As a senior Norwegian envoy arrived in Sri Lanka to explore ways of stabilizing the fraying 40-month-old ceasefire, the Liberation Tigers assured international truce monitors of their cooperation in curbing the violence but demanded they take action against Army-backed paramilitaries.
“Our organization and the Tamil people in general are seriously perturbed over the increasing acts of violence and killings in military occupied areas,” head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan said in a letter to the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
The violence was being carried out with the intention of smearing the LTTE, Mr. Tamilselvan said, pointing out the violence has been escalating since the Tigers pulled their unarmed political cadres out of Army-controlled areas for their own safety.
“Innocent people are targeted for assassination and given a political connection with this group or that with a reputation for being opposed to LTTE,” Mr. Tamilselvan said.
“Without recourse to proper investigations … the government and the military spokespersons are engaged in a mud-slinging campaign against the LTTE,” he said.
“The patterns of increase points to a systematically planned and timed orchestration to discredit the LTTE … We have no doubt that there is a political agenda behind these acts, meticulously planned to apportion the blame on our organization.”
“While assuring you of our co-operation to curb violence, we regret that our capability in this respect is very much limited since the areas in which these killings and violence take place are fully under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military,” Mr. Tamilselvan told the SLMM.
The reaffirmation of the LTTE’s support for the CFA comes amid renewed international efforts in Sri Lanka’s peace process.
The former head of the SLMM, retired Major General Trond Furuhovde, is visiting this week as special representative of the Norwegian government to consult the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government and to discuss the security situation and the truce.
The Norwegian embassy played down expectations, however, saying “a meeting between the GOSL and the LTTE to discuss the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement is not likely to occur in the near future, the visit is an opportunity for both parties to propose measures for strengthening the implementation of the agreement.”
Separately, International Human Rights Advisor to the Peace Process, Mr. Ian Martin is also visiting Sri Lanka.
Mr. Martin, former Secretary General to Amnesty International, is to meet with LTTE and government officials before present proposals regarding the protection of human rights.
These developments occur within the backdrop of escalating violence in the Northern and Eastern provinces. While the restive east has seen repeated skirmishes between Army-backed paramilitaries and the LTTE, violence has also spread to the Northern province.
Meeting with SLMM officials, the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing in Jaffna, Mr. C Ilamparithi said the SriLanka Army (SLA) was complicit in several of the recent killings.
Mr. Ilamparithi said their office had received evidence implicating the head of SLA Intellligence Wing in Jaffna, Mr Mahes Banda, in some of the murders that have alarmed residents of the northern peninsula.
Jaffna has seen an increase in politically-motivated murders, including the killing of Kopay Christian College Principal Nadarajah Sivakadadcham, organizer of Kopay’s Tamil Eelam Women’s Day events, since the withdrawals of LTTE officers from SLA-controlled areas.
Mr. Ilamparithi further told the members of the SLMM that killings, harassment of Jaffna residents, thefts, drug abuse, and incidents of rape have increased following the withdrawal of LTTE political cadres from Jaffna district.
Violence continued in the eastern province also, with SLA-backed paramilitaries ambushing a convoy of Tiger cadres in LTTE-controlled parts of Vavunathivu, 5 kilometers west of Batticaloa.
The LTTE said three of their cadres were wounded by attackers who withdrew to the Vavunathivu SLA camp after a firefight. The SLA claimed four LTTE cadres were killed in the ambush, including a senior intelligence official, and that seven others were seriously injured. The LTTE denies the claim.
Sri Lankan newspapers reported that the government provided a helicopter for an injured LTTE member to be evacuated to Colombo for treatment.
The SLA claimed gunmen from the Karuna Group, a paramilitary outfit led by a renegade Tiger commander, were targeting LTTE Colonel Banu, who assumed command of Batticaloa-Amparai after Karuna defected to the SLA in April 2004following the collapse of his six-week rebellion against the LTTE.
The LTTE says there are five Tamil paramilitary groups, including Karuna’s, which are paid and provided with logistic support by the Sri Lanka security forces and that a covert military campaign is being waged to destabilise the Eastern province and paralyse the LTTE’s political engagement in the region.
