VR's Comment: The writer of this article has a good grasp of the social reality confronting Sri Lanka's capitalist establishment. However, I'm not convinced about SEP's propagandist and sectarian approach to party-building. Dialectical practice to intervene in a dialectically changing social reality seems to be lacking.

I think, a "Sarath Fonseka-victory" at the presidential election would have created a far better social setup in the short term for the socialist movements to intervene. Let me explain: An SF victory would have created a situation where the UNP, SLFP, TNA and the JVP 'joining forces' in parliament to abolish the executive presidency. If SF did resist, an intensive conflict between the parliament and the President would have erupted with devastating repercussions for the capitalist establishment.

With this background in mind, I invite you to read the article.

Click Here...

[This article was written during the presidential campaign]

A relentless campaign within the unions and the student movement to prepare for this eventuality should be the main focus of all progressive political parties in the coming period. They should not remain blinkered by electoral activities alone. Tamil nationalists' sectarian politics and Left parties' factionalism and propagandist politics should end. They should mobilize their vote-bases to back Sarath Fonseka in his electoral campaign against Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, a united front to defend democracy and living standards should become the central aim of all progressive forces. Earnest campaigns to politically prepare the labour movement for an inevitable general strike must be the primary focus of all socialists.

Full Article...

[This article was written during the presidential campaign]

I've deliberately begun to use terms such as 'organized working class' 'capitalism' 'socialist economics' 'general strike' 'social revolution' 'police-state' etc. in order to trigger the readers' perception in a 'new' direction. As a BBC-trained journalist I knew how effectively such terms would disturb some. But, I'm certain how important such concepts are to understand and change the fast emerging socio-political realities in Sri Lanka.

Full Article...

[This interview was done during the presidential campaign]

As a political analyst I believe that I've an important role to play to contribute to the fast changing political consciousness in Sri Lanka. Firstly I've had close-circuit knowledge of both Sinhala and Tamil political circles. I'm well aware of both mindsets. Therefore, it's my duty to reflect on the present situation and say how I see it. Secondly, I've received free education up to the university level…and that means Sri Lanka's people have funded my education. So I'm obliged to contribute to Sri Lanka from whatever I've learned.

Full Interview:

[This article was written during the presidential campaign]

Obviously, Mahinda Rajapaksa also will be happy to see Wickramabahu's presence as a blessing - as the most effective way to divert the already established anti-government vote-base away from Sarath Fonseka (SF). Wickramabahu's propagandist approach, however, seems to have failed to see the objective logic (the dialectic) of the unprecedented social process...

Full Article...

[This was written during the presidential campaign]

Ground Views' Editors Note: "The author and the commentator "Doomed to Repeat" had a lengthy exchange of ideas on the author's previous post Sarath Fonseka – A potential De Gaulle or Chavez? This article refers to the specific comment by Doomed to repeat published here.]

Click Here to Read VR's Response...

[This was written during the presidential campaign]

Tamils must not play a sectarian role in the presidential election. That'll be counterproductive. This is not the time for Tamils to do politics based on anger and hatred. Tamils, I think, should realize democratic transformation of the Centre is crucial for them. Also, Tamil-speaking people - including plantation-workers & Muslims and Colombo Tamils- live all over Sri Lanka. Therefore, it's important to make all calculations in general terms, not in sectarian terms. All parties of the Tamil-speaking people should maintain a solid united front in presenting their demands. They should...

Click Here...

[This was written prior to the presidential election]

Sarath Fonseka's dramatic exposure of Gotabhaya Rajapkse's role at the final stages of the war marks a new turn in the presidential election. From now on the extremist layers among the Sinhala majority will decisively rally round the Mahinda-regime while those layers that do not approve the war's barbaric conclusion while supporting the LTTE's military defeat will firmly turn towards the General. Hence, I argue, the socialist forces and the Tamil-speaking minority that presently back alternative candidates should join forces with Sarath Fonseka to try and bring down the government. If not they would in practice be only helping to protect the status-quo.

Full Article...

[This was written during the presidential campaign.]

The ongoing "Rajapaksa-Fonseka battle" is a blessing in disguise for the Tamil-speaking people and the Sinhalese despite its immediate appearances; because the upcoming debates are bound to change the confused Sinhala consciousness on an unprecedented scale.

Full Article...

According to information reaching Sri Lanka Guardian, the state intelligence services backing Gotabaya Rajapakse is in full gear to rig the votes in the Presidential election to be held on 26th (Tuesday) January 2010. With independent opinions confirming tight contest between the two leading candidates and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga coming in support of Sarath Fonseka, the President has sussed that defeat is inevitable. The elections analysis in the Sunday print media of Colombo is pointing that Tamil votes are going to decide who will be the victor at the election.

Full Report...

Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) based in Milan, which held hearings on Thursday and Friday on war-crime charges on Sri Lanka from eye-witnesses and other material evidence, in the preliminary findings issued Saturday said, Sri Lanka Government is "guilty of War-Crimes" and "guilty of Crimes Against Humanity." The tribunal also concluded that the charge of Genocide requires further investigations. Eye witnesses included several escapees from the final week of Sri Lanka offensive in the Mullaitivu "No Fire Zone" where more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) training heavy weapons on them.

Full Text...

Common Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka has formulated a programme to provide immediate relief and areas of peace for the war affected persons.

Full Report...

Recognized as a pioneer in Forensic Video Analysis applications, Grant Fredericks has been examining video evidence for over twenty-five years. He is a former police officer and Coordinator of the Vancouver Police Forensic Video Unit in Canada and continues to provide expert evidence in many of the most complicated criminal court cases involving video evidence.

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Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka, just prior to taking the stage in his first election rally in Kandy, speaks to Daily Mirror online about senior officers in the Army, top government officials and allegations of human rights abuses.

Click here for the video...

A British medic held for months in an internment camp for Tamil civilians has revealed how military guards dealt out cruel punishments, while many suspected of links to Tiger rebels were taken away and have not been seen since.

Full Report...

Rhys Blakely - Video footage that appears to show Sri Lankan troops committing war crimes by summarily executing captured Tamil Tiger fighters on the battlefield was not fabricated, as claimed by the Sri Lankan Government, an investigation by The Times has found. The findings come after General Sarath Fonseka, the former head of the army, alleged that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Minister, had ordered that surrendering Tiger leaders be killed rather than taken prisoner in the final days of the brutal 26-year civil war that ended in May.

FULL REPORT...

Common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka says Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa instructed a key ground commander in the north that all LTTE leaders must be killed and not allowed to surrender.

Full Report...

Sri Lankan troops shot dead surrendering Tamil Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary, the former army chief who is now running for president said in remarks published Sunday. General Sarath Fonseka said Gotabhaya Rajapakse - the brother of the current president -instructed soldiers not to take rebel prisoners in the days before the Tamil separatists were defeated in May. Rajapakse spoke with the "commander of the army's 58th division, giving orders not to accommodate any LTTE (Tiger) leaders attempting to surrender and that they must all be killed", Fonseka said.

Full Report...

A Marxist group of Tamil militants with connections to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Cuba is preparing to mount a new insurgency in Sri Lanka six months after the Government declared an end to the 26-year-old war there.

Full Report...

Click Here...

Thousands of Tamil civilians streamed out of the controversial refugee camps where they have been detained for months yesterday, after the Sri Lanka government told them they were free to leave temporarily. But the bar on international monitoring of the camps and the refugees' movements remained in force.

Full Report...

A survey conducted by the State Intelligence Service (SIS) has revealed that the media campaign launched against the JVP by NFF Leader Wimal Weerawansa has attracted Tamils towards General Sarath Fonseka. The confidential report handed over to the President by SIS Head DIG Keerthi Gajanayake states that comments made by Weerawansa against the JVP following statements to the media by General Fonseka on the 13th Amendment and Velupillai Prabhakaran’s parents have had a negative impact on the president’s election campaign.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka has been blocked from hosting the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders in protest at Colombo's military repression against the Tamil population earlier this year.

Full Report...

Hereunder are the answers furnished by the General Sarath Fonseka to questions posed by the media at todays' press conference.

Click Here...

The engagement of Professor Francis A. Boyle, an eminent American expert in international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, during the last years of Sri Lanka's conflict is traced in a forthcoming book published by Clarity Press of Atlanta. Titled "The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka: The Global Failure to Protect Tamil Rights Under International Law,” it is the first book to develop an authoritative case for genocide against the Government of Sri Lanka under international law.

Click Here...

Sri Lanka church workers are trying to help former Tamil Tiger rebels, who are said to be living in the "blackest of despair," claiming many should be released...

Full Report...

The President had telephoned drama producer Dharmasiri Bandaranayake yesterday (29) to inquire about the alleged threats made by common candidate at the Presidential election General Sarath Fonseka against his drama, “The Dictator,” senior officials from Temple Trees told Lanka News Web. The President had agreed to provide security to Bandaranayke if he was threatened by the General and the venue of the drama when it is being staged.

Full Report...

Dununa Tilakaratne has forwarded two separate letters of demand through his Lawyer Charitha N. Galhena on 27th Nov. against Asian Tribune website for its publication of articles which are allegedly defamatory of the General Sarath Fonseka and his family. The letters claiming damages in a sum of US Dollars five million each has been demanded from the writer of the article, K.T.Rajasingham and the Asian Tribune.

Full Report...

Former Army Chief and Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka filed a fundamental rights (FR) petition before Supreme Court on Tuesday (24) to receive adequate security from the government and to stay at his official residence until he finds a suitable place to move into.

Full Report...

...Lakshman Abeysekara is just a name. The actual registration was done through a lawyer Mr. A.S.H.A Hanan. This lawyer made some kind of deal with Danuna Thilakaratne as a silent partner of the company in Sri Lanka. Detail of this registration is given in this column....

Full Article...

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to sign a proclamation tomorrow evening declaring a Presidential Election. Nominations are to be called within two weeks after tomorrow, possibly on December 9 or 10. After six weeks of campaigning, the polls are now likely on January 23.

Full Report & Analysis...

The United Nations has welcomed the decision by Sri Lanka's government to announce the release of the remaining 130,000 Tamils kept in detention camps for the last six months. About 250,000 people fled the final bloody phase of the civil war between the government and separatist Tamil Tigers.

Read More...

In a special communique addressing the war heroes General Sarath Fonseka states that he will dedicate his life in whatever circumstances to restore the democracy that is weakening in the motherland, and to safeguard human rights, media freedom, social justice and communal harmony. His complete communique is as follows :

Click Here...

Sri Lanka's ethnic-minority Tamil war refugees, detained in government camps, will be freed by December 1, according to a senior official. 

Full Report...

Essentially this is a personality clash devoid of differences in principle or policy.Extreme paranoia, seething passions, jealousy, vengeful thinking and wounded pride have exacerbated the situation. Attempts by one side to put down perceived political challenges and efforts by the other side to counter them are creating a situation where diametrically opposite forces are reconfiguring themselves as political bedfellows. There is lamentable absence of firm policy and a complete abandonment of principle. A no holds barred political expediency seems to be the order of the day. On another level the current situation is also the culmination of a long process of militarisation of Sri Lankan society and a gradual politicisation of the military.

Full Analysis...

"Fifty years of ethnic cleansing have wiped out whole generations who knew any sort of peace, and made cohabitation with the Sinhalese people virtually impossible," says veteran Marxist A.Sivanandan on the political future of the island of Sri Lanka in an interview to the New Left Review 60, November-December 2009. The 87 years old ideologue, who in his younger days "had no sense at all of being a Tamil" while living in the south, and who now feels "not only for the Tamils but also for the Sinhalese people," further said: "The Sinhala elite has transformed the country into a counter-insurgency state like Colombia, in which repression, torture, imprisonment without trial and disappeared people are institutionally embedded. I don't think anything now can be done from above, let alone from the debased self-interests of the "international community’."

Full Review...

It is six months since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka but Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters are yet to recover from the dramatic military defeat by security forces earlier this year.

Full Article...

As with life, sometimes in journalism you have to be careful what you wish for. I had been wishing, and pushing, for a trip to Sri Lanka's notorious Manik Farm internal refugee camp for months. And at about 7pm sitting in my hotel room in Colombo the Australian High Commission rang - I was booked on a military plane leaving early the next morning. The news was a big relief, but also a big burden for what I perceive to be my journalistically narrow shoulders.

Read More...

Last week a group of us got very rare access to some of the resettled areas in Mannar and Killinochchi. I also visited the different zones in Manik Farm (used to be called Manikkam Pannai). As we get to Vavuniya something that strikes me was the number of vehicles (buses and lorries) moving about with IOM stickers. IOM is the only agency that is allowed to shuttle the IDPs from Manik Farm to either to Vavuniya Urban Council (UC) ground or to the resettlement areas or to yet another transit center for further screening.

Full Report...

My Comment on the article:

Your article seems to me to be a bit simplistic and one-sided. In my view, the blame for the defeat should go mainly to the Tiger leadership. Tigers shouldn't have started its mini-state project at all. They should have remained a guerilla force.

On the political front they should have built a broad umbrella organization that accommodates dissent - perhaps, a Tamil National Congress. Also, they should have worked tirelessly to build amicable bridges to the Sinhala/Muslim progressive forces in the south, instead of launching terrorist attacks. They should have helped build independent workers & peasants' organization in the north-east that could have easily come to terms with the trade-union movement in the south.

None of this happened because of LTTE's narrow nationalism and separatism. Tigers' mini-state project had put an enormous burden on the Tamil people, quite unnecessarily. If not, they could have used the enormous funds they received from the Diaspora for good use. It was Tigers' dogmatism and their separatist ideology that blocked a socialist vision that could have transformed Sri Lanka.

The Southern Left also should share the blame for failing to develop the correct approach to the Tamil struggle and to facilitate the groundwork for a common struggle. If the Tigers and the Southern Left succeeded in reaching a common socialist vision then any policy changes on the global scale would not have had a decisive impact. Strong north-south links would have prevented the Sri Lankan state from committing its entire army to the north. [Remember, it's the defeat of the Tamil forces that encourages a 'possible military takeover' in the south.]

There are no separate solutions for the Tamils, Sinhalese and the Muslims. The answers to social & economic oppression should be found in democracy & socialist economics. Therefore, it will have to be a common struggle.

Click here for the Bumuthurunu article in Sinhala...

The most glaring info any one could have from even the first brief glance of General Fonseka's letter, is that his only reason for this hasty retirement is a "very personal power feud" between the two most powerful "Rajapaksa brothers" and him. It had evolved, according to the letter, immediately after the war was declared over.

Full Article...

It is now official. General Sarath Fonseka has quit the top most military post in the country. All the indications are that he will contest against the incumbent to be the next Executive President in Sri Lanka.

Click Here...

Sri Lanka's top general, who engineered the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after a 25-year war, submitted his resignation on Thursday amid speculation he will run for president. General Sarath Fonseka, the Chief of Defence Staff, is expected to challenge his commander in chief, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an election which may be held by April.

Full report...

Sri Lanka's armed forces chief Gen Sarath Fonseka has resigned from his post just months after helping secure the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Full Report...

Speculation continues to grow in Sri Lanka that there is a rift at the top of the country's establishment.

Full Report...

Former trade union leader Alavi Moulana has called a protest against the trade union action launched by public sector employees seeking a salary increment claiming it to be the work of individuals working for petty political gain.

Full Report...

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a press statement issued on Monday welcomed all the current democratic moves in the diaspora, such as referendum on Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, Country Councils and Transnational Government and said that even if one of the efforts is at shortfall, it will affect all the others. "These are democratic efforts for which people have taken over the leadership to gain their political aspirations and while welcoming them the LTTE requests that they should be accomplished with full participation of people," said the statement addressed LTTE headquarters. "It is now a historical duty of all Tamils to firmly tell the whole world that what they desire is independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam and they have their homeland, nationalism and the right to self-determination to claim it," the statement further said.

Full Report...

....Speaking about war in Sri Lanka which has ended last May, Ms. Roy suggested, "I believe that the Government of Sri Lanka should be investigated for committing war crimes." "I am in no way pro LTTE nor have I ever been. I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody", she has pointed out on her view regarding the Tamil Tiger rebels a.k.a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka Guardian recently brought to the attention of the public that a bloody 'coup d' etat' is planned by the Defense Ministry to oust the present Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliyan from the Eastern Provincial Council and install his rival Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman in his place.

Full Report...

Leaders of several opposition political parties have reportedly arrived at a decision to put forward General Sarath Fonseka as the common candidate to contest against President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the next presidential election.

Full Report...

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday its executive board completed a review of Sri Lanka's economic performance and released $329.4 million from a stand-by loan agreement.

Full Report...

Protests, particularly trade union action over the rising cost of living and demands for wage rises, were muted during the fighting, in large part because the unions were supportive of the war effort. But now that it is over, attention has returned to daily life and the high cost of living that many workers find difficult to sustain. The opposition People's Liberation Front, or JVP, on Wednesday rejected Mr Rajapaksa's wage promise, saying the government does not have enough money for it.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan government has admitted that it has room for improvement on its human rights record.

Full Report...

Leaders of the United National Front (UNF) have decided to put forward a common candidate at the next Presidential election with the aim of abolishing the Executive Presidency and to receive the support of the JVP for the purpose as well, a senior UNP parliamentarian told Lanka News Web. The decision is to be officially announced shortly.

Full Report...

[Editor's Comment: So, it seems he [& the US] doesn't want to do anything that would tarnish his image among the Sinhalese majority at this stage; and that means he's more interested in his immediate political fortunes.....[Perhaps unofficially he might have passed much information.] Whether the SL Govt has already come to a deal with US remains to be seen.]

Sri Lanka said its army chief left the U.S. without undergoing questioning about alleged human rights abuses during the civil war, after the government protested plans to interview him. General Sarath Fonseka left yesterday after Sri Lanka told the State Department in Washington and the U.S. ambassador in Colombo that any information the chief of defense staff obtained while undertaking his duties is privileged, the government said.

Full Report... 

The Sri Lankan government has protested the move by United Statesgovernment officials to use Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka as a 'source' against Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa regarding alleged human rights violations in the island, a confidential government source told Adaderana this morning (Nov. 01).

Full Report...

Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka, now on a private visit to the United States, has been told to face a "voluntary meeting" with the Department of Homeland Security, prompting fears in Colombo that Washington is asserting its legal authority over the "war crimes" report released last week. Reports reaching the highest levels of the Government say US Department of Homeland Security officials want to interview him on Wednesday (November 4) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gen. Fonseka, who is a US Green Card holder, has a residence in Oklahoma. His visit is in connection with renewing his Green Card which affords him residency in the US. This is a prelude to US citizenship.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Army soldiers beat a mentally ill Tamil youth and forced the youth to drown near the sea near Bambalapitya, Colombo railway station Thursday. The youth was identified as Balavarnam Sivakumar, 26, of Ratmalana, according to media reports in Colombo, which belatedly listed the youth's identity. "The entire country [Sri Lanka] watched in horror, as a group of heavily built men attacked the mentally unstable [Tamil] youth with wooden poles while he pleaded for mercy, when it was telecast on several news bulletins on Thursday night," Daily Mirror said. [Video included]

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan government's proposal to create a committee of experts to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations during the conflict between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an attempt to avoid an independent international inquiry, Human Rights Watch said today.

Full Report...

"Terrorism won't end simply by killing Prabhakaran. What we need is to change the social system that could bring about another Prabhakaran. Therefore, there is no point in holding celebrations about Prabhakaran's death. The war is over now. There is no need to further detain the Tamil civilians. By forcibly detaining Tamil civilians in this manner could pave the way for the creating of another Prabhakaran in future."

Full Report...

In 1947, Bo Gyoke Aung San met with ethnic leaders, mostly Shan, Kachin and Chin, and concluded an agreement in a town named "Panglong". The agreement became known as the "Panglong Agreement." A Panglong principle or spirit of equal representation was born along with the Panglong Agreement. What is sad is that the spirit of the agreement was missing in each of the following Burmese constitutions.

Full Analysis..

Raj Rajaratnam was arrested for insider trading in the United States. But here in Sri Lanka, where this billionaire investor was born and had completed his school education, the word "terrorism" - with all its nasty implications - is again dogging his footsteps. Rajaratnam was already a rich man when, encouraged by prominent Sri Lanka business figures, he started investing in local stocks. The year was 2002-2003 and among those who coaxed him here were Hussein Esufally of Hemas Holdings and Murtaza Jafferjee, the former director of the Colombo Stock Exchange. They urged him to invest in Sri Lanka and he moved in.

Full Article...

Greens Leader Bob Brown has urged the federal government to consider sanctions against Sri Lanka amid concerns about the treatment of the nation's Tamil population.

Full Report...

The US State Department presented its 'unclassified' report titled "2009 - Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka". The report was mandated by the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act. The act directed the Secretary of State to submit a report "detailing incidents during the recent conflict in Sri Lanka that may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity, and, to the extent practicable, identifying the parties responsible."

Full Report...

A US State Department report on possible violations of the laws of war in Sri Lanka made public on October 22, 2009 shows the need for an independent international investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. The report details violations of the laws of war committed by both government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from January through May 2009.

Full Report...

Sources from Temple Trees told Lanka News Web that the President has planned to cast aside the National Freedom Front (NFF) from the government in order to rebuild an alliance with the JVP.

Full Report...

"Enough is enough," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "It is well past time to release civilians detained in the camps. Sri Lanka's international friends should tell the government that they will not accept any more broken promises."

Full Report...

company that took nearly three weeks to analyze the Channel-4 broadcast video allegedly showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers extra-judicially executing Tamil captives stripped naked and hands tied behind their back, said "[t]he video and audio of the events depicted in the Video, were continuous without any evidence of start/stops, insertions, deletions, over recordings, editing or tampering of any kind." US pressure group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) which sponsored the study, placed an embargo on revealing the details of the forensic company, until the final report is complete early November.

Full Report...

Sri Lankan-born billionaire businessman Raj Rajaratnam's arrest in the United States on Friday on an alleged US$ 20 million insider trading charges has hit Sri Lanka like a thunderbolt with not only the Colombo Securities & Exchange Commission(SEC) here scrambling to check whether his million-dollar dealings bordered on any illegality, but also high-level politicians under a cloud for involvement with him.

Full Report...

The real conspiracy against working people in Sri Lanka is by the government and the Colombo political establishment as a whole. Utterly incapable of meeting the aspirations of workers and the poor for democratic rights and decent living standards, it is continuing a campaign of anti-Tamil communalism, conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies as it prepares to use police state measures to suppress any opposition by the working class to the ongoing assault on its jobs, conditions and living standards.

Full Article...

Sri Lanka has lodged a strong protest with the Norwegian government over a reported meeting held by LTTE's advisory committee in Oslo, where it said an action plan was formulated to announce a transnational government of Tamil Ealam.

Full Report...

....in the afternoon of May 18th, Tiger political leaders, who walked towards the army positions carrying white flags along the Paranthan - Mullaithivu road were shot dead by the Sri Lankan troops. The killings took place after the victims were given a clear assurance by a certain international organization and a diplomatic mission in Colombo in consultation with high powered government officials including Gotabaya Rajapaksha, Palitha Kohona and Basil Rajapaksha....

Full Report...

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. Well, that's how it is supposed to be. Just ask the 17 UNP pole - vaulters, or the 10 from the NFF for that matter. Of late, however, there is something odd going on in this island of ours. 'We don't want it, but we want it.' 'We don't need your preaching, but give us the moolah,' we have been telling the West. Ditto with the IMF: ‘No conditions please; we are Sri Lanka, so just dole out the 2.5 billion.' To the US: 'Put your house in order before lecturing us.' And then we go and ask these very people for favours. How intelligent is that?

Full Article...

The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the 250,000 displaced Tamils still held in detention camps, Human Rights Watch said today. Deteriorating conditions, including a shortage of water since October 5, 2009, combined with the prospect of flooding during the imminent monsoon season, have led to rising tensions among camp residents and clashes with the military.

Full Report...

SLFP (M) Wing leader Mangala Samaraweera says it is time for all progressive forces supportive of democracy to join hands to defeat the dictatorship that is fiercely spreading through the country. He made this comment when he went to the Welikada Prison to visit the jailed journalist J.S. Tissainayagam and Convener of the Inter University Students Federation, Udul Premaratne and 12 other university students on Tuesday (6) evening.

Full Report...

After the military debacle of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), the Tamil and Muslim political elements in the main stream have initiated a new dialogue with a view to form a common front to fight for minority rights amidst growing Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism in state and the polity of Sri Lanka.

Full Report...

Tamils made history in the UK with a momentous passing of an emergency resolution on Sri Lanka at the Labour Party Conference on Thursday, 1 October 2009.

The sitting government party passed a resolution condemning the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka by that government. Resolution was passed unanimously by thousands of delegates at the conference and in front of millions of live TV viewers.

Full Report...

Siobhain McDonagh MP, Mictham & Morden, UK, during the Labor Party conference held Thursday appealed to the delegates, and to the millions of live TV viewers, to shoulder their own commitment on the Sri Lanka issue, urging that a boycott of goods and avoiding holidays in the unsavory state would ensure their money would not “prop up that government.” During the event, the sitting government party passed a resolution condemning the treatment of Tamils in the island by that government.

Full Report...

The courageous step taken by tea plantation workers on the Balmoral Estate in Sri Lanka in establishing their own action committee, independent of the trade unions, has broad political significance for workers throughout the island and internationally. Their decision was born of deep anger over the latest poverty-level wage deal imposed by the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) in collaboration with the government and employers, which comes on top of decades of bitter experiences with all of the unions. In an appeal to all workers, the Balmoral Estate Action Committee declared it had no faith in any of the unions, including those that claimed to oppose the agreement. It cited their role in suppressing industrial action during the last pay struggle in 2006.

Read More...

SriLankan Airlines' 2009 Annual Report contains a query from the company's auditors regarding the viability of the airline. In the face of what is effectively a Rs. 10 billion loss Ernst & Young have expressed "doubts that the company (SriLankan Airlines) will be able to continue as a going concern."

