Work on ancient history of Batticaloa released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 13:26 GMT]
“We should write the people’s history of the northeast. It is important to discover and publish old palm leaf manuscripts such as ‘Mattakkalappu Poorva Sariththiram’ (Ancient History of Batticaloa) to bring out the history of the communities that live in this region. We have to search and preserve valuable primary sources of our history”, said Prof. S. Mounaguru, former dean of fine arts at the Eastern University, speaking Sunday at the release of a work that relates the settling and history of Batticaloa from pre-Christian times to the eighteenth century.


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LTTE releases captured SLA soldier

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 10:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier, who was arrested by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealm (LTTE) on Saturday, was handed over Sunday evening to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials. The handing over event took place at the LTTE Trincomalee Political Secretariat which is located in Sampoor.
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SLMM says LTTE violated CFA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2005, 12:24 GMT]
The LTTE has violated article 1.2 of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) which states “neither party shall engage in any offensive military operation," BBC Sinhala service quoted Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) spokeswoman Helen Maria Olafdottir as saying, referring to a recent incident where the Liberation Tigers were accused of firing a Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) patrol boat with an SLMM member on board in Trincomalee Bay off Upparu on 5 April 2005.
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SLMM monitors meet Elilan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2005, 11:53 GMT]
Members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee Saturday morning met with Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and discussed ways to curb events detrimental to peace, such as those which had recently in the district, SLMM sources said.
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SLA soldier captured in LTTE controlled Muttur village

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2005, 10:43 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), armed with a rifle and a compass, was arrested Saturday morning around 11 AM by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The arrest took place in the village of Thanganagar in Muttur east, an LTTE controlled area south of the Trincomalee district.
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SLA soldier shot, injured in Seruvila

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 14:10 GMT]
An unidentified group of four men shot at a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday afternoon in Sri Mangalapura area in the Seruvila division, south of Muttur in Trincomalee district. The injured soldier was admitted at the Kantalai Base Hospital, police said.
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Two paramilitary cadres shot in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 07:51 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on two paramilitary cadres in Nagar Iluppaikulam, about 8 kilometres southwest of Vavuniya, Friday around 12.30 p.m. One of them was admitted Vavuniya hospital with five gun shot wounds. The other is missing, Police said. Both are cadres of the EPRLF (Varathar Group), a paramilitary that operates with Sri Lankan armed forces in the island's northeast.
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LTTE sentry in Muttur attacked, one killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2005, 07:03 GMT]
A helper of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was killed and another injured in an attack on a LTTE sentry by an unidentified group Friday early morning around four a.m within the LTTE controlled area, about five hundred meters from the Mahindapura sentry of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), down south of Trincomalee district along Muttur-Batticaloa highway, sources said.
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Sri Lanka army, Police cordon, search in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2005, 16:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka army (SLA) and Police Thursday searched some parts of Batticaloa town and its outer suburbs. No one was arrested, Police said. SLA and Police also cordoned off and searched Aarumuhaththaan Kudiyiruppu, 12 kilometres north of Batticaloa for more than three hours Thursday morning from eight. Sri Lankan armed forces have increased checks and searches in Batticaloa in recent months. Checkpoints and roadblocks that made daily life tedious during the war have reappeared in this eastern district.
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JVP slams NGOs, western countries for meddling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 18:28 GMT]
“We should spit on NGOs and stop them from walking on our streets. Donor countries and their NGO agents are holding this country to ransom, telling the government to set up a joint Tsunami relief mechanism with the LTTE. It is something that can be done through the Sri Lankan state machinery. There is no need for a joint mechanism”, said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), speaking to a packed audience in Maharagama, an outer suburb of Colombo, at a meeting Wednesday to ‘expose the NGO Mafia that is against the land and the country’.
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SLA yet to allow mechanized fishing in Ariyalai Sea

