Army's Intimidation of Tamil journalists condemned

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2001, 22:50 GMT]
Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prize winning Tamil journalist in the eastern Town of Batticaloa, was threatened by the coordinating officer of the Sri Lanka Army's 23-3 brigade last week. The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) and the Eastern Lanka Journalists' Association (ELJA) issued statements Friday condemning the intimidation.
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Opposition parties condemn attack on demonstrators

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 July 2001, 20:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's opposition parties condemned the police attack on anti-government demonstrators that left two people dead and about 70 wounded. UNP sources said the police attacked demonstrators led by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe. The UNP Leader escaped unhurt due to the prompt action of his bodyguards. Mr.Wickremesinghe accused the police of trying to assassinate him.
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Journalists demand action against PSD

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 July 2001, 15:50 GMT]
Journalists and opposition parliamentarians Tuesday demonstrated in front of the Fort Railway station in downtown Colombo, urging the Government to act against "intimidation" from the Presidential Security Division (PSD).
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"Colombo's embargo targets schoolchildren"- official

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 July 2001, 19:09 GMT]
More than a thousand students in a Vanni school were found to be suffering from malnutrition, an official in the department of education in the northern region said Saturday. He said many students in the Vallipunam high school were also diagnosed for acute malnutrition.
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Staff protest at Eastern University

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 July 2001, 21:36 GMT]
Academic and non-academic staff of the Eastern University picketed the campus at Vanthaarumoolai in Batticaloa on Friday morning. The picketing, held for an hour, was in protest of the closure of the University of Jaffna and the arrest by government soldiers of student leader, Mr.Thivyan.
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One killed in SLN attack on Mannar fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2001, 19:42 GMT]
A fisherman was killed when Sri Lanka Navy Fast Attack Craft opened fire on local fishing boats in the seas off Silavathurai on the southern coast of the Mannar district around 7.30 a.m. Thursday morning. Josephthaasan Cruz, 36, father of four, was shot dead in his boat. His colleague, Soosaithasan Mary Alphonse, 25, escaped the attack.
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Rape protest shuts down North and East

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 July 2001, 09:47 GMT]
Shops, schools, offices, courts and banks were closed and streets were mostly deserted in Sri Lanka's northern province, in the Tamil, Muslim majority areas of the eastern province and in the Tamil towns of the central province Friday in response to a call for a general shut down by the alliance of eleven Tamil parties and by Tamil trade unions to protest against the rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. The Tamil parties held a protest demonstration in downtown Colombo Friday.
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PA sees 'capitalist conspiracy' in no-faith motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 July 2001, 11:36 GMT]
Hundreds of workers of pro-government trade unions demonstrated at the Lipton's circus roundabout near downtown Colombo Wednesday. "The working classes have confidence in the PA government. Businessmen and millionaires cannot be allowed to overthrow the present government which came to power with the support of working community", demonstrators told state media units covering the protest.
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Tigers release MV Missen crewmember

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 July 2001, 13:28 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Tuesday released one crewmember of the vessel MV “Missen” who has been in their custody since 1 July 1997 to the representatives of the International Committee of Red Cross at Killinochchi. The sailor was identified as Jayantha Jayakody.
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Tigers deny shutting down civilian crossing

