Sri Lanka Navy rescues abandoned refugees

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 11:53 GMT]
Seventeen refugees rescued by Sri Lanka Navy from a sandbank at mid sea were produced in the Mannar court Monday. Indian refugee runners who had promised to illegally ferry them to Mannar abandoned them on one of the shifting sandbanks of the Adam’s Bridge in the early hours of Saturday morning. Mannar magistrate released the refugees.


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TNA boycotts Tsunami reconstruction meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 11:09 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) boycotted a meeting convened by Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to discuss the question oTsunami reconstruction, held at 11 a.m. today at the Presidential Secretariat, political sources in Colombo said.
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A question of land

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 03:04 GMT]
“We appealed to the President, we appealed to the Special Task Force, we wrote to the Government Agent and we wrote to several ministers in the government. We pleaded with all of them to find us suitable land to restart our lives. We explained to them why we wanted to leave the camp for Tsunami refugees in Akkaraipattu. But no one responded. That’s why we packed our belongings and came here when we heard of this opportunity”, Ms. Pathmanathan Seetha, told TamilNet, explaining her decision to move to Kavudaapuddi, a mound overlooking the lagoon behind her Tsunami destroyed village on Sri Lanka’s remote southeast coast.
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European Parliament MP opens free English centre in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2005, 01:20 GMT]
Mr. Robert Evans, MP of European Parliament declared open a free English resource and language centre in Jaffna Sunday evening. The MP is on a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka regarding the equitable distribution of international Tsunami aid in the country. The centre, managed by Tamil Information Technology Association (TITA ), will offer free courses for underprivileged children in Jaffna. Mr. C. Ilamparithy, head of Liberation Tigers political division for Jaffna, opened the centre’s multimedia lab and the lecture hall.
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"Peace for War"- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2005, 15:23 GMT]
Pointing out the recent efforts by the Sri Lanka Government to strengthen its military apparatus, and the failure to demonstrate political will and capacity to setup a joint institutional mechanism with the Liberation Tigers to obtain aid to assist the tsunami devastated people, the popular daily Uthayan in Saturday's editiorial said, Sri Lanka's President is making use of Peace to prepare for war.
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Institutional Decay perpetuated ethnic conflict- Don

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2005, 13:36 GMT]
Noting that from 1950s Sri Lanka's politicians resorted to ethnic outbidding to attain power and in doing so systematically marginalised the country's minority Tamils, Dr Neil Devotta from Hartwick College New York, in an article published in Nations and Nationalism, argues that "institutional decay. which was produced by the dialectic between majority rule and ethnic outbidding, was what led to Tamil mobilisation and an ethnic conflict that has killed nearly 70.000 people over the past twenty years."
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Colombo dragging feet on joint mechanism, says Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2005, 12:11 GMT]
"The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is still dragging its feet over the establishment of a joint mechanism to take forward the reconstruction and rehabilitation of tsunami destroyed Tamil coastal areas in the northeast province," said Mr S P Thamilchelvan, Political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) addressing a press conference following his two hour- talks with Mr Hans Brattskar, Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka held Saturday morning in LTTE Peace Secretariat in Killinochchi, sources said.
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Rural electrification given boost with SEDB's credit scheme

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 15:16 GMT]
The Socio Economic Development Bank (SEDB)headquartered in Killinochchi Friday inaugurated a rural electrification project in NorthEast villages by providing Solar Home systems (SHSs) on credit basis to consumers. SEDB's Visuvamadu branch at the inaugural event distributed 15 SHSs to fifteen residents of Udaiyarkattu village. The SEDB is run by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
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Netherlands calls for 'conflict sensitivity assurance' in allocation of rebuilding aid

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 14:42 GMT]
Expressing its belief that the government of Sri Lanka would effectively and efficiently channel the international support to all Sri Lankan citizens in need, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations, the government of Netherlands on Friday called for conflict sensitivity assurance in disbursing the international post-tsunami assistance for relief and reconstruction effort.
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Independence day massacre in Killinochchi remembered

