Sustainable Development in Northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 04:45 GMT]
International institutions and foreign governments have pledged funds, developed strategies, and formed committees in preparation for rehabilitating and reconstructing the war ravaged Northeast. But sustainable development holds the key to developing Northeast which is in need of infrastructure development, industrial development, agricultural and fisheries improvement, technological advancement, education and training and other areas.
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LTTE activists released on bail in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 04:38 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate, Mr. K.Ariyanayagam, Monday allowed cash and surety bail to two activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when they were produced in court on a complaint of abducting a private vehicle and possessing pointed weapons on September 23, legal sources said.
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Building up the case for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 02:11 GMT]
There is a steadily growing body of opinion among the Singhalese that Colombo’s dealings with the Liberation Tigers amount to nothing but a misguided policy of appeasement and plain treachery. The case for going to war with the Tigers again is being argued in different guises – its rhetorical veils are getting thinner as the ranks of those who oppose the peace process swell with each passing week.
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SLA again stops work on NECORD project in VVT

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 18:12 GMT]
Vadamaradchi fishermen Monday began work on micro breakwater for mooring fishing boats and deepening boat-mooring space inside these in Valvettithurai (VVT), Inbaruty and Thumpalai coastal areas, defying the ban on the project by the Sri Lanka Army, and tension arose when the SLA rushed to the area, and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) had to intervene to keep the situation under control, sources said.
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Bishop says hidden hand behind shrine demolition

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 18:09 GMT]
At an emergency meeting held Monday evening at the Mannar District Secretariat following the demolition in the morning of the Catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar district, Muslims and Catholics agreed to amicably settle the shrine demolition issue after three hours of deliberations, sources said.
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Fasting campaign to demand inquiry into Nimalarajan’s murder

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 17:24 GMT]
A fasting campaign is to be held by the Jaffna Journalists’ Alliance (JJA) in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat to remember the slain journalist, Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was killed three years ago in Jaffna, and to call for a commission of inquiry into his murder, the Jaffna-based Tamil daily, Uthayan, said Monday.
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Catholic shrine demolished, Mannar tense

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 11:23 GMT]
Mannar town was tense Monday following the demolition of a catholic shrine in Erukkalampiddi, a Muslim village in the western part of the Mannar Island. Officials from the Mannar District Secretariat, the Liberation Tigers and officers from the Sri Lanka army and Police were engaged in talks to defuse the situation amid a sit in protest in the town by more than a thousand catholic fishermen from Pallimunai, a coastal suburb of Mannar town, who had built the shrine.
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'Tamils disappointed by lack of normalcy' - ACTC leader

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 01:02 GMT]
”The people of Jaffna are a disappointed lot today even after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the United National Front Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said the Jaffna district parliamentarian and President of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Mr.A.Vinayagamoorthy, at a seminar held in Trincomalee Sunday evening on the current political situation in the Northeast.


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Veteran Tamil activist in Trincomalee passes away

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 23:11 GMT]
Veteran Federal Party member and leading Hindu religious worker, Mr.Kanagarajah Muthiah, fondly called Muthiah Swamiyar, who had been staying in a hut opposite the Hindu pilgrim rest located in close proximity to the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram temple for more than thirty years, passed away at the age of 91 Saturday morning, sources said.
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SLMM, LTTE meet focuses on strengthening CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 21:26 GMT]
Members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) lead by Maj. General Tryggve Tellefsen met with Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Political Wing S.P.Thamilchelvan and LTTE regional political leaders at the LTTE political head quarters in Kilinochchi Sunday between 11am and 2pm to discuss issues related to strengthening the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), sources in Vanni said.
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Valvettithurai fishermen to defy SLA order

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 15:49 GMT]
The Fisheries Co-operative Society officials in Athikoviladi, Valvettithurai, Sunday said they would commence work Monday on micro breakwater for mooring fishing boats and deepening boat mooring space inside these, regardless of whether the Sri Lanka Army allows it. The SLA had Thursday stopped the fishermen from starting the work, fisheries sources said.
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Women's gathering to be held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 14:41 GMT]
The leaders of different Women's Organizations in the Jaffna district are to assemble in Veerasingam Hall in Jaffna town this Thursday between 9am and 5pm to discuss pressing issues that affect women and address the urgent needs of women in the Northeast, sources in the Vanni said.
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IDPs launch campaign demanding resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 14:32 GMT]
The Valigamam Peoples’ Associations’ Consortium Sunday decided to launch agitation campaign in the Jaffna district demanding that the internally displaced families should be allowed to resettle in their lands which come under the high security zones of the government security forces, civil sources said.


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Literary meet promotes Muslim Tamil relations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2003, 12:19 GMT]
“A Tamil student would come every year to our house with a gift for my father when I was a little boy. He would seek my father’s blessings on the day of his father’s death anniversary. His esteem for my father’s Tamil scholarship was such that although he had many uncles he honored my father as his own. This is but an instance of the great and deep bond between Tamils and Muslims in the east”, said Mr. Jinnah Serifudeen, the well regarded poet speaking at a literary meet Sunday to promote Tamil Muslim relations in Kattankudy, near Batticaloa town.


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SLMM, LTTE district political heads to meet in Killinochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 19:10 GMT]
Members of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and political heads of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from different districts of northeast province are scheduled to holdl talks at 10 a.m. Sunday at the peace secretariat in Killinochchi, SLMM sources said.


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Tamil monthly from Trincomalee released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 18:44 GMT]
LTTE's Trincomalee district women military wing leader Ms Thayalini released the first copy of the Trincomalee's new Tamil monthly magazine "KONAMARUTHAM (Gentle Breeze of Trinco)" to the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and district parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan Saturday at an event held at Trincomalee Town Hall.
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Failure to devolve power will lead to war, secession - Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 15:08 GMT]
"In a multi-ethnic society devolution of powers is an essential pre-requisite to strengthen local administrations. Secession is inevitable if ruling polities fail to recognize this fact. Sri Lanka has to urgently address this issue if its people are to live in peace and to prevent war breaking out," said Mr. S.B.Dissanayake, Samudri and Agriculure and Livestock Minister in the United National Front (UNF) Government when speaking at the Agricultural Conference held at the Devanayagam Co-opertive theater in Batticaloa, Saturday morning.


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JVP, SLFP foot march begins from Kandy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2003, 13:13 GMT]
Leaders of sinhala nationalist marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), Buddhist Monks and thousands of party activists, supporters joined together under the Patriotic National Movement banner today morning and started a five- day, 116 kilometers foot march from Kandy to Colombo as a protest against to the establishment of separate an interim administrative structure for the northeast province and United National Front (UNF) government.


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British HC officials meet LTTE in Amparai

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 22:05 GMT]
A team of officials from the British High Commission (HC) in Sri Lanka, led by Ms. Margaret Tongue, the head of the Press and Public Affairs division at the HC, met with the Amparai district political leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the LTTE’s Akkaparipattu political secretariat Thursday, sources in Amparai said.
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A life as rough as coir

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 18:09 GMT]
Few would dare to make a living on Jaffna’s ‘forgotten coast.’ Layers of concertina, sentry points, fences, bunkers and watch towers seal the lagoon shore for about 12 kilometres between Koilakandy and Kilaly, southeast of the Jaffna town. But for the coir makers and fishermen who survive here, it is home – the waters and soil where their forbears made their livelihood for centuries.
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