30 April 2009

Britain, France fail to win Sri Lanka truce
          
The foreign ministers of Britain and France said Wednesday they had failed to persuade Sri Lanka to end its offensive against Tamil rebels and allow aid in for civilians trapped by the fighting."We tried very hard -- we insisted and we insisted -- but it is up to our friends to allow it or not," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told a news conference after talks with the Sri Lankan government.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also said the talks had ended without a breakthrough, telling Sri Lanka that international calls for a ceasefire were "only to save civilians" and not to help the Tamil Tigers."Now is the time for the fighting to stop," Miliband said. "Sri Lanka's military advances have been spectacular, but winning the peace is as vital as winning the war."Sri Lanka's leaders say they are on the cusp of victory after 37 years of violence, with the ethnic rebels cornered and outnumbered in a small strip of coastal jungle in the northeast of the island.Government officials have argued that any truce would only allow the rebels to regroup.But at the centre of global concern are some 50,000 Tamil civilians who the United Nations say are unable to escape the fighting.A UN document circulated among diplomats in Colombo last week also said that as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in the government's offensive so far this year.Sri Lanka has for months blocked most aid agencies from working in the conflict zone, and has herded about 100,000 fleeing civilians into overcrowded camps which are guarded by the military.Aid workers who have visited the camps have testified to food shortages, woeful sanitation, a desperate medical situation and overcrowding.The two visiting foreign ministers flew to the northern town of Vavuniya to see the plight of war-displaced civilians, officials said.

Tamil protest shuts downtown road for third day

The protest and chanting continued Wednesday morning on University Avenue as Toronto's Tamil community converged in front of the U.S. Consulate for the third day in a row. The roadway is still closed to regular traffic though room has been made for emergency vehicles travelling to a number of hospitals located in the area. University Avenue will remain closed between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West throughout the day, police said in a news release Wednesday morning. Although rumours have been circulating all morning that the police would try to dismantle the protest this afternoon, authorities tell CTV Toronto that that is not in their immediate plan.Some drivers say they are fed up with the disruptions."I'm on my way to court and I hate this," said one frustrated driver."As long as they're calm about it, I guess it's okay, I just wish they'd do this somewhere else," one man told CTV Toronto from behind the wheel of his car.Police have asked demonstrators not to use metal poles to hoist their flags in an effort to ensure public safety. The protest has been mostly peaceful except for a brief scuffle yesterday morning between participants and the police when demonstrators were asked to move to the east side of the street. The rally began Sunday night when hundreds of people from Toronto's Tamil community camped out on University Avenue overnight. They have not left the area since. During the day, the crowd has grown to more than 1,000 protesters. The demonstration is one of many to be held by Toronto's Tamil community over the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "Every single second that these international guardsmen the United Nations wastes, there is people dying," said one protester.The LTTE have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland on the island nation of Sri Lanka. The group is considered a banned terrorist organization in Canada. However, some LTTE flags have been seen flying at the protests. Supporters call the group a liberation army engaged in a battle with an oppressive opponent. The protesters want the Canadian and U.S. governments, along with the United Nations, to pressure the Sri Lankan government to stop its military offensive against the LTTE. Protesters promised to continue peaceful demonstrations until that goal is achieved.The ministers are due to leave here early Thursday.On the eve of their visit, Sri Lankan authorities denied a visa to Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was hoping to join the peace mission -- prompting a major diplomatic row with the European Union.A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official indicated that Colombo felt it had already done enough by letting in Miliband and Kouchner as international pressure for a ceasefire grows."The (Swedish) foreign minister is most welcome to visit Sri Lanka on a date in May," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said.Bildt described the snub as "exceedingly strange behaviour" and said he had recalled the Swedish envoy to Colombo.A pro-government group put up posters in Colombo Wednesday accusing Miliband, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the former Norwegian peace broker Erik Solheim of supporting Tamil rebels.Hundreds of demonstrators staged a protest outside the British diplomatic mission in Colombo to denounce Miliband. The frosty welcome is a symptom of Colombo's hardening stance towards the West, with officials regularly accusing the UN and foreign aid groups of supporting or colluding with Tamil Tigers. After months of heavy fighting, the Tigers are said by the military to be down to their last few hundred fighters. Although the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been widely condemned for holding civilians as human shields, the UN's rights chief has said both sides in the long-running ethnic war may be guilty of war crimes. In the latest fighting, Sri Lanka's navy said that it sank six rebel boats and killed at least 25 guerrillas in a pre-dawn sea battle on Wednesday.

Colombo assures India of political package for Tamils

NEW DELHI: India has received assurances from Sri Lanka about moves to ensure the political accommodation of its Tamil-origin citizens in the national mainstream, according to reliable sources. Although immediate relief followed by rehabilitation of civilians tops the Indian agenda, New Delhi is also pushing Colombo to begin the political reconciliation process at the earliest.India realises that Tamils there need a political system in which they can feel comfortable. Quick-fix elections would amount to “changing of the hat” and is unlikely to work as is the case in the Eastern Province, where a conflict seems to be developing between the two main Tamil figures. India is also pinning its hopes on the vibrant Tamil-origin civil society which has worked through the conflict.“We have long-term national interest in Sri Lanka. Playing political games won’t help. There is life after May 13 [election in Tamil Nadu],” said the sources, while pointing out that Sri Lanka’s top leadership would implement the Constitution’s ‘Thirteenth Amendment plus.’ This could include moving some items from the concurrent to the provincial list and the setting up of a second chamber of federal representatives. “We will keep pushing. There must be an attempt after 23 years of wars but the path won’t be easy. There has been Sinhala chauvinism and alteration in civil-military relations. Things won’t suddenly flip back to normal,” they added.In the immediate term, India will soon be sending 50,000 additional family packs as part of the Rs.100-crore grant announced by the Centre on Monday. These family packets last for three weeks and comprise enough food items, shelter, and medicines for a nuclear family. They will be in addition to the 40,000 family packets sent last week.India also has a de-mining team in place in view of the heavily mined territory and is planning to send more personnel. It is also in the process of shifting its temporary hospital from the coast to inland. The capacity of the 100-bed hospital with a complement of 62 doctors will also be expanded.

Ottawa to speed up Tamil family immigration

The federal government is speeding up the immigration applications of those in war-torn Sri Lanka who want to join their relatives in Canada, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says.The move would not pluck displaced people from Sri Lanka and resettle them quickly in Canada, but it would shorten the waiting times for parents and grandparents of Tamil-Canadians - who can wait years to be approved - to come to Canada.Cutting the wait might ease some of the anxiety of those in the Tamil-Canadian community, estimated at 250,000 to 300,000, who want their relatives to join them.The war between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has killed more than 6,500 civilians and displaced 160,000, according to United Nations estimates."We continue to process applications for family sponsorship from Canadian citizens for family members to come here. We have taken steps through our Colombo mission to expedite these applications," Mr. Kenney said in the House of Commons yesterday.He promised to fast-track the applications in response to a question from Liberal MP Bob Rae. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also called earlier yesterday for fast-tracking of visa applications from Sri Lanka.But Scarborough-Agincourt Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis, whose riding includes a large Tamil-Canadian community, said Mr. Kenney's assertion that visa processing is being expedited is "intellectually dishonest" because the government has not really devoted the resources to process them faster.Despite the move to speed up the processing, applications to immigrate under the "family" class will still take several months; but officials said that category, usually a low priority, will now be a high priority at Canada's visa office in Colombo.It will also mean that fewer risky trips from the north to Colombo will be required for interviews and checks, they said.Officials said they did not have a figure for how many Sri Lankans are currently waiting to immigrate to Canada under the family class.About 1,200 Sri Lankans have been approved under that category since last September, they said, with an average waiting time of 13 months.In addition, 1,608 Sri Lankans arrived in Canada in 2008 and claimed refugee status, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board. Statistics from this year, when most of the fighting occurred, are not yet available.The numbers are small compared to the 140,000 displaced people, mostly from Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says are accommodated in overcrowded camps as tens of thousands continue to flee the conflict.But there has been no international effort to resettle the displaced abroad, as the UNHCR has instead called on the Sri Lankan government to provide better conditions for its citizens.

'British Tamil protesters should apologise to India'

Two of Britain's most senior Indian-origin MPs Wednesday denounced Sri Lankan Tamil protesters who turned violent during a demonstration outside the Indian High Commission this week, saying they must now apologise.Keith Vaz and Virendra Sharma, who belong to the ruling Labour party, said in a joint statement they were "deeply concerned" to hear that protesters had damaged the Indian High Commission building and forcibly entered it during a large demonstration Monday."Although feelings are running extremely high because of the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka, this is no excuse for violent action and we call upon those responsible to apologise and for the police to investigate and bring to justice those who have carried out these acts," the statement said."The Indian government has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and we have consistently called for peaceful demonstrations and a peaceful resolution of the crisis," said the MPs, who are well-known supporters of the Tamil campaign for justice in Sri Lanka.Police arrested five Tamils who forced their way into the Indian High Commission building in central London Monday during a demonstration by thousands.Protesters also smashed windowpanes, Indian diplomats said.

Defector says LTTE killed civilians
 
A former spokesman for Tamil Tiger rebels who surrendered to the Sri Lankan army has accused the rebels of shooting dead at least two-hundred civilians who were attempting to flee the war zone. Velayutham Dayanidhi, better known as Daya Master, said the rebels were holding civilians as hostages and forcibly recruiting children as young as thirteen years of age. He made these allegations in a video interview released by the Sri Lankan defence ministry. It is not clear whether the interview was conducted under duress. The United Nations has said there were credible reports that the rebels were preventing civilians from leaving the war zone and shooting at those who were attempting to flee. The army says Daya Master and George Master arrived at the army defence line at Puthumathalan a week ago along with family members. It says they were in "in the company of fleeing civilians". Sri Lankan military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said Daya Master was the most senior rebel official to surrender so far.

The last days of Sri Lanka's long war?

The foreign ministers of Britain and France urged Sri Lanka on Wednesday to implement a humanitarian cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels in order to allow tens of thousands of trapped civilians to escape the battle zone.Sri Lanka earlier in the week promised to stop using heavy weapons in its fight to finish off the rebels and to concentrate its military efforts on freeing the civilians, but both sides report continued fighting and casualties.Here are questions and answers about what happens next on the Indian Ocean island:

WHAT HAPPENS NOW ON THE BATTLEFIELD?

This is all but certain to be the last conventional battle in a war that has raged off and on since 1983. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) control less than 10 square km (4 square miles) of coconut groves along the coast. The area is surrounded by water on three sides, and troops on the fourth. If the government follows its announced strategy, fighting will now be close-quarters as troops pick their way across what satellite images show to be a sea of makeshift tents. Military officers, speaking privately, say the advance has been slowed by fields of land mines and LTTE snipers, although on Wednesday a government spokesman said the Tiger-held area had been reduced to five km. The army has been deploying snipers, commandos and special forces troops alongside infantrymen. The Tigers say the government has kept using heavy weapons, killing scores of civilians. The military denies that, while saying it continues to inflict significant casualties among the Tiger fighters.

AND WHEN THAT BATTLE IS OVER?

The government's focus will immediately shift to the post-conflict situation. That means containing potential hit-and-run attacks by remaining LTTE fighters in hiding, and quelling any moves by a group that has vowed no surrender and has a strong international support network. There is also the enormous task of clearing northern Sri Lanka of thousands of landmines and hidden weapons caches. The government will also be under pressure to rapidly resettle the nearly 200,000 civilians who have escaped Tiger areas this year, getting them out of refugee camps that have been criticised by the United Nations. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is counting on at least $1 billion (678 million pounds) in development aid to help restart the economy in northern Sri Lanka.

WHAT WILL THE END OF THE WAR MEAN FOR THE ECONOMY?

It will no doubt be a boost, but Sri Lanka's $40 billion economy -- long one of the strongest in South Asia -- is reeling. That's due to the global economic crisis, low foreign exchange reserves and falling prices for its main exports of garments and tea. Tourism, which has managed well enough since the war started in 1983, is taking a beating this year. Economic growth is expected to hit an eight-year low of around 2.5 percent after 6.0 percent in 2008. The government is negotiating a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to help boost reserves hovering at less than six weeks of import cover and a balance of payments shortfall. The rupee has also progressively fallen to new lows -- it hit a record low of 120.80/121.10 on Thursday. The huge civilian exodus last week, seen as a sign victory was near, drove five days of gains on the Colombo Stock Exchange, but the record has been mixed this week as traders started to move to fundamentals. With the cost of credit declining but still high and global conditions tough, the picture is less than rosy.

HOW DOES THE GOVERNMENT PLAN TO MEET THOSE CHALLENGES?

Besides the IMF loan, which analysts say has prompted the central bank to stop supporting the rupee, the government is banking on economic revival in the north and linking markets there with those in the capital Colombo, in the south. Tourism operators are already seeking external investors to build new properties and upgrade existing ones to bring the island back to its former glory as a top tropical destination. Rajapaksa has been an advocate of local production, especially agricultural output, but has been criticised for keeping import taxes high. The central bank has also eased its tight monetary policy which has brought interest rates down. Investors hope that will spur more access to credit, more economic activity and a rise in shares on the bourse.

WHAT ABOUT POLITICS?

It's a very safe bet Rajapaksa will be able to win another term. His commitment to ending a war previous leaders could not has won him big fans among the Sinhalese majority, and he has splintered the opposition. Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance coalition swept polls over the weekend in the Western Province, which includes Colombo and has traditionally been the stronghold of the main opposition United National Party. Local media is rife with speculation Rajapaksa will call a presidential election before it is due in late 2011 to capitalise. Rajapaksa's allies say an early poll is likely, but no one but the president knows when that will be. He also plans polls as soon as possible in the northern province, where the Tigers have long held sway.

Navy, Sea Tigers in fierce battle

At least six LTTE craft including four suicide boats were destroyed and more than 28 Sea Tigers on board were killed, during a fierce battle in the seas off Mullaitivu, early yesterday morning, the Navy said.“We have prevented an LTTE attempt to attack our defence lines,” Navy Spokesman Captain D.K.P. Dassanayake said adding “we have destroyed at least six LTTE boats.”He also said that the Sea Tiger flotilla had entered the sea from Vellamullavaikkal in the ‘Safe Zone’ and launched the attack against Navy boats deployed in the seas off Mullaitivu. “We have found several bodies of the Sea Tigers while intercepted LTTE communications revealed that during the fighting senior Sea Tiger leaders Manparidi, Ariu and Manmadhi have been killed,” the spokesman said.According to the spokesman a large number of LTTE female cadres had taken part in this pre-dawn attack. “During last few weeks, the LTTE had attempted to attack the defence lines maintained by the Navy but failed as the Navy successfully repulsed those attacks,” the spokesman said.He said that there were no injuries to personnel or damage to the Navy boats whose crew was on full alert and took prompt action.The Navy is currently maintaining a tight security blanket in the seas off Mullaitivu to prevent any escape of LTTE cadres by sea.Captain Dassanayake said that the Navy’s Special Boat Squadron, Rapid Action Boat Squadron, Dvora and Offshore Patrol Vessels are providing security around the clock in the seas off Mullaitivu.

JHU protests against visiting British, French foreign ministers

Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the Buddhist monk political party of the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka, staged a protest demonstration against the visit of British and French foreign ministers Wednesday in front of British High Commission office in Colombo, sources in Colombo said. JHU parliamentarians shouted out slogans accusing the visiting emissaries as spokesmen of the Liberation Tigers and condemned International Countries for trying to save the Liberation Tigers, the sources added. Hundreds of JHU supporters including parliamentarians and Buddhist monks participated in the demonstration carrying pictures of the visiting foreign ministers in Tiger combat uniform and placards displaying slogans of protest. The protesters shouted that they will drive away the visiting foreign ministers if they succeed in making the Sri Lanka government comply with their demands. Champika Ranawathe, a JHU parliamentarian, is a cabinet member in the present government of Sri Lanka. Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Wimal Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front (NFF), political parties too had raised strong protests against the visiting British and French foreign ministers.

Hospital under attack, SLN naval crafts fire artillery pieces

Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) attack crafts fitted with 100 mm cannon began firing artillery pieces along the shore of Mulli-vaaykkaal Wednesday around 4:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the makeshift hospital in Mulli-vaaykkaal was hit by artillery shells. At least 20 deaths were reported by medical sources, according to initial details. Shells are being fired at the hospital as this report is being filed. The attack comes as U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo Wednesday. Both the ministers had urged for immediate ceasefire earlier in the day. Gunboats, with deck mounted machine guns, were also firing along the shore, initial reports further said. Meanwhile, medical sources reported more than 150 dead bodies of civilians, killed in close-range gunfire, were brought from Mulli-vaaykkaal north in the morning.

29 April 2009

Denial of visa a grave mistake - Czech FM
   
The Sri Lankan government's denial of entry of Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is a "grave mistake" and will have consequences, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said today.     "It is lamentable that the Sri Lankan government denied him a visa," Schwarzenberg told reporters."It is a grave mistake by the Sri Lankan government, which of course will have repercussions in Europe and will influence further relations between the Sri Lankan government and European states," he said. Bildt had been scheduled to visit Sri Lanka this week along with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Both Miliband and Kouchner have been granted entry.     Schwarzenberg said Miliband and Kouchner were visiting Sri Lanka in their capacity as representatives of two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, therefore not directly linked to the European Union (EU).  But it was a good idea to take Bildt along, he said. The participation of Bildt, who is an expert in conflict resolution, would be very valuable for Sri Lanka, said Schwarzenberg.

Sweden recalls Lanka envoy after minister barred

Sweden has recalled its ambassador to Sri Lanka after Colombo barred Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt from participating in a mission there with French and British colleagues this week, Bildt said on Tuesday.Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, representing the Czech EU presidency, said the Sri Lanka move was "a grave mistake ... which will of course have repercussions in Europe and will influence the further development of relations between the Sri Lankan government and the European states".The mission's aim is to press EU calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in the war between the government and Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels in an effort to protect tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting. Speaking at a news conference after an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, Schwarzenberg described Bildt as an expert on the situation.Bildt earlier told reporters on the sidelines of the same meeting that the Sri Lankan decision was "not good" for Stockholm's ties with Colombo."The Sri Lankan authorities have suddenly said that they don't accept me," he told reporters, adding that no reason had been given. "It's very strange behaviour ... exceedingly strange behaviour."In Colombo, a Sri Lankan foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that Bildt had never been refused a visa and that Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had spoken with Bildt on Monday and "extended an invitation to visit Sri Lanka (at) anytime convenient to him", but in May.A foreign ministry statement late on Monday had said Bogollagama had invited Bildt to come at "a mutually convenient time" in May, although Sri Lanka would confine this week's visit to French and British ministers.The Sri Lankan statements did not offer any reasons for its stance, although officials have been critical at times in the past of what Colombo sees as foreign efforts to unduly influence domestic matters.Bildt, whose country was involved in monitoring a government-Tiger ceasefire that broke down in 2008, said he had spoken to British and French counterparts David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner and they would go ahead anyway with the mission scheduled for Wednesday."I hope they really listen to the message of the international community and take action accordingly," Bildt said. "It is an acute humanitarian situation, and (we) appeal to the Sri Lankan authorities to ease up somewhat.""They want to completely crush the LTTE movement, one can understand that -- it's a terrorist organisation, but there are ... thousands of people that are trapped there and they have to look at their lives and the humanitarian considerations."What is also needed in Sri Lanka is to initiate a political process, so that all sectors of society feel that they are part of society. Until that is resolved, we won't get stability in Sri Lanka."On Monday, EU foreign ministers welcomed the Sri Lankan government's announcement of an end to heavy military operations against rebels, but urged an immediate ceasefire to allow evacuation of endangered civilians.The ministers reaffirmed concern about mass civilian casualties and worsening humanitarian conditions in northern Sri Lanka, saying civilians there remained in "extreme peril".Sri Lanka says the Tigers have historically taken advantage of ceasefires to re-arm and regroup.

Army enters the Rektavaikkal junction 
 
The Army on Tuesday (28) broke the massive earth bund built by LTTE and entered the Rektavaikkal, junction located 2km South of Valayanmadam, According to ground military sources, LTTE have put-on stiff resistances mounting continuous heavy mortar attacks along with sporadic artillery shelling from locations in general area Mullivaikkal. The fighting ensued between troops and LTTE since early yesterday morning (28), with battlefront sources confirming heavy damages to Tigers. Two 40-feet vessels that were on scaffoldings readied to ne launched were burning in Army attacks, said state media The LTTE have fled in total disarray taking refuge with the entrapped civilians inside the remaining 6.5sq.km of the No Fire Zone.civilians to take shelter further South at Mullaivaikkal, along with the remaining LTTE. A portion of the civilians remaining in the area were taken to Kalayamulivaikkal by the LTTE, said the rescued civilians. Army was transporting them to Valeimadam in tractors.  As soon as the civilian are moved, their make-shift shelters are burnt down and destroyed while the abandon swathe of land is turned into a heavy mine filed by the LTTE", say state media.

The Approaching End Of A Dreaded Tiger By B. Raman

The decisive defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is ferociously fighting probably its last battle in a small piece of land (about 20 sq. kms) with little chance of winning it, is partly due to the follies of Prabakaran, its chief, during the last four years and partly due to the determined and ruthless manner in which the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have carried out their operations.

2. Among his follies, one could mention his split with Karuna, the legendary conventional fighter from the Eastern Province and his followers, his increasing reliance on terrorism after the desertion of the conventional fighters led by Karuna and his working for the defeat of Ranil Wickremasinghe, former Prime Minister, in the Presidential election in November, 2005, which was won by Mahinda Rajapaksa.

3. During its existence, the LTTE had developed a capability for conventional warfare as well as for spectacular acts of terrorism. Its best conventional fighters came from the Eastern Province and many of its suicide terrorists from the Northern Province. Unhappiness among the conventional fighters that the suicide bombers from the North were accorded greater importance and honours by Prabakaran led to their desertion under Karuna’s leadership. Karuna helped the Sri Lankan Army in its operations against the LTTE.

4. Deprived of the strong conventional capability, the LTTE increasingly relied on terrorism and intimidatory attacks by its small fleet of aircraft in its fight against the Armed Forces. Its reliance on terrorism at a time when the international community was developing a policy of zero tolerance for terrorism after 9/11 deprived it of even the little public and political support which it had enjoyed in the West. The European Union countries declared it a terrorist organization and took vigorous action to stop its gun running.

4. No Sri Lankan leader was more sympathetic to the aspirations of the Tamils than former President Chandrika Kumaratunge and Wickremasinghe.  The latter was prepared to concede in a large measure the political demands of the LTTE within a federal set-up. If Prabakaran had responded positively to the gestures from Wickremasinghe, the latter would have enabled the LTTE to retain control of the territory which it had occupied and given it a measure of autonomy in return for the LTTE giving up its demand for an independent Tamil Eelam.

5. Prabakaran, who had an inflated belief in his own prowess and in the perceived invincibility of the LTTE, spurned his gestures and worked for his defeat in the Presidential elections. His calculation that Rajapaksa would be a weak and indecisive President, whose Sinhalese extremism would further polarise relations between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, proved terribly wrong.

6. Rajapaksa turned out to be one of the strongest and clear-headed Presidents Sri Lanka has had. He came to office determined to defeat the LTTE as an insurgent and terrorist organization first before addressing the aspirations of the Tamils. He gave his armed forces the wherewithal in terms of money and equipment to enable them defeat the LTTE. He also resisted international pressure to reach a political accommodation with the LTTE. He was determined that the political accommodation will be with the Tamils after the defeat of the LTTE and not with the LTTE.

7. The improved morale and capabilities of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have definitely contributed to their remarkable success in relentlessly rolling back the LTTE from the areas controlled by it, but this success was facilitated by the ruthless use of air strikes against the LTTE.

8. Did Indian assistance also contribute to the success of the SL Armed Forces? The Government of India denies having given any offensive equipment and training to the SL Armed Forces, but Sri Lankan officers and leaders have themselves been saying that the success of their Armed Forces was made possible by Indian assistance. The failure of the Government of India to counter these claims has created growing suspicions not only among the Sri Lankan Tamils, but also among sections of the people of Tamil Nadu that the Government of Dr. Manmohan Singh has not been very straightforward and that it had given more assistance to Sri Lanka than it has admitted.

