Damage to Northeast hospitals yet to be assessed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 14:53 GMT]
No estimate has yet been carried out about the damages caused by the tsunami to hospitals at Velvetithurai, Mullaitivu, Ninthavur, and Pothuvil and the rural hospitals at Chalamimadu and Kuchchaveli. Sources at the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine of the Northeast said that four district hospitals, six rural health centres, one rural hospital and two terminal health units have been destroyed in the tsunami disaster in the east.
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Iranaimadu spill water submerges Paranthan villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 10:58 GMT]
Torrential rain across Vanni district the last three days has filled the Iranaimadu tank to levels close to the maximum 34 feet forcing the spillway administrators to open the sluice gates at 32 feet water level, sources in Vanni said. Villages in 14 Grama Sevaka divisions are badly affected and villages north of Murasumoddai-Paranthan road in Kandavalai AGA division are submerged in flood waters, sources added.


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Sri Lanka army permits hinder Kalmadu resettlement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 December 2004, 15:41 GMT]
Refugee families that resettled in Kalmadu, 15 kilometres northwest of Vavuniya, said Thursday that rebuilding their lives is difficult because they have to obtain special permits from the Sri Lanka army for access to their fields. The village was destroyed in a Sri Lanka army operation in 1999. The villagers of Kalmadu lost all their belongings when they fled the war. They returned in late 2002, many months after Colombo signed a cease fire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers.
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Vidataltivu residents lack medical facilities, ambulance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 November 2004, 12:48 GMT]
Vidataltivu, a fishing hamlet located about 30 km off Mannar town in the Liberation Tigers controlled area in the Mannar administrative district is without medical, transport and other essential facilities. The government hospital with its new building constructed by the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and handed over to the Department of Health has no permanent medical officer.
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Vavuniya residents raise stink over undisposed garbage

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2004, 02:22 GMT]
Residents and businesses in Vavuniya have been raising a stink over the smell of undisposed garbage accumulating for the last several days as Vavuniya Urban Council (UC) searched for an alternate site to dump the municipal district garbage, civil sources in Vavuniya said. Villagers from Rasendrakulam located 4km south of Vavuniya where the landfill is located had prevented the UC from dumping garbage in their village saying that large amount of garbage near residential area is polluting the environment.
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Ex Policeman charged for raping fourteen year old girl

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2004, 08:39 GMT]
An ex-Policeman was charged in Vavuniya courts for raping a fourteen year old girl, legal sources in the northern border town said Thursday. The girl has given birth to a child, Police said. The Children’s and Women’s Welfare Division of the Vavuniya Police filed the case Thursday on a complaint by the girl’s parents .


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Suspected Karuna associates kill civilian

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 October 2004, 10:00 GMT]
A civilian was shot dead by gunmen suspected to members of the paramilitary lead by renegade Liberation Tigers commander ‘Karuna’ Sunday night around 8 in Omadiyamadu, an interior village near the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border, Police said. The man was identified as Mr. Vannamani Dharmarajah, 40. Valaichenai Police said that they had no further details of the person.


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Tigers kill two Karuna group cadres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2004, 13:55 GMT]
Special Forces of the Liberation Tigers' Jeyanthan Regiment Saturday morning attacked a group of heavily armed paramilitary cadres northwest of Batticaloa, killing two and wounding three around 6.30 a.m., LTTE sources in the east said. The group of ten men from the paramilitary led by renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna' were in a safe house in Omadiyamadu near the Polannaruwa-Batticaloa district border, the sources said.
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Tigers kill paramilitary operative in Batticaloa jungle

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2004, 19:03 GMT]
A close associate of renegade Liberation Tigers' commander 'Karuna' was shot dead by LTTE's special jungle warfare units operating in Kulaththu Madu near Vakaneri, 40 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Friday night around 11 p.m. according to well informed sources in the eastern town. The dead paramilitary cadre was identified as 'Ruben'. LTTE sources in Batticaloa said he was involved in the murder of one of their supporters in Kiran recently. Kiran is a village controlled by the Sri Lanka army.
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Tension in Akkaraipattu after attack on shops

