2 STF commandos killed, SLA soldier, policeman injured, in claymore attack in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 11:11 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a claymore attack on a team of armed forces patrol Tuesday around 8:00 a.m at Ma’ndoor in Vellaave’li police division in Batticaloa district, killing 2 Special Task Force (STF) commandos and seriously injuring a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier and a policeman, Batticaloa district LTTE said. Additional STF commandos and police deployed at the site of the attack jointly engaged in a search assaulting some Tamil youths in the area, the sources added.
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
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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Colombo killed 700 children in 2 months - LTTE Radio

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 11:36 GMT]
Voice of Tigers, the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam on Sunday said Sri Lankan armed forces have killed 2,018 Tamil civilians in January and February in Vanni and that 700 of the victims were children. The VoT has been airing a program, "Bridging the beloved" (U'ravup Paalam), where civilians have been providing details of their missing family members and whereabouts of the remaining members in the hope of locating their missed ones.
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'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Sivasegaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
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New Delhi's stratagem seeking 'pause'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 22:13 GMT]
India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday asked Colombo to 'seize the opportunity' provided by LTTE’s ceasefire offer to bring about a ‘pause’ in hostilities and work for safe passage for 'trapped' civilians. Meanwhile, political observers in Tamil Nadu commented on the move a tactic to nullify their calls for a permanent ceasefire. Vaiko, the General Secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (MDMK) courted arrest with 300 other activists for waging black flags in protest against Mr. Mukherjee, who was on a visit to Thooththukkudi (Tutucorin).
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Ghost of Bush wishes 'fight to the end'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 12:56 GMT]
The lessons of history are that actually there is nothing called ethnicities winning and losing. It is always forces of oppression and liberation losing and winning. ‘Fight to the end’ is vantage of the vultures hovering above for the spoils of both losers as well as winners. If ‘fight to the end’ is thrust upon peoples then they can’t help it. They have to fight it until the interests of those who orchestrate it are affected to the contrary or civilized world prevail upon those international belligerents. "Let us hope in the civilized world," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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UN nods ‘fight to the finish’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 04:04 GMT]
The position taken by UN Security Council Friday indicating no go beyond ‘hearing’, and the considerate briefing of John Holmes largely endorsing and trusting Colombo’s agenda and assurances for civilians, are read between the lines by international political observers as a ‘knowing wink’ at Colombo to pursue its offensive. Alternatively, the UN stance either paves way for intervention by interested powers outside of the UN or perhaps reveals an actuality that the UN can be shaken not when people face genocide, but only when ground realities endanger the Sri Lankan state, observers said.
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SLAF jet exploded over Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2009, 10:41 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bomber was shot down in Mullaiththeevu on Friday at 11:25 a.m., civilians sources in Ira'naippaalai told TamilNet. Several civilians saw the jet explode in mid-air as it was beginning an attack run towards an unidentified locality. A huge plume of smoke followed after the flaming debris fell to earth, they said. The LTTE is yet to comment on the attack. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) spokesman Wing commander Janaka Nanayakara has denied the report that one of their aircraft was shot down in Vanni.
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Stop war, negotiate interim government for Tamils: Fourth International

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 20:41 GMT]
"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.
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Sri Lanka war crimes under U.S. spotlight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 06:12 GMT]
The uncontradicted testimony of Dr. Anna Neistat, Human Rights Watch, in Tuesday's U.S. Foreign Relations Subcommittee Hearings of Sri Lanka concluded that the "Sri Lankan Armed Forces are guilty of war crimes, including the indiscriminate shelling of areas packed with displaced Tamil civilians and of hospitals; the use of imprecise multi-barrel rocket launchers; acute or complete restrictions on humanitarian aid; the operation of militarily controlled “concentration camps” for Tamil civilians without freedom of movement or communications or adequate medical or other assistance," said Bruce Fein, in a letter sent to the Subcommittee following the Hearings.
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Revise policies on Tamil struggle: Karen Parker tells U.S. Senate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The twenty-six year old armed conflict between the armed forces of the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has reached a phase that can only be called genocide-like and catastrophic for the Tamil people in the north and east of the island, said human rights expert Karen Parker, Wednesday to the subcommittee of the US Senate, hearing on the situation in the island of Sri Lanka. Describing the war waged by Colombo as illegal military operations, using illegal weapons or legal weapons in an illegal manner without any international monitoring, she urged the US government to call for an immediate ceasefire and address it most forcefully to the Rajapaksa administration.
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Acts of genocide possible – British Foreign Secretary

