Local elections in LTTE areas likely to be postponed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 14:28 GMT]
Commissioner of Elections is to decide on whether to hold local council elections in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers in the NorthEast on March 30th only after holding two conferences, one with all the District Returning Officers who are the Government Agents of the province, and the other with the general secretaries of the registered political parties contesting the poll, sources said.
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Bus shortage plagues northern region transport system

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 13:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) has sent only five buses to Northern Region Transport Board (NRTB) instead of fifty as promised. The SLTB made an order with a foreign firm to import two thousand buses to be distributed among various depots in the island. Only three hundred out of 2000 buses have arrived in Colombo, sources said..


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SL President expresses satisfaction over Geneva peace talks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 12:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday met with the government delegation, which attended the Geneva peace talks with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Temple Trees in Colombo and discussed the outcome of talks in Geneva. Mr Rajapakse was satisfied with the decisions reached at the talks, Presidential Secretariat sources said, according government controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) in its Sunday evening news bulletin.
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Colombo accepts CFA in toto, Balasingham tells Sunday Leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 21:39 GMT]
LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, in an exclusive interview with Sunday Leader, said that although the talks were difficult and tough, the Sri Lanka Government has "accepted the meaning and content of this document [Cease Fire Agreement]," and on the issue of paramilitaries he said: "we have told the government, you better start disarming these groups and put an end to their armed military operations so that we could send our cadres to the north and east.We are ready to do that.And if anything happens to them, it will constitue a very very serious violation of the joint statement issued by both the parties."
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Building Tamil Eelam State: Kristian Stokke

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 10:54 GMT]
"Sri Lanka’s third Eelam War created a political-territorial division of the island with a resultant dual state structure in the North-East. In the context of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement and based on earlier institutional experiments, the LTTE is currently engaged in a comprehensive process of state building within the areas they control," says Prof Stokke of Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, in an article which examines the emerging new Tamileelam state structure. He adds that only the "facilitation and dynamics of pro-democracy forces within the LTTE," will determine the transformation from "the"strong and centralized state," that currently exists.
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Maha Sivarathiri to be observed in historic Sivan Temples

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 02:43 GMT]
Maha Sivarathiri Day religious observance is to be held in the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple, Thiruketheeswaram Temple in Mannar and Kantalai Choleeswaram (Siva) Temple, about 20 km southwest off Trincomalee town on February 26th Sunday night . Arrangements are being made by the temple societies and Hindu Affairs Department , sources said.


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Court grants interim relief on UNP CMC list case

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 February 2006, 18:55 GMT]
The Court of appeal Friday issued an interim order staying the operation of the order of the Returnting Officer rejecting the nomination list of the UNP for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), legal sources in Colombo said. The two member bench also issued another interim order restraining the Commisssioner of Elections and the Returning Officrs and other officials from conducting the election to Colombo Municipal Council.
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Sri Lanka Peace: Efforts, Failures and Lessons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Volume two of "Negotiating Peace in Sri Lanka: Efforts, Failures and Lessons," edited by Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman, Foundation for Co-Existence, was launched in Colombo Wednesday. Volume 2 deals with United National Front (UNF)– LTTE negotiations of 2002-2003, including a detailed chapter on the background to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and its security, implementation issues by former Defense Secretary, Austin Fernando.
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JVP wants Norway out of peace facilitator role

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 21:37 GMT]
"Norway is an accomplice to the Liberation Tigers in the LTTE's Nationalist struggle and fight for secession. We demand the Sri Lanka Government to relieve Norway from facilitator role," said Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) the Sinhala nationalist ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, in a memorandum sent to Colombo press Wednesday, sources in Colombo said. The memorandum was written in Sinhala.
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Mannar fishermen woes spotlighted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 11:15 GMT]
In a memorandum issued to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Wednesday, the Mannar District Fisheries Community highlighted the deprivation of their livelihood due to the ban and restriction imposed by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on fishing, and urged human rights organizations to take efforts to improve the livelihood of fisher families, sources from Mannar said.
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Ceasefire Agreement is foundation of peace and must be implemented - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 10:19 GMT]
Describing the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA) as the “most constructive achievement” of the Norwegian peace process and “the foundation upon which the process has to be built,” the Liberation Tigers’ Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham said Wednesday the CFA had been agreed upon by both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE after “careful and meticulous scrutiny” and crafted with the skilled assistance of the Norwegian facilitators.
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European Union welcomes Geneva talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 11:51 GMT]
European Commission Delegation in Sri Lanka in a press release issued Tuesday, welcomed the February 22- 23 discussions between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and described the talks as "an opportunity to restore confidence in the Ceasefire Agreement and move forward towards a peaceful future."
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Risk awareness training for NorthEast journalists held

