Colombo to take positive steps to resume talks with LTTE-Peiris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 May 2003, 16:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesman, Minister G.L.Peiris, said Thursday that the Sri Lanka government is in the process of taking positive steps to accelerate the resettlement of internally displaced and to strengthen the function of the Subcommittee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs(SIHRN) in an attempt to bring the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam back to the negotiating table.


Full story >>

Rehabilitate Northeast before 'Regaining' Sri Lanka - NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 May 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The Chairman of the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Trincomalee, Mr.T.Thavasilingam, speaking at a discussion held Tuesday in Trincomalee attended by representatives of provincial trade unions, said that there was an urgent need for rehabilitating all infrastructure destroyed in the twenty-year-old war in the northeast province simultaneously with the resettlement of internally displaced persons.
Full story >>

TNA leader demands reduced army presence in population centers

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 April 2003, 01:14 GMT]
"It is the birthright of the Internally Displaced People (IDP) to resettle in their own lands. There is no need for the internally displaced Tamil families in Jaffna district to seek permission from the government or the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to return to their own lands," said Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan addressing a gathering at the Jaffna office of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Sunday on the current political situation, sources said.


Full story >>

LTTE to boycott Japan aid conference

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 April 2003, 09:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Saturday it would review its decision to participate in the international conference in Tokyo in June in protest at its exclusion from the preliminary conference to be held in Washington on Monday. "The authentic representatives of the Tamil people should have been invited to this major international conference to articulate the interests and aspirations of our people," the LTTE said in a statement issued in the Vanni Saturday.
Full story >>

Swiss group awards certificates to de-mining personnel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2003, 08:35 GMT]
Forty persons who underwent a training program in de-mining organised by Swiss based Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) were awarded with certificates at a function held in Vavuniya Friday. Mr.Christoph Hebeisen, the Project Leader for Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) in Vavuniya, speaking at function said the repatriation and resettlement of all internally displaced people is the primary objective, and added that the training of Sri Lankan personnel had been very thorough and extensive.
Full story >>

LTTE opposed to referendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 10:04 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Friday dismissed as “illogical, impractical and unnecessary” Sri Lankan government suggestions for an island-wide referendum on the ongoing peace initiative. Pointing out that the government had already got a resounding mandate from the people of Sri Lanka for peace, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said that his movement was totally opposed to a plebiscite at this stage to reaffirm public endorsement.
Full story >>

HSZs, scant funds slow resettlement in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 March 2003, 15:09 GMT]
The flow of refugees returning from the Vanni to resettle in Jaffna has slowed down because the fate of their villages and towns occupied by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) inside High Security Zones in the northern peninsula still remains uncertain, a senior government official said Monday.


Full story >>

Negotiators in Berlin for fifth round

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2003, 22:51 GMT]
Negotiators representing the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government as well as Norwegian facilitators arrived in Berlin Thursday to participate in the fifth round of direct talks between the two sides brokered by Oslo.
Full story >>

'Don’t use HSZ as a bargaining tool’ – NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 February 2003, 17:40 GMT]
At a conference held Wednesday evening at the Jaffna district secretariat in which the Indian defence expert, Lieutenant General Satish Nambiar, participated, representatives of people’s welfare organizations and non governmental organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna made a public plea to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) not to use the high security zone (HSZ) issue as a bargaining tool in the peace talks between the LTTE and the GOSL, sources said
Full story >>

De-mining in Jaffna said big business, as mines claim more

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 January 2003, 22:04 GMT]
A woodcutter, Sinnathambi Sinnathurai, 50, was seriously injured Tuesday while chopping fire wood with a relative in Mayilankoodal, Erlalai South, Jaffna, when his axe struck a landmine. He was admitted to the Jaffna hospital. Landmines continue to claim lives and limbs of civilians in Jaffna despite much publicised de-mining programs by international NGOs in the war torn northern peninsula.
Full story >>

LTTE rejects Indian General's terms on HSZs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 January 2003, 08:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will not accept recommendations from international military experts that link the "critical humanitarian issue" of resettling internally displaced persons and refugees in Jaffna to disarming of its cadres and de-commissioning of its weapons, the movement's chief negotiator and political strategist, Mr Anton Balasingham, told the Tamil Guardian newspaper Monday. The Tigers "will fiercely oppose and reject any proposal that makes resettlement of refugees conditional upon de-commissioning of LTTE weapons," he said further.


