Opposition submits no confidence motion against the govt.

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 June 2001, 07:03 GMT]
A motion of no confidence against the ruling People's Alliance government, signed by 97 MPs was handed over to the speaker of the house Friday morning. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said it is confident of defeating the government.
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Tamil parties sign no confidence motion

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 June 2001, 13:28 GMT]
Three Tamil parties in Sri Lanka’s Parliament signed the no confidence motion against the ruling People’s Alliance government in Sri Lanka Thursday. The Tamil United Liberation Front, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress which together have nine seats in the legislature. However, a spokesman for the radical Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna which has ten seats, and hence holds the key to the numbers manoeuvring in the Sri Lankan Parliament, said Thursday that it would announce its decision on Saturday.
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Sri Lanka govt. faces collapse as Muslims leave

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 June 2001, 09:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance regime is facing collapse following the decision of its main coalition partner, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Wednesday to pull out of the government. The SLMC decision is the culmination of a month long crisis sparked by a pogrom against Muslims in the provincial town of Mawanella. The Sri Lankan President sacked Mr. Rauff Hakeem, the co-leader of the SLMC and Minister for Internal and Internal Commerce from the cabinet last night.
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Protests as Janaka Pereraís appointment proceeds

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 June 2001, 16:03 GMT]
(News Feature) Hundreds of Tamils protested outside Australia's Parliament Monday over the government's acceptance of a Sri Lanka Army General accused of human rights violations as Colombo's High Commissioner to Canberra. Amnesty International also voiced its opposition, but Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his Sri Lankan counterpart, Lakshman Kadirgamar, had given his "personal assurance" that Major General Retd.) Janaka Perera is a "suitable and worthy appointment."
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Batticaloa gets 'Writing on the wall'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 June 2001, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers nonchalantly pass by the large writings on the wall in Vathaarumoolai, 19 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The attitude surprises visitors and locals alike because these are larger than life graffiti of the Liberation Tigers which began appearing since early last month in many parts of the Batticaloa district's coastal region which is controlled by the Sri Lankan security forces. Some have been sprayed very close to army camps on Batticaloa coastal highway.
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Australian ICJ considers Tamil plight

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2001, 15:56 GMT]
The Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has suggested to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London and the Australian Foreign Minister to include the Sri Lankan ethnic issue on the Commonweal Heads of Government meeting scheduled to be held in Brisbane in October this year, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front Member of Parliament of the Batticaloa district told Tamilnet Saturday. He said that Hon. Justice John Dowd, President of the International Commission of Jurists (Australian Section) has informed him of the development.
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ICRC war surgery seminar in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 June 2001, 21:10 GMT]
"Since its establishment 138 years ago, the main goal of the ICRC has been to assist and protect, as a neutral intermediary, the victims of armed conflict. The ICRC bases its mandate on rules of international humanitarian law, the rules of war, which it has helped to develop and promote, and which have culminated in the four Geneva conventions and their Additional Protocols. The Geneva Conventions have been ratified by 189 states (including Sri Lanka) , which makes these humanitarian provisions the most widely recognised body of international law" said the head of Delegation, ICRC Colombo, Ms. Isabelle Barras, in her welcome address at the 2-day 'seminar on War Surgery' which opened in Colombo Friday.
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Judge slams PTA, ER laws

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2001, 21:16 GMT]
"The Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations restrict the human rights enshrined in the 1978 Constitution of the country. Human rights violations occur daily in some way or other," said Mr.T.L.O.Manaf, Trincomalee Additional District Judge addressing a one-day workshop on Human Rights Thursday, organized by the Eastern Rehabilitation Organization under the sponsorship of the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka.
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Call for permanent UN rights office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 June 2001, 11:17 GMT]
"The report of the Presidential Commission that inquired into the disappearances taken place in the northeast of country is still in the cupboard. We do not know when that report will be implemented. Justice delayed is justice denied" said Attorney-at-Law Kasinathar Sivapalan, and a human rights activist, presiding over a function held in Trincomalee on Tuesday to publish the Tamil edition of the Human Development Report-2000, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
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Damage control as peace process hits the rocks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 June 2001, 05:15 GMT]
(News Feature) The bi-lateral decision by Norway and Sri Lanka last Thursday, at the latter's insistence, to reduce the prominence of Oslo's peace envoy, Erik Solheim, has delivered an unexpected and severe blow to the Liberation TigersÇ confidence in the Norwegian initiative, political analysts said Monday. Sri Lanka's state-media Monday strove to give the impression that the process was still on track, but the LTTE's strongly worded statement Sunday and sentiments being expressed by Tamil politicians and media emphasised the depth of the crisis, they said.
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Jaffna hospital a human shield - doctors

