Ratwatte back as Dep. Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 November 2000, 14:55 GMT]
General Anuruddha Ratwatte and Professor G.L.Peiris have been re-appointed as the Deputy Defense Minister and Deputy Finance Minister respectively. Both new Deputy Ministers took oaths before the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake at Temple Trees Thursday.
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Tigers call for "unconditional talks in conducive climate"

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2000, 12:57 GMT]
In his annual Heroes Day speech, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan declared Monday that his organisation is prepared for unconditional peace talks with the Sri Lanka government but insisted on a process of de-escalation of war and the creation of a conducive climate of goodwill and normalcy in the Tamil homeland to facilitate such talks. A translation of Mr. Pirapahran's speech released by the LTTE from its London offices quoted him as saying that by normalcy he meant "the restoration of normal civilian life by removing the economic blockade and other restrictions imposed on the Tamil people".
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Mannar Bishop requests prisoner transfer

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2000, 11:31 GMT]
Rt.Rev.Rayappu Joseph Bishop of Mannar has appealed to President Chandrika Bandaranaike to transfer all the Tamil speaking political prisoners to the prisons in the Tamil areas taking account of their safety in the wake of the recent killings at Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre in Bandarawela.
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Jaffna University students stage protest march

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 22:23 GMT]
Hundreds University students Wednesday morning marched through the roads of Jaffna town and burnt photographs of President Chandrika Kumaratunge and Minister of North-eastern Rehabilitation, and leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda. The students were protesting against the murder of journalist M.Nimalarajan and the brutal massacre of 31 detainees at a detention centre at Bindunuwewa in Bandarawela last month.
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British minister arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 November 2000, 07:48 GMT]
Concluding his four-day visit to India, British Foreign Office Minister Mr. Peter Hain arrived Colombo Wednesday morning on a two-day visit. This is his first visit to the island as a Foreign Office Minister and the first by a British Foreign Minister since the late Derek Fatchett visited in 1998.
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President urges unity against terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2000, 01:17 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge told Parliament Thursday that she was prepared to talk to the Liberation Tigers about a solution to the island’s conflict within the limits of a united Sri Lanka, but said the war “against terrorism” would continue. Addressing Sri Lanka’s newly formed Parliament, she said that “military action against terrorists”, along with her proposed constitutional reforms and the forming of “national unity” was part of her government’s strategy to solve the island’s ethnic conflict. “It is our expectation to finish this war very soon,” she said.
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Sri Lanka revives devolution package

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2000, 18:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Monday morning met the leader of the opposition and the United National Party, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at the Parliamentary Complex and discussed Norway's role in finding a negotiated political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. The talks lasted over ninety minutes, parliamentary sources said.
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Solheim briefs Kumaratunga on Prabaharan meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim had a two-hour meeting with the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday night to apprise her about the discussion he had with the LTTE leader, V.Pirapaharan at Mallavi in the Vanni on Wednesday.
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Thirty five deputy ministers appointed

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2000, 18:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday appointed 35 Deputy Ministers to her newly formed coalition government. The new deputy ministers were sworn in at 'Temple Trees', the official residence of the President at 6.30 p.m. Friday.
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Tigers seek "normalcy in Tamil areas"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2000, 17:20 GMT]
Norway's Special envoy Mr.Eric Solheim who returned from Vanni after meeting the leader of the Liberation Tigers, V.Pirapaharan told journalists in Colombo Thursday that the LTTE had not laid down any precondition to begin talks with the Sri Lankan Government. He said the LTTE leader brought to the notice of the Norway's delegation that the Tamil areas the island was suffering under the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government and that he wanted quick return of normalcy in the northeast, Mr.Solheim said.
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Amnesty calls for "full investigation"

