SLMM head meets LTTE’s Trinco leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2003, 18:53 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Tuesday agreed to hold a meeting with the local heads of Sri Lankan Government armed forces on April 21 at the no-man zone in the Mutur area, south of Trincomalee town, to sort out the problem that has arisen over the question of LTTE members crossing through the army controlled areas to LTTE controlled areas, sources said.
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Tamils march in Geneva on Human Rights day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2003, 11:52 GMT]
Thousands of expatriate tamils from United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France and other European countries, Monday, joined a march to the United Nations (UN) building in Geneva where sessions on Human Rights issues are being held at the UN, Tamil daily Uthayan from Jaffna reported.


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HRC inquires into police assault on LTTE cadre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 April 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka Monday held an inquiry into a complaint of Police assault on a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre, Mr. Iyaivaanan on March 29, sources said.
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Body washed ashore in Mullaitivu awaits identification

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2003, 11:22 GMT]
The body discovered in Mullaitivu shores Monday last week and sent to Colombo for identification was not of one of chinese fishermen killed in a recent incident at Trincomalee seas according to Chinese Embassy officials, sources in Colombo said.
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JMPGA to meet Justice Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 April 2003, 10:48 GMT]
The Jaffna Missing Persons' Guardian Association (JMPGA) Sunday decided to meet Sri Lanka's Minister of Justice, Law Reform and National Integration Mr.W.J.M.Lokkubandara regarding several hundreds disappeared Tamil youths after the arrest by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) following 1995 military operation, sources said.


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A9 opens for traffic on Sundays

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2003, 11:58 GMT]
The A9 highway to Jaffna will be open for public traffic on Sundays, starting today, Sri Lanka military sources said. The road was opened last year following the cease fire agreement between the LTTE and Colombo. But it remained closed on Sundays despite pleas by the Tigers to keep it open 7 days of the week. The road to the Vanni in Mannar through the Uyilankulam entry point was also opened to public traffic on Sundays from today.
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LTTE delegation completes Norway, Sweden visits

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2003, 07:15 GMT]
Members of the Liberation Tigers’ Political Affairs Committee Sunday completed the first week of a tour to several Scandinavian countries to study federal structures and good governance, by boarding a ferry to the Aaland islands in northern Europe. The intensive tour, which began with an opening welcome by Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, was this weekend hailed as a success by the LTTE delegates as well as Foreign Ministry officials from Norway, Sweden and Finland.
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Cultural festival begins Tuesday in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2003, 02:30 GMT]
The five-day music, dance and drama festival of the Association of Art and Culture is to begin Tuesday at the Trincomalee Orr's Hill Vivekananda College auditorium. More than four hundred and eighty Tamil and Sinhala artistes are expected to participate in the festival, Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, head of the Art and Cultural Department of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Saturday.
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JVP observes 71’ insurrection day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2003, 16:59 GMT]
The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Saturday observed the 32nd anniversary of its first insurrection to overthrow the Sri Lankan government. On 5 April 1971, the JVP launched an armed insurrection to capture state power and to establish a communist regime in Sri Lanka. Thousands of Sinhala youth were massacred when Colombo brutally crushed the rebellion.
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Colombo wants to create illusion of a political settlement– Karuna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2003, 16:29 GMT]
“We should be mindful that we are living in the information age. Information technology has grown tremendously. Our information skills should be on par with this growth. The information revolution can be put to wrong uses too. It can be used to wage psychological warfare against us subtly through TV and other popular media,” said Col. Karuna, senior commander of the Liberation Tigers, addressing the opening of the offices and press of the ‘Thamil Alai’ (Tamil Wave) newspaper in Kokkaddicholai, 12 kilometres southwest of Batticaloa, Saturday.
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Indian boatmen ferrying refugees arrested

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2003, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police produced in the Mannar courts Saturday 23 refugees who had come by boat from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Sources said that the Sri Lanka Navy had arrested them Friday morning and had assaulted the men in the group after allegedly finding gelignite in the possession of one of them.
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Tamil villages without post boxes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 April 2003, 15:34 GMT]
Several Tamil villages in the Trincomalee district are not provided with post boxes. Villagers are forced to walk several miles to the nearby villages to post their letters, complained Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.K.Thurairetnasingham in a letter to the Posts and Media Minister Mr.Imtiaz Bakeer Markar.
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IOM opens branch in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 12:20 GMT]
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) opened a branch office in Jaffna Friday. The IOM is involved in research and prevention of migrant trafficking, assists voluntary return of rejected asylum seekers, trafficked migrants, stranded students and refugees referred by the UNHCR.
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Exclusion from donor conference undermines peace process - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 10:08 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Friday protested its exclusion from an international donor conference to be hosted by the United States in Washington on April 14 to back reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the Tamil north and east of Sri Lanka. In a press release issued from its Political Headquarters in Kilinochchi, the LTTE expressed its ‘disappointment’ at the move, saying this would undermine confidence in the ongoing peace process.
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LTTE opposed to referendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 10:04 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Friday dismissed as “illogical, impractical and unnecessary” Sri Lankan government suggestions for an island-wide referendum on the ongoing peace initiative. Pointing out that the government had already got a resounding mandate from the people of Sri Lanka for peace, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said that his movement was totally opposed to a plebiscite at this stage to reaffirm public endorsement.
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Swiss organization opens health clinic in Ayathiyamalai

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 03:59 GMT]
International voluntary organization, Terre des homme (Tdh) which has its head quarters in Switzerland, Thursday, opened a Medical and Health Clinic in Ayathiyamalai, a village located 52km southwest of Batticaloa town, health officials in Batticaloa said.


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New LTTE cadres pass out from training camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 03:10 GMT]
A ceremony to mark the passing out of 400 men fighters from the 55th training camp and 300 women fighters from the 30th training camp in Batticaloa was held Thursday at the Tharavai central training camp in the LTTE controlled area of Batticaloa, sources said.
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Chariot festival at Koneswaram after 350 years

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 April 2003, 00:20 GMT]
For the first time after more than 350 years chariot ('Ther') festival was held in the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram temple Thursday morning. The chief deity of Koneswaram temple Lord Konesar and Maathumai Ambal was taken around the temple in the newly built chariot while deities Vinayagar and Murugan, two sons of Lord Siva were taken ahead amid chanting by thousands of devotees.


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Jaffna town’s redesign discussed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2003, 18:31 GMT]
A senior official of Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority (UDA) held a consultative meeting at the Jaffna District Secretariat Thursday on re-designing and rebuilding the Jaffna town. The head of the consortium of civil society organisations in Jaffna, Mr. S. Cyril, who took part in the consultation suggested that war damaged buildings should be demolished and that the new plan should do away with unplanned constructions which are causing congestion in the town.
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SLMM releases report on recent incidents at sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 April 2003, 11:51 GMT]
"The recent attacks on the Chinese trawler off Mullaittivu and the troops transport ship off Trincomalee are not only attacks against Chinese civilians and the Sri Lanka armed forces, but attacks aimed at destabilizing the Ceasefire and the Peace Process in Sri Lanka. Neither the Sri Lankan Government nor the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) benefit from such attacks taking place since they are undermining their credibility and endangering the progress the parties have made so far," said Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in a press release published today.
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