Kofi Annan to visit Mullaitivu and other affected areas

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 10:58 GMT]
United Nation's Secretary General Koffi Annan will visit 'some of the hardest hit areas' in Sri Lanka when he visits the country on Friday, UN sources said Wednesday. Foreign ministry sources said Koffi Annan will visit Ampara, Galle, Hambantatota and Mullaitivu, areas worst hit by the tsunami waves on December 26.
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Sri Lanka Armed Forces take over refuges, harass TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 07:30 GMT]
In a sudden move, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces are manning the refugee camps in Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee since Tuesday. The Special Task Force (STF) in Thirukovil, Amparai have hijacked two tractors of TRO relief supplies and distributed them after removing the TRO labels. "The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Special Task Force (STF) have stepped up their harassment of workers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO)", Mr.K.P.Reggie, Executive Director of the TRO, told TamilNet on Wednesday. The TRO has called for an urgent Press Conference today at 6pm at its Colombo office.
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Rebuilding bridges, roads key to swift recovery- Gajendran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 05:15 GMT]
Speaking to TamilNet after visiting Batticaloa and Ampara Districts, Tamil National Alliance, Jaffna District MP Mr.Selvarajah Gajendran said: "LTTE has the capability to build bridges and lay roads. I request the international community to provide them with equipment and materials through NGOs so that recovery can be swift."
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PDS gears for phase two & three of tsunami relief in Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2005, 16:45 GMT]
"The LTTE with its quick deployment ability and the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) with generous assistance from the Tamil Diaspora and the international NGOs, are tackling the immediate Tsunami relief needs, the first phase of the relief efforts. The Liberation Tigers are calling for international assistance to meet phase two and three of the relief effort", LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan told TamilNet following a conference with Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr Hans Brattskar, in Killinochchi where they discussed the proper channeling of aid to northeast for phase two and three of Tsunami relief as being planned by PDS.
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Project to resurrect Mullaitivu fishing industry planned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2005, 11:27 GMT]
The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), a Non Governmental Organization that promotes socio-economic and technological development, and registered with the Government of Srilanka, has issued a project plan costing nearly Rs2 billion, to assist the more than 5700 fishing families in Mullaitivu district affected by the tsunami disaster to return to their traditional trade, TECH officials told TamilNet.
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PDS sets in motion the needs assessment for tsunami relief

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2005, 06:39 GMT]
The Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) of the Liberation Tigers has already set in motion the needs assessment process for Tsunami Relief in the northeast, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE's Political Wing told TamilNet Tuesday.
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Donate liberally towards the relief efforts in the Northeast- CHC

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2005, 23:34 GMT]
The Centre for Health Care (CHC), an NGO based in Kilinochchi, said that sufficient professionals, needed by the organisation for the moment, have already arrived in Northeast. Sources at CHC told TamilNet that they have urged the International community to donate liberally towards the relief efforts. More health professionals will be needed later when communicable diseases tend to break, the sources added. CHC have urged other medical professionals who wish to come to the North-East from around the world to arrive during the later part of next month.
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Urgent need for heavy machinery in Jaffna- Ilamparithy

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2005, 11:24 GMT]
Jaffna District Leader of LTTE Political Wing, S Ilamparithy, talking to TamilNet correspondent in Jaffna said that assistance from Sri Lanka Government in supplying heavy machinery required for removal of debris and to reconstruct badly damaged rural and coastal roads have not reached areas of devastation in Jaffna. This has impeded relief supplies reaching many coastal communities and has stalled speedy recovery from the tsunami disaster, he added.
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UNICEF official meets TRO, children in Mullaitivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2005, 10:35 GMT]
Ms Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), travelled to Kilinochchi Monday morning around 8.30 a.m., where she met with children from Senthalir Illam who had escaped death and Mr. Reggie, Executive Director of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO).
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Destroyed bridges, causeways compound relief crisis in east

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2005, 07:40 GMT]
The Sunday Tsunami has left the main road network of the east and southeast coast of Sri Lanka in tatters, leaving many areas still marooned and hindering relief and rescue work, Col. Bhanu, a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers who is directing urgent humanitarian operations in the region, told TamilNet Saturday. He deplored that helicopters are being used to show Sri Lankan government leaders the disaster in the east and to take photos.
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LTTE stepping up relief ops in Batticaloa-Amparai - Col. Bhanu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2005, 07:36 GMT]
“Our leader has instructed me to involve all our fighters, medical corps, vehicles, engineering units and other resources in relief and rescue operations in the Batticaloa- Amparai district. He has sent a large number of troops from the north with supplies for this work. The Malathy Infantry Regiment has also arrived along with head of our women’s wing, Ms. Thamilini, and deputy head of political division for Jaffna, Mr. Semmanan, to help Tsunami affected people in this region and alleviate their suffering”, said Col. Bhanu, a senior military officer of the Liberation Tigers who is the overall commander for Batticaloa-Amparai District, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet.
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Muslims on Tsunami hit southeast coast suffer heavily

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 15:42 GMT]
Muslims who live in densely populated villages along the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka suffered heavy casualties in Sunday’s Tsunami, with at least ten thousand killed. Rescue and relief efforts in Muslim towns and villages on the southeastern coast are hampered by lack of coordination and heavy rains. Seventy two Muslim schools were completely washed off and eighty five mosques were severely damaged, Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mr. Hassan Ali told TamilNet Thursday.


