Canadian Tamils provide education support to Trinco villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2005, 04:32 GMT]
Socio-Economic Development Organization of Trincomalee (SEDOT) with financial help from Trincomalee Welfare Association (TWA) in Canada has embarked on a scheme to assist students and teachers in resettled Tamil villages of Thiriyai, Nochchikulam and Adambodai in the Trincomalee district to uplift the standard of education, civil sources in Trincomalee said. The scheme supports salaries to additional volunteer and pre-school teachers in the three villages.


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Second model village opened in Amparai

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2005, 01:00 GMT]
A second model village in Kavadapaddi, a village located in Aalaiyadivembu Division, Amparai district, containing 51 houses, a preschool, a small health office and amenities for establishing small scale businesses was ceremonially opened Saturday 4.30 pm presided by Director of Amparai district Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO registered with Government of Sri Lanka and working exclusively in the NorthEast, sources said.
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US Church, TRO pay $7,000 taxes to clear water purifiers from Sri Lanka Customs

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2005, 00:10 GMT]
Five water purifiers donated by the Holy Redeemer Church in Baltimore Maryland, USA, to the people of NorthEast and addressed to Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)-Colombo were held by Colombo customs from 27 January due to officials demanding payment of import taxes recently introduced by the Finance Ministry of Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) on relief supplies. TRO sources in Colombo said that the purifiers were finally cleared Saturday after a payment of $7,000 to the Government of Sri Lanka Customs.
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Tamil MPs protest march in Sri Lanka Parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2005, 08:26 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MP marched on the driveway to the Sri Lankan Parliament carrying placards condemning Colombo for failing to avail itself of the cease fire with the Liberation Tigers signed three years ago. “Do not buy weapons with Tsunami aid”, “Disarm the paramilitaries”, “Don’t divide the Muslims and Tamils”, read some of the placards. The march and demo were led by senior Tamil Parliamentarians Mr. R. Sampanthan, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Mr. Mavai Senathirajah and Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan.


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Thambattai showcases model resettlement village

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 20:52 GMT]
A model village in Thambattai in Amparai district, providing temporary accomodation for the families displaced by the tsunami, built by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO registered with Government of Sri Lanka and working exclusively in the NorthEast, was ceremonially opened Monday by the President of consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Mr Manickavasagam, sources in Amparai said.


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CFA has failed to foster trust – Batticaloa VC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 17:41 GMT]
“What has the cease fire agreement achieved if it has not been able to foster enough trust to form a joint body to deliver aid to the Tsunami hit people of the northeast? We can asses the status of the cease fire agreement from the simple fact that the Sri Lankan government is protesting to the UN over a condolence message for Kousalyan. Why should anyone protest over an expression of condolence? This is the situation in which we Tamils find ourselves today even after three years of cease fire”, said Dr. S. Raveendranath, Vice Chancellor designate of the Eastern University speaking at a seminar to mark third year of the cease fire agreement in Batticaloa Tuesday.
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US Tamils call for an end to East violence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 12:00 GMT]
Condemning the recent killing of LTTE's Political Head of Batticaloa-Amparai Mr Kausalyan and others in the East, a group of expatriate Tamil organizations in the US called upon Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga "to suspend immediately the military officers who were in charge of Welikanda and Punnai, where this inhuman act took place...[and to take] swift actions and measures to prevent similar atrocities in the future," in a press release issued Tuesday.
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Arrest further suffering of Tamil people, IFT urges International Community

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 08:03 GMT]
"It is sad observe that even the devastation caused by the Tsunami calamity has failed to draw the sympathy of the Sri Lankan government towards the Tamils", noted the Geneva based International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a consortium of more than 150 expatriate Tamil organizations, in a media statement released on the third anniversary of the Oslo-facilitated Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) and called upon the International Community to recognise the "prevalence of suffering of the Tamil people" and to address immediate measures to prevent "further neglect, deterioration, trauma and suffering under a callous state".
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Civil groups demand action against sex assaults

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2005, 15:16 GMT]
Citizens Committee, Justice and Peace Commission, Peoples Forum and Traders Association of Mannar district Monday appealed to Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to take stern action against errand policemen who are involved in sexual assaults on students and women in Mannar, sources said.


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Tigers meet Muslim leaders in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 February 2005, 14:24 GMT]
“First they divided us. Then they divided you. Sinhala leaders will always deny our rights. Tamil Muslim unity should be the foundation of your liberation struggle”, said Mr. I.M Ibrahim, secretary of the Mosque Federations of Amparai District, addressing senior Liberation Tiger leaders at a meeting between LTTE Muslim community leaders of Batticaloa and Amparai districts Monday in Kokkaddicholai, 15 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa town. “There are still problems, fears and doubts between us. We cannot gloss over them. We should grapple with them and build our unity at the grass roots level”, Mr. Thamilchelvan told the Muslims in his address.
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Thamilchelvan slams Colombo for Kousalyan's slaying

