'Police acting partially'-Mannar MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2004, 07:54 GMT]
"The Police in Mannar are acting in a partial manner in bringing the situation under control", said Vanni Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. Vino Noharathalingam, Friday. "I brought the matter to the notice of the Deputy Inspector General of Police for Vanni when I met him in Mannar this morning", he said. An emergency meeting was convened Friday morning by at the truce monitoring mission office in Mannar to restore peace in the town.
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Curfew in Mannar after attack on LTTE office

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2004, 02:12 GMT]
Curfew was declared in Mannar Friday morning after a group of Muslims attacked the administrative office of the Liberation Tigers in the island town on Sri Lanka's northwestern coast around midnight. The attack was linked to the killing of a man suspected to be a drug smuggler on Thursday night near Pesalai, 15 kilometres west of Mannar. An LTTE official in Mannar said that the attack appeared to be aimed at instigating communal violence in the area. "No one was injured in the attacks on our office", he said.
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TRO sponsored Children's Week begins in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2004, 00:17 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in collaboration with Pre-School Educational Development Council (PSEDC) has declared week beginning Monday, 27 September, as Children's Week in all eight districts of the North-East province, to mark the International Children's' Day that falls on October 1st, sources said.
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Sri Lanka Police chief urged to stop drug smuggling in Mannar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 2004, 13:10 GMT]
Mannar Bishop Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph Saturday urged Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Indra Silva, to urgently start a special Police division to curb rampant heroin smuggling in the district. Mr.Indra Silva is the first IGP of Sri Lanka to visit Mannar in 30 years. He paid a courtsey call on the Bishop during an official visit to Mannar Saturday. Mannar has emerged as a major transit point for drug smuggling from India to Sri Lanka after Colombo signed a cease fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers in 2002.
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Marine Technology teacher shortage in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 2004, 03:49 GMT]
The Association of Marine Technology Teachers in Jaffna district Friday requested Jaffna district parliamentarians to take immediate steps to appoint more teachers in the North-East schools to teach subjects related to marine technology, Jaffna district secretariat sources said.


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Chief Justice opens Trincomalee court complex

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 2004, 00:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Chief Justice Mr.Sarath N.Silva Sunday declared open the Trincomalee modern court complex constructed at a cost of about 79 million rupees under the World Bank funded Legal and Judicial Reforms Project of the Ministry of Justice. Trincomalee Bar Association President Mr.O.L.M.Ismail presided the opening ceremony.


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Refugees abandoned on Kachchathivu arrive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2004, 09:37 GMT]
Twenty eight Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from South India who had been abandoned in the island Kachchaithivu were brought to Jaffna Saturday. Government officials at the Jaffna District Secretariat gave the refugees money to help them return to their villages in Mannar,Mullaithivu and other parts of the Vanni. The refugees related their harrowing experience to local experience to local journalists.
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Kachchaithivu stranded refugees rescued

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 2004, 16:40 GMT]
25 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees stranded in Kachchathivu, an islet in Indian Ocean, were rescued and transported to Nedunthivu, one of the islets in Jaffna peninsula by a co-operative passenger boat Friday evening, Jaffna district secretariat sources said.
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Two Indian fishing boats burnt in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 September 2004, 10:02 GMT]
Two Indian fishing boats were set on fire by unidentified persons on the Pesalai coast in Mannar in the early hours of Thursday morning, Police said. The fate of the fishermen in the boats is not known, according to them. The registration numbers of the boats are RMS 2076 and RMS 1528.
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Computer training classes opened in Trinco villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 September 2004, 00:19 GMT]
London-based T.R.Tec in collaboration with Trincomalee IT Tech Wednesday inaugurated two computer-training centres in Nilaveli and Tampalakamam villages in the Trincomalee district. "These training centres are opened in the northeast under a computer literacy awareness programme,"said Mr.S.Thilak, currently the Director of Economic Development addressing meetings at Nilaveli and Tampalakamam, which followed the opening of the centres and classes.


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25% of NE Provincial Council vacancies not filled

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 2004, 10:43 GMT]
More than one-fourth, about 18,666 vacancies are not filled in the the North East Provincial Council (NEPC), which administers eight districts of the province, Jaffna Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. Out of 60,034 officially approved positions in 2000 only 41,368 have been filled, sources said.


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Catholic youths hold peace rally in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2004, 10:41 GMT]
"We are perturbed by the absence of any signs or efforts for strengthening peace. Instead we only see increasing violence in all parts of Sri Lanka. We have assembled here to pray for peace," said Rev.Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar, addressing the youth, at the conclusion of a youth conference in Vavuniya Saturday, sources said.
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Tigers to repay public debt

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 September 2004, 12:33 GMT]
The Finance Division of the Liberation Tigers announced Monday it would start repaying another part of the war loan it raised from the people of Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya next week from 17 September. Tigers' Finance Division has been paying back its huge public debt in Jaffna in stages since Colombo signed a truce with Kilinochchi in February 2002. LTTE Finance Division issued certified bonds to individuals from whom it borrowed money for the 'Fund to Liberate the Soil'.
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Refugee arrested by Vavuniya Police said missing

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 September 2004, 11:10 GMT]
A refugee man arrested by Sri Lanka Police in early August this year is missing, his wife told Mannar Citizens' Committe Monday. Police had told the missing refugee's wife that they had arrested him on suspicion in Vavuniya town on 4 August but had released him the same day.
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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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VVT celebrates revival of traditional temple festivals

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 08:38 GMT]
For sea faring residents and fishermen from the town of Valvettiturai located in the northern shores of Jaffna, temples dotting the town's landscape provide solace and protection from the dangers that accompany their trade. Boat festivals, where the elephant-faced god 'Ganapathi' is taken around the town in a boat shaped vehicle, are being celebrated with renewed cultural traditions, in the current climate of peace.
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Human skeleton washed ashore in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 12:32 GMT]
A human skeleton was washed ashore in Olaithoduvaai, Pesalai, 15 kilometres west of Mannar town Thursday morning, Police said. The skeleton probably belongs to one of the scores of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from South India who daily embark on dangerous journey's across the sea to Mannar, according to Police.Tamil politicians and government officials in Mannar have urged the governments of Sri Lanka and India to ensure the legal and safe return of refugees to prevent the accidents and hazards of illegal crossings.
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Mannar youths lack vocational training opportunities- TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 08:03 GMT]
"Mannar district youths who leave schools without the opportunity of going to universities and other high educational institutions to obtain high studies are tempted to engage in illegal activities to earn a living. Vocational training for these youths are absolutely necessary to provide alternate employment opportunities for these youths," said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a letter Minister Mr.Piyasena Gamage, Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational and Technical Education.
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Technology Education key to Tamils' prosperity- Thilak

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2004, 00:04 GMT]
"Skills development in information technology across the districts of NorthEast at international levels is key to economic upliftment of our people," said S.Thilak, currently the Director of Economic Development for NorthEast and formerly political head of Trincomalee, when TamilNet talked to him Saturday about his new assignment in the economic division.
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Colombo said considering alternative to Nordic truce mission

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2004, 06:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka' Deputy Minister of Defence, Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, said Monday that his government is thinking of either enhancing the powers of the Nordic truce monitoring mission in the island or finding a more effective alternative to it.
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