Buddhist monks to fast demanding abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 February 2007, 22:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka's National Bhikku Front (NBF), an organization of Buddhist monks, is to launch a fasting campaign Monday in Colombo demanding the Sri Lanka President to abrogate the ceasefire agreement (CFA) signed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Emergency extended for another month in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 17:48 GMT]
Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday adopted motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month with a majority of 105 votes. 122 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 17 voted against.
Full story >>

SL parliament debates emergency extension motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 February 2007, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament began Wednesday morning debating the motion of extending the State of Emergency for another month. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister tabled a motion for extending the State of Emergency for eighteenth time, said soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were being killed and 181 were injured in the month of January in the war front.
Full story >>

Commotion over seat allocation in SL Parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 February 2007, 09:50 GMT]
Commotion prevailed in the Sri Lankan parliament when it resumed its sittings on Tuesday morning over the allocation of seats to ministers after the major reshuffle following new political alignment with dissident group of parliamentarians, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all monks' political party. "Those who worked hard for the victory of President Mahinda Rajapakse in the last presidential election are allocated seats in the back rows and those worked against him are given seats in the first row," charged Wimal Weerawanse, the Propaganda Secretary of the JVP.
Full story >>

JVP rebel MP urges Rajapakse to hold snap general election

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2007, 10:32 GMT]
Nandana Gunatilake, rebel parliamentarian of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has requested Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to hold a snap general election to parliament. Mr. Gunatilake has been supporting the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government since the party hierarchy removed him from the JVP politburo due to policy differences, media sources said.
Full story >>

Number of Cabinet rank ministers swells to 52

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 January 2007, 17:19 GMT]
The number of cabinet rank ministers in United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government of Sri Lanka rose to fifty-two with the swearing in of Amarasiri Dodangoda who took oaths as Minister of Justice before Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday afternoon, political sources in Colombo said. Fifty-one cabinet rank ministers took oaths Sunday morning in the Presidential Secretariat. 38 parliamentarians have been appointed non-cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers. Including the cabinet rank ministers, total number of ministers and deputies in the UPFA government is 103.
Full story >>

Demonstration held in Colombo against spiralling cost of living

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 11:59 GMT]
"Cost of living has escalated and that is driving the poor even poorer, and people are undergoing immense hardship," said Anurakumara Dissanayake, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian and one of the coordinators of United Front For The Protection in of Motherland, during the protest demonstration held in front of Fort Railway Station in Colombo around 4:00 p.m Tuesday, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

12 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo sent to Boosa camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 January 2007, 10:04 GMT]
Twelve of Tamil youths arrested on suspicion and detained in four police stations in Colombo were suddenly transferred to Boosa Detention Camp in Galle in the southern province Monday. They were among several Tamil civilians, majority of them natives of Jaffna and upcountry Tamil plantations arrested by government security forces in Colombo and its suburbs during several cordon and search operations conducted recently, and detained in several police stations in the capital city, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

JVP will agitate if government takes in UNP MPs - Vijith Herath

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 January 2007, 12:12 GMT]
"We will gather people and agitate on the streets against the government if it takes in United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians who are against 'Mahintha Chinthanaya,' and this may even lead to the downfall of the government," Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian for Gampaha district, Vijith Hearath said, commenting on the reported likely cross-over of 18 UNP parliamentarians to the government, political sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

SL Appeal Court to decide on CFA inquiry

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal Wednesday fixed the inquiry for 06 March into the petitions by the Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party and the Buddhist nationalist all monks Jathika Hela Urumaya seeking the Sri Lanka judiciary to declare that the Ceasefire Agreement, signed on 22 February 2002, is null and void on the basis that it contravened the constitution of the country.
Full story >>

Tamil suspects detained at Boosa camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2007, 23:08 GMT]
Tamil civilians arrested by the Sri Lanka's forces under the newly introduced Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) Act are now sent to Boosa detention camp located in Galle in the south of the island due to lack of space in Colombo jails. About sixty Tamils taken into custody in Colombo recently are likely to be sent to Boosa detention camp shortly, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

India, US should keepout of Sri Lanka- JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 04:48 GMT]
“India while seeking a military solution to Kashmir conflict has no right to tell Sri Lanka to solve the North East problem without military action,” Bimal Ratnayake, a Member of Parliament of Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), an ultra nationalist Sinhala Party, said in the Sri Lankan Parliament Tuesday morning while speaking on the bill of extending the Emergency Regulations.
Full story >>

JVP demands SL government to declare war against the Tigers

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 January 2007, 19:41 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Sunday demanded the Government of Sri Lanka led by President Mahinda Rajapakse to declare full scale war on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) openly after proscribing it. The JVP politburo made the demand in a statement issued Sunday.
Full story >>

JVP prepares to face to snap election

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 20:26 GMT]
Somawanse Amerasinghe, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has alerted the party's politburo to face a snap general election at any time. He cautioned the members of the JVP politburo that the announcement of several popular measures and development projects by the government led by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse should be considered as an indication for a snap parliamentary election, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

University students protest supporting plantation workers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 02:24 GMT]
Large number of University of Colombo students held a protest rally Monday afternoon at 12:30 p.m near Thummulla junction in Colombo, in a show of support to demands for wage rise of the tea plantation Tamil workers, sources in Colombo said. The Students warned that if the government does not accede to the demands of the plantation workers the protest will spread to all the other universities.
Full story >>

JVP meets US

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2006, 13:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka's ultra-Sinhala nationalist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Perumana) is building a 'cordial' relationship with United States, which it earlier denounced as an imperialist force conspiring to divide Sri Lanka, reports in Colombo said.


Full story >>

APRC to continue without JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 December 2006, 10:58 GMT]
All Parties Representative Committee (APRC) would continue to meet to formulate a political consensus in finding a solution to the ethnic conflict. The withdrawal of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would not deter the functioning of the APRC, said Minister Tissa Vitarane, Chairman of the APRC Wednesday.
Full story >>

JVP quits from APC deliberation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 December 2006, 10:53 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has withdrawn from the deliberation of the All Parties Conference (APC) in protest to the report of eleven-member experts panel report. The decision to quit the APC was announced by Somawanse Amerasinghe, leader of the JVP at a press briefing held Tuesday, electronic media sources said.
Full story >>

Sinhala nationalist movement demands ban on LTTE, abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 December 2006, 15:25 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM), a broad coalition of extreme Sinhala Buddhist nationalists, held a protest meeting at Lipton Circle Monday at 3:00 p.m. demanding the Sri Lanka government to proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to abrogate the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) entered into with the LTTE. Wimal Weerawanse, parliamentary group leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a constituent of the NPM, warned that failure to meet the demands would result in a public agitation against the government, sources in Colombo said.


Full story >>

India wants Northeast merger to stand - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 November 2006, 07:43 GMT]
India has again called upon Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to honour the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and give legal force to the Northeast merger, The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week. Even before the Supreme Court’s ruling in October that the merger of the North and East in 1987 was ‘null, void and illegal’, Delhi had already expressed its opposition to the move, a view echoed by the Co-Chairs – US, EU, Japan and Norway – last week.
Full story >>