Few in Jaffna get resettlement aid

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 May 2003, 04:58 GMT]
Forty thousand families in the Jaffna have applied to the Government Agent for assistance to resettle in their homes in the war ravaged northern peninsula, a senior official said. “Although eight percent of the Jaffna district population is in dire need of material and financial support to rebuild their homes destroyed or damaged in the war, we got funds to make part payments to only to 4112 families after January this year," he said.
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Balasingham denies ‘irresponsible’ reports on Premier’s letter

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 May 2003, 10:54 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, Friday flatly denied press reports that he had dismissed Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s response to the LTTE’s letter outlining its reasons for suspending Norwegian facilitated peace talks. Speaking to TamilNet on Friday, Mr. Balasingham described the reports in the Daily Mirror and Gulf News as “irresponsible journalism” based on “pure conjecture.”
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'Hinduism Sri Lanka’s oldest religion' – Ranil

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 May 2003, 08:24 GMT]
Inaugurating the Second World Hindu Conference in Colombo Friday, Prime Minister (PM) Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Hinduism is the oldest religion practiced in Sri Lanka and that it played a great role developing the island’s culture. Hundreds of Hindu and other religious scholars and clergy gathered under the aegis of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Hindu Affairs for a five day conference on Hinduism.
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‘Sri Lanka subjugated by US new imperialism’ – JVP

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 May 2003, 00:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s opposition Thursday charged that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government was taking away workers’ rights under cover of the peace process. Opposition leader, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha, addressing the People’s Alliance May Day rally at Campbell Park in Colombo, said hard won rights of workers in Sri Lanka are being sacrificed to a ‘new-imperialism’. The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna’s (JVP) in its May Day rally in another part of Colombo city accused the ruling United National Front (UNF) of surrendering the country to “western imperialism led by the USA”.
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Repairs to Giant’s Tank after two decades’ neglect

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2003, 12:33 GMT]
Repair work on the long neglected Giant’s Tank (reservoir) in Mannar began Thursday under the World Bank North East Integrated Agricultural Project (NEIAP). The ancient reservoir feeds 160 minor irrigation tanks in mainland Mannar. The reservoir’s 10 sluice gates were opened Thursday to drain its waters for the repairs.
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Colombo optimistic of LTTE participation in peace talks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 May 2003, 00:10 GMT]
The United National Front government of Sri Lanka Wednesday expressed optimism that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam would participate in the Aid Donors' Summit, which is scheduled to be held in the first week of June in Tokyo, Japan.
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Norwegian ambassador meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 13:40 GMT]
The newly appointed Norwegian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Hans Brattskar, accompanied by the outgoing ambassador, Mr. Jon Westborg, Wednesday held extensive talks with the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, at the LTTE's headquarters in Kilinochchi, Vanni sources said.
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Sri Lanka appeals to LTTE to resume talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 10:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister this week admitted that efforts to restore normalcy to the Tamil areas had not taken place “at the pace which we might have desired” and vowing matters would improve, appealed to the Liberation Tigers to nevertheless resume peace talks which the LTTE had put on hold two weeks ago.
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Security tightened for May Day in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 01:13 GMT]
More than five thousand Police personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order in Colombo when several political parties hold May Day rallies, processions in Colombo on May 1st Thursday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Mr.Bodhi Liyanage said Tuesday.


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Sustaining strategic parity and beyond

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 00:15 GMT]
When the Liberation Tigers routed the Sri Lanka army’s Agni Khiela (Rod of Fire) offensive in April 2001, a year after the fall of the strategic Elephant Pass garrison, the general description of the state of Sri Lanka’s conflict as a military stalemate was no longer tenable. Celebrations by the LTTE on Monday to mark the Elephant Pass victory and the defeat of Agni Khiela underscored Tamils’ perception that their ability to negotiate political rights is essentially predicated on the LTTE’s military power.
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Balasingham to visit Vanni next week

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 April 2003, 20:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, will return to Vanni next week for deliberations with the LTTE leadership on the Norwegian peace process and related matters, sources said Tuesday. Mr. Balasingham is expected to be in Vanni when Japan’s peace envoy, Mr. Yasushi Akashi and the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Mr. Jan Petersen visit the Vanni separately in early May, the sources said.


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Moolai hospital struggles to get back on feet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 April 2003, 00:15 GMT]
Moolai Hospital in Jaffna, the only large co-operative society medical facility in the northeast, lies largely useless today owing to the lack of doctors, patients and the presence of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in its environs. Like most schools, hospitals, other public utilities and temples in the northeast, 16 months of peace and many rounds of negotiations between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo have done little to improve the fortunes of this unique achievement of Jaffna’s co-operative movement.
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Fall of Elephant Pass celebrated

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 April 2003, 13:24 GMT]
The third anniversary of the fall of the strategically crucial Elephant Pass garrison and the successful defeat of the Operation Agni Khiela by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was celebrated Monday on a grand scale in the grounds where the Sri Lanka Army artillery base in Pallai once stood. LTTE senior commander and Intelligence chief Pottu Amman participated in the event, sources said
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Army informant shot dead in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 April 2003, 16:18 GMT]
Lingarajah Thavarajah (32), a native of Kokkadichcholai in Batticloa district in the eastern province, was gunned down in Dehiwela Saturday night by unidentified gunmen who came in a three-wheeler, Police sources in Colombo said. Thavarajah was working with the intelligence wing of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the eastern province.
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Thanthai Chelva’s 26th death anniversary observed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2003, 13:59 GMT]
The twenty sixth-death anniversary of late Tamil leader "THANTHAI” Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam (1898-1977) was observed through the northeast province Saturday. He was the acknowledged leader of Tamil people for the last 20 years of his life and presided over the 1976 TULF national convention that ratified the goals for a separate state for Tamils in the landmark 'Vaddukoddai resolution.'


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Clergy appeal for resumption of peace talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 April 2003, 01:49 GMT]
Leading members of the clergy Friday appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) not to go back to war and to resume peace talks immediately to find a negotiated political settlement to the ethnic conflict.
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SLMM clarifies issues in Proposals on Security at Sea

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2003, 18:24 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission issued a press release on 25 Friday clarifying issues in its proposals contained in the ‘Initial Discussion Paper’ that outlined arrangements to avoid future incidents at sea between the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and Sea Tigers.
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Sri Lanka's joint opposition wants India as sea monitor

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2003, 18:01 GMT]
Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's former foreign Minister and advisor to President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, presiding over a press conference held Friday said that India and two other countries should be included as Naval monitors under the present ceasefire agreement. The joint opposition leaders also warned that the United States and United Kingdom are conspiring to destabilize India, political sources in Colombo said.


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LTTE responds to US Ambassador

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2003, 16:25 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Friday denied they had walked away from negotiations with the Sri Lankan government and said they were temporarily suspending talks “to provide time and space for the government to implement crucial decisions.” Responding to comments by the United States Ambassador, Mr. Ashley Wills, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham told TamilNet Friday “As the representatives of our people we reserve the right to express our displeasure if decisions at the talks are not implemented and bi-lateral agreements are not fulfilled.”


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JVP demonstrators condemn Muttur violence

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 April 2003, 15:02 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Sinhala nationalist opposition party in Sri Lanka that espouses radical Marxism, held a demonstration Friday afternoon at Lipton Square, in downtown Colombo, condemning the violence in Muttur in the East against Muslims and demanding that Norwegian monitors should be ‘thrown out’ of the country to safeguard the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the island, sources said.
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