Reaping what they sowed: former US diplomats write to SL President

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Six former US ambassadors served in Colombo since 1989 have written a letter in their personal capacity to Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, expressing their deep concern about internal threats destabilizing ‘democracy’ in Sri Lanka. They were particularly upset over the assassination of the Editor of Sunday Leader, Mr. Lasantha Wickrematunge. "The civilized world has to appreciate these diplomats voicing for a bold, sane and humane journalist," said a political commentator based in Colombo, adding however that their letter is an "open confession of the reactionary premises taken by them and by their government in the last two decades, which in fact externally contributed to the destruction of the substance of democracy in the island, retaining only a brittle shell that is crumbling now."
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Ambush kills 3 Sri Lankan soldiers in Batticaloa - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 04:54 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials in East claimed Friday that 3 Sri Lankan military personnel were killed in a Claymore ambush Thursday night around 8:50 while the group of military personnel were on a road patrol along the railway track between Vanthaa'rumooalai and Maavadiveampu.
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LTTE releases Sri Lankan Prisoner of War

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 03:27 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Thursday handed over a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier, who was captured by the Tigers in December in Ki'laali Forward Defence Line. The soldier was undergoing treatment at Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital at the time of his release.
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Stop calling genocide a war on terrorism

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 02:55 GMT]
India and the so-called international community continue to demonstrate with adamancy and arrogance that they have no interest in stopping the genocide of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka but they would rather abet it in the name of war on terrorism. The people of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil diaspora all over the world should realize that these elements are not going to listen to pleading, but will respond only when their interests are at stake. It is time that demonstrations are to be directed against them with a clear message that their strategic and economic interests will definitely be at stake by losing popular trust if they continue to play the malevolent game with the lives of Tamils, says the gist of a volume of opinion mails received by TamilNet.
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Germany calls for Ceasefire between GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 01:51 GMT]
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Thursday for an immediately negotiated ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), stating that the ceasefire should enable aid deliveries and medical care for the civilians in the disputed areas.
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Denounce Sri Lankan identity, readers show ways

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 23:26 GMT]
As a democratic move, based on principles of non-violence and non-cooperation, the Eezham Tamils should boldly denounce the Sri Lankan identity being imposed on them by the Sinhala government and the world of authoritarians, reads a significant theme of the opinion mails received by TamilNet in response to its request last Friday. “The move should begin from the diaspora for whom it is feasible now and it goes beyond any political or organizational affiliation. The diaspora ought to realize that what is more dangerous than the war camouflaged to be against the LTTE is the adamancy of India and international authoritarians not recognizing the national cause of Eezham Tamils”.
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LTTE recovers 13 SLA dead bodies in Kallaa'ru front

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 16:43 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials Thursday said their defensive formations put up stiff resistance against the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) that attempted to advance through Kallaa'ru in Northwestern front, killing 40 SLA soldiers and causing injuries to 70. The Tigers have claimed that the SLA attempt to advance was thwarted after heavy fighting.
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STF commando killed, 2 injured in Poththuvil

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 07:21 GMT]
A Special Task Force (STF) commando was killed and two seriously injured in a direct clash between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants and STF commandos Wednesday around 10:00 a.m in a jungle area in Poththuvil in Ampaa’rai district, LTTE sources in Ampaa’rai said.
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TNA urges IC to put an end to genocidal war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 03:26 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a press release issued on Wednesday urged the International Community to prevail upon the Sri Lankan state to bring the war to an immediate end stating that It is the considered view of the TNA that the Sri Lankan State is prosecuting the current war in pursuit of an ideology, namely the assertion of Sinhala Buddhist supremacist nationalism, and in order to achieve that objective a process of Genocide of the Tamil people is in progress. The inhuman conditions and the daily killings to which the Tamil civilians in LTTE controlled areas are being subjected to are only the more obvious elements of this process, the statement by the TNA said.
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British FO sabotaging Tamil national question condemned

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 03:13 GMT]
A statement released by the British Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs on Wednesday, totally ignoring the national basis of the decades old Tamil struggle and treating the humanitarian crisis of civilians as an outcome of terrorism is strongly condemned by Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian S. Gajendran, who added: The preaching of the modern "corporate religion of greed" to Tamils seems to be "submit yourself to thy genocidal killers."
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Sri Lankan fighter jet reported missing in Northern frontier

