Counseling coordinators to start public awareness campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 14:10 GMT]
Importance of urgently starting a public awareness campaign on the counseling needs for the survivors of tsunami disaster was discussed in a coordinating meeting of representatives of humanitarian organisations held Tuesday 2 pm at the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) located at Karadipokku in Kilinochchi, sources in Kilinochchi said.
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SLMM head to meet Col. Sornam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 02:37 GMT]
Major General (retd) Trond Furuhovde, Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), is scheduled to meet Colonel Sornam, Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ), on Thursday January 13th, sources said.


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Kumaratunga appoints EPDP to tsunami Task Force

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 02:23 GMT]
Representatives of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) have been appointed to the District Task Force (DTF) established in Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Amparai districts to coordinate relief and rehabilitation of tsunami victims who are sheltered in welfare centers, on a directive from Sri Lanka’s President, Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunga, civil sources said.
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Canadians mourn tsunami victims at Tamil vigil

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2005, 23:24 GMT]
Thousands of Canadians from all walks of life braved chilling temperatures to show solidarity with the victims of the Asian Tsunami disaster at a vigil at Nathan Phillips Square at the Toronto City Hall organized by the Canadian Tamil Congress on Saturday, sources in Canada said.
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TNA parliamentarians boycott Governor's Jaffna visit

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2005, 14:54 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Parliamentarians Monday boycotted the first official visit of Mr.Tyronne Fernando, Governor of the Northeast Province in protest to the government's refusal to allow Mr.Koffi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations to visit Tsunami destroyed Northern coastal areas, including Mullaitivu district, TNA sources said.
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Civilians protest outside Jaffna UN office

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 18:21 GMT]


About two hundred members of the Jaffna District Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Jaffna University Student Union and the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union Sunday held a protest in front of the UNHCR office in Jaffna town against the decision of the government not to allow the UN Secretary General Mr.Koffi Annan to visit the Tsunami affected north, sources said.
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TRO Executive meets with UN Secretary General

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 13:43 GMT]
The Executive Director of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Mr. K. P. Regi, met with United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, at a meeting Sunday convened for a selected group of civil society representatives, sources in Colombo said. Mr. Regi handed over an appeal to the Secretary General. Some of the participants expressed the view that the centralised set-up planned by the Government of Sri Lanka is not effective, contains many bureaucratic bottlenecks and not sufficiently transparent to direct an equitable distribution of relief.
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Bishop praises TRO, Tamil expatriate relief efforts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 13:37 GMT]
Bishop Joseph Kingsley Swampillai, bishop of Batticaloa-Amparai district, expressed his appreciation for the relief efforts carried out by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and the support given by the Tamil diaspora in meeting the immediate and urgent needs of the victims of disaster, in an interview with TamilNet Sunday.
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Dismal state response reveals need for ISGA - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 11:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s insensitive and ineffectual relief efforts in the Northeast in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster has reinforced the need for an interim administration for the region as demanded by its residents, Tamil parliamentarians argued Sunday.
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Annan wants to come back to visit entire country

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 11:24 GMT]
Diplomatically ducking a question whether he regretted that he could not visit the LTTE-controlled areas, visiting Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, said in Colombo today he was "hoping to be able to come back and visit all parts of Sri Lanka, not just to visit but to celebrate peace." Visibly frustrated with his itinerary set by the government of Sri Lanka that banned him from seeing the enormous devastation caused by tsunami terror waves in the LTTE-held areas, he said that the UN was not a "one man show" and there were number of people attached to the UN agencies working in parts of the country, including the LTTE-held areas.
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Center for Healthcare (CHC) calls for Coordination of Medical Teams

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 09:19 GMT]
Center for Healthcare (CHC) a nationally registered and Kilinochchi based NGO in Sri Lanka has called for all visiting medical teams to coordinate their services to maximize their efficiency in regions of need. A visiting Australian Medical Team has successfully established a model for screening all patients in specific camps with individual healthcare cards issued to each patient / family so that all medical interventions are documented. The organisation is keen to continue to extend this model to all remaining camps in the region, CHC sources said.
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Australian Medical Team Services Multiple Camps in Ampara District

