Lt.Col.Jeevan's second anniversary commemorated

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2003, 13:05 GMT]
The second anniversary of the death of Lt.Col.Jeevan and seven Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters who were killed during a battle with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) near Batticaloa-Colombo road in Vakneri on 6 December 2001 was celebrated in three locations in LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa district Saturday.
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NECORD launches village rehabilitation program

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank funded North East Community Organization for Restoration and Development (NECORD) Project Thursday launched the Village Rehabilitation Programme (VRP) under the Community Development Project (CDP) in eight districts of the North-East, with the signing of two agreements with non-governmental organizations to implement two projects in the Trincomalee district.
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'More aid if Colombo bans landmines’ - UN

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 19:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka would get more funds for clearing mines in the northeast if it accedes to the Ottawa Convention banning the use of landmines said Mr. Ted Chaiban, the head of the UNICEF in Sri Lanka, in a brief presentation on behalf of the UN at the launch of ‘Mine Action Media Campaign’ at the Prime Minister’s office in Colombo Thursday. Sri Lanka is one of the 44 countries that have not signed the Ottawa Convention.
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International Day for people with special needs held in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 00:01 GMT]
People with special needs (the handicapped) in Vavuniya gathered at the Urban council hall in the Northern town Wednesday to participate at the International Day for people with special needs, and re-iterated in an oath that disability did not mean lack of talent and that they would demand equal rights in spheres where such rights are currently lacking, sources said.
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‘Flagrant discrimination’ in allocation of Health funds alleged

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2003, 23:01 GMT]
The allocation of funds for a program on emergency Obstetrics and Child Health in the war-ravaged areas of the North East, jointly sponsored by the UNICEF and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), flagrantly discriminates against Tamil provinces, several health officials in the North East told TamilNet’s Vanni correspondent Tuesday.
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Organized self-help lifts Vanni villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 00:11 GMT]
"Under 'Village Upliftment Project' economically worst hit villages in Vanni are identified and efforts are channelled to improve social and economic well-being of the residents through self-help. Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), local NGOs and Tamil expatriates are also financially helping us to carryout this project," Administrative Head, Anbarasan, told TamilNet during a recent visit to the interior villages of the Vanni.
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Jaffna Great Heroes day celebrations draw large crowd

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2003, 11:03 GMT]
Despite heavy down pour and interference by Sri Lanka Government security forces in the Jaffna district people in large numbers attended the events at the Heroes' cemetaries (Maveerar Thuyilum Illam) Thursday evening on the Great Heroes Day and paid their homage to the martyrs of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the armed Tamil freedom struggle, sources in Jaffna said.


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Great Heroes' Day celebrations begin in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Great Heroes Day celebrations began in Trincomalee town Tuesday morning with paying homage to LTTE martyrs of Trincomalee whose photographs have been kept in the gaily decorated Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall, which is located along the Inner Harbour Road facing the harbour. TEEDOR Trincomalee district head Mr.S.Tharman declared open the event by cutting the ribbon.
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NECORD provides new life to Varothaya Nagar School

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2003, 01:43 GMT]
The Varothaya Nagar Barathi Vidiyalayam in the suburb of Trincomalee town, which has a history of being occupied by both the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and thereafter by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police, till the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has now got a new two storied building at a cost of nearly 4 .6 million rupees under the North East Community Restoration and Development Project (NECORD). The building was declared open Monday.
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“Defense and ceasefire must flow from single authority”-TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2003, 18:00 GMT]
“It is the considered view of the Tamil people and of the fifteen Members of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that the responsibility on the part of the government to sustain the ceasefire, and to continue with the peace process, must flow from one single authority," said the TNA parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, speaking in the budget debate in parliament Monday.
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Canadian paramedics donate medical equipment to North

