Massive crowds pack Mannar Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 13:55 GMT]
More than thirty thousand people packed the Mannar town grounds Wednesday for Pongu Thamil Wednesday. Large processions led by political and religious leaders started from three corners of the Mannar town at 3. 30 p.m. and converged on the ground one hour later. "We want our land", "soldiers! Go back to your homes", the marchers shouted.
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Pre-school teachers celebrate teachers’ day in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 00:02 GMT]
At the Teachers’ day held at the Suthananda Hindu Youth Union Hall in Vavuniya town Monday, with the support of the Tamils’ Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), more than 350 pre-school teachers from the 24 zonal districts of the Northeast province participated, sources said.
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Bishop says hidden hand behind shrine demolition

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 18:09 GMT]
At an emergency meeting held Monday evening at the Mannar District Secretariat following the demolition in the morning of the Catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar district, Muslims and Catholics agreed to amicably settle the shrine demolition issue after three hours of deliberations, sources said.
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Catholic shrine demolished, Mannar tense

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 11:23 GMT]
Mannar town was tense Monday following the demolition of a catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar Island. Officials from the Mannar District Secretariat, the Liberation Tigers and officers from the Sri Lanka army and Police were engaged in talks to defuse the situation amid a sit in protest in the town by more than a thousand catholic fishermen from Pallimunai, a coastal suburb of Mannar town, who had built the shrine.
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'GOSL should listen to IDP’s demands' - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2003, 15:11 GMT]
"Those who say that the Ceasefire has brought peace and all problems are solved should go to the refugee camps and see the refugees who cannot return to their homes because of the Sri Lanka Army’s occupation of their lands. Only then they will understand the plight of the internally displaced people (IDP) and the fairness of their demands," said Mr. S. Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vavuniya, speaking at the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya town Wednesday, sources said.
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Vavuniya Pongu Thamil festival draws thousands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 11:44 GMT]
Thousands of Tamil men, women and students from all walks of life thronged the urban council grounds in Vavuniya Wednesday evening from five corners of the town to attend the Pongu Thamil festival meeting, sources said.
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Festival atmosphere marks Vavuniya Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 03:38 GMT]
"If we desire permanent peace let us negotiate a permanent solution to the conflict," said many of the yellow-red banners in the Pongu Thamil celebrations being held in a festival atmosphere in Vavuniya Wednesday, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Daily edition of Tamil paper launched in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 13:28 GMT]
Thamil Alai, the weekly newspaper published in Batticaloa, was launched as a daily from Monday. “We have started small but hope to soon become the main daily newspaper in the Batticaloa-Amparai region. One of our main aims is to strengthen and promote Tamil-Muslim amity. We also intend to focus on development issues,” said Mr. Pakkiaselvam Ariyanethiran who publishes the paper from Kokkoaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
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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.
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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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Batticaloa remembers Tamils massacred in 1990

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2003, 11:13 GMT]
The people of Batticaloa district Friday observed the Black September Day, remembering the Tamil civilians, men, women, and children killed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and Muslim guards thirteen years ago on September 9 when 158 Tamil civilians who sought refuge in the East University Refugee camp and 184 Tamil villagers from Sathurukondan village disappeared after their arrest by the SLA soldiers, sources in Batticaloa said.


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Part time English teachers picket NE provincial education ministry

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 September 2003, 15:49 GMT]
The activities of the North East Provincial Ministry of Education and the Provincial Department of Education located at Orr's Hill in Trincomalee, the administrative capital of the NE Provincial Council, came to a standstill Wednesday due to picketing by hundreds of part time English teachers who launched a fasting campaign on a rotating basis Monday, demanding that they should be granted permanency, sources said.
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NE part time English teachers begin fasting protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 18:28 GMT]
Hundreds of part time English teachers working in the Northeast provincial schools began a fasting campaign on a rotation basis Monday in front of the provincial education ministry office in Trincomalee, demanding the authorities to make their appointments permanent immediately, North East Part time English Teachers' Association (NEPETA) officials said.
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Maintaining ethnic ratio in Police recruitment imperative - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2003, 10:40 GMT]
At a conference held Thursday morning between the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation led by its parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan at the parliamentary complex, it was decided to summon all Tamil and Muslim parliamentarians for a conference on Tuesday or Wednesday next week before finalizing the list of new recruits for the police force in the eastern province, political sources in Colombo 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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‘Tamil people's confidence in UNF shattered’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 July 2003, 17:22 GMT]
The Vanni district parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance, Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Saturday said that the visit by Sri Lanka’s Defence minister, Mr.Tilak Marapane, and Sri Lanka Navy Commander, Daya Sandagiri, to Israel to purchase arms, has shattered the confidence the Tamil people had in the United National Front government that it was sincere in its peace initiatives, sources said.
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ER case accused allowed bail after 12 years

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 July 2003, 14:08 GMT]
The East High Court Judge Mr.S.Paramarajah Friday allowed surety bail for Thangarajah Sivakantharajah and Selvam Lingaretnam, who had been in remand for about twelve years accused in a case in which they have been indicted by the Attorney General under the Emergency Regulations (ER) with the murder of six persons in a bomb blast in the year 1992, legal sources said.
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ER case accused in remand for twelve years

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 June 2003, 15:53 GMT]
The Eastern High Court Judge, Mr.S.Paramarajah, Monday fixed the inquiry into the bail application of two Tamil men who have been in remand for the last twelve years since their arrest under the Emergency Regulations (ER), on Friday, July 4, legal sources said.
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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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Proposed IA should lead towards final political solution - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2003, 11:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday requested the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe to formulate a structure for an Interim Administration (IA) for the Tamil dominated northeast province that serves as a step towards finding a permanent political solution to the national conflict, TNA sources said.


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