NECORD helps build war destroyed school buildings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 14:28 GMT]
Two new school buildings constructed at a cost of about three million rupees by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) programme in the resettled Tamil villages Kumburupiddy and Kuchchaveli in the north of Trincomalee district were declared open Saturday, education officials in Trincomalee said.
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Kommathurai SLA still occupies private homes, school

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 19:17 GMT]
Sri Lankan Army (SLA) personnel at the SLA camp in Kommathurai, located 17 km to the North of Batticaloa town continue to occupy several private residences and the Vinayagar Vidyalayam depriving the students at the school a conducive environment for obtaining proper education, school sources said.
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Cordon and search operation in Sinhala settlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 16:40 GMT]
Thirty-four people were arrested during a joint cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and police in Srimavopura, a Sinhala settlement in the eastern Trincomalee, Friday morning, police said. The search was conducted to arrest the increased number of criminal seeking refuge in the Trincomalee district, the sources said.
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Committee probing attack on NE journalists concludes inquiry

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 14:52 GMT]
The two-member committee of inquiry headed by the retired High Court Judge Mr. Oliver Weerasena concluded its three-day inquiry into assaults of journalists in the Northeast Friday evening at the Jaffna district secretariat, sources in Jaffna said.
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Ariyalai residents' resettlement delayed due to uncleared mines

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 11:09 GMT]
Residents of Maniyam thottam in Ariyalai Southeast in Jaffna district, in a letter to the Nallur Pradeshya sabha secretary, have appealed to expedite clearing of mines in Mulli area in Ariyalai to facilitate their temporary resettlement in Mulli, said local reports from Jaffna.


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Political confusion in Colombo said undermining peace

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2003, 20:04 GMT]
"It would be absolutely imprudent on our part to predicate the future of the Tamil people on the unpredictable political climate we are witnessing in Colombo now. It is getting progressively unstable. A politically powerful section of the Sinhala Buddhist clergy asserts that President Kumaratunga wowed during a meeting with its leaders that she would divide the Northeast province. The political bankruptcy of the Sri Lankan state in solving the ethnic conflict never stood so well exposed," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP, a senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance, Thursday.
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Foundation stone laid for Chavakachcheri maternity home

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2003, 17:31 GMT]
The foundation stone for the construction of a government maternity home at Chavakachcheri in the Jaffna district was laid Thursday by the Regional Director of health Services Mr.T.Sivapatham who was the chief guest at the event . The hospital complex was completely destroyed when the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched multi-barrel artillery (MBRL) attack on the town in 2000.
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Public access to Batticaloa Police Station restricted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2003, 11:46 GMT]
Batticaloa residents are being forced to register their complaints in the checkpoint located in the main road and are not being admitted inside the Batticaloa Police station starting from Monday, local reports said. Police officials said that this procedure is instituted for the benefit of the public, according to reports.


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Police yet to investigate attack on home says Batticaloa journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2003, 10:37 GMT]
“The Sri Lanka Police have not taken any action so far to investigate the grenade attack on my house in Valaichenai on Jan. 7 this year. I lodged a complaint at the Valaichenai Police station on the morning after the attack, in which an attempt was also made to set fire to my house”, said Mr. Senathirajah Jeyananthamoorthy, a leading Tamil journalist in the east giving evidence before a commission inquiring into attacks on media persons in the northeast Wednesday.
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Colombo urged to drop ‘double standard on interim mechanism’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 18:07 GMT]
“The cease fire agreement (CFA) between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers has no basis in the laws of Sri Lanka. It is an extra constitutional instrument on which the island’s peace has stood for more than 15 months. Therefore, why can’t the Sri Lankan government look beyond the constricting parameters of its constitution to formulate an interim mechanism for rebuilding and rehabilitating the war ravaged northeast? We are urging the Sinhala polity to drop its double standard on this matter for the sake of peace," Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance MP, said Tuesday.
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UXOs hamper reforesting, forest inspection in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 00:10 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Forestry Division (TEFD) sources said that unexploded ordnances (UXOs) pose danger to the inspection of the destruction caused to forests in the Vanni during Operation JayaSikuru in 1997, when Sri Lankan military officers felled large trees, destroyed forests and profited by exporting them to the South.


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Troop reduction in Jaffna imminent - SLA official

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 11:48 GMT]
"If the current climate of peace prevails longer there will soon be reduction of troops from current number of 40,000 to close to 10,000. We are preparing plans to introduce this reduction," said Colonel M.G.Ratnayake, special Public relations officer appointed by the Colombo Military Head Quaters, a leading Jaffna daily, Uthayan reported.


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VVT residents picket against new army camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 09:06 GMT]
Hundreds of students and residents of Valvettithurai in the north of Jaffna district Monday held a picketing campaign for about an hour opposing the establishment of a new camp of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Chithamabara College grounds. All vehicular movement on Valvettithurai-Keerimalai main road came to a standstill due to picketing, sources said.


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SLA builds camp in Chithampara College Grounds

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 12:01 GMT]
Residents in Valvettiturai (VVT) in the northern shores of Jaffna said that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has begun construction of a camp in the sports grounds belonging to Chithampara College Saturday, according to local press reports.
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Higher education scholarships for ninety-three Trinco students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 00:47 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan participating as the chief guest at the Mahapola higher education scholarship-awarding event held in Trincomalee Saturday appealed to the Sri Lankan government to formulate a scheme immediately to admit all qualified students for higher education to universities the same year, sources said.


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Batticaloa News in brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 18:15 GMT]
Batticaloa district Government Agent E. Mounaguruswamy presides the ceremony to award Mahapola scholarships to Batticaloa students and leads a committee looking into the current situation regarding the occupation of public buildings by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Batticaloa district.


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SLA occupies resident's land to construct new camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 17:22 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has forcibly occupied the private land of Mr.C.Vaikunthavasan, a resident of Point Pedro in the Vadamarachchi division of the Jaffna district, since May 29, according to a complaint that Mr. Vaikunthavasan made on Friday to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in Jaffna, sources said.
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SLA prevents education officials from entering school in HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 17:09 GMT]
A group of education officials and officials from the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project were prevented by the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday from entering the Tellipalai Union College, which is located in the high security zone, north of the Jaffna district.
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Valigamam residents picket against new SLA camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2003, 15:23 GMT]
Hundreds of residents Thursday held a four hour picketing campaign blocking the main road from Puttur to Chunnakam at Nilavarai junction opposing the construction of a new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Nilavarai- Navakiri area. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam participated in the picketing campaign, sources said.
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SLA occupation must cease for normalcy to return - GA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2003, 10:53 GMT]
"Normalcy in the day to day lives of residents of Jaffna district will not return until Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vacates from civilian houses and public buildings," said the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) S. Pathamanathan when he met US Embassy head of Political section Chris Long at the Jaffna Beach Hotel yesterday, local press reports said.


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