News from the independence front : Tamil, Abkhaz, Basque
An overview of how things are moving on other independence fronts
(Compiled by the KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, urged the UN General Assembly which has gathered for its 62nd session in New York, USA, to recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle. The LTTE statement characterized the confidence of some members of the International Community on Sri Lanka's latest All Party Representative Committee (APRC) which has not brought any constructive outcome to date, as a misplaced confidence.
The LTTE statement urged the assembly to provide appropriate opportunities to the Tamil people to express their aspirations, as have been given to the people of East Timor and Kosovo.
"The International Community must rein in on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to halt the military oppression, ethnic cleansing, serious human rights violations and to accept the aspirations of the Tamil people in order to come forward to find a resolution that is based on the right to self-determination of the Tamil people," the LTTE statement said.
Following is the full text of the statement issued by the LTTE's political section:
Political Wing
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
24 September 2007
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=23362
Georgians kill Abhkazia border guards
SUKHUMI, September 24 (Itar-Tass) - Georgian units have killed two Abkhazian border guards on Abkhazia's territory, and not in a Georgia-controlled area, a joint inspection group said.
The group visited the site of the incident in Abkhazia's Tkvarcheli district on September 22-23, the Abkhazian Defence Ministry's General Staff chief Anatoly Zaitsev told ITAR-TASS on Monday.
He said the inspection group comprised Russian and Georgian representatives and UN military observers, three of which were from the Abkhazian Defence Ministry.
"It has been ascertained that the seized border guards were shot to death when they were captured, which is a gross violation of the Geneva convention," Zaitsev said.
He added that the Abkhazian army was on alert.
The Georgian military allegedly attacked the Abkhazian outpost in Tkvarcheli mountains on September 20, killing the two Abkhazian borders guards and wounding two.
They also captured the six border guards, Zaitsev said.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11898719&PageNum=0
Blast in Spain's Basque country - no injuries
MADRID, September 25 (AFP) - A blast occurred outside a police station overnight in the Basque town of Zarauz in northern Spain, shattering windows but causing no injuries Tuesday, a police spokesman told AFP.
"The device went off about 1:30 in the morning (2330 GMT), but did not cause any damage to people, while shattering several windows and leaving a crater about one metre in diameter," the spokesman said.
He added there was no indication as to who was responsible, although suspicion immediately fell on armed Basque separatist group ETA, which ten days earlier was suspected of placing a homemade explosive device under a policeman's car.
On September 10, a car bomb ascribed to the group failed to go off properly outside a defence ministry building in the northern town of Logrono.
Police have detained more than 20 suspected ETA members, including its alleged top bombmaker and its logistics chief, since the group formally called off a ceasefire on June 5.
The group is blamed for 819 deaths in a four-decade violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland for the region straddling the Pyrenees.
