Families await resettlement in Vavuniya district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 January 2003, 04:35 GMT]
1795 families displaced from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas and Liberation Tigers (LTTE) controlled areas in Vavuniya district have requested assistance to resettle in their villages and details of these families have been collected by the Vavuniya civil authorities, sources in Vavuniya said.


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SLMM, SLA to conduct joint visit to Jaffna HSZs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 January 2003, 22:09 GMT]
The Norwegian Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and high officials of Sri Lanka Army led by Jaffna area commander, Major General Sarath Fonseka, are to commence joint inspection in the high security zones in the peninsula on Wednesday to gather information about civilian houses occupied by the SLA, sources said.
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Opposition leader supports UNF-LTTE peace talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 January 2003, 13:29 GMT]
Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, Leader of the Opposition Monday said in Jaffna that he would not oppose the present peace talks now being held between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Jaffna said. On his first official visit to Jaffna as the leader of the opposition Mr Mahinda Rajapakse declared open the Hindu Vedic Teaching School constructed by the Ministry of Hindu Cultural Affairs.


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'Federalism will unite divided Sri Lanka' – Jaffna don

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 January 2003, 12:48 GMT]
“This country is already divided. This is the ground reality. The Sinhalese people have to be told this. There is no point in talking about history now. The Indo-Lanka Accord, the Banda-Chelva Pact and the Dudley Chelva Pact have recognized the separate distinct identity of the Tamils in the past. The Sinhalese have to be told that the divided country can be united by granting a federal solution," said Prof. S. K Sittampalam, a senior historian, speaking at a seminar on ‘Federalizing the Sri Lankan State’ in the University of Jaffna Sunday.


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WHO signs agreement to improve NorthEast health sector

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 January 2003, 13:24 GMT]
The World Health Organization (WHO) Saturday signed a service agreement with the North East Provincial Council (NEPC) to establish its first regional office in the island in Trincomalee to improve the health sector in the Tamil dominated province. Dr.Kan Tun, Sri Lanka resident representative of WHO Sri and Mr.S.Rangaraja, chief secretary of the NEPC signed the agreement at 12 noon Saturday, sources said.


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'We want our land' - Second Pongu Thamil theme

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 January 2003, 12:25 GMT]
The first year anniversary celebrations of Pongu Thamil (Tamil Resurgence) movement in northeast province which was held at the Jaffna University grounds Friday concluded with the declaration of the theme "We want our land," sources in Jaffna said.


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Sinhala opposition to Sri Lanka peace effort mounts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:32 GMT]
Opposition to Sri Lanka’s peace process gathered further momentum as a new Sinhala nationalist organisation comprising powerful opposition politicians and Buddhist monks wowed Wednesday to agitate for separating the northeast into two provinces. Agitation by Sinhala nationalists to de-merge the northeast would be another spanner in the works for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s effort to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers to end two decades of armed conflict that has ravaged the island.


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Akashi in Sri Lanka to promote peace building

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 11:52 GMT]
Mr. Yasuka Akashi, the Representative of the Government of Japan, is in Sri Lanka from the 15th to 19th to continue his mission of peace building, rehabilitation and reconstruction in Sri Lanka, a press release from the Embassy of Japan said. Mr. Akashi will visit Kilinochi, Matara and Hambantota during his visit and will attend the meeting of Sub-Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN)
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Religious leaders urged to work for peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 04:22 GMT]
"Religions have been the cause for more than seventy five percent of the wars that took place in the world. There will be no progress in this country without peace. Religious leaders should play a vital role in bringing peace," said Mr.B.K.Ramesh Bhai Shah of Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Centre in a meeting at the management centre of the North East Provincial Ministry of Education, sources said.
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Apathy spells bleak future for Jaffna coconut

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 20:25 GMT]
More than hundred and fifty thousand coconut trees were destroyed in Jaffna due to military operations, officials of the state run Coconut Development Board (CDB) said Tuesday. However, only about 15 thousand saplings have been replanted so far, one year after the ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers, the officials said.
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Sri Lanka Buddhist monks oppose peace deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 18:45 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks Tuesday vowed to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government if it did not listen to their exhortations against a peace deal with the Liberation Tigers. More than two thousand protestors, led by the ‘Federation of Bikkhus to Rescue the Motherland’, a large umbrella organisation of Buddhist monks, gathered at the Nugegoda Junction, a busy intersection in one of Colombo’s crowded suburbs, Tuesday afternoon to condemn Colombo’s peace negotiations with the LTTE.


