Talks prospects bleak, until SL military backed violence ends- Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 22:53 GMT]
"Unless the [Sri Lanka] government takes effective measures to end this series of violence perpetrated on the LTTE, it is hard to imagine how one can seriously talk about recommencing peace talks," Balasingham, theoretician and advisor to the Liberation Tigers, told Norwegian Special envoy Erik Solheim when they held discussions Tuesday in London, LTTE peace secretariat website said.
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Workshop on IDPs' human rights held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 15:02 GMT]
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Wednesday held a one-day workshop under the Human Rights for Displaced People Project in Jaffna."UNICEF has focused its attention on children who have been deprived of their education due to war," said Ms Judith Bruno, UNICEF Jaffna Office Head addressing the workshop held at Jaffna Y.M.C.A Auditorium.
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AI lauds UN Human Rights Committee ruling on missing Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 14:27 GMT]
Amnesty International welcomed the recent ruling by the UN Human Rights Committee in the first case from Sri Lanka submitted under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) concerning the “disappearance” of Thevarajah Sarma in favour of the relatives of the victim. The UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that the Government of Sri Lanka is responsible for the “disappearance” and is under an obligation to provide Thevarajah Sarma’s family with an effective remedy.
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TNA's Southern campaign critical to peace- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 09:29 GMT]
"The failure of the Tamil leadership during the last half a century to join forces with the progressive forces in the South has been one of the reasons why earlier attempts at a solution were not successful," said an editorial in Thinakkural, welcoming the formation of awareness and advocacy committees by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to conduct a campaign in the South of Sri Lanka on the importance of ISGA, and the aspirations of Tamils.
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Wickremanayake rhetoric harmful- NLF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 06:40 GMT]
''Acting Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake's warning to the Liberation Tigers not to push the Government to war and accusing the LTTE of continuing with killings and attacks on anti-LTTE elements in the East and in Colombo in violation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in place, is not conducive to promoting a climate of peace,'' Mr Thirunavukkarasu, politburo member of the New Left Front (NLF), told TamilNet Tuesday
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Thenmaradchchi IDPs demand army withdrawal from their houses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 14:32 GMT]
The Consortium of Thenmaradchchi Civil Organizations in Jaffna district Tuesday handed over a memorandum to the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) with copies to Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the Jaffna head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that it would launch a mass agitation bringing the civil administration and public transport system in Thenmaradchchi division to a halt if the houses and lands of internally displaced people (IDP) are not returned by the Sri Lanka Army.
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SLA, LTTE to meet again in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 13:34 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa said Tuesday they will meet Sri Lankan armed forces again after a long gap on Friday 3 September. The decision was announced following a discussion between Col. Ramesh, special commander of LTTE forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai District and Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde, head of the Nordic monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, Tuesday in Kokkaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa.
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Special education project for resettled students in Trinco inaugurated

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2004, 17:57 GMT]
Trincomalee Children Fund (TCF), supported by Trincomalee Tamil expatriates in Canada, last weekend inaugurated a free education project for resettled students in the villages of Sampalthivu, Salli and Aththimoddai, north of Trincomalee town. This project would provide special classes to students of Salli Ambal Vidiyalayam, Aththimoddai Tamil Vidyalaym and Sampalthivu Tamil Maha Vidyalayam in three subjects Maths, English Language and Science by specialized teachers in the subjects.
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TNA to promote ISGA awareness and advocacy

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 August 2004, 14:27 GMT]
"We have created three different action groups for the tasks of promoting awareness in the Parliament, awareness in the South and advocacy in the diplomatic circles," Mr. R. Sampanthan, Secretary General of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told the press in Kilinochchi Monday. LTTE Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan and Mr. Sampanthan met press briefly after TNA's meeting with the LTTE's Political Head at the Planning Secretariat of the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochchi.
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TNA parliamentarians to meet Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2004, 18:01 GMT]
All twenty-two parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are scheduled to hold talks with Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Monday morning at the headquarters of the LTTE, Vanni sources said.