9. The LTTE’s brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 created a revulsion for it in Tamil Nadu. If it has since managed to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of some sections of public opinion in Tamil Nadu, the Manmohan Singh Government and its senior functionaries cannot escape the responsibility for it. The failure of the Government to condemn the air strikes and its seeming helplessness in the face of the humanitarian disaster affecting over 200,000 Tamils have cost it considerable public support in Tamil Nadu and made support for the Sri Lankan Tamils once again a popular cause. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination by the LTTE has been forgotten.

10. People tend to compare what they perceive as Manmohan Singh’s helpless attitude in the face of the repeated rejection by the Rajapaksa Government of the requests for a humanitarian approach to Rajiv Gandhi’s action in sending the Indian Air Force to drop humanitarian supplies to the Tamils despite strong criticism of the Indian action not only by the SL authorites, but also by the international community.

11. What next after the defeat of the LTTE? Rajapaksa has been repeatedly promising that he would address the aspirations of the Tamils for greater political and economic rights. Will a bloated Army and the Sinhalese extremist elements allow him to keep his word even if he wants to or will he, egged on by his army, try to impose a dictated peace on the Tamils? One has to keep one’s fingers crossed. 

HRW call for international probe
 
The United Nations have urged the government to abide by the pledge not to use heavy arms, while Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for UN action against the government. Meanwhile, the rebels have again accused government forces of continuing to use heavy weapons inside the zone set up to protect the civilians. The government has again denied it. The visiting UN humanitarian envoy, John Holmes, said on Monday that Sri Lanka is facing two humanitarian crises -- the safety of civilians in the war zone and conditions in camps set up to house those who fled the fighting. Earlier this week, the Sri Lankan government said its combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the island have reached their conclusion - although it stressed that the war is not at an end, and there is no ceasefire.

Heavy weapons

The government said its forces had been instructed to stop using heavy weaponry and air attacks which could cause civilian casualties. A statement issued by the government said, "The priority would be saving civilians trapped in the war zone". In a statement to the BBC, John Holmes said, "I hope that not using heavy weapons will be genuinely respected this time; which I'm afraid was not the case in the past". In a statement issued on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had called for a UN inquiry on the use of heavy weapons by the government forces in recent fighting. Referring to the recent government statement on stopping the usage of heavy weapons by its forces, Brad Adams, Asia director of the HRW say, "By finally admitting it has been using heavy weapons all along, the Sri Lanka government has shed light onto its official deception as well as its brutal military tactics," The HRW has urged the UN to take action against Sri Lanka."The UN Security Council should stop burying its head in the sand on Sri Lanka and urgently create an international commission of inquiry to look at abuses by both sides" Brad Adams added further.

The world must respond to Sri Lanka

Despite repeated international entreaties, the Sri Lankan state is continuing to kill Tamil civilians with artillery and airstrikes. More than three thousand shells were fired on Tuesday alone, at the tiny enclave where hundreds of thousands of starving Tamils are cowering, surrounded by the army.This slaughter is taking place in plain sight of the international community. Yet the international response, especially those of the UN and western liberal states, has been pathetic.What is shocking is not only that Sri Lanka can casually kill hundreds of people on account of their ethnicity, but that it is, at the same time, allowed to thumb its nose at those powerful liberal states which have long espoused human rights, the Geneva conventions and, most recently, the responsibility to protect.Sri Lanka allowed a tiny amount of food and medicine into the warzone on 2 April – 27 long days ago. The UN asked Colombo for humanitarian access to the suffering people in the northern warzone and the hundreds of thousands who escaped the shelling only to be penned behind razor wire in government camps. It was bluntly refused. Yet senior UN official, Sir John Holmes, who rushed to Sri Lanka on Monday, nonetheless handed over $10m before leaving. Holmes, interestingly, was last year denounced by Colombo as a "terrorist sympathiser" for criticising the impact of the government's war on civilians. His protest was a murmur.Last week the UK, the EU and the UN called for a humanitarian ceasefire. Sri Lanka refused. On Saturday the White House demanded that Sri Lanka stopped the shelling of the "no-fire zone". Sri Lanka instead escalated its shelling and bombing, which is killing thousands of children. No word as yet from the White House.What is important here is that the US, UK and EU are allies of Sri Lanka and have strongly backed the military campaign against the Tamil Tigers, while holding out hope – and it was nothing but misguided hope – that Colombo would put forward a political solution to the decades-long Tamil question.Now, despite the "never again" rhetoric that appeared in the wake of the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, the UK and like-minded states are, by their lacklustre response, emboldening Sri Lanka's defiance of international norms and its wholesale killing of Tamil civilians.This human catastrophe is happening on Brown's, Sarkozy's, Ban Ki Moon's and Obama's watch.This is not from ignorance or the impossibility of verifying what is going on – the UN's and US's satellites have long been tracking and photographing the mayhem in northern Sri Lanka.The foreign ministers of UK, France and Sweden were scheduled to arrive today in Colombo to secure a ceasefire and halt the massacres. But no sooner had their visit been announced, Sri Lanka refused the Swedish minister, Carl Bildt, a visa.Sweden has reacted, quite rightly, by recalling her envoy to Colombo.However, the decision by the other two ministers, Britain's David Miliband and France's Bernard Kouchner, to continue their visit is a further signal of the lack of international resolve when it comes to genocidal states.. They and the rest of the EU should instead have responded in step with Sweden.While many other countries expect Britain to take leadership in ending the catastrophe in Sri Lanka, its former colony, London's response continues to be strikingly and demonstrably weak. It is arguable that Britain's failure to mobilise an adequate international response to Sri Lanka is actually making it possible for the killings to continue.What are we going to tell our own kids when they ask us what we did to save those children?

Mano tells govt to see why Tamils not with it

The Leader of the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) MP Mano Ganeshan yesterday urged government leaders to carry out a self analysis to check why the Tamil people are not with the Government."The main aim of our party was to secure our base among our supporters and increase the representation and we were able to secure three seats from Colombo District including National Organizer Prabha Ganeshan who was a sitting member and Dr.Kumara Gurubaran and S.Rajendran." This has proved beyond doubt our popularity and the faith among the voters that we have been able to give representation to the democratic political aspirations of the Tamil people, Ganehsan said."With all sincerity wish to remind the Government that it cannot claim to have the support of the Tamil people but I agree without any hesitation that the Sinhala Buddhist voters remained with the Government therefore technically the government of today is a Sinhala Buddhist Government and not a Sri Lankan Government" he further said.He also said the so called Tamil political parties within the Government have no support nor are popular among the Tamil people.On changing the name of his party about six months as Democratic People’s Front (DPF) from the earlier name Western Peoples Front (WPF) Ganeshan said this was to have the largest Tamil representation outside the North and East. He claimed that this has paid off since the party now has representation not only in Colombo but also in Nuwara Eliya.

Resettlement of IDP in the North from tomorrow

The Government will commence its programme to resettle IDPs from the Mannar District tomorrow (30) with the participation of high ranking politicians, Presidential Secretariat sources said yesterday Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Rishard A. Badhuideen said the Treasury would fund the initial cost of the resettlement programme. The Resettlement of IDPs under the Uthuru Vasanthaye programme was being implemented on the lines of the Nagenahira Navodaya Programme in the Eastern Province.Minister Badhuideen, formerly a displaced person from the Mannar District said that the gratitude of all should go Secretary of Defence Col. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the valiant members of the Security Forces and Police for liberating the district from the clutches of the LTTE terrorists making way for the innocent civilians to be resettled.If not for Senior Presidential Advisor MP Basil Rajapaksa who had been a tower of strength in providing advice, assistance and directing those concerned to carry out demining in the district matters could have got further delayed, he said.Secretary to the Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services U. L. M. Halaldeen said that all the IDPs, some of whom were living in the Puttalam District, will be resettled only with their consent."Initially we have identified 409 persons belonging to 122 families who were displaced in September 2007 and now living in Welfare camps in Nanattan in Mannar. They will be resettled in their former places of residence as Saveriyerrpuram in Musali Divisional secretariat area.Mannar District Secretary Nicholas Pillai said that at an auspicious time tomorrow the IDPs will be taken in several buses and resettled following a ceremony. Under the first phase all would be provided with kitchen utensils and two weeks of dry rations. Damage caused to their former places of residence will be estimated and a reasonable amount would be paid as compensation for reconstruction. All basic amenities such as access to drinking water and the provision of sanitary facilities had been arranged, he said.

28 April 2009

Sri Lanka block access to civilians in war-zone:UN

Sri Lanka is refusing humanitarian access to its war zone where some 50,000 people are believed trapped, a top UN diplomat said on Monday, while welcoming a government move to slow down its military offensive.The UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes failed to secure agreement with President Mahinda Rajapakse in talks here Monday to send a humanitarian mission to the shrinking conflict area on the island's northeast coast."We don't have agreement on this," Holmes told reporters here after talks with Rajapakse, referring to a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to get a UN team to the conflict area. "I am disappointed about this."Colombo has said security conditions would not allow aid workers into the area, even though the government on Monday announced that all "combat operations have reached their conclusion."Holmes welcomed Colombo's announcement that troops had been ordered not to fire heavy calibre guns or use combat aircraft to attack the cornered Tamil Tiger rebels, but said he wanted to see the pledge implemented."I hope it will be genuinely respected this time," Holmes said. "It has not happened in the past."Asked if the government was confident of finishing off the Tigers militarily, Holmes said: "The government feels they have reached the end of the process, but we hope we can have a way of ending this peacefully without further bloodshed."President Rajapakse has resisted international calls for a ceasefire and said he would not accept anything short of a complete surrender by the Tiger leadership.However, his office said the decision not to fire heavy weapons was taken to spare civilian lives in its battle against the Tamil Tigers, but asserted it was not calling a truce.The rebels immediately accused the government of merely trying to deflect international pressure, and said fierce fighting continued to rage. The Tigers also said they would "never surrender" despite being outgunned and surrounded.A government official said Colombo's statement only heralded a change in tactics and that fighting was continuing. Sri Lanka's military has also been saying for months that they were not firing heavy weapons into rebel-held territory.A UN document circulated among diplomats in Colombo last week said as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in the government's offensive this year.The rebels meanwhile accused government troops of continuing to pound their territory."They are only paying lip service to pacify the international pressure," rebel spokesman S. Puleethevan told AFP by telephone. They have carried out two aerial attacks this afternoon."He also vowed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972, would not give up -- even with the odds stacked against them."We made our position very clear... We will never surrender till our legitimate demands are met," he said.The rebels offered a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday, although this was immediately dismissed by Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse -- the powerful brother of the president -- as "a joke.""What is the need for a ceasefire when they are running away? They should first lay down arms, surrender and let the people go," Rajapakse said. Some 110,000 civilians escaped from the rebel-held sliver of territory on the island's northeastern coast last week following a major military push. They are sheltered in state-run camps and are not allowed to leave. The British minister for International development, Mike Foster, visited the camps in the northern town of Vavuniya and said they needed more food and water, shelter and access to healthcare and sanitation. The military action against the Tamil Tigers has sparked anti-Sri Lankan protests in several capitals, with the latest by some 200 people in London leading to an attack on Colombo's diplomatic mission there. Six people were arrested Monday after Tamil protesters smashed windows at India's High Commission in London and caused damage outside Sri Lanka's diplomatic mission, Scotland Yard said.

Lanka rules out any talks with defeated Tigers

The LTTE couldn’t be party to any future political dialogue with Sri Lanka, authoritative government sources told The Island.Sources emphasized that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government wouldn’t accept Velupillai Prabhakaran as a party to any settlement. Nothing could be as ridiculous as allowing the LTTE representation in the proposed negotiations after it had lost its so-called conventional fighting capability, sources said.Sources said that a statement issued by the US State Department on Sunday on behalf of the Tokyo Co-Chairs to the Norwegian-led peace initiative had revealed their failure to comprehend the ground reality. The US while urging the LTTE to hand over arms to a neutral third party, urged Sri Lanka to offer an amnesty to the LTTE to the majority of LTTE cadres and devise a resettlement plan to pave the way for a political dialogue. The US hasn’t identified the third party. Sources said that the involvement of a third party was out of the question. The US statement coincided with an LTTE declaration of unilateral ceasefire which was immediately rejected by the Defence Secretary. The 58 and 55 Divisions continued operations yesterday on the Mullaitivu front as the government stepped up its efforts to wipe out the LTTE leadership. The 58 Division is poised only 3.5 km away from the place where Prabhakaran is believed to be hiding, highly placed sources told The Island.Sources said that it wouldn’t be advisable to allow any foreign representatives to meet LTTE leaders as the possibility of their being taken hostage by terrorists couldn’t be ruled out. Sources said that the LTTE would do anything to force the Sri Lankan government to suspend the offensive and if they believed taking foreign dignitaries could help their cause, they would do it, sources said. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that the army was on the verge of finishing off the LTTE. Responding to our queries, he said that the LTTE now on its knees on the Mullaitivu front was trapped in a about a 10 sq. km area. He said that the LTTE had lost the vast majority of its arsenal over the past two and half years after and there was absolutely no need for a third party to take over what was left of the LTTE’s arsenal on the Mullaitivu coast.Tamil political party sources said that the LTTE had always been against the government talking with any other group except it. Sources said that when the so-called sole representative of the Tamil speaking people had its way, it demanded the overall control of any mechanism to run a merged north-east province. Rajapaksa, formerly of the Sri Lankan Army, emphasised that the LTTE had its chance to negotiate with the government and come to an amicable settlement. But it had refused to negotiate as long as it had the wherewithal to challenge the armed forces, he said, strongly opposing any effort to throw a lifeline to the group.He said that since the army stormed the civilian safe zone, over 111,000 men, women and children had escaped the LTTE controlled area and reached safety with the government forces.Senior serving armed forces officials told The Island that continuing attempts to halt the offensive was evidence of Prabhakaran’s presence in the civilian safe zone. The LTTE leadership is believed to be still in touch with various foreign governments through their agents both in Colombo and overseas in a bid to work out an escape route. Sources said that armed forces had taken additional measures to thwart any attempt to rescue the LTTE leader, his intelligence chief Pottu Amman, Sea Tiger leader Soosai and other hardcore cadres. As part of these measures, jets had been positioned at a base closer to the Mullaitivu front, the sources said, adding that the LTTE leadership couldn’t make a move without being quickly detected.The SLAF has also stepped up surveillance by UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) targeting the area of operations while the navy patrols the Mullaitivu coast. The army said that about 50 LTTE cadres had surrendered to the 58 Division after troops last Saturday (April 26) liberated Valayamadam, a village situated about six kms away from the last LTTE stronghold at Vellamullivaikkal. The army said that their progress was slow due to the presence of civilians. Had all civilians escaped the area dominated by the LTTE, what is left of the group entrapped north of Mullaitivu wouldn’t last 48 hours.

Karunanidhi ends fast
 
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi who undertook a fast demanding cease-fire in Sri Lanka has called it off a few hours later following reports that the Lankan government was heeding his pleas.The Chief Minister of the southern Indian state took everyone by surprise by commencing a fast at around 6 am. He moved to the memorial erected for his political mentor and founder of the DMK CN Annadurai to stage his protest.In his brief comments as he commenced the fast, the 86-year-old Muthuvel Karunanidhi said that he was pained at the continuing war and the miseries heaped on the innocent Tamil population.

LTTE truce offer

After the rebel Tamil Tigers announced a unilateral cease-fire yesterday, he said, he had hoped the Lankan government would reciprocate, but there was no such gesture forthcoming. Hence he was left with no option but to go on a fast and offer himself as yet another victim of the war pursued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Incidentally he had undergone a surgery for back problems only recently and doctors were worried that his fast could affect his recovery. But he was determined, as he was not ready to face any embarrassment over his failure to stop the war at a time when the state is going to polls.

PM concerned

Well-wishers and followers kept streaming in and there were full-throated shouts denouncing the Lankan government and appealing to the Chief Minister to give up his fast. He kept getting telephone calls from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, assuring him of their concern. Meantime the crowds swelled and reports came in of other DMK leaders in the districts following suit and going on fast and disruption of traffic. Then by about 12.30, Karunanidhi broke the news that he had received information that Sri Lanka had decided to end hostilities. Besides hereafter the armed forces would confine themselves only to relief operations, he said. Hence he was breaking his fast; he said and thanked the federal government for their initiatives. 

Obama only hope for Lanka issue: Vaiko

Pro-Eelam MDMK leader Vaiko on Monday said US President Barack Obama was "the only hope" to ensure a solution for the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and sought his intervention in putting an end to the "genocidal war" in the island nation. In a letter sent to Mr. Obama, Mr. Vaiko said LTTE responded to the US' latest appeal for a ceasefire and announced it on April 26, but Sri Lanka had rejected the call. Alleging that many Tamils were being killed in the ongoing offensive by the Sri Lankan army in the embattled north, Vaiko wrote in the letter, "at this grave hour of catastrophe, you (Obama) are the only hope for us, who can effectively intervene to stop the genocidal war of Sri Lanka and save our Tamils." Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at Udhagamandalam, Mr. Vaiko termed the fast by DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Sri Lankan Tamils issue as a political drama, and an attempt to 'hoodwink' the Tamils.

Jayalalithaa rejects Congress criticism of her demand for Tamil Eelam
 
AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa on Monday rejected Congress' criticism of her support to the Tamil Eelam cause, saying her statement had not violated any Indian law and so cannot be dubbed as "anti-national". "I am not calling for any separate nation to be carved out of Indian territory. I am a patriot to the core. I have stated that a separate Tamil Ealam should be carved out in Sri Lanka. How can that be an anti-national act in India?" she said in a statement here.Reacting to Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal's remarks that her separate Ealam demand amounted to an 'anti-national' act, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she has not "condoned the terrorism of militant outfits in the guise of a freedom struggle or repressive, multi-polar violence or genocide unleashed by a government affecting large segments of civilian population." "Those who are not confined in the badly equipped government camps are caught in the direct crossfire between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE," she said.

Britain asks Sri Lanka to respond to the LTTE ceasefire

The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband today called the Sri Lanka government to reinstate their own ceasefire as a respond to the unilateral ceasefire announced by the LTTE yesterday. Issuing a special statement British Foreign Secretary said that a ceasefire would facilitate civilians who remain trapped in the conflict zone to move to safety. "We reiterate and maintain our call for a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons," David Miliband said. "The safety of civilians is of paramount importance and both sides must comply fully with international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of civilians at all times," the statement pointed out. Welcoming the current visit to Sri Lanka by Sir John Holmes, UN Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, the British Foreign Secretary said that he will be visiting Sri Lanka too on next Wednesday (April 29) together with his French and Swedish counterparts. "My priority will be to address the humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and the continuing grave risk to civilians in the conflict zone," he emphasized.Finally the British official asked the government of Sri Lanka to allow civilian oversight of all Internally Displaced Persons as soon as they have left the conflict zone and to fulfill the commitments it has made to improve conditions in the IDP camps including better access to medical facilities, transparent registration processes, international monitoring and freedom of movement in and out of the camps.

Tamil activists break into Indian High Commission, London
   
SIX PEOPLE were arrested Monday after Tamil protesters smashed windows at India's High Commission in London and caused damage outside Sri Lanka's diplomatic mission, Scotland Yard said. Some 200 people gathered outside each of the two countries' missions to demonstrate against the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka, where Tamil Tigers are vowing to make a final stand against government forces. Extra police were drafted in after 'an incident occured at the Indian High Commission, which has resulted in some damage to the building,' said a Scotland Yard spokeswoman. Three arrests were made there for criminal damage, while outside Sri Lanka's High Commission there were also three arrests - one for criminal damage, one for violent disorder and one for a public order offence, she said. There was no immediate comment from the Indian diplomatic mission, where smashed windows were clearly visible. The Sri Lankan fighting has sparked a wave of international concern for the fate of 50,000 people still said by the United Nations to be trapped in the conflict zone. The UN also estimates that as many as 6,500 civilians may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in fighting so far this year, diplomats said.

Lanka ready to handover LTTE chief to India

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said Colombo would extradite LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, if caught alive, to India but after first putting him through trial in his country."Why should I keep him... India has the right... a man who is responsible for killing Rajiv Gandhi, one of the greatest leaders," he said and added that right now the effort is to catch Prabhakaran alive.In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Rajapaksa also said that Sri Lanka will immediately stop air strikes and use of heavy weapons in the war zone but he made it clear that it was not a ceasefire. "It is not a ceasefire. Freeing the people who are kept there as hostages is my duty,” Rajapaksa said.

TNA calls for ceasefire

The TNA yesterday called for a ceasefire at least now so that a safe passage could be provided for the remaining civilians trapped in what was reported to be a tiny strip of land which is less than eight square kilometres.  TELO parliamentarian N. Sri Kantha said it was indeed undeniable that the precious lives of thousands of civilians trapped in this land were in grave danger in what was obviously the last and final phase of the ongoing war. “A ceasefire can go a long way in healing the wounds inflicted on the Tamil people in consequence of the military conflict and contribute to providing a suitable atmosphere for the creation of national reconciliation,” he said.

Sri Lanka continues air strikes violating own announcement - Puleedevan

Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mulli-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks as pressure mounted from the International Community. LTTE's Director of Peace Seceratariat, S. Puleedevan, when contacted by TamilNet told that SLAF bombers were attacking civilian targets at Mulli-vaaykkaal at 12:50 p.m. and again at 1:10 p.m. despite the announcement to cease such attacks. He blamed Colombo for "attempting to deceive the International Community, including the people of Tamil Nadu," with the announcement. The SLA was also continuing to fire shells into the civilian zone while engaging the troops to continue to mount ground operations at Valaignar-madam, he charged. The Associated Press reported earlier that the Sri Lankan government had announced that its troops would "no longer use heavy machine guns, air strikes or artillery" in the battle as the government of Sri Lanka concluded that "combat operations had reached their conclusion." The area has been surrounded by thousands of SLA troops that are prepared to enter the area for an onslaught. Commenting on the latest developments, an ex-militant based in Colombo said Sri Lankan military no longer needed air attacks, MBRL or artillery fire to carry on the onslaught as the announcement didn't say that it would not be using heavy mortar fire, RPG fire and the deployment of tanks as it would continue to engage its ground forces in the combat, questioning how Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces defines the term 'heavy weapons'. Sri Lankan forces launched a ground offensive around 3:30 a.m. Monday aiming to enter the remaining area of the so-called safety zone, an area comprising 8 square kilometres, which is under siege by the Sri Lankan military.

27 April 2009

Sri Lanka rebels call ceasefire  

Tamil Tiger rebels fighting government forces in north-east Sri Lanka have declared a unilateral ceasefire. Rebel spokesman Seevaratnam Puleethevan told the BBC the move was due to an "unprecedented humanitarian crisis". Sri Lanka's defence secretary however dismissed the announcement as "a joke", insisting the rebels must surrender. The rebels have been beaten back to a 12 sq km (5 sq m) area. The UN says some 50,000 civilians remain trapped but the army puts the number at 15,000. The defence ministry reports capturing the village of Valayanmadam, and says 23 rebels surrendered and 200 civilians were "rescued" there on Sunday morning. The report could not be verified independently. The Tigers' announcement came as the United Nations' top humanitarian official, John Holmes, was meeting Sri Lankan officials to call for access for aid workers to the war zone and government-run camps for thousands of displaced people. Aid workers have been barred from the area since the fighting escalated last year and the rebels say the government is deliberately blocking food aid - a charge the Sri Lankan authorities deny.

Propaganda war

The rebels said they were responding to calls made by the UN, EU, the governments of India and others. They said the unilateral ceasefire would come into immediate effect. Spokesman Mr Puleethevan added that the Tigers would maintain their ceasefire only if the government reciprocated. "It is purely for humanitarian purposes and the duration will depend on the response of the Sri Lankan government," he told AFP news agency by phone from inside rebel-held territory. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC the Tigers were the "the losing side." Saying the army was within "walking distance" of rebel-controlled areas, he called for the rebels to surrender immediately and release all civilians within the conflict zone. Images from surveillance drones showed there were 15,000 civilians left in the war zone, he added. Denying media reports that he had been stopping food supplies to trapped civilians, he said that he himself had asked the World Food Programme and the Red Cross to deliver relief to them. A bitter propaganda battle is in progress, the BBC's Charles Haviland reports from the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. The Tigers accuse the government of bringing the threat of starvation to civilians inside the war zone. The government and pro-government media accuse the Tigers of keeping Tamil civilians as hostages and murdering people trying to flee their control, including little children. The Tamil Tigers have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority since 1983. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the war, but that figure could now be far higher because of intensified fighting in recent weeks. Hospitals and government-run camps for displaced people in the north-east have been flooded by people fleeing the shrinking rebel-held zone as the military closes in on the rebels.

