SLA blocks resettlement in Meeravodai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 September 2003, 13:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has refused permission to 352 displaced Tamil families to resettle in their former homes and land in Meeravodai in Valaichenai Pradeshya Sabai in Batticaloa district, said Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).


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Trinco Lions assist resettled in Paththinipuram village

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 18:56 GMT]
The District Governor of International Lions in Trincomalee, Ms. Soma Edirisinghe, Sunday evening declared open a children's park constructed by the Trincomalee New Century Lions Club at the Paththinipuram Siththivinayagar Tamil Vidiyalayam, and later handed over school materials to students of resettled families at an event held the same day at the school, sources said.


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GA urged to relocate displaced fisher families

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 August 2003, 19:33 GMT]
Palaly Fisheries Society Sunday asked the Jaffna District Government Agent (GA) to take immediate steps to relocate the displaced fisher families from the Palaly high security zone in the coastal areas between Thondamanaru and Valalai who now live in private lands of others in several other villages. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has barred them from resettling in their own lands and houses, fisheries officials said.


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War shattered town seeks freedom to bury

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 August 2003, 16:39 GMT]
Three years ago the people of Chavakachcheri saw their town being bombed and shelled into gnarled ruins and dusty rubble heaps. The guns have fallen silent and the fortunate few are keenly rebuilding. But the resettling residents of Chavakachcheri are also eager to enjoy their freedoms long circumscribed by the war – including the right to bury their dead in the town’s cemetery.
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Thenmaradchi farmers ordered to obtain new IDs from SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2003, 16:31 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Thursday said farmers who are allowed to do cultivation in the released paddy fields in the high security zone in Thenamaradchi division of the Jaffna district should obtain fresh military identity cards to enter their lands, and that the military identity cards already issued and national identity cards will not be accepted, sources said.
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Villages in need of demining identified

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2003, 03:00 GMT]
Mr. R. S. Jeyabalan, the national executive director of the demining group FSD (Swiss Demining Federation), said Wednesday that 59 villages in the Vavuniya and Mannar districts have been identified as infested with land mines and booby traps and in need of demining.
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SLA blocks resettlement within 600 m radius of Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 19:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has declared that the internally displaced families will not be allowed to resettle within a 600 meter radius of the Palaly high security zone in Jaffna district, and SLA authorities have asked those already resettled within 600 meters of the HSZ in Kuppilan north to vacate immediately from the area, civil groups in Jaffna said.
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'Stop alienation of State land in Trincomalee district' - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2003, 15:51 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance’s parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, Saturday made an urgent appeal to the United National Front government to stop the alienation of State land in Trincomalee district as it would cause serious harmful impact on the peace process, saying that such alienation of land was one of the main causes that led to the commencement of war and therefore it would be “tantamount to an abuse of the current ceasefire.”
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5000 stray cattle threaten paddy crops in Thenmaradchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2003, 01:32 GMT]
About five thousand heads of cattle, abandoned by their owners in the Thenamaradchi division in Jaffna district when they fled their villages due to military operation, have gone stray and the Divisional Secretary of the division has sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army to capture these animals in order to save paddy crops by resettled farmers, civil sources said.
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Resettled villager injured in bomb explosion

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2003, 15:22 GMT]
Mr.Kanthan Kandasamy (46), head of a resettled family at Chunnakam in Valigamam north in the Jaffna district, was grievously injured, resulting in the loss of both legs below the knees, when a bomb that had been buried in his land exploded Thursday morning while he was sinking a well in his land, police said.
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3350 persons await resettlement in Trincomalee district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 August 2003, 19:18 GMT]
Around 3350 people from 920 displaced families have been staying in thirteen refugee and welfare camps in the Trincomalee district awaiting resettlement in their own villages, said the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) Deputy Project Director, Mr.N.Puhendran, addressing a gathering at the opening of a new building at Mahavelipura Vidiyalaya in Kantalai, Trincomalee district, Tuesday.
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Owners of paddy lands in HSZ to meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2003, 23:52 GMT]
Owners of the paddy lands ocated in the High Security Zone of Thenmaradchchi in the Jaffna district and released by the Sri Lanka Army for cultivation last week, will meet on August 7 at the office of the Kaithady Divisional Agrarian Office to decide on the next course of action, civil sources said.
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SLA releases a fifth of the paddy fields in Thenmaradchi HSZ

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 July 2003, 15:08 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Thursday said it has released about one thousand acres from the high security zone in the Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district for paddy cultivation. The area declared as HSZ in Thenmaradchi by the SLA in 1999, and in effect since then, girdles more than five thousand acres of paddy fields, farmers’ association sources said.
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Hindu Affairs Ministry to relocate displaced families

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 July 2003, 21:21 GMT]
Steps are being taken to relocate about three hundred displaced families from the high security zones in Myliddy and Palaly, who are living elsewhere in the Ilavalai in Valigamam divisions, and in the first phase, thirty families will be resettled, said Hindu Affairs Minister Mr. T. Maheswaran, according to sources in Jaffna.
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More Tamil refugees in India return to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2003, 16:49 GMT]
Twenty-one more Sri Lankan Tamil refugees Sunday early morning arrived in Nedunthivu islet in Jaffna district from South India by boats. They are natives of Jaffna district and fled to South India due to military operation by Sri Lankan security forces, sources said.


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HSZ issue blocks relocation of eighty displaced families

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2003, 17:39 GMT]
Civilian officials in Jaffna are in a quandary to relocate about eighty internally displaced families now temporarily living in a low lying area in Point Pedro, as the security establishment, citing that the areas selected for resettlement are close to High Security Zones (HSZs), is blocking every move to find a suitable site, Jaffna district secretariat sources said.


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38, 000 houses completely destroyed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 July 2003, 03:02 GMT]
The Jaffna Humanitarian Agencies Consortium said Thursday that about one hundred and sixty five thousand houses have been damaged or completely destroyed due to the war in the Jaffna peninsula, sources said.
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129 families resettled in Omanthai area

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 June 2003, 05:57 GMT]
Vavuniya Government Agent K. Ganesh said Friday at a meeting held in Vavuniya Secreatariat that in three villages adjoining the High Security Zone in Omanthai area 129 families have been resettled, according to Secretariat officials.


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NGO to assist farmers affected by HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 00:15 GMT]
An international non-governmental organization ACTIONFAIM has formulated a scheme to provide livelihood assistance to resettled villagers in Thenamaradchchi division in Jaffna district who are unable to cultivate their agricultural lands occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), divisional secretariat sources said.
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‘Let my people lead normal lives’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 20:01 GMT]
“My people have endured great agony and suffering for twenty years. Let them lead normal lives like those in other parts of the country”, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph told a delegation of Sri Lankan armed forces and officials that is on a fact finding visit to the district on the island’s northwestern coast Tuesday. “It is imperative that they shouldn’t be made to wait any longer for their rightful share of the peace dividend which everyone outside the northeast has enjoyed for more than an year”, the Bishop said.
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