Japan concerned of escalation of violence following abrogation of CFA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 January 2008, 12:37 GMT]
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Masahiko Koumura, on Friday issued a statement stating that Japan was deeply concerned that the decision taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to withdraw from the Ceasefire may lead to the escalation of the conflict by way of increased level of violence and greater civilian casualties, and leave the peace process at a standstill. Japan further said it expected a devolution package, "in line" with Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa's previous commitment.
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Nordic countries regret Colombo's decision to abrogate CFA

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2008, 17:58 GMT]
Foreign Ministers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, the Nordic countries that took part in the formation of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, issued a joint statement on Friday, stating that the withdrawal of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission from Sri Lanka would mean the end of an important mechanism that protected civilians and which gave a voice to the victims and their families. "The termination of the Ceasefire Agreement will only make it more difficult to find a way back to the negotiating table," the Foreign Ministers of the Nordic countries said in their joint statement regretting the unilateral decision by the GoSL to abrogate the ceasefire.
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SLMM to terminate operational activities on January 16

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2008, 11:55 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) on Thursday said it would terminate its current operational activities in Sri Lanka effective 16 January at 1900 hrs., following the decision by the Government of Sri Lanka to abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam effective as of 16 January 2008.
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Abrogation of CFA endangers respect for human rights - NPC

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2008, 10:16 GMT]
The GoSL withdrawal from the Ceasefire, resulting in the removal of the role played by the truce monitors, will reduce the flow of credible information to the world outside and deprive the hapless civilians with a credible authority to lodge complaints, said National Peace Council, a Colombo based peace group, on Thursday. Colombo's rejection of a UN Human Rights field presence, the inability of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) and the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) to make meaningful progress in discharging their mandates, and the recent downgrading of the National Human Rights Commission, combine to place respect for human rights in Sri Lanka in further jeopardy.
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U.N. regrets Colombo's decision to withdraw from CFA

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2008, 10:00 GMT]
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday said he regretted the decision made by the Government of Sri Lanka to terminate the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Secretary-General said he was deeply worried that the withdrawal from the Agreement comes amidst intensifying fighting in the North and increasing violence across the country, including Colombo.
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U.S 'troubled' by GoSL withdrawal from CFA

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2008, 09:08 GMT]
The United States Department of State, in a statement issued on Thursday said, it is troubled by the Sri Lankan Government's January 2 decision to terminate the 2002 cease-fire agreement. Ending the cease-fire agreement will make it more difficult to achieve a lasting, peaceful solution to Sri Lanka's conflict.
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Canada regrets Sri Lanka terminating truce agreement

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 21:08 GMT]
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Maxime Bernier, in a press release issued today, regretted Sri Lanka's decision to withdraw from the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA), and expressed concern about the "escalating violence on civilians, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders," and that Sri Lanka's action will make "search for a more durable solution more difficult."
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Sri Lanka withdraws from CFA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 11:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Thursday evening officially conveyed in writing to the Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem in Colombo that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) was withdrawing from the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA). The message was conveyed to the Ambassador at the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry in Colombo. The CFA formally ends on 16 January, the day after the Tamil festival Thaippongkal. GoSL has also suspended the Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA) with 14-days advance notification.
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2007: The year in review

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT]
For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province.
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Norway regrets Sri Lanka's decision to terminate CFA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 03:28 GMT]
Norway's Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, in a press release issued Wednesday, Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that he regrets that Sri Lanka is taking this serious step, and added that "[T]his comes on top of the increasingly frequent and brutal acts of violence perpetrated by both parties, and I am deeply concerned that the violence and hostilities will now escalate even further."
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Colombo to annul CFA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 January 2008, 15:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces as well as the Minister of Defence, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has decided to annul the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Sri Lankan Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela, has confirmed that a cabinet decision to withdraw from the CFA has been taken on Wednesday. But, he did not provide a date for the GoSL withdrawal. The February 2002 agreement, in its paragraph 4.4, specifies that the agreement shall remain in force until notice of termination is given by either Party to the Royal Norwegian Government.
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TamilNadu leaders protest against Indian PM's participation in SL Independence Day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 December 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reported intention to participate as the Chief Guest in the Sri Lankan Government's Independence Day Celebrations on February 4, 2008 has sparked large-scale dissent from political leaders in Tamilnadu. K. Veeramani, President of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), on Friday announced his organization's decision to demonstrate against the proposed visit and called upon the Tamilnadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to intervene in this regard. Meanwhile, Thol.Thirumavalavan, President, Viduthalaich Chi'ruththaika'l Kadchi and Suba. Veerapandiyan of Dravidar Iyakka Thamizhar Pearavai have pledged their organizational support and participation to the demonstration.
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GoSL to ban Tigers, abrogate CFA, says Gotabhaya

