France to send constitutional experts to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 February 2003, 19:00 GMT]
French foreign minister Dr.Renaud Muselier Wednesday said the people of Jaffna expect a political solution to their conflict with internal self-determination. French minister said this at media briefing Wednesday before leaving Colombo after a three-day visit to Sri Lanka.
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French foreign minister to visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 February 2003, 16:54 GMT]
French Foreign Minister Dr. Renaud Muselier Monday met President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge and held a wide ranging discussions on several topics including the present peace process which has completed six rounds of talks towards finding negotiated political settlement for the ethnic conflict, sources said.
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SLMM and SLN must bear responsibility for loss of lives - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 February 2003, 04:18 GMT]
Failure of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to handle the incident in a fair and responsible manner, and the provocative, belligerent conduct of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have resulted in three of our cadres taking their own lives, said Voice of Tigers (VoT) in its nightly broadcast Friday.
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'Peace talks enter crucial stage'- Ranil

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2003, 17:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe Friday said in parliament that the peace talks between his government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has entered a crucial stage. Concluding the debate in parliament on his presentation during the aid conference in Oslo, he said his government would not allow the peace talks to be derailed at any cost.


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UNICEF-LTTE agree to work to uplift war affected children

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 January 2003, 17:33 GMT]
The UNICEF and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Friday agreed to work together for the welfare of the war affected children in the northeast after a meeting in Kilinochichi lasting nearly two hours between the UNICEF Executive Director, Ms Carol Bellamy, and LTTE political head Mr.S.P.Thamilselvan, sources said.
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GOSL, LTTE and WB to meet again in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 January 2003, 23:38 GMT]
The delegations of the Government of Sri Lanka, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and World Bank are scheduled to meet Thursday (30.1.2003) in Colombo to hold discussions related to the funds pledged at the donor conference in Oslo, Norway last year. Minister and Cabinet spokesman Professor G.L.Peiris informed this at a press briefing held Wednesday.
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Victims of Mahiladi village massacre remembered

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 January 2003, 15:50 GMT]
A memorial commemorating the 86 Tamil people killed in a massacre by the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) on January 28, 1987, in Mahiladitheevu, 25 km southwest of Batticaloa town in the Kokkadicholai area, was declared open yesterday in a ceremony organized by the Mahiladi village development council, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Sri Lanka's PM briefs Chandrika on peace talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 January 2003, 18:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe Tuesday briefed President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge about the progress of the fourth round peace talks held in Thailand. Minister Mr.Milinda Morogoda associated with the Prime Minister in the talks, government sources said.
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Opposition leader supports UNF-LTTE peace talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 January 2003, 13:29 GMT]
Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, Leader of the Opposition Monday said in Jaffna that he would not oppose the present peace talks now being held between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Jaffna said. On his first official visit to Jaffna as the leader of the opposition Mr Mahinda Rajapakse declared open the Hindu Vedic Teaching School constructed by the Ministry of Hindu Cultural Affairs.


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Pirapaharan welcomes Japanese envoy, President cancels meeting

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 January 2003, 12:07 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Velupillai Pirapaharan, sent his greetings through LTTE's political head, ThamilChelvan, to the visiting World bank Vice president, Ms Meiko Nishimizu, Special peace envoy of the Government of Japan, Mr.Yasushi Akashi, World Bank Country Director Mr. Peter Harold and other delegates to the meeting of the Sub Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation (SIHRN) which met in Kilinochchi, Voice of Tigers (VoT), reported in its late night broadcast yesterday.


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Sinhala opposition to Sri Lanka peace effort mounts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:32 GMT]
Opposition to Sri Lanka’s peace process gathered further momentum as a new Sinhala nationalist organisation comprising powerful opposition politicians and Buddhist monks wowed Wednesday to agitate for separating the northeast into two provinces. Agitation by Sinhala nationalists to de-merge the northeast would be another spanner in the works for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s effort to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers to end two decades of armed conflict that has ravaged the island.


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Akashi in Sri Lanka to promote peace building

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 11:52 GMT]
Mr. Yasuka Akashi, the Representative of the Government of Japan, is in Sri Lanka from the 15th to 19th to continue his mission of peace building, rehabilitation and reconstruction in Sri Lanka, a press release from the Embassy of Japan said. Mr. Akashi will visit Kilinochi, Matara and Hambantota during his visit and will attend the meeting of Sub-Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs (SIHRN)
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Govt. inaction in Nedunthivu condemned

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2003, 19:46 GMT]
The Jaffna District People's Forum (JDPF) Sunday issued a statement expressing deep concern over the inaction of the Sri Lanka government, parliamentarians and welfare associations to provide peaceful life and relief to the people of Nedunthivu village as their picketing against the presence of para military Eelam People Democratic Party ( EPDP) entered fiftieth day Sunday, sources said.
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JJA, TELO condemn attack on Tamil journalist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 02:43 GMT]
Jaffna Journalists Association (JJA) strongly condemned the attack on Tamil Journalist, S. Jeyananandamoorthy, in a report published today adding that the carefully planned attack raises suspicion that the perpertrators intended to kill him. Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) in its press release also condemned the attack.
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Peace talks are going well, say Chief Negotiators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2003, 18:19 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government conceded this week that the resettlement of Tamil refugees and internally displaced people in areas occupied by its military forces could not be made conditional on the disarming of the Liberation Tigers, as demanded by the Army. Following two days of discussion, hailed by both sides as “constructive,” the government also said it would begin to reallocate its troops based amongst civilians in the Jaffna peninsula.
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PA parliamentary group meets after Ranil-Chandrika talks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 January 2003, 19:39 GMT]
President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge convened an urgent meeting of the parliamentary group of the main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) Saturday afternoon following a discussion between her and the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe held Friday at the Presidential Secretariat. "The President will consult the United National Front (UNF) government before making any public statement on the peace process," said a statement issued by the Presidential media unit Sunday.
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'Sri Lanka is at a crucial stage' - PM

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 January 2003, 17:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe Sunday in his evening address to people of Sri Lanka said, "arguments over security matters should not be allowed to derail the momentum of the peace negotiation. The country has entered a stage that would decide the future of Sri Lanka."
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LTTE slams SLA Commander, says "decommissioning is non-negotiable"

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2003, 14:28 GMT]
Responding to the Sri Lanka Army's reiterated demand that the Liberation Tigers must decommission their heavy weapons before Tamil civilians would be permitted to resettle in their villages now within High Security Zones, the LTTE Friday said the issue was non-negotiable and expressed "deep disappointment" over the Army's "confrontational" position.
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President meets JVP to discuss security

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 December 2002, 19:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge met with a group of JVP members led by Wimal Weerawansa, the party's propaganda secretary, and held a lengthy discussion at the presidential secretariat today, sources said.
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Buddhist monks burn Norwegian flag

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 December 2002, 00:22 GMT]
National Bhikkhu Front (Jathika Sanga Sammelanaya- JSS), a Sinhala nationalist organisation of monks with branches in all the Sinhala majority districts of the island and a close ally of the marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) held a demonstration opposite Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo demanding the expulsion of Oslo's envoy to Sri Lanka, Mr. Jon Westborg, sources in Colombo said.


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