Canadian parliamentarian visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 19:04 GMT]
Mr.Jim Karygiannis, Canadian parliamentarian, arrived in Jaffna with a team to witness the destruction caused by Tsunami of December 26 and console the victims. They visited the coastal areas of Valvettithurai, Athikovilady villages and welfare centres sheltering tsunami victims. He met with Mr.C.Ilamparithi, Jaffna district LTTE political head and visited the office of the Jaffna District Task Force, which is co-ordinating all relief and rehabilitation works in the district in Nelliyady.
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SLBC News Director removed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 11:58 GMT]
Mr. Raja Katukampola, News Director of the Government owned Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) has been removed from the duty, media sources said. Katukampola's duties are replaced by Mr.Somapala Perara, the sources added.
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Norwegian Red Cross hospital commences its services in Eachchilampathu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 19:33 GMT]
Twenty member of medical team of the Norwegian Red Cross Society Tuesday commenced its services in its temporary hospital put up in Eachchilampathu village which is in the LTTE controlled area down south of the Trincomalee district under the co-ordination of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). This temporary hospital is to function for about three months till the medical services in the area improves, sources said.
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SLMM head to meet Col. Sornam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 02:37 GMT]
Major General (retd) Trond Furuhovde, Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), is scheduled to meet Colonel Sornam, Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ), on Thursday January 13th, sources said.


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Kumaratunga appoints EPDP to tsunami Task Force

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 02:23 GMT]
Representatives of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) have been appointed to the District Task Force (DTF) established in Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Amparai districts to coordinate relief and rehabilitation of tsunami victims who are sheltered in welfare centers, on a directive from Sri Lanka’s President, Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunga, civil sources said.
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Colombo tries to shift blame on mishandling Annan's itinerary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 23:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry in a statement issued on Sunday tried to shift the blame on mishandling itinerary of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit, which sparked controversy that Colombo blocked him from visiting LTTE-controlled areas in the Northeast to witness the devastating tsunami destruction. The Foreign Ministry said that the final itinerary was drawn only after the government authorities and UNDP's Resident Representative's Office reached an agreement in Colombo.
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Civilians protest outside Jaffna UN office

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 18:21 GMT]


About two hundred members of the Jaffna District Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Jaffna University Student Union and the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Sunday held a protest in front of the UNHCR office in Jaffna town against the decision of the government not to allow the UN Secretary General Mr.Koffi Annan to visit the Tsunami affected north, sources said.
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TRO Executive meets with UN Secretary General

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 13:43 GMT]
The Executive Director of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Mr. K. P. Regi, met with United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, at a meeting Sunday convened for a selected group of civil society representatives, sources in Colombo said. Mr. Regi handed over an appeal to the Secretary General. Some of the participants expressed the view that the centralised set-up planned by the Government of Sri Lanka is not effective, contains many bureaucratic bottlenecks and not sufficiently transparent to direct an equitable distribution of relief.
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Dismal state response reveals need for ISGA - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 11:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s insensitive and ineffectual relief efforts in the Northeast in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster has reinforced the need for an interim administration for the region as demanded by its residents, Tamil parliamentarians argued Sunday.
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Annan wants to come back to visit entire country

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 11:24 GMT]
Diplomatically ducking a question whether he regretted that he could not visit the LTTE-controlled areas, visiting Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, said in Colombo today he was "hoping to be able to come back and visit all parts of Sri Lanka, not just to visit but to celebrate peace." Visibly frustrated with his itinerary set by the government of Sri Lanka that banned him from seeing the enormous devastation caused by tsunami terror waves in the LTTE-held areas, he said that the UN was not a "one man show" and there were number of people attached to the UN agencies working in parts of the country, including the LTTE-held areas.
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Annan hails LTTE-led relief efforts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 05:41 GMT]
UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, hailed the relief efforts led by the Liberation Tigers in the wake of the Asian tsunami of December 26th and expressed his disappointment over the Sri Lankan governments veto of his plans to visit LTTE held areas devastated by the waves, when he met Tamil parliamentarians Sunday.
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Vasudeva criticises army take over of Tsunami welfare centres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:44 GMT]
"Take over of the management of welfare centres sheltering Tsunami victims by the State armed forces is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of refugees," Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakkara, General Secretary of the Nava Samaja Party and a former parliamentarian told TamilNet correspondent in Jaffna Saturday.
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World Bank chief says tsunami assistance could go upto USD one billion

