WFP denies report as more spoilt rice arrives

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 October 2002, 14:55 GMT]
As the World Food Program (WFP) this week denied a TamilNet report of October 8 that rice the UN agency had supplied and the Trincomalee Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) says it is being forced to distribute is unfit for consumption, reports from the eastern port town said further supplies of spoilt rice, infected with insects and weevils, had arrived this week.
Full story >>

Tigers escorted SLA troops

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 October 2002, 08:55 GMT]
(News Feature) In a reciprocal gesture to earlier actions by the Sri Lanka Army, cadres of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa last Sunday escorted SLA soldiers through areas in which angry Tamil demonstrators had set up road blocks protesting the earlier killings of several civilians by Special Task Force (STF) commandos.
Full story >>

Thirukkovil resentful, STF said concocting evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 October 2002, 13:02 GMT]
“The Special Task Force will pose a dire threat to our lives as long it remains in this region. There is no security now for farmers who have to pass the Kanjirankudah STF camp to cultivate their fields. The sole access to more than twelve thousand acres of our people’s fields is controlled by the STF which has no qualms about killing us like animals,” said Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, the sole Tamil MP for the Amparai District, Monday.
Full story >>

TNA calls for Hartal in NE

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 October 2002, 20:11 GMT]
Human rights lawyers, NGO activists and leaders of the Tamil National Alliance resolved in Colombo Monday evening to step up action on several fronts to persuade the Sri Lankan government to release Tamil political prisoners who have been languishing in the island’s jails for many years. Mr. N. Sri Kantha, speaking on behalf of the TNA after an urgent meeting convened Monday to discuss the fast deteriorating condition of the fasting prisoners, told Tamilnet that a general shut down all over the northeast would be called for on Friday 11 October.
Full story >>

EPDP knifes shopkeeper, Delft tense

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 October 2002, 12:04 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Delft (Neduntheevu) Sunday as locals prevented a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army and Navy from landing on the island southwest of Jaffna. Angry islanders smashed the paramilitary’s office in Delft and set fire to office furniture after armed members of the group knifed a local shopkeeper during an altercation Saturday night. The islanders stoned a boat carrying the paramilitary’s cadres that had tried to go ashore Sunday morning.
Full story >>

Second LTTE convoy uses sea route

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 October 2002, 13:12 GMT]
A large number of Liberation Tigers, escorted by international ceasefire monitors, travelled Thursday from Mullaitivu to the eastern province along the sea route agreed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE two months ago. This is the second such convoy to use the route.
Full story >>

Navy intransigence, mines plague Muslim resettlers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 September 2002, 14:48 GMT]
(Feature) “Muslims are still unable to resettle in their villages even after six months of a stable ceasefire because of Sri Lanka Navy’s intransigence and land mines,” said Mr. M. M Saburudeen, the representative of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in the Mannar Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and Chairman of the Mannar Citizen’s Committee. “The premises of the Mosques in Talaimannar Pier and Konar Pannai are full of SLN mines. How can Muslims resettle in a place if they cannot pray in the mosque there for fear of the mines?” he asked.
Full story >>

SL Navy restricts fishing in Manalkaadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 September 2002, 21:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy has re-imposed draconian restrictions on fishing in the Manalkaadu area on Jaffna's southeastern coast from Thursday, fishermen from the region said. They were also ordered by the SLN to obtain special identity cards and permits for setting out to sea. "The SLN has no legal grounds for imposing restrictions on fishing in this manner," said Mr. M. K Sivajilingam, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna.
Full story >>

SLA meets LTTE’s Northern Forces Commander

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 September 2002, 17:08 GMT]
(Adds: Photo) The commander of the Northern Front Forces of the Liberation Tigers, Col. Theepan, had discussions with the commander of the Sri Lankan security forces in Jaffna, Major. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, Thursday evening to discuss the opening of the Pt. Pedro – Maruthankerni Road on Jaffna’s east coast and the positioning of Forward Defence Localities in the Nagar Kovil sector.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Mines, apathy balk temple zone re-settlers

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 September 2002, 19:02 GMT]
Hundreds of families that were driven out of the environs of the historic Thiruketheeswaram temple in Mannar twelve years ago by Sri Lanka army operations are unable to go back to their villages because their paddy fields are mined and homes have been razed to the ground, rehabilitation officials in the district said.
Full story >>

