Resettlement should be about more than just politics

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2003, 21:39 GMT]
While the attention of the peace talks and in the international community focuses on the internally displaced Tamils of the northern peninsula, the Tamils of the east, forced out by the Muslim Home Guards of the Sri Lanka Government have been forgotten. Residents of Tamil villages destroyed in the colonization of the east told TamilNet of their desire, and current inability, to return home.
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SLA stops Gurunagar ice factory construction

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 March 2003, 23:28 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Thursday ordered the Northern District Fisheries Co-operative Federation (NDFCF) to stop the construction work of the ice factory immediately in the Gurunagar area in Jaffna town.
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'We are committed to peace' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 00:22 GMT]
The political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Anton Balasingham said that the LTTE will not allow the peace process to become a trap to weaken the Liberation Tigers. "Despite provocations and attacks on us we are determined to participate constructively in the peace process. We want to convince the world, particularly the Sinhala people, that we are committed to peace," said Mr.Balasingham addressing a gathering, which followed the opening of the main court complex of the Thamileelam judiciary in Killinochchi Tuesday morning, sources said.


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Impact and Issues of Forestry on Northeast Coastal Resources

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 March 2003, 23:00 GMT]
There is an urgent need for protection of mangroves, estuarine and swamp forest/vegetation as important components of the northeast coastal resources of Sri Lanka together with fisheries, coral reefs, seagrass, beaches and sand dunes, amongst others if we are to preserve the environment of Northeast for future generations. An examination of forestry issues that impact the conservation and management of North East coastal resources follows.
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Harnessing solar energy to power NorthEast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 February 2003, 01:01 GMT]
Lives of thousands of poor households in the remote villages of NorthEast can be considerably enhanced if one can provide them with low-cost electricity to meet their modest lighting needs. The abundance of solar energy present in NorthEast and the availability of affordable photo-voltaic (PV) technology makes this possible. An examination of the feasibility of establishing a PV industry and its sustainability, its economic viability and the possible growth of the PV industry to branch into more challenging business endeavours, follows.
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Jaffna Journalists stage sit-in protest over Manipay attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 February 2003, 15:25 GMT]
The Jaffna Journalist Association (JJA) Monday held a protest demonstration outside the office of the District Information Office in the Jaffna district secretariat condemning the attack on two journalists at Manipay by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers last Wednesday. Members of the JJA with black bands and covered their mouths with black clothes participated in the demonstration which commenced Monday morning and concluded in the afternoon, sources said.
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Gen. Nambiar visits Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 February 2003, 17:54 GMT]
Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Satish Nambiar, the Indian defense expert invited by the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to report on high security zones (HSZs) in the North-East, visited Batticaloa on Friday morning and held discussions with Sri Lankan military and police officials and Tamil paramilitary groups, sources said.
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SLA presence is ethnic cleansing in another form - MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2003, 14:52 GMT]
“Deploying a Sinhala army in large areas after evicting Tamils from their towns and villages is another form of ethnic cleansing. An army occupying the homes and lands of our people cannot call itself their guardian. Only a foreign army will drive out people and occupy their towns and villages. I therefore consider the army occupying our lands as a foreign army," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni, sources said.
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New SLA camp in Chavakchcheri displaces resettlers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 January 2003, 14:42 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Chavakachcheri, Jaffna, is building a new camp in an outer suburb of the war ravaged town where refugee families that fled the war more than two years resettled recently, residents said. Three families, which resettled in their homes by the Kandy Road two months ago, vacated their houses Friday as ordered by the SLA. Four resettled families here left Saturday out of fear, sources in Chavakachcheri said.


