'Sangaree' issue to be decided at TULF working committee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 17:25 GMT]
A request has been made to the Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr.R.Sampanthan, to summon the central working committee of the party to take disciplinary action against the party president, Mr.V.Ananadasangaree, for making statements contrary to the Tamil National Alliance’s stated positions as outlined in its manifesto, sources said.
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"SL President's lack of sincerity will hamper peace efforts" -TNA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 12:34 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Tuesday told the Norwegian peace envoys that defense arrangements of the country should be left in the hands of one party that is dedicated to take forward the current peace process with sincerity. Sri Lanka's President's past actions of not responding to LTTE's unilateral ceasefire in December 2000 and her attempts to sideline Norway's peace envoy Eric Soleheim reflect her lack of sincerity and leaving the Peace Process in her command will damage peace efforts, TNA delegation added.
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Jaffna islets' IDPs reluctant to return

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 11:30 GMT]
Only less than thirty percent of the internally displaced families from the islets of Jaffna district who fled the islets following 1990 military operations by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have returned back to their former homes since the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according statistics collected by civil authorities.


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Most landmine accidents in Jaffna – UN group

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 06:49 GMT]
The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Colombo said Tuesday that most of the accidents caused by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) occurred in Jaffna this year. UNDP supported de-mining began in Jaffna seven years ago. Today there are three international de-mining groups active in the peninsula, including one from the US army. The UNDP continues support. A year ago, the region controlled by the Liberation Tigers in the north had much larger and extensive concentrations of mines, minefields and UXOs than Jaffna.
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Sri Lanka's PM invites TNA for talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 06:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe has invited the Tamil National Alliance for talks on Wednesday evening to discuss the present constitutional crisis and the future of the peace process. Earlier on the day Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is scheduled to meet the President at the latter's invitation at the Presidential Secretariat, political sources said.
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More constitutional snags hit Sri Lanka’s crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 04:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s constitutional crisis deepened further on Tuesday as MPs of the ruling United National Front (UNF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wrote to the Speaker of Parliament asking him to convene the national legislature before 19 November, the date on which President Kumaratunga’s prorogation of Parliament is due to expire. The UNF, TNA letter invokes Articles 4(c) and 42 of Sri Lanka’s constitution as the legal basis for reconvening Parliament during the prorogation. President Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA) and the JVP slammed the move as illegal.
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Helgesen, Solheim arrive in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 03:45 GMT]
Norwegian deputy foreign minister, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, and special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Mr. Erik Solheim, arrived in Colombo Monday night in an attempt to revive the stalled peace talks between the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and on Tuesday morning conferred with the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, sources said Tuesday.
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Eight-day Tamil music festival begins in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 November 2003, 02:57 GMT]
An eight-day Tamil music festival ' Rama Nama Ganamirtham,' organized by the Colombo Kamban Kazhaham began Monday evening in Colombo at Wellawatte Ramakrishna Mission Hall. The Supreme Court Justice, Mr. C.V.Vigneswaran, inaugurated the festival.
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Resettled Kanniya farmers to get paddy store

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 17:46 GMT]
The resettled farm families in the Kanniya village, about six km north of Trincomalee town on the Trinco-Anuradhapura road, are to get a new paddy store and co-operative retail shop. Earlier the paddy store and retail shop were completely destroyed without any remains at the site in the 1990 violence by Sri Lanka’s armed forces after entire villagers fled and sought refuge in the Vanni and other areas including in India, civil sources said.
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Jaffna’s leading educationist felicitated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 16:35 GMT]
A leading educationist from the Jaffna peninsula, Mr.K.Arunasalam, was felicitated on his seventy fifth birthday at an event held at the Wellawatte Sri Ramakrishna Mission Hall in Colombo Sunday evening. Mr.Arunasalam was the emeritus Principal of Vaddukoddai Hindu College and Chullipuram Victoria College in the Jaffna district and Paddiruppu Maha Vidiyalayam in the eastern province for several years, sources said.
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Political impasse widens in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 11:25 GMT]
The political gap between UNF and PA widened today as Prime Minister earlier today said he is prepared to face an immediate election while the President in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister has demanded to form a "Grand Alliance of all national and patriotic forces" with the objective of forming a "Government of National Reconstruction and Reconciliation".
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UNF prepared to face snap elections - Peiris

