Police seek glory amid paranoia

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested three persons near Wennapuwa (forty kilometers north of Colombo) with four hundred machetes on Sept.23.
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US says LTTE engages in terrorism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The US Secretary of State, under the authority provided by the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, with the concurrence of the US Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury, has designated 30 armed groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including the LTTE.
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Tigers keep up Vanni attacks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The LTTE said today that they had surrounding Sri Lankan troops at Kara Patta Murippu who had been trapped when the rest of the 53rd SLA division had been forced back by LTTE counterattacks. Sources close to the army also said that the LTTE had launched a massive attack southeast of Kankarayan Kulam.
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Former President ordered assassination

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The commission of inquiry into the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali, minister for National security in the UNP regime between 1984 and 87 has concluded that former UNP President Premadasa (1988-1993) was directly responsible for the killing.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A Tiger attack in Jaffna forced the Sri Lankan army to use artillery and the a Muslim leader calls for unity between the Tamils and Muslims against Sinhala chauvinism.
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Unit of devolution revealed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government today officially presented to the Parliamentary Select Committee for the first time its position on the unit of devolution it is proposing to grant the Tamil and Muslim people.
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Crime being encouraged in Jaffna?

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Crime is on the increase in the Jaffna peninsula. A large shop in the Maththiya Maha Viththiyalayam road in the Nelliady town was robbed of several hundred thousand rupees and a large quantity of valuable goods last week.
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Sri Lankan depots overrun on Sunday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The LTTE confirmed today that they had overrun the newly established depots supplying the Sri Lankan army's 53rd division in the Vanni on Sunday night and captured a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Tamil refugees in Trincomalee demand to be kept and moved together. Sri Lankan navy further restricts movements of people to islands off Jaffna. Meanwhile, Jaffna's crops are failing and the city's infrastructure, destroyed by Sri Lankan shelling, is in tatters.
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JVP seeks Tamil support

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna told the Sinhala press today that his 'party' was going to hold propaganda meetings in the main towns of the northeast to muster Tamil support for the group's campaign against the devolution package proposed by the PA regime. The JVP is a militant left wing Sinhala revolutionary group that led two bloody insurrections to capture state power.
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Tigers rout Sri Lankan advance

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Heavy fighting between troops of the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan army which erupted southwest of Mullaithivu at Manavaalan Patta Murippu yesterday (Sunday Oct.5) continues. Although the intensity of the fighting has come down today, the army is expecting a major counter attack by the Liberation Tigers on its hastily organized defenses at Manvaalan Patta Murippu on the Mankulam - Ottisuddan road.
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Jaffna tense after killing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sources in Jaffna said today that the Jaffna town was quite tense today following the killing of the SLFP organizer on Friday night in a high security zone of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A PLOTE militant suspected of several murders is organising a satyagraha campaign to aid his election campaign and the LTTE have destroyed two SLA trucks at Omanthai.
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Sinhalese doctors quit over 'army vulnerability'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Fourteen Sinhalese doctors along with some of their Muslim colleagues working at the Mannar base hospital vacated their posts on Friday. On their way to Colombo, they reported to Sri Lankan military officials in Vavuniya that they were abandoning their posts due to a major threat from the Liberation Tigers which the Sri Lankan security forces were facing in the Mannar island, where the base hospital is located.
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TULF internal rifts emerge

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Trouble brewed in the Tamil United Liberation Front as a section of the party's politburo spoke out strongly today against the leader Mr. M Sivasithamparam, Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam and Mr. Sampanthan whom it accused of being a 'pro-Chandrika coterie'.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
An MSF delegation visits a hospital in trouble. The Sri Lankan government continues to avoid negotiations with the LTTE and a Muslim delegation returning to Jaffna gets a pleasant surprise.
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TULF woos UNP over package

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The TULF met with Sri Lanka's United National Party today to discuss the PA government's devolution package. The TULF delegation went to the meeting with the intention of persuading the UNP leadership, ultimately to agree to the main critical portion of the PA's proposals.
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Elections only after military victory: Ratwatte

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence General Anuruddha Ratwatte told the Sinhala daily Lankadeepa, today that Provincial council elections to the northeast would be held only after the army succeeds in opening the main road to Jaffna from Vavuniya.
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SLFP organiser in Jaffna shot dead

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The SLFP organiser for the Jaffna district, Mr. S.T Tharmalingam was shot dead at his home in Columbuthurai, a suburb of Jaffna town, last night at 8.45 p.m. Sources in Jaffna said that Mr. Tharmalingam was found dead after he was summoned from his house by some unidentified persons.
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Wounded soldiers condemn Sri Lanka's war

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Speaking at a public meeting held in the Ampara town hall recently, Commander H.K Dayaratne, president of the association representing the permanently wounded soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, condemned Sinhala politicians for opportunistically seeking political advantage by carrying on with the war in the Tamil homelands.
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