Over 100 arrested in combined search

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 August 2001, 17:18 GMT]
More than one hundred Tamils were arrested during a major cordon and search operation in Kochchikade, about 50 km. north of Colombo Thursday morning. More than one thousand Army and Police personnel were deployed during the operation, police said.
Full story >>

Sihala Urumaya brokers 'truce' between PA-UNP

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 August 2001, 06:58 GMT]
The Sihala Urumaya (SU), the hardline Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party has appealed to the main opposition, United National Party to drop the no-confidence and impeachment motions against the People's Alliance government to end the present political crisis. The General Secretary of the SU Mr.Tilak Karunaratne made this request to the leader of the UNP when he met the latter Thursday.
Full story >>

SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting rise

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 14:37 GMT]
More than 400 Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded in less than eight hours of fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Eluthumadduval and Kilali in Jaffna, military sources in the north said. Officials at government hospitals in Anuradhapura and Colombo said preparations are underway to receive more later this evening. The SLA spokesman, however, claimed that only 78 soldiers were wounded and 30 were killed. Op. Agni Khela I (Fire Flame), launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the SLA to retake JaffnaÌs southern sector and Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the peninsula which Tigers overran in April 2000.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

SLA firing injures two

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 January 2001, 07:23 GMT]
A 11-year old girl and another woman were injured in indiscriminate firing by Sri Lanka Army at Pillaiyaradi, 4 km. north of Batticaloa, around 10 a.m. on Monday said sources.
Full story >>

Trainee SLA soldier raped and murdered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2001, 14:45 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army trainee was found raped and killed Tuesday near his detachment in Mirusuvil in Jaffna. SLA military Police sources said that a lance corporal identified as Wijeyananda and a private have been arrested in connection with the rape and murder. The trainee soldier, K.R.K Karunaratna, was reported missing after a party at the armoured corps unit in Mirusuvil on 6 January, according to the Military Police.
Full story >>

Sinhala nationalists demonstrate against British official

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 17:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists demonstrated outside the British Council building in Colombo around 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon as the visiting Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain attended a seminar to deliver a speech on the topic "British Policy on Devolution and the Northern Ireland Peace Process".
Full story >>

Buddhist monks burn effigy of Solheim

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 15:24 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists Thursday evening picketed out side the Royal Norwegian embassy in Colombo and burnt an effigy of Oslo's special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim. The majority of the participants were Buddhist monks. Earlier around 4 the far-right Sihala Urumaya party organized a public meeting at Narahenpitiya in Colombo protesting against Norway's involvement in finding a solution to the island's conflict.
Full story >>

State of Emergency extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2000, 16:07 GMT]
A motion extending the state of emergency by a further month was approved in Parliament Thursday by a majority of 98 votes. 113 parliamentarians of the ruling Peoples' Alliance voted for the motion. 15 voted against it. MPs of the TULF, JVP, TELO and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress voted against the motion.
Full story >>

Shelling kills child, injures 12

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 November 2000, 22:39 GMT]
A two-year old child was killed and twelve others were wounded, five of them seriously when Sri Lanka Army and Police shelled the villages of Ramespuram and Sunkankerny north of Batticaloa Sunday evening residents said. Thirteen houses were also damaged in the shelling.
Full story >>

Four more bodies identified

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 October 2000, 13:32 GMT]
The bodies of four detainees killed in the Bandarawela massacre were identified Tuesday morning at Colombo National Hospital. They were named as Kokulamani Sajeewan of Kallady, Batticaloa, Perinpanayagam Nimlaraj of Batticaloa, Somasuntharam Sellarasa and Sivan Kubendran of Arayampathi. All bodies were found to be in a highly decomposed state, hospital sources said.
Full story >>

Police name massacre victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 06:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan police has released names of 13 Tamil detainees massacred at the Bindunuwewa detention center in Bandarawela on Wednesday. The police said many bodies are charred beyond recognition by the fire at the Centre.
Full story >>

Sinhala nationalists squabble and split

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 October 2000, 13:15 GMT]
Sihala Urumaya, the hardline Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party, split Monday over who should represent it in the Sri Lankan Parliament. The President of the party Mr.S.L.Gunasekera told a press conference in Colombo Monday that he and seven members of the Sihala Urumaya's central committee had walked out in protest Sunday from a meeting that had been convened to select one of its senior members as the national list MP of the party. The Sihala Urumaya got only one seat in the Parliament on account of the total number of votes it polled island wide at the general elections on October 10.
Full story >>

Heavy casualties in Jaffna battle

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2000, 12:24 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troop column in Chavakachcheri suffered heavy casualties when it was intercepted and attacked by the Liberation Tigers Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA has withdrawn to Sankathanai, the sources added.
Full story >>

Chavakachcheri battles rage

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2000, 09:51 GMT]
Fierce fighting has been continuing in the outskirts of Chavakachcheri where the Liberation Tigers have launched counter attacks on Sri Lanka Army troops who had advanced towards this key town in the Jaffna peninsula on Sunday, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Two youths killed in ambush

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 September 2000, 12:04 GMT]
Two youths were shot and killed by a Special Task Force ambush unit at Aariyampathi about 8 km. south of Batticaloa on the Kalmumai road around 10.45 p.m. Tuesday said sources.
Full story >>

SLA weighs Colombuthurai losses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 September 2000, 05:40 GMT]
"It cannot be denied that the loss of lives was greater than what was achieved" Jaffna Sri Lanka army spokesman Brigadier Sanath Karunaratna told the Jaffna daily Uthayan published Wednesday, referring to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA when it attempted to take a section of Colombuthurai, the southeastern coastal suburb of Jaffna town. "There is no point in capturing mere territory " the brigadier told the paper, adding that the Liberation Tigers are continuing to vehemently block the army from constructing new defence lines in Colombuthurai. The SLA's forward defences here were damaged and destroyed in a fierce counter attack by the Tigers on Monday.
Full story >>

Government MP resigns in protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 August 2000, 17:35 GMT]
A Sri Lankan government politician Friday resigned from his seat in Parliament in protest against the new constitution bill. Sources close to him said that his resignation will come into effect from midnight Friday. Jayasena Rajakaruna, the People's Alliance MP who represented the Bingiriya electorate in the Kurunagala is currently in Colombo.
Full story >>

Package votes secure in Colombo hotels

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 August 2000, 12:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka's opposition charged Friday that the ruling People's Alliance (PA) is making "horse deals" to bribe members of Parliament to vote for the new constitution bill on 9 August. Opposition sources claimed that forty Parliamentarians, including cabinet ministers and some United National party MPs have been put up by the government at the Taj Samudra Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel in downtown Colombo until the date of voting. The government needs 150 votes in the Parliament to pass the constitution bill. There are 225 seats in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
Full story >>

UNP to oppose constitution

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 July 2000, 17:11 GMT]
Two Parliamentarians of the United National Party (UNP), Messrs Karunasena Kodithuwaku and John Amaratunge, have announced that they cannot support the government's effort to pass the new constitution under the prevailing circumstances.
Full story >>