Jaffna islets' IDPs reluctant to return

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 11:30 GMT]
Only less than thirty percent of the internally displaced families from the islets of Jaffna district who fled the islets following 1990 military operations by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have returned back to their former homes since the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according statistics collected by civil authorities.


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Most landmine accidents in Jaffna – UN group

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 06:49 GMT]
The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Colombo said Tuesday that most of the accidents caused by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) occurred in Jaffna this year. UNDP supported de-mining began in Jaffna seven years ago. Today there are three international de-mining groups active in the peninsula, including one from the US army. The UNDP continues support. A year ago, the region controlled by the Liberation Tigers in the north had much larger and extensive concentrations of mines, minefields and UXOs than Jaffna.
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Getting tough on the Tigers

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 00:31 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s strategy for holding fast to the reins of power in Colombo is fundamentally in conflict with sustaining the peace process in Sri Lanka, Tamil politicians and commentators say. The President and her allies assert that the Sri Lankan state should get tough on the Liberation Tigers to safeguard Sinhala national interests. As her standoff with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took a new turn Sunday, it appeared inevitable that she might match her words with deeds in tune with the sentiments of her increasingly hawkish Sinhala constituency.
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SLA removes mine markers in Katkovalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 07:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers Friday night removed markers put up on abandoned military bunkers in Katkovalam, a coastal village near Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna, by a Danish de-mining group, residents told TamilNet. “Mines and booby traps left behind by the SLA in bunkers in the midst of our village have claimed the limbs of six people since last year”, an official of the local fisheries society said.
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SLA strengthens sentry points in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2003, 16:39 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army are strengthening their sentry points in Jaffna town. SLA personnel were seen Tuesday constructing new sentry points replacing old ones on Stanley Road,the Clock Tower road junction and the entrance to the 512 Brigade headquarters in the Jaffna town, civil sources said.
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SL Security forces remove speed breakers in Kodikamam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2003, 16:20 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army along with police personnel Monday night removed the speed breakers which had been constructed in front of the Kodikamam Maveerar Thuyilum Illam (mausoleum) in the Thenmaradchchi division of the Jaffna district as a precautionary measure to avoid accidents, civil sources said Tuesday.
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Manalkadu victim retracts statement under SLA threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2003, 17:26 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday threatened Anthony Prabha Manjula, 19, of Manalkaadu in Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district and obtained a statement from her denying earlier allegation that two soldiers had attempted to molest her while returning home with her infant, relatives of the woman said.


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Confronting collisions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 00:11 GMT]
In the wake of several recent accidents in the Jaffna peninsula in which the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved, resulting in death or injury to Tamil civilians, the question being raised by the people of Jaffna is whether these accidents are caused merely by the suddenly ‘aggressive' driving of the SLA soldiers, or if this is a continuing pattern of behavior that started when the SLA brought the Jaffna peninsula under its control in 1995.
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Police supervise SLA's checking of fishermen passes

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 15:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Monday commenced checking passes of the fisher folk of Munai village in the Point Pedro division under the direct supervision of the police, fisheries sources said
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Salinity endangers Northwest Vanni farmland

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 00:10 GMT]
Vast tracks of farmlands in impoverished villages close to the northern and western coast of Vanni face imminent danger from ocean waters penetrating inland making the arable land unsuitable for cultivation. Civil Engineering staff in Kilinochchi involved in development planning say that although plans are available to convert the areas in northwest coast including Jaffna peninsula resistant to creeping salinity, they are awaiting financial resources to be earmarked for such activity as part of Northeast rehabilitation.
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Police to provide Munai fisher families protection from soldiers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2003, 16:37 GMT]
The Point Pedro Police have started providing police protection to four fisher families of Munai area on complaints lodged by them at the police station that soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army are likely to take revenge on them, human rights sources said.


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Fishermen say threat from Munai SLA sentries

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2003, 04:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police in Pt. Pedro Sunday posted constables at three military sentries in Munai where fishermen have to surrender their special permits before setting out to sea, after several villagers complained Saturday night that soldiers had visited their homes looking for them.
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Munai fisher folk march in protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2003, 09:30 GMT]
Hundreds of fishermen and women from Munai carrying placards and shouting slogans against the Sri Lanka army marched into Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna Saturday. They handed over memoranda to local Parliamentarians, the Pt. Pedro Divisional Secretary and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission demanding the abolition of the military pass system and condemning the attack on men and women in the village of Munai last Wednesday.
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Police arrests fisherman in Munai SLA assault

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2003, 17:05 GMT]
The Point Pedro Police Friday arrested a Tamil fisherman, Mr. Peter Maran, 23, in connection with an attack by the Sri Lanka Army and Navy personnel on him in the Munai area, in the Point Pedro division, Wednesday. Police recorded a statement from him that ran into five pages, fisheries sources said.
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SLFP demonstrates against "betrayal of Sinhala nation"

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2003, 14:17 GMT]
Thousands of people participated in the demonstration organized by the main constituent of the opposition People’s Alliance, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), against the United National Front (UNF) government of Sri Lanka Friday in Colombo, saying the UNF has 'betrayed' the 'Sinhala nation,' sources said.
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Curfew lifted in Kinniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2003, 06:47 GMT]
Sixteen-hour curfew imposed in Kinniya, 16 k.m. south of Trincomalee was lifted at 6 a.m. Friday morning. However, the re-imposition of curfew depends on developments during the day, police sources said.
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Soldiers scuttled boats, allege Munai fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 03:01 GMT]
Fishermen in Munai alleged Thursday that Sri Lanka army troops in the area had scuttled five boats and cut the moorings of another two in retaliation to Wednesday’s incidents in this coastal village on the outskirts of Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Latest reports said that SLA has prevented injured persons from being taken to hospital.
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SLA assaults Jaffna fishermen, 20 injured

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 14:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers assaulted and injured twenty civilians, eight seriously, including two students, in Munai, a coastal village on the outskirts of Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna Wednesday afternoon. Troops were poured into the area following tension between army sentries on the beach and crowds of fisher folk over SLA sentries assaulting a young fishermen who sought permission to return home before the time stipulated by the SLA for beaching boats in Munai.
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Jaffna medical staff massacred by IPKF remembered

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 16:48 GMT]
The staff of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Tuesday observed the 16th annual commemoration day of twenty one employees of the hospital who were massacred while on duty by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) on 21st October 1987, sources said.
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Maj. Gen. Fonseka reproves Jaffna media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 11:36 GMT]
Commander of Sri Lankan armed forces in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Sarath Foneseka told a group of northern journalists Tuesday that newspapers in the peninsula publish “half information’ and distorted reports intended to make people angry at the military. Speaking to representatives of the North Ceylon Journalists’ Association about recent attacks on media persons in Jaffna by Sri Lankan armed forces soldiers, he said: “We are not hundred percent happy about the way media people in Jaffna are carrying out their jobs”.
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