Batticaloa shuts down for 'Annai' Poopathi anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Shops, government offices and businesses were closed Thursday in the Batticaloa district to mark the 13th anniversary of Poopathy Kanapathipillai, the woman who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 during a month long mass protest against atrocities committed by the Indian army in the northern and eastern parts of the island at the time. Few people and fewer vehicles were on the roads. Special Task Force (STF) commandos forced shops to open in Kaluwanchikudi, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, sources said.
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Third party 'crucial' in any peace talks- Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this week that the involvement of a third party was crucial in any negotiations between them and the Sri Lankan government, and suggested that Norway might be fill that role as an extension of Oslo's present efforts to bring about talks between the two sides. In an interview to the Tamil Guardian weekly, the latest issue of which hit the newsstands in London Tuesday, the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said "In our perspective the third party involvement is crucial even after the commencement of the negotiations."
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LTTE to appeal against UK ban

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 09:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers are preparing to appeal against their proscription under Britain's Terrorism Act and were putting together a legal team for this purpose, Tamil media sources said Tuesday, quoting the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham. "We are already in consultation with eminent lawyers in the field of terrorist legislation and we are advised to apply to the Home Secretary for de-proscription," Balasingham was quoted as saying by sources with the Tamil Guardian weekly.
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SLN, Sea Tigers clash off Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 April 2001, 16:47 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy gun boat was damaged and seven sailors were wounded in a sea battle between the Sea Tigers and the Navy off the coast of Chaalai in north-east of the island in the early hours of Monday, military sources said. Voice of Tigers radio said the fighting erupted when the SLN crafts engaged Sea Tiger boats off the coast of Mullaithivu around 1.45 a.m.
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Released prisoners not LTTE members

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 April 2001, 18:30 GMT]
A senior member of a Tamil paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army said Sunday that at least four among the ten purported 'Liberation Tigers' released by Colombo as a good will measure are actually persons closely associated with the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). "None of them are members of the Liberation Tigers. They were arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Police in September last year because of they are relatives and acquaintances of Jeganahtan Pathmanathan, a senior member of the TELO's Mannar branch who was arrested earlier for allegedly aiding an ex-LTTE member. Jeganathan is still in prison with his wife and two small children. There was no grounds for a case against the others", he said.
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SLA sounds alarm on first day of truce

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 11:45 GMT]
The Sri Lankan security forces high command, in a clear signal that it was not comfortable with the limited ceasefire declared by Colombo for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, charged in a SLA news release Friday that the Liberation Tigers are taking advantage of the army halting offensive operations, barely 12 hours into the truce. The Police, army and the Special Task Force stepped up security in areas controlled by them in the north and east of the island Friday although the ceasefire came into effect from midnight Thursday.
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Maj.Gen. Neil Dias' term extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 April 2001, 13:10 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President extended the service of the Sri Lanka army's Chief of Staff, Major General Neil Dias, who was due to retire Thursday before she left to an undisclosed destination abroad. Maj. Gen. Neil Dias is one of the most battle experienced commanders of the SLA. Sources in the SLA headquarters in Colombo ventured to speculate that he might succeed Lt. Gen.Lionel Balagalle who is due to retire this year as the commander of the SLA. The extension of the battle hardened commander's service was seen by analysts as an indication of Colombo's determination to give optimum priority to prosecuting the war against the Liberation Tigers.
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Sri Lanka to observe New Year ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2001, 18:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan armed forces will cease offensive operations for three days commencing at midnight April 13, to the traditional Tamil and Sinhala New Year, government sources said. The move was not a reciprocation of the Liberation Tigers unilateral ceasefire, now in its fourth month, the sources said.
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Police seek further imprisonment of Sivamani, Wijikala

