Muslim MPs endorse merger of North and East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2003, 15:44 GMT]
The North East Muslim Parliamentarians' Alliance (NEMPA) Wednesday said that the problems of Muslims could be solved only within the merged northeast province. "We cannot find solutions to the problems of our community by dividing the merged northeast province," said M.L.A.M.Hisbullah, General Secretary of the NEMPA, in an interview to a private television in Colombo, sources said.
Full story >>

'Final decision on LTTE camp issue after meeting SLMM' - Solheim

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2003, 14:57 GMT]
A final decision on the Kurankupanchan camp of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will be taken after Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian special peace envoy, meets with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, according to Mr. Solheim, who addressed media persons after about three hours of talks with the political head of the LTTE, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, Wednesday at the LTTE’s political secretariat in Kilinochchi, Vanni sources said.
Full story >>

JVP demonstrates against IA for northeast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 18:27 GMT]
The Marxist cum Sinhala Nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Tuesday held a demonstration and rally in Colombo against handing over the northeast interim administration to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and what the JVP said were attempts by the United National Front government to bring foreign forces into the country, sources said.
Full story >>

SLMM hears Kattankudy Muslim fishermen's complaint

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 16:12 GMT]
The head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Batticaloa district Tuesday held discussions with the fishermen’s representatives in Kattankudy regarding a complaint that unidentified men had robbed them of their boats and fishing gear in sea, sources said.
Full story >>

Tamils in Ampara mourn victims of 1990 massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 14:47 GMT]
A general shutdown (hartal) was observed by Tamil communities in Ampara on Tuesday to mark the 13th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Special Task Forces, Muslim youths and homeguards in Veeramunai, 38 km southwest of Batticaloa town, in 1990, sources in Ampara said.
Full story >>

Eastern Muslims observe hartal, remember dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 13:45 GMT]
Muslim communities in Kattankudy, Eravur, Oddamavadi and some parts of Valaichchenai in the Batticaloa district Tuesday observed a general shut down (hartal) in remembrance of Muslims killed thirteen years ago on August 12, 1990 at Meerakerni in Eravur, about 15 km north of Batticaloa town, at the request of the Mosques’ Federation, police sources said.
Full story >>

Norwegian peace envoy Solheim arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 August 2003, 13:10 GMT]
Norwegian special peace envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, arrived in Colombo Tuesday early morning on a three day visit to hold vital discussions with the leaders of the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) intended to sort out differences between the two parties in taking forward the peace process stalled since April this year, political sources said.
Full story >>

Non-academic University staff in Sri Lanka to strike indefinitely

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 August 2003, 15:44 GMT]
The All-University Non-Academic Staff Unions' Federation (AUNASUF) and six non-teaching staff unions in Sri Lanka will go on a strike indefinitely starting Tuesday, August 12, putting forward a 21-point demand, including the call for a salary review and raise and the payment of a monthly cost of living allowance, sources said.
Full story >>

SL Minister cancels conference in Jaffna to evade protests

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 August 2003, 01:42 GMT]
Mr.John Amaratunge, Interior and Christian Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka, who was visiting Jaffna Sunday, cancelled his conference scheduled to be held in the afternoon at the Jaffna district secretariat at the last minute, on a report by the Police that about one hundred representatives of the Jaffna Missing Persons Guardians' Association and the Valigamam North Displaced Persons Association had gathered at the district secretariat premises to stage a protest against his visit, Police sources said
Full story >>

Puthuvai Ratnathurai’s poem collection released in Trinco

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 20:03 GMT]
The introductory event for the book ‘Ulaikalam,’ a collection of poems written by Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, head of the Arts and Cultural Department of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was held Sunday evening at the Trincomalee Town Hall.
Full story >>

Journalist Sivagurunathan's funeral held in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 19:51 GMT]
The funeral of the veteran Tamil journalist, Mr. Ratnathurai Sivagurunathan, took place Sunday evening at the Hindu section of the Kanatte cemetery in Colombo, attended by a large gathering, sources said.
Full story >>

‘Colombo cannot disregard our proposal’ – Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 17:50 GMT]
“We would be ready to resume negotiations if the Sinhala nation accepts our proposal for the interim administration and follows the path of peace. The Sri Lankan government cannot disregard our proposal. If it does, then (Colombo) should let the Tamils go their way to determine their own destiny. This is the reality," said Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers’ political division, addressing more than 3000 delegates from Jaffna taking part in a conference for the National Awakening Movement in Pallai, a town in the peninsula’s southern sector, Sunday.
Full story >>

Trinco Tamil fishermen complain of harassment by SLN

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 13:33 GMT]
Tamil fishermen in Trincomalee complain that the Sri Lanka Navy often harasses them in the Trincomalee seas. Some navy personnel who patrol the seas assault Tamil fishermen fishing within the stipulated area and chase them away, while allowing fishermen who use prohibited nets and dynamites for fishing, an official of a Tamil fisheries society in the eastern port town said.
Full story >>

SLA to recruit 4000 soldiers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 10:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is to launch a massive recruitment drive to recruit about 4000 soldiers and interviews will commence on 18 August in several locations islandwide, the state controlled Sunday Observer newspaper reported quoting Brigadier Jammika Liyanage, Director, Personnel Administration, of the SLA.
Full story >>

Jaffna medical graduates’ reluctance to serve in NE lamented

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 August 2003, 01:50 GMT]
“As the medical graduates of Jaffna University are reluctant to serve in the North East,” the North East Health Services has been forced to “beg doctors from other districts to serve in the North East,” lamented the director of the NEHS, Dr. Kumaravetpillai.
Full story >>

‘Tamil question is not a minority issue' – Prof. Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2003, 19:09 GMT]
“The challenge for the future is to reform the Sri Lankan state without generating violence in Sinhala society. And that is a tremendous challenge for any ruling elite in Colombo,” said Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, the well regarded political commentator in the Sinhala and English media in Sri Lanka, in a wide ranging interview with TamilNet this week. He emphasised the need for developing means for greater dialogue and engagement between the Tamils and Singhalese to resolve the conflict.
Full story >>

STF informant shot dead in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2003, 16:59 GMT]
A thirty five year old Tamil informant to the Special Task Force of the Sri Lanka Police in Akkaraipattu in the Amparai district was shot dead Saturday evening around six when he was proceeding to his home in a push bicycle through the Sagamam road, Police sources said Satuyrday.
Full story >>

Veteran Tamil newspaper Editor Sivagurunathan passes away

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 August 2003, 13:40 GMT]
Mr.R. Sivagurunathan, a veteran Tamil journalist who held the post of Chief Editor of the Tamil daily THINAKARAN for about thirty three years, passed away peacefully early morning Saturday after a brief illness in Colombo at the age of seventy-two, media sources said.
Full story >>

TRO opens sewing training centre at Thampalakamam

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2003, 22:29 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization Friday afternoon opened a training centre to teach sewing to unemployed girls in Thampalakamam, a traditional Tamil village 24 km off Trincomalee town. At the start, about twenty women have been enrolled to obtain training in the centre, said the Trincomalee Dstrict Director of the TRO, Mr.K.Mathavarajah, speaking at the opening event held at the TRO office in Thampalakamam.
Full story >>

SL President says ‘dangerous’ period ahead

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2003, 18:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, addressing a workshop of members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party women organizations Friday, said that the country was facing the most dangerous period in its history as the United National Front government was preparing to “hand over the power to rule a part of the country to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in the name of taking forward the present peace process."
Full story >>