Six troopers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 06:15 GMT]
Six soldiers were killed and ten were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a Sri Lanka army patrol around 8 a.m. Tuesday at Kaavathamunai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldiers were from the 23-2 brigade in the Valaichenai Paper Mills. A Muslim civilian was killed and 15 were wounded in the village of Kaavathamunai in retaliatory shelling from the 23-2 brigade camp. Kaavathamunai is a Muslim village near Valaichenai.
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ICRC dissemination for Batticaloa LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2001, 18:26 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) conducted a dissemination program for the members of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa district on Saturday. "About 70 male and female members participated in the session", said an ICRC spokesman.
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Trinco military steps up security

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 June 2001, 03:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Navy have stepped up security of their camps in the Trincomalee district, military sources said. The SLA Sunday deployed a bulldozer to clear shrubs along Koneswaram Road which leads to Fort Frederick, Trincomalee where the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army is currently stationed.
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MSR patrol wounds woman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 June 2001, 12:49 GMT]
A woman was injured when Sri Lanka Army soldiers on a route-clearing operation from Vaakaneri camp, about 37 kilometres north of Batticaloa town on the Colombo highway, fired at random on either side of the road. The incident occured at Aalankulam, around 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Aalankulam is about 2 km. north of Vaakaneri. The SLA camp at Vaakeneri is one of the key points on the sole Main Supply Route linking the 23 division headquarters with two of its brigades (23-2 and 23-3) which hold the coast of the Batticaloa district from Valaichenai to Batticaloa town.
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Girl wounded in STF's retaliatory fire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 June 2001, 17:28 GMT]
A 13-year old girl was seriously wounded when Special Task Force elite troops opened fire at devotees returning from Kannaki Amman temple at Thambiluvil, about 90 km. south of Batticaloa. The incident occurred around 3.30 p.m. Saturday. The STF troops fired from a sentry at Paddy Marketing Building on the Thambiluvil-Akkaraipattu road, local residents said.
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LTTE cautions against war zone resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2001, 18:10 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers called on the people of the Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna not to resettle in their villages as the area is still a war zone. The Tigers, in a leaflet released in Jaffna Friday, said "the enemy and his lackeys are trying use our people as human shields. We do not want our people to suffer again from the calamities of war and destruction. Therefore we request them not to resettle in Thenmaradchi until we issue an official announcement."
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Four SLA soldiers killed in ambush

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 June 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, one military trained policeman and a
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ICRC dissemination program for Trinco LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 18:34 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross Wednesday held a one-day dissemination program for the combatants of the Liberation Tigers in the Mutur area, which is not under the control of the Sri Lankan army.
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Tortured Jaffna youth petitions SC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2001, 08:44 GMT]
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Wednesday granted leave to proceed on a fundamental rights petition filed by a Jaffna youth who is being held in the Boosa prison, south of Colombo. The youth, Selvarajah Thamilchelvan of Pattarakalli koviladi, Thavadi South, Kokuvil, Jaffna states in his petition that he was hung upside down and severely tortured while in the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Police. Thamilchelvan said that TID officers repeatedly burnt his hands with cigarettes and covered his head with a plastic bag soaked in petrol while he was beaten with wires and poles- common method of torture by Sri Lankan security forces. The medico-legal report on Thamilchelvan states there are seven scars on his body, two of which are 14 cm 16 cm long and two 10 cm long.
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SLA operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2001, 14:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday morning launched a "limited" operation, advancing from their camp at Vavunathivu, about 5 km. southwest of Batticaloa town, into the villages of Navatkadhu, Karaveddi and Monkeykaddy in the district's western hinter land, said sources. No confrontations with the Liberation Tigers were reported, they added.
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Sri Lanka's decision seriously threatens peace talks: LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 May 2001, 09:13 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal Saturday to lift the proscription of their organisation and said this had "seriously jeopardised" the prospects for peace talks. Expressing regret and dismay over Sri Lanka's decision in a statement issued from its Vanni headquarters, the LTTE leadership called upon the government to reconsider its position for the sake of peace and ethnic reconciliation. "If the Government adopts a hard-line position and refuses to review its decision on proscription, then it should bear full and total responsibility for the collapse of the peace efforts and the serious consequences that might arise from its decision," the Tigers warned.
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Soldier, police officer killed in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 11:28 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed in a counter-ambush by the Liberation Tigers at Uyilankulam in the north-western Mannar District, around 9.30 p.m. Wednesday, army sources said. The soldiers were lying in ambush ahead of Uyilankulam forward defence lines, the source said.
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TULF urges Colombo to lift proscription of LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2001, 07:21 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front said Thursday it would strongly urge the Sri Lankan Government not to delay the lifting of the proscription on the Liberation Tigers. The Senior Vice President of the TULF M. V.Ananadasangaree and the Secretary General Mr. R. Sampanthan issued a statement following a politburo meeting of the party in Colombo Wednesday. The party said that the Sri Lankan government should not “retard the commencement of talks” with the Liberation Tigers by “delaying a positive decision in regard to the termination of the proscription of the LTTE”.
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Deep penetration group kills one, takes three

