Fear of reprisal silences Trinco torture victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 18:56 GMT]
"Thirty to forty torture victims in Trincomalee district seek medical and psychological treatment every month. There are over five hundred torture victims in the Trincomalee district who do not get proper physical and psychological treatment", said Dr.E.Gnanakunalan, Deputy Director of Health Services in the Northeast Provincial Ministry of Health, addressing a seminar on torture victims held Friday morning at the New Silver Star Hotel in the eastern port town.
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Tigers say discussing Norway ceasefire proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 09:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers, in an official statement released in the Vanni Friday, slammed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister for claiming that an agreement had been reached between the two sides. “It is premature and irresponsible on the part of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to falsely project to the world media that an agreement has been reached,” the Tigers said. However the movement also said “substantial progress” had been made on the Norwegian Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) after intense discussions for a considerable time with the Norwegian facilitators. The LTTE said Norway had Wednesday suggested a programme for bilateral cessation of hostilities which the movement said was “constructive” proposal, but which requires “further clarifications and discussions before final agreement.”
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Emergency and PTA promote torture - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 20:50 GMT]
"No self respecting Tamil will vote for the extension of the Emergency and its regulations. The Tamil people have been denied their fundamental right of freedom from torture for more than 25 years. The Sri Lankan security forces behave as though no Tamil has this fundamental right which is guaranteed to every citizen of this country in the constitution. Can you tell me how many Tamils were not subjected to torture in custody? The most pernicious methods of torture are practiced on the Tamils by the security forces today. Therefore I ask: are the Tamils citizens of this country or should they determine their own citizenship?" asked 'Selvam' A. Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), speaking in Parliament Thursday on the vote to extend the state of Emergency.
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Balasingham denies agreement reached, expresses surprise

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 18:38 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday expressed surprise and concern at the Sri Lankan government's statement suggesting that agreement had been reached between the two sides on several matters. When contacted about the statement issued by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar Thursday, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's chief negotiator, emphatically denied that agreement had been reached on any matters and expressed surprise at Sri Lanka's statement, describing it as "recklessly premature" and "factually incorrect"
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SLMC slates government for Mawanella pogrom

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 17:26 GMT]
Mr. Rauff Hakeem, the co-leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the ruling People's Alliance's main coalition partner, Thursday slammed the government for not taking prompt action to stop the mass violence by Sinhala mobs against the Muslims of Mawanella. He accused the government of dragging its feet in taking action against the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim violence. He charged that transferring Policemen who were in Mawanella during the pogrom against the Muslims of the town was merely a temporary cosmetic measure.
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Colombo bans public processions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 07:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government banned all public processions for a week under the Emergency Regulations Thursday. An official statement said that the ban commenced midnight of 9 May. The ban was promulgated in the Emergency Regulation No. 1 of 2001 (public precessions), according to the statement.
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Bilateral cease-fire mooted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 17:12 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy, Mr.Erik Solheim Wednesday met the Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator, and political advisor Mr.Anton Balasingham in London, for lengthy discussions. They discussed a feasibility of working out a bilateral cessation of hostility between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to facilitate the peace process.
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Fire-fight amid Vesak gloom in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2001, 12:12 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier was killed and one was wounded in a fire-fight with the Liberation Tigers at Kommathurai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa town, Tuesday night around 8 p.m. Fighting broke out when SLA troops lying in ambush by a crossing point between the district's large hinterland controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the coast dominated by the army opened fire upon detecting the movement of armed persons.
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Salli-sustaining the will to survive against odds

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 May 2001, 15:06 GMT]
Salli is an old coastal village on the northern side of the Trincomalee Bay. Like hundreds of other Tamil villages in Sri Lanka's north and east, Salli is a shadow of its former self. Last week the Sri Lanka Navy, which has ringed the village with four camps, ordered civilians here to stay indoors after 6 p.m.
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Armed guards for Vesak lantern

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2001, 20:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers arrested five Tamils Monday morning in a cordon and search operation at Faizal Nagar in Kinniya Division, 15-km northwest of Trincomalee town. The arrested Tamils are said to be inmates of a refugee camp at Faizal Nagar where a large number of Tamil families displaced from Upparu village in 1998 live.
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Bravery awards after SLA rout

