No compromise with LTTE promises PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2000, 18:06 GMT]
While addressing a People's Alliance (PA) election rally at Kurunagala, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said that his government will not enter into any cease-fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers, despite the calls being made repeatedly by the United National Party (UNP) to establish cease-fire with the LTTE and to stop the war.
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Fifteen arrested at temple

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 September 2000, 13:37 GMT]
Fifteen people who were working at an 'Amman' Temple at Naasivanthivu, 34 km. north of Batticaloa, were arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers during a search operation Thursday evening said sources.
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Four soldiers wounded in claymore blast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 September 2000, 12:06 GMT]
Four soldiers were wounded an army bus in which they were travelling was hit by a claymore mine at Sunkaankerny, about 30 km. north of Batticaloa, around 1.15 p.m. Wednesday said security sources in the eastern town.
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Six killed in Trinco attack - VoT

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 September 2000, 12:00 GMT]
Three soldiers and three military trained policemen were killed when the Liberation Tigers attacked a joint Police-army detachment in Morawewa north-west of Trincomalee on Sunday night, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) said in its morning broadcast Tuesday.
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Three SLA killed in Batticaloa attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 September 2000, 15:59 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka army soldiers were killed and one was wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a road clearing patrol near Vavunathivu, five kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town Monday morning around 7.20 a.m. The Tigers took away the body of one of the soldiers, sources said.
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Priest held over Nelliyadi shooting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 September 2000, 19:19 GMT]
A Tamil temple priest was arrested by the Sri Lanka army in connection with an attack on three soldiers at Mooththa Vinayakar Koilady on the Jaffna-Pt.Pedro road near Nelliyadi Saturday morning. A soldier was killed and two were injured when an unidentified gunman shot them as he was stopped at the Mooththa Vinayakar Koilady road check point yesterday.
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Heavy casualties in Jaffna fighting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 September 2000, 12:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army sources in Jaffna said 135 soldiers were wounded and at least 15 others were killed in the heavy fighting that erupted in the suburbs of Jaffna town Sunday morning.
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Claymore blast kills three

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 September 2000, 10:31 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and a driver were killed when the three-wheeler in which they were traveling was hit by a claymore mine blast at Muttur, south of Trincomalee Sunday morning, security sources said.
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SLA attempts another offensive in Jaffna suburb

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 September 2000, 08:10 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted from this morning in the southeastern suburbs of Jaffna town when the SLA began another operation towards the positions of the Liberation Tigers in Colombuthurai amidst criticism that the massive offensive code named Rivi Kirana (Sun ray) launched Sunday 3 September to take this suburb had led to unjustifiable loss of manpower for the army and had failed to achieve any of its objectives. The Sri Lanka army's Chief of Defence Staff, General Rohan Daluwatte, has offered to resign over the Rivi Kirana fiasco.
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News in Brief:

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 September 2000, 20:48 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) army soldiers are wounded in Nelliady, the estate workers to go on strike demanding pay increase and a tamil youth is wounded when Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) shoots at fishermen.
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SLA humiliates civilians in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 September 2000, 15:37 GMT]
A man was forced to climb and sit atop a tree for more than an hour by a Sri Lanka army soldier in the heart of Batticaloa town today while four boys were forced by soldiers in another part of the town centre this noon to carry their bicycles on their shoulders. The man was allowed to climb down after the local MP intervened in the matter. The boys were humiliated because they had left their bicycles by the pavement when a military convoy was passing by, sources said.
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SLA weighs Colombuthurai losses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 September 2000, 05:40 GMT]
"It cannot be denied that the loss of lives was greater than what was achieved" Jaffna Sri Lanka army spokesman Brigadier Sanath Karunaratna told the Jaffna daily Uthayan published Wednesday, referring to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA when it attempted to take a section of Colombuthurai, the southeastern coastal suburb of Jaffna town. "There is no point in capturing mere territory " the brigadier told the paper, adding that the Liberation Tigers are continuing to vehemently block the army from constructing new defence lines in Colombuthurai. The SLA's forward defences here were damaged and destroyed in a fierce counter attack by the Tigers on Monday.
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Costly SLA operation back to square one

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 September 2000, 20:18 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have repulsed a major offensive launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Jaffna peninsula killing at least 150 soldiers and injuring over one-thousand, said official LTTE sources in London.
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Jaffna fighting claims more

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 September 2000, 05:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army said today that 479 soldiers were wounded and 71 including 8 officers were killed in the fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna Sunday. Fierce fighting erupted when the SLA launched a massive operation into the eastern sector of the Jaffna town which is held by the Liberation Tigers in the early hours of the morning Sunday.
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Heavy casualties in Jaffna offensive

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 September 2000, 15:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are resisting a major offensive launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) across five fronts, the LTTE said Sunday. Over 100 SLA troops have been killed and several hundred wounded, a statement from the organisation's London office said. The SLA is using intense artillery and multi-barrel rocket launchers (MBRL) against LTTE held areas amid heavy fighting, the statement said, adding thousands of civilians have fled their homes.
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Jaffna artillery duels continue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 September 2000, 07:32 GMT]
Hundreds of civilians fled their homes near Jaffna town fearing heavy barrages by the Sri Lanka army since Saturday night towards areas held by the Liberation Tigers. More than fifty soldiers were wounded in a limited operation conducted by the army in the eastern and northeastern sectors of the Jaffna town against the positions of the LTTE sources in the north said. The operation commenced last night.
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Attanagala disabled get free land

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2000, 14:44 GMT]
At the commencement of a function held at Temple trees for the disabled soldiers on Friday, President Chandrika Kumaratunge Bandaranaike distributed deeds of lands to disabled soldiers and families in the Attanagala area. Attanagala is the hometown of Bandaranaike family, about 33 km. northeast of capital Colombo.
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Sexual assault blamed on soldiers

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 September 2000, 17:05 GMT]
A teenage boy was admitted to Manthikai hospital, Point Pedro with bleeding from his genitals as a result of injuries sustained when he was molested by two persons whom the boy alleged were Sri Lanka Army soldiers from a camp in his village Kudaththanai, Jaffna.
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"General deterioration in human rights" - Amnesty

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2000, 19:18 GMT]
In a letter sent to the President of Sri Lanka Thursday, Amnesty International urged investigations into an increasing number of "disappearances" reported over the last two weeks in northern Sri Lanka. "These "disappearances" have taken place in the context of a general deterioration in human rights following the introduction of emergency regulations in May 2000," Amnesty said.
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New SLA commander assumes duties

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 August 2000, 20:55 GMT]
Lieutenant General Lionel Balagalle took over as the 16th commander of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) on Friday. In a press conference soon after his appointment, Lt. Gen Balagalle, who had served as the commanding officer of the forces in the Jaffna peninsula and the Vanni, admitted that there were problems with the SLA. He said there was a need to strengthen the SLA's manpower, provide better training to the soldiers and modernise the army's weapons. However, he stressed that the SLA was ready for war, and that the current lull had allowed time for the soldiers to regroup.
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