Profiles of TRO abductees released

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2006, 18:54 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Friday, released the family background and employment details of the seven employees abducted during the week of January 30, allegedly by paramilitaries, and still being held in captivity.
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Ashraff wants Muslims to pray for Geneva talks success

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2006, 18:33 GMT]
Ms Ferial Ashraff, leader of the National Unity Alliance and the Minister for Housing Friday appealed to Muslim to pray for the success of peace talks scheduled to be held in Geneva on February 22 and 23. She declared open of an office of the NUA Friday in Amparai. She is also the Amparai district parliamentarian, sources said.
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Local elections will highlight Upcountry Tamils' unity- Chandrasekaran

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 February 2006, 01:40 GMT]
"In the forthcoming local elections, Hillcountry Tamils should unite to initiate a joint action program to increase their representation, and create the foundation for strengthening the political power and unity of Sri Lanka's Tamil people." said Thamilchelvan, leader of LTTE political wing, during the discussions he had with the Leader of Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF), Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi Wednesday morning, a media release from the UPF said.
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Swedish Ambassador meets Jaffna NGOs, GA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 February 2006, 18:57 GMT]
Mrs. Inga Eriksson Fogh, Swedish Ambassador to Sri Lanka, arrived in Jaffna Palaly airport Wednesday morning, sources in Jaffna said. The Ambassador spent the whole day Wednesday meeting civil leaders and representatives of relief organizations in Jaffna. [The Ambassador of Switzerland to Sri Lanka, Bernardino Regazzoni, did not travel to Jaffna. TamilNet regrets the error in the initial report.]
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Colombo lacks will to resolve Tamil National question, says Banu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 February 2006, 11:49 GMT]
"Disarming the paramilitaries, their expulsion and the creation of normalcy in people's daily life are the essential prerequisites for the continuation of peace talks. But Sri Lanka is unlikely to agree," said Colonel Banu, Batticaloa district military commander of Liberation Tigers, in the first memorial anniversary held in remembrance of Kowsalyan on Tuesday in Kowsalyan Education Centre at Ampilan in the Paduvankarai region of the Baticaloa district. Tamil National Alliance M.P for Batticaloa, S. Jeyanandamoorthy also participated and spoke at the event.
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Parents of abducted TRO staffers on protest journey to Welikanda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 February 2006, 08:10 GMT]
Parents of five of the seven abducted humanitarian staffers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), on Wednesday, set off on a journey through Welikanda area in search of their sons and a daughter, relatives of the kidnapped humanitarian staffers in Batticaloa said. The families have decided to camp at a Hindu Temple in the Welikanda area until their family members are released, the sources added.


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Book on Baratha Natyam released in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 February 2006, 16:44 GMT]
A research book on Baratha Natyam written by Miss Pavithra Edwin Christie of Mannar was released at an event held in Mannar Town Hall Monday evening. The author is a Fine Arts graduate passed out from Trichy Arts College in South India. Mr.Vithianantharasa, Principal of Mannar Siththivinayagar Hindu College presided.
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Colombo's bona fides on creating normalcy ahead of talks, questionable - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 February 2006, 13:25 GMT]
Uthayan, the Jaffna based daily, in its Monday editorial warned of the potentially dangerous consequences of the attitude being displayed by the Sri Lankan Government insisting on its innocense and not taking urgent action to secure the release of the seven humanitarian workers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in the east. Referring to the "strict adherence" by the Tamil side in living up to its pledge on the cessation of hostilities the last two weeks, since the meeting between Norwegian Peace Envoy and the LTTE leader commenced on January 25, the paper questioned whether Colombo has demonstrated its will to create a conducive environment in the run-up to the truce talks.
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Norwegian NGO condemns abduction of aid workers

