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  • JVP meets US

    Dec 12

    Sri Lanka's ultra-Sinhala nationalist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Perumana) is building a 'cordial' relationship with United Stateswhich it earlier denounced as an imperialist force conspiring to divide Sri Lanka, reports said.

    The JVP recently held discussions with the newly appointed US Ambassador to Sri Lanka,Robert O. Blake, Colombopage.com reported.

    JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe and Bimal Ratnayake, MP, Kurunegala district participated in the discussions with the US held at the JVP head office on 8th December 2006.

    They had a cordial and friendly discussion on the national question and on the education system in Sri Lanka, Colombopage reported.

    Micheal R. DeTar, the First Secretary (political section) of the US Embassy accompanied the US Ambassador to the JVP office.

    Party sources told Colombopage.com the JVP is developing a cordial relationship with US which it earlier denounced as an imperialist force that is conspiring to divide Sri Lanka.

    This week the JVP praised the United States for its decision to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and condemning terrorism.

  • Violence in the NorthEast, week ending December 10

    December 10

    • An attempt by a group of 25 members of paramilitary cadres and SLA to penetrate into LTTE controlled Pendukalchenai to lau-nch attacks was foiled when the LTTE counter attacked, killing two and injuring ten paramilitari-es. Two LTTE cadres were also killed in the counter attack. SLA troopers and paramilitaries mov-ed out of Kinnaiyadi SLA camp, crossed Kinnaiyadi Lagoon, and had penetrated through villages of Murukkantivu, Pirambaditivu and Saravelli towards Pendugalchenai to attack LTTE positions when th-ey were confronted. The penetration group was nearly 5 km inside LTTE-controlled areas when they were attacked and forced to retr-eat taking the wounded and the dead. LTTE fighters Kalaiarasan and Sauntha were killed in the counter attack.

    • Two SLA soldiers were injured when gunmen triggered a claymore mine in Yaakeru, Vadamar-adchy, Jaffna. The soldiers were on a road patrol from Aayam San-thi SLA camp towards Mandaan when the claymore was triggered and gunmen allegedly also fired at the soldiers following the blast.

    • An employee at the computer section of the Jaffna Tamil daily, Namathu Eelanadu, has not been seen since Tuesday, officials from the Jaffna SLHRC. Indrakumar Mathan, 25, from Kokuvil West, set off from his home to do erran-ds and has not seen since, relativ-es said. Mathan previously wor-ked at the Tamil daily Uthayan, before he moved to work at the Jaffna Navalar Road offices of Namathu Eelanadu.

    • Five gunmen abducted a youth from his house at Pansala road in Akkaraipattu and his body was recovered the next morning, with gunshot wounds, close to Akka-raipattu SLA camp. The dead youth was identified as Vellupillai Selvakumar, 26, a daily labourer.

    December 9

    • Gunmen shot and injured two cadres of the paramilitary Karuna Group on Kallaru main road near Sinnapillayar temple in Kallaru, Batticaloa. Ranjan, 28, and Kum-ar, 26, were admitted to hospital.

    • Selliah Thiagarasa, 57, a father of six, from Kikirai Kulam in Araly, Jaffna, was walking towards Sangarathai Market to buy fish when gunmen who followed him shot him dead at close range and escaped.

    December 8

    • Unidentified persons triggered a claymore mine at Asikulam, Vavuniya, seriously injuring three SLA troopers who were on their way to fetch water from a well close to the Asikulam SLA camp. The police said that there were two claymores fixed together but only one had exploded.

    December 7

    • SLN cadres shot dead a Tamil youth and seriously injured anot-her on Crow Island beach in Mod-ara, Colombo. The SLN allege that when its cadres approached the youths to inquire about their suspicious movement, the youths attempted to pull guns, resulting in the shooting in self defence by the SLN marines.
    Both men, seriously injured, were rushed to the SLN Hospital where one of them succumbed to his wounds. The dead youth was identified as Vinoth, 27 from Pasarai in the upcountry and the injured as Sutharsan, 28, both flower garland sellers at Modara Vishnu temple.
    The two men had gone to Crow Island beach for morning ablutions and were shot from afar by the SLN cadres, locals said. They allege that the SLN was attempting to cover up the killing by claiming the men had been attempting to pull guns.

