Ban precludes Indian role - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2000, 12:09 GMT]
While asserting that India has an active role to play in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers' theoretician and chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham told the Deccan Herald newspaper that New Delhi cannot play that role so long as the LTTE remains a banned organization in India. "We recognise India's predominance in the region and we look forward to the time when it will lift the ban on our organization," he told the paper in an interview published Thursday, adding that the LTTE was seeking new relationship with India as a friendly ally.
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Devolution proposals 'no basis for solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 09:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday the Sri Lankan government's devolution proposals were unacceptable as the basis of a solution to the Tamil national question as it "failed to address the national aspirations of the Tamil people" and it was intended to "promote the majoritarian [Sinhala] interests."
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Sri Lankan officials to recover seized boats

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2000, 05:14 GMT]
A three member team of Sri Lankan government officials will leave to Madras, India on Wednesday to take over all boats and engines seized by the Indian authorities from Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, during the period between 1990-1991.
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Judge warns EPRLF factions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2000, 17:42 GMT]
Two factions of the minor ex-Tamil militant group operating in Mannar with the Sri Lankan security forces were severely reprimanded by the Mannar district judge M.Ilancheliyan Wednesday for breaching the peace in Mannar town by quarreling with each other incessantly. The Police filed a case Wednesday in the Mannar courts against both factions of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) for being a public nuisance and a threat to law and order in the town. The EPRLF was formerly a group that was fully backed by India.
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LTTE urges Muslims to be vigilant

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2000, 15:18 GMT]
In a leaflet in Tamil titled "Dear Muslim brothers/sisters" distributed widely in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts this week, the political section of the Liberation Tigers calls on Muslims to be vigilant against a campaign to foment divisions between them and the Tamil people in the east. The LTTE leaflet says that Muslims need not be concerned about "the imminent war of liberation that is soon to engulf the east."
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Unofficial curfew in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2000, 17:09 GMT]
An unofficial curfew has been imposed in the Colombo suburbs of Dehiwala, Mt.Lavinia, Ratmalane and Moratuwa from 7.30 p.m. Wednesday police sources said. Residents said there had been some incidents of arson following bomb attack in Ratmalane.
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Three Policemen wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 June 2000, 08:19 GMT]
Three military trained Policemen were shot and seriously wounded by gunmen suspected to be members of the Liberation Tigers last night around 9.30 p.m. in the heart of Kattankudy, a predominantly Muslim town, 6 kilometers south of Batticaloa. The gun men had lobbed a grenade near the scene of shooting before getting away on a motorbike, Police in Kattankudy said. The Police imposed restrictions on Tamils living and working in this town on May 30 in a bid to curb the activities of the LTTE in Kattankudy.
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Call in Vanni against military intervention

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 May 2000, 06:37 GMT]
The voice of Tigers (VoT) said in its morning news broadcast today that a mass rally and meeting were held in Mallavi Monday evening to protest against the Sri Lankan government's embargo on food and medicine to the Vanni and against international military intervention in the Sri Lankan conflict.
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All party backing sought for war

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2000, 16:56 GMT]
"The government doesn't intend stopping the war. The Tigers wont be allowed to advance any further in Jaffna" said Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga addressing an all party meeting convened today to discuss the military crisis in the north. A proposal that all parties should unanimously resolve to defeat the Liberation Tigers was objected to by the Tamil United Liberation Front although the President was in agreement with this suggestion of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Sinhala Mahasammata Bhoomiputra party.
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Eight Tamils arrested in city

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 May 2000, 07:13 GMT]
Eight Tamil youth, including two girls, were arrested in Colombo Saturday night. The boys and girls were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Police during a search conducted in several lodges in the suburb of Bambalapitiya.
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SLA denies officer helped Tigers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 April 2000, 17:18 GMT]
The SLA today denied a headline story in the Daily Mirror, an English daily published in Colombo, which claimed that a high ranking military officer was being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police for allegedly supplying sensitive information to the Tigers during the Battle for the Elephant Pass base.
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Forty Tamils arrested in Udappu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 14:33 GMT]
Forty Tamils were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police in Udappu in the Puttalam district, 120 kilometers north of Colombo today during a cordon and search operation in this costal village today. More than five hundred Police personnel from 25 Police stations in Sri Lanka's northwestern province were involved in the search operation.
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25 arrested in search operation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 April 2000, 18:02 GMT]
At least 25 Tamil youths and young Tamil women were arrested during a combined search operation by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and police in Keselwatte in down town Colombo, sources in Colombo said. The search began late in the night and continued till early hours of the morning today.
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(Photos) 10,000 Tamils demonstate at UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 18:07 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils marched to the United Nation in Geneva Monday and held a rally to protest human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government and calling for the island's conflict to be de-escalated. The organisers, the International Federation of Tamils, said over 10,000 people attended the event, which was addressed by several speakers, including Y.Gopalaswamy, leader of Tamil Nadu's MDMK party.
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War zone refugees arrive

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 13:32 GMT]
More than five thousand Tamils in the Pallai and Pachchilaipalli areas in Jaffna arrived at Kilali late this morning, Catholic church sources in the north said. Most of the civilians were blocked at Kilali by the Sri Lanka army. Only about 200 families were allowed until noon to proceed beyond Kilali to Mirusuvil. The Catholic church is the only organisation assisting the people arriving from the war zone, according to the Tamilnet correspondent who was at Kilali and Mirusuvil today.
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Repressive conditions preclude peace talks - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 March 2000, 15:16 GMT]
The removal of "the complex set of repressive conditions" imposed by successive Sri Lankan governments on the Tamils was necessary to create a "conducive climate for peace and mutual trust" ahead of negotiations to settle the island's conflict, the Liberation Tigers' theoretician and political advisor, Anton Balasingham told the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week.
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Youth missing since Salli rampage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 March 2000, 23:28 GMT]
A Tamil youth, Vairamuthu Jayakili, who was arrested by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel on 25 February has been reported missing since February 24. He was arrested at Pigeon island at Salli village in Trincomalee district.
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Electoral reforms stir apprehensions

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 March 2000, 12:46 GMT]
Leftist coalition partners of Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance and minority parties in the country's Parliament said today that they will not fully support the reforms to the island's electoral system which the government of Chandrika Kumaratunga plans to introduce in May this year. Leftists are apprehensive that their representation in the national legislature will virtually be wiped out by the proposed changes.
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Tamils protest in eastern town

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 March 2000, 06:24 GMT]
More than a thousand Tamils began a one day token fast in Kalmunai, forty kilometers south of Batticaloa, this morning around 8.30 a.m. to protest against what one of the organisers described as "ethnically prejudiced denial of a fully fledged Divisional Secretariat to the Tamils" in the Ampara district.
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NEMC for North east merger

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 March 2000, 12:53 GMT]
The newly formed political party called North East Muslim Congress (NEMC) has announced that they support a merged province where Tamil and Muslim communities enjoy equal rights and privileges under one autonomous council.
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