SL Government suspends dry ration relief to Amparai IDPs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2004, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has suspended giving free dry rations to more than one thousand resettled internally displaced families residing in villages Sagamam, Kanchikudicharu, Thangavelauthapuram, Thandiyady and Kanchirankuda in the Thirukovil division in the Amparai district, forcing many families close to starvation, civil groups said.


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IDPs urge re-opening of Vadamarachchi-Nagarkovil road

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2004, 17:09 GMT]
The Association of Nagarkovil Internally Displaced Families (ANIDF) in Jaffna district Saturday appealed to Sri Lanka's President Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunge to take steps to re-open the Vadamarachchi-Nagarkovil main road for civilian movement, sources said.


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LTTE, SLA discuss issues affecting Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 May 2004, 14:36 GMT]
Jaffna district political head of LTTE, Mr.C.Ilamparithi, and Jaffna district General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Sri Lanka Army, Major General Susil Chandrapala, held a two-hour long discussion at the office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna Friday morning, on problems affecting the normal life of the people of the Jaffna district, sources said.


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Normal life returning to Oddusuddan

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2004, 21:41 GMT]
Normal life is gradually returning in the Oddusuddan region in the Mullaithivu district, an area devastated during the war that is currently under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to Tamil press reports from the North.
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SL President urged not to stop relief to IDPs in Jaffna district

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 May 2004, 14:20 GMT]
The Federation of Jaffna District Civil Organizations (FJDCO) Friday condemned the decision of the Government of Sri lanka to curtail the distribution of dry ration relief given to hundreds of thousands of families, a majority of whom are displaced and languishing in refugee camps and welfare centres without employment. The FJDCO has sent an urgent message to Sri lanka's President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, to order that all IDPs and those affected by the war be issued dry ration relief as usual without any reduction, sources said.
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"SLA establishes new checkpoints in Vavuniya, Mannar"- Selvam

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 May 2004, 11:22 GMT]
Vanni electoral district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan Monday sent an urgent letter to Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge that the establishment of new check points of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the administrative districts of Mannar and Vavuniya is causing serious apprehension in the minds of the people that the security forces are preparing for renewed military action, TNA sources said.


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Dutch delegation visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 May 2004, 11:08 GMT]
A delegation of Dutch diplomats led by First Secretary of the Embassy of Netherland in Colombo, Mr.D.R.S.Jan Hugskes, visited Batticaloa district Saturday to review development and rehabilitation work being carried out in the district and discuss matters related to granting future aid, sources said.
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NECORD funds new school building in Kanniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 May 2004, 10:14 GMT]
Students of resettled families of Kanniya, a traditional Tamil village which is located along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura highway, about eight km off northwest of east port town Tuesday moved into a new school building constructed at a cost of 1.3 million rupees by the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), sources said.


