NE Governor cancels visit to Jaffna after protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2004, 13:20 GMT]
The North East Province Governor (retired) Major General Asoka Jayawardene Monday cancelled his official visit to Jaffna after civil groups in the peninsula warned that he would face public agitation as hundreds of thousands of internally displaced families are still languishing in refugee camps and welfare centres, district secretariat sources said Monday. The NE Governor was scheduled to visit Jaffna on Wednesday.
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Refugee camp in Trinco collapses, injuring three

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2004, 17:31 GMT]
One of the two old buildings constructed during colonial days in Jamaliya area in the suburbs of Trincomalee town and currently being used as refugee camps collapsed Thursday afternoon wounding three internally displaced persons including two women. One of the injured was admitted to the intensive care unit in Trincomalee general hospital. Other two are also warded in the hospital, sources said.


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IOM assists returnees from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 October 2004, 15:37 GMT]
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) officials recently held a discussion with forty Tamil refugee families who returned from India about their rehabilitation in their villages in Trincomalee district. IOM has been implementing a scheme with the financial assistance of the Government of Australia to rehabilitate the returnees from India.
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Army occupation of houses must cease, MP tells SLA commander

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 October 2004, 15:12 GMT]
Mr.Suresh Premachchandran, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Saturday met with Major General Sunil Tennekoon, Jaffna area commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and discussed issues confronting the people of the district since the ceasefire came into operation. This was the first time Major general Sunil Tennekoon met a TNA parliamentarian at his military headquarters in Palaly military airbase, sources said.
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Red Cross' humanitarian services spotlighted

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2004, 00:54 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) Tuesday launched its "Meet the Media" campaign in Trincomalee in collaboration with its district branch to brief media persons on the humanitarian services of Red Cross to victims of war and displacement and other natural disasters in the Trincomalee district Tuesday. Mr.Harsha Gunawardene, SLRCS Director of Information said the second Meet the Media event will be held in Anuradhapura.
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Jaffna co-operatives face rice ration shortage

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2004, 12:55 GMT]
Although Jaffna district secretariat Friday issued instruction to all multi-purpose co-operative societies in the Jaffna district to supply free dry ration due for the month of April for about one hundred nineteen thousand families, co-operative societies said that they cannot carry out the instruction because of short supply of rice and increased prices, co-operative sources said.


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Jaffna Mosque Committee against SLMC meeting

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 October 2004, 00:10 GMT]
"We publicly appeal to the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leadership not to use the resettled Muslim internally displaced families as pawns for its political purposes. If SLMC attempts to hold their general meeting in Jaffna we will launch a protest campaign on the same day," said Jaffna Masjid Mohamedia Jumma Mosque Committee in a press statement released Thursday.
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Jaffna SLA commander meets NGO representatives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 October 2004, 13:36 GMT]
Major General Sunil Tennekoon, Jaffna Area Commander of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), said during discussions with representatives of the Consortium of Jaffna District Non-Governmental Organizations (CJDNGO) Wednesday that poor public relations skills of his soldiers serving in the peninsula are contributing to the difficulties in maintaining cordial relationship with members of public, civil sources said.


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Thiriyai resettled students get free milk

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2004, 02:48 GMT]
Social Economic Development Organization in Trincomalee (SEDOT) financially supported by Trincomalee Welfare Association-Canada, which is run by Trincomalee expatriates in Canada, inaugurated on the International Children Day Friday the supply of free milk to students studying in Thiriyai Government Tamil Mixed School in Trincomalee district. North East Provincial Director of Education Mr.R.Visahalingam gave the ceremonial first cup of milk to a student during the ceremony.
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SLA gives eviction order to Valalai resettIed IDPs

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 October 2004, 16:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has ordered about twenty families who had resettled 600 meters away from the high security zone in Valalai village Palaly, Jaffna district, to vacate their houses and lands immediately, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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"Thennamaravadi IDP's lands being encroached"- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 September 2004, 16:29 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan complained in a letter to the Sri Lanka Goverment's Peace Secretariat officials that they should take immediate steps to stop the encroachment of paddy lands belonging to displaced Tamil families located in Thennamaravadi village in Trincomalee district, sources said.


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Ilavalai residents demand return of occupied houses

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 19:36 GMT]
Internally Displaced Peoples' (IDP) Welfare unit of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has taken steps to get back about thirteen houses from the occupation of Sri Lanka Police in Ilavalai and to hand over them to the displaced owners who are now staying in welfare centres, sources said.
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Art competition spotlights suffering of displaced children

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2004, 08:11 GMT]
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) held an art competition among the displaced children living in welfare centres in the Northeast Province and in Puttalam district to highlight the difficulties war affected children face. The winning drawings will be exhibited in the island level exhibition in Colombo,
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Discussion on IDPs issue held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 September 2004, 20:00 GMT]
A one-day discussion organized by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) on the problems of the internally displaced people was held on Monday in the auditorium of Jaffna district secretariat under the National Protection and Durable Solution for Internally Displaced Persons Project.
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UNDP officials review Jaffna projects

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2004, 16:53 GMT]
A team of officials of the UNDP Friday held a review in Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) on progress made in implementing several development projects in the Jaffna district, sources said.
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Sinhala journalists visit Jaffna IDP families

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 September 2004, 15:27 GMT]
A group of Sinhala journalists Friday visited several welfare centres in the Jaffna district where large number of internally displaced families (IDP) are given shelter and inquired from them their difficulties living as refugees, civil group sources said.
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Jaffna IDPs oppose move to reduce relief

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 September 2004, 17:11 GMT]
Internally displaced people (IDPs) living on relief assistance provided by the Sri Lankan government are planning to launch a protest campaign if the authorities failed to suspend their decision to cut down the number of recipients by half, warned Valikaamam Fisheries Societies Federation in the northern Jaffna peninsula in a memorandum handed over to Point Pedro Divisional Secretary, Friday.
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Phased withdrawal from HSZ, Govt's moral responsibility- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 12:22 GMT]
"Two and a half years have elapsed since the MoU was signed. The Sri Lanka Government is morally bound to show its concern over the question of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). It should have been possible to withdraw from several areas especially from the areas where several schools and places of worship are trapped but with prevailing racist politics in Sri Lanka it is naive to expect the Sri Lanka Government of the Security Forces to do this," said Thinakural, a Tamil daily, in its Saturday editorial.
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Workshop on IDPs' human rights held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 15:02 GMT]
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Wednesday held a one-day workshop under the Human Rights for Displaced People Project in Jaffna."UNICEF has focused its attention on children who have been deprived of their education due to war," said Ms Judith Bruno, UNICEF Jaffna Office Head addressing the workshop held at Jaffna Y.M.C.A Auditorium.
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Thenmaradchchi IDPs demand army withdrawal from their houses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 14:32 GMT]
The Consortium of Thenmaradchchi Civil Organizations in Jaffna district Tuesday handed over a memorandum to the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) with copies to Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the Jaffna head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that it would launch a mass agitation bringing the civil administration and public transport system in Thenmaradchchi division to a halt if the houses and lands of internally displaced people (IDP) are not returned by the Sri Lanka Army.
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