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No Swiss recognition for LTTE “struggle” [Wednesday , June 14, 2006- 10.00 GMT]The Swiss Embassy in Colombo denied the claim by the Director of the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat, Pulidevan, that respect shown by Swiss government officials to the LTTE delegation that went there after Oslo, was recognition given to the LTTE’s struggle by the Swiss diplomatic community. “Switzerland does not give recognition to the LTTE’s struggle as they describe it”, a spokesman for the Swiss Embassy told the Presidential Secretariat when asked about the LTTE claim published in the TamilNet. TamilNet, considered the semi-official web site of the LTTE, referring to the reception the LTTE members had in Switzerland in a report today (June 14) quoted the Director of the LTTE Peace Secretariat, Pulidevan, telling members of the Tamil community in Switzerland that the respect shown by the Swiss government officials to their delegation was due to the strength and commitment demonstrated by the Tamil Diaspora in Switzerland. Pulidevan adds: “We regard this as recognition given to our struggle by the Swiss diplomatic community.” Mr. Martin Sturzinger, Advisor on Peace Building at the Swiss Embassy, Colombo, dismissed this LTTE claim as being the LTTE’s own thinking. He said that Switzerland does not give recognition to the LTTE’ struggle as they describe it. He told a spokesman for the Presidential Secretariat that the visit of the LTTE members to Switzerland en route from Oslo was purely a private visit, and their request to stay was allowed only because they would have to spend nearly one day in transit in Switzerland. He added that the LTTE members were only met by very low level officials of the Swiss Foreign Ministry, and that too was only to find out what happened in Oslo and also restate the willingness of Switzerland to host another round of talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. False twist This TamilNet report has also given a completely false twist to what took place at Oslo last week, when the LTTE scuttled the proposed talks between the Government, Norway, the SLMM and the LTTE on ensuring protection for the SLMM. In a story headlined “LTTE delegation leaves Switzerland” TamilNet says: “The non-cabinet level Sri Lanka delegation left Oslo mid-day Thursday after refusing to meet with a similar level group from the LTTE delegation”. The spokesman for the Presidential Secretariat said this is far from the truth. It was the LTTE that broke-off the meeting by its refusal to meet with the Sri Lanka delegation, as it did not have a minister of Cabinet level, which request was not made earlier by the LTTE when the arrangements for the talks were being made and the composition of the Sri Lanka government delegation was made known to the LTTE and Norway. “To state that the Sri Lanka delegation refused to meet with a similar-level group from the LTTE is a blatant lie”, the spokesman said. The Norwegian Government which acted as facilitator for this meeting was itself shocked by the LTTE’s about-face with regard to the meeting, and said so in a statement on the break-down of the proposed meeting. The TamilNet item also states that the LTTE “delegation arrived in Switzerland Sunday after completing discussions with the Norwegian facilitators and with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Friday and meeting with the LTTE’s Constitutional Affairs Committee Saturday.” The spokesman added that this too was a surprising twist, as the LTTE’s representatives at Oslo had also said they did not wish to have discussions with members of the SLMM as they were from countries that belonged to the European Union that had earlier banned the LTTE. “It is strange that after refusing to meet with the SLMM delegates formally at the Norwegian arranged discussions regarding the SLMM, on the ground that they were from EU countries, the LTTE members had later apparently found no problem in meeting with the same persons”, the spokesman said. He said this distortion of facts and the LTTE’s behaviour was very much in keeping with the LTTE’s duplicity regarding the entire Peace Process. He also said the TamilNet report regarding the reception to the LTTE representatives at Switzerland was aimed at misleading of the Tamil people about the attitude of the Swiss Government towards the LTTE, giving the false impression that the Swiss Government acquiesces with “struggle” of the LTTE that is carried out through terrorism and the total rejection of democracy.
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