New constitution with simple majority - President

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2000, 18:23 GMT]
New Parliament will be converted into a Constituent Assembly and the new constitution bill would be passed with a simple majority, declared President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. The President said that the new Constitution Bill would be approved after the next general election, and added that she was optimistic that the new Constitution will be implemented before January next year.
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Prime Minister retires

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 August 2000, 06:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike,84, retired from office Thursday. Minister for Public Administration, Home Affairs and Plantation Industries Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has been appointed by the President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge as the new Prime Minister.
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Opposition MPs heckle President, tear bill

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2000, 07:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President spoke on the controversial constitution reform bill in Parliament Thursday morning amidst much clamour in the opposition ranks. The bill was tabled by Justice Minister Prof.G.L Pieris. United National Party members tore copies of the bill in protest and threw them at government members in the house sources said.
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'Autonomy package' - Much ado about nothing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
"If Prabhaharan had not pulled out of talks with the UNP government in 1990 and with the PA in 1995, he too would have been doing this futile political jig in Colombo, going from pillar to post like us in search of the political solution" said the leader of an ex-Tamil militant group reacting to Sri Lanka's main opposition party's decision announced Tuesday that it will not support the constitutional reform package in Parliament.
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Constitutional meeting postponed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 15:45 GMT]
The talks on the proposed constitutional reforms scheduled to be held Thursday between the delegations of the ruling Peoples Alliance and the United National Party has been put off until the return of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge who is in London at present, government sources said.
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More UNP politicians join SLFP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2000, 17:09 GMT]
More activists of the United National Party, including a parliamentarian are due to receive membership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), a major constituent of the ruling Peoples' Alliance, at a ceremony to be chaired by the President Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, SLFP sources said.
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UNP leader walks out of talks with govt.

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 10:37 GMT]
The leader of the Sri Lanka's main opposition party Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe walked out of talks between his party and the government on constitutional changes aimed at resolving the island's ethnic conflict Friday evening in protest against allegations in the state media that he has links with the Liberation Tigers. Mr.Wickremesinghe told the government delegation led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike that he will not take part in talks on the proposed constitutional changes until his name is cleared by the authorities, according to a spokesman of the United National Party.
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Numbers game bodes ill for package

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 July 2000, 23:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge told the Tamil parties she met Friday for discussions on constitutional reforms aimed at resolving the ethnic conflict in the island that she will try to persuade the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to consider their demands. If the UNP's response is not positive she would try to arrange a tripartite meeting between the government, the Tamil parties and the UNP to further discuss the points of disagreement the President told Tamil politicians who met her Friday afternoon.
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"US should support all options"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 06:40 GMT]
"US should make clear that we would support all options including secession to be discussed in the negotiating process," said Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the United States, in a letter addressed to Hon Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.
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TULF says PA-UNP formula "unacceptable"

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 July 2000, 11:02 GMT]
The delegation of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) that met the Sri Lankan President Monday afternoon to the discuss devolution formula which the government and the United National Party agreed upon last week, told her that the PA-UNP proposal did not satisfy Tamil aspirations with regard to the structure of the Sri Lankan state, the unit of devolution and powers relating to state land. The TULF delegation "impressed upon the government that the LTTE should be involved in the negotiating process in order to bring an end to the war and an effective resolution to the conflict". The party said that it had strongly objected to the referendum to determine the continuation of the north-eastern province as one unit.
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Youths killed at Batticaloa checkpoint

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 July 2000, 15:02 GMT]
Two youths were shot dead by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning a check post in the Batticaloa town area around 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Army sources said the youths who were ridding a motor cycle tried to escape as troops stopped them at the check post.
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Devolution proposals 'no basis for solution' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 June 2000, 09:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday the Sri Lankan government's devolution proposals were unacceptable as the basis of a solution to the Tamil national question as it "failed to address the national aspirations of the Tamil people" and it was intended to "promote the majoritarian [Sinhala] interests."
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Monks call for political opposition to devolution package

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 June 2000, 18:52 GMT]
A leading Buddhist monk, Venerable Maduluwe Sobitha Thera, appealed on Thursday to members of Parliament belonging to the two major Sinhala dominated political parties not to become traitors to their own community by supporting the devolution package prepared by their leaders.
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CTTU appeals to boycott Flag Week

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 June 2000, 05:16 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) has appealed to Tamil students and teachers not to contribute to the Flag Week scheduled to be held on June 26 by the National Youth Services Council throughout the island. The General Secretary of the CTTU, Mr.T.Mahasivam, in his appeal has pointed out that fifty percent of the money collected by the Flag Week is to be donated to the National Defense Fund of the Sri Lankan Government.
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LTTE not included - President

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 June 2000, 10:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge Friday re-iterated her government's position that the Liberation Tigers would not be included in the proposed interim administration for the North and East. A press release by the government's Special Media Information Center said no decision had been made to include the LTTE "which is a terrorist organization" and blamed media reports for the confusion.
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CTTU will not support Defence Fund

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 June 2000, 19:22 GMT]
The twenty-thousand member strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union has informed the President of Sri Lanka that its members would not contribute two-day salary each month as requested, to the Defence Fund as they consider the present war executed by the government is against the Tamil community. The Union has also threatened to strike if certain demands, including payment of arrears and distribution of textbooks, is not done by July 7.
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PA planning for elections

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 June 2000, 08:28 GMT]
The ruling People's Alliance (PA) is getting ready to face the forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held between August and October this year, political sources said. The President, Ms.Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, alerted the constituent political parties of the PA to be prepared for the general election on Tuesday. She made this announcement when she met the leaders of the ruling PA.
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Sri Lanka marks War Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2000, 08:16 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government observed Wednesday as Ranaviru Day ('War Heroes' Day) in several parts of the island. A two-minute silence was observed at 9.30 a.m. Addressing the ceremony at her offices in downtown Colombo, President Chandrika Kumaratunge said the event was initiated by her government "to salute members of the Sri Lanka Armed Services and the Police who are dead, missing in action, disabled and those who are fighting a valiant battle on our behalf to keep the nation together".
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Kumaratunga urges more donations for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 May 2000, 21:52 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga asked employees in the government and in public and private companies to donate 2 days of their salaries to the state's war fund to fight the Liberation Tigers in an address to the nation Tuesday. She asserted that the Sri Lankan army is determined to win the war.
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All party backing sought for war

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 May 2000, 16:56 GMT]
"The government doesn't intend stopping the war. The Tigers wont be allowed to advance any further in Jaffna" said Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga addressing an all party meeting convened today to discuss the military crisis in the north. A proposal that all parties should unanimously resolve to defeat the Liberation Tigers was objected to by the Tamil United Liberation Front although the President was in agreement with this suggestion of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Sinhala Mahasammata Bhoomiputra party.
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