Signature campaign to restart peace process planned in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2004, 16:38 GMT]
Representatives of civil groups in the Jaffna peninsula are to meet Wednesday at Nallur Navalar Cultural Hall to launch a campaign to collect signatures for a memorandum stressing the urgency to restart the stalled peace process by bringing the current political crisis in the south to an end early and to take action to hand over the interim administrative structure to the Liberation Tigers as proposed in the ISGA, sources said.


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Jaffna district observes Kittu death anniversary

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 15:38 GMT]
Jaffna district Friday observed the eleventh death anniversary of LTTE senior commander Colonel Kittu and other nine LTTE cadres who sacrificed their lives on 15th January 1993 when the Indian Navy intercepted their vessel in the Indian Ocean. The main event was held Friday at Theeruvil Commemoration Square in Jaffna district, sources said.
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11th Anniversary of Col.Kittu to be commemorated

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 01:17 GMT]
The eleventh death anniversary of Senior Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sathasivam Krishnakumar (Col.Kittu), and nine other LTTE cadres is to be celebrated across the NorthEast, Friday, sources in Jaffna said. When the Indian Navy on Jan. 16, 1993, intercepted the ship Kittu was travelling, Kittu refused to surrender and blew up the ship killing himself and other LTTE cadres.
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Fourteenth anniversary of Major Sothia commemorated

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2004, 00:05 GMT]
Celebrations commemorating the Fourteenth death anniversary of Major Sothia and the eighth anniversary of inauguration of Liberation Tigers fighting unit, Sothia Brigade, were held in Vanni Sunday, 11 January, LTTE sources said.


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Jaffna missing persons's parents protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2003, 10:23 GMT]
Parents, wives and children of persons who went missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna in 1996-97 demonstrated in front of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Justice Monday. In a memorandum to the Minister of Justice they allege that the disappearances were part of a “well planned plot” by the Sri Lanka army “in conjunction” with a Tamil paramilitary group. Mr.S. Satkunam, the secretary of the Missing Persons Guardian Association, was questioned by Sri Lanka Police who wanted the demonstrators to disperse.
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Saiva revivalist Arumuga Navalar remembered on 181st birthday

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 12:51 GMT]
Tamils in several parts of the northeast observed the 181st birth anniversary of the Saiva-Tamil revivalist Sri Arumuga Navalar on Sunday. Sri Arumuga Navalar is chiefly remembered for his work to revive Saivism in Jaffna and South India. He is also considered one of the important pioneers of Tamil revival in the 19th century.
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British defense team visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 18:08 GMT]
The Consortium of Jaffna District Non-Governmental Organizations Thursday told the visiting British Defense Ministry officials' team that the UK government should exert pressure to end the current political instability in the south of Sri Lanka to take forward the stalled peace process so that a final settlement to the national conflict could be reached, civil sources said.
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LTTE, SLA discuss Heroes’ Day in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2003, 08:30 GMT]
“Sri Lanka army officers told us their troops won’t object to anything with the Tiger insignia being used in decorations put up by the people for the Great Heroes’ Day in Jaffna”, said Mr. S. Thangan, the deputy leader of the political division of the Liberation Tigers after a meeting with Maj. Gen. Ratnasabapathy, deputy Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna and senior Sri Lankan Police officials in the northern town Thursday.
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Salinity endangers Northwest Vanni farmland

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 00:10 GMT]
Vast tracks of farmlands in impoverished villages close to the northern and western coast of Vanni face imminent danger from ocean waters penetrating inland making the arable land unsuitable for cultivation. Civil Engineering staff in Kilinochchi involved in development planning say that although plans are available to convert the areas in northwest coast including Jaffna peninsula resistant to creeping salinity, they are awaiting financial resources to be earmarked for such activity as part of Northeast rehabilitation.
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Hindu Religious Ministry to celebrate Deepavali

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2003, 16:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry has released 1.5 million rupees to Administrators of thirty five institutions such as orphanages, homes of the aged, children homes and women welfare centres in the northeast to purchase and supply new clothes to celebrate Deepavali (Festival of Lights) which falls on October 24th Friday, said a ministry media unit press release Saturday.


