Be 'flexible' at Geneva, India tells Sri Lanka
[ KN News ] [ 12:10 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
India has advised Sri Lanka to be "flexible" during talks with the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in Geneva next week. Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran made the suggestion to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse during a meeting in Colombo Monday, official sources told IANS Wednesday. Measuring his words carefully, the foreign secretary told the president that it would be good for Sri Lanka to show political flexibility without compromising its stand on basic issues related to the country's territorial integrity. Saran met the president accompanied by two officials from the Indian external affairs ministry and High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Nirupama Rao.
S.Lanka attacks may deepen if talks fail - monitor
[ Reuters ] [ 12:13 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
Sporadic attacks that threatened to rupture a truce which halted Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war could resume with even greater ferocity if next week's crunch talks fail, the island's chief truce monitor said. Escalating attacks in December and January killed around 200 soldiers, police, civilians and Tamil Tigers until the government and rebels agreed to hold emergency talks in Switzerland seen by some as a final opportunity to avoid a return to war. "If it's a last chance or not, I can't say," Hagrup Haukland, head of the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, told Sri Lanka's Foreign Correspondents' Association late on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka truce talks to focus on shadowy paramilitaries
[ AFP ] [ 12:15 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
The role of shadowy paramilitary groups in Sri Lanka's troubled regions will be a key topic during truce talks between Colombo and Tamil rebels, a diplomatic source says. The agenda for the first face-to-face meeting between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will focus on addressing the issue of "paramilitary" groups, the source close to the process said. "This is an issue the Tigers will want addressed in great detail," the source said, declining to be named. "The government, we understand, is getting ready with its position." There was no immediate government comment. The head of the Norwegian-led truce monitoring panel, Hagrup Haukland, said the parties would have to "do something" about the armed groups which have been de-stabilising the ceasefire.
Strong International Pressure Essential to Save Abducted Aid Workers !
[ COPE-SL ] [ 12:19 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
We have to draw your kind and urgent attention to the perilous plight of the humanitarian aid workers abducted by the Paramilitary Karuna Group (PKG) working with SL Military Intelligence (SLMI). Out of the ten workers originally abducted, three have since been released and seven workers including a female worker remain in the custody of the abductors for over two weeks now despite widespread calls for their release from various organisations of civil society, NGOs, INGOs, EU, UN and US spokesmen. While the safety and well-being of the abducted remain questionable, causing fear, anxiety and concern to their distressed family members and relatives, it is absolutely essential that their plight be kept alive to the glare and attention of International Community and media in order to save their lives.
Tamil Tigers say no compromise on separate homeland possible
[ AP ] [ 12:21 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
The Tamil Tiger rebels said Wednesday there will be no compromise on Tamil homeland issue during talks with the Sri Lankan government. President Mahinda Rajapakse was reported as saying that he would agree to sharing of power, but would not accept a separate homeland for the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamil minority. "Homeland, nationhood and self-rule are the three basic and cardinal principles that have been guiding the LTTE in its struggle to find a peacefully negotiated political arrangement to the Tamil people, resolving the racial conflict,'' the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement. The two sides are to meet on Feb 22-23 in Geneva.
"Unitary constitution impedes political resolution"
[ LTTE Peace Secretariat ] [ 12:43 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
In a press statement released today, 15th February 2006 LTTE Political Wing cautioned that if the Mahinda regime adopts a political stand ruling out the Tamil homeland concept and insists on a resolution of the racial conflict within the unitary constitution, the LTTE would be left with no alternative other than to endeavour hard to respond effectively to the Tamil call for self rule. The Tamil people are shocked over President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rejection of their basic political aspirations in an interview with Reuter on 13 February 2006. The President had, in this interview, totally rejected the Tamil homeland concept and emphasised that a political solution to the racial conflict would be looked into only within the parameters of the unitary constitution.Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongly condemns these sentiments expressed by the President that tend to belittle the political rights of the Tamil people.
SLMM: Armed gangs threat to peace
[ BBC ] [ 21:01 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
The truce monitors say that if authorities turn a blind eye to activities of armed gangs it could lead to collapse of normalcy. Hagrup Haukland, head of the Nordic Monitoring Mission in Sri Lanka, speaking to the foreign Correspondents said that the last few months had been a very difficult period.He said “we are here to carry out a job but we are not willing to die for it” Truce monitors should have an environment free of hostilities in order to operate effectively said Haukland. Haukland said that the authorities are aware who these armed gangs are but they are not eager to arrest them. The chief truce monitor also warned sporadic attacks that threatened the truce could resume with even greater ferocity if Geneva talks failed. Responding to a question Haukland said he is not sure if amendments to the ceasefire fire agreement at Geneva talks will be possible as both parties have to agree to amendments.
Sri Lanka's president releases top opposition politician jailed for contempt of court
[ AP ] [ 21:14 GMT, Feb. 15, 2006 ]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Wednesday ordered the release of a top opposition leader, who was serving a two-year jail sentence for criticizing the Supreme Court, the president's office said. "Considering the requests made by various quarters of the society including prominent Buddhist monks, President Rajapakse decided to give a special presidential pardon to S.B. Dissanayake," according to a statement issued by the president's media office. Under Sri Lanka's constitution, the president can issue pardons to any prisoner. Dissanayake is expected to be released Friday.
