Thailand talks after truce implemented

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 April 2002, 14:49 GMT]
Direct talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government could take place in Thailand in the middle of June following the implementation of the terms and conditions of indefinite cease-fire agreement signed by the two sides in February, LTTE sources said Wednesday. This was suggested in discussions between an LTTE delegation led by the movement's leader, Vellupillai Pirapaharan and a Norwegian delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen.
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SLA urged to reopen Nagarkovil main road

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2002, 19:13 GMT]
The Divisional Secretary (DS) of Point Pedro and education officials in the Vadamaradchi area in Jaffna district have appealed to the Sri Lanka Army to reopen the main road from Point Pedro through Nagar Kovil to Aliyawallai to enable smooth functioning of schools and to allow free movement of resettled families.
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Thenmaradchi residents demand SLA vacate their houses

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 April 2002, 22:03 GMT]
Hundreds of residents of Thenmaradchi area in Jaffna district demonstrated Monday morning, demanding the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to vacate all houses they use as camps and checkpoints in the area. Several people who returned to their own villages to resettle following the cease-fire have found their houses are still being occupied by the SLA.
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"LTTE-TNA decide to work united"-Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 April 2002, 18:47 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have accepted the need to work unitedly,"said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the TNA parliamentary group Saturday evening in a statement on his return to Colombo from Vanni. Mr.Sampanthan told Tamilnet that the three and a half hour meeting with the LTTE leader was a historic event.
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Pirapaharan commits to peace, self determination

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 April 2002, 09:30 GMT]
(News Feature) It was reportedly the largest media event ever held in the island. The scale of the international and local media interest reflected the impact Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan has on Sri Lanka’s politics. His first press conference in over a decade - announced just a week in advance - drew almost six hundred reporters, photographers and cameramen from around the world to the war devastated town of Kilinochchi.
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A9 to Jaffna reopens

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 April 2002, 13:22 GMT]
The last closed section of the A9 highway running from Kilinochchi to Jaffna was reopened Monday in a joint ceremony by senior officers from the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers. Following the opening of the highway at Muhamalai, fifteen cadres from the LTTE's political section entered Army-controlled territory to travel to Jaffna where they are to begin work under the terms of the indefinite ceasefire signed between both sides on February 22. However, the Army prevented hundreds of civilians on both sides from crossing.
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Buddhist priest lights lamp at LTTE function

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 April 2002, 12:27 GMT]
Mr. Poovannan, the head of the LTTE's Civil Administration Division, raised the Tiger flag and Rev. Siyambalagaswewa Thero, the chief monk of the Vavuniya's Buddhist temple, lit the ceremonial lamp at the opening of the political office of the Liberation Tigers in the northern border town Wednesday morning. Everyone who was gathered at the function observed two minutes of silence for the LTTE's war dead when the function commenced at 10.30 a.m.
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Negotiations to resume soon - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 March 2002, 12:14 GMT]
Political negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers will resume soon when the terms and conditions of the permanent ceasefire agreement between the two sides are implemented and conditions of normalcy are restored in the Tamil homeland, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday.
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Balasingham returns to Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 March 2002, 10:22 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers' chief negotiator and political strategist, Mr. Anton Balasingham, returned to the Vanni Monday, arriving from the Maldives in a seaplane which landed on the Iranamadu irrigation tank in the LTTE controlled region. Accompanied by his wife, Adele, and an official from the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Mr. Balasingham was upon arriving met by the LTTE's leader, Mr. Vellupillai Pirapaharan, head of the movementís political section, Mr. Thamil Chelvan and senior LTTE military commanders.
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Fifty thousand at Trinco 'Pongu Tamil'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 March 2002, 16:57 GMT]
(News Feature) More than fifty thousand people thronged the eastern port town of Trincomalee to attend the 'Pongu Tamil' (Tamil upsurge) rally held Tuesday, urging the Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and to recognise the Tamil people's right to self-determination.
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"Hill country Tamils support NE peace efforts" -Thondaman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 21:46 GMT]
"The upcountry Tamils would extend their wholehearted support to the northeast Tamil to win their legitimate rights," declared Mr.Arumugam Thondaman, Minister of the Estate Infrastructure and Housing Development addressing the mammoth rally held Sunday at Nuwaraeliya. Earlier thousands of upcountry Tamils participated in a peace walk, which was organized to express support to the United National Front government's peace efforts and the cease-fire agreement signed by the Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, and the LTTE leader, Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan.
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Batticaloa GA complains ceasefire violation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 March 2002, 21:43 GMT]
The Government Agent for Batticaloa, Mr. S.Shanmugam, told Scandinavian cease-fire Monitoring Mission Sunday that the Sri Lankan army is violating the terms of the agreement signed by Colombo and the Liberation Tigers in the eastern district. He said that the SLA is harassing civilians at Mylambaveli, 8 kilometres north of against the terms of the agreement and that it is still imposing undue restrictions on the supply of unregulated commodities.
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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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Pall over last obstacle on road to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 March 2002, 17:14 GMT]
The defence lines of the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army in Eluthumadduval are separated by less than 200 meters of the A9 highway. A high tarpaulin hides everything behind the SLA's defence position which straddles the road, the last obstacle on the northern peninsula's main land link to the rest of the island. "We have cleared all the mines on our side as you can see. We got ready to open the road to Jaffna soon after the cessation of hostilities was announced.
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US envoy's concern for children said hypocrisy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 March 2002, 20:12 GMT]
"More than hundred and fifty innocent Tamil children under five are being held in Sri Lankan prisons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Scores of little children were massacred when the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Nagar Kovil School in Jaffna. Thousands of Tamil children whose parents were murdered in cold blood by the SLA are destitute orphans in the northeast today. The US ambassador's humanitarian concern was blind to the plight of these Tamil children until this week.
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LTTE denies accusations of truce violations

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 March 2002, 11:54 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Monday denied categorically the accusations levelled against the organisation that it is involved in activities that could jeopardise the permanent truce reached between the Sri Lankan government and itself and which came into effect on February 22.
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Restriction on Colombo Tamils lifted

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 March 2002, 17:41 GMT]
The United National Front (UNF) government Friday decided to suspend immediately the practice of providing information about Tamil civilians residing in Colombo and its suburbs to the Police. Till Friday permanent residents and owners of boarding houses and lodges in Colombo had to furnish information about Tamil civilians who come from outstations, especially from the Northeast province and stay with them, to the police.
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Parliamentary debate on truce concludes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 March 2002, 20:22 GMT]
The two-day Parliamentary debate on permanent ceasefire agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers concluded Tuesday evening with a winding up speech by the Constitutional Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris. "The cease-fire agreement signed by the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is the best to end the war in the country," he insisted.
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Monitoring Mission Chief arrives Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 March 2002, 12:06 GMT]
The Head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Retired Norwegian Army General Trond Furuhovde arrived in Colombo Saturday morning, accompanied by four other Norwegian monitors. Monitors from Finland and Sweden are also expected to arrive shortly, government sources said. The sixteen-member Monitoring Mission comprising officials from Nordic countries was set up according to the permanent cease-fire agreement signed between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers last month.
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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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