Lankan govt. asks LTTE to return to negotiations

The Sri Lankan government today extended an olive branch to the Tamil Tiger rebels by offering to halt the military operations against them if they return to the negotitating table for the peace talks.

"The decision is theirs (LTTE's) and I believe they wouldn't reject the opportunity," Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said in an interview to "Sunday Island' newspaper.

Asking the rebels to make a "genuine" effort at the negotiating table, Gotabhaya, brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, said the government would not exploit "an environment conducive for further military action" if the rebels opted for peace talks.

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http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200709231550.htm

Government has failed miserably -JVP

A matter of great concern for us today is how a President and the Government are increasingly distancing themselves from the people. Both are unconcerned about the mandate they received.

The character of this Government cannot be defined. It is not a homogenous composition. It has no policy. It is an arrangement of convenience to savour unbridled power and not to serve the people. That is why it has not been able to implement the pledges made in Mahinda Chinthanaya or any other cohesive policy to rebuild Sri Lanka.

The only positive aspect is the military action against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Praise for this campaign against terror should go to the security forces and the police. The Government and its leaders have not set any example to those brave men and women who are sacrificing their lives.

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http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070923/News/news00024.html

Thoppigala -the new symbol of national pride

If the year 2004 was bad for Velupillai Prabhakaran then the year 2005 was worse. The first crack in the seemingly indivisible monolith of the LTTE appeared in April 2004 when Karuna, his most able commander, broke away asserting his own regional rights in the east.

There were other factors like personal rivalries as well that made them lock horns. But the underlying factor of regional differences between the northern and eastern Tamils surfaced once again to divide the Tamil separatists.

To create the political fiction of a pan-Tamil movement, stretching like a single unbroken thread from Mannar in the western coast to Kumana in the eastern coast, the eastern Tamils were recruited hastily and opportunistically in the 50s and 60s by the vellahla leadership of Jaffna with offers of some senior positions in the federalist/separatist party.

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http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/09/23/fea02.asp