Col.Bhanu, Col.Sornam meet with Batticaloa residents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 April 2004, 12:24 GMT]
Senior military Commanders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Col.Bhanu and Col.Sornam, who played leading roles in the ouster of renegade commander Karuna from Batticaloa, visited several areas in Batticaloa and met with local residents Friday, reports from Batticaloa said.
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NECORD to revive rural bank system in northeast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 April 2004, 00:01 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded North East Community Organization for Restoration and Development (NECORD) has formulated a scheme at a cost 10.4 million rupees in collaboration with North East Provincial Department of Co-operatives to strengthen the co-operative rural banks in the war-torn province, thus reviving the rural economy devastated in the two-decade-old war, sources said.
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‘Karuna’s colleagues are returning’- Col. Ramesh

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2004, 16:15 GMT]
“We will not punish or victimise or persecute anyone who has been associated with Karuna in his traitorous activities. Our leader has instructed us to take a strictly humanitarian approach in dealing with this issue. Karuna’s colleagues who fled the district four days ago are contacting us now. They are all coming back. We would soon restore the law and order system and the judiciary”, said Col. Thambirajah Ramesh, LTTE’s special commander for the Batticaloa-Amparai district speaking to TamilNet at the ‘Meenaham’ military base Friday.
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Amparai Tamils praised for rejecting regionalism

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2004, 09:30 GMT]
Kanagasabai Pathmanathan, the Tamil National Alliance MP for Digamadulla (Amparai) district, in a memorandum released to the Tamil people of his district, praised the Amparai Tamil people for rejecting regionalism and showing the international community that Liberation Tigers are the undisputed leaders of the Tamil people, local daily Thamil Alai reported.
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LTTE, SLA agree to restore relations in Batticaloa-Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 12:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army held discussions Wednesday afternoon on restoring relations in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts in Vavunathivu, 5 kilometres northwest of the Batticaloa town. Col. Thambirajah Ramesh, the Special Commander for the Batticaloa-Amparai District, led the LTTE delegation. Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Maj. Gen. (ret) Tronde Furuhovde chaired the meeting. Asked whether the issue of renegade LTTE commander Karuna’s whereabouts was raised at the meeting, Col. Ramesh and Maj. Gen. (ret) Furuhovde replied in the negative.
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Araiyampathy mourns native son Lt. Col. Neelan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 04:17 GMT]
The body of the deputy head of intelligence of the Liberation Tigers for the Batticaloa district, Lt. Col. Neelan, who was killed by the fleeing renegade Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (‘Karuna’), was brought to his home village, Araiyampathy, Wednesday, and kept at the Ramakrishna Mission school hall where the public paid its respects in large numbers, sources said.
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LTTE says no more underage cadres in Batti-Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 16:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday that they have released all underage (under 18) cadres in the Batticaloa-Amparai districts to their parents, including all those the UNICEF had reported in its list as under-aged recruits.
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Karuna's associate returns to LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 14:51 GMT]
Mr.Visu (Sinnathamby Gopalan), who was appointed as the political head of the Karuna group in Batticaloa and Amparai districts by the renegade commander Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan when he broke away from the Liberation Tigers, rejoined the LTTE Wednesday afternoon in Batticaloa town, sources said.
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Kausalyan explains retrieval with minimal bloodshed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 16:36 GMT]
The political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the Batticaloa-Amparai region, Mr. Kausalyan, speaking to press persons in Vakarai Tuesday, said that the retrieval of the region from the renegade Karuna group was made according to the plans of the LTTE leader, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, and executed with care and humanitarian concern by commanders led by the Special Commander for the region, Mr. T. Ramesh.


