Peace Process, MoU at grave risk- LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 May 2004, 13:00 GMT]
"It is apparent that the killers have all the assistance from the SLA and we request of you to advise the [Sri Lanka] government that if the SLA continues to act in this manner the entire peace process and the cease fire agreement are being placed in heavy risk and dire consequence have to be faced," said Leader of the Political Wing of the LTTE in a letter to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), pointing out to the recent murders of two LTTE cadres in Batticaloa district.
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Norwegian doctors hold workshop in East Campus

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 May 2004, 11:46 GMT]
Doctors from the Medical Faculty and Teaching Hospital in Tromsø, Norway, led by Tromsø University Planning Commissioner Mr.Eriksel, began a two day workshop on Medical education in the Nursing Education center at the Eastern University campus at 8.30 am Saturday, education officials said.
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Security strengthened for Batticaloa TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 May 2004, 10:39 GMT]
More than ten Police officers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are providing security to Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Ms.Thangeswary Kathirgaman, at her Nalliah Road residence in Batticaloa, security sources said.
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SLA bans cultivation in lands outside Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 18:09 GMT]
Inspite of repeated assurances by the Jaffna command of the Sri Lanka Army that internally displaced families will be allowed to resettle and do their cultivation in their lands located six hundred meters away from the forward defence line of the Palaly high security zone, soldiers manning checkpoints are putting obstacles for the resettled farmers to prepare their lands for cultivation, resettled families complained to TamilNet Friday.
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Thavadi residents foil attempted rape by SLA soldier

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 17:37 GMT]
Residents of Thavadi village in the Valigamam division of the Jaffna district Wednesday night rescued a Tamil girl from being sexually assaulted by a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army. The suspect soldier is one of the army personnel manning a checkpoint close to the victim’s house, civil sources said.
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Eastern public complain of wood smuggling

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 16:48 GMT]
A large number of valuable trees in Vakaneri, Poththanai, Poonaakaadu and Kaaradipaththy areas of the Batticaloa district are being felled and smuggled out illegally during the past few weeks, thus robbing valuable forest resources, residents complained to TamilNet Thursday.
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Norway to help create medical faculty at Eastern University

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 16:28 GMT]
A group of academics, administrators and nurses from the University of Tromsø in Norway is visiting Batticaloa to discuss the assistance needed to create a Medical Faculty at the Eastern University, sources in the Eastern town said.
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Two LTTE activists shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 May 2004, 13:48 GMT]
Mr.Sivanathan Murali alias Pahalavan and Mr.Vathanan, two unarmed political activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were shot dead Thursday afternoon around 2 p.m. at Thannamunai, located 9 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town in the Sri Lanka Army-controlled area. At the time of the incident the Sri Lanka Army was patrolling the area, sources said.
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Tamil media Alliance slams raid on journalist's home

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 2004, 13:07 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) said Tuesday it strongly condemns the Police raid on journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam’s home in Colombo on World Press Freedom Day. “The Sri Lankan government and its armed forces have long attempted to portray Tamil journalists as supporters of armed violence with a view to destroying their professional credibility. We consider the raid on Mr. Sivaram’s home as a continuation of this policy," the SLTMA said in a statement Tuesday.
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LTTE ready to resume talks based on ISGA- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2004, 09:47 GMT]
Ambassador for Norway in Colombo, Mr. Hans Brattskar, Norway's special peace envoy, Mr. Eric Solheim, and Second Secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Ms. Kjersti Thomsdal, met with Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. The talks, started at 10.45 a.m. lasted for more than two hours and focused on the resumption of stalled peace talks and about preparing the agenda for the talks between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), sources in Vanni said.
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3 SLA soldiers charged in December shooting incident

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2004, 10:21 GMT]
Police has filed papers in Jaffna District Courts against three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, Nagoda Witharna, Ranjith Samarakoon and Sunil Rohana for attempted murder of a newspaper vendor in Jaffna bus stand on December 9 of last year, local media reported.
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CWC observes May Day as day of mourning

