Kurankupaanchaan IDPs to be resettled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 August 2007, 02:49 GMT]
Nearly three hundred families displaced from Kurankupaanchaan, a hamlet in Kinniya division in Trincomalee district in 1990, are to be resettled. A team of Sri Lanka government officials led by the Kinniya Divisional Secretary is to pay a visit to Kurankupaanchaan village during the weekend to see the ground situation before making arrangement for the resettlement, civil society sources said.
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Chandrika Kumaratunge to meet Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2007, 02:11 GMT]
Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge, former President of Sri Lanka for two terms from 1994 till 2005, returned to Colombo from UK Sunday and is scheduled to hold talks with Mr.Mangala Samaraweera, leader the Peoples Wing of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), regarding current political situation Monday evening at her Horagolla residence, media sources said.
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SL government is strong, says Anura Bandaranaike

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 March 2007, 20:48 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapakse's government is in a stronger position after the joining of United National Party (UNP) dissidents, and there is no question about the government's stability within the parliament, National Heritage minister Anura Bandaranaike, said Sunday in Kandy.
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Rajapakse sibling to be appointed national list MP

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 March 2007, 23:39 GMT]
Basil Rajapakse, senior advisor to, and brother of, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, is to accept the position as a National List Member of Parliament next Tuesday, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) sources said Friday. Secretary of SLFP and Minister Maithripala Srisena has forwarded a letter to the Secretary General of Sri Lanka Parliament Ms Priyani Wijesekera to appoint Basil Rajapakse as an MP, according to parliamentary sources.
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No confidence on Police inquiry - SL Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 February 2007, 10:49 GMT]
Anura Bandaranaike, the Sri Lankan Minister of National Heritage, in a Question of Privilege, raised in the Sri Lankan Parliament Thursday, charged that there were "forces within the government," surrounding the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, conspiring against Bandaranaike family. Mr. Bandaranaike, who did not directly point the finger at the Sri Lankan President, said some persons close to Mr. Rajapakse, with "American passports" were behind the death threats issued against him and Mangala Samaraweera, the minister of ports and aviation. He further told the Lankan parliament that he had no confidence that the police would hold proper inquiry into his complaint.
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We've lost a friend, says Norway

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 03:01 GMT]
Norwegian special envoy for the peace process in Sri Lanka Jon Hansen-Bauer praised late Anton Balasingam for his invaluable contribution to the peace efforts, and said Norway will miss a much valued friend. Speaking at a memorial meeting in Oslo arranged at the Tamil Resource and Consultation Centre in Oslo Friday, the Norwegian Special Envoy said that it is through Mr. Balasingham he learned much about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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SC's NorthEast merger verdict stands- SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 11:09 GMT]
The Government will never act, and has no power to act against the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) that the merger of North and East Provinces was illegal, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, the Sri Lankan Premier and Deputy Minister of Defense announced in the Parliament Tuesday while submitting a special report explaining Sri Lankan Government's stand on the issue, parliamentary sources said.
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Illiberal democracy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 16:08 GMT]
The electoral democracy in Sri Lanka, bolstered by regularly held "open, free and fair" elections, is often characterized as robust and vibrant by the international community. However, Sri Lanka has been plagued by decades of ethnic violence. Discriminatory legislation and a politicized judiciary have bred inequality, failed to deliver social justice, and have raised explosive issues related to sovereignty in the multi-cultural state. Reasons for Sri Lanka gaining increasing notoriety as a violator of international norms in human rights, and the State emerging as a killing field, can be traced to its polity's gradual, inexorable shift towards an illiberal democracy.
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APC, a political drama to dress-up unitary constitution - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2006, 10:26 GMT]
The All Party Conference (APC) on constitutional reforms initiated by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse follows the same approach used by previous Sinhala Presidents, Jeyawardhene, Premadasa, and Chandrika Kumaratunge. APC is a recurring tactic used by Sri Lanka's Presidents to present a peace posture to placate the international community while refusing to reconfigure the polity from the rigid and majoritarian Unitary constitution, said the latest edition of the official periodical of the Liberation Tigers, “Viduthalaipulikal,” printed in Kilinochchi.
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Stop violence, enter talks, Anti-war group tells GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Condemning the increasing levels of violence committed by Liberation Tigers and by the "armed groups and forces within and outside" Sri Lanka's Military, Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman of National Anti War Front, in a press release issued Thursday in Colombo urged the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka to "implement the agreements reached in the High Table in Geneva," and to "immediately resume the talks which were initiated in Geneva."
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Colombo lacks realpolitik strategy- Furuhovde

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 May 2006, 04:32 GMT]
The present situation in Sri Lanka is mainly caused by Colombo's reluctant approach for a peace based on negotiations involving concessions. Central political players and its Military leadership still believe a military solution to the conflict is possible. This reflects a dangerous perception of reality and lacks a "Realpolitik strategic basis," required to handle Sri Lanka's war, wrote late Maj. Gen. (retd) Trond Furuhovde in a comment he wrote under the title "The troubled Sri Lanka" in Norwegian daily Adressa on January 30, a few days before Geneva-I talks. He touches on the geopolitical significance of the Sea route and the geographic location of the island Sri Lanka in his article.
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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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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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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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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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Sri Lanka Peace: Efforts, Failures and Lessons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Volume two of "Negotiating Peace in Sri Lanka: Efforts, Failures and Lessons," edited by Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman, Foundation for Co-Existence, was launched in Colombo Wednesday. Volume 2 deals with United National Front (UNF)– LTTE negotiations of 2002-2003, including a detailed chapter on the background to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and its security, implementation issues by former Defense Secretary, Austin Fernando.
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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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STF fired at students in Trinco- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 January 2006, 01:39 GMT]
The execution style killing of five Tamil students, all under 20 years of age, on Monday at Dock Yard Road in Trincomalee town, was allegedly carried out by “a team of Police Special Task Force (STF) commandos,” said the Situation Report column of Sunday Times in its 8th January Sunday edition. The paper further said the deployment of the STF was ordered by “a retired police official who has now been named as an advisor in the Defence Ministry,” and the order was issued during the period “when Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse was away in India accompanying his brother, President Mahinda Rajapakse.”
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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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Sovereignty fears

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 November 2005, 01:33 GMT]
The definition "supreme authority within a territory," captures the essential notion of sovereignty used to describe political authority of modern nation states. The origins of Sri Lanka’s long festering conflict lie in its unitary constitution which vests the exercise of sovereignty solely in the hands of Sinhala Buddhists. But Colombo wields no sovereign authority over nearly seventy percent of the island’s NorthEast. Radical Sinhala groups view the denial of their state’s sovereignty in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers with extreme chagrin. Over the years, other events too have challenged Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
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