'Very dire' situation

Speaking in Thailand on his way to Sri Lanka, Mr Holmes said the civilians caught up in the conflict were suffering not only a high casualty rate from the fighting but from a lack of access to food, clean water and medical supplies. "The situation of these people is very dire and that's why we need to somehow find a way to stop the fighting and get them out of there so we can look after them properly," he said. A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured since the end of January. The White House said it was "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the mounting death toll". It called on both sides to adhere to international humanitarian law and to "stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone".

Sri Lankan government rejects Tamil Tiger ceasefire as a 'joke'

Facing imminent battlefield defeat, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire Sunday and called on the government to halt its offensive to spare the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.The government rejected the appeal and accused the rebels of playing for time as the military stands poised to rout them and end the separatist war that has plagued this Indian Ocean island country for a quarter century."This is a joke," Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said of the rebels' truce offer.The ceasefire declaration came amid a chorus of international appeals for a pause in the fighting to allow the estimated 50,000 ethnic Tamil civilians remaining in the war zone to escape. The government and aid groups accuse the rebels of holding the civilians hostage to blunt the government offensive, a charge the rebels deny.Reports from the region have detailed growing cases of starvation and civilian casualties in recent days.The United Nations, which says nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed over the past three months, has sent its top humanitarian official on an emergency mission to Sri Lanka to push for a ceasefire. John Holmes met Sunday with senior government officials to underscore "the urgent need for humanitarian access by the UN to the combat zone," UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said.The government barred aid workers from the region when the fighting escalated in September.Holmes was to head Monday to the northern region of Vavuniya to inspect displacement camps and hospitals that have been overwhelmed by the more than 100,000 civilians who fled the war zone over the past week.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will also visit Sri Lanka with his French and Swedish counterparts Wednesday to try to mediate on the conflict, according to a statement from the prime minister's office in London.In response to the international truce appeals, the rebels said Sunday that all offensive military operations would "cease with immediate effect."They asked the international community to pressure the government to halt its offensive as well, saying the "humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by the declaration of an immediate cease-fire," according to a statement emailed to The Associated Press.Both sides have declared previous ceasefires during the recent fighting, but they did little more than briefly disrupt the war's momentum because the other side continued fighting.The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an ethnic Tamil state in the north and east after decades of marginalization by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.The rebels ran a shadow state across a vast swath of the north. But a government offensive forced them out of their strongholds in recent months, cornering them into a narrow coastal strip six kilometres long.New fighting erupted Sunday in the shrinking war zone, with navy patrol boats attacking a squad of rebel craft in a two-hour battle, destroying three boats and killing at least 12 insurgents, the military said.Army troops also seized the rebel-held village of Valayarmadam after gunbattles, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.In a sign rebel morale was crumbling, 23 insurgents dressed as civilians surrendered to the advancing troops, Nanayakkara said. Many rebel fighters wear glass vials filled with cyanide around their necks and are under orders to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured.Last week, two prominent rebels - the group's former media spokesman, Velayutham Dayanithi, known as Daya Master, and an interpreter for its political wing, known only as George - also surrendered.

British, French, Swedish ministers visit Sri Lanka
 
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will travel to Sri Lanka with his French and Swedish counterparts to attempt to mediate on the conflict in the country's northeast, the British government said Sunday A statement by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street office said Miliband will travel to the country on Wednesday along with France's Bernard Kouchner and Sweden's Carl Bildt.Miliband said he would address the dangers faced by civilians trapped inside the conflict zone.«I have noted the LTTE's announcement of a unilateral cease-fire earlier today,» he said, in reference to the Tamil Tigers that are fighting the Sri Lankan government. «I therefore urge the government of Sri Lanka to reinstate their own cease-fire, so that those civilians who remain trapped in the conflict zone can move to safety.Miliband also asked the Sri Lankan government to improve conditions in camps where civilians have fled to escape the fighting. France’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday that Kouchner would take part in the trip and said he would visit a field hospital in Vavunya in the north of the country.«This trip will allow the minister to reiterate the international community's calls for a cease-fire, respect of international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians,» the statement said. The British government said Brown has also urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to implement a cease-fire. Minister for International Development Mike Foster will also travel to Sri Lanka Monday to assess the humanitarian situation.

BJP for sanctions against Sri Lanka

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday said that it did not favour creation of a separate state (Eelam) for Tamils in Sri Lanka and demanded that India impose sanctions on Colombo if civilian deaths continue.The BJP also did not have any sympathy for Velupillai Prabhakharan, chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), senior party leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters here. Prabhakharan "is a proclaimed offender" and the LTTE "is a terrorist organisation," Sinha added.The BJP opposed the killing of civilians in the island nation and demanded India impose sanctions on Colombo if this continued."We are not in favour of a separate nation created out of Sri Lanka, but totally against butchering of Tamil civilians," Sinha said. "The party is for giving rights to northern Tamils within the integrity and territorial unity of Sri Lanka," he said.Sinha said India "must make its intentions very clear to Sri Lanka. With diplomatic channels and a high power delegation not working, the only option left is imposing sanctions on Sri Lanka if it goes ahead and disregards Indian advice."

DMK, Congress will lose election in Tamil Nadu: Vaiko

The women and youth in Tamil Nadu have been greatly impacted by the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, which would lead to defeat of the DMK-led alliance in the Lok Sabha elections in the state, MDMK General Secretary, Vaiko claimed on Sunday. The Sri Lankan Tamils issue being the major poll plank in the state, there was a strong feeling against both UPA and DMK governments, he told reporters at Gudalur, near here. Stating that the UPA government and its Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had kept quite in the last six months about Sri Lankan Tamils problem, he said "nearly 14 persons in the state have committed suicide on the issue." Mr. Vaiko condemned the reported arrest of 50 students, who were campaigning against Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram in Sivaganga constituency. This was not happened when large number of students campaigned against late Kamaraj in 1967, he said.

Navy foils LTTE Attack on Ground Troops
   
Three LTTE boats sunk, twelve Sea Tigers killed off Vellamullaivaikkal The Navy foiled a pre-dawn LTTE attack on ground troops in the seas off Vellamullaivaikkal yesterday, the Navy said.According to the Navy website during the pre-dawn Naval attack, Naval troops attacked an LTTE boat cluster completely destroying three LTTE boats and killing twelve Sea Tigers on board. The round-the-clock vigilance maintained by alert Naval troops on continuous Naval patrol close to the now-fast-diminishing enemy stronghold, had pre-emptied the LTTE’s surprise attack, the Navy said. Monitoring of the LTTE communications has revealed that the rest of the LTTE boats, being unable to accomplish the intended mission in the face of the heavy Naval gun fire, were forced to flee back taking their casualties. The Navy suffered no casualties and none of its craft received any damages in the incident. Sri Lanka Navy said it maintains continuous Naval surveillance and patrolling in the North- eastern seas. Naval fortifications have been tightened with four defence barriers consisting of Fast Attack Craft (FACs), Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), Fast Gun Boats (FGBs), the Rapid Action Boat Squadron (RABS) and the Special Boat Squadron (SBS). A well-fortified Naval blockade has been put in place to cut off all sea tiger movements in the seas off Nayaru, Mullaitivu, Chalai and Chundikulum. This has forced LTTE sea tigers to make desperate attempts at breaking through the Naval defences even at the expense of heavy cadre and vessel losses, the Navy said.

26 April 2009

'Tamil Eelam' only way out- Jayalalithaa
 
ERODE: In a dramatic shift in her stand on the Sri Lanka issue, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said her party would strive for the establishment of an independent ‘Tamil Eelam' as that was the only lasting solution to the decades-old ethnic crisis. "It is now clear that the Sri Lankan government's sole agenda is to wipe out the Tamil race from the island. They have no intention of giving them equal rights," Jayalalithaa said at an election rally in Erode in western Tamil Nadu. She said she had come to this conclusion after watching the video footage shown to her by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who had toured parts of war-torn Sri Lanka and called on her recently on his return. A virulent critic of LTTE, Jayalalithaa had kicked off her campaign in Tirunelveli 10 days ago with pro-Eelam rhetoric and is apparently seeking to harden her stand in a bid to make the issue her mail election plank, much to the discomfiture of the Congress-DMK combine. In fact, in its election manifesto, the AIADMK had stated that "Tamils should be accorded equal status with that of the Sinhala majority, with devolution of administrative power in the Tamil-dominated provinces of Sri Lanka. If these moves fail, then the AIADMK will press for a separate State of Eelam to ensure that Tamils in the Island live a life of dignity." Going a step further on Saturday, she said, "If you want Tamil Eelam, vote for the AIADMK front." Blaming the UPA government at Centre and DMK government in the state for what she called "genocide" of Tamils, Jayalalithaa said talking anymore about finding a solution within the framework of the Sri Lankan constitution through devolution of powers was a waste of time. The AIADMK supremo cited Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's recent visit to northern Sri Lanka to explain the change in her stance. "Guruji met me on Thursday and showed me the video footage. I was shocked to see it and came to know hitherto unknown facts. Through the pictures, I came to know that Tamils in army-controlled areas are being treated like prisoners and slaves," she said. Jayalalithaa also dismissed the argument the army there was trying to protect Tamils. "In fact, the Sri Lankan Army is forcing Tamils to flee from their native land," she said.

Valayamadam under Army hand: more hostages rescued  
 
Sri Lankan soldiers of 58 Division have liberated Valayamadam area, rescuing hundreds more civilians held hostage by LTTE said Defence Ministry.According to the defence sources, Army Commandos and Special Forces soldiers backed by infantrymen of 10 Sri Lanka Light Infantry, and 12 Gemunu Watch entered into the area last evening , and engaged in mop up operation . Troops declared the area fully secured this morning (Apr 26). So far, soldiers have been able to rescue over 500 hostages, the Defence Ministry added.Valayarmadam is situated just 6km short of Vellamullivaikkal, the last remaining LTTE hideout.

Tokyo Co-Chairs tell Sri Lanka to offer amnesty to Tamil Tigers

Representatives of the Tokyo Co-Chairs while urging the Tamil Tigers to lay down arms to a neutral third party, called on the government to offer amnesty to most Tamil Tigers and end the hostilities."We urge the Tamil Tigers to lay down arms to a neutral third party. We further urge the Government of Sri Lanka to offer amnesty to most Tamil Tigers and to devise a clear resettlement plan and to open the way for a political dialogue," a statement issued Saturday by the US State Department said citing the Tokyo Co-chairs.Representatives of the Tokyo Co-Chairs (U.S., European Union, Norway and Japan) discussed the humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, April 22 with the participation of Richard Boucher, the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs participated for the United States. While welcoming the escape of civilians from the war zone the Co-Chair members said they are deeply concerned about the remaining civilians caught in the conflict area and condemned efforts by the Tamil Tigers to prevent civilians from leaving.The Co-chairs said they support the UN Secretary-General’s call for UN staff to be allowed into the conflict zone to facilitate relief operations and the evacuation of civilians and urged the government to allow UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to all sites where newly arrived displaced persons are being registered and provided shelter.

India upset with China over Sri Lanka crisis
 
China's declaration of support for the Sri Lankan government against the LTTE, apart from sticking out like a sore thumb in the eyes of  the world, has further fuelled India's mortal distrust of its largest and most powerful neighbour. While India has a much more nuanced position over the issue owing to its domestic compulsions, an unfettered China is supporting Colombo and, in the process, authenticating India's fear about Beijing extending its influence in the Indian Ocean.According to government sources, Beijing's support to Colombo cannot be viewed in isolation because it follows a series of initiatives aimed at influencing the Sri Lankan government. These include selling huge quantities of arms to Colombo last year and boosting aid almost five times to $1 billion. In fact, China is now the largest donor to Lanka. Its Jian-7 fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns and JY-11 3D air surveillance radars played a key role in the Sri Lankan military successes. China came to rescue of Colombo after the US stopped direct aid to Sri Lanka because of its dismal human rights record. What's worse, said strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, Beijing has also roped in its ally Pakistan for providing military assistance to Lanka. Pakistan's own economy is in tatters, but it has increased its annual military assistance to Sri Lanka to $100 million at Beijing's behest. It is also well known that its air force trained its Sri Lankan counterpart in precision-guided attacks."The Chinese are courting Sri Lanka because of its location in the Indian Ocean -- a crucial international passageway for trade and oil. Chinese engineers are currently building a billion-dollar port in the country's southeast, Hambantota, and this is the latest `pearl' in China's strategy to control vital sea-lanes of communication between the Indian and Pacific Oceans by assembling a `string of pearls' in the form of listening posts, special naval arrangements and access to ports,'' said Chellaney. The Chinese are building a highway, developing two power plants and putting up a new port in the hometown of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Delhi is also feeling hard done-by by Beijing's support to Colombo over the issue of LTTE because it believes China is driving home an unfair advantage it has over India in the crisis. "Unlike in our case, there is no moral dimension to the crisis for China. We have to think about the humanitarian situation and conditions after the offensive is over. There is no domestic compulsion for China but our involvement is much more intricate,'' said a source. China, in fact, continues to aggressively pursue its strategic interests by building ports in the Indian Ocean rim, including in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. According to Chellaney, Beijing has sought naval and commercial links with the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar. "However, none of the port-building projects it has bagged in recent years can match the strategic value of Hambantota,'' said Chellaney. 

UN calls on Sri Lanka to open war zone

 A top UN official pressed Sri Lankan leaders today to let aid into the northeastern war zone, as the ruling party won a sweeping victory in an election seen as a referendum on its fight against ethnic Tamil rebels.The government has pushed deep into the Tamil Tigers’ strongholds in the north in recent months, surrounding the beleaguered rebels and vowing to end the quarter-century war. But reports have grown of starvation and casualties among the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.The UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes held meetings today with senior officials in Colombo and was “underscoring the urgent need for humanitarian access by the UN to the combat zone,” a UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said. Aid workers have been barred from the region since fighting escalated in September. Mr Holmes, who arrived late on Saturday, had previously called on the government to suspend its offensive to allow the estimated 50,000 trapped civilians to escape.The government has brushed off calls for a ceasefire, saying the rebels will use a pause to regroup. Meanwhile, the fighting continued, with the military reporting a string of battles and sniper attacks in the war zone on Saturday. Mr Holmes was to head Monday to the northern region of Vavuniya to inspect displacement camps and hospitals that have been overwhelmed by the more than 100,000 civilians who fled the war zone over the past week.Despite growing international criticism of the offensive against the Tamil rebels, it is wildly popular with many in the Sinhalese majority, and the ruling party has used it to cement its power in a succession of provincial elections. The president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s coalition today was declared the overwhelming winner in the latest poll, sweeping nearly two-thirds of the vote in the Western Province. The coalition even won in the capital, Colombo, long a stronghold of the opposition United National Party, which advocated talks with the rebels.The governing coalition now controls all eight of the country’s provincial councils. “The electorate ... clearly responded to the call of the president for a united Sri Lanka,” media minister Anura Yapa said. “The president believed in himself in wiping out terrorism, and the people also believed in him.” The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an ethnic Tamil state in the north and east after decades of marginalisation by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. The UN says nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed in the fighting over the past three months.Mr Holmes said on Saturday that the trapped civilians were suffering a “very high” casualty rate, and from lack of food, clean water and medical supplies.“The situation of those people is very dire and that’s why we need to find a way to stop the fighting and get them out of there so we can look after them properly,” he told AP Television News in Thailand en route to Sri Lanka. The government insists it has sent food and medicines and accuses the rebels of holding the civilians as human shields. It is not possible to verify the claims because the government has barred independent journalists from the war zone, arguing that it is too dangerous for them to work.

Rajapaksa's party wins key local election

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling party won a key local election in the capital city and its outskirts that was regarded as an endorsement of the Sri Lankan military successes against Tamil rebels in the northern region, vote tallies showed Sunday.Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance took 68 seats in the 104-member provincial administration encompassing the capital district of Colombo and the adjoining districts of Kalutara and Gampaha.Rajapaksa's party campaigned on the success of its military offensive to defeat the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.Troops have reportedly confined the rebels to a narrow strip of 8 km on the north-eastern coast, as the army says it is in the final stage of destroying the rebel forces in the 25-year conflict.Rajapaksa is expected to call new presidential elections later this year - two years ahead of schedule - as his party now controls six of the country's nine provincial councils.

Prabhakaran diabetic, may not withstand sea escape bid: Report
 
LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran is a diabetic and may not withstand the rigours of an escape bid by a submarine, a British newspaper has  claimed. The possibility is that the Tamil Tigers' leader will fight till his death instead of surrendering, 'The Sunday Telegraph' newspaper quoted his former right-hand man Colonel Karuna as saying. Prabhakaran's son Charles has already "escaped by a submarine" to some unknown destination, the report said, while maintaining that the LTTE chief may have run out of options. However, if he did get out, "Prabhakaran could find a welcome in the overseas Tamil Diaspora". Colonel Karuna said, "In exile, he could expect to live well. He is a billionaire after stealing money intended for Tamil cause." Another possibility is that the surviving Tigers and their leader, now cornered in a shrinking patch of territory in the island nation, could commit mass suicide, "perhaps forcing their families to take part", the report said. Col Karuna, who defected to the Sri Lankan government, has claimed that the "ruthless" LTTE chief is still in command of his surviving fighters in the island nation. "Sri Lanka lost so many fighters and civilians and Prabhakaran is responsible for all this. I used to say to him, 'Why did you kill all those people?' He's a very horrible man. He has to be eliminated," Colonel Karuna said. Colonel Karuna, whose real name is Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan -- was a child soldier who rose to become the LTTE chief's number two before defecting to the government in 2006, along with a group of supporters.

How they planned to exile Tiger Supremo in Idi Amin fashion

According to certain well sourced news reports, an offer of safe exit was made in the late summer of 2008 to LTTE through an influential group comprising “former Canadian and US diplomats as well as representatives of the ‘co-chairs’ and others of various political persuasions based in Colombo”. According to sources, this arrangement consisted of the following components: 1) Immediate cessation of hostilities (2) Safe passage to fifty senior leaders of the LTTE and their families to any country that would accept them (3) A blanket amnesty to all combatants with all existing charges withdrawn (4) The agreement guaranteed by India, Norway, Switzerland, and two other countries chosen by both parties (5) The evacuation of the senior LTTE supervised by the ICRC.The offer, intended at avoiding an unnecessary “bloodbath”, was reportedly conveyed by the Sri Lankan government to the LTTE as well as its proxies in the Tamil diaspora. Despite repeated entreaties, however, the “Tamil leaders” in Toronto had failed to respond to the offer let alone meet to negotiate, these reports say.Some authoritative sources said that what had been considered was “a kind of Idi Amin plan — to pay a fat pension to the supremo and to send him to live in luxury for the rest of his life”.These sources also said Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona visited London, Paris, New York and Toronto in late August and early September for “necessary consultations”.But Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona, when once questioned about a possible deal, said a “settlement had never been on the cards”. He admitted to having made those visits but said he had done so to meet members of the Tamil community. “It was more like groping in the dark to bring this to an end,” he said. “No deal or settlement was ever offered, either formally or informally.”The government’s claim last week that the hierarchy of the LTTE has now been confined to a stretch of eight square kilometres in Mullaitivu has raised questions about what will happen to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the LTTE, as well as other senior chiefs of the terror outfit.It has been speculated that Prabhakaran might attempt to flee the country taking the sea route using a submarine. The government, pointing out that the naval forces have fortified their positions, has ruled out any possibility of Prabhakaran taking the sea route. Some reports suggest however that certain international actors with vested interests are conspiring to ensure safe passage to the LTTE leader. Asian Tribune, a web-based news magazine generally known for its pro-government views, recently said that the Sri Lanka Government “is now concerned that there is an international conspiracy precipitated by US Ambassador, Robert Blake, with the support of Norway to give the LTTE leadership an opportunity to escape from imminent defeat and to provide safe passage to a neutral country for Prabhakaran”.

Safe passage

Quoting “top international diplomatic sources”, the news report said the LTTE had established contact with the United States of America through Norwegian facilitation to get safe passage for the LTTE leaders by way of surrender, through the United Nations.The report further stated: “The 48- hour ceasefire that was negotiated and agreed upon by the Government, at the insistence of Ambassador Blake, on the sidelines of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year on April 13 and 14 in Sri Lanka, has not yielded a single trapped civilian from moving from the ‘No Fire Zone’. Even Ambassador Blake is known to have told his associates that the LTTE will “never release the civilians” during the ceasefire, and thus the question being asked is why did Blake then champion a ceasefire? The fact that the ceasefire which was brought about by the pressures of the international community has not yielded the proper results is causing the Military to suspect a conspiracy to enable the LTTE leadership to escape”.The US ambassador Robert Blake has denied these charges. The report alleges that Robert Blake was in touch with “the LTTE via intermediaries via a known arms smuggler and money launderer - “KP” K.Pathmanathan” and that the “48- hour ceasefire declared on the sidelines of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year was negotiated and agreed upon by the Government at the insistence of Ambassador Blake”.

BJP tells LTTE to stop using civilians as human shield

The BJP on Saturday demanded that the Sri Lankan government initiate a dialogue with Tamil representatives to solve the ethnic strife in that country and asked LTTE to stop using civilians trapped in the war zone as a human shield. "The BJP calls on the Sri Lankan government to commence an immediate dialogue with Tamil representatives to find a viable solution that would give maximum devolution of powers within a united Sri Lanka," the party said in a statement. Other measures suggested by BJP include an immediate ceasefire and halt to bombing of civilian areas, ensuring movement of civilians to safer areas, providing adequate medical aid and food supplies to enable refugees to return to their homes. The party demanded that LTTE should stop using the trapped civilians in their area of control as a human shield and announce an immediate ceasefire.

Tiger sports chief shot dead

Velalagan alias Papa, who was a senior cadre who was in-charge of LTTE’s sports activities at Kilinochchi, when the outfit was active in the region was shot dead by fellow cadres while attempting to escape with the members of his family in a boat a few days ago from Puthumathalan, informed sources said. Papa was a senior cadre in the LTTE who held the position as the Head of the Sports Activities when the outfit was in control of Kilinochchi, sources said. A large number of cadres and their families have now crossed into safer areas by boats and by land routes, sources said. The civilians who have escaped into safer areas said that a big tussle has broken out in the areas where the LTTE is still holding the civilians between the cadres and families who were trying to escape. The cadres were preventing them from escaping. A sister of LTTE’s senior military cadre Illanthivayan managed to escape with her family and reached an IDP Centre at Chavakachcheri, a few days ago, sources said. Likewise family members of several cadres have escaped from the areas of LTTE presence and sought shelter in Vanni and Jaffna peninsula, sources said. Meanwhile Rev. Father Wasanthaseelan of Mannar Diocese has lost his left leg in an attack in the LTTE held areas and later he was rescued by the Security Forces and brought to Vavuniya, sources said.

