Seven Tamil refugees die in Mannar Sea, seven escape

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2005, 16:47 GMT]
Seven Sri Lankan Tamil refugees of fourteen returning from Ramanathapuram coast in South India to Talaimannar died when their boat capsized in sea due to rough weather Saturday early morning. However seven other refugees escaped by swimming to a nearby sandbank in the Sri Lanka territorial waters. All fourteen left by a boat from Ramanathapuram Friday night around 11 p.m., Mannar legal sources said.
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Norway funds Mannar Educational Resource Center

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 May 2005, 03:00 GMT]
An Educational Resource Center built under Operation Day's Work (ODW) project supported by Develpment funds from the Norwegian Government, was opened in Aandankulam Roman Catholic School in Mannar Friday, sources in Mannar said. ODW project is administered by the Rural Economic, Education Research and Development Organization (REERDO) branch of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, an NGO registered with the Government of Sri Lanka.
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Jaffna protesters urge SLMM action on Santhiveli

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 May 2005, 10:38 GMT]
A demonstration was held in Jaffna town Thursday condemning the firing protesting civilians at Santhiveli by Sri Lankan security forces on Monday. An elderly person was killed and several others, including schoolchildren were wounded.
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Northeast shuts down over checkpoint gunfire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 10:59 GMT]
The normal life was disrupted in several parts of the districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, in the Northeast province Tuesday following a hartal (general shut down) condemning the attack on protesting civilians by Sri Lankan security forces at Santhiveli in Batticaloa, Monday, in which one person was killed and more than 15 others, including 5 school children were injured.
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World Bank will support Joint Mechanism- Peter Harrold

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 May 2005, 17:12 GMT]
Mr.Peter Harrold, World Bank Country Representative in Sri Lanka, Friday said in Puttalam, a Muslim dominated town in the north of Western Province, that the World Bank extends its full support to the implementation of the Joint Mechanism proposed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for tsunami rehabilitation in the northeast.
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Human Rights congress concludes in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 01:42 GMT]
Three-day Human Rights Congress held in Trincomalee town since Friday concluded Sunday night with the cultural programme of district delegations from Jaffna, Batticaloa, Mannar, Vavuniya, Puttalam, and Amparai. About one hundred seventy five human rights activists participated in the Congress organized by the National Protection and Durable Solution for IDPs' Project of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), sources said.
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Human Rights Congress on IDPs begins

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2005, 12:43 GMT]
Three day Human Rights Animators Congress-2005 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) began in Trincomalee Ehambaram Play Ground Friday night. About one hundred seventy five HR activists from the districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Puttalam, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Anuradhapura are participating in the Congress which is being held under the auspices of the National Protection and Durable Solution for IDPs (Internally Displaced People) Project (NPDIP) of the HRCSL, sources said.
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Annai Poopathi death anniversary observed in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 14:20 GMT]
Seventeenth death anniversary of Annai Poopathi, who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 after placing five demands to the Government of India, was observed in the NorthEast province Tuesday. Several hundreds of students, men and women participated in token fast held separately in the five divisions of the Jaffna district Tuesday, organizers said.


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Kumaratunga urged to organise ship service for Tamil returnees from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2005, 15:07 GMT]
Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian appealed Monday to Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge to take immediate steps to arrange a ship for the transportation of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from South India to Sri Lanka. The refugees frequently risk their lives by illegal travel from Thanushkodi in South India to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka- a stretch of 18 km sea- in their anxiety to return to their motherland, the MP said.
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SLN rescues Tamil refugees from Mannar sandbank

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 April 2005, 11:44 GMT]
Mannar Magistrate Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Monday ordered the civil authorities to send twenty three Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to their own villages when they were produced in court on a report that Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) had rescued them from a sandbank in midsea off Talaimannar Sunday around noon, legal sources said.
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SLA allows IDPs to settle in no-man's land near HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2005, 13:34 GMT]
Jaffna area command of the Sri Lanka Army has given permission to the Jaffna district secretariat to relocate a section of the internally displaced families (IDPs) in an area located close to northeast of Palaly High Security Zone (HSZ) following threats by the Valigamam north fisheries societies that they would launch an agitation campaign if their demand were not met, secretariat sources said.
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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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Mannar court remands six suspects in heroin case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 March 2005, 13:39 GMT]
Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Mannar Magistrate Thursday ordered remand till April 12 for six suspects, four Indians and two Sri Lankan Tamils on a report filed by Talaimannar Police that they were allegedly transporting heroin from India by boat, legal sources said.
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NEHRP to reconstruct 7,000 houses in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 15:57 GMT]
The World Bank (WB) funded North East Housing Reconstruction Programme (NEHRP) is to reconstruct 4000 houses destroyed in the war and 3000 houses destroyed by the tsunami in the coastal areas, sources said.
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SEDB distributes solar power units to Mulankavil villagers

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 03:52 GMT]
The Socio Economic Development Bank (SEDB) headquartered in Killinochchi Friday evening distributed eleven solar power units on a loan scheme to its customers to provide electricity to Mulankavil, a village which is located about 45 km west of Killincochi along Poonagari-Mannar road, under its first phase of rural electrification project, sources said.
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Poverty alleviation woes highlighted

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 18:23 GMT]
An organisation for the 'Samurdhi' poverty alleviation program officers in Sri Lanka's northeast and in the Nuwara Eliya District was inaugurated Friday in Vavuniya. Thousands of people living in poverty in several districts of the northeast do not receive any benefit under this program, according to the governers of the new organisation. The Samurdhi program is also affected by a shortage of field officers in the north.
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No identification parade in Mannar alleged rape incident

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 13:55 GMT]
Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Tuesday decided not to hold an identification parade into the allegation of rape and assault on refugees by unidentified men on the sandbank in Mannar Sea during the first week of March. The Magistrate made his order in this regard when three victim men and a women told in reply to court Tuesday that they cannot identify the culprits in an identification parade, legal sources said.
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Refugee woman, children stranded on Adam’s Bridge

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 12:06 GMT]
A refugee woman abandoned on a sandbank in the seas off Mannar with her two children was reported missing Tuesday. Fishermen from Thalaimannar who had given food to the woman and her children informed the parish priest of the area about her plight. “They told me that the woman and her daughters were stranded without food or water since Saturday morning. Sri Lanka navy searched the sandbanks in the area when I brought it to their notice”, Fr. Antonydas Christopher Daleema, parish priest for Thalaimannar told TamilNet Tuesday. Local fishermen do not rescue refugees from mid sea, fearing arrest.
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Workshop held for pre-school officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:10 GMT]
Mr. Tramz-Josepf Kuhn of German ABC Foundation held a one-day workshop Saturday morning for the district, zonal and divisional co-ordinators of pre-schools in Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya on new learning techniques at the International Children School auditorium in Kilinochchi. Mr.S.Rajagopal, Director of the International Children School presided.
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Canadian delegation visits Trincomalee, sees WUSC activities

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 19:16 GMT]
A Canadian parliamentarian delegation led by Ms Maria Minna arrived in Trincomalee Thursday around noon on a fact-finding mission accompanied by Mr.Jean-Philippe Linteau, Political Officer of the Canadian High Commission in Colombo. Other members of the Canadian delegation were Mr.Derek Lee, Mr.Joe Comartin, both parliamentarians and a Senator Mr.Jospeh Day.
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