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:15 GMT]
Reserving over USD 100 million to Sri Lanka from the existing projects for immediate recovery work and to rebuild the devastated homes and spectrum of livelihood, visiting World Bank chief D. Wolfensohn hinted in Colombo Saturday that the post tsunami relief assistance of the Bank to rebuild the devastated region could well go upto the mammoth USD one billion mark. He said in addition to the already released USD 10 million to Sri Lanka, an emergency credit of not less than USD 75 million, of which 40 percent would be a grant, would be made available to enable the government to begin recovery work.
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Civil organizations in northeast submit their pleas to Kofi Annan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 16:51 GMT]
Civil organization representatives in northeast accompanied by a large crowd met Ms Penny Brune, UNICEF representative for Vanni, in Killinochchi on Friday and handed her written appeals from civil organizations. The appeals urged the visiting UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to visit Vadamaradchi East and Mullaithivu areas that have been devastated by the tsunami attack. Ms Penny Brune after receiving the appeals said that she will ensure that all the appeals reach the UN Secretary General the same day.
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Colombo blocks Kofi Annan from touring LTTE held areas - UN officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 10:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka's government has stopped visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from touring tsunami-ravaged areas controlled by the LTTE, despite his requests, a Reuters report filed from Hambantota said. Annan was quoted as saying: "I am here on a humanitarian mission. I would like to visit all the areas, but as you know I am here as a guest of the government and they set the itinerary". UN officials told Reuters that they had been striving to convince the government, but to no avail. "It is a relief visit, not a political one. The secretary general wanted to go, but it just didn't happen," said one official on condition of anonymity to Reuters.
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LTTE slams state media speculation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 08:19 GMT]
Referring to a news item broadcasted by the Government owned Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) Saturday morning, quoting Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri as the source person, that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Intelligence Chief of the organisation are among the dead or reported missing consequent to the Tsunami tidal wave attack, the LTTE in a press release said that it "strongly protested against the mischievous act of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, stooping down to such low level of broadcasting news that are fabricated by interested parties". This is not the time for gossip mongering and malicious propaganda, the LTTE press release said.
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Tsunami ravaged community in northeast pleads with UN Secretary General

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 15:50 GMT]
Civil organizations and churches in the northeast have appealed to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit the tsunami hit regions in the LTTE controlled areas as he reached Colombo Friday 6.10 PM. Rt.Rev. Dr.Thomas Soundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna, Rt.Rev.Dr. J. Kingsley Swampillai, Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticaloa and Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar urged The Secretary General to visit Mullaithivu and meet LTTE leaders and discuss with them about the future rehabilitation of the Tsunami victims. Most of the appeals have highlighted the positive effects of his visit to LTTE controlled areas in promoting peace through negotiations.
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Denmark donates water purification units to TRO

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 14:30 GMT]
Mr.Michael Sternberg, Ambassador of Denmark who is on a two day visit to Trincomalee district Thursday donated ten water purification units to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) to clean all wells in the Tsunami affected coastal villages. The Government of Denmark also provided four technicians to train about ten volunteers of the TRO in handling the water purification units, sources said.


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US military presence will not affect Peace Process - Colin Powell

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 11:40 GMT]
Pledging USD 25 million for immediate relief and reconstruction of Sri Lanka, US Secretaryof State Colin Powell said in a press briefing held at the runway at the Katunayake Air Force Base, Colombo, that US military presence will not affect the ongoing peace process. Responding to a question about how long the US military would stay, he said they would remain long as it is required by the Sri lankan government and would ensure that the reconstruction and rehabilitation work is complete.


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"Tamil people will resist SLA takeover of Welfare Centers" -Colonel Soosai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 January 2005, 19:32 GMT]
''Our people will not accept the directive issued by Sri Lanka's President to hand over the management of Tsunami welfare centres in the government controlled areas in the northeast to the Sri Lanka Army,'' a defiant Colonel Soosai, Special Commander of the Sea Tigers, said at a conference held Thursday at the relief co-ordination office at Puththukattu junction area, sources said.


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