Proscription list passes "all or none" debates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 10:16 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Britain's Home office Wednesday formally introduced the list of organisations proscribed under Britain's new Terrorism Act after the list was approved by the House of Lords. Some of the members, as in the House of Commons earlier this month, protested that they were not allowed to oppose the inclusion of individual organisation but could only support or oppose the entire list. Others said the list, which was debated for only an hour or two in each house had not been sufficiently discussed in depth.
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Mannar CSU rapes pregnant woman

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 March 2001, 18:07 GMT]
"Wijikala was screaming inside the building. I heard her pleading 'I have nothing to do with the Tigers. I am a family woman. Please do not do this to me'. Then some CSU men came out and told me that they were forcing Wijikala to have sex with them and threatened to rape me as well. One of the men tried to strip my clothes. When they saw that my son was asleep on my lap, a Policeman dragged him away into one of the buildings in the CSU compound as I begged them not to hurt him. Two men then pinned me down on the van's floor while another stripped me and raped me. I was screaming and pleading when a Policeman put his foot on my mouth to stifle me. Inside the building they forced Wijikala, who was standing naked, to strip my underwear. I was hung upside down in a knot from a pole placed between two tables, with my hands and feet tied. Then the men in the room poked our genitals and tortured us until dawn", said Sivamani Sinnathamby Weerakon, the young mother of three who was arrested by the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Police in Mannar on 13 March. Wijikala Nanthan, 22, of Alavetty in Jaffna who was arrested with Sivamani, is pregnant.
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SLA warns of more air strikes in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2001, 13:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army warned civilians Tuesday to stay at least four kilometres away from the military positions of the Liberation Tigers in the Batticaloa district. In a leaflet issued in Batticaloa town Tuesday, the SLA said that it intends to attack areas in which Tiger bases are located with new Air Force jets and modern weapons. The leaflet also warned the people of Batticaloa to sever all their links with the Liberation Tigers.
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Tiger posters put up in security zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2001, 20:11 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers put up posters to mark the annual month long commemoration of 'Annai' Poopathi which began this week, in the heart of the Sri Lanka Army's high security zone in Batticaloa town, Saturday morning. 'Annai' Poopathi fasted to death at a temple in Batticaloa in 1988 demanding the withdrawal of the Indian Army.
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Tigers extend cease-fire, warn Sri Lanka over attacks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2001, 11:44 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday extended their unilateral cease-fire for another month, till April 24, but warned they would resume armed operations if the Sri Lankan government refused to reciprocate and continued military operations against the LTTE. Pointing out that it has not launched any offensive operations either in the north-east or the southern provinces or capital, Colombo, during the three months of its unilateral cease-fire, the LTTE said in a statement that 133 of its fighters had been killed in attacks by the Sri Lankan military in the same period.
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Air-strikes in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2001, 11:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force jets carried out an hour-long air raid on the eastern remote villages of Miyankalkulam and Kudumbimalao (Thoppikale) in the Batticaloa district Thursday morning said villagers who came to the eastern town. They said four Kfir jets dropped several bombs in the villages in the western hinterland began at 7 a.m.
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Chandrika’s mistrust of media manifest in censorship- CPJ

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2001, 08:26 GMT]
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists, the New York based media watchdog, said Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's censorship policy “is just one manifestation of her basic mistrust for the media” and that she had introduced emergency regulations that included “some of the harshest censorship measures ever imposed in the country” in a statement ‘Attacks on journalists 2000’ issued Monday. CPJ said that in Sri Lanka, “Violent attacks against journalists were typically committed with impunity”. “Even when the government has paid nominal attention to pursuing justice, it has come up short”, notes the statement.
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Tigers release four Sinhala farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2001, 12:38 GMT]
Four Sinhala farmers from Padaviya, a region lying close to the Mullaithivu district, were released by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni Thursday, Harasha Gunawardena, press officer of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Tamilnet. He said they would be handed over to their families in Padaviya tomorrow. Meanwhile, the chief incumbent of the Buddhist temple in Vavuniya Ven. Siyambalagaswewa Wimalasara Thero told Tamilnet that the release comes in the wake of a promise made to him by the Liberation Tigers when he met them in the Vanni on 19 February as a member of an inter-religious delegation.
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Managing war, not economy central question –Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2001, 18:36 GMT]
“Today it is no longer a simple question of managing an economy. The real and predominant question is the managing of the war”. “A war as is waged by the LTTE has its several facets. The LTTE is quite a military machine that can very competently engage in conventional warfare with the added advantage of innovative tactics which they derive from the guerilla aspect of their war organization. A Combination of these two aspects can be deadly especially when they (the Tigers) had the time from about 1987 to 1993 to consolidate their positions in the open and in the jungles” said Mr. Batty Weerakon, a senior cabinet minister of the People’s Alliance government, speaking in Parliament Tuesday on his government’s budget.
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SLA offensive thwarted in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2001, 13:28 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted along the Eluthumadduval -Nagarkovil axis in Jaffna from around 10 p.m. Sunday night to 2 a.m. Monday morning when columns of Sri Lanka army infantry backed by armour and heavy artillery attempted to overrun and break through the Forward Defence Localities of the Liberation Tigers, sources in Jaffna said.
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‘Prolonged detention of Jaffna journalist worrying’ - RSF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2001, 11:30 GMT]
In a letter to the Sri Lankan Minister of Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Integration, Professor G. L. Peiris, Thursday, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders RSF), the Paris based media watchdog, called for the release of Subramaniam Thiruchelvan, the correspondent for the state run Tamil daily Thinakaran in Point Pedro in Jaffna. The journalist has been detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) since 2 January 2001. Robert Ménard, general secretary of RSF, notes in his letter that “this prolonged and excessive detention of a journalist from the Jaffna peninsula is a very worrying warning to all media professionals working there, especially since it has occurred a few months after the still unpunished crime against reporter Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan from Jaffna.”
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US ambassador visits mass graves site in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 March 2001, 19:11 GMT]
"If you say that the LTTE is a terrorist organization then you must also accept that the Sri Lankan government is promoting terrorism in the country", representatives from the University of Jaffna told the US ambassador for Sri Lanka, Mr. Ashley Wills, during a discussion Wednesday in the northern town.
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Tigers release Sinhalese fishermen

