2. Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia - சமாதானப் பேச்சுக்கள் - மீண்டும்?!

3. Brian Senewiratne on Geneva Peace Talks that Have Gone Nowhere

2. Ballad of the Land and the Sea

What good would it be to talk peace?
When we don’t see it on the ground?
What good would it be to beg please?
When that means to be shot and killed?

Is this the peace you talk about?
In a far flung foreign land!
If that is peace Mr Diplomat
Then give us not “peace” we plead! more

LTTE & Sri Lanka Delegations

The LTTE delegation led by Anton Balasingham, sat across a four sided table from Ministers of the new Rajapakse government in Colombo. Norwegians and the Swiss hosts sat on a third side and truce monitors completed the square. The shape of the table reflected, perhaps, the four sided nature of the talks. Form and content usually go together.

1. Statements by LTTE & Sri Lanka

2. Concluding Statement Released by the Norwegian Facilitator  " New talks will be held  in Geneva, on 19 and 21 April. Both sides committed to respecting and upholding the ceasefire agreement and are committed to taking all necessary means to ensure that there will be no intimidation and acts of violence."

3. LTTE Political Wing Leader Interview in Tamil with IBC at conclusion of Talks

4. Report on Talks in Sri Lanka State Controlled Daily News

5.  Balasingham's interview with Sunday Leader after Geneva Talks, 26 February 2006

"... I told the delegation that I have come with a specific mandate from Mr. Pirapaharan to only talk about the implementation of the CFA. I said we will walk out if anybody raises anything or starts discussing constitutional or legal problems pertaining to this document. I said the moment you claim the CFA is incorrect, then you are coming out of the CFA. That means you are giving two weeks notice for the resumption of hostilities. You better think very carefully, I said. So they kept quiet..."

5. Kasra Naji, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),  reports from the Vanni on Geneva Talks

2. Sanmugam Sabesan from Australia on  ஜனநாயகமும் பயங்கரவாதமும் "ஜனநாயகம்-பயங்கரவாதம் போன்ற சொல்லாடல்களிலும் கருத்துருவாக்கங்களிலும் எவ்வளவு முரண்பாட்டையும், தெளிவின்மையையும் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட உலக நாடுகள் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன என்பதைச் சுட்டிக் காட்டித் தர்க்கிப்பதுவே எமது எண்ணமாகும்." [together with English Translation]

1. LTTE delegation Arrives  in Geneva, Switzerland for Talks
with Sri Lanka on Implementation of Ceasefire

LTTE Political Wing Leader, Thamil Chelven, addressing a gathering of Swiss Tamils at the Airport said " talks will reveal the bona fides of the Sri Lanka Government in seeking a peaceful resolution to the Tamil National question..."

2. R.Cholan writes a 'A Private Letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse' "...You made a bit of a ‘BOOBOO’ this week in your interview with the Reuters [13 February 2006] and I was quite embarrassed, you being the President of my old country and all that. You had said, “[Sri Lanka] is a small country, where you can’t have two states…” You are an educated man (a lawyer, I am told) and I am surprised at your lack of knowledge on such matters. The fact is – Sri Lanka is not a small country as you claim. I have listed below data on 138 countries smaller in population than Sri Lanka, all full-fledged members of the United Nations. The total membership of the UN is only 191 countries..."more

3. LTTE Political Wing Leader Tamilchelven & Sri Lanka President Rajapakse on the Peace process - in TIME, 12/13 February 2006 Tamilchelven:-"First Accept the Sovereignty Of Our People ...War is not gentle and nice. It's definitely going to be cruel. We hate war and we do not see it as an option that will produce a political solution. But we were forced into war. The decision to avoid such bloodshed, to avoid the killing of thousands of people, is for the occupying military power, the prosecutor of war, not the oppressed..."  more

1. US Congressional Caucus on Sri Lanka Introduces Resolution in the US House of Representatives - together with comments by tamilnation.org

