Thampalakamam market reopens after thirteen years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2004, 13:39 GMT]
The public market in the traditional Tamil village Thampalakamam, which is located 27 km southwest of Trincomalee town, was re-opened Thursday after about thirteen years. Thampalakamam divisional head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Thirumalai declared open the public market.


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2003: The year in review

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2003, 18:58 GMT]
The widespread optimism on peace that greeted the dawn of 2003 has evaporated and the power struggle between Sri Lanka's Prime Minister and President that threatens the peace process now occupies the center stage of politics in Colombo. High Security Zones (HSZ) in Jaffna continue to deny displaced Tamils their fundamental rights. Colombo's unwillingness and inability to disburse funds stalls development and rehabilitation in NorthEast, as international aid remains blocked, awaiting concrete signs of progress in peace.
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Kantalai Sivan Temple ruins to be protected

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2003, 00:25 GMT]
The North East Provincial Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs has taken steps to construct a permanent facility to safe keep all stone scriptures and other ruins found in the vicinity of the destroyed Sivan temple built by the Chola King Rajendra Cholan around BC 1010 at Kantalai, said custodians of the temple.
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Postmortem of xenophobia

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2003, 18:10 GMT]
The preliminary report by the Sri Lanka Police on the rioting at the funeral of the Buddhist monk, Ven. Gangodawila Soma, was handed over to the Inspector General of Police this weekend. Five persons were severely assaulted by angry Sinhala Buddhist mourners at the funeral. Four of these were attacked because they looked like Tamils. But all of them were later confirmed to be Sinhala Buddhists, Police sources said. The crowd assaulted the fifth after it identified him as a Christian.
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Rejection of ISGA reflects sad pattern of Sri Lankan conflict - Prof.Oberst

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2003, 15:07 GMT]
In a 'written extended version' of a talk presented at the International Center for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo, a full text of which was sent to TamilNet, Prof.Oberst of Nebraska Wesleyan University says that rejection of LTTE's Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal by a number of political parties reflects "a sad pattern of Sri Lankan conflict." He adds that several issues raised in ISGA are "relatively easy to resolve," and other serious issues need to be resolved during negotiations between the two sides.
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Committee formed to promote Tamil-Muslim amity in Trinco

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2003, 16:20 GMT]
A twelve member committee comprising six Muslims and six Tamils was formed at a meeting held Wednesday evening at the conference hall of the Jumma Mosque located on the Ehambaram Road in Trincomalee town to strengthen relationship between the Muslims and Tamils in the Trincomalee bazaar area and to resolve differences that may arise in future, sources said.


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"Don't ruin Tamils' future" Jaffna Bishops tells President, PM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2003, 12:03 GMT]
The Bishop of Jaffna Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundranayagam in his Christmas message Thursday appealed to Sri Lanka’s President and Prime Minister not to let the current power struggle between them ruin the opportunity for the Tamil people to achieve a prosperous future. “The leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, made a firm commitment to finding a peaceful resolution to the longstanding Tamil question in his Heroes’ Day speech. We welcome his stand at this critical juncture”, the Bishop of Jaffna said in his message.
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MGR remembered in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2003, 04:57 GMT]
The 16th death anniversary of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr.M.G.Ramachandran, was commemorated in Vavuniya Wednesday at the Veerasingham Hall at the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Union (MPCU) building. The LTTE’s political head in Vavuniya, Mr. S. Ezhilan, and the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr. N. Sivasakthi Anandan and several other prominent personalities in Vavuniya participated, sources said.
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Commemoration of Major Murali held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2003, 12:14 GMT]
"The Indian government should recognize the self determination right of Tamils and come forward to assist them to reach a fair and just political solution to meet their legitimate aspirations," said the President of the Jaffna District National Resurgence Forum Mr. P.Kanagalingam Tuesday addressing the sixteenth death anniversary commemoration event of Major Murali and nine other LTTE cadres who died in a battle with the Indian Peace Keeping Force on December 23, 1987 at Urumpirai in Jaffna district.
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LTTE opposes land ministry mobile service in Kantalai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2003, 18:29 GMT]
The Trincomalee political secretariat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Saturday condemned the decision of the Land Minister to hold a mobile service to resolve disputes related to State land matters of the Seruvila electorate of the Trincomalee district. “ Holding of such mobile service would seriously damage the progress of the peace negotiations,” said the LTTE Trincomalee political secretariat in a statement issued Saturday.


