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Press Statement Sean McCormack, Spokesman Washington, DC January 3, 2008 Government of Sri Lanka’s Withdrawal from Ceasefire Agreement The United States is troubled by the Sri Lankan Government’s January 2 decision to terminate the 2002 cease-fire agreement. Ending the cease-fire agreement will make it more difficult to achieve a lasting, peaceful solution to Sri Lanka’s conflict. We call on both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to avoid an escalation of hostilities and further civilian casualties. All parties to the conflict share the responsibility to protect the rights of all of Sri Lanka’s people. We urge them to work to…

By P.K. Balachandran. Colombo, Sri Lanka, 01:02 PM IST The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has indicated that only a demonstration of its military might will change the present international climate in its favour. V. Balakumaran, a senior member of the LTTE, said in an interview to the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT) last week: 'The international community has been vacillating in taking decisive actions on Sri Lanka because they are unable to relate their own interests to the chaotically unfolding political and military situation in Sri Lanka.' 'Only the demonstration of military strength by the Tigers can bring clarity to the situation for …

Sri Lanka 'needs UN monitors' There was great optimism when the ceasefire was signed US-based Human Rights Watch says the United Nations should send observers to monitor the fighting in Sri Lanka. The mission of Nordic ceasefire monitors there ends on 16 January following the government's decision to withdraw from a ceasefire. On Wednesday the government said the 2002 ceasefire deal was moribund. Thousands of people have been killed in the last two years with the military and the Tamil Tigers accused of widespread human rights abuses. The Nordic-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was set up as part of the 2002 agreement to investigate…

January 3, 2008 (1:30 p.m. EST) No. 2 STATEMENT ON THE POSSIBLE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN SRI LANKA The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued the following statement following developments in Sri Lanka: “Canada deeply regrets the decision of the Government of Sri Lanka to withdraw from the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. “Withdrawal from this important agreement will make the search for a durable political solution more difficult, and only increases the likelihood that the incidents of violence being carried out by both sides will increase. “We remain deeply concerned about the impact of the escalating violence on civilians, …

2007: The year in review [TamilNet, Thursday, 03 January 2008, 07:34 GMT] For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year. Sri Lanka’s security forces and allied paramilitaries intensified their campaign of abductions (‘white van’ abductions), torture, and murder of Tamil civilians. Tamil civil society leaders bore the brunt of the counter-insurgency campaign. Jaffna remained an open prison with shortage of essential items, east falling under the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) control with thousands displaced as Colombo concocts colonization schemes to make east a Sinhala majority province. In the North, the paramilitary EPDP, which has been implicated over the las…

Update on Online Petition: Assassinations, hooliganism, paramilitary activism, bomb blasts and a further plunge into lawlessness The Asian Human Rights Commission Press Statement ----------------------------------------------------- The year 2008 began, for Sri Lanka with the assassination of the Tamil opposition UNP Member of Parliament, T. Maheshwaran. Just a few days earlier a government minister, Mervyn Silva forcibly entered the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation) premises with about ten other persons and allegedly assaulted a news manager in retaliation for which, corporation employees demonstrated their anger against the …

Vijitha Herath claims JVP ideology cannot be destroyed Despite intense speculation to the contrary, JVP front-liner Vijitha Herath vehemently denies any kind of fissures within the Marxist party in a wide ranging interview with The Nation this week. By Rathindra Kuruwita Following are excerpts: Q: The Indian Prime Minister has said that he will attend the 2008 Independence Day celebrations only if a proposal to solve the ethnic conflict is presented to the President, by the APRC. What do you feel about that demand? A: India or any other country does not have the right to tell us how we should settle our internal affairs. No one can tell us how and when we sho…

Clinton presidency worries Colombo- Balakumaran [TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2008, 18:41 GMT] Apart from U.S. policy related implications, the significance to Sri Lanka of Senator Clinton's statement on "terrorism" can be assessed from the shock waves generated in Sri Lanka's South, said K.V. Balakumaran, a Senior member of LTTE's Political Wing, during a political analysis segment, Nilavaram, presented in National Television of Tamileelam (NTT) this week. Hillary Clinton had earlier urged a more nuanced approach to armed non-state actors, and identified Tamil Tigers as one of the groups deserving such consideration. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator from New…

