Missing youth last seen arrested by SLA - Witnesses

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2003, 05:41 GMT]
Two witnesses told the Vavuniya district court Judge, Mr. M.Ilancheliyan, during court proceedings yesterday that they saw Anthonythas Ariyathas, a youth from Mullaithivu, being arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at the Mullaithivu beach before his disappearance in 25 August 1985, legal sources in Vavuniya said.


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Court issues temporary order against TULF meetings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2003, 11:25 GMT]
Colombo district court today issued an interim injunction against the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) holding Central Committee meetings until the 31 December, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Sinhala Nationalists demand arrest of Sri Lanka’s PM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 16:20 GMT]
The Patriotic National Movement (PNM) of Sri Lanka, an alliance of Sinhala nationalists and hardline Buddhist monks, Tuesday held a demonstration in Colombo and handed over a letter to Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, saying that the Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, and all persons responsible for the police raid on the Millennium City military safe house should be arrested immediately and punished.
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SLA recruits, readying for closer ties with India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 14:09 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has begun another recruitment drive for its commando regiment in the Sinhala majority districts of the island, promising good pay and attractive perks, sources in Colombo said Tuesday. The recruitment drive comes amidst indications that India would provide greater training facilities for Sri Lankan armed forces under a defence cooperation treaty which Colombo and New Delhi are expected to sign soon.
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Tamil Eelam bank operates without SL Govt. approval - Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 12:02 GMT]
"Neither the Central Bank of Sri Lanka nor the Ministry of Finance of Government of Sri Lanka has given approval for the functioning of the Tamil Eelam Bank, several branches of which are located in the Liberation Tigers controlled areas," said United National Front government’s Finance Minister, Mr.K.N.Choksy, during discussions in Sri Lanka parliament today, political sources from Colombo said.


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Final talks to end Colombo deadlock fail

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 13:38 GMT]
A last ditch attempt to overcome the forty one day dead lock between Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister failed Monday, senior officials in Colombo said. Spokesmen for the President and the PM tried to play down the impasse. "Both sides appear to have come to the conclusion that eventually a general election is the only viable end to this deadlock", a source close to the PM said.
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Trincomalee resident wins UNHCR Award

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 09:17 GMT]
Miss Arunothini Arulsubramaniam of Trincomalee has received a prestigious award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Ruud Lubbers, at the Geneva Headquarters on 5th December 2003 for Promotion of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Refugee women.
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Jaffna said apprehensive of US military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2003, 09:59 GMT]
Senior government officials in Jaffna told a visiting US state department official Sunday that Tamils in the northern peninsula are “apprehensive about US military assistance to Sri Lanka- they fear that it would jeopardise peace”. Mr. Nicholas J. Dean, Deputy Director, Office of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan Affairs, US State Department, visited Jaffna Sunday and had discussions with senior government officials and the Bishop of Jaffna. The US officials and his team refused to speak to local media.
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SLMM Chief grounded in Oslo - Paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 22:24 GMT]
For the last one and a half months, since he was declared persona non grata by the Sri Lankan President the chief of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Major General (ret.) Tryggve Tellefsen (62), is forced to work from Oslo Norway with remaining members of SLMM in Sri Lanka, using telephone and e-mail, writes the Norwegian daily Aftenposten in its Saturday issue. The paper adds that the situation is unsatisfactory that the likelihood of Tellefsen resigning from his post cannot be ruled out.


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Colombo urged to delegate Rights cases to Provincial Courts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 20:19 GMT]
Leading human rights activist Mr. Kasinathar Sivapalan Saturday appealed to the Sri Lanka government to transfer the jurisdiction of inquiring into fundamental and human right applications from Colombo Supreme Court to the provincial high courts. “Ordinary citizen should be given easy access to obtain relief where he or she lives,” said Mr.Sivapalan addressing the Universal Human Rights day celebrations held Saturday at the Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall.


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NE bags 24 first places in Tamil day competitions

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 17:59 GMT]
The All Island Tamil day celebrations and distribution of awards to winners of competitions to mark the day would be held Sunday morning at Bambalapitya New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo. Of 47 events in the competitions, first places in 24 events and second places in 07 events have been won by students from schools in the Tamil dominated northeast province, provincial education sources said.
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"UNP ready to seek fresh mandate from people" - Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 14:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe Saturday said the Presdient has no power to take over the defense ministry according to the constitution and her action in this regard should be considered a violation of the peoples’ mandate at the last general election. “The President should work in close co-operation with the political party having a majority in the parliament,” said Mr.Wickremasinghe addressing the 49th National Convention of the United National Party, Saturday at Sugathathasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo.
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Vavuniya Tamils decry Indian objections to ISGA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 06:27 GMT]
Criticizing the comments made by the former Indian foreign secretary, Mr. M.K. Rasgotra, at a conference in Colombo on December 4, saying that India could not accept the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals submitted by the Liberation Tigers, the Federation of Vavuniya Cattle breeders unions said in a statement Friday that the Tamil people would totally reject the opinion of Mr. Rasgotra.
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NorthEast farmers face dire economic future - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2003, 12:13 GMT]
"Farmers in NorthEast have been facing severe hardship for the past several years. Many have to pawn their belongings now to continue to be able to cultivate their lands and earn a living," said Leader of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and MP Selvam Adaikalanathan during a parliamentary debate on allocation of funds for the Ministry of Agriculture and livestock, sources in Colombo said.


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LTTE Education Council spotlights NE shortcomings

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2003, 00:01 GMT]
" We earnestly request the international agencies and other authorities to take effective measures to remove the Sri Lanka Army from the areas in the northeast province where schools are located in the high security zones and from the vicinity of schools, so that they can function in a favorable and peaceful atmosphere," the LTTE's Education Council of Thamileelam said in a paper presented at the workshop held in Trincomalee Thursday.
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Jaffna shuts down in protest against SLA shooting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2003, 04:56 GMT]
Shops, businesses, public offices were closed and few people and vehicles were on the roads in Jaffna Thursday in response to a call to observe a general shut down (Hartal) in the peninsula against the Sri Lanka army for shooting at a newspaper seller and wounding a commuter on Tuesday in the busy centre of the northern town.
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UNICEF funded immunization survey begins in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2003, 00:27 GMT]
The expanded programme of immunization survey is to be launched in the Jaffna district, after two decades, with the UNICEF funding Thursday. All children under school-going age would be brought under the survey to ensure whether they have been immunized properly during the war period and after, health ministry sources said.
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NE pre-school education development program inaugurated

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 17:58 GMT]
A seven-day residential training camp for pre-school education coordinators of the education zones of Trincomalee and Vavuniya south began Wednesday in Trincomalee. The training program has been organized by the North East Pre School Education Development Council (PSEDC) and funded by the Norwegian-Swedish agency, FORUT, and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization in the northeast province, TRO sources said.
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Sri Lanka President, PM talks inconclusive on peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 09:07 GMT]
Crucial talks between Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe Wednesday failed to reach any consensus on how Colombo is going to restart peace negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, sources said.
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Parents of Jaffna missing protest against HRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2003, 08:33 GMT]
The Jaffna Missing Persons Association and Mothers’ Front held a protest in front of the office of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) in the northern town Wednesday. The protesting parents of the 234 young Jaffna men and women who went missing after they were arrested by the Sri Lanka army in 1996 and 97 accused the HRC of sidelining their issue in its recent work on the human rights situation in the northern province.
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