Authorities Hinder Help to Tsunami Affected Regions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 23:27 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) faces difficulties in conducting relief operations in the eastern district of Sri Lanka. Divisions of the Sri Lanka army and police as well as Sinhalese groups stop trucks with aid cargo at Habarana junction, which links Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, and divert them to the south saying that the three eastern districts do not need more aid.
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Kilinochchi sends relief, medicine, doctors to Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 19:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers sent six lorries from Kilinochchi with emergency supplies and a lorry load of medicine along with fifty doctors for relief operations on the Tsunami devastated Amparai coast. The death toll in the coastal areas of the Amparai district rose steeply Wednesday as rescue workers retrieved more putrefying bodies from villages destroyed by the Tsunami. “Three of our teams are working round the clock in rescue and relief operations here”, said Mr. Ram, a Liberation Tigers commander speaking to TamilNet from a coastal village in Amparai Wednesday.
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Judge tells coroners to expedite processing death certificates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 13:56 GMT]
Vavuniya district Judge Mr M Ilancheliyan Wednesday directed the coroners from Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts to expeditiously process the identification details of those whose bodies have been identified in the aftermath of the tsunami incident, and to issue the death certificates to the relatives without any delay, legal sources from Vavuniya said.
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First Taskforce Unit meets in Puthukkadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 14:00 GMT]
One of the units of the Disaster Management Taskforce setup by the Head of the Political Wing of the LTTE, S.P.Thamilchelvan, met Tuesaday at 9.15am at its new offices in Puthukkadu juncion on A9 near Thalaiyady, Vadamaradchy East, Sudar, an official with the LTTE Peace Secretariat told TamilNet. S.Thangan, Deputy Head of LTTE Political Wing, presided the meeting.
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Disaster Management Task Force Units setup in Northeast

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 18:09 GMT]
Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing in an urgent meeting with the International NGOs, District Secretaries, TRO officials and local NGOs requested to set up a North-East Disaster Management Steering Committee and Special Task Force Units consisting of the District Secretaries, INGO’s, TRO,local NGO’s and representatives of the Planning and Development Secretariat of the LTTE. Similar mechanisms for the districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai have also been planned and details would be worked out in the respective districts soon, an LTTE news release said.
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External aid yet to reach Vanni, 3 000 still missing in Mullaitivu

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 15:49 GMT]
No external aid was received until Monday afternoon to assist thousands of people injured and rendered homeless by the Tsunami in the coastal parts of the Vanni region and Southern Jaffna, a spokesman for the Tamils’ Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) said. The Political Division of the Liberation Tigers convened an urgent meeting on Monday with international NGOs, local aid agencies and senior officials to assess the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis and to organize and enhance urgent relief and rescue measures in the Tsunami hit areas.
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More than 10000 killed in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 December 2004, 08:24 GMT]
Government sources said more than 10000 people are killed in Sri Lanka. Rescue workers believe that the death toll in the Northeast region alone could be more than 6000. The number of people swept away would be much higher than earlier anticipated in the region, rescue workers say. Massive relief efforts have been launched. Infrastructure constraints and damaged highways make the rescue work difficult.
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Wave toll increases in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 21:19 GMT]
More than 1000 people feared dead in Batticaloa district and around 800 are feared dead in Trincomalee, civil sources in the east said. TRO sources in Kilinochchi said that they feared around 2000 were dead in Mullaitivu district and around 1000 in Jaffna district. 500 bodies have been placed in Thalaiadi hospital in Jaffna's southeastern coast, and 75 bodies have been taken to Kilinochchi hospital. TRO volunteers are searching for bodies under debris of destroyed buildings.
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Tsunami official death toll hits 5000

