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'LTTE link' will be poll issue: Swamy
The Hindu (Southern States),
Sunday, February 25, 2001.
The Janata Party feels that the `LTTE connection' will be an issue in the coming elections in the state as both the major fronts were `suffering from LTTE pollution.' Talking to newsmen here today, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party president, said a third front, if it were to be formed, should comprise parties with a `national outlook and an anti- LTTE' posture. This front should not include the Congress (I). He said the Congress (I) should explain why it had associated itself with the DK, which `has been indicted for conspiracy with the LTTE' in the Rajiv assassination case. Dr. Swamy, even while maintaining that `it is already late' for the formation of a third front, said his party would consider an invitation if parties with a `national outlook' joined together. At the same time, he foresaw the possibility of the formation of a third front in the post-poll scenario.
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 23:53:49 EST 2001
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ASK THE GOVERNOR!
Q&A WITH THE GOVENOR OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA
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The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is a semi-autonomous body at the
apex of the financial sector in Sri Lanka today. The objectives of
the Central Bank include the stabilization of domestic monetary values
and the preservation of the external stability of the Sri Lankan
Rupee. It is the advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka on economic
affairs and it is responsible for the implementation of Exchange
Control Regulations. On January 23rd, 2001, the Central Bank
permitted flee float rates for the Sri Lanka Rupee, leading to a
massive 6.62% overnight depreciation of its value. The UNP is seeking
the mediation of the Court of Appeal to quash this controversial
decision. With this backdrop, we invited the Governor of the Central
Bank, Mr. A. S. Jayawardene to be the guest at our current Question
and Answer session. Submit your questions for Mr. Jayawardene between
February 5-26, 2001, and check
answers here.
We have exptended the Q&A period!
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New bird discovered by Sri Lankan ornithologist
The Island,
Saturday 24 Febraury 2001 16:40 PST.
A previously unknown species of a bird (a type of owl) has been discovered recently in Sri Lanka - the first such discovery in 132 years, the Ceylon Bird Club reported last week.
"The discovery of a species today is a major event in world ornithology. It happens mostly in little-explored parts of the planet. That a species should evade detection in Sri Lanka, so well covered by bird studies since colonial times, is astonishing," a bird enthusiast said.
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 19:45:28 EST 2001
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EU presses Sri Lanka on democracy, human rights
Yahoo India,
February 25.
The European Union (EU) said on Saturday it was
pressing Sri Lanka to push through democratic reforms and improve its
human rights record."We will maintain as much pressure as we can to ensure that democracy is
fully realised," Gerard Collins, leader of a visiting European Parliamentary
delegation, told a news conference in Colombo.
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 23:42:57 EST 2001
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T56 @ Rs. 15,000; Grenade @ Rs. 500 !!!
Saroj Pathirana in London,
Saturday 24 February 1900 GMT.
The civil war in Sri Lanka has led to a situation where the cost of
everything except firearms is skyrocketing, a retired police official in Sri
Lanka said in Colombo. Speaking at a seminar on the proliferation of small
arms, a retired high level security official Tassie Seneviratne said the
price of weapons had dropped drastically in Sri Lanka because corrupt police
and security forces officers were selling pilfered arms and ammunition.
He said that as a result of nearly two decades of war against separatist
LTTE and earlier JVP uprising , weapons are easily and inexpensively
available on the black market. A T56 rifle now costs fifteen thousand rupees
while a hand grenade can be bought for a mere five hundred rupees.!!! Some
twenty thousand weapons have been issued to parliamentarians and their
bodyguards over the years but only a fifth have ever been returned, Mr.
Seneviratne further added.
Published: Sat Feb 24 13:57:02 EST 2001
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Sri Lankan's body exhumed
The Hindu (Southern States),
Sunday, February 25, 2001.
