Tamil MPs slam SLA, paramilitaries for threats to media

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 2004, 14:14 GMT]
“Journalist Nadesan was murdered because the Sri Lankan government did not disarm paramilitary groups working with the military as it agreed to do under the cease-fire agreement. A paramilitary group in Batticaloa killed Nadesan and is threatening other independent journalists with death. This group cannot roam Batticaloa with weapons and intimidate and murder journalists without the military’s permission”, said Mr. Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa speaking Tuesday during a debate in the Sri Lankan Parliament on the state of the media in the island.
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SL President committed to peace despite Batticaloa fears - Dhanapala

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 12:54 GMT]
The delay in restarting peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers is due the preparation of the agenda, said Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, chairman of the GOSL peace secretariat, speaking to journalists at the conclusion of his visit to Batticaloa Friday. Speaking in Sinhala, he said the situation in the east is bad after Karuna split from the LTTE and that there is a concern that this could adversely affect the peace. President Kumaratunga, however, remains committed to taking forward the peace process, Dr. Dhanapala said.
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CFA is in jeopardy- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 03:30 GMT]
"...Ceasefire agreement [CFA] itself is in grave jeopardy, and without the ceasefire, there cannot be a peace process at all," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna district, when TamilNet caught up with him in Washington D.C. and asked him for his views on the steadily deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka. Gajendrakumar is currently on a U.S. tour meeting with U.S. officials and addressing Tamil expatriates in different States.
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"View ISGA as the prelude to reunion"- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 01:58 GMT]
"Many UPFA critics have argued that the LTTE's ISGA proposals are a stepping-stone to secession. But, a government that is serious about negotiated peace in Sri Lanka should also be able to see a negotiated ISGA as the prelude to reunion after years of a secessionist war," said Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda in a political analysis column that appeared in Friday's Daily Mirror, a daily broadsheet published in Colombo.
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Voter turn out low for PC polls

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2004, 08:52 GMT]
Voter turn out for elections to six provincial councils in Sri Lanka on Saturday was the lowest in the island's polls history, officials said. ''Only 45 percent of the voters cast their votes today'', a senior election official in Colombo said. "Disgust with the current political confusion appears to be the cause behind this voter apathy", said a columnist for a Sinhala daily in Colombo. TamilNet confirmed with the election officials the final voter turn out for the elections was 45 percent.
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Tigers deny involvement in suicide attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2004, 05:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday denied any involvement in the suicide attack in Colombo on Wednesday in which four Sri Lankan Police were killed. Mr. S. P Thamichelvan, head of the LTTE’s political division told TamilNet Thursday that the Tigers had “absolutely no connection in the suicide bombing in Colombo”.
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Norway to discuss Sri Lanka with India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2004, 00:02 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen is on a three-day visit to New Delhi, to discuss the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka with Indian leaders, IANS quoted diplomatic sources as saying Monday.
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LTTE political official shot in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 July 2004, 04:11 GMT]
An official of the political division of the Liberation Tigers was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen in Batticaloa town Monday morning around 9.15 a.m. The gunmen shot Mr. ‘Senathy’, LTTE’s political division head for Batticaloa town and its environs at the busy Arasadi Junction while he was riding a motorbike with a colleague who was also injured. Mr. Senathy was rushed to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital. Mr.Senathi's condition is serious, hospital sources said.


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MP highlights woes of garrisoned island

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 July 2004, 10:32 GMT]
Three hundred families living in Mandaitheevu are still suffering without basic ameneties and ready access to drinking water despite two years of peace and promises by Sri Lankan military authorities to ease their burden, an MP who visited the area told TamilNet Friday. Mandaitheevu is an island south of Jaffna town heavily garrisoned by the Sri Lanka Navy since 1990.
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Sampanthan to address U.S. Tamil meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 02:25 GMT]
Secretary General of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Parliamentary Group leader, R.Sampanthan, is scheduled to address the Annual Convention of the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA) at the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center, Morgan State University, in Baltimore during the 4th July weekend, sources said.
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Detainees have rights to U.S. Courts- Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2004, 00:13 GMT]
Striking down Bush administration's argument that inmates held in Guantanamo have no right to challenge the conditions of their detention because the US courts do not have jurisdiction over the base, the U.S Supreme Court with a 6-3 majority ruled today that detainees have a right to challenge their detention in U.S courts. The Court said that the Cuban base is not beyond the reach of American courts even though it is outside the country, reports in U.S media said.
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Monks urge Sinhala unity over Karuna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 June 2004, 11:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s hardline monks’ party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), has called on the Sri Lankan government and opposition to work together in supporting the renegade LTTE commander, Karuna, “in the interests of national security.”
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Major fire at Sri Lanka govt. press

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 13:27 GMT]
A major fire broke out at the Sri Lanka Government Printers in Colombo Saturday evening. Fire fighters were struggling to put out the fire and bring the situation under control, Police said. "We are not sure whether it is sabotage or an accident," a Police source in Colombo said.
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Batticaloa turns nightmare for local journalists

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 June 2004, 10:28 GMT]
A journalist in Batticaloa went into hiding Friday, fearing for his life after persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence threatened him with death, family members told TamilNet. The journalist, Mr. Thanthiyan Vedanayagam, was working as the Batticaloa correspondent for the independent Tamil daily ‘Thinakkural’. Two journalists fled the eastern town earlier this month after they too were threatened with death by persons suspected to be members of a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lankan military intelligence.
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"SL President's duplicitous politics threatens peace"- MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2004, 03:08 GMT]
Delays in resumption of peace talks due to Sri Lanka President Ms Kumaratunge's continually shifting positions on the peace process, and suspected Sri Lanka Government's complicity in destabilizing the Batticaloa district, portend imminent danger to prevailing peace, said Joseph Pararajasingham, Senior Vice President of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Member of Parliament (MP), talking to TamilNet from Colombo, Sunday morning.
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Senior Tamil Journalist talks to German HR Group

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 June 2004, 17:46 GMT]
Dharmaretnam Sivaram, a Senior Tamil Journalist and an editor of TamilNet, spoke to International Human Rights Association in Germany during his recent trip to Europe. One segment of the interview was recorded after his colleague Mr. Aiyathurai Nadesan was assassinated in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.
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"Under God" stays- U.S. Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 June 2004, 00:04 GMT]
Supreme Court of the U.S. Monday unanimously struck down a challenge against the phrase "Under God" in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance filed by Michael Newdow, an atheist father from California. Mr.Newdow claimed that his right to influence his daughter's religious views was infringed by the daily recitations in school of the pledge "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
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General shut down paralyses Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2004, 17:39 GMT]
The normal life of Trincomalee town was disrupted Wednesday due to a one-day hartal (general shut down) observed against the killing of a senior Tamil journalist Mr. Iyathurai Nadesan on May 31 in Batticaloa, TamilNet sources in the eastern port town said.
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Pattern of intimidation and murder to silence independent Tamil journalists

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 June 2004, 11:50 GMT]
“Nadesan had been harassed and threatened before his death because he had criticized the government and security forces, according to CPJ research”, the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement condemning the murder of the veteran Tamil journalist in Batticaloa on Sri Lanka’s east coast. Meanwhile Mr. Nadesan’s colleagues in the east demanded investigations into “the pattern of intimidation and murder to silence Tamil journalists”.
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RSF condemns Nadesan's murder

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2004, 21:57 GMT]
The Paris based world media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres) Tuesday condemned the murder of Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan in Batticaloa and voiced concern that "dissension within the Tamil separatist movement and existing tensions with the security forces could lead to an escalation of violation against the news media".
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