De-populating Sampoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2006, 23:21 GMT]
Indian state owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Colombo, on Friday, amid protests from Tamil parliamentarians who are voicing concerns that the Coal-Fired Power Plant project in Sampoor has a hidden political agenda to permanently evict Tamils from the Muthur east region. Around 30,000 Tamils were forced to leave the southern Trincomalee region into Vaharai when Sri Lanka military launched a major offensive and captured Sampoor from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in September.
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Tamil Law students protest discrimination in admissions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2006, 13:18 GMT]
Tamil students who were denied admission to Law College staged a token hunger strike in Colombo outside the Law College on Wednesday morning at 10:00am protesting against discrimination in admission process. Colombo police officials at the scene warned the students that protests were banned inside the High Security Zone, and forcefully removed the students.
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SLAF Jets bomb Vaharai, disrupt tsunami memorial event

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 12:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Airforce (SLAF) kfir fighter jets bombed Tuesday morning Kathiraveli and Palchenai residential areas in Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory, and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery and rocket fire from SLA camps in Mankerny, Kadjuwathe, during the second anniversary memorial prayers were being held for the tsunami victims at Vaharai Vigneswara temple around 9:25 a.m Tuesday. Five houses were badly damaged but no one was hurt when shells fell and exploded on residential areas, Vaharai sources said.
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80% tsunami displaced in NorthEast, still in temporary shelters- TRO

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 12:19 GMT]
"Almost 80% of the Tsunami displaced in some districts of the NorthEast of the island, which sustained 65% of the tsunami destruction and deaths, continue to languish in Temporary Shelter Camps or have been displaced once again due to military offensives, bombing, and shelling," said Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in its two-year tsunami report, issued in Colombo, Tuesday.
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Tsunami survivors carry 'deep scars' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 07:56 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, marking two year remembrance of the Boxing Day Tsunami disaster, said the assistance to the people devastated by the tsunami has not progressed beyond the temporary shelter-stage in Tamil areas as Colombo scuttled the internationally promoted joint mechanism signed between the parties. Tamils were "deeply hurt" as Colombo continued to find comfort in using the label of a "sovereign" government, the Tigers said.
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Tigers confer 'Patriot' title on Navaratnam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 December 2006, 22:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Sunday posthumously conferred "Naattu Patralar" (Patriot) title on V. Navaratnam, who passed away in Montreal, Canada, Friday at the age of 97.
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Navaratnam, the doyen of Federal Party, passes away

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 21:42 GMT]
V. Navaratnam, the only surviving founder member of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), the Federal Party, and who turned 97 last October, has passed away in Montreal, Canada at 4:10 p.m. Friday. The doyen of Tamil politics who inked the Bandaranaiyake Chelvanayagam pact and negotiated with the Sri Lanka leaders for sharing state power within a federal framework for almost three decades, came to a conclusion that the Sinhala polity would never compromise or agree on any decision to share state power with Tamils, and left the Federal Party, calling upon the Tamil youth to fight for the establishment of a separate self-governing Tamil State, as early as in 1969.
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Child Protection Authority empowered - LTTE Political Wing

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 11:19 GMT]
The LTTE Political Wing, in a press statement issued on Friday, said the Tiger leadership had taken decisive steps to stop the practice of underage recruitment. The Tigers have strengthened the Child Protection Authority with certain powers to investigate future allegations of underage recruitment and to take immediate action to release them, the statement said. The statement also made reference to Tamileelam Child Protection Act 2006 (Act No. 03 of 2006), which was enacted in October by the Tamileelam legislatature, making education compulsory upto grade 11. The Act has outlawed recruitment of under-17s and participation in combat of under-18s.
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Indian Prime Minister receives TNA leaders

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2006, 07:48 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh Friday received five Tamil National Alliance leaders R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathiraja, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Selvam Adaikalanthan and Suresh Premachandran at his office in New Delhi. TNA MPs told media that the meeting was very cordial and that they had brought focus to the humanitarian crisis in Vaharai and Jaffna where food is used as tool of war by Colombo. Dr. Manmohan Singh emphasized that he had conveyed to Colombo that there could be no military solution to resolve the Tamil national problem and that it should address the political aspirations of the Tamil people through a negotiated settlement.
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Solheim extols Balasingham's integrity

