Thampalakamam massacre victims remembered

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2004, 17:23 GMT]
The sixth death anniversary of the killing of eight Tamil civilians including two students by Sri Lankan police on 1st February, 1998, was observed Sunday at Potkerney and Puthukuddiruppu, suburbs of Thampalakamam village in Trincomalee district, sources said. Thampalakamam is located twenty four km off south west of Trincomalee town on Trincomalee-Colombo highway.


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"No back-door link with LTTE"- Harim Peiris

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2004, 17:13 GMT]
"The President is not trying to establish a back-door link with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam," said Sri Lanka President's spokesperson Mr.Harim Peiris commenting on a report that Defense Ministry Secretary Mr. Cyril Herath has written a letter to LTTE Peace Secretariat head Mr.Pulithevan, media sources said.


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SLMC against postponement of Amparai local elections

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2004, 13:42 GMT]
Leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), and Minister in the UNF Government, Rauf Hakim, told a party meeting that under no circumstances the Amparai local council elections scheduled to be held on 22 February should be postponed. "We may be forced to take extreme measures against the Sri Lanka Government if it accedes to request by a few for postponement," Minister Hakim added, political sources said.
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TULF central working committee appoints nomination board

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2004, 13:14 GMT]
The central working committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), main constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sunday appointed a seven-member nomination board to select its parliamentary candidates to face a snap general election, said TULF Administrative Secretary and parliamentarian Mr.N.Raviraj.


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Pirate power supply for army kills elephant

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 2004, 04:37 GMT]
A wild elephant was electrocuted by an illegal power supply line to the Kayankerni Sri Lanka army camp, 36 kilometres north of Batticaloa, residents told TamilNet Sunday. Three elephants in a herd were electrocuted by the Kayankerni SLA pirate power line last year, they said.


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LTTE finance division forms Price Regulatory Authority

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 19:43 GMT]
The Finance Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has formed a Price Regulatory Authority to protect customers against sudden increases in price of consumer goods, tamil media reportes from Jaffna said Saturday.


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Ten youths from UNICEF list sent to Kilinochchi Transit Center

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 18:04 GMT]
A Committee, appointed by the Liberation Tigers (LTTE), while reviewing the UNICEF underage list has so far found four boys and six girls to be under 18 years old, LTTE's media co-ordinator, Daya Master, told TamilNet. The youths are being sent to the Kilinochchi Children Transit Camp today. They were all found to have feigned their ages by submitting false papers when they joined the movement, Daya Master added.
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Talk only to LTTE -Anandasangaree tells Sri Lanka President

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 14:57 GMT]
Mr. V. Anandasangaree, the President of the Tamil United Liberation Front met President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday evening and impressed upon her that the Sri Lankan government should talk only to the Liberation Tigers and not simultaneously with any other Tamil group, according to a press note issued by the controversial Jaffna MP Saturday. “My view that ‘what is acceptable to the LTTE will be acceptable to the Tamils also’ seems to have impressed the President who had seen the reasonableness in my suggestions”, Mr. Anandasangaree said.
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Colombo political crisis discussed in Jaffna Seminar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 13:37 GMT]
A two-day seminar on "The current political crisis and the peace process" organized by the Centre for Women and Development (CWD) began Saturday morning in Jaffna Navalar Cultural Hall where topics related to political crisis in Colombo, LTTE's Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals, problems in the current Sri Lanka constitution and other matters related to the Peace Process were discussed, civil sources said.
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Peace gives no light to Vakarai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 00:32 GMT]
Vakarai is a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast. It is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. Vakarai was subjected to more than fifteen years of a brutal counter insurgency campaign by the Sri Lanka army. It has seen hardly any development even after the war stopped two years ago. Electricity is still a luxury here. “I have never seen electricity used in Vakarai since I was born,” N.Loganathan, a resident of Panichchankerni, told TamilNet.


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Seven SLA soldiers discharged from murder case

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 15:17 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate Mr.P.Subramaniam Friday, on the instruction of the Attorney General, discharged all seven soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) who were arrested and later released on bail in connection with the murder of a Tamil civilian, Pararajasingham Parameswaran, of Kodikamam in the year 2000. The magistrate made the order , legal sources said.


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Tamil villages to be annexed to Sinhala-dominated Seruwila AGA

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 15:00 GMT]
Tamil villages of Upooral and Cheenenveli in the Muttur division should remain under the administration of the Verugal-Eachilampathu Assistant Government Agent (AGA) division and not moved under Sinhala dominated Seruwila AGA division, said Trincomalee district parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan in a letter sent to the Trincomalee Government Agent, sources said.
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TNA calls for postponement of Amparai local authorities' elections

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 12:47 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance Friday requested the Commissioner General of Elections to postpone the elections to local authorities in the Amparai administrative district from 22 February 2004 to 24 October 2004 when the elections to the rest of the districts of the northeast province are to be held, party sources said.


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Tamil fishermen to fly black flags on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 10:35 GMT]
Fishermen in Jaffna will fly black flags on their boats, homes and union offices on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day next week, the spokesman for the Federation of Jaffna District Co-operative Fishermen’s Unions told TamilNet, Friday. “February 4th is not Independence Day for Tamils. We want to show the world how we are still being denied our basic freedoms”, he said. Britain gave Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) independence on 4 February 1948.


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JVP for elections -Amarasingha

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 14:29 GMT]
Leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, said Thursday his party is for holding general election in Sri Lanka soon, addressing a massive public meeting of the new alliance between the JVP and President Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party in Colombo.
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Thondaman raises questions on alliance call

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 13:15 GMT]
Arumugam Thondaman, Leader of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), responding to Minister Chandrasekaran's call to form a national alliance with NorthEast Tamil parties, said that there are fundamental questions related to the need for such alliance, local media in Jaffna reported.


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Jaffna to launch pro-peace signature campaign on 4th February

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 12:26 GMT]
A signature campaign to collect signatures for a memorandum to be sent to the international community with six demands related to the Tamil national question would be launched on February 4 in the Jaffna peninsula, according to a decision taken at the conference held Wednesday afternoon at the Jaffna Navalar Cultural Hall, sources said.


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Protesting parents want school back from military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 12:23 GMT]
Parents protested in front of the Thenmaradchi Zonal Education office in Chavakachcheri Thursday urging the authorities to re-open the Eluthumadduval North Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS), which is occupied by the Sri Lanka army now. The protestors say their children face numerous problems because the school remains closed. Children from five hamlets in Eluthumadduval north were studying in the school before it was occupied by the SLA in 2000.
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Kokadichcholai massacre anniversary remembered

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 02:21 GMT]
Seventeeth anniversary of the Kokkadichcholai massacre, where Sri Lanka's Special Task Force (STF) killed 86 Tamil workers in a shrimp farm on 28 January 1987 was commemorated near the memorial in Mahiladithivu Wednesday, sources said.
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UNICEF donates vehicles to education officials

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2004, 16:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Country Representative of the UNICEF Mr. Ted Chaiban Wednesday handed over a consignment of vans, motorbikes and computers with printers valued at about Rs 17.7 million to the North East Provincial Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs, Sports and Youth Affairs, as a step to support and strengthen the monitoring capacity of UNICEF's projects in education.


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