Youth shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 16:27 GMT]
A youth was shot dead by the Sri Lanka army in Nanthaavil, north of Jaffna town Friday morning. SLA sources told Tamilnet that the youth was shot near the checkpoint at the Amman temple in Nanthaavil. The area was searched by the SLA following the incident.
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Demonstration against British ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 February 2001, 12:53 GMT]
A big demonstration was held in Kokkadichcholai in the Batticaloa district on Friday urging the British government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the Terrorism Act and demanding the Sri Lankan government to begin negotiations with the Tigers. The protesters also burnt effigies of Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime MinisterRatansiri Wickremanayake, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte and Foreign Minister Luxman Kadirgamar said sources.
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UNP wants to know, Chandrika says opportunism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 February 2001, 17:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party said Thursday that the government should keep it informed of the Norway mediated effort to begin negotiations with the Liberation Tigers. Addressing a press conference in Colombo this afternoon, Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of the United National Party (UNP) said that the government was bound to do so under a bilateral agreement brokered by the British in 1997. During a phone in program Thursday evening on a state run TV channel, the Sri Lankan President dismissed the UNP’s claim, pointing out that the opposition leader did not abide by the terms of the agreement in the past unless it suited him.
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Court provides language reprieve to Tamil defendants

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 21:19 GMT]
The Trincomalee Magistrate on Wednesday instructed the Police to file plaints and issue summons in Tamil language in cases filed against Tamil speaking people. Mr.S.Thiagendran, Magistrate and Additional District Judge made this order when an Attorney-at-Law pointed out to him that his Tamil client had received summons in Sinhala language, contrary to the Section 44 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1979.
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Over 18,000 arrested under ER, PTA in 2000

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:54 GMT]
(News Feature) More than 18000 persons, mostly Tamils, were arrested under the draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) last year said a senior human rights worker in Colombo Wednesday.
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US security officials, ambassador visit Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 February 2001, 20:37 GMT]
The US ambassador for Sri Lanka, Ashley Wills, visited Batticaloa Wednesday with the mission’s Defence Attaché and its Regional Security Officer. The US embassy delegation held a two-hour discussion with SLA officers at the headquarters of the 23-3 brigade in Batticaloa town about the security situation in the district. The delegation also met Air Force and Police officers of the region thereafter. The ambassador later called on Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa. Security was tightened in places the US delegation was expected to visit in the town.
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Administrative devices said undermining Tamil areas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2001, 07:18 GMT]
Eechchilampattu, an agricultural region in the southern interior of the Trincomalee district, remains acutely underdeveloped because discriminatory administrative policies aimed at keeping it under the Seruvila local government body, local civil society activists said. Mr.S.Gunanayagam, a Justice of Peace and former chairman of the Kaddaiparichchan Village Council told TamilNet that the interior roads of the region are dilapidated or unusable and that there has been no local development work here for almost a decade because the Sinhala dominated Seruvila Pradeshiya Sabha refuses to allocate any funds for Eechchilampattu. "This is a general strategy adopted by Sinhala bureaucrats to undermine several isolated Tamil administrative units in the northern and eastern parts of the island", Mr. Gunanayagam said.
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British ban will scuttle peace process - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 February 2001, 09:19 GMT]
The proscription of the Liberation Tigers by Britain would “seriously undermine” the ongoing Norwegian peace initiative, the LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said this week in an interview to the Tamil Guardian newspaper. “A serious indictment of one party by Britain as ‘terrorists’ at this stage would be considered as a partisan intervention in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and therefore destroy trust in the Norwegian peace initiative,” Balasingham told the London based weekly.
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Kilinochchi schools face acute teacher shortage

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2001, 10:00 GMT]
Tamil schools in Kilinochchi district with an attending student population of 34,300 is short of 970 teachers, said P. Ariyaratnam, Director of Education, Kilinochchi, yesterday when speaking as Chief Guest at the price giving ceremony at Bharathi Vidyalayam. He added that Sri Lankan Government's unwillingness to make timely appointments is one of the reasons for the present staff shortage.
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Jaffna, Batticaloa students lobby against UK ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2001, 15:23 GMT]
Jaffna university students have organised a signature-campaign to urge the British Government not to proscribe the Liberation Tigers under its new anti-terrorism legislature, said student sources. The campaign, which began on Friday, is a part of 'Pongu Thamil' (Tamil Upsurge), the sources said.
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Fishermen arrested in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2001, 15:17 GMT]
At least twenty-five Tamil youths are reported to have been arrested by Sri Lanka Navy personnel in the north-western Mannar district between 1 and 5 February. Their relatives have complained to the International Committee of the Red Cross that naval authorities have failed inform them where they are being held.
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Peace hopes dim as Sri Lanka hardens stance

