SLA clamps total embargo on Vaakarai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 February 2001, 08:55 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army clamped a complete embargo on the Vaakarai region, 60 km. north of Batticaloa, Tuesday, preventing people from taking even essential goods such as rice, sugar, milk powder, kerosene, flour etc., which were permitted under severe restrictions on supplies to this region earlier. Soldiers at the Maankerni check post, currently the sole entry point to this large poverty stricken area in the northern corner of Batticaloa, seized all goods in the possession of civilians going to Vaakarai Tuesday morning, mostly their weekly and monthly provisions allowed in limited stipulated quantities by the SLA, purchased in Valaichenai. "I spent almost all my weekly wage on basic provisions for my family. Now I have neither money nor the provisions," lamented Manikkam Thangarasa, a wood cutter from Vaakarai who returned to Valaichenai Tuesday afternoon all the food stuff and kerosene he was taking home was seized by the army at the Maankerni check post.
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Vanni ban leaves little to take

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2001, 18:37 GMT]
A note at the bottom of a circular by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence listing the things that are not allowed to the Vanni sent to government officials in Vavuniya, reveals the extensive and arbitrary manner in which Colombo's economic embargo is imposed on the northern region.
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Collusion, apathy said skewing medical legal reports

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 February 2001, 22:02 GMT]
"There is inordinate delay in getting medical reports on rape and torture from the Batticaloa hospital" said Suganthi Kandasamy, state counsel, addressing a seminar on Community awareness and aspects of the law Sunday in the eastern town. She noted that it is very difficult to prosecute cases involving torture and rape in Batticaloa because medical legal reports are either not available or in some important cases, even the preliminary examination of the victim is not done by medical officers assigned for the purpose at the Batticaloa hospital.
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Poster taunts SLA for massacre apology

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 February 2001, 07:56 GMT]
A poster showing a Sri Lanka army soldier shedding tears over a heap of skulls with the caption "the army repents the Batticaloa massacres for the first time" appeared Sunday morning in the heart of Batticaloa town's high security zone.
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"Let us fish free in our waters"- federation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 February 2001, 18:06 GMT]
"The Sri lankan government should allow us to fish freely in our waters", fishermen of the Vadamaradchi division of Jaffna told a visiting delegation of Christian clergymen and lay activists from the southern parts of the island Saturday. "The Liberation Tigers have announced a ceasefire unilaterally for the third time. The Sri Lankan government should avail itself of this opportunity by reciprocating their ceasefire and starting negotiations with them (the Tigers)" said Mr.S.Sooriyakumar, the secretary of the Federation of fishermen's Co-operative Societies of Vadamaradchi, addressing the delegation which comprised 24 persons, including seven Sinhala Christian priests, laity and a clergyman from Scotland.
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Plantation protestors light lamps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 February 2001, 21:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's plantation sector workers lit lamps Wednesday night in Hatton, a large town in the island's tea producing central province, on the third day of a protest fast campaign demanding an increase on their current daily wage of 101 rupees (1.14 US Dollars). Hundreds of workers, mostly ethnic Tamils, joined the 'satyagraha' fast Wednesday afternoon despite being advised by their trade union, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), that they should not stay away from work. The CWC is major coalition partner of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) government in Colombo.
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Eastern Tamil protestors demand self-determination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 23:40 GMT]
Eastern University Community, concluding 'Pongu Thamil' (Tamil Upsurge) programme on Tuesday declared that a solution to the island's ethnic conflict should recognise the Tamil people's right to self-determination, their traditional homeland and their distinct national identity. Until then the Tamil people would continue their agitation vigorously. More than three thousand students, staff and people took part in the event at the Eastern University in Batticaloa.
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Solheim, Balasingham in lengthy talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 17:56 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy, Erik Solheim Tuesday met the Liberation Tigers’ chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham in London, for lengthy discussions, sources close to the movement told TamilNet. The discussions were said to have been cordial and positive.
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Police aiding 'kasippu' trade in Kalkudah

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 February 2001, 19:32 GMT]
The distilling and selling of illicit liquor (kasippu) is flourishing at Kalkudah, a hamlet in the Valaichenai area with the assistance of local police, according to a complaint filed by the villagers with Members of Parliament for the Batticaloa district. The villagers alleged that the Officer-in-charge of Kalkudah Police is openly supporting illicit brewing and police personnel are being financially rewarded monthly for their assistance.
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Four Jaffna undergrads arrested

