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CHINTHANA WIDANAGE WINS GOLD MEDAL FOR SRI LANKA AT C'WEALTH GAMES
Chinthana Widanage
has won a gold medal for Weightlifting at Commonwealth games in Australia on
17th March 2006. Further, it is reported that this is the first gold medal won
by a Sri Lankan for weightlifting at a Commonwealth game.
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Main Page
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Sri Lanka peace
talks in Geneva. |
UNP FILED ACTION AT
SUPREME COURT |
| 22
Feb.2006
 Sri Lankan cabinet
minister Nimal siripala de silva & Balasingham
Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers will today
hold their first round of peace talks in almost three years, amid an
alarming rise in violence and fears about the consequences of failing to
revive the ceasefire.
In Geneva this week, four Sri Lankan cabinet ministers will sit down
with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, led by their exiled adviser
Anton Balasingham, with a single item on the agenda: a reimplementation
of the ceasefire, agreed in 2002 but now routinely flouted.From the
beginning of December to January 25, apart from a relatively peaceful
interlude for the country’s presidential election, 200 people were
killed by LTTE crude explosive attacks, including about 70 soldiers and
security officials.
The number of killings has escalated since the murder in August of
Sri Lanka’s respected foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, a member of
the minority Tamil community killed by LTTE, terrorist. |
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21
Feb.2006
UNP
General Secretary Mr.N.V.K.K.Weragoda filed a petition at Supreme Court
on Monday with regard to the rejection of their party nominations at the
forthcoming Local Govt. Election to be held on 30th March
2006. Nominations which UNP submitted for Colombo Municipal Council and
Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabhawa were rejected by the returning officers on
16th February 2006 after considering the objections received
by them.
Meanwhile, it is also
reported that Colombo MC member T.M.Sangadasa’s name was erased by
someone and included a name of a person who is believed to be a
supporter of Colombo Central MP Maharoof Mohamed. According to Mr.
Sangadasa said alteration was done only after he signed for the
nominations. The main reason for rejecting the UNP list for CMC was to
include a name of a person who has not completed 18 years. Further it is
reported that he is a son of a CMC employee and said employee is a
supporter of MP Maharoof Mohamed. Therefore it is widely believed that
Maharoof Mohamed is the main culprit behind the cancellation of UNP
nomination for Colombo Municipal Council.
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TENSION IN VAVUNIYA
OVER A ROAD ACCIDENT
21
Feb.2006
On
Monday tension situation took place in Vavunia after a CTB Bus ran over
a woman by killing the woman and wounding another. After the incident
the residents of the area came to the street and started throwing stones
at the bus. Immediately Police was summoned and angry residents trying
to attack them too. According to the eyewitnesses the main road was
blocked by the crowd by setting tyres on fire as a protest. Finally the
crowd attempted to set the bus also on fire and their attempt was failed
as Police had dispersed the crowd by using tear gas.
Meanwhile, OIC Vavunia
Police station said that the driver of the CTB bus was taken in to their
custody.
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"If Sri Lanka forces disarm all the armed groups and us
... it will only give legitimacy for the LTTE to extend its writ to kill
us," |
Police recover explosives in Wattala |
| 21
Feb.2006
A breakaway Sri Lankan rebel leader, whose feuding
with the Tamil Tigers is threatening a fragile ceasefire and is central
to peace talks this week, said on Monday his forces would only disarm if
the main group does.
President Mahinda Rajapakse vowed last week to rein in armed groups
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) say are attacking them, but
V. Muralitharan, alias Col. Karuna, who split with the rebels in 2004,
told Reuters his group would resume attacks if provoked.
"If Sri Lanka forces disarm all the armed groups and us ... it will
only give legitimacy for the LTTE to extend its writ to kill us," former
Tiger commander Karuna said in an e-mail interview confirmed via a
personal telephone conversation.
"Any hand over of arms must be part of (a) conflict resolution
process at a stage when normalcy and trust is established," Karuna added. |
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21
Feb.2006
Wattala
police had recovered a cache of explosives, such as, hand grenades and
several rounds of bullets, from a garbage dump at Hunupitiya, Wattala on
a tip off from some sanitary workers this morning.
They had found
120 rounds of bullets used in 5.56, 5.0, 7.06, 4.5 and 3.8 mm guns and a
number of hand grenades in the garbage dumped opposite a private
establishment. No one has been arrested so far and the police are
probing into the matter.
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If Prabhakaran is dead, Sri Lanka is a better place,"JHU |
Tamil Tigers terrorist agreed
to a prisoner swap |
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20
Feb.2006
Venerable Ellawala Medhananda, head of the
National Heritage Party, or Jathika Hela Urumaya, said the government
should be prepared to fight the rebels, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran,
to the bitter end if peace talks in Switzerland next week fail. the
Sinhalese nationalist JHU rejects the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's
(LTTE) calls for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north
and east, and is opposed to rebel autonomy or separation from the
island's Buddhist-majority south.
"If Prabhakaran is dead, Sri Lanka is a better place," he told
Reuters in an interview at a Buddhist center in the island's capital,
Colombo. "He is the stumbling block to the peace process. We should take
his influence out of society."
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20
Feb.2006
LTTE,
said they would release a policeman they detained in September after the
government released four rebels on bail and would release another one as
long as four other Tigers were also freed.
The policemen had
strayed into rebel-held territory in September as they tried to catch a
suspected British paedophile.
A third policeman was
released in January after both sides agreed to hold last ditch talks to
find ways to preserve a 2002 truce.
