EPDP to support JVP-SLFP alliance from outside

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2004, 15:35 GMT]
Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), paramilitary group that works with the Sri Lankan armed forces in Sri Lanka’s northeast, said in a Memorandum that it agrees with the policies of the newly formed United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and that it would extend its support to the UPFA, political sources in Colombo said.
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Four Party Leaders sign pact with JVP-SLFP alliance

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2004, 15:22 GMT]
Leaders of four political parties Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), National United Alliance (NUA), Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) and Desha Vimukthi Janatha Peramuna (DVJP) Monday signed a pact with the newly formed United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at a ceremony held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference hall (BMICH), political sources said.


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Jaffna missing persons's parents protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 December 2003, 10:23 GMT]
Parents, wives and children of persons who went missing after being arrested by the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna in 1996-97 demonstrated in front of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Justice Monday. In a memorandum to the Minister of Justice they allege that the disappearances were part of a “well planned plot” by the Sri Lanka army “in conjunction” with a Tamil paramilitary group. Mr.S. Satkunam, the secretary of the Missing Persons Guardian Association, was questioned by Sri Lanka Police who wanted the demonstrators to disperse.
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TNA votes against Sri Lanka's defense budget

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2003, 09:20 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance voted against the Sri Lankan government’s 2004 budget allocation for defense and interior when it came up for voting at the committee stage in Parliament Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, TNA MP for the Vanni, told TamilNet the alliance opposed the 80 billion-rupee allocation “to register a strong protest against the increase in defense spending in peace time and against President Kumaratunga for jeopardizing the peace process by her precipitate actions”.
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Jaffna undergrads condemn army firing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 16:45 GMT]
The Jaffna University Students' Consortium Tuesday in a press release condemned the action of the Sri Lanka Army for having opened fire at a newspaper seller at the Jaffna bus stand and causing injury to a private bus conductor. The JUSC further blamed the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) for aiding and abetting the army in this regard.
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Thenmaradchchi civilians assault EPDP members

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2003, 16:14 GMT]
Members of the public Tuesday evening assaulted a group of members of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which works closely with the Sri Lanka Army, when they were engaged in distributing handbills with the assistance of soldiers of the SLA at the common market in Kodikamam in the Thenmaradchchi division of the Jaffna district. The EPDP cadres later complained to the SLA officials that some persons had assaulted them, police said.
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Asylum seeker says EPDP recruiting in India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 December 2003, 07:22 GMT]
The EPDP cadre who sought asylum from the Liberation Tigers in Kilinochchi, Mr. Iyampillai Yogarajah, 33, told mediapersons in Kilinochchi Saturday that the paramilitary group recruited him from a refugee camp in India eight months ago. He said the EPDP is recruiting many Tamil youth like him from refugee camps in India promising good pay and perks. The paramilitary group works closely with the Sri Lankan armed forces in psychological operations, intelligence and counter insurgency.
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EPDP cadre seeks asylum in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2003, 10:51 GMT]
A member of the EPDP , a paramilitary group that works with the Sri Lankan armed forces in Sri Lanka’s northeast, has sought asylum from the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna, military sources in the northern town said Friday. The LTTE’s media co-coordinator, Mr. Daya Master, confirmed that a member of the paramilitary was given asylum in Kilinochchi. The EPDP is a close ally of President Kumaratunga.
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Eluvaithivu survives in the grip of Sri Lanka’s Navy

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2003, 13:24 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy has a tight grip on Eluvaithivu and its residents. It is a small island in the sea off the Jaffna peninsula. The SLN recently stepped up checking at the island’s small jetty. Locals say the Navy fears they might smuggle into the island posters to mark the LTTE’s Great Heroes’ Day. Thirteen years ago, on 4 November, twenty-three men from Eluvaithivu were massacred by the Sri Lanka Navy at mid sea.
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SLA threatens Jaffna journalist

