persons were able to reach the hospital, sources said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 16:57 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and another was wounded in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers in the Left Bank- 3 (LB-3) Channel area in the Serunuwara division of the Trincomalee district Tuesday morning, security sources said. A four year old Tamil girl was seriously wounded in retaliatory fire by the army. The injured child was immediately taken to Trincomalee hospital from Mutur, medical sources said. LB3 is one of several state sponsored Sinhala land encroachments in the Allai irrigation project in the Mutur region which were legalised and protected by Colombo despite protests by Tamil politicians.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 06:56 GMT]
Three Policeman, including an officer were killed in a claymore mine attack by the Liberation Tigers at Poonaavai on the Medawachchiya-Vavuniya road, around 9.50 a.m. Tuesday, security sources said. The attack took place in the high security zone, on the Main Supply Route (MSR) to Vavuniya, near Sri Lanka Navy camp at Poonaavai.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 13:51 GMT]
| Indrakumar 'Prasanna' addressing meeting in Kokkaddicholai Monday. (Photo:TamilNet) |
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[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 12:14 GMT]
At least four hundred employees of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC) in Trincomalee went on a strike Monday morning demanding that the administrative language of the Council should be Tamil, as specified by the 16th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, a statement issued by the North East Provincial Government Employees Union (NEPGEU) said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 05:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, this week called on the armed forces to defeat the peace strategy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP). “Your alert contribution is sought to defeat the conspiracy to divide the country by giving an interim administration to the North and East and guarantee the unity of the country,” the Premier said in a message to the armed forces. The notion of an interim administration is part of the UNP’s strategy to de-escalate the island’s protracted conflict.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 November 2001, 12:14 GMT]
A senior Buddhist monk was killed and three others, including two clerics were wounded when the jeep in which they were travelling was hit by a land mine blast at Konamariyawa around 9.30 a.m. Sunday, police said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 November 2001, 09:23 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded when a grenade was lobbed at a military truck in Batticaloa town around 1 p.m. Sunday, Police sources in the east said. The Thaandanvanveli sector of the town was cordoned and searched by the Police and the Special Task Force (STF) following the attack.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 November 2001, 22:43 GMT]
The European Union (EU) Observers' Mission has arrived Colombo to monitor the forthcoming general election. The members of the mission met the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Saturday. The mission is to meet the other leaders of political parties contesting the general election scheduled to be held on December 05, 2001.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 November 2001, 12:47 GMT]
A United National Party candidate for Batticaloa was shot dead Saturday in Ondaatchi Madam, around 6 p.m. Mr. Thambirajah Jeyakumar was canvassing in the 50 houses scheme when an unidentified gunman opened fire on him, Police sources said. Mr. Thambirajah’s body was taken to the Kaluwanchikudy hospital.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 19:09 GMT]
Mr. R. Sampanthan, the secretary general of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) returned to Trincomalee Friday after two days of campaigning for the Tamil National Alliance in the villages of Mutur south which are held by the Liberation Tigers. He said that he had obtained due permission from the Sri Lanka army's 22 Division in Trincomalee to visit and hold propaganda meetings in the hinterland of Mutur which is under the control of the LTTE. "The electioneering in the LTTE held areas was very satisfactory and a large number of people came for our propaganda meetings with much interest," the secretary general of the TULF said. Mr. Sampanthan is the first Tamil parliamentarian to visit an LTTE held area in the northern or eastern part of the island with the SLA's permission.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 12:48 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a claymore mine attack by the Liberation Tigers in the Kalmadhu region in Vavuniya, around 9.20 a.m. Friday, security sources said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 11:01 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police said Friday that it has requested the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), a major coalition partner of the People's Alliance government, not to go about in the Jaffna peninsula with weapons during the 2001 general elections.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 01:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, reiterated his People's Alliance (PA) government's opposition to the concept of a Tamil homeland, the state press reported Friday. "The PA Government has directly and indirectly opposed to accept the concept of Tamil homeland. Therefore our stand is clear," the Daily News quoted Wickremenayake as saying while addressing a meeting in Kalutara town hall.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2001, 22:43 GMT]