'A UN mission is imperative' Mano Ganesan The prevailing human rights situation requires direct intervention of the international community to curb violations that often target the Tamil ethnic minority and in this regard, a UN human rights monitoring mission is a dire necessity says Colombo District Parliamentarian, Mano Ganesan. The leader of the Western People's Front (WPP) and Convenor, Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), Ganesan in an interview with The Sunday Leader said that international surveillance on the island's fast deteriorating human rights situation was a necessity. He blamed the authorities for lack of investigations, failure to appr…

Sack The Political Thug! The year 2007 ended for the country in a tragicomedy. Tragic it was because the scenes at the Rupavahini studios on Thursday involving a minister of state accompanied by his 'bodyguard' - a double murder suspect released on bail - was a disgrace to any self-respecting nation, particularly one which boasts of an ancient civilisation and culture. The comedy was that the pint-sized comedian and his bodyguard were served their just desserts however unpalatable it may have been by the staff of the government's main propaganda institution which has the most trusted personnel of the ruling party. While violence in any form cannot be condoned …

US Tamil group to take Gota, Basil and Fonseka to courts -Mendaka Abeysekera from New York- A United States based organisation called 'Tamils for Justice' has launched a massive fundraising project to de-proscribe the LTTE and to bring to justice the three US citizens holding power in Sri Lanka for allegedly committing gross violations of humanitarian laws, and crimes against Tamils. According to 'Tamils for Justice,' Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's two brothers, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa and Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka are clearly subjected to US law and jurisdiction and …

Foreign intelligence presence boosted in Sri Lanka (2007 Dec. 31, 9.40 AM) Colombo diplomatic sources say that with the Rajapakse regime's consideration 2008 as a year of war, world's leading intelligence services are interfering competitively in Sri Lanka's affairs. Indian RAW, Pakistan ISI, Russian KGB, US CIA and Israel Mosad are the leading intelligence services that are engaged in Sri Lankan affairs. Our sources say that an owner of a leading newspaper group in Sri Lanka is coordinating Mosad intelligence tasks in Sri Lanka, mostly in the Eastern Province.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaeda and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." Most of the 56-minute tape dealt with Iraq, apparently al-Qaeda's latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military claims to have al-Qaeda's Iraq branch on the run. The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, though Pakistan's government has blamed al-Qaeda and the Taliban for her death on Thursday. That suggested the tape was made before the assassination. …

Turkish warplanes bomb northern Iraq By Sherko Raouf SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Turkish planes bombed an area of Iraq near the border with Turkey on Tuesday to attack Kurdish separatists and the army said it had killed at least 150 guerrillas in its air offensive earlier this month. A Turkish military source said warplanes launched the limited strike on Tuesday after spotting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas during a reconnaissance flight. He said the strike was smaller than others in recent weeks. Colonel Hussein Tamar, director of Iraq's border guard command in the northern Kurdish province of Dahuk, said villages near the border we…

Sri Lanka police detain French TV crew By IANS Tuesday December 25, 03:19 PM Colombo, Dec 25 (IANS) It wasn't a merry Christmas for French TV journalists Capucine Henri and C. Siomon doing a documentary on the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. The duo, representing France 24 news channel, had to spend Christmas in a police station in Rathgama in south Sri Lanka, having been detained for filming an army checkpoint and trying to take shots of a Tamil family visiting a relative in a detention camp for terror suspects on Christmas eve. A Free Media Movement (FMM) press release Friday quoted a police officer as saying that the arrested journalists were b…

Let Christmas bring consolation to people in "tortured regions" - Pope [TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 December 2007, 14:10 GMT] Pope Benedict XVI, in his Christmas Day appeal to political leaders around the world asked them to draw on their "wisdom and courage" to end bloody conflicts in the world. The Pope said he hoped Christmas would bring consolation to all people "who live in the darkness of poverty, injustice and war," in particular those living in the "tortured regions" of the world including Sri Lanka. Pope Benedict XVI urges to seek humane, just and lasting solutions.The Pope mentioned Darfur, Somalia, northern Congo, the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Iraq, Leban…

Nepal to End Its Monarchy in a Deal With Ex-Rebels Published: December 24, 2007 KATMANDU, Nepal (Reuters) — Nepal’s government agreed Sunday to abolish the centuries-old monarchy in a political deal with Maoist former rebels, but the decision will go into effect only after next year’s elections, party officials said. Three months ago, the anti-monarchy Maoists, who ended their decade-long civil war last year, left the government. They were demanding an immediate declaration of a republic, a step that indefinitely delayed a constituent assembly election that had been set for November. That election, Nepal’s first national vote since 1999, was intended to…

