Reports say that the Sri Lankan intelligence services are investigating 15 students of the University. On 24 February, four students were arrested and beaten up by the Army. The students emphasize that they are exercising their democratic right to highlight the aspirations of the Tamil community. The Pongu Thamil Eluchi Vila (Effervescent Tamil Festival) was inaugurated at the University on 20 February as planned. The Army prevented students, who arrived in five buses from LTTE-controlled areas, from attending the festival.
Reports say that people in LTTE-controlled Vaharai in north Batticaloa are facing starvation, following an Army ban on food into the area. Severe restrictions on goods into Vaharai were earlier in force, but the Army at Mankerni imposed a total ban on 26 February, after the LTTE hijacked boats belonging to Muslim fishermen in Valaichenai. Sugar, rice and flour taken by civilians were dumped on the ground at the Army checkpoint. The military are also preventing fishermen in Vaharai taking their catch into Army-held areas for sale. The lack of medical services in the LTTE-controlled areas is causing concern. Four people died of diarrhoea in Vaharai in early February. The French agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) runs a mobile medical service. But people request more services in light of the large population in the areas.
A member of the police Special Task Force (STF) was arrested on 3 February, accused of rape of a Tamil woman in Cheddipalayam. The local magistrate has ordered him to be detained. Agencies say that a number of rapes by security forces in Batticaloa remain uninvestigated.
Relatives have complained to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) that security force personnel in a white van arrested Selvarasa Ravichandran on 8 February and took him towards Amparai. An arrest receipt was not issued and his whereabouts are unknown. The STF arrested four fishermen, including M Sutharsan, 17, and two drivers in late February in Akkaraipatru and Kalmunai.
In Batticaloa District, the HRC received 214 complaints relating to disappearances in 2000. HRC say there is no information about 13 people. In Amparai District, 263 complaints were received and ten civilians have disappeared. Batticaloa residents R Uthayaraja and his mother A Uthayarani who went to Colombo to obtain passports are missing. In a clash at Soorankal in Trincomalee in mid-February, two soldiers and three Tigers were killed.