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 February 2001, 11:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police arrested four Jaffna university undergraduates who were collecting signatures on a memorandum urging the British government not to ban the Liberation Tigers around 2.45 p.m. Sunday afternoon near the entrance of the medical faculty. The arrested students were at of one of the offices set up by the students for receiving signatures of the public on the memorandum.
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Jaffna University undergrads collect signatures

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 February 2001, 07:21 GMT]
(photos) Jaffna university students continued collecting signatures on the memorandum urging the British government not to ban the Liberation Tigers Sunday despite the Sri Lanka army exhorting the public against the campaign. A student spokesperson said that the campaign is expected to reach all the villages and towns in the peninsula soon. He said that the two students arrested by the SLA at Navindil near Vathiri junction Saturday morning were released later in the day.
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SLA exhorts against memorandum, arrests two

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 February 2001, 09:29 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army exhorted the people of Jaffna over loud hailers Saturday not to put their signatures on the memorandum by students of the Jaffna University urging the British government not to ban the Liberation Tigers and stymie the peace process in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the SLA arrested two Jaffna University students who were collecting signatures for the memorandum at Navindil, near Vathiri junction, 23 kilometres northeast of Jaffna, around 10.30 a.m. Saturday morning. The two students have been taken to the Udupiddy SLA camp for interrogation, a University official said.
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Wife asks officials to produce missing husband

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 19:17 GMT]
The Eastern High Court Judge has ordered the respondents to a Habeas Corpus application to submit their objections to the application by March 27. The application was filed by a young mother desiring to know the whereabouts of her husband, Vairamuthtu Jayakili of Salli, who was arrested by Sri Lanka Navy personnel on 25 February last year. Mr.A.N.Ramachandran, Eastern High Court Judge presiding over Trincomalee sessions made the above order on Thursday when the application was taken up for further inquiry. Salli is a fishing hamlet in Trincomalee district.
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SL diplomats, US officials visit north

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 17:35 GMT]
Fourteen diplomats working in Sri Lankan missions abroad visited Jaffna Friday to assess the situation in the northern peninsula. They had discussions with the Government Agent for the district, local officials and the public. Meanwhile, the deputy chief of mission of the US embassy in Colombo was also in Jaffna Friday along with two officials.
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Youth shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 16:27 GMT]
A youth was shot dead by the Sri Lanka army in Nanthaavil, north of Jaffna town Friday morning. SLA sources told Tamilnet that the youth was shot near the checkpoint at the Amman temple in Nanthaavil. The area was searched by the SLA following the incident.
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Over 18,000 arrested under ER, PTA in 2000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:54 GMT]
(News Feature) More than 18000 persons, mostly Tamils, were arrested under the draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year said a senior human rights worker in Colombo Wednesday.
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Administrative devices said undermining Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2001, 07:18 GMT]
Eechchilampattu, an agricultural region in the southern interior of the Trincomalee district, remains acutely underdeveloped because discriminatory administrative policies aimed at keeping it under the Seruvila local government body, local civil society activists said. Mr.S.Gunanayagam, a Justice of Peace and former chairman of the Kaddaiparichchan Village Council told TamilNet that the interior roads of the region are dilapidated or unusable and that there has been no local development work here for almost a decade because the Sinhala dominated Seruvila Pradeshiya Sabha refuses to allocate any funds for Eechchilampattu. "This is a general strategy adopted by Sinhala bureaucrats to undermine several isolated Tamil administrative units in the northern and eastern parts of the island", Mr. Gunanayagam said.
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British ban will scuttle peace process - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 February 2001, 09:19 GMT]
The proscription of the Liberation Tigers by Britain would “seriously undermine” the ongoing Norwegian peace initiative, the LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said this week in an interview to the Tamil Guardian newspaper. “A serious indictment of one party by Britain as ‘terrorists’ at this stage would be considered as a partisan intervention in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and therefore destroy trust in the Norwegian peace initiative,” Balasingham told the London based weekly.
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Jaffna, Batticaloa students lobby against UK ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2001, 15:23 GMT]
Jaffna university students have organised a signature-campaign to urge the British Government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under its new anti-terrorism legislature, said student sources. The campaign, which began on Friday, is a part of 'Pongu Thamil' (Tamil Upsurge), the sources said.
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Peace hopes dim as Sri Lanka hardens stance

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2001, 22:43 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge hardened her stance on the island's ethnic conflict Sunday, dismissing the Liberation Tigers' extended unilateral ceasefire as "meaningless" and insisting the war would only be stopped when negotiations "progressed satisfactorily," dashing hopes amongst Tamil political parties of possible peace talks between the government and the LTTE.
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