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 September 2004, 04:43 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Akkaraipattu Thursday after several shops in the Tamil division of the southeastern town were smashed up in the early hours of Thursday morning. "Sri Lanka Police stood by doing nothing while some thugs attacked the shops. The attack is aimed at instigating a violence between Muslims and Tamils. We are determined to stop this by peaceful means. We appeal to Tamils and our Muslim brethren not to rise to the bait of those who want to fan communal violence and divide our people", said Mr. S. Kuyilinpan, head of the LTTE's political division for the Ampara District Thursday.
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LTTE says arms, documents recovered from Reggie

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 September 2004, 12:41 GMT]
The political division of the Liberation for Batticaloa-Amparai said in a statement issued Friday that Karuna’s brother Reggie and two of his associates were shot dead by the special jungle warfare units of the Jeyanthan Regiment around 5.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 21 September 2004. They were killed in a jungle near the Maduru Oya reservoir, according to the LTTE statement. “Communications equipment, weapons with serial numbers erased and some documents were captured from Raggie and his associates”, the Tigers said.
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Karuna's brother killed in LTTE operation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 05:34 GMT]
The deputy of renegade Liberation Tigers commander Karuna was killed in an ambush by LTTE forces in the Maduru Oya sector on the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border in the early hours of Thursday, according to well informed sources in the eastern district. An LTTE official said there was an operation by their special forces in the interior jungles northwest of Batticaloa against some elements of renegade commander Karuna's paramilitary, which the Tigers say is working with the Sri Lanka army. 'Reggie', the deputy leader of the paramilitary, is the elder brother of Karuna.
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SLA trooper commits suicide in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2004, 10:45 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army soldier committed suicide by shooting himself in his bunker in Pampaimadu, 5 kilometres west of Vavuniya Saturday, Police in the northern border town said.
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TECH district office opened in Trinco

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2004, 02:06 GMT]
The Trincomalee district office of The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), a Non-Governmental Non-Profit Sharing Organization registered with the Government of Sri Lanka, and a computer training center was opened Friday morning at No 16, Green Road, Trincomalee. TECH has its headquarters in A9 Road, Iranaimadu Junction in Killinochchi.
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Estate youths seek greener pastures

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2004, 05:15 GMT]
Growing population of young adults within the community of plantation workers in hill country towns of Nuwara Eliya, Hatton, Bandarawela and others see education as their best opportunity to break out of the miserable living conditions their parents endure. More are seeking lower-middle class employment in and out of their estates. "Out of the thirty staff running this show room, fifteen are children of plantation workers," said Malar Rani who attends to the stream of visitors inspecting the merchandize displayed at the Laboakellie tea estate, located 15 km north of Nuwara Eliya town.
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Price hikes ease Jaffna farmers' burden

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2004, 10:50 GMT]
Despite unfavorable market conditions, prices of onions have increased from a July low of Rs.12 per kilo in Colombo markets, to a respectable Rs.40 to Rs.50 per kilo, according to traders dealing with perishable goods. Market watchers earlier warned that unplanned cultivation and increasing use of artifical fertilizers in Jaffna would result in oversupply leading to plunging market prices.
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Troubled Vavuniya campus to reopen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 17:18 GMT]
The Vavuniya campus of the University of Jaffna will re-open from 1 September, officials said Thursday. The campus has been troubled by student unrest since June.
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Poojas on plastic in Meenakshi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2004, 16:49 GMT]
Devotees of the Meenakshi Sundareswar temple in Madurai, 500 km south of Chennai, can now swipe the card to pay for their poojas and donate for temple charities, IANS reported this week.
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Security Forces, LTTE meet in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 00:14 GMT]
Liberation Tigers agreed to cooperate with Sri Lanka Security Forces to bring the violence and murders in Vavuniya district under control in a meeting attended by Senior LTTE officials and Security Forces commanders at the offices of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Vavuniya Monday, security sources said.
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11th Thileepan medical unit opened in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 June 2004, 17:45 GMT]
Colonel Banu of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday afternoon declared open the eleventh "Thyaga Theepam" Thileepan Medical Service Medical Unit of LTTE in the village Pattalipuram in the LTTE held Muttur east, down south of Trincomalee town. Trincomalee district LTTE Military Commander Sornam unveiled the name board of the Thileepan dispensary.
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