The Returning Officer for Trincomalee district has turned down a request by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to set up clustered polling booths in Mutur south, enabling about 14,000 voters in the area to cast their votes on 5 December election. Instead, an additional bus service will be provided to the Tamil voters living in the region to travel to clustered polling stations set up near Mahindapura Sri Lanka Army camp and Muttur Al Hidaya School, he said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2001, 22:42 GMT]
The Gampaha Magistrate Thursday extended the remand order on the Deputy Minister Mr. Reggie Ranatunge till November 20. Mr. Ranatunge is in remand custody at the Colombo National Hospital in connection with the death in Minuwangoda of a supporter of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Lionel Rodrigo.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2001, 10:14 GMT]
Three members of the Sri Lanka Army’s military intelligence unit in Batticaloa were killed in an explosion in the high security zone of the eastern town around 10.15 a.m. Thursday. A senior member of the group ‘Vinobha’ (Thambi) was seriously wounded. A cashew nut seller was killed and eight civilians were wounded near Munai Street where the suicide bomb exploded. Shops and schools were closed in the town following the explosion.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2001, 02:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Tuesday categorically ruled out the possibility of lifting her government’s ban on the Liberation Tigers. Speaking at the presentation of her ruling People’s Alliance (PA) manifesto at her official residence, President Kumaratunga ruled out any truck with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Island newspaper reported Wednesday. Commenting on reports of eroding support for the PA amongst the Tamil community, President Kumaratunga said the people of Jaffna were with her and the people under LTTE control were supporting the main opposition United National Party (UNP). "As for the Tamils in Colombo they are really not part of the Tamil community as a whole. They promote what is best for business," she said in derision, the Island reported.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 21:35 GMT]
"Every rupee that the Sri Lankan government gives you through its quisling to buy your vote is stained with the blood of our people who were killed in places of refuge and worship, the tears of our women who were gang raped here in Mannar and in every part of the north and east. The Chandrika regime is liberally spending money through its Tamil lackey to bribe our people, to pacify them and thereby show the world that our struggle for justice is a terrorist problem. The people of Mannar have always been patriotic.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 17:06 GMT]
The incidents of election violence since the nominations were filed on October 27 soared to 691 Wednesday morning, Police Election Secretariat said. Deputy Inspector General of Police Mr.Gamini Navaratne, who is in charge of the Secretariat said his office received 70 complaints during the twenty hours that ended at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 12:27 GMT]
Five supporters of the Tamil National Alliance, including a woman were severely assaulted and wounded by armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party in Pottuvil, about 116 kilometres south of Batticaloa in the early hours of the morning Wednesday, Police sources in the east said. The TNA’s campaign office was also attacked, alliance spokesman Henry Mahendran said. Following the attack, one of the TNA supporters, Mr. S. Sathasivam, a librarian, had sought protection from the Police in Pottuvil fearing for his life, that the EPDP cadres may kill him. But the EPDP’s chief candidate for the Ampara district, Gunasekeram Shankar, had gone inside the Police station with his handgun and threatened Mr. Sathasivam, according to Mr. Mahendran.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 November 2001, 10:06 GMT]
A military trained policeman was shot dead by gunmen suspected to be Liberation Tigers Tuesday morning around 10.30 at a checkpoint on the main road in Vammiyadi, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa. Police at the checkpoint retaliated by firing at random in the area, killing a civilian who was identified as Subramaniam, 40. Meanwhile, Mr. Arasatnam Sasitharan, a UNP candidate for Batticaloa, was admitted to hospital after he was assaulted by a ruling party candidate and his armed bodyguards in the morning around 1.30 a.m.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 12 November 2001, 21:12 GMT]
