Karuna’s revolt is 'temporary aberration' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 08:43 GMT]
The rebellion by the LTTE’s former Batticaloa-Amparai commander is “not a major politico-military crisis in the LTTE,” the movement’s theoretician and chief negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said this week in his first public comment on the estrangement between Mr. V. Muraleetharan (Karuna) and the LTTE leadership. In a wide-ranging interview with the London based Tamil Guardian newspaper, Mr. Balasingham said “Karuna’s dissent would not seriously undermine the peace process or the Tamil national struggle.”
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USAID Director visits Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2004, 20:23 GMT]
Mr.David Taylor, Director, Office of Transition Initiatives Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance of the United State Agency for International Development (USAID) based in Washington paid a one-day official visit to Trincomalee Saturday. He held discussions with organizations receiving assistance from the USAID, sources said.


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Water Cutting festival held in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2004, 16:00 GMT]
The special Water Cutting festival which happens once every twelve years (Maha Maham Theertham), took place in Trincomalee Back Bay Sea Saturday morning in the presence of chief deities of about twenty Hindu temples in Trincomalee. Deities from Hindu temples in Salli, Sambaltivu, Chelvanayakapuram, Anpuvallipuram and several parts in east port town were brought to the Back Bay Sea, festival officials said.
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NECORD capacity building workshop held in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 March 2004, 03:28 GMT]
North East Community Restoration and Development Project (NECORD) funded capacity building workshop with assistance from German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) for contractors from Vavuniya and Mannar districts was held in Vavuniya Ellapar Maruthankulam Agricultural Training center, sources said. This is the fifth workshop out of the eight planned workshops planned by the NECORD and GTZ.
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TNA holds election meeting in Trinco Muslim village

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 March 2004, 21:08 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, Mr.Sampanthan, launched the village level campaign for the forthcoming general election in the Trincomalee district from Pulmoddai, a traditional Muslim village, about 60 km north of the eastern Trincomalee town Tuesday. Two meetings were held in Pulmoddai in support of the sole Muslim candidate in the Trincomalee district list, Mr. A.H.Sahul Hameed, sources said.
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IGP to deploy Home Guards for NorthEast election duty

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2004, 13:30 GMT]
"Home guards would be deployed to assist the police to maintain law and order during the election period in the northeast province, said the Inspector General of Police Mr.Indra de Silva, according to media sources.
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Vanni franchise issue awaits resolution

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2004, 02:20 GMT]
91,864 Tamil voters residing in Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu adminstrative divisions comprising the Vanni electoral district live in areas controlled by Liberation Tigers (LTTE) and face the prospect of being denied their franchise if the Election Commisioner fails to provide a suitable arrangement to locate the polling booths in accessible areas, political sources said.
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Ten groups compete in elections for Vanni district

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2004, 10:26 GMT]
Vavuniya Government Agent (GA) and Vavuniya election officer, K.Ganesh, accepted nominations papers from three independent groups and seven different political parties for the Vanni electoral district comprising Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu districts, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Sivarathiri celebrations in Trinco Konesar Temple

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 14:33 GMT]
As part of the 'Maha Sivarathiri day' (whole night vigil) celebrations, the chief deity of the historic Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple, Lord Konesar and his consort are being taken in a three day-procession in Trincomalee town following the Sivarathiri day. The procession commenced Thursday evening and now continuing second day Friday.
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Tribalist irrationality permeates Sinhala political rhetoric - Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2004, 03:31 GMT]
Unless extremely prudently handled, developments surrounding the forthcoming election may set in a new political process in which "Sri Lanka's future as a nation-state unit might be at a great risk" warns Professor Uyangoda, in a sobering analysis of the political campaign which he says is "likely to be full of rhetoric of the retrograde kind," in an opinion column that appears in the Friday edition of the Daily Mirror.


