JVP leader expected on pact signing day

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 18:57 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe, the secretive leader of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who lives in London, will return to Sri Lanka on 20 January, the Political Bureau of the party said Friday. The JVP and President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party are scheduled to sign an agreement cementing a political alliance on 20 January.
Full story >>

Couple, infant murdered in Jaffna high security area

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 16:29 GMT]
A couple and their eight month old infant were found murdered near the Kanakampuliyadi Junction in Jaffna Friday, Police in Chavakachcheri said. The couple’s home is in an isolated spot surrounded by a large number of Sri Lankan military positions and camps. Police said that the family may have been murdered three days ago. Their throats were slit.


Full story >>

Jaffna parents protest, want schools reopened

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 15:55 GMT]
Parents demonstrated in two separate places in the Thenmaradchi division of Jaffna Friday demanding that schools where their children studied before they fled the war in 1999-2000 be reopened without delay. The parents’ protest were held amid claims by Colombo that 20000 children have returned to their schools in Sri Lanka’s war ravaged northeast since the Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan government in Feb. 2003.
Full story >>

Furuhovde to return as new SLMM Head

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 13:51 GMT]
Maj. Gen (ret.) Trond Furuhovde will assume duties as the new head of the Nordic mission monitoring the ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers and the armed forces of Sri Lanka, Norwegian government said Friday. He will assume duties from 1 February 2004. Maj. Gen (ret) Furuhovde served as the first head of the monitoring mission from March 2002 to Feb. 2003. His successor was recalled by Norway following a complaint by Sri Lanka's President against him.
Full story >>

‘Nothing from Colombo to rebuild Chavakachcheri’ – UC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2004, 15:43 GMT]
‘The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) hasn’t provided any assistance at all so far to rebuild or repair public buildings and amenities in Chavakachcheri which were destroyed in the war although two years have gone by since the town’s residents resettled’, said the Secretary of the Chavakachcheri Urban Council, Mr. M. S Saravanabhava, addressing the inauguration of the newly formed Urban Development Advisory Board for the second largest town of Jaffna peninsula Wednesday.
Full story >>

"JVP-SLFP alliance before January 31" - Weerawanse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 16:14 GMT]
"The Memorandum of Understanding between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the JVP forming a political alliance would be signed before January 31," said the Sinhala nationalist, Marxist, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentary group leader Mr.Wimal Weerawanse addressing a public meeting organized by the National Patriotic Movement (NPM) and held at Trincomalee private bus stand in the heart of the town Tuesday evening.


Full story >>

Fishermen appeal for elimination of SLA Pass system

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 04:51 GMT]
Vadamarachchi North fisheries societies in Jaffna district appealed to the Sri Lanka Army to replace the existing army pass system by recognizing the fisheries identity cards issued by the Department of Fisheries. The appeal was made at a conference held last week at the 52-4 brigade headquarters of the SLA in Point Pedro, security sources said.
Full story >>

Jaffna leaflet warns of war

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2004, 13:55 GMT]
"War would be inevitable if Sri Lankan leaders insidiously reject the LTTE's Interim Self Governing Authority(ISGA) proposal and if they consider this peace period as a time to cheat," warned a leaflet issued in Jaffna Sunday by an organisation called Tamil National Awareness Movement.
Full story >>

National Patriotic Movement calls for general election

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2004, 13:29 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM) Sunday said that the only way to solve the current political impasse is to dissolve the parliament and call for fresh general election.
Full story >>

Defective CFA undermines Peace Process - Prof. Peiris

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 January 2004, 15:25 GMT]
The Sri Lanka government media spokesperson, Minister Professor G.L.Peiris, said Friday that Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to withdraw from the current peace process as the ceasefire agreement (CFA) has become defective with Ms.Kumaratunge's take over of the defense ministry, political sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

JVP calls for Wickremesinghe' s resignation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 January 2004, 13:30 GMT]
The Sinhala Nationalist and Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Thursday called for the resignation of Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe from the post of Prime Minister and from the current parliament if the Prime Minister wanted to withdraw from the two year-old ceasefire agreement (CFA) he signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), media sources said.


