Ashraff on pilgrimage, resignation stands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 August 2000, 17:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader and Sri Lanka's Ports minister M.H.M.Ashraff left for Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on a three-day pilgrimage to perform religious rites called UMRA.
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Anti-Tamil protesters threaten Karen Parker at UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2000, 14:34 GMT]
Karen Parker, a human rights lawyer was intimidated and threatened by anti-LTTE demonstrators protesting outside the United Nation in Geneva Friday. Some of the demonstrators had pursued her, screaming insults and confronted her when they caught up, Ms. Parker, who is a well known figure in legal circles interested in Sri Lanka, told TamilNet Monday. She had been rescued by a passing Swiss national, she said, adding that the matter had been reported to the Swiss police and would be filed with the UN's Special Rapporteur on the independence of the judiciary.
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Santhiramohan pleaded to spare life

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 August 2000, 11:51 GMT]
"I heard Santhiramohan pleading with the soldiers to spare his life. He was telling them he was poor and was married to a poor girl. Then there was silence. I came out of the thicket where I was hiding after some time when it appeared that the army had left the place.
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Three civilians wounded in SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 August 2000, 15:10 GMT]
Three civilians, including a Grama Sevaka Officer, were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers fired artillery shells towards Kaddaiparichchan in the Trincomalee District Thursday morning, residents said.
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Over 40 casualties in clashes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2000, 05:51 GMT]
Five military trained policemen, including an officer, were killed and 20 Sri Lanka Navy personnel, nine police men and two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in three separate attacks by the Liberation Tigers Wednesday morning, security sources said. 16 civilians were also wounded.
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Claymore blast injures seven

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 August 2000, 18:20 GMT]
Seven military trained policemen were injured, three of them critically, when the Liberation Tigers set off a claymore mine at Kudiyiruppu, a suburb of Vavuniya town, around 6.30 a.m. Sunday. The policemen were travelling by bus from Vavuniya to Ponthoddam.
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Batticaloa group said blocking TULF

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2000, 13:51 GMT]
Joseph Pararajasingham Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Batticaloa denied reports Saturday that his party was divided over the new constitution bill. "I am sure that my party will stand united in opposing the constitution bill as it falls far short of basic Tamil aspirations" the MP said.
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Tamil parties say autonomy bill disappointing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2000, 10:44 GMT]
Tamil parties Wednesday reacted with thinly veiled disappoinment and chagrin to the government's decision to table in the Sri Lankan Parliament tomorrow the constitutional reform proposals agreed upon last month by the ruling People's Alliance and the main opposition United National Party which falls much short of their basic expectations about autonomy. "The reform package to be presented tomorrow aims to make the country exclusively Buddhist. We have already objected to three fundamental aspects of this package" said TULF MP for Batticaloa Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham. The leaders of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) said categorically they will reject this 'package'.
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PA to contest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2000, 14:08 GMT]
The ruling People's Alliance will contest the elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament in Jaffna, the secretary of the Jaffna branch of the Sri Lanka Freedom's Party, Mr.S.Thevakulanayakam told TamilNet Monday. The Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) is the main constituent and convener of the People's Alliance. "The SLFP's Jaffna district branch has resolved that the PA shall not align with any other party or group for the elections" he said. Mr.Velmurugu Thangaraja will be the SLFP's chief candidate for Jaffna according to Thevakulanayakam.
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'Autonomy package' - Much ado about nothing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
"If Prabhaharan had not pulled out of talks with the UNP government in 1990 and with the PA in 1995, he too would have been doing this futile political jig in Colombo, going from pillar to post like us in search of the political solution" said the leader of an ex-Tamil militant group reacting to Sri Lanka's main opposition party's decision announced Tuesday that it will not support the constitutional reform package in Parliament.
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SLA takes action on Tamilnet report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 July 2000, 17:16 GMT]
The Military Police of the Sri Lankan Army arrested a corporal attached to the camp at Kalkudah, 34 kilometers north of Batticaloa, following a report by Tamilnet that he (the corporal) was forcing civilians in that village to work on the construction of a bulwark. Tamilnet reported that several civilians in Kalkudah had been beaten up by the SLA for not going to work on the bulwark round the Kalkudah army camp last week.
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Package in Parliament next month - minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 08:25 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government said Saturday that it will place proposals for constitutional change in Parliament in the first week of August. Mr.Batty Weerakoon, Sri Lanka's Minister for Science and Technology, said today that the decision to submit the constitutional reform proposals to Parliament was taken at the discussion between the government and the United National Party. The Minister, however, said that the elections to the Parliament due by November this year will be held under the present constitution.
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Ponnambalam case officer "partial"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2000, 16:29 GMT]
Lawyers representing the family of slain All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader, Mr.Kumar Ponnambalam has requested the Attorney General to replace the police officer conducting the investigations into the killing with one who would be "impartial", legal sources in Colombo said.
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Policemen sentenced for forcing youth to marry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2000, 17:02 GMT]
The Batticaloa district judge Wednesday sentenced three Sri Lankan Policemen to six months rigorous imprisonment each on three counts and three months R.I on one count for abducting a youth and forcibly marrying him to a girl who had allegedly been made pregnant by one of their officers. The judge, J.Viswanathan, said that the court is not giving the Policemen suspended sentences in view of the increasing incidents of people being threatened by armed persons. The judge issued an arrest warrant on another Policeman involved in the case who is absconding.
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Ban on Jaffna paper lifted