The Inspector General of Police Monday instructed all officers-in-charge of police stations through out the island to tighten security in their areas to curb election violence. The I.G.P.'s instruction has come in the wake of increasing incidence of election violence, police sources said. Meanwhile fifty-one complaints of election violence have been reported during the last twenty fours, the Police Election Secretariat said Monday.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 12 November 2001, 15:29 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Monday said that the Sri Lankan State lacks comprehension and consistency in its "purported efforts to evolve a just solutionî to the Tamil national question. The Alliance released its manifesto in Colombo Monday evening. "The commitment of the Sri Lankan State (to peace) has been called into serious question," the Tamil alliance manifesto states. The manifesto reiterated that the ban on the Liberation Tigers should be lifted in Sri Lanka and that Colombo should stop the war and begin negotiations with Norwegian mediation.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2001, 23:21 GMT]
A former member of Sri Lanka's Presidential Security Division found shot dead earlier this month was involved in orchestrating the assassination of former Tamil politician, Kumar Ponnambalam, the Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week. The paper also named the assassin, said to be a former Police constable.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2001, 15:43 GMT]
The Police Sunday imposed dusk to dawn curfew in Nattandiya area in the Western province following a clash between supporters of ruling People's Alliance and the main opposition United National Party. The curfew will be lifted Monday morning at 6 a.m., police sources said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2001, 12:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers overran a camp of military trained Police in Palameenmadhu, a coastal suburb of Batticaloa town, around 11.30 p.m. Saturday night, security sources in the east said. Three military trained Policemen were killed and nine were wounded in the attack. The Tigers attacked a Police post behind the Eravur telecommunication building around the same time, killing a ‘security assistant’ working with the Sri Lankan security forces. Eravur is 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 20:49 GMT]
A United National Party (UNP) candidate for Jaffna district Saturday handed over to the police in Nelliyadi a weapon which he had seized from Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) cadres, police and UNP sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 12:04 GMT]
At least five Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed Saturday afternoon in two attacks by the Liberation Tigers in Mutur, security sources said. Four soldiers were killed in a claymore blast and one was killed in an ambush in the general area of Mallikaithivu, on the coastal road from Mutur to Batticaloa
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 08:14 GMT]
"Arrests, deaths and destruction will continue in our land until our struggle succeeds. To put an end to such tragedies we have to succeed in our people's struggle. If we speak out for our nation then we shall win our struggle for which blood is being spilled," said Rev. Fr. T. Jeyakumar, the head of the Human Development Centre (HUDEC), addressing a demonstration and protest sit in near the Muniappar temple in Jaffna town Saturday by more than 200 parents and relatives of persons who went missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army in 1996-97 in the northern peninsula. The protest was organised by the Missing Persons' Guardian Association (MPGA) and the Jaffna Mothers' Front. "We will continue the protest tomorrow as well," the secretary of the MPGA told Tamilnet.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 04:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army arrested an undergraduate of the Jaffna University in Tinnevely Saturday morning around 8.30 a.m. Arumugam Sutharsan, a second year student who is following a course in management was arrested by the SLA at the house near the campus where he was boarded.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 04:07 GMT]
Eight fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the sea off Pesalai in the Mannar Island Thursday. Meanwhile in Jaffna, three Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack in Allaarai in the Thenmaradchi division Thursday night. A woman soldier at the SLA’s Nagar Kovil garrison in Jaffna committed suicide Thursday by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, military sources in the north said. The soldier had been depressed, they added.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2001, 18:00 GMT]
The Supreme Court Friday decided to inquire into the fundamental rights case filed by the Deputy Leader of the main opposition United National Party Mr.Karu Jayasuriya against the State owned Independent Television Network Ltd (ITN) and four others challenging the telecasting of programmes which, according to him, would promote the candidature of the ruling People's Alliance and claiming one hundred million rupees as damages for violating his fundamental rights.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2001, 12:13 GMT]
More than 150 journalists, social activists, parents and workers demonstrated in Batticaloa Friday to protest against officials of the Department of Education for assaulting a reporter from the ëThinakathirí, the Tamil daily published in the eastern town.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2001, 05:06 GMT]
