Bishop praises TRO, Tamil expatriate relief efforts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 13:37 GMT]
Bishop Joseph Kingsley Swampillai, bishop of Batticaloa-Amparai district, expressed his appreciation for the relief efforts carried out by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and the support given by the Tamil diaspora in meeting the immediate and urgent needs of the victims of disaster, in an interview with TamilNet Sunday.
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Center for Healthcare (CHC) calls for Coordination of Medical Teams

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 09:19 GMT]
Center for Healthcare (CHC) a nationally registered and Kilinochchi based NGO in Sri Lanka has called for all visiting medical teams to coordinate their services to maximize their efficiency in regions of need. A visiting Australian Medical Team has successfully established a model for screening all patients in specific camps with individual healthcare cards issued to each patient / family so that all medical interventions are documented. The organisation is keen to continue to extend this model to all remaining camps in the region, CHC sources said.
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Kofi Annan consoles Trinco Tamil, Muslim Tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:37 GMT]
Mr.Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations Saturday evening paid a thirty-minute visit to Trincomalee. He consoled Tsunami affected Tamil refugees at Alankerni Tamil School and Muslim victims sheltered in Kinniya Central College. UN officials cancelled the inspection of the Tsunami destroyed Kinniya government hospital site at last minute.
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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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Catastrophes of the past: poetic exaggeration or scientific facts?

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 20:19 GMT]
“To the ancient Tamil world natural calamities like the tsunami that hit the east coast on 26 December 2004 is not unknown,” says professor A.Shanmugathas, head of the department of Tamil, Jaffna University. The Sangam Literature, which is more than 2000 years old, makes reference to similar natural catastrophes (perooly) that have affected the Tamil speaking world - spreading from Cape Comarin in the South to the Vindian ranges in the North. "The history records it that tidal destruction (Kadatkol) has occurred from time to time and these facts are established by the archeological excavations. They are not imaginary accounts," he adds. This is supported by modern scientific theories.
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Expatriate Tamils urge Kofi Annan to visit Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 12:16 GMT]
International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a consortium of expatriate Tamil organizations based in Geneva Switzerland has appealed to the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to include in his itinerary a visit to the tsunami ravaged region of Mullaithivu in NorthEast of Sri Lanka, in a letter sent to the UN offices through the UNDP office in Colombo.
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Security Forces continue to obstruct NorthEast relief effort- TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 20:42 GMT]
"The Government of Sri Lanka has permitted Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) to engage in rehabilitation and reconstruction work in LTTE controlled as well as military controlled areas of the northeast. But the Special Task Force (STF) is acting as an obstacle to our mission. In Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Thirukovil, the STF personnel grabbed relief supplies from us and diverted them to other refugee camps of their choice," said Mr. K P Reggie, Executive Director of TRO, at the press conference in Colombo on Wednesday evening.
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TNA decries SLA's taking over of NorthEast Welfare camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 16:09 GMT]
"The Armed Forces taking over the management of the Welfare Camps in the Northeast would be counterproductive and would destabilize all arrangements hitherto made at the district level in the Northeast to address the several consequences of the calamity," said Mr. Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian in a letter addressed to the Sri Lanka President requesting her to rescind the order given to the Armed Forces to take over the management of the Welfare Camps in the Northeast.


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Sri Lanka Armed Forces take over refuges, harass TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 07:30 GMT]
In a sudden move, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces are manning the refugee camps in Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee since Tuesday. The Special Task Force (STF) in Thirukovil, Amparai have hijacked two tractors of TRO relief supplies and distributed them after removing the TRO labels. "The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Special Task Force (STF) have stepped up their harassment of workers of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO)", Mr.K.P.Reggie, Executive Director of the TRO, told TamilNet on Wednesday. The TRO has called for an urgent Press Conference today at 6pm at its Colombo office.
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Rebuilding bridges, roads key to swift recovery- Gajendran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2005, 05:15 GMT]
Speaking to TamilNet after visiting Batticaloa and Ampara Districts, Tamil National Alliance, Jaffna District MP Mr.Selvarajah Gajendran said: "LTTE has the capability to build bridges and lay roads. I request the international community to provide them with equipment and materials through NGOs so that recovery can be swift."
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PDS gears for phase two & three of tsunami relief in Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 January 2005, 16:45 GMT]
"The LTTE with its quick deployment ability and the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) with generous assistance from the Tamil Diaspora and the international NGOs, are tackling the immediate Tsunami relief needs, the first phase of the relief efforts. The Liberation Tigers are calling for international assistance to meet phase two and three of the relief effort", LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan told TamilNet following a conference with Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr Hans Brattskar, in Killinochchi where they discussed the proper channeling of aid to northeast for phase two and three of Tsunami relief as being planned by PDS.
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Urgent need for heavy machinery in Jaffna- Ilamparithy