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Jaffna journalists protest against attack

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 October 2003, 19:54 GMT]
Journalists in Jaffna protested Sunday against the Sri Lankan armed forces for attacking four reporters in the northern peninsula Saturday night. "This attack calls the bluff that Tamil journalists face no problems now in the Sri Lankan government controlled areas of the northeast", said Mr. Velupillai Thavachelvam, the President of the Jaffna Journalistsí Association, addressing the protesting journalists.
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Jaffna shuts down as thousands honour martyr

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 08:19 GMT]
Jaffna came to a standstill Friday as thousands gathered at the Nallur Temple grounds to observe the sixteenth death anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan, the LTTE leader who fasted unto death in 1987 when the Indian army was in occupation of Jaffna and most parts of the northeast. Shops, offices and workplaces were closed to mark the final day of the weeklong remembrance.
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Thileepan's commemoration to conclude Friday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 16:08 GMT]
Elaborate arrangements are being made to observe the final day of the commeomration of the 16th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col.Thileepan throughout the Northeast province on Friday with a token fasting and cultural event depicting the freedom struggle of Tamils, sources said.
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Thileepan’s 16th year commemoration begins in NE

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2003, 17:10 GMT]
The Tamil people in the Northeast Monday began observing the sixteenth death anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who died after twelve days’ fasting unto death due to the failure of the Indian government in fulfilling five demands put forward by him to meet the aspirations of the Tamil people soon after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement, sources said.
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Thileepan's 16th death anniversary to be commemorated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 17:31 GMT]
Northeast province is preparing to observe the sixteenth death anniversary of late senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Lt Colonel Thileepan Monday, September 15, the day he began his fast unto death when the Indian Government refused to meet the demands he made on behalf of Tamils. He passed away on 26th September 1987, on the twelvth day after he began his fast, sources said.


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Nallur CAR festival draws thousands of devotees

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 August 2003, 10:54 GMT]
The CAR ("Ther") festival of the historic Nallur Kandasamy Temple in Jaffna town was held Tuesday morning with thousands of devotees from all over the island and from abroad participating, sources attending the festival said.
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Lt. Col. Thileepan memorial re-opened in Nallur

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 August 2003, 17:53 GMT]
The reconstructed memorial of the late senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Lt.Col. Thileepan, was declared open Monday evening in Nallur, Jaffna town. The memorial was destroyed by Sri Lanka Army troops in 1996 when the SLA captured the peninsula.
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Nallur festival turns Jaffna into spiritual town

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2003, 11:44 GMT]
"Expatriate Tamils are invading Jaffna in astonishing numbers to attend the annual temple festival at Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil. Tamils in other parts of Northeast and the South are also making use of the prevailing atmosphere of peace to make their annual pilgrimage to the Nallur festival," said a delighted street vendor who has seen a marked rise in his business.
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SL Minister cancels conference in Jaffna to evade protests

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 August 2003, 01:42 GMT]
Mr.John Amaratunge, Interior and Christian Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka, who was visiting Jaffna Sunday, cancelled his conference scheduled to be held in the afternoon at the Jaffna district secretariat at the last minute, on a report by the Police that about one hundred representatives of the Jaffna Missing Persons Guardians' Association and the Valigamam North Displaced Persons Association had gathered at the district secretariat premises to stage a protest against his visit, Police sources said
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Sri Lanka’s Interior Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 15:26 GMT]
Mr.John Amaratunge, Interior and Christian Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka, Sunday morning arrived at the Palaly military airbase in Jaffna on a goodwill visit, according to ministry sources. The Inspector General of Police, Mr.T.E.Anandarajah, Prisons Commissioner, Mr.M.Marsook, the Interior Ministry’s Secretary, Mr.M.N.Junaid, and several officials accompanied the minister in his first official engagement in the peninsula, district secretariat sources said.
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