Congressional briefing on SriLanka held

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2001, 17:14 GMT]
"A true and comprehensive peace cannot be achieved through armed conflict. To be clear -- no one can 'win' the war in Sri Lanka. Rather, the road to a true and genuine peace can only be achieved through good faith negotiations without pre-conditions. As an initial first step of goodwill by both sides to the conflict, an internationally monitored cease fire should be agreed to by the parties to the conflict and unconditional discussions on a comprehensive settlement should begin," said Rep. Gilman at a congressional briefing on Sri Lanka held in the committee room of the House International Relations Committee in Washington D.C. last Thursday. Gilman is Chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
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Trinco lawyers condemn Mannar rape

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2001, 15:04 GMT]
"Lawyers cannot be mere onlookers when injustices are done to civilians by law enforcement authorities," said the President of the Trincomalee Bar Association Mr.Arumugam Jegasothy presiding over the special meeting convened Tuesday morning to pass a resolution condemning the brutal and beastly crimes committed on two Tamil women in Mannar by law enforcement personnel when the victims were under their custody.
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10,000 Tamils rally at UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 21:23 GMT]
Over ten thousand Tamils rallied outside the United Nations building in Geneva on Monday calling for international pressure on Sri Lanka to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers and to support of the Tamil right to self-determination. Tamil expatriates converged from several European cities by special trains and busses to take part in the annual peace march through the main streets of Geneva to coincide with the occasion of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), organisers said.
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LTTE refutes "child soldiers" accusations

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 20:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday refuted allegations by Amnesty International that they had recruited young children as combatants, describing the accusations as "malicious". The LTTE does not recruit combatants under the age of seventeen, sources close to the Tigers quoting senior LTTE officials as saying Monday.
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Jaffna Municipal intrigues spill out

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 16:53 GMT]
A simmering dispute over the dismissal of 36 employees of the Jaffna Municipal Council’s (JMC) Health Department was turned into a political contest and intrigue between the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Monday in Jaffna town. More than three hundred employees of the JMC went in a procession Monday morning to the Nallur Kandasamy temple in support of the council’s administration. Another group of employees, mostly from the JMC’s health department, marched through the town against the council’s administration. They handed over copies of a memorandum listing their grievances and demands to the Jaffna district judge and the government agent. Later they sat in front of the JMC in a protest fast. The protestors are not demanding their reinstatement but want the TULF administration of the JMC dissolved.
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Government attitudes may contribute to rapes -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 20:39 GMT]
"It would be pertinent to raise the question as to whether pugnacious statements made by persons in high positions and the expressed determination of the Government to continue with the war, contributes towards the unleashing of brutality such as rape and torture on unarmed Tamil civilians particularly Tamil females. It would appear that some service personnel think that if a Tamil is implicated even falsely with the LTTE any crime can be committed against such Tamil person" said the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, in a letter to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge.
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Bishop protests Police, Navy rapes and murders

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2001, 03:08 GMT]
“The atrocities of the Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Mannar district are growing bad to worse daily. All my efforts to get the Sri Lanka Navy to respect the basic human rights of the people so affected by the prolonged war are proving futile. I have again appealed to the Commander General of the Sri Lankan Navy for redress in the name of the civil public of Mannar,” Rt.Rev. Rayappu Joseph Bishop of Mannar said in a statement issued Saturday.
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Tamil teachers urge Colombo to recognise self-determination

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2001, 13:56 GMT]
"We urge the Sri Lankan Government to find a permanent political solution to the ethnic problem by having peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with Norwegian facilitation. We also urge the Sri Lankan government to recognise the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a nation, the existence of an identified Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka and the self-determination of the Tamil people with the right to secede in order to prevent the division of the island" states a resolution unanimously passed at 27th annual convention of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union held Saturday morning in the Trincomalee St.Mary's College auditorium.
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Girl describes bizarre Police torture in SC petition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2001, 10:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court this week granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights petition of a Tamil girl from Kayts in Jaffna who says Policemen tortured her in detention by repeatedly inserting a plantain flower soaked in chilli powder into her vagina. The girl who is currently being held in the Negombo remand prison states in her petition to the Supreme Court that she was hung on a pole inserted between her thighs and arms which had been tied together below the knee and that he body was made to swing in that position; that she was hung from the roof and battered with a cudgel; that Policemen tortured her by pricking under her finger and toe nails with paper pins until she bled; that she was mercilessly assaulted with poles and wires and trampled with boots. The girl also states in her petition that although she had appealed to the Human Rights Commission and the Presidential Committee on Unlawful Arrests and Harassment, they had not taken any action regarding her predicament. The case was fixed for hearing on 7 June 2001.
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Batticaloa undergrads condemn state terrorism, rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 March 2001, 17:28 GMT]
More than a thousand students of the Eastern University in Batticaloa Friday staged a protest against the rape and torture of Sivamani and Wijikala, the two women who were tortured and raped in the custody of the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Sri Lankan Police in Mannar on 19 March. The student protestors condemned the attitude of the Women's rights groups in the north and east, which, according to them, deliberately choose to ignore the atrocities perpetrated on women like Ida Kamalitta, Koneswary, Sivamani and Wijikala.
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CTTU holds Annual Convention

