NECORD funds new school building in Kanniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 May 2004, 10:14 GMT]
Students of resettled families of Kanniya, a traditional Tamil village which is located along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura highway, about eight km off northwest of east port town Tuesday moved into a new school building constructed at a cost of 1.3 million rupees by the North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), sources said.


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SLA bans cultivation in lands outside Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 May 2004, 18:09 GMT]
Inspite of repeated assurances by the Jaffna command of the Sri Lanka Army that internally displaced families will be allowed to resettle and do their cultivation in their lands located six hundred meters away from the forward defence line of the Palaly high security zone, soldiers manning checkpoints are putting obstacles for the resettled farmers to prepare their lands for cultivation, resettled families complained to TamilNet Friday.
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Norwegian Tamils hold May Day in major cities of Norway

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 2004, 14:50 GMT]
About two thousand Tamils in Oslo gathered on saturday in their biggest May Day gathering in Oslo ever, carrying Tamil Eelam national flags and banners urging the international community to recognize the Tamil people's right to self-determination. Hundreds of Tamils in other major cities like Bergen and Stavanger also gathered for May Day, sources in Oslo said.
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NPC holds workshop on de-mining in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 April 2004, 14:16 GMT]
"De-mining work in the northeast province has been severely hampered as the international aid agencies show reluctance to provide funds for such work due to the failure to sign the Ottawa convention that prohibits the use of landmines and other related explosives by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said a Director of the National Peace Council (NPC), Mr.S. Balakrishnan, addressing a de-mining workshop in Jaffna Friday.
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UNHCR IG calls for renewed focus on Sri Lanka's IDPs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 April 2004, 08:17 GMT]
UNHCR Inspector General Dennis McNamara Thursday called for renewed attention to the plight of Sri Lanka's hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. "It also requires greater investment to ensure that conditions in return areas are conducive to a safe and dignified return – that families are able to earn a living, send their children to school, access health facilities and live in safety”, he said in Colombo Thursday.
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UNCHR’s help sought for resettling Kevuliyamadu IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 03:56 GMT]
The people who were rendered refugees and were displaced during the war in 1985 from Kevuliyamadu in the Batticaloa district have demanded that they be allowed to resettle in their village, sources said.
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SL Government assistance to IDPs nil - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2004, 20:15 GMT]
"I dare say that the [Sri Lankan] government has no right to rule our people as it has failed to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands internally displaced who have been languishing in refugee camps and welfare centres to return to their lands and resettle," said the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, addressing a meeting in Kanniya village Monday morning.
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SLA bars Muslim IDP families from resettling in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 April 2004, 18:17 GMT]
Five internally displaced Muslim families with about twenty-five members who returned to Jaffna from Puttalam recently for resettlement have been staying in the damaged Jumma Mosque in the Chavakachcheri town in Thenmaradchchi division as the Sri Lanka Army has refused permission to them to occupy their houses. Their houses are located in the high security zones of the army, civil sources said.
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Pannalai resettled complain of SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 April 2004, 09:55 GMT]
Eight Internally Displaced (IDP) families now resettled in no man zones located beyond 600 meter of the High Security Zones (HSZs) in Pannalai, Valigamam north in the Jaffna district Sunday complained that the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) manning checkpoints and camps in the area have started harassing them with an intention of ousting them from their dwellings, civil society sources in Jaffna said.


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SL Police attack IDPs at Vavuniya Welfare Center

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 April 2004, 16:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s police and home guards on Tuesday intervened in a private family quarrel and attacked a father and son with knives and an axe at the Sithamaparapuram Welfare center for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Vavuniya, and the victims were admitted at the Vavuniya hospital, sources in Vavuniya said.
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A few families allowed to resettle in Thenmaradchi HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2004, 14:39 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has allowed resettlement of a few internally displaced families in the high security zones in Thenmaradchchi south division in Jaffna district on a staggered basis. The first batch of IDPs would be allowed to resettle in areas close to Thoppu Pillaiyair Kovil in Maravanpulo village on the Tamil-Sinhala New Year Day, civil sources said.
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Thennamaravadi voters return back to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2004, 02:16 GMT]
About five hundred displaced Tamil voters of Thennamaravadi village, seventy-three km off north of Trincomalee town Sunday returned to their temporary residence Ponnagar in the Mullaitivu district in the LTTE held Vanni region, after voting in the Friday poll, sources said. The villagers were denied their right to vote for the last two decades.
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Thennamaravadi residents to vote after 17 years

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 March 2004, 03:10 GMT]
Nearly six hundred displaced voters of Thennamaravadi, a traditional Tamil village on the northern border of the Trincomalee district located about 73 km from the east port town wiil be voting for the first time after they fled from the village in 1987 due to military operation by the Sri Lanka Army, civil sources said.


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Resettled Kanniya village gets co-operative model shop

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 March 2004, 03:01 GMT]
Trincomalee Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) Saturday opened its newly constructed eleventh retail and model shop at a cost of about 2 million rupees after about fourteen years in the resettled Tamil village Kanniya to cater to the urgent basic needs of the resettled families, civil society sources said. Kanniya is located about six km off north of east port town .
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IDPs under pressure to vacate Point-Pedro refugee camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2004, 01:41 GMT]
Internally Displaced families (IDPs) from Nagar Kovil area in Vadamaradchy East, temporarily living in a refugee camp located in Thumpalai, Point Pedro, near the Lourdes Virgin Mary Church, are said to be pressured to vacate the premises by people claiming to be Church Administrators, local media reports said.
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Demining assistance, Japan's high priority - Embassy official

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2004, 18:18 GMT]
"The government of Japan is closely observing the emergency humanitarian needs of the people in the northeast in Sri Lanka and is supporting the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka in demining operations," said Mr.H.Onishi, First Secretary Japan Embassy in Colombo, Tuesday, while addressing at the inauguration ceremony of The Japan Center for Conflict Programme (JCCP) in Vavuniya.


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Jaffna celebrates International Women's day

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 March 2004, 21:15 GMT]
The International Women's Day was celebrated in the Jaffna district Monday on the theme "We want our land." The Jaffna District Forum against Sexual and other Violence on Women organized awareness processions and other cultural events related to women liberation programme in the district, sources said.


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UNICEF provides school building for Nochchikulam students

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2004, 16:16 GMT]
About fifty students of resettled families in Nochchikulam village in the Morawewa division in the Trincomalee district Thursday moved into a new building, which has been constructed with the funds provided by the UNICEF. The children of the resettled families studied under tree shades till the completion of the semi-permanent building. UNICEF Trincomalee zone head Ms Gabriela Elroy declared open the building Thursday.


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TNA campaigns, Thiriyai to vote after two decades

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2004, 14:25 GMT]
A group of resettled villagers attended a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) election meeting held Wednesday evening after twenty-one years in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village in Trincomalee which was completely destroyed in military operations launched by the Sri Lanka Army, sources said.


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Trinco education project launched for resettled students

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 February 2004, 22:43 GMT]
The Trincomalee Children Welfare Fund (TCWF), with the financial assistance from a group of Trincomalee Tamils domiciled in Canada, has launched a special education development project for students of displaced Tamil families who have been resettled in Tamil villages in the district.
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