The Lanka Academic
 
MARCH 23, 2002 EST, USA
 
A NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED BY LACNET
 
VOL. 2, NO. 351
TLA FEATURE CORNER
Headline Summary
F R E E      C L A S S I F I E D S
T  O  P      H  E  A  D  L  I  N  E
Probe ordered into military purchases
Gulf-News, 24 March 2002. Sri Lankan Defence Minister Tilak Marapana has appointed two committees to probe questionable military procurements in recent years as well as a controversial French locomotive tender during the tenure of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government. The committee to examine the procurement of goods and services by the ministry of defence and the institutions under it - the army, navy, air force and the police - will be headed by Dulindra Weerasuriya, attorney-at-law. The second committee on the purchase of the French locomotives will be headed by P.H. Manatunga, attorney-at-law and include M.D.A. Rajapakse, retired DIG and Devaka Cooray, accountant. More...
Published: Sat Mar 23 21:00:15 EST 2002
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This session has now ended.

Answers 1-28 now available! The Lanka Academic is delighted to announce the 8th guest in its series of Q & A sessions: Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Leader of the Opposition in the Sri Lankan Parliament. With the recent change in leadership in the Sri Lankan government, the peace process appears to be gaining fresh new momentum. This is your opportunity to ask questions from Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa related to Sri Lankan politics and receive answers by clicking here. The answers will appear here.

