Tamils must safeguard against cultural degeneration- Don

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 15:43 GMT]
Mr.V.Kumaravel, a leading academician and a senior lecturer in the External Studies Unit of the Jaffna College addressing a seminar on "A review of contemporary politics" held Saturday in Sandilipay alleged that hidden hands are behind the increase of cultural degeneration in Jaffna district after the capture of the peninsula by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).


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Kantalai Sivan Temple "Kumbabishekam" held

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 14:06 GMT]
The consecration (Kumbabishekam) ceremony of the historic Kantalai Sivan Temple in Trincomalee district, which was built by the Chola King Rajendra Cholan around A.D.1010 was held Friday with Bramasiri S.Ravichandrakurukal, Chief Priest of the historic Trincomalee Paththirakali Amman Temple, conducting the ceremony officiating as the chief of a group of Hindu priests.
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Trinco rail, bus services in deplorable condition- MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 13:38 GMT]
Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham brought to the notice of the Transport Minister, Mr. Felix Perera, of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government the deplorable state of train and bus services in Trincomalee. Bus services to resettled villages in the Trincomalee district have been drastically curtailed due to acute shortage of buses thus causing severe transport difficulties to resettled families, the TNA MP complained.


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Pay rent or vacate, house owners tell SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 13:00 GMT]
Attempts made by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) through its Jaffna regional office have failed to obtain support of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to pay rent to the owners of the civilian houses now occupied by SLA outside the high security zones (HSZs) in Jaffna district. The owners have now issued ultimatum to launch a campaign demanding the return of their houses in failing to pay rent, sources said.
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Phased withdrawal from HSZ, Govt's moral responsibility- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 12:22 GMT]
"Two and a half years have elapsed since the MoU was signed. The Sri Lanka Government is morally bound to show its concern over the question of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). It should have been possible to withdraw from several areas especially from the areas where several schools and places of worship are trapped but with prevailing racist politics in Sri Lanka it is naive to expect the Sri Lanka Government of the Security Forces to do this," said Thinakural, a Tamil daily, in its Saturday editorial.
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Jaffna MPs allocate funds for dependents of missing persons

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 11:42 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians have allocated funds under the Decentralized Budget for the welfare of the dependents who have lost their breadwinners following the disappearance of persons after the arrest by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during the period 1996-1997, sources said.


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Workshop on "Sexual Abuse" held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 September 2004, 11:35 GMT]
Mr. Chandra Fernando, Deputy Inspector General of Police Saturday addressing a two-day workshop on "Legal process regarding sexual abuse," organized by the Centre for Law and Society in Jaffna Navalar Cultural Hall said members of police force deployed in the northeast should discharge their duties above racial and other differences and stressed cultural sensitivity to be displayed in handling complaints of sexual abuse.


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Picketers call for release of homeguards

