SLA pulls down Heroes’ Day arches, festoons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 November 2003, 12:41 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army in Jaffna deployed additional troops along the Kandy Road (A9) from Kodikamam to the entrance of the northern town Friday and pulled down decorative arches and festoons put up for the LTTE’s Great Heroes’ Day in many parts of the peninsula. The SLA also deployed many small unit foot patrols armed with machine guns in Jaffna Friday.
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Hospital destroyed by SLA, IPKF reconstructed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 04:59 GMT]
The central dispensary and hospital located in the village of Mahilavettuvan, 30 km West of Batticaloa town in territory controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Batticaloa district, which was damaged by the military actions of the Sri Lanka Army in 1987 and destroyed later the same year by the Indian Peace Keeping Force, recommenced operation Tuesday, sources said.
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Landmines continue to impede resettlement in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2003, 18:44 GMT]
Many parts of Jaffna still remain unsuitable for resettlement and human habitation due to landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), according to statistics gathered by Sri Lankan government officials in the northern peninsula. The officials told TamilNet Tuesday that of the 1179953 square metres in Jaffna considered infested with landmines and UXOs, only 260168 sq. metres have been cleared so far since 1997.
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Balasingham to resume duties

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2003, 11:05 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers’ theoretician, Mr. Anton Balasingham, whose deteriorating health compelled him to take several months of rest this year, is now well enough to resume his duties, LTTE sources confirmed to TamilNet Tuesday.


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TNA denies report on President’s invitation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 2003, 18:16 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sunday denied reports in a section of the media that the President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge has invited the TNA for urgent talks. The leader of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group Mr.R.Sampanthan told Tamilnet that the TNA has not received any invitation from the Presidential Secretariat for such talks.
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Vadamarachchi fishermen refrain from going to sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 2003, 11:31 GMT]
Fishermen from the northern coastal villages in the Vadamarachi sector on the Jaffna peninsula say that they are unable to go out to sea as they fear their boats would crash against coral reef found around fisheries landing points. They say the coral reef should be removed to deepen the fishing landing points, but the Sri Lankan military (SLA) is obstructing their efforts, according to fisheries officials.
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Political stability necessary for talks - Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 November 2003, 06:33 GMT]
"Mr. Pirapaharan sought guarantees from the Norwegians that the Sri Lankan government would continue its commitment to the cease fire and for the safety of the LTTE’s political activists in areas controlled by the Sri Lanka army," Mr. Thamilchelvan said, after the meeting between the Norwegian delegation and the leaders of the Liberation Tigers concluded in Kilinochchi Thursday morning.
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‘Can’t achieve anything with the Constitution’ – Victor Ivan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2003, 14:03 GMT]
“The situation is very critical and not very easy to resolve. This crisis will affect the peace process in a big way. Our constitution is the problem. It is wrong. We can’t achieve anything with it. It has to be reformed while a door is kept fully open for a solution to the ethnic conflict. The Prime Minister is a very smart leader but he is greedy for this constitution. He wants to keep it”, said Mr. Victor Ivan, editor of the influential Sinhala political weekly, Ravaya, in an interview with TamilNet Wednesday about the constitutional crisis in Colombo.
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More constitutional snags hit Sri Lanka’s crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 04:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis deepened further on Tuesday as MPs of the ruling United National Front (UNF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wrote to the Speaker of Parliament asking him to convene the national legislature before 19 November, the date on which President Kumaratunga’s prorogation of Parliament is due to expire. The UNF, TNA letter invokes Articles 4(c) and 42 of Sri Lanka’s constitution as the legal basis for reconvening Parliament during the prorogation. President Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA) and the JVP slammed the move as illegal.
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UNF to bow out of Peace Process?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 12:53 GMT]
"The government believes it is not possible to deal with the peace process unless only one party is in charge. Full control over the peace process by one party is necessary if the peace process is to be effectively managed," said Prof. G. L. Peiris, the Leader of the Sri Lanka Government delegation to the Peace Negotiations with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in press briefing Sunday.
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SLA removes mine markers in Katkovalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 07:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers Friday night removed markers put up on abandoned military bunkers in Katkovalam, a coastal village near Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna, by a Danish de-mining group, residents told TamilNet. “Mines and booby traps left behind by the SLA in bunkers in the midst of our village have claimed the limbs of six people since last year”, an official of the local fisheries society said.
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Solar power brightens Vanni villages