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 19:02 GMT]
The military intelligence unit of the Sri Lanka army at the Muhamalai entry point in Jaffna Wednesday stopped the journalist, Mr. Velupillai Thavachelvam, for more than an hour, threatening and accusing him of casting aspersions on the SLA in the northern peninsula deliberately. According to Mr. Thavachelvam, the soldiers who threatened him had said: “People like you had a free run under (Prime Minister) Ranil’s government. But now the President is in charge. So we can do anything to you”.
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Sinhala,Tamil scholars explain joint festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 18:29 GMT]
“There is an unfortunate stereotyping of Tamils in the minds of the Singhalese and vice versa. This literary/cultural festival will enable artistes from both sides to discover developments over the last twenty years. This would foster an understanding where it matters”, said Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath, a distinguished and leading Sinhala scholar, addressing a press conference in downtown Colombo Monday on the Tamil/Sinhala cultural festival to be held in Sri Lanka’s capital this week.
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Maj. Gen. Fonseka reproves Jaffna media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 11:36 GMT]
Commander of Sri Lankan armed forces in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Sarath Foneseka told a group of northern journalists Tuesday that newspapers in the peninsula publish “half information’ and distorted reports intended to make people angry at the military. Speaking to representatives of the North Ceylon Journalists’ Association about recent attacks on media persons in Jaffna by Sri Lankan armed forces soldiers, he said: “We are not hundred percent happy about the way media people in Jaffna are carrying out their jobs”.
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Jaffna journalists fast to mark colleague’s murder

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2003, 11:30 GMT]
“Today we see those who murdered Nimalarajan walking about freely. Investigations into his foul murder have been going on for long without any progress. But none of his murderers have been brought to book. We have no faith in Sri Lanka’s system of justice”, said Mr. Velupillai Thavachelvam, President of the Jaffna Journalists’ Association, addressing a protest fast Friday in the northern town to mark the third death anniversary of Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, the well-known Jaffna journalist.
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Fasting campaign to demand inquiry into Nimalarajan’s murder

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 17:24 GMT]
A fasting campaign is to be held by the Jaffna Journalists’ Alliance (JJA) in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat to remember the slain journalist, Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was killed three years ago in Jaffna, and to call for a commission of inquiry into his murder, the Jaffna-based Tamil daily, Uthayan, said Monday.
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British HC officials meet LTTE in Amparai

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 22:05 GMT]
A team of officials from the British High Commission (HC) in Sri Lanka, led by Ms. Margaret Tongue, the head of the Press and Public Affairs division at the HC, met with the Amparai district political leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the LTTE’s Akkaparipattu political secretariat Thursday, sources in Amparai said.
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Festival atmosphere marks Vavuniya Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003, 03:38 GMT]
"If we desire permanent peace let us negotiate a permanent solution to the conflict," said many of the yellow-red banners in the Pongu Thamil celebrations being held in a festival atmosphere in Vavuniya Wednesday, sources in Vavuniya said.
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‘Claims of 13 camps after MoU totally unfounded’ -LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 19:29 GMT]
The Trincomalee district military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Col. Pathuman, and the district political head, Mr.Thilak, Friday jointly made an appeal to the Sinhalese and Tamil journalists in the Trincomalee district to inform the international community and people of the country that there was not an iota of truth in the allegation spread by anti-peace elements that the LTTE had constructed thirteen new camps in the government controlled areas in the district since the signing of the ceasefire agreement.
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Gunmen kill EPDP cadre in east

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 August 2003, 10:54 GMT]
A member of a Tamil paramilitary group was shot dead by unidentified persons in Batticaloa town Thursday. The gunmen who came on a bicycle got away, Police sources in the eastern town said.
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Two more suspects to be arrested in Nimalarajan murder

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 July 2003, 06:15 GMT]
The Chief Inspector of Police in Jaffna, Mr.Ranjith de Silva, Friday informed the Jaffna Magistrate, Mr.R.T.Viknarajah, that the police are on the trail of two more suspects who are moving around Puttalam and Mannar areas and who are said to be members of the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party, in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, legal sources said
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SL Police asks Tamil paramilitaries to avoid unnecessary movements

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 July 2003, 16:14 GMT]
The Sri Lankan police in Batticaloa have advised the paramilitary Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF-Varathar wing) cadres not to move unnecessarily outside their offices in the district, and if there was a serious need to move out, the police would provide security to them, sources said.
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