SLA penetratiom group strikes again in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:38 GMT]
A member of the communications wing of the Liberation Tigers was killed in a claymore blast set off by a deep penetration team of the Sri Lanka army in the hinterland west of the Batticaloa town Monday around 4.30 p.m. paramilitary sources in the eastern town said. Since June this year, SLA deep penetration teams have killed two members of the Liberation Tigers inside the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district. The LTTE controls 90 percent of the district’s western sector. The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa say that they have recovered 37 claymore mines set up by the SLA inside areas under their control since 15 June.
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Dialogue with LTTE vital for humanitarian ops. -ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 16:51 GMT]
"The LTTE is a major party to the conflict. As such the present dialogue with the LTTE is vital for the continuance of the ICRC's humanitarian services to the people in Vanni and the rest of the country," said Mr.Harasha Gunawardene, the ICRC's press officer, addressing a press conference held Wednesday morning at Trincomalee Seven Islands Hotel.
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Tigers counter attack SLA ambush

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 13:20 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and another was seriously wounded when a group of Liberation Tigers counter attacked a SLA ambush party at Adampan junction, eight kilometres south east of Mannar, Wednesday morning. A firefight erupted as the LTTE group walked into an ambush by three teams from the nearby SLA camp in Maanthai around 9 a.m. sources said. The Tigers had then taken up position to counter attack the SLA ambush teams, killing one and seriously injuring another.
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Fear said stifling Batticaloa massacre memory

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 September 2001, 15:51 GMT]
The brutal massacre of 184 Tamil villagers, including 42 children below the age of ten and several pregnant women, on 9 September 1990 in the Sri Lanka army camp in Saththurukondaan, on the outskirts of the Batticaloa town was commemorated Sunday in Valaichenai. A public meeting was organised by the Koralaipattu Human Rights Organisation (KHRO) in Valaichenai town to mark the eleventh anniversary of the massacre.
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Kilinochchi rising from rubble

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2001, 13:53 GMT]
The Kilinochchi St. Theresa’s Girls’ School will start functioning in its former premises in the northern town after a gap of four years when the third term begins next week, education officials in Vavuniya said. St. Theresa’s is one of the two schools in the town that escaped complete destruction during Sri Lankan security forces operations and bombing five years ago. Kilinochchi was abandoned when the Sri Lanka army captured this once bustling town in August 1996. The Tigers overran the base and recaptured Kilinochchi in September 1998. A program to gradually rebuild and resettle the destroyed town began early this year. A project to remove thousands of anti personnel mines and mine fields left behind by the SLA was launched by the White Dove Movement (WDM) after the garrison fell. More than 50000 APLM’s and explosive booby traps have been recovered by the WDM in the Kilinochchi town and its environs so far, western aid agency sources in the Vanni said.
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Remembrance day for University Refugee Camp disappeared

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 September 2001, 06:39 GMT]
Memorial functions were held Wednesday in Vantharumoolai and Valaichenai to mark the 11th anniversary of disappearance of 158 Tamils who were arrested by the Sri Lanka security forces from the Eastern University refugee camp on September 5, 1990. Posters condemning the security forces for the murdering the refugees were seen in several parts of these towns, sources said.
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Five SLA soldiers killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 August 2001, 06:09 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed when the tractor in which they were travelling was hit by a powerful claymore mine blast in the Kalmadhu area, about 25 km. west of Vavuniya, around 8.30 a.m Tuesday morning, army sources in the northern town said.
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Tamil detainees said mistreated in Kalutara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2001, 21:47 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) has protested to the Department of Prisons about “the inhuman treatment meted out to Tamil prisoners in Kalutara prison by prison authorities”. Mr.A.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Parliamentarian and leader of the TELO stated in a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons that “fifty Tamil prisoners are locked up in a ward of 20 feet by 40 feet while 23 Sinhala prisoners are kept in a ward which could accommodate more than hundred persons. This act clearly indicates the discrimination meted out to Tamil prisoners at Kalutara prisons by the authorities concerned.”
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"Government has ignored LTTE's Peace efforts" -Thmail Chelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2001, 23:03 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers observed a four-month ceasefire with the intention of bringing an end to the war, but the Sri Lankan government ignored our ceasefire. It is unfortunate that our efforts to bring peace did not succeed," Mr. S.P.Thamil Chelvan, political wing leader of the LTTE, has told Mr. A.P.Nanayakkara, leader of the Association of Families of Servicemen Missing in Action (AFSMA), who spoke at a news conference in Colombo on Tuesday.
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Tigers overrun Police camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 August 2001, 03:20 GMT]
At least twenty military trained policemen were killed and 20 wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked and destroyed the main Police station at Central Camp, Monday night, police sources in Ampara said. Seven others were reported missing in the attack, the sources said. Central Camp is a Sinhala settlement, about 35 kilometers south west of Batticaloa near the district's border with Ampara.
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Jaffna students urge Colombo to stop bombing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2001, 16:11 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) appealed to international community "to intervene and safeguard the lives of Tamil students and civilians in the northeastern province from the continuing reprisal aerial attacks by the Sri Lanka Air Force". The JUSU in a statement issued Sunday said "aerial attacks targeting civilian positions such as schools and residential areas in northeast, particularly in Vanni and other Tigers controlled region are taking place almost daily. These indiscriminate aerial attacks have caused deaths and destruction to lives and properties of Tamil civilians".
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'Mole' kills leader of SLA penetration team