    • Eleven students and two teachers were wounded when artillery shells hit Somadevi Sinhala Sch-ool in Kallar. Soon after the incident, a group of hand picked journalists were flown to the area by the Sri Lanka military. The Sri Lankan military said the Tigers were targeting the Mahindapura SLA camp with artillery fire, but the shells had missed the target. Three soldiers were wounded an hour later when the shells hit the SLA camp, the SLA said. LTTE military spokesman Mr. Irasiah Ilanthirayan, denied artillery fire from LTTE positions towards the Sinhala school.

    • Armed men opened fire on the police sentry post in Maharam-baikulam area in Vavuniya seriously injuring a policeman.

    • Armed men shot killed a youth at Samalamkulam, Vavuniya. The dead youth, aged around 20 to 25 years, was yet to be identified. Residents of Samalmkulam said they heard gun shots from Samal-amkulam tank, the area where the body was found. Four persons riding a three wheeler were killed two months previously and before that two were shot killed, both near Samalamkulam tank.

    • Gunmen went to the home of GCE (Advanced Level) student, Monoharan Paranthaman, 17, in Madduvil East Chavakachcheri, Jaffna, called him out of his house and shot him at close range. The gunmen beat family members who tried to stop the shooting.

    • Gunmen called a building mason out of his house and shot at him with a T56 gun at Sinnaku-lam, Amparai. Sellathurai Navar-atnam, 23, of Veeramahakali Temple Road in Sinnakulam and a father of two, was seriously inj-ured and rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his wounds. Mr. Navaratnam was at home with his wife and children after dinner when the gunmen called him out and shot him at close range.

    • Sectarian violence between orthodox Muslims and an Islamic Sufi sect resurfaced in the Mus-lim town of Kattankudy, Battic-aloa, following the death of a Sufi sect leader.
    December 6
    • Thirteen civilians from the Jaffna were abducted after the Sri Lanka Government reinstated the draconian Prevention of Terror-ism Act (see separate story).

    • Assailants triggered a claymore device attached to a motorcycle parked near Pannai Bridge in Jaffna, targeting a SLA vehicle but killing four civilians and seriously injuring two others. The blast overturned the vehicle, injuring several soldiers. The claymore device blast targeted an SLA vehicle was returning from Sri Lanka Telecom Limited in the Pannai Bridge area. Two men died on the spot and a 45-year-old woman and 4-year-old child died in hospital. V. Vaseekaran, 21, of Velanai and a 4-year-old boy were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in a critical condition.

    • Unidentified persons triggered a claymore device on Chettikulam-Madavadchi road in Vavuniya, killing two SLA troopers on the spot. The claymore attack was on the tractor taking dinner to SLA soldiers manning sentry posts along the road.

    • Unidentified armed men shot dead Thankarasa Pirabaharan at Sasthrikoolankulam in Vavuniya.

    • A gunman following a youth shot him dead at Sithandy, Batticaloa. Sithamparapillai Pathmanathan, 27, the Regional agent of a private insurance company in Batticaloa and a resident of Old Market Road in Sithandy, was killed as he was walking towards his friend's house.

    December 5

    • Two gunmen on motor cycle shot dead a trader at Viyaparimoolai in Point Pedro, Jaffna. The riders shot Manickam Jeyarasa, 36, in an area where SLA troopers had been present some minutes earlier and the killers escaped in the direction the SLA troopers had taken, witnesses said.

    • Two SLA troopers in Batticaloa were killed and 19 injured during a clash between the SLA and LTTE at LTTE held Katumurivu in Batticaloa district. The SLA also reported that they learnt from LTTE communications that five LTTE cadres were killed in the fight. The LTTE attacked the SLA troopers when they attempted to penetrate into the LTTE held area.

    • Two SLA troopers in Batticaloa, including a woman, and a policeman were injured in a LTTE mortar attack on an LTTE sentry post at Black Bridge on the Chenkalady-Badula road leading into LTTE held region. Two mortar shells fell and exploded near the sentry post injuring M. Senaratne, 39, Ms. R. Menike, 24, and W. Chandraratne, 34, a policeman, the SLA said. Following the exchange of mortar fire Chenkalady town was deserted with all shops and other establishments shut immediately while the people fled in panic from the town.

