Sri Lanka condemns killing of Kousalyan, ex-MP Nehru at Welikanda

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 14:51 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka in a statement today condemned the killing six personnel, including Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE Batticaloa-Amparai political division and former parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru and said that it was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
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Kousalyan’s body released after 19 hour delay

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 11:42 GMT]
Polannaruwa magistrate Tuesday evening instructed hospital authorities to send Mr. Kousalyan’s body to Batticaloa hospital for autopsy after a delay of more than 19 hours. LTTE officials from Batticaloa who went to take over the body early Tuesday morning said that it had been disfigured by the assassins. The Liberation Tigers strongly objected to the delay in releasing Mr. Kousalyan’s body and a move by the Polannaruwa base hospital authorities to transfer Mr. Kousalyan’s body to Colombo for autopsy.
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Wounded ex-TNA MP dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 05:07 GMT]
Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, ex-Tamil National Alliance MP for Amparai district, succumbed to his wounds Tuesday morning in Colombo. He was seriously injured when gunmen suspected to be working with the Sri Lanka army shot dead senior Liberation Tigers official, Mr. E. Kousalyan and three members of the LTTE who were traveling with Mr. Nehru in his van to Batticaloa Monday night. Mr. Nehru was elected to Parliament at the general elections in December 2001. Mr. Nehru is the eldest son of one of the most senior leaders of the Tamil rights movement on the east coast, Mr. Arappor Ariyanayagam.
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Kousalyan killed in ambush

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 16:08 GMT]
Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the Liberation Tigers' political division for Batticaloa-Amparai district was killed in an ambush on the highway to Batticaloa Monday night around 7.45, Sri Lanka military sources said. Three persons who were travelling with him were killed and four were injured including two policemen in the attack which took place between Sri Lanka army garrisons at Welikanda and Punanai, northwest of Battialoa, according to the SLA. Mr. Kousalyan was traveling with Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, former TNA MP for Amparai district, who was seriously injured in the ambush.
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TNA boycotts Tsunami reconstruction meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 11:09 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) boycotted a meeting convened by Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to discuss the question oTsunami reconstruction, held at 11 a.m. today at the Presidential Secretariat, political sources in Colombo said.
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European Parliament MP opens free English centre in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 01:20 GMT]
Mr. Robert Evans, MP of European Parliament declared open a free English resource and language centre in Jaffna Sunday evening. The MP is on a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka regarding the equitable distribution of international Tsunami aid in the country. The centre, managed by Tamil Information Technology Association (TITA ), will offer free courses for underprivileged children in Jaffna. Mr. C. Ilamparithy, head of Liberation Tigers political division for Jaffna, opened the centre’s multimedia lab and the lecture hall.
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Underage youths handed over to NESOHR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 15:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) handed over 23 underage youths who had enlisted with the LTTE to the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) Chairperson Rev.Fr.Karunaratnam Thursday, the Peace Secretariat website said.
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Radical decentralization of relief work needed, TNA tells Dutch FM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 12:49 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Bernard Bot, when they met him Thursday that Colombo's attempt to centralize the rehabilitation work has not worked as experience from the last six six weeks clearly show that hardly any progress has been made in the restoration of the lives of the affected people. "The continuance of the present method of functioning could only result in further deterioration, and that it was imperative that the government urgently set up the required mechanism in the Northeast." the TNA delegation further told the visiting Netherland FM.


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TNA slams NE Governor’s visit to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 07:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Wednesday boycotted a meeting with Governor of the Northeast Province, Mr. Tyronne Fernando, at the Vavuniya district secretariat in protest against what the TNA described as “gross discrimination by the Sri Lankan state in delivering Tsunami aid to Tamil and Muslim areas affected by the disaster”. At the meeting, Government Agents for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu informed the Governor that no heavy machinery for clearing Tsunami destruction was sent to their districts.
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Japanese, Dutch Foreign Ministers to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 20:10 GMT]
Mr. Shuzen Tanigawa, Senior Vice Foreign Affairs Minister of the Government of Japan is to arrive in Colombo Saturday evening on a three-day visit and Mr.Bernard Bot, Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister will arrive in Colombo February 3rd, diplomatic sources said.
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Tsunami relief to northeast inadequate- Chandrasekaran