“Our organization and the Tamil people in general are seriously perturbed over the increasing acts of violence and killings in military occupied areas,” head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan said in a letter to the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
The violence was being carried out with the intention of smearing the LTTE, Mr. Tamilselvan said, pointing out the violence has been escalating since the Tigers pulled their unarmed political cadres out of Army-controlled areas for their own safety.
“Innocent people are targeted for assassination and given a political connection with this group or that with a reputation for being opposed to LTTE,” Mr. Tamilselvan said.
“Without recourse to proper investigations … the government and the military spokespersons are engaged in a mud-slinging campaign against the LTTE,” he said.
“The patterns of increase points to a systematically planned and timed orchestration to discredit the LTTE … We have no doubt that there is a political agenda behind these acts, meticulously planned to apportion the blame on our organization.”
“While assuring you of our co-operation to curb violence, we regret that our capability in this respect is very much limited since the areas in which these killings and violence take place are fully under the control of the occupying Sri Lankan military,” Mr. Tamilselvan told the SLMM.
The reaffirmation of the LTTE’s support for the CFA comes amid renewed international efforts in Sri Lanka’s peace process.
The former head of the SLMM, retired Major General Trond Furuhovde, is visiting this week as special representative of the Norwegian government to consult the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government and to discuss the security situation and the truce.
The Norwegian embassy played down expectations, however, saying “a meeting between the GOSL and the LTTE to discuss the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement is not likely to occur in the near future, the visit is an opportunity for both parties to propose measures for strengthening the implementation of the agreement.”
Separately, International Human Rights Advisor to the Peace Process, Mr. Ian Martin is also visiting Sri Lanka.
Mr. Martin, former Secretary General to Amnesty International, is to meet with LTTE and government officials before present proposals regarding the protection of human rights.
These developments occur within the backdrop of escalating violence in the Northern and Eastern provinces. While the restive east has seen repeated skirmishes between Army-backed paramilitaries and the LTTE, violence has also spread to the Northern province.
Meeting with SLMM officials, the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing in Jaffna, Mr. C Ilamparithi said the SriLanka Army (SLA) was complicit in several of the recent killings.
Mr. Ilamparithi said their office had received evidence implicating the head of SLA Intellligence Wing in Jaffna, Mr Mahes Banda, in some of the murders that have alarmed residents of the northern peninsula.
Jaffna has seen an increase in politically-motivated murders, including the killing of Kopay Christian College Principal Nadarajah Sivakadadcham, organizer of Kopay’s Tamil Eelam Women’s Day events, since the withdrawals of LTTE officers from SLA-controlled areas.
Mr. Ilamparithi further told the members of the SLMM that killings, harassment of Jaffna residents, thefts, drug abuse, and incidents of rape have increased following the withdrawal of LTTE political cadres from Jaffna district.
Violence continued in the eastern province also, with SLA-backed paramilitaries ambushing a convoy of Tiger cadres in LTTE-controlled parts of Vavunathivu, 5 kilometers west of Batticaloa.
The LTTE said three of their cadres were wounded by attackers who withdrew to the Vavunathivu SLA camp after a firefight. The SLA claimed four LTTE cadres were killed in the ambush, including a senior intelligence official, and that seven others were seriously injured. The LTTE denies the claim.
Sri Lankan newspapers reported that the government provided a helicopter for an injured LTTE member to be evacuated to Colombo for treatment.
The SLA claimed gunmen from the Karuna Group, a paramilitary outfit led by a renegade Tiger commander, were targeting LTTE Colonel Banu, who assumed command of Batticaloa-Amparai after Karuna defected to the SLA in April 2004following the collapse of his six-week rebellion against the LTTE.
The LTTE says there are five Tamil paramilitary groups, including Karuna’s, which are paid and provided with logistic support by the Sri Lanka security forces and that a covert military campaign is being waged to destabilise the Eastern province and paralyse the LTTE’s political engagement in the region.
