Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya tomorrow

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 15:21 GMT]
The preparations for the Pongu Thamil (Tamil upsurge) event in Vavuniya have been completed, and the event will be held at the Vavuniya Urban Council grounds on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The theme of the event is, "We want to live in our own homes. The Sri Lanka Armed forces occupying our homes should go back to their homes. An interim administration with full authority should be created toward a permanent solution for permanent peace. We shall tell the world about our aspirations,” organizers of the event said.
Full story >>

Vavuniya MP says SLA disrupts Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army in Vavuniya has beefed up its checkpoint outside the Pongu Thamil (Tamil Upsurge) office, and SLA personnel are checking and video taping those who visit the office. Such actions are intended to disrupt the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya, said Mr.N.Sivashakthi Anandan, the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Thursday.
Full story >>

UNICEF's training on mine risk concludes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2003, 13:47 GMT]
The integrated Training of Trainers under the UNICEF sponsored Mine Risk Education (MRE) programme, which commenced in April this year, concluded Tuesday at the Hotel Club Oceanic in Trincomalee, with the awarding of certificates to participants who are field officers of non-government organizations, the White Pigeon, Sarvodaya and Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organization in the northeast province, UNICEF sources said.
Full story >>

'HSZ prevents resettlement of 80,408 Jaffna families'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 03:33 GMT]
In the Jaffna district, 80,408 families have been unable to resettle in their own lands for the last 13 years as the Sri Lanka Army has been occupying their lands in areas it has declared as High Security Zones, said the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations in Jaffna in a statement Saturday.
Full story >>

Plans for Pongu Thamil in Vavuniya moving ahead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2003, 00:04 GMT]
The organizers of the The Pongu Thamil (Tamil upsurge) event in Vavuniya are moving ahead with plans to hold the event on September 24, and have earned widespread support from the Tamil and Muslim people of the area, including strong support from the merchants in Vavuniya and the Vanni district Tamil National Allaince parliamentarians, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

Tamil women's event concludes with plan of action

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 19:35 GMT]
The gathering of Tamil women’s associations at the Vavuniya Town Hall concluded its three-day event Saturday with a serious plan of action that seeks to identify and solve problems of women through village level associations and empower them with education and self-employment skills, sources said.


Full story >>

Madhu road to be opened for public

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 14:02 GMT]
After a high level meeting with the Mannar district Government Agent (GA) V.Visvalingam and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials Friday at the SLA camp located at Madhu road junction it was announced that the Madhu road leading to the famous Madhu shrine from Vavuniya-Mannar highway will be opened for public use, security sources said.


Full story >>

Women’s gathering emphasizes Tamil women’s potential

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2003, 17:35 GMT]
At the women’s gathering held Thursday at the Vavuniya Town Hall, the leaders and members of the women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from all districts emphasized the importance of solving Tamil women’s problems together and attaining women’s liberation along with National liberation, and discussed the contributions Tamil women have made to the struggle of the Tamil people for self-determination, sources said.
Full story >>

SLMM raises LTTE flag issue at Tamil women's event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 14:28 GMT]
When the Tamil Eelam National flag was about to be raised at an event organized by Tamil women’s organizations in the Northeast at the Vavuniya Town Hall Thursday, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission objected to it, saying that such flag-raising in the Sri Lanka Army controlled area violated the ceasefire agreement. However, following an argument between the LTTE’s women wing political leaders at the event and the SLMM’s foreign monitors, the flag was raised and the event went on peacefully, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

SLMM, SLA escort LTTE women cadres from Batticaloa to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 12:23 GMT]
One hundred fifty women cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by the Special Commander of the LTTE Batticaloa-Amparai district Ms Nilavini left Batticaloa Monday morning to Vanni region in two buses escorted by members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and officials of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), security sources in Batticaloa said.


Full story >>

‘SLA has no authority to prevent students from attending Pongu Thamil’ - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2003, 13:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has no authority to prevent students from attending the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya when 24 schools have been declared as falling into the High Security Zone in Vavuniya by the SLA and the students of these schools are denied their education, said Ms. S.Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Vavuniya on Friday.


Full story >>

Northeast Literary Day to be held in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2003, 20:24 GMT]
A decision to hold the Northeast Literary Day on October 9,10,11 in Vavuniya was made at a meeting held at the Vavuniya Secretariat on Wednesday, chaired by Mr. S. Thiagalingam, the Northeast Provincial Education Ministry’s Secretary, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

SLA says students cannot attend Pongu Thamil in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2003, 14:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has ordered that the students in Vavuniya schools should not be allowed to attend the Pongu Thamil (‘Tamil Upsurge’) event to be held on September 15 in the district as the SLA sees the event as a political event organized by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

WFP conference explores protracted relief program

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2003, 04:17 GMT]
At a conference held recently in Vavuniya at the Suvarka hotel by the United Nations' World Food Program, participants discussed the problems and barriers faced at the field level in implementing the WFP’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) for the Mother and Child Nutrition program, and possible solutions and alternatives, WFP sources said.
Full story >>

SL Govt. servants at meeting on Pongu Thamil face SLA action

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 August 2003, 04:13 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government servants who participated at a meeting held last Sunday, August 17, in Vavuniya, in preparation for the Pongu Thamil celebrations in the city to be conducted on September 15, have been asked to provide an explanation for their attendance at the meeting by the Sri Lanka Army, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

Villages in need of demining identified

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2003, 03:00 GMT]
Mr. R. S. Jeyabalan, the national executive director of the demining group FSD (Swiss Demining Federation), said Wednesday that 59 villages in the Vavuniya and Mannar districts have been identified as infested with land mines and booby traps and in need of demining.
Full story >>

New SLA commander post created for the East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 15:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry has created the new post of Security Forces Commander for the Eastern province, which is to take effect from August 15,Friday, and Major General Nanda Mallawaarachchi of the Sri Lanka Army has been appointed to that post, military sources said.
Full story >>

Children at Vavuniya hospital abducted, jewelry robbed.

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2003, 21:40 GMT]
The public in Vavuniya is concerned over a group of robbers based at the Vavuniya hospital who have abducted children who visit the Outpatient Department at the hospital and then robbed them of their jewelry, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

De-miner injured in car accident

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2003, 21:12 GMT]
A member of the International Mine Action group involved in de-mining in the LTTE-controlled Vanni region was injured when his car met with an accident on the Paranthan-Mullaitivu road Thursday morning and admitted to the Vavuniya hospital, from where he was airlifted to Colombo, sources in Vavuniya said.
Full story >>

Vanni TNA MP attacked, escapes unhurt

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2003, 16:54 GMT]
The Vanni district Member of Parliament from the Tamil National Alliance, Mr. T. Sivashakthi Anandan, was assaulted at his home village of Semamadu in the Vavuniya district Thursday morning, during a meeting on Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, by a youth who had a private dispute with the MP, sources in a Vavuniya said.
Full story >>