Tigers declare "goodwill" month-long ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2000, 11:47 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers declared Thursday a month-long unilateral ceasefire "as a goodwill measure to facilitate the peace process." A press release from the organisation's London offices quoted a statement released by its headquarters in the Vanni said it would cease hostile military actions against the Sri Lankan armed forces from midnight 24 December.
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Sinhala nationalists protest against talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2000, 14:34 GMT]
The militant Sinhala Buddhist nationalist group, the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), urged the Sri Lanka army to continue the war until the Liberation Tigers are defeated when they met the SLA commander Lt.Gen. Lionel Balagalle Wednesday and gave him a memorandum against peace talks to end the ethnic conflict in the island. The NMAT held a protest in downtown Colombo against peace talks Wednesday afternoon. Protesters burnt an effigy of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan and poked fun at two persons dressed up as Norwegian peace emissary Eric Soleheim and British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Peter Hain.
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Sri Lanka rejects de-escalation before talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 December 2000, 03:29 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government said Tuesday that it would not accept the Liberation Tigers' call for a de-escalation of the war prior to unconditional negotiations to end the island’s protracted conflict, as the call was “proposed almost as a precondition for talks.” The government instead said de-escalation must be accompanied by talks on a permanent solution, which must be preceded by the Liberation Tigers agreeing the core issues to be covered in any negotiations. The government also re-iterated that any talks must be completed within a definite time frame.
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Diplomats optimistic over Tiger peace call

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 November 2000, 21:51 GMT]
(CORRECTION) Officials representing Norway and India met Monday evening with Mr.Karl Inderfurth, US State Secretary with his officials, Donald Camp and Gary Usery, at the residence of the US Ambassador Mr.Ashely Wills in Colombo, source said. Officials representing Sri Lanka's government, main opposition and a local Tamil party were also present.
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Tigers call for "unconditional talks in conducive climate"

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 November 2000, 12:57 GMT]
In his annual Heroes Day speech, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan declared Monday that his organisation is prepared for unconditional peace talks with the Sri Lanka government but insisted on a process of de-escalation of war and the creation of a conducive climate of goodwill and normalcy in the Tamil homeland to facilitate such talks. A translation of Mr. Pirapahran's speech released by the LTTE from its London offices quoted him as saying that by normalcy he meant "the restoration of normal civilian life by removing the economic blockade and other restrictions imposed on the Tamil people".
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Buddhist monks burn effigy of Solheim

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 November 2000, 15:24 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists Thursday evening picketed out side the Royal Norwegian embassy in Colombo and burnt an effigy of Oslo's special envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim. The majority of the participants were Buddhist monks. Earlier around 4 the far-right Sihala Urumaya party organized a public meeting at Narahenpitiya in Colombo protesting against Norway's involvement in finding a solution to the island's conflict.
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President urges unity against terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2000, 01:17 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge told Parliament Thursday that she was prepared to talk to the Liberation Tigers about a solution to the island’s conflict within the limits of a united Sri Lanka, but said the war “against terrorism” would continue. Addressing Sri Lanka’s newly formed Parliament, she said that “military action against terrorists”, along with her proposed constitutional reforms and the forming of “national unity” was part of her government’s strategy to solve the island’s ethnic conflict. “It is our expectation to finish this war very soon,” she said.
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Sri Lanka revives devolution package

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2000, 18:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake Monday morning met the leader of the opposition and the United National Party, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at the Parliamentary Complex and discussed Norway's role in finding a negotiated political solution to the island's protracted ethnic conflict. The talks lasted over ninety minutes, parliamentary sources said.
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Solheim briefs Kumaratunga on Prabaharan meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 November 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Norway's special envoy Erik Solheim had a two-hour meeting with the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday night to apprise her about the discussion he had with the LTTE leader, V.Pirapaharan at Mallavi in the Vanni on Wednesday.
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JVP slams "secret" talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2000, 13:13 GMT]
The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, (JVP) the Marxist party which secured 10 seats at last month's Parliamentary elections, the third largest tally, Friday condemned the "secret" talks between the Norway's special envoy Eric Solheim and the LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan held at Mallavi in the Vanni region on Wednesday.
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Tigers seek "normalcy in Tamil areas"

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 November 2000, 17:20 GMT]
Norway's Special envoy Mr.Eric Solheim who returned from Vanni after meeting the leader of the Liberation Tigers, V.Pirapaharan told journalists in Colombo Thursday that the LTTE had not laid down any precondition to begin talks with the Sri Lankan Government. He said the LTTE leader brought to the notice of the Norway's delegation that the Tamil areas the island was suffering under the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government and that he wanted quick return of normalcy in the northeast, Mr.Solheim said.
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Norway meets LTTE in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2000, 16:32 GMT]
A delegation of the Norwegian government met with the leader of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.Velupillai Pirapaharan, and other LTTE officials in the Vanni this week, the organisation said Wednesday in a statement from its London offices. The discussions, described as "cordial and constructive" covered "several pertinent issues" including the issue of political negotiations, statement said.
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Furore over peace talks letters

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 October 2000, 00:35 GMT]
(News Feature) The letters exchanged between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers during the 1995 peace talks have become an unexpected election issue in the run up to the island's forthcoming Parliamentary polls. The main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), has seized on the hitherto unpublicised letters as evidence the government had not informed the Sri Lankan public about its negotiations with the Tigers, forcing the government to respond with a counter-campaign.
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Mannar SLA shooting victims identified

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 June 2000, 18:20 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army handed over the bodies of five Tamil youth to the Mannar hospital this morning. The SLA told the hospital that the youth were shot dead in a house in Thalvupaadu, four kilometers west of Mannar town, when it was surrounded by troops around 5 a.m. Friday morning on receipt of information that Liberation Tigers were in the village. However, one of the youth shot dead was identified as K. Pirapaharan, a school teacher, by his sister and another was identified by his brother as Victor Sebamalai who had not returned home after reporting to the military intelligence unit at Mannar for an inquiry on May 31.
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Norwegian delegation to meet LTTE leader -paper

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 April 2000, 19:02 GMT]
Following an invitation by the leadership of the Liberation Tigers, a Norwegian diplomatic team is to visit the Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission in the near future, reported Tamil Guardian, a London based newspaper, this week.
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President supports Sports Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 March 2000, 21:47 GMT]
In a significant reiteration of the controversial statement by Minister for Sports, Mr.S.B.Dissanayaka, President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike said that her government would place its proposals for constitutional change before Parliament even if it cannot secure the two thirds majority needed to ratify new system.
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POWs released on humanitarian grounds

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 February 2000, 18:21 GMT]
The four POWs were released today on instructions by the leader of the Liberation Tigers Mr.V.Pirapaharan, on humanitarian grounds, responding to requests made by their parents, wives and children, the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said today in its night broadcast.
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'Mamanithan' award for Ponnambalam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 January 2000, 12:27 GMT]
Mr. Kumar Ponnambalam, the assassinated Tamil political leader, has been bestowed with the Most Eminent Person (Mamanithan) award by the Liberation Tigers' leadership, the organisation said in a statement from its London offices Saturday.
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Kumaratunge vows relentless battle against 'hatred'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 December 1999, 15:52 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) Mrs Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, after being sworn in as Sri Lanka's fifth Executive President this afternoon at her official residence Temple Trees before the Chief Justice, vowed to "rid this land of death and destruction." Political commentators said it indicated her speech heralded a stronger effort to defeat the Liberation Tigers militarily.
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LTTE to release 2 more POWs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 1999, 04:42 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said this morning that two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, who surrendered during the 'Unceasing Waves 3' operation in the Vettrilaikerni area, are to be released.
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