Fisherfolk killed in Batticaloa amid SLA ban

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2001, 12:06 GMT]
A fisherman was killed Wednesday in shelling by the Sri Lanka army on Aalankulam, 36 kilometres north of Batticaloa. Nagamani Nagalingam, 25, father of one, was fishing in the Aalankulam reservoir around 1.30 p.m. when he was hit by mortar fire from the SLA camp in Navalady, 6 kilometres northwest of Valaichenai. The SLA imposed harsh restrictions on fishing in the district last month. A widow was shot dead by the SLA on Sunday, 30 September, while dredging for fish and prawns by the lagoon coast in Vavunathivu near Batticaloa town.
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Fears for displaced children

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2001, 19:13 GMT]
Several key officials of the North East Provincial Council (NEPC) Monday said that future of children of displaced people and refugees in welfare centers and orphanages in the Tamil dominated province is still uncertain due to the ongoing conflict. "The war is continuing resulting in the increase of refugees, displaced people and orphans," said Mr.S.M.Croos, Provincial Director of the Department of Social Welfare, presiding over the International Children's Day celebrations held Monday evening at Trincomalee Town Hall.
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Killing in Mutur raises 'homeguards scare' again

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2001, 18:28 GMT]
Fear prevails in the interior villages southeast of Mutur following a shooting on Friday night in which a civilian in Thanganagar was killed and another was wounded. Residents of Thanganagar said that Sinhala homeguards working with the Sri Lankan security forces in the Serunuwara Police division had shot the two men while they were watching TV at home. Sinhala homeguards massacred seven villagers on 2 October last year in the Thanganagar area. Tamil villagers in Thanganagar-Poonagar area said they fear that the homeguards may strike again.
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Police arrest Tamils in Colombo, Galle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2001, 12:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested more than forty Tamil civilians were arrested in Colombo and in the southern port town of Galle in search operations during the weekend. Twenty five were taken into custody in the capital and fifteen in Galle. “All the suspects are from the northeast province and are temporary residents. They are being interrogated for possible links with the Liberation Tigers,” Police sources said.
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Tamils ignored in promoting Principals -CTTU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2001, 12:13 GMT]
The Educational Services Board under the Ministry of Education has promoted 200 Principals to Grade One post. One of them is a Tamil from Nawalapitiya in the central province, another is a Muslim. The remaining 198 are Sinhalese. "Not a single Tamil medium Principal in the northeast province has got promotion. In fact about 850 vacancies exist in northeast Tamil medium schools. On the whole about 1,500 vacancies exist throughout the island for Tamil medium principals in all grades," said Mr.T.Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union.
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TULF undecided on no-confidence motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 19:38 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) has not yet signed the no-confidence motion against the People's Alliance government which is likely to be submitted afresh by main opposition, United National Party this week. "The central working committee of the TULF would meet shortly to take a decision whether to sign the no-confidence motion or not," said a leader of the party.
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Thileepan commemorated in areas under SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 16:43 GMT]
The commemoration of Thileepan, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers who fasted unto death on 26 September 1987, was observed Wednesday in many parts of the northeastern province of Sri Lanka which are under the control of the Sri Lankan army.
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LTTE condemns assassination of senior leader

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 13:09 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni Wednesday, strongly condemned the killing of one of its senior leaders, Colonel Shankar. The statement said the LTTE leadership "shares the Tamil people's outrage and treats the killing of a senior leader with utmost gravity."
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Award for senior Tamil journalists stopped

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 September 2001, 16:46 GMT]
Special awards for two senior Tamil journalists were cancelled on a directive by the Sri government, media sources said Tuesday. The North-eastern Provincial Council (NEPC) announced on 2 September that Mr.Ponnaiah Manikavasagam, the correspondent for the Tamil daily Thinakkural in Vavuniya and a regular contributor to the BBC and other international media, would receive the NEPC Governor's special journalism award for 2001. It also announced that Mr. Aiyathurai Nadesan, senior correspondent and political columnist for the Tamil daily Virakesari, would get an award for his book 'The history of the ethnic contradiction in Sri Lanka' published last year. The awards for the two senior Tamil journalists were stopped for political reasons, an official of the NEPC said.
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Tamil MPs walk out in protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 September 2001, 08:53 GMT]
The MPs of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) walked out in protest when the bill on the 17th amendment to Sri Lanka's constitution was presented by the Prime Minister in the Parliament Monday morning. Tamil parties are protesting that the government is rushing the 17th amendment according to the dictates of the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna by ditching the effort to find a solution to the ethnic problem. "For more than fifty years you did not take any interest in solving the Tamil question. If you continue to ignore our problem in this manner, a united Sri Lanka would soon be a thing of the past," said Selvam A. Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, addressing the house before walking out with other Tamil MPs.
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TULF to boycott 17th amendment debate