    • A youth from Avarangal, Puth-thur in Valikamam, Jaffna, who was injured in a shooting incident and was being treated at the Jaffna Teaching hospital, surrendered to SLHRC, telling officials his life will be in danger if he goes home. The number of youths surrendering to the Jaffna SLHRC, out of fear being abducted and killed by Sri Lankan forces, is increasing, with more than 30 youths from various parts of the peninsula surrendering in the last two months. The surrendered youths appear before the Jaffna Magistrate with the SLHRC's legal support and are sent to the protective custody of Jaffna prison.

    • The relatives of Sritharan Para-thithasan, 21, of Mallaham, lodg-ed a complaint at SLHRC that the SLA arrested him and some others on December 1 along Malla-ham- Alaveddi Road. Though the SLA released all the others, no concrete information regarding his whereabouts was given when contacted by the relatives.

    • Sinnarasa Sivaselvam, 26, from Puloly South, Point Pedro in Vadamarachchy, Jaffna, has disappeared after being arrested by the SLA. The soldiers in the area confiscated his Identity Card and asked him to come to their camp later. Sivaselvam was not seen after he went to the SLA camp.

    • Senthilnathan Kajendran, 25, of Siruppiddy North, Puththur and Thuraiyan Thavakkumar, 23, of Karamban, Puththur North were arrested on 29 and 17 November respectively, but their whereabouts are currently unknown, relatives said in a complaint to the SLHRC.

    • Kekirawa police recovered four dead bodies, partially burnt, in a paddy filed at Ganewella, Habarana. The bodies, with disfigured faces, appear to be of youths aged 20 to 25 years. The four dead may have been killed elsewhere and brought to the field where they had been set fire with tyres to make them unidentifiable, the police said. They may have been abducted in the villages of Thimbulagala, Wellikanda, Man-nampity, Soruvil, Sungavil on the borders of Batticaloa and Polanaruwa districts. Several cases of youths being abducted by Karuna paramilitary groups collaborating with the SLA have been reported earlier in the Battocaloa district.

    • Tension prevailed in Trincom-alee as a Ceylon Electricity Board employee was shot dead (see separate story).

    • Hundreds of Sri Lankan troopers and police cordoned off and searched Mannar areas covering Moor Street, Uppukulam, and Sinnakadai. All houses and vehicles in the area came under intensive search. Residents said the security forces also deployed female cadres in the search. No one was arrested in the operation.

    December 4

    • The LTTE repulsed a major STF offensive against LTTE held Kanchikudichanaru in Amparai from the Kanchirankuda STF camp, backed with heavy artillery fire. Four STF troopers were killed and eight seriously injured in the attack, while three LTTE cadres sustained minor injuries, the LTTE said. The STF reported that one of their troopers was killed and three seriously injured.
    Heavy artillery fire and shell-ing from the STF camps in Kanchirankuda and Sangamaan-kandy directed on the LTTE held area followed the failed offensive.

    • Heavy fighting continued between the LTTE and SLA at Kattumurivu, inside LTTE controlled Vaharai region in Batti-caloa as the two month old SLS offensive flared up again (see Vaharai story).

    • Three SLA troopers were seriously injured in a clash between the SLA and LTTE in Kadjuwathe area, Batticaloa.

    • The LTTE clashed with SLA troopers who attempted to move beyond the no-go zone towards Puliyankulam at the Omanthai FDL in Vavuniya. The SLA troopers withdrew after facing .resista-nce from the Tigers. Artillery and mortar fire was also reported fr-om the FDL in Muhamalai.

    • An ambulance with 7 patients needing advanced treatment at Vavuniya Hospital could not proceed as the Omanthai exit point remained closed following the clash. Five children, including a 6 month-old baby and a 18-month-old baby girl, were among the seven patients in the ambulance.

    • Gunmen abducted S. Thevar-asa, 50, from Satkoddai, a coastal village in Vadamarachchy, Jaffna, and shot him dead near a temple in Samarapahu, Karaveddi. Tho-ugh abducted and killed on Monday, Thevarasa's corpse was found only on Tuesday, as local residents, who had heard gunshots Monday afternoon, kept indoors out of fear.

