JHU launches signature campaign to oust Norway

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 10:31 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the party of ultra Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monks, launched a signature campaign Tuesday in Kandy vowing to collect five million signatures against the Norwegian facilitation in the Peace Process. Venerable Omalpe Sobhitha Thera, the Deputy Leader of the JHU, addressing a meeting at the Central Market in Kandy, vowed that he personally would be campaigning for three days in Colombo, Kandy, Gampaha, Galle, Matara and Polannaruwa districts, sources said.
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Use new understanding to recommence peace talks - NPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2004, 11:19 GMT]
Referring to the assurance of support given by the main opposition party UNP, to the Sri Lanka Government if it commences peace talks on the basis of LTTE's ISGA proposals, the National Peace Council in a Press Release issued on Monday, urged the Sri Lanka government to "build upon this implicit understanding with the opposition to take the peace process forward by engaging in peace talks with the LTTE".
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Business Development Centre opened in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 17:27 GMT]
The office of the Business Development Centre (BDC) for eastern region was declared open in Trincomalee Tuesday. The BDC Network supports capacity building for the business development services market serving the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Sri Lanka. Trincomalee district Government Agent Mr. Gamini Rodrigo, Business Services Support Facility (BSSF) Executive Director Mr. Mark Van Steenwyk and Mr.Shakila Wijewardene, Managing Director of the Sarvodhaya Economic Enterprise Development Services (GTE) Ltd (SEEDS) jointly declared open the BDC office.
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Maj. Gen. Kottegoda SLA's new commander

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 18:17 GMT]
Major General Shantha Kottegoda will be appointed as the Sri Lanka army’s 17th commander from 1 July 2004. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the commander in chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces, has approved his appointment despite speculation that she might extend the present SLA commander’s term for six months. Maj. Gen. Kottegoda, like his predecessor, is a senior intelligence officer. He was appointed to a special post as Overall Operations Commander (OOC) for the east after the LTTE crushed a renegade’s short-lived rebellion in the region.
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LTTE releases Sinhalese worker arrested with T-56

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 April 2004, 03:40 GMT]
The Tamil Eelam Police Service (TEPS) has released a Sinhalese contract worker arrested last year for carrying a concealed T-56 rifle in Paranthan to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), sources said.
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Jaffna reports high turnout, Erlalai booths close early

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 April 2004, 11:14 GMT]
Civil society sources in Jaffna said that there was high voter turnout in Chunnakam and Mallakam area. However, reports from Erlalai said that the booths at Erlalai Saiva Shanmarga Vidiyalayam were suddenly closed around 3.55pm and the gates were locked preventing further voting. Further details are not known.
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Major political parties to hold final election rallies Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 March 2004, 21:28 GMT]
The final election rallies of major political parties are to be held Tuesday evening in various parts of the country bringing the one and a half months old bitter election campaign to an end two days before the April 2nd poll, political sources said.
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Eastern poet decries regionalism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 16:20 GMT]
In a statement to Tamil media on the recent raising of regionalism in the East by renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Mr. Kasi Anandan, a well-known poet from the East, said that the more than 17,700 fighters from Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the liberation struggle did not do so for Jaffna or Batticaloa, but for Tamil Eelam. “I will never accept the division of Tamil Eelam as Jaffna and Batticaloa. The people of Tamil Eelam will live until their last breath for Tamil Eelam,” he said.


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Ronnie de Mel changes sides again

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2004, 12:14 GMT]
Mr. Ronnie de Mel, Sri Lanka’s longest serving finance minister, crossed over to the United National Party (UNP) from President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party, UNP officials in Colombo said Sunday. His wife Mallika de Mel, a former MP from the Matara district, also joined the UNP along with her husband.


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Official acceptance of 13th election's nominations begins

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 16:03 GMT]
District Government Agents who are ex-offico Returning Officers of the Department of Elections Tuesday started accepting nominations from registered political parties and independent groups to contest the Sri Lanka’s thirteenth parliamentary general elections in all twenty electoral districts of Sri Lanka, election officials said.


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Railway workers suspend strike

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The United Alliance of Railway Trade Unions(UARTU) Thursday appealed to its members to return to work from Thursday midnight after the forty eight hours' strike, which crippled the railway services in the country, with a warning to the government that it would resort to stringent trade union action if their demands were not met within the next fourteen days.
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Southern fishermen demonstrate against poaching

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 August 2003, 18:41 GMT]
Hundreds of fishermen held a demonstration in front of the Fort railway station in Colombo Friday, condemning the Fisheries Ministry of Sri Lanka for not taking prompt action to stop poaching by foreign trawlers in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka. Fishermen from Matara, Galle and other parts of the south participated in the demonstration, Colombo sources said.
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Skill development programme in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 August 2003, 21:57 GMT]
The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in Sri Lanka and the North East Provincial Council, on behalf of the North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD), last week signed an agreement to implement a Skill Development Programme in the districts of Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya in the LTTE-held Vanni region, sources said.
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Bhikku Front holds demonstration opposing IA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2003, 10:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Bhikkus Front to Safeguard the Nation held a demonstration Tuesday afternoon in Colombo demanding the United National Front (UNF) government to abandon its attempt to appease the LTTE request for a fully empowered interim administration in the northeast province, sources said.


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LTTE team tours Talawakelle, Hatton, Matara

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 May 2003, 11:14 GMT]
"Ruling parties in Sri Lanka have consistently described us as terrorists to the people of the South. We are only fighting to regain our rights, secession is not our main objective," said Anbarasan, head of political section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when addressing a meeting held at the Matara district secretariat while handing over the relief supplies brought from Vanni to Minister Mahinda Wijesekera, press reports from Jaffna said.
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Final death toll in flood, landslide stands at 266

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 May 2003, 17:18 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said Saturday that two hundred and sixty six persons have died in recent flood and landslides in six southern districts of the country. However, more than five hundred persons have been reported missing but not accounted in the official list, sources said.
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Norwegian Govt. donates Rs.95m to flood relief

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 13:26 GMT]
After accompanying the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on his tour to flood affected Ratnapura and Matara, the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen and Ambassador Hans Brattskar announced that the Norwegian Government has decided to donate Rs.95m for emergency flood relief, a press release from the Norwegian embassy in Colombo said today.
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Sri Lanka hit by worst floods in fifty years

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 May 2003, 00:39 GMT]
At least one hundred thousand families were rendered homeless and about one hundred and fifty people died in flood and earthslip following continuous torrential rain now the country is experiencing. Five districts in the down south of the island Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Hambantota and Matara have been badly affected by the floods, government sources said Sunday.


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Death toll in Sri Lanka floods reaches 150

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 May 2003, 19:53 GMT]
Flash floods and mudslides in southern and south-central region of Sri Lanka have killed nearly 150 people, said government officials in Colombo. The flood disaster is the worst seen in more than 50 years since independence, officials added.
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PA-JVP said closer to formula for capturing power

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 March 2003, 16:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition parties said Friday they were closer to striking a deal on forming an alliance to bring down Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government. The People’s Alliance and the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had discussions on formulating the crucial clauses of a memorandum of understanding to cement the alliance at the President’s House in Colombo Friday.
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