Annai Poopathi death anniversary observed in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 14:20 GMT]
Seventeenth death anniversary of Annai Poopathi, who fasted unto death on 19 April 1988 after placing five demands to the Government of India, was observed in the NorthEast province Tuesday. Several hundreds of students, men and women participated in token fast held separately in the five divisions of the Jaffna district Tuesday, organizers said.


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Tamil Women Confluence held in Thampalakamam

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 April 2005, 17:47 GMT]
About eight hundred Tamil women participated in a Women Confluence ('Penngal Sangamam') Monday held at Thampalakamam, a traditional Tamil village in the Trincomalee district Monday in connection with the seventeenth death anniversary of Annai Poopathi, which falls on Tuesday (April 19), sources said.
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"All Mullaitivu tsunami affected are in transit camps"- Maaran

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2005, 01:12 GMT]
"Of the 5905 families displaced by tsunami in Mullaitivu district, all 2124 families which needed a place to live have been transferred to transit camps [from welfare centers] and the rest are living with friends and relatives in a temporary setting. We are waiting for funds to start our third phase of resettling the families in permanent state land," said Mr Maaran, Head of Mullaitivu district Emergency Task Force (ETF), when TamilNet spoke to him recently in his offices in Mullaitivu.
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Media watchdog says JVP inciting violence against journalists

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 16:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main press watchdog, Free Media Movement FMM, Tuesday expressed grave concern that a speech by Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), could incite violence against journalists and media institutions. In a letter addressed to the Patriotic National Movement, a JVP affiliate which organized the meeting where Mr. Weerawansa spoke, FMM said “stop this hate campaign your organisation has launched against journalists and media institutions and to keep criticisms within the limits of democratic freedoms."
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Kumaratunga urged to organise ship service for Tamil returnees from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2005, 15:07 GMT]
Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian appealed Monday to Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge to take immediate steps to arrange a ship for the transportation of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from South India to Sri Lanka. The refugees frequently risk their lives by illegal travel from Thanushkodi in South India to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka- a stretch of 18 km sea- in their anxiety to return to their motherland, the MP said.
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Thanthai Chelva remembered on his 107th birthday

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 10:43 GMT]
Mr. S.J.V.Chelva-nayakam, founder of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) and fondly called by Tamils as "Thanthai" (father) was remembered on his 107th birthday in Jaffna and Vavuniya Thursday. Jaffna Bishop of South Indian Diocese Rt Rev.Jebanesan in the capacity of Thanthai Chelva Trustee garlanded the statue of late leader Mr.Chelvanayakam which is located in the Chelva mausoleum in Jaffna town. Parliamentarian and the current President of ITAK Mr.Mavai Senathirajah and parliamentarian Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam also garlanded the statue, sources said.
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North Carolina medical relief still held by Lanka customs

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2005, 05:33 GMT]
Officials of the North Carolinians for Peace (NCFP) told TamilNet Thursday that they still await resolution to clearing the 54 boxes of medical supplies held by the Sri Lanka customs. "We had good response from the offices of Congressmen Bob Etheridge and David Price, and Senator Richard Burr. They have contacted the US Embassy in Colombo and the US State Department in Washington DC. Our Chair of NCFP Relief operations has also sent a letter to the Sri Lankan Ambassador in DC," Elias Jeyarajah, President of NCFP, told TamilNet.
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Poverty alleviation woes highlighted

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 18:23 GMT]
An organisation for the 'Samurdhi' poverty alleviation program officers in Sri Lanka's northeast and in the Nuwara Eliya District was inaugurated Friday in Vavuniya. Thousands of people living in poverty in several districts of the northeast do not receive any benefit under this program, according to the governers of the new organisation. The Samurdhi program is also affected by a shortage of field officers in the north.
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Foundation laid for Trinco campus new building complex

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 18:10 GMT]
Foundation stone was laid Wednesday morning for the 91 million rupee-project to construct a building complex to house the Trincomalee campus of the Eastern University in 250 acre-land allocated in Konesapuri, 16 km north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Pulmoddai road. Trincomalee campus is currently functioning in rented buildings in the east port town without adequate space for its academic activities and lack of hostel facilities for students, sources said.
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JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
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Sri Lanka’s referendum blues