    • Armed persons in a white van abducted four youths, including a small restaurant owner, in Alav-eddi in Valikamam, Jaffna. The armed men took the restaurant owner into the van first and then took three other customers.

    • Armed men abducted four you-ths at gun point from Santhiveli, Batticaloa, while they were sleeping. Velupillai Yogeswaran, 16, Kanagaratnam Thusanthan, 16, Kanthasamy Sivaraj, 15, and Mu-thusamy Pathmarasa, 18, are all residents of Santhiveli Palayadi Thona. Yogeswaran and Kanagar-atnam worked as building masons while Sivaraj helped his father in fishing. Pathmarasa was working in a private establishment in Batt-icaloa. Residents of the area alle-ge that the youths were abducted by Karuna paramilitary group cadres.

    • An armed SLA intelligence wing solider entered the house of Mr. K. Suntharalingam, 52, from Pannalai in Tellipallai, and forcefully took him in a white van. When the relatives inquired at the nearby Pannalai SLA camp, officials said that they were not aware of any arrests.

    • Armed men shot dead two Muslim youths at Annar Nagar in Vavuniya. Muthalib Rivai, 22 and Mohamed Salim Basil, 33, were staying at a relative's house in Vavuniya when they were shot.

    • Two armed men on motorcycle shot dead a youth and seriously injured his cousin in Point Pedro, Jaffna. Sebamalai David, 27, a fi-sherman, was killed and John Jes-udas, 37, from Kochchikadai, was injured. David was standing in front of his house with his cousin when the armed men shot at them.

  • Divided experts present four different proposals
    The panel of experts appointed by Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse to submit recommendations regarding power sharing and Constitutional reform has failed to formulate a unanimous report due to deep divisions within it, reports said.
     
    As a result of these divisions amongst the seventeen members, at least four separate preliminary reports had been prepared to be handed over to President Rajapakse Tamilweek.com reported Wednesday.
     
    The expert panel was scheduled to hand over its report to the All Party Representatives Council (APRC) at the Presidential Secretariat in the evening of Dec 6th. President Rajapakse himself was expected to be present but informed sources said he may “miss” the APRC meeting to avoid the embarrassment of receiving four separate reports.
     
    The All Party Council (pictured in June 2006) has been meeting all year, but has not produced a power-sharing proposal to offer the Tamils. The constitutional experts couldn't agree on either. Photo TamilNet.
    Tamilweek quoted informed sources as saying eleven of the seventeen expert panelists had agreed on a common report though individual members had noted reservations on certain points. This would be presented as the ‘majority’ report.
     
    But the main minority report will be submitted by four other members, all Sinhalese, including the top lawyer and doyen of Sinhala nationalists, H. L. De Silva, PC.
     
    There will also be two dissenting reports presented by two other members, also Sinhalese.

    Of the eleven expert panel members who agreed on the minority report six were from the Sinhala community. Four Tamil and the lone Muslim member also signed the ‘majority’ report.

    The main issues of contention dividing the majority report and other dissenting reports have been over matters like the extent of devolution and the retaining of points of the 13th Constitutional amendment.

    The 13th amendment was brought in 1987 as a result of the Indo – Sri Lanka Accord. The major achievement of that amendment was the introduction of the Provincial Council system and merger of Northern and Eastern Provinces subject to an Eastern referendum.
     
    The dissenting reports are said to be focused more on strengthening the unitary state while the majority report emphasizes a united country with 'maximum devolution,' Tamilweek said.
     
    But even the majority report, a copy of which was obtained and published by Tamilweek.com, avoids saying whether Sri Lanka should be unitary or federal.
     
    President Rajapakse convened an All Party Representatives Conference to make recommendations on Constitutional Reform allowing maximum devolution within a unitary system.
     
    He also appointed an expert panel to formulate Constitutional reform recommendations that were expected be adhered to “mutatis mutandis” by the APRC.
     
    Initially twelve members were appointed to the panel. The membership was later increased to fifteen and subsequently to seventeen.
     
    The four members submitting the minority report are Mr. HL de Silva, Mr. Gomin Dayasiri, Prof GH Peiris and Mr. Manohara de Silva. Mr. KHJ Wijayadasa and Mr. MDD Peiris will submit two other dissenting reports separately.
     
