Advisory issued against seafood consumption in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 13:21 GMT]
The Thamileelam Health Services Department Saturday advised the people of the North East province not to eat seafood until further notice as the sea is highly polluted after Tsunami, which hit the coastal areas of the island from northeast and south. Tsunami killed about thirty thousand people and about six thousand are still missing.
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1500 U.S Marines to arrive in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 11:24 GMT]
U.S Ambassador to Sri Lanka , Jeffrey Lunstead, U.S Commander of U.S Disaster Response Assessment Team (DRAT), Colonel Thomas Collins, and a USAID representative said in a press conference held at Hotel Galladhari in Colombo Saturday afternoon that 1300 U.S Marines are to arrive in Colombo in a U.S Wasp class amphibious assault ship, USS Bon Homme Richard, equipped with a helipad and supporting five helicopters on board.
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Muslims on Tsunami hit southeast coast suffer heavily

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 15:42 GMT]
Muslims who live in densely populated villages along the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka suffered heavy casualties in Sunday’s Tsunami, with at least ten thousand killed. Rescue and relief efforts in Muslim towns and villages on the southeastern coast are hampered by lack of coordination and heavy rains. Seventy two Muslim schools were completely washed off and eighty five mosques were severely damaged, Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mr. Hassan Ali told TamilNet Thursday.


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‘Tamils in northeast are also human beings’- LTTE commander

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 01:25 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government should not look at this as a Sinhala or Tamil issue. It should see it as a human tragedy and help. We should now ensure that the people rescued from the Tsunami devastation are protected from diseases rather than let the enormity of the tragedy make us inactive. The government of Sri Lanka should consider our people also as human beings," said Col. Soosai, Commander of the Sea Tigers who is directing rescue and relief operations on the southern coast of Jaffna and in Mullaithivu, said in an interview to a London Tamil Television, Deepam TV, Wednesday.
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Cut red tape to deliver urgent aid- LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 18:28 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday said that red tape should not impede or delay delivery of urgent international aid to the Tsunami hit areas of the northeast. Addressing representatives of international aid agencies and donor community in Kilinochchi Thursday, Mr. Thamilchelvan emphasised that the international community has a "moral responsibility" to ensure that humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka is "equitably distributed to the North-East". LTTE's Political Head stated clearly that the immediate relief measures would be best undertaken by the Task Force mechanism already set up at district level by the LTTE in coordination with the Government Agents of the affected districts.
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Irate Tsunami refugees jeer PM, JVP in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 13:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha and leaders of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna visited Jaffna Thursday amidst strong protests by refugees from the Tsunami destroyed coastal villages of the peninsula. Jeering refugees, demanding relief from Colombo, got into a tussle with the PM’s delegation at the Puloly American Mission School near Pt. Pedro. Earlier, the PM and his entourage were turned back by refugees in Valvettithurai protesting against Colombo for not sending relief or medicine to them since the Tsunami devastated their villages four days ago.
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TRO Provides Relief To Tsunami Victims: Urgent Need for Nurses

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 11:20 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), a non-governmental organization from Sri Lanka, has fully geared its administrative machinery to provide relief assistance to victims of all communities - Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese - in the northeast province. Nearly twenty thousand died and about five hundred thousand were displaced in Sunday's tsunami.
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Authorities Hinder Help to Tsunami Affected Regions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 23:27 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) faces difficulties in conducting relief operations in the eastern district of Sri Lanka. Divisions of the Sri Lanka army and police as well as Sinhalese groups stop trucks with aid cargo at Habarana junction, which links Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, and divert them to the south saying that the three eastern districts do not need more aid.
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Pirapaharan appeals for international assistance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 14:09 GMT]
Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers, Wednesday appealed to the international community and the United Nations to generously assist the people of the northeast devasted by the Tsunami. "I express my deepest sympathies and condolences to my people who lost their kith and kin in this disaster. I also extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to our Muslim and Sinhala brethren in the south who were affected by the Tsunami", he said in a statement issued in Tamil by the headquarters of the LTTE.
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Latest Tsunami toll: 18,000 dead, 10,000 missing, 500,000 displaced

