Student parliament convened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 02:11 GMT]
Hundreds of students from schools in Jaffna district took part in a student parliament held at the Veerasingam Hall on Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. This was the first time an event of this type was organized in Jaffna peninsula, student leaders in Jaffna said.


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Political confusion in Colombo said undermining peace

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2003, 20:04 GMT]
"It would be absolutely imprudent on our part to predicate the future of the Tamil people on the unpredictable political climate we are witnessing in Colombo now. It is getting progressively unstable. A politically powerful section of the Sinhala Buddhist clergy asserts that President Kumaratunga wowed during a meeting with its leaders that she would divide the Northeast province. The political bankruptcy of the Sri Lankan state in solving the ethnic conflict never stood so well exposed," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP, a senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance, Thursday.
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Colombo urged to drop ‘double standard on interim mechanism’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 18:07 GMT]
“The cease fire agreement (CFA) between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers has no basis in the laws of Sri Lanka. It is an extra constitutional instrument on which the island’s peace has stood for more than 15 months. Therefore, why can’t the Sri Lankan government look beyond the constricting parameters of its constitution to formulate an interim mechanism for rebuilding and rehabilitating the war ravaged northeast? We are urging the Sinhala polity to drop its double standard on this matter for the sake of peace," Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance MP, said Tuesday.
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Troop reduction in Jaffna imminent - SLA official

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 11:48 GMT]
"If the current climate of peace prevails longer there will soon be reduction of troops from current number of 40,000 to close to 10,000. We are preparing plans to introduce this reduction," said Colonel M.G.Ratnayake, special Public relations officer appointed by the Colombo Military Head Quaters, a leading Jaffna daily, Uthayan reported.


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VVT residents picket against new army camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 09:06 GMT]
Hundreds of students and residents of Valvettithurai in the north of Jaffna district Monday held a picketing campaign for about an hour opposing the establishment of a new camp of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the Chithamabara College grounds. All vehicular movement on Valvettithurai-Keerimalai main road came to a standstill due to picketing, sources said.


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NEERP to hold workshop for northeast planning staff

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 14:13 GMT]
Three-day workshop for the northeast planning staff to develop their capacity will commence on June 3. The North East Provincial Planning Secretariat is to conduct the workshop sponsored by the World Bank funded North East Emergency Reconstruction Programme (NEERP) and the Ministry of Planning and Implementation of the central government, sources said.


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Higher education scholarships for ninety-three Trinco students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2003, 00:47 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan participating as the chief guest at the Mahapola higher education scholarship-awarding event held in Trincomalee Saturday appealed to the Sri Lankan government to formulate a scheme immediately to admit all qualified students for higher education to universities the same year, sources said.


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Trinco Vipulananda holds first prize giving in 56 years

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 19:33 GMT]
Trincomalee Vipulananda College located in the outskirts of east port town held its fifty sixth anniversary and first annual prize giving celebrations Thursday. The school was founded on 7th May 1947 in an abandoned military building left by the Britishers to provide education to the poor children living outside the Trincomalee town, sources said.
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Trinco Ladies College celebrates 80th anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2003, 00:16 GMT]
The Founder’s day and the Eightieth anniversary of the Trincomalee Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College were celebrated Wednesday with the Northeast Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.R.Thiagalingam unveiling the statue of the founder Mrs. Thangamma Shanmugampillai, sources said.


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Valigamam residents picket against new SLA camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2003, 15:23 GMT]
Hundreds of residents Thursday held a four hour picketing campaign blocking the main road from Puttur to Chunnakam at Nilavarai junction opposing the construction of a new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Nilavarai- Navakiri area. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam participated in the picketing campaign, sources said.
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North-South peace sports festival to be held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 11:05 GMT]
Preparations are underway to hold the second North-South Peace Sports Festival in the Jaffna district during the first week of September this year, sources close to the chief co-ordinator of the festival, Minister of Lands Mr.Rajitha Senaretna said.


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Sampanthan writes to PM on interim administration

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 14:28 GMT]
The parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan Monday sent a letter to the Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister urging him to act with “adequate clarity and certainty the commitment as stated in his 2001 general election manifesto that an Interim Administration will be set up for the northeast province and such a step will strengthen and consolidate the peace process.”
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Villagers in Trinco suffer without medical facilities-TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2003, 17:07 GMT]
The remote villages in the Trincomalee district have not been provided with proper medical facilities and people undergo untold hardships in getting prompt medical treatment, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairetnasingham in a letter to the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Welfare Mr.P.Dayaratne, sources in Trinco said.
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Final death toll in flood, landslide stands at 266

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said Saturday that two hundred and sixty six persons have died in recent flood and landslides in six southern districts of the country. However, more than five hundred persons have been reported missing but not accounted in the official list, sources said.
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Judge orders remand extension for two LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 13:08 GMT]
The Trincomalee Magistrate Mr.S.Thiagendran Friday ordered further remand till June 5 for the two members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) arrested on a charge of possessing explosives under the Offensive Weapons Act, legal sources said. The Sri Lanka Navy apprehended the two along with a third LTTE cadre on May 8 in the Trincomalee Sea.
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SLN soldier in LTTE custody

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 15:38 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldier who entered the LTTE controlled Kadawanaikulam area in Trincomalee district with arms is now in the custody of Thamileelam Police, LTTE Trincomalee district political head Mr.S.Thilak told media persons in the east port town Friday. Kadawanaikulam is 16 km off west of east port town along the Trincomalee-Kandy highway, sources said


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1987 killings still haunt Vakarai residents

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 02:21 GMT]
Nearly sixteen years ago residents of Thonithandamadu village in Vakarai region in Batticaloa district were witness to gruesome killings when soldiers of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shot, hacked to death and burnt the bodies of ten Tamil civilians. The memory still haunts the relatives of the victims and the residents of the impoverished village.


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Former PS chairman wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2003, 18:36 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded a former chairman of the Vaakarai Pradeshiya Sabha (local government institution), Mr.Samuel Pushparajah (40), around 8.30 p.m., Thursday, at Valaichenai, 32 km. north of Batticaloa.
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TNA briefs foreign envoys on NE interim administration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 May 2003, 15:57 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance Thursday told the American Ambassador for Sri Lanka Mr.Ashely Wills the urgency in setting up of an interim administration to rebuild the war ravaged northeast province and to rehabilitate the displaced families in their villages, TNA sources said.
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Special Act to call fresh nominations for NE local polls

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 May 2003, 18:58 GMT]
The United National Front government Wednesday tabled a Local Government Elections Special Provision Act bill in parliament empowering the Commissioner General of Elections to call for fresh nominations to the fifty-three local government institutions in the Tamil dominated Northeast province.
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