Boat massacre victims to be remembered in Nedunthivu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 May 2005, 12:31 GMT]
Nedunthivu based National Resurgence Consortium is organizing a memorial event to remember the killing, 20 years ago on 15 May, of thirty eight Tamil passengers, including a two year old child, travelling in boat called ‘Kumudhini’ from the island of Delft to the Kurikkatuvan Jetty on the island of Punguduthivu were hacked to death at sea by armed persons suspected to be Sri Lanka Navy personnel, sources in Jaffna said.
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CPJ alarmed at death threats to Sri Lanka journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2005, 18:03 GMT]
"We are alarmed by the rising threats against our colleagues, and call on authorities to find those responsible for these crimes. All sides of this conflict must respect the rights of journalists and help safeguard the free flow of information in Sri Lanka," Executive Director of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Ann Cooper said in a news alert issued at CPJ's website Thursday.
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Lack of normalcy eclipsed by joint mechanism debate - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 May 2005, 13:26 GMT]
The serious lack of normalcy in the Tamil areas due to continuing military occupation and restrictions on civilians’ livelihoods, even three years after the mutual ceasefire agreement was signed, is leading to severe frustrations amongst the people, the head of the Liberation Tiger’s political wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan told Norwegian diplomats Friday. The extraordinary focus on a post-tsunami aid management mechanism is masking the severity of the obstructions to rehabilitation work and the day-to-day difficulties faced by ordinary people, Mr. Thamilchelvan told Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Hans Brattskar, when they met in Kilinochchi.
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Bureaucracy delays aid at Colombo port – paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2005, 17:26 GMT]
Five months after the Indian ocean tsunami disaster, many hundreds of containers of aid are stranded at ports in Sri Lanka because of bureaucratic bungling and missing paperwork, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
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Pro-peace groups receive death threats

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2005, 13:46 GMT]
Leaders of civil society organisations calling for a peaceful solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict have received death threats from an extreme Sinhala nationalist group calling itself ‘Theraputtabhaya force.’ The letter, which claimed responsibility for the murder of journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam, says that all traitors should be ready to become "fertiliser for the motherland" if they continue to betray it.
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Joint Mechanism concerns linger as Donor Group readies for Kandy meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 May 2005, 17:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Development Forum (SLDF), the aid review meeting where multilateral lenders and officials Sri Lanka Government meet to firm up on aid pledges, "will focus on the post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction process and the overall method and development strategies of Sri Lanka," said Dr.Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Finance and Planning in the invitation to participants to the Forum. Leaders of political parties represented in parliament have also been invited for the inaugural session, which is to be held on May 16 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
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SL President to visit India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 17:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge is expected to pay a two-day official visit to India from Saturday May 14th. She will hold talks with leaders of the Indian government on the proposed joint mechanism with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), government sources said.


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JVP vows to scuttle aid deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 17:14 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition partner, held a massive rally at the Colombo Municipal Council Ground Tuesday, against the Government entering into any agreement with the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) to handle post-tsunami reconstruction in the east, sources in Colombo said.
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LTTE ‘no threat to India’ - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 16:34 GMT]
Any capability acquired by the Liberation Tigers is solely for the protection of the Tamil people and not a threat to India or any other country, the head of the LTTE’s political wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, said this week in response to concern expressed by Indian officials over the movement’s naval force and reports it had acquired aircraft
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Vanni journalists protest Sivaram killing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 12:32 GMT]
A large number of journalists and several Vavuniya residents took part in a demonstration Tuesday organised by Vanni Journalists Association, condemning the abduction and murder of Tamil political columnist and military analysts, Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram in Colombo on 29 April. Vanni District Parliamentarians Sivanathan Kishore, Sivasakthi Aananthan, Selvam Adikalanathan and Vino Nokarathalingam, also participated.
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RSF urges SLMM probe into Sivaram murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 11:04 GMT]
Reporters San Frontiers (RSF) Tuesday urged international monitors supervising Sri Lanka’s ceasefire to carry out their own investigations into the abduction and murder two weeks ago of political columnist and military analyst Dharmeratnam Sivaram.
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Tamil scepticism mounts as aid deal drifts

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2005, 18:20 GMT]
As the proposed joint mechanism for aid distribution urged by international donors between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers remains mired in Sinhala political manoeuvring, deep scepticism has replaced early optimism amongst the Tamils. More ominously, a belief is rapidly taking root that Colombo is playing for time and keeping the Northeast in the economic and social doldrums whilst developing the Sri Lankan military for a new war.
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Joint mechanism mired in Sinhala politics

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2005, 15:51 GMT]
The joint mechanism between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers called for by international aid donors has become the centre of political manoeuvres by the main Sinhala parties, in whose zero-sum calculations, international aid has a critical role to play.
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Akashi to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2005, 11:55 GMT]
Japanese peace envoy, Mr Yasushi Akashi, is arriving in Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a seven day visit to discuss matters related to the peace process and post-tsunami development, a press release the Japanese Embassy in Colombo issued Monday said.
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Troops fire on Valaichenai protestors, 1 killed

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2005, 10:51 GMT]
A 65 year old man was killed and at least 15 other civilians were wounded when Sri Lankan security forces opened fire on large crowds of people protesting Monday, demanding removal of new Army checkpoints set up near a school in the Batticaloa district. Five women were among those wounded when soldiers and police fired assault rifles for over 10 minutes at Santhiveli, 27 km. north of Batticaloa on the Valaichenai road, sources said. International ceasefire monitors and reporters witnessed the incident, they said.
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German NGO to fund Anbu Illam rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2005, 16:21 GMT]
Malteser, a German non-governmental organization (NGO) has agreed to provide US $30K for the rehabilitation of "Anbu Illam (House of Love)," a children's home in Trincomalee that gives shelterto children who lost their parents in the war, sources in Trincomalee said.
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‘Sivaram’s phone still ringing, but where?’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2005, 13:44 GMT]
More than a week after he was abducted and murdered, the mobile phone of one of Sri Lanka’s best known political columnists continues to ring, weekend press reports said. And despite the technology which can allow law enforcement agencies to pinpoint a cellular phone’s location using its relative proximity to local base stations, Sri Lanka’s police claim they have no idea where Mr. Sivaram’s phone might be.
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Journalists dismayed over Sivaram debate

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2005, 18:24 GMT]
The lack of a quorum in Sri Lanka’s Parliament and the subsequent lacklustre debate when the abduction and brutal murder of Tamil political columnist and military analyst, Dharmeratnam Sivaram, was taken up Friday dismayed journalists who three days earlier had taken to the streets in a major protest over the brazen killing in Colombo.
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Jaffna journalists, academics protest against Sivaram murder

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2005, 10:56 GMT]
Hundreds of Jaffna journalists, university academicians, priests and heads of non-governmental organizations Saturday morning held a demonstration in front of the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) condemning the brutal killing of senior journalist Mr.Dharmeratnam Sivaram in Colombo. sources said.
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Donors can't dictate dates to finalize aid deal- Kadirgamar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2005, 05:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar said after a meeting with donor community in Geneva Friday that President Chandrika Kumaratunga has been holding "intensive" talks with religious and political leaders ahead of a meeting with Liberation Tigers on May 15 th and 16th, and that Sri Lanka "could not accept any dictation by the donor community about dates," according to an AFP report.
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