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 10:24 GMT]
Latest figures gathered by TamilNet from Sri Lanka Government sources indicate a casualty figures of 18,000 dead, 10,000 still missing and 500,000 displaced in the worst ever disaster Sri Lanka has encountered by the tsunami waves that hit the island Sunday morning.
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Landmines fear hampers rescue work in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 09:31 GMT]
Five villages Devastated by Saturday's Tsunami are marooned as causeways and bridges have been damaged by the tidal waves. "The newly built government hospital, public buildings, schools, LTTE political offices, homes, churches and temples have been completely destroyed by the sea," Mr. S. Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa, told TamilNet Tuesday. He said that relief and rescue work in the former popular tourist resorts of Pasikudah and Kalkudah has been hindered by thousands of landmines uprooted by the Tsunami from the defenses of the local SLA garrison.
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Dispute over power sharing must not impede the relief efforts - NPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 01:45 GMT]
Noting that there is an immense human tragedy with villages swept away without trace and thousands of deaths in LTTE-controlled areas, the National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Sri Lankan peace group, in a media release issued in Colombo Tuesday said that it is important that the LTTE be brought in as a major actor if any major relief effort is meant to cover all affected areas in the north east. NPC appealed to the government and the LTTE to trust and respect each other's commitment to the best interests of the people they both seek to serve.
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8000 dead in northeast, 500 000 displaced, TRO appeals for help

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 20:35 GMT]
"8000 dead and 500,000 displaced in northeast of the Island of Sri Lanka", said The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in an urgent appeal to Tamil diaspora Monday evening. "Beaches are strewn with debris and waste. Whole villages have been turned into cemeteries. Over 8000 have lost their lives in the northeast. More than 500,000 have been displaced from their homes and left without shelter", said the release and called upon the Tamil diaspora to urgently seek humanitarian assistance from governmental and non governmental aid agencies in their host countries.
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Tamil MP slams Colombo for ignoring Northeast plight

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 19:37 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Monday slammed the Sri Lankan government and Sinhala parties in Parliament for "callously ignoring the plight of thousands in the northeast hit by Saturday's Tsunami. Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, senior TNA MP who took part in a conference Monday on urgent disaster management convened by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister told that the nonchalant attitude of the government and Sinhala parties towards the suffering in the Northeast is "appalling".
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TRO appeals for urgent assistance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 12:50 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an independent Non-Governmental Organization registered with Government of Sri Lanka, appealed to the Tamil expatriates Sunday to donate towards meeting the humanitarian crisis unfolding following the tsunami wave triggered flooding in residential areas along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Majority of families affected were from the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
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At least 500 feared killed by Tsunami waves in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 04:12 GMT]
At least five hundred people are feared killed as fierce waves from the sea hit Sri Lanka' eastern and southern coasts Sunday morning. Initial reports from the east said that many coastal villages of the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai districts were hit by powerful tidal waves causing extensive destruction as thousands of homes were covered by rising sea waters. Around 25 villages are reported to have been swept off by the tidal waves of the Tsunami.
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Student leader decries Colombo's military buildup

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 December 2004, 21:00 GMT]
"The Government of Sri Lanka is strengthening its military in preparation for renewed hostilities. The Liberation Tigers are ready to confront war if it is thrust on us and are prepared to liberate the occupied lands and people," said Mr Subash, Vavuniya district president of Consortium of Tamileelam students, addressing the audience in a book release ceremony held at the Muthaiah Hall in Vavuniya Friday afternoon, sources from Vavuniya said.
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SLA conditions delay school reconstruction in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2004, 13:13 GMT]
The rehabilitation of war destroyed schools which are located inside the high security zones in Jaffna district are getting delayed due to stringent conditions of the Sri Lanka Army in transporting materials to sites of reconstruction. Hence the contractors are fighting to keep the deadline, education sources said.
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NGOs condemn U.S. military analysts’ visit to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2004, 04:25 GMT]
Several people’s organizations in the Jaffna district have strongly condemned what they said was a secret visit by a group of U.S. military analysts to Jaffna with Sri Lanka's Army to study the security situation of SLA's frontline positions in the district. The organizations have sent letters to register their protest to the U.S. Embassy in Colombo and other international organizations, according to media reports in Sri Lanka and in the North-East.
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"Army harasses LTTE political activists in Trinco" - Elilan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2004, 20:54 GMT]
"Sri Lankan Army soldiers are engaged in a planned way to disrupt our political activities in the Trincomalee district", Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE, Mr. S. Elilan, told TamilNet Wednesday from Eachchilampathu by telephone. He said that he and his group were delayed more than three hours at the Kaddaiparichchan Sri Lankan Army (SLA) checkpoint when they were on their way to LTTE controlled Muttur east Saturday. They were again stopped at Mahinthapura SLA checkpoint Wednesday, he said.
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