Full Report...

Sri Lankan soldiers fired on a group of war refugees trying to flee a camp in the north of the island, wounding two, the military said Sunday. The foiled escape bid happened late Saturday in the northern district of Vavuniya, near a former battle zone. The civil war between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels ended in May, but nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians are still held in military-run camps.

Full Report...

About 30 to 40 persons are abducted on a daily basis from IDP camps in the North, SLFP (M) Leader Mangala Samaraweera charged in Parliament yesterday.

Full Report...

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday warned Sri Lanka against building foreign currency reserves by borrowing from foreign investors. Sri Lanka's central bank announced this month that foreign reserves hit a historic high of four billion dollars, sufficient to cover over four months of imports. "The central bank has been building a war chest of reserves lately through debt. We would prefer if Sri Lanka built up reserves from exports and from remittances and not by borrowings," Aitken said.

Full Report...

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing a gathering at the Bambarakele Temple in Nuwara Eliya said, "I have even stated in parliament that the salary of an estate worker needed to be increased to Rs. 500. I said at the point that if the request is not granted and the employers disagree with the request, the government needed to intervene. Parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan and the JVP have also made statements in this regard." He also said, "The Minister in-charge at the time said that if the plan to increase the workers salary came to standstill, the government would intervene."

Full Report...

President of the Inter Company Employees Union (ICEU), Wasantha Samarasinghe said the ICEU central committee that met recently had unanimously decided to take trade union action against the non increase of salaries of private sector employees and the unjust manner in which they are treated through contracts.

Full Report...

The debt of each Sri Lankan has increased to Rs. 163,245 by August 31, 2008, which is reportedly the highest to be recorded in the country's history.

Full Report...

UNP sources said that plans were underway to organize island wide protest campaigns from October 11 at village level every week and at national level on a monthly basis after the formation of the new opposition alliance. A sathyagraha is also to be held under this campaign an a massive Jana Bala Meheyuma is to be organized in Colombo on the day President Mahinda Rajapakse is to celebrate four years in office.

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Recent shocking British television footage, allegedly showing government soldiers killing unarmed, bound and naked prisoners, has prompted calls for a probe into possible war crimes. The Government of Sri Lanka says the video is fake and has released the results of what it calls four independent investigations. But not everyone is convinced.

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It was not so in the past. Nor was it two and a half decades ago. My story was in early 1980's. I was once in the morning train that comes on the coast line from Galle. Its a very popular train, the "Ruhunu Kumari" which carries commuters from the South to the metropolitan Colombo every day. There was one old and lanky gentleman in a typical white cotton "national dress" in the compartment that I got into and had to travel standing.

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The government has imposed restrictions on Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan opening more political offices under the name of the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (Tamil People's Liberation Tigers) in the Eastern Province. An attempt by Mr. Chandrakanthan to put up a TMVP board at an office in Trincomalee last week was prevented on the instructions of Defence authorities. A second attempt to convert a public relations office of the chief minister into a political office in Thirukkovil, Ampara has been opposed by loyalist of Cabinet Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan with a hartal campaign in the area.

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From his childhood young Jayaprakash Tissainayagam showed signs of being different from the rest. He would stand up for what he believed was right and on many an occasion faced the wrath of the powers that be for his trouble. This is what Tissainayagam, after 520 days in prison had to say from the dock on the conclusion of his trial; "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticised terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this… I always agitated against violence, fought for justice and for the oppressed."

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If Sri Lanka is to become a tropical paradise again, it must build enduring peace. This will only occur through genuine interethnic equality, and a transition from being a unitary state to being a federation that grants provincial and local autonomy.

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Trade union leaders and activists from the National Trade Union Center (NTUC) that represents 366 public, private and estate sector trade unions commenced the struggle to win eight demands on behalf of the working people by launching a campaign to distribute leaflets in Fort on Monday (14). NTUC Leader and JP parliamentarian K.D. Lalkantha and estate sector union leader and JVP parliamentarian Ramalingam Chandrasekar and other union leaders participated in the event. The main demand of the unions is to increase wages of public, private and estate sector employees.

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In its restriction of the press, the Sri Lankan government is harming itself, as well as its civilians...

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The shelling might have stopped, but the persecution continues. Sri Lanka's government must let the international community in...

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Damilvany Gnanakumar witnessed Sri Lanka's bloody conflict from a Tamil hospital - then spent months detained in a camp. She tells Gethin Chamberlain her story:

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he Sri Lankan government's ruthless repression of the Tamil people is sowing the seeds of future rebellion...

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The government yesterday said that the US was rapidly making a case of war crimes against Sri Lanka on the basis of the conduct of her armed forces, police as well as the political leadership during the recently concluded war.

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The Sri Lankan government has stepped up its campaign to discredit footage claiming to show Tamils being executed by Sri Lankan soldiers, which was broadcast by Channel 4 News last month.

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The government is acting outside the law and violating the Constitution by holding more than 250,000 displaced people at camps in the Wanni District, opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe charged yesterday. Mr. Wickremesinghe who spoke during the emergency debate said no law in the country allowed the government to detain people in camps without detention orders.

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Damning review accuses the country of failing to honour human rights pledges after end of the war against Tamil rebels...

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National Organizer of Corruption Watch, Provincial Councilor Rohana Gamage said that Mangala Samaraweera's Private Secretary, Ruwan Ferdinandsz was labeled as a traitor in the Silumina newspaper in order to create the necessary environment to ensure that he too would undergo the fate that befell Lasantha Wickrematunge at the hands of terrorist groups sponsored by Mahinda, Gotabhaya and Basil. He made this statement at a combine press conference organized by the Corruption Watch and the Development Watch on Thursday (10).

Full Report...

New film appears to reveal the victims of Sri Lanka's war suffering poor conditions in UN-funded camps.

Full Report & the video...

"Its [Sri Lanka's] alleged wartime and other abuses make a grim catalogue: thousands of Tamil civilians allegedly killed by army shelling during the rebels’ last stand; scores of Tamils disappeared; nearly 300,000 Tamil war-displaced callously interned; murder and intimidation of journalists - including J.S. Tissainayagam, sentenced to 20 years hard labour on August 31st for criticising the army’s tactics," says an editorial in The Economist in its 3rd September edition, and points to a damning 130-page report by the European Union which concludes that "Sri Lanka has failed to honour important human-rights commitments, and is ineligible for GSP Plus."

Full Article...

.....[S]ources from Vavuniya say that while most of the disappeared people have been killed, the rest are being held in a secret location. Sources further observed that armed Tamil political parties and groups affiliated to the government during the past few months had entered the IDP camps and taken thousands of young Tamil boys and girls without entering any records in the books alleging them to have had links with the LTTE.

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In a "tongue in the cheek" tone Mangala Samaraweera virtually challenge the govt. to go to the ICR if the govt's version is genuine, and said: "The image that has been built through centuries has been destroyed in just two and a half years by the Rajapakse government. He said that the country has now become isolated among the international community due to allegations of human rights violations and many countries are of the opinion that Sri Lankan leaders have to be tried for war crimes."

Full Report...

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2009/- Global Media Forum and the US branch of Reporters Without Borders are pleased to announce that respected Sri Lankan journalist and editor J. S. Tissainayagam has been selected as the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. Tissainayagam will be formally awarded the prize at a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on October 2, 2009. The key note speaker for the ceremony will be Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post.

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The Asian Human Rights Commission is saddened, disappointed and shocked but not surprised at the judgment of the High Court of Colombo in sentencing J.S. Tisssainayagam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for a simple piece of writing which he had done and which was interpreted as aiding and abetting terrorism. The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case, the first of its kind in which the accused, Mr. Tisssainayagam's guilt or innocence was not an issue but an opportunity to send a message to society on the changed circumstances of the country where freedom of expression does not matter at all. That was the real aim of this case. It is the sort of prosecution that could have happened under the regime of Joseph Stalin through the prosecutor, Andrei Vyshinsky.

Full Statement...

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the "shameful" 20-year jail sentence which a Colombo high court passed today on journalist J.S. Tissainayagam on charges of supporting terrorism and inciting racial hatred in his articles. "The imposition of this extremely severe sentence on Tissainayagam suggests that some Sri Lanka judges confuse justice with revenge," Reporters Without Borders said. "With the help of confessions extracted by force and information that was false or distorted, the court has used an anti-terrorism law that was intended for terrorists, not for journalists and human rights activists."

Full Report...

A prominent Tamil reporter, whose detention in Sri Lanka was described by US President Barack Obama as an "emblematic example" of threats to media freedom, was today sentenced to 20 years in prison for having links with the LTTE and for writing against the government. Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, 45, who contributed to the local Sunday Times and also ran a website that focused on the country's Tamil population, was found guilty of spreading 'racial hatred' and 'supporting terrorism,' an official at Colombo's High Court said.

Full Report...

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka condemns the sentencing of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam to twenty years rigorous imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on August 31, 2009. Tissainayagam's sentence is based on a 'confession' that he has refuted and two articles written and published by him in 2006. The judgment also states that the two articles written by Tissainayagam that are the subject of this investigation contain material that causes 'communal disharmony', and this too is considered a basis for his sentence. Tissainayagam has never engaged in, or promoted, violence of any kind, and we have always known him to be committed to co-existence and inter-ethnic justice.

Full Statement...

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the referendum that saw nearly 80 percent of the East Timorese people vote to secede from Indonesia and become a separate nation-state. A decade later, independence for the tiny island state has proven to be a fraud. The enclave is entirely dependent on and subservient to the imperialist powers; Dili is a nest of intrigue, with officials and corporate executives from Australia, the US, Portugal, China, and other countries manoeuvring for access to the Timor Sea's vast oil and gas reserves. At the same time, Timor's 1.1 million people remain among the most impoverished in the world, and subject to an increasingly repressive Western-backed government. Several key social indicators have actually worsened during the past 10 years. The record stands as a tragic confirmation of the bankruptcy of nationalism and the associated myths of "self-determination" and "national independence" in the 21st century.......

....Post-independence Timorese governments have heeded World Bank and International Monetary Fund dictates and locked away oil and gas royalty revenues in a US treasuries-based Petroleum Fund that is now worth $US5 billion. Meanwhile, almost half the population lives below the official poverty line of less than 55 US cents a day, and the unemployment rate is estimated at about 50 percent - up from about one-third of the population in 1999. Basic health, education, and other social services remain widely unavailable - and, as a result, infant mortality is nearly 10 percent at 88 deaths per 1000 live births, average life expectancy just 60 years, and about 30 percent of the adult population is illiterate. The majority live in rural areas, dependent on subsistence farming and typically without running water and/or electricity.

The conditions of the East Timorese people stand as a damning indictment of the "liberation" promised to them by their nationalist leadership ten years ago. The East Timor tragedy is among the sharpest expressions of the historic failure of bourgeois nationalism. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the formation of the modern European nation-state was a progressive development, bound up with the abolition of outmoded feudal barriers that were constraining the development of society's productive forces. In the current epoch of global capitalism, however, national bourgeois elites are incapable of delivering even the most basic requirements of the masses - including decent living standards and fundamental democratic rights. National "independence" means nothing but the creation of new enclaves, where tiny elites appeal for foreign investment and imperialist patronage by ruthlessly exploiting the local population....

Full Article...

....The video is the first direct evidence that the army has carried out summary executions. The fact that the soldiers involved joked about the killings, allowed themselves to be videoed and that the video was passed around tends to indicate that the practice was widespread. Those involved clearly felt that they could kill with impunity....

Full Report...

Sri Lanka has been accused of war crimes after video footage apparently showing government soldiers executing nine naked Tamils emerged three months after the end of the 25-year separatist war.

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Sinhalese who have come from other areas are forcibly encroaching on lands owned by Tamils and Muslims in the Samanthurai Divisional Secretariat area in the Ampara District. It is reported that among these people who are encroachintg on lands are members of the home guard unit and the police. So far the land forcibily taken by these encroachers amount to about 400 acres. Although the real owners of the lands have lodged complaints with the Samanthurai Divisional Secretary, Ampara District Secretary and the Ampara Police with regard to the issues faced by them, no action has been taken yet by the authorities.

Full Report...

The man is young, naked, bound and blindfolded; a corpse lying across his legs. A soldier approaches him in what appears to be Sri Lankan army uniform and shoots him at point-blank range, apparently amused at the death. "It’s like he jumped," he says.

Full Report...

Editor's comment: This interview is worth listening to by everybody, including Sri Lankans:

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Displaced Tamil people are being daily abducted from camps in Vavuniya by people who come in vans, a displaced person told the BBC.

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"India’s support to Rajapakse Government is an atrocious crime. Tamils are undergoing unspeakable hardship, and the monstrosity is only matched by the Nazis terror on Jews. The world had simply closed its eyes....Failure to ensure safety to Sri Lanka Tamils is a moral disgrace to India and a stain in India's illustrious history," said Francis Boyle, expert in International Law and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, during an interview with Tamil Nadu magazine, Dalit Murasu.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan government is solely responsible for ensuring the safety of prominent human rights activist Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, who received an anonymous death threat at his home yesterday. Freedom House urges that the Sri Lanka government demonstrate that it will not continue to tolerate such vigilantism by carrying out a full and impartial investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

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......Rajapakse insisted that the freeing of detainees would only lead to the renewal of LTTE attacks. "LTTE terrorists masquerading as civilians, now taking refuge among the displaced, could resume attacks if the government gave in to internal and external pressure and released them," he declared. "[T]here were a lot of explosives, arms and ammunition buried in the Vanni, particularly in the eastern part. Had they [LTTE fighters] been given an opportunity to lay their hands on them, they would resume attacks." In other words, on the pretext of preventing "terrorist" attacks, the government has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of civilians indefinitely without charge or trial. Inside the detention centres, hundreds of young people have been questioned by security personnel then sent to unknown prisons for further interrogation and possibly torture. In many cases, their relatives have been given no information about their whereabouts.

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A new report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights presents a comparative analysis of human rights situation in South Asia. According to the report, Sri Lanka is the number one violator in the region closely followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan.

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The outcome of two local elections last Saturday in the northern Sri Lankan towns of Jaffna and Vavuniya reflected the profound alienation of the island's Tamil minority not only from the government, but also from the various Tamil parties, including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

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The Sri Lankan defence secretary has called on foreign countries to hand over Tamil Tiger rebels and their assets, worth of millions of dollars.

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Platform for Freedom, an initiative of civil society organizations comprising of representatives from trade unions, media groups and political parties is appalled at the most recent attempt to intimidate one of its convenors Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Director of CPA and condemn this cowardly act of intimidation to silence the 'voice of civil society'.

Full Report...

The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu this morning received an anonymous death threat written in English, posted to his residence. According to the contents of the letter, Dr. Saravanamuttu WILL (emphasis in original) be killed because Sri Lanka stands to be deprived of the European Union’s GSP Plus benefits in October, with resultant job losses, due to information supplied by Dr. Saravanamuttu to Ms. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's Commissioner for External Relations.

Full Report...

Banyan News Reporters learns that Sri Lanka will hold the world’s first barbed wire exhibition for 180 days beginning 1st September at the Bandaranaike Memorial Hall under the auspices of the Ministry of Human Rights Disaster Management. Titled 'The Beauty of Barbed Wire' the exhibition will showcase cultural uses and relevance of barded wire in Sri Lanka.

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Sources from the Presidential Secretariat said that the ongoing conflict between the Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan and Governor, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema has further intensified. Sources noted that the five ministers of the council including the Chief Minister have already sent two petitions against the Governor. Eastern Province Ministers M.L.M. Hizbullah, M.S. Udumal Lebbe, Thuraiappa Navaratneraja and Wimalaweera Dissanayake have also signed the petitions sent by the Chief Minister claiming the Governor unduly interfered in affairs and decisions related to the Eastern Provincial Council.

Full Report...

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is deeply perturbed by the recent events involving shocking acts of abuse of authority by officers of the Sri Lankan Police. The cases involving the son and associates of Colombo Crimes Division SSP Vaas Gunewardene and the extra-judicial executions of two youths allegedly by members of the Angulana Police have no place in a civilised society, let alone one that claims to be a democracy under the Rule of Law.

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A House of Commons committee claims arms made in Britain may have been fired on civilians during Tamil Tigers battles in Sri Lanka.

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Floods caused by heavy rains unnecessarily threaten more than 260,000 displaced Tamil civilians whom the Sri Lankan government has unlawfully detained in camps in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today. Permitting displaced families to move in with friends and host families would quickly address the deteriorating conditions in the camps with the onset of the rainy season, Human Rights Watch said.

Full Report...

Reports received by Groundviews this evening indicate that torrential rains in Vavuniya throughout the day have severely affected IDPs interned in Menik Camp, particularly in Zone 3 and Zone 4. Other unconfirmed reports put the number of those affected by the rains at 15,000 at the time of writing.

Full Report...

Amnesty International today issued an urgent action appeal on the five Sri Lankan doctors currently being held by the government under emergency regulations. We are concerned that they are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

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A delegation of eminent citizens and representatives of civil rights organisations met Mr. S.M. Krishna, Union Minister of External Affairs here today, and urged the Government of India to ensure speedy rehabilitation of internally displaced people (IDPs) and other war-affected people in Sri Lanka.

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A series of satellite images taken over Sri Lanka's former war zone showed the existence of large grave sites and evidence of possible mortar positions near areas that had been packed with trapped civilians, a human rights group said Thursday. The release of the images was intended to challenge government claims that the military had ceased using heavy weapons in the final months of its war against the Tamil Tiger rebels in the jungles of the north to prevent large-scale civilian deaths.

Full Report...

What is currently seen as the biggest threat of destabilisation by Colombo and by some powers is not the militancy of Tamils. Militancy of a small nation can be crushed by ganging up and by fabricating all excuses, as has already been witnessed by us. But what exactly threatens the establishments is the effort of Tamils organising themselves politically. What they expect is the ‘defeated’ Tamils to play political stooges. Tamil national question today appeals to an array of oppressed masses deprived of political justice all over the world. It is a topic that appeals to progressive minds thinking of restructuring the polity of human civilisation. The responsibility of Eezham Tamils and their diaspora is to present the case with a progressive political theme and language..........If properly structured, the political organisation of Tamil nationalism is sure to find congenial partnership with alternative Sinhala polity in destabilising the Sri Lankan state, is the view of some sections that see such a course a positive achievement to the island and to the world civilisation.

Full Editorial...

"What we have to talk now is not regarding the next presidential election but abolishing the executive presidency . The executive presidency should be abolished to strengthen democracy in the country," said Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe.

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After the government of Sri Lanka finally and violently crushed the 25-year-old insurrection by Tamil rebels last May, there were hopes this sparkling island in the Indian Ocean would finally emerge from its dark history into the light. That is already looking forlorn. Put simply, while the conflict has ended, Sri Lanka is careering back to where it was when the conflict began. Its precarious identity as a mix of ethnic and linguistic, cultural and religious influences is in danger of being swept away by a triumphalist wave of Sinhalese chauvinism.

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Serious doubts have been cast on KP's arrest locally and internationally. The question is whether the new Leader of the LTTE and its international wing head, Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP was arrested by the international security units and handed over to Sri Lankan authorities or whether he willingly surrendered following an agreement reached with the Sri Lankan authorities. Some of the main reasons that have raised suspicion over the arrest are the fact that neither the Thai nor Malaysian authorities have confirmed arresting KP while the government continues to state that he was arrested following tip offs received by LTTE members and that the arrest happened two days prior to the Uva Provincial Council election and the Jaffna and Vavuniya local government elections.

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Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the recent war in North East Sri Lanka and living in camps are being denied basic human rights including freedom of movement, said Amnesty International as Secretary General Irene Khan today launched the Unlock the Camps campaign at the start the organization's International Council Meeting, a gathering of international delegates in Turkey.

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Only 22,280 out of the registered number of voters amounting to 100,417 in Jaffna had cast their votes at the local government elections on the 8th. Of those who had cast their votes, 1,358 had simply struck off their ballot papers. Meanwhile, at the Vavuniya local government elections, of the 24,626 registered voters, only 12,850 had cast their votes. About 558 voters had struck off their ballot papers.

Full Report...

08th August 07:00pm, Polling in the elections to the Jaffna Municipality, Vavuniya Urban Council and Uva Provincial Council was relatively incident free with voter turnout figures of 20%, 49% and 62% in the three areas respectively.

Full Report...

Editor's comment:

"His existence at large created a doubt in the minds of ordinary people that the LTTE was alive and kicking," Sri Lankan defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said. "His arrest shows that we are capable of demolishing any future emergence of the LTTE."

I think, the SL political establishment has got it wrong again. Instead of politically solving the conflict, it is trying to crush the Tiger cadres phyisically. This approach will again force the Tigers to go underground and resort to terrorist methods. And, more Tamils will begin to join the Tigers and support them in clandestine ways. "When will they ever learn?"

Full Report...

All of it raises an additional question to that of "what the future of the now dwindling Tigers" would be. That is, what legal rights "intelligence" systems have in operating clandestinely, crossing borders and carrying away men to where ever they wish. This new phenomenon has come to haunt the democratic life of post 9/11 societies....

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According to informed sources KP was staying in Kuala Lumpur(KL) , Malaysia when taken into custody. Pathmanathan had met with two visitors from London, England at a hotel room in KL in the afternoon of August 5th. He had received a call on his cellular phone. KP had then signaled to his visitors that he was going out to the corridor and walked away while conversing on the phone. He had not returned for a long time and the when the worried visitors from Britain went out in search there was no sign of the new global tiger chief. Meanwhile the friend who had been talking to KP on the phone had heard a sudden thud and some noise while chatting. The phone went dead and repeated calls were not successful.

Full Report...

Based on Self-Determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils is the political solution envisaged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, said veteran Tamil politician and TNA Parilamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, while addressing the press in Jaffna Tuesday. Mr. Sampanthan, who said that a draft proposal of the TNA will be released soon, was optimistic of India's support. This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.

Full Report...

A newspaper reported recently that the Chairman of the National Transport Commission had informed that the proposal to construct a Land Bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka would feature at the second meeting of the SAARC Ministers of Transport. This was subsequently affirmed in a newsline which reported on the items discussed at the said meeting held in Colombo from 25-27 July 2009. Its inclusion in the SAARC domain suggests its relevance in the context of connectivity in the wider region. The latter’s strategic transport blueprint has already been conceived in the UN-ESCAP initiative of the Asian Highway and the Trans - Asian Railway. Previously, the link for the transport of goods and passengers between the two countries across the Palk Strait had been limited to a ferry service, which, too, was abandoned due to the internal conflict in the north of Sri Lanka.

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Attorney J.C. Weliamuna called on members of the legal profession to come forward to safeguard and establish the rule of law in the country at a media conference organized by the Platform for Freedom at the Library Services Auditorium yesterday (4). He said the country's Constitution has been violated by the non-implementation of the 17th amendment, adding that public officials from the executive to the grama niladhari are bound to act by it.

Full Report...

Recorded on 31st July 2009, this was the first interview on video given by Dayan Jayatilleka after he was asked to quit his position as Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva a few weeks ago. Going into the reasons behind his sudden sacking, the interview interrogates his most contentious submissions regarding the 13th Amendment, his take on the current Presidency and future prospects for peace in Sri Lanka, key memories of his sojourn in Geneva including the epic Human Rights Council sessions and other issues related to politics and democracy. I also ventured to ask some impertinent questions about his love life, given that for the duration of the interview, he was flanked by his wife Sanja.

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Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva's wife filed a petition in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday (3) requesting for a Writ of Mandamus to be issued against the authorities who had separated two suckling elephants from their mothers in Pinnawela.

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The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, (HRW) has called for an international investigation into the killing of 17 aid workers Sri Lanka three years ago.

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Noting that more than quarter of a million Tamils were crammed in to an area the size of New York Central park that was repeatedly bombarded for 4 months when "the UN estimates that up to 8000 people were killed," and "other sources claim that more than 20,000 people were killed," and "[t]here are several reports about serious war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan Army," David Begg, General Secretary of Irish Congress of Trade Unions with a total membership of 850,000 workers, in a letter to Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, said he agrees with "Amnesty International's call for an independent inquiry into war crimes," and added that "[t]he Irish Congress of Trade Unions hopes that the Irish government will take initiatives on the international level, and within the European Union, for such an independent inquiry."

Full Report...

The relatives of the IDP's in Vauniya and Jaffna have been told that if they want to get their relatives out of the camps that they should vote for the UPFA candidates at the local polls. According to media reports an application form is being circulated in Jaffna requesting details of relatives living in IDP camps.

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LTTE’s legal adviser Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran speaks to PC VINOJ KUMAR about the group’s next moves:

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Animal rights activists have filed a petition in Sri Lanka's Supreme Court to reverse the removal of two baby elephants from an elephant orphanage.

Full Report...

Lionel Bopage is a former General Secretary of the JVP and was involved with the party since 1968. He resigned in 1984. In Sinusoidal nature of the JVP Policy on the National Question Mr. Bopage critically interrogates Mr. Amarasinghe's comments, on the one hand noting positively that...

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Dayan Jayathilaka seems to think that 13A, if implemented, can gently be manipulated so that the Tamils can eventually have autonomous rule in the north and east. This can be done, he says, through "the future electoral strength of the Tamil parties." [Groundviews - Comments on Aachcharya's article]

Full Editorial Comment...

Those who support the implementation of the 13^th Amendment say that whatever its limitations it is a good basis for further improvement. On the contrary, the 13^th Amendment is a recipe for disaster; it'll be a breeding ground of disharmony and conflict.

Full Comment...

Readers in Sri Lanka are unable to access the 'Sri Lanka Guardian' website for the past two days. However, the site is accessible from other parts of the World.

Full Report...

After delaying for more than four months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board last Friday approved a $US2.6 billon loan for Sri Lanka. The finance comes with stringent conditions that will drastically worsen the living standards and social conditions of workers and the rural poor. Under the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed by the Sri Lankan government, the IMF will effectively take supervisory control of the country's economy.

