Army planning 'all-out' offensive - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 January 2001, 07:33 GMT]
Exploiting the Liberation Tigers' unilateral ceasefire, the Sri Lanka Army is inducting fresh troops, armour and artillery into the Jaffna offensive in preparation for an "all-out" offensive in the Kilali-Nagerkoil, the LTTE said Friday. In an interview with the London-based Tamil Guardian, the LTTE's chief negotiator warned that the Army's "strategy will result in a major escalation of the war."
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President rejects LTTE ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 January 2001, 00:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga Monday rejected Liberation Tigers' month-long unilateral cease-fire during a televised speech to people in the northern Jaffna peninsula, in her first public response to the LTTE "goodwill" offer last month.
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President to meet Ministers, party officials

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2000, 22:21 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunge will meet key government ministers and prominent members of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) tomorrow, 1st January 2001, to discuss possible responses to the unilateral declaration of ceasefire by the Liberation Tigers, said political sources in Colombo.
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Tamil parties appeal for ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2000, 04:20 GMT]
"Sri Lankan government should respond favourably to the call by the Liberation Tigers for a ceasefire and, USA, Britain, India, members of the European Union and other countries interested in solving the conflict in Sri Lanka should exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to bring an end to the war," said a joint statement issued by a coalition of ten Tamil political parties after they met in Colombo yesterday. .
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Jaffna University students, staff protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 December 2000, 22:29 GMT]
Hundreds of students, academic and non-academic staff of the Jaffna University demonstrated inside the campus premises on Friday voicing support to the political demands of the Tamil people, and demanding the Sri Lankan Government to declare cease-fire and to begin negotiations with the Liberation Tigers, sources in the northern town said.
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TULF protests Sri Lanka's ceasefire rejection

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2000, 15:31 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Monday criticised the Sri Lankan government's refusal to reciprocate the LTTE's pledge to unilaterally observe a month-long ceasefire over the festive season. "The vast majority of people would have welcomed the prevalence of peace during the festive season of Christmas, New Year and Thai Pongal", the TULF said. Commenting on the government's insistence that any negotiations take place as fighting continues, the party said "The TULF considers it impractical and also irrational to expect a guerilla force to engage in serious negotiations, while at the same time fighting a fierce war."
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LTTE to unilaterally observe "goodwill" ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 December 2000, 13:35 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Monday expressed "great dismay" the Sri Lankan government had rejected its offer of a month-long ceasefire over the festive season, but said they would continue to unilaterally observe a truce and urged the government to reconsider its position. "The LTTE will not embark on offensive armed operations during the festive season ending on the 24th January 2001 but it reserves the right to armed defence. We will only engage in defensive war if and when Sri Lanka armed forces launch offensive military operations against our positions," the Tigers said in a statement from their London offices.
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Sri Lanka rejects LTTE's "goodwill" ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 December 2000, 20:13 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government Saturday rejected the Liberation Tigers offer Thursday of a month-long "goodwill" cease-fire, asserting that military operations by the armed forces will continue. A statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat also said that "further gestures of goodwill are unnecessary [before negotiations]," rejecting the LTTE's call to de- escalate the conflict for negotiations to take place in conditions of normalcy.
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Britain welcomes LTTE ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 December 2000, 10:23 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain Friday welcomed the Liberation Tigers announcement Thursday of a month-long unilateral ceasefire as “a first step” in de-escalating the conflict and urged the Sri Lankan government to follow suit.
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Tigers declare "goodwill" month-long ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 December 2000, 11:47 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers declared Thursday a month-long unilateral ceasefire "as a goodwill measure to facilitate the peace process." A press release from the organisation's London offices quoted a statement released by its headquarters in the Vanni said it would cease hostile military actions against the Sri Lankan armed forces from midnight 24 December.
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Sinhala nationalists protest against talks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2000, 14:34 GMT]
The militant Sinhala Buddhist nationalist group, the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), urged the Sri Lanka army to continue the war until the Liberation Tigers are defeated when they met the SLA commander Lt.Gen. Lionel Balagalle Wednesday and gave him a memorandum against peace talks to end the ethnic conflict in the island. The NMAT held a protest in downtown Colombo against peace talks Wednesday afternoon. Protesters burnt an effigy of LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan and poked fun at two persons dressed up as Norwegian peace emissary Eric Soleheim and British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Peter Hain.
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Sri Lanka determined to continue war - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 December 2000, 22:38 GMT]
(News Feature) The Sri Lankan government's continued silence on Liberation Tigers' offer of unconditional peace talks last week cast doubt on Colombo's commitment to peacefully resolving the conflict, Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's theoretician and political advisor said Saturday. Sri Lanka's President Kumaratunge seemed determined to prosecute the war, he said in his Heroes' Day address in London. Nevertheless, the Liberation Tigers were seriously considering a Norwegian proposal for staggered and gradual de-escalation of the conflict, he said.
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40000 children to benefit from polio immunization

