In brief
Traced
Reports say the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) has traced only 91 of 176 people reported disappeared between July and November 1997 outside Jaffna, to police stations and detention centres.
Hunger strike
A fast begun on 13 January by refugee consultant Bernt Hauge in Trondheim demanding the Norwegian government to review the cases of 600 Tamil asylum-seekers targeted for deportation, continued at the end of January.
Equipment
Colombo’s Sunday Times says following the US ban on the LTTE in October, Washington has approved combat-related equipment to Sri Lanka including $11 million mobile fire-finding radar. The newspaper also says an UK firm will supply 18,455 combat body armour at a cost of $4.1 million.
Denied
A team from US Congress House Committee on International Relations visiting Sri Lanka to assess the current situation was denied permission by the Defence Ministry in early January to travel to Jaffna.
Arrested
Forty five Tamil asylum-seekers returned from Lithuania were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on arrival at Colombo airport on 23 January. Reports say five Sri Lankan women were arrested in Rome in late January for illegally entering Italy.
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