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Military sources say that regardless of the statement made by the government that the LTTE has been wiped out completely from the country, military personnel continue to die due to attacks carried out by LTTE cadres in hiding. Sources from the Civil Defence Force said that two home guards were killed two weeks ago when a group of LTTE cadres attacked the Thanthirimale security checkpoint located near the main army camp in Mannar. At the time of the attack four home guards and a police officer had been on duty at the check point.

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Provincial Land Minister Wimalaweera Dissanayake said the Eastern Provincial Ministers have decided to reject a request made by the central government ministers to lease out 15,000 acres of land to a Japanese firm for plantain cultivation in the Kanthale area.

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The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a 2.6-billion-dollar loan for Sri Lanka to support its economic reform program and help the country weather the severe global downturn. The IMF executive board approved the loan as the Asian country emerges from a 37-year civil war. The so-called Stand-By Arrangement is in an amount equivalent to 1.65 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), an IMF asset that is based on a basket of currencies - the dollar, yen, euro and pound - and calculated daily. The 20-month loan is worth about 2.6 billion dollars, the IMF said.

Full Report...

The UK has taken the unprecedented step of abstaining from a vote at an International Monetary Fund (IMF) board meeting after politicians felt unable to support a £1.46 billion loan to Sri Lanka.

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Britain was poised tonight to take an unprecedented stand against a US $2.5 billion loan being extended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Sri Lanka because of fears over the humanitarian situation in the county. A British Government source said that that it was "not the right time to go forward" with the loan, because Sri Lanka is forcibly detaining nearly 300,000 mostly Tamil refugees in internment camps and spending a large proportion of its wealth on its military - even though the country's bloody 26-year civil war ended in May.

Full Report...

The conceptual launch on Thursday of the Global Tamil Forum comes at a time when the Tamil Diaspora is no longer ready to mourn the sufferings of their brethren, nor wait for world justice to prevail. The symbolic announcement made by a unified body of Diaspora organisations marks a nation set to embark as a formidable force for their voiceless brethren in Sri Lanka, with a vision to "oppose the entire edifice of oppression and discrimination through peaceful means and to champion the rights of Tamil and other communities who have been unjustly deprived of their rights and silenced".

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Members of the International Monetary Fund should insist that the government of Sri Lanka address significant post-conflict human rights abuses as part of the approval for a US$2.5 billion stand-by loan, Human Rights Watch said today. The IMF board is expected to vote on the stand-by arrangement on July 24, 2009. The proposed loan has created intense controversy because of concern over Sri Lanka's serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

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The Global Tamil Diaspora has united to form the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), in response to the large scale massacre of Tamil civilians, internment of more than 300,000 in camps reminiscent of Nazi Germany and continuing inhumane treatment of these detainees by the Government of Sri Lanka. It is a need of the times and the first of its kind worldwide for the Tamils to speak with one voice.

Full Report...

Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, inaugurated the opening of A9 route to public use Wednesday around 10:30 a.m by waving a flag for the convoy of five buses that carried 210 passengers from Jaffna to Mathavachchi, heavily escorted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in an event held at Duraippa Stadium in Jaffna. Minister Douglas Devananda and the Governor of Northern Province, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri were present on the occasion, sources in Jaffna said.

Full Report...

A mass scale land encroaching is reported from areas like Welioya (Manalaru), Kokkuthudai, Kokilai etc. in the northeastern terrain of Sri Lanka. Civilian activities were restricted in these areas for a long period of time due to the fighting between the Army and the Tamil Tiger rebels that claimed for a Tamil homeland in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. However, following the Army's victory over the Tamil Tigers, demining and rapid development is taking place in the area and ambitious and mostly well-to-do Sinhala people in Welioya and Padaviya colonies are reportedly grabbing land.

Full Report...

Reporters Without Borders today called on the Sri Lankan government to give a more convincing explanation about its refusal to renew the press visa of the Associated Press correspondent in the country Ravi Nessman. Nessman, an American national who has been based in Sri Lanka since 2007, was forced to leave the country on 20 July after his visa was not renewed.

Full Report...

Sources from the Menik Farm IDP camp say that LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's parents have disappeared from the camp. Prabhakaran's parents were identified when they arrived in government controlled areas along with thousands of civilians during the final phase of the war.

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UNP sources say the party along with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe have arrived at a consensus on the basic framework on power devolution. Wickremesinghe had reached this agreement during a discussion with Rauf Hakeem, Mangala Samaraweera and Mano Ganeshan yesterday (21).

Click Here...

The Lanka News Web learns that CID Director, Ravi Vidyalankara has called on SLFP (M) Wing Leader Mangala Samaraweera to come to the CID. SLFP (M) Wing Secretary Tiran Alles was yesterday (21) summoned to the CID for questioning over an alleged plan to assassinate a VIP.

Click Here...

[Lankaeye just received the following message from Sri Lanka - 22 July]

This morning about 10.30 am, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera MP and leader of the SLFP(M) was asked to report at Director CID office for questioning, but no details are available for now. Yesterday evening, his closes political ally, Tiran Alles was grilled by the CID for 3 and 1/2 hrs over a purported conspiracy to assassinate a VVIP.
The day before in the morning from 8.30 till about 11.30 am, Mangala Samaraweera's long time political colleague, Ruwan Ferdinands' house at Ethul Kotte, Sri Jayawardnepura was under watch by two unknown men on a motor bike, who later blocked his wife's vehicle and had inquired about Ruwan.

Mangala Samaraweera has told the Director CID that he was not going to come to his office as he wanted. As a former minister who held very high portfolios, being a very senior member of the SLFP and most importantly, being an elected Member of Parliament, he has told the officer, he would answer any or all his questions either at his own residence or at his political office.
The CID officer has said he would get back with a phone call in an hour and is yet to get back. Perhaps waiting for a directive from very "high up" as to what he should now do.

LankaEye Editor's comment: This is a good analysis that exposes the reality behind the 13th Amendment. It shows that the 13^th Amendment - which is already part of the SL Constitution - is nowhere near solving the political problems that led to the destructive war. On the contrary, it'll be a recipe for future disputes and conflicts that could invariably result in bigger problems. [The so-called "13-Plus" will be a non-starter in the face of intense opposition in the Sinhala South.] As long as the centre remains intact, the 13^th Amendment will only lead to a new version of separatist struggle. Thus, the 13^th Amendment will not bring the social harmony Sri Lanka is desperately looking for. As I have argued elsewhere, a separate state is also not going to bring peace either to the Tamil people or to the country as a whole. It will merely open a Pandora's Box of a different form. The only viable answer to the conflict and the future prosperity of all communities lies in the radical transformation of the centre itself. A supreme parliament with radical mechanisms enabling the democratic representatives of all communities to effectively participate in the economic planning and development of the country as a whole should be seen as the Holy-Grail. Two regional administrations - one for the north and one for the south - should be formed for power-decentralization from an equality-based supreme parliament. Thus the latter's rule is limited to the highest level of all political, economic, judicial and security issues.

Click Here for MCM Iqbal's Article...

Addressed as originating from the headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, an Executive Committee on Tuesday, announced restructure of the organization and the leadership of Selvarasa Pathmanathan in taking up the future course of the movement. "We have set up a head office for our liberation movement and formulated various sector-based working groups and an executive committee," a press release on behalf of the Executive Committee said adding that the details will be shared in due course. Meanwhile, LTTE watchers said that the new formation has the burden to prove its credibility with the grass root at home and among the diaspora that aspire not incumbencies but a strong mass organisation to address their national cause.

Full Report...

The conflict is over - now the international community must make sure Tamils get the help they desperately need....

Many people are in the camps not because they have no other place to go… They are in the camps because the government does not allow them to leave.

Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch

Full Article...

A meeting of fishermen at Veerasingham Hall on July 10 gave some indication of the opposition to the UPFA. Fisheries minister Felix Perera, accompanied by Devananda, attempted to convince the audience that the future would be bright for fishermen now that the war was over. One fisherman from Gurunagar immediately asked: "The army has taken over 230 of our homes and the area has been declared a high security zone. Can you take action to hand them back to us?" Another person asked what action the government was taking to open the main A9 highway connecting Jaffna to Colombo now that the war was over.

Full Report...

A senior UNP parliamentarian told Lanka News Web that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had clearly stated that a solution to the Tamil people's problem could not be found through a federal administrative structure. The Opposition Leader had made this statement during a discussion held on Friday (17) morning with SLMC Leader Rauf Hakeem and SLFP (M) Wing Leader Mangala Samaraweera where they were presented with the "unitary and bhoomiputhra policy proposals" approved by the UNP's Working Committee recently.

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A French aid agency is demanding an international investigation into the massacre of 17 of its workers in Sri Lanka three years ago, after a government inquiry reportedly failed to identify the killers.

Full Report...

Serious incidents that have taken place during the past few weeks has delayed the opening of the A9 route, months after the military has secured areas in the north after defeating the LTTE rebels, reliable sources said. The most serious incident had taken place on the 9th of this months when a claymore targeting a military vehicle had exploded on the A9 route in the Oddusudan area. The explosion had killed an Army captain and two soldiers.

Full Report...

While the CID arrested Bandara, who claimed the President would be entering a bad period after September, it had also taken into custody another astrologer who had made a contradictory prediction to that made by Bandara.

Full Story...

Various stories on the reason for the sudden removal of Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka from his post are doing the rounds in the political as well as the military circles. A minister from the Gampaha District has told several confidants that Fonseka was removed as the Army Chief after the President found the Army Chief to have a "Raja Yoga" in his horoscope.

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Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleke Friday, July 17 said he had been "sacked" from his post as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva. Jayatilleke told The Sunday Leader he had been "Sacked today (July 17) - a fax came from the Foreign Ministry," "terminating" his contract with effect from August 20 and requesting his return. "No reasons" were given, Jayatilleke said.

Full Report...

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India on Friday said it has asked Sri Lanka to take "effective measures" to address the concerns of displaced Tamils, as relations between the two neighbours would hinge on the issue.

Full Report...

Member, Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and former parliamentarian, Ven. Baddegama Samitha Thero has said that while the LSSP and the Communist Party supported the 13th amendment to the Constitution introduced by President J.R. Jayewardene, the SLFP boycotted the first provincial council election and the JVP unleashed a period of terror against the amendment.

Read More...

A senior Foreign Ministry official told Lanka News Web that irresponsible comments made by former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka in the past few days put Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a difficult spot during his visit to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Egypt. Fonseka recently stated that the military had to overlook the traditional rules of war and even kill LTTE rebels who came to surrender carrying white flags during the war against the LTTE.

Full Report...

New York times in an editorial published Wednesday said that "[t]he [Sri Lanka] government's strict control on visits to the [internment] camps has also raised suspicions that it may be trying to block any investigation into possible government abuses committed in the last months of the war," and added, "[m]ost [donor countries and international organizations] have kept quiet so far about the Tamils' plight, evidently fearful that criticizing conditions in the camps could get them thrown out of the camps. The time for silence is over. The best way to help the Tamils is by demanding their freedom and an end to their long ordeal."

Full Article...

The language inserted in the Department of State Appropriations bill S.1434 soon to be passed in the United States Senate, has virtually blocked U.S. Treasury Secretary from authorizing the projected $1.9B IMF loan to Sri Lanka, unless Secretary of State Hilary Clinton certifies that Sri Lanka "is treating internally displaced persons in accordance with international standards, including by guaranteeing their freedom of movement, providing access to conflict-affected areas and populations by humanitarian organizations and journalists, and accounting for persons detained in the conflict," and Sri Lanka is promoting "reconciliation and justice including devolution of power to provincial councils in the north and east as provided for in the Constitution of Sri Lanka."

Full Report...

Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) came to a dramatic end in May with a decisive military victory and the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers' fearsome leader. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the man who tamed the Tigers. Now his task is to heal a nation still divided by tensions between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. In a rare, wide-ranging interview, Rajapaksa, 63, talked with TIME's Jyoti Thottam at the President's official compound in Colombo on July 10.

Full Interview...

" A liberation fighter has to transcend the confines of his ego and his self to immerse himself whole-heartedly in the struggle. We are only symbols of the aspirations of the Tamil people.... Fight we must, till our goal is achieved. India's sympathy is a morale-booster, but should India withdraw support it would not mean the end of our liberation struggle. After all we did not start our liberation movement with India's support or with the help of some other external forces. We are fighting in the hope that we will see Eelam in our lifetime. We don't want to pass the burden of a liberation struggle to the next generation: they must enjoy the fruits of our toil. But in case we do not succeed in our lifetime, we have a vision to see that the struggle is passed on to the next generation.We will fight till we die. When I die someone else will take over. As Subhas Chandra Bose said, 'No liberation fighter can delude himself that he alone can deliver freedom.' If my generation dies without attaining freedom the next generation will carry on the struggle..." - Prabhakaran

Click here to read the full interview...

More than two months after declaring victory over Tamil Tiger guerillas, Sri Lanka's government is continuing to hold hundreds of thousands of displaced Tamil civilians in what it calls "welfare villages," but what increasingly look like military internment camps.

Full Editorial... 

In the backdrop of Sri Lanka's mounting debt, both domestic and foreign that had increased manyfold, the issue of financial discipline in borrowing patterns has resurfaced yet again.

Full Report...

Working in conjunction with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams in Vavuniya District in Sri Lanka's northeast have performed more than 5,000 surgeries over the last five months, most to treat conflict-related injuries. Activities are currently focused on post-operative care, including minor surgery, dressings, and physical therapy, as well as hospitalizations for displaced persons.

Full Report...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the blocking of access to the independent Lanka News Web website (http://www.lankanewsweb.com) within Sri Lanka since 11 July. The site's editors believe the blocking was prompted by a report posted earlier that day about President Mahinda Rajapakse's son, Namal Rajapakse. The press freedom organisation also deplores Namal Rajapakse's seizure of news media videos.

Full Report...

Minister Tissa Vitharana addressing the politburo of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party has said the President had requested him to delay the proposals on devolving power to the north and east in line with the 13th amendment. Vitharana had made this revelation at a heated politburo meeting of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

Full Report...

Reports from army personnel who were engaged in the final battle in the north have said that the youngest son of the LTTE leader, Balachandran, was taken to a different area after being captured and dashed on the ground before shooting him at close range with a T56 weapon. The photographs show Balachandran's remains after he was killed.

Full Report...

A UNP parliamentarian told Lanka News Web that the government after unleashing an attack on the JHU, which built an ideology backing the war against the LTTE, was now treating Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, who played a key role in the war, in a similar manner by removing him from the top post in the army.

Full Report...

It was in the last week, Lanka News Web posted a report under the heading, Government has to look for "New Excuses"....and in the end of the said posting, we mentioned that the Leader of TULF,

Mr.V.Anandasangaree has intensified writing "love letters" to the President while seeing the mayhem caused by the Government in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the North. Following is the latest plea of Mr.Anandasangaree, written on the day before the last "Poya" holiday.

Read More...

Under the impact of the global economic crisis, Sri Lankan workers are facing a wave of job losses, along with harsh cuts in pay and working hours. In the first quarter of this year, 192,000 were retrenched, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Among them were 96,000 industrial workers, 60,000 apparel workers and 36,000 construction workers, forcing many into lower-paid service industry jobs or back to their rural home areas. The Rajapakse government's military victory over the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has fuelled the attacks on jobs and conditions, encouraging employers to be equally ruthless in imposing the burden of the world recession.

Full Report...

Sri Lankan officials have strongly denied allegations that more than 20,000 civilians were killed in recent fighting against Tamil rebels. Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC discusses on the Today programme whether the UN should hold an investigation to find out what really happened.

See the video...

Sources from Temple Trees say that newly appointed Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe is closely related to the President. Apart from the maternal relationship between the Samarasinghe and the Rajapakses, the two families also have a close friendship. It was Samarasinghe's grandfather, Hemachandra Gunasekera, who had brought young Mahinda Rajapakse to Colombo and found him employment after school education.

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A senior official at the Judicial Services Commission told Lanka News Web that the appointment of Supreme Court Judge Shiranee Bandaranayake's husband, Pradeep Kariyawasam, as the chairman of Sri Lanka Insurance after the government re-acquired it may be a step taken by the President to have a hold on the highest court of law in the country.

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"Lasantha from the Leader paper went overboard. I took care of him. Poddala agitated and his leg was broken. Now a fellow in my electorate is trying to stand against me. I now tell him in his own hometown, I will give him only seven more days. If he does not resign as chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha, don't blame me later on. You'll don’t find fault with me. If this fellow goes against what I say, I will send him to the place where I sent Lasantha," Non-cabinet Labor Minister Mervyn Silva stated publicly at a meeting in Hunupitiya, Kelaniya.

Full Report...

The President’s senior astrological advisor and board member of the National Savings Bank, Sumanasekera Abeygunawardena has said the next presidential election would be held on January 14, 2010.

He had made the statement at a board meeting of the National Savings Bank. Abeygunawardena had spoken about the next presidential election and the future of the country when the board was discussing the future measures the bank needed to adopt.

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Sources from the Menik Farm IDP camp told Lanka News Web that President Mahinda Rajapakse's eldest son, Namal Rajapakse, was received by a shower of stones when he visited the Menik Farm camp along with representatives of several media institutions.

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Sri Lanka is failing to provide concrete proof of the death of Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and Pottu Amman, the intelligence chief of the outfit who are wanted by India to wind up the case regarding the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The sources say that Sri Lankan authorities are unable to provide scientific proof for the deaths of these Tiger leaders. Although a corpse said to be of Prabakaran's was displayed as the government declared he was killed on May 18. No corpse of Pottu Amman's was shown so far.

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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the new Governor of the Northern Province. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Tamil political circles in Colombo commented that Mr. Rajpaksa, who claims to have crushed the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam, has appointed his military men in key posts in the occupied Tamil homeland to head civil services with a 'colonial mindset'. Earlier, in April, Rajapaksa appointed Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' in Vavuniyaa.

Full Report...

Presidential Advisor Vasudeva Nanayakkara says the war displaced living in IDP camps in the north are faced with a worse situation than death. Nanayakkara has said that these displaced people who are living in parched land in tents with only half the required water supply were not suspects detained in remand on detention orders. He has noted that while about 6,000 children suffered from malnutrition in the IDP camps, about 1,000 of them were in serious condition, adding that if serious attention was not paid to the issue, it would result in the death of these children.

Full Report...

TULF leader and Jaffna mayoral aspirant V. Anandasangaree yesterday alleged that a Tamil Minister with the backing of the government was terrorizing the residents of Jaffna in the run-up to the Municipal Council elections. "Not only the TULF, even other political parties are helpless as thugs unleashed by this particular minister are roaming around Jaffna with none able to challenge or subdue them. Bicycle gangs and armed groups are a common sight in Jaffna these days. They are preventing other political parties from doing election work," Mr. Anandasangaree alleged and said he had still not launched his campaign for the election. He said Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation's Tamil service was broadcasting several hours of propaganda and state institutions such as the People's Bank and the National Lotteries Board  had taken out full page advertisements in support of this minister. Mr. Anandasangaree said it was a matter for regret that the government had ignored his pleas to put an end to this organized campaign of intimidation and stressed that in such a hostile climate he could not think of carrying out any electioneering in Jaffna.

Full Report...

About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation's bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times.

Full Report...

Colombo's order to the Red Cross to cut back its work at Tamil internment camps is an outrage. The world must boycott Sri Lanka until it starts releasing detainees, says The Times editorial.

Read its Online publication here...

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had been ordered by Sri Lanka to scale down relief operations in the island where it has been helping civilian war victims.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka cannot endure much more erosion of its media system before it becomes a genuine totalitarian state, writes Uvindu Kurukulasuriya.

Full Article...

A few days after Tamil Nadu chief minister, Mr M Karunanidhi told the state Assembly of a story of a "hero's escape on a horseback with none in the know of his whereabouts" inferred here to mean LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, a close associate of the elusive LTTE leader who has known him for decades, Mr P Nedumaran, today said that Prabhakaran was alive.
"The government of Sri Lanka announced that Mr Prabhakaran was killed. They also said that they had completed a DNA test on the body and then burned it in a hurry. First Sri Lanka does not have the facility to do a DNA test. And none of his blood relatives have been subject to the sampling for the test," Mr Nedumaran who was invited to speak on the topic of the challenges facing Tamils in Sri Lanka now, said.

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India Wednesday said it is still waiting for a formal response from Sri Lanka confirming the death of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and promised continued assistance to Colombo to rehabilitate Tamils displaced by the conflict.

Full Report...

[N]early 2.8 lakh displaced civilians in ca-mps continue to suffer for basic amenities like water and medicine. There are over 50,000 children, about 1,000 of them orphaned by the war, and nearly 4,000 maimed men and women. "It doesn’t take much to push the displaced in the camps over the edge," said Gordon Weiss, UN spokesperson in Colombo. "The way they are treated at this point of time is important for the future. It is important to treat them with compassion, respect and acceptance," said Weiss.

Full Report...

Six months after the Sunday Leader editor was slain, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya looks at increasing state control of Sri Lankan media.

Full Article...

Commemorations are being held in Sri Lanka to mark six months since the murder of the newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Full Report...

As for the next presidential election, the confusion and danger signals appear to have been cleared, with sources in the presidential office indicating that you might choose January 14 next year as the date for the presidential election. Reports indicate that general elections may be held a few months after that with the ruling UPFA confident of a two-thirds majority, though the PR system in the 1978 Constitution was intended to ensure that no party would be able to obtain a two-thirds majority let alone a  five-sixths majority such as JR Jayewardene got in 1977.

Full Column...

Sri Lanka's government revenue fell 10 percent in the first four months of the year, while expenditure overshot the target by 28 percent as the world economic crisis pushed borrowing costs higher.
The Ministry of Finance and Planning said in its mid-year fiscal report that he government's interest bill climbed due to heavy short-term borrowing from domestic markets because foreign capital markets remained inaccessible.

Full Report...

In an interview with The Hindu Editor N. Ram, President Rajapaksa said there would be no federalism in Sri Lanka. He stressed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) representatives must take part in discussions on a political solution.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan Government is trying to siphon off millions of pounds of humanitarian aid by imposing a 0.9 per cent tax on all funding for aid groups, including the British charities Oxfam and Save the Children Fund, The Times has learnt. Aid workers said that Burma was the only other country that they could remember imposing such a tax - one of several new measures hampering their efforts to help victims of Sri Lanka's recent civil war.

Full Report...

"I know what to give and I know what not to give," Rajapaksa told India's newspaper The Hindu in an interview, referring to the political solution. "I am waiting but it will be after my (re-)election. I must get the mandate. After that, the political solution comes."

Full Report...

What do democratically elected 'dictatorial' governments of Sri Lanka fear most- THE MEDIA! If that is not so, why would the government want to resume a tough nanny service, also known as the Press Council, to supervise the media?

Full Article...

President Mahinda Rajapakse's secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, who heads Sri Lanka's civil service, has called for undercover intelligence units to be installed in every public sector workplace to spy on workers under the pretext of curbing corruption and inefficiency.......Tisaranee Gunasekara, pointed out that the government’s claim to be fighting corruption lacked credibility following the lack of any legal action against the ministers and senior officials that the Supreme Court had faulted over the sales of the Insurance Corporation and Lanka Marine Services Ltd. Gunasekara said the real aim of the proposed "spy service" was to "keep tabs on less than loyal public servants and to further tighten the control of the First Family [the Rajapakses] over the state".

Full Article...

The Government Agent of Mullaiththeevu, Imelda Sukumar, on Sunday reportedly told a section of the uprooted Tamils of Vanni sheltered at the internment camp situated at "Sahanagama" in Pulmoaddai that the town of Mullaiththeevu has been declared High Security Zone by the Sri Lankan military, dashing any hope of resettlement in the coastal township of Vanni.

Full Report...

The Sri Lanka unit of the Indian Oil Corporation is running out of cash and may not be able to import the next consignment of oil as crude prices rise and taxes bite into revenue, an official said....."My next import is coming in end July," Lanka IOC managing director Suresh Kumar said. "How am I supposed to open the letter of credit if I do not have money? I want to import but I simply do not have the money."

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan Governments thinking that "the concept of Tamil autonomy or freedom or even culture should be beaten to its knees and never rise again" can be compared to the actions of Joseph Stalin, said leading Australian Pediatrician Dr John Whitehall, describing government internment facilities as "concentration camps", and saying the imprisonment of 300,000 refugees was much more sinister than he originally thought. "The concept that you can indefinitely incarcerate a population to change their thinking is frightening," he observed.

Full Report...

China would work with Sri Lanka to promote the comprehensive and cooperative partnership to a new height, said Vice Premier Li Keqiang here on Friday.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka has raised retail fuel prices by up to 11 percent in a bid to offset higher crude oil import costs, according to the government. Higher grade gasoline was increased by 15 rupees to 148 rupees (1.3 dollars) a litre while diesel, which is widely used by public transport, was raised 4.11 percent to 73 rupees.

Full Report...

A new group of eminent Tamil people in Sri Lanka has made a plea for those held in government camps to be given a timetable for their release.

Full Report...

All major opposition parties in Sri Lanka have heeded a government call to join its development and reconciliation effort in view of the end of the island's long drawn-out civil war, government and party officials said Thursday.

Full Report...

The boss of a Sri Lankan newspaper has told the BBC he is very worried about his staff after a shadowy group ordered them to quit their jobs or be killed.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan government has revived legislation that vests the Sri Lanka Press Council, a statutory body, with broad powers to restrict the media and punish offending journalists and publishers with fines and imprisonment.

Full Report...

from visiting Sri Lanka was part of US strategy to undermine the country [Sri Lanka], according to Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry official, the pro-Government Island newspaper said. "[N]othing could be as bad as the US warning of potential for continued stability and possible terrorist attacks a month after the end of war," the paper said, and added, "though the armed forces maintained road blocks and carried out routine checks on vehicles entering the city and its suburbs, there was no likelihood of LTTE attacks," attributing the comments to a foreign ministry official.