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 December 2000, 14:01 GMT]
"Children are the messengers of peace. They should be safeguarded from diseases and war atrocities," said the Sri Lanka and Maldives' representative of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Mr.Colin Glennie Saturday morning after inaugurating the second round of the National Immunization Program against Poliomeylitis.
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No ceasefire with LTTE - PM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 November 2000, 17:28 GMT]
"The People's Alliance (PA) Government is not prepared to enter into any ceasfire agreement with the LTTE. We take this stand based on our past experiences with the LTTE. The war will continue until terrorism is eliminated," said Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, while addressing a public meeting in Kurunagala, this evening.
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Indian FM meets minority parties

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 June 2000, 12:00 GMT]
The Indian Foreign Minister Mr.Jaswant Singh held separate meetings with the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a group comprising representatives of three hill country Tamil parties and five ex-Tamil militant groups at India House, the official residence of the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Monday Afternoon. The brief discussions mainly centered around India's role as a mediator, devolution, the plight of civilians in the war zone and the need for a ceasefire. Mr. Singh reaffirmed India's stand on the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka to the Tamil and Muslim delegations during his discussions with the minority parties this afternoon.
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ICRC, UNHCR urged over ceasefire for civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 June 2000, 16:29 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Friday they had urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help arrange a temporary ceasefire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces to facilitate the evacuation of civilians trapped in the battle zones of the thenmaradchi division in the Jaffna peninsula. The civilians are unable to leave as the Sri Lankan armed forces are pounding the possible routes of evacuation, the Tigers said in a statement from their London offices.
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Shelling thwarts civilian evacuation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 May 2000, 18:12 GMT]
The evacuation of an estimated 15,000 civilians from the embattled Chavakachcheri sector failed Saturday, as heavy shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) prevented them moving to designated points where UNHCR officials were waiting, following the declaration of a ceasefire by the Liberation Tigers, the LTTE said in a statement. The LTTE urged international governments to "prevail on the Sri Lankan armed forces to desist from using civilians as human shields and subjecting them to indiscriminate artillery and aerial bombardment".
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No response to ceasefire offer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 May 2000, 16:29 GMT]
There was no official reaction from the Sri Lankan government to the ceasefire declared unilaterally by the Liberation Tigers Friday to enable civilians in the Thenmaradchi division and other sectors of the Jaffna peninsula to move out, with the assistance of the UNHCR, to designated safer areas. Sri Lankan army headquarters sources in Colombo peremptorily dismissed the LTTE ceasefire.
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Ceasefire to evacuate civilians - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 May 2000, 17:16 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers will observe a temporary ceasefire between 10am and 10pm Saturday May 27 to facilitate the evacuation of civilians to safe areas from battlezeones of the Thenmarachchi division of the Jaffna peninsula, the LTTE said Friday in a statement from its London offices. The UNHCR is to assist the evacuation, the Tigers said. Over 40 civilians have been killed and 150 wounded by indiscriminate shelling and bombing by the Sri Lankan armed forces, the LTTE statement said, adding that the Sri Lankan military was also preventing civilians from moving to areas of safety.
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SLA dismisses ceasefire offer

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 May 2000, 11:36 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army totally rejected the ceasefire offer by the Liberation Tigers today. An officer at the operational headquarters of the Ministry of defence said this afternoon that the SLA will fight to the last man to defend Jaffna. An official release stating the government's position would be out later this afternoon he said.
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