An Appeal to

The United Nations

Commission on Human Rights

 

 

 

Un appel à Nations Unies

Commission des droits de l'homme

 

 

Una Ilamada a Naciones Unidas

Comisión de Derechos Humanos

 

 

Website : www.tchr.net

 

 

 

59 Session / Sesiones

17 / 03 / 2003 -- 24 / 04 /2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOGO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR

Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH

Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos

(Established in 1990)

Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR

Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH

Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos

(Established in 1990)

 

LOGO

 

 

Website : www.tchr.net

 

TCHR participation in United Nations World conferences and meetings

* The Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), officially participated in the NGO forum of the UN World Conference Against Racism – WCAR in Durban, South Africa, from 28 August to 1 September 2001. TCHR held an information stall including an exhibition at the forum. The TCHR representatives also attended the main WCAR conference held in Durban, 31 August to 7 September 2001.

* In 1993, the TCHR held an information stall and a photo exhibition on human rights violations, in the United Nations 2nd World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria, from 14-25 June.

* TCHR has participated in meetings of Treaty bodies and has submitted reports to the same.

 

 

 

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Contents

Page

TCHR appeal to the 59th session 03

Reports

1- Political assassinations

Why no serious investigation regarding the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam ? 04

EPDP members arrested in Nimalarajan murder 05

Weapon used for killing Journalist Nimalarajan recovered from EPDP office 06

2- Right to Self Determination

LTTE Leader calls for regional autonomy and self-Government

Who cheated whom? 08

Negotiating self-determination 09

Journey towards peace - can we find justice for Krishanthy? 10

3- Civil and Political Rights

Destruction – a reminder of the Vietnam war! 12

25,000 soldiers died, none missing in action

Death penalty

Death penalty will be reimposed 13 Brother & sister sentenced to death on 17 March 2003 Death penalty and new bill put security in jeopardy

Opposition back government decision to resume executions 14

Arbitary Killings

7 civilians killed and 14 injured in Ampara 15

3 Tamil civilians killed in Trincomalee

Killing of Tamil civilians since the MOU was signed (Page – 34)

Disappearances

Over 20,000 missing NorthEast – ICRC 16

Torture

12 Police personnel raped and tortured PTA suspect

STF personnel burnt down two shops 18

Student shot and wounded by STF

12 year boy injured

Fishermen assaulted by soldiers in Vadamaradchy

Freedom of Expression

BBC man attacked by extremist group 19

Newspaper office ransacked in Batticaloa

Administration of justice

UN Rapporteur highly critical of judiciary

Sri Lanka judiciary's failure led Tamils to take arms – Ranil 20 The inside story of 'Tamil Eelam Courts'

Tamil Eelam courts open to all lawyers 23

Mylanthanai massacre - 18 accused discharged ! 24

Bindunuwewa massacre - 23 accused discharged !

Mirusuvil massacre – Warrant on witnesses

PTA to stay - Defence Minister 25

SLMI force children to make false complaints to HRC !

1

Army deserters

51,000 Army deserters in Sri Lanka

Land mine

25000 mines removed in Pallai 26

6000 mines blown-up in Killinochchi

More than 700,000 mines yet to be cleared

Sri Lanka Military occupation in the NorthEast

  1. Economic Social and Cultural Rights

Health

13, 379 civilian died due to Economic embargo 27

1746 persons severely affected by the epidemic in 2002

1371 children affected by malnutrition

Spread of Typhoid and flu in Jaffna

72 Welfare centers without basic amenities 28

Education

25,245 children in Vanni not attending school

Schools function with 50% of teaching staff

College Principal assaulted

Schools vacated by Security forces unusable 29

Thousands of protesters demand demilitarisation of school

Poor state of education in North East

Fifty four Jaffna schools laden with landmines 30

Religious intolerance (Please refer to Progress and difficulties – Page 35)

5- Violence against women

Horrific statistics of rape

A mother of four sexually assaulted

25,000 widows in Jaffna district 31

URGENT intervention requested by OMCT

6 - Children

25% students in NorthEast mentally and physically affected  32

Children at risk inside Navy camp

Displaced Children engaged in labour

Plantation children suffer in silence 33

LTTE handed over 14 students to their parents

7 - Displacement

The figures published in the news papers 34

8 - Progress and Difficulties – since the MOU was signed 35

9 - Summary report (names, dates, places of incidents, etc)

Arbitrary arrest / Detention 56

Extra judicial killings / summary executions 57

Rape / Torture and others 58

Annexes

UNICEF - 85 child recruits released to their families by LTTE 62

UNICEF officials negotiate with LTTE

Benefits of the peace moves not reached the people of the North – PM Ranil

Ceasefire agreement not benefited people in the Northeast - JPDF 63

Confidential report on Chemmani mass graves

Army committed 1200 non observances of MOU

2

17 March 2003

The Chairwoman

Members and Delegates

59th session of the

United Nations - Commission on Human Rights

1211 Geneva 10 - Switzerland

Dear Sirs / Mesdames,

Moving towards Peace after a long-standing conflict of twenty years is not an easy process. Our list entitled "Progress and Difficulties" point to some of the situations which are offering hope for a continuing concretizing of the peace process and also some of the difficult challenges which mitigate against the process. These latter range from actions of the Sri Lankan armed forces to statements by opposition parties and the President herself.

There is a reduction in incidents of gross human rights violations, due to the cessation of aerial bombing which consistently killed and maimed Tamil civilians for two decades. However there is a disturbing level of ongoing human rights violations due to the occupation of civilian buildings and residential areas by the armed forces, in the HSZ (High Security Zones). The situation of internal displaced people - IDPs hoping to return to their homes is still appalling in many cases.

The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) clearly states that the first steps towards Peace must be normalization of life conditions for the people in the North East. The question of IDPs resettling without delay or fear is of paramount importance. After signing the MOU, it is bizarre to have HSZs, with security forces comprised of 99% Sinhala troops. Given the climate of fear and intimidation the same have created over years, and the numerous instances of persecution they have inflicted on the people, they are a constant reminder of past pain and suffering. The people should have the right to move freely without fear and harassment by Sri lankan security forces. It has to be said that since the MoU was signed 32 Tamil civilians have been killed.

It is very sad to note that the cases concerned with the political assassinations of Human rights defender Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam, Journalist Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan and others have lost the focus of the present government! Maybe because these are assassinations of Tamils!

It would have been encouraging if, after waiting long years, there had been some justice for Tamil people through the courts in Sri Lanka with regard to the many massacres of Tamils in the past. Tamil witnesses have been obliged to travel far from their home areas, when court cases were transferred due to Sri Lankan soldiers’ demands – fearing for their own safety! Warrants have even been issued for the arrest of Tamil witnesses, too frightened to appear in courts, far from their homes, in hostile territory. A few security forces personnel identified by witnesses, have eventually appeared in courts. However, the result has been shocking. All Sinhala juries have decided that those accused are innocent and they have been discharged. Therefore, impunity reigns. This is an indictment on the legal system in Sri Lanka, where there is NO JUSTICE for Tamils!

In the Tamil homeland where the administration of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - LTTE is in existence, there is a local legal system where people can bring their complaints and find justice, with regard to criminal and other cases. This is very much accepted and appreciated by the people in those areas.

Since TCHR was established our dedicated professional task in the field of human rights has had tremendous effect in the International arena. Those who are unable to face the information and facts that we publish are looking for various methods to humiliate the members of TCHR and the solidarity organizations, with their usual lies and bogus claims!

Their discouragement shown towards TCHR, in fact, always encourages our work and also makes us realize the importance of our contribution on behalf of the victims of human rights violations in the island of Sri Lanka.

Whatever obstacles are put in our way, we will continue to work until international standards are met in the field of human rights in the island.

We appeal to the 59th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, delegates, participants and civil society to seriously consider systematic human rights violations perpetrated against the Tamil people even while the peace negotiations are taking place between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka.

The importance of keeping a continuous close watch on the human rights situation in the island of Sri Lanka, is abundantly clear.

Thanking you.

 

S. V. Kirubaharan

General Secretary – TCHR/CTDH

3

POLITICAL ASSASINATION

Why no serious investigation carried out

regarding the muder of Kumar Ponnambalam ?

The Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR send its appeal to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe asking why his government has ignored the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam ? Is it because Kumar Ponnambalam is a Tamil ?

Excerpt of the TCHR press release of 5 January 2003, is given below.

‘’Today, the 3rd death anniversary of prominent lawyer and human rights defender Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam is being commemorated all over the world.

‘’As your present Ministerial cabinet consists of a majority of lawyers and legal experts, we do not consider it necessary either to elaborate on the professional career of Kumar Ponnambalam or to remind you why and how he was brutally murdered in cold blood in broad day light in Colombo on 5 January 2000.

‘’Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam was a well known Human Rights defender, who defended not only Tamils detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations (ER) but also Sinhalese detained under the same Act and Regulations.

‘’Sir, soon after Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam was murdered in Colombo, TCHR issued an Urgent Press release on 28 February 2000. We published the facts and background of his murder. Later, of course some news papers in Colombo published the same facts with more details and affidavits from Police officers dealing with his case!

‘’Since his murder, United Nations Special Rapporteurs and Experts in the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of human rights have raised their concerns in UN forums and with Sri Lanka Representives in Geneva. The latter continue to give the standard reply that his case is still under investigation in Sri Lanka!

‘’Many international NGOs have also raised concerns in the UN Commission on Human Rights and in the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights.

Concerns raised by the United Nations

 

Concerns were raised promptly by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (Report Nos. E/CN.4/2000/61 - 21 February 2000, E/CN.4/2001/65 - 1 February 2001 and E/CN.4/2002/72 - 11 February 2002)

 

On 15 August 2000, during the 52nd session of the UN Sub Commission on the promotion and protection of human rights, member and French expert, Mr. Louis Joinet, expressed his concern in a speech about Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam.

Mr. Louis Joinet said, "I met Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam here in the United Nations during a previous session. He had told me personally of his fears due to the fact that he had been verbally threatened and certain media had written attacks against him. Immediately, I had made an appointment with the Ambassador of Sri Lanka,

whom I met in this building. I discussed the matter with him, bringing to his notice these threats to Mr. Ponnambalam. Now, Mr. Ponnambalam's fears proved to be right and he is no more alive!".

Below we give a few remarkable annexes for your kind attention.

Source Date Subject

Mr. Robert Evans MEP 07 January 2000 ’Tamil assassination a tragedy"

Member of European Parliament

TCHR Press release 28 February 2000 "Assassination of Kumar Ponnambalam has clues but

no proper investigations"

4

The Island 05 July 2000 ‘’Kumar Ponnambalam defended Sinhalese’’

Revd. Yohan Devananda

The Sunday Leader 11 November 2001 "Presidential guard organised murder of Kumar…"

The Sunday Leader 23 December 2001 "Chandrika's 'bloody' secrets in the house of

conspiracy"

The Sunday Leader 30 December 2001 "Kumaratunga cornered in Ponnambalam murder"

The Sunday Leader 30 December 2001 "We suspect the PA government"

The Sunday Leader 13 January 2002 "ACTC wants debate on Kumar"

‘’Sir, we can see the obvious reasons why the government then in power did not carry out any serious investigations into the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam! However, it surprises us, WHY YOUR GOVERNMENT which has been in power for more than a year, has not carried out any serious investigations regarding this murder! Is it because Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam is a Tamil?

‘’We, the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) in solidarity with many other organisations, human rights activists and individuals concerned about the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam, submit the following kind requests for your urgent attention:

1 - To call for an immediate independent/impartial inquiry into the murder of Kumar Ponnambalam,

2 - To call for an explanation from the Police officers who have failed to investigate this inquiry,

3 - To investigate all those whose names appeared in newspaper articles in connection with the murder,

4 - The previous government in power is believed to have been heavily involved in Kumar Ponnambalam’s murder. We request you to allow a Parliamentary debate which will pave the way for clarification of doubts raised by democratically elected fellow colleagues in Parliament. We understand that a Private Members’ Motion has been filed by Mr Vinayagamoorthy MP for a debate in Parliament.

‘’We hope that you and your government will prove to the world that you are in favour of a truly impartial legal system, human rights without discrimination, peace, and peaceful settlement - for which you and your government were voted in by the people of the island of Sri Lanka.

EPDP members arrested in Nimalarajan murder

2 August 2002 - The Jaffna Magistrate ordered remand for a member of the Eelam People's Democratic party (EPDP) in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan on 19 October 2000.


The suspect, David Michael Collin, was arrested few weeks ago in Trincomlee by a special police team from Colombo. The suspect was taken to Colombo and remanded by the Fort magistrate to be produced in Jaffna Magistrates court Friday.


On 7 August, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Jaffna Police arrested another member of the Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP), in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan. The arrest had been made consequent to the warrant obtained by the Police from the Jaffna Magistrate to search the offices of the EPDP in Jaffna and Kayts.

 

The police said the statement by a suspect who had been arrested in Trincomalee few weeks' back had led to the arrest of 'Batchcha'.

The suspect was produced before the Jaffna Magistrate R.T.Viknaraja who ordered him to be remanded till August 20.

5

Weapon used for killing Journalist Nimalarajan

Recovered from EPDP office


11 August 2002 - The Police have claimed that the weapon allegedly used for killing journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan on 19th October 2001 has been recovered from Jaffna EPDP office. The seized weapon is of 9 mm category, the State run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) night reported quoting police sources.


The Jaffna Magistrate issued warrant to search the offices of EPDP in Jaffna and Kayts in regard to the killing of journalist Nimalarajan on an application made by the special investigation team. The police made this application consequent to a statement made by an EPDP member who was arrested in Trincomalee in connection with the journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan’s murder.

The special investigation team of the CID conducted search operation in the Jaffna EPDP office.

According to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, very soon the CID is to submit a special report regarding the seizure of the weapon to the Jaffna Magistrate.

*****

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION

LTTE Leader calls for autonomy and Self-Government

27 November 2002 - In a radical move to clarify the policy orientation of his organisation, Mr Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared that he would favourably consider a political framework that offers substantial regional autonomy and self-government to the Tamil people on the basis of their right to internal self-determination.

Enunciating the organisation’s policy in his annual Heroes’ Day address, the Tamil Tiger leader explained that the Tamil people want to live in freedom and dignity in their own historical homeland pursuing the development of their language, culture and economy and managing their own affairs under a system of self-rule.

The following are extracts from Mr Pirapaharan’s statement:

LTTE Headquarters
Killinochchi
Tamil Eelam
27 November 2002

 

‘Our liberation struggle has reached a new historical turning point and entered into a new developmental stage. We are facing a new challenge. We have ceased armed hostilities and are now engaged in a peaceful negotiating process to resolve the ethnic conflict. Our sincere and dedicated commitment to the peace process has falsified and demolished the propaganda campaign carried out by Sinhala chauvinists that we are enemies of peace.

Even on the issue of cease-fire, we took the initiative. We declared a unilateral cease-fire and called upon the government to reciprocate. The new government, which assumed power with a mandate for peace, reciprocated positively to our declaration of cease-fire. The mutually agreed cessation of hostilities came into effect on 23 February under the supervision of an international monitoring team. This cease-fire has been in force for the past nine months. There have been several provocative attempts by certain elements of the armed forces and anti-peace racist forces to disrupt the peace process. There were incidents in which several innocent Tamils were killed. Nevertheless, we maintained a rigid discipline and observed peace. This is a clear demonstration of our genuine commitment to the path of peace.

6

If a reasonable settlement to the Tamil national question could be realised by peaceful means we will make every endeavour, with honesty and sincerity to pursue that path. Our political objective is to ensure that our people should live in freedom and dignity in their homeland enjoying the right of self-rule. If this political objective could be realised by peaceful means, we are prepared to adopt that method.

We have never shown any disinclination to win the political rights of our people through peaceful means. We have participated in peace negotiations at different places, at different times in different historical circumstances i.e in Thimpu, in Delhi, in Colombo, in Jaffna, and now in Thailand. All previous attempts to a negotiated political settlement ended in fiasco. These failures could only be attributed to the hard-line attitude and deceitful political approaches of previous Sri Lanka governments. Now, the government of Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe is attempting to resolve the problems of the Tamils with sincerity and courage. Furthermore, the current cease-fire, built on a strong foundation and the sincere efforts of the international monitoring mission to further stabilise it, has helped to consolidate the peace process. The capable and skilful facilitation by the Norwegians has also contributed to the steady progress of the current peace talks. Above all, the concern, interests and enthusiasm shown by the international community has given hope and encouragement to both parties. The ideal approach is to move the talks forward, systematically, step by step, standing on a strong foundation of peace and building mutual confidence.

As a consequence of the brutal war that continued incessantly for more than two decades, our people face enormous existential problems. The social and political infrastructures of the Tamil nation are in ruins. The cities, towns and villages have been razed to the ground. Houses, temples and schools have been destroyed. An ancient civilization that stood on our lands for centuries has been uprooted. It is not possible for our people to rebuild their ruined social and economic structures. It is a monumental humanitarian problem. We hope that the international community will view the problem sympathetically. We are relieved to learn that international governments have come forward to assist the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the war damaged Tamil nation.

Though there is peace in the Tamil homeland, conditions of normalcy have not been restored. Under the cover of ‘high security zones’, the Sinhala armed forces are occupying residential areas and social, economic and cultural centres. Forty thousand troops are occupying Jaffna peninsula, which is a tiny geographical region with a dense population. The military occupation is suffocating the civilian masses and causing tensions. Jaffna, which is the cultural heartland of the Tamil people, has turned into an open prison. The occupying forces are using the civilians as their protective shields. As several villages, houses and roads are entrapped by occupation several thousands of internally displaced are unable to return to their residences. Unless this problem is resolved there is no possibility for normalcy and social peace to be restored to Jaffna.

It has always been our position that the urgent and immediate problems of our people should be resolved during the early stages of the peace talks. The former government of Sri Lanka rejected our position. As a result the peace talks broke down. There was a misconception on the part of the former regime that we were hesitant to take up the fundamental political issues and insisted on the resolution of the immediate problems. But the present government has been taking concrete actions redressing the urgent and immediate problems of our people. This is a positive development.

The objective of our struggle is based on the concept of self-determination as articulated in the UN Charter and other instruments. We have always been consistent with our policy with regard to our struggle for self-determination. Tamil homeland, Tamil nationality and Tamils’ right to self-determination are the fundamentals underlying our political struggle. We have been insisting on these fundamentals from Thimpu to Thailand. Our position is that the Tamil national question should be resolved on the basis of these core principles. Tamils constitute themselves as a people, or rather as a national formation since they possess a distinct language, culture and history with a clearly defined homeland and a consciousness of their ethnic identity. As a distinct people they are entitled to the right to self-determination. The right to self-determination has two aspects: internal and external. The internal self-determination entitles a people to regional self-rule.

The Tamil people want to live in freedom and dignity in their own lands, in their historically constituted traditional lands without the domination of external forces. They want to protect their national identity pursing the development of their language, culture and economy. They want to live in their homeland under a system of self-rule. This is the political aspiration of our people. This constitutes the essential meaning of internal self-determination. We are prepared to consider favourably a political framework that offers substantial regional autonomy and self-government in our homeland on the basis of our right to internal self-determination. But if our people’s right to self-determination is denied and our demand for regional self-rule is rejected we have no alternative other than to secede and form an independent state.

7

Racism and racist oppression are the causative factors for rebellions and secessionist politics. The Sinhalese people should identify and reject the racist forces if they desire a permanent peace, ethnic harmony and economic prosperity. They should support, wholeheartedly, the efforts to find a political solution by peaceful means. The Sinhalese people should not oppose the Tamils’ aspirations to manage their own affairs under a system of self-rule in their own homeland. It is the politics of the Sinhala nation that will eventually determine whether the Sinhalese could peacefully co-exist with the Tamils or to compel the Tamils to secede.

We are pleased to note that the talks between the government and the LTTE are progressing forward under the conditions of mutual trust and goodwill. We are encouraged by the interest shown by the international community in the peace process and their willingness to offer assistance to rebuild the war damaged economy of the Tamil nation. It is our deepest desire that the current peace talks facilitated by Norway should succeed and all the communities living in the island should co-exist in harmony. If the Sinhala chauvinistic forces, for their own petty political reasons scuttle this peace effort which has raised high hopes and expectations and gained the support of the international community, the Tamil people will be compelled to pursue the path of secession and political independence,’ Mr Pirapaharan declared.

 

Who cheated whom?

The persistent refrain of those who are opposed to the peace talks is that the LTTE cannot be trusted.