Full Report...

The PTGTE is the first step of next phases the successors of the LTTE’s struggle for Tamil Eelam. Besides its political ideology, there is also the question of the credentials and the credibility of their leadership as befitting the original leadership. The question is also whether the idea has been hastily conceived. There is information of a plethora of meetings and groups being held amongst the Tamil Diasporas the world over. There is also the idea of the independent Democratic Republic of Tamil Eelam in Exile which is also gaining very wide acceptance. One such organisation is the World Tamil Congress advocating Tamils join the organisation at the country level as individuals and not as nominated groups, leaving behind the past images.

Full Article...

The Colombo media bogusly reported on June 20 that the Sri Lankan government had removed the decades-long, wartime fishing restrictions imposed on northern fisherman. The reports followed announcements by Basil Rajapakse, a key leader of the government, at a meeting with northern fishermen.

Full Report...

In Sri Lanka, as elsewhere, cultural diversity and tensions were manipulated to divide and weaken the working people to preserve the interests and privileges of the ruling elite. In the process, the fundamental democratic and social aspirations of the people have been crushed. The military defeat of the LTTE has not resolved the fundamental issues that underpinned the conflict. It has shown that the territorial unity of the capitalist state can be maintained only on the basis of ruthless repression of the people using military force. Through such repression it has reinforced its defence of Sinhala nationalism. The socio-economic problems of discrimination based on language and nationality and poverty linger on.

Full Article...

On June 24, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court held a second hearing in a case challenging the violation of the basic legal rights of Tamil civilians interned in military-controlled camps in the island’s north. The case has been filed on behalf of five members of the same family who were separated in detention.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka parliament gave its approval to establish a top military post with wide ranging powers.

Full Report...

It is now more than one month since the Sri Lankan military detained the final batch of Tamil refugees fleeing the northern war zone on May 19. They joined more than a quarter of a million civilians already incarcerated in camps set up near Vavuniya and on the Jaffna Peninsula during the last phase of the war. About 160,000 people are interned in four units in the biggest camp, known as Manik Farm.

Full Report...

The high rate of malnutrition reported among children in camps for displaced people in Sri Lanka is a cause for concern, a senior UN official says.

Full Report...

A Sri Lankan astrologer was arrested and is being interrogated for his predictions made at a meeting held at the Sri Kotha office of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), and is being detained in the office of the Criminal Investigation Department., Police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media Thursday. The astrologer had allegedly predicted that the present Prime Minister would be appointed President on September 9 and the opposition leader would be made the Prime Minister.

Full Report...

The LTTE's new chief Selvaraja Padmanathan says the group is giving up violence and adopting a non-violent agenda to secure the political rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In an exclusive email interview to Headlines Today, Padmanathan said one of the priorities of the Tamil Tigers would be to push for revoking the international ban on it.

Full Interview...

Despite the Indian government's statement that the Sri Lankan government had relented on its refusal to allow the aid ship sent by Tamil expatriates to dock in Colombo harbour and that the supplies for Tamil refugees would be offloaded by the Indian Red Cross, there has been no action at all, the organisers of the mercy mission said Friday. In an urgent press release, they said the MV 'Captain Ali' has been at sea for 51 days and the condition of its crew and passengers is now critical.

Full Report...

There should be no doubt that the government is continuing its offensive against the media following its military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On Wednesday, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena confirmed what had been rumored for more than a week: The defunct Press Council, which was put to rest in 2002, will be revived.

Full Report...

The Indian media's lack of appreciation and understanding of torture and the importance torture plays in undermining free speech and dialogue is suicidal, says the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), issuing a statement exclusively highlighting the commonality of "torture practiced inside police stations and other centres of law-enforcement" in India.

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All the local newspapers of Jaffna that defied publishing an anonymous and defiling notice against the LTTE came under attack by an armed group in the early hours of Thursday. The notice was brought out in the name of 'Tamil Front Protecting the Country' allegedly linked to a paramilitary group operating with Colombo. Thousands of copies of the local newspapers, Valampuri, Uthayan and Thinakkural (Jaffna edition), were burnt down wholesale in huge flames by the armed group allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence at Aanaippanthi and Kannathiddi junctions at 5:00 a.m. Thursday, while the newspapers were being taken for distribution.

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Click here to read this letter...

When serious action is needed against Colombo and the Sri Lankan state in order to uphold human dignity and world civilisation, some world leaders pathetically believe in not penalising Colombo and in a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The Eezham Tamils have seen enough of carrots always going to Colombo and stick always coming to them, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo. "The legal system and procedural governments of the liberal democracies have enough space to indict these leaders and governments in their own countries to remind them of their crime and responsibilities. Unless humanitarian organizations and the Eezham Tamil diaspora take up this matter seriously, these leaders will not only go on conning but will also dare to abet Colombo’s agenda of structural genocide."

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India will push Sri Lanka for a much faster move towards a political devolution in the country, particularly after the LTTE has been vanquished. Sri Lanka's top leadership troika - Gotabaya Rajapakse, Basil Rajapakse and Lalith Wiretunge - will meet India's top officials on Wednesday. The Indian delegation will be led by national security advisor M K Narayanan, foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and defence secretary Vijay Singh. The Lankan delegation will meet foreign minister S M Krishna at the end of the visit. India will offer to increase its contribution in Sri Lanka's relief and rehabilitation efforts. There is a feeling here that the rehabilitation needs to be much faster to prevent the camps from deteriorating, or becoming breeding grounds for extremist sentiments again.

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In an interview with Los Angeles Times magazine, published 20th June, Maya Arulpragasam (M.I.A), the Jaffna born music phenom, disclosed that CNN, after interviewing her for an hour, broadcast only a one-minute-segment reasoning that MIA had used the word "Genocide" in describing the killings of the widely reported 20,000 Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka Government security forces during the 16-weeks leading up to 18th May.

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As curtains came down on the 30-year-old war with LTTE, Sri Lankan Army has now redeployed forces in the northern and eastern province, once controlled by the rebels, under five Security Forces Headquarters with a sizeable force in reserve to meet any eventuality.Two headquarters have been set up at Kilinochchi, once the de-facto capital of LTTE, and Mullaitivu as part of post-LTTE re-deployment plan. In keeping with Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka's strategy, 51 and 52 Divisions along with Task Force 7 (TF 7) are deployed in the northern peninsula under SF Headquarters, Jaffna, the Sunday Island newspaper reported.

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The government proposes to introduce constitutional amendments aimed at extending the term of office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, without holding a presidential election, Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon told the Sunday Times yesterday. As a prelude to the introduction of constitutional changes, an island wide campaign on gathering public support for the move had been initiated, the minister said. As a first step local government members including a section of opposition UNP members who met in Colombo on Friday, backed a resolution moved by Mr. Tennakoon who is the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government. Similar resolutions are to be moved at Provincial Council and Pradeshiya sabha level, before presenting the amendment to Parliament.

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Many of those at Saturday's demonstration waved black flags representing the civilians killed in the last phase of the conflict. They carried placards accusing the Sri Lankan government of genocide and asking for thousands of displaced people held in camps to be released. Some of the campaigners compared the plight of displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka to Nazi Germany.

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The focus of Tamil media has shifted from people entrapped in the one time LTTE held areas in Mullaitivu to the people in camps which are called welfare camps by the Government and detention camps by the anti-government elements. Tamil media or for that matter the Tamil politicians do not seem to place much emphasis after the physical decimation of the LTTE on the political solution to the ethnic problem that was once much talked about. However, this surely does not mean that the politically conscious Tamils consider that the political solution they were fighting for is no more needed with the defeat of the Tigers. They seem to be nervous to speak about matters that would upset the euphoric psyche of the southern people. Occasionally some Tamil politicians are being heard meekly grumbling over the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Government to find a political solution to the ethnic problem. Otherwise Tamil media and politicians are obsessed now with the situation in the camps where the people displaced from all over the Wanni are housed.

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Sri Lanka's government has promised to resettle the majority of the refugees by the end of the year. So far, few details have been shared with the UN, which has plenty of relevant experience in this field, says Paul Risley, a regional spokesman for the World Food Program. "The government has not put forth a clear plan for all these returns to take place within six months," he says.

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Despite legal challenges by detainees and expressions of concern by UN and international aid agencies, the Sri Lankan government is continuing to hold nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians indefinitely in huge internment camps. Not only are the detainees denied their basic legal and democratic rights, but now face growing dangers of disease....This week, the government also opposed and successfully delayed two legal cases in the Supreme Court challenging its violation of the fundamental rights of detainees under the Sri Lankan constitution, including freedom of movement and freedom from arbitrary detention. Increasingly, Rajapakse's military-backed regime is operating with open contempt for legal and democratic rights, defying both international law and the country's own constitution.

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An email by a Sri Lanka-based Sinhala to offer his services for a fee to Tamils to find their missing relatives has outraged the community in Canada. Thousands of Tamil Canadian families are desperately looking for their relatives who have either died in the recent conflict or become 'internally displaced people' (IDPs).

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Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watchdog, in a special reported published Wednesday, said Sri Lanka topped the list of countries that drove the largest number of journalists into exile. "At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors," the report said, adding the number worldwide totalled 39. Of these journalists, 29 were driven out of threat of violence, 7 threat of imprisonment, and 2 out of harrassment, the report added.

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The government is treating all Tamils in the north-east of the country, the former headquarters of the LTTE, as presumptive criminals. Around 300,000 Tamils are now being held in detention camps, barred from leaving even if they have family members or friends who would take them in. Many are children, elderly, or others who cannot reasonably be considered dangerous. Huge numbers of people are being held indefinitely behind barbed wire. Far from enjoying their liberation from the LTTE, they are prisoners, again. The government could hardly have devised a policy more likely to engender fear and suspicion. This is no accident. It is part of a larger policy to control all aspects of the postwar situation and root out enemies, real and imagined. In a country that is desperate for IMF assistance to avoid literally going broke, the army has announced a 50 per cent increase in its size, from 200,000 to 300,000.

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This week Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse made his first trip abroad since the army's military victory over the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Significantly, it was to Burma (Myanmar) for talks with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the country's repressive military junta is known.

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Sri Lankan opposition parliamentarians have sought the island's Supreme Court intervention, claiming that the government had denied access to them to visit the internally displaced camps in the north. At least three MPs filed action in the Supreme Court on Thursday, court officials said. Chief Justice Asoka de Silva instructed the Attorney General to report to the court on July 27, the next hearing date of the case. The MPs claim their fundamental rights have been violated by the government decision.

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The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally. Many of our readers confuse between the concepts of transnational government and government in exile. While the government in exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence.

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The Sri Lankan government last week threatened to strip four Tamil parliamentarians of their seats by turning down their request for leave. Coming in the wake of the army's defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the threat is a further sign that President Mahinda Rajapakse intends to stamp out any political opposition.

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The Tamil Tigers said that they had laid down their arms, regrouped and were forming a new "government" to continue the fight for a homeland in Sri Lanka.

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"I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese” General Sarath Fonseka, Commander of the Sri Lanka Army

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"Two and half lakhs of Tamil civilians are held in camps. Over 1000 were killed. A large number was injured. Children have no parents. Mothers have lost children. Wives have lost husbands. Pregnant mothers and others lack healthcare. No houses; no water. Bathing is limited once in four days. No food; no toilets. One cannot go out since a Sinhala Army has surrounded them. No connection with the outside world. How can the people be happy?"

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Sunila Abeysekera, a human rights activist and executive director of INFORM human rights documentation center in Sri Lanka, in an interview to Real News Network in Toronto, accused the Sri Lanka Government authorities of not providing enough attention to the welfare of the nearly 300,000 people in the internment camps who have come to these camps after months of deprivation, and said that the lack of proper registration procedures for the people inside the camp is providing Colombo a free hand in facilitating the Paramilitaries to take youths out of the camps in large numbers without any accountability.

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"The British government doesn't give a fuck about Sri Lanka, they just don't give a fuck, nobody here does." The British Tamil student's anger peaks as he is marched across Parliament Square in central London by his girlfriend, his fists, his entire body shaking with grief and loss as he waves a photograph of a bloodied child, much of her stomach missing. "Is it a relative?" I ask. Nobody seems to know. In his fury the young man lets go of the deathly image, and is forced to chase it down in the breeze.

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A former prisoner of war of the Tamil Tigers who managed to escape days before their final defeat says there was no offer from the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) leadership to surrender.

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The Sri Lankan government should end the illegal detention of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils displaced by the recently ended conflict in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today.

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Just before he retired last week, the Chief Justice of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, Sarath N. Silva, declared in a public speech that the detention of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians in internment camps set up by the army and the government was unlawful.

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The Sri Lankan government has carried out atrocities with impunity – and is now allowed to investigate itself for war crimes.

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India is not happy with the important military role it says China and Pakistan played in the Sri Lanka's government decisive offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Top government officials in New Delhi have told Asia Times Online that India believes Colombo stockpiled arms and even sought help from military commanders from China and Pakistan before the offensive that decimated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and eventually killed Tiger chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran in May. Chinese and Pakistani arms and direction were the "clinching" factor in the military's victory, top official sources have told ATol.

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In a speech last Thursday, the leader of the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Somawansa Amarasinghe, stridently warned the Sri Lankan government not to "betray" the army's victory over the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by making concessions to the island's Tamil minority. President Mahinda Rajapakse has not the slightest intention of modifying the Sinhala supremacist character of the Sri Lankan state, which the protracted civil war against the LTTE was waged to defend. His vague calls for a "political solution" involving some form of devolution of powers to the North and East of island are aimed at securing the support of sections of the Tamil elite, not providing genuine democratic rights for Tamils.

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For two decades, Chinese diplomacy has been guided by the concept of the country's "peaceful rise." Today, however, China needs a new strategic doctrine, because the most remarkable aspect of Sri Lanka's recent victory over the Tamil Tigers is not its overwhelming nature, but the fact that China provided President Mahinda Rajapaksa with both the military supplies and diplomatic cover he needed to prosecute the war. Without that Chinese backing, Rajapaksa's government would have had neither the wherewithal nor the will to ignore world opinion in its offensive against the Tigers.

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Sri Lanka on Wednesday deported a Canadian legislator it views as sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger separatists, the latest foreign official it has sent out of the country at the end of a 25-year war. Bob Rae, a Liberal party legislator, said Sri Lanka's government had reached "ill-conceived and defamatory conclusions about me", and said his record showed he had spoken out against the Tigers during his prior involvement in the peace process. Rea was stopped at Sri Lanka's international airport, said C.B. Abeykoon, controller of immigration and emigration.

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A Tamil rights campaigner won more than 50,000 votes in the European elections - making her one of the most successful independent candidates ever. Jan Jananayagam gained more votes than some political parties in the London region and more than all the other independents in the UK put together.

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Aiyadurai Paramasiwan, a Tamil person was released by Hulftsdorp court after holding more than three months yesterday (08). But an unidentified armed gang tried to abduct him at the gate of the court. Paramasivan, a resident of Vavuniya was arrested in Colombo.

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The Sri Lankan government has been conducting an intense victory campaign since the army's defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). There have now been weeks of rallies, parades and special Buddhist religious festivals that again demonstrate the Sinhala supremacist nature of the war.

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A fire broke out near ammunition dump at Wanni Army Command in Vavuniya yesterday evening with several explosions and a large cloud of smoke and fire that rose to the sky.

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The following report was provided by an elderly person who visited several relatives being held in one of the internment camps set up by Sri Lankan authorities to house nearly 300,000 civilians who fled during the final weeks of fighting between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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Sri Lanka's Army Commander General Foneska's statement on recruiting 100,000 new recruits has raised fears, in the minds of Sri Lankan Tamil Observer groups, of systematic colonisation of the Tamil lands in the North and the East by the Sinhala army. This fear is becoming a pre-occupation with these observers, as they mull over the issue of peaceful settlement of Tamil issue.

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Sri Lankan authorities Monday ordered a foreign-owned ship carrying aid for Tamil civilians to leave the island without unloading its cargo. The Syrian-registered ship, Captain Ali, was seized last week, and the Sri Lankan defence ministry said the cargo of food and other supplies had been destined for the now defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. "The ship had tried to enter Sri Lankan waters without following the proper procedure," an official said, but added that a search of the vessel confirmed it was not carrying any arms or ammunition.

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There are disturbing echoes of Sri Lanka as thousands of civilians are caught up or displaced by fighting between Islamic separatists and government forces in the Philippines.

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The world welcomes the end of the civil war that has ravaged Sri Lanka for decades. Unfortunately, questions have emerged about how the conflict was brought to a close and whether war crimes were committed in the final bloody days of fighting. The Colombo government has dismissed the allegations as unfounded; the defeat of the Tamil Tigers has overshadowed charges that the guerrillas used civilians as human shields. An investigation is required: If war crimes were committed - no matter which side is responsible - perpetrators must be held accountable. No government or rebel group must believe it is immune from the rule of law.

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The Supreme Court ruled to demerge the north and east after considering the Sinhala heritage in the provinces, the country's chief justice said.

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The Eezham Tamil nation doesn’t need words to explain the current situation because everybody feels it in the core of their heart. This is a situation that warrants no one else but only the members of the nation to rise up to the occasion. Unprecedented catastrophe awaits unprecedented response from the nation.

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Pledging full cooperation in rebuilding efforts in the war-ravaged country, China has said it will support Sri Lanka in bringing in stability, peace and development. "China says the Sri Lankan government and the people should be allowed to tackle its internal affairs and the international community can make concrete efforts to improve the humanitarian condition of the country," the Presidential Secretariat said in a statement here.

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The outgoing Sri Lankan Chief Justice has warned that the 13th amendment to provide devolution of power to the Tamils in the North was not practical as it was a "hurriedly pieced together" document 'picked' from the Indian constitution. "It is impossible to devolve police and land powers fully in a small island nation like Sri Lanka," Sarath Nanda Silva told reporters, yesterday. "For instance, the Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh in India is ten to twelve times bigger than Sri Lanka. The devolution of police and land powers is prudent and successful in those states, but won't be so in Sri Lanka," he said. The District Development Council system that existed during the J R Jayewardene regime was probably the most suitable system to devolve power to the periphery in a country like Sri Lanka," the Chief Justice of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court said. On the The 13th Amendment to the Constitution he said it was not practicable. At his last official press briefing, he described that Amendment "as ill-conceived and hurriedly pieced together by picking bits and pieces of the Indian Constitution" in keeping with the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

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Sri Lanka's Chief Justice has lambasted the Government publicly for holding more than 280,000 Tamil civilians against their will in military-run camps, questioning the legality of their detention. Sarath Nanda Silva, who retires at the end of the month, chose the opening of a new court complex for his attack on the policy of interning Tamil civilians. "They live outside the protection of the law of the country," the country's top jurist, an ethnic Sinhalese, said of the camp dwellers. "I am saying this in public, and ready to face any consequences. We are doing a great wrong to these people."

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Three doctors who struggled to help tens of thousands of civilians wounded in Sri Lanka's war zone could be held for up to a year before being charged with harming the country, the government has revealed.

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UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday warned the Sri Lankan government against "triumphalism" after its recent defeat of the Tamil separatist insurgency and urged it to "heal the wounds" of the bitter conflict. "I would like to take this opportunity to warn against the risk of triumphalism in the wake of victory," Ban told reporters after he briefed the 15-member Security Council on his visit to ethnically divided Sri Lanka last month. "It is very important at this time to unite and heal the wounds, rather than enjoy all this triumphalism," he added, after the Sri Lankan army last month crushed the 30-year-old separatist rebellion by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)." Ban reiterated that the purpose of his visit was to press for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to the more than 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting and for their speedy resettlement. But he stressed that for the longer term the priority was to help the Sri Lankan government reach out to minority Tamils and Muslims.

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The UN Secretary-General caved in to demands to brief the Security Council on his trip to Sri Lanka yesterday after calls mounted for an international war crimes inquiry into the fighting this year. Ban Ki Moon was to address the Security Council in a closed-door session last night after Russia and China failed to keep Sri Lanka off the council's agenda. The briefing came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reiterated calls for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes committed by both sides and pledged the UN's support for such an inquiry.

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Singer MIA has called on the EU to help hundreds of thousands of Tamils she says were put in "concentration camps" following the defeat by the Sri Lankan army.

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United National Party (UNP) Kurunegala district MP Dayasiri Jayasekara says that the government that ended the terrorism in north has launched state terror in south to abduct media persons and to break their limbs. MP Jayasekara expressed these views addressing the press conference held in the office of the Opposition Leader yesterday (03). He said that Sri Lanka is the country where the most unfortunate media persons live as some state media personnel write the death warrants to other journalists. He explained that the journalists that criticize the government and expose the corruption have been named as the traitors and the anti-war campaigners before they were physically attacked.

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A day after the bashing of Jayantha, the Centre for Policy Alternative (CPA) - a Colombo-based think tank - received a threatening "Letter to the Traitors", which said: "Even though the terrorism is now over we have been observing the behaviour of people like you who were dependent on them [the LTTE]." The letter demanded that the centre hoist the national flag for a week and donate one million rupees to the Api Venuven Api, a welfare program for soldiers. It also demanded a halt to all programs conducted by the institute "which are detrimental to the sovereignty, unitary nature, and dignity of this country". The fresh attacks on journalists and threats to government critics mark a new stage of the offensive against the basic democratic rights of working people. This is a warning that the same ruthlessness that the regime has displayed in detaining nearly 300,000 Tamils in the north will be directed against the entire working class as the government prepares a far-reaching assault on living standards amid a deepening economic crisis.

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Sri Lanka's Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva further said: "I visited 'relief villages' where Vanni IDP families are sheltered. I cannot explain their suffering and grief in words. It is an utter lie if we continue to say that there is only one race and no majority or minority in the country. I visited Cheddiku'lam camps where IDP families live. I cannot explain the pathetic situation they undergo. I was unable to console them. They survive amid immense suffering and distress."

"Vanni IDPs sheltered in transit centres in Cheddiku'lam cannot expect justice under the Sri Lanka's law. Law of the country does not show any interest on these IDPs. I openly say this. The authorities can penalize me for telling this," said Sri Lanka's Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva when he addressed a public meeting which followed the ceremonial opening of a court complex at Marawila in Negombo district Tuesday. These transit centres are described as internment camps by human rights activists.

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Rajapaksa should match his sweet words with political reforms that institutionalise devolution and reach out to Tamil minds.

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Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Eezham born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA), offered a free song, and has initiated an online campaign appealing to British voters to elect Ms Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a Jaffna born young banking professional, as a Member of European Parliament (MEP) in the June 4th elections. "Vote to Jan could save 300,000 [Tamil] people [in Sri Lanka]," MIA's entry in Myspace, and a linked twitter message said. Ms. Jananayagam is contesting the London electoral region as an independent candidate, and MIA's support is expected to convince young British fans to exercise their votes, a campaign organizer said.

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Sri Lanka's president urged the military on Wednesday to win over the Tamil people and to ensure they live without "fear or suspicion" in the wake of the army's victory over Tamil separatist rebels.

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A prominent Sri Lankan press freedom campaigner was abducted and beaten in Colombo yesterday in the latest in a string of assaults on government critics.

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June 4th elections will determine if Tamils in the London electoral region have the political muscle, organizational acumen and seasoned campaigning skills to attract broader British voters to elect Ms Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a British, French educated young professional, who is contesting as an Independent candidate to the European Parliament. Ms. Jananayagam's educational credentials, demonstrated communications skills, and a deftly constructed election platform centered on civil rights, financial transparency, and equality and diversity, will appeal to a broad section of British public and other immigrant groups besides the Tamil community, political observers in London say.

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"THE war is not going to end soon," said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the Sri Lankan army's spokesman, last month. "It will take some time to completely eradicate terrorism from the country - we think about two years."

In the euphoria over the recent military victory that ended the conventional war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ("Tamil Tigers") and wiped out most of their leadership, most people in Sri Lanka have forgotten that prediction, but it remains likely. In fact, the brigadier may even have been optimistic in saying that two years would "completely eradicate terrorism" in Sri Lanka.

In the last weeks of fighting, foreigners called for a ceasefire to protect the Tamil civilians trapped within the diminishing perimeter held by the Tigers, solemnly warning that a crushing military victory by the government would embitter the Tamils and cause just such a terrorist war afterwards. But that was just foreigners being naive: after 26 years of war, the bitterness among Tamils is already quite enough to fuel a post-war guerilla war. However, whether that war actually occurs depends on what happens next, not on how Tamils feel about the way the war ended. The ordeal of the 300,00 Tamils who were trapped with the Tigers' army in its last stand was extreme, but it was not just due to government shell-fire.

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Sri Lanka appealed for support in dismantling the Tamil Tigers' international support network after declaring victory over the rebels following the decades-long conflict. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told a high-level security forum in Singapore that the global organisation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) remained "largely intact."

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The Sri Lankan military is probing the possibility that the Tamil Tiger's spy chief may still be alive, despite testimony that he was killed with the rest of the rebel leadership.

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[The UN Secretary-General must speak out about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka]

Ban Ki Moon the Secretary-General of the United Nations, visited Sri Lanka last week. He knew from his officials that at least 20,000 civilians had been killed by Sri Lankan troops in the offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Mr Ban never mentioned this figure to his Sri Lankan interlocutors. He saw, while travelling by air over a supposed "no-fire" zone, the evidence of a massacre of thousands of Tamil civilians caught between the army and the insurgents. Yet he has still not confirmed the authenticity of photographs taken from the same helicopter setting out that scene of carnage and mass makeshift graves. There is a terrible augury for such inexplicable reticence. The day after Bosnian Serb forces seized Srebrenica, deemed by the United Nations to be a "safe area", in 1995, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Mr Ban's predecessor, was asked whether this represented the organisation's greatest failure in Bosnia. He replied: "No, I don't believe this represents a failure. You have to see if the glass is half full or half empty."

