Donor Co-chairs welcome Geneva outcome

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 12:00 GMT]
Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union welcomed the outcome of the meeting on the "implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement" and the "renewed commitment from the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to respect and uphold the Ceasefire Agreement, as well as the reconfirmation of their commitment to cooperate fully with and respect the rulings of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM)," in a press release issued Tuesday.
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Paramilitary cadre reveals planned claymore attack prior to Geneva Talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 11:41 GMT]
A paramilitary cadre with instructions to eliminate a Brigade Commander of the Liberation Tigers and an Intelligence Wing official in Batticaloa before talks in Geneva, met the press Tuesday morning in LTTE controlled Kokkaddicholai. The 32-year-old paramilitary cadre, Vigneswaran, told media at Solayaham Conference Centre that he turned himself to the Tigers as he was unhappy to obey instructions issued by the Sri Lankan military.
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Diaspora Tamil Organizations welcome Geneva Joint Statement

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2006, 12:21 GMT]
The International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a Geneva based consortium of Tamil diaspora organisations, in a press release issued Monday commended the facilitators Norway, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Liberation Tigers for bringing "relief to all peace loving people in the island." The press release also urged Mr Rajapakse to "use his power, influence and goodwill to prevail on those paramilitary cadres and get the seven TRO volunteers released immediately."
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Balasingham rejects Sri Lanka’s "amendment" concept as absurd

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 February 2006, 10:42 GMT]
Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), rejected outright the Sri Lanka government’s claim that the joint communiqué, issued after the Geneva talks, amounted to an amendment to the original Ceasefire Agreement. "This bizarre interpretation given by the President’s counsel, Mr H.L. De Silva is ridiculous and preposterous and totally unacceptable to the LTTE", Mr Balasingham told TamilNet when queried about the issue.
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Paramilitary operatives: ultimate victims of covert warfare?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 22:41 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) met in Geneva Wednesday and Thursday and reconfirmed their commitment to honour and uphold the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). The issue of paramilitary groups figured prominently in the discussions and the GoSL delegation undertook a commitment: that no armed group or person other than its security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations in GoSL controlled territory.
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ZOA funded computer centre opens in Muttur east

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 18:14 GMT]
A Computer Training Centre built by the Thamileelam Students Organization with the funding of ZOA, an international non-governmental organization, was opened during the weekend in Sampoor, a village in the LTTE held Muttur east territory, sources said.
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Local elections in LTTE areas likely to be postponed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 14:28 GMT]
Commissioner of Elections is to decide on whether to hold local council elections in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers in the NorthEast on March 30th only after holding two conferences, one with all the District Returning Officers who are the Government Agents of the province, and the other with the general secretaries of the registered political parties contesting the poll, sources said.
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SL President expresses satisfaction over Geneva peace talks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 February 2006, 12:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday met with the government delegation, which attended the Geneva peace talks with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Temple Trees in Colombo and discussed the outcome of talks in Geneva. Mr Rajapakse was satisfied with the decisions reached at the talks, Presidential Secretariat sources said, according government controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) in its Sunday evening news bulletin.
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Colombo accepts CFA in toto, Balasingham tells Sunday Leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 21:39 GMT]
LTTE's Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham, in an exclusive interview with Sunday Leader, said that although the talks were difficult and tough, the Sri Lanka Government has "accepted the meaning and content of this document [Cease Fire Agreement]," and on the issue of paramilitaries he said: "we have told the government, you better start disarming these groups and put an end to their armed military operations so that we could send our cadres to the north and east.We are ready to do that.And if anything happens to them, it will constitue a very very serious violation of the joint statement issued by both the parties."
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LTTE leaders meet Swiss officials, attend expat event

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 20:02 GMT]
Swiss foreign ministry officials met with the Liberation Tigers delegation led by Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist, Anton Balasingham on Friday at Chataeu De Bossey, Geneva where talks between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka was held. On Saturday the delegation attended a large gathering of Tamil-Swiss expatriates in the Convention Hall in Frieberg, Switzerland, sources in Geneva said.
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SLN attacks fishermen in Vadamaradchy seas