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 March 2001, 15:52 GMT]

The Liberation Tigers on Friday morning released two Sinhalese fishermen (on the left) who had been in their custody since last December. ICRC representatives transported D.U.Chandrabala and Ajith Kumarasiri to Vavuniya and handed them over to their relatives. Photo:TamilNet

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UK ban imposes restraints on peace process - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2001, 16:23 GMT]
Britain’s decision to include the Liberation Tigers on the list of proscribed terrorist organizations “will impose severe restraints” on the Norwegian initiative, the LTTE said Wednesday. The ban will “adversely affect Tamil interests and severely undermine the current peace initiatives [and] will encourage the repressive Sri Lankan regime to be more uncompromising, intransigent and to adopt a military path of State violence, terrorism and war” the LTTE’s chief negotiator Anton Balasingham was quoted as saying in a statement. However, the LTTE said that “irrespective of the British ban the Tamil Tigers would continue with the peace process and co-operate with the Norwegian facilitatory efforts.”
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Students condemn Batticaloa Brigadier's comments

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 February 2001, 11:56 GMT]
Undergraduates of the Eastern University demonstrated Tuesday condemning the statement of the Sri Lanka army's Batticaloa brigade commander that their 'Pongu Thamil' program had been organised by the Liberation Tigers. Col. V.L.R Anthonis, the SLA commander for Batticaloa, charged Monday at a meeting for local journalists and school principals that the Liberation Tigers had organised the 'Pongu Thamil' rally by students and teachers of the Eastern University on 20 February. .
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Media helps us stay on track- Col. Anthonis

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 February 2001, 23:36 GMT]
The condition of education in the north and east was discussed by the Sri Lanka army at its headquarters in Colombo said Colonel V.L Rohan Anthonis, the commander of the 23-3 brigade in Batticaloa, addressing a meeting with local journalists and school principals Monday. He emphasised that students should not take part in anti-government activities. "We want to make sure we are on the correct track" officer said, speaking about the importance of monitoring the media. Col. Anthonis, a former cricketer from St. Thomas' College, the island's most prestigious private school for boys, claimed that he and his staff look up the press daily to check whether army has wronged anyone in Batticaloa.
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LTTE extends unilateral ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 February 2001, 11:32 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Thursday they would extend their unilateral ceasefire by another month, and called on the international community, particularly the United States, Britain, the European Union and India to persuade the Sri Lanka government to reciprocate favourably to its goodwill gesture. "We wish to reiterate that our liberation organisation is prepared to enter into peace negotiations when the Sri Lanka government reciprocates favourably to our unilateral declaration of cease-fire and agrees to implement the Norwegian 'Memorandum of Understanding' aimed at the de-escalation of war and the normalisation of civilian life," the statement said. The LTTE's unilateral ceasefire was due to expire Saturday night.
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Eastern Tamil protestors demand self-determination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 23:40 GMT]
Eastern University Community, concluding 'Pongu Thamil' (Tamil Upsurge) programme on Tuesday declared that a solution to the island's ethnic conflict should recognise the Tamil people's right to self-determination, their traditional homeland and their distinct national identity. Until then the Tamil people would continue their agitation vigorously. More than three thousand students, staff and people took part in the event at the Eastern University in Batticaloa.
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Top LTTE official escapes ambush

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 19:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army commandos Monday ambushed senior LTTE officials as they were leaving after meeting an inter-religious peace group at Madhu in the Vanni, sources said. The LTTE officials' vehicle was caught in a claymore blast which badly damaged it, but the occupants escaped unhurt, the sources said.
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Solheim, Balasingham in lengthy talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 February 2001, 17:56 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy, Erik Solheim Tuesday met the Liberation Tigers’ chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham in London, for lengthy discussions, sources close to the movement told TamilNet. The discussions were said to have been cordial and positive.
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