Expel Norway, demands JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 01:39 GMT]
"If Norway is not sacked immediately from the peace process, we will amass more than two hundred thousand people in a protest demonstration in front of the Norweigian Embassy," warned Wimal Weerawanse, parliamentarian and propaganda Secretary of marxist Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), at a meeting in Colombo Tuesday evening, sources said. Patriotic National Movement (PNM), an alliance of extreme Sinhala nationalists, organized the meeting at Mahaveli Centre Colombo.


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Fonseka claims credit for successful ‘retaliations’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 March 2006, 01:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Army commander, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, has claimed credit for a number of killings and disappearances of Tamil political activists in during the heightened violence in December and January. The Sunday Times quoted him as telling troops: “we bravely faced the situation and retaliated on those who attacked us. Thereafter we took a proactive role by looking for those who attacked us and retaliated in places like Jaffna and Batticaloa.”
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LTTE's military strength key to Tamils' future- Theepan

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 March 2006, 11:38 GMT]
Speaking at a sports event commemorating the martyrs of the Special Reconnaissance Wing of the Liberation Tigers Wednesday, in an undisclosed location in Vanni, Northern Region Military Commander, Col.Theepan said, "Tamil peoples' future and victory in the struggle for self-determination are critically dependent on our military strength. Our continued transformation to engage and beat the enemy in all types of warfare is fundamental to our security and to live as a free nation," sources in Vanni said.
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Sinhala nationalist extremists obstacle to peace – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 20:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will view any further attacks by military-backed paramilitaries as an act of war and may postpone next month’s talks in Geneva unless the state fulfils the Ceasefire Agreement and disarms them, the LTTE’s Political Strategist and Chief Negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham said Tuesday. In an interview to Reuters at his London home, Mr. Balasingham also said President Mahinda Rajapakse should dump his Sinhala nationalist allies and seek support from the main opposition UNP party which led a government that held six rounds of talks with the LTTE in 2002-3.
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Court stays Cabinet decision on Chandrika's land, security

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 00:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Monday issued an interim order staying the Sri Lanka Cabinet's decision to allocate land in Madiwela and to provide additional security personnel to former Sri Lankan president, Chandrika Kumaratunge, legal sources in Colombo said. The three member bench of the Supreme Court chaired by the Chief Justice Mr.Sarath N. Silva made the interim order after preliminary hearing of a Fundamental Rights application, legal sources said.
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Positive contribution by International players, key to Peace in Sri Lanka - Senewiratne

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 March 2006, 02:45 GMT]
"Marginalising and excluding the Liberation Tigers, a key player to the peace process in the island, will mean the end of the failed state Sri Lanka," a Sinhala expatriate physician supportive of Tamils right to self-determination told a gathering of EU officials at a symposium organised in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. "The EU has essentially opted out of making a meaningful contribution to rescue Sri Lanka," he noted. Tamil, Sinhala and European panelists presented their views in the symposium titled "The EU Contribution to the Peace Process in Sri Lanka."
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Rural Volunteers Brigade passing out parade held in Eachchilampathu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 March 2006, 17:23 GMT]
"The Government of Sri Lanka led by President Mahinda Rajapakse is pushing us to the war front to win our rights," said Colonel Sornam, Special Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) participating as the chief guest after taking salute at the passing out parade of a class of rural volunteers brigade held Tuesday afternoon in the grounds of Eachchilampathu Sri Sembaga Maha Vidiyalayam. The volunteers underwent three months of rigorous military training including handling heavy weapons, LTTE sources said.
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ADB funded pre-school opens in Pooneryn

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 March 2006, 11:42 GMT]
A pre-school building, constructed by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) and CAARP, was declared open Monday at Netpulavu village in Pooneryn in the Killinochchi district. Mr.Ramanathan, President of the Socio-Economic Development Society (SEDS) presided the event, sources said.
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Appeal Court to hear petition against CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 March 2006, 10:58 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Court of Appeal fixed the inquiry for 29 March into the petition filed by the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and all monks' party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) seeking the court to nullify the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) entered into between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The JVP and JHU argue that the CFA is against the Constitution of Sri Lanka and illegal. The GoSL and the LTTE renewed their commitment to respect and uphold the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002 in Geneva last week.
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Judge orders SLN suspect to be produced in Tharsini murder case

