Opposition plans massive rally, urges president's resignation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2001, 19:36 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party has launched a campaign to mobilize support of the people for its massive protest rally scheduled to be held in Colombo on August 23 Thursday, opposition party source said. Senior leaders of the UNP have been attending awareness meetings in several towns in the country to get more people to Colombo to attend the proposed rally, organised by The Alliance for Democracy organizes the rally, the sources said.
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Jaffna students urge Colombo to stop bombing

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 August 2001, 16:11 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) appealed to international community "to intervene and safeguard the lives of Tamil students and civilians in the northeastern province from the continuing reprisal aerial attacks by the Sri Lanka Air Force". The JUSU in a statement issued Sunday said "aerial attacks targeting civilian positions such as schools and residential areas in northeast, particularly in Vanni and other Tigers controlled region are taking place almost daily. These indiscriminate aerial attacks have caused deaths and destruction to lives and properties of Tamil civilians".
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JVP re-iterates conditional support to PA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 August 2001, 18:56 GMT]
The Marxist-Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Saturday said that it would support a probation government while continuing to be in opposition, without accepting positions in government. Mr.Wimal Weerawanse, Propaganda Secretary and a Parliamentarian, said in an interview with the State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation that his party's proposal to form a probation government has been made to President Chandrika Kumaratunge, to "save the country from economic disaster and political anarchy."
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Deep penetration group ambush wounds 4 civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2001, 08:52 GMT]
Four civilians were wounded when the tractor in which they were travelling was hit by claymore mine triggered by a Sri Lanka Army deep penetration team in the Vaakarai region, about 75 km. north of Batticaloa local residents said. The incident occurred at Kathiraveli-Kattumurivu Kulam road, in the LTTE held area, around 3 p.m. Saturday.
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Twelve SLA wounded in attack and own fire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2001, 16:53 GMT]
Six Sri Lanka army soldiers who were lying in ambush were wounded in Sector Eight on the Vavuniya-Mannar highway when the Liberation Tigers attacked them late Friday night around 11.40 a.m. military sources said. Six troopers of an SLA ambush party were injured when an SLA road clearing patrol opened fire them, mistaking them for Liberation Tigers, in the general area of Kalmadu, west of the A9 junction at Thaandikkulam near Vavuniya town Friday morning around 6 a.m.
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Claymore kills LTTE's eastern political leader

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2001, 21:21 GMT]
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers for the Batticaloa and Ampara district was killed in a claymore mine blast Thursday around 11.30 a.m. at Vaathakkalmadu in Nallathanni Odai, about 36 kilometres south west of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka army sources in the eastern town said. They claimed that the Batticaloa-Ampara district's political wing leader, Nizaam, was killed when the claymore blast hit the motorbike on which he was riding with a colleague Thursday morning.
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Arrests on the increase again in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2001, 09:09 GMT]
Fifteen persons arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in Vavuniya in the first two weeks of May 2001 are reported missing according to complaints lodged with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) office in the northern border town. Fifteen persons were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces last week as well, according to HRC sources in Vavuniya. They said that arrests and detention by the security forces have increased in Vavuniya in recent weeks. Many relatives are still trying to find the places where the arrested persons are being held. An HRC official said that efforts by his organisation to locate the missing persons were not successful.
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More SLA mine fields destroyed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 May 2001, 10:59 GMT]
A large number of anti-personnel landmine fields left behind by the Sri Lanka army were located and de-mined in twelve villages in the southern sector of the Vanni Western aid agency sources said Tuesday. They said that caches of mortar and artillery shells and explosives were also located and destroyed from these villages to ensure the safety of civilians who have begun to gradually resettle in this sector. The SLA was camped in the villages of the Vanni's southern sector from 1997 to November 1999.
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Thamil Chelvan, Bishops discuss peace prospects

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:03 GMT]
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.S.P Thamil Chelvan Wednesday welcomed the delegation of Sri Lanka's catholic Bishops who are on a peace mission in the Vanni Wednesday, church sources said. Mr. Thamil Chelvan met the bishops for two hours in Mallavi, they added. The Catholic Bishops are on a mission to the Vanni to discuss prospects for bringing about a peaceful settlement to Sri Lankaís ethnic conflict.
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Frustrated carnal marauding provokes assault

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2001, 16:51 GMT]
Six civilians who were severely assaulted last night by Sri Lanka army soldiers in the village of Korakallimadu, 25 kilometers north of Batticaloa, complained to International Committee of the Red Cross Monday. One of the complainants said that the soldiers had threatened the villagers with dire consequences if the incident were to be reported to anyone. He said that more than ten persons were assaulted for raising the cry when soldiers from the Kiran Bridge camp had entered their houses and attempted to sexually harass young women late Sunday night.
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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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SLA operation in Mannar south, three missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2001, 14:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army is on a deep penetration operation in the jungles and coast in the southern extreme of Mannar, which is contiguous with the Puttalam district's border, sources said. Mrs. Philippu Calistus 40, who came to Mannar town Monday from the interior jungle village of Neelamadu in sthern Mannar said that three persons, including her husband Philippu Calistus Cruz, 45, who went to the coastal village of Pookkulam on the Puttalam-Mannar border on Saturday 24 March where hundreds of troops had moved in, have gone missing.
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CTTU speaks up for predicament of Vanni education

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2001, 14:22 GMT]
An acute dearth for teachers, textbooks and furniture prevails in the schools of the Vanni region, irreparable damaging the educational development of the childrenî, Mr. T. Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) told Tamilnet Saturday, commenting on his official visit to the north last week. The majority of the students in Vanni schools sit on mats supplied by the UNICEF. Most of the teachers do not have chairs to sit and teach. They have to be on their feet from morning till closing time, according to him. Mr. Mahasivam was in the Vanni for a week to attend meetings of his trade union branches in the Liberation Tigers controlled region. He returned Friday.
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Three killed in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2001, 13:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army at Santhively, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, Friday handed over to the Eravur hospital the body of a civilian who was shot dead by troops lying in ambush in the interior of Korakallimadu, a hamlet near Kiran Thursday night. The family of Paththakkutti Nallarasa, 49, father of four, told Tamilnet that he was returning home with two friends last night around 8.30 p.m. when an SLA ambush party from the Santhively camp opened fire on them.
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Anuradhapura players pique Batticaloa SLA

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 March 2001, 15:10 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Monday stopped a street play performed by a Sinhala group in Batticaloa, objecting to a character of the skit who was in military uniform. The group, Saama Sevaya Cultural Forum from the village of Talawa in Anuradhapura, was scheduled to perform the play, Tears of Blood, in several parts of Batticaloa Monday. The SLA at Santhively, 24 kilometres north of Batticaloa town, interrupted the play and took away all 16 members of the troupe performing in the premises of Thadakam, a social service organisation in the area, to its camp for questioning around 11.30 a.m. this morning.
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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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War widows said increasing because of war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 March 2001, 22:19 GMT]
"Several young women live in the district, unable to come to a decision whether they are widows or not, as they do not know whether their missing husbands are dead or alive", said North-East Provincial Chief Secretary, Mr. G.Kirushnamoorthy, addressing a public meeting organized by the Provincial Ministry of Women Affairs at the Trincomalee Town Hall Thursday in connection with the International Women's Day.
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Tamil refugees arrested

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2000, 15:32 GMT]
Three Tamil refugees staying at Kalmadu camp were arrested on Sunday and are now being detained at the at Welikanda police station for interrogation, sources said.
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Final results of polls released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2000, 10:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections Wednesday officially announced the results of the elections to Parliament following the delay in the counting of votes in the Kandy district where widespread rigging was reported.
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