Tamil-Muslim unity stressed at Kurankupanchchan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 17:31 GMT]
Mr. S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Mr.H.Y.Hithayathulla, and Secretary of the Kinniya Jamiathul Ulama Council (Muslim Theologian Council) Saturday addressing Kurankupanchan Muslim farmers pledged to work for the unity of Tamils and Muslims in the Trincomalee district.
Full story >>

Slain Batticaloa journalist remembered in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 00:12 GMT]
The Listners' Circle of Canadian Tamil Radio based in Toronto Saturday presented three hundred and fifty thousand rupees to the family of slain Batticaloa journalist Mr. Aiyathurai Nadesan at a function held at the Vavuniya Urban Council hall Saturday. Mr. Nadesan, a senior Tamil journalist and the Batticaloa correspondent for the Tamil daily Virakesari and several local and foreign electronic media was shot dead on 31 May by gunmen believed to be associates of renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna'.
Full story >>

"Patience running thin"- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2004, 18:37 GMT]
''Tamil people are fast running out of patience. It has been three years since the ceasefire agreement was signed and our people continue to be denied the fruits of peace,'' Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance MP told TamilNet Thursday.
Full story >>

ISGA critical to prevent secession- MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2004, 10:50 GMT]
"There is increasing evidence that the Sri Lanka Government is unwilling to accept Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) for NorthEast. If this situation is not reversed soon, Tamil people will have no option other than to seek a path of secession, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of Parliament for Jaffna District, M.K.Sivajilingam, during a debate on Regulations on Electricity Board, Wednesday, parliamentary sources said.
Full story >>

Tamils urge UN to recognize rights to form interim government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2004, 10:12 GMT]
International Federation of Tamils (IFT), an organization of expatriate Tamils, urged the United Nations to recognize the Tamil people's rights, under international economic social and cultural covenants, to form an interim administration to improve their living condition in north east of sri lanka, Tamil sources in Geneva said. The memorandum was submitted to the 56th session of UN sub commission on promotion and protection of human rights.
Full story >>

Islamic militants stone pilgrims from Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 2004, 17:42 GMT]
Four pilgrims returning from Kataragama, a shrine venerated by Tamils and Singhalese, were injured when persons suspected to be Islamic militant youth stoned the buses in which they were traveling to Jaffna at Kalmunai, 40 kilometres south of Batticaloa, Tuesday. A general shut down was observed in the Muslim towns of Batticaloa and Amparai districts Tuesday to mark the killing of Muslims in Kattankudy 14 years ago.
Full story >>

Norway says peace hopes at new low

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 18:02 GMT]
Hopes that the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers would soon restart peace talks plunged Wednesday after a top Norwegian envoy said there is “little reason for optimism” and warned of a resumption of the protracted ethnic conflict.
Full story >>

Trinco sanitary workers demonstrate for land rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2004, 15:52 GMT]
Sanitary workers employed by the Trincomalee Urban Council (UC) Wednesday held a five-hour demonstration in front of the UC office demanding that they should be provided with deeds and permits for the lands they are living in for more than half a century. More than five hundred people, men and women including family members of the workers, participated in the protest demonstration, which was organized by the Community Leaders' Consortium (CLC).


Full story >>

Not a principled apology- Elilan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 01:33 GMT]
"We regard Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge's public apology for the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils as a deceptive attempt, driven by political expediency rather than principles, to placate the Tamils," said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) speaking as the chief guest at a public meeting in Trincomalee Sunday evening held at the Welikada Martyrs Memorial Hall in Trincomalee to remember the 21st anniversary of Black July.
Full story >>

Tamil conference slams Indo-Lanka defence pact

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 13:11 GMT]
The World Tamils Confederation came out strongly Sunday against any move for a defence pact between India and Sri Lanka, cautioning that New Delhi was being lured into a "trap to use its army to crush" Tamils in the island.
Full story >>

