Two women assaulted in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 16:48 GMT]
Two young girls arrested by Sri Lanka Army soldiers on Sunday, were admitted to Batticaloa hospital Wednesday after they were severely assaulted in army custody, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Grenade attack wounds five soldiers

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2000, 19:08 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Army soldiers were wounded in Mannar town Monday when a grenade was lobbed at them during a search operation in the suburb of Emil Nagar around 6.45 p.m. The condition of two soldiers is serious, Mannar Police sources said.
Full story >>

Search operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 May 2000, 17:24 GMT]
At least 25 persons were arrested during a search operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in the Thaandavanveli area in the Batticaloa town around 6 p.m. this evening, residents said. Security sources said the arrested are being interrogated at the Batticaloa police station.
Full story >>

Hartal in Batticaloa to protest killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 May 2000, 13:00 GMT]
Shops and schools were closed, few reported for work in government offices and roads were generally deserted Wednesday in Batticaloa, Valaichenai and other towns in the eastern district. This hartal was in response to a call by a student organisation to protest against the indiscriminate shooting by Sri Lankan security forces on May 17 in which scores of civilians were killed and wounded. The Police failed in the morning to compel shops in Batticaloa town to open up for business.
Full story >>

Chavakachcheri captured - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2000, 14:41 GMT]
Chavakachcheri, the second largest town on the Jaffna peninsula, fell to the Liberation Tigers Saturday, after 12 hours of heavy fighting, the LTTE said in a press release from its London offices. The troops of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were fleeing towards Kodigamam, the last SLA-held position in the Thenmarachchi sector, the Tigers said.
Full story >>

SLA shuts down Jaffna paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 May 2000, 05:28 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army sealed the Jaffna daily, Uthayan, yesterday. Soldiers who went to the paper's office in Jaffna town last evening locked the building, cut phone lines and took the keys away said a journalist at the paper. The Sri Lankan government declared draconian laws recently granting sweeping powers to specially appointed officials including the authority to close down news papers and printing presses.
Full story >>

Tigers urge SLA surrender

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2000, 17:44 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Friday appealed to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in the Jaffna peninsula to surrender "to avoid a bloodbath." The LTTE said in a statement from its London offices that soldiers who lay down their arms "will be treated with dignity and honour" and handed over to the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross "within 24 hours".
Full story >>

Artillery fire closes Jaffna air, sea ports - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2000, 16:03 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military has suspended operations in Jaffna's lone sea port and cancelled flights from the single airstrip on the peninsula after both came under direct artillery fire, the Liberation Tigers said Friday. The LTTE said in a statement from its London offices that its guns had hit the runway at Palali airbase and military installations at Kankesanthurai sea port. Meanwhile, advancing columns of LTTE troops captured the areas of Madduvil and Sarasali today, the organization said, adding that fighting was raging at the strategic Sarasali junction.
Full story >>

Palaly shelling cancels Jaffna ship

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 May 2000, 07:33 GMT]
'The City of Trinco', a passenger ship to Jaffna that was scheduled to depart this morning from the eastern port of Trincomalee was canceled by the Sri Lanka Navy for security reasons officials said. The ship was to set sail with 350 passengers to the Kankesanthurai harbour (KKS), located in the sprawling Palaly base complex in the northern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. The Liberation Tigers say that their artillery units have been firing on the base since Wednesday.
Full story >>

Kaithady SLA base captured - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2000, 16:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday they had overrun the strategically important Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base at Kaithady, killing one hundred soldiers and wounding hundreds more and cutting off thousands of SLA troops in the Thenmaradchchi sector.
Full story >>

Bomb explodes in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2000, 14:06 GMT]
At least 19 people, including 4 Sri Lanka Army soldiers and a police officer were killed when a powerful bomb exploded in the Batticaloa town around 5.50 p.m. Wednesday evening. Forty-two civilians and 21 members of the security forces were wounded in the blast police sources said.
Full story >>

Jaffna town deserted

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 May 2000, 13:50 GMT]
The Jaffna town was deserted this morning though the curfew imposed by the army was lifted for three hours from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Most of the town's population have moved out to the Waligamam sector, a journalist at a Jaffna daily office contacted by phone this afternoon said. Ex-Tamil militant sources in the town claimed that Sri Lanka Air Force's Israeli Kfir jets heavily bombed the Navatkuly and Thanangkilappu areas this morning.
Full story >>

Ratwatte vows to keep Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 May 2000, 10:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, General Anuruddha Ratwatte wowed today in Parliament to defend Jaffna by 'recouping all resources' available to his government. Addressing the Parliament this morning on the military crisis in the north, he claimed that the draconian regulations imposed by the Sri Lankan government under the Public Security Ordinance will not be used to postpone the general elections which are due in August this year.
Full story >>

Chandrika says will win war soon

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 May 2000, 20:40 GMT]
"The government has decided to win the war as soon as possible" said the Sri Lankan President today in an address to the nation. She claimed that the draconian regulations promulgated by her government last week under the Public Security Ordinance was only a temporary measure and would be put into effect only in extreme situations.
Full story >>

LTTE offers cease-fire for safe withdrawal

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 May 2000, 09:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Monday that they are prepared to declare a temporary cease-fire to allow the Sri Lanka Army troops in the northern Jaffna peninsula to withdraw safely. In a statement from its London offices, the LTTE said its offer was "gesture of goodwill" to prevent further bloodshed and "to create a congenial environment" for the SLA "to withdraw from the unfavourable theatre of war with dignity and honour".
Full story >>

Tigers to return 14 bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2000, 20:45 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have contacted today the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the Vanni, regarding handing over of 14 more bodies of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers killed in the fighting in Pallai on Sunday, said Harsha Gunawardene, the Spokesman for the organisation.
Full story >>

Two SLA soldiers killed in Welikanda

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2000, 13:06 GMT]
Two soldiers were killed and a military trained Policeman was wounded when the Liberation Tigers shelled Sri Lanka Army (SLA) positions in Welikanda, about 62 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa, this morning around 7 a.m. The Tigers had fired long range mortars from the region under their control east of Welikanda, hitting two border security posts of the SLA.
Full story >>

Tigers hand over 42 SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 May 2000, 07:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over the bodies of 42 soldiers who were killed at Pallai to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at Kilinochchi around 11.15 a.m. today.
Full story >>

SLA bodies transfer tomorrow -ICRC

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 May 2000, 16:01 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the Liberation Tigers had got in touch with its delegation in the Vanni this evening about handing over the bodies of the Sri Lanka army soldiers who were killed in the fighting yesterday in Pallai and its environs.
Full story >>

SLA builds bulwark as Tigers advance

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 May 2000, 12:24 GMT]
The Operational headquarters of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that the Sri Lanka army was pushed out of Pallai, Pulopalai and Iththaavil by the Liberation Tigers yesterday in a press release issued Monday afternoon. The SLA, according to the release, was forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. Sources in Jaffna, meanwhile, said that the SLA is constructing a massive bulwark to stall the advancing Tigers.
Full story >>