UNP to launch "people's struggle"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 May 2007, 10:38 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) is to launch a three-month long "people's struggle" Sri Lanka wide starting from Thursday, according to Mr.Tissa Attanayake, UNP general secretary and Kandy district organizer. Demonstrations, public meetings and religious observances of all faiths would be held in every district during the ninety-day campaign. The first public meeting under this programme is to be held in Gampola in the central province Thursday, Attanayake said.
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SLA soldiers search Thiriyaai village

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 May 2007, 16:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday morning conducted cordon and search operation in Thiriyaai, a traditional Tamil village located about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town along Trincomalee-Thennamaravaady road. The operation was launched following the attack on a group of SLA soldiers Sunday night in which one soldier sustained injuries.
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Villagers plead for opening of Puliyadyirakkam Road in Mannar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 12:24 GMT]
Villagers in the LTTE held Madhu areas in Mannar district have requested the civil and military authorities to re-open the Puliyadyirakkam Road, the gateway to 13 Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions in the LTTE held territory. Madhu Divisional Secretariat area comprises 17 GN divisions of which four are in the government held territory.
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Change in Defense Leadership necessary- Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2007, 19:14 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) said Sunday that ethnic conflict could be resolved only through negotiations and not by war. However the military establishment of the country should be entrusted in the hands of an efficient administrator to strengthen the government in the negotiation table, added Mr.Wickremasinghe addressing a gathering after he commissioned the official website of the UNP at party headquarters Sunday, media sources said.
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JVP, JHU, SMS file appeals in SC on CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 13:10 GMT]
Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Jathika Hela Urumaya, all monks' party and Sinhala Maha Sabha (SMS) have filed appeals in the Sri Lanka's Supreme Court challenging the order made by the Court of Appeal (CA) dismissing their petitions filed against the ceasefire agreement seeking it cancellation.
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SL President pooh-poohs Gothabaya death threat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 11:05 GMT]
Before leaving for Italy Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Ms. Champika Liyanarachchi, editor of the Daily Mirror, in a bid to defuse the controversy that has erupted over the death threats she received Tuesday from Defence Secretary Gotathabaya Rajapaksa. The President had suggested to Ms. Liyanarachchi that she had overreacted to Mr. Gotabhaya’s “expressions of concern for her safety,” Presidential Secretariat sources said.
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Tamil student abducted in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 10:18 GMT]
Unidentified persons abducted a fifteen year-old student, a member of a resettled family in Thiriyai, a traditional Tamil village located about 42 km off north of Trincomalee town on April 10 night, according to a complaint lodged by his relatives with the Kuchchaveli Police and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
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Rajapakse disregards disappearances - Civil Monitoring Committee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 19:54 GMT]
"The President of Sri Lanka has chosen to dismiss the present disappearances as not worthy of local and international attention," said a resolution passed by Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), which is engaged in monitoring involuntary disappearances, abduction, extra judicial killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions in Sri Lanka. This resolution was passed in an event organized by it in Colombo Monday, where family and friends of the disappeared gathered to express their grief.
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UNP leader slams Rajapakse regime for "notorious Human Rights record"

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 10:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who attended a confluence of the relatives and friends of the missing persons, held in Colombo Monday, charged that the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regime was responsible for the bad reputation of the Sri Lankan state's Human Rights record. 88 persons have been either abducted or gone missing since August 2006 up to now, according to the records of the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), an ongoing initiative by a few involved politicians.
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Wickremasinghe instructs UNP MPs to cancel foreign trips

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 April 2007, 10:48 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has instructed his parliamentarians to be in the country during the month of May and to cancel all assignments abroad. Mr.Wickremasinghe has also declined to accept invitation extended by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union to attend an event abroad during this period, according to media reports in Colombo.
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More dissidents to rejoin UNP, says party secretary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2007, 10:05 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said more dissidents who joined Mahinda Rajapakse's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are to lend their support to UNP at "an appropriate time," according to UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake who spoke at a meeting held Friday evening at Minuwangoda in the western province. One of the eighteen dissidents parliamentarians Edward Gunasekara last week returned to the fold of the UNP after relinquishing the Deputy Minister post for Railways.
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Sri Lankan soldiers harass ex-president's grandson