The Tigers cheated the Sri Lankan government in 1990 and 1995 therefore they are sure to do the same this time too, assert the opponents of the current peace process. This is generally accepted by everyone in the Sinhala polity.

Towards this end, I would like to draw attention to some facts about the 1990 peace talks, reported and commented upon in the media at the time.

During the talks with the Tigers, the Premadasa government agreed in principle to repeal the Sixth Amendment to the constitution, to dissolve the Northeast Provincial Council, to hold fresh elections in the region and to desist from making deals with the EPRLF. For its part, the LTTE promised to steer clear of the SLFP and particularly the JVP, which was building up rapidly for an insurrection to overthrow of the government.

In fact the LTTE unwittingly prevented the fall of the Premadasa government by ‘clearing’ an otherwise inaccessible strategic point on the island’s northwestern coast through which the JVP was about to unload several shiploads of weapons in late 1989. The Sri Lankan state was also keen to rid the northeast of the Tamil National Army, which it believed could act in the long term as India’s pawn to gain leverage in the affairs of this country. The understanding between the two parties was that the sixth amendment would be repealed to enable the LTTE to contest fresh elections in the northeast after the dissolution of the Provincial Council there.

On the basis of this agreement, the Tigers went ahead and registered the People’s Front of the Liberation Tigers (PFLT) with the Elections Commission as a legitimate political party in Sri Lanka’s democratic mainstream. In doing all this, the LTTE assumed, on the basis of undertakings given by the Premadasa regime, that the government would stick to them as the main party on the Tamil side.

But almost a year went by and the government made no move to repeal the Sixth Amendment. And it was reluctant to dissolve the NEPC.

(The dissolution came about only when Perumal pronounced his intent to declare Eelam unilaterally in the face of LTTE forces sweeping through most of the northeast, knocking out his Tamil National Army everywhere)Later the Premadasa government opened a line of communication with the EPRLF; and there were reports that some ex-EPRLF members were training with commandos in Gonawela.

It can be argued now that the LTTE’s position vis-à-vis the Premadasa regime was quite unreasonable. But then, why did President Premadasa and his men create such understanding and give such undertakings to the LTTE during the talks? The LTTE naturally felt it was being taken for a ride, that Premadasa was shrewdly buying time on the question of the sixth amendment and the fresh elections.

8

Who was cheating whom during the 1990 peace talks? If one were to go by the number of instances in which one has been cheated to determine the probability that one may get played out again then the Tamils have greater reason to feel apprehensive about trusting the good intentions of the Sinhala state.

If Sinhala nationalists insist that the LTTE cannot and should not be trusted because it cheated the Sri Lankan state on two occasions in which negotiations were held for a settlement, then by the same yardstick the Tamils or for that matter the LTTE have much greater reason for not trusting the Sinhala polity on the matter of finding a solution to the Tamil problem.

If the Sinhala state was cheated twice and feels it is very good grounds for mistrusting the Tigers, the Tamils can say they were duped at least 11 times by the Sri Lankan state. They were taken up the garden path in 1959 (Banda – Chelva Pact), 65 (Dudley – Chelva Pact), 72 (Constituent Assembley), 77 (All Party Conference), 81 (District Development Councils), 1985 (Thimpu), 1991 (All Party Conference) 1993 (Mangala Moonesingha Select Committee), 1995 (Chandrika’s proposals), 2000 (Chandrika’s proposals II) and 2001 (Operation Agni Khiela).

It is important to look at this aspect now in devising strategies for strengthening the trust that has helped the progress of the peace talks between the LTTE and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government so far. (by D. Sivaram – excerpts from Northeastern Herald, Sri Lanka – December 20-26, 2002)

Negotiating self-determination


The views expressed by Dr. Anton Balasingham, head of the LTTE delegation, at the press conference in Sattahip and later in some of his interviews, have raised many eyebrows over their real meaning. Particularly, his statement that the LTTE doesn’t operate according to the concept of a separate state but according to concepts and categories that are entirely different has created some confusion with some people arguing that the LTTE would never give up its demand for a separate state. This confusion has been further compounded by Balasingham’s explanation that the LTTE operates in accordance with the concept of homeland and self-determination and that homeland doesn’t mean separate state as such. As far back as 1985, beginning with Thimpu Talks, the ideas of homeland and self-determination have been on the agenda for a negotiated settlement of the ethnic conflict in this country.

In fact, not only the LTTE but also almost all the Tamil parties had consistently espoused the idea of self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people of this country. I mean in this context self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people of the Northeast. When I say this, one must be reminded of the different interpretations given to the concept of self-determination in the political science and legal discourses. However, it is the LTTE that has been continuously engaged in an armed struggle for achieving this right. The LTTE has never concealed the fact that its fight is for the right of self-determination. In this regard, it has even made reference to the Vaddukkoddai Resolution of 1976.

As such, the demand for the right to self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people of the northeast is nothing new and it was not the LTTE that originally propounded this idea as a solution for the ethnic conflict in this country.

But it is the LTTE that came forward to successfully carry the mantle throughout these years. It has been a curse in the political arena of this country that whenever one speaks of equal rights, self-determination or autonomy, it is interpreted as a demand for a separate state or those who advocate these rights are branded as separatists.

A plain reading of what Balasingham said at the press conference makes the picture very clear in that the armed struggle of the LTTE is not for anything else but for the right to self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people of Sri Lanka (Balasingham has cleared some doubts over this). By referring to the traditional homeland and self-determination he has given the correct picture of what the fight is going to achieve. For self-respect and to get all the opportunities to realise one’s own potentialities one does not need a separate state. But, the denial of these would definitely lead to separation, as there wouldn’t be any other alternative to pursue.

The right to self-determination can be realised in many ways.

 

9

There are a number of mechanisms available, which can be made use of in devising and ensuring effective enjoyment of this right. However, the Tamil -speaking people of the northeast of Sri Lanka cannot afford to forego their right to decide their political destiny. At the same time, we should also be mindful of the fact that there have been instances in which a state accepted the principle of secession and entered into negotiations.

In 1962 for instance, Britain recognized the right of Nyasaland (later Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation. In Malaysia-Singapore, the normal situation was reversed and the terms of secession were presented to Lee Kuan Yew by the Malaysian government. When it happened in Sweden by 1905, despite some ministers’ advocacy of war, the Swedish cabinet decided to proceed with peace talks allowing Norway to depart following the Storting vote. (by V. T. Thamilmaran - excerpt from Northeastern Herald, Sri Lanka – 27 September – 03 October 2002)

 

Journey towards peace - can we find justice for Krishanthy?

by Nimalka Fernando

Our journey to Jaffna as the A 9 road was opened in April left me with a sense of devastation. We have campaigned for peace since the ethnic conflict erupted in Sri Lanka but never did I imagine the destruction could be so brutal.

The most difficult thing for me to accept was the manner in which we have destroyed our own country for whatever the reason may be. Chavakacheri town stand out as the symbol of that war - the reality that war desires to destroy and not construct. The myth that war can bring about peace or that we have to first destroy the enemy to create peace is what kept the Sinhala society and the State enmeshed in the massive destruction of the North and East of our country. Did this part of the country be ever loved by us? When one sees the manner in which schools, houses and buildings being destroyed in this manner it seemed to me that the State never envisaged these areas to be part of Sri Lanka.

It was as if the State was trying to annex another part to Sri Lanka.

Today in Thailand the LTTE has shown the whole world the futility of the war carried out by a psyche which sort to subjugate a people by war. The aspiration of any people cannot be subjugated by weapons. Neither weapons can give us the aspiration. May be one might concede that the confrontation raises the issue to the political level like it did in Sri Lanka. But finally it is the political process that paved the way for a resolution. The acceptance that self-rule for the Tamil people within one Sri Lanka that brought the smile to the faces of all Sri Lankans today.

'We do not need those boots in this land'. 'We will have a child after peace dawns on us' these words of Dileepa in Maniratnam's poignant story 'Peck on the Cheek' bring to us the hard reality of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. War and peace in Sri Lanka is also about children like Amudha - the refugee girl coming in search of the mother to the Subramaniam park in Jaffna. Amid the discussion of power we cannot lose sight of the human lives devastated.

The signing of the MoU was the first recognition of the suffering of the people and that suffering should end. MoU's can be signed only by human beings who recognize humanity - MoU can be accepted by only those who value human life.

We have seen efforts made by the JVP and the President to twist the course of history in this country. As a woman political activist and as a mother I am ashamed at this gimmick. Press statements retracting statements will not fool anybody. This war should have been ended by Chandrika immediately after the confrontation in Mulathivu in early 1996. She is a woman and a mother. She could have come before the nation and the international community to state that she will not allow any of her children to die in this manner. At that time with her mandate even the LTTE would have had to come into negotiations.

As a woman President she could have taken the initiative boldly. But she began her Margaret Thatcher politics, she gave way to male political imagineries to be the ruler rather than the mother and the woman for peace. All women in Sri Lanka should be happy that there is peace. That we no more live with the fear of bomb explosions, disappearances and assassinations. If one reads the book 'Politics of Duplicity' by Anton Balasingham the core issues related to the failure is further exposed.

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But there is a long way to travel. Peace is not merely the absence of war. As we begin to reconstruct and redefine the future of this island the crucial question before us is who or what will become the pivot of our decision making. Will it be the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the North and East who have suffered violence, displacement, loses and raped during this conflict times. Will the issue of life and living as human beings with dignity and justice be the main guiding principle in relation to the substantive issues yet to be discussed.

It is very disappointing to note that the JVP has not been able to grapple in a mature manner the crucial and fundamental question related to the national and ethnic question of this country. This group supposed to be well informed of Marxist principles and ideologies has once again failed pathetically as one of their leaders have stated 'the LTTE has not given up the call for right of self-determination and the concept of homeland'.

Why should the representatives of the Tamil people or for that matter Tamil people in this country give up the most crucial factors related to their identities. This representative in making such statement is also making an identity issue as a Sinhalese living in the South.

These two leaders presently representing the two ethnic communities have to develop a larger framework for the resolution of the conflict. In this process we are well aware that the issues of governance, democracy and economic policies will have to be spelt out. The issue is not whether Prabhakaran will become the leader of the interim adminstration but whether the interim administration will be able to cope with the development of a political system of governance based on ethnic justice and equality, democratic governance and be gender sensitive.

What will be the contribution of the LTTE and its leadership in such a process is the crucial issue. In the South, JVP has failed miserably as a youth leadership to address such a political challenge. Will LTTE be able to transform itself to meet this historical political challenge facing them?

Women in general have kept the social fabric together in Sri Lanka during this conflict. Especially women in the North were the main sustenance in that society torn with grief and loss. Women cadre of the LTTE have played a role unparallel to any other such movement. According to available statistics about 48,000 widows remain in the North and East. There are women who also need psychological assistance. Further in the South there are the widows of the soldiers. The cases of women raped, Krishanthy and Sard.hamma (Sarathaambaal) come to my mind. Will we be able to give them justice? Could we be capable of transforming this statement of a Tamil woman "Instead of dying screaming being raped by an aggressor army, it is a relief to face the army with your own weapon", and create a new social order.

Peace agreements are usually made predominantly if not exclusively by men - both the protagonists from the conflict and the mediators are usually male. Often women are excluded from their processes. While women are clearly involved in the violent struggles the world over. Leaders of armies whether state or non-state are usually men. Let's hope that Sri Lanka will be able to create history by including more women in this dialogue as we move on. Peace has to be placed in the context of the larger democratic agenda, which should not be lost sight of despite the severity of conflict and the urgency of conflict resolution.

There is a complex and close relationship between a sustainable peace process and the democratic process. These are three aspects to this relationship in which democracy is a component of peace, is a value in the struggle for peace and requires the democratization of the peace process. In the democratization of the peace process, there is the need for consultations with caring sectors of society. Important though they are, peace accords are only a part of the peace process. While two parties sign the accord, the peace process involves many actors and agencies.

(NIMALKA FERNANDO -- President International Movement Against all forms of Discrimination and Racism- IMADR, NGO with consultative status with UN. IMADR head office based in Japan – excerpt from the Daily News 08/10/2002)

 

 

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CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Destruction ‘‘A reminder of the Vietnam war’’!

- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage

COLOMBO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage flew into the Tamil heartland of Jaffna on Thursday and said he would push hard for a negotiated end to Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war.

The Jaffna peninsula is the cultural homeland of Sri Lanka's Tamils and the scene of many bitter battles since war broke out between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1983.

"The United States government has expressed its strong support for the existing ceasefire agreement and for the recently announced upcoming talks between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE," Armitage told reporters.

Armitage held talks in the capital Colombo with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after spending several hours in northern Jaffna, where he said the destruction reminded him of his time in the Vietnam war.

"It is a keen reminder that enough is enough," Armitage said after passing through Chavakachcheri, a town pounded to rubble two years ago in the most ferocious artillery battle of the war.

"Seeing what you have seen here is all the encouragement one needs to push as forcefully as we can (to end the war)," said Armitage, the highest-level U.S. official to visit Sri Lanka since Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in the 1950s.

"It is up to the government and the LTTE to resolve their differences peacefully," he said.

Armitage said U.S. President George W. Bush wanted him to visit Sri Lanka after Wickremesinghe's trip to the White House last month.

U.S. officials have said they support Wickremesinghe's peace efforts, which included signing a Norwegian-brokered truce in February and the easing of economic sanctions on areas controlled by the rebels.

25,000 soldiers died, none missing in action

20 LTTE run welfare centres for youngsters

- Dr. Anton Balasingham

At least 25,000 personnel of the Sri Lankan armed forces had been killed during the two decades of fighting and no one categorized as Missing in Action is in LTTE custody, chief negotiator Dr. Anton Balasingham told a news conference at the end of the fourth session of peace talks here.

He said many soldiers, who were killed had been listed by the army as missing in action.

"On several occasions we found hundreds of bodies after a battle. We wanted to hand them over to the army through the ICRC. We are sorry to say they refused to accept the bodies," Dr. Balasingham said.

"The previous government had told the people in the South that thousands of prisoners of war are under LTTE custody. We have officially told the ICRC that we don't have prisoners," he said. Dr. Balasingham also said the LTTE had lost nearly 17,500 cardres during the battles and there were a large number under government detention, about 400 of whom were released recently.

Government's chief negotiator G.L. Peiris, who refused to comment on the numbers, said that they would seek ICRC assistance to look into "involuntary disappearances".

Dr. Balasingham also disclosed that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran would give a reassurance to UN special envoy Olara Otunu that they would not recruit children.

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"The LTTE is not recruiting anyone under 18 years of age. Any underaged person would be handed back to the parents. It is true that there were a few cases. Out of poverty young people come and join us. There are no birth certificates in the Wanni. That is also a problem," Dr. Balasingham said.

He revealed there were about 20 LTTE run welfare centres where they gave vocational education to young people. The LTTE was seeking funds from international groups to run those centres and Political Wing Leader S. Thamilselvan would meet UNICEF representatives soon to discuss the matter. Referring to the LTTE's stand that the decommissioning of weapons and disarming cadres at this stage were non-negotiable, Dr. Balasingham said that it would be suicidal for them to give up their war machinery without reaching a final settlement.

However, he said there was no need now to resort to war or violence and the LTTE cadres were confined to barracks.

"There are disagreements which we want to sought out by dialogue. The LTTE joined the peace process sincerely. Nothing secret about it. There is no secret agenda," he said.

Minister G.L. Peiris told the media conference there was no intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, but the parties were working on other forms of legislation.

When asked about a possible truth and reconciliation commission like in South Africa, the minister said it was not the only instrument. Soon after the talks government negotiator Milinda Moragoda flew to New Delhi to brief Indian leaders on the developments.

The facilitator Norway issued a statement that the four days of talks were frank and constructive while the two parties had reaffirmed their pledge to sustain the peace process despite problems. (Daily Mirror – 10 January 2003)

Death penalty will be reimposed !

Minister John Amaratunga recently visited the gallows at the Welikada prison to inspect the conditions there.


The last man to be hanged there was from Tissamaharama in 1976. The noose had deteriorated and the rope used had to be imported as it was a type that was unavailable in Sri Lanka.


The gallows that have not been used for 26 years, need a new look and the minister has suggested that the necessary repairs be carried out until a decision on the death penalty is taken. (Courtesy -
http://www.chez.com/suriyakantha/)

Brother & sister sentenced to death on 17 March 2003


Residents of Balangoda Raiwatte, Kitnasami Chandran and his sister Mangaleshwari, were sentenced to death by hanging by the Magistrate of Balangoda, after they proved guilty of stabbing a person to death. (‘DIVAINA’17 March 2003)

Death penalty and new bill put security in jeopardy
by J. S. Tissainayagam


Parliament is expected to debate the re-imposition of the death penalty next month and the conclusion is to be forwarded to the President who will make a final decision on whether the penalty will be re-imposed or if the status quo, where the death sentence is automatically commuted to life imprisonment, is to remain.

It appears that some members of the Cabinet including Interior Minister John Amaratunga (who is incidentally minister of Christian religious affairs too!) have expressed their support for the re-imposition on the grounds that it would be a deterrent to violent crime.

Meanwhile, it is learnt government is planning to introduce legislation that will permit certain draconian provisions contained in the PTA, which is special legislation, to become part of normal law. Normal law today provides for suspects to be detained for only 24 hours before being produced before a magistrate, whereas

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the PTA allows them to be held in police custody for up to seven days. The PTA also allows confessions to be admissible as evidence without corroboration (though there is a recent judgement against it), which normal law does not. These two provisions are expected to become part of the architecture of normal law of this country through the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill, which is now being drafted.

It is not the intention of this writer to look into the morality of taking life for a life or into the suggestion that the death penalty has been unsuccessful in curbing crime in other countries. The question that has to be examined is whether if the death penalty is re-imposed it will be used on those convicted for crimes under the PTA or the new Prevention of Organised Crime Bill, if it becomes law. It is bound to be because murder and conspiracy to murder are crimes that usually carry the death sentence.

One of the basic defects in the PTA – why it is considered as failing to conform to international human rights standards – is because it makes admissible as evidence confessions made to a police officer not below the rank of an ASP, without any corroboration of such evidence. This has led to confessions to be extracted from suspects in police stations through torture, which is used against them in court. What is more, the PTA has been selective in its past applications. Except for its extensive use in the late 1980s as a counterinsurgency measure against the JVP, it has been used almost exclusively against Tamils.

There are important landmarks in the judicial history of the United Kingdom too that reiterates the havoc caused by a state hell bent on using the law for securing illegal convictions as the PTA does in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka however, the legal system has been decried for its conservatism. Despite consistent evidence emerging of the use of torture to fabricate evidence, except for blistering judgements delivered by Court no effective way of curbing this atrocious practice has been launched. Similarly, forensic evidence on which magistrates in the lower courts place great faith – especially in deciding if there is a prima facie case – is tampered with by the police who coerce doctors to refrain from disclosing what they know. Finally, the jury system is found wanting in that the jury in the Mylanthanai trial went completely against the evidence led in court and acquitted 18 soldiers against the wishes of the judge.

It is frightening to contemplate the re-imposition of the death penalty when such grave shortcomings exist in PTA and the alarming possibility of the more obnoxious sections of this legislation passing into normal law through the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill. Despite the travesty of justice in the case of the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and many others wrongly convicted for IRA bombings in the 1970s, the fact the convicted were still alive allowed the sentences to be reversed. In fact Paul Hill one of the Four was to comment much later to the press, "I think the most poignant thing was that the judge expressed regret that the death penalty was not an option."

It appears the government is trying to introduce measures such as the death penalty and the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill under the guise of fighting violent crime that is rampant Sri Lanka today. However, in the process basic human rights safeguards that should be afforded to a citizen, which are ensured by international legal instruments to which the Sri Lankan State is party, will be compromised.

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, where under Optional Protocol II, States give an undertaking they will not introduce the death penalty or if they do carry out capital punishment would progressively move away from its execution. Sri Lanka it seems is moving the other way. (excerpt from Northeastern Herald – 28 February – 06 March 2003)

Opposition back government decision to resume executions


Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapake yesterday extended his support to a disputed govt decision  resume executions. "There was no reason for us to oppose the decision," he said. Reminding that Parliament adopted a motion by PA MP Baharatha Lakshman Premachandra calling for the immediate enforcement of the capital punishment in June 1995. (THE ISLAND – 7 March 2002)

 

 

 

 

 

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7 civilians killed and 14 injured in Ampara


10 October 2002 – Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Ampara district have confirmed that seven people killed and fourteen injured when the Special Task Force (STF) fired live ammunition after the protesting crowd broke through the main entrance and entered the STF camp. The injured are in Hospital in the town of Kalmunai.

