Drug smuggling ring arrested in Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2004, 11:28 GMT]
Sleuths from Sri Lanka's Anti -Narcotics Bureau arrested four persons with 4.5 kilograms of pure heroin in Mannar, Police in the island town said Tuesday. The arrest was made on information provided by a man from Mannar and two Indian nationals with 1490 grams of pure heroin who were taken into custody by Police from the Anti Narcotic Bureau last Thursday in Thillayadi in Puttalam. Mannar has emerged as a key transit point for drug smuggling from South India to Colombo.
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Peace talks should be over ISGA proposals - Mannar Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2004, 02:35 GMT]
“The Interim Self Governing Authority [ISGA] document was only a proposal for discussion as a step towards a viable alternative to separation. The current talk of a counterproposal to be made by the [Sri Lanka] government is not acceptable to the Liberation Tigers, as the LTTE feels this will become an opportunity for the government to bide its time…The government can bring up all its proposals at the discussion table over the ISGA proposals,” said the Bishop of Mannar, Rt.Rev. Rayappu Joseph, when TamilNet interviewed him Monday.
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Record crowds attend Madhu Church festival

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 August 2004, 15:32 GMT]
The annual festival of Madhu Church concluded Sunday with three Bishops - Thomas Soundaranayagam (Jaffna), Malcolm Ranjit (Ratnapura) and Rayappu Joseph (Mannar) - jointly holding Holy Mass. About three hundred thousand devotees from all parts of the island participated in the final day of the festival of the Madhu Church, which is also called Jungle Shrine, revered by Tamils and Sinhalese, sources said.
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Madhu Church festival begins

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2004, 03:05 GMT]
Large numbers of devotees are flocking to the Madhu Church in Mannar to celebrate the annual festival of the Church. The roads leading to the Church will remain open 24 hours from August 13 to August 18, according to Mr. Rupu Gunaratne, the Sri Lanka police officer in charge of the roads.
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Farmers complain NE districts ignored in drought relief

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 17:02 GMT]
Drought-stricken farmers in the Trincomalee district have been ignored by the Central Government in providing relief and other facilities which have been offered to their counterparts in the districts of Kurunagala, Anuradhapura, Puttalam, Badulla, Moneragala, Matale and Polonnaruwa in the south of the country, said the Kappalthurai Farmers' Federation (KFF) in the Trincomalee district in a statement issued Friday.
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Refugees abandoned on mid sea sandbank

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 12:06 GMT]
Nine refugees who were abandoned by two Indian boatmen on a sandbank in the middle of the sea in the Gulf of Mannar were rescued by a fisherman from Thalaimannar Saturday. Mannar magistrate released them when they were produced before him by Thalaimannar Police Sunday. The refugees said the boatmen had forced them to get off on a small shifting sandbank at midsea around midnight on Thursday. The influx of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from state run camps in South India who risk illegal and dangerous sea journeys to reach Mannar has increased dramatically recently.
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Two alleged drug smugglers shot in Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 17:01 GMT]
Two men suspected to be drug smugglers were shot and wounded in Pesalai on the Mannar island in the early hours of morning Friday, Police said. Two gunmen had shot the alleged smugglers on the beach at Murukankoiladi in Pesalai. In June this year, fisheries societies in Pesalai took away the beaching right of the small settler community in Murukankoiladi, saying that the area was being used for drug smuggling and other nefarious activities.
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UNHCR urged to organize boat service to refugees in India

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 August 2004, 16:54 GMT]
Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian has appealed to the UNHCR Sri Lanka's Representative to take steps to organize boat service between India and Talaimannar to transport Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are willing to return to their villages. Currently thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are in refugee camps in Tamilnadu in South India.
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Pre-schools exhibition begins in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2004, 01:36 GMT]
A two-day exhibition of the Child Friendly Development Centres (pre-schools) organized by the Early Childhood Development Unit of the North East Provincial Ministry of Education began Friday morning in the auditorium of the Trincomalee St.Joseph's College. This is the first time an exhibition of art works and other creations of students and teachers of pre-schools is being held in the northeast province.


