I.C.R.C. to escort "CITY OF TRINCO"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government and the International Committee of Red Cross signed an agreement in Colombo Wednesday afternoon according to which the Jaffna passenger vessel " City of Trinco" will sail under the I.C.R.C. flag.
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35,000 attend Tamil Internet conference

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 10:47 GMT]
Tamil Internet 2000 (TI2000), the largest conference and exhibition on the use of Tamil on the Internet held in Singapore from July 22-24 attracted almost 35,000 attendees, far exceeding the target of 20,000, the organizers said this week.
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SLA takes action on Tamilnet report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 July 2000, 17:16 GMT]
The Military Police of the Sri Lankan Army arrested a corporal attached to the camp at Kalkudah, 34 kilometers north of Batticaloa, following a report by Tamilnet that he (the corporal) was forcing civilians in that village to work on the construction of a bulwark. Tamilnet reported that several civilians in Kalkudah had been beaten up by the SLA for not going to work on the bulwark round the Kalkudah army camp last week.
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TULF firm on constitutional change

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2000, 17:11 GMT]
The Executive Committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front on Sunday unanimously decided to take a firm stand on the constitutional formulation in respect of the Structure of the State, the Unit of Devolution and the title to and powers of disposition over State Land in the Northeast province in keeping with the policies of the party and acceptable to the Tamil people.
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Package in Parliament next month - minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 08:25 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government said Saturday that it will place proposals for constitutional change in Parliament in the first week of August. Mr.Batty Weerakoon, Sri Lanka's Minister for Science and Technology, said today that the decision to submit the constitutional reform proposals to Parliament was taken at the discussion between the government and the United National Party. The Minister, however, said that the elections to the Parliament due by November this year will be held under the present constitution.
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Numbers game bodes ill for package

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 July 2000, 23:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge told the Tamil parties she met Friday for discussions on constitutional reforms aimed at resolving the ethnic conflict in the island that she will try to persuade the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to consider their demands. If the UNP's response is not positive she would try to arrange a tripartite meeting between the government, the Tamil parties and the UNP to further discuss the points of disagreement the President told Tamil politicians who met her Friday afternoon.
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Ponnambalam case officer "partial"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2000, 16:29 GMT]
Lawyers representing the family of slain All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader, Mr.Kumar Ponnambalam has requested the Attorney General to replace the police officer conducting the investigations into the killing with one who would be "impartial", legal sources in Colombo said.
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Court releases tortured Batticaloa youth

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 July 2000, 08:53 GMT]
The Batticaloa High Court Wednesday released two Tamil youth who had been tortured by the Sri Lankan security forces while in detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The state counsel said that the Attorney General is withdrawing the cases against them and another youth as Senior Superintendent of Police, Bandula Kumara, the chief witness had died. The two youths had been hung by their toes and beaten with pipes, choked in bags filled with petrol and chilli fumes pulled over the head and by immersion in water according to medical reports submitted to the courts by the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Batticaloa and the Assistant Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo. The ear drums of one of the youth had burst and bled heavily due to the torture according to the medical reports.
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Foremost place to Buddhism guaranteed -SL govt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Government Wednesday said that there is no truth in newspaper reports that Buddhism has no place in its proposed new constitution. Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka MP, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs said that the government's proposals for constitutional change do not alter the "foremost place" given to Buddhism in Sri Lanka's constitution. Tamil political parties say that Article 9 of Sri Lanka's constitution that guarantees Buddhism the foremost place is a major obstacle in drawing up even a "minimally acceptable" scheme for regional autonomy.
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"US should support all options"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 06:40 GMT]
"US should make clear that we would support all options including secession to be discussed in the negotiating process," said Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the United States, in a letter addressed to Hon Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.
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Unidentified men abduct youth

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 July 2000, 17:39 GMT]
Unidentified men in a white van abducted a Tamil youth at Old Moor Street in Colombo's business suburb of Pettah, Monday night around 8.30 said sources. The youth is a native of Nainatheevu, an island off Jaffna town.
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Police fail to inquire into STF shooting

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 July 2000, 22:02 GMT]
The Vellaveli Police, who conducted an inquiry in to the killing of two Tamil civilians by the Special Task Force (STF) elite troops on 9 March, failed to produce their investigation report to the Anti-Harassment Committee which had its sittings in Batticaloa Monday. The Anti Harassment Committee ordered the Senior Superintendent of Police S.Sankar to produce the inquiry report by July 24.
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TELO, EPRLF reject PA-UNP proposals totally

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 July 2000, 14:03 GMT]
Mr.Suresh Premachandran, the leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), and Mr.Sri Kantha, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) told Peter Westmacott, Deputy Secretary, British Foreign Office that they totally reject the constitutional reform proposals to solve the ethnic conflict agreed upon by the Sri Lankan government and the United National Party when they met the British official Friday afternoon along with representatives of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).
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PLOTE, EPDP dissatisfied with PA-UNP plan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2000, 15:23 GMT]
The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) that met representatives of the Sri Lankan government Wednesday said that they could not accept the referendum to determine the continuation of the northeastern province as one unit and the powers relating to state land in the constitutional reform proposals agreed upon by the People's Alliance and the United National Party. The President was not present at the meeting Sri Lankan government sources said.
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Tigers overrun SLA detachment in Trinco

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2000, 07:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers overran the Sri Lanka army detachment at Vilgam Vihare, northeast of the Trincomalee town Monday night around 8.30 p.m. military sources in the eastern port town said. SLA troops had retreated from their positions in the first phase of the attack when the Liberation Tigers had fired mortars on the detachment.
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40 Government troops killed -LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2000, 07:23 GMT]
Forty Sri Lanka Army soldiers were killed and over 200 injured when the Liberation Tigers counter attacked an offensive thrust by the Government troops in the Ariyalai-Columbuthurai sector of the Jaffna Municipality, yesterday, according to LTTE official sources in London. The Tigers recovered 8 bodies of soldiers killed in the battle.
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TULF says PA-UNP formula "unacceptable"

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 July 2000, 11:02 GMT]
The delegation of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) that met the Sri Lankan President Monday afternoon to the discuss devolution formula which the government and the United National Party agreed upon last week, told her that the PA-UNP proposal did not satisfy Tamil aspirations with regard to the structure of the Sri Lankan state, the unit of devolution and powers relating to state land. The TULF delegation "impressed upon the government that the LTTE should be involved in the negotiating process in order to bring an end to the war and an effective resolution to the conflict". The party said that it had strongly objected to the referendum to determine the continuation of the north-eastern province as one unit.
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Tamil aspirations not fulfilled - TULF MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 July 2000, 17:39 GMT]
Agreements reached between the People's Alliance (PA), and the opposition United National Party (UNP), on constitutional reforms aimed at solving the ethnic conflict of the island do not fulfil aspirations of Tamil people, and therefore, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) will not accept the new constitution, said Joseph Pararajasingham, Member of Parliament for Batticaloa district and Leader of the TULF Parliamentary Committee.
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CTTU members strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 July 2000, 16:14 GMT]
Schools in the northeast province did not function Friday as Tamil medium principals and teachers in the northeast province went on a one-day strike. Students did not attend schools responding to an appeal made by the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU). The protest was supported by Ceylon Muslim Teachers Union and Muslim Teachers Congress.
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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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