Rajapakse-Weerawanse agree on establishing All Party Defense Council

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 20:05 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has agreed to set up an All Party Defense Council as suggested by the Janatha Nidahas Peramuna (JNP), a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to take precautionary steps to curb the increase of bomb explosions in the south. A decision to this effect was taken at a discussion held Monday between President Mahinda Rajapakse and the JNP delegation led by Wimal Weerawanse, presidential secretariat sources said.
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Dinesh Gunawardene appointed government chief whip

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 June 2008, 20:03 GMT]
Parliamentarian Dinesh Gunawardene has been appointed as the government chief whip at a meeting held Monday and attended by leaders of constituent political parties of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), media sources said. His name was proposed by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for the post that fell vacant with the murder Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.
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JVP to announce general strike date

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 2008, 17:34 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leadership said Sunday the date for the general strike demanding a salary increase of five thousand rupees to public servants has been finalized. "We will announce the date of our general shut down Monday at a news conference," said JVP parliamentarian K.D.Lalkantha in the capacity of the President of the National Trade Union Centre (NTUC). NTUC which has a membership of one hundred trade unions is the front organization of the JVP in the trade union sector.
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Weerawanse to meet Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2008, 17:37 GMT]
Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawanse, leader of the Janatha Nidahas Peramuna (JNP), a splinter group of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is scheduled to meet Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday. This would be the first official meeting between the Wimal Weerawanse and Mahinda Rajapakse after the split in the JVP, political sources said.
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Muslim Liberation Front urges Rajapaksa to disarm Pillayan group

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 17:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Liberation Front (SLMLF) Tuesday appealed to SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take immediate steps to disarm Pillaiyan group operating in Batticaloa as it has been proved beyond doubts that this group is responsible for the recent attack on Muslim people in Kaathankudy and Eraa'vur. SLMLF general secretary M.I.M.Cader addressing a press briefing in Colombo Tuesday said Muslim youths would take up arms if government fails to disarm Pillayan group.
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Muslim Council urges Rajapaksa to disarm armed group in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 14:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Muslim Council, the apex body of about 120 Muslim organizations has appealed to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take immediate steps to disarm the illegal armed group operating in the eastern province. "We make this urgent appeal as Muslim people in the province live in fear of their lives and properties due to the presence of the armed group," said in an urgent letter to Mr. Rajapaksa by the Sri Lanka Muslim Council.
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Rival London demonstrations as Rajapaksa meets Commonwealth leaders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 13:49 GMT]
Over thousand expatriate Tamils demonstrated Tuesday outside the Commonwealth Secretariat where Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa was attending a conference of Commonwealth leaders. Meanwhile several hundred other Tamils who arrived at the demonstration in Pall Mall were turned away by Police, citing space restrictions, to another space in Trafalgar Square. Next to the Tamil demonstration fifty Sinhalese staged a protest in support of the SL President Rajapaksa.
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2 elected provincial councils in south dissolved

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 17:22 GMT]
Governors of North Central Provincial Council (NCPC) and Sabragamuwa Provincial (SPC) Council now being administered by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have decided to dissolve the elected administrations of these councils on the recommendation of the respective chief ministers. The dissolution would come into effect from Monday midnight, government sources said.
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International inaction reveal hollowness of external assurances - paper

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 10:29 GMT]
By rearming and stabilizing the Sri Lankan state after the ceasefire and then encouraging a hardline approach to the Liberation Tigers, the international community is responsible for the catastrophe unfolding in the island, the Tamil Guardian newspaper argued in its latest editorial. "Rather than seizing the moment [of the peace process] and making the restoration of the Tamils' dignity and self-rule their focus, the international community made the weakening and marginalizing of the LTTE their preoccupation" the paper said. "Presently, whilst an imposed solution is in the interests of everyone except the Tamils, a just solution is, conversely, in the interests of only the Tamils."
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Defense Ministry culpable of exposing journalists to reprisals- RSF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 20:32 GMT]
While noting that Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has added Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, to RSF's list of "Predators of Press Freedom," RSF in a press release issued Sunday, pointed to the ministry’s website "carrying virulent attacks on journalists critical of the government," and condemned the "defense ministry campaign against independent media, especially journalists who cover military affairs."
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Three Tamil judicial officers promoted as High Court Judges

