Helgesen meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2004, 09:47 GMT]
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Vidar Helgesen, met with LTTE Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan, at the LTTE Political Head Quarters in Kilinochchi Monday morning, for discussions on the stand of the LTTE regarding the recommencement of peace negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka, LTTE's peace secretariat website said.
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No date fixed for parliamentary debate on ISGA

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2004, 17:12 GMT]
No date has been fixed for the proposed three day debate on the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the fourth session of the parliament which is scheduled to begin Tuesday amid confusion and controversy as the minority United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government is still struggling to secure parliamentary majority, political sources said.
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World Bank team holds workshop in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 July 2004, 10:50 GMT]
World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka, Mr. Peter Harrold, and a team of World Bank officials held a workshop on humanitarian delivery at the Planning and Development Secretariat in Kilinochchi Monday, LTTE's peace secretariat website said. Head of LTTE Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan also separately met with Mr.Harrold, the report added.
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Dates for parliamentary debate on ISGA to be decided Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2004, 11:32 GMT]
The dates for the three-day debate on the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal submitted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last year, will be decided at the Monay meeting of the leaders of political parties represented in the current Sri Lanka parliament, parliamentary sources said.


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CFA is in jeopardy- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 03:30 GMT]
"...Ceasefire agreement [CFA] itself is in grave jeopardy, and without the ceasefire, there cannot be a peace process at all," said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna district, when TamilNet caught up with him in Washington D.C. and asked him for his views on the steadily deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka. Gajendrakumar is currently on a U.S. tour meeting with U.S. officials and addressing Tamil expatriates in different States.
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"View ISGA as the prelude to reunion"- Uyangoda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 01:58 GMT]
"Many UPFA critics have argued that the LTTE's ISGA proposals are a stepping-stone to secession. But, a government that is serious about negotiated peace in Sri Lanka should also be able to see a negotiated ISGA as the prelude to reunion after years of a secessionist war," said Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda in a political analysis column that appeared in Friday's Daily Mirror, a daily broadsheet published in Colombo.
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ISGA critical to peace, Tamil MPs tell US Think Tank

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2004, 02:14 GMT]
In a panel session organized by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., Mr.R.Sampanthan and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, told the audience that implementation of Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposed by the LTTE is critical to sustainable peace. Ms.Teresita Schaffer, former U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and CSIS Director of South Asia program presided the meeting.
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Kumaratunga ally rejects LTTE proposal for restarting talks

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2004, 13:35 GMT]
A senior leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the main coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's minority government Saturday declared that his party would not allow Colombo to restart Sri Lanka's long stalled peace talks on the basis of interim proposals submitted by the Liberation Tigers.
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"LTTE losing confidence in peace process"- UNF

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2004, 02:35 GMT]
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appears to be losing confidence on the peace process because of the contradictory stands taken by President Chandrika Kumaratunge," said the media spokesman of the main opposition, Professor G.L.Peiris, at a press briefing held Friday in Colombo, according to media sources.
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No ISGA outside parliamentary procedure - UPFA govt.

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2004, 16:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Media Minister and United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government's new cabinet spokesman Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, Friday rejected reports in a section of the media that the President was exploring the possibility of establishing Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) in the northeast province outside parliamentary procedure as baseless. '' There is absolutely no truth in such reports,'' Mr. Mangala Samaraweera said at the cabinet press briefing.
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Norway persists as stalemate deepens

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2004, 01:04 GMT]
The stalemate in Sri Lanka’s peace process continued this week, and even as Norwegian diplomats vowed to continue their shuttle diplomacy, President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government hardened its stance on the agenda for talks.


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Establish ISGA, appeals Jaffna Peoples Forum

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2004, 00:40 GMT]
Tamil Speaking Peoples Forum for Human Rights and Development based in Jaffna Wednesday appealed to the President Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunge to initiate bold step of recommencing negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to establish the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) which could handle all development and reconstruction projects in the northeast province.
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Thamilchelvan meets INGO delegates

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 June 2004, 11:11 GMT]
Head of Liberation Tigers Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan met with United Nations and International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) delegates at the Planning and Development Secretariat of the LTTE in Kilinochchi Tuesday, LTTE's Peace Secretariat website said. Thamilchelvan told the delegates the critical importance of making the "people real stake holders in development."
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Tigers lambast Kumaratunge's political duplicity

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2004, 02:56 GMT]
Blaming Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge for "linking ISGA with permanent poltical solution," as a "manipulative strategy to take forward the peace process for a while and then to abort it," the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam called upon the International community to recognize Ms.Kumaratunge's political duplicity and to "bring pressure on her government to be principled and honest in political negotiations," in a statement published in the Peace Secretariat website.
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Sri Lanka President urged to establish ISGA immediately

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 June 2004, 20:33 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Thursday told Sri Lanka President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge that Tamils couldn't depend any more on the Sinhala political leadership to enjoy their rights. ''The Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) should be established in the northeast without delay so that Tamils could enjoy self rule in their homeland,'' Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the TNA parliamentary group, told the President during a discussion held Thursday night in the Presidential House at the latter's invitation, TNA sources said.
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Rehabilitated NE Provincial council, no substitute for ISGA- Paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 June 2004, 00:22 GMT]
”Sri Lanka Government appears to think that by strengthening the NorthEast provincial council and Center for Rehabilitation it could weaken LTTE’s claim for ISGA and convince the International Community to start disbursing the allocated aid money. This back door diplomacy will not work. The mandate of 90% of NorthEast Tamils should be recognized and the Government can ignore Tamils demand only at its own peril,” said Thinakkural, a popular Tamil daily in its editorial Tuesday.
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Foreign envoys to be briefed on JVP's stand on ISGA

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2004, 21:00 GMT]
The Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Monday said that it would brief Colombo based foreign envoys the reasons for opposing the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal submitted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the northeast province, media sources in Colombo said.


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TNA to hold district level ISGA awareness meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2004, 14:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to hold its first district awareness meeting on the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) in Trincomalee town this weekend. "Probably it will be held on Friday or Saturday", TNA parliamentary group leader Mr.Sampanthan said.
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Self Governance, main focus of TNA Thamilchelvan Meet

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2004, 13:56 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians met with Leader of LTTE's Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan Saturday in the LTTE political head quarters in Kilinochchi for a four hour long meeting. The issues and the urgent need for institutionlizing self governance for NorthEast based on LTTE's Interim Self-Governing Authority proposals were discussed in the meeting, , LTTE peace secretariat website said.
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TNA MPs to meet LTTE political leadership Saturday

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2004, 00:40 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians are scheduled to the meet Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Saturday to discuss the current political situation in the south and the latest developments in reviving the peace talks through Norwegian facilitation, sources said.
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