2 EPDP men alleged of attempting to issue death threats to Chaavakachcheari magistrate

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2010, 15:33 GMT]
Chaavakachcheari Magistrate, P. J. Pirabakar Friday directed Chaavakachcheari police to investigate into an allegation against Jaffna Deputy Mayor Thurairajah Ilango alias Regan and Allexander Soosaimuthu alias Charles, Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) organizer for Thenmaraadchi, for engaging in activities aimed at issuing death threats to Magistrate Pirbakar or in attempts to kill him, sources in Chaavakaccheari said. Soosaimuthu was the EPDP contestant in the parliamentary elections. The allegation was made to Chaavakachcheari magistrate court in a letter where the residents of Paa’ndiyan Thaazhvu had informed that the above mentioned EPDP persons were seen to move about with weapons in the area for three days since Tuesday where magistrate Pirabakar lives in Paa’ndiyan Thaazhvu, with the motive to issue death threat or to kill him, the sources added.
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Journalist Roopan’s remains cremated in Araali

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2010, 17:51 GMT]
Hundreds of people and media persons paid their last respects to the remains of Selvaratnam Roopan also known as ‘Sakthi Thasan’ and the sub-editor of Yarl Thinakural who passed away Sunday evening at Jaffna Teaching hospital at the age of thirty-two. The remains were taken in procession by the mourners to Poonaavoadai Hindu crematorium grounds in Vaddukkoadai. Vice-chancellor emeritus of Jaffna University, Prof. Pon. Balsuntharampillai, was among the many hundreds who paid their last respects to Roopan’s remains.
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Journalist Roopan passes away in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 April 2010, 17:42 GMT]
Selvaratnam Roopan, sub-editor of Tamil daily ‘Yarl Thinakural’ and a journalist who dedicated his entire life to his vocation and in creating political awareness and responsibility among the residents of Jaffna peninsula, passed away Sunday evening at Jaffna Teaching Hospital, due to undiagnosed illness. 32-year-old Roopan had been in the forefront in rescuing thousands of people caught in the clashes in Ma’ndaitheevu in the islets of Jaffna in 2006 and in admitting the injured among them in the hospitals in Jaffna. Roopan rendered great service by writing articles in Yarl Thinakural creating political awareness among the people of Jaffna peninsula under his pseudonym ‘Sakthi Thaasan’. Media organizations including North Ceylon Journalists Association have issued messages of condolence on the premature death of Roopan.
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Indian Railway engineers, technicians arrive at Medawachchiya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 April 2010, 07:25 GMT]
A group consisting of Indian Railway Department engineers and technicians has arrived in the North to commence work on the reconstruction of the railway tracks and railway stations from Oamanthai to Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS), a project which India earlier announced as aid to Sri Lanka, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The Indian engineers and technicians presently located in Medawachchiya and Vavuniyaa have begun to work in stages. Meanwhile, an Indian firm has already started to construct the railway tracks between Vavuniyaa and Thalai Mannaar, the sources added.
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Abductors demand ransom from family in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2010, 04:25 GMT]
The young family man from Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna gone missing since 30 March has been abducted for a ransom of 300,000 rupees, according to a complaint lodged with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office by his family members Sunday. Unknown persons had phoned the neighbours of the family and demanded the money. Attempts to contact the callers on the number of the cell phone used had failed, according to the complaint.
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Italian Eezham Tamils conduct referendum, form country council

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 March 2010, 00:04 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in Italy successfully conducted a referendum on independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam and simultaneously elected a 20-member country council Sunday. 98.8 percent of those who voted said 'yes' to Tamil Eelam in a turnout of around 75 percent of eligible Eezham Tamil voters in Italy, the organisers of the polls said. Youth figured prominently among those elected to the Council, Ms. Sinthuja Nagendram in her twenties getting the largest number of votes in the national list. The polls organised by an independent election commission of Eezham Tamils in Italy were nationally supervised and monitored by an Italian federation of NGOs, COCIS (Co-ordination of Non-governmental Organisations for International Development Co-operation). In Italy, Sinhalese expatriates are large in numbers compared to Tamils who make only less than a tenth of them.
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IDPs accuse SLA soldiers of plundering their properties in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 05:25 GMT]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Pachchilaippa’l’li Divisional Secretariat area in Ki’linochchi district who had been to their places accused occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers of plundering their properties and taking the spoils in their vehicles to South during night time. Parts of houses like doors, door frames, windows and felled valuable timber are being taken away to the South by the soldiers, they said. Besides, the fertile coconut plantations in the area which remain unaffected by war are being plundered and the proceeds take to Jaffna peninsula by the soldiers, they further said.
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Thellippazhai govt. hospital allowed to operate again in its original building

