Kavadapaddi residents receive self-employment assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 March 2005, 11:40 GMT]
Tsunami affected residents of Kavadapaddi village in Amparai district received assistance in the form of sewing machines, boats and fishing nets for self-employment from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working exclusively in the NorthEast, sources in Amparai said.
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Coal at Trinco harbor poses health risk, Environmentalists warn

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 March 2005, 03:50 GMT]
Unloaded coal piled up near the Ashraff Jetty of the Trincomalee harbour, before transported for use at Puttalam cement factory is endangering the health of the people of the area, Trincomalee civil leaders complained. The coal is then moved to a private land at Tampalakamam located 22 km off the east port town and then transported to Puttalam cement factory about 200 km off Trincomalee, in the northwestern province, sources said.
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Fizzled tsunami leaves two dead during evacuation

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 20:08 GMT]
So far, there is no indication of unusual wave activity in the sea said TamilNet correspondent for Batticaloa who visited a coastal part of the eastern town around 3 AM Tuesday. A boy was killed in a an accident involving a lorry in Mavadippalli and an old women died while fleeing in Kalmunai, according to initial casuality reports from Amparai. First "Tsunami" wave reached Colombo at about 1am (local time) and is less than one foot (10") in height according to information received by US NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) measured at location with coordinates 6-59N 79-51E in Colombo.
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Evacuation underway in NorthEast coastal areas

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 18:49 GMT]
As a precautionary measure to avoid a possible tsunami from a 8.2 richter scale aftershock near Sumatra, LTTE units are evacuating coastal village residents and refugees in transit camps to higher grounds, sources said. FM radio and TV stations continued to provide updates on the quake that hit Sumatra Monday at 16.10 hrs GMT. Temple bells in almost all villages were rung alerting people to evacuate.
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Tsunami warning issued: Earth quake in Sumatra with 8.5 magnitude

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 16:58 GMT]
An earthquake near Sumatra at nearly 240km SE of the previous quake with a magnitude of 8.5 with the "potential to generate a widely destructive tsuami in the ocean or seas near the earthquake is reported by the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). Authorities in those regions should be aware of this possibility and take immediate action. This action should include evacuation of coasts within a thousand kilometers of the epicenter and close monitoring to determine the need for evacuation further away," according to PTWC's alert message. If a tsunami is generated it is likely to hit Sri Lanka around 12.30 am according to TamilNet's calculations.
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Austrian academics, LTTE discuss peace building in Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 11:59 GMT]
“LTTE’s concern for the Tamil people is demonstrated by its flexibility,” said Professor Johan Galtung after the LTTE Political Team led by Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan met with Austrian academics in Stadtschlaining, Austria in the Institute for Integrative Conflict Transformation and Peace-building (IICP) Sunday 27 March 2005.
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Big demo, march in Pt. Pedro

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 10:08 GMT]
More than two thousand Internally displaced persons (IDP) and fisherman of Jaffna's Vadamaradchi region marched and demonstrated in Pt. Pedro Monday demanding that the Sri Lanka army (SLA) leave schools, villages and farm lands it has garrisioned and that the SLA should lift restrictions on fishing. The march was organised by the Federation of Vadamaradchi Public Organisations.
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SEDB distributes solar power units to Mulankavil villagers

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 03:52 GMT]
The Socio Economic Development Bank (SEDB) headquartered in Killinochchi Friday evening distributed eleven solar power units on a loan scheme to its customers to provide electricity to Mulankavil, a village which is located about 45 km west of Killincochi along Poonagari-Mannar road, under its first phase of rural electrification project, sources said.
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Kantalai hospital should be developed on par with Trinco - Health Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2005, 17:19 GMT]
Mr.Nimal Sripala de Silva, Health Minister in the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government said Saturday that the Kantalai base hospital should be developed on par with the Trincomalee general hospital. "Please do not forget about the development of Kantalai hospital," said the Minister when addressing a conference in the Trincomalee general hospital especially summoned to discuss about the development of the century old Trincomalee general hospital built under the British rule.
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Thamil Eelam satellite TV channel launched

