Vadamaradchi civilian shot and wounded by Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 16:34 GMT]
Mr. Kanapathy Sivakumar,22, was found in Vallipurakurichchi area in Vadamaradchi division in the Jaffna district with gun shot injuries Thursday. It is alleged that Police had shot him when he was transporting sand from Vallipurakurichchi area Wednesday night without heeding to a signal to stop, sources said.
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SLA troops assault fishermen over Indian poachers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka army troops Thursday assaulted fourteen civilians in Viyaparimoolai and Inparutty near Pt. Pedro town for capturing 27 Indian fishermen and 5 trawlers and for coming ashore during ‘prohibited’ hours. Fishermen from the two villages brought ashore Indians who were poaching in the seas off Jaffna’s Vadamaradchi coast Wednesday night. SLA troops assaulted an Indian fisherman for getting off his boat.
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ADB gives 30 m rupees to Jaffna fishermen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2004, 17:24 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank Saturday disbursed thirty million rupees to eighteen fishermen's societies on Jaffna's Vadamaradchi coast. The function to hand over the ADB fund cheques was held Saturday at the office of the Sea Tigers in Maruthankerni, on the peninsula's southeastern coast.
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Military readies for Sri Lanka’s Independence Day in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2004, 12:19 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces flew lion flags on sentries, bunkers and at army camps in Jaffna Tuesday in preparation for Sri Lanka’s Independence Day. The military urged fishermen in the peninsula’s Vadamaradchi coast not to fly black flags on their boats, homes and union offices on Wednesday. The Sri Lanka army gave lion flags to fishermen and government officials in Jaffna. The sword bearing lion on Sri Lanka’s national flag is considered the eponymous ancestor of the island’s Sinhala Buddhists.
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Indian Coast Guard, trawlers enter Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 08:51 GMT]
More than a hundred Indian trawlers escorted by Indian coast guard vessels entered the seas off Jaffna's Vadamaradchi coast Sunday night, fishermen in Pt. Pedro told TamilNet. There were about sixty smaller Indian fishing craft with the trawlers they said.
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SLA builds camp in de-mining showcase

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2004, 09:01 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army is constructing a new camp in the Kandalkaadu area of Sarasaalai in Jaffna. The region was often presented as a singular showcase for the prolonged de-mining projects supported by the UNDP and the US army in Jaffna. The Federation of Public Organisations in Thenmaradchi on Friday condemned the construction of the new garrison. “Sarasaalai is going to be unsafe again”, a spokesperson for the Federation said.
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Vadamarachi mooring points can be dredged - Maj. Gen. Chandrapala

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2004, 03:58 GMT]
The Commander of the Sri Lankan security forces in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala told fishermen's organisations on the peninsula's Vadamaradchi coast Thursday that they can dredge and rebuild mooring points for their boats from this month.
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Jaffna fishermen want 19th century lighthouse rebuilt

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2003, 14:22 GMT]
“We need two lighthouses on this coast to help the deep-sea fisheries industry that’s trying to find its feet now - after dwindling to nought during 20 years of Sri Lanka army and navy imposed bans, restrictions and neglect”, spokesman for the Vadamaradchi East Federation of Fishermen’s Co-operative Societies told TamilNet Sunday. The only lighthouse on this long fisheries coast in Jaffna was destroyed when the Sri Lanka army bombed it in 1996, according to local fishermen. The British built the Vettilaikerni lighthouse in 1870.
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MGR remembered in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2003, 04:57 GMT]
The 16th death anniversary of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr.M.G.Ramachandran, was commemorated in Vavuniya Wednesday at the Veerasingham Hall at the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Union (MPCU) building. The LTTE’s political head in Vavuniya, Mr. S. Ezhilan, and the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr. N. Sivasakthi Anandan and several other prominent personalities in Vavuniya participated, sources said.
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SLA permits work on Pt. Pedro landing points

