UNP rejects council, urges talks on ISGA

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 September 2004, 07:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition this weekend declined to join President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s ruling alliance in a ‘National Advisory Council’ on the Norwegian backed peace process, instead urging the government to resume talks with the Liberation Tigers on the basis of the latter’s interim administration proposals.
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Northern Muslims support talks based on ISGA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2004, 11:41 GMT]
"Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge should take immediate steps to commence peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the basis of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals submitted by the LTTE," said Moulavi. M.Subiyan, Secretary of the Association to Protect Rights of Northern Muslims, when TamilNet asked him to comment on the current peace stalemate. M.Subiyan is also the President of Killinochchi District Muslims' Secretariat.
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Muhamalai checkpoints get 24-hour power supply

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2004, 10:57 GMT]
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has informed the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) that it has provided electricity supply and other related facilities to open the Muhamalai checkpoints for twenty hours without interruption, CEB sources said.
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Thileepan memorial day observed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2004, 10:06 GMT]
The final day of the seventeenth death anniversary of a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Lt. Colonel Thileepan was observed Sunday throughout Jaffna district. The main event was held Sunday morning at Nallur Kandasamy Temple premises where Lt Colonel Thileepan passed away after two weeks fasting unto death putting forward five demands to the Indian Government.
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Record crowds throng Canada's Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2004, 17:31 GMT]
Canadian Tamil Radio (CTR) broadcasters estimated a record gathering of close to 75,000 people at the Pongu Thamil (Tamil uprising) event at Queens Park in Toronto Saturday afternoon. Addressing the Pongu Thamil gathering, Mr. Michael Prue, MPP for East York and Beaches said he has been a politician for 18 years, was born and raised in Toronto and that he has never seen a crowd like he saw today in the history of Queens Park lawn.
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TNA MPs meet Swiss Ambassador

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2004, 10:35 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Foreign Affairs Committee which met with Swiss Ambassodor to Sri Lanka, Mr. Bernadino Regazzoni, at the Switzerland Embassy in Colombo Friday expressed their concern on the reluctance shown by the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government to take steps to restart the peace talks, and urged the ambassador to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to actively seek ways to resume talks.
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Abrogate CFA if you want war, JVP told

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 September 2004, 10:32 GMT]
"You embarked on a loose, infantile armed struggle and butchered thousands if youth, and you have now come here praising virtues of democracy. The Tigers are fighting for the rights of their people. If it is not for the CeaseFire Agreement (CFA) Sri Lanka would have been destroyed by now," said UNP MP for Puttalam District, Mr. Ekanayake, speaking in Parliament Friday on the adjournment motion presented by Trincomalee District JVP MP, Jayantha Wijesekera, parliamentary sources said. The motion condemned the abduction of two Homeguards by the LTTE and demanded their release.
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LTTE militarily strong to face another war- Elilan

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 September 2004, 17:20 GMT]
"We hate war and we are committed to the current peace process. However, we are militarily strong to face a war if it is thrusted on us," said Mr.S.Elilan, head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Trincomalee political wing addressing a meeting which followed a token fast held Friday in Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall to mark the seventeenth death anniversary of LTTE senior leader Lt.Colonel Thileepan.
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LTTE says arms, documents recovered from Reggie

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 September 2004, 12:41 GMT]
The political division of the Liberation for Batticaloa-Amparai said in a statement issued Friday that Karuna’s brother Reggie and two of his associates were shot dead by the special jungle warfare units of the Jeyanthan Regiment around 5.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 21 September 2004. They were killed in a jungle near the Maduru Oya reservoir, according to the LTTE statement. “Communications equipment, weapons with serial numbers erased and some documents were captured from Raggie and his associates”, the Tigers said.
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TNA criticizes SL President's UN speech

