SLMM office to open in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 March 2002, 19:59 GMT]
The office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Vavuniya will start functioning from Monday, 1 April, at an office that has been established at Vairavar road in Vairavapuliyankulam, said the Government Agent for Vavuniya Mr.S.Ganesh.
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SLA harassment continues -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 March 2002, 19:57 GMT]
Tamil civilians residing in villages in the Eachilampathu division of the Trincomalee district, held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were being subjected to severe body checks and interrogation by government troops stationed at the Sri Lanka Army checkpoint at Mahindapura said Mr R Sampanthan, who personally witnessed these activities Saturday.
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Vadamarachchi public urge army camps' removal from schools, temples

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 March 2002, 11:57 GMT]
Several people's organisations have appealed to the Sri Lanka Army to vacate two Hindu temples, one church, two schools and about twenty houses in Vadamarachchi area in the Jaffna district, according to the cease-fire agreement signed by Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE leader, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan last month.
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SLA said exacerbating Vadamaradchi fishermen's suffering

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 March 2002, 20:39 GMT]
Spokespersons for fishermen's societies in Jaffna's Vadamaradchi division told TamilNet that the Sri Lanka army curtailed fishing hours Saturday to punish them for putting up posters and banners welcoming the Liberation Tigers to the northern peninsula. They said that the military intelligence unit of the SLA's 52-4 brigade removed the banners and posters and questioned civilians.
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Housing hope for lives ruined by counter-insurgency

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 March 2002, 17:08 GMT]
The Minister for Housing and Estate Infrastructure, Mr. Arumugan Thondaman, laid the foundation for the construction of a hundred houses for the residents of Santhosapuram, four kilometres southeast of Mutur Friday. Santhosapuram is a settlement named after Lt.Col. Santhosam, a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers from Trincomalee who was killed in a battle with the Indian army in 1988. Houses in a section of the settlement were damaged in Sri Lanka army shelling in November last year.
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Vavuniya prepares welcome for LTTE members

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 March 2002, 15:36 GMT]
Members of the Liberation Tigers' political wing will arrive in Vavuniya on Friday to begin work in the northern town, in accordance with the cease-fire agreement signed by the Sri Lanka Government and the LTTE. The eight-member team will be welcomed by the public at Omanthai, civilian sources in Vavuniya said.
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Villagers in east surround SLA, smash MI camera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 March 2002, 17:36 GMT]
People in the village of Kinnaiadi, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, smashed up a camera belonging to the Sri Lanka army intelligence and refused to let the SLA interrogate three members of the Liberation Tigers who had visited the area Wednesday. The SLA unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the Kinnaiadi villagers to convince them that the three members of the LTTE would be released after being questioned briefly in the local army camp. The SLA then gave safe passage to the three across the lagoon to the region controlled by the LTTE.
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CPJ criticizes tardy investigation of journalist's murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 March 2002, 22:36 GMT]
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report on 'Attacks on the Press 2001' released Tuesday that Sri Lanka Police ignored evidence suggesting that militias backed by a pro-government party may have murdered Nimalarajan in retaliation for his reporting on vote rigging and intimidation during the 2000 parliamentary elections in Jaffna.
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Negotiations to resume soon - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 March 2002, 12:14 GMT]
Political negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers will resume soon when the terms and conditions of the permanent ceasefire agreement between the two sides are implemented and conditions of normalcy are restored in the Tamil homeland, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday.
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Thousands of Tamils rally outside UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 March 2002, 21:24 GMT]
Several thousand Tamils rallied Monday outside the United Nations building in Geneva to voice their support for the principle of Tamil self determination and the Liberation Tigers. The annual rally, which was preceded by a march, drew Tamils from across Europe. It was organised by the International Federation of Tamils. An estimated ten thousand people participated, the IFT said.
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Paramilitaries handover weapons partly