Three policemen travelling in a jeep were slightly wounded in an explosion at Valaichenai, 32 km. north of Batticaloa around 9.30 a.m. Friday, police in the eastern town said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2001, 02:49 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's President Kumaratunga Thursday placed her government's hardline approach towards fighting the Liberation Tigers and defending the unity of the country as the central plank of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) election strategy for the forthcoming polls in December. In a lengthy interview in Sinhala to state-owned media on Thursday, translated into English by the official Daily News newspaper on Friday, Kumaratunga also reiterated her accusations that the main opposition United National Party (UNP) was in collusion with the Tamils and the LTTE to dismember the country and vowed to prevent this at any cost. The President slammed critics of her governance as "barking dogs," defectors from her party as "rats," and insisted Sri Lanka's economy was healthy, citing as evidence figures that showed more taxis were on the roads since 1994 and that people were eating more chicken now.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 November 2001, 22:10 GMT]
The Police Election Secretariat said Thursday that it has received 401 complaints of violence related to forthcoming general election since the nominations were filed on 27 October. "We have received thirty one complaints of election violence during the last twenty four hours" a police official said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 November 2001, 16:45 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday decided to inquire into the fundamental rights application filed by the Deputy Leader of the main opposition United National Party Mr.Karu Jayasuriya, against the transfer of 74 police officers by the Inspector General of Police within forty eight hours of the dissolution of parliament last month. Mr.Karu Jayasuriya has prayed in his application that all the police transfers effected after the dissolution of parliament is cancelled.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2001, 17:16 GMT]
The chief candidate of the United National Party in Jaffna, Mr. T. Maheswaran wrote to the Commissioner of Elections Wednesday that polling booths in the islands of Karainagar, Kayts, Nainathivu and Delft should be located in the peninsula because the serious threat posed by the EPDP. He said that heavily armed cadres of the EPDP are intimidating and preventing candidates of other parties from entering the islands. Meanwhile, Mr. Anandasangari, the chief candidate in Jaffna for the Tamil National Alliance said that he was threatened by armed members of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Nelliyadi where he went to open a campaign office Wednesday.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2001, 13:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army arrested five persons Tuesday in the outer suburbs of Batticaloa town. They were taken into custody by the military intelligence unit of the SLA in Batticaloa, Police sources said. Three persons were arrested on 3 November by the SLA from two villages close to the eastern town. The eight have been detained by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Police for further inquiries, sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2001, 12:16 GMT]
More than four hundred residential medical officers serving in Northeast provincial hospitals went on strike Wednesday, demanding that they should also be paid special mission allowance as presently awarded to non-residential medical officers. "The medical services in government hospitals in the northeast province have come to a standstill Wednesday due to the strike as more than one hundred non-residential doctors also have struck work to express their solidarity,"a spokesman of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) said Wednesday.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2001, 09:37 GMT]
Shops, schools, businesses and public offices were closed and few people were on the roads in the Batticaloa district in response to a call by the Tamil national alliance for a general shut down (Hartal) to protest against the establishment of a new Muslim dominated local government body. Tamils say that the new local body, the Koralaipattu Central Pradheshiya Sabha, unjustly encompasses a large Tamil region in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. The Sri Lanka army warned Tamil shop owners in the Valaichenai that they should not close their establishments today. But shops were closed Tuesday morning. Soldiers who came to the Valaichenai bazaar later in the morning forced the owners to open their shops.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 November 2001, 09:00 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed in a claymore mine blast by the Liberation Tigers around 6.30 a.m. Tuesday in Nochchikulam, 15 kilometres north of Vavuniya, in the Omanthai Forward Defence Sector. The soldiers were on a road patrol in the area when the mine was triggered, military sources said. Meanwhile the Tigers fired 120 mm mortars on the forward defences of the Special Task Force in Kattukkarai in the Mannar district around 7.30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2001, 16:54 GMT]
Three-hundred-eleven incidents of violence relating to parliamentary election have been reported to the Police Election Secretariat since the nominations were filed on 27 October. Seven people have been killed during this period, and a minimum of ten complaints are received daily, Police Election Secretariat said Monday.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2001, 07:21 GMT]
