Swiss firefighting equipment held by Lanka customs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 14:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Customs on recommendation from Sri Lanka security forces have refused to release a container with fire fighting equipment sent to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) from Switzerland, officials of TRO said. In a press release issued from Colombo Tuesday, TRO officials added that the equipments are neither banned nor illegal to import, and are intended for use during emergencies in refugee camps.
Full story >>

Red Cross signs MoU to reconstruct tsunami hit medical institutions

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) and the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) have undertaken to reconstruct, renovate, repair and equip General Hospitals, Base Hospitals, District Hospitals, Rural Hospitals, Peripheral Units and Central Dispensaries in the tsunami affected areas throughout the island.
Full story >>

Norway slams Colombo media report

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 12:00 GMT]
Norway Tuesday slammed a Colombo media report that it has conveyed a warning to the Government of Sri Lanka and international donors that it is considering a suspension of its role as facilitator to the Peace Process. The Norwegian embassy in Colombo categorically denied the report. Daily Mirror published from Colombo in a lead story Tuesday quoting "informed sources" said: "the LTTE may withdraw from the ceasefire agreement and Norway may suspend its role as facilitator if the government fails to set up a joint mechanism with the LTTE before the end of April to handle tsunami rebuilding in the northeast".
Full story >>

Commission on eastern killings to record evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 12:32 GMT]
The commission appointed by Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga to inquire into attacks on the Liberation Tigers in the east will record evidence from 28 March to 8 April 2005, according to a media release by the President’s officer in Colombo Monday. The commission on “alleged attacks on LTTE” will record evidence “to ascertain the circumstances and/or the motive leading to the attacks on those alleged to be LTTE Cadres”, according to the release. Tigers dismissed the commission as “eyewash” last week, pointing to the fate of four Presidential commissions that inquired into massacres of Tamil civilians in the east by Sri Lankan armed forces.
Full story >>

Japanese delegation to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 09:22 GMT]
A Japanese Government delegation on Tsunami disaster, Consisting of 32 experts from 12 ministries will visit Sri Lanka this week, according to a press release issued by Embassy of Japan in Colombo, Monday.
Full story >>

Epidemic fears grow in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2005, 13:12 GMT]
Dr.T.Thavakodirajah, Regional Epidemiologist, citing in a report to Colombo health authorities, of Dengue cases in the Ministry of Health (MOH) areas of Trincomalee and Kinniya, malaria cases in Trincomalee MOH area, viral hepatitis cases in Sampoor in Muttur MOH division and dysentery cases in Muttur town, added that immediate action needs to be taken to arrest the spread of infectious diseases, sources said.
Full story >>

US Senator's office exposes Lanka customs clearance fraud

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2005, 13:10 GMT]
An over-charge of nearly US$4000 on an NGO during clearance of relief supplies was discovered due to the intervention of Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes office, sources said. The fraud was discovered when officials of a Baltimore Church and Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), approached the Congressman for help to pressure Sri Lanka Government to waive the nearly $7000 US taxes it imposed on five water purifiers sent by the Baltimore church to NorthEast victims of recent tsunami.
Full story >>

Arrest rising chauvinism, extremism, TNA tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 March 2005, 12:15 GMT]
Accusing Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister of "inciting the forces of chauvinism and extremism" in Sri Lanka by rushing to describe World Bank official Mr Peter Harrold's statements on Liberation Tigers, without checking their veracity, as "provocative," Mr Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in his statement in Sri Lanka's parliament on the current political situation, urged the Sri Lanka Government to speak with one voice regarding taking the peace process forward, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Indian ships to train SLN cadets

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2005, 16:09 GMT]
Three Indian naval ships have arrived in Colombo to provide sea training for Sri Lanka naval (SLN)cadets exposing them to various naval operations at sea, under India-Sri Lanka "Training Exchange Programme," said a press release from Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka issued Thursday. The commanding officers of the ships are also scheduled to have formal meetings with Sri Lanka navy officers, the release added.
Full story >>

JVP's last card, churning up chauvinist cauldron- DLF

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2005, 12:36 GMT]
"Desperate to retain its portfolios, having nothing to show for what it has so far achieved by being in government, haunted by the nightmare of 1970-1975 coalition politics that nearly destroyed the LSSP and CP, the JVP is now floundering, it is drowning in very shallow water...A democratic solution of the national question terrifies the JVP by cutting off its raison d’être. That’s what happens when you sacrifice your socialist responsibilities for chauvinist pandering," says Vasudeva Nanayakkara, veteran trade unionist and secretary, Democratic Left Front (DLF), in the newsletter issued in Colombo 5 March.
Full story >>

Sinhala nationalists burn World Bank official’s effigy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2005, 10:58 GMT]
More than three thousand slogan chanting Sinhala nationalists Thursday burnt the effigy of World Bank’s resident representative for Sri Lanka, Mr. Peter Harrold in downtown Colombo, demanding that he be sent out for saying that there is an unofficial state in the island’s northeast. The demonstration against the World Bank was organized by the Patriotic National Movement, an alliance of Sinhala nationalists backed by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s powerful coalition partner, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).


