Students' protest in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 19:17 GMT]
More than twenty thousand Tamil and Muslim students Tuesday marched in protest against the continuing occupation of schools by the Sri Lankan army and the general discrimination they are subjected to by Colombo. The students handed over memorandums to the Vavuniya government agent, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, the UNHCR and the UNICEF in the northern border town.
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Sri Lanka opposition exhorts rejection of cease-fire deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 18:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition parties and several Sinhala nationalist groups held a large public rally of more than five thousand in Colombo Tuesday, condemning peace negotiations between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe's government and the Liberation Tigers as a conspiracy to divide the island. The main speakers at the rally exhorted the Sinhala people to reject the cease-fire agreement between Colombo and the LTTE.
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New Army fortifications in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 13:44 GMT]
The Sri Lanka armed forces are hurriedly building fortifications and expanding their bases in the Jaffna peninsula while public buildings vacated by the military remain beyond the public use as the surrounding areas are declared high security zones, Tamil press reports said last week.
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Village rejects SLA school offer

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 04:55 GMT]
The people of Morakkoddanchenai, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Monday rejected an offer by the Sri Lanka army to construct a new building for the village children's education instead of vacating the local school under the terms of Colombo's cease-fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers in February this year. The SLA has been occupying the Morakkoddanchenai Government Tamil Mixed School, public market, post office, library, village council, the local temple and scores of private homes in the heart of the village for more than 12 years.
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SLA permits visit to temple in Palaly

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 02:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Monday permitted devotees to visit and clean the premises of the Sri Rajarajeswari Amman temple near the Palaly military airport. The temple is among more than hundred places of worship occupied by the SLA in Jaffna's Waligamam North division. More than 2000 residents who lived in the temple's neighbourhood were evacuated by the SLA in 1987 and 1990 for expanding the defence perimeter of the Palaly military base and airport.
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SLMM head to visit Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 02:04 GMT]
The Norwegian head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Major General (Retd.) Trond Furuhovde will visit Trincomalee for two days. He is scheduled to meet representatives of several organisations at the Trincomalee office of the SLMM Wednesday, and the LTTE leaders at Sampoor in Mutur east Thursday, sources said.
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Local body asks SLA to lift fishing ban

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 July 2002, 06:46 GMT]
The Chairman of the Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha (local government institution) said Saturday that he has written to the Jaffna Security Forces Commander, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka urging him to immediately lift the ban on fishing in the Jaffna lagoon off Koilakandy and Kilali.
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Black Tiger day marked at site of first attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 July 2002, 01:40 GMT]
Over five thousand people gathered in Nelliady in the Jaffna peninsula Friday to mark Black Tigers day - the first time the event had been held here since 1995. July 5 is the anniversary of the death of the first Black Tiger, Captain Miller, who was killed destroying a Sri Lanka Army base located in the Nelliady Madhya Maha Vidiyalyam - the site of the commemoration this Friday. His mother was amongst those who paid their respects to fallen Black Tigers.
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'Military testing our patience' -Trinco LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 July 2002, 12:42 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan security forces test our patience frequently. But we won't violate the cease-fire agreement signed by our leader with the Sri Lankan government. At the same time we will not do anything that will derail the ceasefire agreement," said Ms Krishna, Trincomalee district women wing secretary of the Liberation Tigers presiding over the events to mark Black Tigers Day in Trincomalee town Friday evening.
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Trinco arrests violate ceasefire agreement - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 20:37 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday expressed its strong disapproval of a tendency on the part of some sections of the Armed Forces, to take in custody unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers, who are entitled to freedom of movement in the north and east under the provisions of 1.13 of the cease-fire agreement. "The arrests of five unarmed members of Liberation Tigers Wednesday in Trincomalee by the security forces are a violation of the said provision of the cease-fire agreement," said Mr. Mr.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the TNA and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian in a statement issued Thursday.
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Police charge student demo in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 19:57 GMT]
Four students were wounded when riot Police baton charged a large demonstration in downtown Colombo Thursday against World Bank/IMF recommended privatisation of university education and the slashing of higher education subsidies in Sri Lanka.
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Arrests reveal eastern inciters' connections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 19:42 GMT]
Police Thursday arrested a person believed to be working for Sri Lanka army intelligence for stoning and throwing bottles at a Tamil owned passenger van in the Muslim quarter of the Eravur town. Two persons were wounded in the attack Wednesday afternoon. On information given by the public the Police arrested Abu Salee Naseer (also known as 'Support' Naseer). Police said that Naseer was a soldier of the Sri Lanka army. However, his relatives in Eravur said that he now works for the military intelligence unit in Batticaloa.
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Military arrests unarmed Tigers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 10:15 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military took five unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers into custody in two separate incidents Wednesday, triggering tensions and anger amongst Tamils in Trincomalee, residents said. The LTTE’s political section in the eastern district strongly condemned the military’s actions as a breach of the ceasefire agreement.
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MoD says 'no case' amid public protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 01:18 GMT]
(News Feature) A Sri Lankan Defence Ministry inquiry into the assault of two senior political cadres of the Liberation Tigers on June 20 ruled that "there was no evidence ... to establish a case against any individual or person," state media reported. The Defence Ministry statement was issued Wednesday, the day after a massive demonstration in Kilinochchi to protest the attack by Sri Lankan naval personnel and members of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) on the LTTE cadres.
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LTTE urges Muslim Tamil harmony in east

