CWC observes May Day as day of mourning

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2004, 08:41 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers' Congress, the largest Tamil trade union in Sri Lanka's tea and rubber plantatons said Saturday it was observing May Day as a day of mourning and as a black day in protest against the Police shooting in Kandapola. More than ten thousand estate workers took part in the CWC rally in Bandarawela Saturday. Mr. Arumugam Thondaman MP, the leader of the CWC said that workers would go on strike on 3 May in protest against the Police shooting and the attack in Tamils in Kandapola.
Full story >>

Kandapola killings create suspicions on UPFA’s complicity - EPRLF

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 15:48 GMT]
“The ethnic violence directed against the Tamil people in Kandapola, in the Nuwara Eliya district, by thugs and Sri Lanka Police resulting in the killing of Tamils, has created suspicions in the minds of the Tamil people that the violence was instigated and by the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka, in retaliation for its failure to win the support of the major Tamil parties in the election of the Speaker," charged Mr. S. Premachandran, the Secretary General of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF-Suresh Wing) Thursday.
Full story >>

Curfew in hill town, three Tamils shot dead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2004, 07:30 GMT]
Three Tamils were killed and four were wounded when Police opened fire on crowds in Kandapola, 16 kilomtres from Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka's main hill country town and holiday resort, on Wednesday night. Curfew has been declared in the area following clashes between Tamils and Sinhalese which flared up late Wednesday afternoon over a vehicle accident in Kandapola. A senior Tamil MP of the Ceylon Workers' Congress slammed the Police for precipitating the communal violence. "The Police acted in a very partial manner", he said. Fourteen Tamil shops in Kandapola were smashed up and ransacked.
Full story >>

Kalmunai Tamils prepare to welcome Amparai TNA MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 April 2004, 03:05 GMT]
The Tamil residents of Kalmunai are making arrangements to honor and welcome the newly elected Tamil National Alliance MP from Amparai (Digamadulla), Mr. Kanagasabai Pathmanathan, on May 5, according to Mr. E. Sivanandanayagam, a retired teacher who is the organizer for the event, sources said.
Full story >>

“Sinhalese political leadership lacks maturity” - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 21:20 GMT]
“The late Tamil leader, Mr.S.J.V.Chelvanayakam, laid the path for the freedom struggle, advocating Tamils should be recognized as a distinct nationality with their traditional homeland and right of self determination,” said the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, addressing a meeting to mark the 27th death anniversary of the late Tamil leader in Trincomalee town Monday evening.
Full story >>

TNA MPs to attend parliament in traditional attire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 April 2004, 13:32 GMT]
The 22 Tamil National Alliance members of parliament are planning to attend the first sitting of Sri Lanka’s parliament on Thursday in traditional Tamil attire, sources in the Vanni said.
Full story >>

‘No force can destroy Tamil unity’ -Ramanan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 April 2004, 15:01 GMT]
“Our national leader has deep love for our people and land, and our people, likewise, are committed to Tamil unity and remain loyal to the national leader. The people of Batticaloa-Amparai have shown that no force can destroy Tamil unity now,” said a senior commander of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. Ramanan, speaking at the 16th year death anniversary of Annai (Mother) Poopathy, held Monday at the Navalady memorial for the late Tamil activist mother in Batticaloa town, sources said.
Full story >>

Tamil NGOs aid rehabilitation of homeland - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 April 2004, 22:40 GMT]
Three organizations registered as legal Non-Governmental Organizations in Sri Lanka and in the North-East are contributing in a major way to the rehabilitation, reconstruction and humanitarian work in the Tamil homeland, the Liberation Tigers said in a statement Monday.
Full story >>

NorthEast to observe Annai Poopathi anniversary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 April 2004, 11:01 GMT]
Arrangements have been made in several parts of NorthEast to celebrate the 16th death anniversary of Annai Poopathi on Monday (April 19). She died after fasting for 31 days from 19 March 1988 demanding that the Indian government should stop the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and initiate talks with the LTTE.
Full story >>

TNA censures SL President over ministerial post to EPDP

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2004, 14:55 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group Friday censured the action of Sri Lanka's President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, in appointing a person rejected by the Tamil people in the April 2nd poll in charge of a ministry important to Tamils, disregarding the overwhelming mandate obtained by the TNA for the establishment of the Interim Self Governing Authority in the Northeast, TNA sources said.
Full story >>

