GTZ to rebuild six schools in Vadamaradchchi east

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 15:54 GMT]
GTZ, a German non-governmental organization has agreed to rebuild six schools destroyed by Tsunami in the LTTE controlled Vadamaradchchi east division in the Jaffna district. This decision was taken at a conference held in the Ministry of Education in Colombo, Jaffna education sources said.
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Trinco railway workers protest over tsunami relief

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 12:26 GMT]
About two hundred family members of about sixty employees of the Government Railway in Trincomalee held a demonstration condemning the government's failure to provide relief since the Tsunami hit their quarters and demanding immediate relief and other assistance any further delay. They sat across the rail track blocking the morning Colombo bound passenger train from leaving Trincomalee railway station, sources said.
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Tigers walk out in protest against JVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2005, 10:04 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Monday walked out of a meeting for setting up a committee for assisting Tsunami victims at the Thirukkovil Divisional Secretary’s (DS) office in protest against a JVP Parliamentarian who had come uninvited for the conference. “We welcome everyone who comes to help our people. But this JVP politician used Tsunami assistance as a pretext to sow political hatred and Sinhala chauvinism. We walked out, objecting to his cheap political tactics”, said Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE’s political division for the Batticaloa-Amparai district.
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TRO supplies relief to Trinco railway employees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2005, 19:30 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Sunday afternoon distributed relief materials to the families of about fifty eight-government railway workers comprising all three communities who are working in the Trincomalee railway station. TRO came to the rescue of these families on representation made to it that the government authority concerned in Trincomalee had refused to provide them with relief since Tsunami hit their quarters on December 26, trade union sources said.
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Catamaran fishing to recommence in northern sea Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 January 2005, 17:42 GMT]
Fishing using traditional craft "catamaran" is to start again in Jaffna northern sea Monday after a month since Tsunami hit the coastal areas. Most of traditional fishing crafts had been damaged in the natural disaster but the balance would be put in use this week, fisheries sources said. The word catamaran is of Tamil origin. The Tamil word 'Kattumaram' means logs bound together which, pronounced in English, transforms into Catamaran.
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Ranil Wickremasinghe leaves for Norway

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2005, 15:35 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the opposition and the United National Party (UNP) Saturday evening left for Norway. Mr.Milinda Morogoda and Mr.T.Maheswaran, former ministers in the then United National Front (UNF) government accompanied him, UNP sources said.
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TCF assists Eachchilampathu tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2005, 14:01 GMT]
Trincomalee Children Fund (TCF) funded by a group of Trincomalee Tamils domiciled in Canada Friday distributed a consignment of cooking utensils, mats and other relief items to hundreds of tsunami victims in the LTTE held Eeachilampathu division, down south of the Trincomalee district. Mr.S.Umamaheswaran, Eeachilampathu Divisional Secretary inaugurated the distribution at his office, sources said.
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WHO aids CHC with medical supplies towards relief efforts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2005, 11:55 GMT]
The Centre for Health Care (CHC), an NGO based in Kilinochchi, said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has come forward with donations of medical supplies to CHC relief efforts towards the Tsunami affected victims on Saturday. Dr. Kan Tun, the WHO Representative to Sri Lanka, presenting the donations to representatives of CHC Saturday at the CHC Head office in Kilinochchi has assured CHC that the WHO would consider aiding the training programme for psycho-social counsellors conducted by the centre, sources in Kilinochchi told TamilNet.
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Tigers meet Muslim refugees in Ullai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2005, 06:22 GMT]
A group of Liberation Tigers led by head of the LTTE’s political division for the Batticaloa-Ampara District, Mr. E. Kousalyan, Friday visited Tsunami affected Muslim refugees in the marooned Ullai-Panama region, to discuss their rehabilitation needs. The LTTE team traveled through the jungle and muddy rivers to the area, which is accessible only by boat after the Tsunami knocked down the ramp and approach road to the Arugambay Bridge last month. The refugees at the Aathimunai Welfare Centre, a mound amidst marshland and paddyfields behind Ullai told Mr. Kouslayan that their main concern is about getting a new settlement.
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Japanese, Dutch Foreign Ministers to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 20:10 GMT]
Mr. Shuzen Tanigawa, Senior Vice Foreign Affairs Minister of the Government of Japan is to arrive in Colombo Saturday evening on a three-day visit and Mr.Bernard Bot, Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister will arrive in Colombo February 3rd, diplomatic sources said.
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"Colombo bent on blocking aid reaching NorthEast"- Balasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 10:43 GMT]
"The Sinhala government is bent on diverting foreign aid, meant for the tsunami affected people, to strengthen its military apparatus and also to stabilize its political power. Our leadership is taking all possible efforts at international level and with the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure an equitable distribution of funds to the affected people in all areas. The funds for NorthEast will be immmediately used for rehabilitation and and to improve the living standard of our people," said Mr. Balasingham speaking to a group of tsunami victims in Mullaithivu Thursday.
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Eastern LTTE Commanders in Kilinochchi to consult with Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 08:34 GMT]
LTTE's Special Commanders from Trincomalee and Batticaloa, Col. Sornam and Col. Banu arrived in Kilinochchi Friday morning for consultations with the LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan, sources in Kilinochchi told TamilNet. Commander Nagesh also accompanied Col Banu for the Kilinochchi discussions, sources added.
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Pirapaharan's top priority is reconstruction, not politics, says Anton Balasingham

