Trinco TRO launches housing project in Paththinipuram

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 19:17 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Trincomalee Monday launched a housing project for the resettled families in Paththinipuram, a hamlet in Tampalakamam division and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Trincomalee district political head Mr.S.Tilak Monday around 12 noon laid the foundation stone for the first house to be constructed, sources said.
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SLA allows re-opening of Gurunagar ice factory

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has agreed for the opening of Gurunagar ice factory when Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees Minister Dr.Jayalath Jayawardene Monday held discussions with Colonel Udawatte of 512 Brigade of the SLA located at Gurunagar in Jaffna district, security sources in Jaffna said.


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NECORD helps build war destroyed school buildings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 14:28 GMT]
Two new school buildings constructed at a cost of about three million rupees by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) programme in the resettled Tamil villages Kumburupiddy and Kuchchaveli in the north of Trincomalee district were declared open Saturday, education officials in Trincomalee said.
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Sampanthan writes to PM on interim administration

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 14:28 GMT]
The parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan Monday sent a letter to the Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister urging him to act with “adequate clarity and certainty the commitment as stated in his 2001 general election manifesto that an Interim Administration will be set up for the northeast province and such a step will strengthen and consolidate the peace process.”
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UNHCR assists Trincomalee needy through SLRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2003, 01:57 GMT]
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) through the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) in the Trincomalee district is providing free spectacles and other medical assistance to help the poor, said the officer in charge of the UNHCR in Trincomalee, Ms Rocelle Brown, when addressing an event in connection the World Red Cross Day.
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Rehabilitate Northeast before 'Regaining' Sri Lanka - NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 May 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The Chairman of the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Trincomalee, Mr.T.Thavasilingam, speaking at a discussion held Tuesday in Trincomalee attended by representatives of provincial trade unions, said that there was an urgent need for rehabilitating all infrastructure destroyed in the twenty-year-old war in the northeast province simultaneously with the resettlement of internally displaced persons.
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TRO donates clothes to Aligambay resettlers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2003, 18:58 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) on Friday donated clothes to the resettled people in the village of Aligambay, in the Thirukovil secretariat division in the Ampara district, TRO officials said.
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TNA leader demands reduced army presence in population centers

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 April 2003, 01:14 GMT]
"It is the birthright of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) to resettle in their own lands. There is no need for the internally displaced Tamil families in Jaffna district to seek permission from the government or the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to return to their own lands," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan addressing a gathering at the Jaffna office of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Sunday on the current political situation, sources said.


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Netherlands aids NE resettlement, educational development

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 April 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The Ambassador for Netherlands in Sri Lanka, Ms. Susan Blankhart, Tuesday inaugurated the scheme for granting livelihood assistance for resettled families in the eight districts of the North-East province and the donation of school furniture to improve education in the province at a function held at the Trincomalee Town Hall, sources said.
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Returnees face uphill task in rebuilding Illupaikulam

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 April 2003, 11:16 GMT]
Displaced people from Illupaikulum, a village located six kilometers north of the east port town along the Trincomalee Kuchchaveli main road, are returning to resettle in their lands with the signing of the ceasefire agreement. After fifteen years of neglect with the village overgrown with jungles and its basic infrastructure facilities destroyed in war, the returning residents face an uphill task in rebuilding their village, sources said.
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SLN mines infest Talaimannar Mosque

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 April 2003, 15:49 GMT]
More than 300 hundred Muslim families are unable to resettle in Talaimannar because their homes are in minefields laid by the Sri Lanka Navy which are yet to be cleared despite 13 months of ceasefire, rehabilitation officials in Mannar said. Many Muslim and Tamil homes in the once bustling bazaar of Talaimannar Pier are still occupied by the Navy or lie within its security boundary. The area surrounding the local Mosque is infested with land mines and booby traps.
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Thamilchelvan meets Nobel Peace laureate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2003, 16:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers believe that people’s support for the peace process could be obtained if the cease fire agreement is implemented fully, the head of the LTTE’s political division Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan told Nobel Peace Price winner Mr. John Hume, during discussions between the two in Kilinochchi Thursday, sources said. Mr. Hume was accompanied by Britain’s High Commissioner in Colombo and two senior officials from the British foreign office.
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'LTTE strength vital for success of peace talks'-Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 March 2003, 14:19 GMT]
Tamils should strengthen the hands of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to find a meaningful political resolution to the Tamil national question through the present peace talks, said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan addressing a heavily attended musical event at Sampoor in the LTTE held Muttur east in the Trincomalee district Saturday night organized by the Trincomalee political division of the LTTE, sources said.
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Bullock cart 'buses' Mullaitivu school children

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2003, 16:09 GMT]
Students in Meelivanam village located 5km from the Karipattamurippu Government mixed school in Mullaitivu district will use an improvised bullock drawn carriage as transportation to and from their school, sources in Mullaitivu said.
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‘Normalcy in NE only when displaced are resettled’ - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 17:14 GMT]
Normalcy will return to the North East province only after thousands of displaced people now languishing in refugee camps and welfare centers are resettled in their own lands, said Mr.R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentary group leader, at a function to open the office of the Socio Economic Development Committee (SEDC) in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village forty-two kilometers north of Trincomalee, sources said.
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TRO starts housing project for Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 01:55 GMT]
Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan, at twelve noon Thursday, laid the first foundation stone for the first house for resettled families at Kaddukulam in Thiriyai village, forty-two km north of Trincomalee town. Trincomalee district office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is building five hundred houses as part of this housing project, sources said.
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PM urged to stop SLA camp in Jaffna municipal land

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 19:37 GMT]
An urgent appeal has been made to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, Tuesday on behalf of the people of Jaffna that the Sri Lanka Army should not be allowed to relocate its Jaffna brigade headquarters in the municipal council land close to the Jaffna fort, sources said.
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Sinhala settlers occupy Uyanthapadu beach in Trinco

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 March 2003, 12:43 GMT]
An appeal has been made to the Hindu Affairs Ministry and Local Government Ministry of the United National Front (UNF) to take immediate steps to relocate Sinhala fishermen who settled illegally in the Uthayanpadu beach of the Back Bay sea in Trincomalee to their own homes in the outskirts of Trincomalee and to declare the beach a sacred area where Hindu temples in the east port town have been conducting their annual festivals and other religious rites for centuries, sources said.


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Resettlement should be about more than just politics

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2003, 21:39 GMT]
While the attention of the peace talks and in the international community focuses on the internally displaced Tamils of the northern peninsula, the Tamils of the east, forced out by the Muslim Home Guards of the Sri Lanka Government have been forgotten. Residents of Tamil villages destroyed in the colonization of the east told TamilNet of their desire, and current inability, to return home.
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Rotary housing project for Vanni returnees at Varothia Nagar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 February 2003, 21:49 GMT]
The Trincomalee Rotary Club Saturday laid the foundation stone for a forty-house project at Varothia Nagar, 5 km north of Trincomalee town to the returnees from Vanni region. The German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) has agreed to finance this project by allocating 3.6 million rupees, Trincomalee Rotary Community Services Director Mr.A.Z.J.Singarayer said.
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