TRO assists flood victims in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2004, 03:17 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) has been distributing relief packages to flood victims in the Trincomalee district since Thursday. TRO Trincomalee district secretariat workers Thursday and Friday supplied relief packages to all victims irrespective of any differences in the north of the district. Each package contains relief material including dry ration worth about five hundred rupees, sources said.
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Veteran writer, poet Reggie Siriwardene dies

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2004, 05:44 GMT]
Mr.Reggie Siriwardene, well-known journalist, social analyst, poet and playwright and who fought for the protection of Human Rights passed away peacefully at the age of 82 in Colombo Wednesday. His funeral was held Thursday evening at Kanatte cemetery amid large gathering of all walks of life. Several leading journalists and educationists condoled his demise as an irreparable loss. He has authored a well-documented analysis that describes the damage done to ethnic relations by government produced school textbooks in Sri Lanka
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HRCSL lacks teeth, says Human Rights activist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 03:18 GMT]
"Lawmakers of the country should give teeth to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to implement its determination on violation of human rights. Presently the HRCSL is only empowered to submit its recommendation on human right violation complaints. That's why the violation of human rights are on the increase", said Mr.K.Sivapalan, leading human rights activist and Attorney-at-Law when addressing the Universal Human Rights day event in Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall Sunday.
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Sokkan demise irreparable loss to Tamil nation - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2004, 22:57 GMT]
The Political wing of the LTTE in its condolence message Saturday said that it honourd Vidwan Sokkan by declaring him Patriot (Natup Patralar). He worked hard in his old age too to mould a new generation that should dedicate for the development of Tamil language and literature, the condolence message added.
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Human rights of Tamils denied in "No war, No peace situation" - JDCHA

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2004, 14:38 GMT]
The Jaffna District Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (JDCHA) Friday accused the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) that it has failed to address the needs of aggrieved persons in the NorthEast. JDCHA reminded that the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is a signatory to the UN optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The need of the hour is a pragmatic approach by the HRCSL to arrest the deteriorating law and order, it noted.
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Colombo continues to violate Tamils’ rights- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2004, 13:09 GMT]
“We have established a system of government that upholds and protects the fundamental rights of our people in regions under our control in the northeast. Our judiciary and Police are committed a society based on the Rule of Law in which our people can enjoy their freedoms and pursue their interests with self respect. But in areas held by the Sri Lankan government its armed forces continue to violate the rights of the Tamil people," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers addressing a meeting to mark International Human Rights Day in Kilinochchi Friday.
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Give urgent priority to ISGA, IFT tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2004, 11:23 GMT]
Noting that the the proposal to resume Talks based on ISGA was accepted by the previous Government of Sri Lanka at the end of six rounds of talks and much deliberations between parties, the International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a consortium of expatriate Tamil organizations based in Geneva, in a press statement issued Friday warned that the present government’s suggestions to include ISGA proposals "as part of the final conclusion of the broad-based Talks" may provide for "misleading, prevaricating and ultimately sabotaging the Tamil people’s struggle for equality and justice."
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Two nations theory is not new to Sri Lanka-TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2004, 14:08 GMT]
"Theory of two nations is not a new idea to Sri Lanka," said Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Saturday participating in the committee stage debate on the votes for Labour Relations and Foreign Employment in Parliament. He reminded the prophetic speech made by a Sinhala leader Dr.Colvin R.De Silva of Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) forty-eight years ago during the debate on the Sinhala only bill that "Do you want one nation with two languages or two nations with one language?" parliamentary sources said.
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Sri Lanka names 11 new envoys

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2004, 16:53 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) Saturday announced the names of eleven diplomats who are to be posted to various countries as Sri Lanka's envoys. Two Tamils and three Muslims are among those named, foreign ministry sources said.
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Stick courageously to your Policies, Cine Director tells Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2004, 14:56 GMT]
"Tamils of Eelam must achieve success by continuing to pursue their policies courageously as they have been doing for the past 30 years...The Eelam Tamils must stand firm and attain their final goal," said Bharathiraja (63), the veteran Tamil Director from Tamil Nadu in South India, in an interview to a popular Tamil daily in Jaffna Friday.
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Seminar on Dental Care held in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2004, 14:03 GMT]
A symposium on the state of Dental Care of the northeast was held Saturday at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) conference hall in Kilinochchi, sources from Vanni said. The symposium was organized by the Centre for Health Care based in Kilinochchi in collaboration with the Norwigion Tamils Health Organization.
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Tamils won’t go against India’s strategic interests - MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2004, 14:17 GMT]
‘The desire to draw limits on the Tamils’ right to self-determination makes the Sri Lankan State align itself with any power that is willing to play along, even to the extent of blatantly seeking the interference of super-powers that would compromise, and put in jeopardy, the strategic interests of India’, said Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna, speaking on the committee stage debate on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Parliament Friday. The Tamil people won't allow themselves to be used to upset the strategic balance of South Asia, the MP said.
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GoSL must start talks based on ISGA- Jaffna NGOs

