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Govt. won`t quit CFA
Sunday, 25 February 2007 - 5:51 AM SL Time
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President Mahinda Rajapakse`s administration would not quit the Oslo-arranged Ceasefire Agreement, government sources said.
Amidst growing JVP-led protests aimed at forcing the President to abrogate the CFA, the sources emphasized that the agreement was irrelevant.
The President is under heavy fire over his refusal to give in to JVP demands, particularly the abrogation of the agreement and summarily terminate the Norwegian role in the peace process.
Senior officials explained that the government was committed to a negotiated settlement. Although the CFA would not be the basis for any future negotiations with the LTTE as security forces had already seized a large area in the East held by the LTTE at the time of the agreement, the government would not officially quit it. `It would be disadvantageous to us,` a senior official said. `Let it be,` he said, pointing out that even the Jaffna frontline too, has changed. In fact, troops seized the LTTE` first line of fortifications last September following their abortive bid to roll back the army, he said.
The government said that whatever the LTTE said they would have to face the ground reality. `They are under heavy attack in the north and east. Operations are continuing in other parts of the country, particularly Colombo and its suburbs to neutralise undercover LTTE operatives,` the sources said.
The LTTE, in a statement marking five years since the signing of the CFA, said the pact formulated with the full support of the international community, had transcended the parameters of Sri Lanka`s majoritarian constitution, recognizing Tamil Eelam`s de facto existence and the balance of power between the government and the LTTE.
The international community has not rejected, for example, the South Sudan Machkos Protocol facilitated by US, UK, Norway and Italy on the basis it is affecting the sovereignty of Sudan, the LTTE statement pointed out.
`Nor has the international community questioned the Serbia-Montenegro agreement and the recent proposal on the future of Kosovo on the basis of contravening Serbian sovereignty. The Papua New Guinea- Bougainville Agreement was not opposed by the international community on the basis of safeguarding territorial integrity and sovereignty. In all these cases the peoples concerned have exercised their right to self-determination and sovereignty.
The JVP said that the government should not ignore the LTTE statement. The JVP wants the government to cancel the CFA and launch an all out offensive to destroy the LTTE.
The government said security forces would continue to target the LTTE regardless the CFA. The JHU backs the government`s position. The recent JVP led protests had caused irreparable damage to SLFP-JVP relations with an influential section of the government calling for what a well informed source termed an anti-JVP crackdown by the state media.
The military said that the CFA was irrelevant. `The international community knows it. The LTTE knows it. In fact, the JVP too knows it,` an official said. Unfortunately the JVP was engaged in a desperate effort to secure politically strong position by forcing the abrogation of the agreement which is underwritten by the US, EU and Japan. The sources said that the JVP also attacked senior presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse`s recent visit to Tokyo. The JVP claimed that the visit was evidence that the government gave in to international pressure to call off military action and return to the negotiating table. The government emphasised that the government would not give in to pressure but believe in a negotiated settlement. But future talks would not be guided in anyway by the LTTE.
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Thambi
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24 Feb 2007 23:56:57 GMT Report for Abuse
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Lanka before UNHRC next month
Sri Lanka will feature at next month's sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, MP Mano Ganesan who is also a member of the Civil Monitoring Committee said.
Sri Lanka was part of the discussions at this month's UN Security Council's Working Committee on Children in Armed Conflict where the Allan Rock report was presented.
UN Human Rights Council members, including Human Rights Commissioner Louis Arbour have called for the setting up of an international human rights mission in the country, a move resisted by the government thus far.
'Sri Lanka will be included in the report that includes incidents of abductions, killings and other violations. Our mandate also includes looking into that so we are in touch with the UN,' Ganesan said |
Piyal
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24 Feb 2007 23:58:47 GMT Report for Abuse
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Yeah,
Let it be and beat the hell out of terrorists in the guise of humanitarian operations, simple as that.
JVP morons have no such brain, they just hoot to abrogate the CFA,.....
Anizam,
Any thoughts...... |
Thambi
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25 Feb 2007 00:00:22 GMT Report for Abuse
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That Ceasefire Agreement signed by the then UNF Government with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) turned five years last Wednesday. The resultant ceasefire is the longest though fighting escalated in the latter period. A statement received by the Colombo based media on Thursday night saw the LTTE, for the first time; drop a bombshell about the CFA. In their own words, they described how useful the five-year-old document has been.
The statement declared that the CFA 'recognized Tamil Eelam's de facto existence, with its unique characteristics: a distinct population; a government comprising a defence force; a police force, a judiciary, a civil administration and other institutions for effective governance of a people, and capability of entering into agreements with other governments with a line of control reflecting the ground reality of the existence of the Tamil homeland demarcated with recognized borders. The CFA recognized the balance of power between the GOSL and the LTTE and was premised on this balance of power.'