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2006, 02:07 GMT]
"I met so many other people in the Peace Process in Sri Lanka, of all communities. But I have to say that Bala is one of the very very few people who never lied to me in this peace process," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian International Development Minister, addressing the large crowd assembled in Alexandra Palace UK to pay respect to late Anton Balasingham, advisor and theoretician for the Liberation Tigers, Wednesday.
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Karunanidhi praised for message on Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 18:31 GMT]
S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of Liberation Tigers Political Division, in his concluding telecast address to expatriate Tamils in Alexandria Hall in London Wednesday to pay last respects to theoretician and political advisor of the LTTE Mr. Anton Balasingham, thanked Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, for the comfort he gave to Tamils worldwide by being the first voice to deliver condolence message from Tamil Nadu, and to Ms Adele Balasingham for her three decade long service to welfare of Tamil women and for her motivating support to her husband's service as the "Voice of Tamil Nation."
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Jaffna peninsula mourns for Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 17:17 GMT]
Tamils in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupied Jaffna peninsula observed Wednesday as a day of mourning for the demise of Anton Balasingham, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) theoretician and chief negotiator who passed away last Thursday in London. Most of the shops, private and public establishments remained closed for the whole day while the roads were empty with the residents keeping indoors. Quiet events paying homage to late Anton Balasingham were held in higher educational institutions, University of Jaffna and Technical College.
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Besieged Vaharai continues to starve

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 14:18 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians in the Sri Lanka military besieged territory Vaharai are again forced to survive without humanitarian supplies. Children are again forced search for fruits and catch fish and crabs on their own to eat as main meal. Parents continue to suffer from psychological trauma witnessing the plight of their children.
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Vanni pays homage to 'Voice of the Nation' Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 11:05 GMT]
"Anton Balasingham bore the cross for the liberation of Eelam Tamils," said Puthuvai Iratnathurai, the Poet and the head of the Cultural Organisation of Tamileelam, addressing the mourners at Kilinochchi where LTTE Commander Col. Theepan hoisted the Tamileelam flag at half mast. "Bala Annai, when he visited Vanni last, told me that he wished to breathe his last in an Independent homeland," Puthuvai told the gathering. "We will support our Nation's leader, paving the way for the freedom of our nation, fulfilling Bala Annai's wish."
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Thousands throng Balasingham’s funeral held in London

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 10:16 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils in London have been paying their respects to Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s theoretician and chief negotiator who passed away last Thursday. Thousands of people are filing past Mr. Balasingham’s body which is lying in state at Alexandra Palace in north London. In parallel, a funeral service is being held in Vanni, with footage from each location being broadcast to the other.
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SLA trooper seriously injured in claymore attack in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 10:04 GMT]
Unidentified persons triggered a claymore device Wednesday around 12:10 p.m, concealed in a rubble heap along the A9 route at Thandikulam in Vavuniya, seriously injuring a Sri Lanka Army (SLA)trooper who was first rushed to Vavuniya hospital and later transferred to Anuradapura hospital for further treatment, Vavuniya police said.


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Humanitarian situation worsens in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 13:30 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians continue to stay in temporary refugee camps at schools and surrounding houses in villages Kathiraveli, Vammivedduvan and Palchenai in Vaharai region amid acute shortage of food and humanitarian supplies, a local NGO official told TamilNet. Many families from Vaharai were forced to leave behind their grandparents who were unable to walk long distances.
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Melbourne Tamils pay homage to Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 12:19 GMT]
Over 700 Melbourne Tamils and community leaders gathered in Mt Waverley Sunday to remember the life of the late Anton Balasingham, theoretician and chief negotiator of the LTTE, who passed away last Thursday. Mrs. Betty Wilby, mother of Mrs. Adele Balasingham, inaugurated the meeting by lighting a candle.
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TNA urges GoSL, employers to respect Up-Country Tamils' contribution

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 December 2006, 15:23 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the employers of the plantation sector, must act responsibly to address the plight of the plantation sector workers, the majority of whom, economically and socially the most marginalised Tamils of Indian origin, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Monday, expressing solidarity with the plantation workers in the up-country. "It cannot be denied that these plantation workers, through their sweat and toil, have continuously made a steadfast contribution to the country's economy."
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Jaffna security arrangements add to Islets residents woes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 December 2006, 16:48 GMT]
Recent relocation of Jaffna bus terminal to Pannai by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and overflow of traffic along outer peripheral roads due to reconfiguration of traffic flow including prohibition of parking, have created additional burdens to families from the islets entering and leaving Jaffna town, civil society leaders said. Restrictions of intra-islet travel, and of transport in interior land routes have added further hardships for the people in these areas.
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