Anton Stanislaus Balasingham (Tamil:ஆண்டன் பாலசிங்கம்) was the chief political strategist and chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam a militant organization. He was a British citizen of Tamil origin from Sri Lanka.He was born in Batticaloa on 4th March 1938 in the Sri Lankan Tamil dominated district in the Eastern Province of what was then British Ceylon. His father was a Hindu and mother a Christian Roman Catholic. His father also hailed from Eastern province whereas his mother was a native Jaffna Tamil.After his graduation from school in Jaffna, he worked as a journalist in a Colombo newspaper and as a translator at the British High Commission in Colombo. Balasingham was initially married to a Sri Lankan Tamil. After sheAnton Stanislaus Balasingham (Tamil:ஆண்டன் பாலசிங்கம்) was the chief political strategist and chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam a militant organization. He was a British citizen of Tamil origin from Sri Lanka.He was born in Batticaloa on 4th March 1938 in the Sri Lankan Tamil dominated district in the Eastern Province of what was then British Ceylon. His father was a Hindu and mother a Christian Roman Catholic. His father also hailed from Eastern province whereas his mother was a native Jaffna Tamil.After his graduation from school in Jaffna, he worked as a journalist in a Colombo newspaper and as a translator at the British High Commission in Colombo. Balasingham was initially married to a Sri Lankan Tamil. After she died due to the complications of chronic renal failure, he married Adele Ann Wilby in London, UK, in 1978. Adele, an Australian citizen and a nurse by professional training, became a prominent member of the women’s wing of the LTTE.
In the past, Adele herself has been involved in the peace talks, as the secretary of the LTTE delegation. In April 2002, Anton Balasingaham appeared alongside LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in a rare press conference in the LTTE held town of Kilinochchi in Sri Lanka.
From the Thimphu talks in 1985 to the first round of the Geneva talks held on February 22–23, 2006 Balasingham was the head of the LTTE delegation in all the peace negotiations with the government of Sri Lanka.[1] However, he could not participate in an October round because of ill health, and in November 2006, Balasingham was diagnosed with cancer. He suffered from diabetes, Motor Neurone Disease, a degenerative disease of the nervous system, and possibly medicine-induced bile duct cancer....more
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