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2004, 04:22 GMT]
"If peace and goodwill are to prevail, the Government of Sri Lanka should come forward to discuss without delay the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals put forward by the LTTE. The proposals represent the collective will of all NorthEast Tamils," said Rev. Father Jeyakumar on behalf of the consortium of NGOs at a meeting held Monday in Nallur, Jaffna. Academics from the South who were on a fact finding mission to Jaffna also participated in the meeting.
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Minority Rights Conference focusses on Upcountry Tamil issues

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2004, 00:43 GMT]
"Upcountry Tamils are a severely disadvantaged minority group in Sri Lanka. Tamils have suffered discrimination from pre-independence time through 20 years of war. The Asian regional minority groups and other minority groups worldwide must join hands to win the rights of all affected people in Sri Lanka," said Mr P Sivapragasam, president of the Human Development Organization, addressing an International Conference on "Asian Minorities and their Development" organized by the Committee on Minorities of the UN held at the Hilltop Hotel in Kandy between 21st and 29th November, sources said.
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"Impending disaster is SL President's own making"- Jaffna daily

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2004, 12:50 GMT]
''Sri Lanka's President Ms Kumaratunge has brought to the forefront of political influence ultra Sinhala Buddhist elements with the idea of seizing political power at no less a time when the onus of compulsive responsibility of finding solution to the ethnic problem stood cast on the government of Sri Lanka. It is Ms Kumaratunge who will have to singly take the blame if the present peace efforts fail owing to the hysteria unleashed by the chauvinistic forces whom she had elevated to the high plain of political influence,'' said popular Jaffna daily Uthayan in its Thursday editorial.
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Srimani Athulathmudali dies

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2004, 14:16 GMT]
Former Minister of Transport, environment and Women Affairs and wife of late Lalith Athulathmudali died after a brief illnesss in Colombo, media reports in Colombo said.
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Police re-imposes curfew in Trincomalee town

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2004, 15:50 GMT]
Although there were no violent incidents, the Police Tuesday re-imposed curfew in Trincomalee and Uppuveli police divisions from 5 p.m. till 6 a.m. Wednesday as a preventive measure, police sources said.
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'State your stand', Tamil MP tells President, JVP, UNP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2004, 13:02 GMT]
''Members of the ruling party and media in the South are treating the LTTE leader's speech lightly. He says little but has achieved much. He does what he says. Hence accept his call and resume the peace talks. State your stand on the Tamil question unequivocally. If you do, then we can decide the path we have to take,'' said Mr.Selvarajah Gajendran, Tamil National Alliance MP for Jaffna speaking on the Sri Lankan government budget in Parliament Tuesday.
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President cannot prolong No war, No peace situation - Jaffna Daily

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2004, 10:03 GMT]
''The Sri Lankan President should take urgent and constructive steps if the cease fire agreement is to survive'', said the Jaffna Tamil daily Uthyan in its editorial Monday, commenting on Colombo's stand on the peace process in the aftermath of Great Heroes' Day speech of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan. The paper referred to recent statements from the Government prior to the LTTE leader's urgent appeal on Saturday that peace talks should be resumed.
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Southern consensus, a prerequisite to resume talks- Thinakural

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2004, 09:31 GMT]
"Is the Sri Lanka Government, which tells the world that LTTE is unwilling to talk about permanent solution, prepared to talk to the Tigers with clarity of purpose and in one voice? If not, is the government at least prepared to acknowledge that its call for talk on permanent solution is not genuine?" questioned the editorial of the popular Tamil daily Thinakural referring to the annual speech of the LTTE leader.
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