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Batticaloa residents express happiness over end of tensions

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 15:58 GMT]
The residents of the Batticaloa-Amparai district have expressed happiness over the end of the tensions caused by the renegade Karuna group in the region. The people are celebrating the Tamil New Year with relief, sources in Batticaloa said.
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LTTE hands over 269 cadres to their parents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 14:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Tuesday that it has handed over 269 of its cadres, including 168 who are less than eighteen years old, to their parents when they rejoined the LTTE following the LTTE's recovery of the Batticaloa-Amparai areas from the breakaway faction led by Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Vanni sources said.
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‘No trace of ‘Karuna’ in Batticaloa’s interior’ – LTTE commanders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 14:23 GMT]
Special Forces commanders of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa told TamilNet Tuesday that all the LTTE military camps in the district’s interior have been completely checked and cleared. “We have recovered the Batticaloa-Amparai district armoury fully, except for a heavy mortar and some rifles. The ammunition stores are intact”, one of them said. He said that they found several vehicles set on fire in ‘Meenaham’, the LTTE’s largest military base in the east.
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LTTE recovers arms, cadres from Karuna group

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 2004, 14:31 GMT]
In commando style attacks on the Karuna group in Vakarai, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have recovered large quantities of arms and a large number of cadres, the ThamilAlai.com website (a shadow edition from the East of the Karuna group's TamilAlai) said.
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LTTE forces move into Amparai, Batticaloa south

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 2004, 04:44 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers took control of the areas held by the Karuna Group in the Amparai District on Saturday night. Troops led by the LTTE's Amparai district military commander, 'Janarthan', moved into the main base areas in Kanjikudichcha Aaru region, about 96 kilometres south of Batticaloa, from Saturday evening, sources said. Meanwhile, advance commando teams of the LTTE moved into the southwestern sector of the Batticaloa district and began consolidating strategic positions there since Saturday morning.
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LTTE’s ‘Jeyanthan Brigade’ units lead Vakarai offensive

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 19:46 GMT]
Special units of the Jeyanthan Brigade, the most feared infantry formation of the Liberation Tigers, led the multi pronged offensive towards Vakarai Friday, according to LTTE sources in the east. Two counter attacks on the forward defence localities which the Tigers have consolidated at Kandalady, 64 kilometres north of Batticaloa, led by ‘Jim Kelly Thaaththa’ and ‘Robert’, deputies of renegade LTTE commander ‘Karuna’ (Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan), were beaten back Friday evening, according to the sources.
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Key Karuna Group commander wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 13:48 GMT]
A key commander of the Karuna Group was seriously wounded when troops of the Liberation Tigers advanced on Vakarai, 62 kilometres north of Batticaloa, in the early hours of Friday morning. ‘Barathithaasan’, commander of the Karuna Group’s Vinothan Unit, wounded in the abdomen, was admitted to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. “We will face problems if casualties rise in the coming days because most of our consultants and many medical officers and interns from the north have left”, said a doctor who works there. The Karuna Group forced Tamils of Jaffna to leave Batticaloa last month.
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All 20 TNA Parliamentarians issue joint statement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2004, 04:42 GMT]
"In view of the speculative reports in the media, all Members of Parliament elected from the North-Eastern region in the name of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi emphatically state that we are unequivocally and irrevocably committed to the political aspirations of the Tamil people for over the past fifty years for self rule in a unified north-eastern region, which has been the acknowledged as the area of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people," said 20 Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians in a joint statement issued Wednesday night after two days of discussions held in Colombo.
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All TNA MPs attend parliamentary group meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2004, 15:36 GMT]
Dismissing reports carried by the Sri Lankan State-controlled electronic and print media that they had decided to function as a separate group, the 5 Tamil National Alliance MPs from the Batticaloa and Amparai districts participated at the first TNA parliamentary group meeting held Tuesday evening in Colombo along with the 15 TNA MPs elected from other districts of the Northeast, and Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the senior TNA leader, was unanimously elected as the leader of the TNA parliamentary group at this meeting, TNA sources said.
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Geneva Pongu Thamil expects more than 10,000 participants

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2004, 11:08 GMT]
In a press conference held at Hotel Warwich in Geneva at 11.15am today, the organizers of Pongu Thamil (Tamil uprising) said that they expect around 12000 participants in the rally set towards UN Buildings in Geneva from the Railway station of Geneva. Because of the tightened security due to the recent terror-attacks in Europe, the organizers expect delays for participants from various parts of Europe arriving at the venue, sources in Geneva said.
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TNA becomes third largest party in Sri Lanka’s 13th parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 April 2004, 15:17 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Sunday evening emerged as the single largest party in the Sri Lanka’s thirteenth 225-member parliament with 105 seats and United National Party (UNP) with 82 seats. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which won four electoral districts, Jaffna, Vanni, Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the northeast province except Amparai became the third largest party in the new parliament with twenty two seats.
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