UNHCR Asst. Commissioner to visit northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 16:59 GMT]
The Assistant High Commissioner of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Mr.Kamel Morjane is to begin his three-day field trip to Sri Lanka Wednesday, UNHCR sources said.


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Speaker suspends sittings to bring order to Lanka's Parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 10:30 GMT]
Pandemonium prevailed in Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday morning when opposition parliamentarians placed a wreath in front of the seat when the Interior Minister Mr.John Amaratunge rose to reply a verbal question from the opposition, parliamentary sources said.


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Troop reduction in Jaffna imminent - SLA official

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 11:48 GMT]
"If the current climate of peace prevails longer there will soon be reduction of troops from current number of 40,000 to close to 10,000. We are preparing plans to introduce this reduction," said Colonel M.G.Ratnayake, special Public relations officer appointed by the Colombo Military Head Quaters, a leading Jaffna daily, Uthayan reported.


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NEPC donates relief materials to South disaster victims

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 16:33 GMT]
The North East Provincial Council Governor (retired) Major General Asoka Jayawardene is to hand over about three million rupees worth of dry ration, milk foods, clothes and other essential items to the Minister of Local Authorities and Provincial Councils Mr.Alick Aluwihare Monday morning to be distributed among victims of flood and landslides in the south of the country, sources said.
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Trinco Ladies College celebrates 80th anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 00:16 GMT]
The Founder’s day and the Eightieth anniversary of the Trincomalee Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College were celebrated Wednesday with the Northeast Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.R.Thiagalingam unveiling the statue of the founder Mrs. Thangamma Shanmugampillai, sources said.


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Sri Lanka's main opposition lays condition for IA

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 16:29 GMT]
The main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) Friday said that Tokyo donors' conference should be held as scheduled next month with the participation or non-participation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It further said that the interim administration should be established to facilitate the implementation of the political solution reached at the peace talks now being held between the GOSL and LTTE and with certain conditions, sources in Colombo said.


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LTTE rejects government's new proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 06:55 GMT]
The leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has rejected the new set of proposals submitted by the government of Sri Lanka instituting a development structure for the rehabilitation and development of the Northeast.
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Chinabay oil tank farm modernization to begin

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 00:15 GMT]
Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr. Ram Naik Thursday unveiled the foundation stone laid for the modernization of oil tank farm at Chinabay in Trincomalee, which is to be implemented at a cost of three hundred million Sri Lankan rupees. The event took place in the Chinabay Petroleum Corporation complex.
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Indian Oil Corp begins operations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 13:37 GMT]
Indian petroleum minister Mr. Ram Naik, who arrived on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, inaugurated the Indian Oil Corporation's operations in the island’s petrol and diesel retail market Wednesday. Mr. Naik launched Lanka IOC (Pvt) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IOC, with the inauguration of a petrol station in Colombo Wednesday as part of a chain of 250 retail outlets the state oil firm is taking over in the island nation. He will visit Trincomalee on Thursday, Sri Lankan government officials said.


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Commander Vinothan's eigth anniversary commemorated

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 11:54 GMT]
A memorial ceremony for Commander of Vinothan brigade of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Lt.Col. Vinothan, and eighteen LTTE fighters who died in the attack on Tharavai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp was held in the 'Meenaham' military grounds in Amparai district 27 May, sources said.


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SLA soldier commits suicide at Thenmaradchchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 11:02 GMT]
Mr.P.S.K.Dissanayake, a twenty five year old soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Tuesday afternoon committed suicide by exploding a grenade when he was on duty at the forward defence position at Eluthumadduval army camp in Thenmaradchchi in Jaffna district, military sources said.


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Bhikku Front holds demonstration opposing IA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 10:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Bhikkus Front to Safeguard the Nation held a demonstration Tuesday afternoon in Colombo demanding the United National Front (UNF) government to abandon its attempt to appease the LTTE request for a fully empowered interim administration in the northeast province, sources said.


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Defying C.I dogma, massacre village rises from ashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 13:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army massacred seventeen villagers, including six children, and burnt and razed to the ground Thoni Thaattamadu, an impoverished Tamil hamlet on the east coast’s remote interior 16 years ago on May 27, 1987. The massacre was an integral part of a counter insurgency (C.I) campaign by Sri Lankan armed forces. The village remained a no go zone since then, until the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with Colombo in February last year.
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Colombo responds to LTTE's request for IA

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's United National Front (UNF) government Monday responded to the request of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that an interim administration (IA) with adequate powers to effectively handle the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of the war ravaged northeast province should be established before Tokyo aid summit talks begin next month, sources said. The details are being conveyed to the LTTE by Norwegian envoy, Eric Solheim, on Tuesday, sources added.


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JVP vows to defeat interim administration proposal

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 15:43 GMT]
The Sinhala hardliner Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Monday declared that it would go all out to thwart the attempt by the United National Front (UNF) government to grant interim administration for the north east as demanded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Colombo said.
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Empty development promise keeps old ferry working

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 03:14 GMT]
The Batticaloa district has one of the most underdeveloped road networks in Sri Lanka. Many parts of this network remain disconnected by three lagoons that separate most of the district's large hinterland from the coast due to long years of neglect by successive regimes in Colombo. Tamils say most parts of the northeast were subjected to systematic economic deprivation for many decades since the island's Sinhala majority established firm control over the country's finances with inflexibly unitary constitutions in 1972 and 1978, which, they charge, were made without their endorsement.
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Festival celebrations at Palaiootu St Lourdes Shrine

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2003, 22:17 GMT]
More than a century old St Lourdes’ Mother Shrine in Palaiootu village, about two km. off west of Trincomalee town Sunday celebrated its annual festival. A large number of devotees attended the festival, which commenced on May 16 with flag hoisting ceremony, sources said.
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Hakim leaves for Norway, Solheim arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2003, 17:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader and a minister in the United National Front (UNF) Government Mr.Rauff Hakim Sunday left for Norway. Meanwhile Norwegian special envoy Mr. Erik Solheim arrived in Colombo the same day, government sources said.


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Search for Solution Must Include LTTE and Bipartisanship- NPC

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 10:45 GMT]
Noting that, "the history of governmental efforts to resolve the ethnic conflict in the past have foundered on unfulfilled promises and agreements that were not underpinned by an appropriate legal foundation," the National Peace Council in a media release issued in Colombo today said that, "it is important that the government should find a way to establish a legally-based administrative system for the North East that would recognise the equal participation of the LTTE."
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Damaged boats keep Indian fishermen trapped in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2003, 16:19 GMT]
Four Indian boatmen with their boats damaged during an earlier incident in mid-sea have been languishing in a weaving centre in Mannar for the last three months with no means to travel to South India. They have threatened to commit suicide if the authorities do not find a way to send them home immediately, sources said.


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