CHENNAI, FEB. 24. The body of a Sri Lankan Tamil who was murdered and robbed on his way to the airport on January 23 was exhumed from a Otteri graveyard today as part of investigation. According to police, a Sri Lankan businessman Ganapathy Thulasingam (71) who had been staying in a lodge at Egmore was reported missing. He had boarded an autorickshaw to go to the airport to catch a flight to London to join his son. However, as he did not reach London, his son checked and found that Ganapathy had not boarded the flight.
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Published: Sat Feb 24 23:54:17 EST 2001
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British ban on Tigers not to hurt Norway peace bid: EU mission
123India.com,
Feb 24 2001 17:01 IST.
COLOMBO, Feb 24 (AFP) - European parliamentarians Saturday expressed support for Norway's attempt at ending Sri Lanka's separatist war and said a British ban against Tamil rebels will not jeopardise the peace process. Gerard Collins, the head of the five-member MEP delegation visiting Sri Lanka, said the European Union had made its position clear to Britain that "all those who engage in terrorism" must be banned.
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Published: Sat Feb 24 08:48:50 EST 2001
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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers kill two policemen during truce
123India.com,
25 February 2001.
COLOMBO, Feb 24 (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead two police constables in eastern Sri Lanka Saturday, violating their own unilateral truce, the defence ministry said.
The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked police at a village in the Welikanda region, ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said.
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 08:49:39 EST 2001
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Developements in Nimalrajan Killing.
Saroj Pathirana in London,
Saturday 24 February 1900 GMT.
A bicycle which has been found abandoned alongside the slain journalist
Myilvaganam Nimalarajan?s Jaffana residence the next day after the
assassination, belongs to the Ealam People?s Democratic Party (EPDP), it
emerged today. As Shanthi Selladurai reported to BBC?s Sandeshaya, the
bicycle has been registered with the police as a vehicle of R.Ramamurthi,
ex-EPDP MP who now lives in India after being sacked by the party, and was
stolen by another member of EPDP, Jegan alias Kandasamy Jegadeeshwaran.
The Police has been informed by R.Rameshwaran, another ex-MP and also has
been sacked together with his brother Ramamurthi, that the bicycle has been
handed over to EPDP by Jegan on the 20th of January, 2000. Jegan who has
fled away with the bicycle on the 17th of January 2000, has come back on the
20th and joined the EPDP, whose leader Douglas Devananda is a key Minister
of the current PA Government. Investigations have revealed that Jegan has
signed a document in the presence of his wife as a witness, while handing
over the bicycle to Visu, the then registrar of EPDP office in Jaffna. Ex
EPDPer Rameshwaran told Sandeshaya that Jegan has identified the vehicle in
the police station.
Meanwhile, justice Minister Batti Weerakoon earlier told Sandeshaya that as
there is no police station in Jaffna and a civil war continues, the
Government is not in a position to investigate the killing of Nimalarajan.
Published: Sat Feb 24 13:57:03 EST 2001
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Cricket-Murali can still put England in a spin, says Jayasuriya
Yahoo India,
February 24,.
Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya warned England on Saturday that Muttiah
Muralitharan could still enforce the follow-on against them in the first test. Jayasuriya, speaking after Nasser Hussain's tourists had ended the third day on 202 for four, 69 runs short of safety, said:
"Murali is my match-winner. "I hope he can bowl better tomorrow and pick up some more wickets. We have to get them out before they reach 271. It's going
to be a tough day for them."
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Published: Sat Feb 24 10:04:52 EST 2001
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Chandrika to brief India on Pak arms loan offer
The Hindustan Times,
Colombo, February 22.
SRI LANKAN President Chandrika Kumaratunga will brief Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the latest developments in the Norwegian brokered peace process and discuss various bilateral issues during her visit to New Delhi beginning on Friday. It has been her government's policy to keep India informed about developments in Sri Lanka in regard to the ethnic issue, especially foreign involvement in it, and other geo-political matters of mutual interest.
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 09:15:36 EST 2001
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Sri Lanka president faces impeachment
BBC South Asia,
Friday, 23 February, 2001, 17:07 GMT .