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 February 2006, 11:56 GMT]
Acting Judge of Jaffna District Court, Ms Srinithi Nanthisekaran, Monday, directed the Kayts Police to produce the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldier whose Navy cap with legible identification number was found near the well where the body of Ilayathamby Tharsini (20) was found on 18 December in Punguduthivu, legal sources in Jaffna said.
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Action, not words is needed - paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 20:43 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government’s tardy response to the kidnapping of ten aid workers of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) have raised serious doubts about the prospects of peace talks, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. Arguing that “last week’s optimism [about talks] was premature and, as many Tamils now feel, sorely misplaced,” the expatriate publication said “this incident has demonstrated exactly what the future of negotiations with President Rajapakse and his government is likely to be.”
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Intelligence Chief Zacky in Jaffna to step up campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) Brigadier Rizvy Zacky, a hardliner, has been recently posted as Brigadier General Staff Officer (GSO, Intelligence) at the Sri Lanka Army Head Quarters (SF HQ) Jaffna in a major reshuffle of the SLA and Intelligence apparatus. Execution-style killings of five students in Trincomalee and three women members of a family in Jaffna mark a stark change of pattern in the escalation of intensified serial killings of non-combatant civilians in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the NorthEast. The pattern of violence also marks the return of hardliners who seems to prefer terror to subdue a population.
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"Back to war"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 21:06 GMT]
"Unlike Indonesia Sri Lanka has failed to usher in peace. Every opportunity for rapprochement has been squandered after the Tsunami...The Sri Lankan government and the LTTE are steeped in mutual suspicion and contempt and will not arrive at any resolution on their own. A new heavy weight mediator must join Norway's Herculean but waning peacemaking efforts, one whom both parties can respect as an honest broker," said an independent analysis that appeared in the Sunday online edition of "The News" of Jang Group.
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Retired Navy Chief of Staff appointed NorthEast Governor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 January 2006, 12:18 GMT]
Retired Rear Admiral Mohan Wijeyawickrema Friday assumed duties as the sixth Governor of the NorthEast Province at the sub-office of the Governor's Secretariat in Colombo. Mr Wijewickrema retired as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) prematurely as his seniority was overlooked when Ms Kumaratunge appointed Rear Admiral Vasantha Karanagoda as the Commander of the SLN in 2005. The new Governor is scheduled to pay his first official visit to the Secretariat located in Trincomalee facing the Trincomalee harbor next week, officials of the Secretariat said.
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Grenade attack on STF's Buffel vehicle in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 18:02 GMT]
Unknown men riding in a motorbike hurled grenades at a Special Task Force's (STF's) Buffel armoured vehicle Friday night 6.30 p.m. at Pandiruppu in Kalmunai, Kalmunai police said.
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TRO responds to media reports

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2006, 12:37 GMT]
"The false allegations, complete fabrications, and twisting of facts reported in the articles are a weak attempt to malign the largest and most efficient NGO in the NorthEast. It appears that there is a coordinated malicious campaign by pro-government, anti-Tamil forces to malign TRO and the work that it performs. It is also disturbing that the increased levels of propaganda correspond to the diminished levels of peace discourse in Sri Lanka," said Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO registered with the Government of Sri Lanka, in a press release issued from Colombo Monday.
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STF soldiers fire into LTTE held area in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 December 2005, 12:03 GMT]
Around fifty soldiers of the Sri Lanka Special Task Force (STF) Thursday morning 11:00 a.m. opened fire at random into paddy fields located inside the LTTE held area, dispersing more than a hundred farmers working in the fields. Only minor injuries were sustained by a few farmers in the gunfire, LTTE's Udumpankulam area Co-ordinator Mr. Veeramani told TamilNet.
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Punguduthivu erupts in violent protests against SLN

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 December 2005, 08:53 GMT]
Civlians in Punguduthivu Sunday morning protested against the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in Punguduthivu following the discovery of the body of Ilayathambi Tharsini (20) from an abandoned well near SLN camp Saturday. A fifty-five years old civilian was rushed to Jaffna Hospital with serious gunshot wounds. Four more civilians sustained minor injuries. All traffic beyond Velanai thuraiyoor remains cut, reports from the islet said. Punguduthivu remains tense. The navy camp, an administrative office of the SLN, was stoned and later set on fire as the troopers withdrew from the camp, sources said.
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Adampan hospital reopens after fifteen years

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 December 2005, 03:52 GMT]
The newly constructed government hospital at a cost of about twenty million rupees at Adampan in Mannar district was declared open for the use of civilians residing in the villages of Aandankulam, Palaiyady, Puthukulam, Parapukadanthan, Vaddakandal, and Karukkaikulam held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with religious observances. Adampan is located in the LTTE held area. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project carried out the project, sources said.
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Clinton arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 November 2005, 14:12 GMT]
The former President of the US and the UN special envoy on tsunami relief, Bill Clinton, arrived in Colombo at 2.30 pm today. He was received at the newly refurbished Bandaranaike International Airport by Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and UN officials in Colombo.
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