Vanni voters to stay overnight in Puliyankulam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2004, 13:29 GMT]
"Voters from Liberation Tigers controlled area in Vanni will not undergo regular checking at Omanthai Sri Lanka Army checkpoint, and voters from remote areas will be given the option to stay overnight at Puliyankulam with free transportation, lodging facilities," said Vavuniya Government Agent (GA) and Returning Officer K.Ganesh after a meeting Sunday with Vanni district Deputy Inspector General of Police, sources in Vavuniya said.
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Will continue to espouse NorthEast unity - Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2004, 04:21 GMT]
"I will carryout my campaign only on the basis of the LTTE's cardinal principles - find a political solution to the Tamil national problem based on the acceptance of the fundamental proposals regarding Tamil homeland consisting of North and East, Tamil Nation, Tamils’ right to self-government. If I am forced to deviate from these principles then I will not hesitate to withdraw my candidacy from the forthcoming elections," said Joseph Pararajasingham speaking to Canadian Tamil Radio (CTR).
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Eastern poet decries regionalism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 16:20 GMT]
In a statement to Tamil media on the recent raising of regionalism in the East by renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), Mr. Kasi Anandan, a well-known poet from the East, said that the more than 17,700 fighters from Tamil Eelam who sacrificed their lives in the liberation struggle did not do so for Jaffna or Batticaloa, but for Tamil Eelam. “I will never accept the division of Tamil Eelam as Jaffna and Batticaloa. The people of Tamil Eelam will live until their last breath for Tamil Eelam,” he said.


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Karuna’s revolt is 'temporary aberration' - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 08:43 GMT]
The rebellion by the LTTE’s former Batticaloa-Amparai commander is “not a major politico-military crisis in the LTTE,” the movement’s theoretician and chief negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said this week in his first public comment on the estrangement between Mr. V. Muraleetharan (Karuna) and the LTTE leadership. In a wide-ranging interview with the London based Tamil Guardian newspaper, Mr. Balasingham said “Karuna’s dissent would not seriously undermine the peace process or the Tamil national struggle.”
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Karuna Group bans Tamil daily

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 07:10 GMT]
The Karuna Group, led by the renegade LTTE regional leader, Mr. V. Muraleetharan, stopped the distribution of a popular Tamil daily in the Batticaloa Amparai districts from Wednesday. Armed cadres from the Karuna Group had threatened manager of the Thinakkural paper's regional office in Batticaloa with death. The paper was not sold in Batticaloa Wednesday.
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Karuna Group eyes cabinet portfolio

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2004, 06:28 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance candidates in Batticaloa who might be elected in the April polls to Sri Lanka’s Parliament should be ready to work with the government that comes to power in Colombo, according to instructions issued Monday by the Karuna Group to Tamil politicians in the troubled eastern district, sources said. One of the TNA MPs elected from Batticaloa would be given a cabinet portfolio, according to Mr. Rajan Sathiyamoorthy, a TNA candidate who is a confidante of Mr. V. Muraleetharan, the leader of the Karuna Group.
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"Denial of franchise will damage peace process"- TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2004, 14:46 GMT]
"Denial of franchise to Tamil voters residing in the Liberation Tigers held areas in the northeast province in the forthcoming general election will have serious impact on the current peace process," Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) told the Norwegian special peace envoy Mr. Erik Solheim during a discussion with the latter at the Norwegian embassy Monday morning, sources said.
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Karikalan addresses Jaffna university meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2004, 12:54 GMT]
“Karuna could not have acted traitorously without external backing. He has been bought over by an external power that is intent on destroying our liberation struggle and our leadership. People in the Batticaloa Amparai district know this now. He was instigated by the external power to betray his own people”, said Mr. Sivagnanam Karikalan, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers from the east, addressing a packed meeting at the University of Jaffna Monday. Mr. E. Kousalyan, the head of the LTTE’s political division for the Batticaloa Amparai district also spoke at the meeting.
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Dissent within Karuna loyalists?

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2004, 09:58 GMT]
The website run from Batticaloa under the direction of renegade commander, Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna), which was disabled for several hours after posting a message that apologized to the viewers for carrying messages against LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan, has now become operational. TamilNet is unable to confirm whether it was the work of outside cracker.
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Sri Lanka election violence on the increase

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2004, 00:49 GMT]
The Police Election Secretariat said Saturday that it receives daily at least ten complaints related to election violence from political parties. From February 17, the first day political parties started submitting their nomination list at the district election offices, until this Friday the Election Secretariat has received 373 complaints, Police sources said.


