Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Friday expressed its shock at the killing in a government airstrike of Mr S. P. Tamilselvan the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator and head of its Political Wing and five other LTTE officials.

 

The TNA said the targeted killing of the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator underlined President Mahinda Rajapakse’s insincerity towards a negotiated solution, the TNA also said.

Translated by TamilNet

 

S. P.

Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) has hailed the killing of LTTE Political Head and Chief Negotiator, S. P. Tamilchelvan, in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airstrike on his official residence Friday as “a victorious moment.”

 

Praising the Air Force, UNP spokesman Lakshman Kireiella said it was not possible to talk peace with the LTTE.

 

Mr.

Hailing the Air Force bombing raid Friday which killed the Tamil Tigers chief negotiator and Political Wing head, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan and five other LTTE officials, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa said his government would kill other LTTE leaders ‘one by one’.

 

Sources said he made his comments, quoted by Reuters, at a celebratory meeting at Temple Trees, the official residence of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is also Mr.

"We received the very sad news yesterday that S. P. Tamilselvan has been killed in the suburb of Kilinochchi. Anpumani or Alex whom we knew in the facilitation of the negotiation process was also among those who were killed.

S. P. Tamilselvan – who died in a Sri Lankan air force raid on Friday morning – is the most senior Tamil Tiger leader to have been killed in recent years.

 

The death of their media-savvy political wing leader at the age of 40 means the LTTE have lost an experienced and suave political negotiator.

 

For many years S. P. Tamilselvan was the public face of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Almost always smiling, smartly dressed and carrying a polished cane, S.P. Tamilselvan was the key contact point between Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the outside world.

 

Killed on Friday in a government air strike, the leader of the Tigers' political wing was the public face and mouthpiece of the LTTE who met foreign diplomats and reporters denied access to reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran when they visited the de facto capital Kilinochchi.

“The thing that most people will remember about Thamilselvan is his huge smile.

 

For his enemies in this most bitter civil war the smile only masked his ruthlessness.

 

But for his friends he was a respected and popular fighter with a sense of humour.

Tamils have gathered in large numbers across the eglobe to demand their collective rights, including all those due to a people