Protest shuts down Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 October 2000, 13:25 GMT]
Shops, schools and government offices were closed and streets were almost deserted in Batticaloa town Monday in response to a call by a student organisation protesting against the activities of anti-Tamil forces and opportunists.
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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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Seven fishermen killed in Navy attack

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 September 2000, 09:56 GMT]
(Correction) At least seven fishermen were killed and seventeen were injured Friday night around 11.30 when the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboats opened fire on their boats in the bay Trincomalee. The bodies of six fishermen, four Sinhalese and two Tamils, have been recovered so far from the sea.
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"UNP,PA assaulted me"-state media reporter

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 September 2000, 21:12 GMT]
A reporter aligned to the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) claimed Friday that he was assaulted by supporters of the People's Alliance and the opposition United National Party in the Muslim town of Kattankudy, five kilometers south of Batticaloa. The SLMC is one of the chief coalition partners of the PA.
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Senior Sri Lankan Minister killed in helicopter crash

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 September 2000, 07:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader (SLMC) and Sri Lanka's Ports minister M.H.M.Ashraff and at least 10 others were killed in a helicopter crash at Aranayake in the Kegalle district, about 60 km. east of Colombo, Saturday morning, police said.
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TELO, TULF vote against draconian law

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 September 2000, 16:51 GMT]
The emergency regulations promulgated by the Sri Lankan President were passed in Parliament Thursday by a majority of ninety six votes. The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, the Sri Lanka Progressive Front and the Tamil United Liberation Front together cast five votes against the emergency. Members of the pro-government armed Tamil group, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) voted for the draconian regulations that enable the government to gag the media and give sweeping powers to the Sri Lankan security forces to arrest and detain and to bypass normal procedures in law relating to inquest and investigation into deaths in custody or caused by their actions.
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Ex-Jaffna communists for Tamil self determination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 August 2000, 14:42 GMT]
The Democratic Left Front (DLF) a leftist party contesting elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament held a press conference Tuesday in Jaffna town to explain its stand on political issues affecting the island's Tamils. The group's chief candidate for the Jaffna electoral district, Mr.Kasippillai Senthivelavar, said that the DLF will agitate for an immediate cease-fire and emphasise the right of self determination of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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Four loggers reported 'missing'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 August 2000, 19:50 GMT]
Four villagers who went in a tractor to collect fire-wood in the jungles of Maha Oya have been reported missing since 22 August. According to complaints made with the Batticaloa Human Rights Commission (HRC), five others who went along with them had escaped and returned home, leaving behind the tractor, when troops opened fire.
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Eight Ampara villagers held

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2000, 18:26 GMT]
Eight Tamils from a remote village of Thumbankerny in Thikkodai in the south-eastern Ampara District were arrested by the Sri Lankan police on Tuesday, according to the local office of the government-funded Human Rights Commission, but a senior police officer denied the arrests had taken place.
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PA reiterates foremost status to Buddhism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2000, 15:55 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government reiterated Tuesday that the "foremost place" given to Buddhism in the constitution will not in anyway be changed under the new constitutional reform proposals to be tabled in Parliament on Thursday. A government spokesman said that the status of Buddhism would be further strengthened and enhanced in the new constitution.
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Sinhala Buddhists protest against autonomy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 July 2000, 17:19 GMT]
The protest was organised against the constitutional reforms aimed at giving autonomy to the Tamils and changing the system of government.
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Mannar workers demand war deduction back

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 19:05 GMT]
The workers at the Mannar depot of the Northern Region Transport Board (NRTB) have demanded that the one day's pay that had been deducted from their June salaries for the national war fund be returned to them. They said that the one day's pay had been deducted for the national war fund of the government without their knowledge and permission.
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'Autonomy package' - Much ado about nothing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
"If Prabhaharan had not pulled out of talks with the UNP government in 1990 and with the PA in 1995, he too would have been doing this futile political jig in Colombo, going from pillar to post like us in search of the political solution" said the leader of an ex-Tamil militant group reacting to Sri Lanka's main opposition party's decision announced Tuesday that it will not support the constitutional reform package in Parliament.
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Package in Parliament next month - minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 July 2000, 08:25 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government said Saturday that it will place proposals for constitutional change in Parliament in the first week of August. Mr.Batty Weerakoon, Sri Lanka's Minister for Science and Technology, said today that the decision to submit the constitutional reform proposals to Parliament was taken at the discussion between the government and the United National Party. The Minister, however, said that the elections to the Parliament due by November this year will be held under the present constitution.
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Numbers game bodes ill for package

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 July 2000, 23:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge told the Tamil parties she met Friday for discussions on constitutional reforms aimed at resolving the ethnic conflict in the island that she will try to persuade the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to consider their demands. If the UNP's response is not positive she would try to arrange a tripartite meeting between the government, the Tamil parties and the UNP to further discuss the points of disagreement the President told Tamil politicians who met her Friday afternoon.
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Foremost place to Buddhism guaranteed -SL govt

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Government Wednesday said that there is no truth in newspaper reports that Buddhism has no place in its proposed new constitution. Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka MP, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs said that the government's proposals for constitutional change do not alter the "foremost place" given to Buddhism in Sri Lanka's constitution. Tamil political parties say that Article 9 of Sri Lanka's constitution that guarantees Buddhism the foremost place is a major obstacle in drawing up even a "minimally acceptable" scheme for regional autonomy.
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"US should support all options"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 July 2000, 06:40 GMT]
"US should make clear that we would support all options including secession to be discussed in the negotiating process," said Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, Congress of the United States, in a letter addressed to Hon Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State.
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TELO, EPRLF reject PA-UNP proposals totally

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 July 2000, 14:03 GMT]
Mr.Suresh Premachandran, the leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), and Mr.Sri Kantha, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) told Peter Westmacott, Deputy Secretary, British Foreign Office that they totally reject the constitutional reform proposals to solve the ethnic conflict agreed upon by the Sri Lankan government and the United National Party when they met the British official Friday afternoon along with representatives of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).
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Tigers overrun SLA detachment in Trinco

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 July 2000, 07:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers overran the Sri Lanka army detachment at Vilgam Vihare, northeast of the Trincomalee town Monday night around 8.30 p.m. military sources in the eastern port town said. SLA troops had retreated from their positions in the first phase of the attack when the Liberation Tigers had fired mortars on the detachment.
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Tamil aspirations not fulfilled - TULF MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 July 2000, 17:39 GMT]
Agreements reached between the People's Alliance (PA), and the opposition United National Party (UNP), on constitutional reforms aimed at solving the ethnic conflict of the island do not fulfil aspirations of Tamil people, and therefore, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) will not accept the new constitution, said Joseph Pararajasingham, Member of Parliament for Batticaloa district and Leader of the TULF Parliamentary Committee.
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