Navy rescues two Tamils from sandbank in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 14:07 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Tuesday ordered remand till July 22 for two persons-one Sri Lankan Tamil and another Indian citizen when they were produced by Talaimannar Police on a report that they had been rescued from a sandbank in Mannar sea by Sri Lanka Navy Monday evening around 5 p.m., legal sources said.
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NorthEast Governor visits Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 July 2005, 16:24 GMT]
Fishermen from Pesalai and Talaimannar in Mannar district Friday complained to NorthEast Governor Mr.Tyronne Fernando that deepening of the Palk Straits under the Sethusamudram Canal Project (SSCP) would destroy the breeding ground of fish in the sea territory close to Mannar shore. Mr.Tyronne Fernando during his one-day visit to Mannar Friday afternoon met with groups of fishermen in Pesalai and Talaimannar separately and inquired about their grievances and difficulties, Mannar district secretariat sources said.
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"No international legal action on SSCP project"- Kadirgamar

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 July 2005, 10:41 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has rejected a suggestion to take up the controversial Sethusamudram Canal Project (SSCP) to the International Court of Justice. "With regard to the reference made by a parliamentarian to possible international legal action, it must be said that at this point it is some what premature and remains in the realm of possibility. This is so because the Indian authorities at the highest level have indicated that they will co-operate with us and we hope they would agree to joint monitoring and assessment of any adverse implications,"said Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Foreign Minister in a seven-page statement on the SSCP in parliament Thursday evening, parliamentary sources said.


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Australian envoy, Japanese officials visit Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 July 2005, 20:14 GMT]
Dr.Greg French, High Commissioner of Australia in Sri Lanka, Wednesday paid an official visit to Mannar district and held discussions with the Mannar Government Mr.V.Visvalingam. Australian envoy was accompanied by his Second Secretary (Political Section) Mr. Will Nankerrif and Mr.Alex Knox, Development Programme Specialist in the Australian Agency for International Development, sources said.
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Tamil youth arrested at Uyilankulam checkpoint

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 July 2005, 10:01 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Wednesday ordered remand till July 20 for a Tamil youth, Mr. V. Sugunthan, on a report from the Mannar Police that the suspect had been arrested on suspicion when entering the government controlled area through Uyilankulam sentry from the LTTE held area in Vanni, legal sources said.
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NorthEast observes Black Tigers Day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 July 2005, 16:28 GMT]
NorthEast Tuesday observed Black Tigers Day with sport events and public meetings, sources in Jaffna said. A main event was held Tuesday evening at Nelliyady Central College in Vadamaradchchi division in Jaffna district where on 5th July, 1987 Captain Miller, the first Black Tiger drove an explosive laden truck on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops garrisoned in the school. Forty soldiers were killed in that attack.


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Indian High Commissioner discusses Canal Project in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 July 2005, 10:22 GMT]
Ms Nirupama Rao, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Monday visited Mannar and met high ranking navy officials in Thalaimannar, Government Agent of Mannar Mr V Viswalingam and UPFA Minister (SLMC rebel MP) Mr Rishard Badurdeen, and discussed issues related to Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP), sources said. The SSCP attempts to create a navigable sea route between Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal within India’s own territorial waters.
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Mannar schools receive Photovoltaic systems

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 July 2005, 01:26 GMT]
Mannar branch of the The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), an NGO working to promote economic development in the NorthEast, gave Solar lighting systems to fifteen schools in Mannar which do not have electric supply at an event Monday held at Mannar Karungandal Roman Catholic Mixed School, presided by LTTE's Mannar district Political Head, Mr Iniyavan, sources said.
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Navy arrests 25 Tamil refugees in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2005, 16:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Wednesday morning arrested twenty-five Tamil refugees returning from Tamilnadu in South India and the two boatmen in the Mannar Sea, sources said. The Talaimannar Police produced all of the arrested in Mannar Court Thursday morning.
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Mannar Magistrate inspects damaged LTTE political offices

