UK welcomes LTTE, GoSL agreement

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 January 2006, 11:35 GMT]
The British Foreign and Commonwealth office in a press release issued Thursday welcomed the agreement between Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to talks and said the British Government "strongly appreciates and supports the efforts of Erik Solheim and his Norwegian colleagues in their important facilitation work.”
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US welcomes agreement to hold peace talks in Geneva

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2006, 09:10 GMT]
United States Department of State issued a statement on Tuesday welcoming the the agreement by the Sri Lankan government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to hold peace talks in February in Geneva and commending the Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim for his effort in advancing the process. "The United States remains fully committed to the Sri Lankan peace process," said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the Department of State in the statement issued in Washington DC.
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Ensure end of violence before talks - NPC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 January 2006, 07:42 GMT]
National Peace Council (NPC), a Colombo based Peace Group, in a press release issued on Thursday urged the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers to ensure that the present violence is ended. "It is only then that the decision to negotiate will become meaningful and a change of strategy will be demonstrated," the organisation said.
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Intelligence Chief Zacky in Jaffna to step up campaign

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 12:40 GMT]
Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) Brigadier Rizvy Zacky, a hardliner, has been recently posted as Brigadier General Staff Officer (GSO, Intelligence) at the Sri Lanka Army Head Quarters (SF HQ) Jaffna in a major reshuffle of the SLA and Intelligence apparatus. Execution-style killings of five students in Trincomalee and three women members of a family in Jaffna mark a stark change of pattern in the escalation of intensified serial killings of non-combatant civilians in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled areas in the NorthEast. The pattern of violence also marks the return of hardliners who seems to prefer terror to subdue a population.
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LTTE, GoSL dialogue imperative for peace, says Burns

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 January 2006, 16:17 GMT]
"We hope that the LTTE will understand that it will have no relationship with my government and, indeed, no effective relationship with any country in this world as long as it seeks to redress its own grievances through the barrel of a gun. Now, we understand the Tamil community here has legitimate grievances, and legitimate issues that ought to be addressed by the government. And there out to be a dialogue, a better dialogue, between the government and the Tamil community," said US Undersecretary of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, in a press briefing in Colombo Monday.
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"Back to war"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 January 2006, 21:06 GMT]
"Unlike Indonesia Sri Lanka has failed to usher in peace. Every opportunity for rapprochement has been squandered after the Tsunami...The Sri Lankan government and the LTTE are steeped in mutual suspicion and contempt and will not arrive at any resolution on their own. A new heavy weight mediator must join Norway's Herculean but waning peacemaking efforts, one whom both parties can respect as an honest broker," said an independent analysis that appeared in the Sunday online edition of "The News" of Jang Group.
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"The Tamils are getting a lesson in realpolitik"

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 11:35 GMT]
The United States’ singling out of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the spiral of violence in Sri Lanka has undermined the neutrality of the Co-Chairs of the peace process and will fuel the military repression from which thousands of Tamils are fleeing, the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. In an editorial titled ‘Interests, not values’ the expatriate newspaper also criticised the US for not supporting efforts to get investment and reconstruction assistance to the war-devastated northeast, whilst blaming the LTTE for the continuing dearth of funding for the region.


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EU condemns attack on SLMM Batticaloa office

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 January 2006, 09:55 GMT]
The European Union on Friday condemned the attack on Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Batticaloa office Last Friday. A press release issued by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Sri Lanka in its capacity as local representative of the EU presidency, said the attack was a deliberate attempt to undermine the Ceasefire Agreement. The EU renewed its commitment to the SLMM and commended the contributing countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden for their engagement.
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Nordic countries condemn attack on Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 07:30 GMT]
The contributing countries to Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have condemned the attack on the Batticaloa district office of SLMM on Friday 13 January. Four vehicles parked in front of the SLMM office were damaged in the explosion. Batticaloa office of the SLMM is located on Lake Road, 50 meters from the paramilitary Razeek Group camp, which is attached to a Sri Lanka Army camp. The area, a high security zone of the SLA, also houses other paramilitary camps and ex-militant offices of EPRLF (Varathar faction), PLOTE and EPDP.
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State terrorism rising in NorthEast, say Tamil MPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 15:31 GMT]
"Violence and terror unleashed by the State armed forces is on the increase in the North East province. Fifty Tamil civilians have been abducted in the Jaffna district within few months. From December 1 to January 12 the State armed forces and para military groups in Jaffna have killed thirty-one Tamil civilians. Forty-two Tamils have been killed in other districts of the province," said leaders of Tamil political parties addressing a press briefing after their protest in parliament Tuesday morning.