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 13:18 GMT]
Three fishermen from Sakkottai, Vadamaradchy were attacked and their fishing accessories including nets were damaged by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers from a patrolling Dvora speed boat Point Pedro seas Friday 9.30 a.m., Sooriyakumaran, president of Vadamaradchy North fisheries consortium, told TamilNet. He added that even while the talks between Libertion Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka are in progress, there are no indications that harassment of fishemen by SLN in the northern seas will decrease.
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Building Tamil Eelam State: Kristian Stokke

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 February 2006, 10:54 GMT]
"Sri Lanka’s third Eelam War created a political-territorial division of the island with a resultant dual state structure in the North-East. In the context of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement and based on earlier institutional experiments, the LTTE is currently engaged in a comprehensive process of state building within the areas they control," says Prof Stokke of Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, in an article which examines the emerging new Tamileelam state structure. He adds that only the "facilitation and dynamics of pro-democracy forces within the LTTE," will determine the transformation from "the"strong and centralized state," that currently exists.
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Swiss Government welcomes positive outcome of Geneva talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 February 2006, 11:33 GMT]
Welcoming the positive outcome of the talks in Geneva between the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Government of Switzerland in a press release issued from Berne Thursday said, that it "voices the expectation that the parties to the conflict will respect the agreement they have concluded."


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Tamil women given self-defense training

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 February 2006, 00:05 GMT]
Liberation Tigers have organized a self-defence training program for rural Tamil women in selected areas under their control in the east. Such training facility was recently inaugurated in Vakarai division in the Batticaloa district, sources said.
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GoSL to disarm armed groups

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 18:09 GMT]
Norwegian Minister of International Development released a statement on behalf of the parties to the Sri Lanka conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday evening in Geneva. The GOSL is committed to taking all necessary measures in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement to ensure that no armed group or person other than Government security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations. The LTTE is committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure that there will be no acts of violence against the Sri Lankan forces and the police. The parties are to meet again in Geneva on April 19th for a second round of talks.
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Sri Lanka Peace: Efforts, Failures and Lessons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Volume two of "Negotiating Peace in Sri Lanka: Efforts, Failures and Lessons," edited by Dr Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman, Foundation for Co-Existence, was launched in Colombo Wednesday. Volume 2 deals with United National Front (UNF)– LTTE negotiations of 2002-2003, including a detailed chapter on the background to the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and its security, implementation issues by former Defense Secretary, Austin Fernando.
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Avoid politicizing child rights issues - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:38 GMT]
Speaking in the second session of the first day of the talks in Geneva between the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka on 22 February 2006, S P Thamilchelvan, the political head of the LTTE, said that the accusations directed at the Liberation Tigers on Under-age recruitment, although directly irrelevant to the Cease Fire Agreement, needs to be viewed in the context of two decades of war and the continued violation of the rights of children during this period.
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Pirapaharan felicitates Charles Anthony Brigade fighters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 06:40 GMT]
Leader of Liberation Tigers, V Pirapaharan Wednesday participated in a ceremony at the Roy Training Camp of the Charles Anthony special brigade and presented awards to cadres completing Mortar, Artillery training, LTTE media sources from Kilinochchi said.
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SLA fires artillery shell into LTTE territory

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 05:51 GMT]
An artillery shell fired from a Sri Lanka Army camp in Vadamaradchi fell inside the Liberation Tigers controlled area 1.5 km beyond the no-man zone border in Muhamalai Thursday morning around 4:50 a.m., officials at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi said. The artillery, launched from Nagarkovil SLA camp, landed between Satha Nagar settlement, a displaced people's settlement and an LTTE camp in the area, peace secretariat officials said.
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Ex-LTTE cadre shot dead in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 February 2006, 04:04 GMT]
Mr Navarasan, a former member of the Liberation Tigers, was shot dead in Valaichenai by gunmen suspected to be members of a paramilitary group at 9.45 p.m. Wednesday, sources in Batticaloa said. The incident took place along Vishnu Kovil Road in Kiran.
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