Security tightened in Muttur after bomb blast

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 15:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and police Friday strengthened the security of the Muttur town following the death of a Muslim person, Mr. Raheem alias Bala, in a bomb blast that had taken place in Muttur town close to a mosque Thursday night around 7.30 p.m., police said.
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SLA permits work on Pt. Pedro landing points

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 13:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army gave permission on Friday to deepen fisheries landing points on the coast of three villages close to Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Soldiers from the SLA’s 52-4 Brigade worked with local fishermen Friday to clear the coral rock clogged micro breakwaters. “We do not have a war to fight now. Therefore would like to engage in development activities such as this”, Col. K. S Ratnayake, the commander of the brigade told TamilNet.
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Japan reiterates its continued support to the peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 13:20 GMT]
In a statement released on Thursday, Japan's minister for foreign affairs, Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi, said her government welcomed the continued commitment of the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to the ceasefire, and expressed hope that the question of who on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka is responsible for the peace process would be resolved through talks between Sri Lanka's President and the Prime Minister.
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NECORD launches village rehabilitation program

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank funded North East Community Organization for Restoration and Development (NECORD) Project Thursday launched the Village Rehabilitation Programme (VRP) under the Community Development Project (CDP) in eight districts of the North-East, with the signing of two agreements with non-governmental organizations to implement two projects in the Trincomalee district.
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British defense team visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 18:08 GMT]
The Consortium of Jaffna District Non-Governmental Organizations Thursday told the visiting British Defense Ministry officials' team that the UK government should exert pressure to end the current political instability in the south of Sri Lanka to take forward the stalled peace process so that a final settlement to the national conflict could be reached, civil sources said.
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Buddhist monks protest against LTTE’s proposals

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 17:36 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks from the National Bhikku Front held a demonstration and protest march against the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the Liberation Tigersof Tamil Eleam (LTTE) Thursday afternoon in Colombo, sources said.
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Army deserter remanded for selling weapons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 15:10 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Magistrate, Mr.P.Subramaniam, Thursday ordered remand for an army deserter till December 18 when the Kodikamam Police produced him in court on a charge that the suspect had sold a T56 rifle and live rounds to four Tamil civilians before decamping from Jaffna district, legal sources said.
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TNA questions Kadirgamar's competence for Commonwealth post

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 15:02 GMT]
Commenting on the reported candidacy of Mr.Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's former foreign minister and a confidante of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General, the Tamil National Alliance in a statement Thursday highlighted several grave human rights abuses of his government and said, "... Kadirgamar’s misrepresentations in regard to [such] incidents, which constituted a flagrant violation of human rights, are a severe indictment on his capacity to be impartial and truthful."
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US Court ruling makes conviction difficult under 'terrorism' law

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 11:35 GMT]
San Francisco based U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Wednesday that the United States Government "cannot convict groups of individuals of violating a federal law against 'material support' for terrorist organizations unless it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they knew the organizations were involved in terrorist activity," The Washington Post reported in its Thursday edition. The case was brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of a human rights organization in Los Angeles and several groups of Sri Lankan Tamils in the U.S.
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Sinhala nationalists dared to go beyond Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 03:40 GMT]
“I dare Wimal Weerawanse and Champika Ranawaka to go beyond Vavuniya. They can’t. But I can take them now or even during war because we have trust in the Tamil people,” said Mr. Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka, a well known and respected Sinhala film director, addressing a meeting organised by leftist political parties, trade unions and civil society groups at the New Town Hall in Colombo Wednesday. The Liberation Tigers control most of the northern province beyond Vavuniya.
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International Day for people with special needs held in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2003, 00:01 GMT]
People with special needs (the handicapped) in Vavuniya gathered at the Urban council hall in the Northern town Wednesday to participate at the International Day for people with special needs, and re-iterated in an oath that disability did not mean lack of talent and that they would demand equal rights in spheres where such rights are currently lacking, sources said.
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LTTE, SLA commanders meet at no-man zone in Muttur

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2003, 14:42 GMT]
A delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by Trincomalee district regional commander Colonel Pathuma, and Sri Lanka Army's General Officer Commanding in Trincomalee district, Major General Sunil Tennekoon, held discussions at the no-man zone in Kattaiparichchan in the Muttur division Wednesday evening, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission sources said.
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Stateless Tamils register for citizenship in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 December 2003, 09:28 GMT]
More than 6,000 Tamils of Indian origin registered themselves as Sri Lankan citizens last weekend as part of a 10-day programme by the Ceylon Workers Congress to enable them to gain citizenship. The programme was supported by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
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‘Flagrant discrimination’ in allocation of Health funds alleged

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2003, 23:01 GMT]
The allocation of funds for a program on emergency Obstetrics and Child Health in the war-ravaged areas of the North East, jointly sponsored by the UNICEF and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), flagrantly discriminates against Tamil provinces, several health officials in the North East told TamilNet’s Vanni correspondent Tuesday.
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Sri Lanka's President urged to ensure security to Kinniya Muslims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2003, 16:32 GMT]
A delegation of the North East Muslim Parliamentarians' Forum (NEMPF) Tuesday afternoon met with Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, and discussed in detail the deteriorating security situation in the Trincomalee district, especially the Kinniya division. The delegation urged the President to take immediate steps to bring the situation under control and to help the Muslims there from being killed and wounded, sources said.
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Kinniya Tamil refugees' problems discussed at Trinco conference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 December 2003, 16:07 GMT]
At a conference held Tuesday at the office of the United Nation High Commission for Refugees in Trincomalee town, representatives of non-governmental organizations brought to the notice of the authorities of the difficulties they have been facing in taking essential food items and other relief to the Tamil villages of Alankerni and Eechantivu in the Kinniya division, sources said.
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32 Indian poachers held by Mannar fishermen

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 21:59 GMT]
The local fishermen of Vidathaltheevu in Mannar district have arrested 32 Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters Saturday night, and are holding them in their custody, but the detained fishermen will soon be released, sources said.
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SLMM, Police act jointly to bring normalcy in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 18:45 GMT]
Two conferences were held Monday in Trincomalee town to defuse tension between two communities, Muslims and Tamils and bring back normalcy in Kinniya and Trincomalee police divisions, which had been rocked by violence for the last few days, police said.
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Curfew re-imposed in Trincomalee, Kinniya

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 18:32 GMT]
A curfew has been reimposed in Trincomalee and Kinniya police divisions in the Trincomalee district with effect from 7 p.m. Monday. It will be lifted at 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Trincomalee police said.
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“Implement NE disappearance commission recommendations” - TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 18:10 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan of the Tamil National Alliance, participating in the committee stage debate on the votes of the 2004 budget Monday, urged the United National Front government to implement the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
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