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 September 2001, 18:17 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front has decided to boycott the debate on 17 th amendment to constitution scheduled for Monday in parliament.A decision to this effect was taken Sunday at the central working committee of the TULF. "The TULF is of view that the proposals presented do not ensure the effective representation of the minority nationalities on the constitutional council, so as to guarantee an adequate and genuine participation on behalf of the minority nationalities in the deliberations and decision making processes of the council", said the Secretary General of the TULF Mr.R.Sampanthan in a statement issued at the conclusion of the central working committee of the TULF held Sunday evening.
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TULF should struggle for Tamil liberation -Mavai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2001, 18:46 GMT]
"The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) should transform itself into a movement that would struggle democratically for the Liberation of the Tamil people. The TULF should take forward the struggle for liberation that was begun by our leader S.J.V Chelvanayagam. We got a mandate from the Tamil people at the general elections in 1977 for establishing the separate state of Tamil Eelam. We have no moral right to ask the Liberation Tigers to give up their goal. We should begin a democratic people's struggle to achieve our liberation," said Mavai Senathirajah, MP for Jaffna, speaking at a seminar organised by the East Lanka Journalists' Association in Batticaloa Saturday.
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Massacre victims remembered in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 September 2001, 13:07 GMT]
Religious observances were held in Puthukudiyiruppu, 10 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Friday in remembrance of 17 men, women and children who were hacked to death allegedly by the Sri Lanka army soldiers on 21 September 1990. The Sri Lankan government has not made any effort so far to investigate the massacre. Several children escaped the massacre with machete and gunshot wounds. Nineteen civilians were killed here again on 5 December 1995, allegedly by the Special Task Force.
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TULF divided on 17 th amendment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 September 2001, 10:44 GMT]
The central working committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front is scheduled to meet on Sunday to decide on whether to support the 17th amendment to the constitution when the ruling People's Alliance and Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna jointly table the draft bill in parliament September 24. The rank and file of the TULF is reported to have divided on this issue, party sources said.
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Sinhala nationalists jeer peace supporters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 September 2001, 11:41 GMT]
Sinhala Nationalist protestors disrupted 'SriLankaFirst', a massive peace campaign organised by Sri Lanka's big businesses and major NGOs near downtown Colombo Wednesday. A procession of Sihala Urumauya (SU) activists and supporters that was on its way to the US Embassy to express solidarity with the American government jeered and insulted people who were holding hands in the 'SriLankaFirst' peace campaign near the city hall in Colombo.
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World Bank questions Jaffna development

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:51 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Ahead of the visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday by a World Bank team intending to study the government’s poverty alleviation plans, its local Director slammed the activities in Jaffna of the Ministry of Northern Development. Dr. Mariana Todorova says that whilst almost two thousand people are being employed there by the Ministry, not one person has actually benefited from its activities. The Ministry is headed by Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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SLA penetratiom group strikes again in east

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:38 GMT]
A member of the communications wing of the Liberation Tigers was killed in a claymore blast set off by a deep penetration team of the Sri Lanka army in the hinterland west of the Batticaloa town Monday around 4.30 p.m. paramilitary sources in the eastern town said. Since June this year, SLA deep penetration teams have killed two members of the Liberation Tigers inside the western hinterland of the Batticaloa district. The LTTE controls 90 percent of the district’s western sector. The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa say that they have recovered 37 claymore mines set up by the SLA inside areas under their control since 15 June.
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Seventeenth amendment proving difficult

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 September 2001, 19:15 GMT]
The first meeting of Sri Lanka's newly sworn in Cabinet, described in political circles as crucial in the context of the proposed 17th amendment to the constitution, is scheduled for Tuesday. The urgency has been attributed to the disagreement brewing between the ruling People's Alliance and main opposition United National Party over the proposed amendment.
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Human rights seminar spotlights victims' sufferings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 September 2001, 21:10 GMT]
Speakers at the human rights seminar held Saturday in Trincomalee appealed to the SriLankan Government that provincial high courts be allowed to hear and determine violations cases filed by victims of torture and illegal arrests.
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Two Dvoras sunk, two damaged in clash

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 September 2001, 19:53 GMT]
Two Dvora gunboats of the Sri Lanka Navy were sunk and another two heavily damaged in day long fighting off the seas of Point Pedro, official LTTE sources told TamilNet Sunday. The Dvoras were protecting a Sri Lankan troop ship which was also damaged in the attack, the sources said. Ten Sea Tigers, including four Black Tigers were killed along with at least fifteen Sri Lankan sailors, the sources said.
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