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O  T  H  E  R      H  E  A  D  L  I  N  E  S
Sri Lanka gambles on peace to get out of recession
 Hoovers online/AFP, March 23. Sri Lanka's new government unveiled its first budget banking on a Norwegian-backed peace process to get the country out of a crippling recession... Back to the top
Don't force the pace, LTTE warns Ranil
 The Hindu (International), Mar 23, 2002. The LTTE perceives the visit to Jaffna by the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as a move to force the pace of the peace process and has warned that such attempts could undermine the ongoing initiative to resolve the ethnic conflict... Back to the top
LTTE tax threat
 HindustanTimes, March 23. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have threatened to impose a monthly tax of 8 per cent on government servants in the Tamil North and East... Back to the top
Navy man jailed for assault
 Gulf-News, 24 March 2002. A naval rating was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour for sexually assaulting a female officer after a party inside the high security headquarters earlier this month... Back to the top
Govt., LTTE request ICRC's help to open A9
 Tamilnet, 24 March 2002. The government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have officially requested the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to assist in opening the A9 highway to Jaffna from Killinochchi... Back to the top
Canadian official to visit Sri Lanka
 Times of India, SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2002 2:56:23 PM. Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region, David Kilgour, is due to arrive in Sri Lanka on Sunday on a four-day official visit, officials said... Back to the top
LTTE front to hold fund raiser in New York.
 Thirunavukkarasu Sathasivam, March 21. Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), allegedly to be the LTTE's premiere arm for international fund-raising, is to hold a grand fund raising event in New York City, on the 23rd of March 2002... Back to the top
LTTE negotiator's arrival in Sri Lanka to hasten peace bid
 Yahoo/IANS, March 23, 2002. Norway's peace bid in Sri Lanka will gather momentum when the Tamil Tigers' Britain-based negotiator Anton Balasingham arrives in the island Monday to meet rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran... Back to the top
LTTE chief will meet press in April
 The Sunday Leader, D.B.S. Jeyaraj, March 24, 2002. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Leader Velupillai Prabakharan will meet representatives of the national and international media at a special press conference in the Northern mainland of the Wanni before Sinhala and Tamil new year in April... Back to the top
Congratulations, Mr Muralitharan
 Yahoo India, 24 March 2002. Going by the cricketing relations between Australia and Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan least expected an Aussie to be one of the first to congratulate him for being selected the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year... Back to the top
Sri Lankan Government Unveils Budget Plan for 2002
 Nothern Light, Friday, March 22, 2002 11:18 PM EST . COLOMBO, Mar 23, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Sri Lanka's United National Party government has unveiled its budget plan for this year, setting the economic growth target at 3.5 to 4 percent... Back to the top
Key Sri Lanka road may reopen soon with ADB help
 MSNBC, 23 March 2002. The highly symbolic road to Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula may be reopened in the next several weeks with the Asian Development Bank saying on Friday it was ready to fund the project... Back to the top
Where Money Talks - Colours in discrimination
 Yahoo India, 23 March 2002. If there is a global conflict, it would be because of colour, and not religion, says Sunanda K Datta Ray Listening to echoes of the racial divide at the Commonwealth summit, held under the auspices of an Australian prime minister who fears being upstaged by the likes of Pamela Hanson and in a state that notoriously ill-treated aborigines, and watching migrants from the yellow, brown and black nations laying siege to the citadels of white civilisation, it would seem that Samuel P Huntington was wrong... Back to the top
Tamil Nadu fishermen in Jaffna prison to return on March 26
 The Hindustan Times, Chennai, March 23 . Twenty-nine fishermen from Tamil Nadu, now in a Jaffna prison in Sri Lanka, would return to the State on March 26, following the island government's order on Friday to release them... Back to the top
Sri Lanka Budget
 Leo de Lile in Colombo, 6.00pm, SLT, March.22, 2002. Sri Lanka's Finance Minister K.N. Choksy enters the Sri Lanka’s parliament in Kotte, to present the maiden budget of the United National Front Government on Friday... Back to the top
Cricket - England's Hollioake dies in car crash
 Yahoo India, 23 March 2002. Reuters) - England all-rounder Ben Hollioake was killed in a car crash in the early hours of Saturday... Back to the top
Tamils of Indian origin back LTTE
 The Hindu (International), 23 March 2002. . Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka have accepted the LTTE as the chief negotiator on their behalf in the peace talks with the Sri Lankan Government, according to the former Sri Lankan Minister, P... Back to the top
Tamils turn to the political battlefield
 Asia Times, March 23. With the formal ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels still holding, it seems possible that talks between the two sides could begin early in April... Back to the top
Refugees unwilling to return home
 Asia Times, March 23. The peace process being brokered by Norway has created fear among the more than 110,000 Tamil refugees living in India and other parts of the world... Back to the top
Thailand or Maldives may host Lanka talks
 Times of India, MARCH 23, 2002. Norway’s bid to broker peace in Sri Lanka has received a new boost with a top rebel leader planning to return home while preparations are underway for direct talks, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando said... Back to the top
Canada voice strong support for Lankas peace move
 Ranmali Wijesuriya in Colombo, SLT 10.45 p.m Friday 22 March. Canadian secretary of state (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour who will arrive in Sri Lanka on March 24 with a seven member Canadian business delegation has expressed his governments strong support for the progress that is being made towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Sri Lanka... Back to the top
Sri Lankan president, minister accused of malpractice, three killed
 Yahoo Singapore, March 20, 9:44 PM. At least three people were killed in Sri Lanka during violence related to local council polls, while voting monitors accused President Chandrika Kumaratunga of violating election laws... Back to the top
Ceasefire monitors have no work: Sri Lanka
 NDTV/MSNBC, March 22, 2002 (Colombo):. Sri Lanka has said that Scandinavian monitors mandated to oversee a truce between government forces and the LTTE have practically no work to do, as there are no reports of violations by either side... Back to the top
Sri Lanka prepares ground for talks
 BBC South Asia, Friday, 22 March, 2002, 12:55 GMT . The Sri Lankan Government has begun the process of formally asking a foreign country for permission to host peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando said... Back to the top
Lanka orders release of 29 Indian fishermen
 Press Trust of India, Colombo,Friday, March 22, 2002. Twenty-nine Indian fishermen, arrested in recent weeks by the Sri Lankan Navy for entering Sri Lankan waters, have been ordered to be released by a court in Jaffna, officials said... Back to the top
Prime Minister reiterate need for peace
 Waruna Karunatilake in Colombo, 1207 slt 22.03.02. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today reiterated the need for peace saying there were no options other than a political settlement to the ethnic problem... Back to the top
Five Presidential Security Division personnel accused of trying to kill Minister S.B.Dissanayake granted bail.
 Waruna Karunatilake in Colombo, 1213 slt 22.03.02. The Court of Appeal today granted bail to five members of the Presidential Security Division accused of planning to murder Minister S... Back to the top
How to win the World Cup…
 Yahoo India, March 22, 1:06 PM. Will India win the World Cup in 2003? That was the topic of debate yesterday at the President Hotel when a panel comprising former cricketers, a journalist and an ad man met on the occasion of the sixth International Ceat Cricket Ratings Awards... Back to the top
Police say first time in 32 years elections were held with out curfew
 Waruna Karunatilake in Colombo, 1216 slt 22.03.02. Police said today that it was the first time in 32 years that elections have been cocluded without imposing a curfew after voting... Back to the top
Sri Lanka Postpones Local Polls in War-Torn Areas
 ABC News, 22 March 2002. Sri Lanka has postponed local council elections in the war-torn north and east for six months because of fears not enough polling stations can be set up, state media said on Friday... Back to the top
Cricket - Thumbs up from ICC match umpires for TV technology trial
 Yahoo India, 22 March 2002. Cricket's newly appointed elite panel of international match umpires has backed the International Cricket Council's (ICC's) plan to experiment with extended television technology to aid umpiring decisions... Back to the top
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