Emergency extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2001, 18:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Parliament Thursday passed a motion extending the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 22 votes. The United National Party (UNP), Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Tamil Eelam Organisation (TELO) and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) voted against the motion. The solitary Parliamentarian of the Sinhala Urumaya was not present at that time of voting. 111 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 89 voted against.
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Managing war, not economy central question –Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 March 2001, 18:36 GMT]
“Today it is no longer a simple question of managing an economy. The real and predominant question is the managing of the war”. “A war as is waged by the LTTE has its several facets. The LTTE is quite a military machine that can very competently engage in conventional warfare with the added advantage of innovative tactics which they derive from the guerilla aspect of their war organization. A Combination of these two aspects can be deadly especially when they (the Tigers) had the time from about 1987 to 1993 to consolidate their positions in the open and in the jungles” said Mr. Batty Weerakon, a senior cabinet minister of the People’s Alliance government, speaking in Parliament Tuesday on his government’s budget.
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Sinhala nationalists demonstrate against British official

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 17:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists demonstrated outside the British Council building in Colombo around 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon as the visiting Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain attended a seminar to deliver a speech on the topic "British Policy on Devolution and the Northern Ireland Peace Process".
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British minister arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 07:48 GMT]
Concluding his four-day visit to India, British Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain arrived Colombo Wednesday morning on a two-day visit. This is his first visit to the island as a Foreign Office Minister and the first by a British Foreign Minister since the late Derek Fatchett visited in 1998.
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Buddhist monks burn effigy of Solheim

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 15:24 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists Thursday evening picketed out side the Royal Norwegian embassy in Colombo and burnt an effigy of Oslo's special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim. The majority of the participants were Buddhist monks. Earlier around 4 the far-right Sihala Urumaya party organized a public meeting at Narahenpitiya in Colombo protesting against Norway's involvement in finding a solution to the island's conflict.
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State of Emergency extended

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2000, 16:07 GMT]
A motion extending the state of emergency by a further month was approved in Parliament Thursday by a majority of 98 votes. 113 parliamentarians of the ruling Peoples' Alliance voted for the motion. 15 voted against it. MPs of the TULF, JVP, TELO and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress voted against the motion.
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Sinhala nationalists squabble and split

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 October 2000, 13:15 GMT]
Sihala Urumaya, the hardline Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party, split Monday over who should represent it in the Sri Lankan Parliament. The President of the party Mr.S.L.Gunasekera told a press conference in Colombo Monday that he and seven members of the Sihala Urumaya's central committee had walked out in protest Sunday from a meeting that had been convened to select one of its senior members as the national list MP of the party. The Sihala Urumaya got only one seat in the Parliament on account of the total number of votes it polled island wide at the general elections on October 10.
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Final results of polls released

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2000, 10:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections Wednesday officially announced the results of the elections to Parliament following the delay in the counting of votes in the Kandy district where widespread rigging was reported.
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29 groups to contest in Trinco

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 September 2000, 10:00 GMT]
The Assistant Commissioner of Elections Mr.Suntharam Arumainayagam Monday accepted nomination lists from seventeen political parties and six independent groups to contest the forthcoming general elections in the Trincomalee district.
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'Sihala Urumaya' contests in North

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 September 2000, 12:48 GMT]
A Sinhalese nationalist party, 'Sihala Urumaya' today submitted its nomination papers to contest the northern electoral districts of Jaffna and Vanni in the forthcoming general election.
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Government abandons constitution bill

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2000, 09:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government abandoned Tuesday its effort to introduce a new constitution. Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, Minister for Public Administration and Plantations, informed the party leaders' meeting in Parliament today that the new constitution bill will not be further debated nor put to vote. The decision is yet to be announced on the floor of the house by the speaker.
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Supreme Court to give decision on Constitutional Bill

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2000, 13:45 GMT]
The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would inform the President and the Speaker of its decision regarding the new Constitution Bill, which it had examined. A panel of Judges comprising the Chief Justice Sarath N.Silva, Justices Priyantha Perera and Lakshman Weerasekara examined the new Constitution Bill.
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