US-Sri Lanka to jointly strengthen Colombo port security

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 14:41 GMT]
The United States (US) and the Sri Lanka will soon enter discussions regarding the island’s participation in ‘Mega Ports,’ a US Department of Energy (DOE) initiative to curb the illicit movement of radioactive materials worldwide. Representatives from DOE’s ‘Mega Ports’ initiative will visit Colombo to discuss the program with Sri Lankan officials, said the US embassy press release issued Friday.
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Hundred thousand drop in Jaffna student population - GA

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 11:34 GMT]
Jaffna's student population has dwindled by more than a hundred thousand since 1995, Government Agent for the northern district said Friday, speaking at a meeting on development priorities in the peninsula. Educationists in Jaffna say prolonged war, poverty, displacement and garrisioning of entire towns and villages by Sri Lankan armed forces caused the huge drop in the peninsula's student population.
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Campaign to repeal PTA to be launched

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 09:23 GMT]
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD), which have their headquarters in Colombo, are to launch a campaign to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which is in operation for the last 25 years.
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GOSL Peace Secretariat head to visit Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2004, 16:40 GMT]
Mr.Jayantha Dhanapala, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is scheduled to visit Batticaloa Friday to hold talks with the local heads of State armed forces and Police and representatives of civil organizations to study the ground situation of the volatile Batticaloa district, sources said.
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Indian trawlers continue poaching in northern sea

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2004, 16:38 GMT]
Vadamarachi North Fisheries Societies Federation in Jaffna district Thursday complained that hundreds of Indian trawlers are daily engaged in poaching in the Sri Lankan northern territorial waters. These Indian trawlers are seen about 12 km from the shore of Vadamarachchi, Federation sources said.
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EPDP says party paper burnt

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2004, 14:30 GMT]
Copies of a Tamil weekly 'Thinamurasu'', published in Colombo by Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) were burnt in Jaffna by unidentified persons Wednesday evening, EPDP sources said.
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Police arrest Myanmar nationals in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 15:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police produced in the Mannar courts Wednesday two Myanmar nationals who had escaped from a detention centre for foreigners near Colombo. The two men were arrested while loitering in the shrub around the long abandoned Thalaimannar railway station on Tuesday morning.
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Karuna cadre killed, two injured

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 12:56 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa said that a key associate of renegade commander 'Karuna' was killed in an ambush by one of their special jungle warfare units in Batticaloa Wednesday afternoon around 2.45 p.m. "We ambushed a small group of the paramilitary Karuna Group carrying small arms upon information provided by civilians. We recovered the body of a key person of the Karuna Group. A search is on to apprehend the others", an LTTE military officer said.
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Colombo promoting Karuna to destroy LTTE – US think tank

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 12:35 GMT]
Former LTTE Commander Karuna's defection was supported at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government with tacit US approval, press reports quoted US geopolitical analysts as saying this week.
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Sri Lanka, LTTE urged to sign anti-landmine treaties

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 11:23 GMT]
Landmine Ban Advocay Forum, a group of Humanitarian Organizations, including the UNDP and UNICEF, called on the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers to sign treaties Banning Anti-Personnel Landmines in Colombo Wednesday.
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Terror Stalks journalists in the East - RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 17:48 GMT]
The French media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) said Tuesday in special report on threats faced by journalists in Sri Lanka's eastcoast: "The impunity which prevails in cases involving the murder and assault of journalists is seriously jeopardizing press freedom and the peace process in Sri Lanka."
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Peace process in great crisis- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 11:12 GMT]
"The peace process is in great crisis. The Sri Lankan government should take constructive steps to stabilize the cease fire. But a cabinet minister in the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) is openly aiding 'Karuna' to attack us. The manner in which the GOSL and its armed forces are backing Karuna is jeopardising peace," said Mr. S.P Thamilchelvan, speaking to the press after meeting Norway's ambassador to Sri Lanka Tuesday in Kilinochchi.
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Norwegian ambassador to visit Killinochchi Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 14:35 GMT]
Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka Mr. Hans Brattskar is scheduled to hold discussions with the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan Tuesday, sources in Colombo said.


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JVP mounts poster campaign against Peace Talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 10:56 GMT]
Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), ultra leftist and Marxist coalition partner of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government today began a poster campaign in Colombo and suburbs against pursuing peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelalm (LTTE), political sources from Colombo said.
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LTTE slams Colombo for open support to renegade

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 14:44 GMT]
Head of the Liberation Tigers' political division for Batticaloa, Mr. E Kousalyan, Sunday slammed the Sri Lankan government for "openly promoting" renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) by "providing him state radio facilities to attack the Tigers with the obvious aim of destroying the mutual goodwill on which the cease fire is based."
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Four Tamil youth arrested with weapons near Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 13:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested four Tamil youth with weapons Saturday night in a town near Colombo. One of them is from Batticaloa, Police said.
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Petersen says ‘too early’ to predict talks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 12:09 GMT]
It is "too early" to say when the peace talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers would start again, Norway's Foreign Minister, Jan Petersen, said last week in an interview to The Hindu newspaper. Mr. Petersen expressed confidence that the two year old cease-fire would continue to hold but said “it would probably be unrealistic to think that we will not have any more incidents.”


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Sharp drop in tourist arrivals

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 10:52 GMT]
The outbreak of the dengue epidemic in Sri Lanka has resulted in a sharp drop in tourist arrivals this week, The Sunday Leader quoted government officials as saying.


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"View ISGA as the prelude to reunion"- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 01:58 GMT]
"Many UPFA critics have argued that the LTTE's ISGA proposals are a stepping-stone to secession. But, a government that is serious about negotiated peace in Sri Lanka should also be able to see a negotiated ISGA as the prelude to reunion after years of a secessionist war," said Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda in a political analysis column that appeared in Friday's Daily Mirror, a daily broadsheet published in Colombo.
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Smugglers arrive in Mannar among refugees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2004, 14:36 GMT]
The Mannar magistrate Saturday remanded until July 22 four boatmen and their assistants for illegally ferrying twelve refugees and two alleged smugglers from South India. Talaimannar Police arrested the smugglers with gold jewellery and clothes, legal sources in Mannar said.
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