Dispute over delegation makeup derails LTTE, GoSL meeting

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 18:22 GMT]
Head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, met top Norwegian officials and the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for over an hour Thursday evening. Mr. Thamilchelvan told TamilNet that the LTTE had come to Oslo to discuss the future of the SLMM with Norway. However, although Head of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, S. Puleedevan, was prepared to meet his counterpart, Palitha Kohona, heading the Sri Lankan delegation, but as Colombo continued to insist senior members of the LTTE be included in LTTE delegation, the LTTE-GoSL meeting did not take place, Thamilchelvan said.
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LTTE in discussions with Norway on SLMM - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 12:58 GMT]
The LTTE delegation in Oslo is involved in discussions with the Norwegian facilitators on key issues, including the role of international truce monitors, the head of the LTTE's Political Wing, S. P. Thamilchelvan said Thursday. Responding to media reports that the LTTE was refusing to sit with the Sri Lankan government (GoSL) delegation, Mr. Thamilchelvan said "discussions on the monitors at this crucial juncture would be productive and progressive when the [LTTE and government] delegations raise the issues separately with the Norwegian facilitators, giving room for them to devise approaches to resolve these issues."
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GoSL, LTTE delegations in Jevnaker, Norway

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 June 2006, 04:36 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) delegations arrived separately at Thorbjørnrud Hotel in Jevnaker, 67 km from Oslo, Wednesday evening. Norwegian officials would be meeting the parties separately, and possibly together, Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim has told the Norwegian Television TV2 Wednesday.
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Talking peace will not win us back Tamil Homeland - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2006, 10:34 GMT]
"Students have been active in the past independently and individually in the struggle for liberation. Pon. Sivakumaran was the pioneer in this struggle which continues with the participation of thousands of students until today. Peace talks will not redeem our lost nation, we can only win the Tamil homeland by the active engagement in the struggle by all people," said P. Ariyanethiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa District Parliamentarian Tuesday participating as the special guest in the 32nd Student Uprising Day celebration held at Karadiayanaru in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Territory in the Batticaloa district.


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Impromptu rally as UK hunger strike ends

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 June 2006, 09:08 GMT]
Almost a thousand Tamils gathered in front of Britain’s Houses of Parliament as Thaya Idaikader, who had been staging a hunger strike since midday Friday prepared to end it, after his scheduled 101 hours. Begun as a one-man protest against the international community’s refusal to compel Sri Lanka’s government to halt atrocities against Tamil civilians, Idaikader’s protest struck a chord with the wider Tamil community in Britain and in many other Diaspora centres around the world.
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Girl's death triggers prisoners' protest in Negombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2006, 19:17 GMT]
More than 250 Tamil youth and girls held in Negombo remand prison indefinitely, began a fast-to-death campaign inside the prison Monday, to protest against the death of a girl inmate who died Monday due to lack of medical facilities, sources from Negombo said. The protesting prisoners demanded they be produced in courts or be released on bail immediately, said sources from Negombo.
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World Environment Day celebrated in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 June 2006, 12:19 GMT]
Tamil people, under the Sri Lankan occupation, are obstructed to carry on their age-old lifestyle of living in harmony with the nature and its environment in their traditional homeland, said Shanmugalingam Ranjan, the Director of Planning and Development Secretariat (PDS) of Tamileelam, addressing media after the World Environment Day celebrations in Kilinochchi Monday.
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EU ban, one-sided and counterproductive - Balasingham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 09:25 GMT]
The EU ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is "extremely harsh, unfair, untimely and one-sided unlike the Donor Co-chairs declaration," LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and Political Ideologue, Mr. Anton Balasingham, has told the Colombo based weekly, The Sunday Times. It is a "misguided strategy," to assume that international proscriptions will "encourage" the penalised organisations to pursue the road maps and guidelines prescribed by the international actors, Mr. Balasingam said adding that the "anti-terrorist age," ban on the Tigers, ignoring the political context, historical background, was counterproductive and created serious obstacle to productive engagement.
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LTTE delegation leaves Kilinochchi for Oslo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 07:51 GMT]
A five member delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealm (LTTE) headed by its Political Head S. P. Thamilchelvan, left Kilinochchi Sunday to Oslo. Tamileelam Police Chief B. Nadesan, Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan accompanied Thamilchelvan with two others, sources in Kilinochchi said.
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SLMM Head visits Sea Tiger base in Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 May 2006, 23:56 GMT]
"Unless the SLMM is present in LTTE vessels, the monitors would not be able to make clear judgements on the disputes that may arise between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in the seas," Col. Soosai, the special commander of the LTTE told Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson, who was on a familiarising trip to LTTE controlled areas this week. The Sea Tiger Special Commander received the Head of Mission in Mullaithivu on Wednesday.
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EU bans LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 20:39 GMT]
The European Union (EU) ministers Monday evening listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in EU's list of "terrorist organizations" while Tamil diaspora was holding worldwide protests including in several European capitols against the ban. The decision, widely expected to have an adverse affect on the already tenuous peace process, has been officially approved, agency reports from Brussels said.
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EU ban will impact the Peace Process - Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 05:21 GMT]
Pointing out that the Liberation Tigers never pulled out from the Geneva-II talks and that it was the obstacles that the Government of Sri Lanka introduced after willfully changing the procedures for the inter-theater transfer of LTTE's military commanders that derailed Geneva-II, S.P. Thamilchelvan, Head of LTTE's Political Wing, said in an interview with TamilNet on Saturday that EU's ban will impact the functioning of the monitors from EU countries, and the "decommissioning or abdication of arms is non-negotiable."
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US Tamils call for stop to extra-judicial killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 02:48 GMT]
Pointing out that "Scandinavian Cease Fire Monitors have declared that members of GOSL forces and paramilitaries are involved in extra-judicial killings," a joint press release issued by Tamil organizations in the US Sunday warned, "If the CFA and the peace process are to be saved, extra -judicial killings and other violations of human rights of Tamils must end and those responsible be punished, and paramilitaries be disarmed," and called on the US Administration to "ensure that these are implemented immediately by the Government of Sri Lanka."