More than a hundred parents and family members of the persons who were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces and went missing in Jaffna began a demonstration in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat from 7 a.m. Monday. The families of the missing allege that the Sri Lankan government has deliberately shelved investigations. Policemen who arrived at the secretariat later in the morning abused the demonstrators who were seated across the entrance of the Secretariat holding placards and attempted to disperse them. The protestors, however, refused to move and vowed to continue with their sit in demonstration until 3 p.m. this afternoon. More than 600 persons, mostly young men and women were arrested by the SLA in the northern peninsula in 1996-97. All are believed murdered.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2001, 21:16 GMT]
United National Party candidates and supporters Sunday staged a protest against election violence in Vavuniya town while the Tamil National Alliance opened a campaign office on Vairavar Kovil Road in the town centre and held a joint propaganda meeting in Mudaliyakulam in the Cheddikulam division later in the day. The UNP demonstrated against the attack on the party's chief candidate for the district on Friday night in which gunmen suspected to be members of a Tamil Para-military group operating with the Sri Lanka army opened fire on the vehicle in which he was travelling.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2001, 03:05 GMT]
Thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts due to the war and the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government from 1990 to 1999, according to a press report in the Vanni published this weekend. Most of the deaths, destruction of civilian property and mass displacement tool place after the People's Alliance came to power in 1994, the report said. Four thousand eight hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Mullaithivu district between 1994 and 1999 due to the direct impact of the economic embargo on the Vanni, particularly due to the severe restrictions on medical supplies.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2001, 01:06 GMT]
The leaders of the Tamil parties in the newly formed alliance said Saturday that they would strive, both nationally and internationally, to achieve the aims and objectives embodied in their memorandum of understanding to find a durable political solution to the Tamil national question through talks with the Liberation Tigers.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2001, 11:24 GMT]
Two armed cadres of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) were shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Poonthoddam in Vavuniya around 10.30 p.m. Friday, police sources said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2001, 18:48 GMT]
"The Tamils of Ampara have had to face the brunt of both Sinhala chauvinism and Muslim intimidation. But they have refused to submit or yield their national pride as Tamils. We have to show the world that we will never sell our dignity for a mess of pottage, that we will not be intimidated by the terror that the Sri Lankan state has unleashed on us.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2001, 11:24 GMT]
((News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Tuesday accused Human Rights Watch, which has criticised excesses by the Sri Lankan security forces, of “telling lies” and dismissed the largest human rights organization based in the United States as a front for the Liberation Tigers. President Kumaratunga however praised the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) as “totally independent” and whom she said were “very appreciative” of her government. Kumaratunga’s comments were made in an interview to CNN conducted by Zain Verjee during which the President continued her bitter attack on her main opposition, denied she had conducted a ‘war for peace’ (“we called it a battle for peace. we wanted peace through peace”), and denied there was an economic embargo on Tamil areas – even though Verjee didn’t actually raise the matter.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 November 2001, 15:06 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's public relations blitz in the Western media unexpectedly ran into difficulties Tuesday on the BBC's Hard Talk program hosted by Tim Sebastian. Faced with several embarrassing questions about the human rights situation in the island and the lack of progress in the peace process, President Kumaratunga, struggling to respond, became increasingly defensive and irritated. During the course of the half-hour interview, Kumaratunga said the US State Department's 2001 report on human rights contained "lies," claimed there had been "only one rape in Jaffna" since she came to power, flatly denied there was an economic embargo on Tamil areas ("that is nonsense!"), and blamed rights violations on "mad" policemen. Amid Sebastian's, trademark rapid-fire questions, some exchanges with the President bordered on the farcical.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 November 2001, 11:30 GMT]
Eleven military trained police personnel were killed, and 11 policemen and three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers in Mutur, south of Trincomalee, around 2.p.m. Thursday, security sources said.
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