Kumaratunge rejects UNP plea to pardon Dissanayake

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 May 2005, 13:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge Friday rejected an appeal by main Opposition United National Party (UNP) to pardon and release the party's jailed National Organiser and former minister S.B Dissanayake, sources said. Mr Dissanayake was one-time Ms Kumaratunge's close confidante and champion minister.
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Five member SC bench to hear dissident SLMC MPs' petitions

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 May 2005, 17:23 GMT]
Five-member bench of the Supreme Court will hear the petitions filed by dissident Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) parliamentarians Mr.Ameer Ali, Mr.Rishard Badiudin, Mr.Najeeb Abdul Majeed and Mr.Mohamed Hussein Baila against their expulsion from the SLMC. The inquiry into these petitions has been fixed for May 30th and 31st, legal sources said.


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Joint mechanism mired in Sinhala politics

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 May 2005, 15:51 GMT]
The joint mechanism between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers called for by international aid donors has become the centre of political manoeuvres by the main Sinhala parties, in whose zero-sum calculations, international aid has a critical role to play.
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UNP to reveal its position after UPFA approves Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 May 2005, 14:23 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) will make public its position on the Joint Mechanism proposal for a working arrangement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for post-tsunami rehabilitation of northeast only after United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government approves it with one voice, said Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the UNP and the former Prime Minister addressing a series of meetings in Sri Lanka's South Saturday, sources said. "The UNP will have to carefully study the final JM proposal before taking a public position," he added.
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Wickremesinghe declines SL President's invitation for talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 May 2005, 02:00 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) declined the invitation extended by Sri Lanka's President MsChandrika Kumaratunge for a discussion on national issues on Monday. "There is no necessity for such discussion at present," said Mr Wickremasinghe in reply to Ms Kumaratunge, reported the State run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) in its Saturday morning news bulletin.
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Sivaram: ‘Don’t raise false hopes amongst our people’

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 May 2005, 18:35 GMT]
The last article published by Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram, the political columnist and military analyst abducted and murdered on Friday, was an appeal to his colleagues in the Tamil media. Urging them not to hype up the chances of a positive outcome with regards to the joint mechanism until it actually happens, Mr. Sivaram argued that the media has a duty to not to raise false hopes amongst the Tamil people and to keep the Sri Lankan state’s determination not to meet Tamil expectations in sight.The article, written in Tamil for the Colombo-based Virakesari newspaper appeared in its edition of Sunday April 24.
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Sivaram funeral cortege leaves Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2005, 17:19 GMT]
The body of murdered Tamil journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam was taken from his residence in Colombo at 10pm local time to Batticaloa where his funeral will take place on Monday. The skies opened up momentarily around No.15/4 Mahindarama Road, Ratmalana from where the cortege left with Police escort. The cortege is expected to reach Batticaloa in the early hours of Monday
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Heavy security marks May day rallies in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 May 2005, 11:37 GMT]
Thousands of supporters of major political parties in southern Sri Lanka joined the May day rallies being held in capital Colombo, amidst heavy security measures. The ruling United People’s Front Alliance (UPFA) is holding a rally at the Galle Face Green, under the patronage of Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge. Several government Ministers, Parliamentarians and UPFA leaders are taking part in the rally, sources in capital said.
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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 13:27 GMT]
"U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina B. Rocca will visit Sri Lanka next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 and 20, to survey United States-funded tsunami reconstruction efforts and meet with Sri Lankan government officials," a press release issued by the United States Embassy in Colombo Friday said.
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Wickremesinghe spends New Year Day with tsunami victims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 April 2005, 14:10 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and leader of the opposition, Thursday visited Tangalle, a town in Sri Lanka's South and met with tsunami-affected people, party sources said. Tangalle is one of the coastal areas destroyed by last year December tsunami.