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Balasingham to visit Vanni next week

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 11:33 GMT]
Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator and political strategist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), will visit the LTTE held region of Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, on 23rd January in a fresh effort to resume the peace process. Mr. Balasingham will assist the LTTE leader, Mr. V. Pirapaharan, during the forthcoming meeting next week between Mr. Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of International Development, and the LTTE leadership.
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Ground conditions will dictate process forward - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 10:09 GMT]
Unless there is a marked change in the ground conditions currently dominated by violent conduct by the Sri Lankan Armed forces and the paramilitaries, the patience of the Tamil population, facing killings on a daily basis in the SLA controlled Tamil homeland, will be put on a serious test, LTTE's Political Head S.P. Thamilchelvan, told media following the meeting in Kilinochchi with the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Hans Brattskar and the Head of the Scandinavian truce monitors in Sri Lanka, Hagrup Haukland. LTTE Political Head further said that the LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan would convey LTTE's stand to the Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim at the end of January.
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LTTE condemns attack on SLMM office

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 January 2006, 14:19 GMT]
Expressing concern about the attack on the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) offices, and relief that no one was hurt in the attack, Head of the Liberation Tigers Political Wing, S P Thamilchelvan, in a letter to the Head of the SLMM, Mr Hagrup Haukland, Saturday said: "Our leadership views this attack as an attempt to wreck the ceasefire agreement. Our leadership also expresses the continued support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the SLMM to implement the ceasefire agreement in its fully intended meaning and to rectify the deteriorating ceasefire environment. "
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Disarm paramilitary, stop Claymore attacks - SLMM

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 January 2006, 10:59 GMT]
The Scandinavian truce monitors, who condemned the Claymore attack on Sri Lanka Navy personnel in Chettikulam on Thursday, have blamed the Government of Sri Lanka emphasizing that the current situation also stems from "the fact that alternative armed elements have been able to operate freely in the East" in Sri Lanka Army controlled areas. While urging Colombo to "face up to its responsibility" to disarm the paramilitaries, the truce monitors said that the LTTE involvement in Claymore attacks cannot be ruled out. The SLMM appealed to both the parties to come up with firm confidence building measures with the "truthful aim of reaching a peaceful solution."
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Join hands to arrest spread of violence- EU Commissioner

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 12:35 GMT]
Mrs Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner for External Relations, European Commission in a message issued Thursday said that inspite of the escalating violence "Sri Lanka's leaders may yet be able to build on to pull back from the brink: it is the profound desire of the people of Sri Lanka for peace," and added that "it is imperative that the government, other political parties and the Tamil Tigers heed the call of the people and join hands to arrest the spread of violence prevailing in the north and in the east."
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Peace Group calls for urgent talks on CFA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 January 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Peace Support Group (PSG), a group consisting of civil society peace activists, expressed "deep sorrow and concern" at the escalation of violence in the NorthEast, reiterated the necessity to "return to direct talks as a matter of the utmost priority," and called upon the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers "to affirm their commitment to the maintenance of law and order in the areas under their control, and take all steps to prevent a return to armed hostilities," in a press release issued in Colombo Monday.
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Australia condemns CFA violations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 11:23 GMT]
In a media release issued on the 8 December, Mr Alexander Downer , Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs said, "Australia is deeply concerned about the recent escalation in violence in the North and East of Sri Lanka, and condemns in particular the two attacks in Jaffna on 4 and 6 December by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," and called upon "both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to take appropriate steps to bring an end to the current violence and to work towards the implementation of the letter and spirit of the Ceasefire Agreement as a crucial step in seeking a just and sustainable peace settlement."
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Sri Lanka's President meets TNA delegation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2006, 05:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse and a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by its parliamentary group leader Mr.R.Sampanthan began Saturday around 11 a.m. at Temple Trees at the invitation of the SL President, parliamentary sources in Colombo said. The discussion currently is in progress, government sources said.
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SL Foreign Minister meets US Secretary of State Rice

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 January 2006, 11:33 GMT]
"Minister Samaraweera, who noted that Sri Lanka was Asia’s oldest democracy, thanked the US Government for the pro-active role it had played to support the peace process. He stressed that the solution the Government of Sri Lanka envisaged is one that is based on democracy, human rights and pluralism," a press release issued by the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington said, referring to a meeting of Minister Samaraweera with US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice Thursday.


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Canadians mourn loss of Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 January 2006, 06:41 GMT]
Canada’s Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bill Graham, together with four parliamentarians from the Canadian Government, five representatives from the opposition and a number of Canadian Human Rights and Peace activists joined the expatriate Tamil community in Toronto, on Monday, to mourn and pay tribute to "Mamanithar" Joseph Pararajasingam, the senior Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian who was slain at Batticaloa St. Mary's Church on Christmas Day. "Joseph Pararajasingham was a man of peace, but he also a man of steely determination, of great courage, a man who was willing to risk his life for his people," the Canadian Defence Minister said in his tribute.
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