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"The Jaffna hospital has been a human shield since 1996. As such the use of some of its buildings and passages is still prohibited. Our reasonable request to remove the Sri Lanka army camp near the Jaffna hospital in consideration of the safety of its patients and staff and to declare it and its environs as a demilitarised zone under the supervision of the ICRC has not been heeded until this day", said Medical officers in Jaffna who went on a protest strike along with their colleagues in the north and east of Sri Lanka Monday.
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Resident pass restrictions afflict Trinco too

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 June 2001, 19:01 GMT]
"The Police exert pressure on Tamil persons who temporarily reside in Trincomalee town to return to their own areas when they go to police stations to renew their resident permits every month", said Mr. Soosaipillai Jesuthasan, Secretary of the Trincomalee District Refugees' Welfare Association speaking at a meeting between representatives of non-governmental organizations in Trincomalee and Mr.Selvakumaran, an official of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Monday.
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'Tamils made to accept terror as normal'- Dean

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2001, 20:38 GMT]

>Dr. Yuvaraj Thangarajah, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the Eastern University. (TamilNet Library Photo)

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LTTE "displeasure" over "unilateral" changes in facilitator's role

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 June 2001, 08:15 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sunday expressed its "displeasure" over what it said was Sri Lanka's "unilateral initiative to change the role and function of the Norwegian peace envoy, Erik Solheim." The LTTE said the government had sought to remove Solheim because of his "impeccable neutrality, a rare quality that was viewed with suspicion and apprehension in Sri Lankan political discourse." In a strongly worded statement from its Vanni headquarters, the movement also said "the facilitatory process in peace making is not an exercise in inter-governmental relations; it involves tripartite relations between the facilitator and the parties in conflict," and observed that "[Norway's] bi-lateral decision with the government of Sri Lanka, circumventing the other party in conflict entails a breach of protocol and neutrality."
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Vavuniya quota fuels less vehicles, more corruption

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 June 2001, 10:24 GMT]
The restrictions on the issue of fuel to the public in the Sri Lanka army controlled areas of the Vavuniya region is contradictory to the principles of governance and therefore should be removed forthwith, said the Union of Christian Churches in Vavuniya in a letter addressed to Major General S.H.Shantha Kottegoda, Commander of the Security Forces in Vanni this week.
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MP slams Sri Lanka's judicial system

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 June 2001, 21:31 GMT]
"In Sri Lanka the Tamil people are denied the exercise of their sovereignty through the judicial system because fundamentally it is made to work against them. The security forces and the laws of the land are meant to protect the people. But in Sri Lanka the law is harnessed only to protect the security forces. .
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SLA bid to relocate Trinco IDPs opposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2001, 06:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces told government officials in Trincomalee to transfer over 1500 internally displaced Tamil persons from Alles Garden refugee camp to Kuchchaveli, 38 kilometres north of Trincomalee town. "The security forces in Trincomalee have taken this step to ensure the security of army and navy camps in the area", a government official said.
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Mannar rape and torture suspects score one

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 21:11 GMT]
The Mannar judge M.H.M Ajmeer instructed the Superintendent of the Anuradhapura prison that the 14 Police and Sri Lanka Navy personnel accused in the rape and torture of two women in Mannar on 19 March need not be produced in court Wednesday following an interim order by the Court of Appeal, legal sources said Tuesday.
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ICRC transfers bodies of LTTE killed by STF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 11:35 GMT]
The bodies of 11 Liberation Tigers who were killed Monday in an attack by Special Task Force commandos in Kanjikudichcha Aaru, 84 kilometres south of Batticaloa, were handed over to the ICRC Tuesday Mr.Harasha Gunawardene, the press officer of the ICRC in Colombo told Tamilnet. All the bodies were transferred to the LTTE today, he said. He added that the body of a Tiger trooper was handed over to the LTTE Monday.
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Six troopers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 06:15 GMT]
Six soldiers were killed and ten were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a Sri Lanka army patrol around 8 a.m. Tuesday at Kaavathamunai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldiers were from the 23-2 brigade in the Valaichenai Paper Mills. A Muslim civilian was killed and 15 were wounded in the village of Kaavathamunai in retaliatory shelling from the 23-2 brigade camp. Kaavathamunai is a Muslim village near Valaichenai.
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