LTTE commanders, Parents meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 February 2003, 12:41 GMT]
Commanders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) officially met with more than five thousand parents of LTTE fighters and martyrs in Palugamam, Batticaloa district, first time after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (Mou), sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLN stops repairs to LTTE war memorial

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 February 2003, 18:55 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) Sunday morning deployed its personnel preventing repairs to a Liberation Tigers war memorial at the Gopalapuram junction, in Nilaveli village, sixteen km off north of Trincomalee town, residents of the area said.
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GOSL, LTTE hold high-level conference in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 January 2003, 16:35 GMT]
A high level conference between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE, observed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, was held from 10:15 am to 3:30 pm Thursday at the Vavunatheevu divisional secretariat, located in no-man’s land in the Batticaloa district, sources said.
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Stop harassing fishermen, Court tells SLN commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 January 2003, 15:43 GMT]
The Muttur Magistrate Mr. T.L.A.Manaf Monday instructed the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to assist Muttur Police to arrest SLN personnel who were in the naval craft which rammed the fishing boat, killing one Muslim fisherman on December 31 last year, legal sources said.
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Sinhala opposition to Sri Lanka peace effort mounts

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:32 GMT]
Opposition to Sri Lanka’s peace process gathered further momentum as a new Sinhala nationalist organisation comprising powerful opposition politicians and Buddhist monks wowed Wednesday to agitate for separating the northeast into two provinces. Agitation by Sinhala nationalists to de-merge the northeast would be another spanner in the works for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s effort to negotiate peace with the Liberation Tigers to end two decades of armed conflict that has ravaged the island.


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Committee to activate Trincomalee university campus

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 January 2003, 15:31 GMT]
The Prime Minister has appointed a high level committee to activate the functions of the Trincomalee campus of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka following request made by the Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan. Mr. Sampanthan requested the PM to take immediate steps to develop the Trincomalee campus providing all facilities as it has been ignored by the authorities, sources said.
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Agreement on resettlement as talks conclude

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 07:49 GMT]
The fourth round of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand with parties reaching agreement on accelerated action on resettlement of displaced people and making progress on human rights, the Norwegian government said.
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Grade-1 school enrolments up

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2003, 02:16 GMT]
After a marked decline in admissions to Grade 1 in NorthEast schools for the last twenty years, the numbers have reached a record high this year, said Karunasena Kodituwaku, Minister of Education, in a report published today. In the last two days only the numbers admitted to Grade-1 reached seventy thousand, sources in Jaffna said.
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PTA to stay - Defence Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2003, 15:35 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Defence Minister, Mr. Tilak Marapone, said in parliament Friday that a decision on abolishing the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary provisions) Act would be made only after considering all future repercussions of such a removal. The present situation is "not conducive to doing away with the PTA," said Mr. Marapone.


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UNICEF program for children in NE inaugurated

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2003, 18:13 GMT]
The UNICEF on Thursday marked the start of a program specially formulated for the children of the war-torn North-East province, the ‘Every Child in School Programme,’ with an inaugural speech by the Sri Lankan government’s minister for human resources development, education and cultural affairs, Mr. Karunasena Kodithuwakku, at the St. Mary’s college in Trincomalee.
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‘Every child in school programme’ to be inaugurated in NE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2003, 13:22 GMT]
‘Every child in school programme’ sponsored by the UNICEF in the northeast province will be inaugurated in Trincomalee Thursday, 9 January, morning by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Education and Cultural Affairs Dr.Karunasena Kodituwakku.
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Parliament approves two more labour bills

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 January 2003, 13:15 GMT]
Two more labour bills, the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions (Amendment) Bill and Industrial Disputes (Hearing and determination of Proceedings Special Provisions Bill were adopted in parliament Wednesday with a majority for 47 votes and 53 respectively.
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Peace talks are going well, say Chief Negotiators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2003, 18:19 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government conceded this week that the resettlement of Tamil refugees and internally displaced people in areas occupied by its military forces could not be made conditional on the disarming of the Liberation Tigers, as demanded by the Army. Following two days of discussion, hailed by both sides as “constructive,” the government also said it would begin to reallocate its troops based amongst civilians in the Jaffna peninsula.
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‘Defunct’ SDN is shut down

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2003, 17:56 GMT]
Following several unsuccessful meetings of the Sub-Committee on De-escalation and Normalisation (SDN), at which the Sri Lanka Army refused to reallocate its troops to pave the way for the resettlement of refugees, the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government Tuesday decided to shut down and discuss the matter in future at the direct talks between the two sides.
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Fourth round of talks begin

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 January 2003, 10:31 GMT]
The fourth round of direct talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government began Monday at the Rose Garden hotel, 32km west of Bangkok, Thailand. The LTTE and Sri Lankan delegations were led by Chief Negotiators, Mr. Anton Balasingham and Prof. G. L Peiris respectively. The Norwegian facilitators were led by Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vidar Helegesen.
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'EPDP is being used to derail peace process'- Karuna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 December 2002, 16:51 GMT]
"Some elements are using the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) to derail the peace process. The return of EPDP members to Nedunthivu and recent incidents in Nelliady have clearly demonstrated the motives of such elements," Colonel Karuna, Special Commander of the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) in Batticaloa-Ampara district said Saturday.
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Phased approach agreed to address Jaffna HSZ resettlement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 December 2002, 13:54 GMT]
At the second meeting of the Sub Committee on De-escalation and Normalization (SDN) held Saturday at Muhamalai it was agreed that a solution to the resettlement of internally displaced people in High Security Zones (HSZ) and other areas presently perceived as inaccessible to the public could be only solved through integrated plans of action agreed upon by the two parties, said a press release issued by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka.
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LTTE officials study Swiss Federalism

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 December 2002, 17:41 GMT]
A top level delegation of the Liberation Tigers this week visited Switzerland at the invitation of the government there to study the country’s federal system, officials said. In a packed schedule, the Tiger delegation met with senior officials of the Swiss government, but squeezed in time to take a guided tour of Bern, they said.
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EPDP, PLOTE, EPRLF meet SLA officers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 December 2002, 20:38 GMT]
The paramilitary EPDP, PLOTE and EPRLF(V) groups met with officers of the Sri Lanka armed forces at the headquarters of the 23-3 brigade of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Batticaloa today to discuss their own security, sources said.
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LTTE, GOSL reach exploratory agreement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 December 2002, 12:04 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reached an exploratory agreement Thursday to “explore a solution to end the island’s conflict founded on the principle of internal self determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka”. “Sri Lanka needs a new constitution that would radically transform its polity," said Chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers, Mr. Anton Balasingham, addressing a joint press conference Thursday morning at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Oslo.
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