Velanai committee begins inquiry

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 July 2002, 13:26 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Committee of Inquiry tasked to investigate the assault on June 20 of two unarmed members of the Liberation Tigers’ political section, allegedly by naval personnel and Tamil paramilitaries, commenced its public sittings Tuesday morning at the Jaffna Secretariat. The committee has been appointed by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence at the behest of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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President fears cabinet ambush

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 July 2002, 00:57 GMT]
The war of words between Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Parliamentary government of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe escalated this week with the President telling a meeting of her Sri Lanka Freedom Party that attending cabinet meetings posed a threat to her life, the Sunday Leader reported.
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State paper protests President’s pressure

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 July 2002, 11:59 GMT]
Embroiled in a financial scandal regarding imports of foreign cars, President Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered a government-owned newspaper to publish her official statement as its lead story on Thursday, the publication’s editor protested Friday. The state-owned Daily News followed Kumaratunga’s instructions but insisted it had been subjected to unwarranted pressure though the President’s spokesman said ‘a request’ had merely been made.
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Sri Lanka opposition exhorts rejection of cease-fire deal

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 July 2002, 18:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition parties and several Sinhala nationalist groups held a large public rally of more than five thousand in Colombo Tuesday, condemning peace negotiations between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe's government and the Liberation Tigers as a conspiracy to divide the island. The main speakers at the rally exhorted the Sinhala people to reject the cease-fire agreement between Colombo and the LTTE.
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Sri Lanka plans to impeach President - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 July 2002, 02:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government last week decided to impeach President Chandrika Kumaratunga on a wide range of issues from corruption to the abuse of power, The Sunday Leader newspaper reported. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed his ministers to start drafting the impeachment resolution with immediate effect, it said.
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Ceasefire has reduced human rights violations - Amnesty

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 June 2002, 11:15 GMT]
Ending a two-week visit to Sri Lanka, Amnesty International (AI) delegates welcomed the positive engagement and cooperation from both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on issues of human rights and the peace process. "The current climate is one of pragmatic hope," Derek Evans, head of the delegation said. "The cease-fire agreement has made a significant impact in reducing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka."
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MPs allege Police hand in Valaichenai violence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 June 2002, 16:10 GMT]
The three Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians of the Batticaloa district Saturday alleged that the Police too had a hand in the violence in Valaichenai Thursday and Friday. In a letter to Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe they charged that Police officers in charge of the area had acted partially. They asked the Prime Minister to appoint a Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge to inquire into the violence.
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Ampara monitors say govt. apathy hampering work

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 June 2002, 21:10 GMT]
Sri Lankan security forces continue to occupy two hospitals, ten schools and five Hindu Temples in the Ampara district. Speaking at a discussion arranged by a local journalists' association, Mr. Svein Myklebust, acting head of the SLMM for the Ampara district, said seventy-four complaints of cease-fire violations in the region have been received so far, adding, "the number of complaints is not a reflection of the ground reality." Meanwhile, the two LTTE nominees of the Ampara SLMM told TamilNet Colombo's apathy regarding their status is seriously hindering them from carrying out their duties as cease-fire monitors.
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"cease-fire agreement has not conferred normalcy on Tamils in northeast" -TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 19:24 GMT]
"The cease-fire agreement signed by the government with the Liberation Tigers 120 days ago, has not yet conferred on all the Tamil people of the Northeast all the freedoms to carry on a normal life, freedoms that have been conferred on all other people in all parts of the country, including the Northeast," the Tamil National Alliance delegation Wednesday told the Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe at a conference held at the parliament complex.
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'Thiriyai destruction deliberate' - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 15:47 GMT]
"The destruction of the Thiriyai Tamil village appears to have been deliberate: there were no attacks and counter attacks in the village in the course of which the destruction could have occurred. The destruction has also been total. Such a deliberate attack should have had a clear objective. It appears to me that the objective was to prevent the displaced Tamil people returning to Thiriyai," Mr.R.Sampanthan, TNA parliamentarian from Trincomalee, told the Prime Minister Wednesday morning at a discussion between the delegations of the TNA and the United National Front government.
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JVP opposes lifting LTTE ban

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 02:41 GMT]
Thousands of the public and supporters of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna demonstrated in downtown Colombo Wednesday against lifting the ban on the Liberation Tigers and granting them the interim administration of the northeastern province. The protestors, including Buddhist monks, held up placards and shouted slogans against granting Tamils the right to self-determination.
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MP lists occupied temples, schools in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2002, 16:10 GMT]
Trincomalee parliamentarian R. Sampanthan Monday sent a letter by fax to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe listing schools, places of worship, private lands and public buildings in the Trincomalee district which have not been vacated by the State armed forces even one hundred and fifteen have passed after signing the ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers on February 23. The list included five places of worship, twelve schools and eighteen public buildings and private lands which are still in the hands of State armed forces.
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Peace secretariat official's visit to China deplored

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 June 2002, 18:25 GMT]
"It is most disturbing that a member of the Peace Secretariat has gone to China along with the Defence Minister and the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy presumably to procure arms and to modernize the Navy at the expense of the poor people of this country. This has to be viewed in the context that Tamil fishermen in the northeast view the Sri Lanka Navy as an undisciplined force," said Tamil Human Rights lawyer Mr.K.Sivapalan Saturday. Mr. Sivapalan is a member of the Trincomalee Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
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PM to meet TNA over government cease-fire violations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 June 2002, 22:31 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe has invited the leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for talks on June 19 at the Parliamentary complex. The invitation was sent to Mr.R.Sampanthan, the leader of the TNA parliamentary group.
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Changes in SLA senior ranks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 June 2002, 23:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Army Tuesday announced changes in some of its senior ranks. Major General L. C. R Goonewardene has been appointed new Chief of Staff while Major General A.E.D Wijendra has been appointed his deputy. Meanwhile press reports said SLA Commander Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle would serve an extended term with the approval of the United National Front government.
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‘SLA constructions undermine truce’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 June 2002, 18:04 GMT]
The construction of new camps and bunkers by the Sri Lankan military in Jaffna was undermining the restoration of normalcy and violated the spirit of the ceasefire agreement between the LTTE an the government, the head of the Liberation Tigers' political section in the northern peninsula, Mr. T. Ilamparithi, told a press briefing Saturday.
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Development Forum awaits 'urgent change'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 June 2002, 23:54 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government needs to move faster in securing peace and implementing economic reforms, the Vice President of the World Bank's South Asia region, Mieko Nishimizu, said Thursday in her concluding statement to the Sri Lanka Development Forum meeting in Colombo.
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Disabled soldiers march for peace

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 18:33 GMT]
Sri Lankan soldiers maimed in the war against the Liberation Tigers Wednesday marched in downtown Colombo in support of the current peace talks to end the island's conflict. They handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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Sivasithamparam's funeral in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 18:08 GMT]
The funeral of the TNA leader Mr. Murugesu Sivasithamparam will be held at his birthplace Karaveddy in Jaffna district Sunday noon, party sources said. Mr.Sivasithamparam body now lies at his residence at Havelock Road, Thimbirigasaya, in Colombo.
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LTTE ban to go ten days before Thailand talks - PM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 June 2002, 11:48 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe Wednesday assured the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be removed ten days ahead of the commencement of the peace talks in Thailand. The Prime Minister met a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for a discussion on the peace process held Wednesday morning at his office in the parliament.
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