CJ to lay foundation stone for first court complex in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 19:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Chief Justice, Mr.Sarath N.Silva, is to lay the foundation stone for a four-storied court complex in Trincomalee, Wednesday, legal sources said.
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TNA demands compensation to Tamil victims of police violence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 19:14 GMT]
Following a request Tuesday by the Tamil National Alliance that the relatives of the dead and injured during police violence should be paid compensation, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, directed the Interior Ministry to submit a report about the victims of violence that took place at Kanjirankuda in Ampara district, an eastern port town in the outskirts of Trincomalee district, and Nelliayadi in the Jaffna district last year.
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TNA protests new Buddhist shrine in Tamil village

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 19:12 GMT]
A Tamil National Alliance delegation, headed by Mr.R.Sampanthan, Tuesday met with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, and protested the construction of a new Buddhist shrine in Vilankulam, a historically Tamil a village, and the ban on renovating the historic Hindu temple at Kanniya, in Trincomalee, which had been destroyed by the war, sources said.
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UN, GOSL, LTTE discuss refugee return from India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 18:53 GMT]
Representatives of the UNHCR, Liberation Tigers (LTTE) and the government of Sri Lankan (GOSL) who took part in a workshop on 'Preparations for Voluntary Repatriation of Sri Lankan Refugees from India' held in Kilinochchi Tuesday stressed that further investments in the northeast remains necessary to create conditions conducive to the "safe and dignified organised voluntary repatriation of refugees from India to Sri Lanka."


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Sri Lanka Buddhist monks oppose peace deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 18:45 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks Tuesday vowed to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government if it did not listen to their exhortations against a peace deal with the Liberation Tigers. More than two thousand protestors, led by the ‘Federation of Bikkhus to Rescue the Motherland’, a large umbrella organisation of Buddhist monks, gathered at the Nugegoda Junction, a busy intersection in one of Colombo’s crowded suburbs, Tuesday afternoon to condemn Colombo’s peace negotiations with the LTTE.


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Forced to do Party work, Govt. employees complain

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 18:08 GMT]
Field officers of the para military Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) controlled local bodies in the Jaffna district Tuesday complained to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that they are being forced to distribute EPDP political pamphlets house to house in their areas, sources said.
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Jaffna local bodies to be administered by special commissioners

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 14:14 GMT]
The life term of all local authorities in the Jaffna district, which expires on February this year, will not be extended. Instead special commissioners will be appointed to administer these local bodies. A decision this effect was taken at the discussion between the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary delegation and the government group led by the Prime Minister held Tuesday, TNA sources said.
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SLA cannot deny the rights of IDPs to resettle in HSZ - TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2003, 12:50 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Tuesday gave assurances to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that it would take steps to resettle displaced inside the high security zone (HSZ) in Jaffna once the Indian defence expert submits a report on that issue, sources said. TNA stressed that although SLA is empowered by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to prevent Liberation Tigers (LTTE) from entering the HSZ, SLA cannot deny the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from resettling in their own homes in their own land, sources said.
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Immediate steps to develop education in NE urged

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2003, 20:28 GMT]
Speaking at the conclusion of an education workshop held at Killinochchi Maha Vidiyalyam on Monday, the head of the Thamileelam Educational Development Council (TEEDC), Mr.V.Ilankumaran, said that Tamils should not hesitate to fight for their educational rights, but they needed to take immediate steps to develop education in the North-East with available funds and other resources, without waiting until more money for education becomes available.
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SLA occupies 3500 civilian homes outside HSZ -Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2003, 16:45 GMT]
Three thousand and five hundred houses outside the high security zone (HSZ) in the Jaffna district are still occupied by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) preventing thousands of displaced people to return to their homes, said the Government Agent in his report to Colombo authorities, district secretariat sources said.
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'Archaeological finds should be safeguarded' -Ilankumaran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 19:47 GMT]
Faculty of Archaeology should be established in universities in the northeast to ensure better security to the archaeological finds of our land, said Mr.V.Ilankumaran, head of the Thamileelam Educational Development Division addressing a meeting of Trincomalee writers and critics Saturday evening at Trincomalee Sri Koneswara Hindu College.
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Regional events planned for 2nd Hindu Conference

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 03:07 GMT]
In a meeting held at the Management Centre of the North East Provincial Ministry of Education, Trincomalee, Saturday it was decided and plans discussed to have regional events in the northeast simultaneously when the second World Hindu Conference-2003 is held in Colombo from May 2nd to 5th under the auspices of the Ministry of Hindu Cultural Affairs, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Sri Lanka police collect details of Jaffna LTTE offices

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 17:51 GMT]
The Jaffna District People's Forum and the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs )Saturday condemned the action of the Sri Lanka Police collecting details of persons working in the offices of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) and the buildings where the organisation's offices are located in the peninsula, sources said.
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Jaffna observes Major Sothia death anniversary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 17:50 GMT]
The thirteen-death anniversary of Major Sothia, a senior commander of the women wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who died in 1990 after an illness, was observed in Vadamarachchi area in Jaffna district. Saturday. She was the first commander of the LTTE women wing, sources said.
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LTTE hands over fourteen students to their parents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 17:49 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Saturday handed over fourteen students who voluntarily came to join the LTTE to their parents in the presence of several representatives of the international humanitarian agencies in the peninsula. The handing over event took place Saturday at the district head office of the LTTE located at Potpathi Road, Kokuvil in Jaffna, a non-governmental agency source said.
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A9 rebuilding to begin on Thai-Pongal day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 14:11 GMT]
Although Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated Rs800 million towards rebuilding the A9 highway from Omanthai to Jaffna, no funds have been made available to clear mines that still lay buried in areas surrounding several segements of A9 which present a potential danger to residents who would want to resettle, a news report from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in Kilinochi highlighted.
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Agreement on resettlement as talks conclude

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 07:49 GMT]
The fourth round of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand with parties reaching agreement on accelerated action on resettlement of displaced people and making progress on human rights, the Norwegian government said.
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JJA, TELO condemn attack on Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 02:43 GMT]
Jaffna Journalists Association (JJA) strongly condemned the attack on Tamil Journalist, S. Jeyananandamoorthy, in a report published today adding that the carefully planned attack raises suspicion that the perpertrators intended to kill him. Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) in its press release also condemned the attack.
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Grade-1 school enrolments up

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 02:16 GMT]
After a marked decline in admissions to Grade 1 in NorthEast schools for the last twenty years, the numbers have reached a record high this year, said Karunasena Kodituwaku, Minister of Education, in a report published today. In the last two days only the numbers admitted to Grade-1 reached seventy thousand, sources in Jaffna said.
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Sri Lanka judiciary's failure led Tamils to take arms - Ranil

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2003, 17:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe said Friday that the failure of the country's judiciary to fulfill its duties and responsibilities to safeguard the right of various ethnic groups has led the Tamils to launch an armed struggle for a separate state.
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