Batticaloa Tamil journalist harassed by SLA - SLTMA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 05:54 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) Tuesday notified the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Batticaloa about the harassment and humiliation caused to Mr.T.Vethanayagam, a Batticaloa based Tamil journalist, by the Sri Lanka Army, and sought the SLMM's action to investigate into the complaint and prevent such harassment to journalists in future, sources said.
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LTTE delegation leaves Colombo for Paris talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 05:50 GMT]
A high powered delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by its political head Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, left Colombo by Sri Lankan Air Lines Wednesday early morning around 2 a.m. to Paris in France, sources at the Colombo airport said.
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'Don’t forget mother tongue and Tamil culture'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 00:00 GMT]
Mr.R.Thiagalingam, Secretary of the North East Provincial Education Ministry, addressing the gathering at the Miruthangam Arangetram of two brothers, Cholan and Sipi, held Monday evening at the Kalyana Mandapam of Trincomalee Muttukumaraswamy temple, made an appeal to several thousand Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad that they should not forget their mother tongue and Tamil cultural values.
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SLA soldiers arrest LTTE activists at Muhamalai checkpoint

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2003, 15:25 GMT]
Two political activists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr.Kanthasamy Pugalmaran and Mr. Yogarajah Mayavan, were arrested by Sri Lanka Army soldiers at the Muhamalai checkpoint Tuesday afternoon around 2 p.m and later handed over to the Kodikamam police, police said.
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LTTE delegation to Paris talks arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2003, 14:16 GMT]
A Ten member delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by its political head Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, arrived in Colombo Thursday afternoon by two special helicopters of the Sri Lanka Air Force from Kilinochchi. The delegation is on its way to participate in "internal talks" in Paris, France, aimed at preparing a response to the Sri Lankan government's interim administration proposals, political sources in Colombo said.
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Hartal shuts down Amparai district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2003, 11:01 GMT]
Normal life in secretariat divisions of the Ampara district was disrupted Tuesday as people observed a general shut down (hartal) in protest to the killings of two Muslim persons on Sunday night at Sammanthurai, police said


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‘Hindu temples in Trincomalee tell Tamils' history’

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2003, 22:00 GMT]
At a one-day seminar held by Sri Lanka’s Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry Sunday for Saiva religious teachers in the Trincomalee district, at the auditorium of Trincomalee Thiruvalluvar Nilayam, several speakers said that Hindu temples in the district are monuments of history of Tamils in the country.
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LTTE denies involvement in Sammanthurai killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2003, 12:07 GMT]
Denying any involvement in the killing of two Muslim civilians in Sammanthurai police division in the Ampara district Sunday night, the deputy political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Ampara, Mr.Kuyilan, said, "Elements bent on derailing the peace process could have committed this dastardly act," according to media sources.
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Hakeem to meet Sri Lankan PM on Muslims' security

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2003, 01:03 GMT]
Mr.Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Minister in Sri Lanka’s United National Front government, said Sunday that he would meet the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, Monday, on the question of providing maximum security to Muslims in the eastern province especially in Muttur area.
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Tamil medium teachers still receive Sinhala only letters

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2003, 20:53 GMT]
Tamil medium teachers and principals in Sri Lanka, especially in the northeast province where Tamil is the main medium in schools, are still undergoing untold hardships in transacting official business with the relevant departments as the central ministry of education and other related departments still correspond with them only in the Sinhalese language, the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU)'s General Secretary, Mr.T.Mahasivam, said.
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Thailand promises demining assistance to northeast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2003, 18:41 GMT]
The Thailand ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mr.Jerm Tivyanond, Saturday told the officials of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that his country is willing to assist in the de-mining programme in the northeast province, sources said.


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'Stop alienation of State land in Trincomalee district' - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2003, 15:51 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance’s parliamentary group leader, Mr.R.Sampanthan, Saturday made an urgent appeal to the United National Front government to stop the alienation of State land in Trincomalee district as it would cause serious harmful impact on the peace process, saying that such alienation of land was one of the main causes that led to the commencement of war and therefore it would be “tantamount to an abuse of the current ceasefire.”
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New Sinhala families settled in Nelukkulam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 August 2003, 10:46 GMT]
Even as thousands of internally displaced Tamil people are languishing in refugee camps, prevented by the Sri Lanka Army from resettling in their own homes, Sri Lankan government officials with the support of the SLA are actively engaged in recruiting new Sinhala families from the South to settle in lands abandoned by earlier Sinhala occupants in the traditional Tamil village of Nelukkulam in the Manalaru region in the Mullaitivu district, sources said.
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SLA distributes handbill to ‘advise’ Jaffna people

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2003, 19:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Friday started distributing anonymous handbills in the Jaffna district, stating that the removal of military camps from civilian houses and government buildings would get delayed if the people held demonstrations against relocating camps in abandoned state lands, civil sources said.
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Norwegian HR activist visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2003, 14:35 GMT]
The Jaffna District Humanitarian Agencies Consortium (JDHAC) Friday told a visiting Norwegian human rights activist, Mr.Bernt Gelbrandsen, at the JDHCA office in Jaffna town, that the Sri Lankan government has failed to implement the terms of the ceasefire agreement signed by it with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam seventeen months ago last year, civil sources said.
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UNICEF launches survey of children out of Trinco schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 August 2003, 02:50 GMT]
The UNICEF Thursday inaugurated a house-to-house survey under the “Education for All” project in three education zones in the Trincomalee district to identify non-school going children under age 14 and dropouts. “The basic right of children is education. If it is not provided, no other rights of children could be safeguarded or strengthened,” said the UNICEF’s Trincomalee representative, Ms. Gabrielle Elroy, delivering the keynote address at the inaugural event held Thursday morning at the Thampalakamam Puthukuddiruppu Tamil Vidiyalayam, sources said.
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TNA, LTTE meet on IA proposals

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 17:05 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is conducting individual meetings with constituents of the Tamil National Alliance to inform them about the LTTE’s planned discussions with constitutional experts--and to seek the TNA’s suggestions--on the Sri Lankan government’s proposals for an Interim Administration for the North-East, sources said.
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Muttur town tense, under curfew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 16:22 GMT]
The Eastern Region Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Sri Lanka Police, Mr. Neville Wijesinghe, said Thursday that a curfew has been declared in the Muttur town from 7 p.m. Thursday till 6 a.m. Friday as tension prevailed in the area following the killing of two Muslim youths, who were residents of Muttur, on Wednesday at Chelvanayakapuram in the Uppuveli Police division in the north of Trincomalee town.
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'Eastern Tamils losing confidence in SLMM'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 14:09 GMT]
Representatives of the Batticaloa District Non-Governmental Organizations' Consortium Thursday told the Norwegian special peace envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, that Tamils were losing confidence in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission as it had failed to take into account the mounting problems of the displaced Tamil people in the eastern province, NGO sources said.
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Gunmen kill EPDP cadre in east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 10:54 GMT]
A member of a Tamil paramilitary group was shot dead by unidentified persons in Batticaloa town Thursday. The gunmen who came on a bicycle got away, Police sources in the eastern town said.
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