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The United Nations is able to investigate the war crimes which occurred recently in Sri Lanka, British human rights lawyer and international war crimes judge, Geoffrey Robertson QC said Sunday. The avenues for the UN include the UN Human Rights Committee, which can investigate individuals' complaints against states under the International Convention on Human Rights, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. The UN Human Rights Council, by contrast, is a "highly politicized" body staffed by diplomats of various countries, including those abusing human rights, rather than human rights experts, he said.

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Leading human rights group Amnesty International has called for an urgent inquiry into claims of civilian deaths in the last days of the Sri Lankan war.

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Make no mistake about it- for all the Sri Lankan spin about what really happened in the final weeks of assault on the LTTE- the simple fact remains that this was a war conducted with no respect for either global opinion or any human norm, international convention or law. And the governments of the world, blinded as they are by the perverse notion that every evil is acceptable in the global 'War on Terror', seem to have completely lost their moral compass in the case of Sri Lanka. Or are they keeping quiet because those who died in this grossly one-sided war were dark-skinned, poor and the term 'genocide' cannot be applied to them no matter how many of them are murdered in cold blood?

For the people of the world, the perpetual and historical victims of state terror, there remains no option but to fight back and demand justice. To begin with here are ten questions that need to be answered immediately:

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This is a poem written by Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz.

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Having declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan authorities are intensifying their attacks on fundamental democratic rights. The government has flatly ruled out any lifting of the country's state of emergency and the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which allows security forces to continue their arbitrary detention without trial of "LTTE suspects". The continued persecution of Tamil civilians, political opponents and the media gives the lie to the Sri Lankan-sponsored resolution passed in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) this week that whitewashed the Colombo government's war crimes and abuses of basic rights. The resolution welcomed "the continued commitment of Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of all human rights".

Prabhakaran is the first iconic victim of a tectonic shift in world affairs....Prabhakaran was uncompromising about Eelam. In the final analysis, he not only failed in his mission, but brought untold suffering to the Tamils, whose rights he sought to champion. A whole generation of Sri Lankans - both Tamils and Sinhalese - paid a high price. History will probably neither forget nor forgive Prabhakaran.

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A tall, mustachioed man with a short temper and the formal bearing of a previous century, General Sarath Fonseka is now known across Sri Lanka as the shrewd tactician who organized the violent defeat of the Tamil Tigers last week in an operation he called Unceasing Tsunami II - in large part by making his army large enough to crush the guerrilla force.

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More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed. The number of casualties is three times the official figure. The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.

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"This is one of the most unprincipled and shameless resolutions ever adopted by any body of the United Nations in the history of that now benighted Organization. It would be as if the U.N. Human Rights Council had congratulated the Nazi government for the "liberation" of the Jews in Poland after its illegal and genocidal invasion of that country in 1939," said Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, referring to the resolution passed at the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Sri Lanka war.

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On Wednesday evening the Sri Lankan delegation at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva was celebrating after its victory in fending off an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by its army.

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"It is essential that we obtain access to all IDPs in order to provide medical care, water and other essentials, to verify treatment and conditions and to enable people to restore or maintain contact with their families," he said.

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Read the articles on the right for more information on the plight of the Tamil civilians caught up in the war..........

"I have only two groups - the people who fight terrorism and the terrorists." That might sound like George W. Bush. The statement, however, emanated not from the former US president, but from an ardent fan of his - Lt. Col. (retired) Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary.

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In what will be seen as a further blow to its already damaged credibility, the UN human rights council on Wednesday voted in favour of a mild resolution on the situation in Sri Lanka which western nations said would do nothing to help victims of the just-ended civil war or remedy widespread human rights violations. China, India, Russia and 26 other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, who have a built-in majority on the 47-strong council, backed a resolution supported by Sri Lanka that emphasised the right of states to manage their internal affairs without interference.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka claimed a propaganda victory last night after the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution praising its defeat of the Tamil Tigers and condemning the rebels for using civilians as human shields.

Full Report...

Interpol’s wanted poster for Velupillai Prabhakaran stated: "Very alert. Known to use disguise and capable of handling sophisticated weaponry and explosives. Hair combed back. Stout build." Bland words to describe a mass killer, Tamil cult hero and arguably the most effective terrorist of his age.

Click Here for the full obituary..

Even after declaring victory in Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, the country’s leaders seem unable to distinguish between the enemy - the brutal but apparently vanquished Tamil Tiger separatists - and innocent bystanders. Despite appeals from Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and from others, the government has not given international aid organizations full access to government-run camps, where an estimated 280,000 civilians are said to be in desperate need of food, water and medical care. The Tamil Tigers have a history of using civilians as human shields and the government claims it must screen out rebels hiding in the camps. But aid workers suspect other motives, including a desire to deny access to witnesses who may have seen abuses by government forces. In the last months of the fighting, President Mahinda Rajapaksa callously rejected international pleas for a cease-fire to let civilians escape the war zone, while his troops shelled the area.

Editorial in full...

The UN's high commissioner for human rights has called for an independent investigation into alleged atrocities by both sides in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Full Report...

The Tamil diaspora here has joined Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in pleading with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to not support a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council in support of Sri Lanka. The draft resolution by India, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and others 'commends' Colombo for dealing with the problem of displaced people and seeks international support for it.

Full Report...

At first glance, the admission by the LTTE's head of international relations, Selvarasa Padmanathan, that their supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead might seem like the Tamil Tigers simply bowing to the inevitable.

Full Report...

The Tamil Tigers came for Rajibalan in February during a rare pause in the shelling. Every family in his village, Palamattalan, inside the besieged no-fire zone, was to give a son or daughter for the fight - taken by force, if necessary. There would be three more months of fighting until the war was over and 18-year-old Rajibalan and his family would wade together across the Nanthikadal lagoon in surrender. When they did, they were met by government troops at the Omanthai checkpoint. "The soldiers announced that all the LTTE people would have to register separately from the civilians," his sister, Sentura, recalled. "They said if they did so, they would be released, but if they did not, they would get 15 years in jail."

Full Report...

Be under no illusions, Nicolai: the Sinhala conquest of the Tamil nation is what has been accomplished here. And only fools like our friend Nadesan, a self-professed Tamil who delightedly cheered on the Sinhala occupation forces, and knaves like Roberts (and other closet-colonialists) that provided the bare-faced racists with invaluable ideological cover on the international front, would dare to portray this self-evident reality differently.

Full Article...

The three children standing in the dirt outside the tent in Sri Lanka's newest internment camp have not seen their mother for weeks, ever since a shell exploded next to the bunker where they had taken cover, ripping a hole in er stomach.

Medics rushed 29-year-old Sandi to a makeshift hospital, where doctors operated to save her life. All that Sandi's husband, 33-year-old Yogisuran, and the children - Thuyamthini, Kuwanthini and Thusiyanthini - know is that she was later evacuated on a ship by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They have not seen her since, and trapped with tens of thousands of others in the Menik Farm camp they are powerless to do anything about it.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka is to clash with Western powers at the United Nations Human Rights Council today in an effort to ward off any investigation into alleged war crimes committed during its military offensive against the Tamil Tigers. The country has marshalled a team of powerful allies led by China, Russia and India to fight off a European-backed resolution at today's special session on Sri Lanka calling for an inquiry into abuses on both sides of the conflict.

Full Report...

THE Sri Lankan army will recruit an extra 100,000 soldiers to crush any attempt to revive the Tamil Tiger movement, triggering accusations the Government plans a military occupation of the Tamil-dominated north. The troop build-up, announced a week after President Mahinda Rajapakse declared victory in the 26-year civil war with the separatists, is likely to involve thousands of troops stationed in former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam territory. Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka said yesterday the extra troops were required to ensure that remnants of the proscribed terrorist group living overseas, and those still hiding in northern jungles, could not resurrect it under new leadership.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of launching a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" following its victory over the Tamil Tigers in the country's 26 year civil war.

Full Report...

After nearly three decades of a terror-fuelled secessionist struggle, the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam finally seem ready to make peace with the Sri Lankan government. With the Tigers' armed force decimated, their territory overrun and their founding leader dead, the interim Tiger leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, has ordered his fighters to renounce violence and pursue their goals through democratic means. If Mr. Pathmanathan's call is both genuine and heeded by his compatriots, then his organization's efforts in seeking the redress of legitimate Tamil grievances deserve the full support of both Canada and the international community.

Full Report...

The strange line-up of the member countries of the United Human Rights Council (HRC) for or against Sri Lanka at the special session of the body scheduled to take place in Geneva on Tuesday underscores the maritime Great Game unfolding in the Indian Ocean.

The special session is being convened at the request of 17 of the 47 members of the HRC, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Hovering in the background is the United States. It aims at forcing Sri Lanka to face charges of gross human rights violations in its war against the Tamil insurgents. An HRC recommendation to set up an international commission of inquiry would put Colombo in the docks. An HRC special session has been called only on 10 previous occasions.

Full Analysis...

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have admitted for the first time that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead. A statement issued by the Tigers said their "incomparable leader" had "attained martyrdom" and declared a week of mourning.

Full Report...

As the Sri Lankan army closed in, rebels made a desperate plea to a Sunday Times correspondent to help stave off annihilation.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka said Sunday it would not allow aid workers complete access to civilians who remain held in camps after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers until rebels hiding among the refugees had been weeded out.

Full Report...

Shell-shocked and scarred both inside and out, they huddle in tents, water and medicine in short supply - hundreds of thousands of people, civilian victims of Sri Lanka's recently-ended civil war.

Full Report...

As hundreds of thousands of supporters cheered outside Parliament, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday dismissed calls for an international investigation into alleged war crimes by government troops in their victorious offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. "Some tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals," Rajapaksa said in a speech carried on national television. "The strength I have is your support," he said. "I am even ready to go to the gallows on your behalf." Rajapaksa spoke just hours before U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived on the island to push for humanitarian groups to be given unrestricted access to the nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting.

Full Report...

Up to a fifth of refugee Tamil children have been lost or abducted, reports Andrew Buncombe from Colombo.

Read this heartbreaking report...

US military satellites secretly monitored Sri Lanka’s conflict zone through the latter stages of the war against the Tamil Tigers and American officials are examining images for evidence of war crimes, The Times has learnt. The images are of a higher resolution than any that are available commercially and could bolster the case for an international war crimes inquiry when the UN Human Rights Council holds a session on Sri Lanka next week.

Full Report...

We are writing in advance of your upcoming visit to Sri Lanka on May 23. The Sri Lankan government's victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signals an end to the devastating 25-year-long war in Sri Lanka.  We hope it also marks the end to the numerous atrocities committed by the LTTE against the civilian population. The fighting resulted in a terrible cost in civilian lives and suffering that could have been avoided and will have continuing consequences in both the near and long-term for Sri Lanka.

Click here for the letter...

Sky News has been told women are being raped in Sri Lankan camps set up for Tamils who have fled the country's war zone.

Full Report...

Western leaders seemed genuinely surprised at the rapid end to Sri Lanka's 25-year-old internal war and the collapse of the Tamil Tiger insurgency. Not so taken back, however, that the Canadian, U.S. and European governments did not know, virtually in unison, what approach to take: do as little as they could semi-decently get away with.

Full Analysis...

Every 15 minutes, Sri Lankan state television halts its normal programming to broadcast patriotic images of women in lush tea fields at sunrise, workers building power lines and troops standing guard, all accompanied by a soaring anthem in which a young beauty calls for the country's president to be crowned king. On the streets of the capital, billboards proclaim, "King Mahinda Rajapaksa: He saved us," beneath a photograph of the president hugging his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's defense minister, and apparently glorying in the military victory that this week ended more than a quarter-century of war with the Tamil Tiger separatists.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka's government must allow aid agencies access to an estimated 280,000 displaced people in the north after declaring victory in its 26-year war with Tamil Tiger rebels, the Red Cross and United Nations said.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka's conflict zone, off limits to aid workers and journalists as civilians were being killed, will be visited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the accompanying Press on May 23, it was announced on Tuesday. Speaking in Geneva, Mr. Ban told reporters that "I expect that I will be able to visit the conflict zone, which the Sri Lankan Government officials told me had been liberated. I would like to have my first hand, on the spot, assessment of the situation myself. I am going to discuss this matter with President Rajapaksa."

Full Report...

Extracts of transcripts by aid workers from the camps for internally displaced people in Sri Lanka.

Click Here...

The Tamil Tigers' defeat presents the democratic world with a quandary. Does it punish Sri Lanka for its brutal conduct of the war and risk hampering reconstruction efforts and pushing the island deeper into the embrace of China, Iran and other rival powers? Or should it overlook multiple alleged abuses, and risk setting a precedent for future conflicts, and dashing hopes for reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities? The answer could either consolidate or undermine a decade of relative progress in enforcing international laws of war, most notably in the former Yugoslavia, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Full Article...

As Sri Lanka declares an end to its 26-year civil war, Tamils outside Sri Lanka describe their shock and disbelief at news of the military demise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the death of its leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

Click Here...

The United Nations is calling on the Sri Lankan government to grant it urgent access to war ravaged areas, which remain sealed off, in the north east of the country. The UN says some civilians haven't recevied any aid for the past week and estimates up to a quarter of a million civilians have been displaced.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan Government has blocked access to aid workers trying to help the nearly 300,000 civilians displaced by the army’s victory over the Tamil Tigers, raising the prospect of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Full Report...

After many years of suffering and after such a terrible cost in lives, Sri Lanka's president has told the nation that its civil war is over.

Full Report + Interview..

Text messages sent by Sri Lankan officials told the rebels how to give themselves up. They obeyed the instructions - but were shot dead. Andrew Buncombe reports from Colombo:

Click here...

International human rights groups have appealed for the release of three Sri Lankan doctors accused of giving false information to the media.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka's President told the nation that a total battlefield victory has been achieved against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Several hours after his speech video was broadcast which purported to show the corpse of the feared leader of the rebel movement.

Full Report...

It said it had surrounded Velupillai Prabhakaran in a small patch of jungle in the north east of the country, and claimed the Tigers have now been defeated after a 26-year war. But a spokesman for the Tigers has told Channel 4 News that the rebels will not surrender and that their commander is still alive.

Full Report...

History is littered with the ruined reputations of national leaders who thought they had won a great military victory only to squander it by self-congratulation and stupidity. Whether Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapakse, joins their number has yet to be seen, but the triumphant speech he will shortly make to his fellow citizens will be an important signal of the path he is choosing.

Full Article...

The U.N. humanitarian affairs chief on Monday voiced concern over the fate of several "heroic" Sri Lankan doctors who the government accused of being propagandists for Tamil Tiger rebels. U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes was asked by reporters in New York about media reports that the doctors might have been detained and interrogated at a displaced persons camp outside the former conflict zone in northeastern Sri Lanka. "I believe they may be in the camps but we haven't had any direct contact with them," Holmes said.

Full Report...

The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is dead, the Sri Lankan military has said. The announcement on state television came shortly after the military said it had surrounded Prabhakaran in a tiny patch of jungle in the north-east.

Full Report...

Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed by soldiers today, was feted as a "Sun God" by his supporters and branded as a ruthless megalomaniac by his opponents.

Full Report...

 The Sri Lankan government was working to identify 150 bodies Monday, one of which might be that of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Full Report...

As the brothers Rajapaksa declare victory in northern Sri Lanka, from the conflict zone closed to press come reports of thousands dead, and thousands more injured. There will be no access, it is predicted, until after President Mahinda Rajapaksa's speech slated for Tuesday.

Full Report...

EU foreign ministers are expected to call for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes by Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka's government.

Full Report...

A key Tamil Tiger leader has spoken exclusively to Channel 4 News, saying their chief is still alive and they want a political solution. Alex Thomson reports. A full transcript of the interview with LTTE Tamil Tigers head of international relations Selvarajah Pathmanathan.

Full Interview...

"Despite our plea to the world to save the thousands of people in Vanni from the clutches of death, the silence of the international community has only encouraged the Sri Lankan military to execute the war to its bitter end. In the past 24 hours, over 3000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention. To save the lives of our people is the need of the hour. Mindful of this, we have already announced to the world our position to silence our guns to save our people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE's International Diplomatic Relations has said in an urgent statement issued Sunday.

Full Report...

Rebel leaders make historic offer to disarm as Sri Lankan troops close in to end 25 years of civil war and threaten more slaughter on the battlefield.

Full Report...

"The situation in Vanni has reached colossal proportions and what is happening there is unprecedented human carnage. At this juncture we are ready to anything that is necessary to save the Tamil people trapped in the unrelenting war that is waged on them. We heed the call by the US President and are prepared to take measures that will spare the life of our people," said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE's head of International Relations, in a statement issued Saturday. "The international community now has to act with fairness and openness and should take full responsibility for the people who are being targeted with no mercy or dignity," he further said.

Full Report...

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday warned Sri Lanka there would be "consequences for its actions" if Colombo did not allow humanitarian agencies access to civilians and end the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Full Report...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said here Thursday it "is not an appropriate time" to consider a massive International Monetary Fund loan for Sri Lanka. Clinton told reporters that the United States has been "trying to convince both sides," the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger guerrillas, to stop fighting. "We have also raised questions about the IMF loan at this time. We think that it is not an appropriate time to consider that (loan) until there is a resolution of the conflict," Clinton added.

Full Report...

At last, the United Nations Security Council has spoken. It has seen what has been miserably apparent all year: that there is a bloodbath under way in the ever-diminishing territory held by rebel Tamils in north-eastern Sri Lanka. True, the end-game in this long and vicious civil war has been clouded by the swirl of unverifiable reports and propaganda from both sides. Yet, as leaked UN satellite pictures as well as eyewitness accounts from the front attest, it is perfectly clear that innocent civilians, including women and a lot of children, are being killed in their hundreds, mostly by air strikes and shelling by the government.

Full Editorial Comment...

Pointing out that, under the current circumstances, the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the United Nation's Security Council (UNSC) provide at least three ways to convene a formal meeting of the Security Council in order to terminate the Genocide against Tamils by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), Prof. Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the Illinois University College of Law, says, failure of the Secretary General, Governments of the United States, U.K, France, and India to hold a UNSC Emergency meeting indicates that they are all quietly supporting the GoSL genocide against the Tamils from behind the scenes, despite their crocodile tears in public.

Full Report...

Editor's Comment: Recently I came to know through reliable sources that the military is freezing dead bodies of Sinhala soldiers and keeping them in the north itself fearing body-bags in large numbers could trigger unrest within villages. Thus, many parents, according to the reporter, could be totally unaware of their children's fate for months. Read the following report by WSWS on the other side of this brutal war:

Click Here...

For reasons I shall explain later I don't think what we see at present marks the end of the Tamil struggle for independence. The popular perception may well end up in a mirage. Clearly, a new chapter of the Tamil campaign is in the making, and the signs are that the next episode is going to be even more formidable than the Tamil Tigers' mini-state project. With South India's full backing - also, with the international community's blessings - the Tamils are going to press for just two options: either a confederation or total separation

Full Article...

New satellite imagery analysis released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) offers a glimpse on Sri Lanka's northeastern war zone. The analysis - initially requested by Amnesty International USA and Human Rights Watch - compares two images from May 6 and May 10, 2009, in order to produce additional evidence on the recent attacks. It "reveals evidence of probable artillery shelling as well as major population displacement", according to a press release by AAAS. The images show numerous possible shell impact craters and destroyed houses. The most visible feature of the image comparison is the removal of thousands of likely IDP shelters from the central part of the so-called "Safe Zone" between May 6 and May 10. The image analysis shows several new possible shell craters primarily in the area of removed IDP structures.

Click Here to See the Images...

The United Nations said a weekend attack in Sri Lanka that killed hundreds was the bloodbath it had feared, while the Tamil Tigers and government traded blame ahead of U.N. Security Council talks over the war.

Full Report...

In what constitutes a blatant war crime by the Sri Lankan government, the army's merciless bombardment of a so-called no-fire zone, a small strip of land on the country's northeast coast, killed and wounded thousands of Tamil civilians over the weekend. According to a government doctor at the Mullaivaikal field hospital in the zone, which is the last territory still controlled by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the number of bodies brought to the facility by 3 p.m. Sunday numbered 378, while 1,122 wounded had arrived seeking medical treatment.

Full Report...

Indiscriminate barrage of shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on the 'safety zone' starting from Saturday night to Sunday morning slaughtered more than 2,000 civilians including large number of women and children, medical sources in Vanni said quoting the injured who managed to reach the makeshift hospital. Dead bodies are scattered everywhere and 814 wounded managed to reach the makeshift hospital up to 9:25 a.m., doctors said. Every kind of lethal weapon such as the internationally banned cluster shells and shells fired from Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers and Cannons were used turning the so-called safety zone into a killing field. The SLA usually chooses weekends for its massacres to minimise international attention.

Full Report...

Just over a month after 6 year old Jude Varsha, a student of St. Mary’s Girls School in Trincomalee was abducted and murdered by a group of TMVP cadres, TMVP men once again have been accused of the abduction and murder of another schoolgirl in Batticaloa. Both girls were initially abducted for ransom. For the return of 8 year old Dinushika Sathishkumar, a grade 3 student at the Kottamunai Kanishta Vidyalaya in Batticaloa, the abductors had demanded Rs 3 million as ransom.

Full Story...

The grandfather found the girl missing when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect her, prompting a search involving the girl’s mother and a group of volunteers. The search stretched from the local hospital to play grounds and even the homes of relatives and friends. As the day stretched into night there was still no trace of the child and with everyone fearing the worst, a complaint was finally lodged at the local police station. It was several hours later when the kidnappers broke silence and made a call to the panic-stricken home. We will return your child in exchange for three million rupees in hard cash, the household was told, with a warning to keep the police out, the mother told The Sunday Times yesterday.

Full Story...

The Sri Lankan government has ordered Channel 4 News's Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh to leave the country, after taking exception to a report broadcast on Channel 4 News on 5th May.

Full Report...

(New York) - The Sri Lankan armed forces have repeatedly struck hospitals in the northern Vanni region in indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks, Human Rights Watch said today. Commanders responsible for ordering or conducting such attacks may be prosecuted for war crimes.

Full Report...

Channel 4 News reports from a camp in the northern Sri Lankan city of Vavuniya, where Tamil refugees have been taken.

See the videos here...

Sri Lanka has detained three journalists working for U.K.-based Channel Four television news, the Associated Press said, citing police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera. Reporter Nick Paton Walsh, producer Bessie Du and cameraman Matt Jasper have been arrested in connection with a report filed on the condition of camps for war refugees that contained alleged sexual abuse, the news agency said, citing Paton Walsh.

Click Here...

With the UN counting the dead civilians in Sri Lanka in the thousands, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is still not calling for cease-fire, nor prepared to send a special envoy to the conflict. Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban on Tuesday why the UN has, for example, withheld the casualty figures and satellite photos of bomb craters in the supposed No Fire Zone. In a three-minute response, Ban described a "quite lengthy telephone call with President Rajapaksa covering all the pending issues." Video here, from Minute 46:11.

Full Report...

"China's arms sales have been the decisive factor in ending the military stalemate," Brahma Chellaney, of the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, said. "There seems to have been a deal linked to Hambantota."

Full Article...

Land that was known for beautiful beaches and waterfalls has now been turned into a Kingdom of Vultures. Dead bodies of of the innocent Tamils are dragged away by stray dogs and wild beasts while the survivors hide inside the bunkers.

Click here for the full article with pictures...

[I wrote this article in response to an "internet-project" initiated by the Sri Lankan journalist, Kusal Perera]

Vasantha Raja

20 April 2009

In countries like Sri Lanka, capitalism did not organically evolve from feudalism. In contrast, European capitalism grew within the womb of feudal society systematically challenging all aspects of feudal consciousness and institutions. Sri Lankan capitalism, on the contrary, was arbitrarily imposed by colonialists on a feudal society. Therefore, it is not surprising at all that its feudal past is still alive. The feudal consciousness continues to persist in various forms. The Sinhala politicians' pathological failure to politically solve the Tamil Question is partly a result of that.

Sri Lanka's capitalist economy and its state are invariably intertwined and dependent on the global capital serving rich countries interests. Sri Lanka's capitalism has no future without direct help from global capitalism. Thus, the formation of a fully-fledged capitalist class with a commitment to democratic values fails to take roots; and the greed 'for a few dollars more' with foreign blessings becomes the sole interest. In the absence of a strong capitalist class, the state plays the major role in profit-sharing with the global capital. The political elite have become indistinguishable from the business circles, and corruption inevitably has become the hallmark of political power.

During the past few decades, easily available global credit facilitated Sri Lanka's economic and political survival. The US-led global capitalism had no choice but to pump in mountains of paper money using a deregulated banking system to keep the poor afloat - which is essential for their own survival.

There's no viable internal market in Sri Lanka for a capitalist class to thrive on. So the SL state had to orientate the country towards 'dollar-earning' activities: garment industry, tourist industry etc. Expanding tea exports, 'exporting' labour to foreign countries (particularly to the middle-east), along with textile exports and tourism, (all of them major foreign exchange earners) have been the central pillars of the SL economy. The service sector, including construction related industries, has been closely linked to them.

But here's the rub: The mainstay of Sri Lankan economy during the past few decades has been thoroughly dependent on colossal amounts of global credit that was part of the global credit bubble that recently collapsed.

I explained all this for a reason: to show that the Sri Lankan economy is very much a tiny part of the global economy, and what happens to the SL economy is directly linked to what's happening in the global economy.

The global economy's existing format is going to change dramatically in the foreseeable future. The recent G20 summit in London has given important clues in this regard, and before addressing how Sri Lanka should economically orientate towards the onrushing changes let me briefly mention how the global world-order may look like in the near future. [Read the top articles in Global Economy, Global Politics and Global Vision sections of www.lankaeye.com ]

The global leaders, including China and Russia, will take decisive action to launch a new global currency that is independent of any single country's domination. [China proposed this in no uncertain terms. US President Obama didn't like the wordings. This is excusable for the time being, considering the entrenched western prejudices against such radical views. So, politicians like Obama will have to move slowly of course. However, this is essentially the project the G20 leaders finally agreed to.]

