LTTE urges Muslim Tamil harmony in east

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 July 2002, 16:01 GMT]
"We, the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers, fought face to face in battlefields for 25 years. But today we are seated side by side as friends. All of us should explore the reasons why, while this is so, we, the Muslims and Tamils who speak the same language, are unable to live in amity," said Mr. N. Karikalan, a senior official of the political division of the Liberation Tigers addressing a peace conference in Batticaloa town Wednesday.
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Karikalan, 23 Div. GOC meet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 July 2002, 17:34 GMT]
Mr. N. Karikalan, senior official of the LTTE’s political division in the east, had discussions with the General Officer Commanding of the Sri Lanka army’s23 Division, Maj. Gen. Sunil Tennekoon on opening theA5 highway and rebuilding peaceful relations between Tamils and Muslims in the east at the Bishop's House in Batticaloa town Tuesday.
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Protests after troops injure 20

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 10:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar Sunday night. More than six hundred villagers began a protest Monday morning demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately. Shops were closed and the streets were deserted in protest against the assault.
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Curfew lifted in troubled eastern town

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 June 2002, 12:39 GMT]
The four-day long curfew clamped in general area of Valaichenai - Oddamavadi 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa was lifted Tuesday morning. Tamil traders and businessmen were Monday permitted to see the gutted remains of their shops and buildings in the Valaichenai bazaar. The area has been under curfew since Friday 28 June.
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SLA fishing ban despite Colombo promise

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 June 2002, 14:28 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army imposed ban on fishing in the southeastern parts of the Jaffna lagoon has driven hundred and ninety fishing families to destitution, a spokesman for the Federation of Northern Province Fisheries Co-op Societies said Saturday. None of the families receive relief from the Sri Lankan government, the spokesman said. Colombo promised to remove restrictions on fishing in the northeast ninety days after signing the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers in February this year.
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'Torture continues despite stringent laws' -HRC co-ordinator

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 June 2002, 18:57 GMT]
"Almost in every household in the Trincomalee district there would be a complaint of disappearance. Torture still continues in the island although necessary legislation has been enacted to end this humanrights violation against the humanity," said Ms V.Mathiaparanam, Co-coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in Trincomalee at a one-day seminar held Wednesday.
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Protest march in Trincomalee against attacks on LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 15:17 GMT]
"The Tamil people of Trincomalee district urge the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to intervene using its good offices and see that the offenders are brought to book and to ensure that similar incidents are not repeated or if not, it will only be proper that the LTTE cadres are allowed to be armed to guard their offices," states the memorandum handed over to the Norwegian Head of the SLMM in Trincomalee Ms Victoria Lund Tuesday.
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Mutur town under curfew after clashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 14:27 GMT]
(News Feature) Mutur town in the Trincomalee district has been put under night curfew from 12 noon Tuesday till Wednesday morning following clashes between Muslims and Tamils which ended in several injured on both sides, police sources said. Five people have been admitted to the Trincomalee hospital and two are said to be in critical condition, medical sources said.
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Ampara monitors say govt. apathy hampering work

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 June 2002, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces continue to occupy two hospitals, ten schools and five Hindu Temples in the Ampara district. Speaking at a discussion arranged by a local journalists' association, Mr. Svein Myklebust, acting head of the SLMM for the Ampara district, said seventy-four complaints of cease-fire violations in the region have been received so far, adding, "the number of complaints is not a reflection of the ground reality." Meanwhile, the two LTTE nominees of the Ampara SLMM told TamilNet Colombo's apathy regarding their status is seriously hindering them from carrying out their duties as cease-fire monitors.
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LTTE adopts UN policy on recruitment

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 June 2002, 08:00 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have set the minimum age for recruitment to their organisation at 18, the head of the movement's political section, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, said last week. The LTTE made the policy decision following the adoption by the United Nations of a treaty on recruitment earlier this year, LTTE sources told TamilNet Sunday.
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Monitoring chief to visit as SLMC urges calm