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 13:53 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, agreed Tuesday with parliamentarians who said that the Sri Lankan government is “quite prepared to go ahead with acts of genocide.” Responding to Mr. Elfyn Llwyd, MP, Mr. Miliband said “the resolution of [a] terrorist problem cannot be achieved at the expense of the rights of minority communities in Sri Lanka, and that is what we are trying to work on.” Britain was encouraging Sri Lanka’s government to work with London’s newly appointed Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, former defence minister and Secretary of State for Scotland, Des Browne, the Foreign Secretary said.
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CID grills Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 06:57 GMT]
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers subjected R. Samapanthan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Trincomalee district parliamentarian and leader of TNA parliamentary group to intensive interrogation Tuesday for three hours from 10:00 a.m, in the notorious Colombo ‘Fourth Floor’ interrogation centre regarding Sampanthan's statement that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are the sole representatives of the Tamils in a press meet held in the Colombo Parliamentary complex Friday. Sri Lanka Government is accusing him of expressing a view dangerous to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka, sources in Colombo said.
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Heavy fighting in PTK, civilians trapped in SLA barrage

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 21:15 GMT]
Heavy fighting has been reported west of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) where Sri Lanka Army (SLA) divisions 58 and 53 have suffered heavy casualties throughout the last 3 days, according to the sources close to the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). The SLA fired hundreds of artillery shells into Ira'naipaalai and the adjoining areas between the safety zone and PTK junction, the reports further said. Three Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets also bombed Ira'naippaalai thrice on Tuesday, killing seven civilians. At least four of the victims belonged to a single family, according to the initial reports. Civilian casualty figures due to artillery shelling is not yet known.
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Norwegian Tamils demonstrate in front of Norway parliament

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 17:57 GMT]
Hundreds of Norwegian Tamils including many youngsters gathered in front of Norwegian parliament Monday around 1:00 p.m where they urged Norway government to help bring about a ceasefire immediately to stop the genocide of Tamils in Vanni. Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) which organized the above demonstration in which members of Norway political parties addressed the gathering submitted a memorandum to Norwegian parliament.
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23 Tamils arrested in Kuchchave'li

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2009, 18:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Air Force in a combined search operation conducted in Kuchchave'li area in Trincomalee district Saturday from dawn to dusk arrested twenty three Tamils. The arrested are being detained in the Kuchchave'li police station as they failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location, Police media spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media.
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Statement diplomacy of EU

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2009, 15:26 GMT]
Significantly deviating from its earlier position of justifying war on 'terrorism', the EU Council Conclusions on Sri Lanka, Monday, stressed the need for Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE to comply with ‘provisions of international humanitarian law and principles of the laws of war’, treating them as equal parties engaged in war. Taking this stance, the EU called for an immediate Ceasefire. The EU also reiterated its intention to send a Troika as soon as possible. However, the rest of the EU conclusions are the usual rhetoric, ending with the never implemented GSP+investigation on Sri Lanka, political observers said.
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Ceasefire, solution first; laying down arms irrelevant: LTTE appeals to Co-chairs, UN

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2009, 03:58 GMT]
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."
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LTTE denies civilian killings in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Nakulan, one of the commanders of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Ampaa'rai district on Sunday denied allegations by the Sri Lankan military that Tigers were behind the slaying of Sinhalese Chena cultivators at Karametiya village at Rathmalgaha Ella in Iginiyagala, an area that borders Ampaa'rai and Moneragala districts.
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Police arrests Tamil nurse, family man abducted, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 08:29 GMT]
Batticaloa police arrested Saturday around 11:00 a.m a Tamil nurse attached to Kalmunai hospital in Kalladi on suspicion that she had helped Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Meanwhile, unidentified armed men abducted Saturday a family man in Karadiyanaa’ru police division in Batticaloa district, Karadiyanaa’ru police said.
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