More Tamil asylum seekers to Norway. (Lanka-e-News-2007Dec.25, 4.20AM) A larger number of Tamil asylum seekers have arrived in Norway this year, compared with last year. Most of them are not allowed to stay, a higher proportion than last year. Around 6200 foreign citizens have applied for asylum this year, an increase by 700 from 2006. When more non-Srilankan foreign citizens are allowed to stay compared with earlier, it is because a higher proportion has a real need for protection, says Ida Boerresen, head of the Immigration Directorate (UDI). The criteria are just as strict as before, Boerresen says. Almost hundred of Tamil asylum seekers including one School…

The British Crown Prosecution Service has begun to probe Karuna Amman for war crimes, the British media reported. The Crown Prosecution Service said: "We have received preliminary reports from the police and are liaising with them." http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections...aspx?ARTID=1929

English proficiency vital for success in global world: LTTE Political Head [TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2007, 20:52 GMT] "Eelam Tamils have excelled in military science and geo-political affairs at an International level. For our people to acquire skills and knowlege to succeed at the global level, opportunity and facilities to attain high levels of proficiency in English is critical," said B. Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in his commencement address at the English Language College (ELC) in Ki'linochchi, on Saturday. The ELC, a Tamils' Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)-funded college, was established on September 13, …

S.Lanka president may ban rebels if attacks go on 17 Dec 2007 16:48:04 GMT Source: Reuters (Updates with analyst comment, details) By Simon Gardner COLOMBO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka may outlaw the Tamil Tigers if the rebels continue to mount large-scale attacks, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Monday, a move that would put the prospect of renewed peace talks further out of reach. "One or two more attacks, we have no option," Rajapaksa told reporters after hosting a Christmas gala in the capital Colombo. "(We will) have to ban." "There is a limit to our patience, our tolerance." He said he would seek peace while continuing to fi…

VoT will rebounce from attack - Thamizhanpan [TamilNet, Sunday, 16 December 2007, 22:43 GMT] “Belligerent statements by close associates of Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa, threats against media personnel, and press censorship in the South, forewarned us of a possible attack on our media facilities. Fortunately, we took precautions against this, and our successful completion of the Heroes day program, inspite of Colombo violating international laws bombing our facility, is a testimony to the resilience of our staff,” said Thamizhanpan, director of Voice of Tigers, LTTE’s official broadcasting corporation, in an interview with a Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporat…

'Oldest human being' dies at 116 Hryhoriy Nestor, a bachelor who was thought in his lifetime to be the oldest person in the world, has died at the age of 116 in Ukraine. Mr Nestor died in his sleep on Friday night in the village of Stary Yarychev, in the eastern region of Lviv, the Kiev newspaper Segodnya reports. He died before proof of his age was submitted to Guinness World Records. The world's recognised oldest living person is currently Edna Parker of the United States, who turned 114 in April. Just a few close relatives and neighbours gathered for Mr Nestor's funeral, Segodnya writes. In accordance with his wish that there should …

Dec. 15, 2007, 5:50PM Sri Lanka relishing recent gains against Tamil Tigers But many doubt long war will end anytime soon By LAURIE GOERING Chicago Tribune COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — In its all-out bid to finally defeat the country's Tamil Tiger separatists by military force, Sri Lanka's government has made some undeniable gains. It has seized the Tiger-held east of the country, sunk supply ships carrying arms to the rebels and, last month, it managed to drop a precision bomb on a meeting in the rebel's northern stronghold, killing the Tigers' top political leader. The message has not been lost on the rebels: When Velupillai Prabhakaran, the group'…

UK troops set for Basra handover Iraqi troops will have to control insurgents British troops are preparing to transfer control of Basra province to the Iraqi authorities four-and-a-half years after the invasion. The handover, which is expected within hours, will mark a significant milestone towards Britain's final withdrawal from southern Iraq. It comes three months after the British military pulled out from the city of Basra itself to their airport base. Iraqi troops will now be responsible for controlling insurgents in the area. Police concerns BBC correspondent Andrew North said the plan was for British troops to take a backseat ro…