Sri lanka

2000 · 80775 — Colombo Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs c2000. Presumed First Edition First printing thus. Trade paperback. Good. Format is approximately 8.25 inches by 11.5 inches. Illustrated front cover. Cover has some wear and soiling. This compilation includes a variety of news stories and other documents some dated in 2000 and others earlier. Among the included documents are: University Teachers for Human Rights Jaffna Sri Lanka Information Bulletin No. 23 The Sun God's Children & The Big Lie Transcript of CNN :Insight" interview with Olara Otunnu; National Action Plan to Address the Problem of Children & Youth Affected by the Present Conflict in Sri Lanka by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sri Lanka; several items related to discussions at the United Nations General Assembly including Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: Report of the expert of the Secretary-General Ms. Graca Machel submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 48/157. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE was a Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. Its aim was to secure an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east in response to the state policies of successive Sri Lankan governments that were widely considered discriminative towards the minority Sri Lankan Tamils as well as the oppressive actions-including anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956 and 1958-carried out by the majority Sinhalese. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran the LTTE was involved in armed clashes against the Sri Lankan government and armed forces. Oppression against Sri Lankan Tamils continued by Sinhalese mobs with the 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom and 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library taking place. Following the week-long July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom carried out by Sinhalese mobs that came to be known as Black July the LTTE's escalation of intermittent conflict into a full-scale nationalist insurgency began which started the Sri Lankan Civil War. By this time the LTTE was widely regarded as the most dominant Tamil militant group in Sri Lanka and among the most feared guerrilla forces in the world9 while Prabhakaran's status as a freedom guerrilla fighter led to comparisons to revolutionary Che Guevara by global media though Prabhakaran's actions were also widely viewed as terroristic. Initially starting out as a guerrilla force the LTTE increasingly came to resemble that of a conventional fighting force with a well-developed military wing that included a navy an airborne unit an intelligence wing and a specialized suicide attack unit. In particular India's relationship with the LTTE was complex as it went from initially supporting the organization to engaging it in direct combat through the Indian Peace Keeping Force IPKF owing to changes in the former's foreign policy during the phase of the conflict. The LTTE gained global notoriety for using women and children in combat and carrying out a number of high-profile assassinations including former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. Over the course of the conflict the LTTE frequently exchanged control of territory in the north-east with the Sri Lankan military with the two sides engaging in intense military confrontations. It was involved in four unsuccessful rounds of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government and at its peak in 2000 the LTTE was in control of 76% of the landmass in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran headed the organization from its inception until his death in 2009.16 Between 1983 and 2009 more than 80000 were killed in the civil war of which many were Sri Lankan Tamils. 800000 Sri Lankan Tamils also left Sri Lanka for various destinations including Europe North America and Asia. The LTTE has been designated as a terrorist organization by 32 countries including the European Union Canada the United States and India. Sri Lanka, Ministry of Foreign Affairs paperback