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 July 2000, 21:25 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government lifted the ban on the Jaffna Tamil daily Uthayan Monday, a spokesman for the newspaper told TamilNet. The paper was sealed by the Sri Lankan army on 19 May under the emergency regulations. The Uthayan will resume publication tomorrow the spokesman said.
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Devolution proposals 'no basis for solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 09:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday the Sri Lankan government's devolution proposals were unacceptable as the basis of a solution to the Tamil national question as it "failed to address the national aspirations of the Tamil people" and it was intended to "promote the majoritarian [Sinhala] interests."
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Explosion injures child

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2000, 19:14 GMT]
Tharmalingam Vinodharan, a 10 year old child from Maravanpullo in the Thenmaradchi sector of Jaffna Peninsula, lost both hands below his wrists when an unidentified explosive detonated on Wednesday. He was admitted to the Mallavi hospital and later transferred to Vavuniya General Hospital for surgery, hospital sources said.
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Judge warns EPRLF factions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2000, 17:42 GMT]
Two factions of the minor ex-Tamil militant group operating in Mannar with the Sri Lankan security forces were severely reprimanded by the Mannar district judge M.Ilancheliyan Wednesday for breaching the peace in Mannar town by quarreling with each other incessantly. The Police filed a case Wednesday in the Mannar courts against both factions of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) for being a public nuisance and a threat to law and order in the town. The EPRLF was formerly a group that was fully backed by India.
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Ratwatte explains SLA activity in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, who returned from Jaffna Wednesday after directing military operations there told state run TV that he has ordered the Sri Lanka army not to pull back any further in Jaffna. He said that the Liberation Tigers had shelled Palaly and the army had to counter it. The Minister urged the public to persuade deserters and soldiers who have not reported to duty after going on leave to go back to the front if they happened to see them.
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Passengers say Jaffna situation grim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2000, 11:05 GMT]
Students, government officers and Tamil expatriates from Jaffna who arrived in Trincomalee Wednesday on the passenger ship 'City of Trinco' said that civilians continue to live in fear and uncertainty in the peninsula. A group of university students and officers who spoke to TamilNet this morning said that the Jaffna municipal area is generally deserted and that the curfew imposed by the Sri Lankan army is lifted for only three hours from morning 9 a.m. to 12 noon during the day.
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