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 09:37 GMT]
The UNF spokesman and Minister of Constitutional Affairs Mr. G.L.Peiris said Monday that the Prime Minister Mr. Wickremsinghe and his government are prepared to face a snap election, media sources said. It is logical to assume that we have to resolve the "threshold issue" before anything else, Mr. Peiris is reported to have told the media. The Prime Minister's office denied earlier reports on the talks being postponed. The decision is to be taken after the LTTE's views are received through the Norwegian Foreign Deputy Mr.Helgesen, who is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka today.
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Speaker to entertain request to reconvene parliament

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 08:30 GMT]
The Speaker of the Parliament, Mr.Joseph Michael Perera, Monday requested the leaders of the political parties who had attended a meeting in his chamber to submit a written request to reconvene the parliament before Tuesday. The main opposition Peoples Alliance (PA) and the Sinhala nationalist -Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) boycotted the party leaders meeting convened by the Speaker stating it was illegal, parliamentary sources said.
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Getting tough on the Tigers

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 November 2003, 00:31 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s strategy for holding fast to the reins of power in Colombo is fundamentally in conflict with sustaining the peace process in Sri Lanka, Tamil politicians and commentators say. The President and her allies assert that the Sri Lankan state should get tough on the Liberation Tigers to safeguard Sinhala national interests. As her standoff with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took a new turn Sunday, it appeared inevitable that she might match her words with deeds in tune with the sentiments of her increasingly hawkish Sinhala constituency.
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Book on "Ceasefire 2001-Lessons for the present” released

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 17:17 GMT]
"The time has come for all the lovers of peace to engage in a serious dialogue by contributing their share in solving this vexed [ethnic] problem by studying the [LTTE's] proposal and arriving at a consensus to implement it,” said Professor S.K.Sitrampalam, Professor of History and Dean for Graduate Studies at the University of Jaffna, addressing the introductory event of the book “ Ceasefire 2001-Lessons for the present” held at the Colombo Sri Lanka Foundation Institute Friday evening, sources said.
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NorthEast Trade Union criticises SL President's actions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 14:56 GMT]
North East Trade Unions Federation (NETUF) at a special meeting held Sunday condemned the recent actions by the President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge as a step to derail the peace talks between the United National Front (UNF) government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," sources said.


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UNF to bow out of Peace Process?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 12:53 GMT]
"The government believes it is not possible to deal with the peace process unless only one party is in charge. Full control over the peace process by one party is necessary if the peace process is to be effectively managed," said Prof. G. L. Peiris, the Leader of the Sri Lanka Government delegation to the Peace Negotiations with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in press briefing Sunday.
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SLA removes mine markers in Katkovalam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 07:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka army soldiers Friday night removed markers put up on abandoned military bunkers in Katkovalam, a coastal village near Pt. Pedro town in Jaffna, by a Danish de-mining group, residents told TamilNet. “Mines and booby traps left behind by the SLA in bunkers in the midst of our village have claimed the limbs of six people since last year”, an official of the local fisheries society said.
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Solar power brightens Vanni villages

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2003, 01:24 GMT]
Privately owned small scale diesel generators produce the only electric power available in key towns in the Vanni region. While a new 20MW thermal power plant in Jaffna was recently reactivated by the Sri Lanka Government officials, it is doubtful that Vanni towns and villages will enjoy grid supplied electric power for many years to come. With the region enjoying copious supply of solar energy and buoyed by success of early experiments, planners in Kilinochchi are exploring the use of photo-voltaic systems for domestic applications.
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TNA leaders meet to discuss Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2003, 14:16 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) held a meeting Saturday evening at the office of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in Colombo and reviewed the President's address to the nation and the present political situation following the dismissal of three key ministers and the prorogation of the parliament for two weeks, TNA sources said.


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