Helgesen to visit Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 18:39 GMT]
The Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, will arrive in Colombo on November 10 to revive the suspended peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said the GoSL's cabinet spokesman, Minister G.L.Peiris, at Thursday's press briefing held at Information Department office, media sources said.
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Sampanthan warns against falling prey to saboteurs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 17:35 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance parliamentary group leader and Trincomalee district parliamentarian, Mr.R.Sampanthan, at a special press briefing held Thursday evening at his Trincomalee residence, cautioned the Tamil people, especially Tamil youths, against falling prey into the hands of persons who are plotting to sabotage the peaceful environment in the Trincomalee district at a time when historically important events are to take place with the handing over of interim administrative structure proposals by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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SL Govt. to issue statement on LTTE's proposals on IA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 16:06 GMT]
The United National Front government of Sri Lanka will issue a special statement on Saturday on the interim administrative structure proposal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is scheduled to be submitted to the government through the Norwegian ambassador in Colombo Friday evening, Cabinet spokesman and UNF's Constitutional Affairs Minister, Professor G.L.Peiris, said at the weekly press briefing held Thursday at the government information department, media sources said.
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Trinco SLA, LTTE commanders to meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 14:15 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Trincomalee district has arranged a meeting between Major General Sunil Tennekon, Sri Lanka Army's General Officer Commanding in the Trincomalee district, and the Liberation Tigers' Trincomalee district military commander, Colonel Pathuman, on Friday evening at the no man zone in Kattaiparichchan in the Muttur division, SLMM sources said.
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SU demonstrates against Sinhala-Tamil cultural meet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 13:03 GMT]
Leaders of the extreme Sinhala nationalist party in Sri Lanka, the Sihala Urumaya (SU), members of the Marxist and Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), hundreds of the parties' supporters, including Buddhist monks, held a demonstration in Colombo against the Sinhala-Tamil cultural event being held at the Colombo Town Hall Thursday, sources in Colombo said.
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LTTE restores Heroes cemeteries for November ceremony

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 12:37 GMT]
Heroes cemeteries in Tharavai in Batticaloa district and Vakarai Kandaladi are being renovated in preparation for the Heroes day ('Maaveerar Naal') celebrations to take place on the 27th November. Work on the heroes day memorials in other parts of Vanni, Jaffna and Trincomalee are also in progress, according to sources.
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Two Tamil traders shot dead in Muttur

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 06:36 GMT]
Two Tamil traders were shot dead by unidentified persons near Iruthaiayapuram in Muttur division, south of Trincomalee, Wednesday night. The police have launched search for the missing third Tamil person who had accompanied the two, police said.
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Thamil Eelam judiciary said a basis for rebuilding northeast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 October 2003, 01:05 GMT]
“The purpose of the LTTE’s legal system is to create a crime free environment where adjudication of civil and commercial disputes is fair and expeditious. This is the essential foundation on which one can rebuild Tamil society to achieve economic development and prosperity," said Mr. E. Pararajasingham (Para), head of the Judicial Division of the Liberation Tigers, in an in depth interview with TamilNet this week about the LTTE’s legal system. “The very instruments designed to subvert the Rule of Law in the northeast were eventually turned on the Sinhala people too," he points out.
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SLMM head leaves for Oslo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 18:58 GMT]
Major General (Retd.) Triggve Teleffsen, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), left Wednesday for Oslo to brief Norwegian foreign minister about the functioning of the SLMM in Sri Lanka, media sources in Colombo said.
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‘Proud to shed blood to protect Tamils’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 18:36 GMT]
“We are really proud as Singhalese today because we shed blood to protect our Tamil brethren from the racist thugs”, said Mr. Rohitha Bashana, the main organiser of the Sinhala/Tamil arts festival that was attacked by Sinhala nationalist mobs at the New Town Hall in Colombo Wednesday. Five Singhalese, including two journalists, were injured in the attack. Police officers said that Sinhala nationalists were planning massive, hostile demonstrations against the Sinhala/Tamil arts festival Thursday.
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Aussie MP meets Jaffna LTTE political head

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 15:57 GMT]
Australian parliamentarian Mr. Alan Griffin Wednesday held discussions with the Jaffna district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr.C.Ilamparuthi, the women's political wing head, Ms. Kalaivizhi, and activist Mr.Manivannan at the district political office of the LTTE located at Kokkuvil, sources said.
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Norwegian FM responds to SL President's letter

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 15:45 GMT]
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry in a press release Wednesday said that the Foreign Minister, Mr. Jan Petersen, has responded to the letter from Sri Lanka’s President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, in which she referred to incidents on October 16, 2003, involving the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The response described the steps the Government of Norway (GoN) would take in response to her complaints and said that the SLMM would continue its monitoring without change while the GoN looks into the complaints of Ms. Kumaratunga.
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LTTE activist released on surety bail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 15:14 GMT]
The Point Pedro Magistrate Wednesday released an activist of the Sea Tigers (of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in the Vadamaradchi division, Mr. Gamini, on surety bail when a woman witness failed to identify him as the person who attempted to abduct a private vehicle on the day of the incident, legal sources said.
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Mullipottanai Muslims protest against attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 14:41 GMT]
A group of Muslim villagers of Mullipottanai in the Trincomalee district Wednesday held a hartal (general shutdown) and a picketing campaign on the Trincomalee-Kandy highway, blocking all traffic to and from Colombo and Trincomalee, protesting an attack by unknown persons that injured at least three Muslim civilians Tuesday night at 4th milepost on the Mullipottanai-Kinniya road, police said.
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Mobs attack Sinhala-Tamil Cultural Festival in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 06:07 GMT]
Four persons including two journalists were wounded when a Sinhala nationalist mob attacked the Sinhala Tamil Cultural Festival at the New Town Hall in Colombo Wednesday morning.
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Confronting collisions in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2003, 00:11 GMT]
In the wake of several recent accidents in the Jaffna peninsula in which the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved, resulting in death or injury to Tamil civilians, the question being raised by the people of Jaffna is whether these accidents are caused merely by the suddenly ‘aggressive' driving of the SLA soldiers, or if this is a continuing pattern of behavior that started when the SLA brought the Jaffna peninsula under its control in 1995.
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TULF Ex-MP resigns

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 12:33 GMT]
E. Thurairatnasingam, former Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Member of Parliament (MP) for Batticaloa submitted his resignation from the party and from all positions he held in the party, political sources in Batticaloa said.
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Must for us to talk to Muslims - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 12:22 GMT]
“It is a must that we talk to the Muslim ‘side’ after we give the Sri Lankan government our proposal on the Interim Administration (IA) for the Northeast. I can say that Muslims will have their rightful place in it. The aspirations of all the communities in the northeast find expression in our proposals”, said Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the LTTE’s political division, emerging from a meeting Tuesday with a delegation of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress in Kilinochchi.
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Clashes in Vattamadu discussed at LTTE-Muslim meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 18:56 GMT]
A meeting was held Monday at the Thirukkovil divisional secretariat between the Tamil and Muslim representatives, attended by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lanka Army, to discuss the clashes that occurred in Vattamadu in the Amparai district between Muslim farmers and cattle ranchers, sources said.
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Sinhala,Tamil scholars explain joint festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2003, 18:29 GMT]
“There is an unfortunate stereotyping of Tamils in the minds of the Singhalese and vice versa. This literary/cultural festival will enable artistes from both sides to discover developments over the last twenty years. This would foster an understanding where it matters”, said Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath, a distinguished and leading Sinhala scholar, addressing a press conference in downtown Colombo Monday on the Tamil/Sinhala cultural festival to be held in Sri Lanka’s capital this week.
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