Jayalalitha's separate Eelam call welcomed by PMK, Nedumaran

AIADMK chief Jayalalitha's sudden support for a separate Tamil homeland as the only solution to the problems of the ethnic minority in Sri Lanka was welcomed by pro-LTTE groups as well as the PMK Sunday.Tamil nationalist leader P. Nedumaran, a longstanding supporter of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, welcomed the AIADMK chief's statement.'Politicians have been supporting the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka and backing the demand for a separate homeland Eelam for our nationality for long.  Jayalalitha's announcement is a welcome addition,' Nedumaran told IANS, speaking on phone from Salem, 250 km southwest of here. 'Our Tamil brethren's sufferings since 1949 by successive Sinhalese chauvinist governments are well documented. Politicians' in India have backed the cause from time to time. Regardless of what is said here, the fight for a separate homeland is bound to see victory because of the never-say-die spirit of the Tamil fighters,' Nedumaran added.PMK founder leader Dr S. Ramadoss welcoming the announcement, said: 'At last there is a realistic assessment of the needs of the Tamils in Eelam and their sufferings.'Jayalalitha told AIADMK supporters in Erode, 370 km south of here, Saturday night that she was moved by the plight of Lankan Tamils forced to exist in concentration camps like slaves and that a separate Tamil Eelam was the solution to the ethnic tangle.Other parties espousing the same cause too welcomed the clear shift in Jayalalitha's stand.'Jayalalitha's statement has galvanised us because it has been made at the most opportune moment, on the eve of the elections. One only hopes that politicians do not flatter to deceive the cause later as in the past,' an MDMK leader told IANS on condition of anonymity. 'The late chief minister M.G. Ramachandran publicly funded the LTTE in 1985 by giving away almost Rs.40 crore (Rs.400 million) from a nationalised bank within the secretariat here. The Indian government espoused and then betrayed the Tamils' cause on the basis of political expediencies,' the leader recalled.The Left parties which have been supporting the need for meaningful devolution of powers within the framework of a united Sri Lanka were guarded in their reaction.'Every party has a right to speak its mind. A common minimum programme can be prepared only after the election results on the basis of deliberations. Our well-known stand of non-interference into sovereign rights of a nation but proactive methods to fight for human rights and dignity remain unaltered,' a Communist Party of India-Marxist MP told IANS.Former Director General of Police A.X. Alexander, who has dealt with the Sri Lankan Tamil issue for a long time as an intelligence officer, felt the shift in Jayalalitha's stand had to be viewed carefully.Political columnist Cho S. Ramaswamy said it was a road to nowhere.'A separate Tamil Eelam isn't possible as the Tamils in Sri Lanka are of four different kinds - those belonging to the north and north-eastern parts, plantation workers of Indian origin, the business community in Colombo and the Tamil speaking Muslims. Only sections of the first kind have been clamouring for Eelam while the others have not,' Cho told IANS.'Further, there are no programmes for making the demand viable and no possibilities to make the nation possible as neither India (which suffered badly once) nor the international community will back the call,' Cho added.Lankan diplomatic sources here declined to comment.Ethnic minority Tamils have been fighting a civil war with Sri Lanka since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland 'Eelam' that has left some 80,000 persons dead so far.The island is separated from India by a small stretch of sea called Palk Strait.

Tigers in Malaysia despite denials

Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary, Dr Palitha Kohona, who was in Malaysia to express concern over growing LTTE presence in that country returned on Wednesday with a reported undertaking from Kuala Lampur that it would counter any emerging Tiger activity there. Malaysia has already cracked down on its own militant Tamil dominated Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) with several of its leaders being held without trial.Sources said, however that according to available intelligence, the LTTE’s Chief arms procurer and its international point man Selvaraja Padmanadan, alias Kumaran Padmanadan operates all Tiger bank accounts from Malaysia.It is a much publicised fact that Norwegian Ambassador in Sri Lanka Tore Hattrem had recently gone and met him there. Early this month, Hattrem was summoned to the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry when it was revealed that he had helped UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes to contact Padmanadan, who is wanted by India, Sri Lanka and the Interpol.

25 April 2009

US calls for Sri Lanka ceasefire 
 
The US has called for an immediate ceasefire in north-eastern Sri Lanka, to allow thousands of civilians to leave the country's combat zone. The White House said it was "deeply concerned" by reports of human rights violations and civilian deaths.The UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, is travelling to Sri Lanka for talks with the government on getting aid to people trapped in the conflict. The UN says more than 160,000 people have fled the area but 50,000 remain. In the first official US statement on the situation, the White House said it was "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the mounting death toll". It called on both sides to adhere to international humanitarian law and to "stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that he was sending a humanitarian team into the heart of the fighting to monitor the situation. The UN Security Council has called on Colombo to allow the team in. Some 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped with Tamil Tiger fighters in a 12 sq km (5 sq m) area in the north of the country as Sri Lanka's military closes in on the rebels. The Sri Lankan army has said there can be no more pauses in fighting until the rebels are defeated.

UN statement

Mr Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, is expected to leave for Sri Lanka on Saturday. On Friday, he told the BBC he had called on both sides to bring the conflict to a "peaceful and orderly" end. "Even if LTTE is destroyed as a conventional military force, that's not necessarily going to lead to the kind of generous political solution that is going to be needed ultimately," he said. "So it's in everybody's interest to find a peaceful solution if we can." At a meeting in New York, the Security Council president, Claude Heller of Mexico, told reporters that Sri Lanka's government must "extend all necessary support to the UN mission" so UN and Red Cross workers can help displaced people. The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan said that because China, Russia and other countries see Sri Lanka's crisis as an internal problem rather than a threat to international security, the call came in the form of a statement to the press rather than a formal resolution.

Humanitarian disaster

A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured since the end of January. A government official in the war zone told AP news agency that there was a severe shortage of food and medicine in the area, and that people were dying of starvation. Indian envoys met Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Friday to express their concern about civilian casualties and the plight of those who already fled. "The president was receptive to our views and we are hopeful of a positive outcome," Indian National Security Adviser MK Narayanan told the BBC Sinhala service. Despite the international calls to allow civilians out, the government has vowed to keep up its fight against the Tigers.
 
Tamil civilians died like flies, say survivors

The mass of Tamil women and children struggling to walk out of Sri Lanka's war zone were so emaciated that an aid worker thought he was seeing a horror movie.Some of them had become so thin that their bones could be seen under the thin layer of fleshless skin. They were in bloodstained, dirty and torn clothes that had not been washed for several weeks.Many had untreated festering wounds. Some were so sick that they could not stand on their feet.  At the first opportunity, they collapsed on bare earth.Barring a few who were willing to speak, most were too weak to even utter a few words. When they did, they had only one wish: water.And they were famished. Most of them had not had a proper meal for a long time. Their eyes begged for food. Countless others never made it out of the shrunken territory the Tamil Tigers still hold in Sri Lanka's war-battered northern coast.These were people who had retreated along with the Tigers as the military rapidly advanced from January this year, raining shells and mortars, at times tearing apart civilians fleeing with the rebels.Those who have interacted with the civilians undergoing treatment in hospitals in Sri Lanka's north quote them as saying that innumerable people died like flies as they tried to escape the military's far superior firepower. These sources spoke to IANS on the strict condition of anonymity. To add to the Tamil misery, the Tigers also fired from their midst, inviting ferocious reaction from the army.One survivor described horrific scenes she saw in the rebel land. 'People were blown up. People lost legs or hands. Families got separated. There was no one to care for the seriously injured and dying.'Two small hospitals in Tiger territory inundated with the dying ran out of life saving medicines. The injured included those shot by the Tigers as they tried to escape. Food was in short supply. What little was available was prohibitive. A population cowed down by armed combatants lived in bunkers, praying they would live.The wounded tore parts of their clothes to dress themselves up. If the bleeding did not stop, then they would throw a lump of sand and then do the bandaging. Wounds festered. Some who barely made it out of the war zone died in buses while being transported.No one appears to know for certain how many civilians have died since the dawn of 2009 when the military seized Kilinochchi, the former political hub of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).The toll ranges from measly figures put out by Colombo to a few thousand. Diplomats otherwise sympathetic to Sri Lanka believe the higher statistics. The blood and gore have driven a handful insane. One Tamil woman has been tied to the hospital bed because she keeps running in the ward topless.The human avalanche has overwhelmed Sri Lankan authorities, forcing them to seek international help. By all accounts, the refugees are still in distress. About 70,000 of the over 100,000 refugees have been sent to schools and detention centers in Vavuniya, whose main town is located 254 km north of Colombo.The Vavuniya hospital can accommodate 600 patients. But it has over 1,500. Many are yet to get new clothes.Some volunteers who managed to go there have said that many patients cannot do anything on their own because they are barely living. NGOs have stepped in because the hospital is unable to supply meals.Bottled water, biscuits and glucose are in short supply in Vavuniya.Thousands are still in Omanthai in the north that was the gateway to the once sprawling LTTE territory. NGOs in Mannar district were initially told to be ready to receive some 30,000 refugees.But that plan has been spiked because some officials feared that the Tamils might sail away from Mannar to neighbouring India.In any case, the Mannar hospital is full of war-injured civilians, victims of a war they never unleashed,

Rights of Tamil civilians sacrosanct: Rahul Gandhi on Sri Lanka

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday said that while the LTTE was a terrorist outfit and responsible for killing his father, the rights of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka are 'sacrosanct' and everything should be done to ameliorate their plight.'For me the Sri Lanka issue is very, very simple. There are Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka who are suffering because of the war taking place there. It is our duty to reduce that suffering. The government has tried earlier by applying pressure. We are concerned about the plight of Tamil civilians and we will do everything to reduce their suffering,' Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference here. A fierce battle is raging in Sri Lanka's north where the army is closing in on the LTTE, restricting them to less than 10 sq km of area. Over 100,000 Tamil civilians caught in the war zone have fled to the military-held area, creating a humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportions. 'LTTE is a branded a terrorist organisation. Personally they have been responsible for killing my father. I'm personally not a supporter of the LTTE. The rights of the people are sacrosanct. When it comes to supporting the rights of innocent Tamilians it is of prime importance,' Rahul Gandhi said. Rahul Gandhi's father and then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE during an election rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu in May 1991.

US backs India's efforts to end fighting in Sri Lanka

The US has expressed support for India's efforts to end the fighting in Sri Lanka between the government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.'We support Indian efforts to stop the fighting,' State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Friday, noting that New Delhi had sent two special emissaries 'to convey their government's concerns about the conflict to the government of Sri Lanka'.India Friday sent National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to convey India's concerns to Colombo.The US, Wood said, was 'routinely in discussions with the government of Sri Lanka' and also in touch with the government of India. But 'at this point' they were not sending any officials to Colombo.'We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the remaining civilians in the no-fire zone,' Wood said.Although tens of thousands of people have fled the area, numerous people have been killed, and tens of thousands of additional civilians remain in the conflict area.Calling on the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers to end hostilities, the US official said the rebels must stop holding civilians and stop putting them in harm's way and 'lay down their arms and surrender to a third party'.The international community should be prepared to play a role to end the fighting, Wood said, adding that the US fully supported UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's decision to send a UN humanitarian team to the no-fire zone, as his envoy Vijay Nambiar and President Mahinda Rajapaksa had agreed to last week.The US also urged Colombo to allow the team into the no-fire zone as soon as possible, permit critical supplies to pass more rapidly through military checkpoints, share its registration information of internally displaced persons with the UN, identify additional shelter sites, and authorise continued medical evacuations from the no-fire zone.

Narayanan, Menon urge Lanka President to work for truce

National Security Adviser M.K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon called Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday and reportedly urged him and his government to work towards declaring a truce in the closing chapter of a 25-year war in which nearly 6,500 civilians have lost their lives since February 2009.The meeting between Rajapaksa and the Indian envoys took place even as the international community continues to demand that Sri Lanka stop its offensive and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) surrender to avert rising civilian casualties.India’’s move is seen as a swift reversal by its Congress party-led ruling coalition, which backs efforts to wipe out a group India lists as a terrorist organisation, but faces election pressure in Tamil Nadu to protect Tamil civilians.A U.N. working document says 6,432 civilians have been killed and 13,946 have been wounded in fighting since the end of January. Two diplomats verified its authenticity. A U.N. spokesman declined to comment.Both sides accuse the other of firing on civilians. With access to the war zone limited to most outsiders and nearly all sources inside lacking full independence, getting clear data is difficult.Sri Lanka is reluctant to allow outsiders in, with the memory of India intervening when it had the Tigers on the ropes in 1986 still fresh.Colombo has also rejected a plan by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday (April 23) to send a humanitarian team to assess the condition of people trapped by the fighting.According to the BBC, the Sri Lankan army has said there will be no more breaks in fighting against the LTTE in the north of the country, as it closes in on the rebels.It quoted Army Spokesman Brigadier Shavendra Silva as saying that the only way civilians could leave the area was if the army rescued them, as the rebels would not let any more out.He also confirmed that Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was still in the conflict zone.According to the UN,50,000 are trapped in the area. The government says 100,000 people have fled since Monday’’s military push. An estimated 60,000 people had already fled in recent months.

Chidambaram briefs Karuna on Lankan crisis

Amidst a political storm in Tamil Nadu over the humanitarian crisis involving ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram briefed Chief Minister and UPA's key ally M Karunanidhi on India's special envoys' meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on ending hostilities in the island nation.Within hours of the return of National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Delhi after meeting the Sri Lankan President, Chidambaram met Karunanidhi and said India had made it clear that ceasefire was an"immediate requirement"."We are no more requesting the Sri Lankan government on a ceasefire but are insisting on it," Chidambaram told reporters as he emerged out of Karunanidhi's residence.According to Karunanidhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also spoke to him over phone on the issue.Chidambaram said India had told the Sri Lankan President that there should be immediate cessation of hostilities and innocent civilians caught in the crossfire should be saved.Both Chidambaram and Karunanidhi expressed the hope of a positive response to India's appeal which came as the Sri Lankan Tamils crisis turned into a major political issue in Tamil Nadu in the run up to the May 13 Lok Sabha polls.

EU concerned over worsening situation in Sri Lanka

The European Union (EU) has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in north Sri Lanka. The 27-member bloc has strongly condemned the killings of civilians and called on all parties to take necessary steps to avoid such incidents in the future, EuAsiaNews reported. 'The EU condemns in the strongest possible terms the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) for the use of civilians as human shields. Both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE must fully comply with international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of civilians at all times,' the group said in a statement Friday.'The LTTE must allow civilians to leave the conflict area to move to safety without fear of injury,' it said. The EU called on the Sri Lankan government to make steps towards an inclusive and peaceful political process.

Bharathiraja refuses Padma Shri

Filmmaker Bharathiraja has refused to keep Padma Shri. Taking seriously the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, Indian filmmaker Bharathiraja has decided to return his prestigious Padma Shri title back to the Government of India!The decision was taken in a meeting, which was organized in Chennai to Eelam movement by the Tamil film industry.Speaking to the crowd Bharathiraja asked whether he should destroy the Padma Shri title or return it to the Govt of India.The crowd went frenzy and asked to destroy the honor. Later Bharathiraja was counseled by some of his friends to return it to the govt.

Robert Blake is new US pointperson for South Asia

President Barack Obama has named the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, to replace Richard Boucher as the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs dealing with India and Pakistan. In announcing his nomination by Obama, the White House noted Blake was also deputy chief of mission at the US Mission in New Delhi from 2003 to 2006.If approved by the Senate, Blake will also deal with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A veteran diplomat, Blake as ambassador to Colombo and the Maldives, has urged Sri Lankan officials to let civilians leave a safe zone where they are trapped with Tamil Tiger rebels waging a last stand in a 26-year civil war.A foreign service officer since 1985, Blake has also served at the US embassies in Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. He also has held a number of positions at the State Department in Washington.Blake earned a bachelor of arts from Harvard College in 1980 and a masters in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 1984.

Tamils rally in Berlin against Sri Lankan civil war       

More than 2,000 Germany-based Tamils rallied in downtown Berlin against the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, press reports said here Friday."We are demonstrating again to press for the German government to do more to help Tamils in Sri Lanka," an unnamed Tamil spokeswoman was quoted saying.Prior to the Tamil rally at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, a group of around 250 people pelted the Chinese Embassy with eggs.Tamil activists have repeatedly claimed that Chinese military hardware has been used by the Sri Lankan military to squash the Tamil insurgency.The Tamils have only recently staged a protest outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's Berlin office and in the western city of Duesseldorf.Last week, the German government expressed major concern over the situation of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in a small war zone in northeastern Sri Lanka. After a bloody civil war spanning 25 years and resulting in the death of tens of thousands of people, the government in Colombo claims it is close to a final military victory against the Tamil militias, who are dug in, along with several thousand civilians, at the northern tip of the Indian Ocean island.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for an independent state within the island for Tamils, while the Sri Lankan government has abandoned previous peace talks in favor of a military solution.

UN humanitarian chief due in Sri Lanka

The UN's humanitarian chief is due in Sri Lanka today as international concern over civilians trapped in the island's war zone fuelled a White House call for an immediate ceasefire.John Holmes' three-day mission will focus on pushing the government to facilitate humanitarian missions in and around the conflict zone and to allow proper access to tens of thousands of displaced civilians, the UN said.The plight and suffering of those caught in the fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels prompted US President Barack Obama's administration to urge an end to hostilities.Advertisement'We call on both sides to stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone,' the White House said in a statement.The Sri Lankan government has so far resisted all calls to halt an offensive that is now on the brink of wiping out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.The White House specifically demanded an end to any military shelling in a designated 'safe zone' and access for aid groups and journalists to civilians who have escaped.The LTTE issued their own call for foreign intervention, warning of 'imminent' starvation among civilians.It is not clear how many people are trapped in the small rebel-held area.The UN has estimated the number at 50,000, while the government says it is closer 15,000-20,000. The Tigers insist the real figure is 165,000.Sri Lanka's military success has come at a huge cost to civilians, rights groups say, with the UN estimating as many as 6,500 non-combatants may have been killed and another 14,000 wounded in the fighting so far this year.

Prabhakaran cannot flee

Addressing the visiting media personnel at the 58 Division headquarters in Kilinochchi, Brigadier Shavendra Silva stated that Daya Master has indicated that Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is still living inside the No Fire Zone along with his son Charles Anthony. LTTE Media Spokesman Daya Master and interpreter George Master have surrendered to the Security Forces after arriving in military controlled areas mingling with the civilians on Wednesday. Sri Lanka Army’s 58 division Commander Brig. Shavendra Silva, however, said the LTTE leader and his cohorts will never be allowed to realise their last ditch attempt to flee the country and the Security Forces assisted by the Navy had thrown an impregnable security net around the country to prevent any LTTE cadres from fleeing the country by any means. Besides Prabhakaran, the other LTTE top rung planning to flee the country include Pottu Amman, Soosai, Charles Anthony, Kapil Amman, Nadesan and Pulidevan. Brig Shavendra Silva said another bach of over 10,000 civilians are trapped in the No Fire Zone, kept as a human shield by the LTTE leadership and a special operation would be launched to rescue them without any bodily harm. The Brigadier said Prabhakaran and LTTE leaders restricted to a six km area in the No Fire Zone are leading the battlefront dressed in civilian clothes to prevent easy identification. Prabhakaran had also ordered his men to take all measures possible to hold on to their remaining land area. He said security forces are now engaged in the final battle to destroy the remaining LTTE cadres restricted to the Puthumattalan area. He added that civilians arriving in the cleared areas after fleeing LTTE clutches were all praise for the President and the security forces for rescuing them from the LTTE grip. Speaking on the ongoing military operations Brigadier Silva added that the 58 Division troops along with the Special Forces and commando troops are advancing towards the Southern part of the No Fire Zone to rescue the remaining civilians there. There is a slow progress in the military advance. But we are not bothered about the slow progress as our intention was only to rescue the remaining civilians with zero casualties, the Brigadier added. He said it was difficult task for the military to capture the remaining area as LTTE leadership has already ordered their cadres to strip their military fatigue and fight with the troops in civilians clothes. They are fighting with the troops taking the cover of the tents of the civilians in the No fire Zone, the Brigadier added. Brigadier Silva said that troops were able to rescue 106,000 civilians after the capture of Puthumattalan and Ampalavanpokkani areas in the No Fire Zone with troops moving into the area. The LTTE is pushing those civilians further south of the No Fire Zone by force without allowing them to flee from the area.

GOVT. AGREES IN PRINCIPLE TO UN VISIT TO WAR ZONE

The government has agreed in principle to permit a United Nations team to visit the war zone in the North though logistical arrangements for such a visit are to be ironed out, a top government official told Daily Mirror yesterday. Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said the green light for such a visit to areas where civilians remained trapped in Mullaitivu was initially given when UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon’s Chief-of-staff Vijay Nambiar made the request during a meeting with the government recently. Mr. Ban repeated the request during a news conference in Brussels on Thursday and said he hoped to immediately dispatch a UN humanitarian team to the no-fire zone. The purpose of the visit was to monitor the situation, support humanitarian assistance and take measures to protect the civilian population still trapped in the no fire zone. “We have agreed in principle for a UN team to visit the conflict areas. That commitment remains. But the logistical preparations need to be put in place. It is not easy because there are security and other issues that need to be sorted out before a UN team can go into areas where there is fighting,” Minister Samarasinghe said. He said the last time a humanitarian pause was announced in Mullaitivu, a UN team had entered the area where there was fighting and the LTTE had reportedly prevented the team from leaving for at least one week. “The UN also is well aware of the security concerns and will not want to go into the area until both sides give security guarantees for the staff. Going by boat is possibly the only option but that too is very difficult at the moment,” Minister Samarasinghe said. The UN reported that nearly 6,500 civilians had been killed and 14,000 wounded in Sri Lanka during the fighting in the past three months. The figures are contained in a UN document recently circulated among diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka but it had declined to publicly release the casualty figures.The 25-year long civil war had intesified in recent months as government forces pushed to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels in their remaining territory in the North.According to the UN figures 6,432 civilians had been killed in the fighting since January 20 and another 13,946 had been wounded.

SRI LANKA: Legitimacy of the Tamil course and illegitimacy of LTTE:  By Ravi Sundaralingam

If cynics have their way everything uttered on any issue during the elections in India are worthy as a line drawn on water. Yes it is true, politicians make promises with no intention of keeping them, and most of the times serious intention also get wiped out in the vastness of the Indian polity. Yet sadly, the cynicism stems from those who are rightly proud of their democracy while deeply unhappy about its process. No one undermines any political system as much as those who have benefited from it so much, the middles classes; herein we may find the reasons for their failings. In India the poor and the desperate, like parents of the little girls who abstain from drinking water during seven hours of schooling in the slums to avoid peeing for lack of toilets or those peasants queue up to vote amid the threats of suicide bombs and reprisals in Kashmir valleys, they will and have to continue to hold faith in the system despite their despicable experiences, hoping against hope that one day it will deliver. It is their hope, and faith on which the great Indian democracy and humanity survives and thrives.  The Tamils of Ceylon on the other hand has had no luxury to put their hope in anywhere other than faith to make any such claim. As their-will an entity was hijacked and invested into a single project though a single institution, the LTTE. Therefore, when Talaivar Dr. Karunaniti makes a few waves regarding our struggle and terrorism, we are less inclined to be cynical. In fact, whatever his reasons we would want to see only the hope within them, hope someone from our communities, including Sinhala communities, will take a lead and make something positive out of them. If so, what do we make out the following comments by the Indian elder statesman of politics and the elected leader of the Tamil speaking communities world over, Talaivar Karunanithi?

1.Tamils’ course and aims in their war against the Sri Lankan state are legitimate and venerable.
2.The LTTE are not terrorists, but there may be a few elements within it that certainly are.
3.The LTTE leader, Mr. V. Pirbaharan is not a terrorist, and in fact, a friend of mine.
4.The basic differences between him and me are about our differing views on democracy and the ‘conduct’ of the LTTE within the struggle.
5.The Tamil struggle is in disarray because of the disunity within the movement.

 Natural reaction by those who are ignorant or with hidden agenda would be to dismiss them as a last-ditch effort of an old man aimed at the vote-bank preserving his empire built over a long period though humbug and corruption for his children. It would be also reasonable to interpret as a natural reaction to the new alliance between the AIDMK, Vaiko, Ramadas and Co and the new language spoken by Ms. Jeyalalitha about the Tamils in Ceylon, Eelam and all that. However, for those watching the developments bit more intently, in the Tamil homelands and Tamil Nadu, there are messages well beyond Tamil Eelam cause and vote-bank politics of Tamil Nadu. Let us make ourselves unambiguously clear, in a democracy the politicians may have all the say for most of the time, but the people do shape their thinking on matters vital to them over that long period as development slowly become a key factor in their lives.  It is therefore, an absolute duty of the politicians to exploit any issue to the advantage of their people, and the failure to do so has repercussions to everyone concerned. When the majority’s views are kept under control because of the outrageous behaviours of a few, by a few, only outrages will reign supreme. One can see the truth of this by looking at the period we as Tamils in Ceylon have just endured, the period that followed the dastardly murder of Rajiv Gandhi and the LTTE’s war against the IPKF. 

