Thamilchelvan, Tigers pay homage to 'Siva'

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 16:44 GMT]
The body of Mr. Murugesu Sivasithambaram, the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front, was taken to Kilinochchi Friday afternoon. The head of the LTTE's political division Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan and other members of the organisation paid their last respects to 'Siva' at the Thooyavan College for Political Studies where the cortege lay this afternoon for homage by the public.
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Youths continue to face STF threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 18:06 GMT]
The four Tamil youths from Karaithivu whose arrest and vicious assault by the Special Task Force last Wednesday drew criticism from ceasefire monitors are said to have received new threats from the police commandos. Fresh complaints in this regard have been lodged with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Ampara, officials said.
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Tamil students' rallies, protests in Northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 13:27 GMT]
Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies Thursday to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, bombing of schools, chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools. Student leaders who addressed the rallies demanded that Tamil students too be granted equal opportunities in education by Colombo, denied them for more than three decades under partisan education schemes.
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Sri Lanka's conditions for talks create an 'impasse' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 12:42 GMT]
The Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka has been delayed by the government’s failure to implement the terms of the permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers and is threatened by the hostile intervention of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, told the Tamil Guardian this week.
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Islamic group threatens journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 June 2002, 22:18 GMT]
Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, the correspondent for the Tamil dailies Virakesari and Thinakkural, in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, said Monday he was threatened by an armed group backed by local Muslim politicians for his coverage of a simmering dispute in the region over the creation of an administrative division which Tamils oppose on the grounds that it grabs their lands and is meant as another ethnic wedge to disrupt the contiguity of the Batticaloa district. Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy said that the group, comprising mostly Muslims who deserted the Sri Lanka army and ex home guards, vowed to kill him in a warning delivered Monday.
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Truce monitors protest military conduct

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2002, 10:38 GMT]
(News Feature) Tensions between the Sri Lankan armed forces and local residents increased this weekend in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts following new incidents of violence and harassment by the military, reports said Saturday. The vicious assaults of four fishermen by police commandos prompted the head of the local ceasefire monitors' head to plead with the security forces "to desist from violating the ceasefire and arresting and torturing innocent youths under various pretexts," press reports said.
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US treaty seen encouraging subjugation of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 May 2002, 18:34 GMT]
Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, senior Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa told a US official Wednesday that a proposed defence treaty between Washington and Colombo would support the majority Sinhalese "continue the discrimination and subjugation of the Tamil people." The US and the Sri Lankan government are scheduled to sign the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement in July. Sinhala nationalists have welcomed the treaty.
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STF threatens war, tells village to make coffins

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 May 2002, 17:40 GMT]
Residents of Veeramunai, 52 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa, said Monday that the Special Task Force has threatened to kill people in the village whom it accused of taking part in the general shut down and protest against the elite commandos in the southeast coast of the island last week. "The STF commandos told us families in the village should make two coffins each. They said we would need the coffins after a month," a local community leader said. The STF threat has spread apprehensions here that war may break out again after a month, he added.
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Norwegian Deputy FM in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 May 2002, 18:09 GMT]
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vidar Helgessen, arrived Colombo Saturday early morning ahead of meetings with Sri Lankan government and opposition officials. He was accompanied by Mr. Jon Westborg, Norwegian ambassador to Sri Lanka who also returned after two weeks in Oslo, sources said.
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Sinhala opposition to peace deal gathers momentum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2002, 18:55 GMT]
More than five thousand protestors Thursday afternoon thronged the Virodhaya (oppose) campaign by Sri Lanka's main opposition alliance against the ruling United National Front's policy on peace talks, the economy and style of governance at Nugegoda Junction, a busy intersection in greater Colombo.
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Linganagar Tamils complain army harassment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2002, 05:08 GMT]
The residents of Linganagar, a crowded suburb of Trincomalee town have submitted a memorandum to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the eastern port city that the Sri Lanka Army has not changed its routine checking and has not relaxed the ban on taking materials such as bricks, cement, tin sheets, poles and cadjans for repairing their houses even months after the permanent ceasefire came into effect.
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SL armed forces said violating children's rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2002, 17:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army and the Special Task Force haven't come up with a schedule for leaving more than eighty schools occupied by them in the districts of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai although they should have started doing so soon after the ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers came into effect on 24 February 2002, Northeast Provincial Education Ministry officials said Wednesday.
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Support urged for LTTE’s political efforts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 May 2002, 00:18 GMT]
The leader of Sri Lanka’s largest Muslim party Monday slammed opponents of the Norwegian peace initiative and urged support for the Liberation Tigers’ political efforts, the Thinakkuaral reported Tuesday. Speaking in the parliament, Mr. Rauf Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), urged political parties to support efforts by the LTTE leader, Vellupillai Pirapaharan, to end the island’s ethnic conflict, the Tamil language daily said.
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Sinhala nationalist MPs vow to fight peace deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 May 2002, 22:07 GMT]
A large gathering of Sinhala Parliamentarians Tuesday resolved before the statue of King Duttu Gemunu in the island's ancient capital of Anuradhapura to struggle against what they called a conspiracy to divide Sri Lanka through peace talks with the Liberation Tigers. Duttu Gemunu was an ancient warrior extolled in Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition for killing Ellalan, a Tamil king of the island in the 2nd century BC, and for unifying the island under Sinhala rule.
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TNA delegation meet Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 May 2002, 22:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Saturday requested the Tamil National Alliance to pressurise the Sri Lankan government for the speedy implementation of the permanent cease-fire which came into effect on February 23.
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Ashraff slammed for opposing truce

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2002, 19:27 GMT]
(News Feature) Reflecting increasing irritation amongst Sri Lanka’s Muslim community over ongoing opposition by some Muslim politicians to the permanent ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers, another Muslim organisation this week hailed the truce and condemned those supporting Sinhala nationalist forces opposed to peace.
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Vanni MP alleges conspiracy to derail peace talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 May 2002, 17:48 GMT]
A leading MP of the Tamil National Alliance, Mr. 'Selvam' Adaikalanathan, alleged Friday that there is a conspiracy by anti-peace Sinhala nationalist elements in the opposition and in the Sri Lankan armed forces to destabilize the United Front Government and its peace efforts. He said that there are patently systematic moves in sections of the Sinhala media and in the armed forces to discredit the UNF's peace initiative among the Sinhala masses.
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Thamilchelvan says A9 should be open 24 hours, slams SLN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 May 2002, 06:57 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers want the A9 road to be open 24 hours, on all days of the week, to ensure the free flow of goods between Jaffna and the other parts of the island," Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the LTTE's political division, told TamilNet Thursday.
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LTTE slams "grave" truce breach by Navy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 May 2002, 10:19 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Sunday accused the Sri Lankan Navy of a “grave and serious violation” of the indefinite ceasefire when gunboats destroyed several civilian fishing vessels and killed two Muslim fishermen in the seas near Vaharai, Batticaloa on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan Navy is “deliberately creating conflictual situations to disrupt the peace process,” the LTTE said. “We call upon the Sri Lanka government to prevail upon the naval authorities to abandon its hostile attitude and strictly follow the peace agreement,” the Tigers said in a statement.
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NDF urges govt to lift LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2002, 19:50 GMT]
The New Democratic Front Wednesday appealed to the United National Front government to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and hand over the administration of the interim administration of the northeast province to a council headed by the LTTE.
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