Minister says no administrative power to LTTE in joint mechanism

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 14:36 GMT]
Mr.Nimal Sripala de Silva, a senior Minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, said that the proposed joint mechanism would not confer any administrative powers to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "Sinhala people need not get perturbed over the propaganda that such mechanism would undermine the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka," he said addressing a meeting in Galle Sunday evening sources said.


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JHU joins anti joint mechanism fray

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 14:11 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), an ultra Sinhala nationalist party in Sri Lanka's Parliament, Monday vowed to oppose the proposed joint mechanism between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo to distribute Tsunami aid in the island's northeast. Addressing a press conference in Colombo Monday, Mr. Champika Ranawaka, propaganda secretary of the JHU said that his party was ready to join hands with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to campaign against the joint mechanism proposal. He said that there are many politicians in the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the opposition United National Party who are against the joint mechanism for Tsunami aid.
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LTTE complains against STF, firing on EPDP camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 11:35 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Monday lodged a complaint with Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that commandos of the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency arm of the Sri Lankan armed forces, had forcibly entered the LTTE political office in Navithanveli, about 36 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa. The STF men were drunk and had caused damage to the office close to midnight Sunday, LTTE said. Meanwhile, unidentified persons opened fire towards the EPDP camp in Valaichenai Monday around noon, Police said.
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JVP says will campaign against joint tsunami aid mechanism

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 05:22 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition partner, said Monday it will launch a massive campaign to oppose the proposed Joint Mechanism between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo for distributing Tsunami aid in the island’s northeast. “The campaign will start from the capital and will be held in all major provincial towns to educate the people about the dangers the Joint Mechanism poses to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, a party spokesman said. JVP’s opposition to the Joint Mechanism will be the central theme of the huge May Day rally the Marxist party is preparing to hold in Colombo, according to him.
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GTZ assists psychosocial counselling in NE schools

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 02:40 GMT]
The German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) of the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development has donated about 3.1 million rupees worth of playing tools, building blocks, musical toys, puzzles, chess boards and sport equipments to support psycho social counselling in schools in five education zones, Akkaraipattu, Batticaloa, Kalmunai, Mullaitivu and Vadamaradchchi in the northeast province, sources said.
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Tigers postpone crucial press meet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2005, 17:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Sunday they are indefinitely postponing a crucial press conference scheduled for Tuesday in Kilinochchi. Informed sources said that the press meet was intended to explain the LTTE’s stand on the proposed Joint Mechanism for Tsunami reconstruction in the island’s northeast province. The indefinite postponement of the press conference added fuel to speculation in Colombo that a compromise on the Joint Mechanism is floundering on strident opposition by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition partner Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
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SLFP launches campaign to promote Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2005, 14:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Sunday launched a two day-awareness campaign in Sri Lanka's South explaining the positive aspects of the proposed joint mechanism expected to be signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to disburse funds provided by several international aid agencies and foreign governments to reconstruct tsunami affected areas in the northeast, sources said.
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NGOs fund new boat yard and pre-school in Muttur East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2005, 03:06 GMT]
Cooperazione Internazionale Sud-Sud (CISS), an Italian Non-Governmental Organization, is providing financial support for the construction of a new boat building yard in Eachchilampathu division to supply fibre glass boats to tsunami affected fishermen. The project was initiated by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Saturday with Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district parliamentarian, laying the foundation stone, sources said.
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Elephant Pass Fall fifth anniversary celebrated

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2005, 13:17 GMT]
Fifth anniversary of the fall of Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) Elephant Pass garrison is being celebrated from the 22nd to 25th April in Vanni with long distance running competitions among different military divisions of Liberation Tigers followed by a day of cultural events, sources from Vanni said. The fall of Elephant Pass, described as "impregnable" by a US army officer who visited the garrison months before the fall, established the Tigers as the only non-state military force in the world today capable of complex manoeuvre war fighting.
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Book on ethnic conflict released in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2005, 11:53 GMT]
A Tamil book written by well-known political analyst, Mr. C.A.Jothilingam, titled "Ethnic Conflict and Proposals for Political Solution" was released and introduced to the Trincomalee audience at an event held Friday evening in Trincomalee Town Hall. Mr.K.Sivapalan, Human Rights activist, presided the event.


