Mutur Tamil youths complain of torture by Navy soldiers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 18:18 GMT]
Two Tamil youths, Vettivel Kiritharan (23) and Kanagasabai Nagendran (21) of Pattalipuram in the Mutur East have been reported assaulted and tortured by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel after being arrested on Wednesday, according to a complaint made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) by the youths.
Full story >>

UN child rights body criticises Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 17:59 GMT]
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said it is concerned that under Sri Lanka’s legal system societal discrimination persists against vulnerable groups of children, including children with disabilities, adopted children, children displaced by conflict, children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and children of ethnic groups and religions.
Full story >>

LTTE demands release of political official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 11:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demanded the release of its Puliyanthivu, Batticaloa district head of political wing, Sathiyaraj, as a condition for releasing the two Sri Lanka Police officers LTTE arrested in Chenkaladi Tuesday, security sources in Batticaloa said.


Full story >>

Hartal observed in Batticaloa and Amparai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 11:33 GMT]
Batticaloa district Peoples Coalition organized a hartal (work stoppage) in Batticaloa and Amparai districts Thursday protesting the recent arrests of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political officials, increasing road checks on the civilians by the Security forces and the rise in random killings, sources in the eastern province said.


Full story >>

Jaffna, East undergrads condemn arrest of LTTE official

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 June 2003, 01:57 GMT]
Undergraduates of University of Jaffna expressed their support to the protest fast being carried out by the fellow students of the Eastern University campus condemning the arrest of the Pulliyanthivu, Batticaloa district, head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sathiyaraj by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), student union sources said.


Full story >>

LTTE insists on draft framework for interim administration to resume talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 11:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka Wednesday reiterated its position that it would participate in the negotiating process only when the Sri Lankan government puts forward a clearly defined draft framework for an interim administrative structure for the Northeast.
Full story >>

Disappearance investigations need GoSL, LTTE support - ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 03:19 GMT]
On the appeal made at the fifth round of talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin on 7, 8 February 2003, International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) came forward to provide assistance in investigation of the people who disappeared in Northeast after 1990, said Filipa Nato Marques, the resident representative of the ICRC in Batticaloa district during a press briefing held Tuesday evening at the ICRC office in Batticaloa.


Full story >>

Policemen missing in east, youths take cyanide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 22:03 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Police personnel were reported missing in Chenkalady, 16 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday night. The two, deployed at the Eravur Police station, were riding a motorbike off duty when unidentified persons are believed to have abducted them Tuesday night, they said.
Full story >>

Tokyo donors' conference will not benefit Sri Lanka -PA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 20:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) led by President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge Tuesday said ninety percent of aid pledged at the Tokyo donors' conference are loans and not grants. "Majority of the aid given at the donors' conference are on various interest rates with several conditions attached," said People’s Alliance media spokesman Mr.Sarath Amunugama at a press briefing held Tuesday at the office of the Leader of the Opposition.
Full story >>

‘Let my people lead normal lives’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 20:01 GMT]
“My people have endured great agony and suffering for twenty years. Let them lead normal lives like those in other parts of the country”, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Rayappu Joseph told a delegation of Sri Lankan armed forces and officials that is on a fact finding visit to the district on the island’s northwestern coast Tuesday. “It is imperative that they shouldn’t be made to wait any longer for their rightful share of the peace dividend which everyone outside the northeast has enjoyed for more than an year”, the Bishop said.
Full story >>

Trinco Pallampoddar Amman Temple festival held

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 13:12 GMT]
Thousands of devotees participated in the annual ‘Pongal’ festival of the historic Pallampoddar Paththini Amman temple in the Trincomalee district, Monday night.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan Prime Minister's concluding remarks in Tokyo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 11:32 GMT]
"Sri Lanka has to overcome the delays, the blockages and the inertia of its bureaucratic apparatus and transform it into one capable of speedy implementation where work is done efficiently and effectively. This requires significant political resolve and I intend to provide the leadership necessary to achieve this result," said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister in his statement to the concluding session of the Japan aid meeting on 10 June.
Full story >>

Pongal festival celebrated in Vattapallai Amman Temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 02:27 GMT]
Thousands of devotees from different parts of Northeast joined in the pongal celebrations held at Vattapallai Amman Temple, a popular hindu temple in Vanni, Monday. The prevailing climate of peace after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of SriLanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was the reason for such large gathering of devotees at the temple festival, sources said.


Full story >>

Trinco TRO launches housing project in Paththinipuram

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 19:17 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Trincomalee Monday launched a housing project for the resettled families in Paththinipuram, a hamlet in Tampalakamam division and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Trincomalee district political head Mr.S.Tilak Monday around 12 noon laid the foundation stone for the first house to be constructed, sources said.
Full story >>

Jaffna co-op officials urge Sri Lanka's PM to establish IA

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 19:16 GMT]
The Jaffna District Agricultural and Consumers Co-operative Societies Union (ACCSU) said Monday that the long awaited permanent peace could be achieved only through establishing an Interim Administration (IA) for the Northeast province with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the helm, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Tamil Language purity must be preserved - Ilankumaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 10:54 GMT]
V. Ilankumaran, head of Tamileelam Educational Organization, while addressing the audience during discussions in Kilinochchi on Tamil literature, Sunday, said that it is important to enforce discipline in the use of Tamil to prevent intrusion of foreign language words into speaking and written Tamil, and to preserve the purity of this ancient language.


Full story >>

NE provincial physical training competition held in Trinco

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 18:39 GMT]
More than five hundred students from 23 schools in Northeast province participated in the eighth annual physical training competition held in Trincomalee Mc Heyzer stadium, Sunday, sports officials in Trincomalee said.
Full story >>

NECORD helps build war destroyed school buildings

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 14:28 GMT]
Two new school buildings constructed at a cost of about three million rupees by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) programme in the resettled Tamil villages Kumburupiddy and Kuchchaveli in the north of Trincomalee district were declared open Saturday, education officials in Trincomalee said.
Full story >>

NIAP officials survey work in Vannerikulam, Aanaivilunthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 12:28 GMT]
Nimal Fernando, the Country resident representative of the World Bank which is funding the North East Irrigation and Agriculture Project (NIAP), the Chief Engineer, Kilichochi district Government Agent (GA) Mr. T. Rasanayakam visited Vannerikulam and Aanaivilunthan kulam to survey the rehabilitation work of the irrigation tanks Saturday, said sources in Kilinochchi.
Full story >>

Student parliament convened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 02:11 GMT]
Hundreds of students from schools in Jaffna district took part in a student parliament held at the Veerasingam Hall on Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. This was the first time an event of this type was organized in Jaffna peninsula, student leaders in Jaffna said.


Full story >>