'Solution should be based on what Tamils want' - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2004, 18:33 GMT]
"We created the conditions for Peace Talks by unilaterly declaring a cease-fire in December 2001. Solution to the Tamil problem should be on the basis of aspirations of the Tamils because they are the ones who have faced discrimination, oppression and war for many years. It cannot be based on what the Sinhala people want. It cannnot be based on what the Sinhala government wants. This is why the political pacts Tamils made in the past with Sinhala leaders came to naught." said Mr. S.P. Thamilchelvan in a press briefing in Kilinochchi Saturday.
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SLMM-SLA meeting held in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2004, 02:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission’s officials coordinating security met with the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army for the Vanni region, Maj. Gen. Sisira Wijesooriya, at the SLMM office in Vavuniya Friday, military sources said.
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Liberation Tigers release Sri Lanka army soldier

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 16:33 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam Friday released from their custody a Sri Lanka army soldier who had crossed the line of control dividing areas held by them and by Colombo. The soldier, Shalitha Pradeep Kumara Hettiarachchi,28, of Warakapola, 68 kilometres east of Colombo, was handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kilinochchi.
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Bata warehouse gutted by fire

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 16:16 GMT]
Bata company's finished product ware house in Kattubedda on the southern outskirts of Colombo was gutted by fire in the early hours of Friday. Police said that the arsonists would be arrested soon.
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Trinco Rotarians hold medical camp in Eachilampathu villages

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 02:34 GMT]
The Trincomalee Rotary Club last weekend conducted a one-day medical clinic in the village Muttuchenai, which is located in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE )-held Eachilampathu division in the Trincomalee district. Rotarian Dr.E.G.Gnanakunalan organized the clinic with the assistance of Capt. Charles Gnanakone of Humanitarian Rehabilitation Services of NE (Lanka) Ltd, Colombo, who provided thirty thousand rupees worth of medicine to the clinic, sources said.
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Police assault protesting Bata workers in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2004, 14:13 GMT]
Twenty Bata workers were injured in Colombo Thursday when Sri Lanka Police assaulted them severely to break up a fifty two day long protest against the international footwear giant for sacking the six hundred strong workforce at its factory in Ratmalana, an industrial area on the southern outskirts of Colombo. Police refused to record their complaint about the assault, workers said. Hundreds of Policemen attacked male and female workers who in front of the Bata factory Thursday.
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Civil Society Forum supports federal constitution in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2004, 21:06 GMT]
"An Interim Administrative structure should be established in the NorthEast Province on the basis of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Thereafter a new constitution based on the fully-fledged federal concept should be formulated. The country would be divided into two in failing to do so," said Civil Socieity Forum Chairman, Dr.Kumar Rupasinghe, addressing a press conference Wednesday at Hotel Nippon in Colombo.
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UNP parliamentarian arrested

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2004, 18:13 GMT]
Opposition parliamentarian for the Badulla District and former cabinet minister of the United National Party (UNP), Mr. Abdul Cader was arrested by Sri Lankan police, around 9 p.m. in capital Colombo.
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US demining officials arrive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2004, 13:25 GMT]
Mr. Richard Kidd, Director of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State, and Colonel Stuart C.Harris, Deputy Director of the same and Ms Cody Taylor, Political head in the US Embassy in Colombo Tuesday morning arrived in Jaffna by a special aircraft and held discussion with Sri Lanka Army officials and civil authorities in Jaffna district.
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Demining officials from US State Department to visit Jaffna, Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2004, 04:14 GMT]
Mr. Richard Kidd, Director of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State, and Colonel Stuart C. Harris, Deputy Director of the same office, are visiting Sri Lanka this week, said American Embassy in Colombo in a Press Release issued on Monday.
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“Political solution should be found without delay”-UPFA Dy Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2004, 02:21 GMT]
“Political solution to the ethnic conflict in the country should be found during the regime of President Chandrika Kumaratunge. She is committed to peace in the country. We cannot drag on forever a peaceful solution to the national problem,” said Mr. Dilan Perera, Deputy Minister for Ports and Civil Aviation, addressing a gathering to mark the 25th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) under which the management of all ports in the country comes.
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Corporal Rajapakse calls off his hunger strike

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2004, 22:54 GMT]
Corporal Rajapakse of the Sri Lanka Army who was sentenced to death in the Krishanthy rape and murder case Monday called off his fast unto death in Jaffna prison on an assurance that he would be sent back to Welikada jail in Colombo within two days' time, prison sources said.
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Corporal Rajapakse launches hunger strike in Jaffna prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 16:33 GMT]
Corporal Rajapakse of the Sri Lanka Army who was sentenced to death in the Krishanthy rape and murder case launched a hunger strike in Jaffna prison demanding that he should be transfered to Welikada jail. His hunger strike entered third day Sunday, prison sources said.
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Sri Lanka renews weapons deal with China

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 14:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has renewed an agreement with China to continue to procure military hardware from a bonded warehouse Beijing set up ten years ago in the southern capital Galle, the Sunday Times reported. Sri Lanka’s Army, Navy and Air Force have already drawn up their immediate requirements, the paper said.
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Unfair promotion irks Sri Lanka military intelligence chief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2004, 02:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka army scources in Colombo Saturday dismissed speculation that head of military intelligence, Brigadier Kapila Hendawitharana, had submitted his retirement papers to army commander Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda over the alleged covert support the spy chief had provided to renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna'. Brigadier Hendawitharana had sent in his retirement papers after his due promotion had been overlooked in favour of a junior who has been given a field promotion, the sources said.
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Jaffna court stopped from inquiring into shooting case

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 23:01 GMT]
The Court of Appeal has instructed the Jaffna Magistrate court to stop all proceedings in a case in which two Sri Lanka Army soldiers have been charged with the attempted murder of an 18 year-old Tamil boy for August 23. The boy was shot at by SLA soldiers when he was selling copies of a Tamil daily ‘Eelanatham’ in Jaffna town in December 2003.
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US Pacific Marine Corps Commander ends visit to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 16:03 GMT]
Lieutenant General Wallace C. Gregson, Commander United States Marine Forces Pacific; Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Pacific; and Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Bases, Pacific, visited Sri Lanka last week, according to a Press release issued by the Embassy of the United States of America in Colombo.
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UK official told permanent peace first, investment later

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 00:02 GMT]
Representatives of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Trincomalee told Mr. Dave Waring, First Secretary (Commercial) of the British High Commission in Colombo, that the stalled peace process in Sri Lanka should be put back on track before holding talks about investments by British trade community in the Northeast Province, NGO officials said. The meeting took place at the office of the Trincomalee District NGOs Consortium Thursday afternoon during Mr.Waring's one-day visit to Trincomalee.
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UK trade community to invest in Northeast -Dave Waring

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2004, 13:54 GMT]
British trade community has expressed its willingness to invest directly in the Northeast Province in Sri Lanka, said Mr. Dave Waring, First Secretary (Commercial) in the British High Commission in Colombo when addressing a group of industrialists and entrepreneurs in the east port town Thursday morning at the office of the Trincomalee District Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
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SLRC's peace building training programme concluded in Trinco

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2004, 13:53 GMT]
USAID supported one month long residential training programme for 90 youth and social animators in the Trincomalee district on the urgent need of promoting peace and harmony which was conducted by the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) through its Trincomalee district branch concluded during the weekend at Nilaveli SLRC Training Centre.
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