Kuchchaveli welfare centers short of relief supplies

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 January 2005, 01:21 GMT]
Several hundreds of Tamil and Muslim families from coastal villages of Vellore, Veerancholai, Irrakakandy, Iranaikerni, Kumburupiddy, Salli Munai, Kuchchaveli along the north of Trincomalee district, displaced by the tsunami disaster and now sheltered in welfare centres complain of inadequate relief supplies reaching them. These villages are administered as part of the Kuchchaveli divisional secretariat division in Trincomalee district.


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"Opportunities exist to strengthen peace process"- Donor co-chairs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2005, 21:36 GMT]
In a joint press statement issued by the co-chairs after the Brussels meeting Tuesday, the Sri Lanka Donors ''welcomed the ongoing effective response by the GoSL and the LTTE in distributing humanitarian aid'' and urged the donors to ''ensure [that] the implementation of Tsunami assistance is sensitive to and strengthens the Peace Process.''
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STF harassment increases in Amparai, says Kuyilinpan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2005, 13:08 GMT]
Political Head of the LTTE in Amparai, Mr. Kuyilinpan, told TamilNet Tuesday that the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) soldiers have stepped up their harassment against the LTTE workers who are assisting the Tsunami victims in Thirukkovil and Kalmuni areas. Civilians also have been harassed by the STF, Kuyilipan added.
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Battered Komari fears long years in refugee camps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2005, 10:58 GMT]
Komari is a village settled mostly by families that came to work at a British Royal Air Force runway on Sri Lanka’s remote southeastern coast during World War II. It is a narrow but densely populated promontory sandwiched between a lagoon and the sea. During the Eelam Wars (1983-2002), Komari was ruthlessly controlled like an open prison by the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter insurgency wing of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Last month the place was literally flattened by the Tsunami. The STF camp in Komari’s midst is now a heap of rubble. “Will we ever get permanent homes?” is the fear echoed by many refugees here who spoke to TamilNet Tuesday.
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Tamil youth shot, injured in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 17:40 GMT]
A Tamil youth identified as Jegan (32), has been shot and injured near 33rd Lane in Wellawatte, Colombo 06 on Monday night by unknown gunmen, security sources said.
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Temporarily fixed Eastcoast causeway reopens

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 13:42 GMT]
Transport on the main coastal road between Kalmunai and Batticaloa resumed Monday, almost a month after the Tsunami ripped off sections of two causeways in Kallar, 28 kilometres south of the eastern town. The main gap in the Ondaatchi Madam-koddaikallar Causeway was spanned by a temporary bridge by the Road Development Authority (RDA). “The Sri Lankan government has to come up with big money to really repair this causeway. Otherwise this vital part of our district’s infrastructure would be damaged permanently”, an RDA engineer in Batticaloa told TamilNet.
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Amparai undergrads receive financial support

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 12:30 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) provided financial aid to fifty nine undergraduate students from Amparai district attending Peradeniya, Jaffna and Eastern Universities who were affected by the tsunami disasater in an event held at TRO officies in Thirukovil Monday 10 am, sources from the eastern district said.
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Tamil absent in tsunami relief forms sent to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 12:30 GMT]
The tsunami affected people along the Jaffna coastline have been forced to search for translators to fill the form issued by the Sri Lankan Social Services Department, said sources in Vadamadchi. Although the entire population along this coastline is Tamil speaking, the forms sent by the ministry to collect information about the tsunami affected people are in Sinhala and English only.
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Canadian army gives water, health care to Pandiruppu

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 04:48 GMT]
“We came here when we heard that people in the camps needed some medical assistance. We started setting up a medical facility here today. Our team can see about three hundred patients a day depending on the availability of Tamil interpreters”, Captain Scott Malcom of the Canadian army told TamilNet Sunday, explaining their mission in Tsunami devastated Pandiruppu, a densely populated town by the coast 38 kilometres south of Batticaloa. The Canadian military is supplying drinking water and health services to some villages devastated by the Tsunami on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka which are yet to see any tangible aid from Colombo.
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LTTE declares January 26 as National Day of Mourning

