Sri Lanka's delegation is coming with a deal-breaking brief

Norwegian-brokered talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government in Geneva this week look set to be acrimonious and confrontational, even though they are only centred on the February 2002 ceasefire agreement.

Whilst the LTTE has said it is wants to discuss the failures of implementation of the agreement, the government is at the last minute, reverting to demanding that the agreement be re-drafted. That, the LTTE says, is out of the question.

International ceasefire monitors are insisting that there are indeed ‘armed elements’ operating in government-controlled areas in the volatile Eastern Province although there is no proof these armed groups had the backing of the military.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse last Monday ruled out accepting a Tamil homeland in the island’s north and east, sparking acrimony ahead of crucial talks this week to stabilise the fraying ceasefire.

The LTTE reacted angrily to the President’s comments, dismissing them as ‘childish’ and said that a Tamil homeland was one of the foundations of any solution to Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict.

The LTTE responds to SL President Mahinda Rajapakse''s recent interview where he rejected the Tamil call for self-rule.

Hailing the decline in the number of youths under 18 being recruited by the Liberation Tigers, the UN child rights agency UNICEF, also called on both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government to give top priority at the upcoming talks in Geneva to the protection of children affected by the conflict.

The coalition of Sri Lanka’s four largest Tamil parties, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which at the last minute announced its intention to contest in the NorthEast the forthcoming local government polls, even won one electorate as it was the only party to nominate candidates there.

Despite the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam meeting for talks in Geneva, Switzerland this week, the fate of seven humanitarian aid workers abducted by Army-backed paramilitaries last month remains unknown.

The head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. Suppiah Paramu Tamilchelvan, is interviewed days before crucial talks in Geneva this week.

Like a re-run of an old movie we have watched many times before, we are now about to sit down and watch yet another round of peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam unfold in Geneva, Switzerland next week. This time though, how many of us will be waiting with bated breath for a significant breakthrough is debatable.

Over 100 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the last two weeks alone across the Tamil regions.

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