The full text of the press release from the Press and Information officer, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) follows:

"Seven people tragically lost their lives and fourteen people were injured when a large crowd of people forcefully entered the Kanjirankudah STF (Special Task Force of the Sri Lanka Police) camp south of Thirukkovil shortly after 17.00 on Wednesday. A demonstration of an estimated 500-1000 people crowd outside the camp got out of control when the crowd broke through the main entrance and a barbed wire fence and entered the camp. According to the STF officer in command of the camp, the members of the crowd were throwing stones, burning tyres and shooting with firearms. The STF used teargas and fired rubberbullets at the crowd and eventually fired at the people with live ammunition.

SLMM Monitors arrived at the camp before 20.00 and found three bodies inside the camp and one body 5 metres outside the camp's fences. SLMM findings indicate that these 4 people had lost their lives exactly where their bodies were found. After initial examination it was thought that one of the dead persons was a member of the LTTE, due to his clothing. However, now it is thought that this person was a civilian, as his clothes were only similar, but not the same as the LTTE cadres frequently wear. SLMM Monitors observed that most things that could burn on the outside of the camp were still on fire at that time and tyres were still burning inside the camp. Communications SLMM Monitors in Ampara district have confirmed that seven people from the crowd died during and after the attack on the STF camp. Furthermore, fourteen people are confirmed as injured and are in Hospital in the town of Kalmunai.

According to a medical officer in Kalmunai Hospital seven of them have bullet wounds but all are expected to be discharged in 2-3 days. Today, unidentified members of the public have establish some roadblocks with burning tyres in this area on the East Coast. The situation has remained very tense but so far without violent incidents. The Officer in Command of the STF camp has stated that there were LTTE members from the Rufus Kulam camp in the attacking crowd. SLMM has no evidence of this at this time and nothing indicates that the LTTE leadership knew of this attack beforehand.

"This is a tragic event and extremely sad loss of lives" says Major General Trond Furuhovde, Head of SLMM. "Because of an uncontrolled demonstration people are now griefing their loved ones. During only one night, Hope and Reconciliation is turned into fear and uncertainty.

3 Tamil civilians killed in Trincomalee


11 October 2002 –
Three Tamil civilians killed, twenty others wounded and eight in critical condition, in Trincomalee in firing and grenade attacks blamed on Sri Lankan police and Sinhala paramilitaries. The killings occurred amid calls for a general shut down in Trincomalee condemning the killings Wednesday of seven Tamil demonstrators by Special Task Force commandos in Ampara district.

Two Tamil civilians have been shot dead and several others wounded by Police firing at Anpuvallipuram junction, northwest of Trincomalee. One person is reported to have been killed by Sinhala home guards.

"All the victims in the violence that erupted in Trincomalee are Tamils and not from other communities. This clearly shows who is responsible for the violence now unleashed in Trincomalee," Mr. R. Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance leader and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian told the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Members of the State armed forces are all from majority community. If the violence against Tamils is not brought to a halt, Tamils will lose confidence on the state armed forces that they are one sided," Mr. Sampanthan stressed to the Prime Minister.

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Over 20,000 missing NorthEast - ICRC

Colombo, Feb.19. (UNI) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was currently working in tracing several thousands of missing persons, both civilians and combatants, during the prolonged war in the country's North East region.

Marco Brudermann, Sri Lanka's head of delegation to the ICRC, said at a press conference that both the government and the LTTE rebels had agreed to approach the ICRC to help them in setting up an 'Independent Verification Mechanism' to ascertain the fate of thousands of civilians and combatants, who are still missing.

He said the ICRC over the past 12 years has received over 20,000 cases of missing persons.

"Some 11,000 tracing requests are still unresolved, about 2,200 have been confirmed missing. The ICRC is currently working on the remaining 8,800 missing cases and will continue its tracing work in the country until all the families are provided with an answer."

Commenting on the setting up of 'Independent Verification Mechanism', Brudermann said the issue had been discussed even during the last round of peace talks in Berlin.

"But it has not been set up yet. It will be set up, hopefully, in the coming weeks or days," he said.

He said the ICRC, making use of its past experience, has given its suggestions as an outline to the proposed mechanism.

"But it is up to the parties concerned to work it out and produce results," he said, adding they were merely 'suggestions' for the parties to consider and 'not conditions' to establish such mechanism, which could help the process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Over 650 Tamil youths are still missing after the military recaptured the Jaffna peninsula in 1995 with the Operation codenamed Riviresa.

12 Police personnel raped and tortured PTA suspect


23 September 2002 -
The medical report to the Eastern High Court in a Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) case revealed that twelve police personnel had raped Sathasivam Rathykala, aged 28, at night at the Polonaruwa police station on 24.11.2000. The report was submitted by the Batticaloa Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) to the Eastern High Court on September 18. The JMO in his report has recommended that counselling and rehabilitation should be provided to the suspect in consultation with a psychiatrist as the victim has suffered acute mental trauma.

Sathasivam Rathykala is still in Batticaloa prison and the inquiry has been postponed for a later date by the eastern High Court.

Ms Rathykala was arrested under PTA by four police officers from the Medigiriya police station on 24/11/2000 around 12 noon at the Polonaruwa general hospital where she was an attendant. The police suspected that she was a member of the LTTE.

She was later detained at Anuradhapura and Welikada prisons. Finally she was transferred to Batticaloa prison on 23/07/2002. At the time of arrest she lived with her parents at No 23, Shory Street Mannampitiya in the Batticaloa district.

The Eastern High Court ordered the JMO to examine the suspect woman and submit report when the defense pointed out that the suspect was subjected to severe torture by the Police while in custody.

"The suspect Ms Rathykala was produced before me for Medico-Legal examination around 3 p.m. on 30/8/2002 in the JMO's office acting on the order of the Eastern High Court Judge. Her father is a farmer and she is the eldest child. She joined as a hospital attendant in the Polonaruwa general hospital on 24/08/2000," said the medical report signed by the JMO, Batticaloa district, Dr.S.Chandrapalan.

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The medico-legal report of the JMO, Batticaloa district further states: -

History given by the suspect:

She was arrested by four male police officers from the Medigiriya police station on 24/11/2000 around 12 noon when she was on duty. She was then taken to CID office in Polonaruwa in a police jeep. While in jeep she was scolded by policemen in filth and was threatened that she would be killed. One policeman stamped on her right foot forcefully with shod foot.

At about 12.30 p.m. she was handed over to the Polonaruwa CID office. There she was detained for two days. Thereafter she was produced before a doctor in Polonaruwa hospital. At that time they did not assault her. Later she was detained in the hallway till about midnight and was interrogated whether she was a member of the LTTE.

Thereafter the Police officials ordered her to take off all the clothes except her panty and bra. She begged them not to force her to remove her clothes. Subsequently she was subjected to body search by police officials touching her whole body including her genital area and breast. She was not given lunch. Police officers from Medigiriya Police arrived and with CID officials started interrogating her. She was given a gun to operate. Around midnight the Police detained her in a cell alone. She asked the police to provide a matron for her security. But the police refused to do so. She asked the Police to inform her parents about her arrest. The Police did not accede to that request. Later she was threatened and assaulted by the police inside the cell. She then fainted. When she regained consciousness she found herself lying on the bed in another room.

The police officers forced her to remove her bra and panty. She begged and pleaded with them not to harm her. The police officials then threatened her that she would be killed and her body would be disposed after cutting her neck. Subsequently one by one twelve police officers had sexual intercourse with her until next morning 5 'clock. As a result she had many scratch marks on her breasts. She also had severe abdominal pain. She was given two tablets to swallow which she identified as contraceptive pills.

The next day morning she was taken to her village in a police jeep and was asked her to show the members of the LTTE. She was blindfolded and the arms tied on the back. She denied having contacts with the LTTE. She was then handed over to the Kaduruwela Police on 26/11/2000. There she was detained for about a month. For the first ten days she was not allowed to take bath. Police officials there did not assault her but continuously questioned her.

She was taken to Magistrate on 29/11/2000.She was later handed over to the Anuradhapura prison and remanded there for about a month. She was then transferred to Welikada prison on 3/2/2002. Finally she was transferred to Batticaloa prison on 23/07/2002 and up to now she is detained at Batticaloa prison."

The suspect Ms Rathykala was referred and examined by Psychiatrist Dr.M.Ganeshan on 11/9/2002 in the psychiatric unit in the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital.

Dr.Ganeshan has reported that she has sleep-disturbances with nightmares. She has depression with suicidal ideation. Her appetite is poor. She has intrusive memories and avoidance stimuli, which bring back memories of torture. Finally Dr.Ganeshan concluded that she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He recommended counseling and treatment.

The Batticaloa JMO Dr.Chandrapalan in his report said:

"She appeared depressed and has intrusive thoughts. In addition she has suicidal ideation. She has revealed in her history the manner she was tortured and sexually assaulted by the Police officers in the CID office while under their custody.

"There is medical evidence of scars resulting from physical abuse. There is medical evidence of forced physical intercourse. She is suffering from mental trauma. Interrogation and bodily examination on her were performed throughout by male policemen. She was not provided a matron while she was in the police custody.

 

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"In my opinion, the age of the scars as described are could be more than six months from the time of infliction, which is consistent with the history given by the suspect. Some scars are consistent with injuries caused by the live cigarette butts. Scars on the breasts are consistent with nail scratches from violent handling of the breast during sexual assault. Some of the scars in the breast are consistent with the injuries resulted from lighted cigarettes. Penile penetration by the erect adult penis was possible as it is consistent with the history of sexual assault given by her. It was possible that she was unclothed before the perpetrators sexually, physically assaulted her. Since she has mental trauma and has a suicidal ideation the counselling and rehabilitation are necessary with the consultation of psychiatrist, and for the treatment too. Her menstrual regularizes and lower abdominal pain could be due to the chronic stress that resulted from cumulative effects of the torture she underwent," said JMO Dr.Chandrapalan in his medico-legal report to the High Court.

STF personnel burnt down two shops


30 October 2002 - In Pottuvil, two shops owned by Tamils, were burnt down by suspected Special Task Force - STF personnel in Kanchirankuda at 1.00 a.m. These shops were located at Pottuvil main junction, only few hundred meters away from Kanchirankuda STF camp in Ampara district.

The shops owned by Subramaniam Krishnapillai (50) and Rasiah Chandrakumar (50).

According to one of the shop owner Mr. S. Krishnapillai, he lives near the shop and when he got-up at midnight he saw his shop was on fire.

When he rushed to the spot with his wife, he saw about ten persons wearing trousers running away from the scene!

According to Mr. S. Krishnapillai, two days before the incident, LTTE photographer has interviewed him regarding the Kanchirankuda killings and he has told every thing that took place at Kanchirankuda.

Mr. Krishnapillai also said that since one of his daughters has joined the LTTE the STF personnel at Kanchirankuda have been monitoring his activities with suspicion.

Several times in the past, the STF personnel have requested him to make a complaint to the SLMM stating that the LTTE had forcibly conscripted his daughter. But Mr. Krishnapillai has told the STF personnel that his daughter joined the LTTE voluntarily. From then onwards STF personnel do not pay for the goods that they buy from his shop.

This incident has been brought to notice of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Officer-in-Charge of the Akkaraipattu Police.

Student shot and wounded by STF

23 May 2002 - More than ten thousand students from 52 schools in the Thirukkovil education zone, south of Batticaloa, marched and demonstrated against the Special Task Force - STF. Angry protestors who came out in support of the students blocked traffic of the main road on the island's southeast coast by burning tires at key junctions between Neelavanai and Akkaraipattu. The market and shops were closed in Kalmunai, the main town of the region, south of Batticaloa. The STF shot and wounded a student during a demonstration in Thirukkovil .

12 year boy injured

17 August 2002 - A twelve-year-old boy Osmanraj Prakashraj was seriously wounded when an unidentified object exploded in Punkankulam in Ariyalai, Jaffna peninsula. The explosion took place when the boy had set fire to the garbage collected in the surrounding of the area. Prajashraj, has been admitted to the Jaffna teachiching hospital.

Fishermen assaulted by soldiers in Vadamaradchy

18 October 2002 - According to the fisheries co-operative, two young Tamil fishermen were assaulted by a Sri Lanka Army soldier from 52-4 Brigade manning a sentry in the coastal village of Katkovalam in Vadamaradchi.

According to a complaint made at the 52-4 Brigade HQ, the fishermen were assaulted when they were going to sea passing the army check point at Katkovalam.

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BBC man attacked by extremist group

Tamil journalists yesterday slammed the attack by an unidentified group on the residence of a BBC correspondent who had named in a recent report, an extremist Muslim group as being behind recent communal violence in the Mutur area of Trincomalee. "We strongly condemn the attack on the house of Ponnuthurai Satchivanandan on Wednesday morning," said a statement issued by the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance.

The statement further stated:

The journalists said that according to reports, Mr.Satchivanandan's house was attacked in connection with an interview given by him to the BBC Tamil channel claiming that a Muslim group had been responsible for the disturbances in Mutur area. Following the interview an unidentified group had gone to his house in search of him and had attacked his house, an orphanage and the office of the rural development association under his management.

When the incident took place Mr.Satchivanandan was not in his house. Hence he escaped but his father-in-law Mr.Oppilamani was injured in the attack.

Mr. Satchivanandan has sought refuge in a safe place with his family.

The Tamil Media Alliance said the police and the security forces appeared to have taken little or no action to prevent the daytime attack. The journalist appealed to the Government to hold an impartial inquiry. (Daily Mirror – 29 June 2002)

News paper office ransacked in Batticaloa


8 August 2002 – According to the Thinakkathir editor Mr. Kodeeswaran Rushangan office of Thinakkathir, the Tamil daily paper published in Batticaloa, was ransacked by a gang. A gang of more than five had forcibly entered the paper office tied up and blindfolded the staff and took away office equipment. Two journalists were wounded in an attack on the office in Batticaloa town's high security zone on 26 December 2001.

The gang removed all the computers, printers and other electronic equipment and set fire to newspapers and documents. A worker from the Thinakkathir press and the Editor were assaulted by the gang.

"They came in a van. The persons who forced their way in to the office had their faces covered," Mr.Rushangan said. The gang locked up the editor, his wife and members of the staff in the office hall before it made off with the computers, printers, phone recorder etc.

Journalists in Batticaloa staged a half an hour picketing blocking the traffic across the main road in front of the newspaper office. The picketing was organised by the East Lanka Journalists Association, condemning the attack on Thinakathir newspaper office.

UN Rapporteur highly critical of judiciary

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, Dato Param Cumaraswamy condemned the imprisonment of Anthony Michael Emmanuel Fernando and said that he will be informing the UN Human Rights Commission about the unjust imprisonment of a person who had come to courts seeking justice.

Cumaraswamy, who was on an official visit to Sri Lanka made known his displeasure at a media briefing where he said that the court action had attacked the independence of the Judiciary system and the Law. He also said that he was surprised to hear some of the court cases. "I was stunned and surprised to hear that a trade unionist who had come to courts for justice had been served injustice", he said.

The petitioner, Fernando who had filed a fundamental rights case was imprisoned for one year for contempt of court, following his demand that the Chief Justice be removed from the Panel of judges, hearing the case, Fernando was subsequently assaulted in prison, and is now hospitalised.

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Cumaraswamy who visited Fernando at the General Hospital, Colombo said that he didn't know what crime Fernando had committed to warrant him one year imprisonment.

"He also had been tied to a bar with an iron chain and he had been attacked in a prison van. I was informed that three officers had been suspended on the issue. But, I am not sure," Cumaraswamy added.

Pointing out that as well as the independence of the judiciary, lawyers and judges must also be concerned about the accountability of Judges. He asked why the Bar Association of Sri Lanka or any other organisation failed to rush to the petitioner and help him. Cumaraswamy also pointed out that the CJ had refused an AGM of Judges and had summoned a compulsory meeting for judges attacking their rights of association and meeting.

"This kind of things would definitely bring a black mark on Sri Lankan Judiciary and several countries have already written to Sri Lanka on the issue. I think, the time has come for law practitioners to wake up", Mr. Cumaraswamy stressed. (Sunday Observer – 02 March 2003)

 

Sri Lanka judiciary's failure led Tamils to take arms – Ranil


10
January 2003 -
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe said that the failure of the country's judiciary to fulfill its duties and responsibilities to safeguard the right of various ethnic groups has led the Tamils to launch an armed struggle for a separate state.

The Prime Minister made this observation when inaugurating a three day conference of Chief Justices of the world at Colombo Hotel Oberoi. Chief Justices from nine countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Phillipines and Karnataka state in India participated at the conference.

Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe further said," action against frauds in the judiciary should not be restricted to agitation on the national level. Attention of the Asian countries should be drawn to forming a national charter on the freedom of courts and human rights. Struggle against fraud in the legal field should not be restricted to national level and time has come to launch action on regional basis."

Referring to the Indian judiciary, the Prime Minister said the Indian Supreme Court has rendered an immense service in the past five years to safeguard the rights of civilians. This has caused considerable impact to create an Indian identity. " However the situation in Sri Lanka is completely different," said Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe.

"It is questionable whether the Sri Lankan judiciary fulfilled its duties and responsibilities to safeguard the rights and freedoms of various communities in the country. This has led the Tamils to launch an armed struggle to create a separate state in the country," said Mr.Wickremasinghe.

The inside story of 'Tamil Eelam Courts'

By Chris Kamalendran in Kilinochchi

(Courtesy - Sunday Times)

We have a strong legal system says LTTE legal chief.


Tamil guerrillas have put into operation a full-fledged legal system in areas dominated by them in the north and East and are looking forward to expand it. The guerrillas have put into place a 'law college' to train their lawyers, put up as many as 17 courts including a special bench, similar to the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka. The only difference being that the final decisions regarding the appeals are referred to LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

A 'Chief Justice', an 'Attorney General' , a post equivalent to the Legal draftsman and a range of other 'judges' varying from 'Court of Appeal judges' to 'Magistrates have also been appointed. As in any other court in the south, Registrars and interpreters have been appointed.

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"Our legal system is a strong one. We have based our system on the existing Sri Lankan, Indian and British laws. We have carefully studied these laws and made our own laws," says the LTTE's Legal and Administration division chief Illayathamby Pararajasingham, one time Member of Parliament.

Following are excerpts from the interview with the legal chief who is popularly known as Para.

What was the need to introduce a separate legal system ?


Our leader felt that the legal system in the country was not helping the poor. Therefore he decided that the 'Tamil Eelam' areas should have a separate courts and a legal system which could serve the poor. From the early 1990's we have been developing the legal system. We introduced the 'law college' in 1992 with the courses first being opened only to the LTTE armed cadres who had passed the Advanced Level examination. The first batch only included 25 students.


Today as many as 700 people including LTTE cadres send in applications to join the 'law college' . But only 50 are selected to follow the five year course which includes three years academic and two years apprenticeship.

How do you conduct the lectures ?


They follow lectures given by lawyers living in the LTTE controlled areas, as well as lawyers who come from the south for lectures at the college in Mullaitivu. The college will soon be offering a scholarship scheme for poor children with A/Level qualifications. The courses cover a wide range of subjects. (See separate story about LTTE 'Law College').

Has the LTTE introduced this system to challenge the system in the South ?


It is not to challenge the system in the south, but to run a smooth civil administration in the north. We should have a system suitable for the people.

The LTTE has been opening more courts in recent weeks. The first court in the east was opened last month. Why are you opening them now ?


It is now that we are formalizing the courts system. All these years most of the matters taken up were reconciliation matters. We are now expanding the formal court system.

But, why are you opening them at this time, particularly after the signing of the MOU?


After the LTTE and the government signed the MoU people are gradually returning to normal life and there is a need for civil laws to be effective. Some of the main cases being taken up at our courts are cases related to land disputes and money transaction disputes. Some people returning home have found that some of their houses and land are being occupied by others.

There is a vacuum due to the non - existence of a legal system. We have to maintain law and order in the areas controlled by us. For this purpose we need the court system.

But there have been reports of the LTTE going to areas controlled by the Security Forces and arresting people. One such case was reported from the east. Any comment?


When there is a complaint , we have to take action whether it is from the cleared area or the uncleared area. We know of instances where the government police in the east have advised people to come to our police and make complaints.

How do you see the function of the LTTE courts in the future?


