U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 13:27 GMT]
"U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina B. Rocca will visit Sri Lanka next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 and 20, to survey United States-funded tsunami reconstruction efforts and meet with Sri Lankan government officials," a press release issued by the United States Embassy in Colombo Friday said.
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Erik Solheim to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 12:17 GMT]
Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Special Envoy will visit Sri Lanka 17th - 21st April, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in a press release said Friday. Mr. Solheim will discuss the "possible joint-mechanism for post-tsunami reconstruction" with the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka, the press release said.
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LTTE delegation in Dublin: Thamilchelvan meets Irish Minister Conor Lenihan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2005, 23:24 GMT]
Lack of consensus in Colombo, even in sharing resources to meet a natural disaster, has confounded the already existing humanitarian crisis, Mr. S.P. Thamilchelvan told Mr. Conor Lenihan T.D, Minister of State in Ireland with Special Responsibility for Overseas Development & Human Rights. Colombo is yet to respond to the Joint Mechanism proposals.
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SC holds State responsible for two disappeared youths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2005, 12:01 GMT]
TSri Lanka's Supreme Court (SC) held last week that the State was responsible for the disappearance of two Tamil youths who were brothers after their arrest by soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army fifteen years ago on 6th July, 1990 in Trincomalee, legal sources said. The three member bench of the Supreme Court ordered the State to pay the petitioner who is the father of the two youths a sum of Rupees 300,000/= as compensation. The SC directed the State to pay the compensation within three months before the end of June, legal sources added.
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Sinhala nationalists urge crack down on Muslim groups

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 17:32 GMT]
Sinhala Buddhist nationalists Tuesday protested in Colombo, urging the Government of Sri Lanka to crack down on Islamic groups that are opposing the construction of Buddha’s statues in some Muslim towns and villages on the island’s southeast coast. Hundreds of Buddhist monks and their lay supporters marched to the Ministry of Buddha Sasana to condemn the “anti Buddhist activities of Muslim extremists”. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and several civil society groups have opposed the construction of Buddha’s statues in Muslim areas on the southeast coast.


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SLMM official: ‘Government must disarm Karuna Group’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 17:03 GMT]
The Sunday Times this week published transcripts from the Presidential Commission into the killings of LTTE officials and supporters in Sri Lanka’s restive east, in which the head of the international ceasefire monitors in Batticaloa, Mr. Steen Joergensen, confirmed the presence of anti-LTTE paramilitaries in government-held areas. However, the Sri Lanka Army's senior most officer in Batticaloa, Brigadier Laksiri Amaratunge, denied the charge.
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SLMM says LTTE violated CFA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2005, 12:24 GMT]
The LTTE has violated article 1.2 of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) which states “neither party shall engage in any offensive military operation," BBC Sinhala service quoted Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) spokeswoman Helen Maria Olafdottir as saying, referring to a recent incident where the Liberation Tigers were accused of firing a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) patrol boat with an SLMM member on board in Trincomalee Bay off Upparu on 5 April 2005.
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Netherlands urged to send fact finding mission to NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 13:36 GMT]
Expressing collective Tamil concern over Colombo's handling of the post-tsunami humanitarian crises in the war ravaged NorthEast, Mr. S.P.Thamilchelvan, LTTE's Political Head who is leading an LTTE delegation to Europe on a diplomatic mission, invited Thursday Netherland's Foreign Ministry to send a fact finding mission to the tsunami devastated NorthEast. The LTTE team met with Netherlands Foreign Ministry's Deputy Director-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Herman A Schaper on Thursday, sources close to the LTTE said.
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STF hampering Tsunami relief work, Tigers tell SLMM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2005, 16:56 GMT]
The Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan armed forces, is blocking the Liberation Tigers from delivering Tsunami aid in many areas of the Batticaloa-Amparai district, LTTE leaders told Nordic truce monitors during a meeting in the eastern district Thursday. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials urged the Tigers to resume meetings with Sri Lankan armed forces in the east during the meeting. LTTE leaders had, however, pointed out that such meetings had been futile in the past.
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Hindu Congress assists tsunami victims in Trinco