Full story >>

"NorthEast deprived of ceasefire benefits" - Trinco NGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 13:56 GMT]
"The people of all provinces in Sri Lanka except the war-ravaged northeast enjoy the benefits of the ceasefire currently in force for the last two years," the President of the Trincomalee District Non-Governmental Organizations Consortium Mr.T.Thavasilingam said Wednesday at a discussion held at the Trincomalee district secretariat in the presence of Norwegian Ambassador Mr. Hans Brattskar.
Full story >>

Norwegian Ambassador visits Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 11:27 GMT]
Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka Mr. Hans Brattskar said in Trincomalee Wednesday that clarity should prevail in the current political crisis to restart the stalled peace process between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka’s peace bid takes another nosedive

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 09:58 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s stalled efforts to end two decades of war with the Liberation Tigers took another nosedive Wednesday when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he wanted to pull out of the ceasefire agreement he signed in February 2002. His stand has thrown President Chandrika Kumaratunga on the horns of a perilous dilemma. Picking up the gauntlet Mr. Wickremesinghe has thrown is fraught with grave risks for her. She has to either re-negotiate a new ceasefire agreement with the Tigers herself or hand back the three ministries she took over from Prime Minister in November last year.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka's PM tells Kumaratunga to handle truce with Tigers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 07:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Wednesday that President Chandrika Kumaratunga should negotiate with the Liberation Tigers to renew the ceasefire agreement with them if she does not return the key ministries she took away from him in November last year. There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers to Mr. Wickremesinghe's statement Wednesday.
Full story >>

NECORD to assist Kanniya village rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2004, 01:05 GMT]
The Asian Development Bank funded North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD) project Friday signed an agreement with its partner organization, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), to rehabilitate the war-ravaged Kanniya village in the Trincomalee district. The entire project is to cost about 6.37 million rupees. Of this amount, a sum of about 6 million rupees will be borne by the NECORD, said TRO's Trincomalee district director Mr.K.Mathavarajah.
Full story >>

Talks with a govt. sans defence impractical - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2004, 04:45 GMT]
“It is impractical to hold peace negotiations when one party talks to the Tigers while another keeps the defence ministry in Sri Lanka. The international community, including Norway, has accepted this," Mr. Anton Balasingham, the political advisor of the Liberation Tigers told a Sri Lankan Minister and an MP who met him in London this week, according to the Thursday edition of Eelanaatham, a Tamil daily published from Kilinochchi, the main town in the LTTE controlled Vanni region.
Full story >>

2003: The year in review

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2003, 18:58 GMT]
The widespread optimism on peace that greeted the dawn of 2003 has evaporated and the power struggle between Sri Lanka's Prime Minister and President that threatens the peace process now occupies the center stage of politics in Colombo. High Security Zones (HSZ) in Jaffna continue to deny displaced Tamils their fundamental rights. Colombo's unwillingness and inability to disburse funds stalls development and rehabilitation in NorthEast, as international aid remains blocked, awaiting concrete signs of progress in peace.
Full story >>

Education Conference urges speedy resolution of political crisis

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2003, 13:20 GMT]
9 million member Asia Pacific Region branch of Education International (EI), in a resolution adopted at the Fourth Asia Pacific Regional Conference held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from 10th to 12 th December, urged the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister to bring the current political impasse to an end without further delay and to invite the Norwegian facilitators to carry forward the peace process and to restore normalcy in the northeast province by handing over schools located in the high security zones in the Jaffna district, attendees to the conference said.
Full story >>

Colombo-Batticaloa train service restarted

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2003, 00:00 GMT]
The train service between Colombo and Batticaloa has been restarted and the first train from Colombo reached Batticaloa Tuesday morning. The train started its return journey in the evening on the same day, sources said.
Full story >>