So, at long last, the LTTE has publicly admitted the benefits that flowed from the CFA - the creation of a state in waiting. And equally significant, the concluding paragraph of the statement said, 'The marginalization of the 2002 CFA, which would have been a step towards just peace, has destroyed the confidence of the Tamil people and their expectations regarding future peace efforts. The Sri Lankan Government's ongoing war of aggression, aimed at the subjugation of the Tamil people under the guise of 'war on Terrorism,' will add to the bloodstained pages of the island's history. It has also compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self-determination and to achieve statehood.' |
MarkLevinson
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25 Feb 2007 00:02:09 GMT Report for Abuse
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Hmmm
Even though Nandhini is not around at the moment....REMO is on FULL FLOW!!!
:):):):) |
Thambi
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25 Feb 2007 00:02:18 GMT Report for Abuse
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What does the LTTE mean by saying that the ongoing 'war on terrorism' will add to 'bloodstained pages of the island's history'? What does it mean when they say that it has also 'compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self-determination and to achieve statehood'?
Is it a re-iteration of their previous assertions that they were veering away further from the CFA to the battlefield? Is it a forewarning of things to come?
This is the third time in the past three months that similar statements have been made. On 'Maveerar (Great Heroes) Day' on November 27, last year, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran declared 'the uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam?' In a statement issued after talks Norway's special envoy to the peace process, Jon Hanssen Bauer held with Political Wing leader, S.P. Thamilselvan in Kilinochchi, in December, last year, the LTTE warned that a 'military solution will steadily push the island into monumental irrecoverable state of destruction.' |
chinnavan
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25 Feb 2007 00:03:39 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Wow! what a great goverment..(((Sri Lank troops take Tiger bases on truce anniversary))) funny! this is very funny report. |
Thambi
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25 Feb 2007 00:06:11 GMT Report for Abuse
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Even though Nandhini is not around at the moment....REMO is on FULL FLOW!
you putup a cat page , she put up a follow-up , now we are waiting for hte answer , you have the right to remain silence ;)) |
Thambi
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25 Feb 2007 00:07:21 GMT Report for Abuse
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Wow! what a great goverment..(((Sri Lank troops take Tiger bases on truce anniversary))) funny! this is very funny report. In the coming weeks and months that will naturally turn the focus to the battlefields of the north, east and other parts of the country. In the weeks that preceded the launch of Operations Riviresa, then Deputy Minister of Defence, Anuruddha Ratwatte, who once had undisputed control over the military, made a string of public announcements that Security Forces would soon re-capture Jaffna peninsula. It later became very clear that the LTTE had, taking the cue, evolved counter measures.
Whilst preparing to resist a military advance, to cause maximum damage to men and material, they immediately embarked on counter measures. Most of their military equipment was moved hurriedly across the Kilali lagoon to Wanni mainland. When the LTTE lost Jaffna in December 1995, it was widely believed then that the guerrillas had received the severest blow to their military machine. Yet, barely eight months later, on July 18, 1996, they carried out a conventional style attack on the Mullaitivu Security Forces complex, then headquarters of the 225 Brigade.
Shocking statistics
Deputy Defence Minister Ratwatte told Parliament on August 7, 1996 that the strength at the Mullaitivu military base was 1407. They were made up as follows: Army 1268, Navy 9, Police 49 and civilians 81. 'We can conclude as killed in action only 12,' he said. The ICRC had handed over 415 bodies which were not identifiable and a further 43 have been categorized as Missing in Action (MIA). With a tight censorship in force, the matter ended there.
Shocking details of the incident were later unearthed by a four member Army Court of Inquiry headed by Major General (now retired) Patrick Fernando. Their 125 page report, with its contents still unpublicized, revealed that two officers and 62 soldiers had returned. With the 12 declared dead and 64 who returned, those who were then declared missing were 1331 Security Forces personnel. Together with the civilian staff, the toll of those now established as dead in the incident, still the worst single one in Sri Lanka's military history is 1627 persons. That number includes the 71 troops engaged in Operation Trivida Pahara, launched as a rescue effort. The Court of Inquiry findings revealed that nearly Rs. 290 million rupees of military and other hardware were destroyed, damaged or was seized by the guerrillas. |
Damed
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25 Feb 2007 00:12:38 GMT Report for Abuse
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That's It CFA should be there.
But GOSL should clear north from LTTE.
Its a humanitarian mission any elect government has to.
Power sharing or whatever should be done after eradicating
Terror. |
MarkLevinson
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25 Feb 2007 00:14:12 GMT Report for Abuse
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Smooth Operator,
you have the right to remain silence ;))
Follow ups are irrelevant...
Have the right to remain silent by default because I don't have the right to SING like Real 'Remo'...
:):):):)
BTW I badly need tution on 'How To..'....and I am not Joking bro..:(:(:( |
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