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 01:24 GMT]
Privately owned small scale diesel generators produce the only electric power available in key towns in the Vanni region. While a new 20MW thermal power plant in Jaffna was recently reactivated by the Sri Lanka Government officials, it is doubtful that Vanni towns and villages will enjoy grid supplied electric power for many years to come. With the region enjoying copious supply of solar energy and buoyed by success of early experiments, planners in Kilinochchi are exploring the use of photo-voltaic systems for domestic applications.
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"Peace Process absolutely irreversible" - British Don

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2003, 12:58 GMT]
"Tamil issue has always been a political football in the grounds of the Southern political discourse, but this time around the situation is entirely different. Transparency of talks and the high level of international engagement make the current Peace Process absolutely irreversible," said Sri Lanka expert Prof. Chris Smith, Director of Center for South Asia studies at the International Policy Institute, King's College, London when TamilNet asked him to comment on the recent constitutional crisis, precipitated by Sri Lanka's President Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunge.
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"No solution other than the devolution of power is possible" - Batty Weerakoon

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 November 2003, 00:01 GMT]
"LSSP shares the realist approach that given the nature of constitutional amendment no solution other than the devolution of power is possible. As to how comprehensive it can be is subject to negotiation," said Batty Weerakoon, General Secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), in a wide ranging interview with TamilNet when TamilNet caught up with him on his private visit to the United States before the LTTE submitted its proposals for the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the NorthEast.
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Parties should look for common ground - Schaffer

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2003, 11:31 GMT]
Teresita Schaffer, former Ambassador of the United States to Sri Lanka and currently Director for South Asia, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, told TamilNet Wednesday that it was "important for the government [of Sri Lanka] and the LTTE to start looking for common ground" and that she hoped "the current political crisis in Sri Lanka does not disrupt this vital task."


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EPDP, SLA said colluding in sand business

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2003, 15:25 GMT]
The Eelam People’s Democratic Party, aided by the Sri Lanka Army and the Police, is removing sand at night from the Vadamaradchi east coast, where civil organizations recently imposed a ban on sand removal formed a committee to regulate it, and selling the sand in the Jaffna town area, sources in Jaffna said.
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A9 highway to Jaffna not closed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2003, 10:16 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers wednesday denied reports in Colombo that the A-9 road has been closed. Mr. Daya Master, the Media Co-ordinator of the LTTE told TamilNet that "the A9 road remains open, there is no truth in the reports that we have closed the road".
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Struggle to take Sri Lanka Parliament gathers pace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2003, 06:02 GMT]
Tamil and Muslim MPs and the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna are set to play a key role as frantic efforts by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s People Alliance and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Front to cobble together a majority in Parliament before 19 November gathered momentum in Colombo Wednesday. Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Vanni told TamilNet: “We won’t go for horse deals. The TNA will take a principled stand in the interests of peace”.
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Future of Sri Lanka’s peace hangs in balance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2003, 12:10 GMT]
Prospects for ending the island’s two-decade-old conflict dimmed fast Tuesday as the status of the cease-fire agreement (CFA), which was signed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in February 2002, became uncertain after President Kumaratunga snatched the ministry of defence from his government Tuesday. “We are carefully monitoring and studying the developments. Based on this, our leadership will decide what to do," Mr. Daya Master, the Media Co-ordinator of the LTTE told TamilNet.
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Thamil Eelam judiciary said a basis for rebuilding northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 01:05 GMT]
“The purpose of the LTTE’s legal system is to create a crime free environment where adjudication of civil and commercial disputes is fair and expeditious. This is the essential foundation on which one can rebuild Tamil society to achieve economic development and prosperity," said Mr. E. Pararajasingham (Para), head of the Judicial Division of the Liberation Tigers, in an in depth interview with TamilNet this week about the LTTE’s legal system. “The very instruments designed to subvert the Rule of Law in the northeast were eventually turned on the Sinhala people too," he points out.
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