UNICEF book on mine risk education launched

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2003, 03:53 GMT]
The UNICEF launched a book on Mine Risk Education (MRE) at the Puthukulam Maha Vidiyalayam in Vavuniya with the support of the Department of Education, and the book will be included in the curriculum of Vavuniya schools to create an awareness among children of the dangers posed by land Mines, booby traps and unexploded ordnances, sources in Vavuniya said.
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TNA briefs Australian parliamentarians on peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 October 2003, 13:25 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday told the visiting Australian parliamentary delegation that the establishment of an interim administration with adequate powers has become a sine qua non for rebuilding the war ravaged northeast province and to ensure the survival of the present peace environment, sources said. "There is no immediate opportunity to find a permanent political solution to the ethnic conflict under the current constitutional set up," the TNA's parliamentarians told the Australian delegation.
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Killinochchi children transit center opens on Friday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 10:36 GMT]
The first of three transit centers under the Action Plan for Children Affected by War (APCAW) established in Killinochchi in Vanni region will be declared open Friday. Regional Director of UNICEF South Asia Mr.Sadig Rasheed and UNICEF Sri Lanka representative Mr. Ted Chaiban are scheduled to attend the opening event of the Killinochchi center, UNICEF sources said.


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Building up the case for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 02:11 GMT]
There is a steadily growing body of opinion among the Singhalese that Colombo’s dealings with the Liberation Tigers amount to nothing but a misguided policy of appeasement and plain treachery. The case for going to war with the Tigers again is being argued in different guises – its rhetorical veils are getting thinner as the ranks of those who oppose the peace process swell with each passing week.
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Bishop says hidden hand behind shrine demolition

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 18:09 GMT]
At an emergency meeting held Monday evening at the Mannar District Secretariat following the demolition in the morning of the Catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar district, Muslims and Catholics agreed to amicably settle the shrine demolition issue after three hours of deliberations, sources said.
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'Tamils disappointed by lack of normalcy' - ACTC leader

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 01:02 GMT]
”The people of Jaffna are a disappointed lot today even after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the United National Front Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said the Jaffna district parliamentarian and President of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Mr.A.Vinayagamoorthy, at a seminar held in Trincomalee Sunday evening on the current political situation in the Northeast.


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Veteran Tamil activist in Trincomalee passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 23:11 GMT]
Veteran Federal Party member and leading Hindu religious worker, Mr.Kanagarajah Muthiah, fondly called Muthiah Swamiyar, who had been staying in a hut opposite the Hindu pilgrim rest located in close proximity to the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram temple for more than thirty years, passed away at the age of 91 Saturday morning, sources said.
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Literary meet promotes Muslim Tamil relations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 12:19 GMT]
“A Tamil student would come every year to our house with a gift for my father when I was a little boy. He would seek my father’s blessings on the day of his father’s death anniversary. His esteem for my father’s Tamil scholarship was such that although he had many uncles he honored my father as his own. This is but an instance of the great and deep bond between Tamils and Muslims in the east”, said Mr. Jinnah Serifudeen, the well regarded poet speaking at a literary meet Sunday to promote Tamil Muslim relations in Kattankudy, near Batticaloa town.


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Tamil monthly from Trincomalee released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 18:44 GMT]
LTTE's Trincomalee district women military wing leader Ms Thayalini released the first copy of the Trincomalee's new Tamil monthly magazine "KONAMARUTHAM (Gentle Breeze of Trinco)" to the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and district parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan Saturday at an event held at Trincomalee Town Hall.
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Failure to devolve power will lead to war, secession - Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 15:08 GMT]
"In a multi-ethnic society devolution of powers is an essential pre-requisite to strengthen local administrations. Secession is inevitable if ruling polities fail to recognize this fact. Sri Lanka has to urgently address this issue if its people are to live in peace and to prevent war breaking out," said Mr. S.B.Dissanayake, Samudri and Agriculure and Livestock Minister in the United National Front (UNF) Government when speaking at the Agricultural Conference held at the Devanayagam Co-opertive theater in Batticaloa, Saturday morning.


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TRO launches wind energy project in Kuchchaveli

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 17:17 GMT]
The Tamils' Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Trincomalee district Thursday inaugurated a wind energy project in the Kuchchaveli village, 34 km north of Trincomalee town, which has not been supplied with electricity from the national grid even after the country gained political independence, sources said.
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'GOSL should listen to IDP’s demands' - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2003, 15:11 GMT]
"Those who say that the Ceasefire has brought peace and all problems are solved should go to the refugee camps and see the refugees who cannot return to their homes because of the Sri Lanka Army’s occupation of their lands. Only then they will understand the plight of the internally displaced people (IDP) and the fairness of their demands," said Mr. S. Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vavuniya, speaking at the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya town Wednesday, sources said.
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Thileepan's commemoration to conclude Friday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 16:08 GMT]
Elaborate arrangements are being made to observe the final day of the commeomration of the 16th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col.Thileepan throughout the Northeast province on Friday with a token fasting and cultural event depicting the freedom struggle of Tamils, sources said.
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Nine Indians smugglers, fishermen remanded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 13:35 GMT]
Nine fishermen and smugglers from India have been remanded by the Mannar magistrate’s court for smuggling refugees and explosives and for poaching in Sri Lanka’s maritime zone, legal sources in the northwestern town told TamilNet Tuesday.
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Muslim delegation meets Col. Karuna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2003, 12:18 GMT]
LTTE’s senior commander for the Batticaloa–Amparai District, Col. V. Karuna, Saturday had discussions with a delegation of Muslim community leaders and civil society activists at ‘Thenaham’ conference center in Karadiyanaaru, 24 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa. “The discussion was a further step in cementing and deepening the traditional bond between Tamils and Muslims in the east,” an LTTE official in Batticaloa said.
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‘Claims of 13 camps after MoU totally unfounded’ -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 19:29 GMT]
The Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Col. Pathuman, and the district political head, Mr.Thilak, Friday jointly made an appeal to the Sinhalese and Tamil journalists in the Trincomalee district to inform the international community and people of the country that there was not an iota of truth in the allegation spread by anti-peace elements that the LTTE had constructed thirteen new camps in the government controlled areas in the district since the signing of the ceasefire agreement.
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Helgesen, Solheim to hold discussions on peace talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 September 2003, 11:28 GMT]
Deputy Minister Vidar Helgesen and Special Adviser Erik Solheim are to visit Sri Lanka during 17-19 September 2003, to have discussions with different parties on the current state of the peace process, said the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo in a press released issued Tuesday.
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CWC requests Japan to abandon funding Kotmale project

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2003, 03:01 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a key constituent of the United National Front (UNF) government Sunday made an appeal to the Japanese peace special envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi to withdraw funding for the controversial Upper Kotmale electricity project to which the Cabinet had given approval despite opposition by the CWC, media sources said.
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Thileepan's 16th death anniversary to be commemorated

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 17:31 GMT]
Northeast province is preparing to observe the sixteenth death anniversary of late senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Lt Colonel Thileepan Monday, September 15, the day he began his fast unto death when the Indian Government refused to meet the demands he made on behalf of Tamils. He passed away on 26th September 1987, on the twelvth day after he began his fast, sources said.


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Akashi holds talks with Thamilselvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 12:05 GMT]
The Japanese special peace envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi Sunday morning arrived at Killinochchi grounds by a special helicopter of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) accompanied by HE.Mr. Soiiehiro Otsuka, Japanese ambassador in Colombo, and met the Head of the Political Wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) S.P. Thamilselvan at the LTTE's Peace Secretariat building, Vanni sources said.
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