Thirukkovil refugees' woes worsened by STF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Eight hundred and nine refugee families, displaced from the interior villages of Thangavelayuthapuram, Kanjikudichcha Aaru, Alikkambai, Thandiady, Udumbankulam etc., in the south eastern sector of the Amparai district, have been living as refugees in Thirukkovil, a large ancient Tamil village, on the eastern coast of the Amparai District, since 1990.
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Education system in disarray

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Education in the island of Pungudutheevu, lying off the Jaffna peninsula, has sunk to abysmal levels today with only four out of the fifteen schools on the island functioning, said sources in Jaffna.
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Informant takes revenge on his neighbours

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Sinnathurai from Kiran, 28 km north of Batticaloa town, who became an informant of the Sri Lanka Army's (SLA) after a dispute with his neighbours is taking revenge on his antagonists by identifying them as supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said sources in Batticaloa.
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LTTE's proscription gazetted

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government issued the gazette notification promulgating the proscription of the Liberation Tigers.
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Capture of Mankulam proving elusive?

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan army's media spokesman Brig. Sarath Munasinghe told journalists at yesterday's cabinet press briefing that it is not the army's objective to capture Mankulam but to draw out the Liberations Tigers from the jungles and destroy as many of them as possible.
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US Antiterrorism Law challenged in courts

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California yesterday charging that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is unconstitutional insofar as it criminalizes the provision of material support or resources to the lawful and non-violent activities of any foreign organization designated as "terrorist" by the Secretary of State.
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Suresh to be released on bail

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Mr. Suresh Manikavasagam a Tamil activist who was facing deportation to Sri Lanka from Canada will be released from custody, according to an order enforced by Judge Teitelbaum on Thursday, said legal sources in Canada.
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Ghost candidates submit resignations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Officials at the Elections Commissioner's office in Jaffna said that so far 28 persons elected in January to the 17 local government bodies in the peninsula have resigned from their posts.
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Jaffna Medical College vacancies yet unfilled

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Jaffna university authorities have advised the Sri Lankan University Grants Commission (UGC) that a one point reduction in the cut off marks for admission would help fill the vacancies which still exist in the Jaffna medical college, despite the decision to enroll 13 Sinhala students.
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Research objectives of Buddhist monks questioned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Three Sinhala Buddhist monk-academics who wanted to begin archaeological excavations at Kandarodai in Jaffna, were given a short shrift by the staff of the University of Jaffna at a meeting on Thursday, said sources in Jaffna.
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Travel restrictions to be reviewed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan minister of defence agreed to review the ban on the movement of vehicles out of the eastern province following a strong protest by Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala MPs and ministers from the east today.
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Hawks define UNP constitution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
If anyone had the slightest doubt that the suggestions for constitutional reform put forward by the United National Party (UNP) were more in the interest of preserving the unity of Sri Lanka than in giving Tamils and Muslims a voice in the management of their own affairs, it was amply confirmed by the very first paragraph of the party's draft proposals, which were released recently.
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Vehicle ban temporarily lifted

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government agreed to temporarily lift the ban on vehicles leaving the Batticaloa and Ampara districts for two weeks last evening after widespread protest from Tamil and Muslim politicians in the east. The Secretary of the Ministry of Defence said yesterday the the ban would be imposed again at the end of two weeks.
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Corruption rampant at Sri Lanka Telecom (Jaffna)

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army in Jaffna has begun an investigation into allegations of corruption and malpractice in the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the semi government concern which was formerly the telecommunications department.
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Passengers turned back at Manammpiddi

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Passengers in buses, lorries and private vehicles who travelled up to Manammpiddi, on the Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa border, in the hope that the negotiations that Ports Minister M.H.M. Ashraff had with Sri Lanka Government authorities would have led to the lifting of the travel restriction in and out of the Batticaloa District, were turned back by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the border and ordered to return to Batticaloa today.
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Mohan group members misbehave

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Members of the Mohan Group of the Peoples' Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), which now operates as a para-military organisation of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Batticaloa, have been indulging in drunkenness and misbehaviour at night in the suburbs of Batticaloa for the past two weeks, said sources in Batticaloa.
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Protests against vehicle ban

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A meeting of the Batticaloa Traders' Association at Lake View Inn in Batticaloa town, drafted a memorandum to be sent to the Government Agent Batticaloa, and the Batticaloa District Civil Co-ordinating Officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), protesting against the regulations stopping vehicular traffic from Batticaloa to other parts of the Island at Mannampiddi on the Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa District border, said sources in Batticaloa.
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Child killed in SLA's retaliatory fire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A six year old child was killed and a man was wounded at Kiran, 20 km north of Batticaloa around 10.00 a.m. yesterday, when the Sri Lankan Army (SLA), opened up mortar and small arms fire from Paalathadi camp near the Valaichenai lagoon in retaliation to shelling by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said sources in Valaichenai.
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4 SLA soldiers killed - Radio

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its night news broadcast that the Liberation Tigers attacked a group of Sri Lankan Army traveling in a tractor today east of Mankulam killing four soldiers and wounding two.
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Bodies washed ashore

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The bodies of two civilians killed in the clash between the Sri Lanka Navy and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Pulmoddai on March 8 were found washed ashore at Katkovalam near Pt. Pedro and Nagarkovil, yesterday, said sources in Jaffna.
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