Rajapakse manifesto released

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 10:52 GMT]
Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, presidential candidate of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) released his manifesto at an event held in the BMICH at an event held Tuesday morning in the Bandaranaike International Memorial Conference Hall (BMICH). The manifesto said that an ultimate solution to the ethnic crisis could only be reached through negotiations and not through war and that a settlement based on a unitary state is the basis to the ethnic crisis.


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Rajapakse rejects self-determination, slams foreign intervention

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 October 2005, 01:38 GMT]
In his much-anticipated Presidential election manifesto Mahinda Rajapakse said he would hold talks with the Liberation Tigers on “ending separatism, disarming and [their] entering the democratic process.” In his manifesto, details of which were published in the Sunday Times this week, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) candidate said he hoped that in forging a solution to the ‘crisis in the north and east’ to follow “the theme of undivided country, consensus of the majority and peace with dignity.”
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CWC ministers resign from UPFA cabinet

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 16:30 GMT]
Parliamentarians Mr.Muthu Sivalingam and Mr.M.S.Sellasamy of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) Monday evening handed over their resignation letters to Mr.W.J.S.Karunaretna, Secretary to the President from the ministry posts. Mr.Muthu Sivalingam was holding the post of Minister of Community Development and Estate Sector Infrastructure and Mr.Sellasamy the post of Deputy Minister.
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JVP's economic policy criticized by Sri Lanka's FM

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 October 2005, 15:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister and the brother of SL President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, slammed at the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna's (JVP) economic policy and their stance with regard to the scuttled P-TOMS at a press briefing held at his official residence Visumpaya Monday morning.
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NorthEast teachers, principals felicitated on World Teachers Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 October 2005, 11:17 GMT]
131 teachers, 35 principals and 14 in-service advisors selected from all the twenty four education zones in the eight districts of the northeast province were felicitated for their services towards the development of education, at an event organized by the Provincial Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Colombo Ministry of Education and held Thursday at Trincomalee St.Mary's Girls College auditorium, sources said.


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Time bomb explodes in EPDP vehicle in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2005, 05:20 GMT]
A time bomb placed inside the vehicle of Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) official Mr Anthonipillai Jeyaraja, a personal assistant of EPDP leader Mr. Douglas Devananda, exploded around 7:45 a.m. Thursday, Police said. The explosion occured at No. 16 Nelson Place Wellawatte, north of Colombo. A clerical staff member of Devananda's Ministry, Mr Sudarsing Vijayakanth, 26, sustained minor injuries in the explosion, sources said.
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Doyen of FP, uncompromising on Tamil National question

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 October 2005, 00:16 GMT]
Are leaders of Sinhala community prepared to share state power with Tamils? Mr. V. Navaratnam, the only surviving founder member of the Federal Party that provided political leadership to Tamils for more than three decades since it was formed in 1949, and described as the brain behind FP, shared with TamilNet his views on Tamil National struggle. The doyen of Tamil politics who negotiated with the father of the incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunge and other Sri Lanka leaders for sharing state power within a federal framework for almost three decades turns 96-years this month in Montreal, Canada. He also inked the Bandaranaiyake Chelvanayagam pact.
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CWC ministers to resign, extend support to Ranil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 October 2005, 05:13 GMT]
Mr.Armugam Thondaman, CWC leader said at a media briefing Wednesday morning that the party's two ministers would tender their resignations from the UPFA government. He said the CWC has decided to support UNP leader Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe in the forthcoming presidential election. The CWC further announced the 19 proposals that should be included in the agenda by the new Government. One of the proposals has urged the new government to resolve the ethnic problem through extensive power-sharing mechanism. Mr.Thondaman said that the UNP has accepted the 19 demands of the CWC in this regard.
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EPDP cadre shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 October 2005, 08:24 GMT]
Mr.Krishnan Parameswaran (40), was shot and killed Monday morning around 6:30 a.m.by unidentified men who came in a motorbike. The incident took place at Puthu Road in Anaikoddai area in Jaffna district when the victim was returning home after leaving his wife in the bus stand, police said. EPDP sources in Jaffna have claimed that Mr Krishnan was an EPDP cadre.
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Kumaratunge leaves for Paris

