Sri Lanka Government recruiting Tamil police in Jaffna

September 29th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan government will recruit Tamils in the police force, an official said Tuesday. There had been an overwhelming response from Tamils to join as constables in northern Jaffna, police spokesman Nimal Mediwaka told reporters.

August 9th, 2009 COLOMBO - President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has won Jaffna but lost Vavuniya in the first polls after the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) concluded in May this year. According to the BBC, the turnout for the polls has been low and ballots are still being counted in the southern province of Uva.

August 8th, 2009 Sri Lanka holds postwar polls in northern townsCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka —Sri Lanka hailed elections Saturday near an area once dominated by the Tamil Tiger rebels as the first seeds of democracy sprouting along the former battlefields of its recently ended civil war, but voters largely stayed away from the polls in the violence-scarred region. Opposition parties accused the ruling coalition of restricting their campaigns, the government barred most media from the region, and voters appeared apathetic in the first elections in the northern cities of Jaffna and Vavuniya since 1998.

August 7th, 2009 Arrested Tamil Tiger leader in Sri LankaCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's military says it is interrogating the new leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels after his capture in a foreign country. Military spokesman Brig.

August 6th, 2009 Sri Lanka says new rebel leader arrestedCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka says that a wanted arms smuggler who recently took over as the new leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels has been arrested overseas. Government information director Anusha Pelpita said that Selvarasa Pathmanathan was arrested Thursday in a foreign country which he refused to name.

August 2nd, 2009 COLOMBO - A senior civil administration official in the Sri Lankan government has been arrested for alleged links with the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, police said Sunday. Nagalingam Vethanayagam, the government agent of Kilinochchi, was arrested Friday following information from an arrested Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre, police said.

July 22nd, 2009 COLOMBO - For decades it lay at the heart of Sri Lanka's Tamil conflict. Now that the Tamil Tigers have been crushed, Jaffna's once tranquil beaches are getting ready for tourists from far and wide.

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - The managing director of a Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper has alleged that a "shadowy group" has ordered his employees to quit their jobs or get killed, BBC reported Thursday. E. Saravanapavan of Uthayan newspaper said he had to rush to Jaffna in the country's north from Colombo following the threats.

May 28th, 2009 COLOMBO - The parents of the now dead Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran are in the "protective custody" of the Sri Lankan government, a media report said Thursday. Thiruvenkatam Velupillai (76) and his wife Parvathi (71) surrendered to the army several days ago, The Island newspaper quoted a government official as saying.

May 25th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan government plans to hold local council elections in regions formerly controlled by the Tamil Tigers, a minister said here Monday. "I have today (Monday) signed the relevant gazette notification," said Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, minister of local government and provincial councils.

May 21st, 2009 COLOMBO - The A9 highway linking Jaffna peninsula in north Sri Lanka and the town of Kandy in the centre of the country is likely to be opened to the general public by next week, the government said. A government statement said Wednesday that the highway, which was closed to the public in 2006 after escalation of the armed conflict between the troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), would be opened once clearance has been received from the defence ministry.

March 19th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan Navy has rescued a group of civilians fleeing the Tamil Tigers' last pocket in the northern Mullaittivu district, the military said Wednesday. Some 550 civilians on 31 boats were fleeing Mullaittivu's Puttumatalan area Tuesday evening, heading for the northern Jaffna peninsula when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sea wing tried to stop them.

March 3rd, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's northern highway that links Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the island was opened Monday for military traffic after 24 long years, military sources said. Two convoys of soldiers - one group going home on leave from Jaffna and the other going to Jaffna after finishing leave - met each other on the way and exchanged greetings on the A-9 Jaffna-Kandy highway.

January 8th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops Friday captured Elephant Pass, a major stronghold of Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula, President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced. Elephant Pass, lying about 12 km away from Kilinochchi on the Jaffna-Kandy main highway, is the isthmus that connects the northern Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the country.

December 29th, 2008 COLOMBO - Vowing that his government would restore 'all that was lost due to terrorism', Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has asked the people of the northern Jaffna peninsula that it was time to forget 'the unfortunate developments of the past'. President Rajapaksa made these remarks Monday night while addressing the people of Jaffna via satellite transmission on the occasion of an 'educational and industrial exhibition' organised by the Sri Lanka Army.