Workshop on ‘Democratic Youth Leadership’

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 18:22 GMT]
A five day workshop for youths of all parts of the country, including the Northeast province, on the ‘Democratic Youth Leadership’ programme organized by the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) and sponsored by the National Council of the Swedish Youth Organization (LSU), commenced Monday morning at the Trincomalee-Uppuveli Pastoral Centre.
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Tamil, Muslim MPs to meet to discuss eastern situation

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 16:14 GMT]
At the conference convened Monday evening by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, at his Temple Trees official residence in Colombo, to discuss the ethnic tensions between Muslim and Tamil communities in the East, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Eastern Muslim Parliamentarians' Union attended and unanimously decided to meet again after holding extensive talks with the representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, political sources in Colombo said.
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Fishermen urge GoSL not to release detained Indian trawlers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 September 2003, 03:29 GMT]
Jaffna District Fisheries Societies Federation (JDFSF) called on the Sri Lanka Government not to return captured Indian trawlers caught poaching in the northern waters of Sri Lanka until the Indian authorities release boats belonging to Sri Lankan fishermen which are being detained at Rameswaram in South India by the Indian coast guard authorities, civil group sources said.


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SLFP-JVP talks fail

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 21:12 GMT]
Seven months of talks between the leaders of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the chief constituent of the main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) and the marxist, Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to forge a political alliance failed Friday, political sources in Colombo said.


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'Need advisors to promote peace, not war' - Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 September 2003, 12:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe appealed to his ministerial colleagues during last week's cabinet meeting that he needed persons who could advise him on how to achieve permanent peace and not to launch war again, according to Colombo media sources.
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LTTE delegation meets British Tory leaders

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 17:22 GMT]
The political leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. S.P.Thamilchelvan, met with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the British Parliament and Shadow Foreign Secretary, Mr. Michael Ancram,M.P., and Lord Ashcroft, the former treasurer of the British Conservative party, in Colombo Thursday shortly after his return from abroad, LTTE peace secretariat sources said.
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SLMC, UNP to work out new political arrangement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 16:46 GMT]
The United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), constituents of the ruling United National Front government of Sri Lanka, at a meeting Wednesday decided to explore the possibilities of contesting provincial and general elections under one banner in the future. The meeting was held at the Temple Trees residence of Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister and leader of the UNP, to thrash out differences between the two UNF partners, political sources said.
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Japanese peace envoy Akashi to visit Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 11:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Cabinet spokesman, Minister Mr. G.L.Peiris, said Thursday at the weekly press briefing that the Japanese special peace envoy, Mr.Yasushi Akashi will be visiting Sri Lanka on September 11 to preside over a conference on the proper utilization of funds pledged at the Tokyo donor conference held in June, media sources said.
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LTTE delegation returns home

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 September 2003, 11:01 GMT]
The delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by its political wing leader, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, and comprising Batticaloa-Amparai district special commander Col Karuna and Director of the LTTE Peace Secretariat Mr.Puleedevan returned to Colombo Thursday early morning after about two weeks' stay abroad, where the delegation held extensive discussion with their constitutional and legal experts in the French capital, Paris, sources said.
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Hakeem’s help sought to block giving Sinhala name to Trinco village

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 September 2003, 20:08 GMT]
The Trincomalee district branch of the Sri Lanka Muslim Teachers' Congress (SLMTC) Tuesday urged the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader and Minister in the United National Front government, Mr.Rauff Hakeem, to take immediate steps to stop re- naming a traditional Muslim village in the Kinniya division, Vaanaru, with a Sinhalese name, Bandulupura, sources in Trincomalee said.
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Ranil says UNF is committed to ‘peace with security’

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 19:03 GMT]
Responding to a query from Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, on the issue of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s camp at Kurankupanchan in the Trincomalee district, the country’s Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, said Monday that his government was continuing its efforts to resolve the issue peacefully and that Ms. Kumaratunge should not approach the issue on the basis of political expediency, media sources in Colombo said.
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NE part time English teachers begin fasting protest

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 18:28 GMT]
Hundreds of part time English teachers working in the Northeast provincial schools began a fasting campaign on a rotation basis Monday in front of the provincial education ministry office in Trincomalee, demanding the authorities to make their appointments permanent immediately, North East Part time English Teachers' Association (NEPETA) officials said.
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SLMM, SLA escort LTTE women cadres from Batticaloa to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 September 2003, 12:23 GMT]
One hundred fifty women cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led by the Special Commander of the LTTE Batticaloa-Amparai district Ms Nilavini left Batticaloa Monday morning to Vanni region in two buses escorted by members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and officials of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), security sources in Batticaloa said.


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Hill country Tamil leader Thondaman remembered

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 August 2003, 17:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Saturday remembered the services rendered to the minorities and oppressed people by the hill country Tamil leader late Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman on his 90th birthday, which falls on August 30, 2003, sources from upcountry said.


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The garrisoned rice bowl

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2003, 13:22 GMT]
Thenmaradchi was Jaffna's rice bowl until three years ago. Today most of the region's fertile rice fields are enclosed by the Sri Lanka army's concertina and mine laden defence perimeter. Thenmaradchi’s main farming villages lie derelict inside this vast garrisoned area hemmed in by the A9 and the Jaffna lagoon. Local farmers have been waging, collectively and individually, what increasingly appears to be a hopeless struggle to gain access to their homes and fields since the Liberation Tigers and Colombo signed a ceasefire agreement in February last year.
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‘SLA has no authority to prevent students from attending Pongu Thamil’ - Ezhilan

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 August 2003, 13:06 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has no authority to prevent students from attending the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya when 24 schools have been declared as falling into the High Security Zone in Vavuniya by the SLA and the students of these schools are denied their education, said Ms. S.Ezhilan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Vavuniya on Friday.


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Thousands join last leg of JVP foot march against IA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2003, 18:14 GMT]
The four day 116 km long anti peace foot march which was organized by the Sinhala nationalist cum Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) from Galle on Monday against the establishment of the Interim Administration for the northeast province and demanding the de-merger of the province reached Colombo Lipton circle Thursday around seven in the evening. Thousands of JVP cadres, men and women participated in the last leg of the march from Panadura Thursday morning, sources said.


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'De-merger of NE a calamity to Sri Lanka' - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2003, 09:01 GMT]
"The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) desires to place on record that the de-merger of the northeast province which has existed for the past fifteen years by the President would be a calamity to the whole Sri Lanka, and urges the President to desist from taking this perilous course," TNA said in a press statement issued Thursday in Colombo.
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Bhikku Front holds national convention in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 August 2003, 16:40 GMT]
The second national convention of the the National Bhikku Front (NBF) was held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo today. The NBF is opposed to the establishment of an Interim Adminstration (IA) for the northeast province and had threatened to campaign in Colombo and 50 other cities in the South through the nearly 1500 Buddhist Vihares in the island.
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JVP begins protest march against IA

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 August 2003, 11:33 GMT]
The Marxist Sinhala Nationalist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Monday morning started a four day 116 Kilometres demonstration march against handing over the Northeast Interim Administration (IA) to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The march that took off in front of Galle fort was also a protest against what the JVP said were attempts by the United National Front (UNF) government to bring foreign forces into the country, JVP sources said.
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