VAIKO MEETS ERIC SOLHEIM AND
BEGS OF HIM TO GIVE LIFE BACK TO THE ABROGATED CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT
By Walter Jayawardhana
India’s maverick politician Vaiko has begged of Norway’s
most controversial peace negotiator and International Development Minister
Eric Solheim who has been charged by non-tiger Tamil groups as a pro-LTTE
man, to give life to a dead cease fire agreement that has been violated
thousands of times by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) itself.
LTTE news sources revealed that the two controversial men met recently
at Oslo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vaiko requested Solheim
to help revive the Norway brokered abrogated Ceasefire Agreement (CFA)
signed between Ranil Wickramasinghe government and the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam.
A close personal friend of the late Tamil Tiger “peace negotiator”
Anton Balasingham, Soheim has been publicly attacked as a “White
Tiger”, and enjoys very little credibility in Sri Lanka. He has
been criticized by anti-LTTE Tamil groups and pro-Sinhala groups in
the country as a non acceptable man.
Pro LTTE news sources said, Vaiko expressed his “gratitude on
behalf of the Tamils in India to the Royal Norwegian Government for
its engagement as facilitator to the CFA ..” when the two controversial
politicians met each other in Oslo in Norway few days ago.
Vaiko has become the unofficial spokesman of the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in India where the group is banned after a LTTE
suicide bomber killed the late Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi.
The LTTE who are believed to be in a difficult position militarily
after the agreement was abrogated is alleged to have used the agreement
to gain military advantages by violating the very agreement thousands
of times , according to Norway managed documents.
Vaiko has told pro-LTTE news media that he told Solheim that a key
violation of the agreed principles was the clause 1.8 which demanded
the Government of Sri Lanka to disarm the paramilitary groups, referring
to the Karuna group.
Before the Karuna group came into being, under the CFA Tamil groups
who embraced democratic way of government like the Eelam People’s
Democratic Party (EPDP) were disarmed under the CFA. The agreement allowed
only the LTTE to be armed except the country’s armed forces and
the police say hundreds of members of the Tamil groups like EPDP and
PLOTE had been killed by the Tamil Tigers with impunity. Tamil Tigers
unsuccessfully attempted to kill EPDP leader Douglas Devananda many
times after they signed the CFA.
Vaiko has refused to protest against such killings when fellow Tamils
were being killed by his friends, the LTTE, Tamil critics point out.
But Vaiko told Solheim “that the International Community should
prevail upon the GoSL to reinstate the ceasefire in order to engage
in a meaningful process for a negotiated settlement.”
Vaiko, the General Secretary of Marumalarchchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam
(MDMK), was in Oslo Norway recently to participate in an international
conference in which such figures as UNP’s Dr. Jayalath Jayewardene
, Venerable Brahmanawatte Seevali Thero, Arumugam Thondaman and Venerable
Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thero took part.
|
