POWs call off hunger strike

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2000, 14:21 GMT]
Fifteen POWs in the custody of the Liberation Tigers have called off their hunger strike said Harsha Gunawardene, the Spokesman for the ICRC in Colombo, today. However, he declined to reveal further information about why they have called off their strike.
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NorthEast teachers to ease Uva shortage

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2000, 06:12 GMT]
Uva Provincial Minister of Tamil Education, Hindu Culture, Estate Infrastructure and Tourism, Mr.M.Sachchithanandam, made an urgent appeal to the North Eastern Provincial Council for help to overcome the acute shortage of Tamil medium graduate school teachers in the Uva province.
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CTTU to strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 February 2000, 15:56 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) has decided to stage a one day token strike in support of its several demands. These demands include the withdrawal of the proposed travel pass system in Batticaloa and Ampara districts and the existing pass system for Vanni region and the withdrawal of Tamil medium text books which contain distortion of facts, grammatical and spelling mistakes.
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Thangathurai murder accused transferred

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2000, 21:20 GMT]
The Eastern High Court at its Trincomalee session today ruled that four of the seven accused in the murder of former TULF MP Thangathurai be transferred to Trincomalee prison from custody at Kalutara for their personal safety.
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Sinhala extremists condemn Norwegian involvement

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 February 2000, 12:52 GMT]
Sinhala extremists issued a statement today condemning the Norwegian government for attempting to interfere in an internal matter. The fifteen movements, including five Bikku associations, which signed the statement, also protested the 'aspersions' cast upon the Sinhala organisations by Norwegian officials in Colombo.
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Press release on Norwegian visit

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2000, 23:54 GMT]
The foreign ministries of both Sri Lanka and Norway released statements about Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek's visit to Sri Lanka yesterday. Mr Vollebaek met Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinge and President Chandrika Kumaratunga during his one day visit.
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Prisoner transfer to Kalutura

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 February 2000, 11:04 GMT]
Twenty Tamil political prisoners held at the Batticaloa prison were transferred to the Kalutura Prison, south of Colombo, today, on orders by the Ministry of Defence.
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Vollebaek meets Wickremasinghe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2000, 16:11 GMT]
The Sri Lankan opposition leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe told the visiting Norwegian Foreign Minster Mr. Knut Vollebaek that a solution to the ethnic conflict in the island has to be found through a reasonable political system, UNP sources said.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister arrives in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2000, 07:28 GMT]
The Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek who arrived in Colombo today had a two-hour long discussion with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Lakshman Kadirgamar this morning.
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TULF will oppose budget -Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 February 2000, 12:46 GMT]
"The millennium budget of the PA government is a war budget. The TULF will therefore oppose it when it comes up for vote in Parliament," said TULF MP for Batticaloa Joseph Pararajasingham.
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SLMC favours north-east merger

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 February 2000, 11:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) will favour a merger of the north-east provinces if the Liberation Tigers put this as a condition during a negotiation with the Government, a senior member of the party said.
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Firing at random injures civilians

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 February 2000, 09:18 GMT]
Three civilians were injured when the police fired at random at Saagamam road, Akkaraipattu in the Ampara District, around 7 p.m. last evening. The policemen were retaliating to a grenade attack on them by unidentified youth said sources.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister meets Anton Balasingham in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2000, 10:44 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Mr. Knut Vollebaek met Mr. Anton Balasingham, the political advisor and theoretician of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in London yesterday and held talks on the possibility of Norway assisting peace talks between Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers. The talks lasted for nearly two hours, the LTTE sources in London revealed.
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STF member killed in claymore blast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 February 2000, 21:16 GMT]
A member of the Special Task Force(STF) was killed in a claymore mine blast in Periya Kallar 35 km south of Batticaloa town at noon today. Another STF member was seriously injured and was admitted to Amparai hospital, police sources said.
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Norwegian Foreign Minister to visit Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2000, 16:17 GMT]
Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek is set to visit Sri Lanka on February 16. He will arrive in the capital Colombo early on the 16th morning and leave late the same night, Ingvard Havnen, spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told TamilNet.
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NGOs to ADB: Don't invest until war is resolved

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2000, 14:47 GMT]
Representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Trincomalee district today brought to the notice of the visiting team of experts of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that unless the devastating war is brought to an end, all development projects initiated with foreign funding agencies would go waste.
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CTTU urges withdrawal of Tamil text book

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2000, 04:55 GMT]
The Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union(CTTU) Thursday requested the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to withdraw immediately a Grade-7 Tamil medium textbook -Social Studies and History- that was replete with language errors and distorted facts.
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Details of talk between PA and Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2000, 16:26 GMT]
The Government has agreed to vest all state lands to regional councils in the respective regions including forest reserves and excluding tea, rubber, coconut and teak plantations, research farms and national parks, according to Tamil party sources.
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Fifteen arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 February 2000, 08:22 GMT]
More than fifteen Tamils were arrested by the Sri Lankan police during a search operation in Pettah and Armour Street areas in Colombo yesterday night. They are being questioned at the Pettah police station.
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Emergency Regulations extended

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 February 2000, 17:28 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Parliament extended today the Emergency Regulations for one further month. One hundred and nine parliamentarians voted for the motion on extension of the emergency regulations while 84 voted against it.
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