Salt threatens eight thousand acres in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2003, 18:43 GMT]
Yields in more than eight thousand acres of rice fields in Kopay South in the peninsula are steadily declining due to salination of the lands from waters seeping from the saltpans of Chemmani, on the eastern outskirts of the Jaffna town, local farmers told TamilNet Saturday.
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SED bank branch opened in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2003, 17:53 GMT]
Socio Economic Development (SED) Bank, which has its headquarters in Killinochchi, opened its first branch in the east of the island, Sunday. The General Manager of the SED Bank Mr.S.Sriskandarajah, declared opened the branch in Kadatkaraichcenai village in Muttur east in Trincomalee district.
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Police attack journalists in Jaffna melee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2003, 14:39 GMT]
Four journalists were brutally assaulted while covering a clash between Police and crowds in the neighbourhood of Maambalam Junction in Jaffna town Saturday evening. One of them, Mr. K. Ithayapavan, a staff reporter of the daily Valampuri, was admitted to Jaffna Hospital with a severe head injury. Police hit him on his head with batons and smashed his camera after he showed his press accreditation card and identified himself as a local journalist, according to his colleagues at the Valampuri.
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Women's Awakening Day celebrated in NE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Women's Awakening Day and the sixteenth death anniversary of 2nd Lieutenant Malathi (Pedurupillai Sahayaseeli) were marked Friday throughout the Northeast Province on a grand scale with rallies and public meetings where thousands of women from all walks of life participated in the events, TamilNet sources said.
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SLMM political advisor meets Mannar LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 18:27 GMT]
The political advisor to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Mr. Gejir Sebeasd Deniy, met officials of the Liberation Tigers in Mannar Friday for discussions about the ground situation in the district during the 17 months of cease-fire between Colombo and the LTTE. Head of the LTTE political division in Mannar Mr. C Amithaab, told Mr. Deniy that there weren't any problems with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the district only during the first five months of the cease-fire.
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LTTE delegation to visit Norway

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 14:27 GMT]
A delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by Mr.S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the political division of the LTTE, will visit Norway during October 14-17, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday.
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Tamils, Muslims should work for harmony -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 12:02 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday said elements that had been responsible for the recent clash in Mutur are now involved in creating ethnic tension in Kinniya division between Tamils and Muslims. The LTTE Trincomalee district political secretariat Friday issued a statement appealing to both communities to maintain patience and to understand the truth behind the current tension in Kinniya.
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Jaffna SLA trains for crowd control

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 08:37 GMT]
Units of the Sri Lanka army’s 51-4 Brigade in Ariyalai East are training for crowd control on the outskirts of Jaffna town from this week, military sources in the northern town said Friday. “The training was initiated to prepare the army too for tackling any civil unrest here”, said a source. “In Jaffna’s present political climate it would be counter productive to deploy the army even to assist Police for managing restive crowds”, Mr. M. K Sivajilingam MP for Jaffna told TamilNet, reacting to the report.
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LTTE commemorates first woman martyr

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2003, 02:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is commemorating the 16th anniversary of its first woman martyr, 2nd Lt. Malathy, throughout the Northeast on Friday. The LTTE’s women wing said in a statement that it would also observe the women’s awakening day on the same day.
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Kinniya under police curfew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 16:50 GMT]
The Divisional Secretariat division of Kinniya in the Trincomalee district has been brought under dusk-to-dawn curfew with effect from Thursday evening till Friday morning to defuse tension between Muslims and Tamils at the Faizal Nagar area following a land dispute, police said.
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British military team visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 15:49 GMT]
A team of British military officers and defence specialists visited Jaffna Thursday. The team met the Bishop and the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) of Jaffna and discussed the situation in the peninsula and the stand of the Liberation Tigers on several issues, including an Interim Administration for the Northeast, sources said.
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TNA briefs new US Ambassador in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 15:36 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday told the new US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mr. Jeff Lunstead, that the US government should have helped to take forward the peace process by lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, TNA sources said.
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LTTE, Muslims meet in Valaichenai and Vavunathivu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 11:42 GMT]
The subcommittee on Tamil-Muslim issues met Wednesday at 3pm at the Valaichenai Hindu College Hall and also on Thursday morning at the Vavunathivu Secretariat building to discuss issues confronting the muslims in different areas of the east, sources said.


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Garrison holds 6645 destroyed, damaged homes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 03:29 GMT]
Six thousand six hundred and forty five homes remain completely destroyed or damaged in the Valigamam North Division of Jaffna, which is heavily garrisoned by the Sri Lankan armed forces, rehabilitation officials in the northern peninsula said Thursday. All the houses are large and medium permanent brick and cement structures, according to them.
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Kurankupanchan Martyrs’ tombs built in 1996 - Thilak

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2003, 00:01 GMT]
Mr.S.Thilak, the Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Wednesday afternoon showed to the visiting Colombo-based journalists the tombs of two LTTE martyrs, Lt.Lingan and Second Lt. Ganesh, who were buried in the Kurankupanchan camp area in 1990, sources said.
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Veteran carnatic music exponent of Jaffna passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:29 GMT]
A veteran carnatic music exponent, Maha Vidwan Brahma Sri M.T.N.Veeramani Ayer, passed away Wednesday morning at the age of seventy-two at his residence at Inuvil in the Jaffna district. His body was cremated the same day evening at the Inuvil Hindu cemetery, in a function attended by a large gathering, sources said.
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Muslim-Tamil tension in Trinco south village

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 18:50 GMT]
More than four hundred families from Aalangkulam, south of Trincomalee, left their village Wednesday evening in fear of attacks by a Muslim group, residents from the area said. “The situation remains tense here among the Tamils,” Mr. Ketheeswaran Arunasalam, President of the village temple’s trustee board, told TamilNet.
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IA shouldn’t erode Tamil sovereignty- CTTU

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 18:46 GMT]
The branch of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) in Mullaithivu Wednesday evening urged the leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, to secure an interim administration for the northeast ‘without giving up even in least measure’ the Tamil nation’s sovereignty.’ In a memorandum addressed to the LTTE leader, the Mullaithivu CTTU said: “Law and order should be under the interim administration to safeguard our sovereignty."
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Journalists allowed to visit Trinco LTTE camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 15:12 GMT]
For the first time since the controversy broke out over the location of the Kurankupanchan camp of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Trincomalee district, the LTTE Wednesday allowed a group of journalists from Colombo and Trincomalee to visit the camp, located 32 km west of Trincomalee town, sources said.
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IGP under heat to resign

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 14:28 GMT]
The Sihala Urumaya, a Sinhala nationalist party in Sri Lanka, has called for the resignation of Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), T.E.Anandarajah, saying the IGP is “misusing his position of authority” and “supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” and has warned it would conduct a protest campaign against the IGP, media sources in Colombo said.


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