Tigers hand over more SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 April 2001, 06:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers handed over 26 bodies of Sri Lanka army soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kilinochchi Sunday morning, ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunwardena told Tamilnet. This brings the total bodies of SLA personnel handed over by the Tigers to the ICRC to 56. The Tigers handed over the bodies of 30 government troopers Saturday morning.
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Offensive routed, over 2400 SLA casualties - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in statement issued from their international headquarters in the Vanni Saturday afternoon said that the Sri Lankan army was pushed back to its original position in the early hours of the morning today. The statement said that the SLA’s 55, 52 Divisions and the elite 53 special forces Division, suffered more than 2400 casualties in ferocious counter offensives by the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers. “LTTE commando units have started clearing the area, about 2 square kilometres, vacated by the army in the Eluthumadduval sector, in southern Jaffna. Decomposing bodies of soldiers and their weapons are scattered everywhere in the area, according to LTTE field commanders”, the statement said.
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LTTE hands over bodies of SLA to ICRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 11:27 GMT]
"Thirty bodies of SLA soldiers were handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross by the Liberation Tigers in the Vanni region Saturday morning", ICRC spokesman Harasha Gunawardene told TamilNet.
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Vesak should be day of mourning - eastern students

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 12:52 GMT]
Eastern university undergraduates and teachers demonstrated Friday urging the people of Batticaloa to observe the Buddhist Vesak festival as a day of mourning. Thirteen people, including nine children from an orphanage, were shot dead by Sri Lanka army soldiers in Batticaloa town during the Vesak festival on 17 May last year following a blast. The SLA sought an apology for the massacre from the people of Batticaloa in January this year, blaming a drunken commanding officer for ordering troops to open fire on civilians. Meanwhile, the SLA warned civilians in Batticaloa Friday not to move about near its camps and positions in the district after dark. The army increased search operation in the eastern town this week.
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"Fierce fighting continues in southern Jaffna" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 16:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in press release issued from their headquarters in the Vanni Thursday evening that fierce fighting continues in southern Jaffna. "More than 300 Sri Lankan army soldiers were killed and over 1200 injured in the ferocious fighting that continues for the second day in the southern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. The Government troops have suffered massive casualties as the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers offered stiff and determined resistance to the offensive assault launched by the Sri Lankan army", the statement said.
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Tigers step up counter fire on SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 13:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers directed heavy mortar and artillery counter barrages on the positions the SLA is trying to consolidate in the Muhamalai-Eluthumadduval sector in Jaffna Thursday. Civilian flights from Jaffna to Colombo operated by a company owned by the Sri Lanka Air Force was cancelled Thursday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. Passengers who went to board the AN-28 at the Palaly military base this afternoon were turned back. "The SLAF is in urgent need of more flights for casualty evacuation and logistical runs", a member of a Tamil group working with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna said. The state owned Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation called on civilians Thursday morning to donate blood for the wounded soldiers. Hospital sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 1100 wounded SLA soldiers have been flown out of Jaffna for treatment in civilian hospitals in the southern parts of the island, including the capital.
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ICRC outlines work in war zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
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Thamil Chelvan, Bishops discuss peace prospects

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:03 GMT]
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.S.P Thamil Chelvan Wednesday welcomed the delegation of Sri Lanka's catholic Bishops who are on a peace mission in the Vanni Wednesday, church sources said. Mr. Thamil Chelvan met the bishops for two hours in Mallavi, they added. The Catholic Bishops are on a mission to the Vanni to discuss prospects for bringing about a peaceful settlement to Sri Lankaís ethnic conflict.
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Trinco NGOs object to chauvinist official

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 10:13 GMT]
A spokesman for Non Government Organisations in Trincomalee said Wednesday that the instruction issued by the Governor of the Northeastern province Maj.Gen. (Ret.) Asoka Jayawardena that all NGO in this eastern district should not function without the Government Agent's authority is a step to restrict and interfere in their activities under the guise of monitoring their rehabilitation and development works. "The Sri Lankan government has generally neglected reconstruction, rehabilitation and development work for more than a decade in the Tamil areas of the district. The NGOs have tried to fill this gap in a very limited way despite restrictions on their work. Getting the GA, whose Sinhala chauvinist proclivities are only too well known, to supervise our work is an insidious tactic to further undermine the Tamil areas of Trincomalee", added the spokesman.
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SL Govt. insensitive to Tamil agony - Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2001, 11:29 GMT]
“The Tamil people have totally lost faith in the Sri Lankan government. The Liberation Tigers observed a ceasefire unilaterally for four months because they felt that the Tamil people should not continue to suffer and to create a climate conducive for Norway’s peace efforts. By rashly rejecting their ceasefire and stubbornly refusing to reciprocate it, the government displayed its gross insensitivity to the agony of the Tamil people”, said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, in a comment sent to the Tamil press Tuesday.
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Tamil schools don't get computers