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 14:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, Major Gen. Mahintha Kathurusinghe and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh officially handed over Monday afternoon the original building of Thellippazhai government hospital to its administration which had been functioning in government buildings outside the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippazhai for the last 20 years. SLA had taken over the hospital building during the war in 1990, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA harasses resettled IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 11:21 GMT]
Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in some areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar districts are being subjected to severe restrictions and harassment by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources close Jaffna Bishop's House said. This information was gathered from the group of Catholic Bishops of six districts who visited the said areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar recently, the sources said. The Bishops, however, are reluctant to officially disclose this situation in Vanni due to fear, the sources added.
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GTF resolution inspires Tamil polity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Whereas the Tamils democratically gave the mandate for the independence of their own country Tamil Eelam by endorsing the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976, in the 1977 general elections, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) calls upon the international community, governments, leaders and the UN to conduct a UN monitored referendum in the North-East region of Sri Lanka and among the displaced Tamils living in other countries, to determine if they wish independence or to be part of a united Sri Lanka, says a crucial part of the GTF resolution passed unanimously in London last week. The GTF resolution, not voluntarily surrendering the cause of Eezham Tamils but leaving it to the democratic choice of the concerned people, should inspire polity in the name of Tamil nationalism in the island and in the diaspora, Tamil circles commented.
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Amuthu Pulavar, veteran of Christian Tamil literature passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 14:57 GMT]
Chevalier Dr. S. Adaikalamuthu, Tamil pundit and poet from I’lavaalai, Jaffna, known by his pseudonym Amuthup-pulavar, passed away at the age of 92 in London, Tuesday. Studied classical Tamil at the prestigious Kaaviya Paadasaalai (School of Classics), which was functioning in the Arumuga Navalar School in Jaffna, Amuthup Pulavar was one of the few surviving authors of Christian Tamil literature of the traditional genre. Born in 1918 and beginning his poetic pursuits in 1938, his most known literary work was Madu Maathaa Kaaviyam, a poetic composition on the famous Catholic pilgrim centre at Madu in Mannaar. He was knighted (Chevalier) by the Late Pope John Paul II in Rome in 2004 and in the same year was awarded honorary doctorate by the University of Jaffna.
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SLA occupation of churches in Vadamaraadchi shocks Jaffna Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 February 2010, 02:52 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam is reported to be in great shock on witnessing Vettilaikkea’ni Kappal Eanthiya Maathaa Koayil, a historically famous St. Mary’s Church in Vadmaraadchi East, being converted into a big military base of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), on his recent visit to Vanni and Vadamaraadchi, according to sources close to Jaffna Bishop House. The Bishop had been instructed by SLA authorities not to release any information about the said church to media or other institutions, the sources further said.
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Perumaa’l temple consecrated in Myanmar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 January 2010, 11:25 GMT]
Tamils in Myanmar impressively consecrated a renovated Perumaa’l temple in Yangon on Wednesday morning. Several thousands of Tamils participated in the ceremonies. A 13th century Tamil inscription in Myanmar records that a Perumaa’l temple patronized by Tamils existed at the earlier capital at Pagan.
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Eezham artist presents heritage as everybody’s property

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 January 2010, 01:53 GMT]
An unconventional artwork of diaspora heritage, Imag(in)ing ‘Home’ presented by Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, Lecturer in Art History of the Fine Arts Department of the University of Jaffna, with the participation of Eezham Tamil community in Vancouver, Canada, is now in display in an Art Exhibition of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada. What Shanaathanan did last September was asking the members of the diaspora in Vancouver to bring anything that reminds them of the heritage of ‘home.’ 300 objects thus collected, prompting historical as well as structural analysis, were put into plastic bottles and like a collage giving collective meaning they make an innovative display now in the exhibition titled Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, opened last Saturday.
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Malabar, Maabar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 02:16 GMT]
The hillside,
The crossing place
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Eezham / E'lu / He'la

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 January 2010, 00:01 GMT]
The gold (land)
The land of metal
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Tsunami victims remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 December 2009, 02:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna transported nearly a thousand people in vehicles to Thaazhaiyadi in Jaffna Saturday where a memorial event was held for the victims killed by tsunami tidal wave five years ago, sources in Jaffna said. Tsunami had claimed 956 lives in Uduththu'rai area, 76 in Ma'natkaadu and 16 in Maathakal in Jaffna district. Persons who participated in the event said that the tsunami memorial monument erected by Liberation Tigers and the graves of tsunami victims had been destructed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during the war.
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SLA refuses permission for IDP resettlement in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2009, 02:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities denied permission for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to resettle in their villages in Thenmaraadchi earlier occupied by SLA during war. Though SLA has removed its bases and men from the lands of the IDPs permission is denied saying that the lands are infested with mines, the IDPs said.
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2 students drown in temple pond in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 December 2009, 02:36 GMT]
Two teenage students who bathed in Nanthaavil Amman temple pond in Kokkuvil East in Jaffna drowned Friday. One of them died in the pond while the other died while being taken to hospital. Both bodies were handed over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary.
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Heavy floods in East, 3 killed, IDP camps under water

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 09:37 GMT]
Lightning claimed the lives of three people and more than 25,000 have been displaced due to heavy floods as cyclone 'Ward' entered the Eastern coast Monday night. Vaakarai, Vaazhaichcheanai, Kaaththaankudi and Vavu'natheevu are among the worst affected areas in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, all the huts of 'welfare centers' located in Moothoor East and Eechchilampattu in Trincomalee district where hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families, still sheltered awaiting resettlement in their own villages, are under water due to torrential rain now being experienced. Roofs of these huts have been blown off due to gale winds due to depression that moves along the coast of North and East.
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