SLA bans fishing in Thondamanaaru lagoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2004, 19:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Sunday banned fishing in the Thondamanaru lagoon in the Jaffna district, fisheries sources said. Hundreds of fisher families residing in Kerudavil, Akkarai and Thondamanaru areas in Vadamaradchchi division have been badly affected by the ban, according to a complaint lodged at the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Jaffna.


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Jaffna polling cards security issues discussed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2004, 18:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Post Master General (PMG) Mr.K.A.Senadhira said Saturday that Jaffna district polling cards will be sent from Colombo by air. He made this announcement on his visit to Jaffna Saturday, postal department sources said.


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Maheswaran nominated UNP candidate in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2004, 14:06 GMT]
Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, former minister for Hindu Affairs and ex MP for Jaffna, will contest in Colombo as a candidate of the United National Party, sources said. UNP officials said that the ex minister was expected to sign nomination papers for the electoral district of Colombo Saturday evening. Mr. Maheswaran announced last week that he was not contesting the April elections to Sri Lanka’s Parliament in Jaffna and was retiring from politics.
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"Sinhala Only" election materials irk NorthEast officials

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 17:54 GMT]
NorthEast officials responsible for conducting the forthcoming elections are irked at their Colombo counterparts for sending instructions and other election materials in "Sinhala only," thereby causing procedural snarl at the NorthEast election offices, officials in Jaffna said. Neither English copies nor Tamil translations accompany the received election material, according the same sources.
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JHU Buddhist monks submit Colombo nominations

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 16:00 GMT]
The leading monks of the JHU, Ven. Uduwe Damaloka Thera, Ven. Ellawala Methananda thera, Ven. Athureliye Ratthana Thera, and Ven. Kolannawe Sumangala addressed a press conference in downtown Colombo in connection with the submission of the nomination papers. Speaking at the press conference, Ven. Kolannawe Sumangala, the chief candidate of the JHU in Colombo said he considers the elections as a just war (Dhamma Yuddhaya) to safeguard the Sinhala nation and Buddhism.
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Ultra nationalist Sinhala buddhist monks to contest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 11:07 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya(JHU), an ultra Sinhala nationalist party of Buddhist monks, Friday filed nominations in Jaffna to contest elections to Sri Lanka's Parliament in the northern peninsula. "We will talk to the Tigers only if they accept Sri Lanka as a unitary state and give up their arms", said Ven. Vitharandhenige Methananda, the chief candidate of the JHU for Jaffna, responding to question about the peace process after he had handed in his party's nominations.
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SLA Soldier dies of heart attack in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2004, 16:59 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier who was deployed in a camp located in Kodikamam in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district Thursday died of heart attack. He was attached to the 52-2 Division of the SLA, police said.


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Legal wrangle forces TNA to choose "HOUSE" as election symbol

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 15:30 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has made alternate arrangements to hand over nomination papers on the Federal Party ticket with election symbol "HOUSE" if the court order against the Secretary General and Senior Vice President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in a law suit filed by the party president Mr.V. Anandasangaree continued beyond Thursday, TNA sources said.


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European media watchdog slams Kadirgamar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 03:58 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers-RSF), a European media watchdog, condemned the Sri Lankan information and communication minister's decision, announced Monday, to cancel the TV broadcast channel licence that was granted to the Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1995. The decision, which ABC executives called “politically motivated”, came just as the company was about to launch the channel.
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SLA permits opening of HSZ temples for Sivarathiri celebrations

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2004, 19:40 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has allowed celebrations for Maha Sivarathiri day to be held with some restrictions in three Hindu temples, Murugan Kovil and Valliamman Kovil in Kaithady-Navatkuli area and Thoppur Pilliayar Kovil in Maravanpulo area, which are located in the High Security Zones in Thenamaradchchi division in Jaffna district, security sources said. Maha Sivarathiri day falls on February 18, civil sources said.


