|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 1 August 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Support peace talks - TNA to JHU, JVP From the Tamil press by S.Selvakumar All Tamil dailies on Monday (even other dailies) had Kottawa killings as lead stories and splashed pictures of the bodies of the eight in their front pages and gave less prominence to the arrival of Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Helgessen. The Virakesari said JHU has decided to withdraw the religious conversion bill and quoting a spokesman said since Hinduism too face a similar problem the new draft bill will include Hinduism, too. Indian politician and leader of the MDMK Y. Gopalaswamy addressing an international Tamil conference in Bangalore said that india should follow late Ms. Indira Gandhi's policy vis-a-vis Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, the Thinakkural said on Tuesday. The paper also said that Thamilselvan has intimated to Helgessen that LTTE sticks to the stand already conveyed to Norway by Prabhakaran in recommencing peace talks. The LTTE has totally denied reports in newspapers that they have built new camps around Trincomalee harbour. This issue was first taken up by peace secretariat chief Jayantha Dhanapala with Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgessen when they met soon after the latter's arrival in Colombo. Subsequently when he conveyed Colombo's concern about it to Thamilselvan in Kilinochchi the latter vehemently denied it, the Sudaroli reported on Wednesday. In another report the paper said 11 officers attached to the Registration of Persons Department have been transferred out following inquiries over the issue of forged identity cards to the Kollupitiya suicide bomber and her accomplice. The Virakesari reported the shooting of a correspondent of the Tamil weekly Thinamurasu, a pro EPDP publication at Arayampathi in Batticaloa. S. Kamaladasan was injured in this incident and admitted to hospital. Vidar Helgessen is scheduled to meet with LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham in London on Friday and the Thinakkural further said that the LTTE's stand on recommencing the peace talks would be known after this meeting. The paper said that Tamil Nadu's MDMK leader Y. Gopalaswamy has told reporters that he would complain to the Indian Prime Minister about the denial of entry into India at the Chennai airport to TNA parliamentarian Eelavendan. He was proceeding to Bangalore to participate in the International Tamil conference but prevented at the Meenambakkam airport and send back to Colombo. The main story in the Sudaroli on Thursday said that the JVP and JHU refused to meet with Helgessen while the Virakesari in a front page story reported just the opposite that Helgessen refused to meet the two political parties. Jaffna High Court remanded Somaratne Rajapakse who was produced from the Welikada prisons in connection with a habeas corpus application over some missing persons in the year 1995-1996. He is at present a convict sentenced to death over the killing of a female student Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, her mother and brother. He was remanded till August 4 and ordered to stay in the Jaffna prisons, the Virakesari reported. Minister Douglas Devananda has told representatives of Canada and Europe that the LTTE's claim of sole representation of the Tamil people is undemocratic, the Thinakaran said. On Friday all privately owned Tamil dailies led with the story about UNP's unconditional support to the government if the latter continues with the peace process in the face of JVP's threat that it would pull out of the coalition if discussions are started only on the Interim Self Governing Authority, proposals. The Thinakkural in a front page editorial said certain forces within the government could act in favour of the Karuna faction without the knowledge of the President and warned that treading into dangerous zone could result in disaster. In another front page story the paper said that Anton Balasingham who meets Vidar Helgessen today in London is expected to tell him that only if the SLFP and JVP agree on a common basis that the LTTE will agree for the recommencement of talks. The Sudaroli in a front page news charged that unemployed graduates in Tiger held areas in the North and East have been overlooked in the process of granting jobs to graduates. The Tamil National Alliance in a statement called upon the JVP and the JHU to realise the ground situation and render help to continue with the peace negotiations failing which the resumption of war will be inevitable, the Virakesari said. The Thinakaran in a front page story said that several Sri Lankans who went to Iraq to work in the country's reconstruction process have been jailed according to other Sri Lankans who escaped and returned to Sri Lanka. The paper also said that the Foreign Employment Bureau has commenced investigations into the matter. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