I am not clear on how we are going to gain recognition for our legal system and that is a matter which would be finally decided by the leader. However we have no plans to give up the system. The people in the north and east have lost faith in the legal system of the country. Therefore this system should continue. For example with the signing of the MoU there was an assurance that cases filed under the PTA would be reviewed and suspects released but that is not happening.

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Functions of the Law College of Tamil Eelam


Extracts from an LTTE document outlining the ' The Law College of Tamil Eelam' Established in 1992. Objective :To cater to the legal needs and developments of the Judicial Administration which creates the freedom of the people of Tamil Eelam.

Subjects are lectured by those who are experts in the field , those qualified at the Sri Lankan Law college and by those qualified at the law colleges of Tamil Eelam . Matters of Law , and legal techniques of the countries like Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Britain are included in the subjects.

Administration of Law college: A person who is a qualified expert in this field will be in charge of administration. Senate: An official will be in charge of this senate and senior lecturers and the experts in this field will be members of this senate. The Senate will meet to decide on the matters pertaining to students welfare, studies, examinations, release of results of examination, new academic year, convocation etc.

Study Course: Course is conducted in two categories as Internal and External courses. Freedom fighters and outside students fall into the first category. University graduates, employees from the government departments and non - governmental organizations, employees from the recognized organizations are admitted as external students.

Selection of Students for the Study Course: Those who have passed G.C.E. (A/L) Examination, university graduates, employees who have completed seven years of service in governmental and non - governmental organizations are admitted to these courses. Examination: Examination is held at the end of each academic year.


Subjects;

First Year

1. Criminal Law. 2. History of Law and Legal System.

3. Roman Dutch Law. 4. English Law.

5. Constitutional Law. 6. Human Rights and Rules.

7. Jurisprudence. 8. Law of Torts.

9. Law of contract. 10. Tamil Language and Literature.

11. English Language.

Second Year

1. Civil Procedure Code. 2. Criminal Procedure Code.

3. Commercial Law, Accountancy and Management. 4. Law of Property Act.

5. Law of Thesawalamai. 6. Family Law.

7. Police Act. 8. Personal Act.

9. Land Act.. 10. English Language.

Third Year

1. Evidence Act. 2. Law of Trust and Property.

3. Administrative Law. 4. Trade Practices Act.

5. International Law. 6. Law of Deed.

7. Sales Tax Act. 8. Forensic Medicine and Criminology.

9. English Language.

We have an independent system says 'District Court Judge'


Thambirasa Varathishwaran, 34 is one of the students of the first batch of the 'LTTE law college' opened in 1992 in Mullaithivu. Today he is one of the 'senior judges' serving in the Kilinochchi 'District Court'. He has served in four areas over the past seven years and taken up more than 1000 cases.

Varathishwaran hailing from Batticaloa was a member of the LTTE military wing, but later opted to join the first batch of the 'law college'.

Speaking to The Sunday Times at the Kilinochchi 'District Court' he said cases to the courts are forwarded by the police. Police can keep a suspect in their custody only for 24 hours. If the police fail to carryout these instructions they are questioned and in some instances warned by the 'Courts'.

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"The police' files a 'B' report, but the 'courts' do not accept it as it is. We cross examine the accused and try to determine whether the facts in the 'B' report are accurate. Unlike in the South we do not accept confession reports and charge persons," he said.

"After we are satisfied with the 'B' report we also summon any other party involved in the case. They can come with any lawyer, from any part of the country, but would have to take oaths in the LTTE courts before appearing there," he said.

"The maximum amount a lawyer could charge his client is Rs. 300 per appearance. But on many occasions people cannot afford this. For this we have lawyers who appear free of charge.

"In our legal system any case cannot exceed more than six months. So far all the cases have been finished within this period. The judicial system here is very independent. There are some cases against LTTE cadres. Some of these cases are taken up at 'military courts' which is a different set up," he said.

LTTE Courts structure Supreme Court:


Consists of three judges appointed by National Leader. It has the final jurisdiction with final judgements in respect of all cases.

Court of Appeal :

Consists of three judges who sit together in trials. Functions as the court which has jurisdiction on appeals in respect of cases tried before, by the high courts, District Courts and the Special Court.

Special Courts

(Sits only whenever the need arises): This court sits with three judges , who have been selected and arranged by the Chief Justice to hold the trials of criminal cases, that should have arisen out of incidents that have taken place in special circumstances and that be special events.

High Courts:

This court has the jurisdiction to try certain criminal cases in the terms of Court of Appeal Act.

District Courts (Civil):

The primary court with the jurisdiction in respect of civil cases.

District Courts (Criminal):

The primary court with the jurisdiction in respect of criminal cases.

Family Council:

Family Council will be formed in District Courts (Civil) and will be responsible for resolving family disputes. (Sunday Times – 08 December 2002)

Tamil Eelam courts open to all lawyers


The man who is regarded as the 'Chief Justice' of the Tamil guerrilla 'courts' says lawyers passing out from Sri Lanka Law College and Law Faculties could appear and argue for their clients in 'Thamileelam law courts' in the northeast province, but would have to take oaths in 'Eelam courts' before their appearances.

S. Opilan made the comments after the ceremonial opening of the Trincomalee District 'Court of Thamileelam' at Kattaiparichchan early this week. At the ceremony along with Opilan the 'District Judges' of Kilinochchi and Trincomalee Mr. Maniarasan and Mr. Mayuran were also present.

" There are sixteen 'Thamileelam law courts' in areas held by the LTTE in the northeast province.

LTTE cadres who obtained training in the judiciary are holding judicial posts. We dispense justice under the 'Thamileelam criminal and civil procedure codes," Mr.Opilan said. Elaborating on the 'Thamileelam Law College' he said that it was functioning since 1990 and upto now six batches of lawyers have passed out from the college.

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He said upto now Thamileelam courts in LTTE areas had disposed of more than 23,000 Less than five percent of litigants had appealed against the judgments. This shows that more than ninety five percent of the litigants were satisfied with the judgments of the LTTE courts. (Sunday Times – 08 December 2002)

Mylanthanai massacre - 18 accused discharged by Sinhala jury


25 November 2002 -
All the eighteen accused in the Mylanthanai massacre case were acquitted by the High Court Judge Mr.S.Sriskandarajah when the Sinhalese speaking Jury brought a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

On August 9 1992, soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army have entered Mylanthanai village in Batticaloa district and murderd thirty-five Tamil civilians including fourteen children.

The High Court Judge concluded his charge to the Sinhala speaking Jury. After about three hours the Jury returned and delivered its verdict. The Foreman of the Jury submitted to HC Judge that they were unanimous in their verdict that all the eighteen accused were found not guilty!

At that stage the High Court Judge told the Jury that he was not satisfied with their verdict . The High Court Judge asked the Jury to retire once again and conduct fresh deliberation. The Jury then retired for second time and brought the same verdict of not guilty after about an hour deliberation among them.

Hence the HC Judge acquitted all the eighteen accused.

Bindunuwewa massacre - 23 accused discharged by Sinhala Judges

Twenty three accused in the Bidunuwewa massacre case were yesterday discharged when the prosecution closed its case before the Trial at Bar at Hulftsdorp. However, the remaining 18 accused will be facing trial.

The 28th accused was ordered to be handed over to the Military Police as he is an Army deserter.

The Trial at Bar comprised High Court Judges Sarath Ambepitiya (President), Eric Basnayaka and Upali Abeyratne.

According to the indictment, 41 accused are charged on 83 counts including unlawful assembly,committing the murders of 28 persons and attempted murder of 14 others at the Bidunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre at Bandarawela on October 25 ,2000.

The State Counsel Priyantha Nawana, stated that all accused in the case could be categorised into three. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd accused are the trainees of the Teachers Training College and 4 - 31 accused are the villagers who allegedly took part in the attack while the 32-41 accused are the policemen on duty at the Bidunuwewa Rehabilitation Camp on the day of the attack.

He said that Asoka Ganeshamurthi, the prosecution's witness testifying before the Trial-at-Bar had failed to identify the 1st, 2nd and the 3rd accused in open Court as those involved in the attack. Earlier the witness had identified them in Identification parades held in connection. As a result of this major lapse, the prosecution does not wish to proceed further, said the Counsel. (Daily News – 22 January 2003)

Mirusuvil massacre - Warrant on witnesses !

30 January 2003 - The trial-at-bar comprising three judges of the Colombo High Court in the Mirusuvil massacre case ordered remand for the five accused soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army and issued warrant on four vital witnesses who had intimated through the State Counsel from Jaffna their inability to attend the trial due to fear.

The trial was put off for February 10, and the court directed the Jaffna Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) to produce the witnesses including a sole survivor in the massacre incident on the next date with adequate protection.

Six soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army including a lieutenant were indicted by the Attorney General accused of the murder of eight Tamil civilians in December, 2000 at Mirusuvil, in the Jaffna peninsula.

24

The massacre took place when eight residents of Mirusuvil, but who were displaced due to the military occupation of the area, went to visit their old homes. They were accosted by the military and were killed and the bodies dumped in a lavatory pit.

PTA to stay - Defence Minister

10 January 2003 - The Sri Lankan Defence Minister, Mr. Tilak Marapone, said in parliament that a decision on abolishing the Prevention of Terrorism Act – PTA would be made only after considering all future repercussions of such a removal. The present situation is "not conducive to doing away with the PTA," said Mr. Marapone, a former Attorney General.

Seeking the abolition of the PTA , was moved by a private member motion by the Tamil National Alliance – TNA, Parliamentarian Mr. A. Vinayagamoorthy,.

Tabling the motion in the parliament, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy, the leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, a main constituent of the TNA, said the draconian PTA should be abolished. The act had failed miserably to achieve its objectives. Instead, law enforcement authorities use it against innocent Tamil people, especially in the North-East province by the law enforcement authorities. The PTA had provided more powers to the Police to arrest persons without any trace of evidence against them. The Police first arrest Tamils under the PTA and thereafter cook up evidence against those arrested by extracting confessions through torture. Hundreds of violations of human rights had taken place in the country especially in the North-East due to the implementation of the PTA, said Mr. Vinayagamoorthy.

Seconding the motion, Trincomalee district TNA MP, Mr.R.Sampanthan, the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front, said hundreds of Tamil people face numerous difficulties due to the draconian PTA. Several local and international human rights organizations have urged the removal of the PTA. The PTA can be abolished without delay, as the country is not facing armed conflict at present. Mr.Dilan Perera, MP of the main opposition People's Alliance said his party would support the demand for the abolition of the PTA. All members of the parliament irrespective of party differences should support the abolition of the PTA, he requested.

SLMI force children to make false complaints to HRC !

14 February 2003 - Three children who sought to join the LTTE, were handed over to their parents by the head of the LTTE's political division in Vavuniya in the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) members. Last week, a group of three children was similarly handed over to their parents in Vavuniya.

Meanwhile, the attention of the SLMM has been drawn to complaints that Sri Lankan military intelligence-SLMI personnel are visiting the homes of children returned to their parents, and forcing the children to make false complaints to the Human Rights Commission that they did not seek to join the LTTE, but were forcibly recruited by the LTTE.

The complaints also allege that the intelligence personnel are harassing the children, repeatedly asking the children about the name of LTTE leaders they met, where they were taken, and many other details.

51,000 Army deserters in Sri Lanka

AP World, 4 March 2003, COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - With 51,000 soldiers in Sri Lanka's army having deserted during years of civil war, military commanders Tuesday said they would allow many former troops to rejoin the ranks while others would be discharged without facing charges.

The nation's army now numbers 100,000. The quitters left during the 19 year war with Tamil Tiger rebels, which left 65,000 dead. The two sides entered a truce a year ago. Many of the deserted soldiers turned to crime after leaving their bases.

"These soldiers are engaging in crimes because they are unable to lead a legitimate life. The primary objective is to help them to be employed and lead a normal life," military spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said.

The military will allow deserters who left their posts less than three years ago and have not been convicted of any crime to rejoin the army, Karunaratne said. During the civil war, the army would occasionally grant amnesties to deserters to encourage them to rejoin the forces and make up for a shortage of troops.

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25000 mines removed in Pallai


11 July 2002 - The de-mining unit of the Liberation Tigers removed more than 25 thousand mines and unexploded ordnance from the general area of Pallai in Jaffna since March this year. The head of the LTTE's de-mining unit in Pallai said, about half the area of the Pachchilaipillai Division, in which the war ravaged town is situated, has been cleared of mines.


The followingm are the details of the mines and unexploded ordnance recovered in the Pallai area since March.

  1. Anti-personnel mines 3840 (2) 60 mm shells 14000 (3) 82 mm shells 2500

(4) 81 mm shells 2200 (5) 40 mm shells +700

(6) Grenades 1140 (7) Rifle grenades 520

6000 mines blown-up in Killinochchi

As a gesture of goodwill and commitment to the peace process, the LTTE has blown up some 6,000 landmines which had been hidden in the Kilinochchi area, state television Rupavahini reported last night. It said the explosion of the landmines was a significant gesture. (Daily Mirror – 7 November 2002)

More than 700,000 mines yet to be cleared

Inter Religious Peace Foundation (IRPF), issuing the 'Landmine Monitor Report -2002', revealed that over 10,000 civilians and security personnel have been affected by antipersonnel mines so far, while more than 700,000 mines are yet to be cleared.

Addressing a media briefing held in connection with the Asia-Pacific Landmine Monitor Researchers' Meeting, which will be held from Monday to Thursday, IRPF Assistant Secretary and Landmine Monitor Researcher for

Sri Lanka Saliya Edirisinghe said land mine casualties in North and East continue to be unreported although the number of casualties are high.

He said that ceasefire is finally enabling significant mine action activities, but there is a great concern about mine dangers to displaced persons as they begin to return home.

"It has been reported that for the removal of landmines it will take 15-20 years to remove the landmines completely, specially in North. There are no social or economic reintegration programs specifically targeted at antipersonnel mine survivors. There are, however, various general rehabilitation projects underway in the country, including Jaffna, implemented by a variety of organizations both local and international,". (Daily Mirror – 25 January 2003)

 

 

 

Sri Lanka Military occupation in the NorthEast

(Locations still under occupation / vacated / vacated and established camps, etc)

(September 2002) – Districtwise

Mannar District Vavuniya district Trincomalee District

Batticaloa District Amparai District Jaffna District

Places of worship, Schools , Public buildings within the High Security Zone under military occupation

 

Please refer to our website : www.tchr.net

 

Civil and Political rights Military Occupation in the North East

 

 

26

ECONOMIC SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

13, 379 civilian died due to Economic embargo


November 2001 - According to a press report in Vanni, thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts due to the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government from 1990 to 1999.

Most of the deaths, destruction of civilian property and mass displacement took place after the People's Alliance came to power in 1994. Four thousand eight hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Mullaithivu district between 1994 and 1999 due to the direct impact of the economic embargo on the Vanni, particularly due to the severe restrictions on medical supplies.


Report further said, he present population of the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivuis 332, 000. About four percent of the population, 13, 379, in these two districts died from 1990 1999 because of the embargo and operations of the Sri Lanka army.


It added that thousands of civilians have perished in the Vanni districts of Mannar and Vavuniya in Sri Lanka army operations, massacres, assassinations by paramilitary groups working with the army and torture in Police and military detention.

1746 persons severely affected by the epidemic in 2002


13 February 2003 – According to Killinochchi Government Agent – GA, although there is a significant drop in reported cases, malaria is still highly prevalent as there were 1746 persons were severely affected by the epidemic in 2002.

Officials in the Department of Health disclosed that epidemic preventive measures in Kilinochchi have improved since the removal of embargo on medicines and economic activities. However, the shortage of doctors, nurses and other resources in the Department of Health continue to be serious issue. It is therefore very difficult to expand the services to a satisfactory level.

1371 children affected by malnutrition

24 February 2003 - During a seminar on the issue of nutrition held recently in Vanni, health officials in Pooneryn in Kilinochchi district informed that of the 3299 children of under 5 years in the region, 1371 are affected by malnutrition.

Spread of Typhoid and flu in Jaffna

The Jaffna peninsula is experiencing an outbreak of Typhoid and Influenza with the dawning of the New Year, while the epidemiologists are yet to discover the reason behind the sudden outbreak.

Nearly 10 people in the Northern Province had died with the outbreak with nearly 500 suspected cases hospitalised suffering with this flu.

The Head Epidemiologist of the Health Ministry, Dr. T. A. Kulathilaka said although it was common to have cases of Typhoid from the North and Central provinces, it was unusual to have such a high number of cases and deaths.

"An epidemiologist was sent to the area to investigate the matter and action could be taken only after the primary investigations were completed," Dr. Kulathilaka said.

He further expressed fears of both diseases spreading to the centre of the country and said evacuation is still under consideration.

Meanwhile, the Jaffna General Hospital and other district hospitals were suffering from a dearth of pharmaceuticals and staff to manage an outbreak while medicine is still being dispatched to the North. - (DTH) (Daily Mirror – 01 January 2003)

27

72 Welfare centers without basic amenities


The Walikamam and Vadamaratchchi areas have a total of 72 Welfare centers and 8000 odd people accommodated in these centers undergo great difficulties and live in despair without proper place to live, without basic amenities like toilets and water facilities. A foreign NGO having made a study of this had brought this to the notice of the Implementation authorities of the Govt.  He informed with regret that no Govt Agent or District or Divisional Secretaries had brought to the notice of due authorities about this deplorable conditions that the families in the Welfare centers face.  Though a report had been called in this regard from Govt Agent Jaffna there had been no response said the authority relating to Implementation.  Until the HSZ issue is resolved satisfactorily, this pathetic condition of the welfare center families are going to continue. (VIRAKESARI - 05 March 2003)

 

25,245 children in Vanni not attending school


19 June 2002 - Due to the poor education facilities in the Vanni region, 25,245 students in five education areas in the region are not attending school regularly.


The breakdown of the 25,245 students is as follows:

Students dropped out of schools 4,768 Students attend irregularly 17,264

Students not attending schools at all 3,213


The statistics are distributed thus:

Madhu 2,194 Vavuniya North 2,679

Thunukkai 5,000 Mullaitivu 6,356

Kilinochchi 10,006

Schools function with 50% of teaching staff


05 February 2003 -
In Mullaitivu district, five schools have not been functioning from 1990, and only 50% of the teacher vacancies have been filled placing the educational welfare of children in the district in an unacceptable state.

.

Schools in Kokilai, Nai Aru, Thaneer Ootu Muslim Vidyalayam, Mullaitivu Muslim Vidyalayam and Unnpilavu school have not been functioning for more than ten years.

Mullaitivu district which has a student population of 18,926 is required to have a teaching staff of 1176 teachers. Educational sources say only 587 teachers have been handling the work load, and furthermore, among this group 241 are volunteer teachers and 42 are part-time teachers placing the school children at a serious disadvantage in getting good quality education.

College Principal assaulted


22 September 2002 - The Principal of Point Pedro Hartley College in Point Pedro, Jaffna, was severely assaulted by a group of unidentified persons. Mr. Murugupillai Sripathi, 57, is warded at the Manthikai government hospital, two miles of Point Pedro town.

Hartley College was shut down by the Sri Lanka army earlier this month after students tore down the military's positions in the school during a protest against the Army presence there.

An unidentified group of persons entered his house which is close to the Sri Lanka army's high security zone in Point Pedro town, and had taken him away with them. The abductors later left him near Karahampan cemetery after severely beating him. He was admitted to the Manthikai hospital around midnight.

 

28

 

Schools vacated by Security forces unusable

27 May 2002 - Education officials in Jaffna said that they cannot commence classes in two schools vacated by the Sri Lanka Army in the Kopay division because most of the buildings in them are damaged.

"We haven’t got any assurance from the military or the education ministry that the two schools are free of landmines and booby traps", said Education officials. The Sri Lankan security forces occupy more than 80 schools in the Northeast province of the island, but have vacated only three in the north and two in the east so far.


This week, the Sri Lanka Police vacated the Veeramunai Ramakrishna School, southwest of Batticaloa. The Police had removed the roofs from all the buildings of the school. The Police and the Special Task Force were encamped in the Veeramunai School since 1990.


Most of the buildings of the schools are damaged and not in a state to commence classes, according to parents and education officials who visited the institutions after the Army and Police left.

Parents are worried about the safety of their children because no information has been given to them about the lay out of the mine fields and booby traps in the premises and surroundings of the vacated schools.