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 09:17 GMT]
Mannar acting Magistrate, Mr.M.B.Farook, accompanied by a police team Sunday morning visited the two offices of the Liberation Tigers which were attacked by suspected members of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), Saturday night.
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Tamil refugees rescued from sandbank in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 01:39 GMT]
Fourteen Tamil refugees including four children returning from Tamilnadu in South India were rescued from a sandbank in the Mannar Sea by Mannar fishermen Friday. The refugees were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and handed over to the Talaimannar police Friday evening, sources said.
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Mannar LTTE offices come under attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2005, 16:51 GMT]
Two offices of the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled area of Mannar have been simultaneously attacked by suspected gunmen belonging to Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) around 9.45 pm Saturday with grenades and gunfire, sources in Mannar said. Sounds of grenade explosions and gunfire were heard near the political office of the LTTE, located in Mannar-Thalaimannar Road and LTTE's administrative office located in Mannar Moor street. TamilNet has not confirmed whether a third office in Moor street of LTTE's financial division was also attacked, sources added.
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Youths remanded in Talaimannar shooting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 10:48 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate, Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah, Wednesday ordered remand till June 22 three suspects, Selliah Nimalanathan, Jeyanathan and K.Karthigesu, who were produced in Mannar Courts in connection with the shooting that took place Tuesday morning close to Talaimannar old bridge area. In this incident a soldier of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Mr. Meegoda Japthige Jayalath was injured, police said.
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SLN soldier injured in gunfire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2005, 08:59 GMT]
Mr.Meegoda Jathika Jayalath (25), soldier of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) was injured when an unidentified gunman shot at him Tuesday morning around 6.45 AM on a group SLN soldiers on patrol duty at Old Bridge junction in Talaimannar in Mannar district. According to preliminary investigation by the police, one of the two unidentified men clad in shorts had come across the SLN soldiers and fired at them. Injured soldier is a native of Ahangama in Galle district, police said.
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Koushalyan Medical Unit serves villagers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2005, 18:06 GMT]
Lt.Colonel Koushalyan Mobile Medical Service (KMMS) conducted its second medical camp in Vavuniya North on Thursday and Friday, sources said. KMMS was established to serve people in remote villages in the NorthEast where residents undergo untold hardships in obtaining access to basic medical care.
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Sri Lanka will accept India's Air Defence System- Kadirgamar

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2005, 10:41 GMT]
"[India's Air Defence system] is very much under discussion. We will accept it. We are looking into means how it could be done," said Minister Kadirgamar at the joint press briefing at the Foreign Ministry office in Colombo Friday. Mr Natwar Singh, India's Foreign Minister concurred "Defence cooperation agreement is in the process of being finalised, we are going through some procedures." Senior Foreign Ministry officials of both countries were present at the briefing which was held soon after the 6th session of the Sri Lanka -India Joint Commission in Colombo.
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ILO funds bakery training center in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 23:58 GMT]
International Labor Organization (ILO) funded Bakery Training Center was opened in Illupaikadavai in Mannar district Thursday at 10 am sources in Mannar said. Ten teen aged boys and girls who dropped out of school due to war, and another ten women head of households were selected to receive training to build bakery skills in the center.
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Hartal paralyzes NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 11:06 GMT]
Normal life in the northeast province was disrupted Friday following the one-day general shut down condemning the failure by the Sri Lanka Government to withdraw troops from Trincomalee town in large numbers. More than fifteen hundred troops are deployed in the east port town following the controversy over the erection of a Buddha statue in a land located close to the central bus stand.
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Do Sri Lanka's defense forces have conventional warfare capability?- Taraki

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 May 2005, 00:34 GMT]
In an article in the Colombo-based Tamil daily, Virakesari, on March 27, 2005, Dharmaretnam Sivaram, analyzed the history of Sri Lanka's defense forces and argued that from the very beginning, the Sri Lankan forces' mission was to confront internal crises that the country's ruling elite feared as grave threats, without the strategic thinking required for conventional warfare or to confront external threats.
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SLN arrests 7 Tamils in Kachchativu Island

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2005, 13:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy Wednesday night took into custody seven Sri Lankan Tamils, four women and three men when they were waiting in Kachchativu Island for an Indian boat to take them to Tamilnadu shore in South India. Mannar Magistrate Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Thursday ordered them to be remanded till Friday, legal sources said.
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