Resettled village honors its good student

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2004, 00:05 GMT]
Parents and students of Kappalthurai, a village with Tamil resettlers, honored Jenitta Vipulanandan, a student of Saraswathie Vidyalayam, for passing the island wide Year- 5 Scholarship examinations. This was the first in the school's twenty-five year history, school teachers said.


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Thondaman raises questions on alliance call

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 13:15 GMT]
Arumugam Thondaman, Leader of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), responding to Minister Chandrasekaran's call to form a national alliance with NorthEast Tamil parties, said that there are fundamental questions related to the need for such alliance, local media in Jaffna reported.


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TNA refuses to sign electoral reforms interim report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2004, 00:10 GMT]
Parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr.R.Sampanthan, representing the TNA refused to sign the interim report of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms tabled in parliament on Friday, saying that electoral reforms within the existing constitution is meaningless for Tamil people as the constitution cannot accomodate a just and fair political solution to the Tamil national question, parliamentary sources said.


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Pro-Peace, United Sinhala leadership unlikely to emerge soon - Balakumaran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 00:06 GMT]
"Our expectations of resuming peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka under a united leadership with clear authority to command Sri Lanka's security forces are fast receding," said V.Balakumaran, a senior member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, speaking at the Kumar Ponnambalam commemoration ceremony held at the Kailasapathy Hall of Jaffna Campus Monday, local media in Jaffna reported.
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Tamils should secede if Colombo impasse persists - ACTC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2004, 16:02 GMT]
'The Tamil people will have to exercise their right to self determination and secede if the political impasse in Colombo were to continue' the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the oldest Tamil party in Sri Lanka, declared at its annual convention in Jaffna town Sunday.
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Kumar Ponnambalam to be remembered

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2004, 01:36 GMT]
The fourth death anniversary of Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), who was gunned down in Wellawatte, Colombo, in 2000, is to be observed on January 5, Monday, in the NorthEast province, sources said. Wide participation of Tamil people across NorthEast is expected in the memorial event, the organizers of the event said.
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TNA questions Kadirgamar's competence for Commonwealth post

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 15:02 GMT]
Commenting on the reported candidacy of Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's former foreign minister and a confidante of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General, the Tamil National Alliance in a statement Thursday highlighted several grave human rights abuses of his government and said, "... Kadirgamar’s misrepresentations in regard to [such] incidents, which constituted a flagrant violation of human rights, are a severe indictment on his capacity to be impartial and truthful."
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TNA leaders meet to discuss Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2003, 14:16 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) held a meeting Saturday evening at the office of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in Colombo and reviewed the President's address to the nation and the present political situation following the dismissal of three key ministers and the prorogation of the parliament for two weeks, TNA sources said.


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Veteran Tamil scholars honored

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2003, 19:10 GMT]
Eight veteran Tamil scholars were honored at the final day celebrations of the North East Provincial Tamil Literary Festival held Sunday at Vavuniya Irambaikulam Girls Maha Vidiyalayam with the presentation of Governor's Award-2003, sources said.
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Eight veteran NE Tamil scholars to be honored

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2003, 03:41 GMT]
The thirteenth annual Tamil Literary festival of the North East Provincial Education, Cultural, Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry is to commence Friday at Vavuniya. On the final day of the festival to be held on Sunday eight veteran Tamil scholars in the northeast province are to be conferred with the Governor’s Award-2003, sources said.
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Tamil, Muslim MPs to meet to discuss eastern situation

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 16:14 GMT]
At the conference convened Monday evening by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, at his Temple Trees official residence in Colombo, to discuss the ethnic tensions between Muslim and Tamil communities in the East, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Eastern Muslim Parliamentarians' Union attended and unanimously decided to meet again after holding extensive talks with the representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, political sources in Colombo said.
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Hill country Tamil leader Thondaman remembered

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 August 2003, 17:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Saturday remembered the services rendered to the minorities and oppressed people by the hill country Tamil leader late Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman on his 90th birthday, which falls on August 30, 2003, sources from upcountry said.


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TNA, LTTE meet on IA proposals

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 17:05 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is conducting individual meetings with constituents of the Tamil National Alliance to inform them about the LTTE’s planned discussions with constitutional experts--and to seek the TNA’s suggestions--on the Sri Lankan government’s proposals for an Interim Administration for the North-East, sources said.
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Names of Tigers killed in Sri Lanka Navy attack released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 July 2003, 12:30 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Saturday announced the names of 11 officers who were killed at mid sea when Sri Lanka Navy attacked their oil tanker vessel last month. The Liberation Tigers charged that the attack was unprovoked. They said the SLN’s action was illegal because their merchant vessel was sailing in international waters off the island’s northeast coast.
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Negotiating Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2003, 00:52 GMT]
“Tamils have only had very compelling political and moral reasons for not acceding their sovereignty to the Sri Lankan state since Britain gave independence to this island. Therefore no road map to peace in Sri Lanka should be allowed to compromise the Tamil people’s sovereign and inalienable right to decide their political status in the land of their forebears," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni, reacting Friday to suggestions that the Liberation Tigers should agree to a peace road map in return for workable interim administration for the northeast.
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Trinco Ladies College celebrates 80th anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 00:16 GMT]
The Founder’s day and the Eightieth anniversary of the Trincomalee Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College were celebrated Wednesday with the Northeast Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.R.Thiagalingam unveiling the statue of the founder Mrs. Thangamma Shanmugampillai, sources said.


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Pirapaharan felicitates Kumar's family

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 May 2003, 00:28 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , awarded the 'Maamanithar' medal to Yogaluxmi Ponnambalam, wife of late Kumar Ponnambalam, in honor of her husband in a special function held in Kilinochchi, Sunday, sources said. Late Kumar's children, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a lawyer and Tamil National Alliance (TNA)Parliamentarian, and Mirnalini Ponnambalam, a physician, accompanied their mother to the function.
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Thanthai Chelva’s 26th death anniversary observed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2003, 13:59 GMT]
The twenty sixth-death anniversary of late Tamil leader "THANTHAI” Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam (1898-1977) was observed through the northeast province Saturday. He was the acknowledged leader of Tamil people for the last 20 years of his life and presided over the 1976 TULF national convention that ratified the goals for a separate state for Tamils in the landmark 'Vaddukoddai resolution.'


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Tamil MPs object to new Jaffna garrison

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2003, 10:31 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) raised strong objections to the construction of a new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) garrison on Jaffna Municipal Council grounds when it met Prime Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe at his office in Parliament Tuesday morning. The 12 TNA MPs who met the Prime Minister told him that the military has begun work on permanent structures for the garrison.


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Teachers protest against army occupation in Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 March 2003, 11:50 GMT]
Tamil and Muslim Teachers in Northeast organized a symbolic strike by calling in sick demanding the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vacate the schools, places of worship, private residences and public buildings which have been converted to SLA camps, sources in Batticaloa said.


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