UN Sub-Commission urged to protect human rights in the NorthEast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2005, 09:54 GMT]
Outlining the bias in the Sri Lankan judicial system against Tamils, the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), a France based Tamil rights group, in a letter handed over to Mr. Vladimir Kartashkin, the chairperson of the UN Sub-Commission On Promotiion and Protection of Human Rights, said: "Justice has been denied to Tamils systematically, over several decades, in all aspects of life. They have suffered systematic human rights violations of genocidal proportions, the perpetrators of which have not been brought to book." The UN Sub-Commission opened its fifty-seventh session on Monday.
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NE part time teachers receive permanency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2005, 09:01 GMT]
Mr.R.Thiakalingam, North East Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Wednesday handed over appointment letters absorbing 203 part time English teachers comprising all three communities out of 860 into the Class 3 Grade 2 of the Ceylon Teachers Service. They have been serving in northeast schools for several years. This is the first time in the Sri Lanka's education history part time teachers served on contract basis are made permanent, education sources said.
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EPDP paramilitary cadre shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2005, 07:35 GMT]
Unidentified persons shot dead an EPDP cadre identified as Sooriyapillai Nixon, 24, Thursday around 12:30 p.m. in Jaffna town. The cadre was taking a parcel of copies of a Tamil weekly, Thinamurasu, published by the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), a paramilitary group and a close ally of the Sri Lanka's United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, to be distributed to sale outlets, Police sourcers said.
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US should facilitate equitable, expeditious aid distribution- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 July 2005, 00:39 GMT]
Speaking at a Members' briefing organized by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Wednesday at the Rayburn building of the Capitol Hill Washington D.C on "Sri-Lanka: Challenges and Efforts to Effectively Deliver Humanitarian Relief in the Wake of the Tsunami," Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Gajendrakumar urged the United States Government to "resolve any legal issues that prevent the US government from directly, equitably and expeditiously providing all forms of assistance to all parts of the Northeast," sources in Washington said.


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LTTE: "no need to renegotiate ceasefire"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 19:06 GMT]
Rejecting a call by the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga inviting the Liberation Tigers for top-level talks to review and restructure the February 2002 ceasefire agreement, the Tigers this week urged the Sri Lankan government to implement the clauses and obligations of the truce without delay, so as to "consolidate the conditions of peace and normalcy in the Tamil homeland."
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Tamil convention demands immediate withdrawal of SL military

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 14:45 GMT]
Proclaiming that an environment must be created to enable Tamils to decide their political destiny, the Tamil National Resurgence Convention held in Vavuniya, demanded that the occupying Sinhala forces must vacate the land and seas of the NorthEast with immediate effect. The proclamation concluded urging the International Community to recognise the "basic rights and life of freedom with peace on the basis of our traditional homeland, our nationhood and self rule and struggle for sovereignty."


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Batticaloa youth shot dead in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 14:34 GMT]
Mr. Kirupaharan Krishnapillai, 28, a Tamil youth, who was shot by unidentified gunmen Tuesday night around 11:30 p.m in Colombo, succumbed to gunshot wounds Wednesday morning around 6:30 a.m. at Colombo Hospital, Police sources said.
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Journalists protest against SL Deputy Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 13:43 GMT]
Hundreds of print and electronic media personnel demonstrated against the Deputy Minister of Labour Relations and Foreign Employment, Mr. Mervyn Silva, condemning the verbal abuse by the Deputy Minister against the Sirasa, Swarnavahini television jouranalists and several other news paper reporters and photographers who were at the Colombo Fort Magistrate Courts to cover a case against Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva's son on Monday, sources said.
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Tamil National Resurgence Convention begins in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 09:37 GMT]
A Tamil national resurgence conference with more than one thousand Tamil national activists comprising academics, writers, religious dignitaries, representatives of civil organisations and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs from Amparai, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna, Vanni and Mannar, began in Vavuniya at 10:30 a.m on Wednesday at Vairavapuliyankulam Children's Park. Leaders of the Up-Country Peoples Front (UPF) and the Western Province Peoples' Front (WPPF) are also participating in the conference, sources in Vavuniya said.
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286 Tamil medium teachers to be posted to NE schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 16:45 GMT]
286 GCE Advanced Level qualified Tamil medium teachers are to receive their appointment letters from zonal education offices in their respective districts in the northeast province Wednesday. These teachers have been selected by the Colombo Ministry of Education based on the results of the competitive examination held in December last year and the list has been handed over to the North East Provincial Ministry of Education for posting, education department officials said.
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Tamil Media Alliance condemns Minister for insulting journalist