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 16:39 GMT]
Three judicial officers M. Ilancheliyan, R.T.Vikanarajah and Ms Chandramani Sivapathasuntharam currently serving in Vavuniyaa, Jaffna and Trincomalee have been promoted High Court Judges by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the recommendation of the Chief Justice Sarath Silva. The promotions have come into effect from May 16, according to directives issued by Presidential Secretariat.
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JVP Trincomalee parliamentarian protests against fishing ban

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 14:29 GMT]
Trincomalee district parliamentarian of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Jayantha Wijesekara while participating in the emergency debate in parliament on Thursday said that people of Trincomalee district had a better life under the control of LTTE than under the rule of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. If the present fishing ban continues, the LTTE would draw popular support among the rural people for armed struggle, he warned.
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Fein seeks SL Defence Ministry approval to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 02:37 GMT]
Responding to Sri Lanka Defence Ministry posting that labeled U.S. based attorney for a Tamil activist group, Bruce Fein, as "Carrion Bird of LTTE Terrorism," Fein said in a letter to Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse that he accepts Sri Lanka Defence Ministry's invitation to "any interested party to visit Sri Lanka and see how the people of all ethnicities live in harmony in this country," and requested the Ministry to inform him the travel dates allowing him to obtain "direct and candid testimony of Tamil sentiments toward a unitary state as opposed to separate Tamil statehood."
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Amnesty vigil for killed journalists during Rajapakse's visit

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2008, 15:25 GMT]
Amnesty International, UK, is organizing a vigil for "Sri Lankan journalists killed and under threat," at the Marlborough House, Commonwealth Secretariat, London from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. 9th Monday, the organizations UK co-ordinator Sarah Oliver said. Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse will be in UK to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled for 9th and 10th June.
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Pillaiyan elected Chairman of CM Forum, decides not to seek police powers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 21:03 GMT]
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillaiyan, has been elected Chairman of the Chief Ministers' Forum, which decided not to press for police powers to the provincial council but sought powers pertaining to land and transport. The Forum also decided to take legal action to achieve this.
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138 military personnel killed, 549 injured in May - Wikremanayaka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 16:48 GMT]
During the third session of Sri Lanka's parliament which commenced Thursday morning after a month long prorogation by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa using his executive powers, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake stated that during May 138 members of the three armed forces and police were killed and 549 were injured in confrontation with the LTTE. 63 civilians were also killed during that period, according to Wickremanayaka.
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UNP, SLMC councilors boycott EPC first sitting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 00:32 GMT]
Fifteen councilors elected to the 35 member Eastern Provincial Council on the main opposition United National Party (UNP) ticket Wednesday boycotted the first sitting of the council convened on the instruction by the East Provincial Governor Mohan Wijewickrema, sources in Trincomalee said. Eighteen councilors elected on the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and sole member of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and of the Democratic National Tamil Alliance (DNTA) participated.
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Rajapakse leaves for Italy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 May 2008, 11:40 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse left Thursday to Italy to address the summit of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) scheduled to be held on June 2 and 3 in Rome. Rajapakse is scheduled to address the summit on June 3, presidential secretariat sources said.
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Development untenable without peace - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 May 2008, 11:42 GMT]
"Development is possible only when there is permanent peace. To achieve peace the International Community (IC) should engage seriously in restoring the status quo which the IC itself has disturbed in recent times, and should pressurise the Sri Lankan government to come to terms with a negotiated settlement," said Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday, while responding to a question on LTTE's position on International involvement in Colombo's 'development-agenda'. "Recognition of Tamil sovereignty and right to self-determination are key issues in creating a climate for a negotiated settlement," Nadesan added.
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Gotabhaya 'warns' activists of state-owned media

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary and the brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday invited two media activists Poddala Jayantha of Working Journalists' Association and Sanath Balasooriya, the secretary of the organization, both employed in the state-owned Lake House, and had cautioned them that their activities are bringing disrepute to State armed forces, and that the Government will not bear responsibility if any harm befalls on them from 'patriotic citizens' who support the military, informed sources from Colombo said. on Wednesday, SL Minister Keheliya Rambukwella confimed the meeting and reiterated that state employees should abide by rules of their employer organization.
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