"All Mullaitivu tsunami affected are in transit camps"- Maaran

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2005, 01:12 GMT]
"Of the 5905 families displaced by tsunami in Mullaitivu district, all 2124 families which needed a place to live have been transferred to transit camps [from welfare centers] and the rest are living with friends and relatives in a temporary setting. We are waiting for funds to start our third phase of resettling the families in permanent state land," said Mr Maaran, Head of Mullaitivu district Emergency Task Force (ETF), when TamilNet spoke to him recently in his offices in Mullaitivu.
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Jaffna IDPs reject alternate land proposal by Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 19:09 GMT]
The Consortium of Welfare Centres for Internally Displaced Persons in Jaffna District Friday said that it would not accept alternate lands for their own lands now occupied by the government forces and declared as high security zones in the district. The Consortium said this in response to a report that the Supreme Court has queried the Jaffna Government Agent whether he could find alternate lands for the IDPs as their lands and houses are located within the HSZ and occupied by the State armed forces in the district, sources said.
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Resettled families urge not to stop issue of dry ration

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2005, 15:05 GMT]
Hundreds of residents of Islets in the Jaffna district Monday held a demonstration in front of the Velanai divisional secretariat demanding that they should be provided with dry ration without interruption instead of taking steps to suspend it, civil sources said.
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Canadian Tamils provide education support to Trinco villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2005, 04:32 GMT]
Socio-Economic Development Organization of Trincomalee (SEDOT) with financial help from Trincomalee Welfare Association (TWA) in Canada has embarked on a scheme to assist students and teachers in resettled Tamil villages of Thiriyai, Nochchikulam and Adambodai in the Trincomalee district to uplift the standard of education, civil sources in Trincomalee said. The scheme supports salaries to additional volunteer and pre-school teachers in the three villages.


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Japan donates Rs 8.9 million to upgrade Thellipalai hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2005, 22:26 GMT]
The Government of Japan today donated a sum of USD 90,204 (approximately Rs. 8.9 million) towards the "Project for Emergency Rehabilitation of Water Supply and Sewerage Systems at Thellipalai Hospital" in the Jaffna peninsula as a part of its continuous efforts in improving the emergency health care needs in areas where access to health facilities and services are insufficient.
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NorthEast Governor visits Kokkilai

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2005, 11:27 GMT]
Governor of NorthEast Province, Mr Tyronne Fernando arrived Thursday morning in Kokkilai, a village resettled with Sinhala families from Negombo, to see the devastation caused by the tsunami, security sources said.
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Tree planting, shramadana campaign mark remembrance day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2005, 03:58 GMT]
Members of Trincomalee District Women Organizations and officials of the provincial ministry of education, provincial department of education and zonal education office Wednesday organized a shramadana campaign to clean the surrounding of Tsunami welfare centre located in the village of Sambaltivu, about five km north of Trincomalee district to mark the first month remembrance of people died on December 26 in the natural disaster, sources said.
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Canadian PM meets with TNA, TRO delegations

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 January 2005, 14:30 GMT]
Mr. Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, met with delegations of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) Monday at Colombo Hilton Hotel at 2.30 PM. The TNA delegation urged that all international aid, including Canadian aid, to be channeled through International Non-Governmental Organizations till a proper mechanism is set up to deal with the post Tsunami situation in the Northeast. The TNA told the Canadian Prime Minister that there was total centralization of all rehabilitation, resettlement, reconstruction and development activities in Colombo, and that this was totally inconsistent with the wishes expressed by the people of Northeast.
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Centralization, control by armed forces, and equitable aid are incompatible, TNA tells ADB president

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 January 2005, 06:58 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation met the president of Asia Development Bank (ADB), Mr. Tadao Chino, on Sunday and highlighted the context and the developments in the country that are detrimental to the equitable distribution of tsunami relief. The TNA, which has 22 of the 31 parliamentary seats from the northeast, told the president of ADB that the present activities of the government did not represent the democratic will of the people of the northeast and urged the ADB president to ensure that international aid was equitably distributed.
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Norwegian Red Cross hospital commences its services in Eachchilampathu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 19:33 GMT]
Twenty member of medical team of the Norwegian Red Cross Society Tuesday commenced its services in its temporary hospital put up in Eachchilampathu village which is in the LTTE controlled area down south of the Trincomalee district under the co-ordination of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). This temporary hospital is to function for about three months till the medical services in the area improves, sources said.
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Mullaithivu situation grim amid rising toll