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2005, 11:11 GMT]
The All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) Wednesday started distributing relief materials worth five hundred thousand rupees to tsunami affected families in the coastal areas of the Trincomalee district. The inaugural event of the distribution was held at Thirukadaloor Namagal Vidiyalayam, a suburb in the east port town Wednesday morning. The distribution is being done through the Trincomalee District Young Men Hindu Federation (TDYMHA), sources said
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JVP slams NGOs, western countries for meddling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 18:28 GMT]
“We should spit on NGOs and stop them from walking on our streets. Donor countries and their NGO agents are holding this country to ransom, telling the government to set up a joint Tsunami relief mechanism with the LTTE. It is something that can be done through the Sri Lankan state machinery. There is no need for a joint mechanism”, said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), speaking to a packed audience in Maharagama, an outer suburb of Colombo, at a meeting Wednesday to ‘expose the NGO Mafia that is against the land and the country’.
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Not even twenty percent support for federalism - JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 12:51 GMT]
"A federal system as a political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict would not even get twenty percent support from the people at a referendum", said Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), President Chandrika Kumaratunga's main Marxist coalition partner, addressing a meeting Tuesday in Anuradhapura to commemorate the thousands of party activists who were killed in April 1971 when Colombo brutally crushed an armed uprising by the JVP to establish communist rule in the island. Mr. Amarasingha was one of the young JVP leaders who led the 71’ insurrection.
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Trinco tsunami hit micro entrepreneurs receive assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 April 2005, 13:23 GMT]
The Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Trincomalee District (CCITD) has launched a project to assist tsunami affected micro entrepreneurs of the district. It distributed about one hundred thousand rupees worth materials and equipments as a first phase of its Micro Credit Scheme with the funding of Rotary Club of Colombo Metropolis at an event held during the weekend at its head office, sources said.
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Vadamaradchchi fishermen receive boats, fishing gear

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2005, 15:39 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a Sri Lanka Government registered NGO working exclusively in the NorthEast, under its integrated development programme with the funding of Norwegian TRO Monday morning handed over fishing crafts with outboard engines and fishing gear including nets and other accessories to 35 beneficiaries. Each fishing boat is estimated at about Rs.400,000, sources said.
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Prayers mourning death of Pope John Paul II held in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2005, 10:53 GMT]
Thousands of people wept, prayed and said goodbye Sunday packing chapels and towns across NorthEast and the rest of Sri Lanka to remember the life of Pope John Paul II, the priest from Krakow who lead the resurgence of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and the world.
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Another suspected heroin carrier remanded in Mannar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2005, 12:00 GMT]
Mannar magistrate Sunday remanded a man who had arrived with a group of refugees from India for allegedly possessing fifty grams of heroin. He had arrived in Thalaimannar with a group of nine refugees on Saturday. Liberation Tigers and Sri Lankan Police say that Mannar has become a major transit point for heroin trafficking from India to Colombo.
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Colombo waging shadow war, says LTTE's official organ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2005, 07:48 GMT]
"The Sinhala government should come forward immediately to stop waging the shadow war against the Liberation Tigers. Otherwise nothing can prevent it from turning into a real war", said the LTTE’s official organ 'Viduthalai Pulihal' in its latest issue. "The sacrificial lambs of this shadow war are penned in Sri Lankan army camps. Weapons for murder are given to them by the Sri Lankan military. The Sinhala regime is not interested in the peace process and it has no faith in a political settlement (to the ethnic conflict). It has interest and faith only in war", the paper said in its lead story.
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British Foreign Office suspends working holiday visas

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 17:03 GMT]
The British Home Office said Friday that it’s High Commission in Sri Lanka will cease to accept working holidaymaker visa applications until further notice from 2 April. The same will apply to Malaysia, Botswana and Namibia. The British High Commission in Colombo said that the service is being suspended in these countries because a “significant and unprecedented” rise in the number of applications has resulted in demand outstripping capacity, which has adversely affected the wider visa operations.


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Sri Lanka army makes another offer to deserters

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka army Friday made a fresh offer to de-list thousands of soldiers who deserted from service. SLA says that more than fifty five thousand deserters are still at large. This is the fifth offer by the Sri Lanka army to de-list deserters.
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North Carolina medical relief still held by Lanka customs

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 05:33 GMT]
Officials of the North Carolinians for Peace (NCFP) told TamilNet Thursday that they still await resolution to clearing the 54 boxes of medical supplies held by the Sri Lanka customs. "We had good response from the offices of Congressmen Bob Etheridge and David Price, and Senator Richard Burr. They have contacted the US Embassy in Colombo and the US State Department in Washington DC. Our Chair of NCFP Relief operations has also sent a letter to the Sri Lankan Ambassador in DC," Elias Jeyarajah, President of NCFP, told TamilNet.
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