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'Armed groups run by state' Ranil UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is controlling a number of armed groups in the east says the leader of the opposition Ranil Wickremasinghe . Opposition leader Wickremasinghe told this at a media briefing on Wednesday summoned to outline a proposed National Consultation by the Jathika Sabha which comprises of the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (M). Wickremasinghe further said that Tamil Tigers are still in the east while break away Pilliayan group, EPDP, and a Muslim group mobilised by the government are in operation. UNP is not contesting local polls…

Sri Lanka's government is one of the world's worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances, US-based pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. An HRW report accuses security forces and pro-government militias of abducting and "disappearing" hundreds of people since 2006. Many of the missing are young Tamil men targeted on suspicion of links to Tamil Tiger rebels, HRW says. Sri Lanka's government says HRW has exaggerated the scale of the problem. Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona says there has been a "steady decline in disappearances over the last 12 months" because of new measures taken by the government. "Unfortunately Human Rights Watch…

Western power games and Kosovo ‘independence’ Former Thomian Chaplain Rev. L.J.B. Fernando had a penchant for pithy comments during his short sermons. “Independence means in dependence of God,” was one. I was reminded of this line as Kosovo made its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on February 17. Has Kosovo truly gained independence? Or is it actually in dependence of the powerful West? In short, is Kosovo an independent, sovereign state, or a protectorate that is virtually a Western puppet? True status The finest illustration of Kosovo’s true status lies in the Declaration of Independence proclamation read out by Kosovan Prime …

Thailand has started sending Hmong asylum seekers back to neighbouring Laos, where they fear political persecution. Twelve Hmong were removed from a camp in Thailand's Petchabun province on Thursday. The camp is estimated to hold nearly 8,000 Hmong from Laos, most of whom say they fear for their safety in their communist homeland. Aid agency witnesses say they were sent back against their will, but Thailand insists they went voluntarily. The deportations began as Samak Sundaravej, the new Thai prime minister, made his first official visit to Laos on Friday to discuss energy deals as well as the fate of thousands of Hmong. Under a Laos-Thai repa…

Kosovo - no precedent to Eelam Tamil politicians reject LTTE's attempt of UDI By Shanika Sriyananda shanika@sundayobserver.lk While the LTTE and its sympathisers were overjoyed with Kosovo's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Serbia, and trying to draw a parallel between Kosovo and the North East, Tamil politicians said that the LTTE's desire will not be fruitful without the support of the international community. The leader of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) V. Anandasangaree while strongly opposing the LTTE using innocent civilians as scapegoats said that no one could see any similarities between Kosovo and the LTTE which ar…

A clash between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) erupted Tuesday around 7:45 a.m in Jaffna lagoon near Ko’lumpuththu’rai when SLA troops in the sentry posts along the lagoon shore attacked LTTE boats, sources in Jaffna said. LTTE retaliated from their boats and the fighting lasted for nearly fifteen minutes, the sources said. The SLA, from its artillery bases in Jaffna peninsula, launched rocket fire towards LTTE held Poonakari, across Jaffna lagoon, according to the sources. Fishermen fishing in the area rushed back to the shore and tension prevailed in Ko'lumpuththu'rai. Normalcy returned to the peninsula when the shelling…

Kosovo’s victory has lessons for other liberation struggles - paper [TamilNet, Thursday, 21 February 2008, 16:16 GMT] Describing Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday and the ensuing international recognition as “a powerful shot in the arm to peoples resisting and seeking independence from tyrannical regimes,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper this said that “whilst every situation and every circumstance is unique, there are important lessons from the Kosovan march to independence for liberation struggles everywhere. The paper pointed out that just a few years ago, the idea of Kosovan independence had been dismissed by the international community and the Kosovan L…

India's Peace and War [TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 01:24 GMT] The now defunct Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka was mooted and shadow-managed by the BJP government, according to Indian journalist, M.R. Narayan Swamy. Wickramasinghe and Pirapaharan were aware of this top secret mission of India, supervised by Vajpayee's Advisor Brajesh Mishra, but not J.N. Dixit who succeeded him with the change of government in May 2004. Dixit had to learn it from Wickramasinghe. The CFA signed in February 2002 was unilaterally withdrawn by the Sri Lanka government in January 2008. Swamy's revealing and the chronology of events implicate the Congress establishment and the eg…