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SLA intelligence said bullying Mannar farmers

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 January 2003, 16:16 GMT]
The Mannar Farmers' Federation said Friday that soldiers from the Sri Lanka army's intelligence unit in the district were harassing and threatening local cultivators and agrarian officials to dissuade them from attending public functions in which representatives of the political and development divisions of the Liberation Tigers take part.
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Batticaloa journalist's home attacked

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2003, 03:32 GMT]
The home of senior Batticaloa journalist, Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, was attacked with grenades around midnight Tuesday. The attackers poured petrol and set fire to the house located in the Sri Lanka army high security zone in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The fire did not spread due to rains and the efforts of neighbours, his colleagues said. Mr. Jeyanandamoorthy had received several death threats in the past from a suspected Islamic extremist group in the area.


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LTTE slams SLA Commander, says "decommissioning is non-negotiable"

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2003, 14:28 GMT]
Responding to the Sri Lanka Army's reiterated demand that the Liberation Tigers must decommission their heavy weapons before Tamil civilians would be permitted to resettle in their villages now within High Security Zones, the LTTE Friday said the issue was non-negotiable and expressed "deep disappointment" over the Army's "confrontational" position.
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Resettlement and normalisation ‘main issues’ for Thailand talks - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 December 2002, 12:26 GMT]
The resettlement of displaced Tamil people and the normalisation of conditions in their areas of residence will be the main issues to be taken up at the negotiations in Thailand next month between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE’s chief negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said Sunday.
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Police fired live bullets on Nelliady picketers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2002, 18:35 GMT]
Medical sources in the northern Jaffna town said Tuesday evening that Police had fired on the anti-EPDP picketers with live bullets and not with rubber bullets as earlier stated. On Tuesday night three of the eight seriously wounded traders were admitted to the Jaffna teaching hospital with gunshot wounds, the sources said.
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SLAF occupation adds to Muthalikulam farmers' woes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 December 2002, 16:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) occupies twelve buildings of the Irrigation Department located at Pankulam and Muthalikulam, 24 km west of Trincomalee town blocking the Engineers from providing water to resettled farmers engaged in paddy cultivation causing severe hardship, rehabilitation agency sources said.
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Kumburupiddy displaced struggle for survival

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 November 2002, 00:54 GMT]
Hundreds of displaced Tamil families returned from Vanni to resettle, live in temporary sheds put up with cadjan dried leaves in Kumburupiddy, a traditional Tamil village twenty two km north of Trincomalee district, waiting assistance to reconstruct their destroyed houses and to rehabilitate their lives. They were driven out of Kumburupiddy when SLA soldiers moved into the village in 1990, returnees said.
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Kanjirankuda report unacceptable - Vivekanandan

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2002, 19:34 GMT]
"The report on the Kanjirankuda violence is mainly based on the statements given by members of the Special Task Force (STF) and representatives of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). No prominence is given to statements from the people affected by the violence and therefore I am not accepting the report," said Samithamby Vivekanandan, the only Tamil member of the three member committee appointed by the Sri Lanka Government to investigate the killings of eight Tamil civilians wounding at least 20 at Kanchirankuda on 9 October when the STF opened fire on protestors.
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Colombo’s CFA obligations list remains long

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2002, 15:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military occupies 216 temples and churches and at least 45 schools in Jaffna. In scores of other schools and places of worship in the northern peninsula the Sri Lankan armed forces have vacated only buildings but are camped in or around the same locations. The Sri Lankan government agreed to pull out its armed forces from schools and places of worship in the island’s Northeastern province when it signed a ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers in February 2002.
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MOH certifies 'WFP rice unfit for consumption'

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 November 2002, 22:45 GMT]
Trincomalee Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Friday informed the Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) in the east port town to stop the distribution of rice supplied under the World Food Programme (WFP) project as it was found unfit for human consumption. WFP earlier this week denied a TamilNet report of October 8 that rice the UN agency had supplied was spoilt and not fit for distribution to the internally displaced in the district.
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Tamil shops close to STF camp burnt down

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2002, 18:47 GMT]
Two shops owned by Tamils at Pottuvil, about five hundred meters from Kanchirankuda Special Task Force camp in Ampara district, were burnt down by unidentified persons, around 12.30 a.m. Wednesday morning, sources in Ampara said.
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