President meets opposition leader

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2004, 15:13 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Tuesday urged opposition leader, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe to participate in the all party parley to find a solution to end the island's ethnic conflict. Mr. Wickremesinghe and President Kumaratunga met in Colombo for discussions on Tuesday. All the main opposition parties, including the Tamil National Alliance and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress are boycotting the NACPR, charging that it is a time buying ruse by President Kumaratunga.
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Sri Lanka opposition boycotts Kumaratunga's peace parley

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2004, 14:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga addressing the first meeting of the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR) Monday said devolution of power to an extent should be found within the framework of the United Sri Lanka. "Solution to the northeast conflict should not be war,"said President Kumaratunga. Opposition parties, including the largest Tamil party in Sri Lanka's Parliament, boycotted the parley. Tamils charge that the NACPR is a time buying tactic by President Kumaratunga.
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Dissident SLMC MPs sworn in as ministers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2004, 18:02 GMT]
Mr.Najeeb Majeed, Mr.Rishard Badiudin and Mr.Ameer Ali, dissident parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Saturday afternoon were sworn in as Ministers without cabinet rank by Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge. With these appointments, total number of ministers, ministers without cabinet rank and deputy ministers has risen to 76, parliamentary sources said.
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Ranil warns against altering Sri Lanka's constitution

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2004, 16:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe said Friday that any attempt by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to alter the country’s constitution might encourage the Liberation Tigers to exercise the mandate obtained by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the last general elections to summon their own constituent assembly in the northeast. Addressing a seminar by the International Democratic Union-Asia Pacific Democratic Union at the Taj Samudra Hotel in downtown Colombo, he said: “it can really throw a spanner in the peace process."
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"Presidential term will continue till December 2006"- Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2004, 15:27 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Thursday announced that the incumbent Presidency will expire only in December 2006. ''The UPFA government is not keen in holding Sri Lanka's Presidential election in December 2005 or a referendum to extend the current term,'' said Mr.Mangala Samaraweera, Information Minister and Media Spokesman addressing a press briefing Thursday.
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TNA delegation meets Akashi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 October 2004, 09:25 GMT]
The release of 4.5 billion dollars aid pledged at the Tokyo conference to Sri Lanka should not take place until the stalled peace talk with the Liberation Tigers resumes on the basis of Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals, delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians told Japanese special peace envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi during a discussion in Colombo Thursday, TNA sources said.
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Akashi to meet JVP leaders

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 October 2004, 10:37 GMT]
Mr.Yasushi Akashi, Japanese special peace envoy who is scheduled to arrive in Colombo evening has agreed to meet the political leadership of the Sinhala nationalist-Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), major constituent of the United Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, during his seven day stay in Sri Lanka, State run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) reported in its news bulletin Wednesday.
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UNP against extension of Presidential term- Prof.Peiris

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 October 2004, 14:41 GMT]
UNP would take every possible step to stop Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumarathunge's move to extend her Presidency through a referendum by extra-constitutional means for another term, said UNP's media spokesman and former Constitutional Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris addressing a press briefing in Colombo Tuesday.
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Controversial NACPR to meet in November

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 October 2004, 13:36 GMT]
National Advisory Committee for Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR), a group formed by Sri Lanka's President and touted as a mechanism to introduce inclusivity in the peace process, is to meet on 1st November, a press release from the Sri Lanka President's office said. Opposition United National Front (UNF) opposed it calling NACPR a tactic to delay the peace process, and TNA earlier rejected an invitation to join the NACPR.
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Akashi to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 October 2004, 11:29 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, Government of Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka is to visit Sri Lanka Wednesday to meet with the leaders of Sri Lanka's main political parties and with the leaders of Liberation Tigers, said a press release from Embassy of Japan issued in Colombo Monday.
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Millennium scholarships awards to be held

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 October 2004, 11:00 GMT]
One thousand and fourteen students who have qualified 2002 GCE Ordinary Level examination and currently following GCE A/L classes in 24 education zones of the northeast province are to be awarded with Millennium Scholarships under a scheme formulated by Sri Lanka's Presidential Secretariat. But only one hundred and fifty have been invited to attend the awarding ceremony scheduled to be held in Trincomalee Sri Lanka Navy playgrounds on October 29th morning, educcation sources said.
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Thamilchelvan meets Swedish Foreign Ministry officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2004, 16:31 GMT]
Head of Liberation Tigers Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan, met with State Secretary of Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Annika Bjurner Soder, at the Ministry building Thursday, LTTE sources in Sweden said. Thamilchelvan told the Swedish official of LTTE’s firm commitment to the peace process and the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA).
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Sinhala Buddhists want Norway out

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2004, 01:45 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the powerful Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party in Sri Lanka's Parliament, Thursday launched an islandwide campaign to get ten million signatures to persuade President Chandrika Kumaratunga to reject peace talks with the Liberation Tigers. The Sinhala nationalist campaign also exhorts Colombo to unequivocally reject the LTTE's proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) for the northeast.
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LTTE delegation meets Belgian, EU Officials

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 October 2004, 13:29 GMT]
Liberation Tigers delegation lead by Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan, met with Officials of Foreign Affairs Section of the Belgian Government and of the European Union in two separate meetings Monday, LTTE sources from Brussels said.
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"Home guards' release, goodwill gesture to SLMM"- Elilan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 October 2004, 18:12 GMT]
"We released the two Sinhala home guards, Sarath Bandara and Chandana Piyasiri, as a goodwill gesture to the efforts taken by the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for the release of ten cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," said Mr.S.Elilan, LTTE Trincomalee district political head of the LTTE. The Thamileelam courts in Sampoor in Muttur east Saturday around five p.m. released the two home guards on cash and surety bail, legal sources said.


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Drivers detained as A9 accident kills two

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2004, 21:11 GMT]
Mr.Ponnuthurai Sivalinkam, 50, of Kalviyankadu, Nallur and Ms Soundaram, 68, of Jaffna were killed and five other commuters wounded in a road accident Friday afternoon around 2.30 p.m. near Murikandy in Killinochchi district in a passenger van - lorry head on collision, sources said.


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World Bank concludes NEIAP assessment study

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2004, 10:40 GMT]
A World Bank team comprising foreign experts and Sri Lanka task leader Mr.Nihal Fernando concluded its four-day assessment study regarding the first stage of the North East Irrigated Agriculture Project-I (NEIAP-I) works carried out in three districts Manner, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu in the north province and the border district Anuradhapura district, sources said.
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"SL Govt ready with alternate peace proposals"- Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2004, 00:20 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Thursday announced that it is ready with its alternative proposals to the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "However, we do not know whether the LTTE would accept the government alternate proposals," said Media Minister Mr.Mangala Samaraweera at a press briefing held Thursday in Colombo, sources said.
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Education Ministry invites CTTU for talks to avert strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 October 2004, 14:31 GMT]
Ms Tara de Mel, Secretary to the Ministry Education in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has invited the Ceylon Tamil Teachers’ Union (CTTU) for talks on 13 October at her office in Colombo to resolve problems confronting the Tamil medium education and Tamil medium teachers and students in the northeast and in other provinces. President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge is also holding the portfolio of Minister of Education. Her deputy Minister for Education is Mr.Mangala Samaraweera who is also the Minister for Media.
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U.S Congressman speaks on Sri Lanka violence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 October 2004, 02:06 GMT]
Republican Iowa Congressman James A. Leach, chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific of the House International Relations Committee, expressed concern about the rising level of political violence in Sri Lanka and called for a resumption of the peace talks between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in a statement before the U.S House of Representatives issued October 7 and distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
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