Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe to meet Thursday to finalize MoU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2006, 01:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe are scheduled to meet Thursday to finalize the draft of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will outline the understandings reached between the two parties in resolving national issues. Members of the delegations of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) who participated in the four rounds of talks will also attend the discussions, political sources in Colombo said.
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Rajapakse, Wickremesinghe to meet before signing MoU

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 October 2006, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, are scheduled to meet Tuesday before signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake said Saturday.
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SLFP, UNP to sign MoU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 October 2006, 13:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s two main parties, the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), have agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) before 15th of October 2006, SLFP sources said Thursday. The UNP and the SLFP are expected to announce formally agreement in a joint statement later in the day.
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Wickremasinghe pledges support to TNA protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 October 2006, 01:26 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the opposition, pledged support to the TNA protest when Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah, and Suresh Premachandran led by R. Sampanthan met Mr Wickremasinge Wednesday evening in the Sri Lanka Parliament complex to discuss opposition party's stand on their sit-in-protest in Sri Lanka's parliament, TNA sources said.
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IPU assistance sought to forge consensus between SLFP, UNP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2006, 12:10 GMT]
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a worldwide organization of parliamentarians working for peace and co-operation with its Secretariat based in Geneva, has been invited to assist in forging a consensus among political parties in the south, especially between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government and the main opposition United National Party (UNP), said Mr.Mahinda Samarasinghe, Disaster Manager Minister to the press in Colombo Sunday.
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Former RAW chief protests India’s ‘ambivalence’ over LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2006, 11:41 GMT]
India’s former spy chief has criticised Delhi for not engaging with the both the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka’s government to prevent the slide into conflict. "India's inability to fully comprehend the ground realities in Sri Lanka and, hamstrung by the past, its reluctance to do business with LTTE to help evolve an equitable settlement may prove to be a monumental foreign policy blunder,” J.K. Sinha, former head of India’s external intelligence agency said.
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Rajapakse wants protests postponed, Tamil doctor abducted in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 01:49 GMT]
A protest shut-down, scheduled to be held Tuesday against the recent abductions of Tamil civilians and businessmen in Colombo, organised by representatives from seven political parties, was called off Monday following Rajapakse government's "requests", during the weekend, urging the organisors to postpone the shut-down, informed political circles in Colomb said. Meanwhile, a Tamil medical doctor and owner of three medical businesses in Colombo, was allegedly abducted in his car in Maradana in Colombo Monday.
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Sri Lanka spells out conditions for talks to Norway- reports

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 September 2006, 01:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government (GoSL) is demanding a written assurance from LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan that the LTTE would end its violence before GoSL will agree to hold talks with the Tigers, newspapers reported Friday. The GoSL demand was spelled out to Norwegian facilitators by Sri Lankan officials who met Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar on Thursday, they said. Meanwhile the government’s Defence Spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, told the Daily Mirror that Norway was informed that “a single bullet fired by the LTTE after agreeing for talks would compel the government to withdraw from the Ceasefire.”


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Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe meet to find national consensus

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 September 2006, 08:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Monday held a one hour discussion at Temple Trees residence in Colombo regarding the invitation to reach a southern consensus on peace process.
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Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe to meet urgently over weekend

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 September 2006, 17:51 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) with his deputy Karu Jayasuriya are scheduled to meet Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse during the weekend probably on Sunday to work-out modalities for a bi-partisan approach to the resolution of ethnic conflict. This is another step following the invitation of the President asking the main opposition to join his government.
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UNP to nominate team for talks with Rajapakse Government

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 September 2006, 11:28 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) is likely to nominate a five-member delegation for talks with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), on the written request of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse in a bid to reach consensus on the ethnic conflict, political sources in Colombo said.
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"UNP will be in power in 90 days"-Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 September 2006, 16:47 GMT]
"The United National Party (UNP) will be in power within ninety days," declared Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the Opposition and the main opposition UNP Tuesday when addressing the sixtieth anniversary of the party held at Sri Kotha, party headquarters in Colombo.


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Rajapakse, Wikremasinghe expected to discuss common agenda

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 September 2006, 12:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), are expected to meet coming weekend to hold discussions on Rajapakse's invitation to UNP to join the ruling alliance. The meeting between the two leaders would take place after the conclusion of the annual conventions of the two main political parties Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and UNP, political sources in Colombo said.
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UNP parliamentary group to meet Monday to discuss President's invitation

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 September 2006, 10:35 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) is scheduled to meet Monday evening to take a final decision on matters to be discussed with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse following the invitation sent by the latter last week to join his United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, political sources said in Colombo.
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Rajapakse invites UNP as Norway, India meet Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 August 2006, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to join his government, press reports said Sunday. In a letter to the UNP leadership, President Rajapakse had called on the opposition to join his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led government so as to resolve the ‘crisis’ in Sri Lanka, The Sunday Leader broadsheet said. Days after two up-country Tamil parties joined the government, President Rajapakse is also courting the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the paper added.
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Indian PM wants Tamil grievances addressed – Sunday Leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 July 2006, 16:12 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed serious concern at the lack of progress on the peace front in Colombo and called for the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people to be addressed urgently, the Sunday Leader reported this week. Meanwhile a Sri Lankan delegation has rushed to China on security-related matters, the paper added.
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Rajapakse initiative, an elaborate theatre to appease international community - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 July 2006, 14:16 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s initiative this week to come up with power-sharing proposal is “elaborate theatre to appease international demands, particularly India’s,” the Tamil Guardian said in its editorial this week. Arguing the ‘outbidding’ which undermined previous initiatives was “guaranteed” to happen again, given the lack of support from the UNP and the vehement opposition of the JVP and JHU, the paper said: “Rajapakse’s immediate priority is not to come up with a serious proposal to offer the Tamils, but to destroy his ruling party's main rival and consolidate his grip on parliament.”
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Sri Lanka government can still avert new war - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 May 2006, 11:39 GMT]
"The objective conditions for an outbreak of war are developing. Yet, there is still a space in which meaningful steps could be taken by the Sri Lankan Government to contain the violence of the paramilitaries and the excesses of the armed forces and create a congenial environment for de-escalation,” the Liberation Tigers’ theoretician and chief negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham said this week in an extensive interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
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Wickremesinghe addresses Boston Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 May 2006, 03:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Leader of Opposition and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is completing a two-week fellowship at MIT's Center for International Studies (CIS) this week, addressed expatriate Tamils at the Boston Tamil Center on Friday at 6.30 pm, sources attending the event said.
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Jaffna Bishop appeals for urgent intervention of International Community

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 May 2006, 19:12 GMT]
"Tamil people are gripped with fear and insecurity due to the alarming escalation in Killings and abductions in NorthEast, including Jaffna, and in the South. People are scared of a major war exploding at any time. I appeal to the International Community to urgently intervene to pressure the parties involved to reduce the threat of war. In particular, the warring parties should be pressured to a implement the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) as agreed by both parties in Geneva," said Bishop of Jaffna, Rev. Fr Thomas Soundaranayagam, speaking to press in Colombo, Sunday.
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