1.No one, either the Tamils of Ceylon or the politicians of Tamil Nadu, except those with hidden agenda and the LTTE were able to air their views in India and put them in practice, and fight it out.
2.The middle ground within Tamil movement was completely swiped clean by extremism posted by the LTTE and anti-LTTE supporters, and in Tamil Nadu only the fringe politicians who supported the LTTE and those campaigned on Sri Lanka’s behalf spoke of our plight.
3.Sri Lanka was able to sell its version and vision, among the good and the influential people, despite its bombing, shelling, and raining the whole terrain with missiles, devoid of any meaningful proposal at the end, thanks to the LTTE for the hatred and the sense of insecurity it has built around its activities.
4.Such that, India has been supporting the Sri Lankan military campaign to defeat the LTTE with material and logistical support of plenty.
5.Such that, India has canvassed and fronted the International opinion against the LTTE, on behalf of the Sri Lankan State, and until now helping to hold on to those views.
6.As a result, the Tamils of Ceylon forever linked to their brethren in Tamil Nadu, despite their superiority-complexes, loyal to the core to the Indian Family, except for the few misguided, always considered as an asset of India, are now devalued as an expendable commodity.
7.As a result, the LTTE terrorism was used as a weapon to re-brand the struggle of the Tamils, a legitimate and the fundamental right of a people to defend them, as terrorism itself. 
8.As a result Tamils are now on the verge of being defeated as a people, just as the Aborigines of Australia or the Indians of North America.
 
 Are we then saying that with a few syllables Talaivar Karunaniti has changed all those above? Did he say all that purely for the good of the Tamils in Ceylon? Would he have said what he did if there have been a stagnant situation without the provocations from the opposition AIDMK and its allies to support ‘Eelam’ if there are no substantial devolution package from Sri Lanka, and the outpouring of emotions from the ordinary Tamils, not to mention the numerous self-immolations at the sight of the desperate Tamils languishing at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces? Certainly not. Has he flipped his mind, confusing history with emotions or selfish motives? Why would he say that Mr. Pirabaharan was his friend and later retract it, when it isn’t a fact, and he was close to Sri Sabaratnam, the leader of TELO that was wiped out by the LTTE, before the Delhi Talks? Why would he want to say that Pirabaharan is not a terrorist but some of his subordinates may be, when he knows very well that the Indian judiciary has already indicted him for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi? 

We think the old man is astute and resourceful as always, keeping one eye firmly on the electorates and other looking beyond the abyss the Tamils face. Even if he weren’t it should matter not as we see an opportunity, taken to be a lifeline thrown towards the Tamils and their leaderships. The question is not about his intention, but the context and the circumstances at which he has made his intervention. The question is not about his perspective on history or motives, but about the leadership of our people and their ability to see and grasp an opportunity, just as the opportunistic Tamil Nadu politicians as the cynics will have us believe. If you are sinking in mid-ocean and someone passing on a boat throw a rope, it would not be the time to ponder its nature or the intention of the person, or worry whether it would turn out to be a noose around your neck? If you are already deep down, only bobbing up and down what does it matter? Grasp it and make something of it. It is apt to mention one our friend’s ‘mulla story”, a serious humorous stories mainly from Persia, in which Mulla was in serious trouble caught in a storm on a sea, with a hole in his boat. He prayed for help and soon a boat passed by, and the captain threw him a rope, which Mulla declined to take saying, “god will help me”. After a few more offers of help, and Mulla not taking any of them meant he was soon dead. In heaven when he met the god, “why have you forsaken me?” he asked, for which god replied, “you are a fool, you cannot see the help I sent your way.” That is why we said, whatever Talaivar intended to do or not to do we as a people in serious need see only possibilities. With the politically explosive interview to Srinivasan Jain of NDTV this Sunday (19.04.09), and with the help of other political parties and personal sacrifices of a few in Tamil Nadu, he has brought the plight of the Ceylon Tamils, 

1.to the forefront of politics in Tamil Nadu and India, even if it is temporary, its importance is precisely because of elections.
2.to the centre-politics, than leaving it to the fringes, therefore can no longer be ignored as the domain of the anti-Indian, anti-centre rhetoric and a taboo subject, not to be discussed in public by decent people, though some in control of the business so far will no doubt try put the genie back in the bottle.
3.to the sight of the policy makers, who are for understandable reasons psychologically hampered by thought of guilt, constantly reminded to them by those with hidden agenda, for moving forward from the time-wrap that brought paralysis to clear-thinking due to the heinous murder of Rajiv Gandhi. At this point we must remember the magnanimous gesture by Priyanka Gandhi when she visited Nalini, one of those convicted for the part in her father’s murder, in prison to bring a closure for her personal tragedy.

Beyond these,

4.it is even possible to suggest, the most important outcome on the long run due to his outburst would be the spelling out of the intentions and specifics of the next Indian government regarding the Tamils of Ceylon, especially if it is to require numbers in the Lok Sabha to form a majority.
5.in a strange manner his comments have also made it easy for those in Delhi, the policy makers and power brokers, despite their objections and dissatisfactions to deal with an issue that would not go away either way. By ignoring the problem and wishing it go away would only be an issue for the Tamil Nadu politicians, always destabilising the region. By going the full hog to destroy the Tamils as a sizeable population to prevent them ever again harbouring a thought of uprising against the Sinhala state would be a tragedy for Tamil Nadu and India as much for the Ceylon Tamils.
6.one can also detect a demand through a process, be that is established using the issues facing the Ceylon Tamils; for a regional role of an important Dravidian state. The new ‘competition’ to champion the Tamil cause between the major Tamil Nadu parties, someone wrongly referred to as Dravidian chauvinism as the Sinhalese also belong to that group of people, has its own particular origins and passage through wilderness, which still has to find its natural end. Politicians from Tamil Nadu may not be considered, by some intellectuals astute enough to make such a subtle claim, then again behaviour and actions of politicians when there are underlying issues will have their own course to run.

A while ago, when we suggested in a seminar in ORF-Chennai (21.08.07) that Tamils have no real leadership, and they should confer Talaivar Karunanithi the responsibility to lead and facilitate for all the Tamil groups to come to a Minimum of Understanding (MoU), we were ridiculed and some in Sri Lanka even called us Tiger Representatives. Later, when we suggested that the empowerment of Tamil Nadu as the only means to salvage the basic rights of the Tamils in Ceylon, in a paper published by SAAG, in 2008 (SAAG, No: 2894), someone questioned our knowledge of the Tamil Nadu politicians and some of our kin even called us RAW-agents. Such is the blindness and the ferocity of their hatred for each other, the Sinhala state as well as the LTTE, every possibility is dismissed well before being considered. With the comments Talaivar has made and the promises Ms. Jeyalalitha and her allies are making our suggestions seem reasonable, and for which the time has slowly arriving, provided seeking a resolution to a primitive crisis is our noble aim. If the elected leader of the Tamils has come down halfway, whether it is Dr. M. Karunaniti or Ms. Jeyalalitha, be that with false pretensions, to open up a line of thought, it is then the duty of the LTTE and the Tamil leadership to meet him there. Instead of making their tasks difficult or good intentions remain just where they are or prove them to be a phoney, we as the Tamil people of Ceylon should address the security concerns of India in the region and come clean of their past so that the Tamil agenda can move forward.

For that,

1.Accepting the ownership, not necessarily the culpability, for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi would be the first step.
2.More importantly, accepting the strategic mistake of ejecting the IPKF would be the second step.
3.With equal importance, accepting every Tamil or Muslim group as part of a representative body of our people would be the very next step.
4.Accepting that Tamil issues can be settled within a united Sri Lanka, thereby assuring Sinhala people of our eventual intentions is far more important.

Dr. Karunaniti and Ms. Jeyalaitha have opened up the bounds of a set of parameters, which look unrelated nonsense at the first sight. Yet, they offer possibilities for a peaceful resolution for a crisis that has lingered on, well beyond its time, from which even the Sinhala governments can benefit.

Surrender to a third party- US tells LTTE
   
The United States has called on the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender to a third party and also appealed to both the Rajapaksa Government and LTTE to end hostilities. "The Co-Chair countries and the G-8 are working together closely to find a way to end the fighting. The Tamil Tigers must stop holding civilians and stop putting them in harm's way. We call on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and surrender to a third party," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters here today. "We understand that two Indian government special emissaries arrived in Lanka today to convey their government's concerns about the conflict to the government of Sri Lanka," he said.The US remains extremely concerned for the safety of the remaining civilians in the no-fire zone, he said.Although tens of thousands of people have fled the area, numerous people have been killed and tens of thousands of additional civilians remain in the conflict area, he added.As the Lankan military went in for a final assault against the LTTE, Wood said Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake participated in a conference with the Tokyo co-chairs yesterday.

24 April 2009

New Delhi pushes hard for truce; but will Lanka listen?
 
New Delhi is pushing hard for a truce in Sri Lanka. Two of its top officials, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, will be in Colombo on Friday to press for an end to hostilities.However, the big question is - will the Sri Lankan government listen to India? President Rajapakse has made it clear he will not give in to pressure from the international community including India, and will go in for the final push against the LTTE.And it seems that India can do little more than just conveying its concern on the rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis to the Sri Lankan establishment.Speaking to NDTV, India's deputy foreign minister said that New Delhi's options are limited."It's not a question of pressure, we want to register our concern," said Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma."What more diplomacy can we do? We have used all diplomatic options," he added.Meanwhile, fresh footage available from Sri Lanka now shows how the LTTE is allegedly trying to block the movement of civilians trying to escape from the no-fire zone north of the country.The pictures clearly show LTTE cadres shooting at the civilians who have grouped on the beach and trying to get to government controlled area. The footage also shows how thousand of civilians are completely gheraoed by the militant cadres and are being held at gunpoint.LTTE chief Prabhakaran continues to remain untraced in Sri Lanka's conflict zone but the government has already shifted it attention to post-conflict situation even as there's relief among common people that war is finally over.

India sends Relief Materials to Sri Lanka

India has sent relief materials including food packets, kitchenware, utensils and other essential items for the displaced Tamil civilians, who are still trapped inside the war zone. India has already sent food and medical materials for the Tamil refugees. The ship, dispatched by India, contains over 40,000 packets. The relief materials were sent after consulting the Sri Lankan government.The International Red Cross Committee will help in distributing the relief materials among the civilians trapped in the no-fire zone in Mullaitivu. The Sri Lankan government has also sent tons of food materials for the civilians trapped in the war zone.India has expressed grave concerns over the plight of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka and called for an immediate halt to war. The government has asked the LTTE to release innocent civilians whom they are using as shields to escape from the Sri Lankan Army attack.

UK discusses Sri Lanka situation with India

Voicing concern over the plight of the trapped civilians in Sri Lanka's conflict zone, Britain has favoured "a fully inclusive" political process for lasting peace in that country as it discussed the situation in the island nation with India. British Foreign secretary David Miliband discussed the situation in Sri Lanka with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, among other international leaders on Wednesday. "We have always been very clear that there can be no military solution. Lasting peace in Sri Lanka can only come about through a fully inclusive political process that takes into account the legitimate aspirations of all Sri Lanka's communities - Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. In a statement to Parliament, Mr. Miliband said the fate of Tamil civilians was Britain's most pressing concern. If the reports of latest exodus of civilians prove to be accurate, thousands would have managed to leave the conflict area since January, he said, adding many of them would have been displaced "numerous times over the past 18 months, each time the front line has moved."

Prabhakaran is not allowed to flee via sea  

In the ongoing rescue operation of the civilians, Sri Lanka Navy has so far rescued 5400 civilians that fled from the no-fire zone in 255 boats. Of them, 4846 civilians arrived in Point Pedro in 225 boats and 554 people arrived in Pulmoddai in 30 boats. Navy has deployed boats to rescue the fleeing civilians and medical teams to treat them, says Navy. The Navy spokesman said at a press conference held this afternoon that strict defence line is established in sea with warships fixed with state-of the-art equipment to prevent Prabhakaran or any other leader escaping or bringing arms via sea routes. He added that if someone says that Prabhakaran can escape only via sea, he is boosting the enemy’s morale. The Army Commander said Wednesday that Prabhakaran could not escape via land and could flee only via a sea route.

UN humanitarian team sent to Sri Lanka

The more than 100,000 civilians pouring out of Sri Lanka's war zone have included people with untreated blast, mine, and gunshot wounds - prompting the UN chief yesterday to order an expert team to assess the "rapidly deteriorating situation."Doctors Without Borders warned that civilian casualties are rising in the zone where the military is trying to finish off a 25-year-old insurgency, while the government pleaded for humanitarian aid."I saw infants with dysentery, malnourished children and women, untended wounds, and people dressed in the ragged clothing they've been wearing for months," said Neil Buhne, the UN humanitarian coordinator, after returning from the northern town of Vauniya, where tens of thousands of people are kept in overcrowded government camps.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking to reporters in Brussels, said he would immediately send a team of humanitarian experts to monitor the situation and "try to do whatever we can to protect the civilian population."The government says 104,862 civilians have escaped the conflict since Monday.Some 170,000 to 180,000 civilians now live in the government camps, said Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman in Colombo.An additional 15,000 to 20,000 civilians remain trapped in the coastal strip measuring just 5 square miles still controlled by the ethnic separatist Tamil Tigers. Reports on life there are limited because reporters are not allowed.Weiss said no food has been delivered to the war zone since April 1."The conditions are absolutely awful. The people are living with a shortage of food and medicines and subjected to artillery and small-arms fire," he said.The UN Security Council has asked the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and join talks to end the civil war.The United Nations also urged the government to give international aid agencies access to those affected by the fighting. Since September, only the International Committee of the Red Cross has had access.Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the government was working to grant more access to those who had left the war zone, but that will depend on the security situation.The Red Cross evacuated 350 wounded to a hospital outside the war zone Wednesday.Another evacuation was planned for yesterday, Red Cross spokeswomen Sarasi Wijeratne said.Fifteen people were killed yesterday when shells hit a Roman Catholic church for a second time in two days.

Women group urged to end fast

National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) has urged the 20 representatives of the Women Against Tamil Genocide who are on their fast-unto-death for the 11 consecutive day demanding ceasefire in Sri Lanka to end the fast.“We appeal to our sisters to end their fast, as the conflict of decades cannot be solved over night and the aim is to save human lives and end the death toll, not to add to it,” said the release from NAPM.Let us abide by the slogan of the Tamil women from Baticaloa: “We will end the war, we will protect lives, by this we will make the victory ours,” said the release adding that the NAPM demands an immediate durable and unconditional ceasefire to enable peace negotiations.The NAPM demands formation of credible teams of international human rights activist, medical personnel and social workers to be present in the process of helping the civil population in Vanni to get access to food, water and medical supplies and to safeguard their human righ­ts, sanity and dignity in the transition. The NAPM also demands de-mining and restoration of villages so that people right to their homes can be safeguarded and implemented. The Tamil people’s right to self-determination must be respected and implemented.

Gandhi urges Tamil civilian help 

Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of India's assassinated former PM, Rajiv Gandhi, has called on her country to help Sri Lankan Tamil civilians. She told the BBC that India needs to do all it can to help Tamil people trapped in the conflict in northern Sri Lanka. Ms Gandhi was speaking in a rare interview while campaigning for the Congress party, although she is not herself a candidate in the elections. Her father was assassinated by Tamil Tiger rebels from Sri Lanka in 1991. In her interview Ms Gandhi, who is the fourth generation of the famous Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, drew a distinction between the rebels and Tamil civilians. "I think it's India's responsibility to ensure that innocent people were not killed," she said She stressed that she had little sympathy for the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. "There is a difference between the cause and the method one follows to achieve the same. It is this difference which decides who is a terrorist and who isn't." The plight of Tamil civilians has attracted a lot of support in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where the ruling party, an ally of the Congress-led national government, on Thursday announced a 12-hour closure of shops and businesses as a gesture of support. Ms Gandhi also called for development to be a top priority of Indian politicians. "Development is the best equaliser," she said, arguing that it would ultimately bring an end to the country's caste system and make India a leading world power. Although she has campaigned for the Congress party in the current election campaign, Ms Gandhi ruled out a political career for herself, arguing that she did not "feel the need" to be a politician.

Save the Children responds to Sri Lanka Crisis

Save the Children New Zealand has announced that it is sending NZ$30,000 to support the organisation’s international appeal to help the thousands of children and their families that are affected by the current conflict in Sri Lanka. Save the Children estimates 100,000 displaced people are struggling to survive in the northern tip of Sri Lanka. The organisation is also accepting donations from the general public. Thousands of children and their families remain trapped in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) no-fire zone in northern Sri Lanka. Conditions for the IDPs (internally displaced persons) who are not allowed by the LTTE to come out of this area of conflict are desperate, and there are reports of a scarcity of food, clean water, health care facilities and shelter. The toll on civilians due to the fighting is heavy; while having to deal with multiple displacements many have been killed and injured. Children are also among these and are at risk of being recruited as well.The children and their families that have been able to flee the fighting are also facing incredible challenges. Children who have been forced to leave their homes, and children from communities that are hosting families that have been displaced, are missing out on education. The Government Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka expects many children to be malnourished so health and nutrition of children is a great concern. Camps for displaced people are overcrowded causing water and sanitation problems and people in the camps have limited access to essential vaccines, medicines and oral rehydration solutions. Some children have become separated from their families when fleeing the conflict. “The children who have been fortunate enough to flee the conflict are distressed by what they have experienced. They have been displaced many times, faced constant shelling, seen their relatives and friends killed,” said Prasant Naik, Save the Children’s Country Director for Sri Lanka. There is currently no access for international NGOs to the displaced people in the Vanni districts but Save the Children is working with the thousands of displaced people who are currently in government-run camps in Vavuniya and Mannar. A team of 30 staff are operating from Save the Children offices in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka.Save the Children aims to reach 37, 500 children and their families through its emergency response. Water and sanitation will be improved by setting up water tanks, building toilets and distributing hygiene kits within the camps. So far, 19 children’s safe play spaces have been set up for over 4,000 children. Children that are separated from their families are being registered in the hope to reunite them with their families. 14,000 children and more than 1000 pregnant or breast-feeding mothers have received supplementary food items. 25 temporary learning centres have been set up for more than 4,000 children. Save the Children is appealing to the public for donations so that they can do more for the children that are caught up in this humanitarian crisis.

Lanka to talk to France about mass exodus
 
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogallagama yesterday said he would speak to his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner about the adverse remarks attributed to the latter on the civilians fleeing from the LTTE. Kouchner is reported to have said that civilians fleeing from the clutches of the LTTE in the ‘No Fire’ Zone were drowning in the seas and had suggested that France and Britain launch a joint humanitarian operation in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka.Responding to a query from The Island as to the government’s stand on the suggestion made by Kouchner to his British counterpart David Miliband that French and British boats be deployed to assist the IDP’s on the beaches where some were drowning in the sea, Bogallagama said "There are no civilians trying to cross to the government controlled areas drowning in the sea. It is far from the truth."He said he was in constant touch with all his counterparts. "Today I will discuss the matter in detail with my counterpart over the phone," told the media.Prior to meeting the media the Foreign Minister met the diplomatic corps. He had told them that the LTTE had used the 48-hour unilateral humanitarian pause to compel civilians to fortify the earth bunds and trenches thus impeding the civilians moving out of the ‘No Fire’ Zone, negating the very purpose for which the government had declared the pause.Bogollagama told the diplomats that the international community and many others were skeptical about the government’s ability to handle the humanitarian operation which is reckoned as the biggest such operation in the world."The military operation mounted by the Army was not an assault type one on fortified positions of the enemy, but a highly professional rescue mission, for which our soldiers had been trained," he pointed out adding that dire warnings by some in the international community of a blood bath did not materialise. Bogollagama said the government welcomed the outcome of the informal briefing on Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council on Wednesday night and appreciates and acknowledges its forthright condemnation of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation and its use of civilians as human shields not allowing them to leave the conflict area. Today the LTTE is still holding 15,000-20,000 displaced persons in the ‘No Fire’ Zone, the Minister said. However, he remarked that the country needed humanitarian assistance from other countries particularly where sanitation, health, water and shelter are concerned."In this respect the US, EU and UN organisations along with India are already helping us and India is sending a ship with 40,000 family units to be distributed among the IDPs in the welfare centres and villages he said.Fourteen INGOs with UN organisations are helping in the IDP villages at the moment, he said.  

Lanka rejects UN appeal  
 
Sri Lanka has rejected an appeal by the United Nations to allow more aid agencies in to the zone of fighting in its north to give immediate help to the affected people.Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, told the BBC it would not be sensible to let aid agencies into the conflict zone because, he said, there was already an army operation in progress to "rescue" civilians. But the foreign secretary Palitha Kohona, also speaking to the BBC, said the government would "certainly appreciate" international assistance for the one-hundred-thousand or so people who've already fled the conflict zone this week. They are now in camps and Dr Kohona said there was particular need for tents, water, water tanks and purifiers, and sanitation equipment. He said the number fleeing today, Thursday, had dropped to fewer than six-hundred, adding that the Tamil Tigers might be preventing others from leaving their newly restricted area. The guerrillas deny holding civilians as human shields in this way. A government official inside the rebel-held zone said fighting between the army and rebels was continuing but at a lower level than before.Trapped in a shrinking pocket of land, the guerrillas do seem to be fighting back: the defence ministry earlier said that troops were encountering what it called "dwindling but constant resistance". The only international agency allowed to operate near the conflict zone, the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), says it evacuated three-hundred-and-fifty sick and wounded people and their families by ocean-going ship on Wednesday, and was doing the same today. Sarasi Wijeratna of the ICRC said that they are continuously evacuating the wounded out of the conflict zone to make shift health facilities. “The civilians within the conflict zone are facing a shortage of medical supplies and food and the health officials are working under risky conditions” said Wijeratna.
 
Sri Lanka crisis: Congress looks to blunt Jaya attack
 
NEW DELHI: The DMK-Congress combine, which is 'doubly handicapped' because of being in power at both Centre and in Tamil Nadu, has been accused by  the resurgent AIADMK-led alliance of failure to protect innocent Tamils. The effectiveness of the frantic intervention may be debatable, with Colombo till now showing no sign at all of relenting, but the Congress leadership clearly believes that it will help soothe frayed nerves in Tamil Nadu. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi herself is in charge of the manoeuvre — which is crucial given that the handsome tally from Tamil Nadu helped Congress pip BJP to the post in 2004 — for the party's bid to retake power at the Centre. The fate of Tamil civilians who are unable to move out of conflict zone largely because of opposition from LTTE who plan to keep them as human shield, is gradually turning into an emotive issue in the state with 39 Lok Sabha seats. Government estimates have it that there are still about 15,000-20,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone. "We understand that over 100,000 civilians have emerged from the No Fire Zone into areas under government control in the past three days but the lives of several thousands of innocent civilians remain threatened," foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said, adding that India was sending special emissaries to convey its concerns to Colombo. Sri Lanka, on its part, is sending a special envoy to New Delhi to explain Colombo's position. Sri Lankan high commission in New Delhi confirmed to TOI on Thursday that Basil Rajapaksa, advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is expected in India by the end of next week as the president's special envoy to explain Colombo's position on the crisis. Apparently going for the kill, Sri Lankan forces on Thursday encircled the last 8 sq km patch of area in north-eastern part of the country where they suspect Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran and his top aides are holed up. 

Appeal to allow an All Party delegation to access Mullaithivu 
 
Major Opposition United National Party (UNP) has appealed the government to grant permission for a delegation of the representatives of political parties including MPs to access Mullaithivu to study the situation there.UNP further urged a pledge from the government that all the displaced people should be allowed to return to their villages within three months. This appeal was made from the government in accordance with a proposal moved at the UNP working committee yesterday (23).The decision was revealed to media at a press conference held in the Premadasa Hall of the UNP headquarters Sirikotha under the patronage of party leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya and general secretary Thissa Aththanayaka.The Opposition Leader said that three proposals were passed today at the UNP working committee meeting. They are; a proposal to congratulate all the war heroes that contributed to save the country from terrorism, a proposal to provide facilities and to rehabilitate the IDPs and a proposal to urge to urgently submit a proposal for a sustainable solution to the problem.UNP leader has asked the party members to collect aids to the people displaced due to war.  

