LTTE rejects government's new proposals

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2003, 06:55 GMT]
The leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has rejected the new set of proposals submitted by the government of Sri Lanka instituting a development structure for the rehabilitation and development of the Northeast.
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Valigamam residents picket against new SLA camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2003, 15:23 GMT]
Hundreds of residents Thursday held a four hour picketing campaign blocking the main road from Puttur to Chunnakam at Nilavarai junction opposing the construction of a new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Nilavarai- Navakiri area. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian Mr.M.K.Sivajilingam participated in the picketing campaign, sources said.
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SLA occupation must cease for normalcy to return - GA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 May 2003, 10:53 GMT]
"Normalcy in the day to day lives of residents of Jaffna district will not return until Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vacates from civilian houses and public buildings," said the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) S. Pathamanathan when he met US Embassy head of Political section Chris Long at the Jaffna Beach Hotel yesterday, local press reports said.


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LTTE, SLA commanders meet in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 18:34 GMT]
Commanders of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Trincomalee district met for the first time Wednesday evening at the no man zone near Kattaiparichchan bridge which separates the LTTE held Muttur east and SLA held area in Muttur division in the presence of the Trincomalee head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), security sources said.


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Commander Vinothan's eigth anniversary commemorated

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 11:54 GMT]
A memorial ceremony for Commander of Vinothan brigade of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Lt.Col. Vinothan, and eighteen LTTE fighters who died in the attack on Tharavai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp was held in the 'Meenaham' military grounds in Amparai district 27 May, sources said.


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Committee to hold inquiry into assault on Jaffna journalists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 00:15 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government has appointed a committee to conduct inquiry into the alleged assaults in the past few months on three Tamil journalists by the Police and Security Forces in the Jaffna district, media sources said Tuesday.


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Defying C.I dogma, massacre village rises from ashes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 13:30 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army massacred seventeen villagers, including six children, and burnt and razed to the ground Thoni Thaattamadu, an impoverished Tamil hamlet on the east coast’s remote interior 16 years ago on May 27, 1987. The massacre was an integral part of a counter insurgency (C.I) campaign by Sri Lankan armed forces. The village remained a no go zone since then, until the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with Colombo in February last year.
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LTTE team tours Talawakelle, Hatton, Matara

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 11:14 GMT]
"Ruling parties in Sri Lanka have consistently described us as terrorists to the people of the South. We are only fighting to regain our rights, secession is not our main objective," said Anbarasan, head of political section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when addressing a meeting held at the Matara district secretariat while handing over the relief supplies brought from Vanni to Minister Mahinda Wijesekera, press reports from Jaffna said.
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Colombo responds to LTTE's request for IA

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's United National Front (UNF) government Monday responded to the request of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that an interim administration (IA) with adequate powers to effectively handle the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of the war ravaged northeast province should be established before Tokyo aid summit talks begin next month, sources said. The details are being conveyed to the LTTE by Norwegian envoy, Eric Solheim, on Tuesday, sources added.


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JVP vows to defeat interim administration proposal

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 15:43 GMT]
The Sinhala hardliner Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Monday declared that it would go all out to thwart the attempt by the United National Front (UNF) government to grant interim administration for the north east as demanded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Colombo said.
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Jaffna undergrads to agitate for HSZ removal

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 15:04 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students Union Monday decided to hold an upsurge movement in the peninsula, demanding the United National Front (UNF) government to fully implement the ceasefire agreement that the UNF signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources said.
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Sampanthan writes to PM on interim administration

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 14:28 GMT]
The parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Mr.R.Sampanthan Monday sent a letter to the Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister urging him to act with “adequate clarity and certainty the commitment as stated in his 2001 general election manifesto that an Interim Administration will be set up for the northeast province and such a step will strengthen and consolidate the peace process.”
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Empty development promise keeps old ferry working

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2003, 03:14 GMT]
The Batticaloa district has one of the most underdeveloped road networks in Sri Lanka. Many parts of this network remain disconnected by three lagoons that separate most of the district's large hinterland from the coast due to long years of neglect by successive regimes in Colombo. Tamils say most parts of the northeast were subjected to systematic economic deprivation for many decades since the island's Sinhala majority established firm control over the country's finances with inflexibly unitary constitutions in 1972 and 1978, which, they charge, were made without their endorsement.
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Villagers in Trinco suffer without medical facilities-TNA MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2003, 17:07 GMT]
The remote villages in the Trincomalee district have not been provided with proper medical facilities and people undergo untold hardships in getting prompt medical treatment, said Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairetnasingham in a letter to the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Welfare Mr.P.Dayaratne, sources in Trinco said.
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CWC supports LTTE's interim council proposal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 May 2003, 17:04 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a constituent of the United National Front (UNF) government, Sunday declared that it would wholeheartedly support the interim council proposal put forward by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), CWC said in a press release.
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Trinco NGOs' consortium to help flood victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 17:19 GMT]
The Consortium of Trincomalee District Non-Governmental Associations Saturday appealed to its member organizations to channel all relief materials collected in the district through it to the victims of recent flood in the south of the country.
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Judge orders remand extension for two LTTE cadres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 13:08 GMT]
The Trincomalee Magistrate Mr.S.Thiagendran Friday ordered further remand till June 5 for the two members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) arrested on a charge of possessing explosives under the Offensive Weapons Act, legal sources said. The Sri Lanka Navy apprehended the two along with a third LTTE cadre on May 8 in the Trincomalee Sea.
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Normalcy returns to displaced Tamils, Muslims in Muttur

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 12:54 GMT]
Tamil and Muslim residents of Muttur division, south of Trincomalee town who sought refuge in schools, churches and mosques where their security was ensured following the outbreak of violence between the two communities last month, started to return to their own homes this Saturday after one and a half months in the temporary shelters, sources said.
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Resolving CFA issues focus of SLA, LTTE meet

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 19:48 GMT]
A high level meeting between the commanders of the Sri Lankan Government armed forces and the LTTE in the Trincomalee district has been fixed for May 28 at no man’s zone at Kattaiparichchan in the Mutur division, south of the eastern port town, to resolve existing logistical problems in the implementation of the Cease-Fire Agreement, sources said.
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TRO office opened at Thampalakamam

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 May 2003, 18:59 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Trincomalee district secretariat Friday opened its second divisional branch at Thampalakamam, 16 km. west of Trincomalee town. The first branch of the TRO was opened at Chenaiyoor in the LTTE held Mutur east. A pre-school also was opened on the same day at Thampalakamam.
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