Civil group plans agitation in NorthEast over Buddha statue

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2005, 11:49 GMT]
Mr.V.Vigneswaran, President of the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples Forum (TDTPF) Saturday said in a press conference that his organization will begin non-violent direct action after July 10 through out NorthEast if the Sri Lanka government fails to remove the controversial Buddhist statue which was erected close to the Trincomalee central bus stand on 15 May, sources in Trincomalee said.
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TNA urges Colombo to sign aid deal

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2005, 09:06 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Saturday appealed to the Sri Lanka Government to sign the post-Tsunami agreement with the LTTE as agreed between the Government and the LTTE with Norwegian facilitation. Noting that the main barrier to signing the agreement, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has quit the alliance, the TNA said it would support fully all steps taken in the right direction by the minority Government.
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Japan to rebuild tsunami destroyed schools in coastal belt

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 June 2005, 01:19 GMT]
Japanese Government will use funds from the $80m grant it provided to the Government of Sri Lanka for post tsunami reconstruction to rebuild fourteen schools destroyed by tsunami along the coastal belt, a press release issued by the Embassy of Japan in Colombo said Wednesday.
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Colombo Appeals Court stays order on Buddha statue case

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 June 2005, 18:10 GMT]
The Court of Appeals Friday issued restraining order on the Trincomalee Police and Trincomalee Urban Council preventing from temporarily removing the Buddha statue, erected in a State land located close to the Trincomalee central bus stand, as earlier ordered by Trincomalee Magistrate Mr.M.Ganesharajah, legal sources said.
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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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US trains Sri Lanka Police in interrogation techniques

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 11:17 GMT]
American law enforcement instructors completed two weeks of training Sri Lanka Police at the Police Higher Training Institute in Colombo on "Interview and Interrogation Techniques, Human Dignity and Ethics, and Community-based Policing," said a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Colombo Thursday.
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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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JVP leaves coalition Government

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 June 2005, 05:14 GMT]
Mr. Somawanse Amerasinghe, leader of the marxist extreme Sinhala nationalist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Thursday officially announced that his party has left the Government of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) with effect from Wednesday midnight. "There is no more talk with the Government. We had left from the United People Front Alliance (UPFA) Government", Mr. Amerasinghe underlined. "My party will sit in opposition in the Parliament," he said, addressing a two-hours long press conference at the Colombo National Library Auditorium Thursday morning. The JVP has 39 seats in the 225-seat Parliament of 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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Police move to stop fast to death campaign

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2005, 17:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police moved to disrupt the fast unto death campaign led by Ven Dambara Amila Thera, the president of the extremist National Bhikku Front (NBF) Wednesday afternoon at 6.30 PM, sources in Colombo said. Police with the support of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) carried the monk from his campaign location in front of Colombo Fort Railway station to a waiting ambulance and drove him to Colombo General Hospital for treatment.
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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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Kumarapuram massacre case exhibits destroyed in fire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2005, 19:58 GMT]
All material evidence, including weapons allegedly used in the killing of Tamil civilians in the Kumarapuram massacre, were destroyed when the office of the Government Analyst in Colombo was gutted by fire last year, State Counsel Mr.S.Halimdeen told the Trincomalee High Court Judge Mr.Anton Balasingham when the Kumarapuram massacre case was taken up for inquiry Tuesday, legal sources said.
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Japan donates generators for tsunami refugee camps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2005, 13:58 GMT]
Japanese Government is donating 100 generators for use in camps where tsunmi refugees have been given temporary shelter, a press release from the Embassy of Japan issued in Colombo Tuesday said.
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JVP leads protest march in Colombo against aid deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 June 2005, 12:14 GMT]
More than 10,000 supporters of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), extreme nationalist ruling coalition ally, participated in a protest Campaign against the Joint mechanism (JM) proposal today Tuesday at 2.00pm, sources in Colombo said. The march started from Borella Campel Grounds, passed through Maradana and ended near the Colombo Municipal Council offices. The protesters after shouting slogans against the aid deal proposal continued their march to the Lipton round about where they dispersed.


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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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Police use tear gas to breakup monks' protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2005, 12:34 GMT]
More than hundred policemen Monday evening around 2.30 PM fired tear gas and used water canons to disperse monks and university students who were protesting in front of Colombo Fort railway station in support of Ven. Dambara Amila Thera, the leader of the extremist National Bhikku Front (NBF), who started a new fast unto death campaign on Saturday against the Joint Mechanism. Ven Amila Thera was forcibly removed from the location by the Police and rushed to the Colombo General hospital where he is being treated for exhaustion, medical sources said.
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Sivaram murder vehicle, SIM card recovered - Police

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2005, 09:31 GMT]
Former military wing leader of PLOTE, Arumugam Sriskandarajan, also known as Peter, who was injured in the unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government of the Maldives in 1988 and another suspect were arrested by Sri Lanka Police in connection with the abduction and murder of Dharmeratnam Sivaram, 46, a senior TamilNet editor and a popular columnist, sources in Colombo said. The SIM card from the cellphone owned by Mr. Sivaram, was recovered by the Police in a house in Maharagama Monday morning, according to Colombo Crime Division (CCD) Director Senior SP Sarath Lugoda. A vehicle, which Police believes, was used by the assains who abducted Mr. Sivaram, was also seized by the Police from the house.
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TNA meets SL President on Joint Mechanism proposal

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 June 2005, 13:03 GMT]
A delegation of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians met with Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge and discussed the state of the Joint Mechanism for post-tsunami rehabilitation and the rising tension among the communities in Trincomalee triggered by the Buddha statue, a press release from from TNA issued in Colombo Sunday said. The meeting was held between 11am to 3.00pm Sunday, at president house.
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