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 April 2007, 16:36 GMT]
Ex-Sri Lankan president and late UNP stalwart J. R. Jayawardene's grandson, Amirith Jayawardene, was chased and harassed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Friday night in Colombo for having attempted to overtake a SLA Jeep.
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‘Mahinda Chinthana’ to be basis for government’s proposal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2007, 23:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government will present its devolution proposals on May 1, the ruling SLFP’s General Secretary and Agriculture Minister, Maithripala Sirisena, was quoted by state media as saying Friday. The government’s proposals will be based on Mahinda Chinthana, the hardline Sinhala nationalist manifesto on which President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected in November 2005, the Daily News quoted him as saying. “Mahinda Chinthana accepts the devolution of power within one country and the proposals will be entirely based on Mahinda Chinthana and formulated within Mahinda Chinthana,” Mr. Sirisena said.


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UNP slams Rajapakse ‘single currency’ proposal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2007, 23:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition party Wednesday attacked President Mahinda Rajapakse’s proposal this week for a common currency for South Asia as not only a breach of Parliamentary privilege but, ironically for a self-described defender of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, a surrender of the independence of the country’s economic policymaking.


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Amnesty’s Sri Lanka campaign on a sticky wicket

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 April 2007, 01:04 GMT]
Amnesty International’s efforts to build support for international monitoring of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka using the topical theme of cricket drew the fury of the Colombo government this week and, in a rare moment of southern solidarity, the main opposition UNP party joined the Sinhala hardline JVP and the ruling SLFP in denouncing the group’s move.
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Peace talks, only path to resolve ethnic conflict-Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2007, 10:53 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) said in parliament Tuesday that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has proved its might with recent air strike on Katunayake air base that it has the capability of attacking any target in the country. He said that the ethnic conflict should be resolved through peace talks and not by military means, parliamentary sources said.
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Dissident MP rejoins UNP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2007, 10:47 GMT]
Mr.Edward Gunasekara, one of eighteen dissidents of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) tendered his resignation from the post of Deputy Minister of Railways to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse. Mr.Gunasekara crossed over to the opposition side and took a seat along with UNP loyalist parliamentarians when the parliament resumed Tuesday morning, parliamentary sources said.
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UNP, LSSP oppose referendum move to scrap CFA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2007, 16:49 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Chairman of the All Party Representatives Council (APRC) Tissa Vitarane have voiced their opposition for the proposal to hold a referendum to nullify the ceasefire agreement (CFA) signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe, the then Prime Minister and Velupillai Pirapaharan, Leader of the LTTE on 22 February 2002, media sources said.


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Rajapakse wants referendum on abolishing CFA – state media

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 April 2007, 13:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse plans to hold a referendum to decide whether the Sri Lankan government should continue to abide by the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), state media reported Sunday, quoting “a high ranking official of the Presidential Secretariat.” The official was quoted by the Sunday Observer as saying “President Rajapaksa is keen to obtain a fresh mandate from the people on the CFA. The President is interested in looking at the proposed abolition of the CFA in a 'democratic manner', enabling the voters to decide on the fate of the CFA.”
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Launch all-out war on LTTE, PNM tells Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 March 2007, 02:59 GMT]
The National Patriotic Movement (NPM) urged the President Mahinda Rajapakse to conduct an all-out war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sources in Colombo said. before it l "We should attack before the LTTE launches an air strike on Temple Trees residence in Colombo. No country has condemned the air strike by LTTE on country's main military air base in Katunayake," said NPM leader Venerable Dambara Amila Thera addressing a press briefing held Thursday in Sri Lanka Foundation Institute hall.
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