Sihala Urumaya, JVP, UNP enter fray in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2001, 07:50 GMT]
The Sinhala Nationalist party, Sihala Urumaya, and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the People’s Liberation Front of Thamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Tamil national alliance filed nominations for the general elections on 5 December at the Jaffna District Secretariat (Kachcheri) Saturday. The chief candidate for EPDP in the northern district is Mr. Nithiyanandan ‘Douglas’ Devananda and for the Tamil alliance, Mr. V. Anandasangaree. The EPRLF (Varathar faction), JVP, UNP and two minor left groups, the New Left Front and the Democratic Left Front, have also filed nominations to contest the general elections in Jaffna on 5 December.
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EPDP demands 50 million from Batticaloa daily

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2001, 15:53 GMT]
Mr. Douglas Devenanda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major partner of the People's Alliance, has demanded 50 million rupees in damages from Thinakathir, the Tamil daily newspaper published in Batticaloa.
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World Bank questions Jaffna development

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:51 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Ahead of the visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday by a World Bank team intending to study the government’s poverty alleviation plans, its local Director slammed the activities in Jaffna of the Ministry of Northern Development. Dr. Mariana Todorova says that whilst almost two thousand people are being employed there by the Ministry, not one person has actually benefited from its activities. The Ministry is headed by Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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Jaffna undergrads defy EPDP tactics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 18:51 GMT]
Jaffna University undergraduates Wednesday forced their way into the office of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority for the North (RRAN) to protest and argue with officials who refused to grant them travel permits to leave the peninsula. The students protested that they had obtained due permission from the Ministry of Defence to leave Jaffna for their holidays and that the RRAN officials were deliberately refusing to issue them tickets for the ship to Trincomalee at the instigation of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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PA says cabinet with President amid dispute reports

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 July 2001, 15:45 GMT]
The government Parliamentary group and the cabinet Wednesday unanimously expressed "their fullest support and confidence on President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge and her on-going program in tackling the present political crisis developed following the submission of a no-confidence motion by the opposition against her government," according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Sri Lankan government amid reports that some senior ministers in the cabinet were in disagreement with the President over her decision to prorogue parliament and to hold a referendum on a new constitution in August.
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SLA bid to relocate Trinco IDPs opposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 June 2001, 06:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces told government officials in Trincomalee to transfer over 1500 internally displaced Tamil persons from Alles Garden refugee camp to Kuchchaveli, 38 kilometres north of Trincomalee town. "The security forces in Trincomalee have taken this step to ensure the security of army and navy camps in the area", a government official said.
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Douglas berates Jaffna press

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 13:05 GMT]
“I do not trust the press in Jaffna”, said Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, Minister for Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North and Tamil Affairs (North and East), addressing a press conference Thursday afternoon at his office on Stanley Road in the northern town. The road, in the busy heart of Jaffna town, was blocked off to the public from Thursday morning 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the afternoon by Sri Lanka army soldiers, Policemen and armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). The press briefing was called after the conclusion of the Jaffna electorate development meeting, which was boycotted by five Jaffna MPs who are protesting that it is not safe for them to be present in Mr. Devananda’s office cum camp on Stanley Road.
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Eastern Tamils march against eviction

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 13:39 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil men and women of Linganagar, a settlement in Trincomalee town on land which the Sri Lanka army claims to own, marched through the streets of Trincomalee Sunday morning amidst tight security by armed police shouting slogans and carrying banners and placards demanding the government that they should be allowed to live on their land.
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SLFP stages massive show of strength

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 March 2001, 16:25 GMT]
In a massive show of strength the Sri Lanka freedom Party (SLFP) gathered more than hundred thousand supporters and members for its golden jubilee celebrations and 13th national convention Sunday in Colombo. The SLFP, the chief constituent and convenor of Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance (PA), was established in 1951 by the President Chandrika Kumaratunga's father Mr. Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (1899-1959) and was led by her mother, Sirimao Ratwatte Dias Banadaranaike (1916-2000), after his death. Addressing the rally at the Colombo racecourse grounds, the Sri Lankan President reiterated her stand on the ethnic conflict that peace talks could begin with the Liberation Tiger without her government declaring a cease-fire.
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"Stop war, start talks" - TULF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2001, 21:49 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Tuesday demanded the Sri Lankan Government immediately stop the war and commence negotiations with the Liberation Tigers so as to find a political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. Mr. V. Anandasangari, Vice President of the TULF was speaking at the swearing in of Nadarajah Raviraj as the new Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council.
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Jaffna University street play condemns Devananda

