SLN, govt departments to use confiscated Indian trawlers

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2004, 17:36 GMT]
Indian fishing trawlers confiscated by the Jaffna High Court for poaching in the northern sea have been handed over to Sri Lanka Navy and other government agencies for their use. 47 Indian trawlers taken into custody have been kept in the Kankesanthurai harbour under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Navy on a confiscation order by court, sources said.
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New SLA commander visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 12:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's army commander, Lieutenant General Shantha Kottegoda began a two day visit to Jaffna Thursday. He vistited Sri Lankan armed forces positions in Kankesanthurai, Palaly and in some parts of the islands off Jaffna, Sri Lankan military sources in the northern peninsula said. The SLA commander was also scheduled to visit the main entry point to the LTTE held areas in Jaffna and Vanni at Muhamalai after it closed to public traffic in the evening. This is Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda's first visit to Jaffna after he assumed duties as SLA commander.
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SLN arrests Indian poachers in northern sea

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 19:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Thursday evening took into custody four Indian trawlers poaching in the Sri Lankan northern territorial waters with 21 Indian fishermen and four boatmen and handed them to Kankesanthurai (KKS) Police. The SLN carried out this operation on receipt of information from the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna, TamilNet sources in the northern town said.
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SLA officer says he arrested missing Jaffna youth

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2004, 09:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Attorney General (AG) Thursday informed the Jaffna High Court that Lt. Col. T. M Mahindarathne, a Sri Lanka army officer who is the first respondent in a habeas corpus application, has written to the AG’s department acknowledging that he had indeed taken into custody Mr. Velupillai Uthayakumar on 17 June 1997 in Kodikamam, a town in the northern peninsula. Mr. Uthayakumar is among more than 600 Tamil persons who went missing after they were arrested by the Sri Lanka army in 1996-97.
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Deputy Defence Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 16:23 GMT]
Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Deputy Minister for Defence and the Minister of Public Security, Law and Order and Buddha Sasana Monday paid a visit to Jaffna accompanied by the Service Chiefs of three armed forces. He arrived in Palaly by a special aircraft, security sources said.
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US military intelligence team visits Palaly

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 10:38 GMT]
A top US military intelligence team visited the sprawling Sri Lankan armed forces base of Palaly-Kankesanthurai in Jaffna for high level discussions on security and defence issues, according reports in the Tamil press Sunday.
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US Pacific Commander arrives in Jaffna on two-day visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2004, 10:34 GMT]
United States Commander for Pacific Region, Lieutenant General James L. Campbell, currently on a visit to strengthen relationship between Sri Lanka and the U.S., Friday morning arrived in Palaly Sri Lanka Army (SLA) military base and held discussions with the Commander of Sri Lanka Northern region Major General Susil Chandrapala and other senior SLA officers, security sources said.
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EPDP activist remanded in Kayts murder incident

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 April 2004, 19:16 GMT]
The Kayts Magistrate, Mr. A.Premashankar, Saturday remanded Mr. Thirugnanam Sivakumar alias Velu, a key member of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), till May 1st, in connection with the murder last year of a young woman, legal sources said Monday.
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Jaffna University confers degrees on Tamil artistes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 March 2004, 00:46 GMT]
The Jaffna University created history last weekend by conferring Honorary Doctorates of Philosophy posthumously on two world-renowned artistes, Nathaswaram Vidwan Mr. N.K.Pathmanathan of Alaveddy and Dramatist Nadikamani V. V.Vairamuthu of Kankesanthurai. The Chancellor Professor M.Sivasooriya conferred the titles on them at the twenty-third convocation of the university held Saturday at the Kailasapathy Auditorium.


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Eastern poet decries regionalism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 16:20 GMT]
In a statement to Tamil media on the recent raising of regionalism in the East by renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Mr. Kasi Anandan, a well-known poet from the East, said that the more than 17,700 fighters from Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the liberation struggle did not do so for Jaffna or Batticaloa, but for Tamil Eelam. “I will never accept the division of Tamil Eelam as Jaffna and Batticaloa. The people of Tamil Eelam will live until their last breath for Tamil Eelam,” he said.


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Human rights workshop for Jaffna police officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2004, 17:26 GMT]
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has been conducting a four-day workshop for police personnel in the Jaffna district on protecting human rights since Thursday. Senior police officials and officers in charge of police stations in the peninsula have been participating in the workshop, sources said.
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Six fishermen on hunger strike hospitalized

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 18:03 GMT]
Seven of the sixty seven Indian boatmen who are on fast unto death campaign since Monday were admitted at the Jaffna teaching hospital Wednesday evening as they fell ill due to dehydration, medical sources said.


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SLN takes charge of Indian fishing boats

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 11:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Saturday took charge of five Indian fishing boats, which were captured by Point Pedro fishermen from poachers last week in the northern waters, on the orders of Point Pedro Magistrate Mr.K. Ariyanayakam, legal sources said.


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Valvettithurai fishermen remanded pending AG report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2004, 16:57 GMT]
The Mallakam Magistrate Ms Sarojini Ilangovan Saturday ordered two weeks' remand for the four fishermen of Athikoviladi in Valvettithurai when the Kankesanthurai police produced them in court on a report from the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) that the suspects had been arrested when trespassing in the Kankesanthurai sea area Friday morning, legal sources said.


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Vadamarachi mooring points can be dredged - Maj. Gen. Chandrapala

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2004, 03:58 GMT]
The Commander of the Sri Lankan security forces in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala told fishermen's organisations on the peninsula's Vadamaradchi coast Thursday that they can dredge and rebuild mooring points for their boats from this month.
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Civilian injured in SLA vehicle collision in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2003, 04:03 GMT]
S.Vijayaratnam of Nachchimar Kovilady in Jaffna, was seriously injured in an accident in which a truck of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and a motor bicycle collided Saturday morning at the Kankesanthurai road junction in Jaffna town. The injured civilian was riding the motorcycle at that time, and was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital by a group of residents of the area, police said.
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Indian boatmen released in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 00:04 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate, Mr.K. Ariyanayakam, Monday discharged two Indian boatmen, Mr.Thurairajah Mahendran and Mr. Thiruvonam Balamurugan, who had been in remand since their capture by local fishermen when they poached in Sri Lanka's territorial waters, on the instructions of the Attorney General, legal sources said.
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Wickremesinghe said to agree in principle to IDPs' resettlement in HSZ

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2003, 16:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, in a meeting with a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday, accepted 'in principle' that all internally displaced families are entitled to resettlement in their own lands and houses in the northeast province, regardless of whether those lands or houses come under areas declared as high security zones (HSZ) by the Sri Lanka Army, TNA sources said.
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SLN arrests poaching Indian fishermen in northern sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 21:03 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Sunday morning arrested seven Indian fishermen including two boatmen while poaching in the Sri Lanka territorial waters. They were taken to the navy installation in the Kankesanthurai port for questioning, police 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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