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Batticaloa Tamil youth shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 May 2004, 06:31 GMT]
Mr. Selvarasa Gunaseelan (28) of School Lane in Kiran in Batticaloa district was shot dead Saturday night around midnight at Paththinipuram, a resettled village in Thampalakamam division, which is located about seventeen km off Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Kandy highway, Kantalai Police said.
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SLA bans cultivation in lands outside Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 18:09 GMT]
Inspite of repeated assurances by the Jaffna command of the Sri Lanka Army that internally displaced families will be allowed to resettle and do their cultivation in their lands located six hundred meters away from the forward defence line of the Palaly high security zone, soldiers manning checkpoints are putting obstacles for the resettled farmers to prepare their lands for cultivation, resettled families complained to TamilNet Friday.
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NPC holds workshop on de-mining in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 14:16 GMT]
"De-mining work in the northeast province has been severely hampered as the international aid agencies show reluctance to provide funds for such work due to the failure to sign the Ottawa convention that prohibits the use of landmines and other related explosives by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said a Director of the National Peace Council (NPC), Mr.S. Balakrishnan, addressing a de-mining workshop in Jaffna Friday.
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SL Government assistance to IDPs nil - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2004, 20:15 GMT]
"I dare say that the [Sri Lankan] government has no right to rule our people as it has failed to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands internally displaced who have been languishing in refugee camps and welfare centres to return to their lands and resettle," said the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, addressing a meeting in Kanniya village Monday morning.
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NECORD funded development projects launched in Kanniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2004, 19:35 GMT]
Foundation stones were laid Monday morning for the construction of a pre-school and a multi purpose hall in the resettled Kanniya village, located on the Trincomalee- Anuradhapura road about 8 km north of Trincomalee town. The Asian Development Bank(ADB) funded North East Community Organization for Restoration Development (NECORD) under the Community Rehabilitation Development Project (CRDP) has allocated a sum of 6.8 million rupees for these development works, and the implementing agency is the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) of Trincomalee district, sources said.
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SLA bars Muslim IDP families from resettling in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 April 2004, 18:17 GMT]
Five internally displaced Muslim families with about twenty-five members who returned to Jaffna from Puttalam recently for resettlement have been staying in the damaged Jumma Mosque in the Chavakachcheri town in Thenmaradchchi division as the Sri Lanka Army has refused permission to them to occupy their houses. Their houses are located in the high security zones of the army, civil sources said.
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Resettlers in Thenmaradchchi HSZ to get livelihood assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 April 2004, 21:55 GMT]
The Jaffna District Secretary and Government Agent, Mr.S.Pathmanathan, Tuesday directed his officials to expedite the payment of livelihood assistance to resettled internally displaced families in the high security zones in Thenmaradchi division in Jaffna district, authoritative sources said.
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Pannalai resettled complain of SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 April 2004, 09:55 GMT]
Eight Internally Displaced (IDP) families now resettled in no man zones located beyond 600 meter of the High Security Zones (HSZs) in Pannalai, Valigamam north in the Jaffna district Sunday complained that the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning checkpoints and camps in the area have started harassing them with an intention of ousting them from their dwellings, civil society sources in Jaffna said.


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All 20 TNA Parliamentarians issue joint statement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2004, 04:42 GMT]
"In view of the speculative reports in the media, all Members of Parliament elected from the North-Eastern region in the name of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi emphatically state that we are unequivocally and irrevocably committed to the political aspirations of the Tamil people for over the past fifty years for self rule in a unified north-eastern region, which has been the acknowledged as the area of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people," said 20 Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians in a joint statement issued Wednesday night after two days of discussions held in Colombo.
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Thousands from Vanni vote in Omanthai, Uyilankulam, Madhu

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2004, 07:50 GMT]
Thousands of enthusiastic voters from the Mullaithivu district and the northern parts of the Vavuniya district which are controlled by the Liberation Tigers swarmed to polling stations in Omanthai Friday morning to cast their ballots. More than thirty percent of the fifty two thousand voters in Mullaithivu had cast their votes by 10 a.m. according to the chief returning officer for the district, Ms. Imelda Sukumar. Omanthai, a dilapidated town surrounded by Sri Lankan military garrisons is eighteen kilometres north of Vavuniya town.
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Brisk polling reported in Trincomalee district

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2004, 07:24 GMT]
Brisk polling is reported from the clustered polling stations, which are located in Kattaiparichchan, and Mahindapura for voters residing the LTTE controlled Muttur east villages and Eachilampathu division in the Trincomalee district. Trincomalee District Returning Officer Mr. Gamini Rodrigo Friday noon said about seventy five percent of the uncleared area voters have exercised their franchise, sources said.
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Resettled Kanniya village gets co-operative model shop

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 March 2004, 03:01 GMT]
Trincomalee Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) Saturday opened its newly constructed eleventh retail and model shop at a cost of about 2 million rupees after about fourteen years in the resettled Tamil village Kanniya to cater to the urgent basic needs of the resettled families, civil society sources said. Kanniya is located about six km off north of east port town .
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