Defence takes lion’s share of 2006 budget - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2005, 03:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s has substantially increased its defence budget for next year to almost US$700 million, the Sunday Times said this week. The rise of over 20% comes amid a stepping up of violence in the island’s east between Army-backed paramilitaries and the Liberation Tigers.
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EU Declaration shatters peace hopes - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 September 2005, 09:18 GMT]
Warning that the European Union's declaration will be interpreted by Colombo as providing tacit support to its policies and therefore will likely harden Colombo's views and approach to the peace process, Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, S. P. Thamilchelvan, told TamilNet Wednesday that the announced restriction on receiving LTTE delegations in EU countries, has ruined the trust Tamil people had in the EU, and has caused irreparable damage to prospects for peace.
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Two Sinhalese men arrested with arms in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 17:06 GMT]
Valaichenai Police arrested two Sinhalese men from Polannaruwa and Mannampity with arms Wednesday around 2:00 a.m. at Meeravodai in Valaichenai. The men, allegedly involved in vehicle thefts and robberies, were traveling without the legal documents for their motor bike at the time of the arrest, Police said.
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Batticaloa auto-rickshaw driver shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 15:41 GMT]
Mr. Tennakoon Mudiyansalage Sunil (46), an auto-rickshaw driver and resident of Iruthayapuram was shot and killed Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at Kallady in Batticaloa, police said. The three wheeler driver whose mother is a Tamil and the father is a Sinhalese, was shot by two gunmen who came in a motorbike.


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Trinco Tamils urged to boycott State banks

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2005, 11:00 GMT]
Tamil civil groups in Trincomalee have called on the Tamil speaking people not to open new accounts in State Bank branches in the district and to boycott these branches on Tuesday September 27 to show their token opposition for the blatant discrimination meted out to educated qualified Tamil speaking youths in the recruitment process. The boycott is to continue until the bank administration steps to recruit more Tamil speaking youths, sources said.
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Tamil training for Sinhala police

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2005, 19:29 GMT]
"Majority of the people in the Trincomalee district are Tamil speaking. The police serving in the district should learn Tamil language to promote better understanding with Tamil speaking people and to discharge their duties effectively," said Mr.Raja Collure, Chairman of the Official Languages Commission of Sri Lanka, when inaugurating the Basic Tamil Language Training Programme for police personnel in the district Saturday.
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Discrimination in Bank recruitment, protests TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2005, 11:06 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian Sunday faxed a written protest to President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge calling for the cancellation of all appointments made by the State Banks, Bank of Ceylon (BoC) and Peoples Bank (PB) to their branches in the Tamil dominated NorthEast or that the new appointees be recalled "as this is a repetition of the regular discrimination that has been consistently practised against the Tamils in the matter of employment in the state sector including State Banks."
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General shut down paralyzes normal life in Trinco

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 September 2005, 05:09 GMT]
Tamil speaking people observed a general shut down in Trincomalee town and its suburbs, Wednesday, putting forward 8 demands, including the immediate removal of the unlawfully erected Buddha statue in the vicinity of the central bus terminal, about five months, and to lift the military occupation of the town since then. Tamil civil groups in the east port town issued the general shut down call.
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'There is no place for moderates'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2005, 05:40 GMT]
Even as his party leader and incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga wrapped herself in the tenets of liberalism whilst addressing the United Nations last week, her party's candidate for her succession, Mahinda Rajapakse, continued to tread an unabashedly Sinhala ultra-nationalist platform at home.
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Thileepan's 18th anniversary commemorations begin

