Soldiers-Tamil youths clash in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 April 2002, 21:22 GMT]
A clash between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Tamil youths in Trincomalee town Sunday evening left three soldiers and a police constable in hospital and four youths under arrest. One of the arrested Tamil youths was later admitted to Trincomalee base hospital, with injuries sustained after a severe assault whilst in police custody according to sources.
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LTTE refutes reports Nepal is talks venue

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2002, 13:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, Saturday dismissed press reports suggesting that the LTTE and the government were looking at Nepal as a suitable venue for negotiations. Contacted by TamilNet over comments attributed by Indian satellite channels to an ‘LTTE spokesman in Paris,’ Mr. Balasingham said the Himalayan kingdom was logistically “completely unsuitable” as a venue for peace talks.
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Sixteen Indian fishermen remanded in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 June 2001, 10:01 GMT]
Eight Indian fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Talaimannar on 20 June were produced before the Mannar magistrate by the Police Friday morning and were remanded by him until 4 July. Eight fishermen were arrested by the SLN on 18 June in the seas between Kachchathivu and Talaimannar. They were also produced before the Mannar magistrate the next day, 19 June. They too were remanded until 4 July. The sixteen Indian fishermen are being held in the Mannar remand prison.
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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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Douglas berates Jaffna press

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 13:05 GMT]
“I do not trust the press in Jaffna”, said Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, Minister for Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North and Tamil Affairs (North and East), addressing a press conference Thursday afternoon at his office on Stanley Road in the northern town. The road, in the busy heart of Jaffna town, was blocked off to the public from Thursday morning 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the afternoon by Sri Lanka army soldiers, Policemen and armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). The press briefing was called after the conclusion of the Jaffna electorate development meeting, which was boycotted by five Jaffna MPs who are protesting that it is not safe for them to be present in Mr. Devananda’s office cum camp on Stanley Road.
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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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Tamils observe New Year amid fragile truce

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 April 2001, 16:38 GMT]
The Tamil New Year begins Friday night at 9.27 p.m. People wear new clothes and visit friends and relatives. During the festive season there is great demand for new bank notes, which are gifted as good will money ('Kai Muluththam') to friends and relatives. Many indigenous festivities traditionally associated with the New Year have greatly diminished due to SLA restrictions and curfews.
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Heads shaved to tighten Vanni embargo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 January 2001, 18:40 GMT]
Four fishermen complained to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mannar Tuesday that the Sri Lanka Navy shaved their heads and assaulted them severely on trumped up charges that they were defying the Vanni embargo. Fishermen in Mannar complain that the SLN arrests and beats them up regularly, accusing them of smuggling essential commodities banned under Colombo's decade long economic embargo on the Vanni region. Meanwhile the SLN’s intelligence wing began deployment in the northern coastal parts of the Mannar island Tuesday. The deployment is aimed at monitoring and curbing sea borne infiltration by the Liberation Tigers from the mainland SLN, sources said.
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Mystery ID found in Mannar shores

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 July 2000, 06:16 GMT]
An Identity Card (ID) issued by the Police Department in Kanniyakumari District in Tamil Nadu, belonging to Police officer M. Easwaran, was found by fishermen in Thalai Mannar coast yesterday, said sources in Mannar.
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MP reads out raped woman's letter

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2000, 17:03 GMT]
Speaking on the extension of the emergency in Parliament Thursday, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Batticaloa Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham read out a letter written to the Sri Lanka's National Human Rights Commission by a seventy year old woman of Neervely in Jaffna who was raped and robbed by Sri Lankan army personnel on May 31. The MP said that he was bringing the letter to the attention of the house as the matter had been suppressed under the censorship. Mr.Pararajasingham pointed out that about 1500 Tamil youth have been detained for more than four years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act without trial.
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Ban precludes Indian role - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2000, 12:09 GMT]
While asserting that India has an active role to play in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers' theoretician and chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham told the Deccan Herald newspaper that New Delhi cannot play that role so long as the LTTE remains a banned organization in India. "We recognise India's predominance in the region and we look forward to the time when it will lift the ban on our organization," he told the paper in an interview published Thursday, adding that the LTTE was seeking new relationship with India as a friendly ally.
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Rescued refugees remanded

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2000, 16:32 GMT]
The 24 refugees who were rescued by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) from an islet of the Adam's Bridge in the high seas between the southern coast of Tamil Nadu and Mannar on June 14 were remanded until Monday by Mannar's acting magistrate.
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Mannar conditions said causing refugee trickle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2000, 12:39 GMT]
Fifteen youth were arrested and detained by the Sri Lanka army when it cordoned off and searched the coastal village of Pesalai, 17 kilometers west of Mannar, Saturday morning. Sources said that the refugee camp in Pesalai was also searched. The SLA confiscated large quantities of kerosene stored by local fishermen as fuel for the light horsepower out board motors of their fishing boats.
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UNP wants army de-politicized

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 May 2000, 20:43 GMT]
The United National Party today decided to oppose the monthly extension of the Emergency in Parliament on May 10. Generally the UNP is not present in Parliament when the extension of the Emergency comes up for voting. The party also claimed that the need of hour is to de-politicize the security forces.
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Ranil to brief Indian PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 April 2000, 13:57 GMT]
The leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition party, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, will hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi this week, a spokesman for the United National Party (UNP) said today. Mr. Wickermesinghe will brief the Indian PM on the current dialogue between his party and the Sri Lankan government about evolving a consensus on constitutional change aimed at solving the island's ethnic conflict. He will be arriving in Delhi tommorrow.
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(Photos) 10,000 Tamils demonstate at UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 April 2000, 18:07 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils marched to the United Nation in Geneva Monday and held a rally to protest human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government and calling for the island's conflict to be de-escalated. The organisers, the International Federation of Tamils, said over 10,000 people attended the event, which was addressed by several speakers, including Y.Gopalaswamy, leader of Tamil Nadu's MDMK party.
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Tamil Nadu fisherman dies in custody

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2000, 12:42 GMT]
A Tamil Nadu fisherman arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) last month near Kachchathivu died in custody today. Ms. Maheswary Velayutham, a human rights lawyer who went to see his body at the government hospital in Colombo today charged that he died due to neglect of the injuries sustained when SLN personnel assaulted him during arrest in the high seas.
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Tigers, SLA exchange artillery fire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 March 2000, 08:56 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka Army exchanged artillery and mortar fire in Kaddaiparichchan, one km. south of Mutur in the Trincomalee District this morning. One of the shells fired by the Tigers hit the kitchen of the SLA camp setting it on fire, residents said.
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Murder suspect returns with refugees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 1999, 02:56 GMT]
Ten Sri Lankan Tamil refugees arrived by boat in Talaimannar last evening, after setting out early morning on Wednesday from the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, said sources. Investigations revealed that one of the returnees, Krishnapillai Rajagopal of Vavuniya, was wanted in connection with the murder of man identified as Selvarajah in 1995.
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Foreign Ministry to research Tamil Nadu politics

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 1999, 15:47 GMT]
Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to soon set up a research unit that will work on policy making, new geopolitical developments, regional and international bodies. The unit will specially research analyse and report on the effects of the political dynamics of Tamil Nadu, the south Indian State which is home to about 60 million ethnic Tamils.
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