The family of one of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) contestants, an ethnic Muslim, at the forthcoming poll for the Jaffna Municipal Council was attacked last week amid a general campaign of intimidation against the party.

ITAK is the name under which the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an alliance of Sri Lanka’s four biggest Tamil parties and which is strongly supportive of the Tamil Tigers, is competing in the island-wide local government polls this month.

“We are safe because the LTTE is here. But we need more. We cannot go out and fish in case the navy take us away.”

Starting in April there will be at least one thing that Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tigers will be able to agree on - the time.

Development and peace-building have to go hand in hand, and the Japanese government remains most willing to support both'

The largest buyer of Sri Lanka’s exports, expresses concern at a controversial decision to tax imported ‘minority language’ television programs

The minority government is confident it will would soon get the crucial two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Voting for us strengthens President Rajapakse, the JVP says.

The Ceasefire Agreement is at the heart of the contest between two antithetical visions of what Sri Lanka should be.

LTTE Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist Anton Balasingham explains the circumstances in which the talks were held and the issues discussed.

‘We firmly believe that it is better to walk away from the negotiation table without any progress being made, rather than agreeing to any conditions detrimental to the sovereignty of the country’

No sooner had the first face-to-face talks in three years between the LTTEand the Sri Lankan state ended in Geneva, controversy erupted anew over what had been agreed at the table.

SLMM rejects Army denials

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) last week urged the military to be truthful on the issue of armed groups operating in the east with outgoing SLMM head Hagrup Haukland insisting “there is no doubt that such groups do exist.”

'We also emphasized the humanitarian situation prevailing in the Tamil homeland. We also brought to focus the fate of war affected, war displaced and the tsunami ravaged people in our homeland.''

If such attacks and killings should re-occur SLMM fears that the next round of talks is put at stake'