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2001, 00:35 GMT]
A soldier of a Sri Lanka army deep penetration group was killed in the early hours of the morning Saturday when he was shot by another trooper of the unit that was lying in ambush at Kurinjamunai junction inside the area held by the Liberation Tigers west of Batticaloa town. The trooper got away with the weapons of his dead team leader. Both men are from the SLA's National Guard. Military sources in Batticaloa said that the trooper who got away was an LTTE 'mole'.
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Controversial weapon meant for genocide alleges MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2001, 14:26 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government is going to deploy chemical weapons against the Tamils in the island's north and east. The aim is to annihilate them totally. The use of this dangerous chemical weapon against the Tamil people should be strongly condemned," said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, addressing legislators who gathered Friday in the Sri Lankan Parliament and decided to press ahead with the no confidence motion against President Kumaratunga's government.
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LTTE condemns Sri Lankas purchase of chemical weapons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 August 2001, 09:17 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in a statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka today, warned the Kumaratunga government of disastrous consequences if it inducted the recently acquired weapons with chemical warheads into the north-eastern theatre of war.
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JVP wants "probation" government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 August 2001, 16:02 GMT]
The Marxist-Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Wednesday called for what they described as a "probationary" government. A party spokesman said that the JVP has submitted a proposal to the Sri Lankan government for the purpose. "The government should have cancelled the referendum instead of postponing it. If the parliament is reconvened it would be possible to consider the governmentÌs proposal for setting up of a constitution planning council," Mr. Wimal Weerawanse, Propaganda Secretary of the JVP, said.
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Tamil coalition to campaign against referendum

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 17:22 GMT]
A coalition of 11 Tamil and Muslim political parties Monday decided to campaign against the August 21 referendum for a new constitution. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Democratic Workers Congress Party, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), People's Liberation Organisation Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF), Democratic Worker's Congress were among the parties that participated in the meeting held in Colombo Tuesday.
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Base may displace thousands

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 16:38 GMT]
Following the establishment of a new Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp in the village of Varothiar Nagar, about six km north of Trincomalee town Sunday, about two thousand Tamil people living there face imminent displacement for the third time in their life.
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"Stop arms, promote peace", MP tells US officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 23:09 GMT]
"The war in Sri Lanka is escalating because countries that say that there should be a political solution to the island's ethnic conflict are providing arms and money to the government here. Some are even training the Sri Lankan army troops. These governments should stop giving military aid to Sri Lanka and exert pressure on it to seek a negotiated settlement to the problem", said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, speaking to US embassy officials who called on him Friday at his official in Colombo.
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Vavuniya pilgrim and child detained by Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 July 2001, 21:01 GMT]
A Hindu pilgrim and his five year old child who were on their way to Kathirgamam were arrested and detained by the Police on 27 July at Nittambuwa, relatives told the Human Rights Commission office in Vavuniya Tuesday. Kathirgamam (Kataragama in Sinhala) is a pilgrimage centre in the in Sri Lankaís southern province. The shrine of the god Murugan here draws thousands of Tamil and Sinhala devotees.
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Tamil Congress to oppose Chandrika, TULF divided

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 July 2001, 20:50 GMT]
The All Ceylon Tamil Congress Monday rejected the invitation by the Sri Lankan President to discuss the political situation and said that it would categorically oppose the referendum for a new constitution scheduled to be held on 21 August. In a letter to the Sri Lankan President, the party leader Mr. Appappillai Vinyagamoorthy said that changing the constitution is futile when the Parliament has been suspended and democracy has been suppressed.
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