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 11:09 GMT]
14th death anniversary of nine innocent Tamil civilians who died in aerial bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force on 4th February, 1991 at Koolavadi, Uruththirapuram in Killinochchi district was observed Friday, Vanni sources said.
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Black flags flown in Northeast on Sri Lanka's Independence Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 06:10 GMT]
Black flags were hoisted in many parts of the Sri Lanka's northeast in protest against the country's independence day. Jaffna University students flew black flags and decorated University's main entrance with curry plantain trees which are used by Tamils at funerals. Sri Lanka army soldiers were deployed in the area, as the military beefed up security in many parts of the northern peninsula. Sri Lankan Army and the Police were seen removing black flags in Vavuniya town.
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Jaffna Civil groups call for Independence Day boycott

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 21:48 GMT]
Jaffna District Civil Groups Forum (JDCGF) Wednesday called upon the residents of Jaffna district to observe February 4 as a day of mourning. The 57th Independence Day of Sri Lanka falls on February 4.
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Underage youths handed over to NESOHR

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 15:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) handed over 23 underage youths who had enlisted with the LTTE to the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) Chairperson Rev.Fr.Karunaratnam Thursday, the Peace Secretariat website said.
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Radical decentralization of relief work needed, TNA tells Dutch FM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 February 2005, 12:49 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Bernard Bot, when they met him Thursday that Colombo's attempt to centralize the rehabilitation work has not worked as experience from the last six six weeks clearly show that hardly any progress has been made in the restoration of the lives of the affected people. "The continuance of the present method of functioning could only result in further deterioration, and that it was imperative that the government urgently set up the required mechanism in the Northeast." the TNA delegation further told the visiting Netherland FM.


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SLA-LTTE delegations meet in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 14:22 GMT]
Delegations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday morning met at the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and discussed several issues including restoring normalcy in the lives of tsunami affected people and the fishing industry, sources said.
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Lack of tents, military meddling trouble Mankerni refugees

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 09:51 GMT]
“There are thousand seven hundred persons belonging to four hundred and eighty one families in this refugee camp. But we have only hundred and ninety eight tents to house them. Hundred and forty five tents were given by UNHCR and ICRC. The government gave us only forty eight tents. It is very difficult for the refugees. But we have asked them to cope”, Mr. Kandasamy Mahtikaran, village officer for Mankerni told TamilNet, describing the travails of this Tsunami devastated coastal settlement about 48 kilometres north of Batticaloa.
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Kalmunai District Court orders DNA test for "Baby 81"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 08:47 GMT]
The Kalmunai District Judge Wednesday ordered DNA test for Mrs Jenita Jeyarajah who claimed to be the biological mother and the baby, popularly called "Baby 81" by the admission number to the Hospital on the Boxing Day. Mrs. Jenita Jeyarajah together with her husband Mr. Jeyarajah were the only couple to appear before the court on Wednesday. The couple were later arrested by the Police together with two of their supporters who stormed the hospital and attacked the employees in an attempt to bring the baby under their custody.
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TNA slams NE Governor’s visit to Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 07:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance Wednesday boycotted a meeting with Governor of the Northeast Province, Mr. Tyronne Fernando, at the Vavuniya district secretariat in protest against what the TNA described as “gross discrimination by the Sri Lankan state in delivering Tsunami aid to Tamil and Muslim areas affected by the disaster”. At the meeting, Government Agents for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu informed the Governor that no heavy machinery for clearing Tsunami destruction was sent to their districts.
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No sunny times for east coast idyll

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2005, 10:50 GMT]
Pasikudah was a tourist’s paradise. Clear blue waters and white sands of the bay attracted thousands. War completely ruined the booming tourist industry here in the mid eighties. The beautiful beach, dotted with the bombed out shells of star class hotels, became a no go zone. Today the beach has vanished, ripped by the giant Boxing Day waves. The hamlet that gave its name to the area is a heap of rubble and debris. There is no warning about mines from destroyed defenses of the Sri Lanka army garrison bordering Pasikudah village.
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Washington residents ship relief supplies

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 23:35 GMT]
Braving inclement weather, a group of expatriate Tamils in Washington Metropolitan area sent a 3200 cubic foot container with medicines, tents, toys and clothings to the warehouse at the Norfolk, Virginia shipyard, destined for Tamils Rehabilitation Organization's (TRO's) Colombo office for distribution to disaster victims in Sri Lanka. "What started as a small scale effort soon expanded as families and organizations called in to contribute their donations and to offer their services for free," organizers of the effort told TamilNet.
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