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 17:44 GMT]
One civilian was killed and three were reported missing in an attack by a Sri Lanka army Deep Penetration team near Mathurankerni Kulam, 70 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday around 10 a.m. Yoganathan Kesavarajah, 24, had gone to chop firewood when he was shot dead by the SLA’s special penetration group. His wife is pregnant with their first child, relatives said. The three persons who are reported missing, had gone to collect honey in the jungles near Mathurankerni Kulam. Relatives said that the three were abducted by two SLA deep penetration teams.
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New ICRC technology helps Jaffna amputees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2001, 05:33 GMT]
Mr. Serge Marme, Head of ICRC Sub-delegation in Jaffna addressing a press conference in Jaffna about the organisation's activities in the peninsula Saturday afternoon said
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Ban "major hurdle" to talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 09:24 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in a statement from Friday that Sri Lanka's ban on their organisation "has become the major hurdle for the initiation of peace talks" out of three factors as pre-requisite necessary steps, the other two being "removing the economic blockade in the Tamil homeland [and] declaring of an indefinite cease-fire". Giving details of the discussions between the Norwegian delegation and members of the LTTE's Central committee, the movement said in a statement from the Vanni Secreterait that "The international community should understand that we cannot participate in peace talks as an illegal, criminal entity with a distorted false label as 'terrorists'."
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Lifting of proscription essential for talks ñ Thamil Chelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 May 2001, 03:20 GMT]
"The removal of the proscription of the Liberation Tigers is an essential pre-requisite for talks", Mr. S. P Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the political wing of the LTTE told Norwegian Peace envoy Eric Solheim during discussions Thursday in Mallavi in the Vanni, according to the morning news broadcast of the Voice of Tigers Friday. The radio said that the Tigers had categorically told the Norwegian team that the LTTE would never take part in the talks as 'a proscribed terrorist organisation'. No final decision was reached during the five-hour meeting Thursday, according to the VOT. The Norwegian delegation and the Tigers also discussed the Memorandum of Understanding and a bilateral ceasefire, the radio said.
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Thamil Chelvan's convoy hit by SLA claymore

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2001, 08:53 GMT]
A convoy of the Liberation Tigers in which Mr. S.P Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the political wing of the LTTE, was travelling towards Mallavi where he was scheduled to meet Norwegian Peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim was hit near Kokkavil by a claymore blast set off by a deep penetration team of the Sri Lanka army Tuesday afternoon, sources in Vanni said. A LTTE trooper was killed and two were wounded in the blast. They were travelling in a Mitsubishi Pajero that was providing security to Mr. Thamil Chelvan's vehicle, the sources added.
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Necessity for indefinite ceasefire to be stressed –paper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 May 2001, 11:15 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy Mr. Eric Solheim will have meetings with Mr. Thamil Chelvan, head of the LTTE’s political section on 16 and 17 May in the Vanni. The meetings are expected to “focus on steps to bring about a suitable atmosphere for productive negotiations to be held between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government”. Meanwhile in its latest issue, the Tamil Guardian, the expatriate paper published from London, quoted sources in the Liberation Tigers, as saying “further discussions and clarifications on certain matters” had to be completed before the scheduling of peace talks could be considered. The LTTE sources, according to the paper, had dismissed as speculation reports in the Sri Lankan press that talks were imminent.
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'ER and PTA can only create a closed society'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 May 2001, 23:00 GMT]
"There is a great divide between the Sinhala and Tamil media today. Both are totally alienated from each other. The government is confused about public information and official information. The state run media give only official information.
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