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“Civilian unrest due to military violence”

“Civilian unrest and accelerating violence is due to intensified military violence against the people and sabotage activities of armed groups that work on a political agenda alongside the SL military” said Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing in a meeting with H.E The Norwegian Ambassador Mr.Hans Bratskar today 9 December 2005 at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi.

The Ambassador briefed Mr. Tamilselvan on the current political situation, his meetings with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the official invitation of the government for continuation of Norway’s role as facilitator, his visit to New Delhi with former peace envoy and Norway’s Minister for Development, Mr. Erik Solheim, the concern relative to the tense situation in the Jaffna peninsula and the urgent necessity for the parties to meet and find ways of effectively implementing the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA).

Following are excerpts from Mr. Tamilselvan’s responses for questions from the media after the meeting:

“This meeting should have taken place earlier, but postponed due to the presidential elections and the change of government. Our calling for this meeting was due to the urgency in bringing down tension due to civilian unrest in many parts of the Tamil homeland. We explained to the Ambassador the real cause of the confrontational situation, i.e. military intensifying violence against civilian population. The CFA is in grave risk due to default of the government and its military in implementing the provisions mutually agreed upon by both the parties. Non-delivery of the peace dividend normalcy notwithstanding, the government continues to allow its military to act in collusion with armed groups that have political agenda based on their masters’ interests. These groups are responsible for the acts of violence, intimidation, killing and provoking civilian unrest.

Our National Leader received a memorandum from the Muslim representatives requesting intervention on alleged threats. Immediate action was taken to address this issue through our District Political Heads to intensify interaction with Muslim community leaders and allay the fears. We fervently request our Musliim brethren to ignore the anonymous threats that tend to create suspicion and fear. These are machinations of mischievous elements that try to create tension between communities and we call upon our Muslim and Tamil people not to fall prey to these political manipulations by interested parties that have a vested interest and act with restraint.

The Norwegian Ambassador conveyed the message that the new regime in Colombo has invited Norway officially to continue with the facilitatory role and we accept this position as a reciprocal act to our National Leader’s Martyr’s Day speech that provided the necessary space for the new President to grasp the situation in good faith, whatever his pre-election stance on upholding the unitary state and reviewing the CFA and the role of Norway may have been. Our commitment to the CFA and the peace process remains undiluted and what we request now is to urgently arrange the high level meeting between the parties to effectively implement the CFA, for this alone can bring about normalcy and avoid confrontational postures between the civilians and the occupying military.

The Ambassador indicated to us that a high level political delegation from Norway has to visit Sri Lanka with a view to have discussions with both the parties to the CFA focussing attention to its full implementation and acceptance by all partners of the government the role of Norway and that of the SLMM. We reiterated the necessity to expedite this visit and ensure early meeting of both the parties.

Making reference to the presidential elections and the non-participation of the Tamil people, the Ambassador said that the EU and the international community at large feel that the LTTE was instrumental in the boycott. We clarified our position and invited the EU and the international community to investigate into this allegation by interacting with Civilian Based Organisations who spearheaded the campaign based on political realities. The international community has an obligation to respect the just feelings of the Tamil people, the very same people who overwhelmingly mandated the peace process in the general election of 2004, recognising the supportive role of the international community and relying on it alone and not the promises of the SL government.

It is true that Mr.Mahinda Rajapaksa went to town with rigid stances relative to unitary state and the necessity to review the CFA. But ground realities and hard facts dictate that there is no need to review the CFA, for it is comprehensive and all-encompassing and what is needed is the implementation of what has been agreed upon between the parties. The rigid stance of a unitary state might have been a pre-election manifesto necessity, but is no way helpful to the resolution to the decade old political conflict arising out of political alienation of a people rather than opting to share power.”

The Ambassador also expressed Norway’s satisfaction on the outcome of the visit to New Delhi and assured that India would continue with its supportive and complementary role in the peace process.

09 December 2005

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