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Starvation, disease more deadly than danger from mines- TRO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 13:37 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) appealed to other relief help organizations not to be daunted by the threat due to mines and not to delay relief coming to the most needed areas. TRO, in a press release said it considers “that dangers caused by free floating mines are far less significant when compared to the dangers of death by starvation and disease.” TRO urged the relief agencies to keep sending relief supplies to all areas. "In Mulliyavalai and Puthukkudiyiruppu areas UNHCR and ICRC are fully engaged in relief effort," TamilNet correspondent, said, assuring other agencies still unwilling to enter difficult areas.
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Thamilchelvan stresses urgent needs to Norway, international NGOs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 10:38 GMT]
Mr. Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing, met with representatives of more than 60 international and UN aid agencies in Kilinochchi at 11.30 am Thursday. The urgent needs of the NorthEast, caused by the tsunami which struck the coast on Sunday, were explained to the representatives. He stated both the immediate needs of those affected by the tsunami and their more intermediate needs. He explained that whatever little infrastructure has been built up was damaged or destroyed by the tsunami, sources in Kilinochchi told TamilNet. Further details of the meeting are yet to be disclosed.
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Batticaloa refugees face epidemic hazard

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 03:47 GMT]
More than forty thousand people who lost their homes and belongings in the Batticaloa district have found refuge in ninety four shelters – public buildings, schools and some places of worship, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Emergency Disaster Data Collection Centre set up by the Liberation Tigers for aiding relief and rescue work in the Tsunami devastated region. “We are struggling desperately to provide clean water, clothing and sanitation to these refugees”, said Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE political division for Batticaloa-Amparai.
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Kilinochchi sends relief, medicine, doctors to Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 19:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers sent six lorries from Kilinochchi with emergency supplies and a lorry load of medicine along with fifty doctors for relief operations on the Tsunami devastated Amparai coast. The death toll in the coastal areas of the Amparai district rose steeply Wednesday as rescue workers retrieved more putrefying bodies from villages destroyed by the Tsunami. “Three of our teams are working round the clock in rescue and relief operations here”, said Mr. Ram, a Liberation Tigers commander speaking to TamilNet from a coastal village in Amparai Wednesday.
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Latest Tsunami toll: 18,000 dead, 10,000 missing, 500,000 displaced

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 10:24 GMT]
Latest figures gathered by TamilNet from Sri Lanka Government sources indicate a casualty figures of 18,000 dead, 10,000 still missing and 500,000 displaced in the worst ever disaster Sri Lanka has encountered by the tsunami waves that hit the island Sunday morning.
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Mullaithivu situation grim amid rising toll

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 20:42 GMT]
Three thousand three hundred and seventy three people were killed by the Tsunami in Mullaithivu according to local rescue workers and the Liberation Tigers. Kallapaadu, a coastal village near Mullaithivu town, was completely wiped out by the Tsunami. "So far we have been able to recover 1300 of the 2214 who resettled in village after the Sri Lanka army garrison there was overrun in 1996", said Mr. S. Senthan, the village officer (Grama Sevaka) for Kallapaadu told TamilNet Tuesday.
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First Taskforce Unit meets in Puthukkadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 14:00 GMT]
One of the units of the Disaster Management Taskforce setup by the Head of the Political Wing of the LTTE, S.P.Thamilchelvan, met Tuesaday at 9.15am at its new offices in Puthukkadu juncion on A9 near Thalaiyady, Vadamaradchy East, Sudar, an official with the LTTE Peace Secretariat told TamilNet. S.Thangan, Deputy Head of LTTE Political Wing, presided the meeting.
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Landmines fear hampers rescue work in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 09:31 GMT]
Five villages Devastated by Saturday's Tsunami are marooned as causeways and bridges have been damaged by the tidal waves. "The newly built government hospital, public buildings, schools, LTTE political offices, homes, churches and temples have been completely destroyed by the sea," Mr. S. Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa, told TamilNet Tuesday. He said that relief and rescue work in the former popular tourist resorts of Pasikudah and Kalkudah has been hindered by thousands of landmines uprooted by the Tsunami from the defenses of the local SLA garrison.
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