MPs to debate Sri Lankan conflict

MPs will debate the conflict in Sri Lanka next week as protests by British Tamils continue in central London. Commons Leader Harriet Harman announced the discussions, requested by the Lib Dems, would be held on Wednesday. The British Tamils Forum welcomed the move, saying it would give the public a perspective on just how many MPs were concerned about their constituents. It wants the UK to end the war in the former British colony between Tamil Tiger separatists and the government. On Monday, around 3,500 Tamil protesters blocked roads around Parliament Square as they demanded a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Demonstrations have been held every day since 6 April with at least 50 people holding a vigil overnight. Suren Surendiran, from the British Tamils Forum told,  situation in Sri Lanka was deteriorating: "There is no medicine, no antibiotics and children are dying. "There is a 17-day-old baby who is injured with a bandage around her head, but the mother can't nurse her because she is malnourished and they don't have any artificial milk powder." Mr Surendiran added that protester Prarameswaran Subramaniam had been on hunger strike since 7 April and remained so. The 28-year-old, who has lost several family members in the conflict, has vowed not to eat again until a ceasefire is agreed. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has sent special envoy Des Browne to the United Nations in New York to try to secure a ceasefire. But the Sri Lankan government has rejected calls to cease fighting, arguing it would give the Tamil Tigers - a proscribed terrorist group in many countries, including the UK - time to regroup. The Tigers - or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - are fighting for a separatist state in the north and east of the island.

Tamil refugees flee to India to escape fighting in Sri Lanka

Desperate Tamil civilians are trying to flee to India in small boats to escape intensifying fighting between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tigers.As Sri Lanka called yesterday for international help in dealing with tens of thousands fleeing fighting, the Guardian has learned that boat-loads of refugees have arrived in Tamil Nadu – and others have attempted the trip – to avoid internment in government-run camps. Aid workers say some boats have sunk and children have been washed overboard. Other fleeing the fighting have sailed along the coast to government-held areas.Yesterday members of three families who made the perilous journey to India described their escape. In all, 13 of them slipped away in the middle of the night to avoid being spotted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, who were reportedly shooting those fleeing.They climbed into a boat belonging to Sivachandran Sivasnanam, a fisherman from Jaffna, who had persuaded the rebels to let him to take it out fishing."Day by day the shelling was getting worse. We were living in a bunker we had dug in the sand. There was shelling coming from the army area and the LTTE was shelling from inside the zone and sometimes they would come to take the boys as recruits," said Sinnathamby Ampumani, 48, a teacher.He spoke to the fisherman and decided to try to make it to India. It was 3.30am when Ampumani reached the shore with his family."We didn't take anything with us except for a few jewels and some money because if we had been seen other people would have informed on us," he said.As quietly as they could, they pushed off. "We kept close to the shore for as long as we could and then headed into the open sea and turned left."Eventually they spotted an Indian fishing boat, which gave them food and water and pointed them in the direction of the sub continent. Three hours later, they met a trawler. By this time, they had been travelling for most of the day and were almost out of fuel, Ampumani said."The trawler said it would tow us for a few hours and finally we saw the beach. We were so happy that we were safe."Siva Kumar, 26, the brother of the boat's owner, said they had been afraid of running into Sri Lankan naval vessels, but in the end they saw none."They were staying about 3km [1.8 miles] off the shore because I think they were afraid of the Tigers," he said.His brother, he said, had never been to India. But he had been confident of finding his way in the dark, even without a compass. "We knew which side was India and which was China," he said. Eleven of the group have been given identity cards and refugee status, but two remain under lock and key, including a young woman whose hands had been blown off in an explosion. According to local staff, the police suspect the pair of being LTTE members.India is separated from Sri Lanka by the Palk Strait, which is only 28 miles across at its narrowest point, and others have clearly had the same idea as Ampumani's group. Another boat arrived earlier this week. Others have sailed across from Mannar and Jaffna, areas previously held by the LTTE but now in government hands. The refugees have paid boatmen to make the crossing: one apparently handed over 20,000 Sri Lankan rupees (about £120).According to aid workers, there are 117 camps in Tamil Nadu housing about 70,000 refugees.Sooriya Kumary, from the group OFERR, which is working with Christian Aid, said the refugees were risking their lives to make the sea journey because they feared being arrested and harassed by the authorities in Sri Lanka or having their children forcibly recruited by the LTTE."They feel safer in India," she said. "The vast majority are coming by boat. They are coming in flimsy fishing boats and it's a very dangerous crossing. Sometimes the boats capsize. The sea is very rough and sometimes women are not able to hold onto their children. Sometimes they just take too many people in the boat and they sink.Yesterday Sri Lanka called for international help in dealing with the tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the fighting in what it said was an emergency humanitarian situation.

Fleeing the war zone and arriving at hospitals with horrific injuries and severe trauma

Thousands of people fleeing Sri Lanka's war zone are arriving at hospitals with horrific injuries and severe trauma, doctors said on Thursday.Some are dying in buses on their way to hospital, according to doctors working round the clock to treat wounds from shelling and gunfire. Many patients are also deeply traumatised after seeing loved-ones killed in front of them.“About three-quarters of the injured coming in now have suffered from blast injuries, and the rest are gunshot wounds and mine explosions," said Paul McMaster, a surgeon working with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at a hospital in Vavuniya."We are doing a lot of amputations. Many of the lower limbs are severely, severely injured and blown off ... We had a young woman of about 19 who is breastfeeding that I had to do a major leg amputation on. I just wonder what the future for her life and child will be."The military says more than 100,000 civilians have poured out of the battle zone since Monday when troops blasted through a massive earthen wall built by the Tigers. But the United Nations says tens of thousands more could still be trapped.E G Gnanakunalan, a Red Cross doctor at a field hospital in Pulmoddai, about 40 km (25 miles) to the south, said many people were extremely traumatised."They need some kind of psychological support. They are mentally and physically tortured," he said."One lady came and she had been eating with her husband and children. A shell fell on the house and her husband and some of the children died and she lost both her legs. She was crying and asking what would she do in future. There are a lot of sad stories."The hospital, which has received more than 6,400 people since mid-March, is treating people evacuated by Red Cross ships from the war zone - a narrow strip of land on the northeast coast.Gnanakunalan said three to four ships had been arriving every week bringing 500 people a time.Doctors said it was impossible to say which side had caused the injuries. The Sri Lankan military denies Tamil Tiger accusations that it shells civilian areas.

TRAUMA

The government is putting people fleeing the war zone into temporary camps in Vavuniya, about 60 km (37 miles) to the southwest.MSF's Sri Lanka medical co-ordinator Lisabeth List said staff at the 600-capacity hospital were overwhelmed, with close to 2,000 patients needing treatment."It's completely overcrowded. You might have two people in a bed and one lying under the bed and one on each side," she said. "They are lying in the corridors and outside on the walkways. One ward was so crowded that all the beds were pushed together to make one giant bed."Many people coming out of the battle zone are also suffering from hunger and dehydration. List said staff had seen one man collapse and die from dehydration shortly after reaching camp.A U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, said people coming out of the war zone were in "very poor condition".He said a U.N. survey of the camps found a quarter of young children had severe malnutrition and he expected children emerging now to be in even worse health.

23 April 2009

LTTE must surrender, says UN Security Council
   
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council expressed concern on Wednesday about the humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka, where tens of thousands of civilians trapped in rebel territory are in imminent danger."The Security Council members, we expressed our deep concern about the humanitarian situation ... and the plight of the civilians trapped within the conflict area," Mexican U.N. Ambassador Claude Heller told reporters after an informal meeting of the 15-nation council on Sri Lanka.In a summary of the closed-door meeting, he said council members "strongly condemned" the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are apparently using civilians trapped in a 5 square mile (13 square km) strip of land as human shields.Council diplomats said China, Russia and others had opposed the idea of a formal discussion of the Sri Lankan war, viewing it instead as an internal matter for the Sri Lankans.That, they said, is why the council took no action apart from agreeing that Heller, the council's rotating president, would speak informally to the press about the meeting.British Ambassador John Sawers summarized the report the council received from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar, who visited Sri Lanka last week.Nambiar described a "desperate humanitarian situation," he said. Sawers also said that council members welcomed the news that tens of thousands had escaped the conflict zone.In the third day since troops blasted through a massive earthen wall built by the LTTE and unleashed the exodus, the Sri Lankan military said at least 100,000 people had been registered for onward transit to displaced persons camps.Council members agreed the LTTE must allow U.N.-assisted evacuation of civilians trapped in the conflict zone, Sawers said. He added that council members agreed that the Sri Lankan government should accept U.N. monitors in the displaced persons camps so "the U.N. can assist and monitor the treatment of civilians as they leave the conflict zone."U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice criticized the Sri Lanka government for not providing full assistance to all civilians who manage to escape the rebel-held zone.She also suggested that both the Tamil Tigers and the government might be guilty of violating international law."The fact that both sides have been shooting at civilians as they leave the safe zone is one gross manifestation of the apparent violation of international humanitarian law," Rice said. Deputy U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Catherine Bragg told reporters that the United Nations had not yet received permission to enter the conflict zone or to monitor the screening of civilians who manage to escape the fighting.Bragg also urged the government to release all U.N. staff currently being held in the displaced persons camps.Sri Lanka's Ambassador H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, however, said that the United Nations and other international organizations do have access to the conflict zone and the screening process.He also told reporters that the U.N. staff in the camps were Sri Lankan nationals who needed to be screened like all others, although he acknowledged "it was taking too long."

LTTE has eight more square kilometers; military spokesmen describe the operations 
 
Army spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that the mission to rescue the hostages were begun in the early hours of April 20 following subtly studying LTTE activities and the civilians movements for a considerable period and after showing the plans only to the relevant authorities.Addressing the weekly press briefing on national security held in the Media Center for National Security (MCNS), the Army spokesman said that the Army had not used any heavy weapons like artillery and battle tanks in the operation in consideration of the safety of the civilians. Only light weapons were used despite LTTE using heavy armory killing and injuring several Army personnel. The troops of the Army 58 division have entered into Puthumattalan and Ampalawanpokkanai areas and consolidated up to the west coast in the Northern Province. The 53 division also has joined in operations with the 58 division. LTTE is contained to eight square kilometers now. But they continue to attack. An LTTE double cab was recovered with the bodies of four LTTE armed cadres following an Army light weaponry attack, said the Army adding that two of the Tiger cadres had been identified as Karanthan and Vijayan, two leaders of the LTTE. Four more terrorists were killed in Army commando attacks, said the Army spokesman. When the hospital in Puthumattalan was captured, there were around 80 elderly persons. Security forces admitted them to Anuradhapura and Vavuniya hospitals.Air Force media spokesman Wing Commander Udaya Nanayakkara said that the Air Force contributed the rescue mission by providing air surveillance and transportation. Air Force is also engaged in providing facilities to the rescued civilians, he said. Further 238 persons with illnesses and injuries due to LTTE suicide bombs were transported to Anuradhapura hospital Tuesday (21).Six thousand food parcels were airlifted in a MI-17 helicopter today on the instructions of the President Mahinda Rajapaksha and dry rations are continued to be supplied, said the Air Force spokesman.Navy media spokesman Captain R. W. E. M. B. Karunarathna said that the Navy had set up several defense lines in sea to prevent LTTE terrorists fleeing via sea routes and to prevent them engaging in other activities.

World disappointed with Sri Lanka says Clinton

With the LTTE almost decimated, US today expressed disappointment with the Sri Lankan government for the current humanitarian crisis."I think the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed, that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her appearance before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.Terming the current situation in Sri Lanka as "a terrible humanitarian tragedy" Clinton said that the US has been pressing the Sri Lankan government for a halt in the fighting so that "we could secure a safe passage for as many of the trapped civilians as possible"."We have made it clear that as soon as there is some lull in the fighting or an end to the fighting there has to be not only massive humanitarian aid, but a political resolution," Clinton said."The people who have been waging this internal insurgency for all these years are going to have to be brought into the political process in some way," Clinton asserted in response to a question.

Army knows where Prabha is- Army Chief
   
Army Chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka has told the BBC that troops knew the "general area" where LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was hiding and that "action will be taken to destroy him".Prabhakaran was hiding near the coast, Lt Gen Fonseka said. The general said only 300-400 Tamil Tiger fighters remained, but there may be 700 "forcibly armed" people in rebel bunkers. The government has said that a pause in fighting is not necessary because additional consignments of food, medicine and other essentials have been dispatched to the war zone. It says that the rebels are a "spent force" confined to an area no bigger than 12 sq km (five square miles).

General Strike Starts in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The 12-hour dawn to dusk statewide general strike called by the ruling DMK on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue demanding immediate steps for a ceasefire in the island country began Thursday morning.Shops remained closed and buses and autorickshwas were off the roads, as trade unions have extended support to the strike, which commenced at 6 am.However, train services were not affected, railway sources said.Police said no untoward incident was reported fro many part of the state so far.Service at the airport remained unaffected and more than 40 domestic and international flights will be operated as per schedule till 10 am, airport sources said, adding flight services were expected to be normal today.The Tamil cinema industry has announced suspension all its activities today and shows in cinema theatres have been cancelled.Some IT majors, including TCS, Polaris and Cognizant will remain closed today. Auto majors Ashok Leyland, Hyundai and Ford will also remain closed, company sources said.AIADMK and its allies have rejected the appeal by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi to support the strike with Jayalalithaa calling it a “farce and a drama”.The AIADMK and allies have also said they would go ahead with electioneering today.

Chaos in Tamil war zone, U.N. says

The Sri Lankan offensive against the faltering Tamil Tiger rebel movement has killed or wounded "significant numbers," and thousands are trapped by the fighting, the United Nations said Wednesday. The Sri Lankan army launched an operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in the country's north on Monday, and a deadline for the rebels to surrender passed Tuesday.Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but tens of thousands more remain wedged into an 8-square-mile strip of land on the island's northeastern coast, which remains controlled by the rebels, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.The U.N.'s humanitarian agency described the conflict zone as "highly chaotic" Wednesday, with reports of continued fighting, and aid cut off to more than 80,000 people displaced by the fighting since April 1."While there are no verifiable numbers of overall casualties, we believe that significant numbers have been killed and injured in the military operation," the agency said.The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.But the rebels have suffered a string of military setbacks since November, with their provisional capital falling to government troops in January.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement on the conflict: "The United Nations remains extremely concerned about the safety of the civilians left in the combat area. Given that the area has shrunk even further, the potential for further significant casualties still remains."The situation has led to stepped-up diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the conflict.  Sri Lanka will be on the agenda when the Security Council meets Wednesday evening, with France calling for the Tigers to surrender, release hostages and "join the political process."In India, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said New Delhi was "very unhappy" about the civilian death toll.  "These killings must stop," Mukherjee said in a statement from his office. "The Sri Lankan government has a responsibility to protect its own citizens. And the (rebel group) must stop its barbaric attempt to hold civilians hostage."He said the conflict has no military solution, and any lasting settlement must address "the real concerns of the Tamil people."And in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a congressional committee the United States has begun "intensive post-conflict planning" aimed at reaching a political solution and allowing humanitarian aid into the region."I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed, that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," Clinton said.

Both sides have chosen a military solution: Solheim
   
Norway says both the government and the LTTE had chosen a military solution and appeals to both parties to show responsibility for the civilian population and stop the fighting without any further loss of life.Minister of Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim said it was unacceptable that hundreds of civilians had been killed or wounded in the latest stages of fighting in Sri Lanka. “The Tamil Tigers claim that they are fighting on behalf of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka.  They must ensure that every citizen must leave the zone and must stop firing at them,” he added. Mr. Solheim underlines that the significant civilian losses could have been avoided if the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers had sought a political end to the war. Norway has been working for this for a long time. He said it was essential that the Sri Lankan authorities gave international relief organisations access wherever there were civilians, as called for by the UN Secretary-General. “Norway expects those fleeing the war zone be treated decently. They must not be subjected to abuse, and their safety must be guaranteed. They must be registered in order to prevent disappearances.  And they must be allowed to return to their homes as soon as possible,” said Mr. Solheim.  Norway would continue its efforts, together with the US, the EU and Japan, in the group of donor countries to appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers to show responsibility for the civilian population and stop the fighting without further loss of life.

Where is he?
 
The LTTE chief Prabhakaran is a missing man. The Sri Lankan Army claimed more than 24hrs ago that they would catch him in no time, but even till now his where about is unknown. The Sri Lankan Army has been claiming that he is trapped in 17sqkm radius area in the LTTE strong hold area of Mallaitivu. But there seem to be lacuna in this information because the Sri Lankan Army is not substantiating this information with any concrete proof. The million dollar question as yet seems to be ‘Where is Prabhakaran?’ There are already multiple theories emanating on this issue. Some claim that he is not in Sri Lanka and he has fled the country some months ago. Some claim that he has disguised himself and has fled along with the lakhs of refugees who are leaving the LTTE strong hold. Claims also abound that he might be dead or that he is contemplating suicide when the army closes in on him.The unfolding of the Prabhakaran saga will happen in the next few days!!

Daya Master and George surrender
    
Former LTTE media-in-charge Daya Master and George, translator of slain LTTE political head Thamilselvan, surrendered to the military this evening at Puthukkudiyirippu, the military said.Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara confirmed that both leaders had surrendered to the 58 division soldiers who were operating in the north of the No Fire Zone.Daya Master had surrendered to the army with his family, while George had surrendered alone. They had told the army that according to their information LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was still inside the civilian safe zone but they did not know his whereabouts.When asked what action was to be taken against these two leaders who had given themselves up, the spokesman said that it had not yet been decided what action would be taken against them. “We are yet to decide what action is going to be taken against them,” he said.However, a Defence Ministry official said that, as usual,they would be directed to the rehabilitation programme, but that special attention would be paid to them, as both were considered to be hardcore LTTE leaders who had played a major role in the terror outfit over a long period.On Monday, the Government gave 24 hours to the LTTE leader and his senior leaders and cadres to surrender, but there was no response when the period ended at noon on Tuesday.Daya Master, alias Velayutham Thayanithi, is from Thambasiddy, Puloly West, Point Pedro.He started life as a private tutor in English and was running a private tuition centre in Puloly. Because of his command of the English language he was a popular language tutor in Vadamarachchi.While he was in Point Pedro he established contacts with the Tiger movement. The Tigers began to recognise him as one of their strong supporters. They gradually took him into their fold. After Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected president in 1994, VIPs from the South sought meetings with the LTTE leadership. Media personnel, Buddhist monks and Leftist political leaders began their journey to Jaffna. During that period Daya Master met the dignitaries from the South near the Kilaly lagoon and took them to Jaffna town. He was at the forefront in those days, in receiving VIPs from the South.During the ceasefire between the United People’s Front Government and the LTTE, Daya Master received treatment at the Apollo Hospital in Colombo in July 2006, when he was in bad health.Velupillai Kumaru Pancharatnam, alias George, was a former postmaster in the Postal Department. He was the main translator for the LTTE since the early stages of the LTTE and was part of the LTTE peace delegation to Geneva in February, 2006.

Australia expects Sri Lanka boats 
 
There is significant risk civilians fleeing Sri Lanka's civil war will head for Australia, the country's foreign minister, Stephen Smith, has said. "There is clearly very grave potential for displaced people coming from Sri Lanka," Mr Smith told reporters. He has been a strong critic of the Sri Lankan government offensive, blaming it for a high civilian toll. Officials in Australia said on Wednesday they had intercepted another boat carrying suspected asylum-seekers. Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said the boat was believed to have come from Sri Lanka and had 32 men on board. Mr Debus said that while many asylum seekers were arriving from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the number coming from Sri Lanka could grow. "We are also concerned... that there will be a surge of people, really, coming from the consequences of the terrible fighting that has been going on between Tamil and Sinhalese people," he said.

Policy wrangle

The alleged Sri Lankans most recently intercepted off Western Australia have been transferred to a navy patrol boat and are being taken to Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.That interception follows an explosion last week on board another boat which killed five asylum-seekers; it has been alleged that some set fire to the vessel to avoid deportation. The increased number of asylum seeker arrivals in Australian waters has put the government's policy under pressure. Australia's conservative opposition has accused the Labour government of softening laws against asylum-seekers, thereby encouraging the flows. Since the policy was softened last July, 14 boats carrying more than 400 asylum seekers - mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka - have reached Australia's waters. Immigration advocates said the number of asylum-seekers worldwide had increased by 12% during 2008, and Australia was seeing only a fraction of that, with numbers up from 3,970 in 2007 to 4,750 in 2008. The government has previously said violence in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka is fuelling people smuggling operations in Asia. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described people-smugglers as "scum" who should "rot in hell".

Arrest TNA MPs - Weerawansa

National Freedom Front Leader Wimal Weerawansa MP, yesterday requested the Government to arrest Parliamentarians Mano Ganeshan, R. Sambandan and TNA MPs who had supported the cause of Eelam when they addressed the last Mahaveer Day celebrations of the LTTE held in the Vanni. He also requested the Defence Ministry to closely monitor the activities of the Red Cross alleging that this organisation was trying to throw a life line to the LTTE leadership cornered by the Security Forces and breathing their last. Weerawansa made this request addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters in Battaramulla yesterday. Weerawansa said when India and other countries had implemented their laws and sent people who supported LTTE terrorists cause to jail there is no reason why Sri Lanka should not act against their own politician who supported terrorism and separatism.True peace cannot be ushered by merely defeating Prabhakaran and the LTTE unless those who supported separatism were also defeated. Weerawansa said the large number of vehicles and other assets of the Red Cross found in the Vanni led to suspicions about the genuiness of its activities in the Vanni. He said the LTTE had today come to the end of its tether due to the correct decision taken by the people in 2005. He said the US Ambassador who requested for a further extension of the humanitarian pause in the battlefront had withdrawn his request after seeing the recent exodus of nearly 100,000 civilians from the clutches of LTTE in the safe zone. He said people should now rally round to help the innocent civilians who had escaped from LTTE tyranny in large numbers.

British minister to visit Sri Lanka this week

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday, that he urged a ceasefire in the battle between government forces and the LTTE.Brown said that following talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he also expected a delegation of MPs to visit Sri Lanka to assess the extent of humanitarian assistance available according to wire services.Brown told MPs, at his weekly question and answer session at the House of Commons, that he believed Sri Lanka was now "prepared to accept a humanitarian delegation on a cross-party basis from the United Kingdom."To prepare the way, a DFID (Department for International Development) minister will go to Sri Lanka later this week," he added."We will press on the government the need for humanitarian help but we will also press on the need for a ceasefire and the need for a political solution to these problems".Thousands of Tamils have been protesting outside the Houses of Parliament in London for the last two weeks, calling for an immediate ceasefire.One man has been on hunger strike for 15 days and his condition is described as "stable" but "weak" by supporters.

Army elite search for Prabha and other leaders
 
Several groups from 1SF and 2 Commando have entered south of Valairmadam yesterday with a few objectives to achieve. The area is encircled by the 53, TF 8 and the 58 Division with the 59 Division south of the Nanthikadal lagoon.Sources told DefenceWire that the groups have engaged several LTTE vehicles and strong points. The area situated just below the A-35 and spanning about 5kms south towards Nanthikadal lagoon is the last remaining LTTE hideout where LTTE Leader Velupillai Brabhakaran and other surviving leaders are thought to be hiding.Contrary to earlier reports, the Army's latest figures indicate a presence of around 50,000 more civilians trapped in this area. Though keen on escaping toards the SLA line, the LTTE, acting as a barricase, seems to be preventing such movement. The civilians are also scared of the Army due to years of continuous brainwashing by the Tigers.However, the overall figures of returnees indicate that the recent rescue operation was an unresounding success. Within the last 72 hours, over 100,000 civilians have escaped and joined the Army. This brings the total headcount of civilians now in government custody to over 170,000.The two LTTE translators who surrendered to the Army are expected to make statements to the media shortly. Of them, George, the translator for Thamilselvan, is fluent in both Sinhala and English, in addition to Tamil. The Army was also amazed at the skill demonstrated by three LTTE doctors who also surrendered today. They all expressed amazement at the exceptional treatment they received at the hands of the officers and soldiers of the SLA.

22 April 2009

France Seeks To Launch Sri Lanka Relief Operation With UK

France Wednesday proposed carrying out a joint relief operation with the U.K. to help civilians in Sri Lanka who have fled fighting between government forces and Tiger rebels."We will try to launch an operation," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told a radio interview, adding he would discuss the plan with his U.K. counterpart David Miliband.Kouchner said French and U.K. boats could be dispatched to help the tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the conflict zone "because these people are on the beaches and some are drowning at sea."Authorities in Sri Lanka said Wednesday that 60,000 men, women and children had managed to escape over the previous two days as the government pressed on with its offensive against the rebels.Kouchner cautioned the proposal was still at an early stage."You know there have been a lot of relief operations and unfortunately, people are a bit tired of all that, as are governments," he told France Culture radio.He also said there were no plans for a military intervention."We have certainly not reached that point," he said.U.S. and Red Cross officials have raised alarm over the plight of civilians, with Washington saying it feared for the safety of 65,000 or more civilians crowded into tents and makeshift shelters on a beach on the Bay of Bengal.