Full story >>

GA requests data on SLA occupied private properties

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 January 2003, 01:33 GMT]
The Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna, Mr. S. Pathmanathan, ordered the Assistant Government Agents (AGAs) in Jaffna district to obtain details on civilian residences and private lands occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in the peninsula, sources in the Northern town said.
Full story >>

HRC committee to inquire into disappearances in the East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 January 2003, 19:23 GMT]
The chairman of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC), Dr.Godfrey Gunatilake on Thursday said that the HRC is to appoint a committee to look into the complaints of disappearances of persons in Trincomalee and the eastern province, and people in Trincomalee can make their complaints to the committee regarding all disappearances of persons.
Full story >>

DRC discusses participation in NE relief efforts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 January 2003, 02:42 GMT]
Representatives of Danish Refugee Council (DRC), led by Nelson Benderson from the Asia-Africa Head Office, met with Thamilchelvan, Head of the political section of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in Kilinochchi Tuesday, sources in Vanni said.
Full story >>

SIHRN identifies 11 projects for immediate implementation in NE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 January 2003, 10:31 GMT]
Mr.Yasushi Akashi, special peace envoy of the Government of Japan and Ms Mieko Nishimizu, World Bank Vice President for South Asia participated at the second day meeting of the Sub Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs in the North and East (SIHRN) held Thursday at Killinochchi. Eleven projects have been identified for immediate implementation in the north and east at the SIHRN meeting after eleven hour discussion, said a press release issued at the conclusion of the meeting.
Full story >>

SLA cannot deny the rights of IDPs to resettle in HSZ - TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 12:50 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Tuesday gave assurances to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that it would take steps to resettle displaced inside the high security zone (HSZ) in Jaffna once the Indian defence expert submits a report on that issue, sources said. TNA stressed that although SLA is empowered by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to prevent Liberation Tigers (LTTE) from entering the HSZ, SLA cannot deny the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from resettling in their own homes in their own land, sources said.
Full story >>

Agreement on resettlement as talks conclude

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 07:49 GMT]
The fourth round of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand with parties reaching agreement on accelerated action on resettlement of displaced people and making progress on human rights, the Norwegian government said.
Full story >>

Ponnalai IDPs picket demanding resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2002, 17:04 GMT]
Several hundred internally displaced people from Ponnalai in Jaffna district Monday launched a protest campaign picketing in front of the office of the Chankanai Divisional Secretariat (DS), demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their lands, sources said.
Full story >>

'Terrorist intentions will totally terminate resettlement' – Maj. Gen. Fonseka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 December 2002, 08:53 GMT]
The furore over the Sri Lanka Army's High Security Zones (HSZs) in Jaffna orginated this week with a letter sent by its Jaffna commander to the Liberation Tigers, demanding the 'total disarmament' of the movement before Tamil civilians would be allowed back into occupied villages. In his hostile and belligerent letter, littered with grammatical and spelling errors, Maj. Gen. Fonseka addressed the Tigers as 'terrorists' and protested that easing the difficulties of the people of Jaffna would enhance the LTTE's image.
Full story >>

SLMM support for Army over HSZs is 'unacceptable' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 December 2002, 15:17 GMT]
The LTTE Friday rejected the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's justification of the Sri Lanka Army's High Security Zones on the grounds of security as "unacceptable," saying "this adjudication simply reinforces the SLA's position on the illegal military occupation of public property." Responding to a letter sent Thursday by SLMM head, Maj. Gen. Tronde Furuhovde, the LTTE's Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said: "This purely militaristic argument to support your thesis on balance of forces, has completely ignored and trivialised the grave humanitarian issue of the displaced population."
Full story >>