Vadamaradchi forum spotlights educational problems

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2003, 03:13 GMT]
Educational Development Forum for the Vadamaradchi Zone (EDFVZ) in the Jaffna district has been inaugurated to raise the standard of education in the zone and to put into maximum use the available teaching resources and to provide proper training to teachers, education sources said.
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TNA meets Indian Foreign Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 14:27 GMT]
The visiting Indian Foreign Minister, Mr. Yaswant Sinha, told the Tamil National Alliance Tuesday that the Indian government would extend its support to all efforts taken to find a peaceful political solution to the island's ethnic conflict through democratic means, safeguarding human rights and based on the concept of multi-racial country, TNA sources said.
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STF commandos stay on in hospital

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 13:57 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan armed forces, said Wednesday it would further delay moving out of the Thirukkovil District Hospital, 76 kilometres south of Batticaloa. The hospital, which is in the midst of a large Tamil village, has been garrisoned by the STF for 17 years despite protests by local rights activists and politicians.
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Massive crowds pack Mannar Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 13:55 GMT]
More than thirty thousand people packed the Mannar town grounds Wednesday for Pongu Thamil Wednesday. Large processions led by political and religious leaders started from three corners of the Mannar town at 3. 30 p.m. and converged on the ground one hour later. "We want our land", "soldiers! Go back to your homes", the marchers shouted.
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Sinhala nationalists' convoy to LTTE camp turned back

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 11:25 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police Tuesday peacefully turned back a large convoy of vehicles in which activists of Sihala Urumaya (SU), an ultra Sinhala nationalist party, were travelling towards Kurankupanchaan Kulam in Southern Trincomalee, vowing to enter the camp of the Liberation Tigers, which Colombo claims to be in territory under its control. More than a hundred Buddhist monks and about three hundred SU activists began the drive to the LTTE's camp from Kantalai around 1 p.m. Tuesday with the slogan "The arms are yours, the land is ours".
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Women complete job training in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 08:08 GMT]
The job training of women conducted by the Centre for Women's Development and Rehabilitation (CWDR)'s Job training division was completed on Monday, and a function to mark the event was held with speeches and exhibitions starting at 10:00 am, sources in the Vanni said.
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TRO hands over ten houses to Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 October 2003, 18:06 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization in Trincomalee district Sunday handed over ten newly constructed houses to ten internally displaced families now resettled in war ravaged Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village, about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town. TRO launched this housing project funded by the America's TRO last April, sources said.
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SLMM political advisor meets Mannar LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 18:27 GMT]
The political advisor to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Mr. Gejir Sebeasd Deniy, met officials of the Liberation Tigers in Mannar Friday for discussions about the ground situation in the district during the 17 months of cease-fire between Colombo and the LTTE. Head of the LTTE political division in Mannar Mr. C Amithaab, told Mr. Deniy that there weren't any problems with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the district only during the first five months of the cease-fire.
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TNA briefs new US Ambassador in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 15:36 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday told the new US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mr. Jeff Lunstead, that the US government should have helped to take forward the peace process by lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, TNA sources said.
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Veteran carnatic music exponent of Jaffna passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:29 GMT]
A veteran carnatic music exponent, Maha Vidwan Brahma Sri M.T.N.Veeramani Ayer, passed away Wednesday morning at the age of seventy-two at his residence at Inuvil in the Jaffna district. His body was cremated the same day evening at the Inuvil Hindu cemetery, in a function attended by a large gathering, sources said.
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TNA briefs Australian parliamentarians on peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2003, 13:25 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday told the visiting Australian parliamentary delegation that the establishment of an interim administration with adequate powers has become a sine qua non for rebuilding the war ravaged northeast province and to ensure the survival of the present peace environment, sources said. "There is no immediate opportunity to find a permanent political solution to the ethnic conflict under the current constitutional set up," the TNA's parliamentarians told the Australian delegation.
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Spanish Red Cross assists Trinco returnees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 18:48 GMT]
The Spanish Red Cross (SRC), with the assistance of Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) and funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Wednesday began distributing agricultural inputs and implements to the returnees and war affected communities in the Trincomalee district, sources said.
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Tenth anniversary of Charles Anthony brigade observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 20:28 GMT]
The tenth anniversary celebration of the formation of Charles Anthony special brigade of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was held at the Jaffna university auditorium Wednesday evening with the release of a book named “ Nerupatru Neechalil,” which is a documentation of achievements made by the special brigade in the war front, sources said.
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SLA agrees Vadamaradchi NECORD work can go ahead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 19:43 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Wednesday said it would allow the deepening of fisheries landing points in the Vadamaradchi north coastal areas, from Kerudavil to Katkovalam east, after fisheries societies representatives and Divisional Secretariat (DS) officials brought to the notice of the army officials present at the conference held Wednesday that they had already sought permission from the SLA in this regard, sources said.
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Habeas Corpus filed for Jaffna disappearances

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 17:23 GMT]
The Jaffna High Court Judge, Mr.K.P.S.Varatharajah, Wednesday entertained Habeas Corpus (HC) applications filed on behalf of seven Tamil youths who have been reported disappeared after their arrest by the Sri Lanka Army during the 1996-1997 period, and fixed the inquiry into these applications on October 29, legal sources said.
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UNICEF survey on Muttur zone children begins

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 13:56 GMT]
The third and final phase of the house-to- house survey conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to identify non school going children and drop-outs for various reasons in the Trincomalee district was inaugurated Sunday at the Poonagar village in the Muttur education zone by the UNICEF Child Protection Officer, Ms. Christina Torsein, who is based in Trincomalee town, sources said.
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Building up the case for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 02:11 GMT]
There is a steadily growing body of opinion among the Singhalese that Colombo’s dealings with the Liberation Tigers amount to nothing but a misguided policy of appeasement and plain treachery. The case for going to war with the Tigers again is being argued in different guises – its rhetorical veils are getting thinner as the ranks of those who oppose the peace process swell with each passing week.
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Health sector strike called off

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 17:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Health Sector Trade Union Alliance Monday evening decided to temporarily suspend its thirteen-day-old strike when the Health Ministry issued a circular providing solutions to many of its demands, its spokesman Mr.Saman Ratnapriya said.


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'Tamils disappointed by lack of normalcy' - ACTC leader

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 01:02 GMT]
”The people of Jaffna are a disappointed lot today even after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the United National Front Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said the Jaffna district parliamentarian and President of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Mr.A.Vinayagamoorthy, at a seminar held in Trincomalee Sunday evening on the current political situation in the Northeast.


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SLMM, LTTE district political heads to meet in Killinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 19:10 GMT]
Members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and political heads of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from different districts of northeast province are scheduled to holdl talks at 10 a.m. Sunday at the peace secretariat in Killinochchi, SLMM sources said.


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