Mutur SLA intelligence, Valaichenai Police attacked

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2001, 03:16 GMT]
Three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army intelligence unit stationed at Palathoppur, about five kilometres off south of Mutur town in Trincomalee district were killed and at least six were wounded in an attack by the Liberation Tigers around 11.15 p.m. Tuesday night, security sources said. On Sunday 9 November a group of SLA soldiers of the Palathoppur SLA Intelligence Unit in ambush killed three LTTE troopers in this area, security sources said. Meanwhile, in Valaichenai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa, the Tigers attacked the main Police camp around midnight, killing six military trained Policemen and wounding eleven. The Tigers went off with the camps armoury, paramilitary sources working with the SLA in the east said.
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SLA intelligence operative killed in east

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2001, 09:23 GMT]
An operative of the Sri Lanka army intelligence was killed in a counter ambush by the Liberation Tigers near the Batticaloa town in the early hours of the morning around 3.30 a.m Monday. A soldier was wounded in the attack. The military intelligence operative was identified as Corporal K. S Satkunanathan alias 'Kuyil'. He was a member of the 'Nithi group', paramilitary sources working with the SLA said.
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Sampanthan tells new PM to fulfil TNA demands

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 December 2001, 22:04 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Sunday told the new Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe that it would stick to its demands defined in its election manifesto in evolving a just and durable solution to the Tamil national question.
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“No interest in government formation”- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2001, 12:40 GMT]
“The Tamil National Alliance said Saturday that it has no interest in the formation of the new government. “We will do nothing to derogate from the verdict of the Sinhalese in the south. But we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated in anyway. Beyond this we have no interest in the formation of the new government”, said Mr. R. Sampanthan, MP for Trincomalee and a senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance. “The elections have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the Tamil people are solidly behind the Liberation Tigers. The results are also an endorsement that the Tamils are a distinct nation and that they have the right to self-determination. The Tamils have endorsed that the Liberation Tigers are their sole representatives, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham TNA MP for Batticaloa said.
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Tamils in Trincomalee score high

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 08:57 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance scored 56119 votes in the Trincomalee district. The Tamil United Liberation Front, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the main constituents of the TNA, were able to garner only 19110 votes between them at the general elections in October 2000. Polling was very high in the Tamil strongholds of the eastern district Wednesday. There are four seats in Trincomalee. The UNP, SLMC coalition got two seats by scoring 62, 915 votes here. If the UNP and the SLMC had contested separately them the TNA would have got the bonus seat for the district, officials said. The massive surge in support for the TNA in Trincomalee was largely due to the stand it took on the Liberation Tigers and the war. The EPDP was ignominiously routed despite offering jobs and cash to thousands of voters.
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Sinhala populism said driving PA, UNP agendas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 16:53 GMT]
The persistent propaganda by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and senior ministers of her People's Alliance government that the opposition United National Party is conspiring with Liberation Tigers to undermine the Sinhala nation and the opposition's efforts to deny the charge are inexorably transforming the question of ending the war into a taboo, a spokesman for the Tamil National Alliance said Tuesday.
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Rigging feared in 'clustered' polling centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 13:24 GMT]
Journalists, civil society leaders and politicians in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka island told independent and European Union polls observers to pay special attention to 'clustered' polling booths where thousands of Tamil voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers will have to cast their ballots Wednesday.
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Large crowds attend final TNA election rallies

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 December 2001, 23:25 GMT]
Large crowds attended the final election rallies of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Jaffna and Trincomalee held Sunday evening. About 15,000 people attended the TNA meeting held close to Nallur Kandaswamy Temple, said sources in the peninsula.
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Sri Lanka to wipe LTTE out ‘in three months’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2001, 01:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Friday said his ruling People’s Alliance (PA) government, if returned to power, would wipe out the Liberation Tigers within three months, the state-owned Daily News reported Saturday.
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LTTE leader makes special plea to the Sinhalese: 'reject racist forces, offer justice to the Tamils'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2001, 12:25 GMT]
In a special appeal made Tuesday to the majority Sinhala people faced with crucial parliamentary election early next month in Sri Lanka, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), urged them to reject racist forces committed to militarism and war and to offer justice to the Tamil people to bring about peace, ethnic reconciliation and economic prosperity to the island.
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Buddhist monks condemn autonomy for Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2001, 16:41 GMT]
Hundreds of Buddhist monks protested in Colombo Monday against granting an interim administrative council to run the northern and eastern parts of the island. The Sri Lankan government alleges that there is an insidious conspiracy by the United National party against the Sinhala people to hand over the northeastern province to the Liberation Tigers. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sinhala nationalists say that granting the LTTE the interim administration is treason. The protest was organised by the National Movement for the Defence of the Unitary State.
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Negotiations to end war said treason

