Trinco students to protest against SLA presence around schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 16:04 GMT]
Trincomalee District Tamil Students Forum (TDTSF) has called Tamil speaking students for a token boycott of classes on Monday in protest to the presence of Sri Lanka Army troops in large number surrounding schools in the Trincomalee town thus violating the ceasefire agreement. Trincomalee has become a garrisoned city following the unlawful erection of Buddha statue, sources said.
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Thenmaradchchi residents complain of army harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 12:10 GMT]
Members of the Sri Lanka Army Intelligence Unit stationed in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district are reportedly harassing the residents whom they consider supporters of LTTE, human rights activists have complained to civil authorities.
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GoSL peace secretariat officials visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 05:42 GMT]
A team of officials of the Sri Lankan Government's Peace Secretariat Thursday afternoon held a discussion with judicial officers in the Jaffna district regarding the question of maintaining law and order in the district thus enabling to take forward the current peace process.
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TNA to move motion in parliament condemning Tamil journalist attack

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 05:41 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has decided to move an adjournment motion in parliament Friday condemning the attack on Mr.Yathurshan Premachchandran, a trainee photo-journalist of a Colombo Tamil daily Sudar Oli when he was covering the JVP demonstration held in front of the Fort railway Station Tuesday afternoon. TNA parliamentary group has given notice to this effect to the Speaker Wednesday. The Speaker has agreed for a debate on this issue, TNA sources said.
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IOM donates bicycles to 120 pre-school teachers in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 August 2005, 01:45 GMT]
International Organization for Migration (IOM) funded by the Government of Australia donated bicycles to 120 pre-school teachers of all three communities in Trincomalee district at an event held in the Trincomalee Town Hall Wednesday under the sponsorship of Tamil Rehabilitation Organization. These pre-school teachers were trained by the Pre-School Education Centre (PSEDC), which has its headquarters in Killinochchi.
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Kilinochchi to hold Tamil Resurgence celebrations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2005, 15:40 GMT]
In a press meet held at the Cultural Hall in Kilinochchi Tuesday, T Prabakaran, head of the Event Mobilization group, requested the attending journalists to provide publicity for the event to be held 1 September from 3 pm to midnight, and to publish historic articles describing the Tamil national movements in Kilinochchi district, sources attending the meeting said.
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Jaffna journalists picket against Denmark funded Media Training Institute

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 August 2005, 10:00 GMT]
Journalists of all Tamil dailies in the Jaffna district and representatives of media associations held a picketing in front of the Denmark funded Media Training Institute (MTI) of the Jaffna University Thursday demanding the implementation of four demands put forward by the North Sri Lanka Journalists' Association (NSJA). The picketing which commenced around nine a.m. was called off by afternoon following an agreement reached at a discussion held later between the MTI and NSJA officials, sources said.
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TNA delegation meets UK envoy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 15:48 GMT]
A Tamil National Alliance parliamentary delegation Wednesday morning met with Mr. Stephen Evans, British High Commissioner in Colombo and exchanged views on the proposed talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) regarding the implementation of the ceasefire agreement to its word, current position of the P-TOMS following the Supreme Court's interim order, the urgency of establishing the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) and the future political scenario in the south which is expected to be followed with the order of the Supreme Court on the presidential election date controversy on Friday, TNA sources said.
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Colombo court releases Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 10:34 GMT]
Mr.Sarath Karunaratne, Fort Magistrate Wednesday afternoon allowed an application by the Fort Police to arrest those who had assaulted Mr.Yathurshan Premachchandran, a trainee journalist of Colombo Tamil daily Sudar Oli when he was engaged in covering the demonstration held by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday afternoon in front of the Colombo Fort Railway Station, legal sources said.
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JVP demonstrates against direct talks between GoSL and LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 17:18 GMT]
More than five thousand activists of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna held a two hour demonstration in front of the Fort Railway Station in Colombo Tuesday afternoon opposing the direct talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Mr.Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP, speaking at the conclusion of the demonstration said that the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is at stake with the continued presence of Norwegian facilitators in the island in the name of monitoring Cease Fire Agreement signed by the then UNP government and the LTTE.
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Tamil journalist in Colombo assaulted by JVP, arrested under ER

