Stringent embargo continues to afflict Mutur east

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2002, 07:33 GMT]
The embargo on the free supply of food, fertilizers, kerosene and most essentials, including boxes of matches and sugar, to Mutur east in the southern part of the Trincomalee district is still strictly enforced by the Sri Lanka army at the Kattaiparichchaan entry point, according to the TamilNet's correspondent in the eastern port town who visited the region Thursday. However, "Help for Peace" says a new signpost in English and Tamil at the SLA's Kattaiparichchaan entry point. From Tuesday, the SLA eased stringent controls on civilians from other parts of the district entering Mutur east following several appeals to the Sri Lankan security forces commander for Trincomalee.
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Northeast GAs brief Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2002, 14:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe held discussions Thursday with the government agents of the north and east about situation in their administrative districts in the context of easing the economic embargo on the Vanni and relaxing the restrictions on Tamil civilians in other areas, including Jaffna. The Government Agents for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu told the PM that there has been no significant improvement yet in the supply of essentials and medicines on which the decade long embargo was lifted earlier this month.
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Fishermen's protest shuts down Jaffna secretariat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2002, 12:03 GMT]
More than a seven hundred fishermen began a protest sit in front of the Jaffna district secretariat Wednesday morning from 7.30 a.m. The fishermen blocked government officials from entering the Jaffna district secretariat. They vowed to continue the protest if the government doesnít take steps to lift the ban and restrictions imposed by the Sri Lankan security forces on fishing in Jaffna.
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EPDP MP further remanded for Kayts murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2002, 18:05 GMT]
The non-summary proceedings in the Naranthanai election murder case commenced Tuesday before the Jaffna Magistrate Mr. R. T. Viknaraja. Three persons, including Mr. N. Mathanarajan, the Eelam People's Democratic Party MP for Jaffna, have been charged on 29 counts including murder, attempted murder, causing grievous hurt by assaulting candidates and supporters of the Tamil National Alliance with iron rods, weapons and clubs and unlawful assembly in Naranthanai in the island of Kayts off Jaffna on November 28.
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JVP steps up protests against autonomy for Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 January 2002, 17:27 GMT]
Hundreds of Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres and activists demonstrated Tuesday in Colombo suburbs against granting regional autonomy to Tamils in Sri Lanka. The JVP emerged as a powerful third force in Sinhala politics with sixteen MPs at the general elections on 5 December last year. The JVP, a self styled radical Marxist party that draws on Sinhala nationalist sentiments to augment its popularity, says that it will oppose tooth and nail any solution to the ethnic conflict in the island based on federalism.
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Optimism grows over permanent ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 18:14 GMT]
Substantial progress has been made in the ongoing facilitatory efforts by the Norwegian government to formalise and finalise a stable and structured ceasefire between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the organisation's chief negotiator and political advisor Anton Balasingham said Monday.
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SLN assaults fishermen in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 17:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy assaulted and tortured four fishermen in the sea off Pulmoddai, about 50 kilometres north of Trincomalee Sunday morning Mr. R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance MP for the district, told TamilNet. He said that he has brought the matter to the notice of the local SLN commander. Meanwhile, in Jaffna the Sri Lanka army has barred five fishermen in a coastal settlement in Thumpalai, near Pt. Pedro, from fishing as punishment for setting out to sea one hour before the stipulated time.
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Moragoda hears Trincomalee fishermen's plight

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 16:14 GMT]
Officials of Trincomalee District Fisheries Co-operative Societies told Tamilnet Monday that they have informed the United National Front (UNF) government that Fishermen in the eastern district are not seeking any relief from the State but only want it to lift the restrictions and ban imposed on fishing in the region.
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Amnesty slams zero prosecutions for rape in military custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 12:48 GMT]
Complaints of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials increased markedly in Sri Lanka last year, Amnesty International said in a new report published Monday. Amnesty said rapes in the context of armed conflict "are now recognized as a war crime and, when committed on a systematic basis or large scale, a crime against humanity."
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Vanni citizens committee slams block on reconstruction

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 05:11 GMT]
(News Feature) The Chairman of the Vanni Citizens’ Committee, Rev M X Karunaratnam, last week said the Sri Lankan government’s much publicized easing of its economic embargo on the region was “mere eyewash.” He said the Vanni region’s infrastructure was devastated and it was impossible to improve it by rebuilding, as the requisite materials were not being permitted.
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Kilinochchi struggles to limp back to life (photos)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 01:16 GMT]
The TamilNet correspondent for Vavuniya visited the Vanni recently after the Sri Lankan government eased the ban on local and foreign journalists visiting the LTTE held region. The following are a glimpse of the war-devastated land and its battle scarred life.
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Buddhist leaders oppose lifting ban, urge colonisation

