UNF's local polls victory endorses cease-fire agreement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 March 2002, 13:22 GMT]
The ruling United National Front (UNF) swept the local government elections held Wednesday, routing the People's Alliance (PA) led by President Chandrika Kumaratunge. The UNF won 218 of the 222 local bodies, including 14 municipal councils and 25 urban councils. The Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, which hinged its election campaign on denouncing the peace deal the UNF made with the Liberation Tigers as an insidious conspiracy against the Sinhala people got an ignominious drubbing with only one local body to show in the southern Hambantota district.
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Top US official meets PM

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 19:43 GMT]
US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca Friday afternoon held a discussion with Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at Palaly air force base, where Jaffna District's main army headquarters is situated.
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Tamil paramilitaries pose risk to truce – Karikalan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2002, 16:11 GMT]
(News Feature) The deputy leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the head of its Batticaloa - Amparai section said this week that the movement was committed to the terms and conditions of the permanent ceasefire agreement and that the LTTE was engaging in the peace process from a position of strength. In an interview to TamilNet at the LTTE’s district political head office in Kokkaddicholai, Mr. Karikalan said that harassment of civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the Batticaloa-Amparai district was continuing and Tamil paramilitaries working with the army had not been disarmed yet.
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Parliament debates permanent truce

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 March 2002, 12:23 GMT]
The two-day debate on the permanent cease-fire agreement signed by the United National Front government (UNF) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on February 22 began Monday morning in Parliament. "The agreement signed last month by me and the LTTE leader Mr.V.Pirapaharan was a cease-fire agreement and not the final step in arriving at a political solution to the ethnic crisis. However, the agreement is a vehicle for moving forward and addressing the needs of the LTTE and the problems put forward by the Tamil people,", said the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe in a special speech made during the debate.
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LTTE accuses Kumaratunga of conspiring to sabotage ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 March 2002, 08:34 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Saturday accused President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her adviser Mr Laksman Kadirgamar of conspiring to sabotage the historic truce agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE brokered by Norwegian facilitators and hailed by all major international governments including India, the Commonwealth and the European Union. When contacted by TamilNet over the President's comments Friday, Mr Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and the political strategist of the LTTE, categorised Kumaratunga's response to the truce agreement as "irresponsible, injurious and ill-advised."
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Isolation blamed for Kumaratunga’s CHOGM absence

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 March 2002, 18:11 GMT]
(News Feature) Increasing international isolation rather than government persecution of her supporters compelled Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga to abort her participation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this weekend, government sources said Friday. Dismissing the President’s accusations that the newly elected United National Front (UNF) was harassing supporters of her opposition People's Alliance (PA), the sources said Kumaratunga “was unable to face” the Commonwealth’s other leaders due to her opposition to the ceasefire accord between the government and the Tamil Tigers.
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Kumaratunga flays truce agreement

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 March 2002, 17:02 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday condemned the Norwegian-facilitated permanent ceasefire agreement between the government and the Liberation Tigers. In a letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, her first formal comment on the landmark truce hailed by the international community, Kumaratunga said the agreement jeopardised Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and national security. Kumaratunga’s letter, which was reportedly drafted by Lakshman Kadirgamar, the former Foreign Minister and a close confidante of hers, again denounced the Premier’s signing of the pact as “improper and unconstitutional,” blamed Wickremesinghe for the friction between Parliament and her office and, with acidic sarcasm, also criticised what she felt were undue powers the agreement accorded Norway.
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SLA recruits, restructures for greater efficiency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2002, 12:14 GMT]
(News feature) The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is at the cross roads today, warily eyeing the prospect of a long peace and the schemes of the modern technocrats of the new government who might be inclined, as the negotiations progress, to prune its lavish budget and compact it to its 'natural size'. But the United National Front has sought to allay the SLA's apprehensions by promising to help it achieve greater efficiency.
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UNF cabinet reshuffled after five postponements

