Troop reduction in Jaffna imminent - SLA official

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 11:48 GMT]
"If the current climate of peace prevails longer there will soon be reduction of troops from current number of 40,000 to close to 10,000. We are preparing plans to introduce this reduction," said Colonel M.G.Ratnayake, special Public relations officer appointed by the Colombo Military Head Quaters, a leading Jaffna daily, Uthayan reported.


Full story >>

VVT residents picket against new army camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 09:06 GMT]
Hundreds of students and residents of Valvettithurai in the north of Jaffna district Monday held a picketing campaign for about an hour opposing the establishment of a new camp of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Chithamabara College grounds. All vehicular movement on Valvettithurai-Keerimalai main road came to a standstill due to picketing, sources said.


Full story >>

Three Sri Lanka Navy soldiers missing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 16:29 GMT]
Three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) are reported to be missing from Saturday after they went on patrol duty in a naval craft from Point Pedro Harbour at the northeastern corner of Jaffna peninsula towards Manalkadu lying south of Point Pedro, security sources in Jaffna said Sunday.


Full story >>

LTTE releases two Sri Lankan police constables

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 13:48 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Saturday handed over two Sri Lankan police constables who were in its custody to the Muttur Assistant Superintendent of Police D.Samarakone and Serunuwara Assistant Superintendent of Police Mr.Ajith Rohana near Kattaiparichchan Bridge in the presence of members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), security sources said.


Full story >>

SLA occupies resident's land to construct new camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 17:22 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has forcibly occupied the private land of Mr.C.Vaikunthavasan, a resident of Point Pedro in the Vadamarachchi division of the Jaffna district, since May 29, according to a complaint that Mr. Vaikunthavasan made on Friday to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in Jaffna, sources said.
Full story >>

SLA prevents education officials from entering school in HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 17:09 GMT]
A group of education officials and officials from the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project were prevented by the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday from entering the Tellipalai Union College, which is located in the high security zone, north of the Jaffna district.
Full story >>

Defying C.I dogma, massacre village rises from ashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 13:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army massacred seventeen villagers, including six children, and burnt and razed to the ground Thoni Thaattamadu, an impoverished Tamil hamlet on the east coast’s remote interior 16 years ago on May 27, 1987. The massacre was an integral part of a counter insurgency (C.I) campaign by Sri Lankan armed forces. The village remained a no go zone since then, until the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with Colombo in February last year.
Full story >>

1987 killings still haunt Vakarai residents

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 02:21 GMT]
Nearly sixteen years ago residents of Thonithandamadu village in Vakarai region in Batticaloa district were witness to gruesome killings when soldiers of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shot, hacked to death and burnt the bodies of ten Tamil civilians. The memory still haunts the relatives of the victims and the residents of the impoverished village.


Full story >>

Security strengthened in Batticaloa following killing

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2003, 11:25 GMT]
Following the shooting death of Kumaraperumal Perinpam (38), alias 'Master,' a former member of Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), by unidentified gunman in Batticaloa Wednesday, security has been tightened in Batticaloa, military sources said.
Full story >>

‘Border pioneers’ face uphill task

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2003, 12:44 GMT]
“We settled here in 1954 to safeguard our homeland. Today there is nobody to save us”, says Mr. Kanapathipillai Poopalapillai, 79, former President of the Rural Development Society of Sinnawaththai, a destroyed border Tamil village in the east coast’s interior. The Special Task Force and Sri Lanka Police built their camps in the Sinhala sector of this border zone with bricks and wood from the Tamil homes they dismantled or demolished in Sinnawaththai.
Full story >>

SLA agrees to compensate Ketpali victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials of the 55-4 brigade Tuesday agreed to pay compensation to residents of Ketpali village for the damage caused to their possessions by inebriated soldiers who ran amok during Vesak day. This follows an inquiry held by the Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka Tuesday on complaints made by residents of Ketpali, a remote village close to Kilali where 55-4 brigade of the SLA is located, sources said.
Full story >>

Vesak Massacre remembered in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 May 2003, 18:19 GMT]
In Aayiththiyamalai, a village in the district’s interior, 16 kilometres west of the eastern town, a special service was held Saturday at the local church for ten orphans who were massacred by Sri Lanka army soldiers and Policemen during the Vesak festival in Batticaloa town three years ago on 17 May. Sri Lankan armed forces, however, celebrated Vesak, the annual Buddhist light festival as usual in Batticaloa this week.
Full story >>

Pall of boat massacre memory hangs over islands

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 May 2003, 13:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala pilgrims now freely visit the Buddhist shrine in the island of Nainathivu, off Jaffna, after almost two decades. But the pall of Sri Lanka Navy presence continues to cast a shadow on Tamils who are still subjected to checks and regulations. Eighteen years ago, on 15 May, thirty eight Tamil passengers, including a two year old child, travelling in boat called ‘Kumudhini’ from the island of Delft to the Kurikkatuvan Jetty on the island of Punguduthivu were hacked to death at sea by armed persons suspected to be Sri Lanka Navy personnel.
Full story >>

HRC helps owner reclaim boat from SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 May 2003, 11:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday handed over a fishing boat to its legal owner Ms. Jeyanes Rosemalar in the presence of the Jaffna co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) following the intervention by the HRC on behalf of the complainant, sources said.


Full story >>

News in brief

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2003, 10:44 GMT]
Officials complain of school books replete with Spelling, Grammar, factual errors, more than 8,000 Sri Lanka Army soldiers desert their posts and Jaffna TRO contemplates filing rights case against Sri Lanka Government and security forces.


Full story >>

Court orders remand for two LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 May 2003, 00:27 GMT]
Trincomalee Magistrate Mr.S.Thiagendran Friday ordered remand till May 22 for two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects who were produced on a report under Explosives and Weapons Ordinance by the Trincomalee Harbour Police, legal sources said.


Full story >>

Civilians picket garrison work outside Jaffna Fort

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2003, 10:29 GMT]
Hundreds of civilians Monday morning picketed the entrance of Jaffna Fort preventing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Police from clearing the area outside the Jaffna fort in preparation for relocating the Jaffna garrison of the SLA. The Jaffna District Peoples Organizations and Jaffna University Students Union organized the picketing campaign, sources said.


Full story >>

Displaced villagers struggle to revive Thennamaravadi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2003, 11:58 GMT]
A group of displaced Thennamaravadi villagers trekked through jungles Saturday morning to visit their abandoned traditional Tamil village about seventy two km north of Trincomalee district and reported that the entire village had been destroyed and remnants of all civilian homes, school buildings and Pilliayar temple are overgrown with shrub jungles, sources said.


Full story >>

Ratwatte security tightened - IGP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2003, 10:07 GMT]
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr.T.E.Anandarajah, Wednesday informed the Justice Ministry that the security of the former Deputy Defence Minister General Ratwatte has been strengthened following the court instruction, police said.


Full story >>

Security tightened for May Day in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 01:13 GMT]
More than five thousand Police personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order in Colombo when several political parties hold May Day rallies, processions in Colombo on May 1st Thursday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Mr.Bodhi Liyanage said Tuesday.


Full story >>