ADB funds Jaffna Water, Sanitation study

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2003, 11:45 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Conflict Affected Area Rehabilitation Project (CAARP) will undertake a feasibility study for Jaffna peninsula water supply and sanitation at an estimated cost US $ 1.2 million, Jaffna Secretariat officials said. Of this amount ADB will provide one million US dollars and the remainder will be contributed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL). The study will be implemented over nine months commencing from 1st April 2004, a project official told Tamilnet.


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Islamic group shuts down Muslim towns in Batti-Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2003, 15:41 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads in several Muslim towns in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts Thursday in response to a call by a shadowy Islamic militant body in the east calling itself ‘Muslim Resurgence Group’. The Islamic militants called the shut down in protest against the inaction of Muslim politicians whom they described as “venal opportunists”. Unidentified members of the group stoned and damaged four long distance buses that were passing Kattaankudy, a large Muslim town 5 kilometres south of Batticaloa.
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TNA votes against Sri Lanka's defense budget

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2003, 09:20 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance voted against the Sri Lankan government’s 2004 budget allocation for defense and interior when it came up for voting at the committee stage in Parliament Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA MP for the Vanni, told TamilNet the alliance opposed the 80 billion-rupee allocation “to register a strong protest against the increase in defense spending in peace time and against President Kumaratunga for jeopardizing the peace process by her precipitate actions”.
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Jaffna court sentences man to death in absentia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 17:29 GMT]
A man accused of a murder committed twenty-two years ago was sentenced to death by the Jaffna High court last week on 10 December 2003. This is the first time in 25 years that a person from Jaffna has been sentenced to death, legal sources in the northern town told TamilNet. Sri Lanka’s judicial system became defunct in Jaffna in 1984.
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SLA recruits, readying for closer ties with India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 14:09 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has begun another recruitment drive for its commando regiment in the Sinhala majority districts of the island, promising good pay and attractive perks, sources in Colombo said Tuesday. The recruitment drive comes amidst indications that India would provide greater training facilities for Sri Lankan armed forces under a defence cooperation treaty which Colombo and New Delhi are expected to sign soon.
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Amban yet to benefit from hospital returned by SLA

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 17:31 GMT]
The Amban hospital and agrarian services centre in southeast Jaffna, which the Sri Lanka army handed back to the public last month, continue to remain derelict inside the military’s high security zone in the area, residents said. Mr. R. Rajathurai, the President of the Kudathanai Farmers’ Association told TamilNet that the SLA in Amban is refusing to let the agrarian services centre be renovated.
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Manalkaadu SLA minefield issue before HRC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2003, 13:33 GMT]
The Jaffna coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) Mr. R. P Ruwan Chandrasekera told TamilNet that he intends to take up with the Government Agent for Jaffna the issue of the Sri Lanka army laying a new minefield near the village of Manalkaadu on the peninsula’s southeastern coast. He said the people from Manalkaadu had complained to the HRC’s Jaffna office on Tuesday about the new minefield the SLA had planted near their village.
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SLA sentry fires on paper seller, injures commuter

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 12:50 GMT]
A commuter in a bus was seriously wounded when a Sri Lanka army soldier opened fire on a paper seller in Jaffna town Tuesday around 5.45 pm. Police and military dispersed a group of angry civilians that surrounded the sentry point near the town’s main bus station in which the soldier was on duty. The shooting followed an argument between a person who was selling 'Eelanatham' newspaper near the sentry point and the soldier who had ordered the paper seller to leave place, commuters who witnessed the firing said.
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TNA parliamentarians meet LTTE political leadership

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 09:08 GMT]
Talks between Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians and the political leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began Tuesday morning around 11 a.m. at the Killinochchi LTTE political secretariat, Vanni sources said.
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Manalkadu villagers say SLA laid new mines

