Jaffna shuts down as thousands honour martyr

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 08:19 GMT]
Jaffna came to a standstill Friday as thousands gathered at the Nallur Temple grounds to observe the sixteenth death anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan, the LTTE leader who fasted unto death in 1987 when the Indian army was in occupation of Jaffna and most parts of the northeast. Shops, offices and workplaces were closed to mark the final day of the weeklong remembrance.
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Schools complicate Valaiyiravu SLAF airport expansion plans

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 02:04 GMT]
High level officers from Colombo head quarters of Sri Lanka Airforce (SLAF) visited Valaiyiravu military airport in Batticaloa district yesterday to investigate the feasibility of expanding the airport while the two schools, Puthur Vigneswara Vidiyalayam and Valaiyiravu Methodist Vidiyalayam, remain located in close proximity to the perimeter of the airport, security sources said.
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Edward Said dies

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 00:44 GMT]
Edward W Said, a Columbia University professor, literary critic and leading spokesman in the USA for the Palestinian cause, died last night at a New York hospital due to complications from leukemia he had since early 1990.
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Madhu road opened for civilian use

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2003, 19:28 GMT]
The Madhu road in Mannar district was opened Thursday for the use of over 13,000 villagers living in 11 villages around the historic Madhu church by the Sri Lanka Army after several years, with restrictions on the type of vehicles that can travel on the road, civil sources said.
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SLA stops NECORD work in Valvettithurai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2003, 16:53 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Thursday stopped an Asian Development Bank funded project to assist fishermen on Jaffna’s Vadamaradchi coast even though the fisheries societies had obtained permission for the project from the SLA, fisheries sources in Vadamaradchi said.
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'GOSL should listen to IDP’s demands' - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2003, 15:11 GMT]
"Those who say that the Ceasefire has brought peace and all problems are solved should go to the refugee camps and see the refugees who cannot return to their homes because of the Sri Lanka Army’s occupation of their lands. Only then they will understand the plight of the internally displaced people (IDP) and the fairness of their demands," said Mr. S. Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vavuniya, speaking at the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya town Wednesday, sources said.
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Vavuniya Pongu Thamil festival draws thousands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 11:44 GMT]
Thousands of Tamil men, women and students from all walks of life thronged the urban council grounds in Vavuniya Wednesday evening from five corners of the town to attend the Pongu Thamil festival meeting, sources said.
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Jaffna agrarian services said neglected by Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 08:43 GMT]
A farmer whose fields lie inside the Sri Lanka army’s high security zones in Jaffna loses up to 500,000 rupees (5250 USD) annually in terms of income and land depreciation, according to Mr. Balasubramaniam Ponnaiah, an agrarian services official in the northern peninsula. He said that Colombo didn’t allocate any funds at all for agricultural development in Jaffna since 1995. The Sri Lankan military has garrisoned about 27 percent of Jaffna’s arable lands.
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Festival atmosphere marks Vavuniya Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 03:38 GMT]
"If we desire permanent peace let us negotiate a permanent solution to the conflict," said many of the yellow-red banners in the Pongu Thamil celebrations being held in a festival atmosphere in Vavuniya Wednesday, sources in Vavuniya said.
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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.
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Daily edition of Tamil paper launched in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 13:28 GMT]
Thamil Alai, the weekly newspaper published in Batticaloa, was launched as a daily from Monday. “We have started small but hope to soon become the main daily newspaper in the Batticaloa-Amparai region. One of our main aims is to strengthen and promote Tamil-Muslim amity. We also intend to focus on development issues,” said Mr. Pakkiaselvam Ariyanethiran who publishes the paper from Kokkoaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
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SLA fails to release Thenmaradchchi fields for cultivation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 11:32 GMT]
Displaced farmers of Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district complained Tuesday that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has not released paddy fields yet as promised although the farmers have made necessary arrangements to plough and sow their fields, civil group sources said.


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SLA disallows resettlement close to HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 10:53 GMT]
The Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka informed its headquarters in Colombo that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities are not in a position to allow internally displaced families to resettle in their own lands which are close to the High Security Zones (HSZ) in the Valigamam north of the Jaffna district, authoritative sources said.


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Destruction of coconut trees continues despite MoU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 02:54 GMT]
Several owners who visited their coconut estates located in Thenmaradchchi division inside the high security zone in Jaffna district last week complained Monday that several hundred coconut trees that survived the war have been found felled and removed from the fenced compounds, civil group sources said.


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Jaffna students killed in SLAF bombing remembered

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2003, 16:22 GMT]
Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and well-wishers gathered Monday afternoon at the Puloly Roman Catholic School in the Vadamaradchi division in Jaffna district to commemorate the 8th death anniversary of 40 people, including 26 students, who were killed on 22nd September 1995 in an aerial attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force bombers on the Nagarkovil Maha Vidiyalayam, education sources said.
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SLA bans reconstruction of Point Pedro Post Office

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 September 2003, 01:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has ordered that the Point Pedro Post office located close to the 52-4 brigade headquarters of the SLA cannot be reconstructed, saying that it falls under the High Security Zone, sources in Point Pedro said.
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Amity to acrimony

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2003, 14:34 GMT]
In the wake of an unsuccessful bid to forge an alliance to topple the ruling United National Front (UNF) government, Sri Lanka’s two largest opposition parties are now at each other’s throats, weekend press reports said. Relations between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the largest constituent of the main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the third force in Sinhala politics, have descended into acrimony barely days after alliance talks collapsed.
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Thileepan's death remembered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2003, 02:09 GMT]
The commemoration of the death of Lt. Col. Thileepan, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who fasted unto death in a campaign during September 15-26, 1987, is being observed fervently in all major towns in Jaffna, including in schools and Sri Lankan government offices, despite threats from the Sri Lanka Army, sources said.
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‘Claims of 13 camps after MoU totally unfounded’ -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 19:29 GMT]
The Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Col. Pathuman, and the district political head, Mr.Thilak, Friday jointly made an appeal to the Sinhalese and Tamil journalists in the Trincomalee district to inform the international community and people of the country that there was not an iota of truth in the allegation spread by anti-peace elements that the LTTE had constructed thirteen new camps in the government controlled areas in the district since the signing of the ceasefire agreement.
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Vavuniya MP says SLA disrupts Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army in Vavuniya has beefed up its checkpoint outside the Pongu Thamil (Tamil Upsurge) office, and SLA personnel are checking and video taping those who visit the office. Such actions are intended to disrupt the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya, said Mr.N.Sivashakthi Anandan, the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Thursday.
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