SLA pulls down Poopathy remembrance pandols

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Wednesday stripped decorations and pulled down wood and paper memorials in the Kiran and Santhively, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, that were put up to mark the 14th death anniversary of 'Annai' Poopathy, the woman who fasted unto death in April 1988 in a protest against atrocities by the Indian army in the island's northeastern province.
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Elthumadduval families seek resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 March 2002, 17:03 GMT]
Seven hundred forty families displaced from the southern Jaffna have written to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urging him to allow them resettle in their villages of Eluthumadduval and Karambaikkurichchi as part of the effort to restore normalcy in the north and east under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between his government and the Liberation Tigers.
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Fifty thousand at Trinco 'Pongu Tamil'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 March 2002, 16:57 GMT]
(News Feature) More than fifty thousand people thronged the eastern port town of Trincomalee to attend the 'Pongu Tamil' (Tamil upsurge) rally held Tuesday, urging the Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and to recognise the Tamil people's right to self-determination.
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JVP demonstrates against cease-fire agreement

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 March 2002, 23:07 GMT]
More than a one thousand Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres and activists, including a large number of buddhist monks demonstrated Monday afternoon in Colombo protesting against the cease-fire agreement signed by the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers.
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"Hill country Tamils support NE peace efforts" -Thondaman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 21:46 GMT]
"The upcountry Tamils would extend their wholehearted support to the northeast Tamil to win their legitimate rights," declared Mr.Arumugam Thondaman, Minister of the Estate Infrastructure and Housing Development addressing the mammoth rally held Sunday at Nuwaraeliya. Earlier thousands of upcountry Tamils participated in a peace walk, which was organized to express support to the United National Front government's peace efforts and the cease-fire agreement signed by the Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, and the LTTE leader, Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Batticaloa GA complains ceasefire violation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 21:43 GMT]
The Government Agent for Batticaloa, Mr. S.Shanmugam, told Scandinavian cease-fire Monitoring Mission Sunday that the Sri Lankan army is violating the terms of the agreement signed by Colombo and the Liberation Tigers in the eastern district. He said that the SLA is harassing civilians at Mylambaveli, 8 kilometres north of against the terms of the agreement and that it is still imposing undue restrictions on the supply of unregulated commodities.
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"Tamil teacher vacancies being filled by Sinhalese" -CTTU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 15:52 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) Sunday blamed the Education Ministry for filling vacancies exist in Tamil medium schools in provinces ,except Northeast, in the country with Sinhalese teachers who have been found excess in Sinhala schools. "Ministry officials in Colombo are adopting this ruse to show the World Bank (WB) that no excess Sinhala teachers are employed in Sinhala schools," said Mr.T.Mahasivam, General Secretary of the CTTU.
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"Remove PTA from Statute Book" -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 10:38 GMT]
"The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) should no longer continue in the Statute Book," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Leader of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group, in a letter to the Prime Minister. "We would strongly urge that the rigorous impact of the PTA on the lives of Tamil detainees and people should not continue," he stressed.
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"Ministry discriminates Tamil medium teachers" - CTTU

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) has informed the United National Front (UNF) government that it would launch trade union action if its fifteen demands are not met by March 25. The demands included that the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs should take immediate steps to stop all discriminatory acts of the Education Services Board (ESB) against the interests of Tamil medium teachers in the country. The Education Services Board comes under the purview of the Public Services Commission.
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Jaffna University undergraduate Thiviyan freed

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Friday discharged university undergraduate, Krishnasamy Thiviyan as two vital witnesses failed to attend the inquiry for the second time. When the prosecuting Counsel informed the court that the two army officers, cited as main witnesses in this case had gone to Vavuniya to attend courts, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharaja, High Court Judge made order discharging the accused stating, "this shows that the SLA witnesses were not interested in this case".
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Tamil paramilitaries pose risk to truce – Karikalan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 16:11 GMT]
(News Feature) The deputy leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the head of its Batticaloa - Amparai section said this week that the movement was committed to the terms and conditions of the permanent ceasefire agreement and that the LTTE was engaging in the peace process from a position of strength. In an interview to TamilNet at the LTTE’s district political head office in Kokkaddicholai, Mr. Karikalan said that harassment of civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai district was continuing and Tamil paramilitaries working with the army had not been disarmed yet.
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'Graduates' protest to destabilize govt' -UNF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 21:17 GMT]
About two thousand unemployed graduates and their parents demonstrated in front of Temple Trees, the Prime Minister's official residence, Wednesday night, demanding appointment within twenty hours. "If no action is taken to find employment for all thirty thousand unemployed graduates we would go on a hunger strike", organisers of the protest said. United National Front sources said that nationalist forces were behind the graduates' agitation with a view to destabilizing the government.
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Cease-fire monitors visit Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 17:40 GMT]
Two Scandinavian cease-fire monitors were on a familarisation visit to Batticaloa Thursday. Mr. Lars Tio Beck, a Swedish national who earlier worked with a Norwegian non-governmental organization FORUT in Batticaloa in the early 1990s and Quaker Peace Movement and Mr. Ola Kristian Hegge, a Norwegian are to serve on the local monitoring committee to be established in Batticaloa and Ampara respectively.
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Pall over last obstacle on road to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 17:14 GMT]
The defence lines of the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army in Eluthumadduval are separated by less than 200 meters of the A9 highway. A high tarpaulin hides everything behind the SLA's defence position which straddles the road, the last obstacle on the northern peninsula's main land link to the rest of the island. "We have cleared all the mines on our side as you can see. We got ready to open the road to Jaffna soon after the cessation of hostilities was announced.
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US envoy's concern for children said hypocrisy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2002, 20:12 GMT]
"More than hundred and fifty innocent Tamil children under five are being held in Sri Lankan prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Scores of little children were massacred when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Nagar Kovil School in Jaffna. Thousands of Tamil children whose parents were murdered in cold blood by the SLA are destitute orphans in the northeast today. The US ambassador's humanitarian concern was blind to the plight of these Tamil children until this week.
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Police out of Koneswaram demands Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 March 2002, 22:11 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian Tuesday urged the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Eastern region) to permanently remove the police barrack from the 'madam' (pilgrim's rest) of historic Koneswaram temple in the eastern port town.
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LTTE denies accusations of truce violations

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2002, 11:54 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Monday denied categorically the accusations levelled against the organisation that it is involved in activities that could jeopardise the permanent truce reached between the Sri Lankan government and itself and which came into effect on February 22.
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Vavuniya Tamil groups ordered to hand over firearms

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 March 2002, 17:49 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Saturday ordered all Tamil paramilitary groups in Vavuniya district to surrender their firearms before 10 a.m. on Monday. At a conference held Saturday at the Vavuniya SLA headquarters, the Vanni SLA commander told the representatives of the Peoples Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) wing that all firearms they possess should be handed over to the SLA within forty-eight hours from Saturday morning.
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Restriction on Colombo Tamils lifted

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 March 2002, 17:41 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Friday decided to suspend immediately the practice of providing information about Tamil civilians residing in Colombo and its suburbs to the Police. Till Friday permanent residents and owners of boarding houses and lodges in Colombo had to furnish information about Tamil civilians who come from outstations, especially from the Northeast province and stay with them, to the police.
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"UNF to take constructive decision on LTTE ban" -PM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2002, 21:03 GMT]
A parliamentary delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday held a wide ranging discussion with the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe on several issues, including the lifting of ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the postponement of the local government elections in the Northeast province scheduled to take place on March 25. A spokesman of the TNA delegation told TamilNet that the Prime Minister had assured that the government would take a constructive decision in regard to the lifting the ban on the LTTE at the appropriate time.
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