Police block anti-peace demonstrators reaching Trinco SLMM office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 October 2003, 14:37 GMT]
The Eastern Peoples' Front, which is locally considered as a front organization of the Sinhala nationalist and Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Wednesday held a hartal (general shutdown) and demonstration in Trincomalee town against the presence of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the establishment of an Interim Administration for the northeast province, sources said.
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Hindu Religious Ministry to celebrate Deepavali

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2003, 16:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry has released 1.5 million rupees to Administrators of thirty five institutions such as orphanages, homes of the aged, children homes and women welfare centres in the northeast to purchase and supply new clothes to celebrate Deepavali (Festival of Lights) which falls on October 24th Friday, said a ministry media unit press release Saturday.


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Wickremesinghe said to agree in principle to IDPs' resettlement in HSZ

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2003, 16:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, in a meeting with a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday, accepted 'in principle' that all internally displaced families are entitled to resettlement in their own lands and houses in the northeast province, regardless of whether those lands or houses come under areas declared as high security zones (HSZ) by the Sri Lanka Army, TNA sources said.
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Colombo urged to act on church attacks

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 October 2003, 20:25 GMT]
The National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan peace group called on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government Monday to investigate and prevent recent attacks on Christian churches. Sinhala nationalists and powerful sections of the Sri Lankan Buddhist clergy charge that Christian churches, particularly evangelical groups funded from the west, are engaged in an aggressive effort to convert Buddhists to Christianity by what they claim to be "unethical" and "unscrupulous" means.
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Teachers protest 'Sinhalization' of Tamil schools

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 October 2003, 15:11 GMT]
The Twenty thousand-member strong Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) Monday warned that it would launch a massive agitation campaign in collaboration with Tamil political parties if the Western Provincial Council failed to stop posting Sinhalese teachers to Tamil medium schools. The People's Allaince (PA) controls the Western Provincial Council administration.
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'Open discussion needed on LTTE's proposals' - Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 2003, 15:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe said Sunday that LTTE's response to the Sri Lanka Government proposals on the Interim Administrative (IA) structure for the northeast, which is expected to be submitted by the end of this month, needs to be discussed openly, political sources in Colombo said.


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'Opposition instigating masses against peace process' - Peiris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 October 2003, 16:22 GMT]
“A conducive environment would be created to resume peace talks once the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] submitted its response to the Sri Lanka government's proposal on the establishment of the interim administration for the northeast province,” said Mr. G.L.Peiris, Constitutional Affairs Minister in the United National Front government of Sri Lanka and Cabinet spokesman, addressing the weekly press conference held Thursday.
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PNM vows to thwart 'foreign attempt to divide' country

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 October 2003, 17:43 GMT]
The leader of the Patriotic National Movement (PNM), Venerable Elle Gunawanse Thera, addressing the public meeting held at the conclusion of the five-day anti-peace march Wednesday said that the majority Sinhalese people will not allow foreign elements now involved in the peace process to divide the country, sources said.
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Building up the case for war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2003, 02:11 GMT]
There is a steadily growing body of opinion among the Singhalese that Colombo’s dealings with the Liberation Tigers amount to nothing but a misguided policy of appeasement and plain treachery. The case for going to war with the Tigers again is being argued in different guises – its rhetorical veils are getting thinner as the ranks of those who oppose the peace process swell with each passing week.
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Fasting campaign to demand inquiry into Nimalarajan’s murder

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 September 2003, 17:24 GMT]
A fasting campaign is to be held by the Jaffna Journalists’ Alliance (JJA) in front of the Jaffna District Secretariat to remember the slain journalist, Mr. Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, who was killed three years ago in Jaffna, and to call for a commission of inquiry into his murder, the Jaffna-based Tamil daily, Uthayan, said Monday.
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Vavuniya MP says SLA disrupts Pongu Thamil

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 September 2003, 17:02 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army in Vavuniya has beefed up its checkpoint outside the Pongu Thamil (Tamil Upsurge) office, and SLA personnel are checking and video taping those who visit the office. Such actions are intended to disrupt the Pongu Thamil event in Vavuniya, said Mr.N.Sivashakthi Anandan, the Vanni district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, Thursday.
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Chandrika cancels meeting with Wickremesinghe, Helgesen

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 September 2003, 21:21 GMT]
Meeting between President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge and Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe did not take place Thursday as scheduled and Ms. Kumaratunge cancelled her meeting with the Norwegian deputy foreign minister Mr. Vidar Helgessen and special envoy Mr. Erik Solheim which also scheduled for Thursday, Presidential Secretariat said in a press release said. .


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Norwegian peace team arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2003, 15:34 GMT]
Norwegian deputy foreign minister Mr. Vidar Helgessen and special peace envoy Mr. Erik Solheim arrived in Colombo Wednesday around 9.30 a.m. The visiting Norwegian envoys are scheduled to meet the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, Wednesday night and will proceed to Kilinochchi to meet the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Thursday, media sources said.
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Helgesen, Solheim to hold discussions on peace talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 September 2003, 11:28 GMT]
Deputy Minister Vidar Helgesen and Special Adviser Erik Solheim are to visit Sri Lanka during 17-19 September 2003, to have discussions with different parties on the current state of the peace process, said the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo in a press released issued Tuesday.
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CWC requests Japan to abandon funding Kotmale project

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 September 2003, 03:01 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a key constituent of the United National Front (UNF) government Sunday made an appeal to the Japanese peace special envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi to withdraw funding for the controversial Upper Kotmale electricity project to which the Cabinet had given approval despite opposition by the CWC, media sources said.
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Thondaman to meet Akashi on Kotmale dam issue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2003, 00:14 GMT]
The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), a key constituent of the United National Front government, is to hold talks with the Japanese special peace envoy, Mr.Yasushi Akashi, on Monday regarding the proposed construction of the Kotmale Dam Electricity Project in the hill country with Japanese aid, sources said.
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SL govt. expects LTTE response to IA proposal within 14 days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2003, 16:42 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government expects to receive the Liberation Tigers' response to its interim administration proposals in two weeks and would ask the Norwegian facilitators to take steps to recommence peace talks with the LTTE once it received the response, said Cabinet spokesman, Minister Mr.Peiris, at a press briefing Thursday.
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Akashi to commence Sri Lanka visit Thursday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 September 2003, 19:09 GMT]
The Japanese special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Mr.Yasushi Akashi, will arrive in Colombo on a six-day visit Thursday. He will stay in Sri Lanka until September 16 and hold discussions with several political leaders regarding the present stalled peace process between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, political sources said.
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Shortage of English language teachers in NE

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 19:52 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has requested Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, to take steps to fill the vacancies that exist for English language teachers in Northeast schools by granting permanent appointments to part time English teachers who have been working in the region for several years, sources said.
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Tamil, Muslim MPs to meet to discuss eastern situation

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 September 2003, 16:14 GMT]
At the conference convened Monday evening by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, at his Temple Trees official residence in Colombo, to discuss the ethnic tensions between Muslim and Tamil communities in the East, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Eastern Muslim Parliamentarians' Union attended and unanimously decided to meet again after holding extensive talks with the representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, political sources in Colombo said.
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