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LTTE protests appointment of military officer as Trincomalee GA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 May 2006, 16:35 GMT]
S.Elilan, Trincomalee district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Sunday protested to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in the east port town, the appointment of a retired Major General of the Sri Lanka Army as the Government Agent of the Trincomalee district by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), LTTE sources said. Elilan said that the civil administration of the district will be militarized by the appointment.
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LTTE to reconsider CFA if EU bans the movement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 May 2006, 10:18 GMT]
Liberation Tigers will be forced to reconsider the relevance of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) to the peace process, and LTTE's committment and adherence to the CFA, if the European Union carries out its threat of proscribing the LTTE, S.P. Thamilchelvan, Head of LTTE's Political Wing, told TamilNet after meeting Norwegian Special Peace Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer in Kilinochchi on Saturday.
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SLAF flies spy missions over LTTE controlled areas in Amparai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 10:50 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Amparai political head Mr. Jeya registered a complaint Wednesday with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) against the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) for employing low flying aircrafts in reconnaisance missions over LTTE territory in Amparai district, LTTE sources said. An aircraft was seen circling over Wednesday from 10 a.m to 12.00 p.m, said LTTE sources in Amparai.
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Brattskar meets Thamilchelvan in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 May 2006, 11:58 GMT]
Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar met with S. P. Thamilchelvan, Political Head of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Tuesday around 9.00 a.m at the LTTE Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi, and discussed the forthcoming visit of Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister and peace envoy, and the present critical situation in Sri Lanka, said sources in Kilinochchi. Brattskar arrived in Kilinochchi after visiting the site of Allapiddy killings on Monday.


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Sri Lanka government can still avert new war - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 May 2006, 11:39 GMT]
"The objective conditions for an outbreak of war are developing. Yet, there is still a space in which meaningful steps could be taken by the Sri Lankan Government to contain the violence of the paramilitaries and the excesses of the armed forces and create a congenial environment for de-escalation,” the Liberation Tigers’ theoretician and chief negotiator, Mr. Anton Balasingham said this week in an extensive interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
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Stop violence, enter talks, Anti-war group tells GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 May 2006, 11:29 GMT]
Condemning the increasing levels of violence committed by Liberation Tigers and by the "armed groups and forces within and outside" Sri Lanka's Military, Kumar Rupesinghe, chairman of National Anti War Front, in a press release issued Thursday in Colombo urged the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka to "implement the agreements reached in the High Table in Geneva," and to "immediately resume the talks which were initiated in Geneva."
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Religious heads protest in Kilinochchi against civilian killings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 18:17 GMT]
"International community and Human Rights agencies including UNHCR, UNICEF are keeping silent while Tamil men, women and children are being killed daily in NorthEast of Sri Lanka," said Janab. S. M. Shaheel, Islamic religious leader, participating in a non-violent sit-in demonstration staged in front of the UNHCR office in Kilinochchi Wednesday from 8.45 a.m to 1:00 p.m., said sources in Kilinochchi.
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