Expression of support to LTTE not an offence: Karunanidhi [TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 16:55 GMT] Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday reiterated that mere expression of support to the LTTE was not an offence as per an observation of the Indian Supreme Court. He admonished Opposition leader Jayalalithaa for misleading the people on this issue. He said that when a Congress member C Gnanasekaran had raised the issue and demanded action against Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Kadchi (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan for organising a conference in support of LTTE, the Government could not take any hasty action as the apex court itself had said mere…

Tamil homeland fantasy By Bernard Goonetilleke February 17, 2008 The conflict in Sri Lanka is inextricably linked with the demand for secession, deceptively designed to wrench the sympathy of the international community. Last month, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), urged the United Nations to recognize "Tamil sovereignty" and end the conflict in Sri Lanka. The international community must be told that, beneath a plausible veneer, the demand for a separate state for Tamils of Sri Lanka is rooted in fiction. There never was at any time in Sri Lankan history "a traditional Tamil homeland" in the north and east of Sri Lanka, as claimed by the LTTE. …

India's covert role in Sri Lanka's ceasefire By M.R. Narayan Swamy, New Delhi, Feb 17 : Now that Sri Lanka has jettisoned the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Tamil Tigers, one of India's best kept secrets can be revealed: it was New Delhi that quietly authored the process that led to the Norway-brokered pact. The dominant thinking in India and Sri Lanka, and even elsewhere, is that New Delhi has been a distant watcher to the goings on in the war-hit island barring its interactions with Colombo and countries like Norway as part of a "hands off" policy sparked off by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1991 assassination. While it is true that India to…

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The economy can take another 18 months of war Recently sworn in as a MP and acting as a Special Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa, believes it is more important to have the support of the people towards the political solution, than trying for a two thirds support in the House. He argues that the 13th amendment failed the last time around simply because it did not win the trust of the people, even if the government had more than a two thirds majority in Parliament. Spearheading the government’s Eastern development programme, he also maintains that the government has successfully handled the displaced civilians in the East. Denying reports of criti…

16 SLA troopers loose their limbs in Mannaar FDLs More than sixteen Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops have lost their legs caught in booby traps at the Front Defence Line (FDL) positions in Pa’ndivirichchaan, Mu’l’likku’lam and Vi’laaththikku’lam in Mannaar district, since Friday, Mannaar LTTE Operations Command said. The disabled troopers are members of the SLA Deep Penetration Unit and those deployed by SLA in the intermittent advance attempts to break into LTTE FDLs. http://www.tamilnet.com/

“What can I do?” - thoughts for the Tamil Diaspora Janani Barathy Tamil Guardian 06 February 2008 The plight of our people has been steadily reaching newer levels. And, after being an observer with a hands-off approach, I decided to do something about it. I became proactive - in small ways. As a mother of two young children living in Sydney, Australia and having many commitments, it was not easy to change my inaction - but I did. I firmly believe now, that if we all do our little part and started working towards a common vision, that vision will and must materialize. I realise there’s spiritual element to this as well, and of course some people are skepti…

Three arrested over Tiger ties By Srinath Prasanna Jayasuriya An army captain, a soldier and a Buddhist monk were taken into custody for having close links with a top LTTE leader named Ramesh, alias Charles, who was reportedly involved in the recent bomb blasts in Colombo and the suburbs, police said. A senior police official said that Ramesh, who was arrested along with three other LTTE suspects in the Mattakkuliya area, had revealed the connection with the captain and other two arrested persons, who are all Sinhalese. It was revealed that these three Sinhalese suspects had been promised seven million rupees by Ramesh if they helped the LTT…

Tigers seize SLA weapons in Naakarkoayil clash [TamilNet, Thursday, 07 February 2008, 15:57 GMT] Heavy fighting erupted between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Thursday morning at 5:00 a.m. when an SLA unit, using tanks with artillery support fire, attempted to move towards LTTE Forward Defence Line at Naakarkoayil in Jaffna. The SLA sustained heavy casualties in the one-hour fighting, LTTE's Northern Forces Operations Command told reporters who were taken on a tour to Naakarkoayil FDL where the Tigers displayed ammunition and an assault rifle seized by them. for pictures: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=24580