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"We will remain strong" - Balakumaran in Oslo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 August 2004, 03:01 GMT]
"LTTE has been successfully resisting attempts to weaken its military and political strength during the peace time with the same courage and bravery it displayed during the time of war. Tamils seek a just peace and not a peace with surrender. LTTE leadership will not relent until political and social dignity is restored to the lives of Tamil people," said Mr.V.Balakumaran, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in his address as Chief Guest in the Silver Jubilee of the Tamil Sangam in Oslo Saturday .


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Jaffna Bishop urges govt. to recommence talks with LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2004, 17:52 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop Rt.Rev. Thomas Soundaranayagam Saturday appealed to the Sri Lanka government to engage in confidence building with the LTTE without delay and to take forward the peace process with sincerity on the basis of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal submitted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA detains TNA MP at Omanthai checkpoint

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 August 2004, 13:23 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning the Omanthai checkpoint in the Vanni region Friday detained Mr.M.K.Eelaventhan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) national list parliamentarian, and his family members for more than one and a half hours under the pretense of checking his family members' identities, sources said.
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LTTE women take part in mine ban conference

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 17:13 GMT]
Two senior female members of the Liberation Tigers are taking part in a conference organised by Geneva Call for former women combatants of Non State Actors to identify how they can contribute to the promotion of the landmine ban and other humanitarian norms. The conference began in Geneva Thursday.
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Sri Lanka recommissions disputed Ilmenite factory

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 14:26 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka will re-commission the disputed Pulmoddai Ilmenite factory next Wednesday 1 September, officials said. The factory was closed sixteen years ago after the Liberation Tigers blasted its fresh water supply lines from the Yan Oya River. The factory processed sand excavated from the beaches of Pulmoddai, 52 kilometres north of Trincomalee, to separate Ilmenite and Rutile ores for export. Sea Tigers sank two foreign ships that were loading Ilmenite sand off the Pulmoddai coast in 1996 and 1997.


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Norway denies it gave military training to Tigers

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 14:04 GMT]
The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo Friday denied media reports that Norway had allegedly provided military training to the Liberation Tigers. Local media reports were based on allegations about Norway's role in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict that were made at a conference organised by Sinhala nationalists in Oslo last week.
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ISGA will prevent secession- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 13:49 GMT]
In a meeting with Forum of Federations, Canada, the LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan Friday told that institutionalising ISGA will ''prevent secession and pave the way for unity and lasting peace,'' according to sources at the LTTE Peace secretariat.
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Suspected paramilitary cadre remanded in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 August 2004, 12:37 GMT]
Batticaloa magistrate Friday remanded Mr. Subramaniam Yoganathan, believed to be a paramilitary cadre operating with the Sri Lanka army intelligence, for loitering in a suburb of the eastern town with a hand grenade. A Police patrol arrested Mr. Yoganathan Thursday evening in Puthur, a high security zone suburb of Batticaloa. He is the brother of ‘Nithi’, an LTTE defector who became a senior military intelligence operative in the east, according to Police. ‘Nithi’ was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Batticaloa town three years ago.


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SLA imposes restrictions on deepening fisheries jetties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2004, 08:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has imposed new restriction on fisheries societies in the Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district on deepening about 21 fisheries jetties, said Valvettithurai (VVT) Fisheries Co-operative Society. The SLA said that it would deploy a group of 15 SLA soldiers to each fisheries jetty area to supervise the deepening work for security reasons, sources said.
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Sri Lanka's PM visits military frontline

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 August 2004, 16:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha Tuesday visited the military frontlines of Weli Oya. He inspected defences on the Forward Defence Lines that separate areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in this disputed region in the southern corner of the Mullaithivu district. Prime Minister Rajapaksha spoke to Sri Lanka army officers and the Sinhala settlers in Weli Oya during his visit. SLA drove out Tamils from fourteen villages in this region overnight in 1984. GOSL then armed and settled Sinhala convicts here amidst SLA camps.
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