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 February 2006, 11:12 GMT]
FORUT, a Norwegian non-Governmental Organizaton that works in Sri Lanka, said in a press release issued 2 February that it "condemned strongly the abduction of 10 workers from TRO in eastern Sri Lanka," and urged the "Government of Sri Lanka to give highest priority to the investigation of these abductions."
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Protest against kidnappings shuts down Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 February 2006, 09:12 GMT]
Entire Batticaloa district, on Monday, observed a shut down protest against the abductions of the seven humanitarian staffers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO). The protest, called by the employees of local and foreign NGOs, who abstained from work, also drew support from private businesses and public services. Shops and banks remained closed. Public offices and schools wore a deserted look. The fate of seven TRO staffers, who were abducted while travelling on the A11 Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa road, the Main Supply Route (MSR) of the Sri Lanka Army one week ago, is not yet known.
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Halo Trust employee missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 14:43 GMT]
An employee of Halo Trust, an NGO engaged in mine clearing operations in Jaffna, is reported missing from Saturday night, sources from Jaffna said. Gunaratnam Logithas, 23, from Kaithady in Jaffna district, was travellling to Chavakachcheri from his home in his motorbike when he was reported disappeared.
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Karunanidhi to apprise Delhi on Sri Lanka Tamil issues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 06:31 GMT]
Leader of Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF), Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, said in a letter dated 1 February to Dr. Kalaignar M. Karunanithi, President of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhaham of Tamil Nadu, for his early attention to meet India's Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Ghandi and to release a statement to the media on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) harassment of NorthEast Tamils, UPF media section said.
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Released TRO staffers to register complaint with HRC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 February 2006, 04:59 GMT]
Head of Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), K.P.Regi, told TamilNet Sunday, that his staff are making arrangements to get the three released TRO workers later Sunday to register complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC). "We feel that it is important that released staffers meet with an impartial group such as the Rights Commision, so that facts about the abduction, obtained without any coersion, can be presented to the public and to the International Community," said Mr Regi.
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Rajapakse's Independence address avoids Geneva talks, Norway facilitation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 February 2006, 16:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, in his address at Galle Face on Sri Lanka's 58th Independence Day on Saturday, avoided mentioning Norwegian peace efforts and the critical talks in Geneva on strengthening implementation of Cease Fire Agreement. The Sri Lankan President, who promised "honorable peace" to the people of Northeast at his address, said the independence achieved 58 years ago from the British, was at stake. Meanwhile, districts of NorthEast observed widespread shutdown.
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"Sri Lanka, an Asian Gaza strip"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 February 2006, 15:58 GMT]
Describing Sri Lanka's people as "talented, educated and ready for the globalization experience," and extolling Sri Lanka's virtues as a country that "could mature into a gem like Switzerland or Singapore, that it could offer the rest of the world an exemplary measure of hope," Prof Tom Plate of University of California, Los Angeles, says that two decades of conflict has converted the tourist postcard island into an Asian Gaza strip and that "things are getting worse. Its new, recently elected President, Mahinda Rajapakse, is demonstrating astonishing ineptitude," in an article that appeared on a UCLA Asia Media news journal, 3rd February.
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TRO abductions, GoSL response may stall Geneva talks - TNA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 February 2006, 14:10 GMT]
"We are concerned that the continued deterioration of ground situation in the NorthEast and the abduction of TRO staff members by paramilitaries can potentially prevent Liberation Tigers' participation in Geneva talks," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians after a meeting with Head of the LTTE Political Wing, S.P Thamilchelvan at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi at 11 a.m. Saturday. "Colombo has openly attempted to discredit the LTTE by making misleading statements to the International Community on the recent abductions of TRO staff by the paramilitary cadres," they added. The meeting lasted for more than three hours sources in Kilinochchi said.
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Action, not words is needed - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 20:43 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s tardy response to the kidnapping of ten aid workers of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) have raised serious doubts about the prospects of peace talks, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. Arguing that “last week’s optimism [about talks] was premature and, as many Tamils now feel, sorely misplaced,” the expatriate publication said “this incident has demonstrated exactly what the future of negotiations with President Rajapakse and his government is likely to be.”
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Another TRO staffer released

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 13:53 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) Friday said in a press release that one of the abudcted TRO officials, Ms. S. Dosini, has returned to her relatives in Chenkalady. "Word has reached TRO through the Non-Violent Peace Force (NVPF) office in Batticaloa that Ms. S. Dosini, PSEDC Divisional Coordinator Mamunai North Division, has returned to the home of her relatives in Chenkalady, a Government of Sri Lanka controlled area of the Batticaloa District," the press release said. The fate of the remaining seven humanitarian workers is not yet known.
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Released TRO abductees detained at Batticaloa Police Station

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 04:55 GMT]
The two female staff of Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), who were released on Monday by the abductors, are being held at Batticaloa Police station from 2.00 p.m. Thursday, TRO officials in Colombo said. When the two women, against threats to their safety, went to file a police report at the insistence of Government authorities, they were detained at the Batticaloa Police Station overnight against their wishes, and they are to be held at the Police station until officials of Sri Lanka Criminal Investigation Division (CID) arrive from Colombo, said TRO in a press release issued Friday.
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Tamil diaspora consortium welcomes US statement, calls for urgent action

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 February 2006, 13:13 GMT]
The International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a Geneva based consortium of Tamil diaspora organisations, in a renewed SOS call to the International Community on Wednesday, has warned that Colombo's denial of "any knowledge" of the abudctions of the humanitarian workers in the east, increased the risk of danger to the lives of the victims. The organisation has welcomed the statement issued by the US Embassy in Sri Lanka.
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