Saman Weragoda in Colombo,  Thu Feb 23 19:52:09 EST 2006

    The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LLTE) met in Geneva 22-23 February for talks on the Ceasefire Agreement.The parties discussed issues related to the ceasefire, including the
concerns of the Muslim, Sinhalese, and Tamil civilians.The GOSL and the LTTE are committed to respecting and upholding the
Ceasefire Agreement, and reconfirmed their commitment to fully cooperate
with and respect the rulings of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).


Full Story


_________________
- The Academic

GOSL should be congratulated for achieving this far towards peace just 3 montha after coming to power after beating the war drums (atleast by the main partners of the alliance) in election platforms.

To me there appears to be a lack of commitment on both sides - very similar to when the Indo Lanka accord was signed. In 2002, both sides badly wanted to get a ceasefire in place and out of nothing they got a CFA, middle men etc etc in two months. LTTE never expected MR to get international backing in the way he did. Neither did they expect him not to respond to their provocations. In a way LTTE dug their pown grave and got the world community against them. They are in Geneva not because they want peace, but because uncle sam growled. This is like an arranged marraige where the couple is living together because they fear their in laws.

What can I say?

Finally Sri Lanka climbs down at Swiss talks to save peace bid. Mahinda’s “U” turn has paid off. Had he listened to JVP and JHU, there would have been all out war now. In order to achieve peace sacrifices have to be made.

It is a good start, one step in the right direction but there is a longggg way to go.

lankaputhra wrote:

GOSL should be congratulated for achieving this far towards peace just 3 montha after coming to power after beating the war drums (atleast by the main partners of the alliance) in election platforms.

Good achievement!
By the way Ranil achieved this 4 years ago. !

Negombo wrote:

lankaputhra wrote:

GOSL should be congratulated for achieving this far towards peace just 3 montha after coming to power after beating the war drums (atleast by the main partners of the alliance) in election platforms.

Good achievement!
By the way Ranil achieved this 4 years ago. !

Ranil achieved it by staking the countries sovereignty, by letting LTTE terrorists to penetrate to civilised area in Jafna....
What happend?
Rather than LTTE terrorists being civilised they are trying to make the civilised people part of their uncivilised barberic terrorists regime...
It need to be rectified sooner rather than later!!!

This will be usefull only if final agreement reached within this year.. Otherwise Wanni jungle is gonna be under facist terrorists for ever,, which is bad luck for democracy...

Given that the Govt. delegation opened the talks by saying that the ceasefire agreement signed by Ranil was unconstitutional and their aim for the talks was to change it, and now to agree to implement the existing ceasefire is a dramatic U-turn by the Govt. indeed.  It appears that the LTTE position presented by Balasingham prevailed (i.e. that the ceasefire agreement wasn't flawed but it was the implementation of it that was lacking).  It remains to be seen whether both parties will give new impeteus to the existing ceasefire agreement but at least the outcome of the talks was a step in the right direction - bravo.

Heh... Heh... Heh...

Quote:

Good achievement!
By the way Ranil achieved this 4 years ago. !

Dream on Pal, dream on !
Once a UNPer- always a UNPer !!!!


_________________
"where there is the eye, Samiddhi, where there are forms, where there is eye-consciousness, where there are things cognizable by eye-consciousness, there exists the world or the concept of the world". (Samyutta Nikaya- Samiddhi Sutta)

helaya wrote:

Heh... Heh... Heh...

Quote:

Good achievement!
By the way Ranil achieved this 4 years ago. !

Dream on Pal, dream on !
Once a UNPer- always a UNPer !!!!

I am not interested in responding to you anymore my pal.  Please don't waste your time in responding to me.

Yo Pete,

How art thou claim:

Quote:

Given that the Govt. delegation opened the talks by saying that the ceasefire agreement signed by Ranil was unconstitutional and their aim for the talks was to change it, and now to agree to implement the existing ceasefire is a dramatic U-turn by the Govt. indeed.