“We are going to
release one tomorrow or the day after,” rebel media coordinator Daya
Master said from the northern Tiger stronghold of Kilinochchi as a rebel
delegation took off for Switzerland for talks on Feb. 22-23.The
government earlier on Friday released on bail four rebels jailed in the
eastern district of Trincomalee who the Tigers had wanted released in
the prisoner swap deal, but there was no word on the other four.
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UPFA NOMINATIONS
REJECTED AT GAMPAHA & KOBEIGANE |
JHU TO CONTEST FOR
VAVUNIYA URBAN COUNCIL
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17 Feb.2006
UPFA
nominations handed over to Gampaha Municipal Council and Kobeigane
Praadeshiya Sabhawa rejected today after considering the objections
filed by the rival parties. Local Govt. election will be held on 30th
march 2006 to elect 4555 members for 330 Local Govt. Authorities.
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17 Feb.2006
On
Wednesday, JHU General Secretary Ven. Dr. Omalpe Sobitha Thero said in
Vavunia after handing over the nominations for the Vavunia Urban Council
that JHU will always support for the Unitary State concept and until the
President is also for the same concept JHU as a political party will
support the President and the present UPFA Govt. |
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LOCAL GOVT. ELECTION TO BE HELD ON 30TH MARCH 2006 |
SB RELEASED WITHOUT
HIS CIVIC RIGHTS |
17 Feb.2006
On Thursday, Commissioner of Election Mr.
Dayananda Dissanayake announced that the Local Govt. election to be held
on 30th March 2006. Meanwhile, UNP nominations handed over to Colombo
Municipal Council, Moratuwa Municipal Council, Rathnapura Municipal
Council and Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabhawa have been rejected after
considering the objections filed by other parties.
It is also reported that former Rathnapura District MP and Leader of NLF
Mr. Vaasudewa Nanayakkara who handed over his nominations to Colombo MC
through UPFA is the Mayoral candidate for UPFA and Ven. Rajawaththe
Wappa Thero who is contesting on JHU ticket will be their Mayoral
candidate for Colombo MC. JVP too handed over individual nominations for
all Local Authorities
Meanwhile, SLMC couldn't hand over nominations for the forthcoming Local
Govt. election as the Leader and the General Secretary of SLMC have been
served a stay order by Colombo District Court preventing signing any of
its nominations. The above stay order was issued by the Colombo District
Court Judge after considering a petition which was filed by a SLMC
member Mr.Jamaldeen Ishak.
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17 Feb.2006
At
a press conference held in Colombo,UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa
Attanayake said that former UNP parliamentarian S.B.Dissanayake was
released by the President without his civic rights. Therefore he said
that UNP as a political party will commence another propaganda in and
out of Sri Lanka demanding that his civic rights should be restored by
the President immediately.
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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers Should
Release Child Soldiers, UN Says. |
|
 LTTE Child Soldiers
16 Feb.2006
Sri Lanka's rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
should stop recruiting child soldiers and speed up the process of
returning such recruits to their families, the United Nations Children's
Fund said. Recruitment of even one child is unacceptable,'' JoAnna
VanGerpen, Unicef's representative in Sri Lanka, said in a statement
released yesterday, according to the UN.
While recruitment of children has declined in the
past six months, the rebels released only 79 children to their families
during the same period, VanGerpen said. Unicef says it has recorded
5,368 cases of child recruitment in Sri Lanka since 2002. The UN
estimated in September 2004 the Tamil Tigers still had about 1,300 child
soldiers in its ranks.
Sri Lanka's government and leaders of the LTTE are scheduled to meet
next week in Geneva for talks aimed at supporting a cease-fire that has
been in force since 2002. The truce has been threatened by an upsurge in
violence since December in the north and east of the South Asian island
nation.
The Tamil Tigers denied a UN charge in March last year that the rebel
movement was still recruiting child soldiers.
``Recruitment has been reduced and the average age of recruitment has
increased from 14 to 16 over the past four years,'' VanGerpen said in
her statement. She called on both sides to use the Geneva talks to
reaffirm their commitment to the cease-fire, according to the statement.
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SB TO BE RELEASED ON FRIDAY |
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16 Feb.2006
Former Nuwara Eliya district UNP parliamentarian
and UNP National Organizer Mr.S.B.Dissanayake will be released on Friday
on a decision taken by the President Mahinda Rajapaksha following
requests made by several organizations and Maha Sangha. It is also
reported that Ven. Professor Bellanwila Wimalarathna Thero also made a
written request to the President seeking his release.
Meanwhile, the protest campaign commenced few weeks ago at Viharamaha
Dewi Park demanding SB's immediate release is still continuing and
according to the organizers of the campaign SB will visit Vihara Maha
Dewi Park on Friday afternoon once he is released from Welikada Prison.
According to the Presidential Secretariat, the decision taken by the
President to release SB has already been communicated to the Minister of
Justice Amarasiri Dodangoda on Wednesday. It is further reported that
the President has taken such decision under the powers vested with him
by the Constitution.
SB was sentenced for two years rigorous imprisonment for Contempt of
Court, by a five Judge Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice on
December 7, 2004. Supreme Court then unanimously decided that SB should
be sentenced for two years rigorous imprisonment as the Supreme Court
has been disregarded by him by a speech he made at a Vap Magul ceremony
held in Habaraduwa in November 2003.
Recently, he filed a writ application to the Supreme Court seeking an
interim injunction against the nullify of his parliamentary seat by the
Secretary General of the SL Parliament. However, said writ application
was rejected by the Supreme Court. Therefore, former Minister Renuka
Hearth was appointed to his seat and she took oaths before the Speaker
last week.
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We don’t need federalism. What we
want is Self-rule –Tamil
Selvam |
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