Peace hopes dim as Sri Lanka hardens stance

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 February 2001, 22:43 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge hardened her stance on the island's ethnic conflict Sunday, dismissing the Liberation Tigers' extended unilateral ceasefire as "meaningless" and insisting the war would only be stopped when negotiations "progressed satisfactorily," dashing hopes amongst Tamil political parties of possible peace talks between the government and the LTTE.
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Massive demonstration in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 12:28 GMT]
(News Feature) More than ten thousand people in Jaffna comprising university students, high-school students, residents and representatives and members of civil organisations demonstrated Wednesday, urging the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate the Liberation Tigers unilateral ceasefire and negotiate with the movement. Thousands more people were turned away by Sri Lankan security forces at check points set up along the major roads leading to the university, residents said. Reporters were not permitted into the university either.
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President rejects LTTE ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2001, 00:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga Monday rejected Liberation Tigers' month-long unilateral cease-fire during a televised speech to people in the northern Jaffna peninsula, in her first public response to the LTTE "goodwill" offer last month.
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Two more suspects identified in Mirusivil

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2001, 12:27 GMT]
Two more Sri Lanka Army soldiers (SLA) accused of murdering eight Tamil civilians, including a 5-year old boy, at Mirusuvil on 19 December were identified by the prime witness, Ponnuthurai Maheswaran, during an identification parade held Thursday. Three SLA soldiers, including an officer, were identified by the witness on Wednesday.
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President to meet Ministers, party officials

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2000, 22:21 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunge will meet key government ministers and prominent members of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) tomorrow, 1st January 2001, to discuss possible responses to the unilateral declaration of ceasefire by the Liberation Tigers, said political sources in Colombo.
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Aid ‘disconnect’ in Paris

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2000, 03:27 GMT]
(News Feature) The ambiguity surrounding the outcome of the Sri Lanka Development Forum in Paris this week has been rapidly seized upon by Sri Lanka’s main opposition and (belatedly in response) by the government’s supporters, with confident assertions of failure or success respectively. However, with the meeting concluding sans the customary pledges of monetary assistance and the critical tone of the final statement from the Forum - with warnings of the need for “an utmost sense of urgency” from the government and “a sense of frustration amongst donors” - it is clear that things have not gone according to plan for President Chandrika Kumaratunge.
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UNP queries Chandrika's sojourn in west

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 December 2000, 14:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition, The United National Party (UNP) Thursday challenged President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge to reveal what she did during her long stay in Europe. "What is hilarious or incomprehensible rather is that the president is out of the country while the country is facing misfortune from all fronts", the party said in a press communiqué issued by its Assistant Leader of the UNP Mr.Gamini Atukorale.
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Sri Lanka determined to continue war - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 December 2000, 22:38 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government's continued silence on Liberation Tigers' offer of unconditional peace talks last week cast doubt on Colombo's commitment to peacefully resolving the conflict, Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's theoretician and political advisor said Saturday. Sri Lanka's President Kumaratunge seemed determined to prosecute the war, he said in his Heroes' Day address in London. Nevertheless, the Liberation Tigers were seriously considering a Norwegian proposal for staggered and gradual de-escalation of the conflict, he said.
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Ratwatte back as Dep. Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 14:55 GMT]
General Anuruddha Ratwatte and Professor G.L.Peiris have been re-appointed as the Deputy Defense Minister and Deputy Finance Minister respectively. Both new Deputy Ministers took oaths before the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake at Temple Trees Thursday.
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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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British minister arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 07:48 GMT]
Concluding his four-day visit to India, British Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain arrived Colombo Wednesday morning on a two-day visit. This is his first visit to the island as a Foreign Office Minister and the first by a British Foreign Minister since the late Derek Fatchett visited in 1998.
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President urges unity against terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2000, 01:17 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge told Parliament Thursday that she was prepared to talk to the Liberation Tigers about a solution to the island’s conflict within the limits of a united Sri Lanka, but said the war “against terrorism” would continue. Addressing Sri Lanka’s newly formed Parliament, she said that “military action against terrorists”, along with her proposed constitutional reforms and the forming of “national unity” was part of her government’s strategy to solve the island’s ethnic conflict. “It is our expectation to finish this war very soon,” she said.
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Sri Lanka revives devolution package

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2000, 18:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Monday morning met the leader of the opposition and the United National Party, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at the Parliamentary Complex and discussed Norway's role in finding a negotiated political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. The talks lasted over ninety minutes, parliamentary sources said.
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Solheim briefs Kumaratunga on Prabaharan meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim had a two-hour meeting with the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday night to apprise her about the discussion he had with the LTTE leader, V.Pirapaharan at Mallavi in the Vanni on Wednesday.
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Tigers seek "normalcy in Tamil areas"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2000, 17:20 GMT]
Norway's Special envoy Mr.Eric Solheim who returned from Vanni after meeting the leader of the Liberation Tigers, V.Pirapaharan told journalists in Colombo Thursday that the LTTE had not laid down any precondition to begin talks with the Sri Lankan Government. He said the LTTE leader brought to the notice of the Norway's delegation that the Tamil areas the island was suffering under the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government and that he wanted quick return of normalcy in the northeast, Mr.Solheim said.
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Several said missing after massacre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2000, 00:36 GMT]
(News Feature) Four more Tamil detainees who were seriously wounded in Wednesday's massacre at the Bindunuwewa detention centre have succumbed to their injuries bringing the death toll to twenty-nine, Joseph Pararajasingham, an MP for the Batticaloa district said. Twenty Tamil detainees amongst those held at the detention centre remained unaccounted for Wednesday night, sources said.
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Sirimavo Bandaranaike dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 06:20 GMT]
World's first elected woman prime minister Mrs.Sirimavo Bandaranaike,84 died Tuesday morning around 10.30 a.m. while she was returning to Colombo after casting her vote at her home constituency of Attanagalle.
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Furore over peace talks letters

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 00:35 GMT]
(News Feature) The letters exchanged between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers during the 1995 peace talks have become an unexpected election issue in the run up to the island's forthcoming Parliamentary polls. The main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), has seized on the hitherto unpublicised letters as evidence the government had not informed the Sri Lankan public about its negotiations with the Tigers, forcing the government to respond with a counter-campaign.
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Unitary state serious impediment - TULF

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2000, 02:06 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in its election manifesto released Sunday said "the unitary character of the [Sri Lankan] state continued to be a serious impediment to the effective sharing of power" and that "what has been now proposed cannot be an effective or final solution to the Tamil question." The party also called for the government to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers with third party mediation. It also said it had "effectively contributed to sustaining their interests and involvement" of the international community in Sri Lanka.
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SLMC, Fowzie request crash probe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 September 2000, 13:42 GMT]
Minister of Transport and Highways Mr.A.H.M.Fowzie has requested the President to order an impartial inquiry into the crash of the Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter on Saturday in which his cabinet colleague was killed. Sri Lanka's Ports Minister and Sri LAnka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader, Mr.M.H.M.Ashraff was killed in the crash at Aranayake in the Kegalle District.
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