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2005, 11:18 GMT]
Preparations to commemorate eighteenth death anniversary of Lt.Col.Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan), who fast to death during the occupation of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Jaffna, have begun in several parts of NorthEast with red and yellow flags symbolizing the Liberation Tigers being flown at main roads, key junctions, business premises and Government buildings, sources said. Thileepan passed away two weeks into his fast after placing five demands to the Indian Government.
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Peace process faces difficult future - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2005, 10:13 GMT]
Reflecting growing anxieties amongst Sri Lanka’s Tamils in the wake of the Sinhala nationalist forces gathering behind Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned this week that the peace process “will face an ever more uncompromising Sinhala bloc.” The island’s political developments, moreover, reflect the polarised sentiments amongst the island’s communities, the English-language paper’s editorial column argued.
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Srimavopura attacks threaten civilian travel in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 September 2005, 15:38 GMT]
Representations have been made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee to ensure safety to Tamil and Muslim civilians who travel to and from north of Trincomalee passing through Srimavopura, a suburb an about one km north of the east port town from being attacked by Sinhala mobs. Civil groups have complained to the SLMM that Tamil and Muslim civilians are attacked at Srimavopura junction by Sinhalese gangs in the presence of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and policemen of the Sri Lanka Police (SLP), sources said.
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JVP announces conditional support to Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 September 2005, 07:20 GMT]
The Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna on Monday announced its conditional support to Sri Lankan PM and the presidential candidate Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse with twelve demands. The main demands put forward by the JVP were: nullify P-TOMS, commitment to unitary state, revise the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and review the Norwegian role in the peace process. The JVP announced its conditional support to Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse Monday morning in a press conference held at National Library in Colombo. According to JVP, a "policy agreement" was already reached between Mr. Rajapakse and the JVP.
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Devotees throng Nallur Chariot festival

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 September 2005, 10:11 GMT]
Devotees from across Sri Lanka and visiting expatriate Tamils Friday filled the temple premises at the Annual Chariot festival of Kandaswamy (Lord Murugan) Temple located in Nallur Jaffna turning Jaffna into a spiritual town. Hundreds of devotees performed ‘Angapirathshanam’ behind the big chariot carrying the chief deity, and women devotees carried pots with burning camphor, to fulfil vows made during the year.
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SLA informer shot and killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 August 2005, 11:26 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Mr. Warnakulasooriya John Silva, 75 year-old Sinhalese in Thampalakamam Saturday night at 8:50 p.m. He was running a shop selling pots of curd in the area. He succumbed to gunshot injuries while being taken to Kantalai government hospital, Police said.
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P-TOMS debate continues in parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 August 2005, 13:32 GMT]
"We would create one hundred Pirapaharan instead of one in the North East if we allow the current political crisis situation without P-TOMS and with the stalled peace process to continue," said Mr.Maithiripala Sirisena, Minister of Irrigation and Rajarata Development participating in the P-TOMS debate, which began Thursday in parliament.
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UN Sub-Commission urged to promote and protect Human Rights in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 August 2005, 10:42 GMT]
There has been no proper investigation or punishment of culprits in the many cases of murders of human rights defenders and journalists in Sri Lanka, noted Ms. Deirdre McConnell in an oral intervention on the agenda item 3, "Administration of Justice, Rule of Law And Democracy," at the 57th session of UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human rights on Tuesday. "There has been no progress on the case of the assassination of Mr Kumar Ponnambalam on 5th January 2000, despite ample evidence regarding the alleged perpetrators of the crime," she said citing a number of instances that evidenced "pattern of bias" in the Sri Lankan judicial system.
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TNA seeks govt. stand on Trinco Buddha statue issue

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 06:06 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance ( TNA ) parliamentary group leader and Trincomalee district parliamentarian made a statement in parliament Wednesday morning seeking the Government to reveal its stand on the Trincomalee Buddha statue issue following the withdrawal of the case filed by the Attorney General in the Trincomalee District Court for the removal of the statue.
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New Institute to boost Tamil education in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 01:30 GMT]
In an event held in the Killinochchi zonal education office in Kilinochchi Sunday, The Education Development Institute of North East (EDINE) was inaugurated to develop Tamil medium education in the northeast province, education sources said. Professor C.Mohanathas, Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University, unveiled the name board of the office and Mr.R.Thiakalingam, from North East Provincial Education Ministry, declared open the office.
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Kantalai ancestral farmers face denial of water rights

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 July 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian, has requested the Sri Lanka's Ministry of Irrigation not to divert water from Kantalai tank for irrigating fields in a newly created Sinhala settlement Jayanthipura undermining the preferential rights of ancestral (Purana) farmers of Tampalakamam and Mullipoththanai of the down stream. When the augmentation of Kantalai tank took place in 1950s to support new Sinhala settlements Government of Ceylon gave an undertaking to traditional Tamil and Muslim farmers ensuring their right to water from the tank.
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