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 June 2002, 01:34 GMT]
The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General Trond Furuhovde is scheduled to visit Trincomalee by next week urgently to sort out two major complaints - including an attack on the Liberation Tigers' office in Mutur allegedly by Muslim militants - and some other matters pertaining to the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, SLMM sources said. Sri Lanka's largest Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), said "sinister elements" were seeking to forment communal strife and urged calm.
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Paramilitary, Navy assault LTTE political worker

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 June 2002, 12:01 GMT]
A group of armed persons suspected to be troopers of the Sri Lanka Navy and cadres of a paramilitary group working with it in the islands off Jaffna assaulted and attempted to abduct the head of the Liberation Tigers' political division in Kayts, Mr.Semmanan, Thursday night, LTTE sources in Jaffna said. The armed persons had attempted to force Mr. Semmanan into a vehicle at the 'Bus Company' near the Velanai junction Thursday night around 9.15 p.m.
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Jaffna humanitarian agencies slam Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 June 2002, 16:17 GMT]
The Council of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) in Jaffna Thursday slammed the Sri Lankan government for ignoring the plight of thousands who want to resettle in their villages in the northern peninsula. "In Jaffna, restoring normalcy as promised in the cease-fire agreement means the resettlement of internally displaced people.
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'Thiriyai destruction deliberate' - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 15:47 GMT]
"The destruction of the Thiriyai Tamil village appears to have been deliberate: there were no attacks and counter attacks in the village in the course of which the destruction could have occurred. The destruction has also been total. Such a deliberate attack should have had a clear objective. It appears to me that the objective was to prevent the displaced Tamil people returning to Thiriyai," Mr.R.Sampanthan, TNA parliamentarian from Trincomalee, told the Prime Minister Wednesday morning at a discussion between the delegations of the TNA and the United National Front government.
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JVP opposes lifting LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 02:41 GMT]
Thousands of the public and supporters of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna demonstrated in downtown Colombo Wednesday against lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers and granting them the interim administration of the northeastern province. The protestors, including Buddhist monks, held up placards and shouted slogans against granting Tamils the right to self-determination.
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Tigers begin political work in Delft

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 June 2002, 19:56 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Tuesday entered the islet of Delft in the Jaffna district for political work. A large number of residents gathered to receive the Tiger cadres, who were led by the head of the LTTE's political section in Delft, Mr.Kannan.
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"End discrimination against Tamils in education" -CTTU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 June 2002, 19:14 GMT]
The Ministry of Education under the United National Front (UNF) government continues the discrimination of Tamil people in the sphere of education, the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) has told an advisor to the Prime Minister (PM).
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Tigers start political work in Jaffna islands

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2002, 20:32 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers began political work in the islands of Jaffna Monday amid objections and hindrances by the Sri Lanka Navy. They were delayed at Allaipitti, the main entry point to the islands when the Sri Lanka Navy objected to the LTTE's women fighters wearing belts and refused to let them pass. The public welcomed the Tigers near the entry point when the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission resolved the issue.
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SLA stops fishing boats coming ashore

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2002, 14:22 GMT]
Fishermen in Inparutti near Pt. Pedro in Jaffna blocked the main coastal road Saturday when the Sri Lanka army refused to let more than 24 catamarans and 12 boats come ashore as these had not obtained permits from the military to fish in the sea. Fishermen in Inparutti said that they had set out to sea Friday evening without obtaining permits from the SLA because Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence had promised Thursday to lift draconian controls on fishing following an agitation by the Federation of Fisheries Co-op Societies in Northern Province last week.
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MP lists occupied temples and schools in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 June 2002, 22:10 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Jospeh Pararajasingham Friday sent a list of places of worship, schools and public buildings now being occupied by the Sri lankan armed forces in the Batticaloa district to the Prime Minister. According to the list, 8 schools, 5 temples and several public buildings in Batticaloa are either occupied by government forces or situated within the perimeter of their camps.
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