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 17:35 GMT]
The United National Party Friday vehemently rejected Sri Lankan government's assertions that it is involved in an insidious conspiracy with the Liberation Tigers against the Sinhala people. State run print and electronic media gave wide publicity since Thursday to a telephone conversation allegedly between ex- UNP Parliamentarian Dr.Jayalath Jayawardena and an agent of the LTTE.
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Investors sense opposition win - FT

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 04:55 GMT]
(News Feature) Anticipation of an opposition victory in Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary polls next month is driving the present rally on the country’s tiny market despite the decline across Asia, with possibilities of peace efforts and a more market-friendly government drawing investors, Britain’s Financial Times reported Thursday. The respected financial daily said that while stocks on the Colombo exchange are looking over-valued, the market could keep rising if good news on the political front continues.
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President vows to thwart interim administration plans

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2001, 03:57 GMT]
(News Feature) Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Thursday vowed to derail the proposed peace efforts of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) if the latter were to come to power in next month’s Parliamentary elections, the state owned Daily News said Friday. Kumaratunga also urged people not to betray the country by voting for the UNP. Meanwhile, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) stepped up its efforts to portray the UNP as unpatriotic and soft on the LTTE by presenting to Sri Lanka’s influential Buddhist clergy a tape of a conversation that reportedly took place between a UNP MP and LTTE officials.
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President vows to exterminate LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2001, 02:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Wednesday stepped up its rhetoric against the Liberation Tigers vowing not to rest until the movement “was exterminated.” “Now I stress that we are determined more than at any time in our struggle to wipe out terrorism and we will continue to wage war against the Tigers to a logical conclusion," President Chandrika Kumaratunga was quoted by the state press as saying at an election rally of her ruling People's Alliance at Hanguranketha on Tuesday night. She also reiterated her accusations against the main opposition United National Party (UNP) saying it was in league with the LTTE to divide the country.
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"Elections in the NE a referendum on TNA policies" -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 November 2001, 20:13 GMT]
Mr.R.Sampanthan, Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Wednesday appealed to the Tamil people to consider the forthcoming general election in the Northeast province as a referendum in support of the policy of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that any future peace negotiations should be held with the Liberation Tigers only and no parallel talks should be held with any other Tamil groups.
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PM urges forces to defeat interim administration ‘conspiracy’

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2001, 05:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, this week called on the armed forces to defeat the peace strategy of the main opposition United National Party (UNP). “Your alert contribution is sought to defeat the conspiracy to divide the country by giving an interim administration to the North and East and guarantee the unity of the country,” the Premier said in a message to the armed forces. The notion of an interim administration is part of the UNP’s strategy to de-escalate the island’s protracted conflict.
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Sampanthan canvasses in LTTE held region

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 19:09 GMT]
Mr. R. Sampanthan, the secretary general of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) returned to Trincomalee Friday after two days of campaigning for the Tamil National Alliance in the villages of Mutur south which are held by the Liberation Tigers. He said that he had obtained due permission from the Sri Lanka army's 22 Division in Trincomalee to visit and hold propaganda meetings in the hinterland of Mutur which is under the control of the LTTE. "The electioneering in the LTTE held areas was very satisfactory and a large number of people came for our propaganda meetings with much interest," the secretary general of the TULF said. Mr. Sampanthan is the first Tamil parliamentarian to visit an LTTE held area in the northern or eastern part of the island with the SLA's permission.
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PA rejects concept of Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 November 2001, 01:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, reiterated his People's Alliance (PA) government's opposition to the concept of a Tamil homeland, the state press reported Friday. "The PA Government has directly and indirectly opposed to accept the concept of Tamil homeland. Therefore our stand is clear," the Daily News quoted Wickremenayake as saying while addressing a meeting in Kalutara town hall.
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