A9 travellers checked at gunpoint

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 14:40 GMT]
Passengers reaching Jaffna from Colombo Tuesday evening said that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were checking the travellers on A9 at gunpoint at a newly constructed checkpoint at Arasankulam, 1 km. south of Omanthai checkpoint.
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Colombo's political drama shatters hopes for peace- LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 July 2005, 03:14 GMT]
"As Tamil people have repeatedly witnessed in their tortuous history of the past several decades, Colombo has shown its reluctance to provide remedies to Tamil people even after humanitarian disasters of colossal proportions. Sinhala leaders under severe international pressure, signed the deal after dragging for six long months, the Sinhala chauvinists then staged protests to derail the deal, and when all techniques were exhausted Sinhala nationalists engaged the willing apex court to use constitutional reasoning to scuttle the deal," said S P Thamilchelvan after a 4-hour long meeting with the TNA leaders in Kilinochchi Sunday.
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Vavuniya not safe for doing political work, says LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 July 2005, 11:20 GMT]
Vavuniya district Head of LTTE Political Wing, Mr Gnanam, in a meeting held at the District Secretariat Friday 3 p.m., protested to the members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that harrassment by the Sri Lanka Security forces on LTTE cadres engaged in political work has increased and requested the SLMM to take steps to ensure LTTE cadres' safety, sources said.
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NorthEast Governor visits Mannar

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 July 2005, 16:24 GMT]
Fishermen from Pesalai and Talaimannar in Mannar district Friday complained to NorthEast Governor Mr.Tyronne Fernando that deepening of the Palk Straits under the Sethusamudram Canal Project (SSCP) would destroy the breeding ground of fish in the sea territory close to Mannar shore. Mr.Tyronne Fernando during his one-day visit to Mannar Friday afternoon met with groups of fishermen in Pesalai and Talaimannar separately and inquired about their grievances and difficulties, Mannar district secretariat sources said.
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US lends remote-controlled de-mining machine

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 July 2005, 10:28 GMT]
Government of the United States has lent Sri Lankan de-miners a "remotely operated, self-propelled brush-clearing machine," that will "eliminate the risk of horrible injury when teams go out to clear some of the thousands of mines still active in the country," said a US embassy press release issued in Colombo Thursday. "Three American trainers from the U.S. Army are in Vavuniya to conduct the training," the release further said.
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Youth shot dead in Polannaruwa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 July 2005, 14:51 GMT]
An unidentified gunman, believed to be a paramilitary cadre of Karuna Group, shot and killed a Tamil youth Mr. Nazar Mahalingam, 29, Monday night around 9.30 PM at Muslim Colony in Polannaruwa. The victim was a Muslim convert and had moved from Nelukkulam in Vavuniya to Muslim Colony recently, Police said.
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Playwright, youths felicitated in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 June 2005, 00:31 GMT]
Sixty-eight -year-old Mr.Sithy Amerasingam who was conferred with "Elder Artist" by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs recently in Colombo was again felicitated in his hometown Trincomalee. Four Trincomalee youths who him four youths who excelled in education, sports, social service and literature were also honoured at the same event held at Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall Sunday organized by the Trincomalee Impeesa Scout Association.
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Navy arrests 25 Tamil refugees in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2005, 16:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Wednesday morning arrested twenty-five Tamil refugees returning from Tamilnadu in South India and the two boatmen in the Mannar Sea, sources said. The Talaimannar Police produced all of the arrested in Mannar Court Thursday morning.
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Civil groups to agitate over Omanthai Buddha statue

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 June 2005, 15:32 GMT]
Vavuniya civil group leaders Thursday announced at a discussion held in the office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that they would launch an agitation if the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fails to remove the controversial Buddha statue erected in the Omanthai Pillaiyar temple premises within seven days. The discussion was held between the officials of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and representatives of the civil groups including the LTTE district political section and the Hindu priest of the Omanthai Pillaiyar Temple in the presence of SLMM monitors, sources said.
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Ex-PLOTE member killed in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 June 2005, 14:34 GMT]
Mr Tharmalingam Asokan, 26, an auto-rikshaw driver and an ex-PLOTE member was shot and killed inside his auto-rikshaw at 12.30 PM Monday in Thalikkulam 13 km west of Vavuniya. Police, tracing an eyewitness who has seen the assassins to escape from the scene, suspected that the assassins were also travelling in the auto-rikshaw.
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Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union elects new President

