Judge warns EPRLF factions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 June 2000, 17:42 GMT]
Two factions of the minor ex-Tamil militant group operating in Mannar with the Sri Lankan security forces were severely reprimanded by the Mannar district judge M.Ilancheliyan Wednesday for breaching the peace in Mannar town by quarreling with each other incessantly. The Police filed a case Wednesday in the Mannar courts against both factions of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) for being a public nuisance and a threat to law and order in the town. The EPRLF was formerly a group that was fully backed by India.
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CTTU will not support Defence Fund

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2000, 19:22 GMT]
The twenty-thousand member strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union has informed the President of Sri Lanka that its members would not contribute two-day salary each month as requested, to the Defence Fund as they consider the present war executed by the government is against the Tamil community. The Union has also threatened to strike if certain demands, including payment of arrears and distribution of textbooks, is not done by July 7.
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Police smash up PLOTE van

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2000, 17:52 GMT]
Sri Lankan military trained Police smashed up a van belonging to an ex-Tamil militant group and arrested five of its cadres Tuesday night around 9 p.m near Kulumaattu junction, about 2.5 kilometers west of Vavuniya town on the road to Mannar sources said. An altercation had led to a shoot out when cadres of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) who went in a van towards Kulumattu junction were stopped by the Police for checking.
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Tigers dismayed over ICRC, UNHCR inaction

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2000, 07:16 GMT]
The political section of the Liberation Tigers has issued a statement expressing deep regret and dismay over the inaction of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) in helping to evacuate Tamil civilians trapped in the combat zones of the Thenmaradchchi sector of the Jaffna peninsula , according to the night broadcast of the Voice of Tigers.
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Court releases arrested Trinco students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2000, 17:03 GMT]
Two students of Chelvanayagapuram Tamil Maha Vidyalayam in Uppuveli in Trincomalee district, who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and held in detention, were produced before the Trincomalee acting magistrate, Mr. M.K. Selvarajah yesterday.
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No role for LTTE in Interim Council - PA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2000, 17:01 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka denied on Sunday media
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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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STF officer killed in claymore attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 June 2000, 12:48 GMT]
The officer in charge of the elite Special Task Force (STF) commando camp in Thirukkovil, 77 kilometers south of Batticaloa, was killed Sunday morning around 11.30 a.m. when a claymore mine fixed to a bicycle exploded.
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LTTE urges Muslims to be vigilant

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 June 2000, 15:18 GMT]
In a leaflet in Tamil titled "Dear Muslim brothers/sisters" distributed widely in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts this week, the political section of the Liberation Tigers calls on Muslims to be vigilant against a campaign to foment divisions between them and the Tamil people in the east. The LTTE leaflet says that Muslims need not be concerned about "the imminent war of liberation that is soon to engulf the east."
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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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Student boycott extended

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 June 2000, 11:23 GMT]
The boycott campaign launched by the students of Chelvanayapuram Tamil Maha Vidyalayam on Friday has been extended to all schools in the Trincomalee town from Tuesday.
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Indian FM meets minority parties

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 June 2000, 12:00 GMT]
The Indian Foreign Minister Mr.Jaswant Singh held separate meetings with the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a group comprising representatives of three hill country Tamil parties and five ex-Tamil militant groups at India House, the official residence of the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Monday Afternoon. The brief discussions mainly centered around India's role as a mediator, devolution, the plight of civilians in the war zone and the need for a ceasefire. Mr. Singh reaffirmed India's stand on the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka to the Tamil and Muslim delegations during his discussions with the minority parties this afternoon.
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Curfew in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 June 2000, 20:46 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government declared curfew from 7 p.m Sunday until dawn Monday May 12 in the suburbs of Ratmalana, Mt.Lavinia and Moratuwa in the southern sectors of Colombo city today.
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ICRC, UNHCR urged over ceasefire for civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2000, 16:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday they had urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help arrange a temporary ceasefire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces to facilitate the evacuation of civilians trapped in the battle zones of the thenmaradchi division in the Jaffna peninsula. The civilians are unable to leave as the Sri Lankan armed forces are pounding the possible routes of evacuation, the Tigers said in a statement from their London offices.
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SLA assault repulsed -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2000, 15:21 GMT]
An offensive assault by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Sarasalai area of the Jaffna peninsula was repulsed Friday with heavy casualties, the Liberation Tigers said in a statement from their London offices. Civilian settlements in Maduvil and Sarasalai had been hit by artillery and rocket fire, killing six civilians and wounding scores, the statement added.
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Male Tamil detainees raped - report

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2000, 15:03 GMT]
At least 1 in 5 male Tamil detainees in Sri Lanka have suffered sexual abuse, including rape, according to The Lancet, the British medical weekly. "We believe that sexual abuse of Tamil men in detention is common in Sri Lanka," a report by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture published in The Lancet said, adding that the number of victims "is probably higher [than 20%] as some will not have reported it."
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58 Tamil undergraduates arrested

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2000, 09:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan police arrested 58 Tamil undergraduates of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Moratuwa, south of Colombo, around 11 p.m. last night, student sources said.
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Unofficial curfew in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2000, 17:09 GMT]
An unofficial curfew has been imposed in the Colombo suburbs of Dehiwala, Mt.Lavinia, Ratmalane and Moratuwa from 7.30 p.m. Wednesday police sources said. Residents said there had been some incidents of arson following bomb attack in Ratmalane.
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Feeding Mars in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2000, 23:59 GMT]
Jaffna has been supplied by air and sea for almost a decade. However, this is the first time the sea and air supply facilities of the SLA in the northern peninsula have been threatened directly. Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister acknowledged last week that the Liberation Tigers are firing a large number of shells on the Sri Lankan army's Palali base complex, which includes the Kankesanthurai harbour.
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Two super-dvora gun boats sunk

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 June 2000, 15:25 GMT]
Two Israeli made super-dvora fast attack gun boats were sunk and 15 naval personnel were killed when the Liberation Tigers attacked a convoy of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) off the coast of Vadamarachchi this morning, the LTTE said in a press release this evening. The Tigers said two other gun boats were seriously damaged in the sea battle.
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