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Tamils ask LTTE not to run away from talks
From Neville de Silva in London
An anti-LTTE Tamil organisation, the Tamil Democratic Congress (TDC) has asked the Tigers not to run away from the proposed peace talks as it has done in the past.

The TDC urges the LTTE to “move away from its historical stand of running away and abandoning peace efforts to maintain its status quo.” In a statement welcoming the decision to resume the peace talks, this time in Geneva, the TDC states: “This could be the last and important opportunity for the LTTE as dissenting voices within the Tamil community to violence will play a major part in the time ahead to influence the progress of any peace efforts.”
It says that the TDC as a democratic voice of the Tamil people is aware of the extent to which the guns that were taken to fight a war has killed and maimed many Tamil people since the LTTE took the antagonistic root to jettison the present peace process.

The pan-European group says that the LTTE “must take the large portion of the blame for the present violations and for exposing the Tamil people to the Sri Lankan military forces for attacks carried on them.”

It calls on the Norwegian peace effort to ensure that wider Tamil views are represented in any peace negotiations “without succumbing to the LTTE’s pressures to engage with them only with their misnomer that they are the sole and exclusive representatives of the Tamil people.”

The TDC also appeals to “Anton Balasingham, the Chief Negotiator of the LTTE to desist taking alcohol during the talks.”

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