Peace gives no light to Vakarai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 00:32 GMT]
Vakarai is a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast. It is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. Vakarai was subjected to more than fifteen years of a brutal counter insurgency campaign by the Sri Lanka army. It has seen hardly any development even after the war stopped two years ago. Electricity is still a luxury here. “I have never seen electricity used in Vakarai since I was born,” N.Loganathan, a resident of Panichchankerni, told TamilNet.


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Attacks on Sri Lanka churches said well planned

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 18:08 GMT]
National Christian Council, the umbrella organization of protestant and Catholic churches in Sri Lanka, Friday said it is "gravely concerned over the continuous stirring up of resentment against Christians and increasing incidence of unchecked violence directed at Christian places of worship." "It is obvious from the pattern of these attacks that they are well planned and coordinated and are meant to intimidate Christians," the NCC said. The council deplored that Sri Lanka Police have not taken steps to curb the attacks on churches and Christians.
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Seven SLA soldiers discharged from murder case

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 15:17 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate Mr.P.Subramaniam Friday, on the instruction of the Attorney General, discharged all seven soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who were arrested and later released on bail in connection with the murder of a Tamil civilian, Pararajasingham Parameswaran, of Kodikamam in the year 2000. The magistrate made the order , legal sources said.


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Jaffna Police officer arrested for assaulting civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 17:40 GMT]
The Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Mr.Ruwan Chandrasekara Thursday night caught red-handed a police constable who is alleged to have been assaulting civilians in the heart of Jaffna town on a complaint made by civil representatives, HRC sources said.


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Protesting parents want school back from military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 12:23 GMT]
Parents protested in front of the Thenmaradchi Zonal Education office in Chavakachcheri Thursday urging the authorities to re-open the Eluthumadduval North Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS), which is occupied by the Sri Lanka army now. The protestors say their children face numerous problems because the school remains closed. Children from five hamlets in Eluthumadduval north were studying in the school before it was occupied by the SLA in 2000.
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UNICEF donates vehicles to education officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2004, 16:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Country Representative of the UNICEF Mr. Ted Chaiban Wednesday handed over a consignment of vans, motorbikes and computers with printers valued at about Rs 17.7 million to the North East Provincial Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs, Sports and Youth Affairs, as a step to support and strengthen the monitoring capacity of UNICEF's projects in education.


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Trinco students excel at national level exam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2004, 13:08 GMT]
Trincomalee students took the first, second and fourth places at the national level in Tamil medium in the Year-5 scholarship examination conducted by the Sri Lanka's Department of Examination. In addition Trincomalee district secured the first place for the second consecutive year, Commissioner General of Examinations Mr. Mahinda Wijesiri said.
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Sri Lanka Catholics to fast, pray for religious amity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2004, 15:07 GMT]
The Catholic Church of Sri Lanka has called for a day of fasting and prayer next Sunday, 1 February 2004, and to bring back religious tolerance in the hearts of Sri Lankan people. The Archbishop of Colombo Rt.Rev. Oswald Gomis has appealed to all Catholics in the country to conduct special Holy Hour Prayers with the exposition of Blessed Sacrament.
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Man injured in Manalkaadu landmine explosion

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2004, 17:14 GMT]
A man lost his left leg when a landmine exploded Monday around 10.30 a.m. in the general area of Manalkaadu. Mr. Maaribas Asokananda, 24, father of two children, was returning with four of his colleagues after chopping firewood in the Kandalkaadu area of Manalkaadu when he stepped on the landmine, relatives said. Residents of Manalkaadu lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission office in Jaffna last month that the Sri Lanka army had laid a new mine field on the outskirts of the village. SLA denies that it ever planted mines in the area.
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LTTE expresses 'serious concern' over Indo-Lanka defence pact