Thousands of protesters demand demilitarisation of school


26 July 2002 - More than a thousand protesting students blocked the A9 highway near the Chavakachcheri town, demanding that their school environments be made free of Sri Lankan military presence and that Colombo should fully implement the cease-fire agreement. The protesting students stalled military and civilians traffic on the A9 for more than an hour.


The federation of Tamil Students of Thenmaradchi organised the demonstration.


In the memorandum submitted to the Divisional Secretary, the students urged the Colombo to create conditions conducive to education in Maravanpulavu, Eluthumadduval and Thanangkilappu.

Poor state of education in North East

Over two hundred schools are non-functional in the North and East and approximately 65,000 children are not attending schools, an assessment by the UNICEF said.

The assessment has covered Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara in the North and East and the adjoining areas in the districts of Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Moneragala.

There is a high drop-out rate averaging around 16% against a national average of 4%, it said adding that at present there is a 25% scarcity of teachers.

"A total of Rs. 1 billion is required for school rehabilitation", it said.

Under the UNICEF's "Every Child in School Initiative" it says that strategies have been planned and developed to get every child in school as well as to keep them in school for at least during the critical 5-14 year period of compulsory education.

Non-formal education for out of school children has been identified as a critical issue in all areas and thus will be given special attention in terms of both strengthening existing systems as well as expansion, it said. It also says that psychological intervention will be integrated into the education system to support children especially those who have emotional and psychological problems in the aftermath of the conflict. (Daily Mirror – 9 January 2003)

 

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Fifty four Jaffna schools laden with landmines


Nearly 10% of the schools in the Jaffna Peninsula cannot yet be opened as the school premises were heavily laden with land mines, Education Minister was told.

The minister who toured the preninsula over the weekend held discussions with Education officers who revealed that 54 schools were compelled to be kept closed due to the problem of land mines. Out of 530 schools in the district 61 had completely been destroyed while another 106 were partly damaged during the military conflict. Meanwhile Jaffna School teachers have requested more audio visual aids to conduct their classes effectively as most of the children who had not been out of the peninsula were clueless of certain facts in their syllabus. A teacher told the Minister that children had to learn about trains, signal towers and museums which to them were not familiar objects.

To address this issue, it was suggested to set up a mobile audio visual centre for each district in the North and East. These will contain audio visual backups for lessons. (Daily Mirror – 27 June 2002)

*****

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Horrific statistics on rape

TCHR established that; a Tamil woman was raped every 16 days; a Tamil woman was gang-raped and murdered every two months; a girl-child was raped every three months and a woman was brutally murdered every six months because she resisted the advances of a Sri Lankan soldier. These horrific statistics are based on documented cases. Real figures are believed to be considerably higher.

Now, since the Ceasefire Agreement has been in place, the situation for Tamil women is improved, however the situation is far from satisfactory.

In October last year a 42 year old women living in Vavuniya went to graze her cattle and never returned home. Her body was found near the local Sri Lanka army camp. The post-mortem revealed that she had been raped and strangled to death. Sri Lanka navy personnel in Nedunthivu, Jaffna, attempted to rape a mother of four children in December 2002, while she was praying in church. Two Sri Lanka army soldiers forcibly broke into a woman’s home in j Ganesapuram, Vavuniya, and attempted to rape her in January 2003. (excerpts from TCHR press release – International Women’s Day 08/03/2003)

A mother of four sexually assaulted


07 December 2002 - A Tamil young mother of four children is alleged to have been sexually assaulted by Sri Lanka Navy personnel at Nedunthivu (Delft island) in the Jaffna district while she was praying in a church, according to a complaint lodged at the Police Station in the islet.

The Nedunthivu Police which first hesitated to entertain the victim's complaint later recorded it under pressure. Police although initially insisted in recording the complaint in Sinhala later relented under pressure and recorded the complaint in Tamil language.

According to the complaint, the navy personnel had entered the church Saturday afternoon and tried to sexually assault the young woman who was praying at that time. When she cried for help, few residents nearby had rushed to the church and Navy personnel fled from the area.

Since the MoU signed, the sexual harassment by Navy personnel in Nedunthivu is on the increase but many women who are sexually harassed do not come forward to make complaints to the law enforcement authorities. Social stigma and possible further harassment by security personnel are the major reasons for Tamil women reluctance to complain.

Some senior residents in the islands have made complain about attempted sexual assault on a married woman to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna.

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25,000 widows in Jaffna district

14 March 2003 – In fifteen administrative divisions in Jaffna district, there are 25,773 widowed women. The official figures are give below.

The list according agewise :

The figures according to administrative divisions :

Nedunthivu 187 Uduvil 1,554 Chankanai 1,924

Pallai 290 Karaveddy 1,750 Nallur 2,571

Maruthankerni 306 Sandilipay 1,753 Thenmaradchi 3,368

Kayts 487 Point Pedro 1,836 Unregistered 4,538

Velanai 554 Kopay 1,893

Tellipallai 852 Jaffna 1,910

URGENT intervention requested by OMCT

The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Sri Lanka.


In September 2001, Ms. S. Umadevi, a 23 year old Tamil woman, was abducted, raped and murdered at Kopiwatte near Nawalapitiya. According to the information, Ms. S. Umadevi was abducted on 12 September 2001 as she was walking home after attending a class in Nawalapitiya town and her body was discovered on the evening of 13 September in shrubland near the Malkanda bridge.


In the morning of 13 September, Ms. Umadevi's parents went to the Nawalapitiya police station in order to report their daughter missing. The victim's father reported that the police officer who recorded the complaint was uncooperative and refused to display a photograph of Ms. Umadevi, stating that "this girl must have gone off with some young man. What are we to do with this photo?"


The same evening, the father of the victim heard that the body of a young woman had been found near the Malkanda bridge. He went to the place and identified the body as being that of his daughter. The father then reported the murder to the police at Nawalapitiya and provided them with the name of a possible suspect. As

of the date of the first appeal, the police had not arrested any suspects in the case and they had not visited the home of the victim in order to conduct any investigations into the crime.


OMCT expressed its grave concern about reports of rape and other forms of violence against Tamil women and girls in Sri Lanka, and, in particular, by the prevailing climate of impunity for the perpetrators of this violence.


OMCT received updated information on 19 February concerning the detention of four suspects in the murder case of Ms. S. Umadevi, a 23 year old Tamil woman, who was killed in September 2001. The suspects were taken into custody by the Gampola Division Unsolved Crime Detective Bureau in collaboration with Kandy Special Crime Unit as a result of an investigation undertaken at the instruction of DIG Kandy Nimal Mediwaka. It was reported that the suspects would appear before the Gampola Magistrate.


Actions requested by OMCT :

The International Secretariat of OMCT wishes to thank all those institutions, organizations and individuals who intervened on their behalf, but asks you to keep up writing to the authorities of Sri Lanka urging them to:


i. ensure that Ms. Umadevi's family receive adequate reparation;

ii. guarantee an impartial and exhaustive inquiry into the abduction, murder and rape, bring those responsible before a competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal, civil and administrative sanctions provided by law;

iii. adopt immediate measures to put an end to all acts of violence against women;

iv. ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms at all times and in all circumstances in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards. (Courtesy – OMCT, 3/3/2003)

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CHILDREN

25% students in NorthEast mentally and physically affected !


04 March 2003 - Education officials at a two-day workshop on non-formal education and special education held in Trincomalee said about twenty percent of students in the North-East province have been identified as children with special needs as majority of them have been mentally and physically affected by the twenty-year-old war, and about seventy five percent of these students have not received any specialized medical attention at the management centre of the North East Provincial Education Ministry.

Officials involved in non-formal and special education in the twenty-four education zones in the North-East province participated in the workshop organized by the Provincial Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Sports.

NorthEast Provincial Secretary for Education, in his inaugural address said that ‘’about forty five thousand children are not attending schools in the province. A considerable number of students leave schools midway as they are unable to continue their studies due to poverty and other social factors. Twenty percent of students find it difficult to compete with others in classes as they are severely affected by the war. These children need special education’’.

Provincial Director of Education, said ‘’shortage of resource personnel and necessary equipments hamper the special education for handicapped students in the war torn province. Students in difficult areas in the North-East are deprived of the benefits of free education, which are enjoyed by their counterparts in other areas’’.

Children at risk inside Navy camp


16 July 2002 - Hundreds of students and parents blocked roads in the island of Kayts in Jaffna to protest against Sri Lanka Navy defence positions around Velanai Duraisamy Central College. The protestors sat across roads at Saravanai Junction, Vankalavadi Junction and Velanai Bus Company Junction. The Duraisamy Central College is inside the Sri Lanka Navy base in Velanai.


Parents and students say that the school should be accessible to everyone at all times during the day. "Our children are at risk inside the camp. They are scared to be there", a spokesman for the protesting parents said.

Navy personnel attempted to break up the protest at Vankalavadi Junction. The Sri Lanka Navy sailors cocked their rifles and threatened them. A bitter altercation erupted when students stopped Navy who were taking photographs of the protestors.

Displaced Children engaged in labour !

27 October 2002 - According to a government official in Tincomalee, over half the children staying at welfare centres and refugee camps in Trincomalee do not attend schools and instead work as child labour.

In Trincomalee district, there are twelve refugee and welfare camps with more than thousand families. They live under severe difficulties. More than eight thousand women in the Trincomalee district have lost their husbands due to war. These women have shouldered the responsibility of looking after their families with great difficulties.

Even though International and local NGOs show keen interest in protecting child rights, the child labour is continuing in Sri Lanka.

Thousand displaced families in the Northeast stay in hundreds of refugee camps and welfare centre spending their lives on doles provided by the governmental and non-governmental organisations. They await permanent peace to return to their villages.

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Plantation children suffer in silence

According to UNICEF Project, Officer-Child Development Abhiyan Rana, studies have shown that in 2000 the percentage of children who are stunt was 31.9%.

An independant survey carried out by Rev. Fr. S. Guy de Fontgalland of the Leo Marga Ashram says that according to reports from the year 2000, there are a total of 339,408 plantation children.

Nearly 80,000 of them are under five years of age and 180,000 are schooling.

Around 15,000 suffer from disabilities leaving a balance of 64,408 at home.

Another problem about these children is the health issues of the very young children who are in age groups between three to 36 months

Studies by UNICEF show that there are more than 24,000 infants under the age of one, 96,000 between the ages of one and four and 24,000 between the ages of five to 14.

The percentages of children who are underweight are 43.2% in the plantation sector and 10% in other rural areas.

As seen by these preliminary figures the situation is getting better but it needs more improvement, according to a UNICEF report.

When it comes to access to clean drinking water, 67% of the families in the estate areas get their water from rivers and streams. Regarding immunisation in the year 2000, 86.1% of plantation children received immunisation when compared to 94.4% of children from other rural areas.

For the year 2001 there are now approximately 339,408 children under the age of 18 living in estates.

It is also reported that there are 26,037 children engaged in economic activity and out of this total 52% are below the age of 15. They are engaged in economic activity while attending school or not attending an education institute.

Of the 234,618 children engaged in economic activity and not attending any education institute, 11% are under the age of 15.

69,064 children are reportedly engaged in economic activity and of this 30,533 children are living away from home and 9% of the children are reported to be idling and also living away from the family. (The Sunday Leader – 03 November 2002)

LTTE handed over 14 students to their parents


January 11, 2003 -
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam handed over fourteen students who voluntarily came to join the LTTE to their parents in the presence of several representatives of the international humanitarian agencies in the peninsula. The handing over event took place Saturday at the district head office of the LTTE located at Potpathi Road, Kokuvil in Jaffna, a non-governmental agency source said.

Among the students handed over to their parents 12 were girls and the rest boys, sources said. "The LTTE is very firm in not recruiting persons under eighteen years of age. Hence we hand over these students who come to join our movement to their parents," said Ms Kayalvilzhi, head of the LTTE women's wing in Jaffna district addressing a gathering after the handing over. (for further information refer to Progress and Difficulties – Page ??)

 

 

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DISPLACEMENT

The figures published in the news papers

23, 496 families are classified as displaced refugees in the province, still. Of these

11,141 Families are in Amparai or Digamadulla Districts

7,046 Batticaloa District

5,759 Trincomalee District

1,420 Amparai

  1. Batticaloa

769 Tamil families in Trincomalee are living in refugee camps.

  1. Sinhala families are also in refugee camps In Trincomalee

The rest in all three districts are living ‘independently’ with relatives and friends

99 Muslim and 159 Sinhala families are also in refugee camps. (Courtesy – Virakesari)

 

 

* * * * *

Killing of Tamil civilians since the MOU was signed

 

Total killings of Tamil civilians from 22/02/2002 to 23/02/2003

Thirty two (32) including two (2) children – One aged 15 years

One aged 5 months old

Fourteen (14) of the civilians were killed by personel of the Police force

Special Task Force - STF = 8 eight

Police on petrol = 5 five

CID - Police = 1 one

======

Total 14

======

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PROGRESS AND DIFFICULTIES

(Since the MOU was signed)

Some important events and factors effecting the normalisation and peace process

22 Feb. 2002 -The Norwegian government declared the commencing from 23 February of a permanent ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers. In a statement, Jan Petersen, Foreign Minister of Norway, said his government had been asked to make public the agreement signed by LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

22 Feb. - Sri Lanka's President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, expressed her "shock and dismay" at the government's signing of the permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - LTTE. In a statement released by the Presidential Secretariat, she lashed out at her arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for not seeking her prior approval, describing his entering into the truce as "an undemocratic act." !

23 Feb. - The United National Front (UNF) government rejected the accusations made by the Presidential Secretariat that the Cabinet had not been informed.

UNF media spokesman and a senior minister Mr.G.L. Peiris said that "the Prime Minister briefed the Cabinet about the provisions of the MoU. The Cabinet approved the draft MoU. It was unfortunate that President Chandrika Kumaratunga was not present on that day."

24 Feb. - "The Tamil people of the north and east have accepted in their hearts the leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, as their sole leader. The elections to the Parliament established that the Liberation Tigers are the sole representatives of the Tamil people," said Mr. M. A. M Mahroof, United National Party MP for Trincomalee,

24 Feb. - The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), a constituent of the main opposition People's Alliance (PA), appealed to President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the leaders of other political parties not to derail the peace process which is gathering momentum after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United National Front (UNF) government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

26 Feb - Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga threatened to derail the permanent ceasefire between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers with a single letter to the Army commander. A press report stated that Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA), along with the Janatha Vimukthi Pramuna (JVP) and the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) intended to mount a legal challenge to the permanent ceasefire.

26 Feb - The Sihala Urumaya (SU), the hard-line Sinhala nationalist party, declared that it would launch a campaign among the Sinhalese to urge President Chandrika Kumaratunga to use her executive powers to invalidate the cease-fire agreement between the United National Front government and the LTTE.

28 Feb - The United National Front has sought to allay the Sri Lanka Army's apprehensions by promising to help it achieve greater efficiency.

The Sri Lanka army has been carrying on a recruitment campaign since early January 2002, wooing rural Sinhala youth with colour posters promising attractive careers in the military. The Sri Lanka Navy too advertised in the papers on Sunday, 24 February for recruits to its officer corps.

01 March - The international community, including the Commonwealth, enthusiastically welcomed the agreement signed by LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. India, the United States, Britain and Japan issued statements hailing the accord within hours of its unveiling by Norway. Pakistan, Canada, and Australia followed later, as did the European Union.

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05 March - The Court of Appeal decided to take up the petition filed by the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) against the cease-fire agreement signed by the Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan for inquiry on Friday 14th March 2002.

06 March - Mr Vellupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, hailed the truce agreement between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a historical achievement that laid a strong foundation for the peace process and negotiated political settlement.

The LTTE leader praised the Norwegian facilitators for their sincere and untiring effort to bring peace in the island when he met the head of the Norwegian monitoring mission, the retired Norwegian army general Trond Furuhovede in Killinochchi, in the North of the island of Sri Lanka.

08 March - The United National Front (UNF) government decided to suspend immediately the practice of providing information about Tamil civilians residing in Colombo and its suburbs to the Police. Till Friday permanent residents and owners of boarding houses and lodges in Colombo had to furnish information about Tamil civilians who come from outstations, especially from the Northeast.

14 March - Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe addressed soldiers and commanders of the Sri Lanka Army at Palali main base in the Jaffna peninsula. The Prime Minister appealed to soldiers to refrain from violating conditions of the cease-fire agreement. "If they violate, it is the government which has to face its repercussion," Mr. Wickremasinghe reiterated.

18 March - More than a thousand Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres and activists, including a large number of buddhist monks demonstrated in Colombo protesting against the cease-fire agreement signed by the Sri Lanka Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

20 March - Sri Lanka Army soldiers stripped decorations and pulled down wood and paper memorials in Kiran and Santhively, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, put up to mark the 14th death anniversary of 'Annai' Poopathy, the woman who fasted unto death in April 1988 in a protest against atrocities by the Indian army in the island's northeastern province.

21 March - The ruling United National Front (UNF) swept the local government elections routing the People's Alliance (PA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunge. The UNF won 218 of the 222 local bodies, including 14 municipal councils and 25 urban councils.

21 March - More than four thousand people demonstrated against the Sri Lanka army in Kiran, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, blocking traffic on the main road to Colombo from the eastern town for more than an hour. The demonstration and meeting were organised by civil society groups, NGOs, students and trade unions in the area to condemn the Army for stripping and pulling down Annai Poopathy commemoration pandols (marquees) and decorations.

27 March - People in the village of Kinnaiadi, north of Batticaloa, destroyed a camera belonging to the Sri Lanka army intelligence.

28 March - "The United National Front (UNF) government's first budget has failed to treat the war ravaged northeast as a special zone for the development. The budget treats the northeast or rather, equates the northeast with the rest of island. Is this possible?" asked Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, MP for Jaffna speaking on the UNF government's first budget.

30 March - Spokespersons for fishermen's societies in Jaffna's Vadamaradchi division stated that the Sri Lanka army curtailed fishing hours to punish them for putting up posters and banners welcoming the Liberation Tigers to the northern peninsula. They said that the military intelligence unit of the SLA's 52-4 brigade removed the banners and posters and questioned civilians.

31 March - Tamil civilians residing in villages in the Eachilampathu division of the Trincomalee district, held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were being subjected to severe body checks and interrogation by the security forces stationed at the Sri Lanka Army checkpoint at Mahindapura said Mr R Sampanthan, who personally witnessed these activities.

36

01 April - Four women soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna were remanded by the Chavakachcheri Magistrate in connection with the death of a fellow woman soldier. The Magistrate further ordered cash and surety bail for another six women soldiers in this connection.

05 April - At least two Muslim youth were shot dead and several were wounded when Police opened fire to quell clashes between Muslims and Sinhalese in the predominantly Muslim coastal town of Beruwela, south of Colombo.

05 April - The Sri Lanka Army reopened the main road linking the LTTE held southeastern interior of the Trincomalee district following protests by the public. The main road, which runs close to Mahindapura army camp, was closed down for several years by the Sri Lanka Army.

08 April - The last closed section of the A9 highway running from Kilinochchi to Jaffna was reopened in a joint ceremony by senior officers from the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Following the opening of the highway at Muhamalai, fifteen cadres from the LTTE's political section entered Army-controlled territory to travel to Jaffna where they are to begin work under the terms of the indefinite ceasefire signed between both sides on February 22.

10 April -  Mr V. Pirapaharan held his first press conference in over a decade - announced just a week in advance. It drew almost six hundred reporters, photographers and cameramen from around the world to the war devastated town of Kilinochchi. It was reportedly the largest media event ever held in the island of Sri Lanka. The scale of the international and local media interest reflected the impact Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan has on Sri Lanka’s politics.

12 April - A statement issued by United States embassy in Colombo, welcomed comments by the Liberation Tigers' leader Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan expressing his support for the Norwegian peace initiative. Mr. Pirapaharan made his comments at the press conference held on 10 April in Kilinochchi.

13 April - "The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have accepted the need to work unitedly,"said Mr.R.Sampanthan, in a statement on his return to Colombo from Vanni. Mr.Sampanthan told that the three and a half hour meeting with the LTTE leader was a historic event.

13 April –  Muslim leaders and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam signed an agreement to cooperate on affairs related to Sri Lanka's Muslim community. Mr. Rauf Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - LTTE Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan signed this agreement in Kilinochchi.

14 April - "The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) have come to an understanding to work together for the resolution of the Tamil national question".

14 April - 147 Tamil detainees in Kalutara prison began a hunger strike demanding that the cases against them under the Prevention of terrorism Act (PTA), should be expedited or they be transferred to prisons closer to their home villages. More detainees joined the hunger strike the following day.