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 23:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s hardline Buddhist clergy Thursday urged the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe not to de-proscribe the Liberation Tigers and to continue the colonisation of Tamil areas in the north and east, the state-owned Daily News reported Saturday. The PM had vowed that the newly elected United National Front (UNF) government will never take any action detrimental to the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and rejected the Tamil homeland concept, the paper said. The Prime Minister agreed to look into the matter of colonisation.
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Commandos camp in hospital despite peace promise

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 07:00 GMT]
In Thirukkovil and Thambiluvil, the large Tamil villages on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, few believe that the dividends of the current peace process in the war torn island would come their way. "We are like people in the land that time forgot. We have survived here amid draconian controls for more than sixteen years", says Mr. S. Vivekanandan, a local journalist. The only civilian hospital in this region is inside the camp of the Special Task Force (STF), an elite commando unit of the Sri Lankan security forces. The STF moved into the Thirukkovil hospital in early 1986.
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Opposition mounts to lifting of LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 January 2002, 01:54 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Sinhala right wing MEP, a constituent of the main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) are to jointly campaign against the de-proscription of the Liberation Tigers, The Island newspaper said Friday. The day after Sri Lanka’s newly elected United National Front (UNF) government said “deep thought” should be given to de-proscription, the JVP - the third force in Sri Lankan politics - said that they have initiated talks with the PA to oppose such a move, the paper added.
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SC orders compensation to woman raped at checkpoint

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 19:33 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to pay one hundred and fifty thousand rupees as compensation to a Tamil woman who was raped by three soldiers of the Sri Lanka army at a checkpoint in Maradane, near downtown Colombo on 24 June last year in a fundamental rights application filed by her. Tamil political parties launched protests in the north and east against her rape and the rape and torture of two young mothers in Police custody in Mannar and the general harassment of Tamil women at Sri Lankan security forces checkpoints. The protests culminated in a general one-day shutdown in the SLA held parts of the north and east.
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Kadirgamar's conduct in peace initiative suspect -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 17:17 GMT]
"When your own conduct in the matter of negotiations with the LTTE with the aid of Norwegian involvement is subject to grave suspicion, I would consider it quite imprudent that you cast aspersions on the other party (the LTTE) and think that you can get away with it", the Tamil National Alliance's parliamentary group leader Mr. R. Sampanthan told former Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, while addressing the Parliament Thursday during the special debate on the Prime Minister's policy statement Thursday. The TNA leader said President Chandrika Kumaratunga "missed the wood for the trees" when she resorted to the military option against the Tamils.
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Ex-garrison town schools await succour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 13:31 GMT]
More than forty schools in the Kilinochchi education zone were damaged by floods in the region during the recent monsoon, officials said. Most of these schools were functioning in temporary sheds as their permanent structures have been destroyed in heavy bombing and shelling since 1996 when the Sri Lanka army captured and garrisoned the town. Education officials said they have not received funds for repairs although damaged to the temporary shacks and partially destroyed buildings in which children study has been estimated at 5 million rupees (53,000 USD). The Liberation Tigers overran the large SLA garrison in Kilinochchi in September 1998.
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LTTE welcomes de-proscription moves

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2002, 13:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, Wednesday welcomed the Sri Lankan government's decision to review its proscription of the LTTE so as to pave the way for future negotiations with the organisation. Contacted by TamilNet over Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe's comments in Parliament Tuesday, Mr. Balasingham said the de-proscription of the LTTE was a long-standing impediment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. He also criticised comments by former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar urging the new government not to lift the ban on the LTTE.
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(Photographs) Tigers release 10 POWs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2002, 08:59 GMT]

Ms. Vishaka Dharmadasa, the leader of the organisation for women affected by the war, speaking to one of the released men at the LTTE's political wing office. (Photo:TamilNet)

The Liberation Tigers released 10 prisoners of war as a good will gesture towards strengthening the peace process with the United National Front government on Monday in the northern town of Kilinochchi.
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Norway works on permanent ceasefire draft

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 15:08 GMT]
A delegation of the Norwegian government Tuesday met the Liberation Tigersí chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, for another round of discussions regarding the formulation of a structured, mutually acceptable ceasefire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces, sources close to the LTTE told TamilNet.
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