Preparations underway for Jaffna Resurgence Convention

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 September 2005, 22:22 GMT]
Large number of women, majority of them internally displaced currently sheltered in welfare centres and refugee camps across Jaffna district, took oaths at an event held Sunday at the Jaffna University Kailasapathy Auditorium to make the Tamil Resurgence Convention scheduled to be held on 30 September in Jaffna town a success, sources said.


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"An embodiment of antinomy," – Thamilchelvan on Kumaratunga's speeches in New York

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 September 2005, 14:39 GMT]
"The LTTE is still ready for immediate talks on the implementation of the CFA, outside the island," reiterated Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Political Head of the LTTE, in an exclusive interview to the TamilNet on Friday. "We see a lot of contradictions in the speeches of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, made abroad and in the south. The fact is the Tamil people have lost faith in Kumaratunga's statements, speeches and promises. It is high time the international community takes this into consideration," said LTTE's political head.
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Politics of division, exclusion dominate Sri Lankan polity- Australian MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 18:31 GMT]
“Minorities [in Sri Lanka] have progressively seen their rights eroded through ingrained discrimination and segregation... Racism and fear is fostered. It is the politics of division, exclusion and misrepresentation, with the truth hidden from the outside world,” said Australian Member of Parliament for Strathfield, New South Wales, Ms Virginia Judge, during the first session of the 53rd parliament on 15 September in a stinging indictment of the Government of Sri Lanka.


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Sri Lanka reduces age of consent to 13 – report

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 15:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s cabinet has decided to reduce the age of consent for sexual encounters to 13 years, Justice Minister John Senevirathne announced Friday. He told the BBC’s Sinhala service the move to reduce it from 16 is a consequence of rising numbers of arrests of men for sexual relations with girls below that age.
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TRO opens first reconstructed village in Jaffna District

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 11:50 GMT]
'Aattu Patti' a village in Karaveddy North, Jaffna District, the first village to have been reconstructed by the Tamils rehabilitation Organizatino (TRO) with ADB funding under the Social Reconstruction programme was declared open and handed over to the beneficiaries on 14 September, sources in Jaffna said.
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Police say evidence exists to arrest Sivaram killers

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 10:55 GMT]
A Police officer of Colombo Crime Division (CCD) has informed the Kaduwela Magistrate court on Friday 16 September, that all information and location details regarding the killers and gun used in the murder of TamilNet senior editor Mr. Dharmaretnam Sivaram has been found, legal sources said. According to the police officer a suspect held in custody had disclosed details of the killers and gun to the investigating officer following a long period of questioning.


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Florida surgeons to help in Puthukudiyiruppu

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 03:58 GMT]
Florida based Rotarian Dr Ali Tahiri, plastic surgeon Dr Bart Rademaker, and an Occupational Therapist are scheduled to visit on post-tsunami aid mission to the NorthEast of Sri Lanka early October. The team will conduct counselling sessions and perform surgeries at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and in Puthukudiyiruppu hospital, Dr Tahiri told TamilNet.
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NorthEast graduate trainees suspend protest campaign

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 02:42 GMT]
Graduate trainees holding demonstrations in front of education offices in Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Trincomalee since Monday demanding permanent appointments Thursday evening decided to call off their protest from Friday following an assurance by Mr.R.Thiakalingam, Secretary North East Provincial Education Ministry, that he would attend to their grievances urgently, sources said.
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SLA searches TNA MP's Mannar residence

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 September 2005, 00:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers from Mannar camp encircled Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Mr Vino Noharathalingam's residence at 5.15pm Thursday before entering the house, and searched all rooms in the house for suspicious material, the MP said in registering his complaint to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
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Col. Sornam briefs INGOs, NGOs in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2005, 18:03 GMT]
Colonel Sornam, Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Tuesday addressed the delegates of the international and national level non-governmental organizations (INGOs and NGOs) in the Trincomalee district about the urgency to expedite rehabilitation of war and tsunami affected people and the reconstruction of devastated areas, sources said.


