MBA students assist tsunami-hit Veloor villagers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 06:50 GMT]
Students following Management and Business Administration (MBA) course in the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) of the University of Sri Jayawardenapura have provided assistance to tsunami-affected villagers of Veloor, Adambodai and Kuchchaveli to restore livelihood. They also helped to improve the management of tsunami shelters located in these areas, sources said.
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Tamil MPs boycot NE governor's visit to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 17:45 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MPs Saturday boycotted the first official visit of Northeast Governor Mr. Tyronne Fernandao to Batticaloa. The Minister for Batticaloa Development, Mr. M.S.M Ameer Ali, was also not present for the Governor's visit to the troubled eastern town.
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Tamils risk turning violence inwards- Prof Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:20 GMT]
Although the three years of relative peace after the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the United National Party (UNP) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) has demonstrated that violence and war is not necessary to mediate relations between warring parties, the same period has "also proved that Tamil society ran the risk of turning violence inwards, against itself," writes Prof Uyangoda in an article appearing in the Saturday edition of Daily Mirror.
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Workshop held for pre-school officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:10 GMT]
Mr. Tramz-Josepf Kuhn of German ABC Foundation held a one-day workshop Saturday morning for the district, zonal and divisional co-ordinators of pre-schools in Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya on new learning techniques at the International Children School auditorium in Kilinochchi. Mr.S.Rajagopal, Director of the International Children School presided.
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WB funded E-Sri Lanka project ignores Tamil journalists-SLTMA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:08 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) said the Tamil media journalists are ignored in the computer-training programme of the E- Sri Lanka Project of the Government's Information Technology Institute, which is funded by the World Bank (WB). SLTMA General Secretary Mr.R.Barathi in a statement appealed to the World Bank and the office of the Prime Minister to intervene in this matter and to take corrective steps to include Tamil media personnel in the training programme, SLTMA sources said.
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"No hope for Tamils within a united Sri Lanka" - Verena Graf tells UN Commission

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 21:28 GMT]
"The developments during the last three years compounded by the post-tsunami experiences raise the specter that time is running out; that there is no hope for the Tamils within a united Sri Lanka, that their only chance lies in fighting for external self-determination," Ms. Verena Graf, Secretary General of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, a Geneva based NGO with Special Consultative Status at the United Nations, said in her oral statement on Friday at UN Commission's 61st session on Human Rights.
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100 member UK medical volunteer team to work in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 15:17 GMT]
A group of about one hundred medical officers and volunteers from United Kingdom comprising Indian, Sri Lankan and European nationals belonging to Satya Sai Samithi Society, arrived this week in Sri Lanka to conduct medical camps in the NorthEast, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Lanka customs confiscates relief medical supplies

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 10:37 GMT]
After delaying two weeks in providing clearance to a container sent from North Carolina, the Sri Lanka customs confiscated 54 boxes of medical supplies and transferred the items for delivery through their own Social Services Ministry, and charged $1000 for the rest of the 168 boxes of other relief supplies, officals of the North Carolinians for Peace (NCFP) told TamilNet. The Clearing agent, Capitol Area Lions Club has been instructed to deliver the cleared relief material to "cleared areas," (Government controlled areas) only, NCFP officials added.
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Riot Police stop IDPs entering Jaffna HSZ