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2003, 05:18 GMT]
The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Unit in Toronto, Canada, has donated medical equipment and medicine used in emergency surgery, worth 30 million Rupees, to the government hospitals in Vavuniya, Mannar and Kilinochchi, sources said.
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Paper slams EU peace visit as "pig headed act"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 November 2003, 08:27 GMT]
Commissioner of External Affairs of the European Union, Mr. Chris Patten’s visit to Sri Lanka next week is expected to draw strong protests from Sinhala nationalists, political observers in Colombo said. ‘The Island’, an English daily published by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s uncle, slammed Mr. Patten’s plan to meet the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochchi next Tuesday as a “pig headed act” in a prominent front-page editorial Saturday. “This is bloody European gumption and insolence of the highest order”, the paper said.
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German government reconstructs destroyed Trinco building

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 November 2003, 00:32 GMT]
The new building of the Sampalthivu Agrarian Services Centre (ASC), located in the village of Aththimoddai, about 7 k.m. north of Trincomalee town, and reconstructed at a cost of 2.9 million rupees with the financial assistance of Integrated Food Security Programme (IFSP) of the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ), was handed over to the Agrarian Development Committee of Sampalthivu Friday morning.
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LSSP says case over PA's National list pre-empted

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2003, 18:21 GMT]
Mr. Batty Weerakoon, the leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), has charged that when his party was about to finish its submissions before the three-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing the case against the People’s Alliance General Secretary, Mr.D.M. Dayaratne, and the Elections Commissioner, over the nomination of PA's National List parliamentarians, Mr. Dayaratne’s counsel appealed to the Chief Justice that the case should be heard before a five-member bench, thereby pre-empting the case from proceeding, press reports in Sri Lanka said this week.


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LTTE, SLA discuss Heroes’ Day in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2003, 08:30 GMT]
“Sri Lanka army officers told us their troops won’t object to anything with the Tiger insignia being used in decorations put up by the people for the Great Heroes’ Day in Jaffna”, said Mr. S. Thangan, the deputy leader of the political division of the Liberation Tigers after a meeting with Maj. Gen. Ratnasabapathy, deputy Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna and senior Sri Lankan Police officials in the northern town Thursday.
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Work on new Sellasannithi chariot begins

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 11:02 GMT]
The first piece of wood for building the new chariot (Ther) for the historic Thondamanaru Sellasannithi Murugan Temple in Jaffna was carved and consecrated Wednesday morning according to Tamil religious rites at the Bambalapitya Manikkapillaiyar Kovil in Colombo. The temple’s intricately carved wooden chariot was destroyed when Sri Lanka army soldiers allegedly set fire to it during a military operation in the area on 21April 1986. The temple building was also destroyed by the SLA in 1987 during ‘Operation Liberation’ to take the Vadamaradchi Division of Jaffna.
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Balasingham to resume duties

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2003, 11:05 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ theoretician, Mr. Anton Balasingham, whose deteriorating health compelled him to take several months of rest this year, is now well enough to resume his duties, LTTE sources confirmed to TamilNet Tuesday.


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Germany extends support to NE redevelopment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2003, 10:34 GMT]
"The German government has decided to extend its support to the North East Community Restoration and Development Project (NECORD) with additional funds of EURO 2.4 million (Rs. 260 million) spread over the next three years", said a press release issued by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) today.
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Pirapaharan, Norwegians discuss peace, Colombo crisis

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 November 2003, 05:36 GMT]
Norwegian Deputy Minister, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, special envoy Eric Solheim, Norway’s Ambassador for Sri Lanka, Mr. Hans Brattskar met the Leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, for discussions about the peace process and the current political crisis in Colombo in Kilinochchi Thursday morning.
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"SL President's lack of sincerity will hamper peace efforts" -TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 12:34 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Tuesday told the Norwegian peace envoys that defense arrangements of the country should be left in the hands of one party that is dedicated to take forward the current peace process with sincerity. Sri Lanka's President's past actions of not responding to LTTE's unilateral ceasefire in December 2000 and her attempts to sideline Norway's peace envoy Eric Soleheim reflect her lack of sincerity and leaving the Peace Process in her command will damage peace efforts, TNA delegation added.
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