General shut down as military closes Point Pedro schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 September 2002, 15:18 GMT]
(Adds: Photos) A complete 'hartal' (general shut down) was observed in Point Pedro and Manthikai areas in the Jaffna peninsula Tuesday in response to a call by the Jaffna Journalists' Association condemning the assault of two journalists and students during the picketing campaign held Monday. All shops and schools were closed down and black flags were hoisted. The military ordered the indefinite closure of Hartley College and Vadamarachchi Methodist Girls High School whose students were involved in Monday’s protests.
Full story >>

Jaffna students storm SLA positions

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 September 2002, 14:15 GMT]
(News Feature) Over two thousand protesting Tamil students Monday forced their way into Sri Lanka Army positions and camps in Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula, destroying barriers, sentry points and checkpoints. Students demanding the withdrawal of troops from public places also blocked the main entrance of the SLA's 52-4 Brigade headquarters. Troops fired tear gars and live rounds and assaulted students, journalists and local officials of the Liberation Tigers' political wing who intervened.
Full story >>

EPDP controlled PS building damaged

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 September 2002, 12:19 GMT]
The new building of the Karaveddy Southwest Pradeshya Sabah (local authority) built at a cost of nine million rupees was damaged by unidentified persons Saturday night, police sources in Jaffna said. The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) controls the Karaveddy Southwest PS administration. The ceremonial opening of the office is scheduled for Monday with the participation of UNF senior Minister Dr.Jayalath Jayawardene and EPDP Secretary General and Jaffna district parliamentarian Mr. Douglas Devananda, EPDP sources said.
Full story >>

'Economic recovery depends on permanent solution' -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 August 2002, 21:35 GMT]
"The economy of the country will be improved only when the interim administration starts functioning with necessary powers to develop the Northeast province following the Thailand peace talks scheduled to be held in mid September," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group when addressing the fifth and final day of the 'Yuga Thekma' industrial exhibition held in Trincomalee esplanade.
Full story >>

Peace draws 400,000 to forest shrine festival

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 16:38 GMT]
More than four hundred thousand Sinhala and Tamil devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka thronged the Madhu feast this year, which concluded Thursday. "The number of devotees is unprecedented. After a gap of nineteen years the devotees of the Madhu Maatha (Ave Maria) poured out their suppressed devotion. The hundreds of thousand faithful who flocked to the shrine have expressed their love for peace. Everyone who gathered here have shown that they are against war," Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar told TamilNet. The forest shrine of Ave Maria is in his diocese.
Full story >>

Gang ransacks office of Batticaloa daily

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2002, 03:57 GMT]
The office of Thinakkathir, the Tamil daily paper published in Batticaloa, was ransacked by a gang Thursday night. A gang of more than five had forcibly entered the paper office around 11 p.m. tied up and blindfolded the staff and took away office equipment, Thinakkathir editor Mr. Kodeeswaran Rushangan told TamilNet. Two journalists were wounded in an attack on the office in Batticaloa town's high security zone on 26 December 2001.
Full story >>

Mylanthanai massacre commemorated

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2002, 00:08 GMT]
The tenth anniversary of the massacre by Sri Lankan troops of thirty nine men, women and children in the eastern village of Mylanthanai was marked Thursday by survivors who have been living in Kalmadu refugee camp. Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Army held a remembrance ceremony for the Army and Navy officers, whose deaths in a landmine attack on August 8, 1992, triggered the retaliatory massacre.
Full story >>

Valaichchenai refugees starve without relief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 August 2002, 19:53 GMT]
More than four hundred families living at Valaichchenai refugee camp in the Batticaloa district undergo untold hardships in running their day-to-day lives, as they have not been provided with dry rations for the last two months.
Full story >>

Japanese Ambassador meets Tamilselvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 August 2002, 18:48 GMT]
The Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Sciichiro 0tsuka, met the head of the Liberation Tigers' political section, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, in the Vanni on Tuesday. Mr. Seiichiro Otsuka was accompanied by Ms. Noriko Iseki, First Secretary for Economic Cooperation and Mr. S.A.S. Devotta, Senior Assistant for Political Affairs.
Full story >>