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 December 2000, 18:44 GMT]
The arts faculty students of the Jaffna University performed a street play Monday in which Sri Lankan cabinet minister Douglas Devananda was portrayed as a heinous oppressor of civilians in the north. Hundreds of students and people watched the play named "that which is not spoken of" (Pesaapporul). The performance started around 4.30 p.m this afternoon inside the campus. The play ended with the likeness of Mr.Devananda being torn to pieces by the people of Jaffna.
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Jaffna University students stage protest march

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 22:23 GMT]
Hundreds University students Wednesday morning marched through the roads of Jaffna town and burnt photographs of President Chandrika Kumaratunge and Minister of North-eastern Rehabilitation, and leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda. The students were protesting against the murder of journalist M.Nimalarajan and the brutal massacre of 31 detainees at a detention centre at Bindunuwewa in Bandarawela last month.
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SLMC, EPDP get plum portfolios

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2000, 06:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Thursday cemented her party's coalition government by offering plum portfolios to her minority allies. The leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, Mr. Douglas Devananda, was sworn in as the Minister for Northern Rehabilitation and Northeastern Tamil Affairs Thursday and co-leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim was given the plum portfolio of Internal, External Trade, Shipping and Muslim Affairs. Northeastern Tamil affairs is a new portfolio in the cabinet.
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Parliament to meet sans cabinet, Anura speaker

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2000, 17:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's eleventh Parliament will meet Wednesday sans a cabinet of ministers as President Chandrika Kumaratunga continues to negotiate with senior PA politicians and coalition partners who are tussling and bargaining for plum portfolios in the new government. Meanwhile, the PA and United National Party said that a consensus was possible on electing Mr.Anura Bandaranaike, the President's brother who is an opposition MP, as the speaker of the eleventh Parliament Wednesday.
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EPDP cheating people of Jaffna -Anandasangari

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 September 2000, 20:24 GMT]
"The EPDP was Premadasa's agent from 1989 to 1994. It has been operating as Chandrika's agent since 1995. Douglas Devananda, who did not have even half a cent in the past, is now getting seven million rupees a month from the government. The EPDP is cheating the people of Jaffna" said Mr. V. Anandasangari, senior vice President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) lashing out at the pro-Sri Lankan government armed Tamil group, the Eelam People's Democratic party, at a press conference in Jaffna town Tuesday morning.
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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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EPDP regrets 'grave' blunder

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2000, 10:30 GMT]
The pro-government Tamil group, Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Monday said it regretted a major blunder in an election ad it published yesterday in the Jaffna dailies Uthayan and Valampuri which may have cost it the patronage of the Sri Lankan President. "Chemmani exposed the Lady" ('Ammaniyai ambalappaduthiathu Chemmani) ran the EPDP's election ad in the Sunday edition of the papers, implicating the Sri Lankan President in the massacre of more than 600 Jaffna civilians arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces in 1996.
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PA to contest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2000, 14:08 GMT]
The ruling People's Alliance will contest the elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament in Jaffna, the secretary of the Jaffna branch of the Sri Lanka Freedom's Party, Mr.S.Thevakulanayakam told TamilNet Monday. The Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) is the main constituent and convener of the People's Alliance. "The SLFP's Jaffna district branch has resolved that the PA shall not align with any other party or group for the elections" he said. Mr.Velmurugu Thangaraja will be the SLFP's chief candidate for Jaffna according to Thevakulanayakam.
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TELO, EPRLF reject PA-UNP proposals totally

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 July 2000, 14:03 GMT]
Mr.Suresh Premachandran, the leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), and Mr.Sri Kantha, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) told Peter Westmacott, Deputy Secretary, British Foreign Office that they totally reject the constitutional reform proposals to solve the ethnic conflict agreed upon by the Sri Lankan government and the United National Party when they met the British official Friday afternoon along with representatives of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).
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President briefs PLOTE, EPDP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 May 2000, 18:44 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President briefed the leaders of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) this evening about the war situation in Jaffna and the state of the talks between the government and the opposition on reaching a consensus on the constitutional reform package. She told them she hopes for a lot of assistance from India to deal with the crisis in the north.
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