Amparai Tamils praised for rejecting regionalism

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 April 2004, 09:30 GMT]
Kanagasabai Pathmanathan, the Tamil National Alliance MP for Digamadulla (Amparai) district, in a memorandum released to the Tamil people of his district, praised the Amparai Tamil people for rejecting regionalism and showing the international community that Liberation Tigers are the undisputed leaders of the Tamil people, local daily Thamil Alai reported.
Full story >>

"International community accepts LTTE as Tamils’ saviour”-Gajendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 15:24 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from the Jaffna district, Mr.S.Gajendran, said Thursday that the international community has accepted that the Liberation Tigers’ military wing safeguards and protects the Tamil people. "Because of this," said the TNA MP, "the international community remained silent, watching the events that took place when the LTTE launched its military operation to retrieve the areas from its renegade commander ('Karuna')."
Full story >>

LTTE says no more underage cadres in Batti-Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 16:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Wednesday that they have released all underage (under 18) cadres in the Batticaloa-Amparai districts to their parents, including all those the UNICEF had reported in its list as under-aged recruits.
Full story >>

Karthigaipoo declared as National flower of Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 01:10 GMT]
"Karthigaipoo" or Gloriosa Lily (Botanical name - Liliaceae Glory lily or Gloriosa superba), which has the spectrum of colors contained in the Tamil Eelam national flag and which in November, the month of Heroes day celebrations, ubiquitously spreads, sprouts new shoots and blooms throughout the NorthEast, has been proclaimed the official national flower of Eelam Tamils. Reliable sources from Vanni said that the Karthigaipoo was designated as Tamil Eelam National flower by the LTTE administration during the Great Heros rememberence week in November 2003.
Full story >>

Trinco Lions Club donates mosquito nets to students

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 00:01 GMT]
The Thirukoneswaram (Trinco) Lions Club has donated a consignment of mosquito nets to Tamil students who come from poor families and are being assisted by the Trincomalee Students Welfare Fund to pursue their education from Grade one to university level. The distribution of mosquito nets took place at a function held in the Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam recently under the auspices of Trincomalee Students Welfare Fund, sources said.
Full story >>

LTTE hands over 269 cadres to their parents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 14:53 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Tuesday that it has handed over 269 of its cadres, including 168 who are less than eighteen years old, to their parents when they rejoined the LTTE following the LTTE's recovery of the Batticaloa-Amparai areas from the breakaway faction led by Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Vanni sources said.
Full story >>

UNP nominates national list parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 April 2004, 10:24 GMT]
The main opposition in the thirteenth parliament United National Party Saturday submitted its national list of parliamentarians to the Commissioner of Elections. The list included three Tamils and four Muslims. The three former ministers of the then UNF government Mr.Tilak Marapone (Defense), Mr.Tyronne Fernando (Foreign Affairs) and Mr.A.H.M.Azwer (Parliamentary Affairs) have been excluded in the national list though their names were included in it at the time of submitting nominations for the general elections held last week, party sources said.
Full story >>

Key Karuna Group commander wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 13:48 GMT]
A key commander of the Karuna Group was seriously wounded when troops of the Liberation Tigers advanced on Vakarai, 62 kilometres north of Batticaloa, in the early hours of Friday morning. ‘Barathithaasan’, commander of the Karuna Group’s Vinothan Unit, wounded in the abdomen, was admitted to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. “We will face problems if casualties rise in the coming days because most of our consultants and many medical officers and interns from the north have left”, said a doctor who works there. The Karuna Group forced Tamils of Jaffna to leave Batticaloa last month.
Full story >>

‘TNA should speak up for upcountry Tamils’ – UPF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2004, 19:49 GMT]
The leader of the Upcountry People’s Front (UPF), Mr. Periyannan Chandrasekaran, speaking to the Press after he met with the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, on Tuesday, said that on behalf of the UPF, he would request the 22 Tamil National Alliance MPs to speak up about the problems of the Upcountry Tamil people, and that he would come to an understanding with the TNA in Sri Lanka's parliament without supporting any Southern parties, sources said.
Full story >>

All TNA MPs attend parliamentary group meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 April 2004, 15:36 GMT]
Dismissing reports carried by the Sri Lankan State-controlled electronic and print media that they had decided to function as a separate group, the 5 Tamil National Alliance MPs from the Batticaloa and Amparai districts participated at the first TNA parliamentary group meeting held Tuesday evening in Colombo along with the 15 TNA MPs elected from other districts of the Northeast, and Mr.Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, the senior TNA leader, was unanimously elected as the leader of the TNA parliamentary group at this meeting, TNA sources said.
Full story >>