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2001, 22:43 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge hardened her stance on the island's ethnic conflict Sunday, dismissing the Liberation Tigers' extended unilateral ceasefire as "meaningless" and insisting the war would only be stopped when negotiations "progressed satisfactorily," dashing hopes amongst Tamil political parties of possible peace talks between the government and the LTTE.
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February 4, a day of mourning - student body

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 February 2001, 14:49 GMT]
Tamil people must observe 4th of February, Sri Lanka's Independence day, as a day of mourning, said Student's Freedom Front, in a leaflet distributed today in Batticaloa. "It is the day when rights were denied to Tamil people, when national aspirations of Tamils were denied and when Tamil people lost their freedom and reduced to slave status," the leaflet further said.
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Batticaloa University appeals over possible UK ban

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 February 2001, 12:00 GMT]
Hundreds of students, and members of the academic and non-academic staff of the Eastern University in Batticaloa picketed Thursday urging the British Government not proscribe the Liberation Tigers under the new Terrorism Act. The protest was also in support of the Tamil people's right to self determination, organisers said.
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SLA tenders qualified apology as officer retires

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2001, 21:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Batticaloa town Wednesday tendered a qualified public apology for massacring hundreds innocent civilians of this eastern district in the past in a handbill and over loud hailers. The SLA handbill, among other things, states "on some occasions people had to be murdered on the orders of certain commanders".
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Chavakachcheri not suitable for resettling -Mayor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 January 2001, 17:15 GMT]
The conditions in Chavakachcheri are not suitable for resettling people although the government and some parties are attempting to do so, said Jaffna Mayor N.Raviraj, returning from a tour arranged by the Sri Lanka army Wednesday. The SLA's 51-2 brigade commander accompanied the mayor, Mr.V.Anandasangaree, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Jaffna and Mr. S.Aravinthan, member of the Jaffna Municipal Council (TULF).
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PM invokes Ruhuna ethos for SLA recruiting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2001, 16:49 GMT]
A program to recruit ten thousand youth to the Sri Lanka army was begun Tuesday the Buddhist temple in the island's main pilgrimage centre. Sri Lanka's prime minister, Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, who chaired the function said that it was a great achievement by the people of Ruhuna to have inaugurated the program to win the war from Kataragama. The southern interior of the island was called Ruhuna in medieval Sinhala. It is celebrated by Sinhala Buddhist nationalists as the ancient seat of resistance to Tamil dominance where Sinhala rulers mustered recruits to wage war on the armies of the Chola empire. Senior SLA officers and Buddhist monks took part in the program.
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Tigers "already implementing" Norway's MOU

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 January 2001, 20:30 GMT]
The Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim met the Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham in London Monday prior to his visit to Sri Lanka, sources close to the LTTE said. Amongst other matters, Mr. Solheim had also discussed Norway's proposed memorandum of understanding to de-escalate the conflict, they said. The LTTE views the MOU positively, but would sign it only if Sri Lanka also accepted its part in it, Balasingham had told Solheim according to the sources.
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Court to hear Mailanthanai massacre case

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2001, 23:34 GMT]
(Newsfeature) The Mailanthanai massacre case in which 21 Sri Lanka army soldiers are accused of hacking to death 35 Tamils, including women, in a remote Batticaloa village on 9 August 1992 will be taken up for hearing in Colombo Monday lawyers appearing for the families of the victims said. "Justice delayed is justice denied. As with most cases in which SLA soldiers have been accused of massacring innocent Tamil civilians, a patently deliberate procrastinating strategy drawing on untenable pretexts is causing inordinate delays. This benefits the perpetrators of the murders," Mr.N. Kandasamy, a senior human rights activist in Colombo who has been monitoring the case for nine years told TamilNet Sunday.
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Colombo rejects cease-fire, Tamil coalition disappointed

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 January 2001, 18:57 GMT]
"If the government is only interested in pursuing the war against all the Tamil people and in imposing a military solution on them, then let it say so openly. That the Liberation Tigers have extended their cease-fire for another month is a political challenge for the Sri Lankan government. In this circumstance we cannot continue to believe that we can get a political solution from the Sri Lankan government" said Mr. N. Sri Kantha, a senior spokes person for the coalition of eleven Tamil parties in Colombo, Friday, reacting to Colombo categorically rejecting the cease-fire by the Liberation Tigers, which they extended for another month this week.
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