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2004, 08:41 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers' Congress, the largest Tamil trade union in Sri Lanka's tea and rubber plantatons said Saturday it was observing May Day as a day of mourning and as a black day in protest against the Police shooting in Kandapola. More than ten thousand estate workers took part in the CWC rally in Bandarawela Saturday. Mr. Arumugam Thondaman MP, the leader of the CWC said that workers would go on strike on 3 May in protest against the Police shooting and the attack in Tamils in Kandapola.
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SLA restricts night traffic through entry points in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 02:38 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army on Thursday introduced new rules to restrict traffic at night between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. through the eight entry points in the Batticaloa district through which the public can pass between the Liberation Tigers-controlled areas and the SLA-controlled areas in the district, Tamil media sources in the East said Thursday.


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‘Need to know Colombo’s stand on resuming talks’ – Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2004, 09:20 GMT]
Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the LTTE’ political division, said Thursday that the Tigers would state their stand on for resuming the island’s stalled peace process only after Norwegians peace facilitators first find out and apprise them of Colombo’s position regarding the basis for restarting negotiations. He was speaking to the local press after meeting head of Sri Lanka’s truce monitoring mission, Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde in Kilinochchi.
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Curfew in hill town, three Tamils shot dead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2004, 07:30 GMT]
Three Tamils were killed and four were wounded when Police opened fire on crowds in Kandapola, 16 kilomtres from Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka's main hill country town and holiday resort, on Wednesday night. Curfew has been declared in the area following clashes between Tamils and Sinhalese which flared up late Wednesday afternoon over a vehicle accident in Kandapola. A senior Tamil MP of the Ceylon Workers' Congress slammed the Police for precipitating the communal violence. "The Police acted in a very partial manner", he said. Fourteen Tamil shops in Kandapola were smashed up and ransacked.
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Workshop on HIV/AIDS for Trinco media persons

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2004, 20:53 GMT]
North East Provincial Ministry of Health Tuesday held a one-day workshop for media personnel in the Trincomalee district, soliciting their co-operation to create awareness among the masses in the prevention and control of HIV AIDS in the northeast. Provincial health regional epidemiologist Dr.T.Thavakodirajah addressing the workshop said northeast province has gained second place with 43 positive AIDS cases in the island.
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SLA prevents Muslims from resettling in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 16:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has prevented Muslim refugees who came back recently to Chavakachcheri, the second largest town of the northern peninsula, from repairing and resettling in their war-destroyed homes, a spokesman for the returnees told TamilNet Tuesday. “We have been living in refugee camps in Puttalam for many years. I arrived with my family today, hoping to restart my life here in my hometown. But the military says that it won’t vacate my house. Where do I go?” asks Mr. Ismail Sultan, 38, a businessman.


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SLA's complicity claimed in Batticaloa murders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 10:50 GMT]
Head of the Political Wing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S.P.Thamilchelvan, in a letter to the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Major General (retd.) Trond Furuhovde, said that the murder of seven LTTE cadres including four disabled Sunday night was a violation of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and that the LTTE had "credible evidence that the attackers came from the Vavunathivu SLA [Sri Lanka Army] camp direction," according to the LTTE's Peace Secretariat website.
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UNCHR’s help sought for resettling Kevuliyamadu IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 03:56 GMT]
The people who were rendered refugees and were displaced during the war in 1985 from Kevuliyamadu in the Batticaloa district have demanded that they be allowed to resettle in their village, sources said.
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Sri Lanka Buddhist monks’ party slams Marxists

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2004, 16:22 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the party of ultra Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monks, Monday charged that the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s chief coalition partner, is planning to eliminate its leaders. Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero, General Secretary of the JHU, told a press conference at the party’s headquarters in a plush Colombo suburb that leading monks of his party had received death threats again on Sunday night. Meanwhile thousands of posters lambasting the JHU monks appeared in Colombo during the weekend.
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