Also, a global central bank that has immense power to create money for the purposes of global economic development seems to be very much on the agenda. All banking outlets, in the final analysis, will have to be part of this new order. The financial anarchy that existed prior to the global credit crunch will have to go.

The ongoing 'bailout efforts' by many governments may turn out to be mere ad hoc efforts to postpone a social chaos on a global scale. The governments fear the immediate political and social repercussions if the big banks and industries are allowed to collapse overnight. Pumping trillions of tax-payers money into these bankrupt institutions is not going to solve anything. G20 leaders know this, and they know the old system will have to be fundamentally transformed. The hitherto existed US domination, dollar domination and western domination will have to go. Global institutions of supranational nature that are democratically accountable to nation-states will have to play the dominant role within the new world-order. Only a highly regulated private sector will have to be allowed to operate within the framework of such global parameters.

Surely, changes of such magnitude will not happen overnight. But, that is the direction things are heading. And, these new realities should be taken into account in planning Sri Lanka’s economic and political future.

Firstly, immediate steps should be taken to radically transform its constitution that, in the final analysis, is the main culprit of Sri Lanka's conflicts. There cannot be any economic prosperity without a constitution and a new political framework that tally with Sri Lanka's social realities.

Secondly, a viable economic vision that is attractive to all communities should be in place. Such a vision should be firmly based on the fast developing global realities I outlined above.

The first step in this regard is to discard some existing nationalist prejudices: In the context of the emerging democratically globalized future we must not think in terms of national self-sufficiency. Instead, we must learn to relate to the global economy in the most efficient way possible.

Considering the wide variety of geographical and cultural assets Sri Lanka has, no doubt there are many ways of contributing to a globally harmonized 'One World'. But, in my view, Sri Lanka's scenic and cultural beauty comes on top. Thus, tourism should become the central plank in planning the state's blueprint for islandwide infrastructure.

Remember, planning of infrastructure that include roads and railway networks, energy distribution, communication networks, education, health, housing and welfare networks and so on should be the task of the public sector. A regulated private sector should operate within the parameters of an islandwide economic vision of such calibre. Negotiating funds for infrastructure projects designed to dramatically increase Sri Lanka's productivity as part of IMF's future funding for global development is, I believe, bound to be fruitful.

In conclusion I argue that there should be a united front of Sri Lanka's Left primarily based on two central tenets: One, a political programme to transform Sri Lanka's constitution and the institutions that is unambiguously appealing to all communities. Two, an economic programme based on common welfare that is equally beneficial to all communities and all regions in Sri Lanka.

v.raja@btinternet.com

In a statement issued by the White House in honor of World Press Freedom Day, President Barack Obama expressed his concern for Sunday Times Journalist J.S Tissainayagam and said his case was "emblematic of the hundreds of journalists who face intimidation, censorship, and arbitrary arrest." Tissainayagam and journalists like him are "guilty of nothing more than a passion for truth and a tenacious belief that a free society depends on an informed citizenry," said President Obama in his statement.

Click Here for Pr. Obama's statement...

Sunanda Deshapriya, speaking at the South Asia World Press Freedom Day Conference, said journalism in the country has "hit an all time low" following the murder of editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, who has been posthumously awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2009.

Full Report...

As the whole world watches the continuing calamity in Sri Lanka, with thousands of civilians dead and tens of thousands more at risk as government forces try to quash the last of the insurgent Tamil Tigers, the United Nations Security Council remains mired in debates over whether or not to even discuss the issue, with a minority of member-states obstructing any collective action in response to the crisis, or even an official review.

Full Article...

Sunanda Deshapriya's speech at WPFD South Asia Conference organized by UNESCO and Federation of Nepali Journalists:

Click Here...

AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha Monday reiterated her promise to create an independent state for Tamil minorities in Sri Lanka 'the same way as (late prime minister) Indira Gandhi liberated Bangladesh'.

Full Report...

Artillery shells fired by the Sri Lankan military have hit a makeshift hospital in the country's northeastern war zone killing at least 64 people, according to a health official.

Full Report...

The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC. The doctors said bombardments from the army had killed 64 people on Saturday, including patients, their relatives and bystanders in Mullivaikal. About 87 people were injured. Another 27 people reportedly died on Friday. The army has denied bombing the hospital, saying that Tamil Tiger rebels carried out suicide attacks.

Full Report...

Confidential UN satellite images leaked yesterday appear to show that the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed a safe haven for up to 150,000 civilians fleeing fighting against the Tamil Tigers. The images contained in an internal UN report may constitute the strongest evidence yet of violations of international humanitarian law or war crimes, according to human rights activists. The report by Unosat, dated April 26, provides detailed images of the tiny strip of beach and coconut grove - now covering only 3.8sq miles (10sq km) - where the army has pinned down the Tigers along with thousands of civilians.

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The Sri Lankan government won the battle by effectively shutting out access and allowing only selected media to join guided tours.

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The Sri Lankan government's admission that it has been using heavy weapons in an area crowded with displaced civilians underscores the need for an international commission of inquiry into violations of the laws of war by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said today.

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Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said: "That is a joke. They were not fighting with us, they were running from us. There is no need of a ceasefire. They must surrender. That is it."

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Tamil Tiger rebels fighting government forces in north-east Sri Lanka have declared a unilateral ceasefire.

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Sri Lanka's ruling party won by a landslide in a local election that the country's president had turned into a referendum on his military campaign to crush Tamil rebels, officials said Sunday.

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Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory is due to the army's phased attack. First they went east, where the Tigers had antagonised the Muslims. Batticaloa and Trincomalee fell because of the local support. Then they went north. Many Tamils hated Prabhakaran for abducting their teenage boys to be child soldiers. Prabhakaran will be a victim of his own violent legacy. If he faces capture, he may bite the cyanide pill. If he does not, he will be branded a coward. But his death would mean nothing, unless Sinhala leaders understand that Prabhakaran did not spawn the Tamil rebellion-it was the Sinhala hegemony over Tamils that spawned him.

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LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is many things to many people-national leader, freedom fighter, revolutionary, guerrilla, killer, saviour, tyrant, visionary and terrorist. Lionised or demonised, depending on their standpoint. I cannot know what is going on in Prabhakaran's head, but I am certain he is neither frightened nor desperate. He is not afraid of death. He has been courting it since he was 17. He is an indefatigable warrior, one who is philosophically detached from all things tactical. Yet, paradoxically, in achieving his strategic goal of Tamil Eelam, he displays an unwavering attachment.

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Sri Lanka's government must look after its own people caught up in the bloody conflict, or face a new generation of Tamil militants.

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Here's an article written by the murdered journalist Sivaram, better known as 'Taraki', in 1996 which many would find interesting, and relevant. He starts his enquiry by posing the following question: "The main question which arises when one tries to assesses the consequences of Prabhaharan's indictment is can the LTTE survive after him?"

Read the full article....

Two senior Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have surrendered to the military, and are seeking refuge, the army says. It says that the rebels' media co-ordinator, Daya Master, gave himself up along with a top interpreter, named George, who worked for senior rebels. Correspondents say that if the reports are true it will be a major setback for the rebel leadership.

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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.

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Let's hope the global leaders have a glimpse of this video before they go to sleep tonight.

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Hundreds of civilians are being killed or seriously injured in artillery and gun attacks as the Sri Lankan army attempts to finish off the last Tamil Tiger rebels trapped in a shrinking pocket of land.

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Sri Lanka has rejected a fresh appeal by the UN to give civilians more time to leave a safe zone in the north-east, the defence secretary says.

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The Sri Lankan immigration officer's eyes narrowed as she swiped my passport at the international airport in Colombo last week. "Come this way," she said, leading me into a side room, where a colleague typed my details into a computer. A message flashed up on his screen: "DO NOT ALLOW TO ENTER THE COUNTRY." With that, my passport was confiscated, I was escorted to a detention room, locked up for the night, and deported the next day. I can't say that I was surprised, though it was my first deportation in 12 years of reporting from China, the former Soviet Union and South Asia.

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We call upon the government and military of Sri Lanka, and the Tamil Tigers to immediately stop hostilities until the more than 140,000 civilians in the conflict area are safely out.The United States calls upon the government of Sri Lanka to assist its Tamil citizens by halting shelling of the safe zone, permitting international monitors to ensure the safe exit of the civilians. The government of Sri Lanka should also enforce international humanitarian standards in IDP camps, grant visas to international aid groups and permit entry into Sri Lanka of international monitors and media access to those camps.

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"LTTE's armed struggle is the historical product of injustice against the Tamil Nation in the island, and if the International Community could achieve a just political solution to the conflict, the need for an armed struggle would cease to exist," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Friday. Mr. Pathmanathan further said: "We assure the International Community that the LTTE is ready to participate in political negotiations and fight to meet the political aspirations of the Tamil Nation at the negotiating table, through political means, if an immediate and permanent ceasefire is ensured and the human sufferings of the Tamil people are addressed."

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Sri Lankan troops have resumed their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeast at the end of a 48-hour ceasefire, the two sides say. A military spokesman said security forces restarted operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) early on Wednesday.

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Channel 4 News has obtained footage from inside the "safe" zone which shows what is said to be the aftermath of an artillery attack on people queuing for milk and food.

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Washington, DC: Americans for Peace in Sri Lanka (APSL), a US based human rights activist group, led a delegation of 11 Tamil American organizations for a meeting at the United States Department of State with Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake. The meeting to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka took place on April 08th in Washington, DC, with Ambassador Blake joining by video conferencing.

US Press Release..

"If the refusal of the Sri Lankan state to mend its ways and the violence it perpetrated have made the Tamil youth of the 1970s to get into militancy, it is the stubbornness of the International Community in not rectifying its blunder of perpetrating a genocidal war against Tamils in Sri Lanka that has now made the diaspora youth to take to streets defying procedures," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi. "The older generation which initially raised eyebrows at the outcome of the youth initiative that defied community elders and formalities, has subsequently started appreciating the spontaneous spirit in the youth in taking up community responsibility at a time of emergency. It is the duty of the community elders to take the message to the ruling circles of the IC that its venture in the island without a viable roadmap and responsibilities had led to the crisis.

Read it here...

Bruce Fein, counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, said Sunday that TAG is preparing to file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prohibit the United States Treasury Secretary from voting to support the request by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for $1.9 billion in economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund. TAG’s complaint alleges that a United States vote in favor of the assistance would violate a federal statute, 22 USC 262d, intended to prevent United States financial complicity in harrowing human rights abuses by IMF member governments, Fein said.

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The day after the UN involuntarily admitted counting 2,683 civilian killings in Sri Lanka from January 20 to March 7 of this year, efforts to hold a second UN Security Council meeting on Sri Lanka were described to Inner City Press by a range of Council diplomats.  Non-permanent Council members including Austria, Mexico and Costa Rica have requested the meeting for March 26, under the heading "Other Matters" since Sri Lanka is still not a formal item on the Council's agenda. These members thought they had agreement from other Council members, but now China is "vehemently" opposing any discussion in the Council of the plight of civilians in the Sri Lankan conflict. China argues that it is "merely an internal matter," and not a threat to international peace and security.

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After claiming of Sri Lanka that "we don't count bodies," the UN has now involuntarily admitted that the "minimum number of documented civilian casAualties since 20 January 2009, as of 7 March 2009 in the conflict area of Mullaitivu Region [is] 9,924 casualties including 2,683 deaths and 7,241 injuries," in a leaked document of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs obtained by Inner City Press.

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Global recession which had taken a stranglehold on the world economy has spread its tentacles in Sri Lanka too forcing 16 leading business ventures to lay off their entire workforce while 29 companies have retrenched part of the staff, Inter Company Employees' Union said.

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69 civilians were killed, including 19 children, and scores wounded within the safe zone in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardments Saturday in Mullaiththeevu. The SLAF bombers have been attacking the zone continuously for the 5th day, despite the call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the SLA "should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone."

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A United States-backed military evacuation of civilians trapped in the Mullaitivu battle zones - a move rejected by Tiger guerrillas - has also met with disfavour from India. The Sunday Times learns India, which wants to see the civilians out, feels such an evacuation operation should be undertaken collectively by the United Nations. The Indian position on this, Foreign Ministry sources confirmed, had been conveyed to Sri Lanka. This compelled Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to announce that the Government has "not permitted any international forces to evacuate civilians from the Wanni."

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [Images] has asked Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to devise a political solution to the ongoing ethnic conflict in the country. During a telephonic talk with the Sri Lankan President, Hillary also urged him to make sure that the Army does not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone. "The Secretary stated that the Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone," the State Department Acting Deputy spokesman, Gordon Duguid, said in a statement. This was the first high-level contact between leaders of the two countries under the Obama [Images] Administration.

Full Report...

The Humanitarian Situation in Sri Lanka

On March 13, Secretary Clinton called Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa to express the United States’ deep concern over the deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life occurring in the Government of Sri Lanka-designated “safe zone” in northern Sri Lanka.  The Secretary stated that the Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone.  The Secretary offered immediate and post-conflict reconstruction assistance and she extended condolences to the victims of the March 10 bombing outside a mosque in southern Sri Lanka.  She condemned the actions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are reported to be holding civilians as human shields, and to have shot at civilians leaving LTTE areas of control.

Full Press Release...

In a letter organized by U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), seven U.S. Senators today wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding their sharp concerns over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka as an estimated 150,000 civilians remain trapped in an area of intense combat between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "The situation in Sri Lanka is unacceptable and must be remedied as quickly as possible," the Senators wrote. The Senators went on to write, "An enduring peace can be achieved only through a political solution that treats the Tamil minority as equal citizens under the law. Without such an agreement, the violence will only continue."

Full Report...

The situation in Sri Lanka [Images], where thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's strongholds, permeated the 45-minute discussion on Monday between United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [Images] and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. This was the first high-level interaction between India and the Obama [Images] administration in Washington.

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The deaths of at least 14 people in a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomb attack in southern Sri Lanka has raised fears that a new and bloody era is beginning in the Sri Lankan war. With the rebels losing significant chunks of territory in recent weeks, some predict that the war will now be characterised by similar attacks all over the country - with government ministers, army personnel, police and Sinhalese civilians all likely targets. "It shows once again that Tamil Tiger rebels retain the capacity to attack targets far removed from their traditional strongholds in the north and east, despite significant territorial losses in recent weeks," says Chandana Keerthi Bandara of the BBC's Sinhala service.

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Sri Lanka is going on bended knee to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - an institution it chased away two years ago - for a bailout package worth 1.9 billion US dollars, as authorities scrape the barrel for foreign exchange. The move to return to the IMF for emergency cash comes more than two years after the IMF closed its Colombo office, saying it had no programme here....[T]he irony of the wakeup call is that the government is seeking help from an agency it had virtually thrown out from the country in January 2007.

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Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells fitted with cluster munitions and fire-bombs into civilian 'safety zone' killing at least 129 civilians between 2:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Around 200 civilians were wounded. 300 tarpaulin huts burned down to ashes in Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fired rockets. The medical store at Valaignarmadam has sustained damage and the son of a doctor was reported killed there, according to initial reports. A local NGO official, who was coordinating the rescue of the wounded described the carnage as "Colombo’s show of open mockery at international concern," reports TamilNet's Vanni correspondent. "The attack was criminally deliberate as it was timed for the aftermath of a mini cyclone and floods, at the stranded civilians," the NGO official said.

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Fifteen killed and six ministers injured in explosion near mosque:

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The government, through the Central Bank, is negotiating a $1.9 billion bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - an agency that was not wanted earlier - because the country's foreign reserves have hit rock-bottom, economists say.

While Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and CB statements claim that the request has been made pursuant to 'an offer by the IMF', the crisis is so acute that Sri Lanka had few choices. "Otherwise why ask for money if we have money - particularly from an institution (IMF) that the government didn't want," senior economist Dr Sirimal Abeyratne asked.

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A recent survey says that from mid-2005 to now, many large international garment buyers shifted their business out of Sri Lanka and into cheaper manufacturing destinations. Over this period, 75 factories, in seven provinces, closed down, and out of this around 24 factories closed down over the past six months. The survey, which was concluded in February 2009, was conducted by a private consultant, Roy Dawson, in the Western, Southern, Central, Uva, Sabaragamuwa, Wayamba and North Western Provinces.

The findings show that many major foreign buyers of Sri Lankan garments shut down their offices in Sri Lanka within the past three years and also shifted their manufacturing orders to other countries.

"Out of around 50 main international garment buyers registered with the Sri Lanka Garment Buying Offices Association, 12 shut down their offices in Sri Lanka within the last three years. These buying offices were shifted mainly to Singapore, India and Pakistan. Production was shifted mainly to India, Bangladesh and Vietnam," said Mr Dawson.

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In Vaharai, eastern Sri Lanka, there are checkpoints, army camps and barbed wire everywhere. Buildings are pockmarked with bullet holes, and skull-and-crossbone markings warn of minefields along the beaches of this fishing community, which not long ago was a stronghold of the ethnic Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.......

The Obama administration will sound out foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Monday on India's support for a US-led invasion of Sri Lanka to evacuate nearly 200,000 Tamil civilians trapped inside territory controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with precariously declining stocks of food or medicine.

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Sri Lanka's government has turned a blind eye to the mass killing of Tamils. The Commonwealth should threaten expulsion....In many cases, the killings have been what independent observers would define as genocide, with whole communities killed in a form of ethnic cleansing. With the eyes of the world turned elsewhere, the Sri Lankan government has felt able to get away with this slaughter, despite condemnation from the Dalai Lama and the UN secretary general.

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[H]e claims to "object with all my passion" to "the LTTE...utilising the impending 'civilian tragedy' as a form of political blackmail directed at GOSL and the world-at-large"; that is, Roberts resents LTTE's manoeuvres to defend itself and save the lives of Vanni Tamils!! Note that he places the words civilian tragedy within quotes, as if there is some doubt in his mind!!! The last major point I want to touch on is Roberts' unsubstantiated claim (based on a comment by a solitary "Tamil intellectual" in Colombo) that the LTTE is consumed by a "death wish". He then proceeds to allege that "at end-point now, the LTTE is imposing this death wish on the peoples remaining within its reach" but offers not a shred of evidence to back up his wild assertions. On a personal note, I produced and Sabiha Sumar (my wife) directed a documentary film on the LTTE women cadre including female Black Tigers in 1996, commissioned and broadcasted by Channel Four TV, London. We crossed over to LTTE-held territory, shared their camp over several days and nights, and filmed the cadre at work and at play. We interviewed them at length. We saw no evidence whatsoever to indicate a "death wish".

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Since the establishment of our organisation in 1990, we have been bringing our concerns regarding the situation in Sri Lanka to all UN Human Rights forums. We wish to place before your esteemed honors our report on the violations of human rights and denial of fundamental freedoms perpetrated on innocent Tamil civilians in the North and East through long years of war and military occupation. The human rights situation has been deteriorating sharply. Cultural and mandated genocide, multiple displacements, a systematic economic embargo and impunity are all very serious problems.

Full Statement...

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa on Thursday announced that she will lead a state-wide fast on March 10, demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and the party will raise funds to help the Lankan Tamils.

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Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery fire Wednesday inside the 'safety zone' killing 78 civilians. 21 of the victims are children, according to emerging details from various settlements. 23 civilians were killed in artillery barrage in the morning from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. and 47 in the evening between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. 182 civilians have sustained injuries. High number of casualties were reported in Pokka'nai and Maaththa'lan within the security zone. An ICRC worker, who was returning to his tarpaulin tent after transporting wounded civilians to ICRC ship was killed in Pokka'nai. A pregnant mother was also among the victims.

Full Report...

The humanitarian situation in northeastern Sri Lanka has become 'extremely grim', a senior UN official in the Asian country said Wednesday. Gordon Wiess, the spokesman for the UN's operations in Sri Lanka warned that some 70,000 to 200,000 were trapped in a tiny enclave between a lagoon and the sea front, desperate for food, shelter and drinking water. He said it was 'unacceptable' that civilians were cut off from aid.

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The long, bloody civil war never came to this market town, deep in the tea-growing highlands. No suicide bombings. No Army massacres. But the anger and alienation that fed a generation of revolt by Sri Lanka's Tamil minority still burn here, far from the battlefields of the north. Everyday hassles, not the struggle for self-rule, are largely to blame: racial profiling by abusive police; few Tamil-speaking bureaucrats; official documents issued only in Sinhalese, the language of the majority.

Full Article..

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in north-eastern Sri Lanka. Up to 150,000 people may be trapped in the area by fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.

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Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells and air attacks by the Sri Lanka Air Force have claimed the lives of at least 73 civilians, most of them inside 'safety zone' on Tuesday in Mullaiththevu district, according to the details from medical and local aid workers in the district. More than 160 civilians have sustained injuries. Around 35 cluster-fitted artillery shells were fired within the last 3 days. 15 cluster shells were fired into civilian areas Tuesday alone. 11 children below age 10 have been killed, 4 in the morning, 5 in the night and one of the two children missing in morning was later identified as the child's mother recovered a fragment of its head. Maaththa'lan hospital was full of weeping mothers who were begging the doctors to save their wounded children from death.

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The news of the Lahore armed attack on Sri Lankan cricketers sent the Sinhala South into a momentary shock. It took a few seconds, if not minutes for most Southern Sri Lankans to ask each other faintly, "Why attack our cricketers?" And then they all got fired and were buzzing the news around, often with their own interpretations. Some thought it was a LTTE contract on SL. "These Muslim armed groups do things for money" they told others. Meanwhile the army spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said, it can't be the LTTE. The military of course works on the premise, the LTTE is almost annihilated.

Full Article...

Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commandos who had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Tamil girl Sunday in Vellaave'li police division, again went to the girl's house Monday between 8:00 p.m and 9:00 p.m where they assaulted her father first and then severely tortured her mother before killing and dumping her body in the well as punishment for complaining against the STF with Batticaloa police for raping her daughter. The father was held bound while the commandos beat the mother to death, the neighbors said.

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Five policemen killed and up to six players injured in attack on team bus heading to Gaddafi stadium in Lahore:

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Masked gunmen launched a brazen attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding seven team members, police said.

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Commenting on British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's statement in the British Parliament that "a failed [UN] resolution- one that faces a veto- is worse than no resolution at all," Prof Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, said that "Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950" allows a vetoed resolution to be turned over to United Nations General Assembly for action. "The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka [...] Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka," Prof Boyle added.

Full Report...

A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.

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A UN Security Council briefing on Sri Lanka has now been scheduled for Friday, February 27, Inner City Press has learned. Three days after the spokesperson for the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes told Inner City Press that "there is no request for a Council briefing," and a week after the Council's president, Yukio Takaso, said "there is no strong request" anymore, a Permanent Five Council member told Inner City Press on Thursday morning that the Sri Lanka briefing is set for Friday.

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President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is unwilling to turn to the International Monetary Fund, which requires austerity measures in return for loans. Securing financing from other countries may be challenging for a nation whose credit rating from Standard & Poor's is the lowest apart from those of Bolivia, Pakistan, Grenada, Argentina and Lebanon. Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on Sri Lanka today.

Full Report...

"We, the undersigned leaders of workers' parties, demand that the government of Sri Lanka stop attacks that can destroy thousands of Tamils and agree to a ceasefire with the LTTE to start discussions in order to install an interim government for the Tamil homeland," said a resolution passed Wednesday at the International Committee of the Fourth International, consisting over 50 political parties and organisations, spread throughout the five continents of the world. Dr. Vickramabahu Karunarante of the NSSP of Sri Lanka mooted the resolution, which was unanimously accepted.

Full Report...

My comments here today are based on CPJ’s research, including my 10-day reporting trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka, from January 21 to February 1, 2009. I have also submitted a longer version of my presentation to the committee. The report is available on CPJ’s Web site, and I understand the committee will make it available online.

I will make some strong accusations against the Sri Lankan government today. Time constraints keep me from giving the supporting evidence, but the report will fully explain the charges I will make.

Full Testimony...

Since the British Foreign Minister has now publicly admitted on behalf of his Government that Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is "quite prepared to go ahead with acts of genocide," then under Article I of the Genocide Convention, the British government has a legal obligation "to prevent" this expected genocide of the Tamils by GoSL, said Professor Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet.

Full Report...

Armed persons and men in police uniform who arrived in three white vans Thursday morning abducted Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, 58, the prominent editor of Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and Colombo-based Chudaroli, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The abduction comes six days after Mr. Vithyatharan was grilled by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). The TID had questioned him Sunday for six hours on news and views that appeared in his papers on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacks on civilians in Vanni and about his interactions with the officials of the Tigers in the past. Police spokesman Gunasekara, who first said that the editor was abducted by unidentified men, hours later claimed that he had been arrested.

Full Report...

Senior Politician and the Parliamentary Group Leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan on Wednesday described the so-called 'investigation' by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as "unwarranted interference in my freedom of thought," in a letter addressed to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr. Sampanthan further said that there is "clearly a malicious effort" to create an environment hostile to him, the objective of which is to "suppress the truth." He was questioned by the CID on a statement at a media conference at the Sri Lankan Parliamentary complex on 17th February 2009 pertaining to the position of Tamil civilians in the war zone in the Mullaiththeevu District, and the Tamil civilians who had crossed into Sri Lanka Army controlled territory.

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Every shell being fired by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) into the 'safe zone' inflicts civilian casualties as the entire area is tightly populated, reported TamilNet correspondent on Tuesday. A single artillery shell fired around 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday claimed the lives of 6 civilians, including two teenage boys. The attack has taken place near the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan. Many of the wounded were children among the 98 injured civilians admitted Sunday and Monday, according to medical authorities.

See Report & pictures...

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the Government could not accept a conditional truce from the cornered Tamil Tigers and insisted that the guerrillas should unconditionally lay down arms first.

Full Report...