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 20:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week saluted their units which participated in the rout of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive in the southern Jaffna peninsula two weeks ago, official LTTE sources said Sunday. The special award for bravery was awarded to the men and women who had defeated a three pronged assault by fifteen thousand SLA soldiers backed by artillery, naval gunboats and air power, they said.
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Tamil journalists slam draconian laws

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 May 2001, 15:00 GMT]
"The Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act are laws designed specifically to oppress the Tamil people", said Mr. P. Manickavasagam, the President of the Tamil Media Alliance, addressing a meeting in Batticaloa organised Sunday by the East Lanka Journalist Association to mark the World Press Freedom Day. "The Amnesty International has said in its report that the Eelam People's Democratic Party is suspected in the murder of Jaffna journalist Maylvaganam Nimalarajan.
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Talaimannar refuses to yield

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 May 2001, 20:20 GMT]
(News Feature) Two decades ago Talaimannar was a prosperous town. The only ferry service between India and Sri Lanka operated from here, carrying thousands of passengers from Talaimannar pier to Rameswaram in South India. One could buy a railway ticket to India from any part of the island and take the train to board the ferry at Talaimannar for the short journey across the Palk Strait. Today less than hundred and fifty families live in the Talaimannar pier.
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Sri Lanka said blocking Malaysia conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 May 2001, 00:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar has intervened to disrupt an academic conference in Malaysia which was to discuss the Sri Lankan conflict, a columnist in a Malaysian news website said Thursday. "[Mr. Kadirgamar] made a personal call to one of the [Malaysian] government ministers and urged him to cancel the conference," Professor P. Ramasamy wrote in an article published by Malaysia Kini.com. Academic sources in Malaysia contacted about the article told TamilNet that both Sinhala and Tamil delegates had been invited to attend.
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Attacks shatter Mawanella Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 May 2001, 15:44 GMT]
Two mosques, sixty houses, forty shops and two Muslim owned fuel stations were burnt down Wednesday by mobs in the town of Mawanella, said Mr. Ali Sahir Moulana, a Muslim opposition Parliamentarian Thursday. He said that Sinhala mobs had carried out the attacks with the aim of destroying the basis of the Muslim people's economy in Mawanella. The town is on the main highway between Kandy and Colombo in the Kegalle district and is predominantly Muslim. Mr.Moulana said that the Sri Lankan government should take full responsibility for the attack on the Muslims in Mawanella and its environs.
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Fear rules Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 May 2001, 10:23 GMT]
"Human rights abuses are frequent and widespread in Mannar. The ordinary people here have experienced so much terror that they have got no idea now that they have the right to even live," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP for Vanni, describing situation in Mannar Wednesday.
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Sri Lanka's radical Marxists stage massive rally

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 19:55 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty thousand members and supporters of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lanka's radical Marxist party, took part in a massive May Day rally Tuesday in Colombo.
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LTTE accuses Sri Lanka of undermining peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 09:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Tuesday accused the Government of Sri Lanka of attempting to undermine the peace environment by its irrational and dangerous policy of war and military conquest. "By unleashing a major military offensive against the LTTE's positions in Jaffna, Kumaratunga government has seriously jeopardised the Norwegian peace initiative", the statement said.
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Canadian HC meets Thamil Chelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 May 2001, 04:21 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Tuesday that the Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ms. Ruth Archibald, had discussions with the leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S.P Thamil Chelvan, last evening from 5.30 p.m. in the Vanni. "The Sri Lankan government and its army are now only keen on military action. This is harming Tamil civilians", Mr. Thamil Chelvan told the Canadian High Commissioner, the radio said. The VOT said that the long discussion between the Canadian High Commissioner and the LTTE's political wing leader was very "constructive".
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Revenge fire, bombing force 5000 to flee

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 April 2001, 20:38 GMT]
More than five thousand civilians fled their homes in Pooneryn north following heavy shelling and bombing, aid agency sources in the north said Monday. They said that Sri Lanka Air Force jets bombed the area since Friday. The Sri Lanka army had fired mortars and artillery on civilian settlements in the northern parts of Pooneryn. The attacks are in retaliation to the heavy losses sustained by the SLA in the Agni Khiela I Operation last week, sources in Jaffna said.
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