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 June 2001, 11:50 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers radio said in its morning news broadcast Monday that the Liberation Tigers denied a Sri Lanka army report that they had closed the main crossing point to the Vanni. No lorries from the Vanni came to the crossing point for civilians and international humanitarian agencies at Piramanaalankulam, 28 kilometres west of Vavuniya, on Saturday. The SLA Saturday issued a statement that claimed the lorries had not come because the LTTE had closed the crossing. “We are not aware of any disruption in the normal operation of the Piramanaalankulam checkpoint. The question of lorries coming from or going to the Vanni is a matter that comes totally under the purview of the Government Agent, not us”, the press officer of the ICRC, Mr. Harasha Gunawardene, told Tamilnet Monday, referring to the SLA statement which quoted the ICRC as saying no lorries had come from the Vanni on Saturday.
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SLN patrol boat captured - Mutur LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 June 2001, 14:47 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Saturday that they captured a patrol boat from the Sri Lanka Navy Friday morning in a surprise attack in the sea off the Sampur coast, south of Trincomalee. The LTTE, in press note issued in Mutur Saturday, said that the Sea Tigers captured a grenade launcher, an outboard motor and a communication set from the SLN in the sea attack. SLN casualties are not known, the press note added. Sampur is controlled by the Liberation Tigers. Meanwhile, the TamilNet correspondent in Mutur said that Sri Lanka Navy gunboats opened fire on the Sampur village Saturday morning. Two civilians were wounded and a school and several houses were damaged in the SLN shelling, he said.
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Sixteen Indian fishermen remanded in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 June 2001, 10:01 GMT]
Eight Indian fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Talaimannar on 20 June were produced before the Mannar magistrate by the Police Friday morning and were remanded by him until 4 July. Eight fishermen were arrested by the SLN on 18 June in the seas between Kachchathivu and Talaimannar. They were also produced before the Mannar magistrate the next day, 19 June. They too were remanded until 4 July. The sixteen Indian fishermen are being held in the Mannar remand prison.
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Australian ICJ considers Tamil plight

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2001, 15:56 GMT]
The Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has suggested to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and the Australian Foreign Minister to include the Sri Lankan ethnic issue on the Commonweal Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Brisbane in October this year, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front Member of Parliament of the Batticaloa district told Tamilnet Saturday. He said that Hon. Justice John Dowd, President of the International Commission of Jurists (Australian Section) has informed him of the development.
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ICRC war surgery seminar in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2001, 21:10 GMT]
"Since its establishment 138 years ago, the main goal of the ICRC has been to assist and protect, as a neutral intermediary, the victims of armed conflict. The ICRC bases its mandate on rules of international humanitarian law, the rules of war, which it has helped to develop and promote, and which have culminated in the four Geneva conventions and their Additional Protocols. The Geneva Conventions have been ratified by 189 states (including Sri Lanka) , which makes these humanitarian provisions the most widely recognised body of international law" said the head of Delegation, ICRC Colombo, Ms. Isabelle Barras, in her welcome address at the 2-day 'seminar on War Surgery' which opened in Colombo Friday.
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Judge slams PTA, ER laws

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2001, 21:16 GMT]
"The Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations restrict the human rights enshrined in the 1978 Constitution of the country. Human rights violations occur daily in some way or other," said Mr.T.L.O.Manaf, Trincomalee Additional District Judge addressing a one-day workshop on Human Rights Thursday, organized by the Eastern Rehabilitation Organization under the sponsorship of the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka.
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Damage control as peace process hits the rocks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2001, 05:15 GMT]
(News Feature) The bi-lateral decision by Norway and Sri Lanka last Thursday, at the latter's insistence, to reduce the prominence of Oslo's peace envoy, Erik Solheim, has delivered an unexpected and severe blow to the Liberation TigersÇ confidence in the Norwegian initiative, political analysts said Monday. Sri Lanka's state-media Monday strove to give the impression that the process was still on track, but the LTTE's strongly worded statement Sunday and sentiments being expressed by Tamil politicians and media emphasised the depth of the crisis, they said.
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'Tamils made to accept terror as normal'- Dean

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2001, 20:38 GMT]

>Dr. Yuvaraj Thangarajah, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the Eastern University. (TamilNet Library Photo)

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Vavuniya quota fuels less vehicles, more corruption

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2001, 10:24 GMT]
The restrictions on the issue of fuel to the public in the Sri Lanka army controlled areas of the Vavuniya region is contradictory to the principles of governance and therefore should be removed forthwith, said the Union of Christian Churches in Vavuniya in a letter addressed to Major General S.H.Shantha Kottegoda, Commander of the Security Forces in Vanni this week.
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MP slams Sri Lanka's judicial system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"In Sri Lanka the Tamil people are denied the exercise of their sovereignty through the judicial system because fundamentally it is made to work against them. The security forces and the laws of the land are meant to protect the people. But in Sri Lanka the law is harnessed only to protect the security forces. .
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