Urging International Community to effect a ceasefire and initiate a political solution as a priority than insisting LTTE to lay down arms, the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), B. Nadesan, made an appeal Sunday to the heads of the Co-chairs countries saying that "when a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people, with the support and the guarantee of the international community, the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE."

Full Letter:

Tamil Tiger rebel planes attacked the capital of Sri Lanka Friday night, destroying the main tax office, killing at least one person and injuring 48, after the government declared it was on the verge of crushing the rebel movement and had captured its jungle airstrips.

Full Report...

The attack, the tenth of its kind in two years, heaps embarrassment on the Sri Lankan government which claimed it had destroyed the rebels' runways a fortnight ago as part of its punishing military campaign to end the 25-year conflict.

Full Report...

Two planes belonging to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have attacked the capital Colombo, killing two people and injuring about 45, officials say.

See Report, Video & Pictures...

The LTTE Friday claimed two aircraft of Black Air Tiger mission diving into Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters in Colombo and into the SLAF base at Katunayaka, carrying out successful air raids. The Tigers also released photograph of the two Black Air Tigers, Col. Roopan and Lt. Col. Siriththiran with LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan before embarking on their mission.

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At least two bombs were dropped by Tiger aircraft in Slave Island area where Sri Lanka Air Force Headquarters is situated, according to reports from Colombo. 38 persons, including Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airmen, were rushed to hospital. Several of the wounded have sustained serious injuries, the sources said. The building of Inland Revenue Department, located in front of the SLAF HQ, was on fire, according to military sources in Colombo. Tension prevails in the city, which is still in dark, an hour after the initial attack. Thousands of tracer bullets were fired from all the corners of the city, including the Katunaykae International Airport.

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Tamil Tigers carried out a kamikaze-style attack in Sri Lanka's capital on Friday night, smashing a light aircraft into the main tax building, killing two people and wounding 50, officials said.

Full Report...

The other was shot down at the international airport.

The attack is the latest proof of the Tigers' ability to strike far from the war zone, where troops have rapidly encircled them in just 87 sq km (34 sq miles) of jungle and are fighting to end a separatist war that began in 1983.

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• Sri Lankan was shattered by events in native land
• Seven burn themselves to death in a month

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At least 50 civilians were killed Wednesday around 12:50 p.m. when four Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers dropped cluster bombs on Internally Displaced Civilians at Aananthapuram in Ira'naippaalai, according to initial reports from medical sources. More than 70 wounded were rushed to hospital so far and 10 of the victims have died on the way to Maaththa'lan hospital. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an artillery barrage blocking transportation of wounded to hospitals. Doctors in the makeshift hospital told TamilNet that unless the seriously wounded were not evacuated by the ICRC to Trincomalee or elsewhere, many would die at the hospital. There is no medicine at the hospital as Colombo has refused to allow medical supplies to Vanni since December 2008.

See Pictures...

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage has boxed Theavipuram and Va'l'lipunam villages within the old 'safety zone,' trapping thousands of civilians preventing them from moving to the new 'safe zone'. Around 275 civilians are feared killed since Saturday and the roads remain continuously under heavy artillery barrage, civilians who managed to flee the area said on Monday. At least 5 humanitarian workers were killed while serving the needs of the civilians trapped inside the 'Theavipuram box'.

Click here for pictures...

Michael Roberts writes: A. At the broader level we are sandwiched on the one hand between a dictatorial, fascist regime set up by the LTTE as pathway to the SL Tamil dream of nationalist independence and, on the other hand, a populist SLFP-led government that has an electoral mandate, but also has fascist tendencies and an unsavoury recent history involving some atrocities, media intimidation and other misdemeanours.

B. In the immediate context of end-point within the north eastern corner of Sri Lanka one has to choose between watching a knock-out blow being delivered to the conventional fighting machine of the Tigers and catering to the grave dangers faced by those SL Tamil peoples caught in the furnace of a dwindling Tigerland.

Full Article...

[W]hat these genetic studies indicate is that where DNA is concerned the people of Sri Lanka, never really arrived from anywhere. This applies to both Tamils as well as Sinhalese as the study found that in genetic terms the difference between the communities was either marginal or non existent. The majority of DNA - in Tamils and Sinhalese alike appears tobe indigenous which is to say that the bulk of the island's people are descended from natives of this island rather than settlers. What this means is that the Sinhalese do not trace their ancestry to Orissa or North West India as often claimed but instead to Balangoda man - the ancient Paleolithic people who populated this island thousands of years ago - the yakshas and nagas of legend....The Tamil and Sinhala identities are both therefore the result of cultural diffusions rather than distinct racial origins.

Full Article...

Dr Roberts' article seems a pure academic exercise in isolation of the material realities of the world. One cannot discuss the issue of bombing a civilian population out (however small that could be) in isolation.

Full Response...

Comments on Michael Roberts' appraisal of hard realities of the Sri Lankan war - By Vasantha Raja

Clearly, from a purely militaristic viewpoint Roberts' arguments sound solid. Also, his observations about Tiger politics [the 'command rule' & the 'command economy' etc.] seem closer to the truth. But, amazingly, the history scholar has conveniently avoided saying a word about the SL Govt's fundamental 'crime': i.e. its failure to come up with an unambiguously attractive political solution that suits "the hard realities" of the Sri Lankan society. Mahinda Rajapaksa's first step should have been to launch an island-wide media campaign to enlighten all communities of the principles of an explicitly equality-based constitution to be negotiated with the LTTE. That should have been the first step before going to war, as I've been telling the president at the time he came to power. This, he could have done unilaterally. But, unfortunately, he chose to put the cart before the horse. Perhaps, the supremacist mindsets within his administration are responsible for this.

Had he got the priorities right, things would have gone in a totally different way. For instance, if the hard-headed separatists tried to sabotage an unequivocally anti-supremacist solution, the Tamil people - within and outside "Tigerland", including the powerful Tamil Diaspora - would have parted company with ideological separatism. The civilians within "Tigerland" - who now provide the logistical support for the Tigers - would have sabotaged Tigers from within as the partisan movements did during the Second World War. The international community, including the Tamil Nadu establishment would have openly backed the government against the LTTE.

Now that the Rajapaksa regime has done everything in the wrong order the repercussions would be disastrous: Tigers - with or without Prabhakaran - will bounce back as a guerrilla force much faster than the way the JVP did it. Almost the entirety of the SL army would be bogged down in the north and the east for the foreseeable future, posing a logistical and economic nightmare for the government. The military euphoria will elevate Sinhala supremacy to new heights and an equity-based solution would become a virtual impossibility. Civilian atrocities will reach genocidal proportions with the full approval from the likes of Roberts. Rising dissent and probable economic catastrophes in the south could push the Rajapaksa-regime towards a naked dictatorship, and the fate of Sri Lanka would be doomed for years to come.

It is this aspect of the hard realities that is missing from Roberts' appraisal.

Click here for Roberts' article...

Since leaving office Mr Samaraweera, who was also Mr Rajapakse's Chief Campaign Co-ordinator during his successful 2005 presidential campaign, has become one of the most outspoken critics of a regime he was instrumental in getting elected.

Click here for Interview..

Sri Lanka's ruling party on Sunday won two provincial council elections, seen as a precursor to an early national poll and an endorsement of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's war against Tamil separatists.

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THE BARRAGE of media reporting of the grim conflict in Sri Lanka has captured popular imagination, but has overlooked the grisly Sinhalese Buddhist genocide of innocent Hindu or Christian Tamil civilians by a US dual citizen and US green card holder. The two should be investigated and prosecuted in the United States.

Full Article...

Democratic Congresswoman Nital M Lowey, of 18th District of New York, and Chairwoman of the powerful State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee expressed concern on the continued violence and the resulting "humanitarian disaster, including massive civilian casualties and the displacement of approximately 250,000 innocent civilians," called on Sri Lanka and the LTTE to negotiate a ceasefire immediately, in statement issued this week.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) has welcomed the appointment of Des Browne as Special Envoy to Sri Lanka by the British Prime Minister on Thursday. In a letter addressed to Mr. Des Browne, LTTE's Head of International Diplomatic Relations S. Pathmanathan said the British government had a moral responsibility to intervene to stop the genocide being committed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) on Tamil civilians in the island of Sri Lanka.

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The Sri Lankan government has been denounced over plans to forcibly detain thousands of Tamil civilians fleeing the country's civil war in "concentration camps".

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Chomsky: I think the idea of a single state is a bad option in much of the world and in fact parts of the world, like parts of Europe, for example, are moving towards more federal arrangements. So take, say, Spain. In Spain, Catalonia by now has a high degree of autonomy within the Spanish state. The Basque Country also has a high degree of autonomy and the same will increasingly be true of other regions. In England, Wales and Scotland in the United Kingdom are moving towards a form of autonomy and self determination and I think there are similar developments throughout Europe and they're mixed with a lot of pros and cons, but by and large I think it is a generally healthy development. I mean, the people have different interests, different cultural backgrounds, different concerns, and there should be special arrangements to allow them to pursue their special interests and concerns in harmony with others. Some form of federalism I suppose is a good outcome in multinational, multicultural, systems, especially where there is a fair amount of geographical separation. You know, it just depends on local circumstances, the kinds of accommodations that are possible. Without a really deep knowledge of these matters would be just too presumptuous for an outsider to offer opinions.

Full Interview...

India has mended its stand on Sri Lanka [Images], no longer insisting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should lay down arms as a pre-condition for talks with the government in Colombo for a political settlement.

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Sri Lanka was accused yesterday of planning concentration camps to hold 200,000 ethnic Tamil refugees from its northeastern conflict zone for up to three years - and seeking funding for the project from Britain. The Sri Lankan Government says that it will open five "welfare villages" to house Tamils fleeing the 67 sq mile patch of jungle where the army has pinned down the Tamil Tiger rebels.

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The civilian refugees who either fled the war zone or caught by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are denied not only the freedom of movement to go out of the buildings in which they are detained under 'near-prison' conditions, but are also denied freedom of movement inside the camp itself after 6:00 p.m. by the SLA, even for the call of nature, on grounds of condemnation that they were linked to the LTTE, said NGO activists on condition of anonymity. 28,000 civilians who have fled war zone since December 2008 are now housed in the camps heavily guarded by the SLA, where links with the outside world have been denied and even relatives or friends are not allowed to visit the camps.

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Sri Lanka has rejected Gordon Brown's appointment of Des Browne, the former defence minister, as a special envoy to the island, accusing London of interfering in its internal affairs.

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The sanctions against the Tamil Foundation, which Treasury said was a front for the Sri Lanka-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, allows the U.S. government to freeze assets the foundation may have in the United States and prohibits U.S. banks and consumers from conducting business deals with it.

Full Report...

Known across this Indian Ocean island nation as the "Tiger Who Lost his Stripes," Karuna, 42, sees himself as one of the architects of the Tamil Tigers' expected demise. The Sri Lankan army has taken one rebel-held town after another and appears closer to winning the war than at almost any time since the insurgency began in 1983.

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Sri Lanka is preparing to house 200,000 civil war refugees at five huge "welfare villages"—complete with post offices, banks and libraries-where it expects them to stay for up to three years, according to a government plan.

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The bloody progress of the conflict in Sri Lanka has united many diaspora Tamils across the political spectrum.

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Categorically denying reports by the Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo that the Tigers had fired at the fleeing civilians in Vanni, Puthukkudiyiruppu Divisional Political Head of the LTTE, C. Ilamparithy told TamilNet Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commando teams had entered the 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu and Chuthanthirapuram and had opened fire killing civilians and causing injuries to many in their attempt to forcibly move the civilians into the hands of the SLA. "Sri Lankan military machinery, which has relentlessly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the past four weeks, is now engaged in a propaganda drive to divert the mounting pressure on the Colombo government by the International Community," Mr. Ilamparithy charged.

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What should eventually happen, did happen. The UNP finally curled up meekly to make an official statement on 27th January which said, "The United National Party salutes the Sri Lankan armed forces for its military victories in the North" adding that the UNP acknowledges it was "the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers who were responsible for overseeing the conduct of these military operations".Although the then acting PM and FM of India, Pranab Mukherjee is not known to have met Wickramainghe during his hurried visit, the pre-written statement of the UNP was read out to the media by Ranil Wickramasinghe personally, few hours after Mukherjee met with President Rajapaksa in Colombo. Wickramasinghe sealed the UNP position on the war, erasing all ambiguity there was in the past year. Accused by the JHU, the JVP and Weerawansa of allowing the LTTE to control land, Wickramasinghe admitted by allusion, he gave the LTTE armed control of areas in the North when he says in his statement, "Key towns that have been under the armed control of the LTTE have been re-taken after a lapse of many years." He then hastens to add, "The sovereignty of our nation has been protected and the country's territorial integrity restored." His statement in fact should have best suited the President to address the nation, after Mullaitivu fell. He now confirms, what ever he had been saying all these years has to be trashed as those said by some one who had mixed up Mullaitivu and Mulleriyawa.

Full Article...

Subtly, but significantly differing from Tokyo Co-chairs, the Nordic Foreign Ministers who met in Oslo on Monday came out with a statement not insisting on LTTE's surrender but stressing on the interim no-fire period and a central role for UN and ICRC in receiving the IDPs from the conflict zone, adhering to international standards.

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If there were an international prize for political cynicism, then the co-chairs of the so-called Sri Lankan peace process - the US, the European Union, Japan and Norway - would be leading contenders. In a joint statement issued last week, the four co-chairs - pushed on by the new Obama administration in Washington - abandoned any pretence of neutrality and called on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to put down their weapons and surrender to the Sri Lankan regime....The Co-Chairs have not been helpless, passive bystanders, but active participants who bear political responsibility for the Sri Lankan government's war and the humanitarian disaster now unfolding in northern Sri Lanka. Like the US-backed Israeli invasion of Gaza that has resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of civilians, the war in Sri Lanka is a warning of the criminal methods now being employed by the imperialist powers to advance their economic and strategic interests.

Full Article...

Thousands of civilians were seen Monday fleeing in all directions from the 'safety zone' as mortar, artillery and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets hit the entire area demarcated by the Colombo government as safety zone. At least 36 civilians were killed and 76 wounded throughout the day in Va'l'lipunam, Chuthanthirapuram and in Maaththa'lan. The entire 100-houses-scheme located in Chuthanthirapuram was burning following MBRL attack with shells that caused immediate fire.

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"There will be no long term peace in Sri Lanka if this war is prosecuted by either side to the bitter end," said the President of Timor Leste (East Timor) Jose Ramos-Horta, on Monday, offering his preparedness "to assist in any way that might contribute to a peaceful settlement." Recollecting the experience of East Timor, the Nobel Laureate expressed his fear of immense destruction a civil war can generate and said: " The people already traumatised should not be forced to remain or move against their will." He urged the LTTE to seek a political settlement through dialouge.

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Sri Lanka's journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders are living in fear and need better protection from violence, United Nations investigators said on Monday. In a joint statement, 10 U.N. experts called on the government to act quickly to halt repressive practices.

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Asserting that Tamils have suffered "systematic discrimination practised against them," by past Sinhala Governments, Prof. Sisira Jeyasuriya, professor of Economics at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation last week said that Colombo's military victories are unlikely to bring violence to an end, as the Tigers will resort to guerrilla warfare, and added that the Government is engaged in false propaganda to ensure its survival. The recent news stories of 300 Tamil civilians killed in the safe zone are likely true despite Colombo's denials, Prof. Jeyasuriya told the ABC.

Full Report...

Her husband predicted the authorities would murder him. Now in hiding, she is on a mission to bring justice to Sri Lanka. Andrew Buncombe reports:

Click here...

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued indiscriminate barrage of artillery shelling on the 'safety zone' killing more than 80 civilians and causing injuries to 200. Most of the casualties were reported along the roads. Every single shell fired by the SLA was exploding in densely populated civilian area and people were forced to stay inside bunkers. However, as people feared ending up in the hands of the SLA which is close to Chuthanthirapuram, they were fleeing in thousands further into LTTE territory amid shelling, facing deaths and injuries on their way, said TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. According to eyewitness reports, 40 dead bodies of civilians, including children and women, were seen along the 2.5 km stretch of Paranthan Puthukkudiyiruppu Road between Chuthanthirapuram and Theavipuram.

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Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers on Friday bombed and fully destroyed Ponnampalam Memorial hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), killing scores and wounding many, according to initial reports received from PTK. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched indiscriminate artillery barrage on the hospital, totally disabling the rescue of the surviving patients. 61 patients were killed in the air attack. The bombardment comes after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urging the warring parties not to attack medical facilities both within and outside the safety zone following the claim by SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya that hospitals outside safety zone were legitimate targets.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) this week seized an arms cache from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), sources close to LTTE told TamilNet Friday. Hundreds of SLA crack commandos were drawn into Mannaka'ndal and Keappaapulavu 'boxes' and were cut off from their rear supplies during a pre-emptive strike by the Tiger forces, resulting in the loss of more than one thousand SLA soldiers since February 01. An arms cache, which was full of weapons as the SLA was in full preparation to launch its 'final assault' on PTK was seized by the Tiger commandos engaged in the preemptive strike.

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Bruce Fein, counsel for US-based group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Thursday afternoon 3:00 p.m. submitted to United States Attorney General, Mr Eric Holder, the Model Indictment charging U.S. citizen and U.S. green card holder are Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, and Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka's Army Commander, respectively for genocide, war crimes and torture against Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Counsel urged the Department to open a grand jury investigation into the crimes, based evidence amassed in the three volume 1000-page document which the Counsel said "amply satisfies the Department's threshold for commencing a criminal investigation."

Full Report...

Criticising international media reports for suggesting Tamil civilians are caught in a 'crossfire', TNA MP for Vanni S. Kanagratnam Wednesday said the Sri Lanka Army was shelling deep into Tamil Tiger controlled territory and deliberately targeting hospitals and internally displaced people. "Scores of Tamil civilians are being killed every day. But the civilian victims are not on or near the frontline as some international media is reporting. These people, inside safety zone, away from the frontline and they are being deliberately targeted by the Sri Lankan military," he said.

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The rally in Sri Lanka so far has drawn mainly local investors and funds, said Gavin D'Rosairo, who oversees assets worth 24 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($210 million) at Eagle NDB Fund Management Co., one of the nation's largest money managers. That raises the concern that the rally will falter as signs of slowing economic growth overwhelm optimism spurred by the government's victories in the civil war.

"Even if large-scale military confrontations end soon, the economy is set to implode from the impact of the global recession on exports," Sisira Jayasuriya, a professor of economics and Sri Lanka specialist at La Trobe University in Melbourne, said in an interview Jan. 30. "Business confidence is at rock-bottom."

Full Article...

It is unfortunate that the international community, particularly India and the signatories to the statement in question, whilst being fully aware of these facts, instead of collectively using their immense leverage on the Sri Lanka State to compel it to adhere to IHL, are in fact providing military and economic support to the Sri Lanka State.

It should be noted that it is the need to resist the physical/military subjugation of the Tamil people by the Sri Lanka State that led to the advent of Tamil armed resistance. It is only the LTTE that is resisting the aforementioned genocidal designs of the Sri Lanka State.

Click here to read the full statement...

Hundreds of thousands have already taken part in demonstrations in Toronto, Paris, London and Berlin against the humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka. The protests express genuine anger against the racist war, but are limited to demanding that the Western powers and India intervene to stop it. Such a perspective promotes illusions in the very forces that are responsible for the war and which give military and diplomatic support to the Sri Lankan government.

The pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam web site "Puthinam" published an article on February 1 titled, "India, India and everything is India." It highlights the dominant Indian political and military role in Sri Lanka and South Asia and recommends that the protests should take place only in front of the Indian embassies in the Western capitals. It argues pathetically, "Our demonstrations in front of the White House, Downing Street, streets of Ottawa and the streets of other Western capitals would only create inconvenience to the respective governments," and urges, "Though they couldn't do anything now, we need the support of the Western states later so we should not trouble them."

Full Statement...

The most ominous signs of the emerging police state are to be found in the political physiognomy of the present government, which, even by Sri Lankan standards, is unparalleled in its contempt for democratic rights. While the political and media establishment in Colombo routinely describe the country as a "democracy," parliamentary institutions have undergone a profound degeneration. The key political decisions are not made in parliament or even in cabinet but by the military/politico cabal surrounding President Rajapakse, which is limited to his brothers, trusted aides, a handful of ministers and the country's military and police chiefs.

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Such is the state of affairs in Sri Lanka on February 4, 2009 as the political establishment in Colombo celebrates 61 years of independence from British colonial rule. The entire history of these decades has confirmed again and again the basic proposition of Leon Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution—the organic incapacity of the bourgeoisie in countries of a belated capitalist development such as Sri Lanka to meet the democratic aspirations and elementary social needs of ordinary working people. As he crows today over the government's victories in the "war on terrorism", President Rajapakse is poised to launch a new onslaught to defend the interests of the venal Sri Lankan elites—this time against the working class, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim alike.

Full Article...

The United Nations says that 52 civilians have been killed in the past day of fighting in Sri Lanka. A UN spokesman also said that cluster bombs had hit a hospital, which has been subject to several attacks.

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"This military victory has left deep, deep scars on both sides of the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic divide and to listen to men like Gotabay Rajapakse and Sri Lanka's army commander Sarath Fonseka speak (see my post on Fonseka's interview expressing similar views about traitors in Sri Lanka), its hard to envision them as healers of wounds", says Peter Foster.

Full Article...

"No hospital should operate outside the Safety Zone...everything beyond the safety is a legitimate target," Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapakse tells the Skynews, admitting to the culpability of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital. In another interview with the BBC, a clearly irate Rajapakse ridicules Lasantha Wickremanayake as an editor of a "tabloid," and queries reporter Chris Morris as to why the media is interested in "one man" when there are thousands of killings and murders."

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The Sri Lankan military offensive aimed at destroying the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has produced a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the fighting. While journalists are barred from the front lines, reports are filtering out of hundreds of civilian deaths, with many more injured and in need of urgent medical help...

...The Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka is currently campaigning in provincial elections to unite workers - Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim - around their common class interests and a socialist program to end the war and defend democratic rights. The SEP is demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all security forces from the North and East, to establish the political conditions for a unified struggle for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of the Union of Socialist Republics in South Asia. We urge all those opposed to the Rajapakse government's reactionary war to support the SEP campaign.

Full Article...

International humanitarian aid agencies called Monday for increased access to the "nightmarish situation" in northern Sri Lanka, where government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in battle. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped by the fighting.

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Nine people have been killed by shells which hit a hospital in a rebel-held area of north-east Sri Lanka, the Red Cross says. The hospital, in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu district, was hit three times in 24 hours, aid officials said.

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Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Moongkilaa'ru Sunday night around 10:00 p.m. casualty details are not known. Amid reports of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) using cluster munitions fitted to artillery shells in its indiscriminate barrage on civilian refuges, around 13 dead bodies of civilians were recovered Sunday morning in completely burned state, beyond identification, at Moongkilaa'ru in Udaiyaarkaddu within the 'safety zone' announced by the government of Sri Lanka. More than 30 children and elders were killed Saturday alone, reports said. Civilian casualties were mounting also on Sunday.

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Three artillery barrages struck a hospital in Sri Lanka's chaotic war zone, slamming into its pediatrics ward and its women's wing and killing many patients, the region's top health official and international aid groups said.

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Over 100,000 people, mostly Tamils came from across the UK to march in central London on Saturday demanding an end to the war in Sri Lanka and the atrocities carried out by the military. During the march itself reports came in of a cluster bomb attack that killed 39 civilians and wounded 128 more.

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Around 20,000 people took part in an eight-hour funeral march in the southern Indian city of Chennai on Saturday for K. Muthukumar - a young Tamil who set himself alight in front of the city's central government office complex last Thursday in protest against the communal war in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

Full Report...

The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday declared that the general strike called by the Sri Lankan Tamil Protection Movement for February 4 is illegal as per Supreme Court orders. The Sri Lankan Tamil Protection Movement was launched by the PMK, MDMK, CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Tamil Nationalist Movement and many fringe groups to mobilise support for the Sri Lankan Tamils’ cause. Besides the general strike, the movement has given a call for black flag marches across the State on February 7.

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The Tamil Nadu government has ordered the closure of all colleges in the state till further orders in the wake of increasing protest by students in support of Sri Lankan Tamils.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) forces Sunday morning launched a preemptive strike on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive units that were prepared for an all out assault on to Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK). The SLA has suffered heavy casualties, initial reports from Vanni said. At least 3 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) of the SLA were destroyed, LTTE officials have told media.

Click Here...

More than one hundred thousand British Tamils marched through central London Saturday condemning Sri Lanka's war against their people and calling for an independent Tamil Eelam. The unprecedented response on one of the coldest days this year turned out to be the largest ever gathering of the British Tamil community. It seems almost half of the Eezham Tamil community in Britain joined the march Saturday. While the turnout reflected the anger and outrage over the genocide committed on Tamils by Colombo and its international abettors, significant focus of the march was the demand for the recognition of Eezham Tamil sovereignty in the island of Sri Lanka. It was actually a mandate, the organizers said.

Full Report...

Sri Lanka warned Western diplomats, foreign journalists and aid groups Sunday that they would be "chased" out of the country if they appear to favor the Tamil Tiger rebels. Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa singled out the ambassadors of Switzerland and Germany, and television networks CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera in his criticism of foreigners, accusing them of being biased.

Full Report...

Most local and foreign journalists seem to have eagerly lapped up the military interpretation of the 'Kilinochchi victory' as the beginning of the fast approaching Tiger demise. However, a deeper look at the military realities in the north and east raises serious doubts about the upbeat picture being painted by the government.

[Click on 'Read More' below to reach the article]

The "war" that is going on in Sri Lanka is a liberation struggle of the Tamil people for their right to self-determination, which would enable them to exist with equality, dignity and safety in the area of historical habitation of the Tamil people - the north and the east of Sri Lanka. This war could not continue without foreign aid going to the Sri Lankan government. Without this aid, Sri Lanka would be forced to the negotiating table. Imperialism today takes the form of foreign aid.