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 14:58 GMT]
Fisheries societies sources said that even after elapse of three years from the signing of a ceasefire agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stationed in the Jaffna district have yet to allow fishermen of Ariyalai area, a suburb of Jaffna town, to use fishing crafts fitted with outboard engines.
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Not even twenty percent support for federalism - JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 12:51 GMT]
"A federal system as a political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict would not even get twenty percent support from the people at a referendum", said Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), President Chandrika Kumaratunga's main Marxist coalition partner, addressing a meeting Tuesday in Anuradhapura to commemorate the thousands of party activists who were killed in April 1971 when Colombo brutally crushed an armed uprising by the JVP to establish communist rule in the island. Mr. Amarasingha was one of the young JVP leaders who led the 71’ insurrection.
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SLA allows IDPs to settle in no-man's land near HSZ

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 April 2005, 13:34 GMT]
Jaffna area command of the Sri Lanka Army has given permission to the Jaffna district secretariat to relocate a section of the internally displaced families (IDPs) in an area located close to northeast of Palaly High Security Zone (HSZ) following threats by the Valigamam north fisheries societies that they would launch an agitation campaign if their demand were not met, secretariat sources said.
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EPDP cadre shot dead in Kommathurai

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 17:41 GMT]
A person believed to be close to the EPDP was shot dead in Kommathurai, 17 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Friday evening around 6.30 by unidentified gunmen. The man identified as Mr. Puththirasihamani Kuhathasan, 23, was walking along Uma Mill Road in Kommathurai when he was gunned down, Police said. Kommathurai is a village garrisoned by the Sri Lanka army.
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Sri Lanka army makes another offer to deserters

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 11:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka army Friday made a fresh offer to de-list thousands of soldiers who deserted from service. SLA says that more than fifty five thousand deserters are still at large. This is the fifth offer by the Sri Lanka army to de-list deserters.
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NESOHR delegation meets UN Rapporteur on education

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 10:25 GMT]
A delegation of the North East Secretariat On Human Rights (NESOHR) led by its Vice President Mr. K. Sivapalan (Attorney-at-Law), met with Mr. Vermor Munoz Villalobos, the Special Rapporteur on Rights to Education of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) on Wednesday in Geneva. Mr. T. Mahasivam, member of the NESOHR also participated. The NESOHR delegation submitted a detailed report about the discrimination shown to Tamils and Muslims students in Sri Lanka in the sphere of education.
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LTTE delegation in Finland, meets with Foreign Minister and Åland representative

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 March 2005, 23:54 GMT]
"The Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) was supposed to bring normalcy. But, under the pretext of High Security Zones (HSZ), Tamil people were denied of access to their homes. The war-displaced people were then heavily struck by the tsunami that multiplied the hardships. The delay in institutionalising a Joint Mechanism and the continued Sri Lankan military support to paramilitary operatives in violation to the CFA clause 1.8 have created a collective sense of frustration in the minds of the Tamil People," Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, LTTE's Political Head explained to Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, who received the LTTE delegation in Helsinki on Wednesday.
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Historic Trincomalee Koneswaram temple annual festival begins

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 March 2005, 18:16 GMT]
The twenty two-day annual festival of the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple located on the Swami Rock inside the Fort Frederick, which began Friday with flag hoisting ritual entered the fifth day Tuesday.
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Fizzled tsunami leaves two dead during evacuation

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 20:08 GMT]
So far, there is no indication of unusual wave activity in the sea said TamilNet correspondent for Batticaloa who visited a coastal part of the eastern town around 3 AM Tuesday. A boy was killed in a an accident involving a lorry in Mavadippalli and an old women died while fleeing in Kalmunai, according to initial casuality reports from Amparai. First "Tsunami" wave reached Colombo at about 1am (local time) and is less than one foot (10") in height according to information received by US NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) measured at location with coordinates 6-59N 79-51E in Colombo.
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Evacuation underway in NorthEast coastal areas

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 18:49 GMT]
As a precautionary measure to avoid a possible tsunami from a 8.2 richter scale aftershock near Sumatra, LTTE units are evacuating coastal village residents and refugees in transit camps to higher grounds, sources said. FM radio and TV stations continued to provide updates on the quake that hit Sumatra Monday at 16.10 hrs GMT. Temple bells in almost all villages were rung alerting people to evacuate.
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