Meesalai Spiritual Refuge ransacked, buildings damaged

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 October 2005, 10:37 GMT]
Buildings belonging to Sri Kayathiri Kamagodi spritual refuge ('Aachramam') in Meesalai in Thenmaradchy Jaffna, run by Swami Rajkumar, were damaged and the properties inside the refuge set on fire by an unknown group of persons Monday morning, sources said.
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Hindu Cultural Ministry Official Shot Dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2005, 06:50 GMT]
A forty year old man was shot dead, Friday morning, while returning home after dropping his son at school. Kanthasamy Senthilkumaran was on his motorbike when he was attacked on the Sebastian Road around 9:15 a.m, near Bishop’s House, Jaffna, Police said.
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Time bomb explodes in EPDP vehicle in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2005, 05:20 GMT]
A time bomb placed inside the vehicle of Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) official Mr Anthonipillai Jeyaraja, a personal assistant of EPDP leader Mr. Douglas Devananda, exploded around 7:45 a.m. Thursday, Police said. The explosion occured at No. 16 Nelson Place Wellawatte, north of Colombo. A clerical staff member of Devananda's Ministry, Mr Sudarsing Vijayakanth, 26, sustained minor injuries in the explosion, sources said.
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Rajapakse, JVP sign policy deal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 September 2005, 09:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) presidential candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) secretary Mr. Tilvin Silva signed the 12-point policy agreement Thursday morning at the Prime Minister official residence, Temple Trees in Colombo.


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Grenade lobbed at EPDP office in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 August 2005, 04:06 GMT]
The office of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Mr. Douglas Devananda came under a grenade attack around 11:40 p.m. Thursday, Police sources said. There were no casualities reported but a big noise due to the explosion echoed throughout the highly residential Park road, Colombo 5, the area where the EPDP office is located. Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, leader of EPDP and a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, is the Minister for Vocational Education. The heavily guarded EPDP office houses the EPDP paramilitary cadres who operate along with the armed forces in the NorthEast.
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Jaffna undergrads hold demonstration supporting JM

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2005, 11:36 GMT]
Several hundreds of Jaffna undergraduates Monday held a protest demonstration condemning the opposition by Sinhalese nationalists and Buddhist monks to the establishment of a joint mechanism for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the tsunami destroyed coastal areas in the northeast province, sources said. The demonstration was organized by the Jaffna University Students' Union.
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Ministry to discuss NorthEast education issues

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 May 2005, 17:28 GMT]
A top-level conference to discuss problems confronting the education development in the northeast province is to be held at the office of the Ministry of Education in Colombo Tuesday morning with the Ministry Secretary Dr Tara de Mel in the chair. Ms Ferial Ashraff, Minister of Education Development in the East and Minister Mr.Douglas Devananda, Minister for North Education Development are to attend the conference, ministry sources said.


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Thikkam distillery workers strike demanding wage increase

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2005, 11:27 GMT]
More than fifty workers at the Thikkam, Jaffna distillery went on token strike and picketing today demanding immediate action on the promised increase of Rs 2500 in monthly wages, sources from Jaffna said. Thikkam is a coastal village in the northern coast of Jaffna peninsula, located 25km north of Jaffna town.
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Douglas' ministry official shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2005, 08:48 GMT]
A senior official from the Ministry Vocational Education was shot dead Monday around 12.40 p.m.in Batticaloa. The official, Mr.T. Kailainathan, an assistant director for vocational education, was at theGovernment Technical College when he was gunned down by an unidentified gunman, Police said. Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, leader of EPDP and a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, is the Minister for Vocational Education.
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TNA parliamentarians boycott Governor's Jaffna visit

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2005, 14:54 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Parliamentarians Monday boycotted the first official visit of Mr.Tyronne Fernando, Governor of the Northeast Province in protest to the government's refusal to allow Mr.Koffi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations to visit Tsunami destroyed Northern coastal areas, including Mullaitivu district, TNA sources said.
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Shankar Raji dies

