LTTE denies warning to Tamil MPs

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 August 2001, 18:09 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday denied issuing a note circulating in the Jaffna peninsula warning Tamil MPs to quit the Sri Lankan Parliament and purported to originate from an organisation which the government says is a front of the LTTE. A notice issued by the ‘Sangiliyan Padai’ (Sangiliyan Army) on Saturday said those who refused “would not have an opportunity to regret their action.”
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Opposition urges checks on referendum rigging

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 August 2001, 21:16 GMT]
Opposition parties Monday urged the Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections to take steps to stop rigging at the referendum on 21 August. Leaders of the United National Party, the Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, the Tamil United Liberation Front and the Sihala Urumaya met the Coomissioner of elections Monday morning for discussions about conducting the referendum in a free and fair manner.
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Senior PLOTE member shot dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 May 2001, 22:22 GMT]
A senior member of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the high security zone of the Mannar town around 8 p.m. Tuesday police said. The PLOTE maintains a camp in Mannar town close to the police station.
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Douglas berates Jaffna press

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 May 2001, 13:05 GMT]
“I do not trust the press in Jaffna”, said Mr. Douglas Devananda, MP, Minister for Development Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the North and Tamil Affairs (North and East), addressing a press conference Thursday afternoon at his office on Stanley Road in the northern town. The road, in the busy heart of Jaffna town, was blocked off to the public from Thursday morning 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the afternoon by Sri Lanka army soldiers, Policemen and armed cadres of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). The press briefing was called after the conclusion of the Jaffna electorate development meeting, which was boycotted by five Jaffna MPs who are protesting that it is not safe for them to be present in Mr. Devananda’s office cum camp on Stanley Road.
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Kadirgamar's move said linked to no confidence motion

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 May 2001, 19:34 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan government announced that it had reached an agreement with the Liberation Tigers not because of a genuine commitment to peace but to deftly pre-empt the support of minority parties for the opposition's impending no confidence motion against the government", a spokesperson for the ten party Tamil alliance told TamilNet in Colombo Friday evening. "The government is alarmed now that it might lose the support of at least a section of its main coalition partner, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress over the Mawanella pogrom. This is has created a serious crisis for the People's Alliance. Why should the Sri Lankan government, which consistently rejected the LTTE's ceasefire and refused to even partially lift the embargo on the Vanni despite facing greater military defeats than Agni Khiela I last year, jump the gun at this juncture to falsely declare that it had reached an understanding with the Tigers to begin peace talks?" the Tamil politician in Colombo asked.
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Emergency and PTA promote torture - Adaikalanathan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 May 2001, 20:50 GMT]
"No self respecting Tamil will vote for the extension of the Emergency and its regulations. The Tamil people have been denied their fundamental right of freedom from torture for more than 25 years. The Sri Lankan security forces behave as though no Tamil has this fundamental right which is guaranteed to every citizen of this country in the constitution. Can you tell me how many Tamils were not subjected to torture in custody? The most pernicious methods of torture are practiced on the Tamils by the security forces today. Therefore I ask: are the Tamils citizens of this country or should they determine their own citizenship?" asked 'Selvam' A. Adaikalanathan, MP for the Vanni and the leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), speaking in Parliament Thursday on the vote to extend the state of Emergency.
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Pt. Pedro UC wants Sihala Urumaya banned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2001, 14:57 GMT]
The Pt. Pedro Urban Council passed a resolution Tuesday that the Sinhala extremist party, the Sihala Urumaya (SU) should be banned. Mr.Mark Kumanan of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) proposed the resolution, which was adopted unanimously by the council. The EPDP member said that the Sihala Urumaya should be banned because it is attempting to scuttle peace talks to settle the ethnic conflict. The Sihala Urumaya is a racist anti Tamil group, Mr. Kumanan told the council.
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Jaffna Municipal intrigues spill out

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 April 2001, 16:53 GMT]
A simmering dispute over the dismissal of 36 employees of the Jaffna Municipal Council’s (JMC) Health Department was turned into a political contest and intrigue between the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Monday in Jaffna town. More than three hundred employees of the JMC went in a procession Monday morning to the Nallur Kandasamy temple in support of the council’s administration. Another group of employees, mostly from the JMC’s health department, marched through the town against the council’s administration. They handed over copies of a memorandum listing their grievances and demands to the Jaffna district judge and the government agent. Later they sat in front of the JMC in a protest fast. The protestors are not demanding their reinstatement but want the TULF administration of the JMC dissolved.
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Eastern Tamils march against eviction

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2001, 13:39 GMT]
Hundreds of Tamil men and women of Linganagar, a settlement in Trincomalee town on land which the Sri Lanka army claims to own, marched through the streets of Trincomalee Sunday morning amidst tight security by armed police shouting slogans and carrying banners and placards demanding the government that they should be allowed to live on their land.
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Blair urged over Jaffna journalists