15 April - The Sri Lanka Army and the Police refused permission for the Prison officials to transport suspects who are detained under the Prevention of terrorism Act (PTA) to Vavuniya High Court through the A-9 highway from Jaffna.

15 April - Hundreds of residents of Thenmaradchi area in Jaffna district demonstrated, demanding the Sri Lanka Army vacate all houses they use as camps and checkpoints in the area.

16 April - The Attorney General appointed a three-member committee comprising senior legal officers to expedite the disposal of hundreds of cases filed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in various high courts in the country.

37

17 April - Thirty-one Tamil political prisoners held under the Prevention of terrorism Act (PTA) in the Batticaloa prison, began a hunger strike. The detainees are demanding that the authorities either expedite legal action against them or release them.

17 April - Over sixty thousand people attended 'Pongu Thamil' (Upsurge) rally held at Jaffna University medical faculty grounds. Processions from Nallur Kandasamy Temple premises, Kokuvil Hindu College premises and Saththiram junction commenced around 2 p.m. and reached the venue of the rally around 4 p.m. Most of the roads in the Jaffna peninsula were gaily decorated with red and yellow flags.

18 April - The Tamil National Alliance - TNA brought to the notice of the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vidar Helgessen, that the Sri Lanka Army has not vacated temples and schools they occupy in the eastern province and has not completely removed ban on transport of items allowed to LTTE held areas in the eastern province.

19 April - At an event attended by more than twenty five thousand people, Venerable Kurunagala Maha Galkadavela Punniyasara Thera, declared open the Annai Poopathi Memorial Hall constructed at Navalady in Batticaloa. Four other Buddhist monks from Kurunagala also participated at the fourteenth anniversary memorial services of Annai Poopathi held in the East.

19 April - Two Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians, Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan and Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam were refused permission by the Sri Lanka Army to enter Kudathanai village in Vadamarachchi East area in Jaffna district.

19 April - Residents of Nainativu, an islet in the Jaffna peninsula, are struggling without a bus service as the Sri Lanka Navy has banned any vehicle movement along the main road where the Naga Vihare Buddhist temple is situated.

22 April - Buddhist monks protested against peace talks between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government and the Liberation Tigers in downtown Colombo.

28 April - The Sri Lanka army barred fifty fishermen of Manalkaadu, on the southeastern coast of Jaffna, from setting out to sea for fishing. The fishermen's national identity cards were sized by the military. They were then taken to the Army camp at Kudathanai.

28 April - A clash between Sri Lanka Army soldiers and Tamil youths in Trincomalee town 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.

29 April - Two Tamil civilians were wounded in gunfire blamed on Sri Lanka Navy personnel lying in ambush in Nilaveli in the Trincomalee district. Complaints were lodged with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission - SLMM.

30 April - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE objected to the Northern Navy Commander declaring the islands off the Jaffna peninsula as military zones. The LTTE sent its objection in writing to the Sri Lanka Peace Monitoring Mission's - SLMM office in Kilinochchi.

01 May - The Reporters Sans Frontiers, the French media watchdog, said in its annual report on press freedom that working conditions for Tamil journalists remain very dangerous in Sri Lanka, especially when they report on human rights violations. "They are easily accused of supporting the Tamil Tigers guerrilla movement".

01 May - The Sri Lankan Navy fired on fishing boats of the coast of Vaakarai, destroying at least two vessels and killing two Tamil Muslim fishermen. The Sri Lankan Navy is "deliberately creating conflictual situations to disrupt the peace process," the LTTE said.

01 May - The SLMM head discussed with the naval officials mainly the shooting incident in Nilaveli, 14 km north of Trincomalee town, in which two Tamil women were wounded due to Navy gunfire.

02 May - The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission informed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership that it does not consider the sailing of a Sea Tiger convoy which was intercepted and challenged by Sri Lankan navy gunboats near Trincomalee seas as a breach of the indefinite ceasefire agreement.

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05 May - Sixty eight percent of the children returning from Vanni with their parents to be resettled in Trincomalee have been found underweight, their growth stunted by malnutrition, according to a medical survey done by the Sri Lanka Red Cross in the eastern district.

07 May - A community group representing residents in the islets off Jaffna appealed to the ceasefire monitors to allow members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam there and to put an end to harassment by the Sri Lanka Navy stationed into the area.

08 May - Sri Lanka’s security forces in Jaffna have strengthened their defences and increased their security checks on civilians. The Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy are building new defence lines and bunkers in the Thenmaradchi, Vadamaradchi and Valigamam sectors.

09 May - Flights over Vavuniya by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of the Sri Lanka Air Force caused surprise amongst residents.

08 May - The Sri Lanka army called on Muslim and Tamil youth in the eastern district of Batticaloa to join the Sri Lanka army. They campaigned for recruits in the villages of Eravur, Chenkalady, Vantharumoolai, Sithaandy, Mavadivembu and Kaluwankerny in vans fixed with loud hailers urging youth to enrol in the military.

09 May - Sri Lankan Navy gunboats surrounded fishing boats far from shore and forced the fishermen to jump into the sea in continuing harrasment by the Navy. Nearly, thirty five fishermen were assaulted and ordered to jump overboard 15km from the Mullaitivu shore.

10 May - Sri Lanka Navy shot and wounded Vilvarajah Jeyakanthan (35) of Thirukdaloor while he was fishing in the Trincomalee sea close to Koneswaram temple with two of his colleagues. A complaint was made to the local Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

11 May - Reconstruction work of the centuries old Kanniya Pillaiyar temple in Trincomale, has been suspended because some Buddhist priests claimed that the bricks found at the site belonged to the Anuradhapura period, and therefore there should be a halt put to the work.

11 May - Buddhist monks took part in a demonstration and group meditation against the ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers. The protest was organised by the National Bhikku Council ('Jathika Sangha Sahba').

12 May - According to the Ministry of Hindu Affairs, the Sri Lanka Army continues to occupy two hundred and seventy four Hindu temples in the Jaffna district, The Sri Lanka army should have vacated 'places of religious worship' by 26 March 2002 under the terms of the cease-fire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers.

13 May - Fishermen who recently resettled in Kovilkandy in the Thenmaradchi sector of the Jaffna peninsula complained that the Sri Lanka armed forces are harassing them and preventing them from fishing.

13 May - In the wake of a series of low-level flights over Vanni by Sri Lankan Air Force surveillance aircraft, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flying over the Vanni by Sri Lanka Air Force raised fears and panic amongst civilians. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - LTTE lodged a formal protest with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

15 May - According to the Northeast Provincial Education Ministry officials, the Sri Lanka army and the Special Task Force had not come up with a schedule for leaving more than eighty schools occupied by them in the districts of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai.

16 May - The residents of Linganagar, a suburb of Trincomalee town submitted a memorandum to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the eastern port city that even months after the permanent ceasefire came into effect, the Sri Lanka Army has not changed its routine checking and has not relaxed the ban on taking materials such as bricks, cement, tin sheets, poles and cadjans for repairing their houses.

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16 May - Several fisheries co-operative societies in Jaffna have lodged a complaint at the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, that the security forces are still harassing fishermen in Jaffna district. Fishermen who are engaged in fishing in the Jaffna lagoon are subjected to body check by the navy before they enter their boats.

17 May - The Federation of fisheries co-operative societies of Vadamaradchi complained to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna that the Sri Lankan armed forces are backing Sinhala fishermen to engage in deep sea fishing off the coast of the northern peninsula while hindering local fishermen from plying their trade freely.

17 May - Lt. Col. Gunasekera, the civil affairs officer of the SLA's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa, stated that "The Sri Lanka army will not leave public and private buildings and houses until permanent peace is established".

18 May - Residents of Varani, Maaseri and Kudamiyan in Jaffna wrote to Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe asking him to relocate the Sri Lanka army camp which was blocking the main road through their villages. More than five hundred villagers signed the letter.

18 May - The estimated 1.4 million pieces of live ammunition, including 86,700 anti-personnel mines, remaining in territory formerly controlled by the Sri Lanka Army are taking a long time to clear due to the lack of equipment and funding.

22 May - A 12 year old student was injured when the Special Task Force opened fire on a large public demonstration in Thirukkovil, south of Batticaloa.

23 May - More than ten thousand students from 52 schools in the Thirukkovil education zone, south of Batticaloa, marched and demonstrated against the Special Task Force (STF).

23 May - The Sri Lankan government has issued a gazette notification retrospectively under the Prevention of Terrorism Act specifying areas in the Northeast that have been restricted for fishing. The new PTA regulation includes punishment for those violating restriction on fishing in the specified areas.

24 May - More than 90% of Tamil medium schools did not function in the north and east when over twenty thousand teachers and principals staged a one-day token strike putting forward a list of demands to the Sri Lankan government. Students also stayed away from their schools.

24 May - The Bishop of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, Rt. Rev. S.Jebanesan, appealed to the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army to take immediate steps to stop wanton destruction of coconut and Palmyra trees in the Jaffna district for military purposes.

24 May - Sri Lanka Army soldiers crossed into territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Batticaloa, violating the terms of the permanent ceasefire. LTTE officials have lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

24 May - Nine youths were assaulted by Sri Lanka police for participating in a general strike observed in Batticaloa to protest at the arrest and assault of a member of the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam by the police.

25 May - The Sri Lankan armed forces in the Jaffna peninsula are building new camps and bases close to homes and schools. The Sri Lanka Army has begun constructing a new artillery base in Idaikurichchi, Varani.

The Sri Lanka Navy set up a new camp Suruvil, Kayts. Meanwhile the military has declared new areas in Chavacachcheri as ‘military zones’.

25 May - The Sri Lanka Navy has started strengthening its camps in coastal Tamil villages to the north of Trincomalee from Sambalthivu to Pulmoddai. Navy personnel deployed in several camps in these villages have intensified their daytime patrolling. Tension prevails among Tamil people living in the villages of Sambaltivu, Salli, Nilaveli, Gopalapuram and Kuchchaveli due to aggressive patrolling and interrogation by navy personnel.

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25 May - Sri Lankan military personnel occupying the well known Subash Hotel in Jaffna have been asked to vacate the premises. In letters to the military authorities, Mr. Ranasinghe, Principal of the Sri Lanka Schools of Hotel management, requested that soldiers be withdraw from the Hotel so that it could resume functioning.

27 May - The Sri Lanka Army is constructing new bunkers and check posts in the coastal areas of Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna. The military began strengthening its coastal defenses in the villages of Polikandy, Thikkam, Sakkottai, Manalkaadu and Kudaththanai.

27 May - Education officials in Jaffna said that they cannot commence classes in two schools vacated by the Sri Lanka Army in the Kopay division because most of the buildings in them are damaged. "We haven’t got any assurance from the military or the education ministry that the two schools are free of landmines and booby traps".

27 May - Residents of Veeramunai, southwest of Batticaloa, said that the Special Task Force has threatened to kill people in the village whom it accused of taking part in the general shut down and protest against the STF in the southeast coast of the island. "The STF commandos told us families in the village should make two coffins each. They said we would need the coffins after a month,".

28 May - Fishermen in Jaffna protested that the Sri Lankan military was refusing to lift restrictions on their livelihoods, in breach of the terms of the permanent ceasefire signed by the government and theLTTE.

30 May - Residents in the east coast villages of Kiran and Maankerni said the actions of the Sri Lanka army is exacerbating fears among them that the war might erupt again soon. The Army soldiers are photographing the members of every family in the village and has bulldozed the local cemetery to reinforce the army’s defences.

30 May - The arrest and torture of a member of the LTTE by the Special Task Force (STF) constituted a deliberate breach of the permanent ceasefire according to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), as the troops had penetrated over one kilometre into LTTE-held territory to carry out the attack.

31 May - The Sri Lanka Army is constructing a large new base on a 450 acre site near Chavakachcheri, taking in many homes and fields, residents in Thenmaradchchi stated. Construction work started in Nunavil East to the north of the Kandy road.

01 June - Tensions between the Sri Lankan armed forces and local residents increased in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts following new incidents of violence and harassment by the military.

02 June - The Sri Lanka Army refused to remove its camp from one of Sri Lanka's leading schools, the Point Pedro Hartley College in Jaffna. The SLA's Jaffna commander has conveyed the decision to the District Additional Director of Education.

02 June - A team of officials from the Ministry of Social Services said that they were subjected to undue search by Sri Lanka Army personnel at the Muhamalai entry point, when they were on their way to Jaffna.

03 June - Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, the correspondent for the Tamil dailies Virakesari and Thinakkural, in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa, said he was threatened by soldiers who deserted the Sri Lanka army and ex home guards backed by local Muslim politicians for his coverage of a simmering dispute in the region. The dispute is over the creation of an administrative division which Tamils oppose on the grounds that it grabs their lands and is meant as another ethnic wedge to disrupt the contiguity of the Batticaloa district.

04 June - The LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said that the Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka has been delayed by the government’s failure to implement the terms of the permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers and is threatened by the hostile intervention of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

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04 June - "There must be no assumption that it is only the government of Sri Lanka which is taking risks; it must be realized that even the LTTE is taking risks when it is engaged in the peace process," stated Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group when moving an adjournment motion in the Sri Lankan parliament.

04 June - The Sri Lanka army refused to permit more than 32 fishermen and their families who came by sea from the Mullaithivu coast to land in Sakkottai, a fishing village near Pt. Pedro in Jaffna, from which they were displaced by the war in 1995.

04 June - The Sri Lanka Army is constructing a new base near the Maternity Home in Nedunkulam, Colombuthurai near Jaffna town. The Army is bulldozing the walls, fences and trees on both sides of the Nedunkulam Road in preparation.

04 June - The Sri Lanka Army is rapidly constructing a new road connecting Nunavil, located on the Jaffna-Kandy Road (A-9) in Chavakachcheri East, to the Maravanpulo Junction.

06 June - Thousands of students in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai held rallies to observe the Tamil Students’ Upsurge Day, protesting against decades of discrimination by Colombo, the bombing of schools, the chronic dearth of teachers, classrooms, teaching and science equipment, the arrest and detention of schoolchildren, and the presence of Sri Lankan security forces in their schools.

06 June - Hundreds of protesting fishermen paralysed the Jaffna District Secretariat and blocked traffic in a busy part of the northern town, demanding that Colombo should do away with restrictions on fishing.

07 June - Volunteers involved in demining efforts in the Mankulam and Katkadankulam areas have unearthed and disabled 4,887 pieces of unexploded ammunition and mines.

08 June - The Sri Lanka Police in Batticaloa said that it has stopped work on vacating four of its camps in the district situated in places of religious worship on orders from the Inspector General of Police . "We just got the orders and stopped dismantling the defences. We do not know the reason," said the Police Officer in Charge.

11 June - The Sri Lanka Army has established a new camp at Sakkottai, Vadamaradchi division in Jaffna district. The Army personnel are engaged in constructing bunkers around the new camp.

11 June - The Sri Lankan Navy is constructing a new base in Karampon, Kayts, near the Kannaki Amman landing point, a central location from where boat services are conducted for people traveling to Analaitivu, Eluvaitivu, Nainativu and other islands.

12 June - The Sri Lanka Navy refused permission to a group of displaced Tamil families to enter their destroyed village, Thiriyai (a Tamil village north of Trincomalee town) to make preliminary arrangements for their resettlement.

13 June - The Sri Lankan armed forces are expanding and bolstering a chain of sentry posts along the Jaffna coastline. Meanwhile, in Nunavil East, the Army has taken over more than ten homes for their camp, and is constructing bunkers.

14 June - People displaced from Manpity in Navanthurai are unable to return to their homes because the Ministry of Rehabilitation has settled other people into their homes, which were originally constructed by the Housing Authority as a housing scheme for fishermen.

15 June - Police personnel manning the checkpoint in Kaddaiparicchhan, Muttur in the Trincomalee district have again started harassing Tamil youths. People traveling from Muttur East are stopped and questioned at the checkpoint and those not carrying sufficient identification are barred from crossing.

15 June - Fishermen in Inparutti near Pt. Pedro in Jaffna blocked the main coastal road when the Sri Lanka army refused to let more than 24 catamarans and 12 boats come ashore as these had not obtained permits from the military to fish in the sea. Fishermen in Inparutti said that they had set out to sea without obtaining permits from the Army because Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence had promised to lift draconian controls on fishing.

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15 June - Three children and a man were injured in three separate incidents in Jaffna after triggering landmines. Of the three children, one boy has lost sight in one eye while another lost all ten of his fingers.

16 June - The civilian demining unit of the LTTE unearthed and destroyed almost nine thousand active mines and pieces of ordnance left behind by the Sri Lankan Army in Vavuniya North.

16 June - The Nagarkovil Sri Lanka Army base, which is part of the military's Forward Defense Line (FDL) in Vadamaradchi East, is being expanded with additional troops moved from Army positions in Eluthumadduval, Muhamalai and Mirusuvil in the Thenmaradchi sector.

19 June - Due to the poor education facilities in the Vanni region, 25,245 students in five education zones in the region are not attending school regularly.

19 June - A father of two children who returned to Point Pedro after more than six years in LTTE held Vanni region complained to the Police that he was abducted, beaten up and kept in a dilapidated building for six days. He said that the abductors had chained his hands and legs. His abductors are suspected to be members of the army intelligence unit.

20 June - The Sri Lankan Navy has refused to implement an agreement on passes for Tamil fishermen announced after a recent conference between the latter's representatives and the Defence Ministry officials in Colombo.

20 June - The Council of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) in Jaffna slammed the Sri Lankan government for ignoring the plight of thousands who want to resettle in their villages in the northern peninsula. "In Jaffna, restoring normalcy as promised in the cease-fire agreement means the resettlement of internally displaced people".

20 June - Sri Lanka's government said that paramilitary forces working alongside the military in the eastern province are to be expanded. The home guards will be given additional training and the force will be expanded from its current strength of 23,000 members.

20 June - Sri Lanka's Minister for Interior, Mr. John Amaratunga, told frontline troops in Mannar that his government will recruit 1600 to the Special Task Force (STF). He was speaking among STF commandos and military trained Policemen manning forward defences on the border separating the Vanni region.

21 June - A group of unidentified persons beleived to be members of an auxiliary force destroyed the Mutur political office of the LTTE. At the time of the attack, the LTTE office had been closed for the day.

23 June - The Tamil United Liberation Front appealed to the United National Front government to conduct an impartial inquiry into the attacks on a leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, at Velanai in Jaffna district and the Mutur political office of the LTTE in Trincomalee district and to bring the culprits before the court of law.

23 June - Mr. Thamilchelvan gave an assurance that the LTTE only recruits youth aged 18 or above to a delegation from Amnesty International whom he met in Vanni.

25 June - Mutur town in the Trincomalee district has been put under night curfew, following clashes between Muslims and Tamils which ended in several injured on both sides. Five people have been admitted to the Trincomalee hospital and two are said to be in critical condition.

26 June - Armed persons said to be members of an extremist Islamic militant group attacked the home of Tamil journalist, Mr. P. Satsivanantham, in Mutur town, causing considerable damage to equipment and property. Hundreds of Tamils sought refuge in the local Church as armed gangs of an Islamic group calling itself 'Osama Front' went on a rampage attacking houses in the Tamil neighbourhoods of the eastern town.

26 June - "Almost in every household in the Trincomalee district there would be a complaint of disappearance. Torture still continues in the island although necessary legislation has been enacted to end this human rights violation against the humanity," said Ms V.Mathiaparanam, Co-coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in Trincomalee at a one-day seminar held.

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27 June - More than eight thousand people took part in a protest march and public rally in Kayts in Jaffna Thursday against the activities of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka Navy in the islands off the northern peninsula. The protestors shouted slogans denouncing the paramilitary group, a close ally of Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga, and condemning the attack on LTTE political activists in Kayts on 20 June. The organisers of the march and rally said that cadres of the paramilitary had threatened the public in Kayts.

27 June - Thirteen Tamil civilians were wounded and one killed in attacks by armed persons believed to be members of an extremist Islamic group in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa. Islamic extremists wounded four Tamils, one seriously, in a grenade attack in the morning and killed one and wounded nine, hours after the Police clamped curfew to quell the violence. Ten Tamil women were abducted by the extremists in Oddamaavadi near Valaichenai.

28 June - A large mob of Muslims led by Islamic extremists attacked and demolished the home of Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister for Fisheries, Mr. Mohideen Abdul Cader, after prayers at a local mosque in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa.

