No franchise for Mullaithivu Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2000, 21:10 GMT]
None of the Tamil voters in the Mullaithivu district will be able to vote in elections to Sri Lanka's eleventh Parliament Tuesday 10 October. They have been precluded from the polls due to a decision by the Sri Lankan government not to have any polling booths in the district except one for 996 Sinhalese in Ibbanweva, a state backed settlement in the southern corner of Mullaithivu. "This is tantamount to denying them the exercise of their sovereignty as Sri Lankan citizens through the franchise or, in real terms, disfranchising them" said a political analyst in Colombo Monday asked to comment on the Mullaithivu situation.
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LTTE names fighters killed in action

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 October 2000, 05:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army soldiers continued to exchange heavy artillery and mortar fire in Nagar Kovil, Vadamaradchi East and in Thenmaradchi sector, said sources in Jaffna.
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Artillery duels in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 14:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have stepped up artillery and mortar attacks on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in Varani in the Thenmaradchi sector and Nagar Kovil in the Vadamaradchi East, since Sunday night, said sources. SLA troops at Kudathanai, north of Nakarkovil were retaliating by firing shells towards LTTE held areas, the sources added.
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Dozens killed in blasts

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 13:54 GMT]
At least 20 people including a candidate of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) for the Trincomalee electorate were killed Monday at 6.30 p.m. in a bomb blast at an election meeting at the Cultural Centre of Mutur, Police said. Forty-five people, including 7 policemen were wounded. The candidate Mohammed Lathif Faithullah was the Officer in Charge of the Police Intelligent service in Trincomalee district, said sources.
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Furore over peace talks letters

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 00:35 GMT]
(News Feature) The letters exchanged between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers during the 1995 peace talks have become an unexpected election issue in the run up to the island's forthcoming Parliamentary polls. The main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), has seized on the hitherto unpublicised letters as evidence the government had not informed the Sri Lankan public about its negotiations with the Tigers, forcing the government to respond with a counter-campaign.
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Court frees PTA detainee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2000, 14:26 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court Friday acquitted Ramachandran Yogarasa,24, indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), stating that the defence had proved that the confession from the accused had been obtained under duress.
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Skirmish in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2000, 08:32 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed and at least five others wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers near vavunathivu SLA camp about 5 km. west of Batticaloa town around 8.30 a.m. Sunday said sources.
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Tigers move towards SLA's Thenmaradchi MSR

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 September 2000, 12:30 GMT]
Battle units of the Liberation Tigers, having overwhelmed Sri Lanka Army positions on the supply route linking the SLA garrison in Nagar Kovil with the main military base in Eluthumadduval, have crossed the road in the direction of the general area between Mirusuvil and Varani, civilians who fled the war zone Saturday told TamilNet. The Sri Lanka army Saturday allowed about 1500 civilians fleeing the war zone in Jaffna's southern sector to leave Thenmaradchi according to TamilNet's Vadamaradchi correspondent.
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Tigers ask civilians to leave war zone

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 September 2000, 03:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Friday asked civilians living in the army controlled sector of the Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna to leave their villages and find safety in the Vadamaradchi division of the peninsula according to the morning news broadcast of the Voice of Tigers.
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Tigers interdict Kilali supply route

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 September 2000, 16:23 GMT]
The supply route to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Sri Lanka Navy base at Kilali from Eluthumadduval is unusable due to the fighting in the area sources in Jaffna said Thursday night. A Sri Lanka army official in Jaffna, however, said that Kilali is now linked to the A9 highway by an alternative road from Mirusuvil; and that the army and the SLN's Special Boat Squadron (SBS) are resisting assaults by the troops of the Liberation Tigers on their positions at Kilali.
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Fighting close to SLA garrisons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 September 2000, 06:37 GMT]
Fighting raged close to the defence perimeters of the Sri Lanka army bases in Eluthumadduval and Kilali through the early hours of Thursday morning as troops of the Liberation Tigers that had overwhelmed several layers of the SLA's forward defence localities in this sector pressed on with their multi-pronged assault. The commanders of the SLA, Sri Lanka Air Force and Navy flew to Jaffna to co-ordinate efforts to re-organise defences and to regain some of the key forward defence localities captured by the Tigers Tuesday.
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Tigers launch Unceasing Waves 4

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 September 2000, 17:01 GMT]
Over 150 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops have been killed and 500 wounded in heavy fighting since the LTTE launched Operation Unceasing Waves 4 against SLA forces in the Killali-Muhamalai-Nagar Kovil axis Tuesday night, the organization said in a statement from its London offices Wednesday. LTTE fighters have advanced 3kms into SLA-held territory and are poised to attack SLA bases complexes at Kilali and Eluthumadduval, the statement said, adding nine Tigers have also been killed. Supply lines to the SLA base at Nagar Koil have been cut off, the Tigers said.
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SLA offensive near Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 September 2000, 06:53 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army launched another operation to expand its area of control northwest of Chavakachcheri from the early hours of the morning around 1.30 a.m. military sources in Jaffna said.
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Unitary state serious impediment - TULF

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2000, 02:06 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in its election manifesto released Sunday said "the unitary character of the [Sri Lankan] state continued to be a serious impediment to the effective sharing of power" and that "what has been now proposed cannot be an effective or final solution to the Tamil question." The party also called for the government to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers with third party mediation. It also said it had "effectively contributed to sustaining their interests and involvement" of the international community in Sri Lanka.
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"We pleaded but Navy kept firing"- survivor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 September 2000, 12:53 GMT]
"We were fishing after a heavy thunder shower when about ten Sri Lanka Navy boats approached and opened fire on us. We screamed that we were fishermen and pleaded with them to stop shooting. But the Navy surrounded our boats and continued to fire on us. So we jumped in the sea to save our lives" said Punchi Singho, a Sinhala fishermen who survived the SLN attack in the Trincomalee bay Friday night. Two Sinhala fishermen who were caught in the attack are still missing, Police sources in the eastern port town said.
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PM ignorant of Jaffna predicament- SLFP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 September 2000, 18:27 GMT]
"The Prime Minister does not know much about the Jaffna situation" said the chief organiser of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in Jaffna, responding to a question about the hawkish pronouncements of Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka during a press conference in the northern town Saturday.
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Tigers release artillery pictures

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 September 2000, 12:00 GMT]
The Tamil Guardian newspaper this week published photographs of the Liberation Tigers' captured 152mm howitzers along with pictures of Operation Unceasing Waves 3, including one of the LTTE flag being raised over the overrun Sri Lanka Army (SLA) base at Elephant Pass in April.
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PTA detainess released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 September 2000, 14:52 GMT]
Three youths who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers and detained for nearly one year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) were released by the Batticaloa High Court on Wednesday, while it sentenced another youth to 6 months rigorous imprisonment.
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Shelling disrupts body transfer

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2000, 15:06 GMT]
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) called off the transfer of the bodies of 37 Liberation Tigers Tuesday at Neerveli, north east of Jaffna town when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells close to the point of transfer.
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23 soldiers killed in LTTE ambush

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2000, 13:15 GMT]
Twenty-three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, including 2 officers were killed and another wounded when the Liberation Tigers ambushed a military vehicle near Wilgampura, 11 km. northeast of Trincomalee town, around 3.30 p.m.Tuesday, security sources said.
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