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 16:34 GMT]
Mr.Yathurshan Premachchandran, a photojournalist of Colombo Tamil daily "Sudar Oli" was handed over to the Fort Police in Colombo after being assaulted by a group of JVP activists Tuesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. The journalist was assisting his senior journalist in covering a JVP demonstration held in front of Fort Railway Station. Mr. Premachandran has complained that he was also attacked by the Police, according to media sources. The Fort Police has handed over the journalist to the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) alleging him to be a member of the Liberation Tigers, sources added.
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Mannar CSU rape case to be heard in Anuradhapura HC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 15:38 GMT]
Three Sri Lankan police officers and nine soldiers of the Sri Lanka Navy are indicted in the High Court of Anuradhapura Tuesday with the rape and torture of two Tamil women Sivamani Weerakone and Wijakala Nanthan of Uppukulam, a suburb of Mannar town. According to the charge sheet the offences had been committed on 19th March 2001. The inquiry into this case has been fixed for September 21, 22 and 28, legal sources said.
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Fifteen Tamil girls arrested in Mannar released

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 12:10 GMT]
Fifteen Tamil girls arrested Monday early morning in a combined search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police in a house which is located in the village of Thullukuddiruppu in Mannar district were released when they found innocent during interrogation. The girls were arrested on wrong information received by the Sri Lanka Navy, said the Mannar Police in its report furnished in the Mannar Magistrate Court Tuesday afternoon, legal sources said.
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Tamil man arrested for filming Wickramasinghe's office

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 11:33 GMT]
Security officials at Sri Lanka's Opposition Leaders Office in Colombo arrested a 47-year-old Tamil man Tuesday around 11:30 p.m. for filming Opposition Leader Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe's office located at Cambridge Place in Colombo, Police said.
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Protesters in Colombo urge Indian Government to halt SSCP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 07:04 GMT]
The People's Movement Against the Sedusamudram Ship Canal Project staged a demonstration opposite the Indian High Commission in Colombo on Tuesday from noon till 1:00 p.m. The demostration was led by the movement's organiser Attorney-At-Law E. Thambiah with the participation over thousand protestors which he described as a gathering irrespective of ethnicity, religion and region. The anti Sedusamudram protestors urged the Indian Government to stop the project immediately as it created adverse impact on the shipping and the enviornmental aspects of Sri Lanka.
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Ex-SLA soldiers urged to help solve disappeared cases

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 05:31 GMT]
The North East Secretariat on Human Rights has appealed to ex-Sri Lankan military officials living overseas to come forward to help solve the cases of over 70 Tamil youths who were disappeared in the 1990s in Mandaithivu-Alappiddy-Mankumban areas, according to an interim report obtained by TamilNet's Kilinochchi correspondent.
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Police refuse information on journalist arrested under ER - FMM

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2005, 16:52 GMT]
A Tamil journalist, Mr. Subramanium Ramesh, the Mawathagama correspondent for the Tamil language daily "Veerakesari", was arrested under Emergency Regulations sometime in the afternoon of 19 August 2005, said Free Media Movement in a news alert. FMM officials had called the officer in charge of Kurunagala police several times, but failed to obtain any information about the journalist. The Sri Lankan Police has been refusing to provide details on the arrest, the organisation said in the news release issued from Colombo on Monday. Meanwhile, The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance has urged the Minister of Media Dilan Perera and the Police chief Chandra Fernando to release the Journalist.
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SLA bans transporting school building materials to LTTE held areas in Mannar

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2005, 16:32 GMT]
Construction work of new buildings in two schools in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled areas in the Mannar district has come to a halt due to the ban imposed by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on the transportation of building materials through Uyilankulam and Madu road army checkpoints, sources said.
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NE Human Rights Secretariat calls for withdrawal of ER and PTA

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 August 2005, 11:03 GMT]
North East Secretariat on Human Rights, in a press release issued on Monday called upon the international community to excercise pressure on Colombo to withdraw the Emergency Regulation (ER) which was recently reimposed in Sri Lanka. Also noting that the existing Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) itself is a serious human rights violation, the secretariat said that the two pieces of legislation in force together will lead to a repeat of the large scale human rights violations. Since July 1st, more than 3000 arrests have been reported in the South, according to the press release. It also noted that the increased military presence in Trincomalee is continuing in spite of protest by the Tamils.
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TR TEC opens hightech IT center in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 August 2005, 11:51 GMT]
Tamil Refugee Training and Education Center (TR TEC), an arm of United Kingdom based organization with the same name, opened its Information Technology center with four laboratories equipped with current generation computers, a media lab with audio visual equipment, a hardware lab for PC maintenance training, and satelllite based broadband internet access facilities in Kilinochchi along the A9.
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