'Archaeological finds should be safeguarded' -Ilankumaran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 19:47 GMT]
Faculty of Archaeology should be established in universities in the northeast to ensure better security to the archaeological finds of our land, said Mr.V.Ilankumaran, head of the Thamileelam Educational Development Division addressing a meeting of Trincomalee writers and critics Saturday evening at Trincomalee Sri Koneswara Hindu College.
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Ponnalai displaced to discontinue picketing for one week

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 January 2003, 22:21 GMT]
Hundreds of displaced people of Ponnalai who have been picketing in front of the office of the Chankanai Divisional Secretariat (DS), Thursday called off the protest for a week on a request by the Jaffna Government Agent, sources said.
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Fishermen demand removal of Kaluwankerni SLA camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 December 2002, 17:52 GMT]
The Fishermen's union of Kaluwankerni, a village located 24 km northeast of Batticaloa town, has demanded that the Sri Lankan Army encamped at the ice production factory at the village be withdrawn, in a letter to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces officers, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Swedish Ambassador meets Thamilselvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2002, 18:52 GMT]
Ambassador to Sri Lanka from Sweden, Ms. Ann Marie Fallenius, met with Thamilselvan, Head of Political Section of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Wednesday morning in Kilinochchi and held discussions regarding rehabilitation and development activities of North East, sources said.


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Tigers help IDPs resettle in high security zone

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2002, 18:08 GMT]
(News Feature) In a major gesture to reiterate their commitment to peace in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers Thursday helped displaced civilians settle in a village situated in one of their most heavily defended high security zones in the north. The village of Kudarappu is on Jaffna’s southeastern coast in the Nagar kovil sector where the armed forces of the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka face each other across heavily defended and mined Defence Lines.
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New Tamil daily launched in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 October 2002, 14:52 GMT]
A new Tamil daily newspaper, Namathu Eelanadu, hit the stands in Jaffna Tuesday. With the arrival of Eelanadu, readers in the northern peninsula will have four daily papers to provide them news and views. The paper’s editor Mr. Sivasubramaniam Raguram, said that Eelanadu will be published on the web too. Jaffna has one of the oldest and richest regional newspaper publishing traditions in South Asia.
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Westborg meets Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 September 2002, 20:37 GMT]
Norwegian Ambassador to Colombo, Mr. Jon Westborg held discussions with the Political Wing leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi Wednesday. Sources said the discussions centred around setting up of LTTE Peace Secretariat in the Northeastern Province.
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Chinese Ambassador meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 September 2002, 23:00 GMT]
The Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Jiang Qinzheng, met the head of the Liberation Tigers’ Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Tamilchelvan Thursday, sources said. The discussions were held at the LTTE’s political headquarters in Kilinochchi.
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Mankerni residents tell SLA to stop harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 September 2002, 17:15 GMT]
Residents of Mankerni, 47, kilometres north of Batticaloa, said Sunday that the Sri Lanka army should move out its camp from the centre of village and stop harassing them. The village school, the local Roman Catholic Church, nursery, the village library, three shops, ten homes and a privately owned coconut estate are inside the SLA camp in Mankerni.
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Saththurukkondaan massacre remembered

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 September 2002, 16:59 GMT]
The twelfth annual remembrance of the Saththurukkondaan massacre was observed Monday at Panichchaiyadi junction near Batticaloa town Monday. Sri Lanka army soldiers and Muslim home guards murdered 186 Tamils, mostly women and children, in the villages of Saththurukkondaan, Panichchaiyadi, Kokkuvil and Pillaiyaradi on the northern outskirts of Batticaloa town on 9 September 1990. A memorial for the victims was unveiled near the scene of the massacre.
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Peace draws 400,000 to forest shrine festival

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 August 2002, 16:38 GMT]
More than four hundred thousand Sinhala and Tamil devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka thronged the Madhu feast this year, which concluded Thursday. "The number of devotees is unprecedented. After a gap of nineteen years the devotees of the Madhu Maatha (Ave Maria) poured out their suppressed devotion. The hundreds of thousand faithful who flocked to the shrine have expressed their love for peace. Everyone who gathered here have shown that they are against war," Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar told TamilNet. The forest shrine of Ave Maria is in his diocese.
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SLA opens road following protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 August 2002, 14:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army opened the main road through Morakkoddanchenai, 26 kilometres north of Batticaloa, after twelve years following a sit in protest by villagers Monday. The protesting crowds surged ahead through soldiers when the SLA commander for Batticaloa, Lt. Col. V. R. L Anthoniz agreed to open an inner road as well.
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New Colombo Archbishop exhorts national unity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 July 2002, 16:14 GMT]
"All Sri Lankans should join hands to find a lasting solution to national issues irrespective of communal, religious and other differences," said the newly installed Archbishop of Colombo Most.Rev.Dr. Oswald Gomis. The Canonical installation of the eighth Archbishop took place Saturday at the Cathedral of St.Lucia, Kotehena in Colombo.
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Civilians protest military blocks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 July 2002, 03:27 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Monday imposed a ban on civilian traffic on the Vankalavadi Road where one of its bases is located, the Uthayan newspaper reported. Civilians who use the road have been told to use a temporary road cleared through farmland, away from Navy sentry points to the south of the base.
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Protest march in Trincomalee against attacks on LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 15:17 GMT]
"The Tamil people of Trincomalee district urge the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to intervene using its good offices and see that the offenders are brought to book and to ensure that similar incidents are not repeated or if not, it will only be proper that the LTTE cadres are allowed to be armed to guard their offices," states the memorandum handed over to the Norwegian Head of the SLMM in Trincomalee Ms Victoria Lund Tuesday.
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Mutur town under curfew after clashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 June 2002, 14:27 GMT]
(News Feature) Mutur town in the Trincomalee district has been put under night curfew from 12 noon Tuesday till Wednesday morning following clashes between Muslims and Tamils which ended in several injured on both sides, police sources said. Five people have been admitted to the Trincomalee hospital and two are said to be in critical condition, medical sources said.
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MP lists occupied temples, schools in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2002, 16:10 GMT]
Trincomalee parliamentarian R. Sampanthan Monday sent a letter by fax to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe listing schools, places of worship, private lands and public buildings in the Trincomalee district which have not been vacated by the State armed forces even one hundred and fifteen have passed after signing the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers on February 23. The list included five places of worship, twelve schools and eighteen public buildings and private lands which are still in the hands of State armed forces.
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Police ordered to halt temple withdrawals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police in Batticaloa said Saturday that it has stopped work on vacating four of its camps in the district situated in places of religious worship on orders from the Inspector General of Police (IGP). "We just got the orders and stopped dismantling the defences. We do not know the reason," said the Officer in Charge of the Maamangam Pillaiyar Temple Police camp Saturday.
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SLA builds Nunavil supply route

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 21:10 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army is rapidly constructing a new road connecting Nunavil, located on the Jaffna-Kandy Road (A-9) in Chavakachcheri East, to the Maravanpulo Junction. The SLA is moving forces from parts of Chavacachcheri into a major new 100-acre base established at Nunavil, press reports said.
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Sri Lanka's conditions for talks create an 'impasse' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 June 2002, 12:42 GMT]
The Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka has been delayed by the government’s failure to implement the terms of the permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers and is threatened by the hostile intervention of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, told the Tamil Guardian this week.
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