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 20:07 GMT]
"Tamil medium national schools in the northeast province have not been supplied with computers and printers although the Ministry of Education has long since distributed them to national schools in other parts of the country", said the President of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Mr.S.Thandayuthapani. "The computers and printers were promised last year and teachers were trained for handling them. We have got nothing so far despite several appeals," he added.
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Tigers say Colombo bent on war, call off ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 14:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, stated that the organisation had decided not to extend its unilaterally declared cease-fire that expires at midnight on the 24th April 2001. "We are compelled to make this painful decision as a consequence of the hard-line, intransigent attitude of the Sri Lankan government which has not only refused to reciprocate positively to our peace gesture but intensified land, sea and air attacks causing heavy casualties on our side. It has become impossible to contain the military assaults of the enemy with our self-restrained defensive tactics without resorting to counter-offensive operations. Under such dangerous conditions we can no longer sustain our self-imposed truce which the enemy has been exploiting to its own military advantage", the LTTE's statement said.
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Colombo set on war path say Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 15:52 GMT]
Tamil party leaders Sunday strongly condemned statements made by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, that the war against the Liberation Tigers has begun and that his government will not declare a ceasefire again. “ The Prime minister’s pronouncement on Friday makes it amply clear that the Sri Lankan government is not interested in peace negotiations at all. The PM is a confidante of the President. His renewed belligerence shows that the government is on the war path again”, charged a spokesman for the alliance of ten Tamil parties.
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STF assaults widow for reporting sexual harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 11:17 GMT]
A widow who reported sexual harassment a group Special Task Force (STF) commandos was severely assaulted by them and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital Sunday morning. The woman, Mahendran Nageswary, 37, Saturday complained to an officer at the STF’s main camp at Karaithivu, 46 kilometres south of Batticaloa, that a group of STF commandos from Kaluwanchikudy were harassing her. The woman was beaten up by the STF personnel who had been intimidating when she returned home Saturday evening. The commandos beat up woman’s son too when he had tried to help his mother who had fallen on the ground unconscious, hospital sources said.
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Little hope for resettling Tamil villages in Trinco

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 21:00 GMT]
"Wild animals are roaming in many abandoned Tamil villages in the Trincomalee district. Entire populations of these were forced to flee their homes due to military actions more than fifteen years ago. Around five thousand displaced are still living in fifteen welfare centers and the rest are living with their relatives in Trincomalee town. Several Tamil villages in the district, particularly in the Kuchchaveli division, are without basic facilities such as schools, and dispensaries. There is little hope that any funds for development would be allocated to such areas by the District Co-ordinating Committee because there aren't any Tamil MP's on it", said a senior Sri Lankan government official in Trincomalee Sunday.
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Trinco citizens call for UNHRC presence

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 16:49 GMT]
“The presence of the Geneva based United Nations Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka should be made a reality to monitor crimes against innocent Tamils, especially women, by members of Armed Forces who are almost 100 percent Sinhalese”, states a memorandum sent to several international human rights organizations Friday by leading citizens of Trincomalee.
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US urged to pressure Sri Lanka over talks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 23:09 GMT]
The United States should pressure the Sri Lankan government to cease its war and seek negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) urged a visiting senior US official Thursday. "It is impossible to seek peace while the government insists on continuing the war," Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Secretary General of the TULF told Mr. Adolfo Franco, Counsel for the International Relations Committee of the US Congress, who is in Colombo meeting political leaders with regards to the Norwegian peace efforts.
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Tigers slam wounding of US journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 13:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday condemned the wounding Monday of an American journalist by Sri Lanka Army troops who opened fire on Marie Colvin's party as "an act of cowardice" and praised the correspondent's bravery in crossing into the Vanni to examine the situation there for herself. Ms. Colvin had crossed the lines back into government-held territory with the hope the SLA would honour its unilateral New-Year truce, the LTTE said in a statement issued in the Vanni.
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Batticaloa shuts down for 'Annai' Poopathi anniversary

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Shops, government offices and businesses were closed Thursday in the Batticaloa district to mark the 13th anniversary of Poopathy Kanapathipillai, the woman who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 during a month long mass protest against atrocities committed by the Indian army in the northern and eastern parts of the island at the time. Few people and fewer vehicles were on the roads. Special Task Force (STF) commandos forced shops to open in Kaluwanchikudi, 24 kilometers north of Batticaloa, sources said.
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Sinhala nationalists support Mannar rape accused

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2001, 20:16 GMT]
The former officer in charge of the Mannar Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) N.P.N.Suraweera who is accused of torturing and sexually assaulting two women in custody on 19 March filed a petition Wednesday in the court of appeal that the case against him should be heard in Colombo and not in the district court of Mannar. The Sinhala nationalist politician lawyer Mr. S.L Gunasekera appeared for the Police officer. Suraweera said in his petition that the two women were not raped in custody and that they started saying so only after the Mannar Bishop who, according to him, has close links with the Liberation Tigers visited them on 27 March.
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