Full Article...

Sharannya Mohan looked back and forth on Front St. As far as she could see, Tamils stood shoulder to shoulder denouncing what they call genocide in Sri Lanka. "We can't all be terrorists," the 21-year-old York University student said with a twisted smile.

Full Report...

Sri Lankan sensation M.I.A. has been nominated for both a Grammy and an Oscar this year, but she would rather talk about being labeled a terrorist in her own country. She sat down with The Daily Beast's Toure to talk about her hit single, "Paper Planes," why Kanye West might induce her into labor at the Grammy Awards, and how she "isn't trying to be like Bono." M.I.A. needs you to know that right now in Sri Lanka there's a genocide going on, and 350,000 people's lives hang in the balance. These days, not much else matters to her. The musician has been nominated for a Grammy for her explosive single "Paper Planes," and an Oscar for the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, but she has bigger concerns than statues and sales.

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Hip-hop artist M.I.A. recently rocketed from the experimental underground to the pinnacle of the entertainment world. "O Saya," her collaboration with Indian composer A.R. Rahman from the "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack, is one of three nominees for the best-song Oscar. And her track "Paper Planes" is in contention at this year's Grammy Awards for record of the year -- the Recording Academy's top honor.

Born Mathangi Arulpragasam in Britain, the future singer returned with her family to her parents' native Sri Lanka when she was 6 months old. The family, who are members of Sri Lanka's ethnic-Tamil minority, moved to Jaffna, in the island nation's north. Not long afterward, the country erupted into civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, and violence consumed Jaffna.

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A day after thousands of demonstrators descended on University Avenue to protest the growing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, thousands more formed a human chain to the same end, one that stretched through an astounding portion of the downtown core.

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Far from heeding charges of human rights abuses and stifling dissent, the government has, this week, added blatant disregard for judicial fiat to its list of sins.

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Just two weeks after the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader, another Sri Lankan editor has been stabbed and beaten by a gang. The incident came amid further warning signs that the government and the military are seeking to intimidate the media as part of a wholesale attack on democratic rights.

Full Article...

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The strategic battle in Sri Lanka is seen as part of a wider power struggle in South Asia, involving not only India and Pakistan but also China, which seeks to gain influence in the important economic region. China has made strides developing strategic assets, like the Gwadar port in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota and assets in Yangon, part of a strategy to protect shipping lanes.

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One of the harsh realities of the humanitarian field is that some crises capture public attention, while others do not. The patterns are rather rigid. Crises in Europe and the Middle East, especially Palestine, make headlines. Large-scale natural disasters, even in obscure places, attract interest due to the inherent human fascination with immense forces beyond our control. But crises due to "complex" political conflicts outside the zones of proven public engagement are doomed to obscurity, unless it rises to such a level that "genocide" (read "another Holocaust") can be invoked.

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Mullaitivu used to be one of the Tigers' most important bases. Now the Sri Lankan flag flies overhead, and government troops are in complete control. But they have inherited a ghost town, full of broken buildings. Apart from men in uniform, a stray dog wandering through a burnt-out shop was one of the only signs of life. When the Tamil Tigers were forced out, they took Mullaitivu's civilian population with them into the surrounding jungles.

Guerrilla tactics: For almost a year, as Sri Lankan troops have advanced from the south, the story has been the same. They have taken territory, boosted by better weapons and weight of numbers. But the local population has melted away in front of them.

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Dozens of U.N. workers and their relatives spent a terrifying night huddling in hastily built bunkers as artillery fire pounded a civilian "safe zone" in Sri Lanka's war-wracked north, according to an internal U.N. memo.

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Sri Lanka is facing a humanitarian crisis in the north where hundreds of people have been killed and 250,000 are trapped by fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

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At least 300 civilians were wounded and scores feared killed by Sri Lankan army artillery shells fired into a designated "safe zone" for ethnic Tamils trapped by fighting between the military and Tamil rebels, a health official alleged Tuesday.

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Eastern Sri Lanka chafes under the oppressive rule of a government that says it is committed to democracy...

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More than 150,000 civilians are trapped in a rapidly shrinking jungle battlefield as Sri Lanka hopes to crush a 25-year-old separatist movement.

The top U.N. official in the country said Monday their lives are in serious danger. "There's so many people, so many guns and such a high intensity of fighting," U.N. resident coordinator Neil Buhne told The Associated Press. "There have been many civilians killed over the last two days. ... It's really a crisis now."

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External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will rush on Tuesday to Sri Lanka where the military claims to have captured the last LTTE bastion of Mullaittivu two days back. During the two-day visit, Mukherjee will meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and discuss the latest situation in the northern part of the island nation, sources said.

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The top leader of the Tamil Tigers has not left Sri Lanka and is still leading the "freedom struggle", the rebels' political leader has said. B Nadesan told the BBC by telephone that reports Velupillai Prabhakaran had fled were "malicious propaganda". He promised the rebels would fight on.

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In a scene of carnage of untold proportion on civilian targets hit by hundreds of Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells, more than 300 people have died and several hundreds are bleeding to death within the last 24 hours, amidst pouring rain inside the 'saftey zone' declared by the Colombo government. Houses and vehicles burn for a stretch of three km between Va'l'lipunam Kaa'li temple and Moongkilaa'ru towards Paranthan road, reports from Vanni said on Monday. Unattended bodies and injured people unable to move are lying around everywhere, while a remaining doctor fled and helpless ICRC officials virtually cried at the scene from their bunkers, TamilNet correspondent said.

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Convenor SLFP (M) and former SLFP strongman, Mangala Samaraweera calls upon all journalists to shed differences, as they are a group under attack. In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Leader, Samaraweera alleged government involvement in the violence unleashed against the media and vowed to do everything in his power to have the perpetrators accountable for their actions. The MP said a meeting will be sought with the US State Department shortly to urge action against US citizens and Green Card holders who are violating US laws by committing human rights violations in Sri Lanka. He pledged to write to all embassies urging the imposition of a travel ban on such violators and to have the international community target individuals behind this culture of impunity without penalising the people with sanctions. He warned it was useless to cry foul after a Robert Mugabe is created in Sri Lanka and called for immediate preventive action against an emerging dictatorship.

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While the Sri Lankan army has announced the capture of Mullaitivu, the last bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the plight of more than 250,000 civilians caught in the fighting continues to be as grim as that of civilians in Gaza, say those involved in humanitarian work.

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Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has continued artillery shelling on densely populated 'safety zone,' in Chuthanthirapuram, Udaiyaarkaddu and Thearaavil in Visuvamadu throughout Sunday, at least twice attacking the vicinity of the supply centre, located at Chuthanthirapuram playground, the only centre in Vanni where humanitarian supplies brought in by the UN World Food Programme are distributed. Two shells exploded in the premises, killing five members of a single family of Mr. Jegatheeswaran, owner of a saloon displaced from Visuvamadu. Five more civilians, including children and women, were also killed. Body parts were scattered across the locality and not all of them could be identified, according to medical sources. At least 13 civilians were wounded at the site.

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The new decree banning the Tigers has no bearing on them, the Trotskyists argue. But, they say, the new laws are important for the government to suppress dissent in the south.

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CHENNAI: Sri Lankan defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa could go down in history as the first United States citizen to be tried for genocide, if Bruce fein, a former deputy associate attorney general has his way.

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The editor of a Sri Lankan weekly newspaper and his wife have been assaulted in Colombo in the latest of a series of attacks on journalists. Reporters on the Rivira weekly say four men on motorcycles blocked Upali Tennakoon's car and attacked the couple with iron rods and other weapons.

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The Sri Lankan military shelled a village and a makeshift hospital inside a government-declared "safe zone" for civilians in the north Thursday, killing at least 30 people and wounding scores, local health officials said.

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The advance was the latest in a series of successes for the government in a massive military assault aimed at ending the longest-running ethnic war in Asia. Troops in small groups used boats to enter the western side of Mullaittivu, the only remaining urban stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The Tigers blew up a dam and flooded surrounding areas on Saturday in a bid to slow down the military's progress towards Mullaittivu town, but troops used the boats to reach the town's outskirts, the official said. "Troops of the 59th division entered Mullaittivu town a short while ago and we hope they will consolidate their hold across the town in a few hours," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella confirmed.

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Nearly 100 civilians have been killed in artillery exchanges between Sri Lanka's military and Tamil Tigers since the weekend, a top government official working in the area controlled by the rebels said on Thursday.

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CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday made a "final appeal" to the Centre, urging it to take steps to stop the war in Sri Lanka "today itself." Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who moved the resolution, said the ceasefire should be followed by a political solution to the ethnic conflict and permanent peace in the land of the Buddha.

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'Global parliament' is a concept I've been arguing for quite a long time. My views on a 'political model' to solve Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict stem from the same internationalist perspective. The EU model - which some see as a precursor to a future world government - may also, I believe, provide the general framework for solving many nationalist conflicts in the world. In relation to the Lankan situation I suggested there should be an equity-based Supreme Parliament plus two regional parliaments for Sri Lanka's Sinhala South and Tamil North. [Primarily on economic, political and demographic grounds I even suggested the supreme parliament to be located in the central city of Anuradhapura.] We can learn a lot from the EU parliament in structuring the Supreme Parliament, I said, while learning a lot from the Scottish Parliament's experience in forming the regional parliaments. [I urge you to read my articles: "A common vision to break Sri Lanka's deadlock" and "Britain's answer to separatism - lessons for us". Both articles are available in 'Editor's Essays' section of this website.]

Tamil Tiger rebels used explosives to blast through the walls of a reservoir on Saturday in an attempt to stall advancing Sri Lankan government troops, the military said.

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President Mahinda Rajapakse should order prosecutors to drop all charges against journalists held on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the president today. J.S. Tissainayagam, a journalist, and N. Jashiharan, a publisher, and his wife, V. Valamathy, have been in detention since March 2008.

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Members of Toronto's 200,000-strong Tamil community are holding a week-long fast to draw attention to the suffering of relatives caught in Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war, as the army intensifies efforts to eliminate the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

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Sounding a death knell to the export industry, Jinasena Group Chairman Deshamanya Dr. Nihal Jinasena warned that if assistance is not given soon, large numbers of well known companies will either go into bankruptcy or face serious financial difficulties.

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The visit of a high level US military delegation to Sri Lanka sparked protest from the JVP in Parliament yesterday.

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Lasantha Wickramatunga, an extraordinarily courageous journalist, wrote his own obituary. After he was murdered on Jan. 8, his letter from the grave appeared in papers all over the world including his own, The Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka.

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When asked for a response on the defence secretaries comments, police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekara told BBC Sandeshaya that no conclusion has been made on the motives or the culprits of the attack. "We are still in the process of gathering evidence" said the police spokesman. "Police investigations are looking at a group of men who had come to a nearby temple few hours before the attack".

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It took only one month and the sacrifice of only 600 soldiers in 1996 for the Sri Lankan forces to take over Killinochchi. This time the Sri Lankan forces have been forced to spend more than 5 months and have had to lose, in the army commander's words, 12,000 soldiers, including many officers out of action. This must tell the world how much stronger the LTTE is now when compared to prior to the last ceasefire...

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The LTTE doesn't obstruct or instruct the civilians of Vanni of what direction they have to take in fleeing the current phase of war. But, a large section of the civilians have considered that their security, even now, lies in the LTTE held areas in the eye of war, and are spontaneously moving towards that direction. "Allowing the war to continue, leaving Tamil civilians in the hands of the preying Sinhala army, which we dread, demonstrates only the cruelty of the few minds that determine the course of the war from outside of the island and how international norms evolved through civilisation have become a joke," said P. Kanakalingam, the president of Vanni People's Welfare Organisation (VPWO), on Thursday.

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Ordering the release of five suspects on bail, Nugegoda magistrate said it appears that police investigation is focused on irrelevant issues, counsel Nissanka Nanayakkara who appeared for the suspects said.

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[Trend News] Aid organisations say a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in northern Sri Lanka where government forces are engaged in fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels. Around 350,000 Tamil civilians are crammed into the area where fighting is taking place, forcing them to endure heavy bombardments and acute food shortages. Foreign journalists are prevented from entering the conflict zone, but Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive pictures showing civilians fleeing the fighting as buildings burn and craters from heavy shelling pockmark the earth.

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The murder of my uncle, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was a tragedy for our country: the world must wake up to our plight:

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[VR Comment: Readers will see surreal drama of Shakespearean calibre in this editorial]

"In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it."

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Read Lanka Dissent's following announcement of closing down in the face of direct threats - which encapsulates the tragic situation of media freedom in Sri Lanka:

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The brief interval last week between the US repudiation of the "peace process" and the Colombo government's ban on the LTTE exemplifies Washington's criminal role - as both instigator and facilitator - in Sri Lanka's communal war.

Last Wednesday, the US embassy in Colombo issued a statement that welcomed the Sri Lankan state's recent victories in the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and urged Sri Lanka's government and military to press forward with the annihilation of the LTTE. The key passage in the statement read: "The United States does not advocate that the Government of Sri Lanka negotiate with the LTTE, a group designated by America as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997."

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As midnight approached, the elegantly dressed ravishing Sonali took to the floor with Lasantha, with Karuna Amman gyrating with his girlfriend next to them. The Beauty and the Beast were rocking at Bentota Beach.

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Investigations stemming from a Central Bank probe have revealed a circus of brazen violations of banking regulations by the state-owned People's Bank in entering into its hedging contracts with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. The Sunday Leader's own investigations have found that atop the scathing seven point sheet of charges levelled by the Central Bank against People's Bank, the state-owned institution has been hiring consultants at salaries of over Rs. 1 million per month plus perks, dipping into its employees' pension funds to solve its financial woes and sending officials to Dubai on Business Class on the account of Standard Chartered Bank.

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Back from Beijing (where I spent last week, apologies for lack of posts) to report, with the heaviest heart, the murder of one of Sri Lanka's bravest and most controversial journalists.


Staff members announce Lasantha Wickrematunge's death

Lasantha Wickrematunge, 50, was stabbed and shot to death in broad daylight last Friday as he drove to work at The Sunday Leader, the liberal Colombo-based newspaper he edited. His death - conveniently obscured in the news agenda abroad by events in Gaza and at home by Sri Lankan army's gains against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in the Elephant Pass - sounds the death knell for civil society in Sri Lanka.

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Everyone's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way. Stop participating in it. - Chomsky

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

The year 2009 was doomed from the beginning. The shadows of 2008 in which the media practitioners of this country suffered immense hardships under the jackboots of the present day administration and its military apparatus cast its ugly dark shadow on this year as well.

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Journalists both, Lasantha and Raine Wickrematunge, were an integral part of The Sunday Times team in the early days of the newspaper in the late '80s and early '90s, he writing the political column under the pseudonym Suranimala and she working as sub-editor and subsequently Features Editor. It was a link that had begun many years earlier at the Sun and Weekend newspapers in the early '80s, in the company of many of their erstwhile colleagues who were now at 'The Times'.They left The Sunday Times to launch The Sunday Leader in 1994. In this article, Lasantha's ex-wife, Raine, relives her fond memories in an appreciation we invited her to contribute to their former newspaper.

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The tragic death of Editor-in-chief of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickremetunga has diminished us beyond measure. Our sorrow and consternation know no bounds. Gone is a fearless newspaperman who did not give a damn about his personal safety in putting forth his bold views and taking on the high and mighty.

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The Sri Lankan army has captured Elephant Pass, the strategic causeway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, the president has said.

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The editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper often critical of the government has been shot dead in Colombo.

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The murder of 'Sunday Leader' Editor is part of an anti-democratic conspiracy, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said, claiming that the Rajapaksa regime is rendering the southern people helpless by killing its political opponents.

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Pointing out that Ki'linochchi was where Sri Lanka military has suffered previous historic debacles, LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan, in an interview with TamilNet on Monday dismissed the occupation of the town as an insignificant setback in the context of a liberation struggle, and said, Tamil people's support has always been LTTE's strength, and with the moral backing of the global Tamil community the movement will surmount current and future challenges. "We have taken forward our struggle for more than 30 years, solely relying on the support of our people," and reiterated that the Tigers were spearheading the Tamil struggle, which was based on legitimate political aspirations as defined by the democratic mandate in the elections of 1977.

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Gunmen armed with grenades have ransacked offices of the largest private TV broadcaster in Sri Lanka.

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"It's the capital of the LTTE," said Maj Gen Jagath Dias, who led the 57th Division of the Sri Lankan army into the town. "We have captured their prestige. It's a very important milestone, it's a great achievement." But the military has taken a town virtually devoid of people. Apart from soldiers the only signs of life on the streets were stray dogs. The vast majority of the remaining population left with the Tigers towards the east, the jungles and Mullaitivu.

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Troops of the Army's 58 Division have gained control of Elephant Pass South area this morning (Jan. 05th), said defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. The soldiers staged a daylong assault on the LTTE yesterday from the perimeter of Elephants Pass town, defence sources said. Air Force MI-24 helicopter gunships provided air support and engaged the Tiger positions. They are now consolidating their positions in the newly-captured territory. From Kilinochchi and Paranthan towns, the Army has directed artillery and heavy weapons fire towards the LTTE, said the sources. Speaking to 'Lanka Dissent', a senior military official predicted a capture of the entire Elephant Pass area by tomorrow.

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At least 53 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed, more than 80 sustained injuries and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) recovered 2 dead bodies of the SLA soldiers in heavy fighting that erupted Sunday when the SLA launched an offensive push through 2nd Mile Post on Paranthan Mullaiththeevu Road on two fronts. LTTE officials further said they seized arms including AK-LMGs, PK-LMGs, Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers (RPGs) and at least ten T-56 assault rifles.

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Accusing the Congress-led UPA of "betraying" Sri Lankan Tamils cause, the CPI on Sunday asked the government to tell President Mahinda Rajapaksa to end the war and resolve the ethnic conflict through negotiations. "It is high time that the Central Government headed by Congress recast its policy towards Sri Lanka and send External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as promised to a multi-party delegation from Tamil Nadu," CPI National Secretary D Raja said.

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Describing several recent escalation in incidents where Sri Lanka Armed Forces have targetted Tamil civilian during festive days between Christmas and Thaipongal, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that the "stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas," ..."are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people." The release also noted with disappointment of the silence of the international community "whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place," and continuing military assistance of the international states to the Sri Lankan State "using various pretexts."

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Citing several incidents, which are not only shocking but are, in their view, war crimes and gross abuses that violate all the basic norms of human decency and human rights, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has written to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, "calling for diplomatic engagement with all the members of the United Nations and the Sri Lankan government."

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Seizing Kilinochchi was done at a fearful human cost - comparisons with Gaza are not amiss...

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Four media organisations in a joint communique have condemned the goon attack on the MBC/MTV main studio complex at Depanama, Pannipitiya, more commonly called the 'Sirasa TV', on January 29th around 09.30 in the night. The four media organisations, the SL Working Journalists' Association, Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions, SL Muslim Media Forum and the SL Tamil Journalists' Association say this attack is once again an attempt at suppressing the right to information and freedom of expression.

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The major symbolic victory for the government could also prove a decisive turning point in the country's 25-year civil war. "This was an unparalleled victory," the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, said in a televised speech from his office.

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With Sri Lankan troops closing in on LTTE's last bastion Mullaitivu, the Congress on Saturday asked the island nation to hand over Tamil Tiger chief Prabhakaran once he is caught so that he faces trial for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. "We will be happy if Prabhakaran is caught and handed over to India for the heinous crime he has committed. He should be brought to book for the assassination of our beloved leader Rajiv Gandhi," party's chief spokesman M Veerappa Moily said.

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Accepting funds from the public at high interest rates from 12 percent to 30 percent was the KEY reason for the collapse of the Golden Key Credit Card Company, according to the inside sources. Though some say a fraud has been committed, investigations conducted by the CID have not established this fact so far. It has been revealed that poor financial management was the cause of instability at the Golden Key Credit Card Company. The Golden Key Credit Card Company had functioned without any supervision of the Central Bank and is not a registered finance company. Therefore, the company had no authority to obtain money from the public, as deposits - or to grant loans on interest, or invest money in any way, as per financial regulations.

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Tamil Nationalist Movement (TNM) leader Pazha Nedumaran has said that the Sri Lankan Army's capture of Kilinochchi would intensify the LTTE's movement in Sri Lanka.

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Colombo has been hit by a second bomb blast in only 24 hours following the fall of the Tamil Tigers' capital to government troops.

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Sri Lanka's military says soldiers have entered the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital Kilinochchi in the north, for the first time in a decade.

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As the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, publisher, N. Jesiharan, and his wife,  V. Valarmathy, begin their tenth month in prison. On January I, 2009, as the world celebrates the dawn of a new year, it would be 300 days in detention. We, the under-signed, call upon the Sri Lankan authorities to prove their commitment to human rights on this day by dropping all charges against them and granting their immediate and unconditional release.

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Sri Lankan soldiers fought their way into the Tamil Tiger rebel capital Friday for the first time in a decade, military officials said, following months of fierce battles on the outskirts that left scores dead. Troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from two sides, senior military officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

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Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka says the LTTE heartland of Kilinochchi town will be captured within the next 48 hours.

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1. Sri Lanka terminates the 2002 ceasefire agreement: On 3 January Sri Lankan announced the termination of the six year ceasefire brokered by Norway. Norway issues a press statement regretting the decision.

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On that 4^th day of February 1948, I was present under that temporary structure specially constructed for the ceremonies connected with the relinquishing of power over Ceylon by a member of the British Royal family. Everyone there was like me with the mindset that we were free to determine our destiny without let or hindrance from the white masters. My dream as well as those who were with me under that tent made up of Sinhalese, Burgers, Muslims, Malays, Tamils, both Ceylon and Indian, remained always as a dream.

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Sri Lanka's Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, in an exclusive conversation with the Asian tribune said that the Sri Lanka Army will completely rout the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists are open to restarting peace talks with the government, despite the continuing military offensive aimed at crushing the group, a senior rebel official said.

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Sri Lanka unveiled a 16 billion- rupees ($141 million) stimulus package that includes cutting retail fuel prices and removing some taxes to shield the economy from a global recession.

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One of the Identity Cards recovered with a dead body of a young Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier revealed that the SLA trooper killed in the offensive forefront in Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday was a 17-year-old boy. LTTE officials displayed photos for reporters in Vanni on Sunday.

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A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber hit a military checkpoint just outside the Sri Lankan capital on Sunday, killing at least five paramilitary troops and wounding 15, police said. The bomber stormed into a detachment of the Civil Defence Force near a market in Wattala, a suburb of the capital Colombo, and carried out the attack, a police official at the scene said.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sunday displayed weapons seized by them in the clearing mission after heavy fighting in the frontiers of Mullaiththevu district on Saturday. One of the weapons in the display together with four Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers was an Anti-Bunker LAW. Among the ammunitions in the display was a grenade with Arabic tag.

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As the Sri Lankan military continues its offensive to capture Kilinochchi, in the northern Wanni district, the death toll on both sides has risen sharply. The army has concentrated two divisions around Kilinochchi, the administrative centre of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but its attacks were driven back last week.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials said Sunday morning that at least 50 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and 90 wounded in A'lampil area in Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday. The LTTE officials further said they seized more than 15 rifles and recovered 16 SLA dead bodies in the clearing mission that followed.

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Upping the ante on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday made a "tearful appeal" to the Centre to immediately depute External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Colombo to make efforts to ensure a ceasefire there.

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Sri Lanka's military said it has killed at least 20 Tamil rebels during heavy fighting in the country's north, as part of an ongoing assault on key rebel territory. A military statement said troops captured the village of Sinna Paranthan, northwest of the rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi, on Tuesday. The statement said its fighter jets launched several air strikes against rebel positions again Wednesday in the northern Paranthan and Muahamalai areas. The rebel-affiliated Web site TamilNet said military air strikes hit a convent marked with a large red cross on its roof Tuesday. It said the strikes killed 85 cows near the convent and sent civilians fleeing from the area. Independent verification of either side's claims is impossible because journalists are barred from entering the conflict zone.

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The rebels insist they can defend the town and the head of the Tamil Tigers' political wing, Balasingham Nadesan, told the BBC by e-mail that even if it falls, they will fight on. "Freedom... never depends on one city. We can create more communities, more cities and [in] our freedom struggle, we are supported by people. "We have the confidence that we will capture more areas in our motherland and we will create so many communities in [the] future." He rejected out of hand the government's offer of talks if the Tigers laid down their weapons first. "This is not a realistic question, we took up arms to safeguard our people, so we will keep these arms until the safeguard is guaranteed," Mr Nadesan said.

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"Civilians are trapped in a war zone with limited aid because the government ordered the U.N. and other aid workers out," HRW's Asia director Brad Adams said. "To add insult to injury, people who manage to flee the fighting end up being held indefinitely in army-run prison camps."

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The judiciary and the executive appear to be heading for a standoff over further lowering of fuel prices as shortages countrywide created chaos this week.

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More than 100 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 250 SLA soldiers wounded Monday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) repulsed a fresh offensive push, said S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat, quoting LTTE's field commanders. Heavy fighting raged from 5:30 to 12:45 when the SLA attempted to advance from Uruththirapuram towards Ki'linochchi and Ira'naimadu. Several corpses of the SLA soldiers were seen in the battlefield and the Tigers were engaged in seizing arms and ammunitions after routing the offensive on two fronts, Mr. Puleedevan further said. The fighting was continuing on three fronts.

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Last Tuesday, some 7000 troops fought the Tiger guerrillas in what was their fiercest battle ever in the ongoing Eelam War IV. Their major thrust, with enormous firepower, was directed at regaining control of Kilinochchi, until months ago the political power centre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Troops fought pitched battles in five different fronts. The guerrillas, who have now begun to throw their hardcore cadres into battle, offered stiff resistance to prevent the fall of Kilinochchi. In at least two fronts, troops were able to secure little more ground whilst in others they were forced to return to original positions from which they began their advance.

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