28 June - The Chavakachcheri acting Magistrate, A. Premashankar ordered an investigation into the unexplained death of a Tamil youth whose body was recovered with gunshot injuries from a paddy field close to the forward defense line of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp at Eluthumadduval in Jaffna district.

29 June - The three Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians of the Batticaloa district alleged that the Police too had a hand in the violence in Valaichenai. (See June 27th.)

30 June - The Sri Lanka Army took over scores of civilian homes amid its efforts to expand its fortifications in the Thenmaradchi district of the Jaffna peninsula. Sri Lankan forces have occupied 43 houses in one part of the district and have begun turning them into army camps. A new Army base is being constructed in the village of Kaputhu also.

30 June - The Sri Lanka Army and Police assaulted and severely wounded more than twenty civilians in the village of Nanattan in Mannar. More than six hundred villagers began a protest demanding that the SLA camp in the area should be removed immediately.

01 July - The President of the Jaffna journalists' Association, Mr. V. Thavachelvam complained to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross that he was abducted and beaten up by armed persons.

03 July - A Sri Lankan Defence Ministry inquiry into the assault of two senior political cadres of the LTTE on June 20 ruled that "there was no evidence ... to establish a case against any individual or person,". The Defence Ministry statement was issued, the day after a massive demonstration in Kilinochchi to protest against the attack by Sri Lankan naval personnel.

03 July - The Sri Lankan military took five unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam into custody in two separate incidents, triggering tensions and anger amongst Tamils in Trincomalee. The LTTE’s political section in the eastern district strongly condemned the military’s actions as a breach of the ceasefire agreement.

04 July - Police arrested a person believed to be working for Sri Lanka army intelligence for stoning and throwing bottles at a Tamil owned passenger van in the Muslim quarter of Eravur town.

05 July - "The Sri Lankan security forces test our patience frequently. But we won't violate the cease-fire agreement signed by our leader with the Sri Lankan government. At the same time we will not do anything that will derail the ceasefire agreement," said Ms Krishna, Trincomalee district women wing secretary of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam presiding over the events to mark Black Tigers Day in Trincomalee.

07July - The Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna marked the village of Amban and its environs as a high security zone. The Army took over a public library and six homes in Thumpalai East near Pt.Pedro to set up defence positions in the area.

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07 July - Two young students and a 4-year old girl were wounded when they played with a grenade they found in their school which had once been a Sri Lanka Army camp. The Maha Vilankulam, north of Trincomalee town, was abandoned by the Army two years ago.

09 July - The Sri Lanka armed forces are hurriedly building fortifications and expanding their bases in the Jaffna peninsula while public buildings vacated by the military remain beyond the public use as the surrounding areas are declared high security zones.

09 July - More than twenty thousand Tamil and Muslim students marched in protest against the continuing occupation of schools by the Sri Lankan army and the general discrimination they are subjected to by Colombo.

11 July - Sri Lankan police commandos arrested an unarmed member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The arrest occurred as Sri Lankan government officials assured international monitors and the LTTE that arrests of Tamil Tigers by the security forces - which are violations of the ceasefire agreement between the two sides - would not be permitted.

13 July - Following the Sri Lanka Navy’s attack on an LTTE fishing trawler, the movement registered a strong protest with international monitors, describing the incident as a ‘serious violation’ of the ceasefire agreement.

15 July - The forty-kilometre stretch of road on the A5 highway from Chenkaladi to Maha Oya which goes through territory controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was opened to the public after seven years.

16 July - Hundreds of students and parents blocked roads in the island of Kayts in Jaffna to protest against Sri Lanka Navy defence positions around Velanai Duraisamy Central College. The protestors sat across roads at Saravanai Junction, Vankalavadi Junction and Velanai Bus Company Junction from early morning. The Duraisamy Central College is inside the Navy base in Velanai.

16 July - The Tamil National Alliance requested the Sri Lankan government to halt the establishment of new army camps and the expansion of existing camps in the Thenmaradchi area of the Jaffna peninsula, citing the impossibility of resettling displaced people to their homes under such circumstances.

25 July - According to International ceasefire monitors, a Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed when he crossed into the zone of separation in Jaffna and opened fire on a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who fired back.

26 July - More than a thousand protesting students blocked the A9 highway near the Chavakachcheri town in Jaffna, demanding that their school environments be made free of Sri Lankan military presence and that Colombo should fully implement the cease-fire agreement. The protesting students stalled military and civilian traffic on the A9 for more than an hour.

27 July - The ban imposed by the Sri Lankan military on civilian use of the roads around Jaffna teaching hospital, which presently come under the high security zone, should be removed immediately as it causes severe hardship to patients and medical staff, the visiting Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Reggie Perera was told at a conference.

29 July - Persons clearing land for resettling near a Sri Lanka Army camp in Nunavil in Jaffna found a bag with several human skeletons without skulls. There were some pairs of slippers too in the bag, residents said. The remains are beleived to be of local residents who were killed during Sri Lanka Army operations in the area two years ago.

04 Aug - The Tamil Eelam police arrested six people who entered LTTE-held Vanni without permission in two separate incidents. Among those arrested were three weapon-carrying Sri Lanka Army troopers who attempted to infiltrate into LTTE-held areas.

07 Aug - More than four hundred families living at Valaichchenai refugee camp in the Batticaloa district undergo untold hardships in running their day-to-day lives, as they have not been provided with dry rations.

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07 Aug - More than five hundred displaced people staged a token sit in protest in front of the Chavakachcheri Divisional Secretariat demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their villages - Eluthumadduval, Mirusuvil and Karampagam - in the Thenmaradchi area.

08 Aug - The office of Thinakkathir, the Tamil daily paper published in Batticaloa, was ransacked by an unidentified gang.

11 Aug - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam protested to international ceasefire monitors and Sri Lanka Army commanders that government troops are engaged in provocative acts such as advances from their lines and the establishment of new positions closer to LTTE lines in Jaffna.

12 Aug - According to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission sources, Sri Lankan armed forces occupy 160 public and private buildings and properties in the Mannar district.

16 Aug - Seven civilians were assaulted severely by Sri Lanka Navy personnel at Naranthanai, an islet in the Jaffna district, according to a complaint made by the Kayts Palmyra and Coconut Development Society to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in the peninsula.

Six Navy personnel entered a toddy tavern in the area and assaulted the civilians, the complaint further states.

20 Aug - "I wish to bring to the notice of the Defence Minister that the Tamil youths released from prisons are being harassed by the Police. These youths find in difficult to live in peace in their homes due to unwanted interference by the Police," said Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan.

28 Aug - Seven Tamil civilians, including two school children, were assaulted by Sri Lanka Navy personnel at Karainagar, according to a complaint made by area residents to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in the northern peninsula.

02 Sep - Over two thousand protesting Tamil students forced their way into Sri Lanka Army positions and camps in Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula, destroying barriers, sentry points and checkpoints. Students demanding the withdrawal of troops from public places also blocked the main entrance of the Army’s 52-4 Brigade headquarters. Troops fired tear gars and live rounds and assaulted students, journalists and local officials of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam' political wing who intervened.

05 Sep - The ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam imposed in Sri Lanka has been lifted, the State run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation reported in its news bulletin. The Defence Minister, however, has the power to re-impose the ban, the radio said. The Defence Minister, Mr.Tilak Marapone, issued the relevant gazette notification de-proscribing the LTTE under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the radio said.

10 Sep - The Sri Lanka army is building a new camp behind the Mirusuvil hospital, according to residents in the war-scarred town east of Chavakachcheri in Jaffna. The site for the camp is situated along the northern and southern boundaries of the hospital, encompassing lands and homes belonging to the townspeople.

10 Sep - Sri Lanka's Defence Minister said that the Army camps removed from areas in the northeast province under the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been relocated close to their original locations and denied the number of soldiers deployed in Tamil areas had been reduced.

10 Sep - The Sri Lanka army arrested the president of a fisheries co-operative society in Pt. Pedro and a local fisherman for allegedly causing damage to properties belonging to the military during a protest by students and parents in the northern town . The arrests are in clear violation of the ceasefire agreement.

12 Sep - Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) called on the Sri Lankan government to swiftly investigate and punish those responsible for the harassment of a journalist who reported the alleged torture in custody of a woman by police officers in the north-western town of Wariyapola.

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12 Sep - The Sri Lanka Navy has re-imposed draconian restrictions on fishing in the Manalkaadu area on Jaffna's southeastern coast. They were also ordered by the Navy to obtain special identity cards and permits for setting out to sea.

13 Sep - The Sri Lanka army arrested a fisherman in Pt. Pedro. Ponnuchchami Jeyartnam, 59, was at the Munai beach near Pt. Pedro town when soldiers from the 52-4 Brigade took him into custody.

16 Sep - 16/09-18/09/2002 – 1st round of peace talks in Thailand. The LTTE delegation was headed by Anton Balasingham and the delegation from the Government of Sri Lanka by minister G.L. Peiris. The Norwegian facilitators were also present.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the first round of formal talks, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the political advisor of the LTTE said "We are optimistic that the peace talks will succeed because Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the LTTE and Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, have genuine will and firm determination to resolve the conflict through the process of dialogue."

Prof G. L Peiris, head of the Sri Lankan government delegation, addressing the inaugural session said, ‘’in order to arrive at durable peace, it is imperative that steps be taken for the resettlement, rehabilitation and reintegration of all displaced persons with assurance of personal safety and adequate reparation."

16 Sep - The Island Peoples’ Welfare Society (IPWS) complained to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna district that people living in the islets are once again subjected to severe checking and harassment at the hands of naval personnel stationed at Allaipitty and Ponnalai Navy camps.

18 Sep - Addressing a press conference at the Sattahip naval base in Thailand after the conclusion of the three-day peace talks between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the head of the LTTE’s team, Mr. Anton Balasingham said that a stable cease-fire between the standing armies and naval forces of the LTTE and the GOSL is important for laying a firm foundation for peace. "The LTTE is very happy with the proceedings and we have taken a few decisions," he said.

Prof. G. L Peiris, head of the GOSL team, said that both parties are agreed on making a common appeal for foreign funds to rebuild and rehabilitate the northeast. "There will be meetings with donors and there will be a pledging conference in the next few months", Prof. Pieris said.

18 Sep - Fishermen in Mannar seized 25 Indian trawlers and 111 Indian fishermen who were poaching in the seas off Talaimannar and Pesalai. The local fishermen say that for years Indian fishermen have cut their nets, ravaged their traditional fishing grounds and often harass them at sea. The Mannar fishermen released the men and their boats after two days, to the Indian Navy.

19 Sep - The Point Pedro Police in Jaffna district took ten Tamil fishermen for questioning in connection with the loss of a T-56 rifle belonged to a police constable.

21 Sep - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam issued a statement condemning ‘disruptive forces’ behind a leaflet ordering Muslims to leave Mannar. The leaflet, issued surreptitiously in Mannar by a group called ‘Elalan Force’, threatened that rivers of blood would flow if Muslim schools in the district do not shut down before end of September.

24 Sep - The political wing leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Mr.S.P.Thamilselvan said that the Sri Lanka Navy is building a new camp on the island of Delft off Jaffna in violation of the LTTE's Ceasefire Agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka. He urged the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to take immediate action on the matter.

25 Sep - "Muslims are still unable to resettle in their villages even after six months of a stable ceasefire because of Sri Lanka Navy’s intransigence and land mines," said Mr. M. M Saburudeen, the representative of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in the Mannar Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and Chairman of the Mannar Citizen’s Committee

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25 Sep - The Sri Lanka Navy stopped civilians travelling in seven boats from the island of delft in Jaffna to the island of Eluvaitheevu off Jaffna.

25 Sep - "The Sri Lanka army is treating the people of Mandatheevu like slaves," stated Mr. T. Maheswaran, Sri Lanka’s minister for Hindu Affairs who visited the island south of Jaffna town. He said that the Army has blocked more than three hundred internally displaced persons who came back to resettle in the island, reclaiming their homes and lands.

25 Sep - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam took seven soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army into custody when they entered a security zone between two LTTE camps at Kumburupiddy, Trincomalee town.

27 Sep - Political activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam working in the islands off the Jaffna peninsula under the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lanka government say they are being harassed by Navy personnel in the region.

28 Sep - The LTTE and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government exchanged prisoners of war as part of the peace building process to end the island's ethnic conflict in Omanthai, on the southern border of the Vanni region.

28 Sep - A group of Sri Lanka Army soldiers severely assaulted a Tamil youth who was returning from Koddady in the high security zone in Point Pedro town after seeing his resettled relatives. Twenty five year old S.Ravindran alias Kannan has been warded in the Valvettithurai government hospital with serious head injures.

01 Oct - Two fishermen were severely assaulted by Sri Lanka Navy personnel when rough sea forced them to drift towards the high security zone of the Kankesanthurai harbour.

02 Oct - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam released one of the seven soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army at Kumburupiddy, Trincomalee. The seven soldiers were arrested by the LTTE inside the security zone between two LTTE camps in Kumburupitty.

03 Oct - Mr. V. Puththirasihamani, a leading Tamil trade union leader and MP of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance said he was saddened that he had not joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, even after seeing the violence perpetrated on Jaffna.

03 Oct - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam lodged a protest with the international ceasefire monitors that the Sri Lanka Navy is preparing to set up a new camp on the coast near the Kuchchaveli divisional secretariat, Trincomalee.

03 Oct - A Sri Lanka Army trooper who surrendered to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam asking to be sent home was handed over to international ceasefire monitors. Jeyathkuman Kumara (26) from the Mayiliddi Sri Lanka Army camp, surrendered to the LTTE in the Jaffna district, asking to be sent to his home in Habarana.

09 Oct - Seven civilians were killed and fourteen were wounded when commandos of the Special Task Force, opened fire on a public protest at Kanchirankudah, south of Batticaloa. The shooting followed tension in Tamil areas in Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast after word spread that two members of the Liberation Tigers were severely assaulted by the STF and had been admitted to hospital.

10 Oct - Six Sri Lanka Army soldiers being held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were released to the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee, while two LTTE members arrested by the SLA were released by the Trincomalee magistrate on as ordered by the Court of Appeal.

11 Oct - Three Tamil civilians were killed and about twelve others were wounded, eight critically, in Trincomalee in firing and grenade attacks blamed on Sri Lankan police and Sinhala paramilitaries. The killings occurred amid calls for a general shut down (hartal) in the east port town condemning the killings of seven Tamil demonstrators by Special Task Force commandos in Ampara district. (For further information refer to page 15)

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13 Oct - The conference convened at Trincomalee district secretariat and presided over by Sri Lanka's Interior Minister Mr. John Amaratunge was apparently meant to review the security situation in the eastern port town. But there was no Tamil or Muslim representation – because the authorities did not even notify local representatives. Instead, Buddhist monks dominated the conference – which was conducted entirely in Sinhalese - hurling allegations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil community.

14 Oct - Later Sri Lanka's Interior Minister Mr. John Amaratunge visited Trincomalee general hospital where he saw injured Tamil civilians being treated. All the wounded people told the minister and his officials that the Police and home guards attacked them with grenades.

14 Oct - The security of the Tamil people can no longer be left in the hands of Sinhala dominated Army and Police, the Trincomalee district parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr. R. Sampanthan, told Sri Lanka’s Interior Minister, Mr. John Amaratunge. Arguing "the security of Tamils should be entrusted to Tamil youths,".

14 Oct - "The Special Task Force will pose a dire threat to our lives as long as it remains in this region. There is no security now for farmers who have to pass the Kanjirankudah STF camp to cultivate their fields. The sole access to more than twelve thousand acres of our people’s fields is controlled by the STF which has no qualms about killing us like animals," said Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, the Tamil MP for the Amparai District.

14 Oct - Thirty two displaced fishermen who were returning from Vanni to resettle in Valvettithurai town in the Jaffna peninsula were not allowed to land and ordered to turn back to Vanni by Sri Lanka Army soldiers. The fishermen have been living in Vanni for the past seven years.

16 Oct - Two young Tamil fishermen were assaulted by a Sri Lanka Army soldier manning a sentry-point in the coastal village of Katkovalam in Vadamaradchi, fisheries co-operative. Army officials at the 52-4 Brigade apologized to the injured, saying that the said soldier was mentally deranged.

17 Oct - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam called on Muslims and Tamils to identify divisive forces bent on creating chaos in Akkaraipattu. The Tigers issued a leaflet in the south-eastern town stating that the problem was instigated by evil elements for profit. "We will never disrupt the peace. This is certain…... Tamils and Muslims should resolve to live as brothers. We should always resolve our differences through negotiation", the leaflet states.

20 Oct - Five Tamil refugee families of Kittanki at Kalmunai in the southeastern Amparai district have appealed to the authorities to return their houses now being occupied by the Commandos of the Special Task Force. The STF now has gone back on its promise, said refugees in a complaint to the district parliamentarian.

22 Oct- Hundreds of people held a protest march in Vavuniya town demanding immediate inquiry into the mysterious killing of Lucia Aurampillai, 42, after sexual assault by unidentified persons. The protest march commenced from Sivan temple at Kovilkulam and arrived at the Vavuniya district secretariat. Women organizations, non-governmental institutions and the people of the area organized the protest campaign.

24 Oct - Hundreds of displaced Tamil civilians launched a sit-in-protest in front of the Chavakacheri Divisional Secretary (DS) office, demanding the immediate removal of the Sri Lanka Army camp located between Puttur junction and Kanaganpuliyadi junction in Thenmaradchi area in Jaffna district.

31/10 - 03/11/2002 - 2nd round of peace talks in Thailand

01 Nov- The Sri Lanka Navy intercepted a boat between Trincomalee and Sampoor in the east coast and took six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam into custody. Later they were handed over to the Trincomalee Police.

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03 Nov- The Point Pedro Police arrested a Tamil student for causing damage to Sri Lanka Army property in the high security zone on 2 September during an agitation by residents and students demanding the removal of Army camps.

04 Nov- About seventy five Muslim fishermen entered the conference hall of the Trincomalee district secretariat, interrupting the meeting of the District Co-ordinating Committee (DCC) which was in progress, and lodged a complaint to the parliamentarians and security officials that they had been assaulted by a group of persons backed by members State armed forces and police personnel in civil uniform.

06 Nov- The Sri Lanka Army refused permission for ten displaced families who returned from Vanni region to resettle at Koddady in Point Pedro in Jaffna district. These families left the area in 1996 following military operation.

13 Nov- The Deputy Commander of the Sea Tigers urged the Sri Lanka Navy not to engage in any action that would disrupt the peace negotiations to end the island’s conflict at a meeting with a Sri Lankan military delegation in the no man’s land in Muhamalai in southern Jaffna.

13 Nov- Chavakachcheri Magistrate, inspected a house vacated recently by the Sri Lanka Army in Mirusuvil where a human skull was discovered from the refuse dump.

14 Nov- "The budget does not provide any relief to the devastated northeast. To treat the northeast in the same way as the rest of the country would be tantamount to a refusal to acknowledge the devastation and deprivation suffered by the people of northeast," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance group leader participating in the budget debate.

19 Nov- Curfew in Puttalam-Mathurankuli area has been to prevent further violence due to prevailing tension between the Muslim and Sinhala communities.

23 Nov- Student supporters lead by a University lecturer carrying supplies of food and drinks to the protesters in Nedunthivu (Delft) island were prevented from travelling to Delft by the Sri Lanka Navy personnel.

25 Nov- The historic hour long discussion between Anton Balasingham, Chief Negotiator of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, took place at the Holmenkollen Park hotel situated in Oslo, Norway.

25 Nov- "We urge the international governments to offer substantial financial assistance for the resettlement and rehabilitation of the war affected people in the northeast. On our part, we can assure the international community that our organisation is sincerely and firmly committed to peace and negotiated political settlement. We will not resort to war or violence. We fervently hope that the Sri Lankan armed forces will also abide by that commitment," said Mr. Anton Balasingham, the advisor and theoretician to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in his address to the Oslo aid conference 25 November.

26 Nov- Students of Hartley College, Point Pedro, in the Jaffna district boycotted classes in protest of the removal by the Sri Lankan Army of cutouts and other decorations made in celebration of the Maveerar Naal (Heros' Day).

27 Nov- In a radical move to clarify the policy orientation of his organisation, Mr Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared that he would favourably consider a political framework that offers substantial regional autonomy and self-government to the Tamil people on the basis of their right to internal self-determination. The text of Mr. Pirapaharan’s annual Heroes’ Day address was released to the media in an official statement.

