UN provides relief worth millions to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 16:40 GMT]
United Nations Country Team in Sri Lanka has provided relief assistance worth several millions of rupees including direct cash grants, materials such as food and non-food items, medicine and technical support since last Sunday when the devastating tsunami struck the island, United Nations Information Centre in a press release issued Saturday said.
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Teams of expatriate Tamil doctors to arrive in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 16:29 GMT]
Fifteen doctors, including reputed practising surgeons, arrived from London tonight to serve in the tsunami hit Mullaitivu, the worst affected district in the Sunday disaster, said a Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) spokesperson in Colombo. "More doctors are coming. Medical professionals from U.S, Canada, and Europe are also due to arrive to work in the NorthEast areas at planned intervals," the spokesperson added.
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Vadamaradchy East coastal road badly damaged

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 14:58 GMT]
Heavy machinery including bulldozers are required to clear long stretches of Vadamaradchy East coastal road before vehicular traffic can use the road, said Sea Tiger Commander Mangales who is coordinating the Sea Tigers rescue operations in Vadamaradchy east. Two battalions of Sea Tigers are deployed in rescue and relief effort in Vadamaradchy and Mullaitivu, sources close to the relief operations said.
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Tsunami destroyed 271 schools in North East

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 11:56 GMT]
Two hundred and seventy one schools in the northeast coastal areas have been destroyed or damaged in the Sunday's Tsunami, said North East Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.Thiagalinkam in a report to the Provincial Ministry for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.
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‘Tamils in northeast are also human beings’- LTTE commander

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 01:25 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government should not look at this as a Sinhala or Tamil issue. It should see it as a human tragedy and help. We should now ensure that the people rescued from the Tsunami devastation are protected from diseases rather than let the enormity of the tragedy make us inactive. The government of Sri Lanka should consider our people also as human beings," said Col. Soosai, Commander of the Sea Tigers who is directing rescue and relief operations on the southern coast of Jaffna and in Mullaithivu, said in an interview to a London Tamil Television, Deepam TV, Wednesday.
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Starvation, disease more deadly than danger from mines- TRO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 13:37 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) appealed to other relief help organizations not to be daunted by the threat due to mines and not to delay relief coming to the most needed areas. TRO, in a press release said it considers “that dangers caused by free floating mines are far less significant when compared to the dangers of death by starvation and disease.” TRO urged the relief agencies to keep sending relief supplies to all areas. "In Mulliyavalai and Puthukkudiyiruppu areas UNHCR and ICRC are fully engaged in relief effort," TamilNet correspondent, said, assuring other agencies still unwilling to enter difficult areas.
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TRO Provides Relief To Tsunami Victims: Urgent Need for Nurses

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 11:20 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a non-governmental organization from Sri Lanka, has fully geared its administrative machinery to provide relief assistance to victims of all communities - Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese - in the northeast province. Nearly twenty thousand died and about five hundred thousand were displaced in Sunday's tsunami.
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Authorities Hinder Help to Tsunami Affected Regions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 23:27 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) faces difficulties in conducting relief operations in the eastern district of Sri Lanka. Divisions of the Sri Lanka army and police as well as Sinhalese groups stop trucks with aid cargo at Habarana junction, which links Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, and divert them to the south saying that the three eastern districts do not need more aid.
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Judge tells coroners to expedite processing death certificates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 13:56 GMT]
Vavuniya district Judge Mr M Ilancheliyan Wednesday directed the coroners from Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts to expeditiously process the identification details of those whose bodies have been identified in the aftermath of the tsunami incident, and to issue the death certificates to the relatives without any delay, legal sources from Vavuniya said.
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More bodies recovered in Manatkadu village