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 March 2001, 02:44 GMT]
"There is no normalcy in the north and east. Hundred and thirteen schools have been closed down here as a consequence. There are army in camps schools in the north and east. More than hundred schools have to function in temporary sheds. Nevertheless, Tamil teachers are doing their duty with dedication amidst these adverse conditions.
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Jaffna Mayor condemns US ambassador's speech

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 17:46 GMT]
Jaffna Mayor Mr.N Raviraj, Thursday said at the monthly meeting of the Municipal Council that he strongly condemns the comments of the US ambassador Ashley Wills on the rights of the Tamils in his speech at the Jaffna public library on 7 March. The Mayor said that the people of Jaffna were very much angered by the US ambassador's attitude.
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SLA calls off battle for strategic road point

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 14:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Thursday afternoon called off a major operation to capture a strategic point between Eluthumadduval and Nagar Kovil in Jaffna's southeastern sector amidst heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers. The SLA launched the operation in the early hours of the morning around 3 a.m. Thursday to capture the Sudalaippiddi Pillaiyar Kovil area on the road linking the Eluthumadduval junction on the A9 and Nagar Kovil.
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Proscription list passes "all or none" debates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 March 2001, 10:16 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Britain's Home office Wednesday formally introduced the list of organisations proscribed under Britain's new Terrorism Act after the list was approved by the House of Lords. Some of the members, as in the House of Commons earlier this month, protested that they were not allowed to oppose the inclusion of individual organisation but could only support or oppose the entire list. Others said the list, which was debated for only an hour or two in each house had not been sufficiently discussed in depth.
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Southern courts prove safe ground in rights cases

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2001, 20:53 GMT]
"Members of armed forces who have been cited in Habeas Corpus applications or who have been indicted in criminal cases filed in the eastern courts adopt the ploy of seeking the transfer of cases for them to Colombo so as to dissuade the affected parties from actively pursuing the establishment of their rights" said a human rights activist in Colombo who did not want to be identified.
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Jaffna play slates 'philosophy of submission'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 17:11 GMT]
"The philosophy of compromise and submission is being forced upon us. The spectre of fear surrounds us, preventing us from speaking about the suffering in our land. We are frozen by fear. As a consequence, we have buried many things deep in our heart. .
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Eastern Tamils march against eviction

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 13:39 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil men and women of Linganagar, a settlement in Trincomalee town on land which the Sri Lanka army claims to own, marched through the streets of Trincomalee Sunday morning amidst tight security by armed police shouting slogans and carrying banners and placards demanding the government that they should be allowed to live on their land.
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Colombo's ceasefire intransigence censured

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2001, 16:22 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government can be no longer unconcerned with the safety and security and well being of the Tamil people, particularly when the other party to the conflict, the Liberation Tigers, has extended its unilateral ceasefire for another month. The safety, security and the well being of the Tamil people must no longer be subordinated to the exigencies of military strategies", Mr. R. Sampanthan, Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front told Tamilnet Saturday.
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CTTU speaks up for predicament of Vanni education

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 March 2001, 14:22 GMT]
An acute dearth for teachers, textbooks and furniture prevails in the schools of the Vanni region, irreparable damaging the educational development of the childrenî, Mr. T. Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) told Tamilnet Saturday, commenting on his official visit to the north last week. The majority of the students in Vanni schools sit on mats supplied by the UNICEF. Most of the teachers do not have chairs to sit and teach. They have to be on their feet from morning till closing time, according to him. Mr. Mahasivam was in the Vanni for a week to attend meetings of his trade union branches in the Liberation Tigers controlled region. He returned Friday.
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Vavuniya Pass violates fundamental right- Ilancheliyan

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2001, 18:30 GMT]
The Vavuniya district judge Mr. Manickavasagam Ilancheliyan ordered Police officers in charge of the checkpoints in Eeratpaeriyakulam and the town’s railway station Friday that they should forthwith stop sending back to persons, almost exclusively Tamils, from Colombo and other parts of the island on grounds that they do not have documents demanded by them or issuing such visitors passes that limit their stay only within Vavuniya. He told the Police that they have no authority in law to issue limited temporary residence passes to persons coming to Vavuniya from Colombo and other parts of the country or to refuse them permission to enter this northern border town. The judge pointed out in his order that there is no basis in law to issue to such passes.
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