Peace hopes dim as Sri Lanka hardens stance

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2001, 22:43 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge hardened her stance on the island's ethnic conflict Sunday, dismissing the Liberation Tigers' extended unilateral ceasefire as "meaningless" and insisting the war would only be stopped when negotiations "progressed satisfactorily," dashing hopes amongst Tamil political parties of possible peace talks between the government and the LTTE.
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February 4, a day of mourning - student body

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 February 2001, 14:49 GMT]
Tamil people must observe 4th of February, Sri Lanka's Independence day, as a day of mourning, said Student's Freedom Front, in a leaflet distributed today in Batticaloa. "It is the day when rights were denied to Tamil people, when national aspirations of Tamils were denied and when Tamil people lost their freedom and reduced to slave status," the leaflet further said.
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SLA tenders qualified apology as officer retires

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2001, 21:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa town Wednesday tendered a qualified public apology for massacring hundreds innocent civilians of this eastern district in the past in a handbill and over loud hailers. The SLA handbill, among other things, states "on some occasions people had to be murdered on the orders of certain commanders".
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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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PA not capable of resolving conflict -Tamil coalition

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 January 2001, 07:32 GMT]
"Tamil parties firmly believe that Peoples Alliance (PA) Government is not capable of bringing the ethnic conflict to an end. That is why we have formed a coalition to urge the international community to actively join the peace efforts by pressuring the Sri Lankan Government to stop fighting and start negotiations with the Liberation Tigers," said the representatives of Tamil parties during a meeting with the Swedish Ambassador held in Colombo on Wednesday.
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Union demands Tamil GA for Trinco

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 January 2001, 20:12 GMT]
Samastha Lanka Government General Employees Union has requested the President to take steps to appoint a Tamil civil servant as the Government Agent (GA) of the Trincomalee district. A resolution to this effect was unanimously passed at the fourth annual general meeting of the Trincomalee branch of the union held last week.
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SLAF jets bomb Trinco villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 January 2001, 15:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force jets bombed four villages about 8 km. south of Trincomalee around 5.30 p.m. Monday. Local residents said two Kfir jets attacked the villages of Chenaiyoor, Kaddaiparichchan, Samboor and Soodaikuda. Initial reports indicated extensive damage. But details of casualties and destruction of property are not available sources in Mutur, the town closest to the targets of Monday's air raid, said.
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Self-determination call shuts down Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2001, 15:10 GMT]
The Batticaloa town was deserted Saturday as shops and businesses were closed and most people stayed indoors despite warnings by the Sri Lanka army against the Hartal (general shut down) called by the Independent Students' Union (ISU) to impress that 'the Tamil people's aspiration is the right of self determination and to demand that genocide in Sri Lanka be stopped and a fear free environment in which the Tamils can live peacefully be created'.
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'Pongu Thamil' demos in Batticaloa and Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 17:09 GMT]
Demonstrations were held Wednesday in Vavuniya and Batticaloa in support of the Pongu Thamil rally in Jaffna. Hundreds of undergraduates of the Eastern University in Batticaloa and the College of Education in Vavuniya gathered for peaceful rallies urging the Sri Lankan government to start peace talks with the Liberation Tigers and to recognize the Tamil people's right of self determination.
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14 Tamils arrested in hill country

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 January 2001, 17:26 GMT]
Fourteen Tamil youths were arrested on suspicion by Sri Lankan police during a search operation in the hill town of Bandarawela on Monday. Five of the arrested are young women, sources said.
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Army planning 'all-out' offensive - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2001, 07:33 GMT]
Exploiting the Liberation Tigers' unilateral ceasefire, the Sri Lanka Army is inducting fresh troops, armour and artillery into the Jaffna offensive in preparation for an "all-out" offensive in the Kilali-Nagerkoil, the LTTE said Friday. In an interview with the London-based Tamil Guardian, the LTTE's chief negotiator warned that the Army's "strategy will result in a major escalation of the war."
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Tamil detainees appeal for safety guarantees

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2001, 13:00 GMT]
Tamil Political detainees held at Kalutara prison have appealed to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to take measures to guarantee their security in the prison. The detainees have also complained about quality of food, medical facilities and prolonged detention.
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Tamil parties appeal for ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2000, 04:20 GMT]
"Sri Lankan government should respond favourably to the call by the Liberation Tigers for a ceasefire and, USA, Britain, India, members of the European Union and other countries interested in solving the conflict in Sri Lanka should exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to bring an end to the war," said a joint statement issued by a coalition of ten Tamil political parties after they met in Colombo yesterday. .
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Britain welcomes LTTE ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2000, 10:23 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain Friday welcomed the Liberation Tigers announcement Thursday of a month-long unilateral ceasefire as “a first step” in de-escalating the conflict and urged the Sri Lankan government to follow suit.
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EU urges easing of embargo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2000, 08:46 GMT]
The European Union, whilst discussing financial assistance for the Sri Lankan government Monday, urged negotiations to end the protracted conflict in Sri Lanka and called for a lasting solution which would take "substantial account of the aspirations" of the Tamils within Sri Lanka's territorial integrity and unity. A declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on Sri Lanka at the World Bank Development Forum, also urged the Sri Lankan government to ease the hardships of the displaced people in the north-east and welcomed the Norwegian peace initiative, whilst expressing concern at defence expenditure. The EU also said "the ethnic conflict and shortcomings in government are hampering" Sri Lanka's development.
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Sri Lanka rejects self-determination for Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 11:42 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Thursday criticised comments by a visiting British Minister last month that the international community will support self-determination for the island’s Tamil community as well as the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. Foreign Minister Laxshman Kadirgamar was quoted in the state-owned Daily News as saying he “took strong exception” to comments three weeks ago to Britain's Junior Foreign Minister Peter Hain as they were an infringement on Sri Lanka’s affairs.
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Compensation sought for Mutur victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 December 2000, 14:41 GMT]
The majority of the Tamils who lost their houses and other properties during the violence in Mutur in 1985 and 1990 have not been paid any compensation by the State, states a memorandum sent to the Minister of Reconstruction, Reconstruction and Rural Housing, Ms Ferial Ashraff.
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CTTU requests lifting ban on school materials

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 December 2000, 18:41 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) is to ask the new Education Minister Susil Premjayanth to take immediate steps to lift the ban imposed on the transportation of all materials needed for teaching to schools in the uncleared areas in the northeast province.
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Sri Lanka determined to continue war - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 December 2000, 22:38 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government's continued silence on Liberation Tigers' offer of unconditional peace talks last week cast doubt on Colombo's commitment to peacefully resolving the conflict, Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's theoretician and political advisor said Saturday. Sri Lanka's President Kumaratunge seemed determined to prosecute the war, he said in his Heroes' Day address in London. Nevertheless, the Liberation Tigers were seriously considering a Norwegian proposal for staggered and gradual de-escalation of the conflict, he said.
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Tigers call for "unconditional talks in conducive climate"

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2000, 12:57 GMT]
In his annual Heroes Day speech, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan declared Monday that his organisation is prepared for unconditional peace talks with the Sri Lanka government but insisted on a process of de-escalation of war and the creation of a conducive climate of goodwill and normalcy in the Tamil homeland to facilitate such talks. A translation of Mr. Pirapahran's speech released by the LTTE from its London offices quoted him as saying that by normalcy he meant "the restoration of normal civilian life by removing the economic blockade and other restrictions imposed on the Tamil people".
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