North East Tamils mourn ‘Black July’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2004, 07:12 GMT]
Tamils in northeast province Sunday observed a day of mourning to mark the pogrom against Tamils by Sinhala extremists assisted by the then Sri Lanka Government twenty one years ago on 23rd July, 1983. Several Tamil and civil group organizations in Jaffna called for people to close down shops and conduct prayers. More than thousand innocent Tamils in the southern part of the country, majority of them in Colombo were killed, many burnt alive or hacked to death, in daylight in the presence of State security forces during the ‘Black July’.
Full story >>

Tamils cannot be divided and ruled -TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2004, 08:31 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan state and military are using armed groups to divide and rule Tamil society in Batticaloa. They did it in the past. My people will never fall prey to the machinations of divisive forces because they have made immense sacrifices for the Tamil cause", said Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa, speaking at a press conference by TNA regarding the current situation in the east.
Full story >>

Tamil MPs slam SLA, paramilitaries for threats to media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2004, 14:14 GMT]
“Journalist Nadesan was murdered because the Sri Lankan government did not disarm paramilitary groups working with the military as it agreed to do under the cease-fire agreement. A paramilitary group in Batticaloa killed Nadesan and is threatening other independent journalists with death. This group cannot roam Batticaloa with weapons and intimidate and murder journalists without the military’s permission”, said Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa speaking Tuesday during a debate in the Sri Lankan Parliament on the state of the media in the island.
Full story >>

World Bank team holds workshop in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2004, 10:50 GMT]
World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka, Mr. Peter Harrold, and a team of World Bank officials held a workshop on humanitarian delivery at the Planning and Development Secretariat in Kilinochchi Monday, LTTE's peace secretariat website said. Head of LTTE Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan also separately met with Mr.Harrold, the report added.
Full story >>

Government bent on creating war-phobia - Elilan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 17:53 GMT]
''Statements made by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and chauvinist political parties on the question of finding a political solution to the Tamil national question are aimed to create disharmony among communities and to unleash violence in Sri Lanka,'' said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) addressing a meeting held at Eachchilampathu Sri Shenabaga Maha Vidiyalayam in the Muttur east division Tuesday. The meeting was organized by the Thamileelam National Resurgence Forum, sources said.
Full story >>

CFA is in jeopardy- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 03:30 GMT]
"...Ceasefire agreement [CFA] itself is in grave jeopardy, and without the ceasefire, there cannot be a peace process at all," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna district, when TamilNet caught up with him in Washington D.C. and asked him for his views on the steadily deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka. Gajendrakumar is currently on a U.S. tour meeting with U.S. officials and addressing Tamil expatriates in different States.
Full story >>

Flag Day to commemorate Welikada prison massacre victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2004, 11:02 GMT]
The Flag Day jointly organized by the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and Tamil People Forum (TPF) to commemorate the massacre of 53 Tamil political activists in Welikada jail twenty one years ago in July 1983 was inaugurated in Trincomalee town Saturday morning at the office of the TELO presided by a TELO enior activist Mr.Anpumani. Mr. Indrakumar Prasanna, general secretary of the TELO inaugurated the flag week in Batticaloa town.
Full story >>

'Denial of rights basis of our struggle'- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2004, 04:43 GMT]
"The denial of our human rights is the basis of our struggle. We have not effectively conveyed this message to the world... We will also bring about greater awareness of human rights and related international conventions among our people," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of the Liberation Tigers' political division, addressing the opening of the LTTE's Human Rights Secretariat Friday in Kilinochchi.
Full story >>

Bubulla Vihare Chief Incumbent injured in grenade attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2004, 17:12 GMT]
Venerable Lendigele Sudassi, Chief Incumbent of the Bodhirukkaharamaya Temple in Bubulla in Hingurakgoda where last Tuesday midnight the Hingurakgoda Police arrested fourteen suspected Karuna faction Tamil youths with automatic weapons, was seriously injured in a grenade attack that took place Thursday around 7.30 p.m., police said.
Full story >>

"Stop constructing Buddhist shrines in Tamil villages"-TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2004, 17:06 GMT]
"The construction of Buddhist Vihares on lands in traditional Tamil villages in the Trincomalee district would cause serious impact on the current peace process and would disturb the mutual understanding and co-existence that prevails among various communities in the district," said Trincomalee District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairetnasingham in a letter to the Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge.
Full story >>