Over 40 casualties in clashes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 August 2000, 05:51 GMT]
Five military trained policemen, including an officer, were killed and 20 Sri Lanka Navy personnel, nine police men and two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in three separate attacks by the Liberation Tigers Wednesday morning, security sources said. 16 civilians were also wounded.
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Conspiracy theory as vote adjourned

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 August 2000, 21:19 GMT]
Two Ministers Sarath Amunugama and Mahinda Wijesekara raising a point of order told Parliament today that there was a conspiracy to prevent Parliamentarians from voting for the Draft Constitution Bill. They informed the Speaker K.B.Ratnayake that some parliamentarians were sent abroad.
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Numbers game worries PA

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 August 2000, 18:24 GMT]
A government MP joined the opposition Monday in protest against the new constitution bill. Mr.Dixon J. Perera MP said that he is leaving the government because he believes that the bill will harm the nation. Meanwhile, Mr. P.P Devaraj of the Ceylon Workers Congress spoke critically of the bill in Parliament today, giving rise to speculation that he too might vote against it despite his party's pledge to support the government. Dharmalingam Sidarthan, the leader of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) told the Parliament that his group finds major aspects of the new constitution bill totally unacceptable.
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JVP continues agitation against bill

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 August 2000, 16:36 GMT]
Thousands of radical leftist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) cadres Monday protested in several parts of Sri Lanka against the new constitution bill. The JVP demonstrated against the new system of elections proposed by the government in front of the supreme court in Colombo. Protests by the party against the constitution bill were held today in downtown Colombo and the provincial towns of Kandy, Galle and Matara.
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Claymore blast injures seven

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 August 2000, 18:20 GMT]
Seven military trained policemen were injured, three of them critically, when the Liberation Tigers set off a claymore mine at Kudiyiruppu, a suburb of Vavuniya town, around 6.30 a.m. Sunday. The policemen were travelling by bus from Vavuniya to Ponthoddam.
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Batticaloa group said blocking TULF

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 August 2000, 13:51 GMT]
Joseph Pararajasingham Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) MP for Batticaloa denied reports Saturday that his party was divided over the new constitution bill. "I am sure that my party will stand united in opposing the constitution bill as it falls far short of basic Tamil aspirations" the MP said.
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Package votes secure in Colombo hotels

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 August 2000, 12:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka's opposition charged Friday that the ruling People's Alliance (PA) is making "horse deals" to bribe members of Parliament to vote for the new constitution bill on 9 August. Opposition sources claimed that forty Parliamentarians, including cabinet ministers and some United National party MPs have been put up by the government at the Taj Samudra Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel in downtown Colombo until the date of voting. The government needs 150 votes in the Parliament to pass the constitution bill. There are 225 seats in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
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Opposition MPs heckle President, tear bill

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2000, 07:04 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President spoke on the controversial constitution reform bill in Parliament Thursday morning amidst much clamour in the opposition ranks. The bill was tabled by Justice Minister Prof.G.L Pieris. United National Party members tore copies of the bill in protest and threw them at government members in the house sources said.
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Tamil parties say autonomy bill disappointing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2000, 10:44 GMT]
Tamil parties Wednesday reacted with thinly veiled disappoinment and chagrin to the government's decision to table in the Sri Lankan Parliament tomorrow the constitutional reform proposals agreed upon last month by the ruling People's Alliance and the main opposition United National Party which falls much short of their basic expectations about autonomy. "The reform package to be presented tomorrow aims to make the country exclusively Buddhist. We have already objected to three fundamental aspects of this package" said TULF MP for Batticaloa Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham. The leaders of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) said categorically they will reject this 'package'.
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PA reiterates foremost status to Buddhism

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2000, 15:55 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government reiterated Tuesday that the "foremost place" given to Buddhism in the constitution will not in anyway be changed under the new constitutional reform proposals to be tabled in Parliament on Thursday. A government spokesman said that the status of Buddhism would be further strengthened and enhanced in the new constitution.
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PA to contest in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2000, 14:08 GMT]
The ruling People's Alliance will contest the elections to the Sri Lankan Parliament in Jaffna, the secretary of the Jaffna branch of the Sri Lanka Freedom's Party, Mr.S.Thevakulanayakam told TamilNet Monday. The Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) is the main constituent and convener of the People's Alliance. "The SLFP's Jaffna district branch has resolved that the PA shall not align with any other party or group for the elections" he said. Mr.Velmurugu Thangaraja will be the SLFP's chief candidate for Jaffna according to Thevakulanayakam.
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Sinhala Buddhists protest against autonomy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 July 2000, 17:19 GMT]
The protest was organised against the constitutional reforms aimed at giving autonomy to the Tamils and changing the system of government.
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SLA prevents devotees from Shiva temple

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 July 2000, 17:17 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army refused permission to Saivite devotees to pray at the ancient Shiva temple in Thirukketheeswaram in the Mannar district on Sunday for the Aadi Amavaasai festival. A section of the 21 Division of the SLA is camped in the precincts of the temple. More than five hundred devotees had applied through the temple trustee board for permission to pray at the temple tomorrow.
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Key witness in Batticaloa massacre threatened

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 July 2000, 12:28 GMT]
Father Joseph Ignatius Chandra, the key witness in the massacre of civilians in Batticaloa town by a section of the Sri Lanka army on May 17 has been threatened by armed persons suspected to be members of the Sri Lankan security forces and cadres of Tamil para-military groups operating with the Sri Lanka army in the east.
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Sri Lanka requests UK to ban LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 July 2000, 21:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka has a made a formal request to Britain to have the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam proscribed under the new Terrorism Law passed recently in United Kingdom, states a press release issued Friday by the Foreign Ministry Office in Colombo.
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Armed persons inside Jaffna hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 July 2000, 15:37 GMT]
The director of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) expressed grave concern Friday that armed persons are coming inside the hospital premises. Addressing the Jaffna District Development Council (DDC) meeting today, the director of the JTH, Dr. Navamani Kanagaratman said that the authorities should do the needful to prevent armed persons from entering the hospital premises and moving about with their weapons.
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Mannar workers demand war deduction back

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 19:05 GMT]
The workers at the Mannar depot of the Northern Region Transport Board (NRTB) have demanded that the one day's pay that had been deducted from their June salaries for the national war fund be returned to them. They said that the one day's pay had been deducted for the national war fund of the government without their knowledge and permission.
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PTA seen promoting arbitrary charges

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 17:33 GMT]
A Tamil youth against whom Sri Lanka's Attorney General had filed six cases for killing scores of Sri Lanka army soldiers in 1992 in the Batticaloa district and for massacring Sinhala civlians in a village in the Polannaruwa district was released by the Batticaloa high court Wednesday.
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Show package to Buddhist clergy, LTTE -UNP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 July 2000, 16:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's main opposition party said Thursday that the Sri Lankan government should present the final draft proposals on constitutional reforms to the Buddhist clergy, all political parties and the Liberation Tigers before taking the package to Parliament. The United National Party said in a press release this afternoon that the dicussions it had had with the government on constitutional reforms proceeded on the basis that "when consensus was reached, such consensus will be placed before the Maha Sangha, heads of the other religious denominations, all political parties and the LTTE".
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'Autonomy package' - Much ado about nothing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 July 2000, 20:48 GMT]
"If Prabhaharan had not pulled out of talks with the UNP government in 1990 and with the PA in 1995, he too would have been doing this futile political jig in Colombo, going from pillar to post like us in search of the political solution" said the leader of an ex-Tamil militant group reacting to Sri Lanka's main opposition party's decision announced Tuesday that it will not support the constitutional reform package in Parliament.
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