JVP presses with campaign against peace talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 18:01 GMT]
The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) held another massive demonstration and rally Wednesday near downtown Colombo denouncing peace talks between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers. More than five thousand party activists and members marched through a busy part of the city shouting slogans against the LTTE and Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mr. Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe’s government.
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‘Chandrika spreading war phobia’ -UNF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 13:03 GMT]
As the spokesman for the President of Sri Lanka said Wednesday that the President, Chandrika Kumaratunge, is of the view that the LTTE is preparing for war, the United National Front government responded that a section of the main opposition People’s Alliance led by Ms.Kumaratunge is engaged in spreading war phobia in the country, political sources said
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Peace talks to resume soon - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 04:27 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week sent a positive signal to the Sri Lankan government that the peace negotiations, stalled for the past few months, would resume soon once the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s administration submits concrete proposals for an interim administration.


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Peace talks to resume soon – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 June 2003, 18:44 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said today that the peace negotiations between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, suspended for the past few months, will resume soon.
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LTTE responds to Prime Minister’s offer

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2003, 18:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Thursday that they would consider returning to the peace negotiations only when the Government of Sri Lanka offers a practical conceptual framework for an interim administrative structure.
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Proposed IA should lead towards final political solution - TNA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2003, 11:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday requested the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe to formulate a structure for an Interim Administration (IA) for the Tamil dominated northeast province that serves as a step towards finding a permanent political solution to the national conflict, TNA sources said.


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CWC to protest against Upper Kotmale Project

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 June 2003, 11:31 GMT]
Housing and Estate Infrastructure Minister and President of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Arumugam Thondaman, said Wednesday that CWC is organizing a protest rally calling for the abandonment of the Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Project on the 23 June in Nuwareliya District, according to local reports.


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Colombo has failed to bring normalcy to Northeast - FJDMA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 June 2003, 11:08 GMT]
The Federation of the Jaffna District Minibus Association (FJDMA) Sunday told the United National Front (UNF) government that it has failed to create a conducive situation in the northeast province enabling the internally displaced families to return to their villages. "Instead the government is insisting on maintaining the high security zones in residential areas according to the agenda of its military," the Federation said in a statement, Jaffna sources said.


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PA urges UNF not to give into LTTE's demands

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 00:05 GMT]
The main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) which governed Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2001 demanded the United National Front (UNF) government to place the armed forces on red alert as the PA believed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has reverted its position to Tamil homeland policy and its demand for an institution with more administrative and political powers is a step towards LTTE's goal for a separate state, Tamil Eelam, polical sources in Colombo said.


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LTTE insists on draft framework for interim administration to resume talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 June 2003, 11:46 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka Wednesday reiterated its position that it would participate in the negotiating process only when the Sri Lankan government puts forward a clearly defined draft framework for an interim administrative structure for the Northeast.
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Sri Lankan Prime Minister's concluding remarks in Tokyo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 11:32 GMT]
"Sri Lanka has to overcome the delays, the blockages and the inertia of its bureaucratic apparatus and transform it into one capable of speedy implementation where work is done efficiently and effectively. This requires significant political resolve and I intend to provide the leadership necessary to achieve this result," said Sri Lanka's Prime Minister in his statement to the concluding session of the Japan aid meeting on 10 June.
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Armitage addresses Sri Lanka donors' conference

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 June 2003, 00:59 GMT]
Noting that the momentum of the Sri Lanka peace process is slowing, US Deputy Secretary of State Armitage said the international community needs to provide an infusion of moral and material support to move the parties and the process forward when he addressed the Sri Lanka donors' conference in Japan, Monday. But, he said, "no matter how much we pledge at this conference, it is ultimately the prime minister, the president of Sri Lanka, members of the LTTE, and most importantly of all the people of Sri Lanka, who will have to deliver on the promise of peace."


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Jaffna co-op officials urge Sri Lanka's PM to establish IA

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2003, 19:16 GMT]
The Jaffna District Agricultural and Consumers Co-operative Societies Union (ACCSU) said Monday that the long awaited permanent peace could be achieved only through establishing an Interim Administration (IA) for the Northeast province with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the helm, sources in Jaffna said.
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Student parliament convened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 02:11 GMT]
Hundreds of students from schools in Jaffna district took part in a student parliament held at the Veerasingam Hall on Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. This was the first time an event of this type was organized in Jaffna peninsula, student leaders in Jaffna said.


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Toppling UNF Government, PA's sole focus - Batty Weerakoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2003, 00:11 GMT]
"People's Alliance (PA) of President Chandrika Kumaratunge does not have alternate policies for responding to issues of national importance. Instead PA is expending its energy in planning to topple the current United National Front (UNF) government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe," said Batty Weerakoon, Leader of leftist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), speaking at a meeting of Civil Service Union in Colombo Thursday, local reports said.
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Talks should be based on concrete proposals – Balasingham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 June 2003, 06:45 GMT]
Negotiations on an Interim Administration for the Northeast could only begin once the Sri Lankan government had produced a detailed draft of its proposals for such a body, the Liberation Tigers said Friday. Discussions could only proceed usefully on the basis of “specific and concrete” proposals from Colombo, the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor, Mr. Anton Balasingham, told TamilNet when asked about press reports suggesting the government had agreed to the establishment of an Interim Administration.
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Jaffna educationists urge Lanka's Prime Minister to act on IA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2003, 11:13 GMT]
The Jaffna District Council for Advancement of Education of Tamils (JDCAET) Wednesday appealed to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe to take immediate steps to set up an interim administration for the northeast province with adequate powers to uplift the standard of living of the people of the soil and rebuild the war ravaged province, sources said.


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LTTE calls for negotiations on interim administration

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 June 2003, 05:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Wednesday it was prepared to resume negotiations with the Sri Lankan government on the establishment of an Interim Administrative structure empowered to undertake the tasks of rebuilding the war damaged economy and restoring normalcy in the Tamil speaking homeland.
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Colombo urged to drop ‘double standard on interim mechanism’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 18:07 GMT]
“The cease fire agreement (CFA) between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers has no basis in the laws of Sri Lanka. It is an extra constitutional instrument on which the island’s peace has stood for more than 15 months. Therefore, why can’t the Sri Lankan government look beyond the constricting parameters of its constitution to formulate an interim mechanism for rebuilding and rehabilitating the war ravaged northeast? We are urging the Sinhala polity to drop its double standard on this matter for the sake of peace," Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance MP, said Tuesday.
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Permanent appointments for Tamil volunteer teachers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 June 2003, 17:08 GMT]
One thousand Tamil medium volunteer teachers now serving in the Northeast province are to be made permanent in their posts on the instruction of the Public Service Commission (PSC) of the central government, NE Education Ministry Secretary Mr.R.Thiagalingam said Tuesday.
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