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 July 2002, 16:01 GMT]
"We, the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers, fought face to face in battlefields for 25 years. But today we are seated side by side as friends. All of us should explore the reasons why, while this is so, we, the Muslims and Tamils who speak the same language, are unable to live in amity," said Mr. N. Karikalan, a senior official of the political division of the Liberation Tigers addressing a peace conference in Batticaloa town Wednesday.
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SLMM “has not requested LTTE to stop hartals”

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 July 2002, 23:56 GMT]
International monitors Tuesday denied press reports which claimed they had requested the Liberation Tigers to desist from organising protest strikes (‘hartals’). In a statement, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said it is “not opposed to Hartals, demonstrations, meetings and other activity that can be considered as political and peaceful means of people to express their opinions” but cautioned that those organising protests “must be responsible for keeping [these events] under control.”
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Karikalan, 23 Div. GOC meet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 July 2002, 17:34 GMT]
Mr. N. Karikalan, senior official of the LTTE’s political division in the east, had discussions with the General Officer Commanding of the Sri Lanka army’s23 Division, Maj. Gen. Sunil Tennekoon on opening theA5 highway and rebuilding peaceful relations between Tamils and Muslims in the east at the Bishop's House in Batticaloa town Tuesday.
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Protests after troops injure 20

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 10:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar Sunday night. More than six hundred villagers began a protest Monday morning demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately. Shops were closed and the streets were deserted in protest against the assault.
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SLA takes over scores of homes in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 02:46 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army last week took over scores of civilian homes amid its efforts to expand its fortifications in the Thenmaradchi district of the Jaffna peninsula, Tamil press reports said. Sri Lankan forces have occupied 43 houses in one part of the district and have begun turning them into army camps, according to a complaint made to the District Secretary S Srinivasan. A new SLA base is being constructed in the village of Kaputhu also, the reports said.
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LTTE, military discuss recent violence as conspiracy suspected

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 July 2002, 02:43 GMT]
(News Feature) The leaders of the Liberation Tigers' political section in the Amparai-Batticaloa region, Mr. Visu (Head) and Mr. Thurai (Deputy Head) met senior Sri Lankan security officials late Friday night and Saturday to discuss last week's violence in Valaichenai and to seek ways to avoid a repetition of such incidents in the future. Meanwhile LTTE officials in the east, the leader of Sri Lanka’s largest Muslim party, Mr. Rauf Hakeem, and the Interior Minister, John Amaratunga, said this weekend that elements opposed to the peace process had instigated the recent chain of violence in the eastern province.
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