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Mannar GA says refugee influx unprecedented

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 15:53 GMT]
''Hundreds of refugees are risking their lives, paying high fares to unscrupulous boatmen, to return from India to their homes in the northeast. The influx of refugees is increasing by the day. It is hence imperative that MPs of the Vanni District should persuade the governments of India and Sri Lanka to let these refugees return legally by ferry or by boats from Mannar,'' said the Government Agent for Mannar Wednesday.
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Mannar Thamileelam Court complex opened

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 14:36 GMT]
The court complex of the Thamileelam Mannar District Court was declared open Wednesday morning in Vattakandal in the Liberation Tigers controlled Vanni region by Mr.Pon Thiyagam, Head of the Thamileelam Martyrs Department who cut the ceremonial ribbon at the event, sources said.
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Mannar farmers hit by drought

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 14:19 GMT]
Severe drought has hit the Mannar district affecting several hundreds of farming families and civil authorities are taking steps to provide relief to the affected people, sources said.
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Tamil police officers transferred from Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2004, 17:12 GMT]
Vanni District Tamil National Parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan Tuesday brought to the notice of the Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police the injustice in transferring four Tamil police officers out of eight without any replacement, sources in Mannar said.


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Pre-school exhibition to be held in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2004, 14:44 GMT]
North East Provincial Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs, Sports and Youth Affairs has organized a two day exhibition, where artistic material produced by pre-school students, teachers and parents of Child Friendly Development Centres in the province are to be displayed. This is the first time such an exhibition is to be held in the northeast, said Mt.S.Mahalingam, Senior Assistant Secretary.
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North East Tamils mourn ‘Black July’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 07:12 GMT]
Tamils in northeast province Sunday observed a day of mourning to mark the pogrom against Tamils by Sinhala extremists assisted by the then Sri Lanka Government twenty one years ago on 23rd July, 1983. Several Tamil and civil group organizations in Jaffna called for people to close down shops and conduct prayers. More than thousand innocent Tamils in the southern part of the country, majority of them in Colombo were killed, many burnt alive or hacked to death, in daylight in the presence of State security forces during the ‘Black July’.
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Indian fishermen rescue refugees, get jailed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2004, 13:09 GMT]
Mannar judge Saturday remanded until 30 July two Indian fishermen who had rescued a group of refugees stranded at midsea in an overloaded boat. The judge released the thirty four refugees after reprimanding them for giving contradictory statements to hide the identities of the 'refugee smugglers' who had brought them in the overloded boat from the South Indian coast for a fee.
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Indian trawlers continue poaching in northern sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2004, 16:38 GMT]
Vadamarachi North Fisheries Societies Federation in Jaffna district Thursday complained that hundreds of Indian trawlers are daily engaged in poaching in the Sri Lankan northern territorial waters. These Indian trawlers are seen about 12 km from the shore of Vadamarachchi, Federation sources said.
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Police arrest Myanmar nationals in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 15:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police produced in the Mannar courts Wednesday two Myanmar nationals who had escaped from a detention centre for foreigners near Colombo. The two men were arrested while loitering in the shrub around the long abandoned Thalaimannar railway station on Tuesday morning.
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Large demo in Mannar against govt officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 11:05 GMT]
More than six thousand persons including catholic priests marched and demonstrated in Mannar town Wednesday against senior Sri Lankan government officials. A memorandum stating that senior officials in Mannar are neglecting development work in the district, giving preference to outsiders in settlement schemes and are discriminating on the basis of religion.
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US military intelligence team visits Palaly

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 10:38 GMT]
A top US military intelligence team visited the sprawling Sri Lankan armed forces base of Palaly-Kankesanthurai in Jaffna for high level discussions on security and defence issues, according reports in the Tamil press Sunday.
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