Norway’s International Development Minister Erik Solheim at Mr. Balasingham’s funeral at Alexandra Palace in London. Pic courtesy Tamilnet

Balasingham laid to rest

The funeral of LTTE theoretician and chief negotiator Anton Stanislaus Balasingham was held last Wednesday at Alexandra Palace in north London. A parallel funeral service was held in the Wanni, with footage from each location being telecast to the other attended by top LTTE members.

A large number of Tamil activists, including many had flown from several European countries to pay their last respects to Mr. Balasingham. Among those who attended the funeral was Erik Solheim, the Norwegian International Development Minister.

Balasingham was born in Batticaloa , grew up in Jaffna, worked as a journalist and translator in Colombo, and later migrated to England and obtained citizenship there. He joined the LTTE in the late 1970s and led all its peace delegations from the 1985 Thimpu talks to the February 2006 Geneva talks.
He died of cancer at the age of 68 on December 14 and is survived by his second wife, Adele.