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2005, 03:04 GMT]
Mr. Thirunesan alias Shankar Raji (54), a leader of a minor breakaway faction of EROS died of a heart attack Monday morning, sources said. Shankara Raji is a close assosicate of Mr. Douglas Devananda.
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Jaffna RRAN fraud case put off

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2004, 15:04 GMT]
Jaffna magistrate friday ordered to strike off from the trial roll the case on forty seven million rupees fraud in the construction ofl public markets and a home for the aged under the Rehabilition,Reconstruction Authority for North(RRAN) during the Peoples Alliance govt in 2001. Magistrate R.T Viknarajah said the case would off the trial roll until the instruction of the attorney general is received.
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Police escort TNA MPs after meeting with Mahanayake Thero

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2004, 10:26 GMT]
TNA MPs called on the Mahanayake Thero of the Malwatte Chapter Thibbottuwe Sri Siddharatha Sumangala Thero Monday 9am and drew his attention to the historial failure thus far to find an equitable solution to the Tamil national question, and impressed on him the necessity for an interim administration for the North East, sources said. At the end of the meeting, when the TNA MPs came out, Kandy police had to intervene when opposing buddhist monks and members of extremist Sinhala organizations attacked the TNA MPs, police sources said.


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UNF, TNA, JHU boycott SL President's Council on Peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2004, 01:58 GMT]
United National Front (UNF), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) boycotted the event as Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga inaugurated the National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR) Monday afternoon in Colombo. NAC has been publicized by the Sri Lanka Government as a mechanism to seek "wide spectrum of views" to resolve the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka.
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Rebuilding of Achchuveli Industrial Estate urged

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2004, 02:16 GMT]
Jaffna District Co-ordinating Committee (JDCC) Saturday urged the Government of Sri Lanka to reconstruct the war destroyed Industrial Estate located in Achchuveli in Jaffna district. JDCC said that rehabilitation would enable Jaffna residents to regain the lost economic benefits and would increase job prospects for unemployed youths.
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Solheim meets Hakim, Devananda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 01:13 GMT]
Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim Tuesday evening met with Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Rauff Hakim, and Secretary General of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda, and discussed in detail about the resumption of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspended from April last year, political sources in Colombo said.
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Jaffna DCC to meet next week

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2004, 14:55 GMT]
Jaffna District Co-ordinating Committee (DDC) will meet on September 17 and 18 to assess the progress of ongoing development projects and the implementation of proposed development projects in the Jaffna electoral district, district secretariat sources said.
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Karuna meets with Sri Lankan ministers, US officials- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 00:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s tourism minister and brother of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, escorted the renegade LTTE commander, Karuna, to Singapore to address US officials on combating terrorism, The Sunday Leader reported this week, quoting government sources. Another government minister and a close confidante of President Kumaratunga, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, is to meet with Karuna, the paper also said.
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Tamil MPs slam SLA, paramilitaries for threats to media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2004, 14:14 GMT]
“Journalist Nadesan was murdered because the Sri Lankan government did not disarm paramilitary groups working with the military as it agreed to do under the cease-fire agreement. A paramilitary group in Batticaloa killed Nadesan and is threatening other independent journalists with death. This group cannot roam Batticaloa with weapons and intimidate and murder journalists without the military’s permission”, said Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa speaking Tuesday during a debate in the Sri Lankan Parliament on the state of the media in the island.
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Hundred thousand drop in Jaffna student population - GA

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 11:34 GMT]
Jaffna's student population has dwindled by more than a hundred thousand since 1995, Government Agent for the northern district said Friday, speaking at a meeting on development priorities in the peninsula. Educationists in Jaffna say prolonged war, poverty, displacement and garrisioning of entire towns and villages by Sri Lankan armed forces caused the huge drop in the peninsula's student population.
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