01 Dec - Speed barriers and road blocks in Batticaloa district roads are still obstructing traffic in many roads in Batticaloa causing severe hardship to residents in several areas of Batticaloa.

02 Dec - The Jaffna District Secretariat came to a standstill due to the picketing by members of the Missing Persons Guardian Association (MPGA), demanding the government to expedite investigations into the Chemmani mass graves.

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02/12-05/12/2002 - 3rd round of peace talks in Oslo, Norway

02 Dec - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) began the third round of peace talks to end Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict at the Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel in downtown Oslo.

03 Dec - The LTTE's Police and law and order systems would not extend into areas controlled by the Sri Lankan government while continuing to maintain law and order in Tiger-controlled areas, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's Chief Negotiator and political advisor told reporters in Oslo. He was speaking at a press conference held during lunch on the second day of the third round of peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.

05 Dec - The government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reached a historic agreement to "explore a solution to end the island’s conflict founded on the principle of internal self determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka". "Sri Lanka needs a new constitution that would radically transform its polity," said Chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. Anton Balasingham, addressing a joint press conference at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Oslo.

07 Dec - A Tamil young mother of four children is alleged to have been sexually assaulted by Sri Lanka Navy personnel at Nedunthivu (Delft island) in the Jaffna district while she was praying in a church, according to a complaint lodged at the Police Station in the islet. (For further information refer to page 31)

08 Dec - Ex-militants of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) currently part of Varathan Group working closely with the Special Task Force (STF) in Araiyampathi, Batticaloa district, attacked and seriously injured two civilians near Mariamman Kovil road in Batticaloa.

10 Dec - At least fifteen civilians were injured in Nelliady, Jaffna, when Police used tear gas and opened fire with live bullets on picketers in front of the local office of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP). Three out of eight seriously wounded traders were admitted to the Jaffna teaching hospital with gunshot wounds. In a subsequent grenade attack eight persons were seriously wounded including journalist Mr.V.Thavachelvan. All have been warded in the Point Pedro base hospital.

12 Dec - A group of Sinhalese fishermen attacked Tamil fishermen preventing them from fishing near Sandy Cove in Trincomalee sea claiming that the particular area in the sea belongs to the Sinhala fishermen and that the Tamil fishermen are forbidden from using that area.

12 Dec - A bomb blast damaged the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) building in Batticaloa town. It was alleged to have been carried out by groups opposed to Liberation Tigers (LTTE) operating in Batticaloa area.

22 Dec - Names, address and other personal details of employees of business establishments in Vavuniya are being collected by police stations in Vavuniya district, stated alarmed traders in Vavuniya. Police officers have distributed forms to businesses and have directed all employees to submit completed forms back to the police stations.

25 Dec - Construction of a Buddhist shrine in Vilankulam, a traditional Tamil village, west in the eastern port town is continuing despite protests made to the Prime Minister by the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian.

26 Dec - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement released from its headquarters in Killinochchi, accused the state's military hierarchy of imposing unacceptable and unrealistic conditions for the resettlement of the internally displaced Tamils in their own homes and villages in Jaffna presently under heavy military occupation.

28 Dec - Residents of Navalar Road and surrounding area east of Jaffna town are disturbed by the refusal by the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army manning a nearby checkpoint to remove an unexploded mine lying close to the Jaffna-Kandy road.

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30 Dec - Several hundred internally displaced people from Ponnalai in Jaffna district launched a protest campaign picketing in front of the office of the Chankanai Divisional Secretariat (DS), demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their lands.

30 Dec - The decomposed headless body of Ponnar Gnaneswaran who went missing on December 31 in northern sea, off Thondamanaru coast when a speed boat of the Sri Lanka Navy rammed a fishing craft was identified at the Jaffna teaching hospital by his parents. Ponnar identified Gnaneswaran as one of his sixteen children.

31 Dec - A Muslim fisherman was killed and another seriously wounded when a Sri Lanka Navy craft rammed their fishing boat near Mutur jetty, south of Trincomalee. "The navy rammed our plastic boat deliberately, destroying it," the wounded fisherman, Mr.Razik, of Thaha Nagar was warded in the Mutur hospital.

2003

03 Jan - Responding to the Sri Lanka Army's reiterated demand that the Liberation Tigers must decommission their heavy weapons before Tamil civilians would be permitted to resettle in their villages now within High Security Zones, the LTTE said the issue was non-negotiable and expressed "deep disappointment" over the Army's "confrontational" position. This demand is against the MOU signed between the GOSL and the LTTE.

03 Jan - Hundreds of displaced people from villages surrounding the Sri Lanka Army HQ in Palaly launched a fasting campaign in front of the office of the divisional secretariat at Tellipalai demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their villages. The Valigaamam People's Forum (VPF) organised the fasting.

04 Jan - Several residents of Nedunthivu clashed with members of the paramilitary group Eelam peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) when they attempted to use drinking water from the tank nearby for bathing.

05 Jan - The Batticaloa-Ampara political section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) distributed two leaflets, one alerting residents of Batticaloa to be aware of nefarious elements who are trying to sabotage the peace process, and the other appealing to ex-militants collaborating with the Sri Lanka security forces and working with anti-LTTE groups to join the LTTE and participate in building peace.

07 Jan - The home of senior Batticaloa journalist, Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, was attacked with grenades. The attackers poured petrol and set fire to the house located in the Sri Lanka army high security zone in Valaichenai, north of Batticaloa. The fire did not spread due to rains and the efforts of neighbours, his colleagues said. Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy had received several death threats in the past from a suspected Islamic extremist group in the area.

 

11 Jan - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam handed over fourteen students who voluntarily came to join the LTTE, to their parents in the presence of several representatives of the international humanitarian agencies in the peninsula.

11 Jan - The Jaffna District People's Forum and the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) condemned the action of the Sri Lanka Police collecting details of persons working in the offices of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the buildings where the organisation's offices are located in the peninsula.

06/01-09/01/2003 - 4th round of peace talks in Thailand

21 Jan - Five youths under 16 years who approached the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political offices in Batticaloa expressing their wish to join the movement were returned to their parents in the presence of members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

27 Jan - UNICEF played a facilitator role accepting three underage youths from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and handing them back to their parents. Three boys who came on their own to join Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were handed over to the UNICEF in Trincomalee by the LTTE.

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28 Jan - The Sri Lanka Army has built a new camp in a housing scheme in Varani, Jaffna. They said that the playground of the village has also been taken over by the Army for the new camp. At least ten families in the housing scheme have been moved out by the military from the area demarcated for the camp.

29 Jan - The police in Batticaloa removed the billboard erected by the public near the Pillaiyar temple located at the entrance to the Batticaloa town, with the sign "Welcome to the land where courage grows! "

30 Jan - The Vadamarachchi Peoples Forum said in a statement that it would show its opposition to the visit of ministers, opposition leaders and foreign diplomats to Vadamarachchi as the authorities have failed to provide basic facilities and have not addressed problems confronting the resettled the people in the area although one year has passed after the signing of the MOU.

31 Jan - "Deploying a Sinhala army in large areas after evicting Tamils from their towns and villages is another form of ethnic cleansing. An army occupying the homes and lands of our people cannot call itself their guardian. Only a foreign army will drive out people and occupy their towns and villages. I therefore consider the army occupying our lands as a foreign army," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni.

31 Jan - UNICEF and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam agreed to work together for the welfare of the war affected children in the northeast after a meeting in Kilinochichi. This meeting lasted for nearly two hours between the UNICEF Executive Director, Ms Carol Bellamy, and LTTE political head Mr.S.P.Thamilselvan.

01 Feb - In the identification parade conducted at the Vavuniya Courts associated with the attempted rape on 26/01/2002 in Ganesapuram in Vavuniya district, two Sri Lanka Army soldiers were identified as the alleged offenders by the witnesses.

01 Feb - The Point Pedro Police arrested eight youths in the Kudathanai village in Vadamarachchi division following a dispute between the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army and the members of the vigilant committee of the area. The arrest followed the vigilant committee’s detaining of two soldiers who had forcibly entered a house and harassed the family living there.

05 Feb - Local fishermen from Mannar rounded up and brought to shore sixteen South Indian fishermen in four boats for illegally entering and fishing in Erukalambity seas in Mannar. Long-standing problems have existed between Tamil and Indian fishermen. (refer to incident on Sep 28 2002 in this report)

05 Feb - The National Bhikku Front (NBF) held a demonstration in Colombo, demanding that the government put a halt to foreign mediation in finding a solution to the ethnic conflict. The protest march commenced at the Fort Bodhirajarama Buddhist Vihare and ended at the Foreign Ministry office.

07 Feb - Three cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam killed themselves by blowing up their trawler following an inspection by the monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

07/02 - 08/02/2003 - 5th round of peace talks in Berlin, Germany

08 Feb - At the fifth round of peace talks held in Berlin, the Government of Sri lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) negotiators agreed to work out safeguards to prevent Nedunthivu type sea incidents from happening in the future. It was agreed to establish three committees in Eastern Province to address local land and other issues. It was also agreed to request Ian Martin of Amnesty International to prepare for discussion a roadmap of human rights issues. The LTTE also agreed to work with UNICEF on an action plan for children affected by armed conflict, a Norwegian embassy press release said.

009Feb - Ms Kayalvizhi, the leader of the women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna district, lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna, against the ban imposed by the Sri Lanka Army on LTTE women cadres from using waist belts when they enter the army controlled areas in Jaffna district.

53

10 Feb - A human skeleton was recovered in Chavakachcheri in Thenmaradchchi area in Jaffna district by civilians who were clearing their lands for resettlement.

12 Feb - Four women members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and several Tamil civilians were injured when soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army unleashed violence at Manipay junction, off Jaffna town following the refusal by LTTE women cadres to remove their waist-belt.

12 Feb - The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance has condemned the attack on two Tamil journalists by the security forces at Manipay in Jaffna. It has pointed out to the government that attacks on Tamil journalists by the security forces is on the increase.

13 Feb - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam condemned the attack on their unarmed female cadres in Manipay by Sri Lankan soldiers and warned that such incidents would "seriously jeopardize" the Norwegian peace process.

14 Feb - Three children who sought to join the LTTE, were handed over to their parents by the head of the LTTE's political division in Vavuniya, in the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) members.

15 Feb - Four local members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee decided at a meeting that construction of the LTTE war memorial at Gopalapuram junction in Nilaveli village north of Trincomalee town cannot be considered a ceasefire violation.

19 Feb - The Confederation of Valikamam South Public Organizations conducted a protest march condemning the construction of a Buddhist Vihare at Kantharodai in Jaffna district by the Sri Lanka Army.

19 Feb - In the presence of the Trincomalee Magistrate and Additional District Judge, a human skull and skeletal remains were exhumed from the Trincomalee beach just in front of the library building of the Trincomalee Urban Council.

20 Feb - More remains of human skeletons and a skull were exhumed from a location at the Trincomalee beach in the presence of the Trincomalee Magistrate and Additional District Judge.

20 Feb - The Trincomalee Police banned the black band protest march organised by the Trincomalee Tamil Women's Organizations Front condemning the attack by the Sri Lanka Army on LTTE women members, civilians and journalists at Manipay in Jaffna district on February 12, and the arrest of two LTTE women cadres at Sambaltivu in Trincomalee.

23 Feb - Police and Sri Lanka Army soldiers forcibly opened the abandoned office of the Eelam People Democratic Alliance (EPDA), a breakaway group of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) at Vembadi area in the heart of Jaffna town and recovered weapons and uniforms belonging to State armed forces. Both EPDP and EPDA are financed by the government of Sri Lanka !

24 Feb - The Vavuniya district judge, ordered the police to hold a 15 years old boy, arrested by the Sri Lanka Army in the Iranai Illupakulam High Security Zone in Vavuniya, under the custody of the court until February 26th. He had gone to chop wood and had accidentally entered a HSZ (High Security Zone).

24 Feb - Jayatillake Arachige Wijeratne (23) belonging to 8th Gemunu division of the Sri Lanka Army was found dead with shot wounds to his head, at the guard post close to the Koliyar Kulam checkpoint in Vavuniya.

01 March - The Missing Persons Guardians' Association (MPGA) in Jaffna has decided to file a case in the High Court against some Sri Lanka Army officials and government civil administrators regarding the Tamil civilians who have been reported missing after being arrested by Sri Lankan government troops during the period between 1996 and 1997 in the Jaffna peninsula.

03 March - Seventeen Indian fishermen who tresspassed into Sri Lankan waters were injured during clashes with fishermen from Pesalai, Mannar district when the local fisherfolks rounded up Indian fishermen and brought them to Pesalai shores. (Please refer to incidents on Sep 18 and Feb 05 2002 of this report).

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05 March - Sri Lanka Army soldier, Lance Corporal Nimal Kumara and Reserve Police Constable Philip Anandasekara who were in Liberation Tigers' (LTTE's) custody were released in Kilinochchi to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission(SLMM) following a meeting with the LTTE leaders and the members of the SLMM.

10 March - Hundreds of people and civil activists participated in a one-hour picketing conducted in front of the Jaffna district secretariat demanding the immediate release of all Tamil political prisoners from prisons at Kalutara and elsewhere in the south of the country. Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians participated in the campaign.

11 March - The political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Anton Balasingham stated that the LTTE will not allow the peace process to become a trap to weaken the Liberation Tigers. "Despite provocations and attacks on us we are determined to participate constructively in the peace process. We want to convince the world, particularly the Sinhala people, that we are committed to peace,".

12 March - The interception and destruction of the Liberation Tigers' merchant cargo vessel in international waters by the Sri Lankan Navy is a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and contravenes international law, Mr. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's political advisor and chief negotiator, told a delegation of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Kilinochchi.

A five-member delegation of the SLMM, led by its head, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Tryggve Tellefsen, and including the SLMM’s legal expert, participated in the meeting with the LTTE leaders in Kilinochchi, which lasted for two hours.

13 March - As the hunger strike of about sixty Tamil political prisoners at Kalutara prison entered its thirteenth day, demonstrations and a general shut down (hartal) were organized in the North-East province demanding the immediate release of political prisoners.

13 March - The Sri Lanka Army ordered the Northern District Fisheries Co-operative Federation to stop the construction work of the ice factory immediately in the Gurunagar area in Jaffna town. The management commenced the construction of the ice factory at an estimated cost of 2.1 million rupees.

13 March - Ian Martin, the former Secretary General of Amnesty International, and special envoy to monitor the Human rights dimension in Sri Lanka, met with the members of the Thamil eelam police force, for discussions on human rights issues.

14 March - Normal life in Trincomalee district was disrupted due to the general shut down (hartal).

The hartal was called demanding the immediate release of all Tamil political detainees in several prisons in the south and to condemn the Sri Lanka Navy for sinking the LTTE vessel violating the ceasefire agreement and to mourn the deaths of the LTTE cadres who died in the attack.

14 March - An Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) was seen in skies above Kilinochchi and Mankulam, circling and flying in different directions. This was the first UAV seen in Killinochchi since the signing of the ceasefire agreement.

15 March - The delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will leave Colombo on Sunday night to attend peace talks in Hakone, Japan, scheduled to commence on March 18, said Mr.Anton Balasingham, LTTE theoretician, addressing a press conference held at Killinochchi Peace Secretariat.

15 March - "We wish to express our great displeasure and dispute the feeble argument you advanced to justify and legitimize the unwarranted and impulsive action taken by the Sri Lanka Navy in attacking and destroying our merchant vessel on the international waters," stated Mr.S.P.Thamilselvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in a letter to the Defence Minister Mr.Tilak Marapane.

18 March - Sixth round of the peace talks began in the hot-spa resort of Hakone, west of Tokyo. Norwegian deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen and Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Mr. Yasushi Akashi chaired the opening session.

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ANNEXES

UNICEF - Press Centre

85 child recruits released to their families by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

COLOMBO, 11 September 2002 - UNICEF is encouraged by the release of 85 child recruits by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] over the past few weeks.

A detailed list of the children was handed over to the UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka, Mr. Ted Chaiban, by Mr. S.P. Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE's Political Wing, at a meeting held in Kilinochchi on 6th September 2002. Mr. Thamilchelvan told UNICEF that the children had been returned directly into the care of their parents and guardians.

UNICEF staff have interviewed over 20 of the children, confirming that they had indeed been with the LTTE and have now been returned to their families. The agency will continue this process of review and contact all the children on the list and their families.

UNICEF is currently developing an action plan for the social reintegration of these children, including assistance returning to school, access to vocational training, and other activities.

UNICEF and the LTTE have also agreed to work out procedures for monitoring and preventing child recruitment in the future, and the continued release of under-age recruits still reported to be with the LTTE.

UNICEF hopes to see a 'child-recruit free' Sri Lanka, and views this latest development as a positive step, and encourages the LTTE to take further steps to fulfill the rights of children as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (UNICEF Colombo, 551331 / 551332 Ext. 250)

 

UNICEF officials negotiate with LTTE

on the release of recruited children

Colombo, 20th June 2002 - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels assured the United Nations Children's Fund, that it will not recruit anyone under the age of 18 years in their armed forces.

This verbal agreement is in compliance with the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The Optional Protocol prevents the recruitment of children under age 18 in to armed forces.

Under this common understanding, UNICEF would maintain a central information system of all confirmed cases of under age recruitment for a follow up during regular discussions between UNICEF and the LTTE (Liberation Tamily Tigers Eelam).

The agreement was reached between Mr. Pulithevan of LTTE's Political Wing and Senior Officials of UNICEF. Officials of both organizations met recently in the Wanni, to explore further opportunities to protect the rights of children affected by the armed conflict.

While actively advocating for the prevention of under age recruitment by the LTTE, UNICEF is also engaged in the cases of children who have been already recruited. The organisation's efforts have resulted in successful release of over sixty children from the LTTE. However, much more needs to be done. (UNICEF Media, 212 326-7261)

Benefits of the peace moves not reached the people of the North !

- PRIME MINISTER RANIL IN NEW DELHI


The Prime Minister during his recent visit to New Delhi in an interview with 'INDIA TODAY JOURNAL" accepted the fact that the allegations of the LTTE that the benefits of the Peace moves had not reached the people of the North.  He went on to add that due to the war the North and East had got completely devastated and it is no easy task to re-build the area overnight.  It will take a fair length of timer.  However he informed that action was being taken to bring about normalcy in the North and East. and to develop both these areas. (VIRAKESARI - 4 March 2003)

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Ceasefire agreement NOT benefited people in the Northeast


21 February 2003 - The Jaffna District People's Forum - JPDF called for a token hunger campaign in front of the Nallur Kandasamy Temple on Sunday to highlight that cease-fire agreement – CFA signed by the United National Front - UNF government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE has not benefited Tamils in the northeast province.

The Government of Sri Lanka has failed to implement the agreement fully, the campaign organizers. The Consortium of NGOs in Jaffna district called for a 'hartal' for the same reason.

The token hunger campaign is to be conducted Sunday coinciding with the visit by a group of one hundred Buddhist monks to Jaffna to hold a prayer meeting at the Nallur Kandasamy Temple. The Consortium of Jaffna Humanitarian Agencies has extended its support to the visit of the Buddhist group to Jaffna.

Meanwhile, the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations in Jaffna has made an appeal to the people in the peninsula to observe 'hartal' by closing down all business establishments, educational institutions and offices of government, private and co-operative sectors to express dissatisfaction of Tamils over the ineffective implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the UNF government and the LTTE.

Confidential report on Chemmani mass graves!


27 November 2002 - The Criminal Investigation Department submitted its confidential report on the Chemmani mass graves' exhumation to the Colombo Chief Magistrate. Further inquiry in regard to the Chemmani mass grave continues, said CID officials to the Chief Magistrate.

The Chemmani mass graves murder came to light four years ago when corporal Rajapakse of the Sri Lanka Army before being sentenced to death in the Krishanthy rape and murder case told the Colombo High Court that between 300 and 400 Tamils who were tortured to death in the army custody have been buried in Chemmani during the military operation launched by the Army in 1995.

The human skeletons exhumed from the Chemmani mass graves have been sent to Hydrebad Forensic Laboratory in India for further examination. " We are awaiting for the findings from India," said CID official.

"We have sent a full report to the Attorney General regarding the inquiry held so far. We will be taking further action on the instruction of the Attorney General," CID official submitted to court. The Magistrate instructed the CID to furnish him report on the progress of the inquiry.

Army committed 1200 non observance of

MOU agreement during one year


The Jaffna District Organization for Public Organizations had addressed the Prime Minister on this issue in a memorandum. (Virakesari – 27 February 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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