The Wall Street Journal

Sadr City in Baghdad, the northeastern districts of Sri Lanka and the Guaviare province of Colombia have little in common culturally, historically or politically. But they are crucial reference points on a global map in which long-running insurgencies suddenly find themselves on the verge of defeat.

The SUDAR OLI, a Tamil language daily, well-known for its views in support of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has in its  Editorial on 03^rd June 2008 (http://www.sudaroli.com/editorial.htm), criticized the views expressed by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva in an interview he recently gave Mr. Narayan Swamy of IANS (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/06/02/sec01.asp).  

In doing so, they have also distorted the comments of the Ambassador that “the LTTE should be verifiably demilitarized” into “the bargaining power and military power of the minority Tamil community should be totally destroyed and brought to the submission of the South.”
The Editorial on page 3 of the Sudar Oli edition of Tuesday June 3, 2008 mentions Dr. Jayatilleka three times and reads as follows, in translation:

The Peace Secretariat is deeply worried about the story, current in several media outlets including in India, that the Head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat has been placed under arrest by the LTTE hierarchy. Though I never had the pleasure of meeting him, I have been assured by my colleagues that Mr Puleedevan was always willing to engage. I was also told by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that he laughed a lot, and I have always felt that a man with a sense of humour would be worth talking to.

SINGAPORE: India’s maritime “surveillance” has “helped” Sri Lanka in “a big way” in facing the challenge from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Emphasising this, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama told The Hindu that his country would continue to “advocate” that the international community take steps to dry up the sources of funding and other forms of support for the LTTE.

Set up Regional Food Security Funds to expand food production” - President Rajapaksa proposes at FAO confab

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the FAO Conference on food security in Rome today, gave an overview of the situation in Sri Lanka with respect to the challenges of climate change and bioenergy.  He also proposed the setting up of Regional Food Security Funds so that the financial and technological resources within a given region can be better employed to expand food production, improve storage and distribution.  

Sri Lanka notes with sadness the emotional and misleading statements of Pax Romana and Interfaith International during the interactive dialogue. The former is well aware that the situation at Kalimoddai is not at all how he represents it. It is certainly not the Garden of Eden, which had a far more dangerous snake as the good father knows, but it is infinitely preferable to the LTTE controlled areas whence the refugees now housed there have fled. They have fled, as the Norwegian Refugee Council so graphically puts it, from forced and underage recruitment, from a situation where, as a recent UN report has it, marriages are being cancelled so that more youngsters can be forced to fight.

Security forces personnel engaged in counter terrorist offensive operation are inching further towards LTTE terrain inflicting damages to the enemy in Jaffna and Wanni fronts. According to the finalized military report received from the forefront said that 10 LTTE terrorists were killed while 6 others suffered injuries. 23 more terrorists were reported either killed or wounded. Three security forces personnel have laid their lives for the motherland and 4 suffered wounds in yesterday's clashes.

Sri Lankan Response to the Report of Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions 

The Eighth Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently being held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. During the Interactive dialogue held today on the reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs, Sri Lanka responded to the report of Mr. Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. Given below is the statement made on this occasion by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace process.

Sri Lankan Response to the Report of Mr. Walter Kälin,Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

The Eighth Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently being held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. During the Interactive dialogue held today on the reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs, Sri Lanka responded to the report Walter Kälin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Given below is the statement made on this occasion by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace process.

A negotiated end to Sri Lanka’s conflict is still possible but not before the Tigers are “verifiably demilitarised and democratised,” senior diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka has said in Geneva. This is a very sound argument, considering that Tigers have always negotiated with their weapons intact. They made a mock show of handing in their weapons after the Indo-Lanka Accord, but it was never a long-term intention of the Tigers to become a demilitarised outfit.

By: M.R. Narayan SWAMY

GENEVA: A negotiated end to Sri Lanka’s dragging conflict is still possible but not before the Tigers are “verifiably demilitarised and democratised,” says one of the most high-profile diplomats of that country.

Dayan Jayatilleka also said in an interview that the conflict would only end when Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive and feared leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), gets “demilitarised one way or another”.

By Paul TigheJune 3 (Bloomberg) -- The leadership of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is divided, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said, citing intelligence reports that the head of the group's peace secretariat is under house arrest. Seevaratnam Prabaharan, also known as Puleedevan, was detained recently on the orders of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, the ministry said on its Web site. ``According to information received from defense intelligence authorities, the arrest has been made as a result of a worsening internal dispute among key LTTE figures,'' the ministry said. Telephone calls to the peace secretariat weren't answered today.

Let me begin by extending our sympathies to the people of China and Myanmar who have suffered rom the recent natural disasters. Despite its own difficulties Sri Lanka tried to provide some assistance, not just because we have been beneficiaries of such in times of difficulty, but also because as the High Commissioner said, this is the duty of governments.

By Prof. Rajiva WIJESINHA,

Secretary-General, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP).

The Associated Press 

The sixth U.S.-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meeting was held in Washington on May 29. The U.S. delegation was led by Deputy United States Trade Representative John K. Veroneau. Gamini Lakshman (G.L.) Peiris, Minister for Export Development and International Trade, led the Sri Lankan delegation.