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 13:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army gave permission on Friday to deepen fisheries landing points on the coast of three villages close to Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Soldiers from the SLA’s 52-4 Brigade worked with local fishermen Friday to clear the coral rock clogged micro breakwaters. “We do not have a war to fight now. Therefore would like to engage in development activities such as this”, Col. K. S Ratnayake, the commander of the brigade told TamilNet.
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SLA pulls down Heroes’ Day arches, festoons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2003, 12:41 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Jaffna deployed additional troops along the Kandy Road (A9) from Kodikamam to the entrance of the northern town Friday and pulled down decorative arches and festoons put up for the LTTE’s Great Heroes’ Day in many parts of the peninsula. The SLA also deployed many small unit foot patrols armed with machine guns in Jaffna Friday.
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Work on new Sellasannithi chariot begins

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 11:02 GMT]
The first piece of wood for building the new chariot (Ther) for the historic Thondamanaru Sellasannithi Murugan Temple in Jaffna was carved and consecrated Wednesday morning according to Tamil religious rites at the Bambalapitya Manikkapillaiyar Kovil in Colombo. The temple’s intricately carved wooden chariot was destroyed when Sri Lanka army soldiers allegedly set fire to it during a military operation in the area on 21April 1986. The temple building was also destroyed by the SLA in 1987 during ‘Operation Liberation’ to take the Vadamaradchi Division of Jaffna.
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Villager remanded for entering HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 November 2003, 15:29 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate, Mr.B.Subramanian, Friday remanded a villager, Mr.Jeyathasan Selvarajah, when he was produced on a report that he had entered the high security zone of the Sri Lanka Army located in Nagarkovil in Vadamaradchi east division in the Jaffna district, legal sources said.
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EPDP, SLA said colluding in sand business

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2003, 15:25 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party, aided by the Sri Lanka Army and the Police, is removing sand at night from the Vadamaradchi east coast, where civil organizations recently imposed a ban on sand removal formed a committee to regulate it, and selling the sand in the Jaffna town area, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA tests Jaffna army drivers on traffic law

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2003, 04:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army high command in the Jaffna district has taken steps to provide driving license to all its personnel who drive army vehicles on Jaffna roads. Hence the first written driving test examination for army drivers was held at the Varani Central Maha Vidiyalayam last Friday, security sources said.
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Committee to regulate sand excavation in Vadamaradchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2003, 04:25 GMT]
Civil organizations in Vadamaradchi east division in the Jaffna district have lifted the nearly one month old ban on removing sand from Manalkadu and other villages in the division for construction works in the peninsula. However, a seven-member committee has been appointed by these civil organizations to identify site for removal of sand and to regulate the transport of sand from the division, civil sources said.
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LTTE activist released on surety bail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 15:14 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate Wednesday released an activist of the Sea Tigers (of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in the Vadamaradchi division, Mr. Gamini, on surety bail when a woman witness failed to identify him as the person who attempted to abduct a private vehicle on the day of the incident, legal sources said.
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Roundtable on salination of Jaffna lands, water sources

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 15:58 GMT]
Means of preventing salination of arable lands and fresh water sources in the Jaffna peninsula were explored at a roundtable organised by the National Water Supplies and Drainage Board at the Jaffna District Secretariat Tuesday. Thousands of acres of fertile lands have been rendered barren and many fresh water sources in Jaffna have turned brackish due to saltwater permeation from the inland lagoon system across the Vadamaradchi and Thenmaradchi divisions of Jaffna.
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Indian boatmen released in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 00:04 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate, Mr.K. Ariyanayakam, Monday discharged two Indian boatmen, Mr.Thurairajah Mahendran and Mr. Thiruvonam Balamurugan, who had been in remand since their capture by local fishermen when they poached in Sri Lanka's territorial waters, on the instructions of the Attorney General, legal sources said.
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Munai fisher folk march in protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2003, 09:30 GMT]
Hundreds of fishermen and women from Munai carrying placards and shouting slogans against the Sri Lanka army marched into Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna Saturday. They handed over memoranda to local Parliamentarians, the Pt. Pedro Divisional Secretary and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission demanding the abolition of the military pass system and condemning the attack on men and women in the village of Munai last Wednesday.
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