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Peace approach should transcend party politics- paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2005, 16:59 GMT]
"The peace process requires an approach that transcends narrow and warped ambitions of party politics. The two Presidential candiates, Premier Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition leader Ranil Wickramesinghe, must refrain from making the peace process an issue at the forthcoming Presidential elections," said an editorial of Thinakkural, a popular Tamil daily in its Thursday edition.


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Thileepan's 18th anniversary commemorations begin

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 September 2005, 11:18 GMT]
Preparations to commemorate eighteenth death anniversary of Lt.Col.Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan), who fast to death during the occupation of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Jaffna, have begun in several parts of NorthEast with red and yellow flags symbolizing the Liberation Tigers being flown at main roads, key junctions, business premises and Government buildings, sources said. Thileepan passed away two weeks into his fast after placing five demands to the Indian Government.
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Tens of thousands attend resurgence event in Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 17:11 GMT]
Tens of thousands of people from Mullaitivu district, including the tsunami ravaged coastal areas participated in the Tamil Resurgence event held at Malathi Sports Ground, Puthukudiyiruppu, Wednesday evening at 3:30 p.m. The event was organised by the Tamil National Resurgence Task Force to bolster the Vavuniya Declaration. Red-Yellow bi-colour flags were seen flying in all parts of Mullaithivu.
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TRO funds Sinhala pre-school in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 00:08 GMT]
The construction work of a pre-school for Sinhala students in Vijithapura, a suburb in Trincomalee town, began Tuesday with funding from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO that works exclusively in the NorthEast. Mr.Pradeep Ranga, Officer-in-charge of the Police Post in Trincomalee railway station and Mr.C.Kumarakuruparan, Deputy Director of the TRO, Trincomalee district branch laid the foundation stones for the proposed pre-school, sources said.
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Tamil businessman shot dead in Innuvil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 12:06 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen abducted a Tamil businessman from Uduvil and later shot and killed him in Innuvil west around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, sources in Jaffna said. The victim, Mr. Balasingham Sivanesan, 38, an owner of a fancy shop, was abducted by gunmen when he returned home located on Love Lane in Uduvil for lunch Tuesday.


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Sun TV retransmission station attacked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 06:17 GMT]
Unidentified attackers lobbed a handgrenade and opened fire at the Sun Television retransmission station in Vairavarpuliyankulam, located one kilometer west of Vavuniya town at 9:15 p.m. Monday, Vavuniya police said. No one was injured in the attack, according to an official of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, the organisation that operates the retransmission station in Vavuniya. The station, located 50 meters away from a paramilitary camp belonging to Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) was also attacked in June 2005.
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SLA behind group fights in Jaffna, charges Ilamparithi

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2005, 16:53 GMT]
Mr.C.Ilamparithi, Jaffna district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Monday charged that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and its intelligence operatives are behind the group clashes, which are on the increase in recent weeks in the Jaffna district. He said this in an interview with Tamilnet from the new district political office of LTTE now located in the LTTE controlled Pallai division.


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Court extends interim injunction on P-TOMS

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2005, 16:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Monday extended its interim injunction on the implementation of certain clauses of the Pre-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) till November 22 and fixed the inquiry into the petition filed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) seeking the cancellation of the P-TOMS on the same date, legal sources said.
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Peace process faces difficult future - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 September 2005, 10:13 GMT]
Reflecting growing anxieties amongst Sri Lanka’s Tamils in the wake of the Sinhala nationalist forces gathering behind Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, the Tamil Guardian newspaper warned this week that the peace process “will face an ever more uncompromising Sinhala bloc.” The island’s political developments, moreover, reflect the polarised sentiments amongst the island’s communities, the English-language paper’s editorial column argued.
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LTTE official journal launched on Internet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 September 2005, 15:47 GMT]
"Viduthalaipulikal" - the LTTE journal has been made available on the Internet as from Sunday. A complete set of the Tamil journal dating back from 1984 is now accessible on the Internet for readers, according to LTTE sources in Kilinochchi.
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