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2000, 19:57 GMT]
Wednesday's gruesome killing of at least 26 Tamil young men and boys aged between 14 and 23 who were detained for "rehabilitation" near Bandarawela, Sri Lanka, should be investigated fully, Amnesty International said Friday in an open letter to the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga.
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Tigers blame government for massacre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2000, 22:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday blamed the Sri Lankan government for the massacre Wednesday of dozens of Tamil youths at a detention centre at Bandarawella by rampaging Sinhala villagers. In a statement from their London offices, the Tigers said they had evidence Sri Lankan security forces were "involved in organising, mobilising and instigating," the mob which attacked the centre. Those held at Bandarawella were neither members of the LTTE or child soldiers as the government had reported, but innocent civilians, the Tigers said. "The government of Sri Lanka should bear total responsibility for the serious consequences that might arise from continuing such genocidal assaults on innocent Tamil detainees," the statement said.
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Several said missing after massacre

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2000, 00:36 GMT]
(News Feature) Four more Tamil detainees who were seriously wounded in Wednesday's massacre at the Bindunuwewa detention centre have succumbed to their injuries bringing the death toll to twenty-nine, Joseph Pararajasingham, an MP for the Batticaloa district said. Twenty Tamil detainees amongst those held at the detention centre remained unaccounted for Wednesday night, sources said.
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Parliament to meet sans cabinet, Anura speaker

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2000, 17:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's eleventh Parliament will meet Wednesday sans a cabinet of ministers as President Chandrika Kumaratunga continues to negotiate with senior PA politicians and coalition partners who are tussling and bargaining for plum portfolios in the new government. Meanwhile, the PA and United National Party said that a consensus was possible on electing Mr.Anura Bandaranaike, the President's brother who is an opposition MP, as the speaker of the eleventh Parliament Wednesday.
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SLMC split over backing PA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2000, 12:56 GMT]
Differences between the co-leaders of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Mrs.Ferial Ashraff and Mr.Rauf Hakeem, that had been brewing this week over the nature of the party's support to the People's Alliance spilled, into the open Tuesday as the majority of the party's MPs said they backed the former's decision to join the government.
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Wickramanayaka PM, UNP to sit in opposition

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 October 2000, 08:41 GMT]
People's Alliance sources said that the Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at three p.m. Friday. They said that the PA is confident of obtaining the support of the majority of MPs in Parliament to form the government. Meanwhile, the leader of the United National Party Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe told a press conference in Colombo Friday noon that his party would sit in the opposition.
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Sirimavo Bandaranaike dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 October 2000, 06:20 GMT]
World's first elected woman prime minister Mrs.Sirimavo Bandaranaike,84 died Tuesday morning around 10.30 a.m. while she was returning to Colombo after casting her vote at her home constituency of Attanagalle.
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Furore over peace talks letters

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 00:35 GMT]
(News Feature) The letters exchanged between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers during the 1995 peace talks have become an unexpected election issue in the run up to the island's forthcoming Parliamentary polls. The main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), has seized on the hitherto unpublicised letters as evidence the government had not informed the Sri Lankan public about its negotiations with the Tigers, forcing the government to respond with a counter-campaign.
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PA chief perpetrator of polls violence- watchdog

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 September 2000, 12:06 GMT]
An independent body monitoring election violence in Sri Lanka said that the ruling party was the alleged perpetrator of 368 incidents, including arson and thuggery. According to a press release Tuesday by the Center for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), the Police have acted in a partisan manner in favour of ruling People's Alliance candidates in the districts of Puttalam, Kurunagala, Moneragala, Gampaha and Kandy and that a Police officer had attempted to take action against ruling party supporters has been transferred from his post.
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Unitary state serious impediment - TULF

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2000, 02:06 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in its election manifesto released Sunday said "the unitary character of the [Sri Lankan] state continued to be a serious impediment to the effective sharing of power" and that "what has been now proposed cannot be an effective or final solution to the Tamil question." The party also called for the government to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers with third party mediation. It also said it had "effectively contributed to sustaining their interests and involvement" of the international community in Sri Lanka.
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