2.Arundhati Roy on Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy - Buy One, Get One Free [also in realaudio] "..Way back in 1988, on the 3rd of July, the U.S.S. Vincennes, a missile cruiser stationed in the Persian Gulf, accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner and killed 290 civilian passengers. George Bush the First, who was at the time on his presidential campaign, was asked to comment on the incident. He said quite subtly, "I will never apologize for the United States. I don't care what the facts are." I don't care what the facts are. What a perfect maxim for the New American Empire. Perhaps a slight variation on the theme would be more apposite: The facts can be whatever we want them to be..."more

3.A Trivial Technique of Psychological Pressure  "Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State...used quite a trivial technique of psychological pressure, which is mostly practiced in the field of education. According to Condoleezza Rice, Russia's actions towards Ukraine did not characterize it as a respectable member of the Group of Eight. The statement from the high-ranking US official sounded like a reprimand from a strict babysitter that was teaching its baby to behave. It goes without saying that the largest Eurasian power is not a baby" more

4. Some Questions for Condoleezza Rice
5. United States & the Use of  Paramiltaries in Iraq

2. Thamizhar Martial Arts - Alex Doss "..When we think of martial arts, we usually think of China or Japan. Only recently, people have discovered that martial arts had its roots in India “somewhere”. The location of  the part of India martial arts came from still remains a mystery to many..." more

" The Pen in my Tamil land
Drips Virar blood –
Flesh of my flesh; bones of my bones are crucified.
For they wrote what they witnessed,
Maravar blood of the Crucified Thiyagi sown in the Eelam soil,
They will rise again; and so we console our spirit..." more

G.Amirthalingam on Tamil Struggle: The Need for self-determination  "Tamils don’t need the consent of the Sinhalese population to determine their political future. Did the colonizers get the consent of the Tamil people in a democratic manner, when the Tamil homeland was merged with the rest of the country?  ..In 1505, Sri Lankans gave into Portuguese invasion, in order to oust the Portuguese they invited the Dutch for help, and then the British walked in without any resistance. All in all the country lost 433 years of Sovereignty. Sri Lanka will make the same mistake again, if there is no settlement to the Tamil cause, and lose the country to foreign rule for another 500 years..."

2.Sanmugam Sabesan writes from Australia - பொய்மை உணர்த்தும் உண்மை!

3. Fr. Chandi Sinnathurai from Mattakkalappu,Tamil Eelam - Four Legs Good, Two legs Bad - An Assortment of Modest Reflections…read on the Holocaust Memorial Day at the local Synagogue

Dr. Michael A. Weinstein - Power and Interest News Report - Condoleezza Rice Completes Washington's Geostrategic Shift  "..Rice's announcements culminate a major revision of Washington's overall geostrategy that has been in the making since 2004 when the failures of the Iraq intervention exposed the limitations of U.S. military capabilities and threw into question the unilateralist doctrine outlined in the administration's 2002 National Security Strategy... Rice's reforms are significant because they are embraced by a multipolar perspective on world politics that brings Washington into line with the other major power centers. .... other power centers will welcome Washington's acknowledgment of multipolarity at the same time that they will be challenged by it..."

Very little of Sri Lanka in Kilinochchi - Raju Gopalakrishnan reporting for Reuters  from Killinochchi  "...There's very little of Sri Lanka in Kilinochchi.... Coming in from Colombo in the South, visitors to the area need to pass customs and get an entry pass, in effect a visa. Kilinochchi has the LTTE's own bank, court, hospital and taxi service and is in a separate time zone -- half an hour off Sri Lanka time..." more

2.  (Ranil Wickremasinghe supporting) Sinhala Lankadeepa Daily on Geneva & Karuna - பேச்சுக்களின் பெயரால் புலிகளைச் சிதைக்க தீட்டிய திட்டங்கள் என்ன?: ஆதாரங்களோடு அம்பலப்படுத்தியது 'சிங்கள' நாளேடு! - "...சமாதான பேச்சுவார்த்தை நிகழ்ச்சி நிரலின் முதலாவது விடயம் யுத்த நிறுத்த உடன்படிக்கையை அமுல்படுத்துவதாகும். விடுதலைப் புலிகள் சொல்லப்போவது அதெல்லாம் செய்வதற்கு முன்னர் கருணாவை நிராயுதபாணியாக்குங்கள் என்பதையாகும்... அரசாங்கம் கருணாவின் தலையைப் பலிகொடுக்குமா? .." more