Linganagar Tamils complain of SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 18:41 GMT]
The People Welfare Society (PWF) of Linganagar Friday made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee that soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning a check point in the area are harassing the residents of Linganagar, a crowded suburb of Trincomalee town, civil rights sources said.


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SLN arrests four Valvettithurai fishermen

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 17:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy Friday arrested four Tamil fishermen of Athikoviladi, Valvettithurai in Jaffna district when they had gone to the sea in search of missing fishing gear. The Palaly Military Headquarters has informed the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission monitors in Jaffna later Friday evening that the fishermen in custody would be produced in Mallakam court Saturday, fisheries sources said.


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New NATO spokesperson, Canadian Tamil

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 15:47 GMT]
James Appathurai, 35, a Canadian Tamil, has been appointed as the spokesperson of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Friday, Associated Press reported.
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Chandrasekaran calls for a Joint Tamil Front

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 13:41 GMT]
Mr.Periyasamy Chandrasekaran, Leader of the Upcountry People's Front and a Member of Parliament for the Nuwara Eliya district appealed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to join forces with parties of upcountry Tamils to strengthen the political power of Tamils. "Tamils should unite to consolidate their political power if we are to effectively confront the re-emerging unification of Sinhala chauvinist forces," said Mr.Chandrasekaran talking to reporters after meeting LTTE's Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi today.
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Anura Bandaranaike denies secrecy in SLFP-JVP pact

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 12:15 GMT]
Peoples Alliance parliamentarian Mr.Anura Bandaranaike in a statement issued Friday denied any secrecy in the agreement signed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sinhala Nationalist Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in forming the United Peoples Freedom Alliance ( UPFA ).


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'Singhalese should reject chauvinist forces'- LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2004, 11:25 GMT]
“If the Sinhala people elect racist political leaders at the next election then Tamils might have to decide their own future. The Sinhala people should identify and reject chauvinist forces among them. It is in the hands of the Singhalese to prevent another bloodbath in this island," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the Liberation Tigers political division during a goodwill meeting with journalists from the northeast in Kilinochchi Friday.
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NECORD funds school buildings for Muttur east villages

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2004, 15:14 GMT]
New buildings constructed at a cost of about 3.8 million rupees in two Tamil schools in the villages, Ilankathurai Muhathuwaram and Poomarathadichchenai in the Eachilampathu division in Trincomalee district by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD) project will be declared open on Friday, NECORD Trincomalee Deputy Project Director Mr. R.Umakanthan said.


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SL Airlines assists Trincomalee students

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2004, 13:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Airlines, at an event in Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam Thursday donated a consignment of exercise books and other learning kits to more than three hundred fifty students of rural schools badly affected in the two-decade-old war in the Trincomalee education zone, education officials said.


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JVP-SLFP MoU introduces new complexity- Akashi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2004, 07:54 GMT]
"We declined to accept Mr. Akashi’s invitation to participate in Sri Lanka donors’ conference in Colombo tomorrow because there is no political stability and unified leadership of government in Colombo now. Our participation in this circumstance would cause doubts in the minds of the Tamil people," said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, speaking to the press at the conclusion of his meeting with Japan’s special representative to Sri Lanka Thursday in Kilinochchi. Mr. Akashi told presspersons the JVP-SLFP MoU ''introduces a new complexity to Sri Lanka."
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Manivannan in Jaffna to plan movie

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2004, 02:10 GMT]
“I am here to see the conditions in which Eelam Tamils live. I intend to make a movie about their lives. I want to make it authentic. That’s what brought me here at the invitation of Tilco Holidays”, said south Indian film star and producer ‘Manivannan’ speaking to the press in Jaffna town Wednesday night.
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TNA delegation meets Akashi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 12:05 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Wednesday told the Japanese special peace envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi that the international community should come forward to help the Tamils in the north east province with an alternative plan to restore normalcy in their lives and to develop their war-ravaged homeland if the political rivalry among Sinhala political leaders stalls the peace process, TNA sources said.


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JVP-SLFP pact threatens peace and is set to provoke ethnic war- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 10:01 GMT]
“The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the JVP and the SLFP after a year of intense dialogue fails to produce any concrete, realistic formula for a negotiated settlement of the Tamil national question. Rather, this anti-peace political pact articulating an incoherent, confused and mutually contradictory position on a serious national issue might create objective conditions for the resumption of ethnic war," Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the LTTE told TamilNet Wednesday.
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'Tamils ready to face war'-minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 09:08 GMT]
''We are prepared to face a war'' declared Minister Chandrasekeran at the Pongu Thamil rally in Batticaloa Wednesday referring to recent political developments in Colombo. He urged Tamils in all parts of Sri Lanka to unite under one banner.
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LTTE commander warns of grave consequences

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2004, 07:57 GMT]
"If the Sinhala government thinks that our leader's sincere efforts to find a peaceful solution is a manifestation of weakness and thrusts a war on us, the consequences would be very grave," said Mr. T. Ramesh, LTTE's special commander for the Batticaloa-Ampara District, addressing a massive Pongu Thamil rally in Batticaloa Wednesday.
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JVP leader says totally opposed to SLFP’s power sharing policy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 13:46 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, the secretive leader of the JVP said that his party is totally against the SLFP policy of sharing power despite the alliance both parties have formed. In a wide-ranging interview with an online publication before his departure from an unnamed western country to Sri Lanka on Monday, Mr. Amarasingha castigated Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for behaving like an American puppet and for “speaking like a ruler of a land occupied by the US”. He asserted that the India - Sri Lanka Defence Pact should be made a cornerstone of the island’s foreign policy.
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SLFP-JVP MoU slams Sri Lanka’s peace process

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 10:27 GMT]
The memorandum of understanding signed by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Tuesday slammed the peace process, asserting that it “threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of the country, degrading its dignity”. The MoU also lambasted Mr. Wickremesinghe’s government for promoting “crony capitalism, racketeering, corruption and subservience to international financial institutions”.
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Akashi arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 02:04 GMT]
Japanese special peace envoy Mr.Yasushi Akashi arrived at Katunayake International Airport in Colombo Monday around midnight for a weeklong stay in Sri Lanka. "We will not interfere in the current political impasses now prevailing in Colombo. It is the duty of the political leaders of of Sri Lanka to find solution to their problem," Mr.Akashi told journalists on his arrival, media sources said.


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Tamil businessman shot dead in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2004, 00:44 GMT]
Daniel Sathasivam, 47, a wealthy businessman from Dehiwela was shot dead Saturday night by unknown gunmen inside the Communications Center he owned in Dehiwela, Uthayan, a popular daily in Jaffna reported.
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Sihala Urumaya opposes direct foreign aid to NorthEast

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 16:21 GMT]
The Sihala Urumaya (SU) Monday appealed to all political parties in the south to come forward to oppose channeling foreign aid direct to the five-year development plan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to a report carried by the State controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in its Monday's late night news bulletin, sources said.


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Cannot delay basic needs of NE accede donors

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2004, 11:43 GMT]
"It has been accepted at this conference that the people of the northeast cannot wait for their basic needs until a political solution to the ethnic conflict is found," said Mr. Daya Master, the media co-ordinator of the Liberation Tigers speaking to the press at the conclusion of the northeast donor conference Monday. "People in the northeast have many needs. They cannot be expected to wait until there is a solution to the conflict," a Dutch diplomat who took part in the conference said.
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