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 March 2005, 11:40 GMT]
A satellite TV station called National Television of Thamil Eelam (NTT) will begin beaming news to Europe from an undisclosed location in Sri Lanka’s northeast from Saturday night, an official of the NTT said. "The satellite channel will start today at 17.30 GMT time. We will beam only fifteen minutes of news everyday for the next two weeks. Thereafter our telecast time would be increased to half an hour”, he said. The NTT official added that the Paris based Tamil Television Network (TTN) will relay the broadcast to their audiences in Europe at 18.00 GMT.
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Poverty alleviation woes highlighted

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 18:23 GMT]
An organisation for the 'Samurdhi' poverty alleviation program officers in Sri Lanka's northeast and in the Nuwara Eliya District was inaugurated Friday in Vavuniya. Thousands of people living in poverty in several districts of the northeast do not receive any benefit under this program, according to the governers of the new organisation. The Samurdhi program is also affected by a shortage of field officers in the north.
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Thousands of Hindu devotees dip in Trincomalee Sea after tsunami

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2005, 14:29 GMT]
Several thousand devotees participated in the water-cutting festival of the historic Trincomalee Pathirakali Amman Temple held in the Back Bay Sea in the east port town Friday early morning. Devotees- men, women and children irrespective of age dipped in the sea and performed religious rites amid announcement by Meteorological Department that sea would become rough in the afternoon and the waves would reach the shore beyond one hundred metre, sources said.
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JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
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Sri Lanka’s referendum blues

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:23 GMT]
Opposition fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making serious moves to hold on to the reins of power were further exacerbated when thousands of posters calling for the immediate abolition the country’s executive Presidential system appeared in many part of the island’s capital and suburbs this week. The purple coloured posters were in the name of a nebulous organization called ‘People’s Movement for Democracy’. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says President Kumaratunga is planning to change the constitution to illegally perpetuate herself in power.
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Tension in Akkaraipattu over Police shooting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 11:14 GMT]
Tension prevailed in Akkaraipattu Wednesday after a Muslim youth was shot by Sri Lanka Police in the town around 2 in the afternoon. The youth was riding a motorbike with a colleague when Police opened fire on him at Fiscal Junction in Akkaraipattu town, 64 kilometres south of Batticaloa. A large number of Special Task Force commandos and Police were deployed as tension mounted in the town over the shooting. A Police officer in the town told TamilNet that his men had stopped the youth at a checkpoint and were compelled to open fire as he did not heed them.
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Refugee woman, children stranded on Adam’s Bridge

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 12:06 GMT]
A refugee woman abandoned on a sandbank in the seas off Mannar with her two children was reported missing Tuesday. Fishermen from Thalaimannar who had given food to the woman and her children informed the parish priest of the area about her plight. “They told me that the woman and her daughters were stranded without food or water since Saturday morning. Sri Lanka navy searched the sandbanks in the area when I brought it to their notice”, Fr. Antonydas Christopher Daleema, parish priest for Thalaimannar told TamilNet Tuesday. Local fishermen do not rescue refugees from mid sea, fearing arrest.
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Media report of British pressure false -Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 10:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham Tuesday dismissed claims in a Sri Lankan newspaper that British authorities had pressured him to secure the release of a Tamil resident of the UK which the paper also claimed had been detained by the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka. A columnist in The Sunday Leader claimed this week that British intelligence officials had threatened Mr. Balasingham on behalf of Mr. Rajasingham Jeyadevan after the latter was detained by the LTTE.
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Tamil journalists still feel insecure - SLTMA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 March 2005, 10:28 GMT]
"Tamil media journalists still feel insecure in the ceasefire situation and also they are facing discrimination language wise", said Mr.R.Barathi, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) in his annual report tabled at the annual general meeting of the SLTMA held during the weekend in Colombo.
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"War and Peace" released in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 12:26 GMT]
The book "War and Peace" authored by LTTE political strategist Mr.Anton Balasingham was released Saturday evening at an event held at the Kailasapathi auditorium of the Jaffna University. Mr.E.Puviraj, President of the International Federation of Tamil Eelam Students presided. Professor C.Mohanathas, Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University lit the common flame of sacrifice followed by the Chief Librarian. LTTE deputy political head Mr.S.Thangan hoisted the Thamileelam National Flag, sources said.
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Tilak Karunaratne withdraws petition against MoU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 08:27 GMT]
One of the three petitions filed in the Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the then Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mr.V.Pirapaharan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was withdrawn last week, legal sources said.
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