Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06COLOMBO1603
2006-10-02 13:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:
SRI LANKA: GSL SETS PUBLIC CONDITIONS FOR TALKS
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C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001603
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM PREF MOPS CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: GSL SETS PUBLIC CONDITIONS FOR TALKS
BUT TELLS NORWEGIANS PRIVATELY TO IGNORE THEM; SECURITY
FORCES THWART LTTE ATTACK IN BATTICALOA; INGOS TARGETED IN
JAFFNA
REF: COLOMBO 1597 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake for reasons 1.4(b,d).
Government Announces Conditions for Talks, Then Recants
--------------------------------------------- -----------
C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001603
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM PREF MOPS CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: GSL SETS PUBLIC CONDITIONS FOR TALKS
BUT TELLS NORWEGIANS PRIVATELY TO IGNORE THEM; SECURITY
FORCES THWART LTTE ATTACK IN BATTICALOA; INGOS TARGETED IN
JAFFNA
REF: COLOMBO 1597 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake for reasons 1.4(b,d).
Government Announces Conditions for Talks, Then Recants
-------------- --------------
1. (U) The Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) announced three
conditions to return to peace talks with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),government and independent
press reported on October 1. Defense spokesperson Keheliya
Rambukwella told the Sunday Times that the three
pre-conditions were that: (1) the LTTE should provide a
specific time frame to resume talks, (2) the LTTE should
assure the international community and the Co-chairs that it
will not use sea routes to smuggle arms into Sri Lanka, and
(3) the LTTE should commit not to commit any acts of violence
during the period of the peace talks. However, when chief
Norwegian Facilitator Jon Hanssen-Bauer met with GSL
officials on Monday, October 2, the GSL told him to disregard
the announcement and that there would be no GSL
preconditions. (Septel on Tuesday will provide Hanssen-Bauer
readout.)
Jaffna
--------------
2. (C) On Friday morning, September 29, a local Tamil deminer
from the U.S.-funded HALO Trust was shot in the face on his
way to work. The only witness, a young girl, said that the
two gunmen on a motorbike wore civilian clothes. HALO
Program director Stephen Pritchard said the deminer's brother
had been a member of the LTTE and was similarly murdered
several years ago. Later the same morning, a grenade was
thrown into the ICRC compound in Jaffna. Pritchard, who
inspected the site of the explosion, told poloff, "The
grenade was thrown into an area of the compound in which it
was meant to be a message rather than to injure anyone."
Meanwhile, the media reported that three Security Task Force
(STF) troopers and one Sinhalese youth were killed in a
claymore mine attack in the northern government-controlled
town of Vavuniya, at the base of the LTTE-controlled Vanni.
Batticaloa
--------------
3. (U) The Media Center for National Security (MCNS) reported
that on September 30, STF troopers killed 15 LTTE cadres when
they tried to attack a police post at Pullumalai, Batticaloa.
The STF then recovered rifles, magazines, communication sets
and 19 anti-personnel mines from the bodies of the cadres.
BLAKE
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM PREF MOPS CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: GSL SETS PUBLIC CONDITIONS FOR TALKS
BUT TELLS NORWEGIANS PRIVATELY TO IGNORE THEM; SECURITY
FORCES THWART LTTE ATTACK IN BATTICALOA; INGOS TARGETED IN
JAFFNA
REF: COLOMBO 1597 AND PREVIOUS
Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake for reasons 1.4(b,d).
Government Announces Conditions for Talks, Then Recants
-------------- --------------
1. (U) The Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) announced three
conditions to return to peace talks with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),government and independent
press reported on October 1. Defense spokesperson Keheliya
Rambukwella told the Sunday Times that the three
pre-conditions were that: (1) the LTTE should provide a
specific time frame to resume talks, (2) the LTTE should
assure the international community and the Co-chairs that it
will not use sea routes to smuggle arms into Sri Lanka, and
(3) the LTTE should commit not to commit any acts of violence
during the period of the peace talks. However, when chief
Norwegian Facilitator Jon Hanssen-Bauer met with GSL
officials on Monday, October 2, the GSL told him to disregard
the announcement and that there would be no GSL
preconditions. (Septel on Tuesday will provide Hanssen-Bauer
readout.)
Jaffna
--------------
2. (C) On Friday morning, September 29, a local Tamil deminer
from the U.S.-funded HALO Trust was shot in the face on his
way to work. The only witness, a young girl, said that the
two gunmen on a motorbike wore civilian clothes. HALO
Program director Stephen Pritchard said the deminer's brother
had been a member of the LTTE and was similarly murdered
several years ago. Later the same morning, a grenade was
thrown into the ICRC compound in Jaffna. Pritchard, who
inspected the site of the explosion, told poloff, "The
grenade was thrown into an area of the compound in which it
was meant to be a message rather than to injure anyone."
Meanwhile, the media reported that three Security Task Force
(STF) troopers and one Sinhalese youth were killed in a
claymore mine attack in the northern government-controlled
town of Vavuniya, at the base of the LTTE-controlled Vanni.
Batticaloa
--------------
3. (U) The Media Center for National Security (MCNS) reported
that on September 30, STF troopers killed 15 LTTE cadres when
they tried to attack a police post at Pullumalai, Batticaloa.
The STF then recovered rifles, magazines, communication sets
and 19 anti-personnel mines from the bodies of the cadres.
BLAKE