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Politically motivated focus on child soldiers said detrimental to peace

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 19:41 GMT]
Addressing the 61st Session of UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR 61), Ms. Karen Parker, J.D., a human rights lawyer and chief delegate for International Educational Development - Humanitarian Law Project, an NGO accredited by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, warned Monday that politically motivated focus on child soldiers without genuine consideration for the children themselves is detrimental to peace. Ms. Parker urged the UN Commission to give full support to Sri Lankan peace process facilitated by the Norwegian Government.
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Evacuation underway in NorthEast coastal areas

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2005, 18:49 GMT]
As a precautionary measure to avoid a possible tsunami from a 8.2 richter scale aftershock near Sumatra, LTTE units are evacuating coastal village residents and refugees in transit camps to higher grounds, sources said. FM radio and TV stations continued to provide updates on the quake that hit Sumatra Monday at 16.10 hrs GMT. Temple bells in almost all villages were rung alerting people to evacuate.
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Sri Lanka’s referendum blues

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:23 GMT]
Opposition fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making serious moves to hold on to the reins of power were further exacerbated when thousands of posters calling for the immediate abolition the country’s executive Presidential system appeared in many part of the island’s capital and suburbs this week. The purple coloured posters were in the name of a nebulous organization called ‘People’s Movement for Democracy’. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says President Kumaratunga is planning to change the constitution to illegally perpetuate herself in power.
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Tilak Karunaratne withdraws petition against MoU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 08:27 GMT]
One of the three petitions filed in the Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the then Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mr.V.Pirapaharan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was withdrawn last week, legal sources said.
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Tamils risk turning violence inwards- Prof Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:20 GMT]
Although the three years of relative peace after the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the United National Party (UNP) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) has demonstrated that violence and war is not necessary to mediate relations between warring parties, the same period has "also proved that Tamil society ran the risk of turning violence inwards, against itself," writes Prof Uyangoda in an article appearing in the Saturday edition of Daily Mirror.
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Arrest rising chauvinism, extremism, TNA tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 March 2005, 12:15 GMT]
Accusing Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister of "inciting the forces of chauvinism and extremism" in Sri Lanka by rushing to describe World Bank official Mr Peter Harrold's statements on Liberation Tigers, without checking their veracity, as "provocative," Mr Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in his statement in Sri Lanka's parliament on the current political situation, urged the Sri Lanka Government to speak with one voice regarding taking the peace process forward, parliamentary sources in Colombo said.
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Sinhala nationalists vow to oppose west, 'neo colonialism'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 March 2005, 16:59 GMT]
Sinhala nationalists Wednesday declared 2 March as national ‘Anti-neo-colonialism Day’ at a rally to mark to commemorate Ven. Wariyapola Sumangala, the Buddhist monk who pulled down the Union Jack and hoisted the Sinhala lion flag 190 years ago. A widely publicized rally to mark the day was organized in Colombo by Patriotic National Movement (PNM), an alliance of Sinhala nationalists formed and backed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition ally, Janatha Vimukthi Permamuna (JVP).
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Ranil calls for unity to safeguard ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 08:31 GMT]
"Parties with vested interest would like to go back to war. But the reality is, this country cannot face another war. We will all be destroyed by the fight", leader of the opposition and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Tuesday said noting that the Ceasefire Agreement, which is entering into the fourth year, "is under threat" and called for unity to safeguard the ceasefire agreement and to achieve a lasting peace in Sri Lanka. Mr. Wickremesinghe has made these observations this morning while making a statement before the electronic media on the third anniversary of entering into ceasefire agreement with the LTTE, which brought to an end the two-decade long war.
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JVP says will boycott Tsunami debate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 06:40 GMT]
In the first clear signal of a rift with President Kumaratunga, her main coalition partner, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), said Tuesday that it will not take part in the debate on the Tsunami devastation in Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Wednesday and Thursday. With thirty nine MPs, the JVP calls the shots in the ruling coalition. If the party pulls out of the Kumaratunga led alliance, Sri Lanka’s President has to go for another general election or seek the support of her rival, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, to run the government.
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Ranil Wickremasinghe leaves for Norway

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2005, 15:35 GMT]
Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the opposition and the United National Party (UNP) Saturday evening left for Norway. Mr.Milinda Morogoda and Mr.T.Maheswaran, former ministers in the then United National Front (UNF) government accompanied him, UNP sources said.
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