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Sinhala groups first to file nominations in Jaffna, Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2004, 10:22 GMT]
Ruhunu Janatha Party, a little known party from Sri Lanka's southern province, was the first on Thursday to file nominations to contest elections in Jaffna in April. All candidates of the party on its Jaffna nomination list, including three women are Sinhalese. Meanwhile in Vavuniya, the Ultra nationalist Sinhala Maha Sammatta Bhoomi Putra Part was the first to file nominations at 2.30 p.m. Thursday.
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"Sinhala border villagers fear renewed war"- Provincial Minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 20:26 GMT]
"Sinhalese people in border villages of the northeastern province live in fear of a renewed war following Sri Lanka President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge's recent action of taking over the three key ministries and the formation of a political alliance between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna," said a People's Alliance Provincial Minister Mr.K.B.Tennekon Tuesday at an event held at the United National Party (UNP) headquarters Sri Kotha to mark his joining the UNP, media sources said.


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European media watchdog slams Kadirgamar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 03:58 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers-RSF), a European media watchdog, condemned the Sri Lankan information and communication minister's decision, announced Monday, to cancel the TV broadcast channel licence that was granted to the Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1995. The decision, which ABC executives called “politically motivated”, came just as the company was about to launch the channel.
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Sri Lanka is in a directionless moment of drift - Prof.Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2004, 02:56 GMT]
Third parliamentary elections in four years indicate that Sri Lanka's "political order is unstable, the polity is acutely fragmented, political forces are divided in hostility and the country is in a directionless moment of drift," writes Professor Uyangoda in the Friday edition of Daily Mirror.


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General elections would create more confusion - TNA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2004, 04:27 GMT]
Commenting on the dissolution of parliament and the scheduled general elections in April, the parliamentary leader of the Tamil National Alliance, Mr. R. Sampanthan, said Sunday that the general elections would lead to more confusion in the country as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which clamored for the elections "to salvage the country from the current political uncertainty," have no clear-cut policies to solve the Tamil national question.
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Religious bigotry used for political mobilization - Prof.Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 00:15 GMT]
Describing the recent spate of attacks on Catholic churches as "anti-minority terrorism," Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda, Head of the Department of Political Science at Colombo University, in a column that appeared in Friday edition of Daily Mirror, said that "Sinhalese nationalist fringe have seized religious bigotry for [political] mobilization through violence." He accused the PA and UNF for "not taking adequate political action to counter politics of militant Sinhalese nationalism."
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JVP-SLFP pact threatens peace and is set to provoke ethnic war- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 10:01 GMT]
“The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the JVP and the SLFP after a year of intense dialogue fails to produce any concrete, realistic formula for a negotiated settlement of the Tamil national question. Rather, this anti-peace political pact articulating an incoherent, confused and mutually contradictory position on a serious national issue might create objective conditions for the resumption of ethnic war," Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the LTTE told TamilNet Wednesday.
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SLFP-JVP MoU slams Sri Lanka’s peace process

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 10:27 GMT]
The memorandum of understanding signed by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday slammed the peace process, asserting that it “threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the country, degrading its dignity”. The MoU also lambasted Mr. Wickremesinghe’s government for promoting “crony capitalism, racketeering, corruption and subservience to international financial institutions”.
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Anura Bandaranaike tipped to become SLFP-JVP alliance leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 January 2004, 14:40 GMT]
The prospective leader of the new political alliance to be formed between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party Mr.Anura Bandaranaike said Sunday that "the formation of the new political group would be the beginning of the country's long political journey towards solving Sri Lanka's problems and for ensuring peace and justice for all."


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"JVP-SLFP alliance before January 31" - Weerawanse

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 16:14 GMT]
"The Memorandum of Understanding between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the JVP forming a political alliance would be signed before January 31," said the Sinhala nationalist, Marxist, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentary group leader Mr.Wimal Weerawanse addressing a public meeting organized by the National Patriotic Movement (NPM) and held at Trincomalee private bus stand in the heart of the town Tuesday evening.


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