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2004, 14:31 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has expressed serious concern over the envisaged Indo-Sri Lankan Defence Agreement (DCA) arguing that it could have far-reaching negative consequences for the current peace process, sources told TamilNet Monday.
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NECORD funded school buildings opened in Eachilampathu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 January 2004, 17:56 GMT]
The Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Colonel Pathuman, Saturday declared open two new buildings in two schools in the Eachchilampathu division, in the LTTE held Muttur east, constructed by the Asian Development Bank funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project at a cost of about 3.8 million rupees at the invitation of NECORD Project Director Mr.T.Lankaneson.
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JVP-SLFP alliance seriously jeopardizes Peace Process - American Academics

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 January 2004, 17:42 GMT]
North American academics expressed pessimism about the future of the peace process after the JVP-SLFP alliance. Prof.Oberst of Nebraska Weslyan University said, "it has complicated the peace process...LTTE leadership [will be] hesitant to agree to anything until after the next general election." Prof Mia Bloom from McGill University said the alliance "seriously jeopardizes the peace process since it provides legitimization of the SLFP shifting even further to the right."
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Linganagar Tamils complain of SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 18:41 GMT]
The People Welfare Society (PWF) of Linganagar Friday made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee that soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning a check point in the area are harassing the residents of Linganagar, a crowded suburb of Trincomalee town, civil rights sources said.


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'Singhalese should reject chauvinist forces'- LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 11:25 GMT]
“If the Sinhala people elect racist political leaders at the next election then Tamils might have to decide their own future. The Sinhala people should identify and reject chauvinist forces among them. It is in the hands of the Singhalese to prevent another bloodbath in this island," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers political division during a goodwill meeting with journalists from the northeast in Kilinochchi Friday.
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Amarasinghe to address UPFA's first national convention

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 01:01 GMT]
Exiled leader of the Sinhala nationalist Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Mr.Somawanse Amarasinghe who returned to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, will appear in public on January 29 to address the first national convention of the newly formed United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in Colombo, party sources said.


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‘Sri Lanka army does not want war’ says Jaffna commander

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 12:52 GMT]
‘War is not the solution to the problem. The army does not want war. But we wont let the country be divided by war’, said Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala, the Sri Lankan armed forces commander for Jaffna speaking at a meeting on problems faced by refugees and civilians in the peninsula’s Valigamam North Division Wednesday. Former Sri Lanka army spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratna, general officer commanding of SLA’s 51 Division in Jaffna was associated with Maj. Gen. Chandrapala at the meeting.
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JVP leader Amarasinghe returns home

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 18:58 GMT]
Mr.Somawanse Amarasinghe Tuesday evening arrived in Katunayake international airport. Senior leaders of the Sinhala nationalist cum Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Messrs Tilvin Silva, Wimal Weerawanse, Nandana Gunathilaka and others received him, party sources said.


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JVP leader says totally opposed to SLFP’s power sharing policy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 13:46 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, the secretive leader of the JVP said that his party is totally against the SLFP policy of sharing power despite the alliance both parties have formed. In a wide-ranging interview with an online publication before his departure from an unnamed western country to Sri Lanka on Monday, Mr. Amarasingha castigated Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for behaving like an American puppet and for “speaking like a ruler of a land occupied by the US”. He asserted that the India - Sri Lanka Defence Pact should be made a cornerstone of the island’s foreign policy.
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Two killed in MoU celebration clashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 11:57 GMT]
Two men who were putting up flags and festoons to celebrate the signing of the MoU between SLFP and JVP were killed in a grenade attack on them in Senaikkudiyiruppu in the Puttalam district Monday, Police said. Three cars were burnt in the northwestern district in clashes between opposition supporters celebrating the MoU and UNP sympathisers Monday.
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SLFP-JVP MoU slams Sri Lanka’s peace process

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 10:27 GMT]
The memorandum of understanding signed by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday slammed the peace process, asserting that it “threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the country, degrading its dignity”. The MoU also lambasted Mr. Wickremesinghe’s government for promoting “crony capitalism, racketeering, corruption and subservience to international financial institutions”.
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