Just as much as Perry does not have a guide in Kilinochchi to tell him that tipping is not expected, so the international system has painted the world so black and white between the system of nation-states and the ‘terrorists,’ that they cannot understand a place that is somewhere in the middle – a territory… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Military
Recognizing the Sri Lankan Peace Process?
The Role of the International Community The LTTE Peace Secretariat released the attached statement today concerning the state of the peace process: Recognizing the Sri Lankan Peace Process Note: The statement is in PDF format, and, therefore, requires Adobe Acrobat to be read. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, click on the following image to… Read more »
Security Imbalance, Not Violence, Threatens Truce
by Jana Nayagam, Tamil Guardian, September 14, 2005 The actual risk to the ceasefire is not violence per se, but the continuing non-implementation of crucial aspects of the CeaseFire Agreement, resulting in declining benefits from it. Observers of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict have watched the ongoing shadow war in the island’s east between the Liberation Tigers… Read more »
Was it a Multi-Purpose Assassination?
DIG STF Ampara Lewke told media in Colombo that the Motorcycle Squad being trained in Colombo will also be utilised in the East to hunt down killers of Security/Paramilitary personnel and kill them – at least the instigators. So, soon there is going to be a seek and destroy operation (of Tamil Youths) in the… Read more »
I Played Chess with a ‘Terrorist’
by Shanthi Padmalingam, September 12, 2005 My heart feels heavy. Maybe it is the longing to go back and help my people of Tamil Eelam. Maybe it is from looking at pictures of the people I have just met and don’t want to leave behind. Maybe it is the shock of realizing how very wrong… Read more »
India May Pull Troops From Kashmir
After New Talks by Somini Sengupta, The New York Times, September 6, 2005 NEW DELHI, Sept. 5 – India will pull back troops from the disputed territory of Kashmir if militant infiltration and violence ends, the prime minister’s office announced Monday evening after a rare meeting with Kashmiri separatists. The meeting, between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh… Read more »
Stranglehold on Peace
Kumaratunga will not sacrifice power for peace by Tamil Guardian editorial, December 22, 2004 Fear of a renewed war has become all pervasive. Tamils, both in the homelands and the diaspora are closely following developments in the Norwegian peace process, albeit with deepening pessimism. Even the usually upbeat Norwegian Special Envoy, Erik Solheim, could not conceal… Read more »
TAGOT: War Drums in the South
by The Action Group of Tamils (TAGOT) PRESS RELEASE 21 December 2004 We, The Action Group of Tamils (TAGOT), unhesitatingly compliment the Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga for her political skill. She is implacably opposed to negotiating a political settlement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But she has cast the ultra-Sinhala Jathika Vimukthi… Read more »
Talking with Tigers
Negotiations with suicide bombers can end violence, as Sri Lanka demonstrates Jonathan Steele in Kilinochchi, The Guardian, UK, Friday December 17, 2004 Come to Elephant Pass to witness a rarity: a place where the contradictions of the “war on terror” have not produced the usual regression. In most of the world the fight against “international… Read more »
Letter from a Youth to the LTTE
Dear Mr V. Prabakaran, Mr S.P Thamilchelvan and the other Officials of the East and North of the LTTE, This is a statement of a student, age 18 (Social Juridical Worker / Low Lawyer) of the Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands. At the first place I want to congratulate all of you with achieving and… Read more »
Annual Heroes’ Day Speech by Pirapaharan
from LTTE Peace Secretariat, November 27, 2004 “TAMIL TIGERS WILL LAUNCH FREEDOM STRUGGLE IF PEACE TALKS ARE FURTHER DELAYED” – LTTE LEADER The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mr Velupillai Pirapaharan, in his annual statement marking Heroes’ Day, cautioned the Sri Lanka government that his organisation would be compelled to launch the… Read more »
Velupillai Pirapaharan Turns Fifty Today
Ethnic Politics By Taraki (aka D. Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 26, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/663.html It is not my intention here to interrupt the unceasing labours of those who love to hate him. There is little I can add to the invectives that Sinhala nationalist politicians, academics, opinion makers and editorialists relentlessly heap on the LTTE… Read more »
A Set of Killings in the East
To The Editor, Sangam.org — The TamilNet news website of 18th November reported two killings in the East within a space of 14 hours. The first was the killing of a political worker of the LTTE at 9.45 PM on Wednesday by gunmen suspected to be paramilitary operatives working with the Sri Lanka military intelligence… Read more »
A Victory, But Little Is Gained
by DARYL G. PRESS and BENJAMIN VALENTINO, The New York Times op-ed, November 17, 2004 Does any of this sound familiar to Sangam readers? sangam.org/articles/view2/644.html Hanover, N.H. — The textbook urban assault on Falluja reflected well on the dedication, training and equipment of the American military. Unfortunately, it has not brought the United States appreciably… Read more »
Tigers to Part Ways for Want of Southern Consensus?
by Taraki (aka D.Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/641.html A military solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict remains a very real option today although we are almost into three years of a fairly stable no-war atmosphere. In large measure this is due to persistent beliefs and perceptions in the Sinhala polity about the… Read more »
LTTE Rationale for Talks Based on the ISGA Alone
by Taraki (aka D.Sivaram), Daily Mirror, Colombo, Wednesday, October 23, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/625.html Why are the Tigers refusing to restart peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) on any basis other than their Interim Self Governing Authority proposal? With each passing day, the opposition to the ISGA is gathering such irreversible momentum in the… Read more »
Will the New Karuna-led Alliance Pose a Serious Threat
to the LTTE? by A.R.M. Imtiyaz, Ph.D. [1], October 27, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/624.html The straightforward answer is ‘No.’ Why? Scholars of ethnic political conflict from Gurr to Howard clearly maintain some basic understanding of the dynamics of these struggles to answer the question. Accordingly, no ethno-political military group or alliance would enjoy the loyalty and political… Read more »
Only Inflicting Pain Pays
Tamils should recall old lessons: only inflicting pain pays by J. S. Tissainayagam – Comment, Northeastern Monthly, October 8, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/586.html Tamils have forgotten a golden rule that has come down during the 20-year armed struggle, between the Tamil guerrilla groups and the Sri Lankan state. In the 1980s, before signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord… Read more »
Back to Basics for S.Lanka’s ‘Mine Sweepers’
By Simon Gardner sangam.org/articles/view2/579.html THADDUVANKODDY, Sri Lanka, Oct 5 (Reuters) – In a remote sun-baked corner of northern Sri Lanka, farmers are pioneering an unlikely new weapon in the fight to clear hundreds of thousands of landmines strewn during two decades of civil war. Across a no man’s land littered with mines, small groups of Sri… Read more »
Endless Struggle against Terrorism
Hallmark of new world disorder by Tom Plate / Syndicated columnist, Seattle Times, September 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/555.html The dialectic — who’s a terrorist? who’s a freedom-fighter? — is not merely academic. Some of the world’s hot spots may be susceptible to cooling down if we break away from straitjacketed thinking. A perfect example, in fact,… Read more »