Consultation with GOSL, LTTE to continue - Norway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2004, 14:32 GMT]
“The Government of Norway will continue to consult with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the coming weeks as some issues need to be discussed further before negotiations can start,” said the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka in a press release issued Tuesday evening.


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SLA, LTTE agree to develop procedures to prevent killings in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 May 2004, 10:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army and the Liberation Tigers Tuesday agreed in Batticaloa to “develop mechanisms to ensure information sharing and quick reaction procedures to prevent serious crimes and to ensure proper procedures to apprehend individuals perpetrating serious crimes”. The meeting was arranged amidst killings that threatened to jeopardize the cease-fire agreement between LTTE and Colombo. Col. Thambirajah Ramesh, led the LTTE delegation to the meeting with the SLA at the Vavunathivu divisional secretariat, 5 kilometres, northwest of Batticaloa town.
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LTTE ready to resume talks based on ISGA- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2004, 09:47 GMT]
Ambassador for Norway in Colombo, Mr. Hans Brattskar, Norway's special peace envoy, Mr. Eric Solheim, and Second Secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Ms. Kjersti Thomsdal, met with Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi. The talks, started at 10.45 a.m. lasted for more than two hours and focused on the resumption of stalled peace talks and about preparing the agenda for the talks between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), sources in Vanni 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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LTTE to await official word from Norway on peace process

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 April 2004, 03:37 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will inform their stand on resuming the peace process if the Norwegian government officially informs the LTTE about the Sri Lankan government's stand, Mr. Daya Master, the media coordinator of the LTTE, told the Tamil media on Saturday. Meanwhile, sources quoting the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo say a high level delegation of the Norwegian government will visit Colombo in the first week of May to hold discussions with the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.
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'Peace process has not helped the war-affected' - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 April 2004, 19:10 GMT]
Despite the two and a half years of ceasefire, the people affected by the war in the Tamil homeland have not been able to return to their normal lives, and the Liberation Tigers consider this a setback in the peace process, said Mr. S.P. Thamilchelvan, the political head of the LTTE, speaking as a special guest at the North-East Economic Advisory Council’s conference in the Vanni Monday, sources said.
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Polling stations in SLA side of checkpoints

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 03:18 GMT]
During a meeting with Government Agents (GAs) from Vanni electoral district and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commanders held in Vavuniya Wednesday evening it was agreed to locate polling stations in the SLA side of checkpoints at Omanthai, Madhu road and Uyilankulam, for residents of LTTE controlled areas in Vanni district to vote, sources 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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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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US Rights report criticises GoSL and LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 February 2004, 11:23 GMT]
Annual country report on Human Rights Practices for 2003, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the Government of United States of America, criticised both the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for human rights abuses. "...the military and police [of GoSL] reportedly tortured, killed and raped detainees...," and the "LTTE was responsible for arbitrary arrest, torture, harassment, disappearances, extortion, and detention," the report said.
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Polling in LTTE areas to be discussed with truce monitors

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 February 2004, 15:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Commissioner of Elections Saturday told Government Agents and Assistant Elections Commissioners from the Northeast that he would discuss with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the Sri Lankan Government’s Peace Secretariat about arrangements to enable more than two hundred thousand Tamils in regions that are not under Colombo’s control to vote in the general elections on 2 April. Sri Lankan armed forces prevented Tamils in these areas from voting in the Parliamentary elections of December 2001.
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EU assures support to North-East development

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2004, 15:22 GMT]
Mr. John Cushnahan, Member of the European Parliament, Friday assured the visiting delegation of the Liberation Tigers’ political division in Brussels, Belgium, that the European Union would provide support for the rehabilitation and development of the North-East, LTTE sources said.
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"Foreign nations understand LTTE’s central role to Sri Lanka's progress" –TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 January 2004, 00:47 GMT]
“Currently, diplomats of foreign countries, ambassadors and representatives of donor nations who visit Sri Lanka and meet those in power in Colombo, are also visiting the Vanni to meet with the Liberation Tigers. This shows a clear understanding by the international community that without the participation of the LTTE, no progress can be made in the country,” said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, the Tamil National Alliance MP from the Batticaloa district, speaking at the opening of the maternity home in Mandur Saturday.
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Colombo urged to repeal PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2004, 18:02 GMT]
A meeting to urge the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and to release detainees arrested under the PTA and held in prison for several years without a court hearing was organized by the Center of Human Rights and Development (CHRD) held at the Conference hall of Batticaloa Public Library Saturday, civil sources said.


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‘Nothing from Colombo to rebuild Chavakachcheri’ – UC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2004, 15:43 GMT]
‘The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) hasn’t provided any assistance at all so far to rebuild or repair public buildings and amenities in Chavakachcheri which were destroyed in the war although two years have gone by since the town’s residents resettled’, said the Secretary of the Chavakachcheri Urban Council, Mr. M. S Saravanabhava, addressing the inauguration of the newly formed Urban Development Advisory Board for the second largest town of Jaffna peninsula Wednesday.
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GoSL signs $80 million loan package from ADB for NE rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 09:01 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of Sri Lanka Wednesday signed first part of an US$80 million loan package to address the immediate rehabilitation needs of almost 2 million conflict-affected people in the north and east of the country, said a press release issued by the Sri lanka Resident Mission of the Asian Development Bank.
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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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“Political impasse cannot be allowed to continue” - Armitage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2003, 05:10 GMT]
The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, who met with Sri Lanka’s Minister for Economic Reform, Science and Technology, Mr. Milinda Moragoda, in Washington, DC, on Monday, said that “the current political impasse cannot be allowed to continue,” and that the U.S. “looks forward to an early resumption” of the peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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ADB funds Jaffna Water, Sanitation study

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2003, 11:45 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Conflict Affected Area Rehabilitation Project (CAARP) will undertake a feasibility study for Jaffna peninsula water supply and sanitation at an estimated cost US $ 1.2 million, Jaffna Secretariat officials said. Of this amount ADB will provide one million US dollars and the remainder will be contributed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL). The study will be implemented over nine months commencing from 1st April 2004, a project official told Tamilnet.


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ADB funds new project for North-East rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2003, 18:18 GMT]
A new four-year development project called Conflict Affected Area Rehabilitation Project (CAARP), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), is to be launched in the North and East with effect from January 1st 2004. The objective of the project is to support rehabilitatation of essential infrastructure and restoration of community livelihoods in the most severely conflict-affected areas of the North and East, predominantly in the districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, CAARP sources said.
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