Karuna, Thamilselvan in LTTE team for Thailand - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 October 2002, 01:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers have finalised their negotiating team for the second round of direct talks between the movement and the Sri Lankan government scheduled to be held in Thailand next week, the Tamil Guardian newspaper reported this week.

The head of the LTTE’s political wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilselvan, and Col. Karuna, the LTTE’s Special Commander for the Batticaloa-Amparai district would be joining the LTTE team which will be led by Mr. Anton Balasingham, the movement’s chief negotiator and political advisor, the London based paper said.

Mrs Adele Balasingham will function as Secretary to the negotiating team, which will travel to Thailand via Colombo, the paper reported, quoting LTTE officials.

Mr. V. Rudrakumar, the LTTE's legal advisor and Dr. Jay Maheswaran, a rehabilitation and development expert who were in the LTTE team which participated in the first round of talks held mid-September in Sattahip, Thailand would also be present at the second round as resource persons, the Tamil Guardian said.

Mr. and Mrs. Balasingham arrived in the Vanni Tuesday last week on a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter which they boarded in Colombo, having arrived there by a SriLankan airlines flight from London, where they reside.