Rajapakse's new agenda, a tactic to derail progress towards Geneva II- Kaviyalahan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 July 2006, 15:26 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, upon failing to meet the committments given by Sri Lanka delegation at Geneva I, has adopted a "choking tactic" to stifle current trajectory towards peace by launching a one-sided expert panel, to waylay the International Community, and to avoid Geneva II, said K. Kaviyalahan, the Head of Tamileelam Political Research Centre (TEPRC), the emerging Think Tank of the Liberation Tigers, in the weekly political analysis programme, Nilavaram, aired by the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT) Sunday night. Rajapaskse's new agenda circumvents the existing paradigm of the four and a half years old peace process, he argued.
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Gothabaya visits Jaffna, confers with Jaffna SLA commanders

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 July 2006, 08:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Defence Secretary and the brother of the SL President, Gothabaya Rajapakse, on Sunday, paid a visit to the 51-2 Brigade Head Quarters in Jaffna town amid high security. Civilian traffic was blocked on the road when Mr. Rajapakse landed in the old Dutch Fort area of the town in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter and transported in an armoured vehicle towards the 51-2 HQ. Top officials of the SL Navy, Air Force and Army from Colombo were in Jaffna to confer future course of military actions, SLA sources said. The officials visited Forward Defence Lines in several locations in Jaffna Peninsula to give morale boost to the troopers.
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Rajapakse initiative, an elaborate theatre to appease international community - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 July 2006, 14:16 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s initiative this week to come up with power-sharing proposal is “elaborate theatre to appease international demands, particularly India’s,” the Tamil Guardian said in its editorial this week. Arguing the ‘outbidding’ which undermined previous initiatives was “guaranteed” to happen again, given the lack of support from the UNP and the vehement opposition of the JVP and JHU, the paper said: “Rajapakse’s immediate priority is not to come up with a serious proposal to offer the Tamils, but to destroy his ruling party's main rival and consolidate his grip on parliament.”
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Lawyers protest over SLA harassment of Jaffna Judge

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 July 2006, 11:05 GMT]
Members of Jaffna districts Lawyers Union staged a one-hour protest Thursday in front of the Jaffna District Court Thursday morning over the death threats and attempted attack on Additional Jaffna District Judge, Ms Srinithi Nanthisekaran, by the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), legal sources in Jaffna said. The functioning of courts across Jaffna district was curtailed during the protest, sources said.
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Captured Karuna cadre produced before SLMM

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2006, 15:58 GMT]
"I was escorted by Karuna group cadres and about 50 Sri Lanka Army troops from Mahindapura camp to LTTE held area in Eachchilampathu. They gave me a claymore mine, a roll of wire, detonators, torchlight batteries and a grenade. I was ordered to target a LTTE vehicle. The Tigers, however, arrived at the spot before I had placed the claymore and arrested me," said Jeyachandran, a Karuna group cadre while talking to journalists at Sampoor LTTE political secretariat in the Muttur east, Tuesday. The Liberation Tigers Tuesday produced him at a discussion held between Mr.S.Elilan, LTTE Trincomalee district political head and members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), LTTE sources said.
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SL President Rajapakse addresses APC, Expert panel

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2006, 09:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, Tuesday morning addressed All Party Representative Committee on Constitutional Reforms and the Panel of Experts at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, parliamentary sources in Colombo said. Without spellingout specifics Mr Rajapakse laid a broad framework for the APC to begin work, saying, "The international community, notably India and the Co-Chairs have endorsed our approach - a solution to the national problem must exclude any division of the country," and wished the committee success in "formulating a political and constitutional framework for the resolution of the national question."


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Tamils fear to come to Muttur town, SL President told

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 July 2006, 15:47 GMT]
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) group in Muttur Pradesiya Sabha has brought to the notice of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse that the day to day life of about thirty five thousand Tamil people residing in the Muttur Divisional Secretariat division in the Trincomalee district has been threatened due to abduction and killing now being taking place in the government controlled Muttur town, sources said.
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UNP to re-evaluate support to UPFA, Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 July 2006, 16:23 GMT]
Amid speculation that two more parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) are expected to join the United Peoples Front Alliance (UPFA) government led by the SL President Mahinda Rajapakse in the next week, the UNP leadership has summoned the working committee for Tuesday to take a firm decision on the question of extending its unconditional support to Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse anymore to resolve the ethnic issue, according to UNP sources. The party has decided to boycott the All Party Conference.
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Acting Army commander takes over

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 July 2006, 21:49 GMT]
Major General Nanda Mallawaratchchi has been appointed as acting Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), taking over the responsibilities of Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who was seriously wounded by suicide bomber on April 24, the Sunday Times reported.
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UNP MP crosses over to UPFA Government, becomes deputy minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2006, 17:07 GMT]
A United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian, Suasntha Punchinilame, representing Ratnapura district in the south joined the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Thursday and was sworn in as the Deputy Minister for Rural Economic Development by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. He is the fourth UNP MP to cross over to the UPFA alliance since the elections in last November.
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LTTE accuses Rajapakse of political duplicity

