Bullock cart 'buses' Mullaitivu school children

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 March 2003, 16:09 GMT]
Students in Meelivanam village located 5km from the Karipattamurippu Government mixed school in Mullaitivu district will use an improvised bullock drawn carriage as transportation to and from their school, sources in Mullaitivu said.
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‘Normalcy in NE only when displaced are resettled’ - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 17:14 GMT]
Normalcy will return to the North East province only after thousands of displaced people now languishing in refugee camps and welfare centers are resettled in their own lands, said Mr.R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentary group leader, at a function to open the office of the Socio Economic Development Committee (SEDC) in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village forty-two kilometers north of Trincomalee, sources said.
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PA-JVP said closer to formula for capturing power

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 16:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition parties said Friday they were closer to striking a deal on forming an alliance to bring down Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government. The People’s Alliance and the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had discussions on formulating the crucial clauses of a memorandum of understanding to cement the alliance at the President’s House in Colombo Friday.
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TRO starts housing project for Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 01:55 GMT]
Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan, at twelve noon Thursday, laid the first foundation stone for the first house for resettled families at Kaddukulam in Thiriyai village, forty-two km north of Trincomalee town. Trincomalee district office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is building five hundred houses as part of this housing project, sources said.
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Court orders arrest of key suspect in Nimalarajan murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2003, 17:44 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate Mr.R.T.Viknarajah Thursday afternoon ordered the Police to arrest and produce a key suspect Napoleon in court in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan. Earlier the same day the Magistrate ordered the release of Napoleon when he was present in court in connection with the Naranthanai murder and assault case, legal sources said.


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Sri Lanka Police quibble over spent ordnance

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 March 2003, 16:57 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police Thursday produced in the district court of Mannar a person arrested allegedly for transporting empty casings of artillery shells. Police told court that they had found six empty casings, each two feet long, in a lorry bringing scrap metal from the Vanni at the Uyilankulam entry point in Mannar. Legal sources in the Mannar courts, however, said expended ordnance was not illegal.


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TRO launches housing scheme for Thiriyai resettlers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 19:37 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is to lay foundation Thursday for a housing scheme in Thiriyai village, a traditional Tamil village, about forty-two km north of Trincomalee town. The proposed housing scheme is to facilitate refugees to return to their own land after about twenty years, sources said.


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Workers in Colombo walk out against privatisation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 19:23 GMT]
Hundreds of workers in state run banks and major public enterprises walked out of their offices in Colombo Wednesday to protest against plans by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Front government to privatise their institutions. The protesting workers also demanded better wages.


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Farmers’ protest brings civil admin to standstill in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 13:38 GMT]
More than 1500 farmers in Mannar demanding fair prices for their rice harvest and the removal of Sri Lankan armed forces units which continue to occupy fields and buildings in the region blockaded the District Secretariat Wednesday and brought all government administration in the Northwestern island town to a standstill.
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CTTU to picket education offices in support of volunteer teachers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 21:10 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) Tuesday announced that its members would picket the offices of North East Provincial Department of Education and the Provincial Ministry of Education in Trincomalee from April 1st if the authorities concerned failed to grant permanent appointments to one thousand Tamil medium volunteer teachers according to the Cabinet approval by the then Peoples Alliance government and the present United National Front government on or before March 31st, sources said.
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'Tamil voters' fundamental rights violated' -- Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 20:15 GMT]
The Supreme Court Tuesday held that the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the Commissioner of Elections had violated the fundamental rights of the voters in the LTTE held areas of the North-East province by preventing them from casting their votes at the last general elections held in December 2001, legal sources said.
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PM urged to stop SLA camp in Jaffna municipal land

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 19:37 GMT]
An urgent appeal has been made to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, Tuesday on behalf of the people of Jaffna that the Sri Lanka Army should not be allowed to relocate its Jaffna brigade headquarters in the municipal council land close to the Jaffna fort, sources said.
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Names of Sea tigers killed in merchant vessel announced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 March 2003, 01:18 GMT]
The names of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sea tigers killed in international waters 220 miles from Trincomalee shores when the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) fired on their merchant vessel on March 10 were announced by the LTTE Wednesday, sources in Vanni said.
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Vanni TNA MPs fast, demanding Tamil detainees' release

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2003, 02:19 GMT]
Three Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Messrs Selvam Adaikalanathan, Raja Kuhaneswaran and Sivasakthi Anandan with hundreds of Tamil residents Thursday held a fasting campaign in front of the S.J.V.Chelvanayakam statue in Mannar town Thursday from morning till evening demanding the immediate release of all Tamil political prisoners from prisons at Kalutara and elsewhere in the south, sources said.
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'We are committed to peace' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 00:22 GMT]
The political advisor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Anton Balasingham said that the LTTE will not allow the peace process to become a trap to weaken the Liberation Tigers. "Despite provocations and attacks on us we are determined to participate constructively in the peace process. We want to convince the world, particularly the Sinhala people, that we are committed to peace," said Mr.Balasingham addressing a gathering, which followed the opening of the main court complex of the Thamileelam judiciary in Killinochchi Tuesday morning, sources said.


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US Ambassador visits Jaffna, meets civil group leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 March 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The Ambassador for United States of America in Colombo, Mr.Ashely Wills, paid a one-day visit to Jaffna Tuesday and held discussions with representatives of Jaffna civil groups and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, sources said.
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Jaffna Consortium demands release of PTA suspects

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 March 2003, 17:35 GMT]
The Consortium of Peoples' Associations of Jaffna (CPAF) in a memorandum has blamed the United National Front government for acting irresponsibly in delaying the release of Tamil political prisoners who are at present languishing in prisons in the south for several years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) without being brought to trial in courts of law, civil sources said.
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Picketing in Jaffna demanding release of PTA suspects

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 March 2003, 17:21 GMT]
Hundreds of people and civil activists participated in a one-hour picketing conducted in front of the Jaffna district secretariat Monday morning from 10.30 demanding the immediate release of all Tamil political prisoners from prisons at Kalutara and elsewhere in the south of the country. Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians Messrs Mavai Senathirajah, G.G.Gajendrakumar, A.Vinayagamoorthy, M.K.Sivajilingam, N.Raviraj participated in the campaign, sources said.
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SLN encourages poaching by Indian fishermen - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 March 2003, 16:50 GMT]
The Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan in a letter to the Prime Minister Saturday blamed the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) for causing rift between Sri Lankan Tamil and Indian fishermen. "I strongly condemn the SLN for purposely allowing Indian fishermen to fish in Sri Lankan waters as a ploy to create ill feeling between fishermen of Mannar and India," said Mr.Adaikalanathan.


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LTTE-TNA agree to take forward peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 March 2003, 18:22 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil National Alliance Friday agreed to work jointly to take forward the present peace process strengthening the relationship between Tamils and Muslims, TNA sources said.
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