SLAF helicopter takes LTTE commanders to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 13:11 GMT]
Batticaloa-Amparai LTTE military commanders and Head of LTTE's Batticaloa-Amparai Political Wing, Mr. Ilanthirayan, returned to Batticaloa from Kilinochchi in a Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) Helicopter Friday morning, sources in Batticaloa said. LTTE's Batticaloa-Amparai Special Commander Col. Banu, Batticaloa-Amparai Commander Ram, Commander Janarathan of LTTE's armed forces in Amparai and Commander Shanthan of the Jeyanthan Regiment were held up in Kilinochchi for some weeks as Colombo earlier refused to provide transport arrangements.
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Aid deal not final, says Kumaratunga

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 10:28 GMT]
Responding to a letter from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which listed JVP's reasons for quitting the alliance, Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga said Thursday that a final document for the Joint Mechanism has not been formulated. She added that the proposed mechanism does not go beyond the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) signed by Ranil Wickremesinghe and that the mechanism will not in any way jeopardize the sovereignty or integrity of Sri Lanka. Political observers in Colombo noted that as no time frame has been fixed for signing the proposal, more political maneuvering and delay in finalizing the aid deal can be expected.
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Norwegian Deputy FM to visit Sri Lanka next week

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 07:27 GMT]
The Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Vidar Helgesen, will arrive in Sri Lanka on Monday 20 June for a five day visit, said the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo in a press statement issued on Friday. Helgesen will have meetings with President Kumaratunga and the Liberation Tigers. He will also meet with the Muslim community in Kalmunai, the representatives from other political parties and the civil society.
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Donor pressure ‘breached Buddhist hegemony’- paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 00:05 GMT]
Hailing the international donor community’s insistence on a joint mechanism for tsunami aid, the Tamil Guardian newspaper this week said this had forced Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga to face down powerful Buddhist clergy and Sinhala ultranationalists. “This breach in Buddhist hegemony must be widened … if peace and, in particular, ethnic reconciliation is to be possible in Sri Lanka,” the paper argued in its latest editorial.
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JM failure will boost prospects for direct aid to Tigers- SLFP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 10:31 GMT]
"If we fail to agree on the Joint Mechanism (JM) with the LTTE, it is likely that aid will go directly to the Tigers and LTTE controlled NGOs. The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) will be left out of the decision-making for reconstruction," said a propaganda leaflet circulated by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Wednesday evening when it launched an awareness campaign in eighteen districts in the south of Sri Lanka to win support for the Joint Mechanism proposal, political sources in Colombo said.
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Joint Mechanism Bill to be tabled in parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 03:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge has decided to table the Joint Mechanism proposal, which details the administrative arrangement with the LTTE to rehabilitate and reconstruct the tsunami destroyed coastal areas in the northeast province, in the parliament next week. The proposal will be signed after the Bill is passed, government sources said.
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Model library opened in Thampalakamam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 02:25 GMT]
A model library for Potkerni, a village in Thampalakamam in Trincomalee district, funded by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and NGO mainly operating in NorthEast, was opened Wednesday morning at 10.30 am, sources said.
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Demonstrators urge SL President to sign aid deal, resume peace talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 21:39 GMT]
Representatives from 42 civil society organizations, leftist parties and trade unions, demonstrated in support of the proposed Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS), previously called Joint Mechanism (JM), opposite the state controlled Lake House, on Wednesday from 4.30 PM to 6.30 PM. The demonstrators shouted slogans against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and demanded the Government to banish Mr. Somawanse Amerasinghe, the leader of the JVP, from Sri Lanka. The demonstration was oraganised by the HIRU Group that works against chauvinism in southern Sri Lanka.
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JVP leaves UPFA, calls press conference on Thursday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 18:39 GMT]
Mr.Somawanse Amerasinghe, leader of the marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said Wednesday evening in Kandy that the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will not be in power on Thursday if Sri Lanka’s President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge does not revoke her decision to sign the joint mechanism proposal with the LTTE before 11.59 PM Wednesday. Mr.Amarasinghe made this remark when addressing the JVP district conference in Kandy this evening, sources said. In the meantime, JVP minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake told media in Colombo that JVP has dispatched letters informing their decision to leave the UPFA alliance to the President and to the Prime Minister, sources in Colombo said.
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Divided polity, absence of trust, cause for stalled peace- Rocca