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 March 2005, 07:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police special riot squads Friday blocked more than a thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) from forcibly entering the military high security zone (HSZ) in Thellipalai, Jaffna. The HSZ covers most of Jaffna’s northwestern sector. Protestors and Tamil National Alliance MPs argued with the Police riot squads. About thousand five hundred IDPs staged a protest march Friday from Mallakam Junction to the Thellipalai Divisional Secretary’s office demanding that they be allowed to resettle in their villages that have been garrisoned by the Sri Lanka army for more than fifteen years.
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Canadian parliamentary team meets Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 18:07 GMT]
The Canadian parliamentary delegation, which is currently visiting Sri Lanka, held discussions with Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday afternoon at Hotel Club Oceanic located three km off north of Trincomalee town, sources said.
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LTTE showed maximum flexibility in accepting joint mechanism proposal - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 21:56 GMT]
Although the proposed joint mechanism for post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction did not fully meet the requirements necessary to facilitate recovery efforts in NorthEast to proceed unhindered, the LTTE accepted the proposal in view of the urgency demanded by the situation in NorthEast, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, LTTE's political head told Swedish Minister for Development Cooperation, Ms. Carin Jamtin, when he met with the Minister in Stockholm Tuesday, sources said.
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All Sinhala relief team to assist TAFOR in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 19:31 GMT]
None of the forty four relief co-ordinators hired by the Commissioner of General Essential Services and Chairman of the Task Force for Relief (TAFOR), Mr Tilak Ranaviraja, is Tamil speaking, attendees to a meeting called by the Commissioner held at the Ministry of Defense 14 March, said. Relief co-ordinators are recent graduates selected to assist TAFOR in finding land for transitional housing for the tsunami displaced, sources said.
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Swiss firefighting equipment held by Lanka customs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 14:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Customs on recommendation from Sri Lanka security forces have refused to release a container with fire fighting equipment sent to the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) from Switzerland, officials of TRO said. In a press release issued from Colombo Tuesday, TRO officials added that the equipments are neither banned nor illegal to import, and are intended for use during emergencies in refugee camps.
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Two killed in Karapola

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 02:30 GMT]
Two men were shot dead in Karapola, Welikanda, Monday night around 9.30, Police said. Karapola is a Tamil village in the Polannaruwa district near the Batticaloa border. Officer in Charge of Welikanda Police Mr. Saman Perera said an unidentified armed group was involved in the killing.
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Commission on eastern killings to record evidence

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 12:32 GMT]
The commission appointed by Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga to inquire into attacks on the Liberation Tigers in the east will record evidence from 28 March to 8 April 2005, according to a media release by the President’s officer in Colombo Monday. The commission on “alleged attacks on LTTE” will record evidence “to ascertain the circumstances and/or the motive leading to the attacks on those alleged to be LTTE Cadres”, according to the release. Tigers dismissed the commission as “eyewash” last week, pointing to the fate of four Presidential commissions that inquired into massacres of Tamil civilians in the east by Sri Lankan armed forces.
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Woman MP leads Jaffna rape protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 12:24 GMT]
Ms Pathmini Sithamparanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) sole woman parliamentarian in the Jaffna district led protest march held in Jaffna town Monday condemning the attempt to rape a sixty three year old Tamil woman of Neerveli on Thursday by a soldier of the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday when she was alone in her home. The protest march began Monday morning from Nallur Kandasamy Temple area and concluded in front of the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), sources said.
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Woman identifies SLA soldier in attempted rape case

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 11:51 GMT]
A sixty three year old Tamil woman of Neerveli in Jaffna Monday identified the soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who attempted to rape her last Thursday at an identification parade held in the Jaffna Magistrate's Court.
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Trinco tsunami victims protest, demand proper shelters

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 11:05 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil speaking people affected by tsunami disaster in the coastal areas of Trincomalee town and its suburbs Monday held protest in several places sitting across main roads bringing traffic to a halt, demanding that they should be moved out from tents and be located in temporary houses elsewhere, sources said.
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Trinco observes general shut down

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2005, 09:54 GMT]
Normal life in the Trincomalee town and its suburbs was disrupted Monday in responding to the call of the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples' Forum putting forward six demands including that discrimination in providing tsunami relief to Tamil speaking people should be stopped, ensure equal distribution of aid sent by the international community to Tamil speaking tsunami victims, condemning the government for exercising emergency regulations to crush minority rights and to stop setting up of illegal Sinhala settlements in Trincomalee, sources said.
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SEDOT builds Homes for destitute Sambaltivu children

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 March 2005, 13:40 GMT]
Socio-Economic Development Organization in Trincomalee (SEDOT) funded by the Tamil Welfare Association in Canada has launched a project to run two homes in the Trincomalee district-one at Sambaltivu, north of east port town and other at Mallikaitheivu, south of Muttur division for destitute children affected by war and natural disaster, sources in Trincomalee said.


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