Election violence complaints nearing 1000

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 November 2001, 21:54 GMT]
The United National Party's chief candidate for Jaffna Electoral District, Mr.Maheswaran has complained to the police that his party's polling agents and supporters who went to Kayts in Jaffna to monitor postal voting have been threatened by armed cadres of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). He said his party agents have been told not to visit the Kayts area either for canvassing or to monitor polling. 243,000 public employees are eligible for postal voting which began today.
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DIG says will consider Jaffna weapons issue

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 11:01 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Police said Friday that it has requested the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), a major coalition partner of the People's Alliance government, not to go about in the Jaffna peninsula with weapons during the 2001 general elections.
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EPDP attacks Tamil Alliance in Pottuvil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 12:27 GMT]
Five supporters of the Tamil National Alliance, including a woman were severely assaulted and wounded by armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party in Pottuvil, about 116 kilometres south of Batticaloa in the early hours of the morning Wednesday, Police sources in the east said. The TNA’s campaign office was also attacked, alliance spokesman Henry Mahendran said. Following the attack, one of the TNA supporters, Mr. S. Sathasivam, a librarian, had sought protection from the Police in Pottuvil fearing for his life, that the EPDP cadres may kill him. But the EPDP’s chief candidate for the Ampara district, Gunasekeram Shankar, had gone inside the Police station with his handgun and threatened Mr. Sathasivam, according to Mr. Mahendran.
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UNP candidate seizes weapon from EPDP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 20:49 GMT]
A United National Party (UNP) candidate for Jaffna district Saturday handed over to the police in Nelliyadi a weapon which he had seized from Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) cadres, police and UNP sources in Jaffna said.
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Protest in Batticaloa over assault on reporter

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2001, 12:13 GMT]
More than 150 journalists, social activists, parents and workers demonstrated in Batticaloa Friday to protest against officials of the Department of Education for assaulting a reporter from the ëThinakathirí, the Tamil daily published in the eastern town.
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EPDP threats hassle Jaffna candidates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2001, 17:16 GMT]
The chief candidate of the United National Party in Jaffna, Mr. T. Maheswaran wrote to the Commissioner of Elections Wednesday that polling booths in the islands of Karainagar, Kayts, Nainathivu and Delft should be located in the peninsula because the serious threat posed by the EPDP. He said that heavily armed cadres of the EPDP are intimidating and preventing candidates of other parties from entering the islands. Meanwhile, Mr. Anandasangari, the chief candidate in Jaffna for the Tamil National Alliance said that he was threatened by armed members of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Nelliyadi where he went to open a campaign office Wednesday.
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'Our land's freedom is our birthright' - Selvam

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2001, 18:48 GMT]
"The Tamils of Ampara have had to face the brunt of both Sinhala chauvinism and Muslim intimidation. But they have refused to submit or yield their national pride as Tamils. We have to show the world that we will never sell our dignity for a mess of pottage, that we will not be intimidated by the terror that the Sri Lankan state has unleashed on us.
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EPDP preparing to rig Jaffna poll -Maheswaran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 October 2001, 17:21 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) is preparing to rig the polls in Jaffna with the connivance of a government official, said Mr. T. Maheswaran, ex-MP and chief candidate of the United National Party in Jaffna, addressing a campaign meeting in Nallur, a suburb of the northern town, Wednesday. ‘The EPDP is a quisling army of the Sri Lankan government. The struggle led by the leader of the Tigers, Pirapaharan, and all the sacrifices made for its progress would be demeaned internationally if members of the EPDP are elected to the Parliament from Jaffna,’ the UNP candidate said.
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Sihala Urumaya, JVP, UNP enter fray in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2001, 07:50 GMT]
The Sinhala Nationalist party, Sihala Urumaya, and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the People’s Liberation Front of Thamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Tamil national alliance filed nominations for the general elections on 5 December at the Jaffna District Secretariat (Kachcheri) Saturday. The chief candidate for EPDP in the northern district is Mr. Nithiyanandan ‘Douglas’ Devananda and for the Tamil alliance, Mr. V. Anandasangaree. The EPRLF (Varathar faction), JVP, UNP and two minor left groups, the New Left Front and the Democratic Left Front, have also filed nominations to contest the general elections in Jaffna on 5 December.
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'Lift ban or let us go to Vanni'- Jaffna fishermen

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 October 2001, 13:40 GMT]
More than three thousand fishermen and women demonstrated in Pt. Pedro town Tuesday against Sri Lanka Army restrictions on fishing in the seas off the Jaffna peninsula's Vadamaradchi coast. The fishermen demanded that the SLA should either lift the restrictions and ban or allow them to leave Jaffna and to settle in the LTTE controlled Vanni region.
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Jaffna journalist's murder investigation said abandoned