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 February 2002, 09:31 GMT]
The five times postponed swearing in ceremony of eight new Cabinet ministers took place Thursday noon at the Presidential Secretariat. Mr.S.B.Dissanayake, one time ally and now an archrival of President Chandrika Kumaratunge took oaths as Minister of 'Samurdhi' (Poverty Alleviation) in addition to his Agricultural Ministry.
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Sihala Urumaya urges President to nullify MoU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2002, 20:18 GMT]
The Sihala Urumaya (SU), the hard-line Sinhala nationalist party, declared Tuesday that it would launch a campaign among the Sinhalese to urge President Chandrika Kumaratunga to use her executive powers to invalidate the cease-fire agreement between the United National Front government and the LTTE. Mr. Tilak Karunaratne, leader of the Sihala Urumaya (SU), addressing a press conference in Colombo Tuesday said that his party has decided to file a case on Thursday in the Court of Appeal seeking the nullification of the MoU and the cease-fire agreement as these, according to him have contravened the Constitution of Sri Lanka.
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Despondent paramilitaries mull arms surrender

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2002, 15:48 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army has given 48 hours to Tamil paramilitary groups operating in the Batticaloa district to disarm or join the military and serve outside the Northeast, the regional Tamil daily, Thinakathir reported Tuesday, quoting sources in SLA's 23-3 Brigade Headquarters in the eastern town.
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President threatens to cancel ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 February 2002, 11:56 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Monday threatened to derail the permanent ceasefire between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers with a single letter to the Army commander, a press report said Tuesday. President Kumaratunga also stepped up the war of words with the UNF government of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, dealing a heavy blow to the latter’s efforts to sustain governance by ‘cohabitation’ between Parliament and the office of the President, the Daily Mirror reported. Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA), along with the Janatha Vimukthi Pramuna (JVP) and the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) intend to mount a legal challenge to the permanent ceasefire, press reports said Monday.
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Chandrika urged not to derail the peace process

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2002, 15:52 GMT]
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) Sunday, a constituent of the main opposition People's Alliance (PA) appealed to President Chandrika Kumaratunge and the leaders of other political parties not to derail the peace process which is gathering momentum after signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United National Front (UNF) government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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MoU debate in parliament on March 5

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 February 2002, 15:50 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Sunday said that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the government and the LTTE could be debated on March 5 when the parliament resumes its sittings. "We are ready to reconvene the parliament as early as possible to debate the MoU", said sources close to Prime Minister's office.
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JVP wants urgent Parliament debate on MoU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2002, 17:08 GMT]
The Marxist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Saturday said that a memorandum with the signatures of forty parliamentarians has been submitted to the Speaker to summon the parliament immediately to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)signed between the United National Front government and the Tamil Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Friday.
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UNF rejects President's accusation on truce signing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2002, 17:08 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Saturday rejected the accusations made by the Presidential Secretariat on the cease-fire agreement signed between the government and the Liberation Tigers were entirely incorrect. The Presidential Secretariat Friday blamed the UNF government that it signed the Memorandum of Understanding without informing the Cabinet.
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Kumaratunga expresses 'shock and dismay' over truce signing

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 February 2002, 19:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, expressed her "shock and dismay" at the government's hurried signing of a permanent ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers. In a statement released by the Presidential Secretariat, she lashed out at her arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for not seeking her prior approval, describing his entering into the truce as "an undemocratic act."
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UNF govt to hold parliamentary debate on MoU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2002, 12:02 GMT]
The United National Front government said Thursday that it is willing to conduct a full parliamentary debate on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and the Liberation Tigers as soon as it is signed. "The MoU between the UNF government and the Liberation Tigers has not yet been finalised. The meeting of leaders of the political parties represented in the parliament would be summoned to fix the date for the debate, once the MoU came into force. The government is willing to hold a full debate on it if the opposition wanted," Mr.W.J.M.Loku Bandara, Leader of the House and Minister of Justice told parliament Thursday morning.
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Up-country Tamils support struggle in NE -UNF minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2002, 19:18 GMT]
More than thirty thousand people took part in the 'Pongu Thamil' rally in Batticaloa Wednesday. "The Tamil people are struggling for the right to live. The Tamils are asking for the right to live like the other people of the world. The Tamils of the hill country express their solidarity with the struggle of the Tamils of the north and east," said Mr. P. Chandrasekeran, Minister for Estate Infrastructure, addressing the Pongu Thamil rally Wednesday.
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Gen. Ratwatte indicted in massacre case

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2002, 17:02 GMT]
The Attorney General Wednesday decided to indict the thirty-three suspects, including General Ratwatte in the Udathalawinne Murder case before a Trial at Bar inquiry. At a conference presided by the AG at his office Wednesday afternoon, it was decided to request the Chief Justice to nominate three High Court judges to the Trial at Bar inquiry, legal sources said. AG department sources said that this decision was taken to treat the Udathalawinne murder case as a special one.
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