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2005, 11:24 GMT]
Jaffna District Leader of LTTE Political Wing, S Ilamparithy, talking to TamilNet correspondent in Jaffna said that assistance from Sri Lanka Government in supplying heavy machinery required for removal of debris and to reconstruct badly damaged rural and coastal roads have not reached areas of devastation in Jaffna. This has impeded relief supplies reaching many coastal communities and has stalled speedy recovery from the tsunami disaster, he added.
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LTTE stepping up relief ops in Batticaloa-Amparai - Col. Bhanu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2005, 07:36 GMT]
“Our leader has instructed me to involve all our fighters, medical corps, vehicles, engineering units and other resources in relief and rescue operations in the Batticaloa- Amparai district. He has sent a large number of troops from the north with supplies for this work. The Malathy Infantry Regiment has also arrived along with head of our women’s wing, Ms. Thamilini, and deputy head of political division for Jaffna, Mr. Semmanan, to help Tsunami affected people in this region and alleviate their suffering”, said Col. Bhanu, a senior military officer of the Liberation Tigers who is the overall commander for Batticaloa-Amparai District, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet.
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Teams of expatriate Tamil doctors to arrive in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 16:29 GMT]
Fifteen doctors, including reputed practising surgeons, arrived from London tonight to serve in the tsunami hit Mullaitivu, the worst affected district in the Sunday disaster, said a Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) spokesperson in Colombo. "More doctors are coming. Medical professionals from U.S, Canada, and Europe are also due to arrive to work in the NorthEast areas at planned intervals," the spokesperson added.
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Trinco veteran Muslim parliamentarian dies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 09:41 GMT]
Mr.M.E.H.Mohamed Ali, veteran Muslim politician and a former parliamentarian of the Trincomalee district passed away Friday night at his residence in the east port town peacefully at the age of 77. His funeral was held Saturday morning around 11 a.m. in the Muslim cemetery in the midst of leading citizens, government officials, civil leaders and friends of all communities, family sources said.
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Tsunami victims of Vakarai division suffer without basic facilities

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 00:08 GMT]
Tsunami victims in several villages in the Vakarai divisional secretariat division in the Batticaloa district, now being cut off with their mainland as the Panichchankery Bridge collapsed in Sunday's calamity, suffer without adequate food supply and other essential items such as dry ration, kitchen utensils, milk food, feeding bottles and good drinking water, civil sources said.
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Relief supply to Muslim, Tamil villages in Muttur sabotaged?

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 19:00 GMT]
The relief supply to Tsunami victims in the government controlled Muttur division where majority are Muslims and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam held Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division where majority are Tamils in the down south of Trincomalee district has come to a grinding halt since Friday evening as the only land route Kantalai- Allai road is flooded with spill water of Kantalai tank when the irrigation authorities suddenly opened the spill gates without any prior notice, civil sources said.
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Muslims on Tsunami hit southeast coast suffer heavily

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 15:42 GMT]
Muslims who live in densely populated villages along the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka suffered heavy casualties in Sunday’s Tsunami, with at least ten thousand killed. Rescue and relief efforts in Muslim towns and villages on the southeastern coast are hampered by lack of coordination and heavy rains. Seventy two Muslim schools were completely washed off and eighty five mosques were severely damaged, Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mr. Hassan Ali told TamilNet Thursday.


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‘Tamils in northeast are also human beings’- LTTE commander

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 01:25 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government should not look at this as a Sinhala or Tamil issue. It should see it as a human tragedy and help. We should now ensure that the people rescued from the Tsunami devastation are protected from diseases rather than let the enormity of the tragedy make us inactive. The government of Sri Lanka should consider our people also as human beings," said Col. Soosai, Commander of the Sea Tigers who is directing rescue and relief operations on the southern coast of Jaffna and in Mullaithivu, said in an interview to a London Tamil Television, Deepam TV, Wednesday.
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Cut red tape to deliver urgent aid- LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 18:28 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday said that red tape should not impede or delay delivery of urgent international aid to the Tsunami hit areas of the northeast. Addressing representatives of international aid agencies and donor community in Kilinochchi Thursday, Mr. Thamilchelvan emphasised that the international community has a "moral responsibility" to ensure that humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka is "equitably distributed to the North-East". LTTE's Political Head stated clearly that the immediate relief measures would be best undertaken by the Task Force mechanism already set up at district level by the LTTE in coordination with the Government Agents of the affected districts.
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