"The LTTE is ready for talks. However, the opportunities for resuming the talks will be much stronger when the Sri Lankan government ceases its military attacks."
Reporters have struggled with synonyms and cliches. “Tenuous”, “crumbling”, “collapsing,” “faltering,” “shaky” and “fragile” have been liberally used to describe the ceasefire.
Press reports say the targeting borders on the indiscriminate. People who put up posters for political rallies supportive of the LTTE or even supporters of political parties sympathetic to the LTTE are being murdered.
Baskaran Suresh, 31, the owner of a garage at 5th Cross Street in Jaffna and a native of Sandilipai, was shot dead in Jaffna by unidentified men on motorbikes.
C. Mathan, 28, of 4th Cross Street Pt. Pedro and a tailor by profession, was shot dead in Jaffna in a separate incident by gunmen on a motorbike.
Tamil political parties Friday said they are going to hold awareness meetings among Tamil people in Colombo from this week against the increase of abduction by the intelligence service of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
Several Tamil youths in Colombo had been abducted by SLA intelligence unit in past and immediate action should be taken to stop this, they said.
The new head of Sri Lanka’s truce monitors takes over a team cut by nearly half this week amid warnings by his predecessor of “mission impossible” to satisfy both sides in the vicious conflict.
Former Norwegian army chief Lars Solvberg will run a 30-strong group after members from the European Union were ordered to quit by the end of the month by the Tamil Tigers.
