Jaffna fishermen's protests set to continue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 June 2002, 14:41 GMT]
Fishermen continued their picketing campaign for the second day on Friday in Jaffna in front of the Secretariat (Kachcheri) and the Divisional Secretariat, demanding their freedom to fish without restriction in the northern waters. Since even the Friday protest failed to produce any result, the Federation of Fishermenís Unions said it has decided to continue with the protests on Monday.
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500,000 palmyra trees said destroyed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 June 2002, 02:19 GMT]
Around half a million palmyra trees have been destroyed by the Sri Lanka armed forces and the practice continues even after the ceasefire agreement came into effect, press reports quoted Mr Sivapatham, Head of Palmyra Development board as telling BBC radio. The local populace seems to be losing faith due to the armed forces continuing to build new bunkers during the peace process, he added.
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Students await Tamil leadership to end discrimination

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 June 2002, 02:05 GMT]
Discrimination by successive Sri Lankan governments at all levels of education can only be ended when a Tamil leadership assumes responsibility for education in the north and east, the Tamil Eelam Student Foundation said in a statement released to coincide with the ‘Day of Uprising of Tamil students’ on June 6.
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Police ordered to halt temple withdrawals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police in Batticaloa said Saturday that it has stopped work on vacating four of its camps in the district situated in places of religious worship on orders from the Inspector General of Police (IGP). "We just got the orders and stopped dismantling the defences. We do not know the reason," said the Officer in Charge of the Maamangam Pillaiyar Temple Police camp Saturday.
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‘SLA constructions undermine truce’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:04 GMT]
The construction of new camps and bunkers by the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna was undermining the restoration of normalcy and violated the spirit of the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE an the government, the head of the Liberation Tigers' political section in the northern peninsula, Mr. T. Ilamparithi, told a press briefing Saturday.
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Prohibition on unauthorised felling of treess

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 09:29 GMT]
A notice prohibiting the unauthorized felling of trees in the north and east of Sri Lanka was issued by the Tamil Eelam Forest Conservation Unit of the Liberation Tigers on June 5, to coincide with World Environment Day (WED). Disciplinary action would be taken against violators, a notice published in the Vanni Wednesday said.
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Vanni demining efforts continue

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 22:29 GMT]
Volunteers involved in demining efforts in the Mankulam and Katkadankulam areas have unearthed and disabled 4,887 pieces of unexploded ammunition and mines as of the end of May.
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‘LTTE committed to ceasefire’

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 22:20 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will fully implement the ceasefire agreement between themselves and the Sri Lankan government and are determined to ensure the truce does not fail, a senior member of the LTTE’s political division in Jaffna told a protest rally by students in the northern peninsula Wednesday , according to local press reports.
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Thamilchelvan, Tigers pay homage to 'Siva'

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 16:44 GMT]
The body of Mr. Murugesu Sivasithambaram, the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front, was taken to Kilinochchi Friday afternoon. The head of the LTTE's political division Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan and other members of the organisation paid their last respects to 'Siva' at the Thooyavan College for Political Studies where the cortege lay this afternoon for homage by the public.
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Jaffna court seeks EPDP's weapons list

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 June 2002, 12:26 GMT]
The Jaffna magistrate Mr. R. T Vignarajah Friday directed the Sri Lanka Police to serve notice on the Eelam People's Democratic Party's (EPDP) deputy organiser for Jaffna, Mr. K. Manipallavarajan, to appear in court on Monday, 10 May with the list of weapons the paramilitary group had in its possession when the journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, was murdered. Mr. Nimalarajan, Jaffna correspondent for the BBC, the Tamil daily, Virakesari and the TamilNet was killed at his home on 19 October 2000 by gunmen suspected to be members of the EPDP, a key ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
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Youths continue to face STF threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 18:06 GMT]
The four Tamil youths from Karaithivu whose arrest and vicious assault by the Special Task Force last Wednesday drew criticism from ceasefire monitors are said to have received new threats from the police commandos. Fresh complaints in this regard have been lodged with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Ampara, officials said.
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Tamil Eelam police celebrate anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 16:45 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Police Service (TEPS) held a sports tournament at the Malathi Stadium in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu as part of the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of its formation. In his address, the head of the TEPS, Mr. P. Nadesan, saluted the service’s exemplary performance during the past decade, which he said had been rendered amidst difficult conditions of embargo and equipment shortage.
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'Wont fall for provocations to break truce' - Karikalan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 16:28 GMT]
"The power of our people is greater than the power of the gun. We have come into areas controlled by the Sri Lanka army because we trust the might of the Tamil masses. The commandos of the Special Task Force are telling our people to make coffins when the whole world is exhorting all of us to make peace. In truth, the STF is trying to bury the peace process in those coffins," said Mr. Karikalan, a senior official of the LTTE's political division, addressing a rally of more than five thousand students in Thambiluvil, 76 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Thursday.
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Jaffna fishermen tell Colombo to lift controls

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 15:59 GMT]
Hundreds of protesting fishermen paralysed the Jaffna District Secretariat and blocked traffic in a busy part of the northern town Thursday, demanding that Colombo should do away with restrictions on fishing. Colombo promised to lift draconian controls on fishing in the Northeast within ninety days when it signed the cease-fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers on 24 February. Tamil fishermen, however, say that many restrictions remain. "Don't sell our seas to China", the protesting fishermen shouted, objecting to an alleged proposal by the Sri Lankan government to allow the Chinese start a fisheries project on the Jaffna coast.
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Tamil students' rallies, protests in Northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 13:27 GMT]
Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies Thursday to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, bombing of schools, chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools. Student leaders who addressed the rallies demanded that Tamil students too be granted equal opportunities in education by Colombo, denied them for more than three decades under partisan education schemes.
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Monitors say Navy restrictions violate truce

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 00:19 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s gazette notification of fishing restrictions issued last week under the Prevention of Terrorism Act conflicts with the provisions of the ceasefire agreement the government signed with the Liberation Tigers, press reports Thursday quoted international truce monitors as saying.
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STF disruptions continue in southeast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 19:28 GMT]
Commandos of the Special Task Force, the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan security forces, harassed and tortured a youth who went to get medicine in the Thirukkovil District Hospital in the Amparai district, according to a complaint taken up the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) this week. The STF has been encamped in the premises of the district hospital in Thirukkovil, the large Tamil village on Sri Lankaís southeastern coast, for more than 17 years, despite protests by residents and local human rights activists.
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Sivasithamparam's funeral in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 18:08 GMT]
The funeral of the TNA leader Mr. Murugesu Sivasithamparam will be held at his birthplace Karaveddy in Jaffna district Sunday noon, party sources said. Mr.Sivasithamparam body now lies at his residence at Havelock Road, Thimbirigasaya, in Colombo.
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LTTE ban to go ten days before Thailand talks - PM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 11:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe Wednesday assured the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be removed ten days ahead of the commencement of the peace talks in Thailand. The Prime Minister met a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for a discussion on the peace process held Wednesday morning at his office in the parliament.
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Senior Tamil leader Sivasithamparam dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 03:04 GMT]
Mr. Murugesu Sivasithambaram, President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the main constituent of the Tamil National Alliance, passed away peacefully early Wednesday morning around two at the age of seventy-nine. The death occurred at the Colombo national hospital after a brief illness.
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