LTTE ready to resume talks based on ISGA- Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2004, 10:48 GMT]
Institutionalising the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals put forward by the Liberation Tigers must be viewed on a humanitarian perspective rather than making it a political bargain to satisfy extremist elements in the southern polity, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, the head of the LTTE’s political wing told Norwegian Deputy Ambassador at a meeting held in Kilinochchi, Saturday. "We are waiting for a positive response from the government to recommence negotiations on the basis of ISGA proposals," Mr. Thamilchelvan told the Norwegian diplomat, LTTE’s peace secretariat website reported.
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Madhu Church festival begins

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2004, 03:05 GMT]
Large numbers of devotees are flocking to the Madhu Church in Mannar to celebrate the annual festival of the Church. The roads leading to the Church will remain open 24 hours from August 13 to August 18, according to Mr. Rupu Gunaratne, the Sri Lanka police officer in charge of the roads.
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Bata warehouse gutted by fire

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 16:16 GMT]
Bata company's finished product ware house in Kattubedda on the southern outskirts of Colombo was gutted by fire in the early hours of Friday. Police said that the arsonists would be arrested soon.
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TNA MPs welcome POTA's repeal, urge India to revoke ban

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 13:52 GMT]
''We welcome the Indian Central Government for its intention to abolish the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). At the same time, we also urge the Indian Government to consider lifting the ban on the LTTE and create a more meaningful and conducive environment necessary to bring the stalled peace process in Sri Lanka back on track'', TNA MPs Mr. Joseph Pararajasingam and Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan told TamilNet Friday.
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Trinco Rotarians hold medical camp in Eachilampathu villages

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 August 2004, 02:34 GMT]
The Trincomalee Rotary Club last weekend conducted a one-day medical clinic in the village Muttuchenai, which is located in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE )-held Eachilampathu division in the Trincomalee district. Rotarian Dr.E.G.Gnanakunalan organized the clinic with the assistance of Capt. Charles Gnanakone of Humanitarian Rehabilitation Services of NE (Lanka) Ltd, Colombo, who provided thirty thousand rupees worth of medicine to the clinic, sources said.
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TNA, LTTE map strategy for grass roots campaign

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2004, 17:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians in the Batticaloa-Amparai districts Thursday mapped out a strategy for grass roots campaign to educate people in the region about ''the political, economic, social and historical background and roots of the Tamil struggle'', an LTTE official in the east said.
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Jaffna TNA MPs to implement common development programme

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2004, 15:31 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Thursday decided to implement a common development programme in the Jaffna district with the funds allocated to them under the Decentralized Budget (DCB) by the central government.
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Civil Society Forum supports federal constitution in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2004, 21:06 GMT]
"An Interim Administrative structure should be established in the NorthEast Province on the basis of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Thereafter a new constitution based on the fully-fledged federal concept should be formulated. The country would be divided into two in failing to do so," said Civil Socieity Forum Chairman, Dr.Kumar Rupasinghe, addressing a press conference Wednesday at Hotel Nippon in Colombo.
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SLFP, UNP should act together to recommence negotiations - NLF

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2004, 02:57 GMT]
"It is indeed absolutely incumbent on the two so-called major parties (UNP and SLFP) to get their act together to recommence negotiations and take them forward fruitfully to an equitable outcome, especially because it is these two parties that are irrefutably responsible, jointly and severally, for the sins of omission and commission that triggered the 20 year long war," Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne, the leader of the New Left Front (NLF), told TamilNet in an interview Monday.
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EPDP cadre shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2004, 17:44 GMT]
Unidentified gunman shot dead a paramilitary cadre of the EPDP in the heart of Trincomale town, around 9.30 p.m., Tuesday, police in the eastern port town said.
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Usan IDPs picket demanding resettlement