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 16:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance has condemned Deputy Minister of Labour Relations and Foreign Employment, Mr. Mervyn Silva for verbally abusing and nearly assaulting the Veerakesari photographer Mr. S. Surenthiran who went to cover a court case where the Deputy Minister's son was involved.
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"Sri Lanka's Judiciary consistently denied justice to Tamils" - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 15:21 GMT]
"We have seen how the Judiciary of Sri Lanka aided the oppression of Tamil people during the period of war, and we have recently witnessed how Colombo's Supreme Court crippled the Agreement on Joint Mechanism accepted by the President of Sri Lanka," LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan said in his key note address delivered in Kilinochchi at the ceremony to mark the opening of the new building for Legislation Secretariat of the Judicial Administrative Unit of the Tamil Eelam on Tuesday. "The Sinhala Nation has failed to seize the opportunity during this three and a half year period of absence of war to resolve the Tamil national question," LTTE's Political Head said.
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Tamil Uprising Convention to be held Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 10:59 GMT]
Tamil National Uprising Convention is to be held in Vavuniya at the Vairavapuliyankulam Children's Park on Wednesday where about one thousand delegates from civil groups in the northeast province are expected to participate, organizers of the conference said.
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Two youths knifed to death in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 05:44 GMT]
Two Tamil youths, Mr. Kumarasamy Pathmaharan, 23, from Jaffna town and Mr. Subramaniam Kohulan, 26, from Sarasalai west, Chavakachcheri, were found knifed to death at Manippuram 4 km. northwest of Vavuniya, Police said.
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P-TOMS Court action, a true tragedy - Prof Plate

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 July 2005, 15:52 GMT]
Expressing his view that that the stay order by Sri Lanka's Supreme Court suspending four key provisions of the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) "a true tragedy," Prof Tom Plate of University of California, Los Angeles, told TamilNet that he is optimistic that aid dollars will still go to NorthEast.
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Social mobilization workshop begins in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 July 2005, 02:18 GMT]
Opening event of a residential nine-day workshop for nearly 30 staff engaged in social mobilization in different districts of NorthEast was held in Kanagapuram in Kilinochchi Saturday at 3.30 pm, sources said. Director of the Socilal Mobilization section of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Mr M Selvarajah, presided the event.
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Environmental Commission formed in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 July 2005, 11:25 GMT]
The inaugural event of the Thamileelam Commision for Environmental Governance (TCEG) was held at the Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) located in Kilinochchi presided by Liberation Tiger's Head of Political Wing S P Thamilchelvan at 10 am Saturday, sources in Kilinochchi said. The main mission of the Commission is to ensure environmental protection in the NorthEast, PDS officials said.
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One civilian, policeman killed in Pottuvil

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 July 2005, 06:08 GMT]
A civilian was killed when the Police opened fire after an unidentified gunman shot and killed a Police constable in Pottuvil town around 11.00 p.m. on Thursday. The civilian victim, identified as Mr. Kanagasabai Ranjithkumar, is a 21 year old Tamil youth from Kundumadu.
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Humedica assists tusnami-affected fishermen in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 July 2005, 18:40 GMT]
Humedica, a Gernam non-governmental organization Thursday concluded its first phase distribution of fishing boats with outboard engines, fishing nets and bicycles to tsunami affected fishermen in the coastal villages from Thondamannaru to Katkovalam in Point Pedro in the Jaffna district.
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Disarming paramilitaries vital for peace - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 10:34 GMT]
LTTE's Political Head Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, after meeting with a Norwegian delegation Wednesday morning in Kilinochchi told the press that the ceasefire monitors did not bring any new message that will improve the deteriorating ground conditions in the NorthEast. He accused Colombo and the Sri Lankan armed forces for nurturing and promoting paramilitary groups in the SLA held areas of the NorthEast in violation of clause 1.8 of the CFA. "We stressed to Norwegian delegation the urgency of disarming the paramilitaries according to the terms of the CFA," Thamilchelvan told the reporters.
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