|
|
Govt rejects LTTE`s claim to `homeland` sea, airspace
Full News Article
Sritharan
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 3492
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 01:03:50 GMT Report for Abuse
|
LTTE wants monitors to protect Sea Tiger vessels also
PK Balachandran
Colombo, May 13, 2006
The LTTE has asked the Nordic truce monitors to give protection to Sea Tiger vessels, in the same way as they protect Sri Lankan Naval vessels.
The LTTE's political wing leader, SP Tamilselvan, has demanded that the truce monitors escort Sea Tiger vessels, just as they escort Sri Lankan vessels in the troubled waters of the North East.
He made the demand when he met Maj Gen Ulf Henricsson, the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Kilinochchi on Friday.
But defence experts say that the LTTE's demand cannot be met because the Sea Tigers have no right to sea movement at all, as per international law.
The entire sea around Sri Lanka is under the control of the Sri Lankan government, and only the Sri Lankan Navy has the right to move about in it with arms.
But Tamilselvan was looking at the issue from a very different stand point.
He said that as per the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of February 2002, there had to be parity between the Sri Lankan and LTTE forces as regards movement.
And this includes parity in protection between the Sri Lankan Navy and the Sea Tigers, he argued.
The LTTE's political commissar challenged the monitors' contention that the Sea Tigers had no right of sea movement, and that the Sri Lankan navy had a monopoly of it.
Tamilselvan contended that the CFA came into being because there was parity between the military forces of the government and the LTTE.
And the CFA would continue to exist only so long as there was parity, he asserted.
Sea a grey area
While the CFA is clear and categorical about the division of the land into government-controlled area and LTTE- controlled area, it does not mention the sea.
Successive Sri Lankan governments, and the truce monitors, had assumed that the government had a natural and exclusive right to the sea as the only sovereign entity in the region.
The LTTE has been challenging this assumption.
Tamilselvan pointed out that at least one head of the truce monitoring mission had accepted the LTTE's need for control over a part of the sea to enable the Sea Tigers to conduct exercises.
And the truce monitors had put this before the Sri Lankan government.
But the suggestion was so unpopular, and the Sri Lankan Navy was so much against it, that the government had no option but to reject it.
Tamilselvan now wants the truce monitors to revive the issue and put pressure on the government to think anew.
CFA based on parity
The LTTE claims that in the CFA itself, parity had been recognised.
No distinction was drawn between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in terms of a dichotomy between the 'state' and the 'non-state' actor.
Tamilselvan objected to the SLMM's describing the LTTE as a 'non-state actor.'
In such a context, the Sri Lankan Navy could not enjoy a facility like free movement, and that with escort, while it was denied to the LTTE's Sea Tigers, he argued.
He claimed that the LTTE enjoyed 'sovereignty' over the land, sea and air in parts of the 'Tamil Homeland' it had seized by force of arms.
And he warned that the LTTE would not hesitate to enforce this claim if challenged.
Explains attack on Lankan troop ship
Tamilselvan said that it was done only to send a telling message to the Nordic truce monitors that they could not give protection to the Sri Lankan Forces while denying the same facility to the Sea tigers.
He said this explaining the attack on the Sri Lankan troop ship with 710 servicemen and Nordic truce monitors on board on May 11.
The Sea Tigers did not intend to sink the ship.
The Head of the truce monitors, Maj Gen Henricsson, told Tamilselvan, that he would consult the Norwegian facilitators on the issue of equal protection.
But experts do not see how the Norwegians could agree, given the Sri Lankan government's sensitivity in this matter.
As it is, the present government sees the CFA, signed by an earlier government without consulting anybody, as a 'sell out'.
Any further dilution of the government's rights in the CFA is most unlikely to be tolerated, the experts say. |
birdseye1
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 831
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 01:11:37 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/97
The blue print for peace , this is where it should start.
If Kadir is around , they had a better chance of hammering this out. But without him still there is a chance. When this is done, the International Community will play its role of neutralising the ltte forever.Without this there is no way we can resolve this.
JVP and SLFP should understand that..
Edited By - birdseye1 - 14 May 2006 01:14:25 GMT |
Bheesan
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 977
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 02:47:59 GMT Report for Abuse
|
| If LTTE claims right to this sea, why it is called Indian ocean. |
Dutugamunu7
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 17
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 02:49:23 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Tarquin :::::Tell me how many tamils gave you this information?
Can you tell me how many tamil people are allow to speak?? Do you remember what hapen to kadiragamer that spoke?? |
Dutugamunu7
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 17
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 02:57:24 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Guys forget about political parties now we have a one big problem we should be stronger as a country. We have a good president and opposition also understand they have to support the government at this point. So lets be a one Nation , Sri Lankans. Lets -removed- PRBHA-The Land Hunger.
He is scared of his own troops now because many understand his selfishness. |
Sritharan
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 3492
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 03:00:33 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Dutugamunu7:
Kadiragamar was Tamil only in his name. He could not speak a single word in Tamil and he never openly criticized SL forces atrocity toward general Tamil population. If he was a neutral person, he should have oppose the state terrorism. He was just another loyal servant to Sinhalese masters.
Edited By - Sritharan - 14 May 2006 03:03:21 GMT |
Freelancer
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1575
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 03:15:41 GMT Report for Abuse
|
LTTE and online-Tiger wing here argued again and again that they spared Pearl Cruise II because of SLMM.
Why don't you say that we spared Army Commander General Fonseka for this and that reason? Just curious.
Edited By - Freelancer - 14 May 2006 03:16:16 GMT |
Bheesan
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 977
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 03:19:11 GMT Report for Abuse
|
How many Tamils who supports LTTE in the Western countries speak Tamil? Can that pros Adele speak Tamil?
Edited By - Bheesan - 14 May 2006 03:19:35 GMT |
Sandman
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1720
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 03:38:50 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Hilarious to read what some of you guys quote from T'Chelva and tamilweb, like these are authoritative sources.
Both are just too unstable, mostly unintelligible and universally nasty. They are the toothy and verbose front end and the sh*tty rear end of the same weird thing.
Edited By - Sandman - 14 May 2006 03:40:22 GMT |
Dravidian
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 4
Member Profile
|
14 May 2006 03:46:36 GMT Report for Abuse
|
How many times has GOSL tried a military solution to the LTTE problem? How many people died to prove them wrong?
After years of war and followig it up by sitting across a negotiating table from the LTTE, the GOSL has unofficially conceded that the LTTE are:
1. A force which is capable of defending their territories to an extent that it would be impossible or overly difficult for the GOSL to defeat them.
2. The primary representatives or controllers of the various territories in their control.
Whether the LTTE has a sovereign right or not, the truth is that they have the firepower and the will to back it up.
All the Sinhala macho men that are in here suggesting the government should not put up with it and to stamp out the LTTE - ask yourselves this - if it were possible that the GOSL could stamp out the LTTE, don't you think they would have done this years ago?? Do you think this situation has dragged on all these years with all these people dying, if GOSL could have finished it off earlier?? Stop kidding yourselves. |
|
Search All News and Discussions