I don't see any "dramatic U-turn" like the one imagined by you... If at all, it's a stalemate. Looks like both the parties have agreed to disagree & try once more in April. But the Govt. delegation has impressed, since they had many people conversant in their areas of expertise (e.g. H.L. de Silva, Gomin Dayasiri, Wasantha Karannagoda ) & could reply back in kind to Ailing Bala Annai's rhetoric. In fact Bala has even gone to the extent of requesting for a downscale of the Govt. delegation since he is the only one capable of conversing with the Govt. delegation directly & lost in exchange of views. That itself is a moral victory for the Govt. ( read Dushy Ranatunga's report from Geneva in Today's Island )... Wonder what the hell G.L., Milinda & co. was doing in 2002 ?????


_________________
"where there is the eye, Samiddhi, where there are forms, where there is eye-consciousness, where there are things cognizable by eye-consciousness, there exists the world or the concept of the world". (Samyutta Nikaya- Samiddhi Sutta)

What happened to Mahinda's chinthanaya page 35.


_________________
Be patriotic .. think of the motherland

I feel I have to repeat myself again given the number of people who are 'pleased' with and 'support' the 'talks' with the LTTE. i.e. the enemy.

There will be no end to conflict in SL until the LTTE and its support arms are disarmed and/or liquidated.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is to mount a short but effective military offensive against the actual LTTE base camps rather than clearing and controlling territory as had been the normal practice.

This will ensure minimal losses to SL citizens in the long-term as opposed to a longer struggle with periods of drawn out conflict and periods of ceasefire/negotiation/shadow war.

I am opposed to all forms of dialogue with the LTTE, which is a terrorist organisation.

I believe its a waste of time and the LTTE will resume war and its associated activities like political assassinations and terrorism even if a political/negotiated solution is arrived at and delivered by the SL govt.

Only a military response will yield a permanent solution to the terrorist problem.

Therefore I demand that the MR/SL govt wipe out the LTTE as soon as possible taking whatever liberties/measures/resources as necessary.

All ethinic groups irrespective of political allegiance should support this initiative in the interests of the future citizens of SL.

Defeating this LTTE menace will give Sri Lankans the self-confidence to be successful in a brave new world.



Last edited by The Duke on Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:16 pm; edited 2 times in total

I fully agree with Negombo - Yes Ranil W achieved this 4 years ago. In fact what was achieved 4 years ago had better foundation than this Geneva stuff with weak foundation - I mean less trust between the parties. Also Ranil W did not have alliance partners waiting to sabotage the peace process but he had capable people like Prof GLP who could take it forward.

There is no truth in Gamunu Watch's statement :

"Ranil achieved it by staking the countries sovereignty, by letting LTTE terrorists to penetrate to civilised area in Jafna....
What happend?
Rather than LTTE terrorists being civilised they are trying to make the civilised people part of their uncivilised barberic terrorists regime... "


If CBK did not topple Ranil W's Govt some 4 years ago - by now the permanent peace would have been achieved and SLanka could have developped very much.

Anyway now we cannot get those 4 years back, atleast let us wait and see that PA alliance partners do not de-rail the peace process.

The Duke doesn't know the history.  prior to late seventies there was no LTTE or any armed groups.  These armed groups emerged because Sri Lanka failed to bring about peace.  If Banda-Selva pact was implemented, nobody would know who is Prabakaran now.  It is the mistake of the politicians and the religious leaders of the past that has created the current problem.  Countries like Canada, Swiss are propering because they respect all ethnic groups and religion and they adopt federalism.

In Sri Lanka politicians use the ethnic conflict to win elections and stay and power (also some people make money out of the war).

If we don't understand the reality, we should bear the responsiblity of the destruction of a beautiful country.


_________________
Be patriotic .. think of the motherland

Your proposal to wipe out terrorism by military action is brilliant.

But  - In fact our SL Govt has been implementing your solution since late 1970's (except during the CFA) under JRJ, R Prema and Chandrika.

We all know what the result achieved so far.