SL Govt. is preparing for war-Jaffna undergrads

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 15:57 GMT]
''Main aim of the Deputy Defense Minister Mr.Ratnasiri Wickremanayake's visit to Jaffna district was to put the security forces on red alert for another war. His inspection of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forward defense lines of Muhamalai has proved Sri Lanka government's intention beyond any doubt,'' said the Jaffna University Students Forum (JUSF) in a statement issued to the media today.
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US military assistance weakening peace process -TNA

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 15:52 GMT]
Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians told Ms Cody Taylor, political officer of the United States (US) embassy, that the progress made during the peace talks in affording equal status to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has been weakened by the military training and assistance given by the U.S. Government to the Sri Lanka armed forces. Ms Taylor arrived in Jaffna Friday afternoon and met with the TNA parliamentarians at the office of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said.
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SL President committed to peace despite Batticaloa fears - Dhanapala

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 12:54 GMT]
The delay in restarting peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers is due the preparation of the agenda, said Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, chairman of the GOSL peace secretariat, speaking to journalists at the conclusion of his visit to Batticaloa Friday. Speaking in Sinhala, he said the situation in the east is bad after Karuna split from the LTTE and that there is a concern that this could adversely affect the peace. President Kumaratunga, however, remains committed to taking forward the peace process, Dr. Dhanapala said.
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Hundred thousand drop in Jaffna student population - GA

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 July 2004, 11:34 GMT]
Jaffna's student population has dwindled by more than a hundred thousand since 1995, Government Agent for the northern district said Friday, speaking at a meeting on development priorities in the peninsula. Educationists in Jaffna say prolonged war, poverty, displacement and garrisioning of entire towns and villages by Sri Lankan armed forces caused the huge drop in the peninsula's student population.
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EPDP says party paper burnt

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2004, 14:30 GMT]
Copies of a Tamil weekly 'Thinamurasu'', published in Colombo by Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) were burnt in Jaffna by unidentified persons Wednesday evening, EPDP sources said.
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Soccer tournament in Trinco in memory of Lt Seelan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 18:33 GMT]
Trincomalee district sports section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sponsored Foot Ball tournament under the auspices of Trincomalee Foot Ball League to mark the twenty first death anniversary of senior military leader Lt.Seelan (Charles Antony) was inaugurated Wednesday in Trincomalee Mc Heyzer Stadium.
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Government bent on creating war-phobia - Elilan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 17:53 GMT]
''Statements made by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and chauvinist political parties on the question of finding a political solution to the Tamil national question are aimed to create disharmony among communities and to unleash violence in Sri Lanka,'' said Mr.S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) addressing a meeting held at Eachchilampathu Sri Shenabaga Maha Vidiyalayam in the Muttur east division Tuesday. The meeting was organized by the Thamileelam National Resurgence Forum, sources said.
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Colombo promoting Karuna to destroy LTTE – US think tank

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 12:35 GMT]
Former LTTE Commander Karuna's defection was supported at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government with tacit US approval, press reports quoted US geopolitical analysts as saying this week.
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Sri Lanka, LTTE urged to sign anti-landmine treaties

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2004, 11:23 GMT]
Landmine Ban Advocay Forum, a group of Humanitarian Organizations, including the UNDP and UNICEF, called on the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers to sign treaties Banning Anti-Personnel Landmines in Colombo Wednesday.
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Terror Stalks journalists in the East - RSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 17:48 GMT]
The French media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) said Tuesday in special report on threats faced by journalists in Sri Lanka's eastcoast: "The impunity which prevails in cases involving the murder and assault of journalists is seriously jeopardizing press freedom and the peace process in Sri Lanka."
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JVP wants police promotions probed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 16:00 GMT]
The Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Tuesday requested Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to order a full scale probe into the alleged irregularities in the recent promotion of police officers made by the National Police Commission (NPC), 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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Norwegian ambassador to visit Killinochchi Tuesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 14:35 GMT]
Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka Mr. Hans Brattskar is scheduled to hold discussions with the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan Tuesday, sources in Colombo said.


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JVP mounts poster campaign against Peace Talks

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 10:56 GMT]
Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), ultra leftist and Marxist coalition partner of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government today began a poster campaign in Colombo and suburbs against pursuing peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelalm (LTTE), political sources from Colombo said.
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Captain Vanathy memorial prizes awarded at literary event

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2004, 00:05 GMT]
Literary prizes from Captain Vanathy memorial competition (2004) were awarded and Senior women writers were felicitated in a ceremony, organized by Capt. Vanathy Publications, and held in District Cultural Hall in Kilinochchi Sunday at 10.00 am, sources in Vanni said. The event was presided by Thamilaval, a director at the publishing organization sponsoring the event.
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LTTE slams Colombo for open support to renegade

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 14:44 GMT]
Head of the Liberation Tigers' political division for Batticaloa, Mr. E Kousalyan, Sunday slammed the Sri Lankan government for "openly promoting" renegade commander Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) by "providing him state radio facilities to attack the Tigers with the obvious aim of destroying the mutual goodwill on which the cease fire is based."
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Four Tamil youth arrested with weapons near Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 13:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police arrested four Tamil youth with weapons Saturday night in a town near Colombo. One of them is from Batticaloa, Police said.
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US military intelligence team visits Palaly

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2004, 10:38 GMT]
A top US military intelligence team visited the sprawling Sri Lankan armed forces base of Palaly-Kankesanthurai in Jaffna for high level discussions on security and defence issues, according reports in the Tamil press Sunday.
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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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Flag Day to commemorate Welikada prison massacre victims

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2004, 11:02 GMT]
The Flag Day jointly organized by the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and Tamil People Forum (TPF) to commemorate the massacre of 53 Tamil political activists in Welikada jail twenty one years ago in July 1983 was inaugurated in Trincomalee town Saturday morning at the office of the TELO presided by a TELO enior activist Mr.Anpumani. Mr. Indrakumar Prasanna, general secretary of the TELO inaugurated the flag week in Batticaloa town.
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