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 03:38 GMT]
One hundred more bodies of Tsunami victims were recovered at government controlled Manatkadu village in the Vadamaradchchi east division in Jaffna district till Tuesday evening. Search operation for missing persons feared to be dead is continuing. The number of deaths in this area has exceeded two thousand in the LTTE controlled Vadamaradchchi east division. Manatkadu comes under the government controlled area, civil sources said.
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Galle, Matara, Hambantota: 4000 dead, 8000 missing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 20:41 GMT]
Tsunami death toll in Galle now stands at 2600 with 3000 still missing, in Matara the death toll is 850 and 4000 are listed missing, and in Hambantota 1100 bodies have been recovered and about 1000 are still missing, official sources in Colombo said.
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NorthEast death toll nears 10,000, Amparai badly hit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 15:07 GMT]
"More than 10,000 people are dead in areas across NorthEast. In Amparai alone there were 5350 dead," said Liberation Tigers, Tuesday afternoon. Cadres of Liberation Tigers and local non-Governmental organizations are working round the clock to provide rescue and relief effort to people in Mullaitivu, said Col.Soosai, Head of the Sea Tiger Wing of the Liberation Tigers. "No international aid from Donor agencies have reached Vanni, and we are using our own resources and assistance provided by the expatriate Tamils which is beginning to reach us," Soosai added.
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External aid yet to reach Vanni, 3 000 still missing in Mullaitivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 15:49 GMT]
No external aid was received until Monday afternoon to assist thousands of people injured and rendered homeless by the Tsunami in the coastal parts of the Vanni region and Southern Jaffna, a spokesman for the Tamils’ Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said. The Political Division of the Liberation Tigers convened an urgent meeting on Monday with international NGOs, local aid agencies and senior officials to assess the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis and to organize and enhance urgent relief and rescue measures in the Tsunami hit areas.
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Mullaithivu, Jaffna South coast devastation said dire

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 15:08 GMT]
Mullaithivu, the main coastal town of the Vanni region has been completely destroyed by the Tsunami. Liberation Tigers and local rescue workers are continuing to search for bodies of people killed along this coast. Eight villages have been totally devastated by the tidal wave. Thousands are still unaccounted for, according to the TamilNet correspondent who visited the area Monday. Public building, homes and schools along the coasts of Mullaithivu and Jaffna South have been completely destroyed by the wave.


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More than 10000 killed in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 08:24 GMT]
Government sources said more than 10000 people are killed in Sri Lanka. Rescue workers believe that the death toll in the Northeast region alone could be more than 6000. The number of people swept away would be much higher than earlier anticipated in the region, rescue workers say. Massive relief efforts have been launched. Infrastructure constraints and damaged highways make the rescue work difficult.
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Wave toll increases in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 21:19 GMT]
More than 1000 people feared dead in Batticaloa district and around 800 are feared dead in Trincomalee, civil sources in the east said. TRO sources in Kilinochchi said that they feared around 2000 were dead in Mullaitivu district and around 1000 in Jaffna district. 500 bodies have been placed in Thalaiadi hospital in Jaffna's southeastern coast, and 75 bodies have been taken to Kilinochchi hospital. TRO volunteers are searching for bodies under debris of destroyed buildings.
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Tsunami death toll expected to increase

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 17:10 GMT]
Around 3100 persons in Northeast and 1400 in South have died due to tsunami waves that hit NorthEast coast Sunday, according to government sources in Colombo. In the Northeast alone, nearly 12000 people have suffered injuries and around 200,000 people have been affected, administrative sources in Colombo said. Government sources added that death toll is expected to rise significantly. In the meantime, Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentarian Mr. Joseph Pararajasingam has urged the Prime Minister Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha, to attend to immediate needs of the affected public in the east.
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TRO appeals for urgent assistance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 12:50 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an independent Non-Governmental Organization registered with Government of Sri Lanka, appealed to the Tamil expatriates Sunday to donate towards meeting the humanitarian crisis unfolding following the tsunami wave triggered flooding in residential areas along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Majority of families affected were from the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
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More than 1000 feared killed in Mullaitivu coastal villages

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 12:42 GMT]
Coastal villages of Koyilkudiyiruppu, Mullivaykal, Kallappadu, Silavaththai, Alampil, and Unnappuluvu in Mullaitivu district were severely hit by the tidal waves and the volunteers who entered the villages for rescue operations told TamilNet that more than 90% of residents in many of the villages have gone missing. Rescue workers said that more than 1000 people are dead in the villages along the Mullaitivu coast.
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Tsunami official death toll hits 5000

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 08:56 GMT]
Official death toll from the Tsunami waves that hit northeastern and southern coast of Sri Lanka Sunday morning was increased to 5000, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry sources told TamilNet. Government officials in the devastated eastern town Batticaloa said only about twenty five of more than thousand families in Navalady, a coastal suburb of Batticaloa, appear to have survived the massive waves.
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