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 16:42 GMT]
"Liberation Tigers declare 26th January as a National Day of Mourning to remember those who lost their lives in the Tsunami disaster in Tamil Homelands and in other regions of South Asia. Let us all participate in the grief and sorrow of all who have lost their loved ones on this day," said Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a press release issued from its Kilinochchi political offices Sunday.
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"Colombo will mislead the world on aid distribution"- Kilinochchi paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 15:11 GMT]
The Tamil daily Eelanatham, published in Killinochchi, warned in its Sunday editorial that Chandrika Kumaratunge's government will again mislead the world on distribution of the aid received for tsunami relief. The paper called on the donors to also set up mechanisms and procedures to ensure an equitable distribution of aid to all those affected, among them two thirds are from the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
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IFT urges Donors to support NorthEast apex mechanism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 15:03 GMT]
The Geneva based International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a consortium of more than 150 expatriate Tamil organizations, has called on the co-chairs of Tokyo Doner conference (Sri Lanka) to express support for an effective aid distibution apex mechanism to Northeastern region of Sri Lanka. IFT called the attention of the International Community and the Co-Chairs to examine the current post -Tsunami situation in northeastern region. Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka is scheduled to be held in Brussels in January 2005.
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Colombo’s post tsunami development blueprint assailed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 03:03 GMT]
Plan drawn up as a blueprint for post-tsunami development by the “Task force to Rebuild the Nation” (TAFREN), one of the three committees comprising the Center for National Operations (CNO) set up by Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge, announced Monday, is assailed as being immoral, hastily produced, too centralized and conceived without adequate consultation with organizations whose support is vital for the plan's successful execution.
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Pace of relief operations in East slow- UNP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 21:10 GMT]
United National party (UNP) Deputy leader and Gampha District Parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya, after visiting the south eastern coastal areas, said Friday, "Though several thousands of lives have been lost in the disaster it is creditable that rescue operations have been almost completed in the South. However I am concerned and distressed to note, having seen at first hand, that in the east we have yet some way to go before we complete the rescue and clearing efforts."


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Frustration of affected people growing high - Norwegian Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 18:32 GMT]
Emphasizing on the need for wider co-operation between President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) visiting Minister of International Development of Norway, Ms. Hilde F. Johnson said on Saturday night in Colombo that the frustration of the tsunami affected people was growing high as a result of their needs not being met by authorities.
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Earth tremor in Mannar evokes fears of tsunami

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 13:39 GMT]
An earth tremor in Muthariputhurai village, located 15 km north west of Murungan in Mannar, forced 1800 residents to move to safer areas of Potkerni, Sirukandal and Pariharikandal to spend the night Friday, sources in Mannar said. Offical Sri Lanka Government agencies have not yet acknowledge the incident in Muthariputhurai, sources added.
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Equitable aid distribution, focus of Pirapaharan, Norway meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 11:39 GMT]
Leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Saturday requested the Norwegian government delegation led by its Foreign Minister Mr.Jan Petersen to ensure that the northeast region received equitable proportion of the international aid Sri Lanka is expected to receive in the aftermath of tsunami disaster. In the NorthEast region about seventy five thousand families have been affected and around 25,000 have lost their lives, the Norwegian delegation was told, Vanni sources said.
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Need 10,000 high-grade tents, says TRO Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 January 2005, 15:46 GMT]
The co-ordinating Colombo office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO registered with Government of Sri Lanka and working exclusively in the NorthEast, told TamilNet that they need up to 10,000 tents that can hold a family of five to temporarily house displaced people in different areas of North East, and urgently need 200 tents within the next few days. “TRO offices in the United States are working to fulfill this need,” Chandru Pararajasingham, director of TRO Colombo office told TamilNet.
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"Loss of children has shaken us"- Thamilini

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 January 2005, 06:45 GMT]
"When we lose cadres in battles we strengthen our will to hit back at the enemy. The Tsunami losses are different, especially the loss of children has shaken us deeply. I have seen mothers carrying dead babies in their hands who refuse to accept that they are dead. They continued to kiss and caress them as if they were alive. This has been a difficult time for us," said Ms. Thamilini, the head of the LTTE’s women political wing talking to TamilNet correspondent in Amparai after the Tsunami disaster.
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Kadaloor victims receive expatriate help

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 January 2005, 03:34 GMT]
Trincomalee Tamils domiciled in Canada distributed a consignment of cooking utensils through Trincomalee Children Fund (TCF) to about seventy eight displaced families from Kadaloor, a Tamil fishing hamlet in the Kinniya division, about 10 km northwest of the Trincomalee town, sources said.
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