India expresses interest and concern

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Mr. Nagendranath Jha, formerly India's High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and currently a senior advisor to the BJP government, who is currently on a visit to Colombo to speak on the future of Indo Lanka relations, told sections of the local press today that the Vajpayee government is interested and concerned about the situation in Sri Lanka.
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Security pretext for extortion - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
"The the arrests and detention of Tamils has become big business" said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham TULF MP for Batticaloa speaking on the adjournment motion on mass arrets and detention of Tamils in the Sri Lankan Parliament today.
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Tamil gunmen operating with Colombo troops

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Armed men in civilian clothing who accompany uniformed Sri Lankan security forces personnel, including police, during cordon and search operations in Colombo are strongly suspected to be members of certain ex-Tamil militant groups now working with the SLA as para-military units, a human rights lawyer, who was not willing to be identified, told TamilNet.
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Jaffna LTTE commander says attacks will intensify

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Jaffna military commander of the Liberation Tigers (who replaced the former commander Veeman recently) and his deputy gave an exclusive interview to TamilNet's Vadamaradchi correspondent who met them in Naagarkovil yesterday. (They asked the TamilNet correspondent to refrain from publishing their noms de guerre at this juncture for security reasons.) The following are excerpts from the interview.
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No confidence motion against Gen. Ratwatte?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) will seek an adjournment debate on the indiscriminate arrests and harassment of Tamils in Colombo and other parts of the country when the Sri Lankan Parliament resumes sittings tomorrow.
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With extreme prejudice

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The racial hatred that had been simmering at the Kalutara prison where Tamils arrested under the infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) are remanded, exploded into naked violence on December 12 last year, resulting in the deaths of three Tamils who were being held under preventive detention.
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Massive search operation in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
More than 1500 Tamils were arrested in a massive cordon and search operation by the Sri Lankan army and Police. The operation began around 10.30 p.m. last night in Kochchikkadai, Kotahena, Chekku street, Sea street and nearby areas. It was on until 3.30 a.m. in the early hours of the morning today.
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300 Tamils rounded up in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lankan army and Police launched a joint operation in the early hours of the morning today in Dehiwela, a large suburb of Colombo, to screen Tamils living in the area.
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SLMC leader condemns attack on muslims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
"You should turn your guns on the chauvinism against which you took up arms and not on your brother minority" said Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader and Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports, M.H.M Ashraff, as he lashed out at the Liberation Tigers today at the opening ceremony of the Hatton National Bank branch office in Kalmunai, the booming Muslim town on the eastern coast of the Ampara district.
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Hindu Congress meet Indian official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A three member delegation of the All Ceylon Hindu Congress met the Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Shiv Shankar Menon this afternoon to draw the Indian government's attention to the indiscriminate arrests of Tamils , including Hindu priests in Colombo and in the north-east.
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Norway to return asylum seekers - official

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A Norwegian government official, currently in Jaffna on a visit, told the Uthayan, the only daily published in the peninsula, that granting asylum to Sri Lankan Tamils has been stopped in Norway.
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Tamil parties protest over arrests

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front and the All Ceylon Hindu Congress lodged vehement protests with the Sri Lankan government today over the arrest and detention of the Captain Gardens Hindu temple chief priest's daughter and her three children.
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PLOTE offers to screen Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Deputy leader of the PLOTE, Manikkam Daasan said today in a statement that he had proposed to the government that it should permit his organisation to put into effect a system to ensure the safety of Tamils from the northern and eastern provinces of the island who have to come Colombo.
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SLA spearheads Sinhala Colonisation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army is continuing to forcibly remove Tamil civilians from their villages in the Muthur area, south of Trincomalee despite protests by Tamil Parliamentarians, said ex-militant Tamil groups in the eastern port town today.
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1500 Tamils arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
More than 1500 Tamils were arrested in Colombo during a simultaneous cordon and search operation by the Sri Lankan army and Police which was launched last night.
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Education system in disarray

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Education in the island of Pungudutheevu, lying off the Jaffna peninsula, has sunk to abysmal levels today with only four out of the fifteen schools on the island functioning, said sources in Jaffna.
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US Antiterrorism Law challenged in courts

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California yesterday charging that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is unconstitutional insofar as it criminalizes the provision of material support or resources to the lawful and non-violent activities of any foreign organization designated as "terrorist" by the Secretary of State.
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Research objectives of Buddhist monks questioned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Three Sinhala Buddhist monk-academics who wanted to begin archaeological excavations at Kandarodai in Jaffna, were given a short shrift by the staff of the University of Jaffna at a meeting on Thursday, said sources in Jaffna.
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Hawks define UNP constitution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
If anyone had the slightest doubt that the suggestions for constitutional reform put forward by the United National Party (UNP) were more in the interest of preserving the unity of Sri Lanka than in giving Tamils and Muslims a voice in the management of their own affairs, it was amply confirmed by the very first paragraph of the party's draft proposals, which were released recently.
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Arrests in Batticaloa over Colombo blast

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police took into custody nine persons from Batticaloa this morning in connection with the bomb blast near downtown Colombo yesterday.
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