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 15:55 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) MIG fighter jet was shot in the skies over Vanni on Wednesday, according to initial reports from journalists outside Sri Lanka, who cited a highly placed source in Vanni Sri Lankan Forces Headquarters (Vanni SF-HQ). The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials were not available to comment on the reports.
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IC urged to act on humanitarian grounds to safeguard civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 12:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has cornered civilians in overcrowded areas in the suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) town, according to sources in Vanni. While artillery shells exploding in densely populated makeshift settlements have caused several civilian casualties, civilians are fleeing from indiscriminate bombardment from air and ground are forced to seek shelters throughout the day, civil sources from Vanni said. IDPs' representatives express fear that those who fall into the hands of SLA units are likely to be forcibly transported under close military supervision to detention centre style camps at locations isolated from mainstream communities, as evidenced in Mannaar and in areas north of the recently SLA-occupied Elephant Pass.
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'Lives lost yielding nothing to Colombo'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
"It is not a question of whether Tamil Eelam will become independent. Rather, it is a question of how many lives, on both sides of the Tamil Eelam border, the Sinhala regime(s) are prepared to waste in the process," writes a reader, Mr. Poulson, in response to TamilNet's call for opinion last week. "The Sinhala polity is not interested in a ceasefire and nor are the strategic partners. Hence it must be forced upon them," he writes further in his situation analysis.
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4 STF commandos killed in landmine attack in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 15:05 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants triggered a landmine Monday around 4:40 p.m targeting a vehicle carrying Special Task Force (STF) commandos, killing four of them, in Kanchchikudichchaa’ru jungle in Ampaa’rai district, LTTE sources in Ampaa’rai district.
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Mannaar police detains 6 fishermen, 1 civilian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 10:50 GMT]
Six fishermen from Mannar were arrested by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Naachchikkudaa seas and are being detained by Detention Order (DO). A seventh youth was arrested by Mannaar police in a search conducted in his house Wednesday when a sticker of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Forest Department was found in the house, the police claimed.The fishermen are from Mannaar Thoadave’li, Joseph Vaz Nakar.
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Sri Lanka denies FX crisis, banks on 'patriotic Diaspora'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to little more than enough for six weeks of imports. And Japan, traditionally the island’s biggest donor, is cutting aid globally. But while local economists say the situation is critical government will inevitably have devalue the rupee by 20% this year or accept a conditions-laced bailout package from the IMF, the Central Bank is adamant neither is necessary, the Sunday Times reported. Instead, the government is to launch a campaign on February 4, Independence Day, to attract Sinhalese expatriates to invest in Sri Lankan treasury bills and bonds.
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Sea Tigers sink SLN Super Dvora attack craft in Mullaiththeevu seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 19:30 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sea Tigers attacked a convoy of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) off the coast of Mullaiththeevu, sinking a Super Dvora Fast Attack Craft Monday around 11:30 p.m., LTTE officials told media.
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35 SLA killed, 60 wounded in Northwestern frontier - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 14:47 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials Monday said their defensive formations clashed with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for 24 hours in the Northwestern frontier of LTTE held territory till the SLA was pushed back from Neththaliyaattup paalam Monday. The Tigers claimed 35 SLA soldiers were killed and at least 60 wounded. Heavy fighting is reported also in southeastern frontier of the LTTE held territory.
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Only 1,000 Tigers left, war almost over – Fonseka

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 13:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said Sunday that as there were only a thousand Tamil Tigers left and they were “boxed” into a small jungle area in Mullaitivu, the war would soon be won. The Tigers could not resist the 50,000 SLA soldiers surrounding them, he said. Lt. Gen. Fonseka, who spoke at an annual dinner he hosts for defence correspondents at his residence, joked that he expected most of them "to be out of work by this time next year." He wore a black shirt, adorned with a dragon strangling a tiger, Reuters reported.
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'International media abetted death of journalism in Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 03:04 GMT]
Following the latest assassination of prominent editor Lasantha Wickramatunge of The Sunday Leader, four notable journalists, have reportedly fled Sri Lanka last week. "Had the international media, which was refused access to the war front and LTTE held territories, boycotted the government news, from the beginning itself as a measure of asserting media rights, the casualty of journalism in the island could have been avoided. But, the international media, especially the popular news agencies, are part of the game and they pay only lip service at every media casualty in the country," says a journalist formerly based in Colombo and now operating in the West.
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