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SLA bans transport of torch batteries to Muttur east

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2005, 19:06 GMT]
Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee that soldiers in the Kaddaiparichchan Sri Lanka Army are preventing people taking torch batteries to and from LTTE controlled Muttur east villages. Kaddaiparichchan SLA camp is located on the border of the SLA and LTTE controlled areas in the Muttur division, sources said.
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Senior Sri Lanka Police sleuth said missing

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 April 2005, 15:45 GMT]
A very senior Police sleuth has gone missing in Colombo since Wednesday, Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police said Friday night. Mr.T. Jeyaratnam was a senior investigator of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police. He was the most experienced officer in investigations against the Liberation Tigers. Police said Mr. Jeyaratnam may have been abducted.
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Embrace reforms, End conflict, Rocca tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2005, 18:22 GMT]
United States Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, urged Sri Lanka to continue to embrace economic reforms and to take advantage of the Millennium Challenge opportunity to enhance growth and reduce poverty, in a speech at the American Center in Colombo April 19.
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Demonstrations in Velanai, Sandilipay demand Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2005, 17:02 GMT]
Large number of civilians participated in two protest marches held in Sandilipay in Valigamam division and Velanai in Kayts Division in the Jaffna district Thursday morning separately putting forward four demands including the establishment of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) and the Joint Mechanism to implement tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation programme in the northeast. Other demands were the resettlement of displaced families due to war in their own houses and lands and to bring to halt the killings of LTTE cadres, members of public and journalists, sources said.


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SLMM and Elilan discuss Trincomalee situation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2005, 16:53 GMT]
Ms Helene Fors, acting head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee Thursday evening held discussions with Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), about the recent incidents affecting the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in the district, SLMM sources said.
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Tigers say Vattamadu attack report psy ops

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 April 2005, 10:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka army claimed Thursday that five Liberation Tigers were killed and seven wounded when a paramilitary attacked their positions in Vattamadu on the island's southeast coast. A senior commander of the LTTE's armed forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai region said that two men had opened fire in the direction of their forward defence positions on the outskirts of the Kanjikudichcha Aaru region Thursday morning. "There were neither casualties nor damage on our side", the LTTE commander said. He dismissed the SLA statement as "routine psy ops".
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Christina Rocca meets JVP delegation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 16:16 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sinhala Marxist Nationalist Party and a major constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Wednesday told Ms Christina Rocca, the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State, that JVP is opposed to the joint mechanism which was proposed to enable the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to disburse funds from foreign governments and international aid agencies to assist tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in the northeast, sources said.


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Where the truce promise rings hollow

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 14:26 GMT]
The cease fire agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers was greeted eagerly by the people of Batticaloa because it held out the hope that their daily lives would be spared of the tensions, fears, anxieties, stress and trauma which they suffered for two long decades of war. They were glad that they could lead normal lives again. Today the cease fire’s promise rings increasingly hollow to them as the Sri Lankan armed forces reintroduce war era measures, which are tinged indelibly with bitter memories of a past the people of Batticaloa wanted to put behind so that they could start their lives anew.
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Solheim expresses hope for agreement on Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 10:22 GMT]
Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Special Peace Envoy to Sri Lanka, said Wednesday that the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers are close to enter into an agreement on the long awaited Joint Mechanism to distribute international aid for post-tsunami rebuilding effort in the NorthEast. However, Mr. Solheim said that there were still some issues that need to be resolved before signing the document.
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Nedunkerni schools receive free Solar Lighting Systems

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 10:07 GMT]
The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), a Sri Lanka Government registered NGO working exclusively in the NorthEast, provided eight schools without electricity in Nedunkerni region, Photo Voltaic (PV) lighting systems using funding from its US branch at an event held at Nedunkerni Maha Vidyalayam Monday, sources in Vanni said.
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