TNA briefs Akashi on urgent need for IA in NE

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 September 2003, 16:45 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by its parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, Friday told the Japanese special peace envoy, Mr.Yasushi Akashi, that an interim administrative structure with adequate powers is urgently needed to rebuild the war ravaged northeastern province as the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has no political power to implement a permanent political solution to the ethnic conflict immediately, sources said.
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PA, UNF trade charges over claims of new Trinco LTTE camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 September 2003, 14:37 GMT]
The main opposition in Sri Lanka's parliament, the People's Alliance, Friday rejected the claim by the ruling United National Front government that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has not constructed any new camp in the government controlled areas in the northeast except the Kurankupanchchan LTTE camp now in dispute, and reiterated its original claim of many new LTTE camps in Trincomalee in areas controlled by the Government of Sri Lanka.
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'NE conflict cannot be solved through talks' -Sihala Urumaya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2003, 14:53 GMT]
At a press briefing held Thursday in Colombo, Mr.Tilak Karunaratne, the General Secretary of the Sinhala extremist political party, Sihala Urumaya (SU), said that in the SU's view, the northeast conflict could not be solved through negotiations, media sources said.
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SL govt. rejects PA claims of new Trinco LTTE camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2003, 13:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Thursday totally rejected the charges leveled by the opposition, including the People's Alliance (PA), that the security of the Trincomalee harbor and the eastern province is in danger, and said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had not established any new camp in the government controlled areas in the Trincomalee district, except the Kurankupanchan camp, after the ceasefire agreement, denying the PA claims that there are 13 new LTTE camps in Trincomalee.
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NE children to get final polio oral dose

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2003, 14:46 GMT]
The final oral polio vaccine immunization programme in the Northeast province, with the assistance of UNICEF, will be held between 20 September and 18 October, Consultant Epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health Dr. (Ms.) Paba Palihawadene told provincial health officials at a conference held Monday at the provincial health ministry auditorium in Trincomalee.
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Boats return from Tamilnadu after thirteen years

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2003, 01:48 GMT]
Sixty one mechanized fishing boats of Tamil fishermen of Trincomalee left Monday morning around eight from Nagapatinam port in South India to Trincomalee towed by twelve Indian trawlers after thirteen years in the custody of Indian officials, northeast provincial council (NEPC) sources said.


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'SLA destroyed houses in HSZ during ceasefire'

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 18:50 GMT]
Peoples' Organizations in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district Monday accused the Sri Lanka Army of destroying their houses and other buildings in the villages of Maravanpulo and Kovilankandy, located in the high security zones, after the ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam came into operation, sources said.
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Jaffna against holding national sports festival

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 20:54 GMT]
Tamileelam Sports Co-ordinating Committee (TSCC) Saturday said in a statement that the decision of the Central Ministry of Sports to hold the 29th National Sports Festival in Jaffna is an act against the feelings of Tamil people, sources said.


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'Need advisors to promote peace, not war' - Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 12:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe appealed to his ministerial colleagues during last week's cabinet meeting that he needed persons who could advise him on how to achieve permanent peace and not to launch war again, according to Colombo media sources.
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Restoration work begins at Kanniya Nadesar temple

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 02:34 GMT]
Restoration work of the Kanniya-Sivayogapuram Nadesar Temple, destroyed by the Sri Lanka security forces and Sinhala mobs 20 years ago during the 1983 July pogrom, commenced Friday. The only temple for Lord Nadesar in the island is located along the Trincomalee-Anuradhapura road, about 5 km northwest of the Trincomalee town, sources said.
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SLA reneges on agreement, orders house demolition

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2003, 20:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Friday ordered an internally displaced person (IDP), who had constructed a new house in the Ponnalai area of Jaffna district, to demolish his house, saying it is located inside the high security zone, even though permission to construct the house had been granted under a resettlement program, security sources said.
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British political leaders visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 September 2003, 19:46 GMT]
The deputy leader of the opposition in the British Parliament, Mr. Michael Ancram, and former treasurer of the Conservative Party, Lord Ashcroft, Friday arrived in Jaffna and held discussions with the Government Agent, Mr.S.Pathmanathan, representatives of the international and local non-governmental organizations, and heads of government departments at the Jaffna district secretariat, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLMM raises LTTE flag issue at Tamil women's event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 14:28 GMT]
When the Tamil Eelam National flag was about to be raised at an event organized by Tamil women’s organizations in the Northeast at the Vavuniya Town Hall Thursday, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission objected to it, saying that such flag-raising in the Sri Lanka Army controlled area violated the ceasefire agreement. However, following an argument between the LTTE’s women wing political leaders at the event and the SLMM’s foreign monitors, the flag was raised and the event went on peacefully, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Trinco fishermen to bring their boats from Tamilnadu after 13 years

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 September 2003, 19:41 GMT]
Sixty one fishing crafts of Tamil fishermen in Trincomalee that have been lying at Nagapatinam in Tamilnadu, India, under the custody of Indian custom authorities since 1990, will be brought back to Trincomalee next week with the assistance of Indian and Sri Lankan Navies, North East Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Resettlement Ministry Secretary, Mr.S.Sivathasan, said Tuesday.
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Ranil says UNF is committed to ‘peace with security’

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 19:03 GMT]
Responding to a query from Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, on the issue of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s camp at Kurankupanchan in the Trincomalee district, the country’s Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, said Monday that his government was continuing its efforts to resolve the issue peacefully and that Ms. Kumaratunge should not approach the issue on the basis of political expediency, media sources in Colombo said.
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Trinco Lions assist resettled in Paththinipuram village

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 18:56 GMT]
The District Governor of International Lions in Trincomalee, Ms. Soma Edirisinghe, Sunday evening declared open a children's park constructed by the Trincomalee New Century Lions Club at the Paththinipuram Siththivinayagar Tamil Vidiyalayam, and later handed over school materials to students of resettled families at an event held the same day at the school, sources said.


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The garrisoned rice bowl

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2003, 13:22 GMT]
Thenmaradchi was Jaffna's rice bowl until three years ago. Today most of the region's fertile rice fields are enclosed by the Sri Lanka army's concertina and mine laden defence perimeter. Thenmaradchi’s main farming villages lie derelict inside this vast garrisoned area hemmed in by the A9 and the Jaffna lagoon. Local farmers have been waging, collectively and individually, what increasingly appears to be a hopeless struggle to gain access to their homes and fields since the Liberation Tigers and Colombo signed a ceasefire agreement in February last year.
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‘SLA has no authority to prevent students from attending Pongu Thamil’ - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2003, 13:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has no authority to prevent students from attending the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya when 24 schools have been declared as falling into the High Security Zone in Vavuniya by the SLA and the students of these schools are denied their education, said Ms. S.Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Vavuniya on Friday.


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'De-merger of NE a calamity to Sri Lanka' - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2003, 09:01 GMT]
"The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) desires to place on record that the de-merger of the northeast province which has existed for the past fifteen years by the President would be a calamity to the whole Sri Lanka, and urges the President to desist from taking this perilous course," TNA said in a press statement issued Thursday in Colombo.
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SLA blocks resettlement within 600 m radius of Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 19:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has declared that the internally displaced families will not be allowed to resettle within a 600 meter radius of the Palaly high security zone in Jaffna district, and SLA authorities have asked those already resettled within 600 meters of the HSZ in Kuppilan north to vacate immediately from the area, civil groups in Jaffna said.
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