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Maheswaran says won’t contest April polls

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 17:11 GMT]
Mr. T. Maheswaran, who was Minister for Hindu Affairs in Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Front (UNF) government, said Sunday he does not intend to contest elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament in April. Mr. Maheswran was the only Tamil from the UNF to be elected from the island’s northern parts in the Parliamentary polls in December 2001. Speaking at the opening of the renovated Karainagar Multi Purpose Co-operative Society Sunday morning, the ex minister said that he plans to retire from politics.
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"Tamil party support needed for stable govt"-UNF minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 16:38 GMT]
Senior minister in the United National Front (UNF) government, Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, addressing a meeting in Ratnapura Sunday said that no stable government could be formed after the forthcoming general election without the northeast Tamil parliamentarians and that the United National Party (UNP) is prepared to collaborate with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) after the forthcoming general election, political sources said.


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Sihala Urumaya to field Buddhist monks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 14:41 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Sihala Urumaya (SU) has decided to contest all the electoral districts in the island in the forthcoming parliamentary general election including northeast province and majority of SU candidates would be selected from the Buddhist clergy, said its Propaganda Secretary Mr.Champika Ranawake.


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SL soldiers charged in Chavakachcheri for traffic offence

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 16:41 GMT]
The Chavakachcheri Police Friday filed plaint against two soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army in the Magistrate’s court, charging them for causing injuries to a Tamil civilian by hitting him with their field motorbike on January 9th along the Post Office road in Chavakachcheri, legal sources said.
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Highest ranking USAID official visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 03:19 GMT]
Mr. Mark S.Ward, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Asia and Near East Bureau, US Agency for International Development (USAID), visited Jaffna Thursday to evaluate the progress of several USAID projects providing development assistance to the people of Jaffna, civil society sources said. Mr. Ward is the highest-ranking USAID official covering South Asia.


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SLA troops assault fishermen over Indian poachers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka army troops Thursday assaulted fourteen civilians in Viyaparimoolai and Inparutty near Pt. Pedro town for capturing 27 Indian fishermen and 5 trawlers and for coming ashore during ‘prohibited’ hours. Fishermen from the two villages brought ashore Indians who were poaching in the seas off Jaffna’s Vadamaradchi coast Wednesday night. SLA troops assaulted an Indian fisherman for getting off his boat.
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Turmoil cost lucrative Thai trade pact – ex minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 09:57 GMT]
Thailand cancelled a lucrative bilateral trade agreement with Sri Lanka, which was scheduled to be signed last Monday, after President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament. Prime Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe cancelled his official visit to Thailand for the signing of the agreement when President Kumaratunga sacked the Parliament at midnight last Saturday. Ex Minister of Plantation Industries, Mr. Lakshman Kiriella who was sacked by President Kumaratunga on Wednesday said Sri Lanka would lose 160 million rupees a year without the trade agreement with Thailand.
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Protest stops SLA from putting back Chavakachcheri FDL

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 00:55 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army stopped efforts Wednesday to put its forward defence line (FDL) back in its original place in the Chavakachcheri high security zone following protests by families that got back their garrisoned homes from the military last weekend. The SLA pulled back the defence perimeter of its high security zone in two places on the outskirts of Chavakachcheri during the weekend to release about 79 war damaged and destroyed homes, including urban council quarters, to families that were displaced when the military garrisoned the area more than three years ago.
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Polling stations considered in no-man zones

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2004, 00:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Commissioner of Elections, Mr.Dayananda Dissanayake, has summoned all District Returning Officers and District Assistant Commissioners of Elections for a top level conference on Saturday at his office in Colombo to finalize locating polling booths for voters in Liberation Tigers-held areas in the Northeast province and also other related matters, authoritative sources said.
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Kumarapuram massacre victims remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2004, 16:43 GMT]
The seventh death anniversary of twenty-four Tamil civilians, including fourteen children, who were massacred by a group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army in Kumarapuram, in the Muttur division of the Trincomalee district, on February 11, 1996, was held Wednesday. In the 1996 massacre, another thirty Tamil civilians were seriously wounded, human rights sources said.
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