Security beefed up in Moneragala [TamilNet, Thursday, 07 February 2008, 01:12 GMT] Local officials have intensified security measures in the plantation sector in Moneragala, Buttala and Wokkapitiya following recent bomb blasts in these areas, residents said. Tension and fear still prevails in Moneragala district, civil society sources said. Stringent security measures were implemented after key officials in the province including A.N.Muthulingam, Vice president of Moneragala district Pradeshiya Sabha, Vijitha Muni Soyza, Chief Minister (CM) of Uva Province and the Superintendent of Police (SP) in charge of the security of the district were notified of the feelin…

6TH LEAD 9 killed, 101 wounded in Colombo train blast [TamilNet, Sunday, 03 February 2008, 08:45 GMT] Nine people were killed and 101 wounded in a bomb explosion inside Matara-Vavuniyaa train while it reached the 3rd platform of Colombo Fort Railway station, situated in the High Security Zone in Sri Lanka's capital Sunday at 2:10 p.m. All train services have been suspended, the Fort station was cordoned off and a search operation by the Sri Lankan armed forces was launched. The blast comes a day before Sri Lanka's 60th Independence Day celebrations amid speculations of Colombo embarking on a full fledged war on Vanni, stepping up aerial bombardment and artillery …

Rice expensive for Mahinda; But not for Prabha Lanka-e-News, 2008 Feb 02, 5.15 AM) The rice price in Vanni dropped drastically as low as Rs. 20 per kilo since the LTTE issued the rice stocks of the Jordan ship abducted by the Tigers. Today, the livelihood of many of the people in Vanni is trading rice brought from Vanni in Vavuniya. The photo depicts people enter into Government controlled territory with bags of rice on their shoulders near Omanthai entry exit point. The LTTE checkpoint is in the backdrop. Rice is sold around Rs. 100 per kilo in south these days.

Killings escalate in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna [TamilNet, Friday, 01 February 2008, 09:27 GMT] Unidentified armed men Friday morning shot and killed two civilians in Kodikaamam unleashing panic among the people in Thenmaraadchi which on Thursday witnessed a massacre of three siblings by a motorbike squad allegedly operated by Sri Lanka Army. Friday morning around 7:30 a.m, a 24-year-old female was shot and killed at her house located on Jaffna-Point Pedro-Kachchaay road and a 26-year-old male was gunned down, 1 km away, around 10:00 a.m on Allarai-Kachchaay road in Kodikaamam. The young woman killed was identified as Sivarasa Suki, 24, unmarried. The killers fo…

Internet failure hits two continents 1/31/2008 8:22:07 PM DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- - One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean. India's Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia. Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems. Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a d…

SLA dumps dead soldiers in the stretches of Arippu [TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 January 2008, 17:34 GMT] Sri Lanka Army in Mannaar, while under-reporting their casualties in the fighting, has been dumping tractor-loads of dead soldiers in the delta of Aruvi Aa'ru (Malwattu Oya), the area emptied of people after capturing it from the LTTE last year. Two Sri Lanka Army soldiers, escaping from the battlefield with the help of local residents have said that their fellow troopers killed in the battle were being dumped near a coconut palm grove at Ooral, a locality 1 km south of Aruvi Aa'ru and few kilometers east of the coastline between Arippu and Chilaavatturai. Hun…

Applying the "self-evident" truths celebrated in the Declaration of Independence, the United States should recognize the right of Sri Lanka's long oppressed Tamil people to independent statehood from the racial supremacist Sinhalese. To deny the statehood right — sought by the Tamil people since 1976 — would mark one of the United States' most ill-conceived hours. Double standards beget enmity or contempt, a steep price even for a superpower. To borrow from the Declaration, let facts be submitted to a candid world. In 1948, Sri Lanka achieved nationhood from British colonial rule with a population of about 10 million. The commanding majori…