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 March 2002, 20:50 GMT]
Tamil paramilitary groups operating with the Sri Lanka army began handing over a section of the weapons in their possession from Sunday in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa. The EPDP, a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, turned in the largest number of weapons to the SLA on Sunday, including mortars and Rocket Propelled Grenades. Addressing the function to mark the handing over of weapons by the EPDP Sunday, Sri Lanka's Security Forces Commander for Jaffna said that the group had rendered yeoman service to the army to fight the war in the north.
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Balasingham returns to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 March 2002, 10:22 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator and political strategist, Mr. Anton Balasingham, returned to the Vanni Monday, arriving from the Maldives in a seaplane which landed on the Iranamadu irrigation tank in the LTTE controlled region. Accompanied by his wife, Adele, and an official from the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Mr. Balasingham was upon arriving met by the LTTE's leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan, head of the movementís political section, Mr. Thamil Chelvan and senior LTTE military commanders.
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Thamileelam Police celebrates decade of service

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 March 2002, 13:33 GMT]
The Police Service of Thamil Eelam, which is responsible for maintaining law and order in the regions held by the Liberation Tigers, celebrated the tenth year of its founding in Puthukudiyiruppu Saturday, according to a press note issued by the Tamileelam News and Information Service.
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Govt., TE request ICRC's help to open A9

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 March 2002, 12:05 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have officially requested the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to assist in opening the A9 highway to Jaffna from Killinochchi. "We received the official request from the government and the LTTE on Friday. However we have not decided on the date of opening the A9 highway," said Mr. Arjuna Ranawana, Information Officer of the ICRC addressing Trincomalee district journalists Saturday morning at Seven Islands Hotel.
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Legality of SLA's Buddhist shrines in NE questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 March 2002, 22:26 GMT]
Lt. Col. V. R. L Anthoniz, the commanding officer of the SLA's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa, addressing the press in the eastern town Friday to explain his position on the Annai Poopathy memorial said that he had advised the Government Agent of the district that the structure should be legal, with due permission from the Urban Development Authority (UDA). Mr. Paramasamy Wijendran, a journalist from the 'Thinakkathir', the Tamil daily published in Batticaloa, told Lt. Col
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Flame lit at LTTE war dead memorial in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 March 2002, 20:49 GMT]
More than a thousand people, Jaffna University and students undergraduates Friday gathered at the memorial for the LTTE's war dead in Kopay in Jaffna to clean the site and light the 'flame of sacrifice'. In 1996, the SLA destroyed and levelled with bulldozers Kopay war memorial, the largest built by the Liberation Tigers in the northeast. The SLA was criticised at the time for violating universal military norms on monuments for the war dead.
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Northeast local elections postponed for Sept. 25

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 March 2002, 13:41 GMT]
The Election Commissioner Thursday postponed elections to local government bodies in the Northeastern province except the Ampara district for September 25. The Commissioner announced earlier that the elections to north-east local councils would be held on March 25. The Commissioner of Elections Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake made the announced Wednesday after consultations with the Attorney General.
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UNF's local polls victory endorses cease-fire agreement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 March 2002, 13:22 GMT]
The ruling United National Front (UNF) swept the local government elections held Wednesday, routing the People's Alliance (PA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunge. The UNF won 218 of the 222 local bodies, including 14 municipal councils and 25 urban councils. The Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, which hinged its election campaign on denouncing the peace deal the UNF made with the Liberation Tigers as an insidious conspiracy against the Sinhala people got an ignominious drubbing with only one local body to show in the southern Hambantota district.
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SLA pulls down Poopathy remembrance pandols

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday stripped decorations and pulled down wood and paper memorials in the Kiran and Santhively, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, that were put up to mark the 14th death anniversary of 'Annai' Poopathy, the woman who fasted unto death in April 1988 in a protest against atrocities by the Indian army in the island's northeastern province.
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Elthumadduval families seek resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:03 GMT]
Seven hundred forty families displaced from the southern Jaffna have written to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urging him to allow them resettle in their villages of Eluthumadduval and Karambaikkurichchi as part of the effort to restore normalcy in the north and east under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between his government and the Liberation Tigers.
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