Pipe explosion kills mother and child in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 16:50 GMT]
A mother and her child were killed in Vavuniya Wednesday as a pipe exploded when another child was playing with the pipe at their home in Sekkadipilavu-Selvanagar on Vavuniya-Mannar road, 11 km west of Vavuniya town, sources said.
Full story >>

Nine Indians smugglers, fishermen remanded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 13:35 GMT]
Nine fishermen and smugglers from India have been remanded by the Mannar magistrate’s court for smuggling refugees and explosives and for poaching in Sri Lanka’s maritime zone, legal sources in the northwestern town told TamilNet Tuesday.
Full story >>

SLN arrests returning Sri Lankan Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2003, 16:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Saturday arrested 21 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and 2 boatmen transporting them from Tamilnadu in South India to Mannar, and the Mannar Magistrate, Mr. N M.M.Abdulla, remanded the boatmen and directed the resettlement of the refugees, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Mines prevent resettlement in 39 Mannar villages

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2003, 17:23 GMT]
The Mannar district secretariat Wednesday said the internally displaced families in thirty nine villages in the district could not be resettled as the villages have still not been declared mine-free areas, sources in Mannar said.
Full story >>

De-mined Mannar village ready for resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2003, 19:00 GMT]
The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) said Monday that the Mallavarayankattu Adampan village in the Mannar district had been cleared of mines and is fit for resettlement of the displaced persons, and it ceremoniallly handed over the village to the Mannar Government Agent, Mr.V. Visuvalingam, Monday evening at a function held at the Adampan Matha Church, district secretariat sources said.
Full story >>

Thileepan’s 16th year commemoration begins in NE

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2003, 17:10 GMT]
The Tamil people in the Northeast Monday began observing the sixteenth death anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who died after twelve days’ fasting unto death due to the failure of the Indian government in fulfilling five demands put forward by him to meet the aspirations of the Tamil people soon after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement, sources said.
Full story >>

'HSZ prevents resettlement of 80,408 Jaffna families'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 03:33 GMT]
In the Jaffna district, 80,408 families have been unable to resettle in their own lands for the last 13 years as the Sri Lanka Army has been occupying their lands in areas it has declared as High Security Zones, said the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations in Jaffna in a statement Saturday.
Full story >>

Madhu road to be opened for public

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 14:02 GMT]
After a high level meeting with the Mannar district Government Agent (GA) V.Visvalingam and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials Friday at the SLA camp located at Madhu road junction it was announced that the Madhu road leading to the famous Madhu shrine from Vavuniya-Mannar highway will be opened for public use, security sources said.


Full story >>

Women’s gathering emphasizes Tamil women’s potential

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2003, 17:35 GMT]
At the women’s gathering held Thursday at the Vavuniya Town Hall, the leaders and members of the women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from all districts emphasized the importance of solving Tamil women’s problems together and attaining women’s liberation along with National liberation, and discussed the contributions Tamil women have made to the struggle of the Tamil people for self-determination, sources said.
Full story >>

WFP conference explores protracted relief program

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2003, 04:17 GMT]
At a conference held recently in Vavuniya at the Suvarka hotel by the United Nations' World Food Program, participants discussed the problems and barriers faced at the field level in implementing the WFP’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) for the Mother and Child Nutrition program, and possible solutions and alternatives, WFP sources said.
Full story >>

Villages in need of demining identified

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2003, 03:00 GMT]
Mr. R. S. Jeyabalan, the national executive director of the demining group FSD (Swiss Demining Federation), said Wednesday that 59 villages in the Vavuniya and Mannar districts have been identified as infested with land mines and booby traps and in need of demining.
Full story >>

Two Nigerian women arrested in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 August 2003, 16:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police in Mannar Monday arrested two women from Nigeria, Ossea Evelin, 21,and Dayona Omiji, 22, on the grounds they were acting suspiciously, and produced them before the Acting Mannar Magistrate, Police sources in Mannar said.
Full story >>

Skill development programme in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2003, 21:57 GMT]
The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in Sri Lanka and the North East Provincial Council, on behalf of the North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD), last week signed an agreement to implement a Skill Development Programme in the districts of Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya in the LTTE-held Vanni region, sources said.
Full story >>

Puthuvai Ratnathurai's Poem Collection released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 August 2003, 01:15 GMT]
A collection of poems, “ Ulaikalam,” written by Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Cultural and Arts Department, was released Friday at the Kailasapathy auditorium of the Jaffna University, where a leading political activist of the LTTE, Mr.V.Balakumaran, was the keynote speaker, sources said.
Full story >>

SLA denies passage to dead LTTE cadre's uniformed body

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 August 2003, 01:55 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army refused permission to take the body of a dead Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre through the SLA checkpoint in Uylankulam in Mannar to his hometown under the SLA control in Mannar for funeral rites, on the grounds that they could not allow the LTTE uniform and flag on the body, and the relatives of the cadre had to be taken to an LTTE-held area where the funeral with full honors took place, LTTE political sources in Mannar said.
Full story >>

Vavuniya Judge gets jurisdiction over Mullaitivu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 July 2003, 03:47 GMT]
The Judicial Services Commission of Sri Lanka has appointed the Vavuniya District judge, Mr. M. Ilanceliyan, to function as the District judge and Magistrate for the Mullaitivu district since June 1, sources said.
Full story >>

Two more suspects to be arrested in Nimalarajan murder

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2003, 06:15 GMT]
The Chief Inspector of Police in Jaffna, Mr.Ranjith de Silva, Friday informed the Jaffna Magistrate, Mr.R.T.Viknarajah, that the police are on the trail of two more suspects who are moving around Puttalam and Mannar areas and who are said to be members of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party, in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, legal sources said
Full story >>

Bishop protests SLA closure of Madhu Shrine access road

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 July 2003, 12:40 GMT]
In a meeting at the Mannar Secretariat Friday on issues related to forthcoming festivals at Madhu shrine, Mannar district Bishop Rev.Rayappu Joseph said that the continued closure of the road to Madhu shrine by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is a human rights violation, reports in Jaffna daily Uthayan said.


Full story >>

Resettlement in Talaimannar Pier areas to begin

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 July 2003, 08:26 GMT]
Sittampalam Jeyapalan, a senior officer attached to the international NGO from Switzerland, FSD, said that 1394 land mines, 9 claymore mines and 8 unexploded shells have been removed from the Talaimannar West and East areas in the last one hundred days. Administrative officials in Talaimannar said that the clearing of mines has allowed displaced residents from Talaimannar pier area to prepare for resettlement.


Full story >>

More Tamil refugees in India return to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2003, 16:49 GMT]
Twenty-one more Sri Lankan Tamil refugees Sunday early morning arrived in Nedunthivu islet in Jaffna district from South India by boats. They are natives of Jaffna district and fled to South India due to military operation by Sri Lankan security forces, sources said.


Full story >>