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 October 2001, 04:45 GMT]
In an open letter Friday to Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga, drafted by the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and the international press freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), more than 200 journalists, media workers, media organisations, trade unions, international and local NGOs, academics, protested at the lack of progress in the inquiry of the brutal murder of Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan on 19 October last year.
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Tamil parties form alliance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 October 2001, 20:37 GMT]
The main opposition Tamil parties in Sri Lanka agreed Wednesday to form a Tamil nationalist alliance to contest the general elections on 5 December 2001. The agreement was reached late Wednesday night following protracted negotiations over the week. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) decided to cement the alliance by signing a memorandum of understanding on Friday.
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Trinco group warns against fragmenting Tamil vote

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 October 2001, 18:50 GMT]
The three opposition Tamil parties, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), should join hands to regain the Tamil parliamentary representation in Trincomalee district which was lost in October 2000 general election, said a statement issued by the People Development Association (PDO) in Trincomalee Monday. The EPDP, however, says that it will contests the elections alone, in the eastern districts.
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ACTC disrupts Tamil unity moves again

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 October 2001, 19:40 GMT]
Hectic negotiations to cement a common Tamil front ran aground again Sunday night when Mr. Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy, the leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) refused to contest the general elections on 5 December under a common symbol in Jaffna. The ACTC leader told a private radio station earlier in the day that his party had decided to contest as a constituent of a Tamil national alliance. However, when the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and the Tamil United Liberation Front met the ACTC Sunday night to finalise details of the Tamil alliance, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy insisted that his party cannot contest under a common symbol in Jaffna. "That's where the need is greatest for us to stand united as one nationalist force in order to defeat the anti-Tamil forces which are spreading their tentacles in the peninsula," said Selvam Adaikalanathan, the leader of the TELO.
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EPDP demands 50 million from Batticaloa daily

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2001, 15:53 GMT]
Mr. Douglas Devenanda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a major partner of the People's Alliance, has demanded 50 million rupees in damages from Thinakathir, the Tamil daily newspaper published in Batticaloa.
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Tamils propose Prof. Sivathamby too for council

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 October 2001, 20:00 GMT]
Tamil opposition parties in Sri Lanka's Parliament Saturday night proposed the names of Prof.Karthigesu Sivathamby, Dr.Devanesan Nesaiah, former judge Mr.T.Suntharalingam and former Treasury Secretary Mr.A.Shanmugalingam after a legal hitch precluded the nominee they selected Thursday. The three parties told the Prime Minister to appoint one from among the four names proposed by them to the constitutional council.
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Tamils nominate lawyer, express reservations on council

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2001, 07:25 GMT]
The three opposition Tamil parties in the Sri Lankan Parliament Thursday night unanimously elected Mr. R. I. Thambiratnam, a leading lawyer, to represent the Tamil people of northeast province in the constitutional council. However, Mr. 'Selvam' Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) said, "The constitutional council and the independent commissions on Police, elections, judicial services and public service are clearly aimed at clipping the powers of the executive presidency. They are intended to make the unitary state machine run more efficaciously. But the unitary state is the root cause of Tamil grievances. The council and the commissions would ensure more democracy for the Sinhala people but not the Tamils. One would have no illusions about this when one considers how these Sinhala parties which united to pass the 17th amendment dumped the equal opportunities bill."
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World Bank questions Jaffna development

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 15:51 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Ahead of the visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday by a World Bank team intending to study the government’s poverty alleviation plans, its local Director slammed the activities in Jaffna of the Ministry of Northern Development. Dr. Mariana Todorova says that whilst almost two thousand people are being employed there by the Ministry, not one person has actually benefited from its activities. The Ministry is headed by Douglas Devananda, leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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LTTE condemns attack on US

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 September 2001, 14:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) categorically denied reports Saturday in Sri Lanka’s state media that the organization had distributed a message to the people of Jaffna with reference to Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Anton Balasingham, the LTTE’s chief spokesman and political advisor, when contacted by TamilNet condemned the Sri Lankan government for exploiting the “colossal human tragedy” to gain political advantage. He also condemned the attack as a “brutal crime.”
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Jaffna undergrads defy EPDP tactics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 18:51 GMT]
Jaffna University undergraduates Wednesday forced their way into the office of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority for the North (RRAN) to protest and argue with officials who refused to grant them travel permits to leave the peninsula. The students protested that they had obtained due permission from the Ministry of Defence to leave Jaffna for their holidays and that the RRAN officials were deliberately refusing to issue them tickets for the ship to Trincomalee at the instigation of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).
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