Sri Lanka said blocking Malaysia conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 00:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar has intervened to disrupt an academic conference in Malaysia which was to discuss the Sri Lankan conflict, a columnist in a Malaysian news website said Thursday. "[Mr. Kadirgamar] made a personal call to one of the [Malaysian] government ministers and urged him to cancel the conference," Professor P. Ramasamy wrote in an article published by Malaysia Kini.com. Academic sources in Malaysia contacted about the article told TamilNet that both Sinhala and Tamil delegates had been invited to attend.
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Attacks shatter Mawanella Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2001, 15:44 GMT]
Two mosques, sixty houses, forty shops and two Muslim owned fuel stations were burnt down Wednesday by mobs in the town of Mawanella, said Mr. Ali Sahir Moulana, a Muslim opposition Parliamentarian Thursday. He said that Sinhala mobs had carried out the attacks with the aim of destroying the basis of the Muslim people's economy in Mawanella. The town is on the main highway between Kandy and Colombo in the Kegalle district and is predominantly Muslim. Mr.Moulana said that the Sri Lankan government should take full responsibility for the attack on the Muslims in Mawanella and its environs.
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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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Sri Lanka's radical Marxists stage massive rally

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 19:55 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty thousand members and supporters of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lanka's radical Marxist party, took part in a massive May Day rally Tuesday in Colombo.
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Tigers hand over more SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2001, 06:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over 26 bodies of Sri Lanka army soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kilinochchi Sunday morning, ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunwardena told Tamilnet. This brings the total bodies of SLA personnel handed over by the Tigers to the ICRC to 56. The Tigers handed over the bodies of 30 government troopers Saturday morning.
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LTTE hands over bodies of SLA to ICRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:27 GMT]
"Thirty bodies of SLA soldiers were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni region Saturday morning", ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet.
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ICRC outlines work in war zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
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Tamil schools don't get computers

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 20:07 GMT]
"Tamil medium national schools in the northeast province have not been supplied with computers and printers although the Ministry of Education has long since distributed them to national schools in other parts of the country", said the President of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Mr.S.Thandayuthapani. "The computers and printers were promised last year and teachers were trained for handling them. We have got nothing so far despite several appeals," he added.
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US urged to pressure Sri Lanka over talks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 23:09 GMT]
The United States should pressure the Sri Lankan government to cease its war and seek negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) urged a visiting senior US official Thursday. "It is impossible to seek peace while the government insists on continuing the war," Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Secretary General of the TULF told Mr. Adolfo Franco, Counsel for the International Relations Committee of the US Congress, who is in Colombo meeting political leaders with regards to the Norwegian peace efforts.
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Batticaloa shuts down for 'Annai' Poopathi anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Shops, government offices and businesses were closed Thursday in the Batticaloa district to mark the 13th anniversary of Poopathy Kanapathipillai, the woman who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 during a month long mass protest against atrocities committed by the Indian army in the northern and eastern parts of the island at the time. Few people and fewer vehicles were on the roads. Special Task Force (STF) commandos forced shops to open in Kaluwanchikudi, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, sources said.
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PA budget passed, TULF misses MP for vote

