EPDP refuses to participate in Rights Seminar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 November 2004, 17:19 GMT]
Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), para military group and a constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has informed the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) that it would not participate in seminars on human rights organized for its members due to security reasons, sources said.
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Tigers, SLA discuss security of LTTE political workers

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2004, 13:37 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers met Sri Lankan armed forces representatives Friday at the truce monitoring mission office in Batticaloa for discussions on the security of their political activists who are working in the eastern town. At the meeting, the Tigers pointed out that LTTE members are, contrary to the spirit of the cease fire agreement, harassed by Sri Lankan armed forces when they show their official identity cards. This hinders the LTTE's political work in areas controlled by the Sri Lankan government in Batticaloa, the Liberation Tigers told Sri Lankan armed forces delegation.
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Paramilitary operative arrested for claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2004, 11:36 GMT]
Batticaloa Magistrate Friday remanded a ‘Karuna Group’, cadre accused of attempting to murder two civilians by exploding a claymore mine and lobbing a grenade at them on Thursday around 2.30 p.m. near Kaluwankerni Junction on the main coastal artery of the district. Mr. Dharmasena Ratnayaka, Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Eravur Police said the Karuna Group cadre was operating from the EPDP camp in neighbouring Chenkalady.
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Grenade attack on paramilitary in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 November 2004, 07:13 GMT]
A civilian was injured when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at two paramilitary cadres in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Monday morning around 10.30, Police said. Two Policemen were with the paramilitary cadres who were shopping in the Valaichenai bazaar when the grenade was lobbed. The attackers fired in the air before they fled the area, Police said.
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Paramilitary group receives education on Rights issues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2004, 01:27 GMT]
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has been implementing a programme to educate the rank and file of Tamil political parties and armed Tamil groups in Jaffna district on safeguarding human rights and preventing abuses of such rights, HRCSL sources said
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Police escort TNA MPs after meeting with Mahanayake Thero

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2004, 10:26 GMT]
TNA MPs called on the Mahanayake Thero of the Malwatte Chapter Thibbottuwe Sri Siddharatha Sumangala Thero Monday 9am and drew his attention to the historial failure thus far to find an equitable solution to the Tamil national question, and impressed on him the necessity for an interim administration for the North East, sources said. At the end of the meeting, when the TNA MPs came out, Kandy police had to intervene when opposing buddhist monks and members of extremist Sinhala organizations attacked the TNA MPs, police sources said.


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Sinhala nationalist party faces further crises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 October 2004, 01:34 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a key Sinhala Buddhist nationalist group in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, said Friday that it had removed the party’s lay general secretary, Mr. Champika Ranawaka. The JHU was plunged in crisis following the resignation of its national organizer earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Mr. Ranawaka said that he was not going to accept the decision by the monks to remove him from the party. The JHU crisis has been further exacerbated by reports that it’s general secretary (clergy), Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thero, is supporting the ruling party.


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UNF, TNA, JHU boycott SL President's Council on Peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 October 2004, 01:58 GMT]
United National Front (UNF), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) boycotted the event as Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga inaugurated the National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR) Monday afternoon in Colombo. NAC has been publicized by the Sri Lanka Government as a mechanism to seek "wide spectrum of views" to resolve the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka.
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Internal rift within EPDP, cause of killings- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 01:53 GMT]
Mr.T. Semmanan, LTTE Jaffna district deputy political head, in a press note released Tuesday, dismissed as baseless the allegation of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) that LTTE is behind the killing of EPDP members in Jaffna district. "There is clear evidence that internal rift in the rank and file of the EPDP has been the cause of the killing of EPDP members," said a statement signed by Mr.Semmanan.
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EPDP central committee member gunned down in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 09:52 GMT]
A central committe member of the EPDP was shot dead in Colombo Thursday afternoon, Police said. The senior EPDP cadre, Mr.Somasunderam Varunakulasingham, 39, was being driven home in his car around 3 p.m. when unidentified gunmen shot him in Vihara Lane, Wellawatte, a predominantly Tamil suburb of Colombo. EPDP is a key ally of President Kumaratunga and is a paramilitary.
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EPDP blocks Norway embassy with coffin