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 14:16 GMT]
Emphasizing that the goal of United States is to help Sri Lanka end the decades long bloody conflict, Christina B. Rocca, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, during a hearing before the House International Relations Subcommittee for Asia and the Pacific, said, "This [the stalled peace process] is due in part to divisions within the Sri Lankan government and the absence of trust between the government and the LTTE..."
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Fasting campaign held in Chavakachcheri

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 11:10 GMT]
First of the series of fasting campaign demanding the establishment of Joint Mechanism structure to rehabilitate and reconstruct the tsunami destroyed coastal areas in the northeast province without further delay was held in Chavakachcheri bus stand Wednesday. Thenmaradchchi Traders' Association organized the event, sources said.
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JVP urged to reconsider decision to quit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 10:55 GMT]
Mr.Susil Premajayanth, General Secretary of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and Mr.Maithiripala Sirisena, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Wednesday sent urgent written messages to Mr.Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to reconsider the decision to leave the UPFA government over the controversial joint mechanism proposal, political sources said.
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LTTE's Trincomalee commander returns

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 06:12 GMT]
Commander of the Liberation Tigers' forces in Trincomalee, Col. Sornam, arrived in Sampur in Trincomalee Wednesday at 10.30 AM in a in a SLAF Helicopter facilitated by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), LTTE officials said.
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New alliance with SLFP dissidents imminent- JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 01:29 GMT]
The Marxist coalition partner Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) warned Tuesday that there will not be a United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government in Sri Lanka after Wednesday midnight. "We would be forming a new alliance on Thursday with the support of some UPFA senior ministers opposed to the Joint Mechanism," said Mr.Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP, addressing the public meeting held Tuesday evening in Lipton's Square at the conclusion of the protest march, sources said.
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Donors urge immediate signing of tsunami agreement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2005, 09:08 GMT]
The Co-chairs of the Sri Lanka Donor Group who met in Washington D.C Monday, urged immediate signing of the agreement on tsunami reconstruction in order to ensure proper flow of reconstruction aid to tsunami victims in the NorthEast. The Co-chairs called on the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that killings are stopped and paramilitaries are disarmed immediately as required in the Cease-Fire Agreement and the Liberation Tigers to stop killing Tamil informants, members of other Tamil groups, and to stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The Co-chairs of the Donor Group hoped that an agreement on tsunami reconstruction would help to build confidence between the two sides.
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One killed, 16 injured in grenade attack at funeral

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2005, 08:46 GMT]
A sixty year old Sinhala civilian was killed and 16 Tamil civilians were injured when unidentified attackers lodged a grenade at the funeral of a former LTTE cadre, who was shot and killed on Saturday by unidentified gunmen in Sorivil in Polannaruwa district. The grenade attack took place around 10.30 PM Sunday night. Twelve of the 16 injured persons, 6 men and 6 women, are admitted to Polannaruwa hospital. Aralaganwela Police suspected Karuna Group for the killing of the former LTTE cadre and the grenade attack at funeral.
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SL Constable arrested for straying into LTTE held Upparu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2005, 18:13 GMT]
LTTE cadres arrested Mr.Amal Prasanna, a police constable posted to Chinabay police station in the Trincomalee district Saturday when a boat carrying Mr Prasanna and seven others strayed into the shores of Upparu, a village controlled by the Liberation Tigers, sources said.
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South's opposition adds legitimacy to Tamil struggle- Elilan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2005, 14:57 GMT]
"The hostile opposition shown by Sinhala nationalist movements, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) to derail the proposed joint mechanism aimed at helping people devastated by tsunami, has clearly demonstrated to the international community the moral foundation of the Tamil liberation struggle and has brought to focus the urgent need to satisfy aspirations of the Tamil speaking people in their traditional homeland in northeast," said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE Saturday.


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ICRC briefs press on post-tsunami effort

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2005, 16:33 GMT]
Mr.Patrick Walder, Head of Sub-delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that during the last several months the ICRC been been working with tsunami victims and affected families, and has considerably increased its presence in the Trincomalee district. ICRC has also been implementing humanitarian assistance programme for tsunami victims, he said briefing the Trincomalee based media persons Wednesday at the Sri Shanmuga Boy's Home located along the Inner Harbour Road, Trincomalee.


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JVP issues ultimatum for coalition break-up

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 June 2005, 05:53 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main political ally of ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government, informed on Friday at a press conference in Colombo that it will leave the UPFA coalition on 16th of June unless President Chandrika Kumaratunga gives up the idea of signing a Joint Mechanism with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before June 15th midnight. The announcement was made by the JVP leader, Mr Somavanse Amarasinghe at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo. The JVP has 39 seats in the 225-seat Parliament of Sri Lanka.
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