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"We understand the political aspirations of Muslims" - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2003, 13:58 GMT]
"It is not a problem for us to understand the political aspirations of the Muslim and to reach a solution guaranteeing their security and future interests. But this will not be possible when the Muslims are encompassed by Sri Lankan state power and seek to fulfil their aspirations having them centered within that power", said Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, Head of the Political Wing when the Muslim Press Association of the Eastern Sri Lanka met him at the LTTE political headquarters in Kilinochchi yesterday, 19th December 2003, the LTTE peace secreatariat website said.
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LTTE urges Tamil-Muslim harmony in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2003, 18:12 GMT]
“Tamils and Muslims live peacefully in this region. But some evil forces are bent on disrupting the peace between the two communities. Our commander, Col. Karuna, is firm that nothing should be allowed to harm the amity that prevails between the Tamils and Muslims here” said Mr. S. Senathirajah, the head of the LTTE’s political office in Batticaloa town, addressing a meeting of Tamil and Muslim civil society leaders convened Friday to resolve friction over the stoning of passenger buses in the Muslim town of Kattaankudy on Thursday.
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HDU to hire more deminers next year

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2003, 15:57 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) said Friday that in order to expedite the demining in the Vellaveli division in Batticaloa, it would support the hiring of 50 more deminers by the Humanitarian Demining Unit (HDU).
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Islamic group shuts down Muslim towns in Batti-Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2003, 15:41 GMT]
Shops and businesses were closed and few people were on the roads in several Muslim towns in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts Thursday in response to a call by a shadowy Islamic militant body in the east calling itself ‘Muslim Resurgence Group’. The Islamic militants called the shut down in protest against the inaction of Muslim politicians whom they described as “venal opportunists”. Unidentified members of the group stoned and damaged four long distance buses that were passing Kattaankudy, a large Muslim town 5 kilometres south of Batticaloa.
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Muttur farmers form company to promote commercial production

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 17:43 GMT]
The newly formed Kottiayarapattu People's (Farmers') Company Limited in the Trincomalee district was officially inaugurated Monday at a special event held at the provincial guesthouse auditorium in Uppuveli, a suburb of Trincomalee town. The Kottiayarapattu Farmers' Company has been established with the support of the Department of Agriculture and the Integrated Food Security Programme (IFSP) of the Agency for German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), a development agency of the German government.
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Saiva revivalist Arumuga Navalar remembered on 181st birthday

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2003, 12:51 GMT]
Tamils in several parts of the northeast observed the 181st birth anniversary of the Saiva-Tamil revivalist Sri Arumuga Navalar on Sunday. Sri Arumuga Navalar is chiefly remembered for his work to revive Saivism in Jaffna and South India. He is also considered one of the important pioneers of Tamil revival in the 19th century.
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Tamils warned to prepare for snap election

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2003, 16:45 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan Sunday said Tamil people should rally round under one banner to increase their parliamentary strength if the current crisis between Sri Lanka's President and the Prime Minister precipitates a snap election. “The LTTE leadership has endorsed this stand,” said Mr.Sampanthan.


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Jaffna said apprehensive of US military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2003, 09:59 GMT]
Senior government officials in Jaffna told a visiting US state department official Sunday that Tamils in the northern peninsula are “apprehensive about US military assistance to Sri Lanka- they fear that it would jeopardise peace”. Mr. Nicholas J. Dean, Deputy Director, Office of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan Affairs, US State Department, visited Jaffna Sunday and had discussions with senior government officials and the Bishop of Jaffna. The US officials and his team refused to speak to local media.
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Vavuniya Tamils decry Indian objections to ISGA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2003, 06:27 GMT]
Criticizing the comments made by the former Indian foreign secretary, Mr. M.K. Rasgotra, at a conference in Colombo on December 4, saying that India could not accept the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals submitted by the Liberation Tigers, the Federation of Vavuniya Cattle breeders unions said in a statement Friday that the Tamil people would totally reject the opinion of Mr. Rasgotra.
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Indian PM urged to recognize NE Tamils’ rights

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 December 2003, 01:36 GMT]
In a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, sent Wednesday and signed by Prof. A. Sanmugathas, head of the Federation for Advancement of Tamils’ Education (FATE), and the Federation’s secretary, Mr. P. Kamalanathan, the FATE said that “until our people’s legitimate rights are secured, India should recognize our right to internal self-determination and help to restore normal life, with peace and dignity.”
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