Full story >>

Norway ‘optimistic on joint mechanism’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2005, 15:38 GMT]
Norwegian Peace Envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, told the Liberation Tigers’ Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, whom he met Wednesday that Oslo was optimistic that a joint mechanism for aid distribution could be agreed “soon” between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Mr. Solheim also conveyed Colombo’s concerns over the LTTE’s airstrip in Vanni to Mr. Balasingham.
Full story >>

Thamilchelvan, Nadesan bound for Europe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2005, 13:52 GMT]
A high level delegation of Liberation Tigers will begin an official visit to several European capitals from Friday. “Our meetings will focus on delivering aid to Tsunami affected people in northeast directly and efficiently”, Mr. S. Puleedevan, Secretary General of the LTTE peace secretariat in Kilinochchi, told TamilNet. The delegation led by Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of LTTE’s political division, leaves Colombo Thursday and will travel to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Switzerland. The Tigers will also visit the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Puleedevan said.


Full story >>

LTTE, Sri Lanka joint mechanism urgent need - EU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 15:20 GMT]
The European Union's Commissioner for External Relations, Ms.Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Tuesday called for the speedy establishment of a joint mechanism between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to distribute Tsunami aid. Addressing a news conference in Colombo Tuesday she emphasized that the joint mechanism was an ‘urgent need’.
Full story >>

Killings escalate in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 March 2005, 03:43 GMT]
A paramilitary cadre waiting to board a bus to Colombo in front of Police headquarters office in Batticaloa town was shot dead by unidentified gunmen around 5.10 a.m. Tuesday. Another paramilitary cadre was gunned in the Eravur area, 14 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Monday night around 9.15. Eravur Police sources investigating the murder said that he was a member of the Razeek Group, an auxiliary of the Sri Lanka army.
Full story >>

EU commissioner hopeful of LTTE, GoSL joint mechanism for aid delivery

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 March 2005, 18:04 GMT]
The European union's commissioner for external relations Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner met the Srilankan President Chandrika kumaratunga Monday and said "she hopes...that the Government would soon evolve a joint mechanism to ensure the equitable distribution of aid to all affected areas," in a press release issued in Colombo.
Full story >>

UNICEF has erred - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 18:47 GMT]
The question of child soldiers continues to vex strained relations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers. That the matter has been raised against the Tigers by the UN and other rights organizations is considered by Colombo as a feather in its foreign policy cap. "The Government of Sri Lanka is more interested in cynically exploiting the child soldiers issue for its black propaganda war against us than in finding a political solution to the conflict", said Mr. S. P . Thamilchelvan in an interview with the TamilNet this week. He said there were serious errors in the UNICEF report on child recruitment by the LTTE.
Full story >>

Army desecrates Muslim cemetery, Pulmoddai villagers protest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 15:41 GMT]
Residents of traditional Muslim village of Pulmoddai closed their shops, set up road blocks, and burnt tyres Saturday protesting against the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for forcibly digging their cemetery and removing human remains out of the burial sites, sources said. Pulmoddai village is located about 65 km, north of Trincomalee town on the border area close to Mullaitivu district.
Full story >>

Suspected Karuna Group operative killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 March 2005, 09:29 GMT]
A man suspected to be a cadre of the paramilitary Karuna Group was shot dead in Vanthaarumoolai, 18 kilometres north of Batticaloa Saturday, Police said. He was identified as Mr. Mylvaganam Pulenthiran, 26. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force flew the paramilitary cadre who was shot and seriously injured in Batticaloa town Saturday morning to Colombo, Police said.
Full story >>

Tsunami hit Trinco fishermen receive help

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 March 2005, 04:05 GMT]
Tsunami-hit fishermen of coastal areas in the Trincomalee town are to receive assistance from Trincomalee branch of the Economic Consultancy House (TECH) to buy fishing gear. An event to mark the first phase of the project was held in the office of the Pallathoddam Rural Development Society hall in Uppuveli, a suburb of the east port town, civil sources said. Twenty seven fishermen of Pallathoddam village who lost their belongings in tsunami received new sets of fishing gear at the event.
Full story >>