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 20:42 GMT]
Three thousand three hundred and seventy three people were killed by the Tsunami in Mullaithivu according to local rescue workers and the Liberation Tigers. Kallapaadu, a coastal village near Mullaithivu town, was completely wiped out by the Tsunami. "So far we have been able to recover 1300 of the 2214 who resettled in village after the Sri Lanka army garrison there was overrun in 1996", said Mr. S. Senthan, the village officer (Grama Sevaka) for Kallapaadu told TamilNet Tuesday.
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WB funded NEHRC to be implemented from January

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2004, 11:21 GMT]
Mr.Chelliah Pathmanathan has been appointed as the Project Director of the World Bank funded North East Housing Reconstruction Programme (NEHRP) with effect from January 1st, 2005. Currently he is holding the post of Government Agent of the Jaffna district. Mr.R.Ganesh, the incumbent Vavuniya Government Agent is to succeed Mr.Pathmanathan in Jaffna district, district secretariat sources said.
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Varani families demand payment of resettlement allowance

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 December 2004, 16:33 GMT]
Resettled families in Varani village in Thenmaradchchi division Thursday held a sit-in protest preventing employees of Jaffna district secretariat entering the building bringing the civil administration to a halt till noon, civil sources said. The protesters demanded immediate payment of resettlement allowance of Rs 25,000 as promised by the Sri Lanka Government, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Sri Lanka army permits hinder Kalmadu resettlement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 December 2004, 15:41 GMT]
Refugee families that resettled in Kalmadu, 15 kilometres northwest of Vavuniya, said Thursday that rebuilding their lives is difficult because they have to obtain special permits from the Sri Lanka army for access to their fields. The village was destroyed in a Sri Lanka army operation in 1999. The villagers of Kalmadu lost all their belongings when they fled the war. They returned in late 2002, many months after Colombo signed a cease fire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers.
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GoSL must start talks based on ISGA- Jaffna NGOs

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2004, 04:22 GMT]
"If peace and goodwill are to prevail, the Government of Sri Lanka should come forward to discuss without delay the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals put forward by the LTTE. The proposals represent the collective will of all NorthEast Tamils," said Rev. Father Jeyakumar on behalf of the consortium of NGOs at a meeting held Monday in Nallur, Jaffna. Academics from the South who were on a fact finding mission to Jaffna also participated in the meeting.
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Sri Lanka Cease Fire becoming irrelevant – Tamil MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2004, 10:30 GMT]
The Cease Fire Agreement would become increasingly irrelevant if there is not going to be any progress on the peace process, warned Tamil Parliamentarian Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam speaking on the on the second reading of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government’s first (2005) Budget on Saturday. “The Tamil people’s overwhelming desire for peace should not be allowed to be taken for granted. Our repeated recommitment to the ceasefire is being misinterpreted by this government to be a sign of weakness”, the MP said.
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Trinco resettled IDPs' plight spotlighted

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 November 2004, 03:29 GMT]
"No one can talk about peace and reconciliation when thousands suffer for want of shelter, food and clothes. Peace and reconciliation are only of secondary concern for them," said Mr.T.Thavasilingam, Chairman of the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations in Trincomalee district presiding over the meeting of Eastern Forum of Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHU).
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Jaffna islet families demand removal of pass system

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2004, 15:19 GMT]
Pungudutivu Division Civil Groups Consortium (PDCGC) Saturday wrote to Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to take immediate action to completely lift the residential pass system introduced for resettled families in Pungudutivu by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Red Cross' humanitarian services spotlighted

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2004, 00:54 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) Tuesday launched its "Meet the Media" campaign in Trincomalee in collaboration with its district branch to brief media persons on the humanitarian services of Red Cross to victims of war and displacement and other natural disasters in the Trincomalee district Tuesday. Mr.Harsha Gunawardene, SLRCS Director of Information said the second Meet the Media event will be held in Anuradhapura.
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Tamils, LTTE, MPs lose patience on peace process -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 October 2004, 05:08 GMT]
"Tamils, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and we (parliamentarians) have started losing patience on the current peace efforts with the Norwegian facilitation because of the inability of the Government of Sri Lanka in coming to terms on the basis of resuming peace talks with the LTTE due to internal rift among its constituents," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader addressing a series of awareness meetings held in several villages north of Trincomalee district Sunday from morning till midnight.
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