Religious delegation visits Madhu, meets LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 03:35 GMT]
A 60-member inter-religious delegation comprising 36 Buddhist monks, two Bishops and several catholic and muslim priests visited Madhu in the LTTE held Vanni Monday, sources said. The visit was arranged by the northeast Bishops Association.
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Sri Lanka's PM decries insurrectionary Marxists

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 21:49 GMT]
"The murder of human beings is considered a crime in any society. It is totally against the principles of Buddhism" said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka Friday, addressing the opening of an exhibition of photographs of people allegedly killed by the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in Piliyandala, an outer suburb of Colombo, in 1988-89.
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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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Kilinochchi schools face acute teacher shortage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2001, 10:00 GMT]
Tamil schools in Kilinochchi district with an attending student population of 34,300 is short of 970 teachers, said P. Ariyaratnam, Director of Education, Kilinochchi, yesterday when speaking as Chief Guest at the price giving ceremony at Bharathi Vidyalayam. He added that Sri Lankan Government's unwillingness to make timely appointments is one of the reasons for the present staff shortage.
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PM invokes Ruhuna ethos for SLA recruiting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2001, 16:49 GMT]
A program to recruit ten thousand youth to the Sri Lanka army was begun Tuesday the Buddhist temple in the island's main pilgrimage centre. Sri Lanka's prime minister, Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, who chaired the function said that it was a great achievement by the people of Ruhuna to have inaugurated the program to win the war from Kataragama. The southern interior of the island was called Ruhuna in medieval Sinhala. It is celebrated by Sinhala Buddhist nationalists as the ancient seat of resistance to Tamil dominance where Sinhala rulers mustered recruits to wage war on the armies of the Chola empire. Senior SLA officers and Buddhist monks took part in the program.
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Court to hear Mailanthanai massacre case

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2001, 23:34 GMT]
(Newsfeature) The Mailanthanai massacre case in which 21 Sri Lanka army soldiers are accused of hacking to death 35 Tamils, including women, in a remote Batticaloa village on 9 August 1992 will be taken up for hearing in Colombo Monday lawyers appearing for the families of the victims said. "Justice delayed is justice denied. As with most cases in which SLA soldiers have been accused of massacring innocent Tamil civilians, a patently deliberate procrastinating strategy drawing on untenable pretexts is causing inordinate delays. This benefits the perpetrators of the murders," Mr.N. Kandasamy, a senior human rights activist in Colombo who has been monitoring the case for nine years told TamilNet Sunday.
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"Right to life not guaranteed in constitution"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 January 2001, 05:10 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan constitution does not guarantee the right to life. Many human rights violations and murders are possible due to such loopholes in the constitution. The Sri Lankan government refused to sign an international convention that would have obliged it to act responsibly on the question of human rights violations and missing persons. It is the governmentís duty to explain the fate of persons reported missing. But it does not do anything. This is the reason why it is possible not to take any action to bring those responsible for murdering journalists to book" said V.T Thamilmaran, senior law lecturer at the University of Colombo Wednesday, addressing the 90 days remembrance meeting for slain Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan in Colombo.
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SLA firing injures two

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 January 2001, 07:23 GMT]
A 11-year old girl and another woman were injured in indiscriminate firing by Sri Lanka Army at Pillaiyaradi, 4 km. north of Batticaloa, around 10 a.m. on Monday said sources.
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Trainee SLA soldier raped and murdered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2001, 14:45 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army trainee was found raped and killed Tuesday near his detachment in Mirusuvil in Jaffna. SLA military Police sources said that a lance corporal identified as Wijeyananda and a private have been arrested in connection with the rape and murder. The trainee soldier, K.R.K Karunaratna, was reported missing after a party at the armoured corps unit in Mirusuvil on 6 January, according to the Military Police.
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Grenade lobbed at Batticaloa shop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2001, 16:49 GMT]
Armed men, suspected to be Sri Lanka army soldiers and Policemen, lobbed a grenade at a grocery store in Sinna Uppodai, a suburb of Batticaloa town around 9p.m. Wednesday, injuring a 19-year old employee of the shop. Neighbours alleged that the attack was in retaliation to the shop owner’s refusal to pay up protection money (‘kappam’) to the assailants.
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Witness picks out murder accused

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2001, 16:50 GMT]
Three of several Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, including an officer, accused of murdering eight civilians in Mirusuvil in Jaffna on 19 December were identified by the prime witness, Ponnuthurai Maheswaran, during an identification parade held Wednesday. Thirteen government troops including two officers have been arrested in connection with the massacre. Seven of them appeared for the identification parade.
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"Offensive against Tigers will continue" - P.M

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2000, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, told reporters in Colombo Friday that military offensives against the Liberation Tigers will continue and that a response to the month long cease-fire declared by them unilaterally Thursday night could be considered only after President Kumaratunga returns to the island. Meanwhile the massive three pronged offensive launched Friday by the SLA barely 8 hours after the cease-fire offer by the Tigers faced fierce opposition south west of Madduvil but another prong from Nunavil has advanced close to the Kaithady bridge east of Jaffna town sources said.
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Judge sets date to file objections

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2000, 04:27 GMT]
Eastern High Court Judge, A.N. Ramachandran, last Tuesday ordered the six respondents to the Habeas Corpus petition filed by Jeyakili Pushparatha to file their objections before February 15, 2001, legal sources said. In her petition Pushparatha had asked the respondents to produce in court her husband Vairamuttu Jeyakilli of Salli, arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel on February 24 this year.
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Inquest held into death of farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 December 2000, 03:19 GMT]
Inquest into the deaths of seven Tamil farmers from Poonagar in the Mutur area, killed by Sinhala home guards on October 2nd of this year, were held last Tuesday in the presence of Muttur Magistrate and Additional District Judge Mr.R.M.Jayawardene.
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Ratwatte back as Dep. Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 14:55 GMT]
General Anuruddha Ratwatte and Professor G.L.Peiris have been re-appointed as the Deputy Defense Minister and Deputy Finance Minister respectively. Both new Deputy Ministers took oaths before the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake at Temple Trees Thursday.
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Fourteen reported missing in November

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2000, 17:11 GMT]
Fourteen persons have been reported as missing to the Vavuniya Human Rights Commission by their relatives in November, said sources.
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No ceasefire with LTTE - PM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2000, 17:28 GMT]
"The People's Alliance (PA) Government is not prepared to enter into any ceasfire agreement with the LTTE. We take this stand based on our past experiences with the LTTE. The war will continue until terrorism is eliminated," said Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, while addressing a public meeting in Kurunagala, this evening.
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PTA detainees released - no evidence

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2000, 14:02 GMT]
Batticaloa District Court on Wednesday released two young men who had been tortured after being detained under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for nearly 9 months with out any charges being filed against them.
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10 LTTE casualties - radio

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 November 2000, 13:38 GMT]
Ten members of the Liberation Tigers were killed in an accidental explosion on 15 November in the Manal Aaru region in the north-east of the island, the Voice of Tigers radio said Friday morning.
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British minister arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 07:48 GMT]
Concluding his four-day visit to India, British Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain arrived Colombo Wednesday morning on a two-day visit. This is his first visit to the island as a Foreign Office Minister and the first by a British Foreign Minister since the late Derek Fatchett visited in 1998.
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