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 07:45 GMT]
"This is not the time to engage in political haggling and our National Leader has prioritised rehabilitation and reconstruction of the devastated Tamil Homeland and thereby give you all a better life, creating the right conditions that would redeem you from the state of dependency attached to a displaced life" quoted LTTE Peace Secretariat website Mr. Anton Balasingham, LTTE Political Advisor, as saying while addressing a group of Tsunami displaced people in the welfare centre at Mulliyawalai, Mullaithivu Friday.
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Tsunami relief to northeast inadequate- Chandrasekaran

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 03:46 GMT]
"The distribution of relief to Vanni region by the Sri Lanka government is not satisfactory and urgent needs of the Tsunami affected people are not being met adequately. No responsible government official has visited Jaffna, Vanni and other affected districts in the NorthEast after Tsunami disaster to see the ground situation there," said Mr.P.Chandrasekaran, leader of the Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) and Nuwara Eliya district parliamentarian addressing the National Mourning Day meeting in Trincomalee esplanade held Wednesday evening.
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Rebuilding Trinco fishing industry discussed

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2005, 03:09 GMT]
"International community has understood the need for an administrative authority to channel foreign aid to the Tsunami devastated northeast province. Foreign funds are likely to be available for the reconstruction of northeast through an authority or for the implementation of identified specific projects. Hence we can expect an equitable proportion of foreign aid to Tsunami destroyed northeast province," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee district parliamentarian and the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) addressing a conference on rebuilding Tsunami destroyed fishing industry in Trincomalee district, sources said.
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'Hotel Tsunami' welcomes no more in Arugambay

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2005, 15:08 GMT]
"The government’s treasury is brimming with Tsunami aid money. Here only our eyes brim with tears. The government has not given us anything in aid. We are living mostly on handouts by NGOs and others who come to see the plight of this place", M.L.M Haniffa, a farmer in Ullai, considered one of the ten best surfing spots in the world, told TamilNet Wednesday. The forty eight year old Muslim farmer who lost his wife, daughter and two sons, lives alone in an open tent near the ruins of what once a popular beach front guesthouse in Ullai – Hotel Tsunami.
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Tamil plantation sector flood victims neglected for two years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2005, 10:35 GMT]
Tamil plantation workers in the Sabaragamuwa Province were ignored in the flood relief assistance given to the people affected by the floods in 2003 and have not received any assistance during the last two years, said estate sources Thursday. The plantation workers continue to live in crowded tents for the last two years.
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Tree planting, shramadana campaign mark remembrance day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 January 2005, 03:58 GMT]
Members of Trincomalee District Women Organizations and officials of the provincial ministry of education, provincial department of education and zonal education office Wednesday organized a shramadana campaign to clean the surrounding of Tsunami welfare centre located in the village of Sambaltivu, about five km north of Trincomalee district to mark the first month remembrance of people died on December 26 in the natural disaster, sources said.
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Trinco remembers tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 22:48 GMT]
Religious dignitaries of all faiths and communities participated in the national mourning day held in Trincomalee playgrounds Wednesday evening and paid respect to the dead in the December 26 Tsunami which devastated the coastal villages in the Trincomalee district. The Trincomalee Tamil Peoples' Forum and Federation of Trincomalee Tamil Fisheries Societies organized the event, sources said.
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National Day of Mourning observed in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 12:54 GMT]
Amid cries among those attending the various ceremonies, a highly emotional day of mourning was observed throughout the Northeast Wednesday on the 31st annivesary day of the Tsunami that devastated the Northeast on 26th of December. A wall-clock, which stopped at 8.50 a.m. on December 26 at Mullaitivu Kallapaddu Maha Vidiyalayam following Tsunami disaster was again made to tick into operation on Wednesday at 8.50 a.m. symbolizing the return of life. Tamils observe 31st day of death with special ceremonies.
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