SLA asked for EPDP weapons over journalist's murder

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate Monday directed the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army to hand over to court all firearms received from the paramilitary group EPDP under the provisions of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo to identify the weapon allegedly used for murdering journalist Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan on 19th October 2000.
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Rebel Muslim MPs cut committee deal

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2002, 15:08 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka Monday appointed a committee headed by its Interior secretary to look after the interests and concerns of Muslims in the island’s northeast in a bid to retain the crucial support of eight MPs of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the main partner of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ruling coalition, who have been boycotting Parliament amid allegations that the opposition was manipulating them to instigate communal tensions in the east to scuttle the peace talks for ending the island’s conflict and to topple the United National Front government.
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Tigers, GOSL optimistic after first defence meet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 November 2002, 13:39 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) said they were confident of making further progress in stabilising the island’s peace process on the ground as their high-level defence teams wound up four hours of talks in Omanthai, 18 kilometres north of Vavuniya, on the line of control, Sunday.
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JVP lambasts peace talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2002, 20:07 GMT]
“It is very foolish to believe that Norway, which is America’s quisling, would bring peace to our country. America is trying to oppress and rule over the people of the world. It is America that has unleashed terror on Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea,” said the Janata Vimukthi Permamuna (JVP), currently a powerful third force in Sinhala politics, in a pamphlet issued Saturday at the conclusion of a house-to-house campaign against the peace process.
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Kanjirankuda report unacceptable - Vivekanandan

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2002, 19:34 GMT]
"The report on the Kanjirankuda violence is mainly based on the statements given by members of the Special Task Force (STF) and representatives of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). No prominence is given to statements from the people affected by the violence and therefore I am not accepting the report," said Samithamby Vivekanandan, the only Tamil member of the three member committee appointed by the Sri Lanka Government to investigate the killings of eight Tamil civilians wounding at least 20 at Kanchirankuda on 9 October when the STF opened fire on protestors.
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NE rehabilitation cannot be de-linked from peace process

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2002, 17:41 GMT]
"Rehabilitation and reconstruction issues in Sri Lanka's northeast cannot be de-linked from the peace process," said Mr.Yasushi Akashi, Japan special envoy to Sri Lanka addressing a press conference in Colombo, Friday.
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Tamil member of Kanchirankuda committee dissents

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2002, 17:30 GMT]
The sole Tamil member of the committee appointed by Sri Lanka’s Interior Minister to inquire into the shooting incident at Kanchirankuda on the island’s southeastern coast on October 9, 2002 said Friday that he strongly disagreed with the conclusion of that his colleagues had arrived at.
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Discussion on core political issues to start

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2002, 21:09 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government said Thursday that it would begin discussions next week with the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) on political issues to find a solution to the ethnic conflict.
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Mannar Co-op council seeks building from SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2002, 13:09 GMT]
The District Co-operative Council of Mannar has requested Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence to return a two-story building at the entrance to the northwestern town, occupied by the Sri Lankan armed forces from 1990, officials said. The building for long functioned as the SLA’s office for issuing permits to civilians for entering and staying in the Mannar Island. The building’s upper floor was used by the SLA for interrogating and detaining civilians arrested on suspicion and during cordon and search operations.
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Mylanthanai massacre accused make statements from dock

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2002, 18:20 GMT]
All eighteen accused soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Tuesday made statements from the dock in the Colombo High Court (HC) in the Mylanthanai massacre case denying their involvement in the crime. The case is being heard daly from 2nd October before a Sinhala speaking Jury at the request of the accused, who are also Sinhalese.
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Government briefs Buddhist prelates on Thailand talks.

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2002, 12:47 GMT]
The Constitutional Affairs Minister Monday briefed the Mahanayake Theras of Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters the outcome of the second round of peace talks held between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Thailand last week.
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Rehabilitation Ministry withdraws spoilt WFP rice from NE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2002, 17:52 GMT]
The Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees Ministry Sunday began withdrawing its stock of spoilt rice sent to the Trincomalee Multi Purpose Co-operative Society (MPCS) under the World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution to the internally displaced in refugee camps and welfare centres in the east port town. The withdrawal was prompted by the Medical Officer of Health (MoH) declaration Friday that the rice was unfit for consumption. Rehabilitation Ministry sources said spoilt rice sent to Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar will also be withdrawn and be replaced with good quality stock.
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Long term political matters on Talks agenda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2002, 13:58 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), at the conclusion of the second meeting of the first round of peace talks held in Thailand, agreed to set up a joint task force (JTF) to identify immediate humanitarian and rehabilitation needs of north east, work towards military de-escalation and to look at political questions at the heart of two decades of war. The JTF is first tasked to prepare for a political-level meeting of key government s to take place in Norway on 25 November.
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Assessing progress of Chemmani investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2002, 18:42 GMT]
Amnesty International said in 1997 that as many as 600 people who "disappeared" in the Jaffna peninsula after the Sri Lankan Army moved into the area in 1996, "died under torture or been deliberately killed." A soldier involved in the crimes alleged that Chemmani was where bodies of those disappeared were clandestinely buried. However, the Chemmani mass grave investigation has become a victim of the judicial limbo common in Sri Lanka when powerful interests are implicated. Ethnic politics and the fallout of an active war have also contributed to the lack of forward movement in the case.
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Colombo’s CFA obligations list remains long

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2002, 15:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military occupies 216 temples and churches and at least 45 schools in Jaffna. In scores of other schools and places of worship in the northern peninsula the Sri Lankan armed forces have vacated only buildings but are camped in or around the same locations. The Sri Lankan government agreed to pull out its armed forces from schools and places of worship in the island’s Northeastern province when it signed a ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers in February 2002.
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Accused in Devananda attempted murder released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2002, 01:55 GMT]
Colombo High Court Friday discharged Kathirgamathamby Jeyapalan who was charged under the Prevention of terrorism Act (PTA) with attempting to kill Douglas Devananda, Secretary General of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), by poisoning him in February 1996, legal sources said.


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Religious leaders meet to diffuse tension in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 November 2002, 22:36 GMT]
Curfew was re-imposed for the third day Friday afternoon till Saturday morning as seven police divisions in the city of Colombo are slowly returning to normalcy with the heavy presence of state armed forces and police, security sources said.
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Curfew re-imposed in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 October 2002, 18:12 GMT]
Colombo north and central areas were again placed under curfew to quell further violence between the Sinhalese and Muslims, which has left one killed and at least a dozen wounded, police sources said. Muslims who took part in the funeral of the Muslim person who was killed in Thursday's clashes, attacked a Buddhist monk Friday. Another Muslim man was wounded when the Police opened fire to disperse the crowd.
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LTTE, government delegations in Thailand

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2002, 10:35 GMT]
The delegations of the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Wednesday flew in the same plane from Colombo to Thailand to attend the second round of four day peace talks scheduled to commence on October 31, airport sources said.
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Hakim meets with PM before leaving for Thailand

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 October 2002, 08:42 GMT]
Rauf Hakim, a member of the Sri Lankan Government's delegation participating in the second round of peace talks to be held in Thailand on 31 October, postponed his departure till the 30 October (today) to consult with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe this morning, sources in Colombo said.
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