Sri Lanka's President wants SLMM head sacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 17:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, has requested the Norwegian Prime Minister to remove the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Major General (retd.) Triggve Teleffsen, immediately from his post, saying his actions have caused serious doubts in the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the Presidential Secretariat said Thursday.
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Hindus celebrate Deepavali

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 17:05 GMT]
Hindus in Colombo celebrated the Deepavali Festival, the festival of lights, at the New Kathiresan hall in Bambalapitiya Thursday.
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LTTE leader honors Karate Grand Master

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 14:46 GMT]
The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, Thursday conferred national honor on the father of Karate in Tamil Eelam, Grand Master Shihan Bonnie Roberts,74, who holds eight black belts and contributed yeoman service to the growth of the art of Karate, sources in the Vanni said.
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MP slams criminal outfit for Kinniya troubles

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 12:20 GMT]
Police declared indefinite curfew in Kinniya, south of Trincomalee, Thursday after Muslim mobs attacked the homes of two Parliamentarians in the area and abducted six Tamils. Police said the mobs, inflamed when Sri Lanka army units rescued the abducted Tamil civilians, stoned the troops. “This is the work of a criminal outfit that is trying to create a big Tamil Muslim clash for narrow political gain”, charged Mr. M. A. M (Sinna) Mahroof, UNP MP for Trincomalee whose house in Kinniya was attacked and completely ransacked.
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Kinniya under indefinite curfew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 11:38 GMT]
SL Police clamped an indefinite curfew in Kinniya, south of Trincomalee, Thursday after Muslims abducted six Tamils and attacked homes of two local MPs, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Soldiers scuttled boats, allege Munai fishermen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2003, 03:01 GMT]
Fishermen in Munai alleged Thursday that Sri Lanka army troops in the area had scuttled five boats and cut the moorings of another two in retaliation to Wednesday’s incidents in this coastal village on the outskirts of Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna. Latest reports said that SLA has prevented injured persons from being taken to hospital.
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Thamilchelvan meets TNA over IA proposals

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 16:04 GMT]
Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, met with parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Wednesday at the Kilinochchi peace secretariat, LTTE peace secretariat sources said.
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Police block anti-peace demonstrators reaching Trinco SLMM office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 14:37 GMT]
The Eastern Peoples' Front, which is locally considered as a front organization of the Sinhala nationalist and Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Wednesday held a hartal (general shutdown) and demonstration in Trincomalee town against the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the establishment of an Interim Administration for the northeast province, sources said.
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NECORD opens new building in Trinco Nalanda College

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 04:30 GMT]
The Country Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Mr.John R. Cooney Tuesday evening declared open a two-storied block at the Chinabay Nalanda College in Trincomalee, which had been constructed at a cost of about four million rupees under the ADB funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project.


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Girls' sports champion hailed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 20:42 GMT]
The women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers has commended Miss.Tharani Seevaratnam, a student at the Akkarayankulam Maha Vidiyalayam in Kilinochchi, who was placed second in Discus Throw and third in Shot Putt in the under-15 category, in an island-wide competition held at the Sugathadasa stadium in Colombo in September, sources said.
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Raalkuli celebrates inauguration of ferryboat service

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 18:59 GMT]
Residents of Raalkuli in the Trincomalee district were in a jubilant mood Tuesday morning, saying it was a day of special significance in their lives when the Country Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Mr.John R.Cooney, made his first ever visit to the Raalkuli village using the new ferry boat supplied by the ADB funded North East Community Organization for Restoration Development (NECORD).
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Mannar villagers angered by rape want Police out

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 12:46 GMT]
Villagers of Uyilankulam, east of Mannar, angered by the rape of a retarded woman living with her parents on Saturday night demanded that Sri Lankan Police posts in the area should be removed forthwith. The 32-year-old woman was admitted to the Anuradhapura Hospital on Sunday after she was allegedly raped brutally by two Policemen who had come to buy cigarettes at her father's shop.
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Maj. Gen. Fonseka reproves Jaffna media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 11:36 GMT]
Commander of Sri Lankan armed forces in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Sarath Foneseka told a group of northern journalists Tuesday that newspapers in the peninsula publish “half information’ and distorted reports intended to make people angry at the military. Speaking to representatives of the North Ceylon Journalists’ Association about recent attacks on media persons in Jaffna by Sri Lankan armed forces soldiers, he said: “We are not hundred percent happy about the way media people in Jaffna are carrying out their jobs”.
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Finnish Ambassador meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 10:20 GMT]
Mr. Mikko Pyhala, Ambassador, Asia and Oceania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland expressed his country's support to the peace process in a meeting he had with the Head of Political Wing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S.P. Thamilchelvan at the Kilinochchi Peace Secretariat Building today, sources said.
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Skeletal remains unearthed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 04:04 GMT]
Construction workers unearthed human skeletal remains while they were laying the foundation for the common market in Kalviyankaadu in Jaffna on Monday, the Jaffna based Tamil language daily, Uthayan, reported Tuesday.
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Vadamaradchi residents ban removal of coastal sand

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2003, 18:54 GMT]
Residents of Kudathanai and Manalkadu areas in the Vadamaradchi east division in Jaffna district Monday imposed a ban on removing coastal sand from the northern coast. Hundreds of vehicles that had gone to these areas to remove sand returned empty due to the ban, sources said.
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SLA constructs new camp in Manalkaadu

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2003, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is constructing a new camp in the ManalKaadu area, 3km south of Point Pedro in Jaffna Peninsula, said the Voice of Tigers (VoT), a radio broadcast service run by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to local media reports Sunday.
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Media’s role in solving ethnic conflict discussed

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 October 2003, 04:17 GMT]
“The Muslim people should come together to express their aspirations in one voice and first talk to the representatives of the Tamil community candidly. Then both communities can make compromises, turn their aspirations into policy, and negotiate with the Sri Lankan government; by doing so, a solution [to the ethnic conflict] can surely be found,” said Mr. M.S.Mookiah, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka, at a conference titled “Media’s role in solving the ethnic conflict” Saturday at the Mahapola training center in Oluvil.
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Veteran Tamil scholars honored

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2003, 19:10 GMT]
Eight veteran Tamil scholars were honored at the final day celebrations of the North East Provincial Tamil Literary Festival held Sunday at Vavuniya Irambaikulam Girls Maha Vidiyalayam with the presentation of Governor's Award-2003, sources said.
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'Failure to accept IA proposal will invite International displeasure' - Karuna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2003, 16:11 GMT]
"If the Government of Sri Lanka fails to accept the Interim Administration proposals that we have developed with the assistance of our legal and constitutional experts and consultations with many Governments of the West, the Sri Lanka Government will have to face severe international displeasure," said Col.Karuna during a special interview to a local daily when he arrived at the Illupadichcheni sports ground on his return from his foreign trip.


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