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 04:49 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army Monday visited Manalkadu, a village on the southeastern coast of Jaffna district, and asked the residents to make statements to the effect that SLA did not lay mines in their areas. However, several residents of area Tuesday reiterated that they had seen army soldiers laying new mines and ordered them not to enter area where mines had been laid, sources said.
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Protesting minister blocks military vehicles in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2003, 09:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s minister for Hindu Affairs, Mr. T. Maheswaran, blocked military vehicles on Palaly Road, one of the main traffic arteries of Jaffna, Monday in protest against the Sri Lanka army for refusing to let him visit Keerimalai, a temple village inside the peninsula’s garrisoned northwest sector, on Sunday. The Minister and his supporters blocked Sri Lankan armed forces vehicles plying the Palaly Road with a bus from 8 a.m. to noon.
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SLA lays new minefield near Jaffna village

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 December 2003, 14:29 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army is planting landmines in the vicinity of Manalkaadu, a village on the southeastern coast of Jaffna, residents told TamilNet Sunday. Three cattle from the village were killed in newly laid minefield on Saturday and another was blown up Sunday morning, according to them.
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SLA permits work on Pt. Pedro landing points

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 13:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army gave permission on Friday to deepen fisheries landing points on the coast of three villages close to Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Soldiers from the SLA’s 52-4 Brigade worked with local fishermen Friday to clear the coral rock clogged micro breakwaters. “We do not have a war to fight now. Therefore would like to engage in development activities such as this”, Col. K. S Ratnayake, the commander of the brigade told TamilNet.
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‘Flagrant discrimination’ in allocation of Health funds alleged

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2003, 23:01 GMT]
The allocation of funds for a program on emergency Obstetrics and Child Health in the war-ravaged areas of the North East, jointly sponsored by the UNICEF and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), flagrantly discriminates against Tamil provinces, several health officials in the North East told TamilNet’s Vanni correspondent Tuesday.
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Organized self-help lifts Vanni villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 00:11 GMT]
"Under 'Village Upliftment Project' economically worst hit villages in Vanni are identified and efforts are channelled to improve social and economic well-being of the residents through self-help. Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), local NGOs and Tamil expatriates are also financially helping us to carryout this project," Administrative Head, Anbarasan, told TamilNet during a recent visit to the interior villages of the Vanni.
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TULF committee discusses No-confidence motion on Sangaree

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2003, 11:20 GMT]
The central working committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), a major constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) began its crucial session Sunday morning around 10.30 a.m. at the office of the TULF at Colpetty in Colombo with the Mr.V.Ananadasangaree in the chair. Around thirty-six members of the committee attended the meeting, party sources said.


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'Renewed war will devastate Sri Lanka' - Col.Karuna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 17:40 GMT]
"The current power struggle between Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister has adversely impacted the Peace Process. However, we will strictly adhere to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and will patiently wait to see if political stability returns to the South," Col. Karuna, Senior Commander of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), told TamilNet's Batticaloa correspondent at the Tharavai Heroes' cemetery Tuesday.
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SLA, LTTE meet again over Jaffna Heroes’ Day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2003, 09:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army met again Tuesday to resolve persisting friction over the Great Heroes’ Day observations in Jaffna. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna, said his troops won’t interfere in the Great Heroes’ Day arrangements in the peninsula. Responding to a question from TamilNet, he said the SLA won’t allow the Tiger flag to be flown in Sri Lankan government buildings and public places.
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Tensions over Heroes’ Day continue in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 November 2003, 12:08 GMT]
Tension between civilians and Sri Lanka army troops over arches and decoration for the Great Heroes’ Day continued in Jaffna Sunday. SLA pulled down a hardboard arch that local residents constructed at the Windsor Theatre Junction in Jaffna town Sunday morning. A large crowd of people gathered there in the afternoon and put up the arch again amidst objections and protests by the military. More troops were deployed in the area following altercations between the SLA and townspeople at Windsor Junction.
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Heroes day memorial exhibition opened in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 November 2003, 18:30 GMT]
A memorial exhibition displaying framed pictures of more than 3500 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) martyrs in a well lit memorial hall of Batticaloa Mahajana College was opened for public Saturday, sources in Batticaloa said.
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