“Not all Sinhalese are racists "- Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 17:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, said Saturday evening that all the Sinhalese living in the south are not racists and only a handful of them are opposing the current peace efforts. His comments came when he was addressing a meeting in Mawanella as part of a campaign to create awareness among the masses in the south about the urgent need to recommence the stalled peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, media sources said.
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LTTE delegation departs to South Africa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 16:35 GMT]
A delegation consisting of seven members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), led by Head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat, Mr. Pulithevan, began a study tour to South Africa on Wednesday to look at aspects of federalism, constitutional frameworks and administrative structures employed in that country, local media reported.
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SLA soldiers assault Tamil civilians in Vadamarachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 16:33 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army, located in the historic Vallipuram Alvar Temple area in Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district, is alleged to have mercilessly assaulted and fired at a group of Tamil civilians who had gone for hare hunting Saturday evening, injuring several of them. Later the SLA soldiers arrested seven of the Tamil group and released them after questioning, civil sources said.
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Kinniya division under dusk to dawn curfew

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 November 2003, 13:10 GMT]
A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed in Kinniya police division in the Trincomalee district Saturday evening to defuse escalating tension caused by the killing of three Muslim farmers in Nadu Ootru Muslim village by unknown persons, Trincomalee police said.


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SL President presents proposals for cohabitation

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2003, 17:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, Friday submitted a set of proposals to the committee that has been attempting to formulate a programme for cohabitation government comprising the two main Sinhala political parties Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP), sources said.
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Great Heroes Day celebrations conclude in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2003, 15:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers' Trincomalee regional military commander Colonel Pathuman lit the flame of sacrifice at the main event of the Great Heroes Day celebrations at the Alankulam Heroes' cemetary in the Muttur east in the Trincomalee district amid heavy shower and large gathering of people soon after the address to the Tamil people by LTTE leader Mr.V.Pirapaharan Thursday evening.


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Political engagement with LTTE vital to avoid estrangement - Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2003, 12:22 GMT]
"The negotiation process needs to be revived soon. The exploration of the conditions under which the next phase of talks might take place should not be delayed under the pretext of either the political negotiations between the UNF and SLFP or the budget debate. Otherwise...a new process of estrangement between the Sinhalese and Tamil polities might emerge under the conditions of uncertainty created by the present process of no war-no peace," said Prof. Jeyadeva Uyangoda in an article which appeared in Friday edition of Daily mirror.
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Jaffna Great Heroes day celebrations draw large crowd

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2003, 11:03 GMT]
Despite heavy down pour and interference by Sri Lanka Government security forces in the Jaffna district people in large numbers attended the events at the Heroes' cemetaries (Maveerar Thuyilum Illam) Thursday evening on the Great Heroes Day and paid their homage to the martyrs of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the armed Tamil freedom struggle, sources in Jaffna said.


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Thousands attend Heroes’ Day events in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2003, 22:01 GMT]
Thousands of people participated at the Great Heroes Day celebrations held at the Tharavai ‘Maveerar Thuyilum Illam’ (The martyr's cemetery where Great Heroes rest) in the Batticaloa district, despite heavy rains Thursday evening, and the Senior Commander of the LTTE for the eastern flank, Col. V. Karuna, attended the celebrations, sources said.
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Pirapaharan's Heroes' day address

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2003, 12:22 GMT]
Mr Vellupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in his annual statement commemorating the Heroes’ Day rejected accusations made by President Chandrika Kumaratunga that his organisation was strengthening its military power and preparing for war, and pointed to the power struggle between Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister as historical repetitive pattern of "political drama [which] has been continuing for the last fifty years aggravating the plight of the Tamil people.”
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HDU to start demining in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 November 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Humanitarian Demining Unit (HDU) has announced that it will start demining in the Batticaloa district on November 29, and the HDU has already begun initial preparations and surveys to concentrate on demining the Palaiyadivaddai village for mines and booby traps in the first stage, sources said.
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'Renewed war will devastate Sri Lanka' - Col.Karuna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 17:40 GMT]
"The current power struggle between Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister has adversely impacted the Peace Process. However, we will strictly adhere to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and will patiently wait to see if political stability returns to the South," Col. Karuna, Senior Commander of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), told TamilNet's Batticaloa correspondent at the Tharavai Heroes' cemetery Tuesday.
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Positive response from Pirapaharan - Patten

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 17:34 GMT]
The European Union(EU)'s External Relations Commissioner, Mr. Chris Patten, said Wednesday that the international community has welcomed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for eschewing violence and entering political negotiations to find a solution to the conflict. Mr. Patten said that he had told the LTTE leader that a political solution to the conflict should be found under a federal political system as declared in the Oslo conference.
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‘Would have shot down Patten’s copter’ – Sihala Urumaya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 09:56 GMT]
"If we had an anti aircraft missile we wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot down the helicopter in which Mr. Chris Patten would be travelling to Kilinochchi to meet the LTTE leader," said Mr. Tilak Karunaratne, the leader of the ultra Sinhala nationalist Sihala Urumaya party, in comments published Wednesday in the Sinhala extremist daily Divaina. President Kumaratunga’s uncle publishes the paper, which enjoys wide readership among the Singhalese.
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Pirapaharan discusses Colombo crisis, CFA with Patten

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 07:09 GMT]
"Our leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan told Mr. Patten it is not at all in the hands of the Liberation Tigers to ensure that there is no return to violence and that it is completely up to the Sinhala polity to see there is no return to war. Mr. Pirapaharan very clearly explained to Mr. Patten that we remain committed to resolving the conflict peacefully," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, speaking to media following the meeting between the leader of the Liberation Tigers and the European Union’s Commissioner for External Relations Wednesday in Kilinochchi.


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Tamil diaspora celebrates Heroes' day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 03:51 GMT]
Tamil expatriate community in countries of Europe and North America are celebrating heroes' day, with several prominent members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) addressing the Heroes' day events in these countries, a popular Tamil Television Newscast in London said Tuesday.


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Great Heroes' Day celebrations begin in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 00:01 GMT]
The Great Heroes Day celebrations began in Trincomalee town Tuesday morning with paying homage to LTTE martyrs of Trincomalee whose photographs have been kept in the gaily decorated Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall, which is located along the Inner Harbour Road facing the harbour. TEEDOR Trincomalee district head Mr.S.Tharman declared open the event by cutting the ribbon.
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EU Commissioner meets Sri Lanka's President

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2003, 15:50 GMT]
European Commission External Relations Commissioner, Mr. Chris Patten, Tuesday afternoon met with Sri Lanka's President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge, at the Presidential House and discussed the current political crisis that has stalled the peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), political sources said.
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Heroes day celebrations begin in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2003, 12:51 GMT]
Batticaloa-Amparai district began its main celebrations for the Heroes day at the Tharavai Heroes cemetary on Tuesday morning. Col. Karuna, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Senior Commander for the East, participated as the chief guest hoisting the Tamileelam flag, sources said.


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SLA, LTTE meet again over Jaffna Heroes’ Day

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2003, 09:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army met again Tuesday to resolve persisting friction over the Great Heroes’ Day observations in Jaffna. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna, said his troops won’t interfere in the Great Heroes’ Day arrangements in the peninsula. Responding to a question from TamilNet, he said the SLA won’t allow the Tiger flag to be flown in Sri Lankan government buildings and public places.
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