Manivannan in Jaffna to plan movie

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2004, 02:10 GMT]
“I am here to see the conditions in which Eelam Tamils live. I intend to make a movie about their lives. I want to make it authentic. That’s what brought me here at the invitation of Tilco Holidays”, said south Indian film star and producer ‘Manivannan’ speaking to the press in Jaffna town Wednesday night.
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Popular Tamil filmstar Manivannan to visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 03:15 GMT]
Manivannan, a popular film producer and actor from Tamil Nadu is scheduled to visit Jaffna this Wednesday, to exchange views with Jaffna artists and to see the conditions prevailing in war affected Jaffna for himself, local media reported.
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Trinco, Batticaloa writers remembered

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2004, 04:57 GMT]
The seventh death anniversary of Trincomalee born versatile Tamil writer, Mr.Tharmu Sivaramoo, and the 28th death anniversary of Batticaloa poet, Mr.Thuraineelavanan, were observed on Sunday with a public meeting held at the Sri Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam in Trincomalee.
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MGR remembered in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 December 2003, 04:57 GMT]
The 16th death anniversary of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr.M.G.Ramachandran, was commemorated in Vavuniya Wednesday at the Veerasingham Hall at the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Union (MPCU) building. The LTTE’s political head in Vavuniya, Mr. S. Ezhilan, and the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr. N. Sivasakthi Anandan and several other prominent personalities in Vavuniya participated, sources said.
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Indian coast guard escorts boats to Jaffna seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2003, 16:37 GMT]
The Indian coast guard escorted ten fishing boats from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka’s maritime boundary in the Palk Strait Monday. The Indian fishing boats were received by the Sri Lanka Navy and were guided to the island of Delft (Nedunthivu) off Jaffna Monday evening.
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32 Indian poachers held by Mannar fishermen

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2003, 21:59 GMT]
The local fishermen of Vidathaltheevu in Mannar district have arrested 32 Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters Saturday night, and are holding them in their custody, but the detained fishermen will soon be released, sources said.
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Kinniya division under dusk to dawn curfew

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 13:10 GMT]
A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed in Kinniya police division in the Trincomalee district Saturday evening to defuse escalating tension caused by the killing of three Muslim farmers in Nadu Ootru Muslim village by unknown persons, Trincomalee police said.


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Three Muslims killed in Kinniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 09:54 GMT]
Unknown persons killed three Muslim farmers in Nadu Ootru in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district. Fellow farmers found their bodies Saturday morning in paddy fields with injuries said to have been caused by pointed weapons and reported the incident to the security forces. Nadu Ootru village is in the government controlled area, police said.
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Balasingham's new book explores theories in Human Liberation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 November 2003, 16:31 GMT]
In a recently released book in Tamil, Viduthalai ("Liberation"), Mr. Anton Balasingham, theoretician for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), explores in depth, theories from ancient philosophers to seek meanings for Human Life, History and Liberation.


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Eight-day Tamil music festival begins in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 02:57 GMT]
An eight-day Tamil music festival ' Rama Nama Ganamirtham,' organized by the Colombo Kamban Kazhaham began Monday evening in Colombo at Wellawatte Ramakrishna Mission Hall. The Supreme Court Justice, Mr. C.V.Vigneswaran, inaugurated the festival.
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‘Proud to shed blood to protect Tamils’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 18:36 GMT]
“We are really proud as Singhalese today because we shed blood to protect our Tamil brethren from the racist thugs”, said Mr. Rohitha Bashana, the main organiser of the Sinhala/Tamil arts festival that was attacked by Sinhala nationalist mobs at the New Town Hall in Colombo Wednesday. Five Singhalese, including two journalists, were injured in the attack. Police officers said that Sinhala nationalists were planning massive, hostile demonstrations against the Sinhala/Tamil arts festival Thursday.
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'Safeguard Tamil language and culture' -GA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2003, 00:46 GMT]
"Tamils in Ilankai (Sri Lanka) and those displaced from here in the Diaspora are rendering great service to the promotion and continued vitality of the Tamil language. The services they render to the creation of literary work in Tamil have been commended as being better than even in India," said Mr. K. Ganesh, the Vavuniya district Government Agent, speaking at the evening program of the Tamil literary festival in Vavuniya Thursday.
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WFP launches "Food Basket" programme for displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2003, 14:51 GMT]
The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a " food basket" scheme to support the resettled displaced families under the Protective Relief Recovery Operation (PRRO) in the districts of Killinochchi, Mullaithivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the northeast province and the border areas in the districts of Puttalam, Anuradhapura and Polonaruwa.
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Education on Tamil history stressed by Eastern academic

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 16:40 GMT]
Tamil students are forced to learn the history of the Sinhalese, but the history of the Tamils is not part of the subjects taught to them under the current education plan in Sri Lanka, said Ms. Ruby Valentina Francis, a researcher and lecturer at the Eastern University, speaking at the release of a new book titled "Vanniar of Tamil Nadu and Vanniar of Eelam," authored by poet Vellavur Gopal, held Sunday at the Mahajana College hall in Batticaloa, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Stateless Tamils’ long struggle bears fruit

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2003, 16:59 GMT]
A bill to grant citizenship to 168,141 stateless Tamils in Sri Lanka descended from people who settled in the hill districts of the island in the 19th century was passed Tuesday without opposition in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. Speaking on the bill, Mr. Arumugan Thondman MP, leader of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, the largest Tamil political party in the hill districts, said: “These people have contributed so much to this country but were denied all their rights and had to struggle for 55 years to achieve the rights they had prior to 1948. This is symbolic of the ethnic divide in this country.”
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Nine Indians smugglers, fishermen remanded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 September 2003, 13:35 GMT]
Nine fishermen and smugglers from India have been remanded by the Mannar magistrate’s court for smuggling refugees and explosives and for poaching in Sri Lanka’s maritime zone, legal sources in the northwestern town told TamilNet Tuesday.
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SLN arrests returning Sri Lankan Tamil refugees

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 September 2003, 16:13 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Saturday arrested 21 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and 2 boatmen transporting them from Tamilnadu in South India to Mannar, and the Mannar Magistrate, Mr. N M.M.Abdulla, remanded the boatmen and directed the resettlement of the refugees, legal sources said.
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'HSZ prevents resettlement of 80,408 Jaffna families'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 03:33 GMT]
In the Jaffna district, 80,408 families have been unable to resettle in their own lands for the last 13 years as the Sri Lanka Army has been occupying their lands in areas it has declared as High Security Zones, said the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations in Jaffna in a statement Saturday.
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Trinco fishermen return from Tamilnadu with boats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 September 2003, 15:33 GMT]
Fifty-three Tamil fishermen of Trincomalee arrived at the Codbay fisheries jetty in Trincomalee harbour Wednesday morning with 49 boats, which were towed by 12 Indian trawlers with 74 Indian crew, including 12 skippers and escorted by the Sri Lanka Navy gunboats. Two Indian government officials also accompanied the returnees, provincial rehabilitation ministry sources said.
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Emergency action plan to control HIV, AIDS in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2003, 17:19 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Health Ministry is to formulate an emergency action plan to control and prevent the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the northeast province. A high level conference to work out a comprehensive plan is to be held on Friday morning at the North East Provincial Health Ministry auditorium, which is to be attended by high officials from the central health ministry, health authorities said.
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