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 13:33 GMT]
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Mannar Police Monday moved in the Mannar district court that Sivamani Weerakon and Nanthakumar Wijikala, the young women who were allegedly raped and brutally tortured in Police custody, be further remanded for fourteen days on grounds that they had confessed to offences under draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act and that they are suicide bombers sent by the LTTE to assassinate important persons. The SIU also stated that it was necessary to keep the women in custody because investigations about them are not yet over. Objecting to the SIU's application, Mr. K.S Ratnavale, the attorney who appeared for the accused, told the court, "this a funny application coming from the prosecution because the B report filed in court by the SIU moving for further remand has been signed by OIC Suraweera who has been accused of committing sexual offences against the two women. He should be the one behind bars".
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LTTE releases four POWs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 17:45 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers on Saturday released four prisoners of war who had been held by them for many years. They were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the northern Vanni main land ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet. LTTE sources said the POWs were released to show organisastion's support for the Norwegian facilitated peace talks and as a demonstration of its commitment to future peace talks.
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Tigers urge de-proscription and ceasefire for talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2001, 10:20 GMT]
Mr. S.P.Tamil Chelvan, the Head of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has called upon the government of Sri Lanka to lift the ban on his organisation and reciprocate positively to the LTTE's unilateral cease-fire as essential pre-requisites for the commencement of political negotiations. This message was conveyed through the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Mr. Jon Westborg when he had lengthy discussions with the political leaders of the LTTE in Mallavi, Vanni, northern Sri Lanka yesterday and today morning, the organisation said in a press release Saturday.
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Norway Ambassador, Thamil Chelvan hold talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2001, 16:17 GMT]
Norway’s Ambassador in Sri Lanka Jan Westborg and an official of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo, Mr. Tomas Strangland held discussions with Mr. S. Thamil Chelvan, the leader of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers, at Pallamadu in the Vanni this afternoon from 4 p.m., Voice of Tigers said in its night news broadcast Friday. The radio did not comment on the content or nature of the discussions between Norway’s Ambassador and Mr. Thamil Chelvan.
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Jaffna MP lambastes Colombo's duplicity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 18:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister for Defence, Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, flatly denied that the security forces had raped two women in detention in Mannar, interrupting the All Ceylon Tamil Congress MP for Jaffna, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy, who was on his feet in the Parliament Thursday speaking on the destruction of Tamil temples in the north and east and the rape of women in Mannar. "The statement of the Deputy Minister of Defence is tantamount to a gross intimidation of the judicial process. It shows that the government is more eager to justify such atrocities by its security forces than it is to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to book", Mr. Vinayagamoorthy told TamilNet Thursday evening.
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10,000 Tamils rally at UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 21:23 GMT]
Over ten thousand Tamils rallied outside the United Nations building in Geneva on Monday calling for international pressure on Sri Lanka to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers and to support of the Tamil right to self-determination. Tamil expatriates converged from several European cities by special trains and busses to take part in the annual peace march through the main streets of Geneva to coincide with the occasion of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), organisers said.
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LTTE refutes "child soldiers" accusations

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 20:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday refuted allegations by Amnesty International that they had recruited young children as combatants, describing the accusations as "malicious". The LTTE does not recruit combatants under the age of seventeen, sources close to the Tigers quoting senior LTTE officials as saying Monday.
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Government attitudes may contribute to rapes -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 20:39 GMT]
"It would be pertinent to raise the question as to whether pugnacious statements made by persons in high positions and the expressed determination of the Government to continue with the war, contributes towards the unleashing of brutality such as rape and torture on unarmed Tamil civilians particularly Tamil females. It would appear that some service personnel think that if a Tamil is implicated even falsely with the LTTE any crime can be committed against such Tamil person" said the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, in a letter to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge.
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Bishop protests Police, Navy rapes and murders

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 03:08 GMT]
“The atrocities of the Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Mannar district are growing bad to worse daily. All my efforts to get the Sri Lanka Navy to respect the basic human rights of the people so affected by the prolonged war are proving futile. I have again appealed to the Commander General of the Sri Lankan Navy for redress in the name of the civil public of Mannar,” Rt.Rev. Rayappu Joseph Bishop of Mannar said in a statement issued Saturday.
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Tamil teachers urge Colombo to recognise self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2001, 13:56 GMT]
"We urge the Sri Lankan Government to find a permanent political solution to the ethnic problem by having peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with Norwegian facilitation. We also urge the Sri Lankan government to recognise the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a nation, the existence of an identified Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka and the self-determination of the Tamil people with the right to secede in order to prevent the division of the island" states a resolution unanimously passed at 27th annual convention of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union held Saturday morning in the Trincomalee St.Mary's College auditorium.
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Girl describes bizarre Police torture in SC petition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2001, 10:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court this week granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights petition of a Tamil girl from Kayts in Jaffna who says Policemen tortured her in detention by repeatedly inserting a plantain flower soaked in chilli powder into her vagina. The girl who is currently being held in the Negombo remand prison states in her petition to the Supreme Court that she was hung on a pole inserted between her thighs and arms which had been tied together below the knee and that he body was made to swing in that position; that she was hung from the roof and battered with a cudgel; that Policemen tortured her by pricking under her finger and toe nails with paper pins until she bled; that she was mercilessly assaulted with poles and wires and trampled with boots. The girl also states in her petition that although she had appealed to the Human Rights Commission and the Presidential Committee on Unlawful Arrests and Harassment, they had not taken any action regarding her predicament. The case was fixed for hearing on 7 June 2001.
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SLA calls off battle for strategic road point

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 14:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Thursday afternoon called off a major operation to capture a strategic point between Eluthumadduval and Nagar Kovil in Jaffna's southeastern sector amidst heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers. The SLA launched the operation in the early hours of the morning around 3 a.m. Thursday to capture the Sudalaippiddi Pillaiyar Kovil area on the road linking the Eluthumadduval junction on the A9 and Nagar Kovil.
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