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 08:56 GMT]
Official death toll from the Tsunami waves that hit northeastern and southern coast of Sri Lanka Sunday morning was increased to 5000, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry sources told TamilNet. Government officials in the devastated eastern town Batticaloa said only about twenty five of more than thousand families in Navalady, a coastal suburb of Batticaloa, appear to have survived the massive waves.
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At least 500 feared killed by Tsunami waves in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 December 2004, 04:12 GMT]
At least five hundred people are feared killed as fierce waves from the sea hit Sri Lanka' eastern and southern coasts Sunday morning. Initial reports from the east said that many coastal villages of the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai districts were hit by powerful tidal waves causing extensive destruction as thousands of homes were covered by rising sea waters. Around 25 villages are reported to have been swept off by the tidal waves of the Tsunami.
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Jaffna IDPs appeal to LTTE for their resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 2004, 14:25 GMT]
A group of representatives representing hundreds of thousands of internally displaced families (IDP) due to the occupation of their houses and agricultural lands in Jaffna district by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday met with Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Killinochchi and explained their plight for the last fifteen years, sources in Kilinochchi said.
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More than 200000 families hit by floods in northeast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 December 2004, 17:39 GMT]
More than two hundred thousand families have been affected by the heavy rains and floods in the northeast, offials said. Batticaloa has the largest number of flood afflicted people - more than 75,000. There are 65,000 in Amparai and more than 40,000 in Kilinochchi Mullaithivu and Trincomalee. Around 4,000 families are affected by the floods and rain in Jaffna. Traffic on the main highway from Batticaloa was blocked as it went under 4.5 feet of flood waters Thursday.
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Solheim meets President Chandrika

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2004, 16:19 GMT]
Mr.Erik Solheim, Norwegian special peace envoy Thursday urged the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to exercise the maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could be interpreted as provocations, especially at a time when peace negotiations were not taking place, states a press release issued by the Presidential Secretariat following the talks between the facilitator and President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge.
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Twenty Tamil refugees return to Talaimannar by sea

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 17:10 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy Tuesday evening arrested 20 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees when they landed in Talaimannar coastal area and one of them with about one and half kilogram of ganja. All the twenty were handed over to the Talaimannar Police, sources said. Mannar Magistrate Mr.M.N.M.Abdulla Wednesday released 19 refugees and ordered remand till December 29 for the refugee who was allegedly possessing ganja when they were produced in court by the police.
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GoSL entirely responsible for resuming talks - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 11:07 GMT]
"The responsibility of resurrecting the stalled peace process is entirely with the government in ensuring that its coalition partners reflect the thinking of the president, if she is in fact really sincere, and her military refrains from coercive and provocative actions", Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Head of the Political Wing of the LTTE told the Norwegian facilitators Wednesday in Kilinochchi. "Norwegian delegation was unable to give assurance that Sri Lanka Government will take any constructive steps to take the peace process forward" Thamilchelvan told the Press after the meeting.
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Urgent need of relief to flood victims in NE - TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 09:01 GMT]
"There is an ugent need to supply cooked meals, fresh drinking water, shelter and other immediate necessities to the flood victims in the NorthEast", a TRO official told TamilNet. TRO has provided temporary accommodation to 761 families and is supplying cooked meals, drinking water and other humanitarian assistance to a further 254 families in the Kilinochchi District, the official added.
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Transport issues delay Solheim's meeting with Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 06:51 GMT]
The meeting between Norwegian peace envoy Eric Solheim and Liberation Tigers Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan expected to be held in Kilinochchi at 11.30am Wednesday will take place at 2pm, according to LTTE sources in Vanni. Mr Solheim arrived in Anuradhapura this morning in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter and is travelling to Kilinochchi from Vavuniya by land, sources in Vanni confirmed.


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Iranaimadu spill water submerges Paranthan villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 10:58 GMT]
Torrential rain across Vanni district the last three days has filled the Iranaimadu tank to levels close to the maximum 34 feet forcing the spillway administrators to open the sluice gates at 32 feet water level, sources in Vanni said. Villages in 14 Grama Sevaka divisions are badly affected and villages north of Murasumoddai-Paranthan road in Kandavalai AGA division are submerged in flood waters, sources added.


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Two die in road accident at Muhamalai army checkpoint

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 December 2004, 16:49 GMT]
Mr.Sambasivam Rahulatharan aged 22 of Tellipalai in Jaffna district and Mr.Narayanasamy Radhakrishnan aged 39 of Nuwareliya district died on the spot near Muhamalai army checkpoint when their motor bike and a private passenger bus collided in a head on crash Monday evening around 6 p.m., police said.
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Funeral held for Tamil scholar Sokkan

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 December 2004, 13:48 GMT]
The cremation of late veteran Tamil scholar Mr.K.Sokkalingam, fondly called "Sokkan" took place amid torrential rain in Chemmani Hindu cemetery Monday evening. Large number of people of all walks of life bade farewell to the departed Tamil educationist who rendered invaluable service to the development of Tamil language and its literature for more than four decades.
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