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2004, 22:50 GMT]
Internally displaced families of Usan, a village in Thenmaradchchi division in Jaffna district Monday picketed the Thenamaradchchi divisional secretariat demanding that they should be allowed to resettle in their own houses now being occupied by the Sri Lanka Army in the name of high security zone. The picketing crippled the normal function of the Thenmaradchchi DS office, civil sources said.
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"LTTE's ISGA, Govt's interim proposal basis for talks" - Dhanapala

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2004, 12:03 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan Government is also preparing a draft interim proposal like the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Peace talks between the GOSL and LTTE could commence on the basis of the proposals by the parties concerned," said Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, Chairman of the Sri Lankan Government Peace Secretariat addressing members of the Consortium of Jaffna District Non-Governmental Organizations Monday afternoon.
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Tamil-Muslim unity stressed at Kurankupanchchan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 17:31 GMT]
Mr. S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Mr.H.Y.Hithayathulla, and Secretary of the Kinniya Jamiathul Ulama Council (Muslim Theologian Council) Saturday addressing Kurankupanchan Muslim farmers pledged to work for the unity of Tamils and Muslims in the Trincomalee district.
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Corporal Rajapakse launches hunger strike in Jaffna prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 16:33 GMT]
Corporal Rajapakse of the Sri Lanka Army who was sentenced to death in the Krishanthy rape and murder case launched a hunger strike in Jaffna prison demanding that he should be transfered to Welikada jail. His hunger strike entered third day Sunday, prison sources said.
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Sri Lanka renews weapons deal with China

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 14:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has renewed an agreement with China to continue to procure military hardware from a bonded warehouse Beijing set up ten years ago in the southern capital Galle, the Sunday Times reported. Sri Lanka’s Army, Navy and Air Force have already drawn up their immediate requirements, the paper said.
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Refugees abandoned on mid sea sandbank

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 12:06 GMT]
Nine refugees who were abandoned by two Indian boatmen on a sandbank in the middle of the sea in the Gulf of Mannar were rescued by a fisherman from Thalaimannar Saturday. Mannar magistrate released them when they were produced before him by Thalaimannar Police Sunday. The refugees said the boatmen had forced them to get off on a small shifting sandbank at midsea around midnight on Thursday. The influx of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from state run camps in South India who risk illegal and dangerous sea journeys to reach Mannar has increased dramatically recently.
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Slain Batticaloa journalist remembered in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 August 2004, 00:12 GMT]
The Listners' Circle of Canadian Tamil Radio based in Toronto Saturday presented three hundred and fifty thousand rupees to the family of slain Batticaloa journalist Mr. Aiyathurai Nadesan at a function held at the Vavuniya Urban Council hall Saturday. Mr. Nadesan, a senior Tamil journalist and the Batticaloa correspondent for the Tamil daily Virakesari and several local and foreign electronic media was shot dead on 31 May by gunmen believed to be associates of renegade LTTE commander 'Karuna'.
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LTTE leader felicitates expatriate language activist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2004, 21:16 GMT]
The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, Saturday honored 77 year old Mr. Ira. Nagalingam from Germany for his contribution to Tamil language and cultural education among children in the Tamil diaspora in Germany. Mr. Nagalingam received an award embossed with the Tiger emblem from the LTTE leader.
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LTTE allows Kurankupanchan Muslim farmers to cultivate their fields

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2004, 17:39 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Saturday told Muslim farmers that they would be allowed to cultivate their paddy fields in Kurankupanchchan village from the oncoming season freely and without any restriction and they could also renovate the abandoned mosque in the area. Kurankupanchan village is located about 25 km. off Trincomalee town.
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Jaffna court stopped from inquiring into shooting case

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2004, 23:01 GMT]
The Court of Appeal has instructed the Jaffna Magistrate court to stop all proceedings in a case in which two Sri Lanka Army soldiers have been charged with the attempted murder of an 18 year-old Tamil boy for August 23. The boy was shot at by SLA soldiers when he was selling copies of a Tamil daily ‘Eelanatham’ in Jaffna town in December 2003.
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