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 09:10 GMT]
The visiting medical team from Australia has now formally taken over the medical services for 3 camps housing nearly 5000 individuals in the Alaiyampadivembu division in Akkaraipattu in the eastern Ampara district. A total lack of coordination and interest by the local authorities led to the medical team approaching the DPDHS, head of the health services, for the region and formally requesting to go in and start servicing these camps. This was welcomed by the DPDHS.
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Annan hails LTTE-led relief efforts

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2005, 05:41 GMT]
UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, hailed the relief efforts led by the Liberation Tigers in the wake of the Asian tsunami of December 26th and expressed his disappointment over the Sri Lankan governments veto of his plans to visit LTTE held areas devastated by the waves, when he met Tamil parliamentarians Sunday.
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Vasudeva criticises army take over of Tsunami welfare centres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:44 GMT]
"Take over of the management of welfare centres sheltering Tsunami victims by the State armed forces is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of refugees," Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakkara, General Secretary of the Nava Samaja Party and a former parliamentarian told TamilNet correspondent in Jaffna Saturday.
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Kofi Annan consoles Trinco Tamil, Muslim Tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:37 GMT]
Mr.Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations Saturday evening paid a thirty-minute visit to Trincomalee. He consoled Tsunami affected Tamil refugees at Alankerni Tamil School and Muslim victims sheltered in Kinniya Central College. UN officials cancelled the inspection of the Tsunami destroyed Kinniya government hospital site at last minute.
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World Bank chief says tsunami assistance could go upto USD one billion

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 19:15 GMT]
Reserving over USD 100 million to Sri Lanka from the existing projects for immediate recovery work and to rebuild the devastated homes and spectrum of livelihood, visiting World Bank chief D. Wolfensohn hinted in Colombo Saturday that the post tsunami relief assistance of the Bank to rebuild the devastated region could well go upto the mammoth USD one billion mark. He said in addition to the already released USD 10 million to Sri Lanka, an emergency credit of not less than USD 75 million, of which 40 percent would be a grant, would be made available to enable the government to begin recovery work.
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Civil organizations in northeast submit their pleas to Kofi Annan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 16:51 GMT]
Civil organization representatives in northeast accompanied by a large crowd met Ms Penny Brune, UNICEF representative for Vanni, in Killinochchi on Friday and handed her written appeals from civil organizations. The appeals urged the visiting UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to visit Vadamaradchi East and Mullaithivu areas that have been devastated by the tsunami attack. Ms Penny Brune after receiving the appeals said that she will ensure that all the appeals reach the UN Secretary General the same day.
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LTTE slams state media speculation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2005, 08:19 GMT]
Referring to a news item broadcasted by the Government owned Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) Saturday morning, quoting Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri as the source person, that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Intelligence Chief of the organisation are among the dead or reported missing consequent to the Tsunami tidal wave attack, the LTTE in a press release said that it "strongly protested against the mischievous act of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, stooping down to such low level of broadcasting news that are fabricated by interested parties". This is not the time for gossip mongering and malicious propaganda, the LTTE press release said.
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Catastrophes of the past: poetic exaggeration or scientific facts?

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 20:19 GMT]
“To the ancient Tamil world natural calamities like the tsunami that hit the east coast on 26 December 2004 is not unknown,” says professor A.Shanmugathas, head of the department of Tamil, Jaffna University. The Sangam Literature, which is more than 2000 years old, makes reference to similar natural catastrophes (perooly) that have affected the Tamil speaking world - spreading from Cape Comarin in the South to the Vindian ranges in the North. "The history records it that tidal destruction (Kadatkol) has occurred from time to time and these facts are established by the archeological excavations. They are not imaginary accounts," he adds. This is supported by modern scientific theories.
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Tsunami ravaged community in northeast pleads with UN Secretary General

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2005, 15:50 GMT]
Civil organizations and churches in the northeast have appealed to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit the tsunami hit regions in the LTTE controlled areas as he reached Colombo Friday 6.10 PM. Rt.Rev. Dr.Thomas Soundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna, Rt.Rev.Dr. J. Kingsley Swampillai, Bishop of Trincomalee-Batticaloa and Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar urged The Secretary General to visit Mullaithivu and meet LTTE leaders and discuss with them about the future rehabilitation of the Tsunami victims. Most of the appeals have highlighted the positive effects of his visit to LTTE controlled areas in promoting peace through negotiations.
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