Tamil Group Says Tamils Suffer for the Tokyo Co-Chairs' Bias 

Tamils for Obama posted a letter to senior diplomats of the four bodies comprising the "Tokyo Co-Chairs" in which the Tamil American group detailed their grievances with the international group's work. Tokyo Co-Chairs is a group of four parties: Norway, Japan, the U.S., and the E.U. who brokered cease-fire talks between the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka. Tamils contend that the Tokyo Co-Chairs were not honest brokers because they consistently took actions and positions favorable to Sri Lanka. One reason that bloodshed continues in Sri Lanka is the biased and half-hearted work by the Tokyo Co-Chairs.

(PRWEB) April 22, 2009 -- Tamils for Obama has written a letter condemning the four Tokyo Co-Chairs for their biased and half-hearted work on behalf of peace in Sri Lanka. The Tamil American group maintains that by conducting an insincere and ineffectual negotiating process the four members actually assisted the Sri Lankan government's campaign of ethnic cleansing. In the letter, Tamils for Obama explains why they think the harsh judgment of the Tokyo Co-Chairs actions is justified. However, the Tamils begin with praise for the Tokyo Co-Chairs, calling them "sincere, well-intentioned, justice-loving, and humane persons and institutions," but then note that "the well-intentioned work done by the Tokyo Co-Chairs has made this bad situation worse." Tamils for Obama states that "The flaw in the Co-Chairs work was a lack of even-handedness." Tamils for Obama gives a number of examples of partiality in the Tokyo Co-Chairs' mediation. These include:

1. After talks between the Government Of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Tamil resistance (Tamil Tigers) had gone on for a while, the Tokyo Co-Chairs moved the talks to the U.S. This was convenient for all parties except the Tamil resistance. The Tokyo Co-Chairs invited the GOSL but not the Tamils. In this period of the negotiations, only one side was allowed to speak, or even to be present.

2. The Tokyo Co-Chairs took the GOSL's position--that Sri Lanka could not be divided--from the start and ruled out the Tamil's wish for their own state and with it any compromise position, such as a federated state. The Tokyo Co-Chairs refused even to consider some measure of self government for the Tamils in the negotiation. Since this was the principal goal of the Tamil resistance, ruling out the Tamil resistance's main objective exposed the Tokyo Co-Chairs' pro-GOSL bias.

3. The Tokyo Co-Chairs should have taken a firmer position with the GOSL when the GOSL dissolved their government and fired their negotiating team for even considering the Tamils' proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA).

4. Despite the GOSL's long history of ethnic cleansing and state terrorism, the Tokyo Co-Chairs consistently and loudly condemned actions by the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) while ignoring atrocities committed by the GOSL.

5. While ignoring terrorist acts by the GOSL, the Tokyo Co-Chairs urged the E.U. to add the Tamil Tigers to their list of terrorist organizations, thus freezing all of the Tamil Tigers' assets in E.U. countries. At the same time the Tokyo Co-Chairs not only turned a blind eye to the GOSL's atrocities, but the Tokyo Co-Chairs' members provided money, arms, and military training to the GOSL's armed forces.

6. In 2002 the Tokyo Co-Chairs brokered a cease-fire between the GOSL and the Tamil Tigers. When the GOSL unilaterally broke the cease-fire, the Tokyo Co-Chairs expressed regret but took no firm action against the GOSL.

Tamils for Obama concludes that the Tokyo Co-Chairs have not been honest brokers. Their actions in mediating talks between the belligerent parties have been biased, showing favoritism for the GOSL. In this way they have assisted in the GOSL's campaign of ethnic cleansing and have worsened the bloodshed in Sri Lanka. Tamils are an ethnic group living mainly in the northeast of Sri Lanka and southern India. They are a minority population in Sri Lanka, and are currently bearing the brunt of a civil war they regard as genocide. One third of the Tamil population has fled the island and formed a substantial diaspora overseas. Tamils for Obama is comprised of Tamils who have settled in the U.S. or who were born in the U.S.

Fears of bloodbath as Sri Lankan forces push into Tamil Tiger enclave
 
The Red Cross warned of a humanitarian catastrophe yesterday as the Sri Lankan Army prepared for a final assault on the last pocket of rebel-held territory where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped. The army said that it had evacuated tens of thousands of civilians and advanced into a 6.5 square-mile no-fire zone where the last 200 Tamil Tiger fighters are. The Red Cross disputed a claim by the army to have rescued 40,000 of the trapped civilians on Monday and 20,000 yesterday in what President Rajapaksa called “the largest-ever hostage rescue mission”. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross — the only international organisation with staff on the front line — told The Times that it had witnessed only 4,000 civilians leaving the no-fire zone on Monday.  “We’ve heard very conflicting reports about the numbers,” Sarasi Wijeratne, an information officer at the Red Cross office in Colombo, said. “What we can say is that we’ve confirmed that 4,000 civilians crossed into government territory over the weekend and another 4,000 crossed over on Monday.” She said that Red Cross staff would not give a figure for yesterday until this morning, adding that the organisation had about a hundred staff inside the no-fire zone. The discrepancy in the figures is sensitive because the army will begin its final assault as soon as its feels that enough civilians have left — despite international calls for it to wait. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting since 1983 for an ethnic Tamil homeland, but the army appears poised to defeat them. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told The Times: “What we’re doing at the moment is a rescue operation. Troops have moved in and taken over one stretch of the safety zone. They are expanding that stretch as more civilians escape.” The operation gathered pace after the noon deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed without any word from the rebels. Several hours later the Tigers issued a defiant statement. “LTTE will never surrender and we will fight and we have the confidence that we will win with the help of the Tamil people,” said Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the secretary-general of the Tigers’ peace secretariat. The army, which had said for weeks that there were fewer than 50,000 civilians inside the zone, estimates that there are no more than 30,000 left. The UN and the Red Cross said that there were more than double that number — many of them injured. “The situation is nothing short of catastrophic,” said Pierre Krähenbühl, the director of operations for the Red Cross. “Ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care.” Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary- General, said that he was concerned about the trapped civilians. The UN children’s agency has warned that many more children could be killed. The US and Britain have backed the UN and Red Cross in calling for a ceasefire. Michael Owen, the acting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, said that Sri Lanka should offer a deal in which the Tigers handed in arms, possibly to a third party, in exchange for an amnesty for low-level fighters. “We are running out of time,” he told the Brookings Institution, the American think-tank. “There is literally only a couple of days to try to get this finalised.” The Government has rejected all ceasefire appeals, saying the Tigers will not allow the civilians to leave because they want to recruit them or use them as a human shield. The Tigers denied that and accused government forces of killing at least 1,000 civilians in shelling since Monday. “Today a situation of bloodbath is prevailing,” the group said in an e-mail statement. A Tiger spokesman told The Times that the army was using cluster bombs and biological and chemical weapons. The army denies that. It is impossible to verify information from either side because the Government has banned most independent reporters and aid workers from the front line. The Times has not been issued a visa for Sri Lanka since August.

Army keeps slicing Tiger-held safe zone

The army is confident that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, his intelligence chief Pottu Amman and several other senior cadres now trapped on the north-eastern coast couldn’t flee the area. Authoritative military sources told The Island that troops including Special Forces and Commandos had moved into the last LTTE–held area to hunt down the remaining LTTE units. "They are scattered in the area," a senior military official said adding that continuous aerial surveillance would thwart their attempts to mount large scale coordinated attacks on the army. The army said that the 58 Division commanded by Brigadier Shavindra Silva had reached the north-eastern coast, thereby cutting the 18 sq. km. civilian safe zone into two. The area hospital, too, had been brought under army control, sources said. The army also destroyed two LTTE cabs located close to the newly liberated area. Troops also recovered bodies of 22 LTTE cadres during the day.Army Chief Lt. General Sarath Fonseka has tasked the 58 Division and 53 Division commanded by Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne to carry out the hostage rescue operation. So far only the 58 Division has entered the civilian safe zone. Sources said that after cutting across to the beach, the 58 Division troops had advanced over 1 km northwards, where the 55 Division commanded by Brigadier Prasanna Silva was stationed.The 53 Division was expected to move into the civilian safe zone on the right flank of the 58 Division and cut across to the beach thereby dividing the remaining LTTE-held area into two, the sources said. Military sources said that about 100 LTTE cadres were believed to be trapped between the 58 and 55 Divisions. The Navy has thrown a sizeable force to intercept LTTE boat movements and help civilians fleeing in fibreglass dinghies. Responding to our queries, sources said that clearing operations could be completed before the end of this week. Sources said that their progress would be slow due to the heavy presence of civilians. The army desisted from using heavy guns and calling air strikes during operations over the past 48 hours to prevent civilian casualties. On a Defence Ministry directive, the SLAF headquarters invited a group of diplomats on Monday to observe the flight of civilians. The SLAF has deployed two systems of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) both of Israeli origin to keep track of what is happening on the ground.The army stormed the area on Sunday night after the government rejected an international bid to throw a lifeline to the LTTE. During Sunday’s thrust, the advancing army recovered bodies of 13 LTTE cadres.

Congressional Hearing Assesses Humanitarian Crisis in Sri Lanka 

The situation in Sri Lanka, where government forces are fighting to eliminate the last stronghold of Tamil separatist rebels, was the subject of a U.S. congressional hearing Tuesday.  Discussion of the military conflict and what the United Nations and human rights groups call a dire humanitarian situation came during a hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, formerly known as the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.Sri Lankan government troops are pressing an offensive against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in their last stronghold, the northern area of Vanni. Thousands of civilians have fled to government-controlled areas. The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought for 25 years to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority in the northern part of predominantly Sinhalese Sri Lanka.  More than 70,000 people have died in the civil war.
 
Representative Jim McGovern chaired the hearing:

"The particular case we are exploring this afternoon, Sri Lanka, is a situation where both the government forces and the Tamil Tigers have abdicated their responsibility to protect from mass atrocities civilian non-combatant who are caught in the cross-fire of war," said Jim McGovern. "It has therefore fallen to the international community, and especially humanitarian organizations like UNHCR and the ICRC, along with a handful of NGO's, to try to assure their safety."The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of a catastrophic situation in which hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded.  The Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists have issued varying casualty figures.Amin Awad, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative to Sri Lanka, said 100,000 civilians have been on the move in the last 48 hours, adding to an already large population of 180,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs). "The 100,000 who just left the no-fire zone are being processed by the [Sri Lankan] army in the district of Kilinochchi and the district of Mullaitivu," said Amin Awad. "This will become an extra burden on the already-meager resources and the limited space the government of Sri Lanka provided to receive the IDP's."Awad puts the number of civilians remaining in the Tamil zone at 50,000 to 60,000, which he calls a conservative estimate. He says more than 9,000 people, many with serious injuries, have been evacuated since February.The United Nations and Human rights groups have urged the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists to exercise restraint, with Awad urging additional humanitarian pauses.  However, both came under sharp criticism in Tuesday's hearing.Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch says both warring parties have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law.Tamil separatists, she says, continue to prevent civilians from fleeing to government-controlled areas and use them as human shields, while numerous casualties can be attributed to government artillery attacks.Neistat faults the government for failing to ensure delivery of sufficient relief supplies to people still in the conflict zone, and failing to provide sufficient aid to the internally-displaced:"The way that people are being treated now leaves little doubt that the welfare, quote unquote, of the inhabitants is the last thing on the government's agenda, and that leaves very little hope that people will be indeed resettled as well as that their other rights will be respected," said Anna Neistat.The comment was also a response to a Sri Lankan Embassy statement, issued through a Washington public relations firm Patton Boggs, sharply criticizing Human Rights Watch and other non-government groups.Despite what it called unfounded fears expressed by Human Rights Watch and other organizations, the statement said the government has an excellent track record of restoring war-torn areas and returning displaced persons to their homes as soon as practicable.It said the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross have full access to 16 IDP camps, which the government says meet international standards and provide adequate shelter, food, medicine and services.Miriam Young, Director of the U.S. Non-Government Organization Forum on Sri Lanka, says the most critical need is an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow the U.N., Red Cross, and other humanitarian agencies to provide food and medicine to those in need.She urges the Obama administration to use its influence to press both warring parties to stop the fighting."This is an opportunity for the Obama administration to reassert our country's moral leadership on behalf of desperately vulnerable people," said Miriam Young. "Not to do so would mean the loss of tens of thousands more needless deaths [lives]."The United States considers the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization. The State Department on Tuesday appealed to both sides in the conflict to spare civilians, and urged the Sri Lankan government to permit international monitoring and access to sites where internally-displaced persons are being processed.

Bitter end for Sri Lanka's rebels? 

The end of Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war has been much predicted in recent months - not least by the government - but it seems the conflict may now finally be drawing to a close. The rebels are cornered in a small stretch of territory in the north-east of the country. There are two conflicting theories - which observers agree are equally plausible - as to how the last battle will finish. "One school of thought is that the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, will go down fighting with his troops like General Custer in his famous last stand," says Amal Jayasinghe, Colombo bureau chief of the AFP news agency. "Another body of opinion is that that the Tiger leader has already left the country - possibly for another Asian country - and is planning to fight another day. That may explain why the rebel infrastructure appears to be on the verge of collapse." Mr Jayasinghe - who has covered the Sri Lankan war since it began in the 1980s - says that of the two options, the first is the more likely. "The character of Prabhakaran - his insistence that none of his soldiers is captured alive and his emphasis on military discipline - means that he is much more likely to stay fighting to the bitter end," he says. "Even if he wanted to escape from the war zone in a bid to re-emerge as a guerrilla leader, it would be almost impossible for him to do so now. "The Sri Lankan army is now in control of the north and it's unlikely he could escape at this late juncture."

'Bloodbath'

Analysts agree that the plight of civilians caught up in the war zone will be a key determinant in when and how the war ends. The rebels have suffered so many setbacks on the battlefield in recent months that their future as a fighting force has become inextricably linked with the fate of the civilians. Estimates of civilian numbers after the latest exodus from the area vary. The figures of aid agencies and the UN have generally been double those given by the government. "The only strategy left to the Tigers in resisting the current onslaught is by warning the army and the outside world that hundreds of civilians will die if and when the army launches its final offensive," says the BBC's Sinhala service editor Priyath Liyanage. "It is only this threat of a bloodbath that is keeping the rebels alive." Some analysts say that rebel cadres have already left the war zone posing as civilians, with the intention of re-forming in the jungle at a later stage. From its point of view, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa will want to capture the last vestiges of rebel territory as quickly as possible. "After more than two decades of conflict, war weariness will be a big threat to him if the current battle is not speedily resolved," says Priyath Liyanage. "The president has managed to keep the public behind him by arguing that the final assault will bring about a conclusive end to the war."

'Resentment'

President Rajapaksa's pleas to the outside world that Sri Lanka needs to deal a decisive blow in its "war against terror" has so far placated most of the international community, which has not done much more than appeal to both sides to cease hostilities. However with large protests by the Tamil diaspora taking place in the UK, France, Norway, Canada and Australia it might be that foreign governments will be persuaded to speak out more if the fighting in the north-east is not speedily concluded. "The government now finds itself facing a difficult dilemma," says Priyath Liyanage. "On the one hand it says that it wants to re-take remaining rebel territory as quickly as possible. But on the other hand, it says that the safety of civilians is of paramount importance. "That is why it has in recent days put so much emphasis on its figures, which show that civilians are leaving the conflict area." On one point all analysts agree: the Sri Lankan war is now entering a decisive stage and one of the largest and best-equipped rebel forces in the world is on the verge of losing its last remaining pockets of land. But the rebels have proved on innumerable occasions that they have the capacity to strike at targets - often civilian ones - all over Sri Lanka. "Resentment at the way the government has prosecuted the war and the reasons why it began it in the first place - the grievances of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority - have not been addressed," says Amal Jayasinghe. "So while the battle will be over imminently the war could well drag on indefinitely."

Congress for cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka. Asked to react on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s demand that the Centre issue an ultimatum to Sri Lanka to declare an “immediate and permanent ceasefire,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said: “We are demanding cessation of hostilities.”When queried persistently whether the Congress agreed with Mr. Karunanidhi’s demand for a ceasefire, Ms. Natarajan insisted on using the formulation “cessation of hostilities” instead. The matter came up during the Congress briefing in view of reports that the Chief Minister had sent telegrams to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee asking them to issue an ultimatum to Colombo. Congress leaders insisted that Mr. Karunanidhi’s telegram should not be seen as an ultimatum to the party. “He wants the Centre to issue an ultimatum to the Sri Lankan government,” Congress leaders said. They expressed confidence that Mr. Karunanidhi would not walk out on the alliance as it could also jeopardise his own government in Tamil Nadu. The Congress maintained that it had always expressed its concern for the innocent Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire while clearly de-linking them from the LTTE, which is a banned terrorist outfit.“We are also urging the government to do more to address the humanitarian aspect of the Sri Lankan Tamil problem,” Ms. Natarajan said.

US releases satellite photos of Sri Lankan war

The State Department released satellite imagery Tuesday of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians squeezed into the last small strip of land controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.The State Department said that a recent image shows about 25,000 tents packed into a coastal strip about 8 square miles large. Based on the number of tents, they estimate that about 125,000 people were in the conflict zone before about 60,000 civilians escaped over the last two days.Human rights groups say the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are holding many people in the enclave against their will and using them as human shields. Those groups have also accused the government of indiscriminate shelling in the region. Both sides deny the allegations.Thousands of civilians also fled in packed small boats, and they were picked up by navy patrols and transported to camps where Tamils who have escaped the war are being held. More than 2,000 people in about 100 boats were picked up Monday.The U.N. and others have called for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to leave the rebel-held coastal strip.But the Sri Lankan government has refused to heed those international pleas to halt the fighting, saying it is on the verge of crushing the separatists and putting an end to the 25-year-old war.The U.S. government appears to agree with that assessment."We see the potential for major developments in the next 48 hours," said Michael Owen, acting deputy assistant secretary of state.The State Department urged the Sri Lankan government to exercise restraint.Earlier, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is considering how the U.S. can help Sri Lanka rebuild and move forward once the civil conflict is settled.

Tamil protest jams Canadian capital

Up to 30,000 Tamil protestors stepped up pressure on the Canadian government on Tuesday, clogging the capital for a 15th day in a row to demand it try to broker a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.Screaming "no more genocide," beating drums heard throughout downtown, waving fists in the air and placards begging for the prime minister's ear, they packed onto the parliamentary lawn with umbrellas drawn in a drizzle.A much smaller group had gathered in front of parliament daily since April 7 to protest Colombo's offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in their homeland.But the Canadian government, which listed the LTTE as a banned terrorist organization in April 2006, has refused to meet with the protestors to hear their proposals."Democracy has failed us," protestor Senthan Nada told AFP, pointing out a teenage boy in the crowd on his knees, crying."If there's a forest fire in Australia, the government responds. If there's people killed in Gaza or Israel, or an earthquake somewhere in the world, the government responds. But they just ignore our plight," he lamented."We feel very discouraged," he said.Canada gave asylum to more than 300,000 Tamils who left Sri Lanka during some of the conflict's bloodiest times in the 1980s, because authorities "knew we faced violence in our homeland," Nada said."I don't understand why now they ignore us."Opposition Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said in a statement he was "deeply concerned about escalating violence in Sri Lanka" and urged Ottawa to take a lead role in condemning the violence and providing humanitarian aid."There are no military solutions to this conflict, and we must stress the absolute necessity of an internationally-coordinated diplomatic strategy," he said.In a letter to parliamentarians, the protestors warned: "We are quickly running out of viable options to save the lives of our many affected family members in this crisis."Colombo says it is poised to defeat the LTTE, which has been fighting for a Tamil homeland on the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island since the 1970s.But while the rebels are on the back foot at home, tens of thousands of Tamils have come out in the streets of far-off European and North American cities to demand an international response to the offensive.In Paris, French police arrested 210 people Monday when a rally by Tamils turned violent as demonstrators threw bottles at security forces and smashed windscreens.In London, thousands of Tamils blocked some of the city's busiest streets, demonstrating outside parliament and calling for an immediate ceasefire.Over the past two weeks, two Tamil hunger strikers were hospitalized in Ottawa, and one woman was bloodied in a brief scuffle with police. Otherwise, the protests here have been peaceful.

Opposition criticises DMK's call for strike

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK boss M. Karunanidhi's appeal for a "voluntary shutdown" Thursday to press for a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka has triggered derision from the opposition. "The unprecedented genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka is being feebly countered by Karunanidhi with ineffective measures like shutdowns and telegrams to the centre instead of forcing the issue," AIADMK boss Jayalalitha said in a statement Wednesday. PMK leader S. Ramadoss said in a separate statement: "The chief minister's lament is pathetic and useless against a government at the centre that is immune and immobile to the sufferings of our Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka."     Late Tuesday, Karunanidhi appealed for a general strike. Requesting the central government to initiate immediate measures to force Sri Lanka stop the war he said: "All parties and the general public should voluntarily agree for a dawn to dusk peaceful shutdown Thursday." In a letter addressed to party cadres, Karunanidhi added: "We have no other recourse but to lament the loss of innocent Tamil lives in Sri Lanka and registering our protest by peaceful means." During the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled May 13 in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, while all regional and national parties are pressing for an immediate end to the killings of innocent Tamil civilians in war-torn Sri Lanka, most parties have decried support to the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

21 April 2009

Sri Lankan civilians flee rebel-held areas for second day

Colombo - Civilians fled Tamil rebel-held areas in north-eastern Sri Lanka for a second-consecutive day Tuesday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.    He said the exact number of civilians who arrived from the rebel-held areas in Puthumathalan, 390 kilometres north-east of Colombo were not known but people were continuing to arrive in military-controlled areas.    On Monday, a record 39,081 civilians fled the rebel-held area using land and sea routes, he said.    The military facilitated their escape by breaking through earthworks put up by the separatist rebels to prevent security forces from entering.    The civilians continued to come in from what the government said is the last remaining rebel-held territory in Sri Lanka as a government deadline for rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his cadres to surrender ends at noon (0630 GMT).    Nanayakkara said irrespective of the deadline, troops were continuing operations to rescue civilians and clear the area of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as soon as possible.    He said that according to available intelligence reports, Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief, Pottu Amman, were still in the area.    Rebels are now confined to less than 12 square kilometres on the coast of the Mullaitivu district, which includes the Putumathalan area, a government-demarcated safe zone, officials said.    Before Monday's mass exodus, about 68,000 civilians had fled the rebel-held areas since January and were placed in welfare centres before resettlement.    The government has described the operation to get the civilians out of the rebel-held area as one of the biggest 'hostage rescue operations' in the world because it accuses the rebels of preventing the civilians from fleeing.    It said three women suicide bombers on Monday blew themselves up in the Puthumathalan area, killing 17 civilians and injuring 200, while people trying to escape claimed they were fired upon by the rebels to prevent them from leaving.    The LTTE, however, has accused the government of firing on civilians in the safe zone and forcing them into government territory.  Independent verification of these claims were not possible because the government has blocked journalists from the war zone.    The military said it is in the last phase of a drive to crush the LTTE, which has been fighting for more than 25 years for a separate state for the Tamil ethnic minority in the northern and eastern parts of majority-Sinhalese Sri Lanka.    Government troops launched the operations to recapture rebel-held areas in August 2006, first recapturing all rebel territory in the east last year before concentrating their operations in the north.