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 September 2004, 01:11 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunge's speech at the United Nations General Assembly "does not reflect true factual position...We urge the President to refrain from making rhetorical statements and focus on resolute action that would enable the recommencement of talks and meaningful consensus-building that would ensure the success of the negotiations," said parliamentarians from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a press statement released Thursday.
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SLA-LTTE delegations meet in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 19:32 GMT]
Representatives of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Thursday morning met at the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), security sources said. Major General Sunil Tennekon met with the Jaffna LTTE leaders for the first time after he assumed duties as the Jaffna area commander.
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Sri Lanka army informant shot dead

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 16:53 GMT]
A Sri Lanka army informant was shot dead in Mannampity, 72 kilometres northwest of Batticaloa Wenesday night, Police said. The informant, Mr. Rajathurai Sivagnanam, 24, was gunned down by unidentified men at his home on Colony Road in Mannampity town Wednesday night around 8.30.
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North, South youths meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 10:46 GMT]
Forty youths from the North and about 20 youths from the South are participating in an event labelled "Time to heal the wounds of division" organized by the National Council of YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) from 24 September, Friday, to Tuesday, in Jaffna, civil sources from Jaffna said.
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Karuna's brother killed in LTTE operation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 September 2004, 05:34 GMT]
The deputy of renegade Liberation Tigers commander Karuna was killed in an ambush by LTTE forces in the Maduru Oya sector on the Batticaloa-Polannaruwa district border in the early hours of Thursday, according to well informed sources in the eastern district. An LTTE official said there was an operation by their special forces in the interior jungles northwest of Batticaloa against some elements of renegade commander Karuna's paramilitary, which the Tigers say is working with the Sri Lanka army. 'Reggie', the deputy leader of the paramilitary, is the elder brother of Karuna.
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Sri Lankan armed forces, LTTE meet again in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 September 2004, 04:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan armed forces officers and political officials of the Liberation Tigers met Wednesday in Batticaloa after a long gap to discuss cease fire related issues in the eastern district. The LTTE delegation was led by Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the Tigers' political division for Batticaloa-Amparai. Sri Lankan armed forces delegation was led by Brig. Vajira Wijegunawardena, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Sri Lanka army's 23 Division. Head of Sri Lanka truce monitoring mission, Maj. Gen. (ret) Trond Furuhovde presided.
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Kurunagala Sinhala delegation visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2004, 16:28 GMT]
Forty-nine member delegation of Deva Sarana Centre, a Sinhala organization with its headquarters in Kurunagala district in the northwestern province, visited Jaffna Tuesday and held discussion with the representatives of Jaffna Non-Governmental Organizations' Consortium (JNOC) and Jaffna university students, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Road side explosion in Batticaloa north

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2004, 11:26 GMT]
A claymore mine was triggered by an unidentified person in Panichchankerni, 60 kilometres north of Batticaloa, Tuesday. No one was hurt in the explosion. An LTTE official in Batticaloa alleged that an informant working with the Sri Lanka army had set off the explosion.
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Use new understanding to recommence peace talks - NPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 September 2004, 11:19 GMT]
Referring to the assurance of support given by the main opposition party UNP, to the Sri Lanka Government if it commences peace talks on the basis of LTTE's ISGA proposals, the National Peace Council in a Press Release issued on Monday, urged the Sri Lanka government to "build upon this implicit understanding with the opposition to take the peace process forward by engaging in peace talks with the LTTE".
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Provincial Tamil Language Day festival held in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 September 2004, 20:13 GMT]
Northeast Tamil Language Day competition at provincial level was held Sunday morning and the winners were awarded with certificates in the evening at the Provincial Tamil Language Day Festival the same day evening at Trincomalee St.Mary's College Theresian auditorium.
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Discussion on IDPs issue held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 September 2004, 20:00 GMT]
A one-day discussion organized by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) on the problems of the internally displaced people was held on Monday in the auditorium of Jaffna district secretariat under the National Protection and Durable Solution for Internally Displaced Persons Project.
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