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2001, 07:21 GMT]
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was Wednesday urged by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) to raise the issue of press freedom in Sri Lanka and in particular the murder of the BBC journalist for Jaffna, Mayilvanagam Nimalarajan, with visiting Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumratunge. In a letter Wednesday, RSF’s General secretary, Robert Menard, urged Mr. Blair also over the abusive detention of another Jaffna journalist by Sri Lankan security forces since January 2.
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Massive demonstration in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2001, 12:28 GMT]
(News Feature) More than ten thousand people in Jaffna comprising university students, high-school students, residents and representatives and members of civil organisations demonstrated Wednesday, urging the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate the Liberation Tigers unilateral ceasefire and negotiate with the movement. Thousands more people were turned away by Sri Lankan security forces at check points set up along the major roads leading to the university, residents said. Reporters were not permitted into the university either.
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"Stop war, start talks" - TULF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2001, 21:49 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Tuesday demanded the Sri Lankan Government immediately stop the war and commence negotiations with the Liberation Tigers so as to find a political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. Mr. V. Anandasangari, Vice President of the TULF was speaking at the swearing in of Nadarajah Raviraj as the new Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council.
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Tamil parties appeal for ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2000, 04:20 GMT]
"Sri Lankan government should respond favourably to the call by the Liberation Tigers for a ceasefire and, USA, Britain, India, members of the European Union and other countries interested in solving the conflict in Sri Lanka should exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to bring an end to the war," said a joint statement issued by a coalition of ten Tamil political parties after they met in Colombo yesterday. .
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Jaffna University street play condemns Devananda

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 December 2000, 18:44 GMT]
The arts faculty students of the Jaffna University performed a street play Monday in which Sri Lankan cabinet minister Douglas Devananda was portrayed as a heinous oppressor of civilians in the north. Hundreds of students and people watched the play named "that which is not spoken of" (Pesaapporul). The performance started around 4.30 p.m this afternoon inside the campus. The play ended with the likeness of Mr.Devananda being torn to pieces by the people of Jaffna.
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Jaffna University students stage protest march

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 22:23 GMT]
Hundreds University students Wednesday morning marched through the roads of Jaffna town and burnt photographs of President Chandrika Kumaratunge and Minister of North-eastern Rehabilitation, and leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda. The students were protesting against the murder of journalist M.Nimalarajan and the brutal massacre of 31 detainees at a detention centre at Bindunuwewa in Bandarawela last month.
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Trinco hartal over massacre

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 08:29 GMT]
A hartal is being observed in the eastern town of Trincomalee Friday, condemning the massacre Wednesday of Tamil detainees at Bindunuwewa detention centre and the slaying last week of Jaffna based reporter Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, allegedly by pro-government militiamen.
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Journalists protest colleague's slaying

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 October 2000, 14:37 GMT]
Over six hundred Sri Lankan journalists protested Wednesday against the brutal slaying of Jaffna based reporter Mylvaganam Nimalarajan allegedly by pro-government militiamen. The picket, conducted by the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and other media institutions in Colombo took place opposite Fort Railway Station for about one and a half hours commencing from 12 noon. Meanwhile, other correspondents say they have been threatened in the wake of the killing.
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Thousands mourn slain Jaffna journalist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 October 2000, 14:09 GMT]
More than four thousand mourners took part in the funeral of the slain Tamil journalist Nimalrajan Saturday as he was laid to rest in the cemetery of the church of Konjanji Maatha this afternoon in Jaffna town around 3.30 p.m. Posters condemning his killing came up in many parts the peninsula. Black flags were also flown in the town. Meanwhile, in Colombo, the opposition Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) charged that the EPDP was behind the Nimalrajan's killing.
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Jaffna journalist killed for his reporting

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2000, 06:43 GMT]
The killing of senior Jaffna journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalrajan, 38 Thursday night by gunmen suspected to be members of a pro-government Tamil group, was widely condemned by Tamil media organisations and political parties. Mr.Nimalrajan, fearlessly reported the intimidation, thuggery and election malpractice during the October 10 elections in Jaffna to the Sri Lankan Parliament.
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SLMC, EPDP get plum portfolios

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 October 2000, 06:29 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Thursday cemented her party's coalition government by offering plum portfolios to her minority allies. The leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, Mr. Douglas Devananda, was sworn in as the Minister for Northern Rehabilitation and Northeastern Tamil Affairs Thursday and co-leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim was given the plum portfolio of Internal, External Trade, Shipping and Muslim Affairs. Northeastern Tamil affairs is a new portfolio in the cabinet.
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