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 11:31 GMT]
Two sessions of two-day risk awareness training for journalists, the first session for 25 Jaffna journalists in Colombo, and the second for journalists from the Batticaloa, Amparai and Vavuniya, at Sigiriya village in the North Central Province, organized by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), concluded Sunday, sources said.
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Local councils to be dissolved before polls

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2006, 11:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse is expected to issue a gazette notification Monday midnight to dissolve all elected local authorities currently in power, political sources in Colombo said. This move will promote a fair and free election on March 30 when 329 local authorities including municipal councils and urban councils and pradesiya sabahs are scheduled to go to poll, election department sources said.
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Rice mill worker shot in Vantharumoolai, seriously wounded

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2006, 08:34 GMT]
A Tamil youth, Kailasapillai Raveendran, 21, was shot and seriously wounded by unidentified gunmen Monday around 6:30 a.m. at Vantharomoolai, 18 km north of Batticaloa town, Police said. Raveendran who is a rice mill worker, was rushed to Batticaloa hospital and later transferred to Colombo hospital, medical sources said. Meanwhile, colleagues of Raveendran alleged that the gunmen were associates of paramilitary operative Pillayan who operates a hunt-and-kill squad for the Sri Lankan Military intelligence from Batticaloa town. However, the reason behind the incident is yet to be established, the Police said.
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TRO staffers in third week of captivity

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2006, 04:49 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, to mark the 20th day after the abduction of ten of TRO staffers, released documents detailing the activities of the TRO workers in the areas of Pre School development and Children Homes. Three of the staffers have been released while the seven still remain in captivity with no communication from the captors widely believed to be paramilitary cadres. TRO abduction matter is likely to figure prominantly at the 22-23rd talks between Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka in Geneva, political sources from Colombo said.
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Book traces Tamil history of Trinco village

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 February 2006, 00:01 GMT]
A compilation of thirty research articles on the history of centuries old Tamil village Thambalagamam in Trincomalee district written by Mr.K.Velautham, a nonagenarian journalist was released Sunday morning at Kulakottan Tamil Vidiyalayam in Thambalakamam, in Trincomalee district. Sri Lankan government has recently changed the name to the Sinhala version "Thambalagamuwa" and is using the new name in its all-official transactions, residents said.
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Parcel containing ammunitions found in Wattala

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2006, 11:35 GMT]
Municipal road clearing workers found a parcel containing ammunitions in a garbage bin in Wattala Colombo near the Hunupitty Railway station at 8 a.m. Sunday, sources in Colombo said.
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Limited press access to talks at Geneva Ecumenical Institute

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 February 2006, 00:41 GMT]
Talks on Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam scheduled for 22-23rd February are to be held at Conference center of Ecumenical Institute, Chateau de Bossey located 22 km northwest of Geneva. Press access to the talks are limited to the opening statements on Wednesday and to the media briefing immediately after the adjournment of the talks on Thursday, a press release from the Swiss officials said.
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Swiss officials welcome LTTE delegation in Geneva

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 February 2006, 15:47 GMT]
The 12-member Liberation Tigers delegation arrived at the Geneva airport at 4.30 a.m. Saturday morning to attend the peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka on 22-23rd February, and was met at the air port by the Swiss Foreign Ministry officials headed by Ms. Sidonia Gabriel (Programme officer, Peace Policy, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs), sources in Geneva said. Liberation Tigers Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist Mr. Anton Balasingham is expected to join the delegation on Monday afternoon, according to LTTE sources.
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