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2005, 14:35 GMT]
"The cowardly act of the Sri Lankan government has taken away Kousalyan and his colleagues from us. Kousalyan came back to Batticaloa with many dreams. He came back with ambitious plans to rebuild this land, devastated by the Tsunami and impoverished by the war imposed by the Sinhala chauvinist state", said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of LTTE's political division on Thursday, speaking at the funeral of Mr. E. Kousalyan, at Thandiyadi Martyr's Memorial in Batticaloa.
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Kousalyan, a symbol of Tamil unity - IFT

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2005, 12:53 GMT]
The Geneva based International Federation of Tamils (IFT) recalling Mr. Kousalyan's address to thousands of Tamils from the Tamil diaspora in front of the United Nations Building last year, said in a press statement issued Thursday that Kausalyan was a symbol of Tamil unity. IFT appealed to International governments and donors to act decisively to prevent escalation of hostilities as it feared that continued "covert operations" will "wane the mutual trust, goodwill and confidence" between the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka. IFT called upon the countries giving Sri Lanka military assistance to desist from doing so and instead to pressure them to seek a peaceful solution.
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Cortege of slain Tigers in Batticaloa, Kiran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2005, 08:44 GMT]
Slain LTTE political leader, Mr. Kousalyan’s body was taken to Kiran, 28 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Wednesday afternoon for the people of the village to pay their last respects to him and his colleagues who were killed by gunmen suspected to working with the Sri Lanka military. Hundreds of people filed past the Tiger flag draped coffins which lay at Kiran Government School. “The Sri Lankan government is fully responsible for this heinous crime. Murdering these men who were working for people affected by the Tsunami is an unpardonable act. It reveals the true face of the racist Sinhala regime”, said Mr. Nadarajah Raviraj, Tamil National Alliance MP, addressing the mourners.
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"Peace for War"- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Pointing out the recent efforts by the Sri Lanka Government to strengthen its military apparatus, and the failure to demonstrate political will and capacity to setup a joint institutional mechanism with the Liberation Tigers to obtain aid to assist the tsunami devastated people, the popular daily Uthayan in Saturday's editiorial said, Sri Lanka's President is making use of Peace to prepare for war.
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Institutional Decay perpetuated ethnic conflict- Don

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2005, 13:36 GMT]
Noting that from 1950s Sri Lanka's politicians resorted to ethnic outbidding to attain power and in doing so systematically marginalised the country's minority Tamils, Dr Neil Devotta from Hartwick College New York, in an article published in Nations and Nationalism, argues that "institutional decay. which was produced by the dialectic between majority rule and ethnic outbidding, was what led to Tamil mobilisation and an ethnic conflict that has killed nearly 70.000 people over the past twenty years."
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Rural electrification given boost with SEDB's credit scheme

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 15:16 GMT]
The Socio Economic Development Bank (SEDB)headquartered in Killinochchi Friday inaugurated a rural electrification project in NorthEast villages by providing Solar Home systems (SHSs) on credit basis to consumers. SEDB's Visuvamadu branch at the inaugural event distributed 15 SHSs to fifteen residents of Udaiyarkattu village. The SEDB is run by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
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Black flags flown in Northeast on Sri Lanka's Independence Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 06:10 GMT]
Black flags were hoisted in many parts of the Sri Lanka's northeast in protest against the country's independence day. Jaffna University students flew black flags and decorated University's main entrance with curry plantain trees which are used by Tamils at funerals. Sri Lanka army soldiers were deployed in the area, as the military beefed up security in many parts of the northern peninsula. Sri Lankan Army and the Police were seen removing black flags in Vavuniya town.
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Washington residents ship relief supplies

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 23:35 GMT]
Braving inclement weather, a group of expatriate Tamils in Washington Metropolitan area sent a 3200 cubic foot container with medicines, tents, toys and clothings to the warehouse at the Norfolk, Virginia shipyard, destined for Tamils Rehabilitation Organization's (TRO's) Colombo office for distribution to disaster victims in Sri Lanka. "What started as a small scale effort soon expanded as families and organizations called in to contribute their donations and to offer their services for free," organizers of the effort told TamilNet.
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Tigers walk out in protest against JVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 10:04 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Monday walked out of a meeting for setting up a committee for assisting Tsunami victims at the Thirukkovil Divisional Secretary’s (DS) office in protest against a JVP Parliamentarian who had come uninvited for the conference. “We welcome everyone who comes to help our people. But this JVP politician used Tsunami assistance as a pretext to sow political hatred and Sinhala chauvinism. We walked out, objecting to his cheap political tactics”, said Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE’s political division for the Batticaloa-Amparai district.
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TRO supplies relief to Trinco railway employees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2005, 19:30 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Sunday afternoon distributed relief materials to the families of about fifty eight-government railway workers comprising all three communities who are working in the Trincomalee railway station. TRO came to the rescue of these families on representation made to it that the government authority concerned in Trincomalee had refused to provide them with relief since Tsunami hit their quarters on December 26, trade union sources said.
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