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 September 2004, 01:20 GMT]
A picketing campaign held by a small group of Sinhalese persons in the main conference hall of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee town Thursday from about 11 a.m. demanding the release of two Sinhala home guards arrested with grenades and weapons by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in their controlled areas in Trincomalee district recently, was called off around 8 p.m. when the Police warned them that they would use force, sources said.
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Training for unemployed graduates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 19:45 GMT]
One hundred fifty two graduates selected from the Trincomalee district in the first phase of the graduate employment scheme of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) began their three months training with the inaugural event held in Trincomalee Town Hall Thursday.
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Trinco Inner Wheel Club honours students excelled in A/L exam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 19:17 GMT]
The Inner Wheel Club of Trincomalee at its second anniversary held at the Trincomalee Rotary House honoured fifteen students from Trincomalee town schools who have passed the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination with three A's.
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Bill criticized as disenfranchising many Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 14:28 GMT]
''The passage of 'Elections Special Provisions' Bill in Sri Lanka's parliament compelling citizens of Sri Lanka to produce National Identity Cards (NIC) to exercise his or her vote would tantamount to disenfranchising a large number of Tamil people, and would cause them irreparable political harm,'' said Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a letter faxed to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse through the Secretary General of the Parliament Thursday.
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Training for unemployed graduates begins in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 13:16 GMT]
A three month training program for hundred and sixty eight unemployed graduates in the Vavuniya district was inaugurated Thursday. The program is part of a controversial scheme by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government to provide state jobs for more forty one thousand unemployed graduates. The scheme was introduced after mass protests and hunger strikes backed by the Marxist Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, President Kumaratunga's mail coalition ally. Critics say it will cause a huge strain on the cash strapped Sri Lankan treasury.
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French diplomats meet TNA foreign affairs committee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 09:36 GMT]
“We told France if indeed talks on the ISGA commence, there is a good chance that an agreement could be reached in this matter. We said that this is exactly what the Singhalese are afraid of, as it would mean that they would no longer have a monopoly on power, and their hegemony over the Tamil nation will cease for once and for all time. We also said that it is for this reason that we suspect that the Sri Lankan government t is trying to provoke the LTTE to another war by destabilizing the east and supporting Tamil armed groups," said Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam TNA MP Thursday.
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Youths are cornerstone of our struggle- Ilamparithy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 September 2004, 00:32 GMT]
"Younger generation is the cornerstone of our struggle. We are fully aware of the efforts by our adversaries to spread social ills among our people. We accept that some level of distraction among the teen-agers is unavoidable. But this helps us in building strong social resistance against negative influences in the long term," said Ilamparithy, LTTE's head of political wing in Jaffna district.
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Few Tamils to receive graduate training

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 16:56 GMT]
Of the first batch of 17,018 unemployed graduates who are to begin their three-month training programme Thursday at 215 centres in 23 districts excluding Killinochchi and Mullaitivu districts only 2,140 (11.4%) are Tamil medium graduates and the rest 14,883 are Sinhalese. These graduates will be given employment after the training programme, education sources said.
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AI lauds UN Human Rights Committee ruling on missing Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 14:27 GMT]
Amnesty International welcomed the recent ruling by the UN Human Rights Committee in the first case from Sri Lanka submitted under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) concerning the “disappearance” of Thevarajah Sarma in favour of the relatives of the victim. The UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that the Government of Sri Lanka is responsible for the “disappearance” and is under an obligation to provide Thevarajah Sarma’s family with an effective remedy.
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TNA's Southern campaign critical to peace- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 09:29 GMT]
"The failure of the Tamil leadership during the last half a century to join forces with the progressive forces in the South has been one of the reasons why earlier attempts at a solution were not successful," said an editorial in Thinakkural, welcoming the formation of awareness and advocacy committees by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to conduct a campaign in the South of Sri Lanka on the importance of ISGA, and the aspirations of Tamils.
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Wickremanayake rhetoric harmful- NLF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 06:40 GMT]
''Acting Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake's warning to the Liberation Tigers not to push the Government to war and accusing the LTTE of continuing with killings and attacks on anti-LTTE elements in the East and in Colombo in violation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in place, is not conducive to promoting a climate of peace,'' Mr Thirunavukkarasu, politburo member of the New Left Front (NLF), told TamilNet Tuesday
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Plan afoot to build new Trinco Campus

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 22:48 GMT]
Eastern University administration has prepared a master plan to rebuild the Trincomalee Campus of the East University at a new site at Konesapuri, seven km off north of Trincomalee town towards Nilaveli, where two hundred acres of land located has been allocated for the project. The Trincomalee campus is now functioning in buildings in the heart of Trincomalee town, without sufficient space to conduct classes and with substandard residential facilities to students, sources said.
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Thenmaradchchi IDPs demand army withdrawal from their houses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 14:32 GMT]
The Consortium of Thenmaradchchi Civil Organizations in Jaffna district Tuesday handed over a memorandum to the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) with copies to Jaffna regional co-ordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the Jaffna head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) that it would launch a mass agitation bringing the civil administration and public transport system in Thenmaradchchi division to a halt if the houses and lands of internally displaced people (IDP) are not returned by the Sri Lanka Army.
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