Sri Lanka gives rebels 24 hours to surrender

Sri Lanka gave the Tamil Tiger rebels 24 hours to surrender or face a final military assault, after the military rescued 35,000 civilians from the last swath of rebel territory, officials said. The government issued the ultimatum, giving the Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his fighters 24 hours starting Monday at noon to surrender before the military launches a final assault aimed at crushing the insurgents and ending the island nation's 25-year civil war.Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters that the rebel chief had until noon on Tuesday to make up his mind.Earlier Monday, government forces opened up routes for more than 35,000 people to leave a rebel-controlled “no-fire” zone, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa.Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said soldiers advanced into the zone and seized a fortification built by the rebels before rescuing the civilians. It is not possible to verify the military's claims because the war zone is restricted to journalists.Rajapaksa called it the “largest-ever” hostage rescue mission, in a speech shown on state television.It was not possible to contact the rebels for comment. The rebels have refused previous calls for their surrender.The United Nations has voiced concern for the safety of an estimated 100,000 civilians who have been trapped with rebels in the “no-fire” zone measuring only 7.7 square miles (20 square kilometers). The U.N. also estimates that some 4,500 noncombatants have been killed in the last three months amid fierce fighting.The government and aid groups have accused the rebels of holding civilians as human shields in the zone, a charge the rebels deny.In recent months the military has ousted the Tamil rebels from all their strongholds in an all-out offensive, forcing the rebels to retreat to the “no-fire” zone for a final stand.The Tamil rebels have been fighting to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Tigers vow to fight on but ready for talks

The LTTE yesterday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in the United States, which was different from other countries. It urged the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion and stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned the Sri Lankan government of dire consequences if the war was continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE will like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE said in a statement issued from in political headquarters in the Vanni."The LTTE appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the US Government's statement dated April 16 on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni-Mullaitivu region.""So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the US has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government.""The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government.""The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing of civilian areas and accept the call of the US and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues."

The text of the statement is as follows:

The LTTE appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the US Government’s statement dated April 16, on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni/Mullaitivu region. This is an important step towards meaningful international action to actually protect and provide relief to the forlorn Tamil civilian population incurring daily causalities and unspeakable tragedies from the offensive military operations of the Sri Lankan armed forces towards the safe zone where they were asked to go into, by the same Sri Lankan Government. Apart from the plight of the civilian population in the safe zone, the Tamil people in other parts of the Tamil homeland are facing severe military oppression, countless indignities and denial of basic human rights. The people detained by the Sri Lankan Government at military controlled detention camps in Vavuniya are subjected to incessant persecution and torture by the Sri Lankan state forces. The Tamil people in Jaffna peninsula, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai are subject to atrocities of the Sri Lanka’s military, police and paramilitary rulers on a daily basis. The IDPs in North and East of the Island are subject to indefinite military control without any effective mechanisms to facilitate their safety and return to their own homes and villages. So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the United States has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government. USA has also been openly acknowledge the need to address the basic discrimination, inequality and racism towards the Tamil people by the Sinhalese Sri Lankan Government that was and is the root cause for our fight for freedom. The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government. A military solution will never lay this problem to rest, as the Sri Lankan Government envisages and constantly promises everyone. The LTTE would like reiterate its commitment to a ceasefire without any preconditions, as urged by the US and other members of the international community. The LTTE is also ready for a meaningful negotiation on all issues related to humanitarian access, security, movement and welfare of the Tamil civilian population. The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing civilian areas and accept the call of the United States and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues. We note the Sri Lankan Government’s recent statements that we are not in a position to ask for any preconditions. We would like to make it clear that while the basic rights of the Tamils continue to be denied, while successive Sri Lankan Governments always consider that the way to address our grievances is through military action and not constitutional changes, while the injustices against the Tamils now also includes daily shelling and killing of Tamil men, women, children and even unborn babies (for all of which we have pictorial evidence), while the international community watches on in deafening silence, the LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace, as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasise again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict.

TDD to channel funds from Tamil diaspora to rehabilitate IDPs

Dr. Rajasingham Narendran, a member of the Tamil diaspora delegation, said yesterday that they had requested the Government to make available a mechanism to channel funds from the Tamil Diaspora to care, rehabilitate and reconstruct IDPs’ dwellings.They requested the Government to do everything possible to minimise casualties among the civilians caught in the War Zone and that those fleeing be treated in the highest humanitarian standards, and surrendering and captured combatants be treated humanely and rehabilitated.They said resettlement of the IDPs and reconstruction activities should commence as soon as possible.An Interim Provincial Council should be appointed to the North until normalcy is restored – without violence and no other person other than the Armed Forces and Police be allowed to carry arms. All IDPs should be resettled as soon as possible and conditions created for all Tamils scattered around the country to return and elections to provincial councils be held after a three-year interim period, they said.A mechanism for drawing in the skills of the Tamil diaspora to contribute their skills to IDP care, national health, reconstruction and development process to be created.Law and order and due process to be enforced without fear or favour to build the confidence of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.All preventive measures to be taken to prevent communal riots in the future.To never tell the Tamils to go back to India if conditions in the island are unacceptable to them.To make immediate gestures to make the Tamils feel the near elimination of the LTTE is their victory.The 13th Amendment and other provisions relating to language issues in the constitution to be implemented fully and quickly.The APC process to be accelerated and consensus found to legislate the 13th Amendment plus changes to the Constitution.The 221 member Tamil Diaspora for Dialogue (TDD) delegation which was in the country, met with a host of Government members including Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohonna, Minister Dew Gunasekera and Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana among a host of others.There were writers, Human rights activists, academics, doctors, lawyers, professors from Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, Norway, UK, Denmark and Saudi Arabia.The visiting Tamil Diaspora for Dialogue (TDD) group to form the nucleus of an organisation to interact with the Government.

Only Hours To Prevent Sri Lanka Bloodbath -Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch warned Monday that the world had only hours to prevent a potential "bloodbath" in Sri Lanka, but the island's ambassador here pledged to protect civilians.Sri Lankan authorities set a deadline of midday (0630 GMT) Tuesday for Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his cadres believed to be hiding among civilians to turn themselves in.Sri Lanka didn't specify what it would do if the ultimatum was ignored by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has waged a bloody campaign in 1972 to create a separate homeland for the Tamil minority."We are concerned that it is going to be a bloodbath," said Anna Neistat, a senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.She said the international community had a matter of hours "to make it crystal clear to both sides of this conflict - both the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka - that they will not get away with it."The world should say "that unnecessary and unlawful loss of civilian lives would be considered war crimes and people responsible for that - including commanders - will be held responsible," she said at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.But Jaliya Wickramasuriya, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., said that the priority was to rescue civilians."We are not going to do any huge operation as such," he said. "We are still concerned about civilians."Footage by a Sri Lankan spy plane Monday showed more than 35,000 civilians pouring out of the jungle territory where the LTTE are making their final stand in the northeast of the island.More than 100,000 civilians were estimated to be trapped in the area, designated by the government as a safe zone. Sri Lanka and rights groups said the rebels were using the civilians as a human shield."If by tomorrow noon we hear that 90,000 people manage to escape the government-controlled areas, the government would assume that everyone who remains in the area is an LTTE cadre and thus fair game, which we don't believe is true," Neistat said.

US Call to Cease Violent Activity, Protection of Civilians in Safe Zones

QUESTION: Robert, the Sri Lankan Government has given the Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender or die. And I wonder what you think about that, whether you think that,s a useful step for them to take or whether they should find a way to try to negotiate an end to this?

MR. WOOD: Well, I haven,t seen those comments, Arshad, but again, we continue  well, let me just say, first and foremost, that we recently issued a statement on the conflict in Sri Lanka. And again, we call on both the government and the Tamil Tigers to cease this violent activity, to protect civilians in the safe zones. We are very concerned about the humanitarian situation there. It,s dire. We are working with a number of interested parties with regard to seeing this conflict ended, and we are going to continue to try to do that. But it is important that both sides minimize, to the greatest possible extent, any civilian casualties, protect civilians, allow humanitarian organizations to get food to the people who need it. But you know, I am not going to kid you. It is a very serious situation on the ground there, and we are going to continue to work with others in the international community to try to see what we can  to stop it.

QUESTION: But are you not worried that there could be a civilian bloodbath if the Sri Lankan military, at the end of the 24 hours, simply prosecutes a full-fledged offensive against the  such Tigers as remain?

MR. WOOD: You know, well, I don’t want to, you know, get ahead of things, Arshad. But obviously, our concern is for these innocent civilians who are trapped or caught in the middle of this conflict. And we want to try to do everything that we can to protect them and make sure that they get the assistance that they need.

I don’t have a magic formula for you in terms of how we deal with it, but we are going to continue the United States and others who are interested in seeing this conflict end immediately work to try to convince both sides in the interest of, you know, their people to try to minimize any harm to civilians.

Brown pressure on Tamils

The Prime Minister has put pressure on his Sri Lankan counterpart in a bid to bring about a ceasefire in the country, an MP said today. Gordon Brown phoned prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and "pressed him extremely hard on the issue", according to Keith Vaz. The Labour MP said: "The Prime Minister has given us more face time on this issue than I have ever had face time from the Prime Minister on any issue." Mr Vaz was speaking at a briefing about the ongoing mass protest in Westminster by Tamils calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Student Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel, a British citizen, has ended his five-day hunger strike but warned he would return to it if a ceasefire was not achieved. The Sri Lankan-born 20-year-old, who came to the UK in 2004, has lost contact with his grandmother and uncles in the so-called safe zone in the north of the country. "I don't know if they are alive or dead," he said. "We are living in a good country, we have everything, but Tamils in the safe zone have nothing. "What's happening in Sri Lanka is a genocide. The UN left, the media left, every organisation in the world left - leaving the Tamil people alone." He abandoned his studies four months ago to commit himself to his cause, sustaining himself through his hunger strike by "just thinking about the people". His fellow hunger striker Parameswaran Subramanyam, 28, who has lost several family members in the troubles, is still refusing to eat. "There's nobody egging him on, he's just says that - as somebody who has lost his immediate family - that the best protest he can make is do this," said Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes, co-chair of the All Party Group on Conflict Issues. "He is perfectly compos mentis." This week, Mr Hughes said, a group of 10 young protesters will take part in visits to officials in Strasbourg and Washington to further their goals, with other meetings in the works. Mr Sivakumaravel will be among those taking part in a planned visit to the UN, but his fellow protesters' identities are being protected for security reasons. Mr Hughes noted that organisers have permission for 50 people to protest in Parliament Square for a further two weeks, but numbers have swelled due to the strength of feeling about the situation in Sri Lanka. He added: "We are going to make another request tonight for people to come back into the square so the streets can be opened up."

Doctor gunned down in Vavuniya

An unidentified gunman has fatally shot a doctor attached to the Vavuniya hospital last night, police said. Police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekara said that the victim, identified as Dr. Meera Mohideen was a gynecologist at the Vavuniya hospital. Police believe that this murder could be a result of another ransom case in the area. Vavuniya police are conducting further investigations.

Both personal and political for me, so won’t comment on LTTE: Priyanka

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today sought to keep away from the row over Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s remarks about LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, maintaining it was “both a personal and political matter” for her. In an interview with The Indian Express, Priyanka said that she did not share brother Rahul Gandhi’s views that the family was still to get justice for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. “Rahul and I perhaps react to this particular thing slightly differently. I know Rahul. He has no anger in his heart, no hatred in his heart. He was only referring to the fact that the justice system takes a long time,” she said. Priyanka, who met Nalini (convicted in her father’s assassination case) in jail last year, said she was not seeking justice from any individual. “I actually think that justice is something that I cannot demand from other human beings. Justice is something that the universe will give me. You see this fact that this lady (Nalini) has suffered as much as, if not more than, I have suffered. In a sense, that is justice. Nobody has made her suffer. Circumstances have created that suffering.” Asked if she had forgiven Nalini, she said, “I am nobody to forgive her”. It was because of this that she refused to join issue with Karunanidhi who yesterday called Prabhakaran a friend and said the LTTE chief was not a terrorist. The remarks not only left many red faces in the Congress but also prompted AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa to question why “the widow of Rajiv Gandhi” was silent on Karunanidhi’s statement.

Ensure well-being of rescued civilians: UNP

The main opposition UNP said yesterday that with most of the remaining civilians now crossing into government-controlled areas it was the responsibility of the government to ensure their safety and welfare.UNP member Dayasiri Jayasekara speaking on yesterday’s influx of civilians into government-controlled areas said it was good that the civilians were finally escaping from the Tigers and were being rescued by the security forces after months of being held hostage by the terrorists. However he said questions were being asked as to what action was taken by the government to rescue the civilians during the time they were trapped by the LTTE. “It is a relief to find the civilians have been saved.It is still uncertain as to what action the government took to rescue these civilians when Prabhakaran was holding them as human shields for so long. Despite this we are glad the civilians have been rescued,” Mr. Jayasekara said.He said LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran should heed the call to surrender in the best interests of the Tamil people. “Prabhakaran must understand that his actions are only making his own Tamil people suffer. These civilians are our brothers and sisters so keeping this in mind he must surrender,” Mr. Jayasekara said.He asked Prabhakaran to accept defeat as the war had been won by the security forces and he should realize that most of the Tamil people had fled the Safe Zone. Mr. Jayasekara said his party urged the government and the LTTE to immediately stop harming the civilians and added that the government should ensure that civilians crossing into cleared areas should be provided with safe shelters, adequate food and not harassed. “Only then will the government’s efforts to safeguard the civilians be recognized,” he said.Mr. Jayasekara said the war should be ended as soon as possible and called on the international community such as the Co-chairs to understand the situation Sri Lanka was in and added that longstanding humanitarian crisis should not be dragged further and the people provided much needed relief.

“DMK will be happy if Eelam comes about”

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi on Monday said the DMK had made it very clear long ago that it would be the happiest organisation if the dream of a Tamil Eelam materialised in Sri Lanka.In a statement, Mr.Karunanidhi said that he had made this clear in the Assembly, too. Responding to a query from the PMK founder, Mr.Karunanidhi asked if Dr.Ramadoss would clarify to people what the stand of the leader of his alliance was on the MDMK’s demand for removal of the ban on the LTTE.On whether the DMK was prepared to break its alliance with the Congress if the Centre did not break diplomatic ties with Sri Lanka, Mr.Karunanidhi asked why the PMK was so interested in the DMK breaking its alliance with the Congress. Mr.Karunanidhi pointed out that Dr.Ramadoss’ son merely quit as Union Minister, but held on to his Rajya Sabha seat.On the fast by a women’s organisation at the MDMK headquarters, Mr.Karunanidhi said that he had sent Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi there to request the group to give up the fast. They wanted an assurance from Congress president Sonia Gandhi that India would break all diplomatic ties with Sri Lanka. The Chief Minister said that he had conveyed to the agitating women, through Ms.Kanimozhi, that he would talk to Ms.Gandhi, and that he believed that she would take appropriate steps to effect a ceasefire. He was once again appealing to the women to give up their hunger strike.On AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa’s claim that the Sethusamudram would affect fishermen adversely, Mr.Karunanidhi asked if she was not aware of this when she wrote to the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao on the issue in 1991 and when she released her party’s manifestoes for the 2001 Assembly and the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Mr.Karunanidhi alleged that it was because the United Progressive Alliance was implementing the scheme and since 60 per cent of the project work had been completed, Ms.Jayalalithaa was coming up with this theory now.

Sri Lanka army accused of carnage 

A Tamil Tiger spokesman has accused the Sri Lankan government of shelling civilians and wreaking carnage during its military offensive in the north. The government has denied the allegations, in turn accusing the rebel group of targeting civilians. The defence ministry says at least 31,000 civilians have recently fled the Tamil Tiger-held area. The rebels have so far rejected government calls to surrender, or face a final assault. The rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Thileepan, spoke to the BBC by telephone with the sound of explosions in the background. He said a hospital, an orphanage and many houses had been hit and huge numbers of civilians had been killed in a military onslaught of the area. He said people had been reduced to hiding under logs and trees and using makeshift bunkers dug into the sand.

'Human avalanche'

The Sri Lankan military has denied shelling civilians inside the rebel-held area. Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara told the BBC that only small-arms had been used. He said the Tigers were targeting civilians because they knew that if non-combatants left, the rebels would be "sitting ducks". The army says three rebel suicide bombings had targeted fleeing civilians, killing 17.One Tamil man who had just left the conflict zone said the rebels tried to shoot anyone planning to escape. Local newspapers are covered with pictures of large numbers of people leaving rebel territory, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo. One calls the process a "human avalanche". People escaped after troops broke through a fortification which had been blocking their advance into the Tigers' last stronghold, the army said on Monday. Aerial video showed thousands of people filing out of the combat zone. Tens of thousands remain in the area, which has seen heavy fighting for months. The pro-rebel TamilNet website said several hundred civilians were feared killed and injured after troops advanced into the zone. The defence ministry said on Tuesday troops were advancing into what was previously designated by the government as a safe zone. It said another 3,000 civilians left the conflict zone on Tuesday. Each side accuses the other of killing civilians in the long running civil conflict. Foreign reporters are not allowed into the combat zone, making it impossible to independently verify the claims. The Tigers are restricted to a 20 sq km (12.4 sq miles) coastal patch. Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, said it was not known how many civilians remained there but that the UN had been working off a figure of some 150,000 to 200,000 people in recent months. Our correspondent says life for the Tamil civilians in the zone is a nightmare. The UN says the Tigers are preventing people from escaping, despite rebel denials. The government is not giving the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to the landward side of the zone. So it can only evacuate people by sea, with two or three ships per week each carrying 400 or 500 of the sickest, oldest and most badly wounded people.

Nadesan denies reports of human bomb, blames Colombo for deploying banned weapons

Political Head of the LTTE, B Nadesan categorically denied reports in Sri Lankan and the Indian media that Tamil Tiger human bombs blew themselves up to prevent civilians fleeing the so-called safe-zone. "The LTTE denies these fabricated stories that seek to discredit us and divert attention away from the suffering of the Tamil people," he said when contacted by TamilNet Monday night. Sri Lankan forces have deployed three types of internationally banned weapons such as cluster shells, napalm bombs and phosphorus bombs against civilians, causing heavy casualties among civilians. He said nearly one thousand civilians were killed and many more wounded in SLA attacks. So far around 1,200 have been brought to the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, Mr. Nadesan said.Several people were killed inside their tarpaulin huts and the rescue workers have not even been able to transport their bodies, he added.Reports surfaced in Sri Lankan and Indian media Monday that three LTTE human bombs were exploded to prevent civilians who were fleeing the so-called safe zone. Thousands of civilians, injured in the bombing, are flocking the temporary hospital at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal.Independent sources, such as civilians and doctors, talking to media have attested that cluster bombs had caused heavy casualties in Monday's attack.

French arrest 200 protesters in Paris Tamil demonstration on Sri Lanka

Hundreds of demonstrators blocked an intersection in central Paris, throwing bottles at passing buses as they demanded that Sri Lanka end its military assault on Tamil-held areas."French people, react", "Sarkozy, help us" chanted an estimated 500 demonstrators as they gathered near the Gare du Nord train station for the protest, which had not been declared to the authorities.Sri Lanka declares 48-hour halt to its offensive against Tamil TigersPolice said the demonstrators might be charged with belonging to an "armed gathering" as the bottles they threw could be considered weapons.Expatriate Tamils have been demonstrating around the world against the Sri Lankan government's conduct of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels. London has been a focus as many Tamils blame Britain, the former colonial power, for denying them a homeland. More than 2,000 people demonstrated in London on Monday.Sri Lankan troops have threatened a final assault on the rebels, who are fighting to create an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils. The offensive in northern Sri Lanka has lasted several months.The United Nations has said both sides in the long-running ethnic war may be guilty of war crimes, with the government accused of shelling civilian areas and the Tigers of keeping people hostage.

ANC calls for ceasefire, supports independent Tamil homeland

The ruling party of the government of South Africa (ANC) have reiterated calls for a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka and acknowledged the need for an independent Tamil homeland. ANC MP and chairmen of the Solidarity Group of Peace and Equality Sisa Njikelana in an interview with Tamilnet, Saturday, has stressed the need for bilateral talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, an organisation that articulates the aspirations of the people. “This Government believes that by defeating the LTTE, the Tamils will just automatically fall for any offer given. I look at that with a nice cynical smile”, he said.

Full text of the interview follows:

TamilNet: How do you view the historical and ideological perspectives between the ANC and the LTTE?

 Njikelana: The historical relationship between the ANC & the LTTE dates back to the time when our own party was languishing in exile amid the political turmoil of our country. Our two parties share an ideological, social and political commonality that lies within the connection of the people we continue to fight for.

TamilNet: How do you contextualise the struggle of Eezham Tamils and that of South Africa?

Njikelana: Oppressed, exploited, denied their rights, brutalised and massacred when they fought for their rights, these are the common threads between the two people. It is through these injustices that the liberation struggle began for both parties, when the masses chose to reject the imposition of repressive legislation, reject educational and social discrimination, reject being subjugated, and strived for self determination for its people. The blacks of South Africa now enjoy the fruits of freedom, yet the struggle to survive remains a bloody reality for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

TamilNet: You have said that the Sri Lankan Government must engage in bilateral talks with the LTTE. Why is this?

Njikelana: It is absolutely clear that any end to the Sri Lankan war must involve bilateral talks with the LTTE. History indicates the rise of the LTTE as a mechanism of mobilisation for the Tamil people. They have successfully achieved this role, to the point where comments from the Government illustrate a subtle acknowledgement of the centrality of the LTTE to the Tamil people and their aspirations. This Government believes that by defeating the LTTE, the Tamils will just automatically fall for any offer given. I look at that with a nice cynical smile. That is what apartheid govt said, they said we broke the back of the ANC, yet year later, we stand as leaders of the great nation of South Africa.

TamilNet: What impact do you think the banning and demonization of the LTTE by certain countries will have on prospects of peace throughout Sri Lanka?

Njikelana: Again, the LTTE’s role in the prospect of peace is a vital element that the world fails to understand. The Sri Lankan Government continues to use the label of terrorism as a guise to place a lid on an organisation (LTTE) that articulates the aspirations of a people who undeniably have their rights denied. The LTTE should be allowed to stand in front of global community and express themselves, we are mature and intelligent enough to make our decision. When the ANC faced similar bans by the apartheid Government in South Africa, we took our message to the world, and as a result, our struggle swelled from mere tens, to thousands, to millions. We were given the chance to voice our message to international figures, and until the LTTE are given this opportunity, peace remains a distant reality.

TamilNet: How did the ANC view the recent so-called 48 hour ceasefire declared by the Sri Lankan Government?

Njikelana: The pittance of people who left to government areas shows a people who have no trust in the Colombo administration. These people have more trust and hope on the LTTE, a view that corroborates with stories and narrations of civilians that continue to seep through the walls of censorship that has silenced the cries of Tamil civilians.

TamilNet: What is your governments’ reaction to India’s role in providing military and economic support to the Sri Lanka?

Njikelana: The ANC and the solidarity group hold firm on its position that only Sri Lanka itself can be central to solving this conflict, and other countries must act as merely facilitators to help achieve a political solution. India, as a regional superpower should be vocal about the futility of a military solution and the significance of a peaceful political solution. The ANC hope that with true persistent international engagement, India will be persuaded to desist from these actions.

TamilNet: Can you tell us about the Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice that has been set across South Africa?

Njikelana: The Solidarity Group was established on 21st December 2008 by affiliates of the ANC and members of the South African community in response to the fragmentation of Tamil groups, whose continued efforts remain largely unknown to the general public. This group is structured upon a broadfront ideology and acts as an umbrella organisation that encompasses various other social, trade and political organisations to assist in highlighting the genocide being faced by the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

TamilNet: Continued protests across the world by the Tamil Diaspora calling for a permanent ceasefire and the establishment of an independent Tamil homeland have failed to halt the Colombo’s desire for a military solution. Do you think the world will act?

Njikelana: I am appealing to the Tamil Diaspora to not only double, but multiply their efforts from now, to ensure that there is a change in Sri Lanka, both in short term that is an immediate ceasefire, and long term – lasting political solution. The clear statements from government leaders in Colombo that they want nothing else but to decimate the Tamils, would seem impossible to others, but the history endured illustrates that it is indeed possible. The international community and global bodies are rather lethargic about this issue, and I make a call to the Tamil Diaspora that they must continue solidarity group in their nations, to mobilise themselves in a truthful and responsible way to voice the destruction of their brethren.

TamilNet: The ANC currently stands on the brink of a historic win in South Africa. If the party is successful, what will be the dialogue between your government and that of Sri Lanka?

Njikelana: I will urge the Sri Lankan president to listen to my democratically elected government and a) Implement a permanent ceasefire, b) revive peace agreements c) Allow humanitarian aid to reach proper destination without hindrance, d) Allow journalists to go and have unhindered and protected access to the war zone, e) to allow NGO’s such as UN agencies back into every corner of Sri Lankan with immediate effect. Sri Lanka is part of the global village, and should behave as such..