SLA escorts LTTE convoy to Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 September 2002, 23:34 GMT]
A large number of Liberation Tigers from Batticaloa-Ampara district travelled to the Vanni region by road Tuesday, escorted by Sri Lankan troops. Sources said 285 LTTE members made the journey.
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Vanni MPs slam SLA for blocking resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2002, 22:54 GMT]
"If Mannar and Vavuniya districts are to be developed the Sri Lanka armed forces have to vacate our homes, and agricultural lands. We are not asking for houses or buildings in Anuradhapura and Madawachchiya. We are only asking permission to go back to our homes, to the lands of our forefathers," said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni district parliamentarian Mr.Sivasakthi Anandan addressing a conference held Friday at the Mannar district secretariat on resettlement.
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China pledges to assist rebuilding north

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2002, 16:40 GMT]
The Chinese government Friday promised that it would offer financial assistance to rebuild houses destroyed by war in the Jaffna district. "My government is developing a rehabilitation programme for implementation in the north," said Chinese ambassador in Colombo, Mr.Jiang Quizheng, addressing a conference at the Jaffna district secretariat Friday. The Ambassador during his visit to Jaffna inspected the Point Pedro jetty, which is in the high security zone of the Sri Lanka Army.
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Indian fishermen, trawlers released following talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2002, 14:56 GMT]
One hundred and three Indian fishermen and their twenty five trawlers were released Friday morning and handed over to the Indian Navy following lengthy talks held Thursday night at Mannar, police sources said. The fishermen of Pesalai in Mannar district had detained them Wednesday night when they were caught illegally fishing in Sri Lanka territorial waters.


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SLA says no to IDP resettlement in Vavuniya north

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2002, 02:42 GMT]
A team comprising government officials, officers of the Sri Lanka Army, officials of Liberation Tigers and civilians Tuesday visited Iranai Illupaikulam and Kalmadu in the Vavuniya district to make an assessment for resettling of internally displaced persons and to recommence paddy cultivation in fields in the region abandoned due to military operations.


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NE local government polls postponed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 September 2002, 14:57 GMT]
The Commissioner of Elections Tuesday announced that the local government polls in the Northeast province scheduled for 25 September has been postponed for the second time in a year. According to the notification issued by the Commissioner Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake Tuesday, the elections to Northeast local authorities will be held on 25 June, 2003.
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Police hand in Murunkan robberies alleged

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2002, 17:18 GMT]
The Mannar magistrate Sunday remanded a Police constable accused of robbing a shop in the Murunkan town. The PC was caught by the townspeople Saturday night around 8.30 p.m. while robbing a grocery. A tense standoff developed late Saturday night between the townspeople who had tied up the PC and more than 300 Police who had surrounded them, demanding the robber’s release. Murunkan residents and traders allege that the Police have been regularly robbing shops in the town for more than three years with impunity.
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Resettling IDPs in Vavuniya discussed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 September 2002, 20:16 GMT]
The Defence Secretary said Saturday that immediate resettlement of displaced families in areas close to high security zone in Vavuniya district is impossible. However, at the request of Defence Secretary Mr. Austin Fernando, it was agreed at the conference held Saturday at Vavuniya district secretariat that a committee comprising government and security officials and Liberation Tigers leaders should submit a report regarding resettlement within two weeks, after visiting the areas.
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Nimalarajan murder case suspects allowed bail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 September 2002, 18:16 GMT]
The Vavuniya High Court Wednesday allowed the bail applications submitted on behalf of two vital suspects in the Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan murder case. The High Court Judge Mr.A. N.Ramachandran overruled the objections raised by the counsel for the deceased and allowed bail for the suspects Michael Collin David and Palanichamy Visvan with two persons as sureties on a bond of one hundred thousand rupees each.
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TNA urges PM to put off NE local polls

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 September 2002, 16:00 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance Wednesday urged Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to postpone elections to local government bodies in the northeast scheduled to be held on 25 September. The polls were postponed in March this year upon a request by the TNA that the situation was not conducive at the time. The Elections Commission said last week that the polls to the local authorities will have to be held as scheduled unless the law is amended.
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Murunkan protestors demand share in peace dividend

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 September 2002, 19:41 GMT]
More than five hundred farmers, traders and community leaders demonstrated in Murunkan in Mannar Tuesday demanding the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to deliver on its promise to start rehabilitation and reconstruction in the area following the ceasefire. Sri Lankan government officials in Mannar said that the Minister for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction had allocated 208 million rupees for the purpose but the Treasury had no money to give.
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SC holds Vavuniya pass system violates FR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 September 2002, 19:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court held Thursday that the security pass system in Vavuniya under thePeoples Alliance government was a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens. Residents and visitors had to obtain special security permits to to live, stay or travel outside Vavuniya and Mannar. The system was abolished after the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement in February this year.
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SLMM seeks return of Pesalai market, library

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 August 2002, 20:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials in Mannar said Saturday they visited three places occupied by the Sri Lankan security forces in the region on complaints from the Church and a widow. The Sri Lanka Police occupies the public cemetery, market building and the public library in Pesalai, 14 kilometres west of Mannar town.
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Prisoners swap postponed by ten days

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 August 2002, 21:55 GMT]
The exchange of prisoners between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been postponed by about ten days and it will not take place as scheduled for Saturday at Omanthai in Vavuniya, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) sources said.
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Vanni artistes highlight detainees' plight

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 August 2002, 05:46 GMT]
A Tamil parliamentarian Thursday called for the repeal of Sri Lanka’s notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) under which hundreds of people continue to be detained. Mr. K. Thurairatnesingham, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was addressing people assembled at Trincomalee St. Joseph's College auditorium Thursday evening to view the play enacted by the Vanni Teachers' Aesthetic Society, a group of teacher-artistes of Vanni region.
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LTTE decides on delegation for talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 August 2002, 16:50 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have decided on the delegation they will be sending to the Norwegian facilitated peace talks in Thailand next month, a Tamil expatriate newspaper reported Tuesday. The LTTE will be sending a four person delegation led by the movement's chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, to the 3-day negotiations scheduled to begin on September 16, LTTE sources told Tamil Guardian Monday. The paper also quoted LTTE officials as welcoming the Sri Lankan government's announcement Sunday that the ban on the movement would be lifted on September 6.
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NE doctors strike over pay discrimination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2002, 12:58 GMT]
More than three hundred resident medical officers working in the Northeast government hospitals and dispensaries, Tuesday, went on a strike, demanding that they also should be paid special mission allowance now being paid for non-resident doctors from other provinces.
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NE doctors to strike against discrimination

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 August 2002, 17:40 GMT]
Resident medical officers working in the northeast province have decided to strike from Tuesday, demanding that they should also be paid one year special mission allowance now being paid for the non-resident medical officers serving in northeast hospitals.
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Stolen vehicles 'sold in north'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2002, 17:52 GMT]
People in the north of Sri Lanka should be wary of buying vehicles which could be stolen in the south of the island, the Vavuniya Magistrate warned. "People in Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar should think twice before purchasing a vehicle from strangers, as a gang is operating in selling vehicles which have been stolen in the south," Mr.M.Illancheliyan, said at a murder inquest.
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Japanese Ambassador visits Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 August 2002, 11:47 GMT]
The Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Sciichiro 0tsuka, visited Vavuniya Monday and reviewed resettlement now being undertaken in the northern district. The Ambassador's visit was intended to study how his government could assist about nine thousand villagers who have been resettled in more than twenty villages in the Nedunkerny divisional secretariat area, Vavuniya Government Agent, K. Ganesh, said.
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