Magistrate orders investigation into cyanide death

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 February 2001, 20:42 GMT]
The Vavuniya Magistrate on Monday instructed the Police to conduct investigations into the death of a 25 year-old woman to ascertain how she had got cyanide capsule after being brought to the Sri Lanka Army's Brigade Headquarters in Vavuniya. Jeyanthi Veerasingham entered Vavuniya on February 16 from the LTTE controlled Vanni region. She was summoned to army detachment at Sanasa transit camp for an inquiry, on the following day. Later, the army handed over her body to the Vavuniya hospital claiming that she had committed suicide by swallowing cyanide.
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Thousands march for peace, self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 12:23 GMT]
More than twelve thousand people marched in Vavuniya and Mannar Saturday urging the Sri Lankan government to stop the war, start Norway mediated peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and recognise the Tamil peopleís right of self determination. Thousands marched through the Vavuniya and Mannar towns and in Murunkan. Christian and Buddhist clergymen, Members of Parliament of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, local leaders of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Peopleís Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam etc., teachers, traders, students marched crying slogans and carrying banners and placards.
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Demonstration against British ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 12:53 GMT]
A big demonstration was held in Kokkadichcholai in the Batticaloa district on Friday urging the British government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the Terrorism Act and demanding the Sri Lankan government to begin negotiations with the Tigers. The protesters also burnt effigies of Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime MinisterRatansiri Wickremanayake, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte and Foreign Minister Luxman Kadirgamar said sources.
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Over 18,000 arrested under ER, PTA in 2000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:54 GMT]
(News Feature) More than 18000 persons, mostly Tamils, were arrested under the draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year said a senior human rights worker in Colombo Wednesday.
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Student signature campaign suspended

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 12:02 GMT]
A signature campaign, organised by the students of Vavuniya campus of Jaffna University, appealing to the British Government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the Terrorism Act was suspended Wednesday morning following intervention by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police said student sources. The police detained three students who were collecting signatures around 10.30 a.m. Wednesday and confiscated a list containing about 500 signatures, the sources said.
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Kilinochchi schools face acute teacher shortage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2001, 10:00 GMT]
Tamil schools in Kilinochchi district with an attending student population of 34,300 is short of 970 teachers, said P. Ariyaratnam, Director of Education, Kilinochchi, yesterday when speaking as Chief Guest at the price giving ceremony at Bharathi Vidyalayam. He added that Sri Lankan Government's unwillingness to make timely appointments is one of the reasons for the present staff shortage.
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Batticaloa University appeals over possible UK ban

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 February 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Hundreds of students, and members of the academic and non-academic staff of the Eastern University in Batticaloa picketed Thursday urging the British Government not proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the new Terrorism Act. The protest was also in support of the Tamil people's right to self determination, organisers said.
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Embargo said causing malnutrition, deaths

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 January 2001, 23:03 GMT]
Four patients suffering from severe malnutrition died last month at the Kilinochchi hospital, medical officials in the Vavuniya said Friday. The hospital is unable to treat scores of people in the district bitten by rabid dogs because it has no anti-rabies vaccine in stock, according to them. Severe malnutrition is prevalent in the Vanni, particularly among children, due to the decade long economic embargo imposed on the region by successive Sri Lankan regimes. Vaccines and drugs considered essential in the acutely underdeveloped Vanni backwater are generally not available or chronically short in supply due to draconian restrictions by the Sri Lanka army.
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'Pongu Thamil' demos in Batticaloa and Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 17:09 GMT]
Demonstrations were held Wednesday in Vavuniya and Batticaloa in support of the Pongu Thamil rally in Jaffna. Hundreds of undergraduates of the Eastern University in Batticaloa and the College of Education in Vavuniya gathered for peaceful rallies urging the Sri Lankan government to start peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and to recognize the Tamil people's right of self determination.
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Vavuniya students protest against abduction

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2001, 14:10 GMT]
Students of National College of Education at Poonthoddam in Vavuniya demonstrated in the northern town Wednesday, protesting against the abduction of one of their colleagues by gunmen suspected to be from a militia working with the Sri Lankan army around 9 p.m.Tuesday. Somasundaram Mukunthan, a third-year student of the college, was abducted from his home at Pandaariakulam, a suburb of Vavuniya town, by gunmen men who had come in an auto-rikshaw, student sources said.
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SLA asked to assist murder investigation

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2000, 15:43 GMT]
The Vavuniya district judge M.Ilancheliyan Monday directed the commander of the Sri Lanka army units in the Cheddikulam region to assist the court in the investigation into the murder of Kanapathipillai Selvakumar (42) of Maniarkulam who was abducted by armed persons from his home on Saturday. Selvakumar's body was found by the village reservoir yesterday.
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US ambassador visits Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2000, 16:32 GMT]
The US ambassador for Sri Lanka, Ashley Wills, held discussions Friday with the Government Agent (GA) for Vavuniya about the situation in the border town and about the conditions obtaining in the Vanni. Officials at the Vavuniya Kachcheri said that the US ambassador had keenly ascertained the ground realities in the region, particularly regarding food and medical supplies to the Vanni during his hour long meeting with the GA, K.Ganesh.
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Two hunters shot dead by SLAF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 23:15 GMT]
Pampaimadhu residents, Arulanantham Kamalanathan (29), and Sinnathamby Sivakumar (30) who went hunting in Poovarasankulam, Vavuniya were shot and killed by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel on Monday evening, said sources. SLAF claimed that the men were LTTE members and that they had recovered two grenades and a pistol from the dead men.
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Police tortured say young Jaffna women

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 17:20 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court last Tuesday discharged two young girls from Jaffna charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), on the ground that the Police had obtained confessions from them under duress. Mariyathas Mary Sharmila,18, of Alvai north and Shanmugam Sharmila, 21, of Sivankoviladi, Madduvil south told the court that they were severely tortured by male Police personnel during their detention.
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Bindunuwewa camp to be relocated to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2000, 01:43 GMT]
Prison authorities in Sri Lanka are planning to establish a new rehabilitation camp in Vavuniya to replace the camp at Bindunuwewa in Bandarawela which ceased to function following the brutal murder on the 25th October of this year of more than 24 Tamil prisoners housed in the camp, said sources.
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Tigers ambush SLA convoy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 07:43 GMT]
Eight Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, including a lieutenant were killed and 17 wounded when a bus in which they were travelling was hit by a powerful claymore blast at Piramanalankulam, about 22 km. west of Vavuniya on the Mannar road, around 11.15 a.m. Thursday, security sources said.
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Fourteen reported missing in November

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2000, 17:11 GMT]
Fourteen persons have been reported as missing to the Vavuniya Human Rights Commission by their relatives in November, said sources.
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SLA raids TELO camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 November 2000, 08:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Tuesday raided the camp of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) at Muthliyakulam in the Cheddikulam area south-west of Vavuniya around 6 a.m. and arrested 13 persons, including 4 civilians said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP and the leader of the organisation.
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Policeman shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2000, 16:22 GMT]
A military trained policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Police Sector II at the 7th mile Post along Vavniya-Mannar road at 5.30 p.m. Sunday, said police sources.
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Fighting at Omanthai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 November 2000, 05:04 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers had repulsed the Sri Lanka Army troops who had attempted to advance at Vilakuvaithakulam in the Omanthai area, north of Vavuniya around 9 a.m. Saturday the Voice of Tigers (VoT) said in its morning transmission today. At least 6 government troops were killed in the fighting, the radio said.
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