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 18:12 GMT]
Mr.Rajanathan, Principal of the Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidyalayam was Sunday elected as the president of the 20,000 member-strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU). He was unanimously elected to the post of President at the CTTU Working Committee meeting held at the Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidyalayam.
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Paramilitary cadre shot dead in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 16:17 GMT]
Mr. Uthayakumarasingam Vallipuram (42), a senior PLOTE cadre was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen Sunday at 8.30 pm in Kovilkulam - Therku Iluppaikulam Road, 4 km southeast of Vavuniya, Police said.
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Mannar Magistrate inspects damaged LTTE political offices

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 09:17 GMT]
Mannar acting Magistrate, Mr.M.B.Farook, accompanied by a police team Sunday morning visited the two offices of the Liberation Tigers which were attacked by suspected members of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), Saturday night.
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Tamil refugees rescued from sandbank in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 June 2005, 01:39 GMT]
Fourteen Tamil refugees including four children returning from Tamilnadu in South India were rescued from a sandbank in the Mannar Sea by Mannar fishermen Friday. The refugees were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and handed over to the Talaimannar police Friday evening, sources said.
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Koushalyan Medical Unit serves villagers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2005, 18:06 GMT]
Lt.Colonel Koushalyan Mobile Medical Service (KMMS) conducted its second medical camp in Vavuniya North on Thursday and Friday, sources said. KMMS was established to serve people in remote villages in the NorthEast where residents undergo untold hardships in obtaining access to basic medical care.
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Claymore attack kills Intelligence officer, EPDP cadre in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2005, 06:35 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Officer, Lance Corporal Ellaperuma Rukman Edward,31, and an Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) cadre, Mr. Gnanakumar Kannan, 28, were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked Kurumankadu EPDP camp located 1.5 km west of Vavuniya Saturday at 11.16 AM. Five paramilitary cadres and another SLA intelligence officer, Mr. Ajith De Silva, 30, were injured in the attack. The attackers used a Claymore mine on the wall of the camp, Vavuniya Police said. The cadres and the camp belonged to EPRLF-Varathar Group until the cadres converted to EPDP a few weeks ago, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Danish Group funds Vavuniya preschool building

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 June 2005, 11:11 GMT]
Opening ceremony for a new preschool building in Kilavikulam in Vavuniya district, funded by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) was ceremonially opened at 1pm Wednesday. The 'Thamilenthi Preschool' was built at a cost of nearly Rs. 850,000 and will be administered by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).
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Hartal paralyzes NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 11:06 GMT]
Normal life in the northeast province was disrupted Friday following the one-day general shut down condemning the failure by the Sri Lanka Government to withdraw troops from Trincomalee town in large numbers. More than fifteen hundred troops are deployed in the east port town following the controversy over the erection of a Buddha statue in a land located close to the central bus stand.
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Profile of a shadow war veteran

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 June 2005, 01:02 GMT]
The veteran intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nizam Muthaliff, was a central figure in the atrocity-punctuated paramilitary aspects of the counter-insurgency campaign against the LTTE in the early nineties then had a critical role in the deep penetration attacks on LTTE commanders and officials, the Tamil Guardian reported Wednesday.
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Colombo holds key to restore normalcy, says LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 June 2005, 14:51 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka has a moral responsibility to demonstrate its serious commitment to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and its will to maintain the integrity of the CFA by delivering on it in terms of its obligation to restore normalcy, Mr. Thamilchelvan, LTTE's Head of Political Division, told Swiss Ambassador Mr.Bernadino Reggazzoni on Thursday in a meeting in Kilinochchi. LTTE's Political Head expressed fear over the state of the CFA in the context of "fanatical elements" trying to cash in on a volatile situation in Trincomalee and Vavuniya, the LTTE Peace Secretariat website reported.


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