SLFP holds fourteenth party convention

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 2003, 01:18 GMT]
"I ordered the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to destroy the LTTE ship that carried weapons last Saturday to safeguard the country and its people," declared President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge addressing the fourteenth national convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the opposition People's Alliance (PA) Saturday evening at Nittambuwa in western province, political sources in Colombo said.
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Peninsula prepares for Pongu Thamil celebrations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 June 2003, 11:41 GMT]
Jaffna residents are preparing to conduct street dramas and other cultural uprising events widely across the district at village level for the second Pongu Thamil celebrations to be held on the 27 June, reports from Jaffna said.


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Negotiating Tamil sovereignty

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 June 2003, 00:52 GMT]
“Tamils have only had very compelling political and moral reasons for not acceding their sovereignty to the Sri Lankan state since Britain gave independence to this island. Therefore no road map to peace in Sri Lanka should be allowed to compromise the Tamil people’s sovereign and inalienable right to decide their political status in the land of their forebears," said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance MP for Vanni, reacting Friday to suggestions that the Liberation Tigers should agree to a peace road map in return for workable interim administration for the northeast.
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Advanced Technology Institute to open in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 June 2003, 17:18 GMT]
International Tamil Technical Professionals’ Organization (ITTPO), based in the Silicon Valley region of California, and founded in September 2002 funded by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil Expatriate community, said today in a press release that the opening ceremony for its planned Advanced Technological Institute in kilinochchi will be held Monday.
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SLA aircraft damaged on landing, troops escape injury

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 18:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force's (SLAF's) AN-32 aircraft carrying 55 soldiers from Colombo Ratmalana airport to Palaly airport in Jaffna veered off the runway during landing and crashed into a nearby a signpost Saturday injuring one soldier, said security sources in Jaffna.


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Leprosy Control programme to be inaugurated in Northeast

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 June 2003, 00:20 GMT]
A workshop was held Thursday in Trincomalee on the implementation of an Integrated Leprosy Control Services Project in the Northeast province at the auditorium of the provincial ministry of health.
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Jaffna to hold Methodist District Synod after 15 years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 00:04 GMT]
The North East District Synod of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka is to be held in Jaffna for the first time after fifteen years on June 13 and June 14. Ministers and leaders of the thirteen circuits of the Methodist Churches in the northeast will participate in the synod, church sources said.


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‘Let my people lead normal lives’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 20:01 GMT]
“My people have endured great agony and suffering for twenty years. Let them lead normal lives like those in other parts of the country”, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph told a delegation of Sri Lankan armed forces and officials that is on a fact finding visit to the district on the island’s northwestern coast Tuesday. “It is imperative that they shouldn’t be made to wait any longer for their rightful share of the peace dividend which everyone outside the northeast has enjoyed for more than an year”, the Bishop said.
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Funds insufficient to repair Vanni irrigation tanks - Engineer

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 11:16 GMT]
Muttaiyankattu Irrigation Engineer, S. Shanmugarajah, said that funds allocated for repair of several irrigation tanks in Vanni are insufficient and urgent assistance is required to rehabilitate the tanks for safe operation, local reports said.
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Pongal festival celebrated in Vattapallai Amman Temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 02:27 GMT]
Thousands of devotees from different parts of Northeast joined in the pongal celebrations held at Vattapallai Amman Temple, a popular hindu temple in Vanni, Monday. The prevailing climate of peace after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of SriLanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was the reason for such large gathering of devotees at the temple festival, sources said.


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SLA allows re-opening of Gurunagar ice factory

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has agreed for the opening of Gurunagar ice factory when Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees Minister Dr.Jayalath Jayawardene Monday held discussions with Colonel Udawatte of 512 Brigade of the SLA located at Gurunagar in Jaffna district, security sources in Jaffna said.


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Toppling UNF Government, PA's sole focus - Batty Weerakoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 00:11 GMT]
"People's Alliance (PA) of President Chandrika Kumaratunge does not have alternate policies for responding to issues of national importance. Instead PA is expending its energy in planning to topple the current United National Front (UNF) government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe," said Batty Weerakoon, Leader of leftist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), speaking at a meeting of Civil Service Union in Colombo Thursday, local reports said.
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Batticaloa-Amparai News in Brief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2003, 15:20 GMT]
Batticaloa-Colombo train service to resume after a false start, new library for Batticalo Town to be opened on Saturday and suspension of bus service to Kannakipuram in Ampara district causes severe hardships to residents of the impoverished village.
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Trade Unions jointly respond to 'Regaining Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 June 2003, 00:54 GMT]
The two-day workshop held in Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam concluded Thursday as representatives of trade unions, welfare organizations and humanitarian agencies in the south and Northeast agreed to submit a joint response to the Sri Lanka government's 'Regaining Sri Lanka' document prepared as a presenting document to the aid meeting to be held in Japan starting from 9 June, sources said.
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Workshop for NE planning officials begins in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2003, 00:25 GMT]
A three-day workshop for the northeast planning staff to develop their skills in management and planning began on Tuesday at provincial guesthouse at Uppuveli in the outskirts of Trincomalee town, officials in the NorthEast Provincial Council (NEPC) said.
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UXOs hamper reforesting, forest inspection in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 00:10 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Forestry Division (TEFD) sources said that unexploded ordnances (UXOs) pose danger to the inspection of the destruction caused to forests in the Vanni during Operation JayaSikuru in 1997, when Sri Lankan military officers felled large trees, destroyed forests and profited by exporting them to the South.


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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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Tamileelam police issues speed advisory to motorists

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 June 2003, 00:23 GMT]
Following two deaths Saturday due to traffic accidents on A9, the Traffic section of Kilinochchi branch Tamileelam police issued an advisory to motorists to strictly adhere to speed limits instituted as safety precaution to allow A9 redevelopment work to proceed without delay, sources in Vanni 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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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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