Empty schools in Sinhala colonies to close

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The government has decided to close down twenty seven schools in several Sinhala villages on the border of the eastern province. The process will be phased out over a few years as all secondary level students currently studying in these schools leave in due course.
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Thousands at Jaffna peace rally

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The peace rally in the Jaffna town organised by the Jaffna Diocese Committee for Peace and Justice which began around 4.30 p.m. today drew more than seven thousand people. Sources said this was unprecedented since the SLA moved in two years ago.
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Sterilisation being used to reduce Tamil population

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A major program to systematically and radically reduce the Tamil population in Sri Lanka's plantation sector is secretly but effectively being carried out with state assistance and misdirected foreign aid. The Tamils in the hills of Sri Lanka where most of its tea and rubber grow are being subjected to large scale sterilisation which contravenes customary rules and law elsewhere in the island.
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Paris assassinations remain unsolved

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Last Sunday was the first anniversary of the killings of two Eelam activists in Paris. Mr. Kandiah Perinpanathan, head of the LTTE's financial section and Mr. Kandiah Gajendran, the editor of the Tamil weekly "Eelamurasu" were gunned down in cold blood by an unknown assailant on a busy Paris sidewalk. To date, the investigations have not yielded any publicly known results.
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SLA bans Jaffna paddy cultivation

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The SLA has banned paddy cultivation in the Palai administrative division of the Jaffna peninsula.
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SLA caught in its own trap: LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
"The Sinhala army leadership wants to draw the Tigers widely into battle by opening several fronts simultaneously and thereby destroy their strength of resistance. However, it is caught in its own trap" says the latest issue of the LTTE's official organ 'Viduthalai Pulihal' which is published in the Vanni.
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Firefights in the Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Fierce fighting broke out between a commando group of the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers yesterday at Karapukkuththy. The fighting which began around 9.30 a.m went on for about three hours said sources in Vavuniya.
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Confusion follows SLA claims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
At the weekly cabinet press briefing this morning Brig. Sarath Munasinghe said that Operations Jayasikurui has completed its second phase now with the capture of the Mankulam Ottisuddan road.
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News in Brief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan navy captures Tamil refugees and a bus escapes explosion
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Amnesty for deserters called off

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army announced today that the general amnesty that had been granted last month for the large number of deserters will be withdrawn this Friday Oct 25.
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Amnesty for deserters - yet again

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
After threatening to impose dire punishment on deserters who did not rejoin by Friday Oct. 24, the Sri Lankan army decided last evening to extend the amnesty once again to thousands of its men who are still at large in the Sinhala countryside.
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Food supplies to Mullaitivu cut off

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Officials at the district secretariat in Vavuniya confirmed today that food supplies cannot be sent to the eastern part of the Mullaithivu district, as the Sri Lankan army has stopped all supplies from passing on the Mankulam - Ottisuddan - Mullaithivu road.
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Canada Tamils stage candle light vigil

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Thousands of Canadian Tamils attended a candle light vigil on Saturday, demanding the release of Tamil community activist Mr. Manickavasagam Suresh and condemning the Sri Lankan government's war in the Tamil homelands.
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Civilians flee SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Reports from Vavuniya said today that a large number of displaced persons who had settled in the eastern sector of the Mullaithivu district following Operation Riviresa in early 1996, have begun moving enmasse to the western areas of the Vanni.
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Mullaitivu faces total blockade

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The supply of food and other essential goods to the Mullaitivu district may soon been cut off sources in Vavuniya said today. This is mainly due to the SLA's shelling of the dirt road from Kilinochchi district to Mullaitivu and the effect of the monsoon showers on the access road into the Vanni through Madhu.
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A new SLA division - and a new deadline

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army raised a new division this week to throw into its operations against the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni jungles.The new unit is Div.56. It is an infantry division.
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News In Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Tigers killed 8 Sri Lankan soldiers today. Poor conditions are allowing disease to spread in Thenmaradchi.
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SLA pulls out of Muthur

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army closed down eight camps in the Muthur region this week. The main Sri Lankan military base in this large southern sector of the Trincomalee district will be closed either today or tomorrow, depending on the rate of troop pull out that is under way now.
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More News In Brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Muslim policemen refuse to accept Vanni postings and the Sri Lankan foreign ministry visits Jaffna.
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The Galadari Blast - Fallout

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
Financial analysts in Colombo said today that the Galadari hotel blast could cost Sri Lanka more than the Central Bank blast in February last year. Initial estimates put the damage around six billion rupees.
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