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 03:46 GMT]
"The distribution of relief to Vanni region by the Sri Lanka government is not satisfactory and urgent needs of the Tsunami affected people are not being met adequately. No responsible government official has visited Jaffna, Vanni and other affected districts in the NorthEast after Tsunami disaster to see the ground situation there," said Mr.P.Chandrasekaran, leader of the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) and Nuwara Eliya district parliamentarian addressing the National Mourning Day meeting in Trincomalee esplanade held Wednesday evening.
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Rebuilding Trinco fishing industry discussed

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 03:09 GMT]
"International community has understood the need for an administrative authority to channel foreign aid to the Tsunami devastated northeast province. Foreign funds are likely to be available for the reconstruction of northeast through an authority or for the implementation of identified specific projects. Hence we can expect an equitable proportion of foreign aid to Tsunami destroyed northeast province," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) addressing a conference on rebuilding Tsunami destroyed fishing industry in Trincomalee district, sources said.
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Tamil plantation sector flood victims neglected for two years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2005, 10:35 GMT]
Tamil plantation workers in the Sabaragamuwa Province were ignored in the flood relief assistance given to the people affected by the floods in 2003 and have not received any assistance during the last two years, said estate sources Thursday. The plantation workers continue to live in crowded tents for the last two years.
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Trinco remembers tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 22:48 GMT]
Religious dignitaries of all faiths and communities participated in the national mourning day held in Trincomalee playgrounds Wednesday evening and paid respect to the dead in the December 26 Tsunami which devastated the coastal villages in the Trincomalee district. The Trincomalee Tamil Peoples' Forum and Federation of Trincomalee Tamil Fisheries Societies organized the event, sources said.
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Kuchchaveli welfare centers short of relief supplies

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 01:21 GMT]
Several hundreds of Tamil and Muslim families from coastal villages of Vellore, Veerancholai, Irrakakandy, Iranaikerni, Kumburupiddy, Salli Munai, Kuchchaveli along the north of Trincomalee district, displaced by the tsunami disaster and now sheltered in welfare centres complain of inadequate relief supplies reaching them. These villages are administered as part of the Kuchchaveli divisional secretariat division in Trincomalee district.


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Colombo’s post tsunami development blueprint assailed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 03:03 GMT]
Plan drawn up as a blueprint for post-tsunami development by the “Task force to Rebuild the Nation” (TAFREN), one of the three committees comprising the Center for National Operations (CNO) set up by Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge, announced Monday, is assailed as being immoral, hastily produced, too centralized and conceived without adequate consultation with organizations whose support is vital for the plan's successful execution.
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Pace of relief operations in East slow- UNP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 21:10 GMT]
United National party (UNP) Deputy leader and Gampha District Parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya, after visiting the south eastern coastal areas, said Friday, "Though several thousands of lives have been lost in the disaster it is creditable that rescue operations have been almost completed in the South. However I am concerned and distressed to note, having seen at first hand, that in the east we have yet some way to go before we complete the rescue and clearing efforts."


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Kadaloor victims receive expatriate help

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 January 2005, 03:34 GMT]
Trincomalee Tamils domiciled in Canada distributed a consignment of cooking utensils through Trincomalee Children Fund (TCF) to about seventy eight displaced families from Kadaloor, a Tamil fishing hamlet in the Kinniya division, about 10 km northwest of the Trincomalee town, sources said.
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Foreign aid going to South, not North- Col. Soosai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2005, 18:04 GMT]
''Two third of the loss of lives and properties caused by Tsunami disaster has been in Tamil areas in the northeast province. But the Sri Lanka government is channelling vast sums of foreign aid to the south,'' said Colonel Soosai, Special Commander of Sea Tigers addressing a special discussion held in Maruthankerni in the LTTE controlled Vadamaradchchi east division in Jaffna district.


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Dire need for long-term psychological counseling- Fr.Karunaratnam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2005, 03:18 GMT]
Rev.Fr.M.X. Karunaratnam, head of the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), was recently appointed as chairman to lead an effort to provide psychological support for those in the NorthEast affected by the tsunami. Father Karunaratnam spoke to TamilNet in detail of the task at hand and about the group they have assembled to carryout this task that requires social sensitivity, and a coordinated plan for long-term care and follow-up.
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