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 December 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Misquoting the failed talks between a delegation of Tamil Liberation Movements and Sri Lanka Government in August 1985 as "Thimpu Agreement," Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary and brother of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an interview to state owned Daily News said that the Sri Lankan government would "give a solution" to the Tamil people after proscribing the LTTE, abolishing the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's statement comes as Sri Lankan forces were preparing for an all out war with the Tigers in the North.
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SL Supreme Court fixes inquiry into petitions challenging the CFA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2007, 13:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Friday fixed the inquiry for March 10 next year into the petitions filed by the Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya (SJS) challenging the legality of the ceasefire agreement signed by the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremasinghe and Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 22 February 2002.
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Propping up genocidal Sinhala State counterproductive, International Community should change approach - Pirapaharan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 12:33 GMT]
The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V Pirapaharan, in his annual Heroes' Day statement placed a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of the international community for the breakdown of the peace process. He said that the involvement of the international community to resolve the Tamil national question has been unhelpful and added that their failure to condemn unambiguously the military path of the current regime has created the present situation in the island. He asserted that the propping up of the genocidal Sinhala State by the international community through economic aid, military aid and subtle diplomatic efforts will be counterproductive.
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Sri Lanka's War Secretariat?

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2007, 13:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), in a 2000-word press release issued Thursday, took exceptions to the labelling of SCOPP as "the government’s War Secretariat," by Prof. Uyangoda, and as "Secretariat for Coordinating the War Process" by Sunday Times which highlighted SCOPP's "angrily incessant verbosity," in its story. Head of SCOPP adds, "our counterpart in Kilinochchi had shown itself indeed a War Secretariat, in celebrating the Black Tigers who had attacked the airbase at Anuradhapura," drawing moral equivalence between the 'behavior' of the two Secretatriats as part of SCOPP's rationale for defending Sri Lanka's rights abuses, among other accusations.
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'Rajapaksa sustains majority votes' - UPFA minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2007, 18:18 GMT]
Addressing a live political discussion programme in the Sri Lankan state-run ITN (Independent Television Network) TV, Thursday night, the Sri Lankan Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha, assured viewers that the SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa has sustained sufficient number of votes, more than 117, to pass the 2008 budget in the parliament, coming Monday. Mr. Susil Premajayantha, who appeared in the "Thulawa" programme, said that the Rajapaksa government was not dependent on the JVP to pass the budget.
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Sri Lanka builds police station on Kausalyan’s cemetary

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 November 2007, 13:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities have razed a Tamil Tiger cemetery in the island’s east and built a police station on it, international ceasefire monitors said in a recent report. The Thaandiyadi cemetery, in which large numbers of LTTE cadres, including Mr. E. Kaushalyan, the popular political head of the LTTE in Batticaloa-Amparai district, who was killed by Army-backed paramilitaries whilst traveling through government-controlled territory during the peace process in 2005, has been razed. At least one other LTTE cemetery has had the grave markings razed, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said.
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HRW endorses restrictions on arms sales to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 November 2007, 12:30 GMT]
In a letter sent to U.S. Representatives Nita M. Lowey and Frank R. Wolf on US foreign operations funding, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday: "there has also been a significant jump in abuses by government forces, such as indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial executions, and forced disappearances...despite the creation of various new governmental bodies, there is little evidence that the Sri Lankan government is bringing the perpetrators of serious abuses to justice," and endorsed Senate's proposed conditions on "restricting the sale and transfer of arms to Sri Lanka."
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Rajapaksa claims victory in isolating Tigers Internationally

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2007, 14:33 GMT]
Claiming that Sri Lanka has managed to curb overseas operations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) with the assistance of many countries, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, presenting the 2008 Budget in the Sri Lankan parliament Wednesday, vowed to "completely eradicate terrorism," if an environment in which a "political solution upholding human rights" in the interest of those who are "still in the grips of terrorists" is to be created. This could not be achieved by taking a divided approach by defaming each other [in the south], by neglecting the needs of the security forces or by ignoring their advise, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Parliament.
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