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 April 2001, 14:11 GMT]
The budget of the People’s Alliance was passed in the Sri Lankan Parliament Wednesday by a majority of nine votes amidst speculation that the opposition might woo the government’s Tamil and Muslim allies to defeat the ruling party. However, the opposition lost one vote from the minimum it expected to be cast against the budget today when the TULF MP for Batticaloa, Mr. P. Selvarajah left for India amidst charges that he had been inveigled at the eleventh hour to stay away from the crucial vote. Mr. Selvarajah was the only MP who was absent in the Parliament today during the vote. The Sri Lankan legislature has 225 members.
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LTTE releases four POWs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 17:45 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers on Saturday released four prisoners of war who had been held by them for many years. They were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the northern Vanni main land ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet. LTTE sources said the POWs were released to show organisastion's support for the Norwegian facilitated peace talks and as a demonstration of its commitment to future peace talks.
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Tamil women have no faith in President - MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 11:30 GMT]
"The Tamil women of this country have no faith in the President or the government because there is no justice when wrongs are perpetrated on them by the armed forces. The recent actions of the President are encouraging the army to further indulge in sexual atrocities against Tamil women. Although she is a woman the President does not bother to take even minimal action against the perpetrators of murder and rape. The President applauds the security forces and does what she can to cover up their heinous activities against the Tamil people. Sexual atrocities have been committed on Tamil women in Mannar many times in the past. But only the 19 March incident has come to light", said Mr. Selvam Adaikkalanathan Member of Parliament for the Vanni, speaking Saturday at the protest fast at the St. MaryÌs Church in Mannar town. More than three thousand people from many parts of the Mannar district took part in the fast to protest against the brutal rape and torture of two Tamil women in custody by the Sri Lanka Navy and the Counter Subversive Unit of the Police on 19 March.
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Jaffna MP lambastes Colombo's duplicity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 18:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, flatly denied that the security forces had raped two women in detention in Mannar, interrupting the All Ceylon Tamil Congress MP for Jaffna, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy, who was on his feet in the Parliament Thursday speaking on the destruction of Tamil temples in the north and east and the rape of women in Mannar. "The statement of the Deputy Minister of Defence is tantamount to a gross intimidation of the judicial process. It shows that the government is more eager to justify such atrocities by its security forces than it is to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to book", Mr. Vinayagamoorthy told TamilNet Thursday evening.
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LTTE refutes "child soldiers" accusations

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 20:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday refuted allegations by Amnesty International that they had recruited young children as combatants, describing the accusations as "malicious". The LTTE does not recruit combatants under the age of seventeen, sources close to the Tigers quoting senior LTTE officials as saying Monday.
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Jaffna Municipal intrigues spill out

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 16:53 GMT]
A simmering dispute over the dismissal of 36 employees of the Jaffna Municipal Council’s (JMC) Health Department was turned into a political contest and intrigue between the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Monday in Jaffna town. More than three hundred employees of the JMC went in a procession Monday morning to the Nallur Kandasamy temple in support of the council’s administration. Another group of employees, mostly from the JMC’s health department, marched through the town against the council’s administration. They handed over copies of a memorandum listing their grievances and demands to the Jaffna district judge and the government agent. Later they sat in front of the JMC in a protest fast. The protestors are not demanding their reinstatement but want the TULF administration of the JMC dissolved.
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SLA calls off battle for strategic road point

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 14:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Thursday afternoon called off a major operation to capture a strategic point between Eluthumadduval and Nagar Kovil in Jaffna's southeastern sector amidst heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers. The SLA launched the operation in the early hours of the morning around 3 a.m. Thursday to capture the Sudalaippiddi Pillaiyar Kovil area on the road linking the Eluthumadduval junction on the A9 and Nagar Kovil.
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Jaffna play slates 'philosophy of submission'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 17:11 GMT]
"The philosophy of compromise and submission is being forced upon us. The spectre of fear surrounds us, preventing us from speaking about the suffering in our land. We are frozen by fear. As a consequence, we have buried many things deep in our heart. .
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Eastern Tamils march against eviction

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 13:39 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil men and women of Linganagar, a settlement in Trincomalee town on land which the Sri Lanka army claims to own, marched through the streets of Trincomalee Sunday morning amidst tight security by armed police shouting slogans and carrying banners and placards demanding the government that they should be allowed to live on their land.
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Colombo's ceasefire intransigence censured

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2001, 16:22 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government can be no longer unconcerned with the safety and security and well being of the Tamil people, particularly when the other party to the conflict, the Liberation Tigers, has extended its unilateral ceasefire for another month. The safety, security and the well being of the Tamil people must no longer be subordinated to the exigencies of military strategies", Mr. R. Sampanthan, Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front told Tamilnet Saturday.
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