Sri Lanka's main opposition party is seeking to impeach President Chandrika Kumuratunga, officials say. The United National Party alleges the president violated the constitution by failing to consult her cabinet before floating the Sri Lankan rupee last month.The opposition is keen to capitalise on public discontent about the rising cost of living caused by the devaluation of the currency."She doesn't inform them, she doesn't get their consent, she acts on her own. So what's the use of the ministers?" Mr Wickremesinghe said.
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Published: Fri Feb 23 16:32:05 EST 2001
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Sri Lanka peace talks 'soon'
BBC South Asia,
Friday, 23 February, 2001, 18:43 GMT .
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga says she expects peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to start soon. n an interview with CNN in Delhi, she said the two sides could probably meet in two months because the Tigers had asked for time to
implement certain conditions.Her comments are her most optimistic yet on the possibility of face-to-face negotiations with the Tigers, who have been Despite her optimism, however, the president also said the Tigers were an organisation "born, bred, fed and living on violence", adding that she
did not know how they would survive in a democracy. waging an
18-year-old war for an independent homeland.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 16:33:34 EST 2001
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Sri Lanka opposition mulls bid to impeach Kumaratunga
Yahoo India,
February 23.
Sri Lanka's main opposition party said on Friday it was looking at launching
impeachment proceedings against President Chandrika Kumaratunga over her handling of the rupee's
flotation last month. The United National Party (UNP) said Kumaratunga -- who is also finance minister -- had violated the
country's constitution by keeping her cabinet in the dark about the January 23 floatation.The only way we can deal with the president is impeachment for intentionally violating the constitution," UNP lawmaker
Tyronne Fernando told a news conference.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 16:37:17 EST 2001
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No peace talks unless Lanka reciprocates truce: LTTE
Yahoo,
February 23.
Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have announced they would enter peace talks only if the government
reciprocated a unilateral truce they have extended by another month.The rebels said they were extending the truce for the third month running to help get a Norwegian-brokered peace bid off the
ground.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 09:56:51 EST 2001
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'Lanka sports model worth emulating'
Yahoo India,
February 24.
WITH the proposed ban on tobacco advertising and event sponsorship hanging over Indian-sports like a Damocles' sword, multinational sports management company, IMG, feels that the sports segment could well take a page out of Sri Lanka's book.Mr Peter Hutton JMD, IMG/TWI, South Asia, told Business Line that in Sri Lanka, where a ban has been affected on tobacco and liquor advertising, the Sri Lankan Government had set up a fund to subsidise sports during the transitional period, when advertising by tobacco companies gave way to other corporates.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 19:12:57 EST 2001
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Reluctant India allows SAARC foreign secretaries to meet
Yahoo India,
February 24.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday effectively broke the logjam in which the SAARC
process has been stuck since Kargil, when she persuaded a reluctant New Delhi to let the SAARC foreign secretaries meet at
the end of May.Significantly, however, Kumaratunga refrained from raising the issue of holding a SAARC summit in her meetings with her
Indian interlocutors. Sources from Colombo said the Sri Lankan President well realises that until Islamabad shows some
"genuine movement'' on the bilateral front with New Delhi, it may be difficult to hold a summit-level meeting that has been
stalled for the last year-and-a-ha
More...
Published: Sat Feb 24 10:04:02 EST 2001
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Double trouble for England in Lanka
Yahoo India,
February 24.
Opener Marvan Atapattu underlined his appetite for big scores with his fourth Test double century as Sri
Lanka piled on the agony for England in the first Test on Friday.Atapattu played the anchor role to perfection by scoring an outstanding 201 not out while Aravinda de Silva stroked 106
before Sri Lanka declared their first innings at 470 for five on the second day. England openers Michael Atherton and Marcus
Trescothick had to survive eight overs before the close and did so by making 27 without loss.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 16:35:20 EST 2001
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Sri Lankan tea estate workers seek wage hike
The Hindu (International),
Friday, February 23, 2001.