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:23 GMT]
Opposition fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making serious moves to hold on to the reins of power were further exacerbated when thousands of posters calling for the immediate abolition the country’s executive Presidential system appeared in many part of the island’s capital and suburbs this week. The purple coloured posters were in the name of a nebulous organization called ‘People’s Movement for Democracy’. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says President Kumaratunga is planning to change the constitution to illegally perpetuate herself in power.
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German support helps restore rhythm of regular life amongst school children

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 11:18 GMT]
As part of its response to assist in the rehabilitation of coastal area schools affected by the tsunami, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) on behalf of the German Government, recently donated learning and teaching material to more than 27,000 students in the eastern Trincomalee district and in the southern Hambantota district, according to a press release issued by GTZ Wednesday.
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Media report of British pressure false -Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 10:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham Tuesday dismissed claims in a Sri Lankan newspaper that British authorities had pressured him to secure the release of a Tamil resident of the UK which the paper also claimed had been detained by the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka. A columnist in The Sunday Leader claimed this week that British intelligence officials had threatened Mr. Balasingham on behalf of Mr. Rajasingham Jeyadevan after the latter was detained by the LTTE.
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Workshop held for pre-school officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:10 GMT]
Mr. Tramz-Josepf Kuhn of German ABC Foundation held a one-day workshop Saturday morning for the district, zonal and divisional co-ordinators of pre-schools in Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya on new learning techniques at the International Children School auditorium in Kilinochchi. Mr.S.Rajagopal, Director of the International Children School presided.
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"No hope for Tamils within a united Sri Lanka" - Verena Graf tells UN Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 21:28 GMT]
"The developments during the last three years compounded by the post-tsunami experiences raise the specter that time is running out; that there is no hope for the Tamils within a united Sri Lanka, that their only chance lies in fighting for external self-determination," Ms. Verena Graf, Secretary General of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, a Geneva based NGO with Special Consultative Status at the United Nations, said in her oral statement on Friday at UN Commission's 61st session on Human Rights.
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Czech NGO donates tractors to Trinco UC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 01:40 GMT]
"People In Need (PIN)," a non-governmental organization from Czech Republic, Wednesday donated three tractors with trailers worth Rs 2.6m to the Trincomalee Urban Council for garbage and tsunami debris removal, at an event held Wednesday evening in the UC premises, sources said.
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Canadian parliamentarians meet LTTE, promise aid for NorthEast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2005, 11:41 GMT]
The Candian Government will provide assistance to the people of NorthEast to recover from the tsunami disaster, said Hon Ms Maria Minna, Member of Parliament from Canada, when a delegation of Canadian Parliamentarian met with Liberation Tigers officials led by Deputy Head of LTTE Political Wing, S. Thangan in the Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) Wednesday 10.30 am, sources from Kilinochchi said.
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Crowds block Sri Lanka army garrisons in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 March 2005, 06:06 GMT]
Crowds blocked Sri Lanka army (SLA) camps in Chavakachcheri with burning tires and logs Saturday in protest against the military for tear gassing and damaging property in the northern peninsula’s second largest town. Protestors stopped military traffic on the A9 highway through Chavakachcheri. Some set fire to two military sentry points in the town. Troubles erupted in this key town when a civilian was hit and wounded by a speeding Sri Lanka army vehicle Friday afternoon. SLA troops and Police tear gassed to disperse a crowd that tried to set fire to the vehicle. Two civilians were wounded Saturday afternoon when riot Police charged a restive crowd in Chavakachcheri.
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Netherlands to assist lifting damaged dredger from Galle port

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 March 2005, 15:25 GMT]
The government of the Netherlands has come forward to finance the lifting a dredger, Diya Kowulla, of the Sri Lankan Ports Authorities from Galle quay. The dredger was stranded in the Galle quay when the tsunami waves hit the country on December 26. According to a statement from the embassy, Mrs. S. Th. Blankhart, Ambassador of the Netherlands and Mr. P.B. Jayasundera, Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning signed a contract on the lifting of the dredger.
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Norway ‘optimistic on joint mechanism’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 March 2005, 15:38 GMT]
Norwegian Peace Envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, told the Liberation Tigers’ Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, whom he met Wednesday that Oslo was optimistic that a joint mechanism for aid distribution could be agreed “soon” between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Mr. Solheim also conveyed Colombo’s concerns over the LTTE’s airstrip in Vanni to Mr. Balasingham.
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