Fears for displaced children

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2001, 19:13 GMT]
Several key officials of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC) Monday said that future of children of displaced people and refugees in welfare centers and orphanages in the Tamil dominated province is still uncertain due to the ongoing conflict. "The war is continuing resulting in the increase of refugees, displaced people and orphans," said Mr.S.M.Croos, Provincial Director of the Department of Social Welfare, presiding over the International Children's Day celebrations held Monday evening at Trincomalee Town Hall.
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Massacre victims remembered in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2001, 13:07 GMT]
Religious observances were held in Puthukudiyiruppu, 10 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Friday in remembrance of 17 men, women and children who were hacked to death allegedly by the Sri Lanka army soldiers on 21 September 1990. The Sri Lankan government has not made any effort so far to investigate the massacre. Several children escaped the massacre with machete and gunshot wounds. Nineteen civilians were killed here again on 5 December 1995, allegedly by the Special Task Force.
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World Bank questions Jaffna development

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:51 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Ahead of the visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday by a World Bank team intending to study the government’s poverty alleviation plans, its local Director slammed the activities in Jaffna of the Ministry of Northern Development. Dr. Mariana Todorova says that whilst almost two thousand people are being employed there by the Ministry, not one person has actually benefited from its activities. The Ministry is headed by Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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SLA penetratiom group strikes again in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:38 GMT]
A member of the communications wing of the Liberation Tigers was killed in a claymore blast set off by a deep penetration team of the Sri Lanka army in the hinterland west of the Batticaloa town Monday around 4.30 p.m. paramilitary sources in the eastern town said. Since June this year, SLA deep penetration teams have killed two members of the Liberation Tigers inside the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district. The LTTE controls 90 percent of the district’s western sector. The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa say that they have recovered 37 claymore mines set up by the SLA inside areas under their control since 15 June.
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Two Dvoras sunk, two damaged in clash

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 September 2001, 19:53 GMT]
Two Dvora gunboats of the Sri Lanka Navy were sunk and another two heavily damaged in day long fighting off the seas of Point Pedro, official LTTE sources told TamilNet Sunday. The Dvoras were protecting a Sri Lankan troop ship which was also damaged in the attack, the sources said. Ten Sea Tigers, including four Black Tigers were killed along with at least fifteen Sri Lankan sailors, the sources said.
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LTTE condemns attack on US

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2001, 14:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) categorically denied reports Saturday in Sri Lanka’s state media that the organization had distributed a message to the people of Jaffna with reference to Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s chief spokesman and political advisor, when contacted by TamilNet condemned the Sri Lankan government for exploiting the “colossal human tragedy” to gain political advantage. He also condemned the attack as a “brutal crime.”
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Jaffna undergrads defy EPDP tactics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 18:51 GMT]
Jaffna University undergraduates Wednesday forced their way into the office of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority for the North (RRAN) to protest and argue with officials who refused to grant them travel permits to leave the peninsula. The students protested that they had obtained due permission from the Ministry of Defence to leave Jaffna for their holidays and that the RRAN officials were deliberately refusing to issue them tickets for the ship to Trincomalee at the instigation of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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Parliament reconvened

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2001, 10:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Parliament, which was prorogued by President Chandrika Kumaratunge on 10 July commenced its sittings Thursday morning. The Secretary General of Parliament, Dhammika Kitulugoda read out the proclamation reconvening the parliament. Thereafter the Speaker Anura Bandaranaike informed the House that the ruling People's Alliance and Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have formed a coalition to end the political instability in the country.
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Marxists look for gains from bailout

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 September 2001, 11:38 GMT]
The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Tuesday announced it would defeat the no-confidence motion against the PA government when it is tabled in parliament.
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LTTE rejects government offer as 'calculated ploy'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 August 2001, 09:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday rejected the Sri Lankan government's offer of a "mutually agreed ceasefire" as "a calculated political duplicity to divert the attention of the people and the world from the deepening crisis in Colombo." Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political advisor of the LTTE told TamilNet Thursday that "the LTTE is not prepared to enter into negotiation with a corrupt, inefficient, unstable government which does not have a majority in Parliament."
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LTTE denies warning to Tamil MPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2001, 18:09 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday denied issuing a note circulating in the Jaffna peninsula warning Tamil MPs to quit the Sri Lankan Parliament and purported to originate from an organisation which the government says is a front of the LTTE. A notice issued by the ‘Sangiliyan Padai’ (Sangiliyan Army) on Saturday said those who refused “would not have an opportunity to regret their action.”
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Controversial weapon meant for genocide alleges MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2001, 14:26 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government is going to deploy chemical weapons against the Tamils in the island's north and east. The aim is to annihilate them totally. The use of this dangerous chemical weapon against the Tamil people should be strongly condemned," said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, addressing legislators who gathered Friday in the Sri Lankan Parliament and decided to press ahead with the no confidence motion against President Kumaratunga's government.
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SL crisis deepens as majority legislators stake claim

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2001, 12:17 GMT]
The majority of the members of the Sri Lankan Parliamentarian met in the legislature Friday and unanimously resolved to go ahead with the no confidence motion against President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government and defy any attempt by her to suspend Parliament again.
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LTTE denies talks with Sri Lankan minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 August 2001, 09:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Wednesday denied claims by the Sri Lankan government that the organisation had met and held talks with a Sri Lankan cabinet Minister during his visit Monday to the Roman Catholic shrine in Madhu, a town held by the LTTE. When contacted by telephone, the LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, told TamilNet Wednesday that Aviation Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle had merely met with the LTTE’s border security guards.
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Trincomalee Cadets win Championship

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2001, 06:51 GMT]
The Trincomalee district Cadet group emerged champions in the island in the 2001 National Cadet Camp organized by the St.John Ambulance Association and Brigade of Sri Lanka held at Labuduwa, a village in the deep south of the country.
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Buddhist monks protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2001, 19:47 GMT]
More than two thousand Buddhist monks demonstrated at the old Town Hall in Colombo Tuesday demanding that the government cancel the referendum. The monks are opposed to granting regional autonomy to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Buddhist organisations say that referendum would pave the way for Tamil self rule and separation.
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Tamil coalition to campaign against referendum

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 17:22 GMT]
A coalition of 11 Tamil and Muslim political parties Monday decided to campaign against the August 21 referendum for a new constitution. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Democratic Workers Congress Party, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), People's Liberation Organisation Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF), Democratic Worker's Congress were among the parties that participated in the meeting held in Colombo Tuesday.
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PA in fix over ally's demands

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 17:30 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a major constituent party of the Peoples' Alliance, told Tamilnet Friday it is awaiting the President's response to its two demands that "that Sri Lankan citizenship be granted to four hundred thousand Tamils in the island's plantation sector and that sixteen electorates should be carved out for them". The party's leader Mr. Arumugam Thondaman said that the CWC would not support the referendum if the PA does not meet its demands.
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Judgement on referendum set for Aug. 10

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 August 2001, 22:43 GMT]
The arguments for and against the cancellation of the referendum were heard by for the third day by the Sri Lanka's Appeal Court Thursday. The court said that judgment will be given on 10 August.
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STF forces villagers into hard labour

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2001, 15:40 GMT]
Villagers of Puthukudiyiruppu, about 12 km. south of Batticaloa, are being forced to carry out hard labour by the elite Special Task Force troops stationed in the village. The troops summoned 25 villagers to the camp on Sunday and ordered them to clear jungles and shrubs along Manmunai lagoon, said sources in the eastern town.
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