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Karuna embezzled funds, feared disciplinary action before split - Karikalan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2004, 00:05 GMT]
Mr.Sivagnanam Karikalan, a senior leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from the East who was close to the renegade former Eastern commander of the LTTE, Mr. Karuna, in an interview with the Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (ATBC) Friday disclosed for the first time that the Batticaloa crisis was precipitated when LTTE leadership summoned Karuna to Vanni after discovering financial irregularities and receiving allegations of questionable conduct. Fearing disciplinary action Karuna defied Vanni command and took unilateral action to split, Karikalan said.
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Batticaloa fast urges unity of Tamil military power

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2004, 14:00 GMT]
A group of cadres working with Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan (Karuna) organised a token fast Friday urging the LTTE to let the renegade commander work under the leadership of Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan. A memorandum on the objective of the token fast, which was handed out in Tamil and English, urges the LTTE leadership to withdraw the charge that Mr. Muraleetharan is a traitor and emphasises that the armed forces of the Liberation Tigers should work in unity towards achieving the independent state of Thamil Eelam.


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LTTE ready to help facilitate voting - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2004, 00:10 GMT]
"We told the [Norwegian] delegation that we are agreeable to locating the voting booths in the no-man zone, inside our checkpoint area or in the checkpoint area of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and that we will provide our full support and required assistance to implement voting procedures, and supervise voting," said S.P.Thamilchelvan, leader of the LTTE's political wing, answering questions from the press following his meeting with the Norwegian delegation in Kilinochchi Thursday morning.
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Karuna cadres burn Tamil dailies

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2004, 12:34 GMT]
A group of youths believed to be cadres working for the renegade LTTE commander Karuna Thursday morning seized and burnt about four thousand copies of Thursday edition of a Tamil daily THINAKKURAL and about one thousand copies of another daily VIRAKESARI when they were transported to Batticaloa for sale, police said.


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Rupavahini blamed for falsifying report

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2004, 11:24 GMT]
Amparai district former Tamil National Alliance (TNA)parliamentarian Mr. A.Chandra Nehru Thursday issued a statement denying a report carried by State controlled Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) saying that he participated in a demonstration burning the effigy of LTTE leader Mr.Pirapaharan, sources in Amparai said.


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Norway will not interfere in LTTE's internal matters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2004, 08:23 GMT]
Norway will not interfere in the internal matters of the Liberation Tigers said Mr. Erik Soheim speaking to the press at the conclusion of his meeting with Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan Thursday in Kilinochchi. “We did not involve ourselves in the discussion between the President and the Prime Minister and exactly in the same manner we will not take any part in the discussion between the LTTE leadership and Mr. Karuna. The first is an internal matter for the south and the second is an internal matter for the northeast”, Mr. Solheim said.
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Colombo won't interfere in Karuna split - spokesman

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2004, 17:50 GMT]
Colombo will not exploit the current situation in the east to gain political milage, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's care taker government, Prof. G. L Pieris said Wednesday. He said that his government will not interfere in Karuna's matter because it is an internal affair of the LTTE.
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Civilian interests must be upheld - NPC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 11:35 GMT]
"It is incumbent on the LTTE, government, political party leaders and civil society groups, and international ceasefire monitors to ensure that the ceasefire agreement is not violated by any party. In particular, we call on the government not to abdicate its responsibilities by the civilian population," said the National Peace Council (NPC), in a media release issued in Colombo today.
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British envoy meets Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 11:09 GMT]
The British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Mr. Steven Evans and other British officials met with LTTE's Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi today and discussed matters related to the current situation in Batticaloa, delivery of humanitarian assistance and voting issues in the forthcoming general elections, the LTTE peace secretariat website said.
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Col.Pathuman dismisses Karuna's speculation

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 March 2004, 15:49 GMT]
In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), Col.Pathuman, Liberation Tiger's Trincomalee commander, dismissed speculation by renegade former LTTE commander from Batticaloa-Ampara Karuna that the LTTE leadership is holding Pathuman under house arrest in Vanni.
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