Soldier deserts SLA, wants to join LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 17:22 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army, who deserted the SLA and surrendered to the political division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was handed over to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) at the HRC’s office in Vavuniya Tuesday night, sources said.
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Railway workers suspend strike

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The United Alliance of Railway Trade Unions(UARTU) Thursday appealed to its members to return to work from Thursday midnight after the forty eight hours' strike, which crippled the railway services in the country, with a warning to the government that it would resort to stringent trade union action if their demands were not met within the next fourteen days.
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SLA intelligence officer killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 14:18 GMT]
Mr T.Vigneswaran, an intelligence officer of the Sri Lanka Army working at the 221 Brigade headquarters located in Plantain Point in Trincomalee died Thursday evening due to severe assault with pointed weapons and iron rods by unidentified persons, Trincomalee police said.
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Book on LTTE’s first conventional formation launched

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 19:47 GMT]
“The successful interdiction of the A9 highway, which we held for thirty-three days until the fall of Elephant Pass despite massive onslaughts by the Sri Lanka Army to dislodge our troops, is the greatest achievement of the Charles Anthony Brigade. He who owns Elephant Pass owns Jaffna,” said Col. Balraj, senior commander of the Liberation Tigers, speaking at the launch of a special volume on the first conventional military formation of the Liberation Tigers Wednesday in Kilinochchi.
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SLA agrees Vadamaradchi NECORD work can go ahead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 19:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Wednesday said it would allow the deepening of fisheries landing points in the Vadamaradchi north coastal areas, from Kerudavil to Katkovalam east, after fisheries societies representatives and Divisional Secretariat (DS) officials brought to the notice of the army officials present at the conference held Wednesday that they had already sought permission from the SLA in this regard, sources said.
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Habeas Corpus filed for Jaffna disappearances

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 17:23 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Judge, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharajah, Wednesday entertained Habeas Corpus (HC) applications filed on behalf of seven Tamil youths who have been reported disappeared after their arrest by the Sri Lanka Army during the 1996-1997 period, and fixed the inquiry into these applications on October 29, legal sources said.
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Palaly teachers' college has no permanent place to function

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 17:15 GMT]
Students of Thirunelvely Muthuthamby Vidiyalayam Tuesday commenced a boycott campaign demanding the Palaly English Teachers' Training College now functioning in their school buildings since 1990 should be shifted immediately. The training college had been displaced in the 1990 operation by the Sri Lanka Army from its own buildings located in Palaly, which comes under the high security zone of the SLA, sources said.
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Future of VVT NECORD project uncertain

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 19:26 GMT]
Representatives of the Vadamaradchi North Fisheries Societies decided in a meeting Tuesday to walk out if the Sri Lanka Army failed to provide a satisfactory solution on allowing the project on deepening of fisheries landing points at the conference scheduled to be held Wednesday at the 52-4 brigade headquarters of the SLA, located in the Point Pedro high security zone, sources said.
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SLA threatens to demolish refugee’s home

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 16:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army Tuesday threatened to demolish the home of a family that had resettled in Valalai in the Valigamam Division of Jaffna, residents of the village said. On Monday the SLA ordered families in Valalai that had built brick houses to dismantle their homes immediately. Soldiers warned the family that refused to comply with the SLA’s order that its home would be demolished by Wednesday, residents said.
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Sustainable Development in Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 04:45 GMT]
International institutions and foreign governments have pledged funds, developed strategies, and formed committees in preparation for rehabilitating and reconstructing the war ravaged Northeast. But sustainable development holds the key to developing Northeast which is in need of infrastructure development, industrial development, agricultural and fisheries improvement, technological advancement, education and training and other areas.
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LTTE activists released on bail in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 04:38 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate, Mr. K.Ariyanayagam, Monday allowed cash and surety bail to two activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when they were produced in court on a complaint of abducting a private vehicle and possessing pointed weapons on September 23, legal sources said.
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SLA rejects IDP's resettlement in Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 04:20 GMT]
A conference held Sunday in Jaffna between the Sri Lanka Army, representatives of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies in Jaffna (CHA-J) and some peoples' organizations ended without reaching a consensus on the question of resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in their lands that come under the high security zones (HSZ) in the peninsula, civil sources said.
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Building up the case for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 02:11 GMT]
There is a steadily growing body of opinion among the Singhalese that Colombo’s dealings with the Liberation Tigers amount to nothing but a misguided policy of appeasement and plain treachery. The case for going to war with the Tigers again is being argued in different guises – its rhetorical veils are getting thinner as the ranks of those who oppose the peace process swell with each passing week.
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SLA again stops work on NECORD project in VVT

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 18:12 GMT]
Vadamaradchi fishermen Monday began work on micro breakwater for mooring fishing boats and deepening boat-mooring space inside these in Valvettithurai (VVT), Inbaruty and Thumpalai coastal areas, defying the ban on the project by the Sri Lanka Army, and tension arose when the SLA rushed to the area, and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) had to intervene to keep the situation under control, sources said.
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Fasting campaign to demand inquiry into Nimalarajan’s murder

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 17:24 GMT]
A fasting campaign is to be held by the Jaffna Journalists’ Alliance (JJA) in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat to remember the slain journalist, Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was killed three years ago in Jaffna, and to call for a commission of inquiry into his murder, the Jaffna-based Tamil daily, Uthayan, said Monday.
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Catholic shrine demolished, Mannar tense

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 11:23 GMT]
Mannar town was tense Monday following the demolition of a catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar Island. Officials from the Mannar District Secretariat, the Liberation Tigers and officers from the Sri Lanka army and Police were engaged in talks to defuse the situation amid a sit in protest in the town by more than a thousand catholic fishermen from Pallimunai, a coastal suburb of Mannar town, who had built the shrine.
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Valvettithurai fishermen to defy SLA order

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 15:49 GMT]
The Fisheries Co-operative Society officials in Athikoviladi, Valvettithurai, Sunday said they would commence work Monday on micro breakwater for mooring fishing boats and deepening boat mooring space inside these, regardless of whether the Sri Lanka Army allows it. The SLA had Thursday stopped the fishermen from starting the work, fisheries sources said.
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Literary meet promotes Muslim Tamil relations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 12:19 GMT]
“A Tamil student would come every year to our house with a gift for my father when I was a little boy. He would seek my father’s blessings on the day of his father’s death anniversary. His esteem for my father’s Tamil scholarship was such that although he had many uncles he honored my father as his own. This is but an instance of the great and deep bond between Tamils and Muslims in the east”, said Mr. Jinnah Serifudeen, the well regarded poet speaking at a literary meet Sunday to promote Tamil Muslim relations in Kattankudy, near Batticaloa town.


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Tamil monthly from Trincomalee released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 18:44 GMT]
LTTE's Trincomalee district women military wing leader Ms Thayalini released the first copy of the Trincomalee's new Tamil monthly magazine "KONAMARUTHAM (Gentle Breeze of Trinco)" to the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and district parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan Saturday at an event held at Trincomalee Town Hall.
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A life as rough as coir

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 18:09 GMT]
Few would dare to make a living on Jaffna’s ‘forgotten coast.’ Layers of concertina, sentry points, fences, bunkers and watch towers seal the lagoon shore for about 12 kilometres between Koilakandy and Kilaly, southeast of the Jaffna town. But for the coir makers and fishermen who survive here, it is home – the waters and soil where their forbears made their livelihood for centuries.
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