Thamilchelvan deplores Sri Lanka President's 'arbitrary action'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 10:40 GMT]
The Sri Lankan "governing apparatus that should take forward the peace process with commitment and sufficient strength is in shambles. This no doubt is an imminent threat to the maintenance of the ceasefire with due integrity," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE’s political division addressing the conference of northeast donors Monday in Kilinochchi. He said that "the arbitrary action" of Sri Lanka’s President "has created problems of vast magnitude vis-à-vis the integrity of the CFA and the progress of the political negotiations."
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Indian Coast Guard, trawlers enter Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 08:51 GMT]
More than a hundred Indian trawlers escorted by Indian coast guard vessels entered the seas off Jaffna's Vadamaradchi coast Sunday night, fishermen in Pt. Pedro told TamilNet. There were about sixty smaller Indian fishing craft with the trawlers they said.
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Northeast donor conference begins in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 06:25 GMT]
The donor conference on northeast development and rehabilitation began as scheduled at the Planning Secretariat of the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochchi at 11.30 a.m. Monday, LTTE officials said. Diplomats and officials from Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, UK, Germany, France European Union, ADB, World Bank, JICA, JBIC, UNDP, UNICEF and CIDA are taking part in the meeting. Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of political division, is leading the LTTE team at the conference, officials in Kilinochchi told TamilNet.
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Trinco Technical College resource shortages spotlighted

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 03:36 GMT]
Severe shortage of full-time instructors and teaching equipment at the Trincomalee Government Technical College are jeopardizing educational standards of students who seek higher technical education, said the principal of the college Mr.V. Suntharalingam presiding over the concluding event of the tenth anniversary celebrations of the institution held last weekend.


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Popular Tamil filmstar Manivannan to visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 03:15 GMT]
Manivannan, a popular film producer and actor from Tamil Nadu is scheduled to visit Jaffna this Wednesday, to exchange views with Jaffna artists and to see the conditions prevailing in war affected Jaffna for himself, local media reported.
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UNICEF reinducts school-dropouts back to education

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 19:21 GMT]
UNICEF is providing funds to the Kalkuda educational region in Batticaloa district to setup special classes in 14 centers to reinduct children who dropped out of school due to poverty and war back into the educational stream, officials said.
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‘Sinhala leaders not interested in peace proposals’ - Ilamparuthy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 18:00 GMT]
“Events which followed the submission of our proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA)- take over of ministries, the campaign to whip up Sinhala extremism- showed that Sinhala leaders are not interested in negotiations,” said Mr. C. Ilamparuthi, head of the LTTE’s political division in Jaffna, addressing a meeting in Oslo Saturday to mark the eleventh death anniversary of Col. Kittu, a senior Tiger commander. He urged India to come forward to develop a positive relationship with the LTTE.
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Separate body a must to reconstruct NorthEast - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 15:24 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan Saturday appealed to the international community to take steps to create a separate structure to the Tamil speaking people to rehabilitate themselves and reconstruct their war ravaged province if the current political power struggle between the executive presidency and head of the parliamentary legislature in the south continues without settlement to take forward the stalled peace process.


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Plans for Batti-Amparai Pongu Thamil said complete

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 04:23 GMT]
The organizing committee of the Pongu Thamil (Tamil upsurge) event to be held at the Sports grounds of the Eastern University in Vantharumoolai on January 21 has completed its arrangements for the event and sent invitations to Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, and Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, committee sources said.
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LTTE promotes Advanced Level education in Amparai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 03:47 GMT]
Based on the directive of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s senior commander for Batticaloa-Amparai, Col. V. Karuna, an education center to teach Tamil students at the Advanced level and improve their chances of admission to Universities has been opened at the Karaithivu central college in Amparai, sources said.
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Colombo urged to repeal PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2004, 18:02 GMT]
A meeting to urge the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and to release detainees arrested under the PTA and held in prison for several years without a court hearing was organized by the Center of Human Rights and Development (CHRD) held at the Conference hall of Batticaloa Public Library Saturday, civil sources said.


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SLA Commander to assist tracing Jaffna disappeared

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2004, 13:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army's Jaffna area commander Major General Susil Chandrapala Friday at a discussion assured a delegation of the Jaffna District Missing Person Guardians' Association (MPGA) and the Jaffna District Women's Front (JDWF) that he would provide the necessary support and assistance in tracing the more than persons disappeared in Jaffna district following military operations between1995 and 1997, sources said.
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Tamils should be vigilant of JVP - Jaffna VC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2004, 13:23 GMT]
"The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is a force that is opposed to the Tamil people's struggle for their rights. It is now striving to become part of national politics. We, the Tamil people, should be vigilant about this," said Prof. S. Mohanadas, Vice Chancellor of the Jaffna University, addressing a meeting Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the Pongu Thamil festival in the northern peninsula.
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NE development conference to be held in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2004, 06:11 GMT]
The political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, is to preside over a high-level development conference at the Kilinochchi Development Secretariat on Monday, January 19, sources said. The representatives of the Sri Lanka donors' summit held in Tokyo in Japan last year are scheduled to meet in Colombo on January 23 to review the present political situation in Colombo, and the Kilinochchi conference will be a prelude to that meeting, the sources said.
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JVP leader expected on pact signing day

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 18:57 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe, the secretive leader of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who lives in London, will return to Sri Lanka on 20 January, the Political Bureau of the party said Friday. The JVP and President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party are scheduled to sign an agreement cementing a political alliance on 20 January.
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Jaffna parents protest, want schools reopened

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 15:55 GMT]
Parents demonstrated in two separate places in the Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna Friday demanding that schools where their children studied before they fled the war in 1999-2000 be reopened without delay. The parents’ protest were held amid claims by Colombo that 20000 children have returned to their schools in Sri Lanka’s war ravaged northeast since the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan government in Feb. 2003.
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Col.Kittu memorial held in Vakarai

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 15:17 GMT]
The 11th death anniversary of Col.Kittu and nine LTTE cadres who died with him on 16 Jan 1993 was held in Panichchangkerni, Vakarai in Batticaloa district Friday, sources said. Panichchangkerni is village located 50km north of Batticaloa town.
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Trinco commemorates Col.Kittu death anniversary

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 15:09 GMT]
The eleventh death anniversary of Colonel Kittu, senior commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who was killed with nine other LTTE cadres when the Indian Navy intercepted the vessel they traveled in the Indian Ocean on 16th of January 1993 was observed in the Trincomalee district Friday.


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11th Anniversary of Col.Kittu to be commemorated

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 01:17 GMT]
The eleventh death anniversary of Senior Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sathasivam Krishnakumar (Col.Kittu), and nine other LTTE cadres is to be celebrated across the NorthEast, Friday, sources in Jaffna said. When the Indian Navy on Jan. 16, 1993, intercepted the ship Kittu was travelling, Kittu refused to surrender and blew up the ship killing himself and other LTTE cadres.
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‘Nothing from Colombo to rebuild Chavakachcheri’ – UC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2004, 15:43 GMT]
‘The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) hasn’t provided any assistance at all so far to rebuild or repair public buildings and amenities in Chavakachcheri which were destroyed in the war although two years have gone by since the town’s residents resettled’, said the Secretary of the Chavakachcheri Urban Council, Mr. M. S Saravanabhava, addressing the inauguration of the newly formed Urban Development Advisory Board for the second largest town of Jaffna peninsula Wednesday.
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