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 September 2004, 13:29 GMT]
A large group of EPDP cadres blocked the main entrance of the Norwegian embassy in Colombo Monday for more than two hours with the coffin of one of their colleagues who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Puttalam two days ago. The EPDP protested in front of the Norwegian mission from against the killing of its cadres, urging Oslo to take concrete action to stop the assasinations. EPDP cadres burnt the effigies of LTTE leaders, accusing them for the killings. EPDP is a key paramilitary in Sri Lanka. It is also a close ally of President Kumaratunga.
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Rebuilding of Achchuveli Industrial Estate urged

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2004, 02:16 GMT]
Jaffna District Co-ordinating Committee (JDCC) Saturday urged the Government of Sri Lanka to reconstruct the war destroyed Industrial Estate located in Achchuveli in Jaffna district. JDCC said that rehabilitation would enable Jaffna residents to regain the lost economic benefits and would increase job prospects for unemployed youths.
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Senior EPDP cadre shot dead in Puttalam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 September 2004, 07:08 GMT]
A senior member of the EPDP, a close ally of President Kumaratunga, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Puttalam, 125 kilometres north of Colombo, Saturday around 11 a.m. Police said. The EPDP cadre, identified as Mr. Thambithurai Sivakumar, 42, was going home in Thillaiyadi, Puttalam when he was shot by gunmen riding a motorbike, according to Police.
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Solheim meets Hakim, Devananda

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 01:13 GMT]
Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim Tuesday evening met with Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Rauff Hakim, and Secretary General of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda, and discussed in detail about the resumption of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspended from April last year, political sources in Colombo said.
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EPDP cadre gunned down in Kayts

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 September 2004, 14:45 GMT]
A member of the EPDP, a paramilitary working with the Sri Lanka army, was gunned down by unidentified men in Kayts Saturday night around 7 p.m. Police in Jaffna said. The EPDP cadre was identified as Mr. P. Aruldas. Two persons who were injured in the Kayts shootout have been admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, according to Police.
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Nimalarajan murder case struck off from roll call

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2004, 03:50 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate, Mr.R.T.Viknarajah, Thursday struck off the murder case of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan from the roll call until the Attorney General sent his determination on the findings of the special police team, which conducted investigation into the murder, legal sources said.
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EPDP protests against killing of senior member

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2004, 08:10 GMT]
EPDP cadres and leaders Thursday protested in front of foreign missions in Colombo against the killing of its media spokesman, Mr. Balanadaraja Iyer (Sinna Bala). The EPDP started the protest in front of the Indian High Commission Thursday morning and then moved on to the British High Commission, US, German and Dutch embassies in the city. The EPDP protestors handed over a petition demanding that foreign governments should intervene to stop the killings of their cadres to the British and US missions.
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SC allows petition of Nimalarajan murder suspects

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 August 2004, 02:26 GMT]
The Supreme Court has allowed the four suspects in the Journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan murder case to report to the Vavuniya Police on the last Sunday of each month instead of reporting to Jaffna Police Station as earlier ordered by the Jaffna High Court, legal sources said.
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Tigers reiterate stand, say Tamils losing peace hope

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2004, 12:13 GMT]
''We explained to the European Union envoys the LTTE leadership's stand that we are ready to restart negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka on the basis of the Interim Self Government Authority proposal which was endorsed by the Tamil people at the general elections", said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, head of LTTE 's political division, speaking to the press after meeting a top EU delegation from Colombo Monday in Kilinochchi.
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Senior EPDP leader shot dead in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2004, 05:03 GMT]
Mr. Bala Nadarajah Iyer (Sinna Bala), a senior member of the EPDP, a close ally of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was shot dead in Colombo by unidentified gunmen Monday around 8.15 a.m. Mr. Iyer was the spokesman for the EPDP and was on the editorial board of its paper Thinamurasu.
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