COLOMBO, FEB. 22. Sri Lanka's tea estate labourers are agitating for a wage hike to meet the rise in the cost of living following the steady depreciation of the currency since last June. MPs of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) began a satyagraha at Hatton in the tea growing Nuwara Eliya district on Monday to demand a Rs. 400 cost of living allowance per month for the workers from the plantation companies.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 02:13:34 EST 2001
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Sri Lanka- A Country of Death, But No Emotions – Prasanna Vithanage
Saroj Pathirana in London,
Friday 23 February 1500 GMT.
Death has become a normal phenomenon in Sri Lanka, killing has spread to
the every corner of the island, but nobody seems to have identified deep
emotions behind it, an international award winning filmmaker claims. The
authorities and the people are turning blind eye to the reality of nearly
two decades of civil war and it seems to have become a emotionless society,
Prasanna Vithanage, winner of the prestigious Golden Unicorn award for the
best international film in 1999 Amiens film festival, said in London
yesterday. Talking with London’s widely listened “Sunrise” community radio,
he said that this senselessness persuaded him to make Purahanda Kaluwara
(Death on a Full Moon Day), the most internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan
film ever.
Purahanda, which also represented London Film Festival in 1999, is now
banned in Sri Lanka and director Vithanage has challenged the ban in the
Supreme Court.
Prasanna is on a short visit to London for the screening of Purahanda
Kaluwara and the London premiere of Anantha Ratriya (Dark Night of the
Soul) on the 25th of February at the Edgware Cinemax.
Published: Fri Feb 23 10:05:25 EST 2001
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No ducks at the roasting
Guardian,
Friday, 23 February.
It was all Sanath Jayasuriya's fault. If you are going to raise expectations with three flamboyant flourishes in the first few overs, you have a certain responsibility, on such a historic occasion, not to get yourself out early.But blunder he did, at 10.51am, when he fell hook, line and sinker for the Gough-Hussain gully trap. The highlight of the day had been and gone. All adrenalin had been used up, to be replaced by the slight madness that comes from baking in the sun. So the 150 coachloads of England fans who descended on Galle had little to entertain them. They may have longed for Jilly Cooper; what they got was James Joyce. It was a day of unrelenting heat, sapping humidity, impenetrable cricket and lingering dehydration. It sapped the energy of the fans, the ardour of the players and was even too much for the pineapple and chilli sellers, who hid away for much of the afternoon session under the shade of the sightscreen.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 04:12:15 EST 2001
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Singapore chain opens fast food restaurant in Sri Lanka
123India.com,
Feb 23 2001 13:00 IST.
COLOMBO, Feb 23 (AFP) - A Singapore-based Indian-food chain Friday opened a franchise outlet in Sri Lanka, marking what is claimed to be the island's first vegetarian fast-food restaurant. Sri Lanka's John Keells Holdings, which has held the Pizza Hut franchise in Sri Lanka since 1993, launched the Komala's Indian fast food restaurant cheek-by-jowl with the non-vegetarian Pizza Hut outlet here.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 03:48:00 EST 2001
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Five Belgian cos to launch products/ start operations in Sri Lanka
The Island,
Thursday February 22, 2001 23:40 PST .
Trade between Sri Lanka and Belgium is expected to be augmented ‘significantly’ as a result of next week’s Belgian mission in Colombo, Honorary consul for Belgium Pierre Pringiers said.
At least five of the 12 companies on the mission are scheduled to launch products or sign up local partners during the two day official programme of the mission. Pringiers said that launches expected to take place include a venture for the manufacture of upmarket shoes, a product for cleaning and weather-proofing aluminium and glass exteriors, maintenance free PVC panelling and door and window frames and high quality laminated flooring.
More...
Published: Fri Feb 23 02:49:18 EST 2001
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© Copyright 2000, Lanka Academic Network.
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Cricinfo,
25 February 2001.
After being temporarily excluded from the test match stadium in a broadcast rights dispute BBC Cricket Correspondent and Team broadcast from the Dutch Fort in Galle.