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2005, 12:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge left for Paris Saturday morning to attend the 33rd session of the UNESCO General Conference to be held on 3 October, sources in Colombo said. UNESCO website said "The world's Ministers of Education will meet during UNESCO's General Conference in October to explore practical ways to address Education for All challenges by building on positive examples from different parts of the world."
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SLFP to begin work on manifesto

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2005, 00:28 GMT]
The Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Friday appointed a nine-member committee to draft the manifesto for the presidential election at a tensed meeting presided by Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge held at the Presidential House Friday, political sources said. The Manifesto has to be ratified by the Central Committee before it is officially released.
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Peace through devolution, federal framework, says Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 September 2005, 08:16 GMT]
Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of Sri Lanka's opposition United National Party, in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga on Thursday emphasised that the solution to the national problem lay on a Federal structure to the war-torn North-East. The Presidential candidate of the UNP has invited her to join hands with him in finding a lasting solution to the national problem. Attaching a copy of the UNP manifesto, he has requested for a meeting with her to search for a common stand on which the two leading political parties, the UNP and SLFP could get together to structure a common plan to handle the problem.
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Kumaratunge speech avoids reference to presidential polls

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 September 2005, 15:19 GMT]
In the first public rally attended by Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge since her return from the UN annual general meeting in New York on Tuesday, she avoided making statements in support of her party's Presidential candidate Premier Mahinda Rajapakse, sources said. The public rally was held to relaunch the Sri Lanka Transport Board at Nittambuwa on Wednesday.


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Discrimination in Bank recruitment, protests TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2005, 11:06 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group and the Trincomalee district parliamentarian Sunday faxed a written protest to President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge calling for the cancellation of all appointments made by the State Banks, Bank of Ceylon (BoC) and Peoples Bank (PB) to their branches in the Tamil dominated NorthEast or that the new appointees be recalled "as this is a repetition of the regular discrimination that has been consistently practised against the Tamils in the matter of employment in the state sector including State Banks."
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Rajapakse, JVP kick off joint election campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 19:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka's premier Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse nominated as the SLFP presidential candidate vowed Tuesday to thwart all attempts by opposing parties with "vested interest" to defeat him in the forthcoming SL presidential polls on November 17. Mr. Rajapakse was addressing his first presidential election rally in Colombo Town Hall ground attended by representatives of political parties extending support to Mr. Rajapakse, including the Sinhala extremist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). However, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) key figures including Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake were absent.
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SL Presidential elections to be held on November 17

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2005, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Presidential election is fixed for 17th November, 2005. The announcement was made by the Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake, Monday. The nominations will be accepted before the 7th of October. In the forthcoming elections, 13.3 million Sri Lankans will be eligible to vote, as reported by the elections department. There will be 60,000 policemen on duty, island-wide. The exercise will cost Rs. 90 million.


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'There is no place for moderates'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 September 2005, 05:40 GMT]
Even as his party leader and incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga wrapped herself in the tenets of liberalism whilst addressing the United Nations last week, her party's candidate for her succession, Mahinda Rajapakse, continued to tread an unabashedly Sinhala ultra-nationalist platform at home.
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"An embodiment of antinomy," – Thamilchelvan on Kumaratunga's speeches in New York

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 September 2005, 14:39 GMT]
"The LTTE is still ready for immediate talks on the implementation of the CFA, outside the island," reiterated Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, Political Head of the LTTE, in an exclusive interview to the TamilNet on Friday. "We see a lot of contradictions in the speeches of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, made abroad and in the south. The fact is the Tamil people have lost faith in Kumaratunga's statements, speeches and promises. It is high time the international community takes this into consideration," said LTTE's political head.
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TRO funds Sinhala pre-school in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 00:08 GMT]
The construction work of a pre-school for Sinhala students in Vijithapura, a suburb in Trincomalee town, began Tuesday with funding from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), an NGO that works exclusively in the NorthEast. Mr.Pradeep Ranga, Officer-in-charge of the Police Post in Trincomalee railway station and Mr.C.Kumarakuruparan, Deputy Director of the TRO, Trincomalee district branch laid the foundation stones for the proposed pre-school, sources said.
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Rajapakse, JHU exchange agreement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 10:51 GMT]
Prime Minister Rajapakse of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Ellawela Methantha Thera of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) exchanged agreement for the forthcoming Presidential election at Dalada Maligawa, Kandy Tuesday morning at 1130am. The parties agreed in principle to terminate talks on the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) and to find a solution to the ethnic crisis on the basis of a unitary state.


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