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 July 2006, 11:37 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Political Head, S.P. Thamilchlevan ruled out negotiations on devolution of powers based on the Sri Lankan unitary constitution, Wednesday and charged Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan president, for adopting a duplicitous approach, when asked to comment Colombo's move on setting up a committee to examine devolution of powers. "Colombo's call for talks based on Sri Lankan constitution, rejected by Tamils decades ago, is a deliberate act of deceivig the International Community while failing to implement practical steps to implement the fundamental terms of Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) as agreed in Geneva I."
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Independent report verifies SLN complicity in Pesalai violence

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 July 2006, 15:44 GMT]
In a report filed by a fact finding mission from two Colombo-based NGOs to look at the Pesalai violence of 17 June 2006, the investigators said, "Although in the initial days following the attack the government laid the responsibility for the attacks at the door of the LTTE, the strong report compiled and widely disseminated by the Bishop of Mannar pointed directly to Navy involvement. None of the many we met had the slightest doubt on this issue." The report also details the background to the prevailing ground situation in Mannar, urgent efforts required to prevent escalation of tensions, and provide security to the poor fisher families in Mannar.
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US paper advocates "loose Confederation" for Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 June 2006, 10:45 GMT]
"The international community should press the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers alike to come to the negotiating table in Oslo and work out a loose confederation that retains Sri Lanka's unity, grants the Tamil northeast self-governing autonomy, and puts an end to the island's long agony," said Boston Globe in an editorial that appeared in its Thursday edition.
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Rationale for LTTE olive branch missed - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 June 2006, 10:07 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ extension of an olive branch to India has, amid the ensuing media frenzy, been widely misunderstood, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said in its editorial this week. Pointing out that amid rising violence against Tamil civilians, “twenty years [after first doing so], India is again intervening to protect the Tamils from the Sri Lankan state,” the paper said: “securing the island’s Tamils and ensuring their rights are restored and safeguarded is a goal behind which both the LTTE and India are separately, but simultaneously, once again aligned.”
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Rajiv Gandhi assassination ‘a monumental historical tragedy’ – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 June 2006, 16:33 GMT]
In an exclusive interview with India’s NDTV, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and theoretician, Mr. Anton Balasingham, described the assassination in 1991 of Rajiv Gandhi as a “great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy.” Saying “we call upon the Government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective” Mr. Balasingham said the event has to be seen in its political and historical context of the time, involving the military intervention of India and a war between the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the LTTE.
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Senior SLA Commander killed in bomb blast

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2006, 02:59 GMT]
A senior top official of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Major General Parami Kulatunga, who holds the third position in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high command was killed in Pannipitiya, 15 km southeast of Colombo, in Homagama police division in Western Province, in a suicide bomb attack around 7:45 a.m. Monday, Police said. Maj. Gen. Kulatunga, Deputy Chief of Staff, has served as SLA Commander for Vanni High Command of the Sri Lanka Army.


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Rajapakse will disarm Karuna if LTTE accepts direct peace deal- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 June 2006, 12:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has intimated to the editor of Jaffna daily Uthayan, N. Vithyatharan, to exchange messages with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to strike a deal for starting direct talks with the LTTE, with the intention of bypassing the facilitation of Royal Government of Norway, a leading broadsheet in Colombo, Sunday Leader said in its latest edition. Mr Rajapakse had said that he will disarm Karuna Group if his proposed two week peace-deal is accepted by the LTTE, the paper said.
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Ministers cancel visit to Pesalai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 June 2006, 18:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Ministers Mr.Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Mr.Rischard Badiudeen and Mr.Felix Perera Saturday evening called off their scheduled visit to Pesalai and Vankalai after being notified about a firefight between the SLN soldiers and unidentified persons in Vankalaipadu coastal area, civil sources said. The Ministers had planned to visit the these areas after a conference held in the Sunny Village Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp in Mannar Saturday 3:00 p.m. to look into the difficulties faced by Mannar fishermen after SLN's fishing ban.
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Mannar Bishop calls for end to violence

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 June 2006, 18:21 GMT]
Rt.Rev.Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar Diocese Friday said killings of civilians have increased several folds after the first round of Geneva peace talks and appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resume the stalled peace talks immediately, with the facilitation of the international community and to put an end to these killings. The Bishop was addressing a meeting held in the premises of Mannar St.Mary's Cathedral, Friday morning.
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Sri Lanka's FM to visit Norway, Finland

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 June 2006, 12:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka' Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera is scheduled to visit Norway and Finland to discuss bilateral relations with high level officials, a media release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued Saturday from Colombo said.
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