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SLA cannot deny the rights of IDPs to resettle in HSZ - TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 12:50 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Tuesday gave assurances to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that it would take steps to resettle displaced inside the high security zone (HSZ) in Jaffna once the Indian defence expert submits a report on that issue, sources said. TNA stressed that although SLA is empowered by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to prevent Liberation Tigers (LTTE) from entering the HSZ, SLA cannot deny the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from resettling in their own homes in their own land, sources said.
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SLA occupies 3500 civilian homes outside HSZ -Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2003, 16:45 GMT]
Three thousand and five hundred houses outside the high security zone (HSZ) in the Jaffna district are still occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) preventing thousands of displaced people to return to their homes, said the Government Agent in his report to Colombo authorities, district secretariat sources said.
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Tokyo to host talks, Akashi to meet Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 12:57 GMT]
Mr. Yasushi Akashi, Japan's special envoy for peace building and rehabilitation and reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Mr.Anton Balasingham, the Liberation Tigers’ Chief negotiator and political advisor, met Sunday in Bangkok to discuss the ongoing Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka and Japan’s aid plans for the country.
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Court extends remand for SLA soldier

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 03:18 GMT]
The Killinochchi Thamileelam court Friday rejected the bail application made on behalf of a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arrested by Tiger cadres for straying into the LTTE territory at Manalaru on December 24 last year and ordered remand for another fourteen days, court sources said.


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UNICEF program for children in NE inaugurated

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2003, 18:13 GMT]
The UNICEF on Thursday marked the start of a program specially formulated for the children of the war-torn North-East province, the ‘Every Child in School Programme,’ with an inaugural speech by the Sri Lankan government’s minister for human resources development, education and cultural affairs, Mr. Karunasena Kodithuwakku, at the St. Mary’s college in Trincomalee.
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Mystery fire destroys SLA sentry in Vadamarachchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2003, 16:26 GMT]
One of the several sentries of the Sri Lanka Army located on Manthikai-Kodikamam road in the Vadamarachchi area in Jaffna district was completely destroyed by fire Wednesday night. The SLA officials immediately launched an inquiry. At the time of the incident no army personnel was in the said sentry, sources said
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Massive JVP rally condemns peace talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2003, 16:10 GMT]
In a massive show of strength against the peace talks between the Sri Lanka’s United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers, the leftist Sinhala party, Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, gathered more than 25 thousand party members and supporters for a march and rally at one of Colombo’s busiest intersections Wednesday. Speakers at the rally denounced the peace talks to settle the island’s ethnic conflict as a western imperialist conspiracy to divide country.
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Batticaloa journalist's home attacked

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2003, 03:32 GMT]
The home of senior Batticaloa journalist, Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, was attacked with grenades around midnight Tuesday. The attackers poured petrol and set fire to the house located in the Sri Lanka army high security zone in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The fire did not spread due to rains and the efforts of neighbours, his colleagues said. Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy had received several death threats in the past from a suspected Islamic extremist group in the area.


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Peace talks are going well, say Chief Negotiators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2003, 18:19 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government conceded this week that the resettlement of Tamil refugees and internally displaced people in areas occupied by its military forces could not be made conditional on the disarming of the Liberation Tigers, as demanded by the Army. Following two days of discussion, hailed by both sides as “constructive,” the government also said it would begin to reallocate its troops based amongst civilians in the Jaffna peninsula.
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