Mass funeral for Ampara victims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 1999, 12:45 GMT]
The funeral of 43 Sinhalese villagers killed in Saturday's massacre at Punchi-sigiriya in the Uhana police division - Ampara district, took place today at Konagala cemetery. Over ten thousand people witnessed the event, residents said.
Full story >>

President's responses to tragedies raise questions

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 1999, 18:09 GMT]
Tamil United Liberation Front MP Mr. Joseph Pararajasigham criticised the Sri Lankan President for racial discrimination in her reactions to the killing of Sinhalese in Ampara today for whom she offered compensation and funerals at state expense and to the deaths of Tamil civilians bombed by the Sri Lanka Air Force in Mullaithivu on Wednesday.
Full story >>

ICRC alarmed at rising civilian casualties

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 1999, 16:58 GMT]
The International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC) in Geneva issued today a press release expressing deep concern at the recent outburst of violence in the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Kalutara prisoners protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 1999, 11:54 GMT]
Twenty five Tamil political prisoners got on the roof of the Kalutara maximum security prison this morning in support of twelve of their colleagues who have been on a protest fast from September 14. The condition of three is serious said prison authorities.
Full story >>

President orders compensation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 1999, 11:51 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President announced this afternoon that the government will give compensation to the immediate relatives of the victims of today’s massacre in the Ampara district in which 51 villagers were killed. She expressed her condolences to the bereaved families.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Passenger ferry to transport troops

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 1999, 12:30 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police has restricted the number of passengers travelling in the ferry, Mahaweli, plying between Trincomalee and Muttur to 60 from 100 as of yesterday, residents said.
Full story >>

New PLOTE military leader held

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 1999, 12:19 GMT]
Hari Babu, the leader of the military wing of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) yesterday evening. He has been handed over to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID), said sources.
Full story >>

Amnesty questions Puthukkudiyiruppu bombing raid

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 1999, 10:39 GMT]
Amnesty International said today that the explanation proffered by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) for the bombing of the Puthukkudiyiruppu market on Wednesday "does not absolve it from its responsibility under international humanitarian law to take all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians"
Full story >>

Red Cross confirms Puthukkudiyiruppu massacre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 1999, 04:33 GMT]
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that sixteen civilians were killed on the spot and six who were seriously wounded died in the hospital when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets bombed a busy market place in the morning yesterday in northern Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

21 civilians killed in SLAF attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 1999, 13:11 GMT]
(Adds names) More than twenty one civilians, including school children and women were killed and more than forty seriously wounded when two Kfir jets of the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed a crowded public place in Puthukkudiyiruppu in the Mullaithivu district this morning around 10 a.m.
Full story >>

Police fire injures school boy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 1999, 11:50 GMT]
An eight year old school boy at the Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) in Sungaankerni, 33 km. north of Batticaloa, was seriously wounded in his classroom this morning in indiscriminate firing by a Police patrol. The military trained Police was on a patrol in the area near the school.
Full story >>

Tamil Media Alliance files case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 September 1999, 20:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance filed a fundamental rights case in the Supreme Court today on behalf of Chinnaiah Ganeshan, a staff reporter of the Thinakaran daily newspaper. The case was filed against the unlawful arrest and detention of the journalist by the Chilaw Police on August 16.
Full story >>

Rajapaksha recalled to identify more graves

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 September 1999, 12:59 GMT]
The key witness in the investigation in to the Chemmani mass grave, ex-corporal Somaratna Rajapaksha, will have to be flown to Jaffna again to identify graves there, legal sources in Jaffna said today.
Full story >>

Tigers overrun Police detachment

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 1999, 02:39 GMT]
Fourteen military trained Sri Lankan Policemen were wounded and at least four killed when the Liberation Tigers overran the Saafinagar Police detachment on the outskirts Mutur town, south of Trincomalee in the early hours of the morning today around 12.45 a.m.
Full story >>

Chemmani: Skeleton of woman found

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 1999, 19:12 GMT]
A skeleton believed to be of a woman was found by the investigators at Chemmani mass grave site in the Jaffna peninsula today. The skeleton was found at a site behind a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry near the Chemmani junction, identified by the key witness, ex-coporal Somaratna Rajapaksha.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan President makes statement on days of tranquillity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 1999, 00:00 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President welcomed the announcement by Velupillai Pirabaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers, that his organisation would observe four days of tranquillity for a UNICEF vaccination program.
Full story >>

Amnesty slams Police torture

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 1999, 16:47 GMT]
(FOCUS) Three young Tamil men have been severely tortured in police custody in the capital, Colombo and all three may be in urgent need of medical attention, said Amnesty International, the London based human rights group today.
Full story >>

Chaos follows mobile service

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 1999, 16:44 GMT]
The Northeastern Provincial Governor's mobile service in Batticaloa turned into a fiasco before it could start this morning in the eastern town government officials in the eastern town said.
Full story >>

Police pocketing gains from forced labour?

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 1999, 01:09 GMT]
The people of an impoverished Tamil village on the island's east coast yesterday was forced to build a brick sentry point as a replacement for a thatched shelter which was burnt down on Monday, 6th of September, by unidentified persons suspected to be members of the Liberation Tigers, sources said.
Full story >>