Grenade attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 November 2000, 16:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a grenade attack on a sentry post at Temple road in Jaffna around 2.30 p.m. Friday said sources.
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PTA detainee released - confessed under torture

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 19:27 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court acquitted Balasingham Illakanakanthan, who had been charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), on the basis that the confession of the accused was obtained under duress whilst in Sri Lanka Army custody. The accused had been in remand for about eighteen months.
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Bus services cancellation inconveniences people

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 19:25 GMT]
Passenger bus services run by the Peoplized Transport Board and the Multi Purposes Co-operative Society (MPCS) to LTTE held villages through Vavunathivu from Batticaloa town have been stopped on the instructions of the security forces, officials concerned said.
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Fire-fight in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2000, 07:42 GMT]
Four soldiers were wounded when the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) clashed Sunday night in the Valaichenai area, about 32 kilometers north of Batticaloa, security sources said.
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Four more bodies identified

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2000, 13:32 GMT]
The bodies of four detainees killed in the Bandarawela massacre were identified Tuesday morning at Colombo National Hospital. They were named as Kokulamani Sajeewan of Kallady, Batticaloa, Perinpanayagam Nimlaraj of Batticaloa, Somasuntharam Sellarasa and Sivan Kubendran of Arayampathi. All bodies were found to be in a highly decomposed state, hospital sources said.
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Funerals held for massacre victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 October 2000, 14:17 GMT]
Large crowds attended funerals conducted in eastern Batticaloa around 4 p.m. Saturday for five of the victims killed during an attack on Bindunuwewa detention centre sources said. The remaining 8 bodies were transported to their native towns of Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Jaffna by helicopters Friday.
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Massacre victims' bodies taken to North-East

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 20:09 GMT]
Thirteen bodies of victims of Bindunuwewa detention centre massacre were transported to their native places in North-East provinces by helicopters Friday evening. Police sources said identification of the remaining bodies are delayed as they were either mutilated or charred beyond recognition by the fire at the Centre.
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Hartal to protest journalist's slaying

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 19:56 GMT]
A hartal was observed on Friday in Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Vavuniya to protest against the killing of Jaffna based journalist Mylvaganam Nimalanathan allegedly by pro-government militiamen. Shops and schools were closed and few reported for work in government offices, sources said.
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Amnesty concerned over new "disappearances"

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 16:44 GMT]
The Amnesty International Thursday issued a statement expressing its concern for safety of two Tamil youths who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers earlier this month in Vavuniya.
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Police name massacre victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 06:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan police has released names of 13 Tamil detainees massacred at the Bindunuwewa detention center in Bandarawela on Wednesday. The police said many bodies are charred beyond recognition by the fire at the Centre.
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Journalists protest colleague's slaying

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2000, 14:37 GMT]
Over six hundred Sri Lankan journalists protested Wednesday against the brutal slaying of Jaffna based reporter Mylvaganam Nimalarajan allegedly by pro-government militiamen. The picket, conducted by the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and other media institutions in Colombo took place opposite Fort Railway Station for about one and a half hours commencing from 12 noon. Meanwhile, other correspondents say they have been threatened in the wake of the killing.
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SLA disarms TELO "in revenge"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2000, 13:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army troops Thursday raided the camps of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) in Mannar town and Vavuniya around 4 p.m. and seized more than 90 assault rifles from them. Prasanna, a TELO leader in Colombo, told TamilNet that the government is taking revenge on his organisation "for refusing to compromise the national interests of the Tamil people".
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Tigers overwhelm satellite camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2000, 05:02 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers attacked and broke through a section of the Forward defence Lines of the Sri Lanka army ahead of the Mannar-Vavuniya highway about 30 kilometers west of Vavuniya town, overwhelming a satellite camp in that sector in the early hours of the morning Wednesday.
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NUA rigs, clashes with UNP in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 12:39 GMT]
At least fourteen people were wounded and three vehicles smashed up in clashes between the National Unity Alliance (NUA), the multi-ethnic front of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, and the United National Party (UNP) Tuesday in the Muslim towns of Kattankudy and Eravur in Batticaloa.
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No franchise for Mullaithivu Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2000, 21:10 GMT]
None of the Tamil voters in the Mullaithivu district will be able to vote in elections to Sri Lanka's eleventh Parliament Tuesday 10 October. They have been precluded from the polls due to a decision by the Sri Lankan government not to have any polling booths in the district except one for 996 Sinhalese in Ibbanweva, a state backed settlement in the southern corner of Mullaithivu. "This is tantamount to denying them the exercise of their sovereignty as Sri Lankan citizens through the franchise or, in real terms, disfranchising them" said a political analyst in Colombo Monday asked to comment on the Mullaithivu situation.
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LTTE names fighters killed in action

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 October 2000, 05:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army soldiers continued to exchange heavy artillery and mortar fire in Nagar Kovil, Vadamaradchi East and in Thenmaradchi sector, said sources in Jaffna.
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Court frees PTA detainee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2000, 14:26 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court Friday acquitted Ramachandran Yogarasa,24, indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), stating that the defence had proved that the confession from the accused had been obtained under duress.
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Skirmish in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2000, 08:32 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and at least five others wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers near vavunathivu SLA camp about 5 km. west of Batticaloa town around 8.30 a.m. Sunday said sources.
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Claymore kills nine soldiers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 September 2000, 18:04 GMT]
Nine Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed when the tractor in which they were travelling was hit by a powerful claymore mine blast north of Omanthai, around 7.30 p.m. Tuesday, security sources in Vavuniya said. One soldier was wounded.
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Judge questions medical reports on torture victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 September 2000, 16:53 GMT]
The Vavuniya district judge M.Ilancheliyan said that doctors in the northern border town should not disgrace the medical profession by their unbecoming conduct. He said that although doctors at the Vavuniya hospital claimed in their reports that nothing was found wrong with persons arrested and held by the Police and the Sri Lanka army whom they had examined, cigarette burns and contusions due to severe assault were clearly discernible on the suspects bodies when they were asked to remove their shirts during the proceedings in the court.
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