    Ms. Therese Perera, Ms. Malkanthy Wickremasinghe, Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan, Mr. Asoka Gunawardena, Dr. K. Vigneswaran, Mr. N. Selvakumaran, Dr. Sivaji Felix,Dr. Rohan Perera, Mr. Faiz Mustapha, Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne and Mr. RKW Gunasekera agreed on the majority report. Since Dr.Wickremaratne, Dr. Felix and Mr. Asoka Gunaewardene are out of the Country at present their signatures are not on the document but their consent has been duly obtained.
     
    Tamilweek learnt that Dr. Wickremaratne, Mr.RKW Gunasekera, Dr. Rohan Perera and Dr. K. Vigneswaran had expressed reservations on particular matters while agreeing on the whole to the report.
     
    The APRC has representatives from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party , United National Party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna , Jathika Hela Urumaya , Sri Lanka Muslim Congress , National Unity Alliance, Ceylon Workers Congress , Mahajana Eksath Peramuna . Lanka Sama Samaja Party , Communist Party of Sri Lanka, All Ceylon Muslim League, Eelam Peoples Democratic Party. National Muslim Congress, Up Country People’s Front and Western Peoples Front.
     
    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of Sri Lanka’s four largest political parties, was not invited to the APRC when it was convened and turned down a belated invitation.
     
    It remains to be seen as to how the APRC will react to the submission of four separate reports and how much of each report will be reflected in the final outcome.
     
    The inability of the Expert panel to finalise a single report evokes memories of the Commission on Devolution appointed by President JR Jayewardene in 1979.
     
    In that instance the majority of members in the Commission headed by Victor Tennekoon submitted one report while the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) nominee Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam presented a dissenting report.
     
    The visible divide in the expert panel also revives memories of the Supreme Court in examining the proposed 13th amendment legislation in 1987. Five Judges voted for and four against in a nine judge bench. All four who voted against were Sinhala while three of those who voted for were members of the Tamil, Muslim and Burgher communities. It was the stance of two Sinhala judges that saw the legislation approved.
  • Aid groups say Sri Lanka blocking their work
    (AFP, PARIS) Western aid groups warned of a growing struggle to help Sri Lankan victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and of the country's war, four months after the massacre of 17 aid workers, and blamed bureaucracy for blocking their work.
     
    "The humanitarian situation is catastrophic," said Aloysius John, head of Asia for the French Secours Catholique, adding that his group can no longer work in northern Sri Lanka, particularly in Jaffna where thousands of people lack provisions after the main access road was cut off.
     
    British NGO Oxfam said work had become "extremely difficult" to help victims of the December 2004 tsunami that killed 31,000 people and destroyed 75 percent of coastal infrastructure.
     
    Nordic monitors of a truce signed in February 2002 between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) say the ceasefire is holding only on paper.
     
    The LTTE has been fighting for independence for the island's Tamil community in the majority Sinhalese country.
     
    At least 3,400 people have been reported killed in the conflict this year.
     
    Amid fighting between security forces and the Tigers, the 17 mostly Tamil aid workers from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) were shot dead on August 6 in their offices in the northeastern town of Muttur.
     
    Now, four months on, thousands of civilians lack necessary help, particularly in "the most vulnerable", or Tamil, communities, said Eric Fort, head of ACF in the area.
     
    "Zones under LTTE control are inaccessible," he said. "Authorities don't want NGOs to get through."
     
    Fort complained of administrative hurdles complicating work of the group that has nonetheless decided to renew activities suspended after the massacre.
     
    Other NGOS said their work was paralysed by bureaucracy.
     
    Doctors Without Borders said three of its sections -- Dutch, French and Spanish -- were stuck in the capital Colombo.
     
    In September, "an article accused us of collaborating with the Tamil Tigers and the next day we received an expulsion letter", said Gabriel Trujillo, who supervises the region.
     
    "The management of access to humanitarian aid is obviously part of Colombo's strategy in the conflict," Trujillo said.
     
    Medical charity Medecins du Monde recently closed its French section in Sri Lanka, after the departures of the Argentinian, Spanish and US sections, said Eric Chevallier, director of international missions.
     
    Chevallier said certain ruling politicians seemed to have "a strategy of preventing the presence of international actors".
     
    Sri Lankan authorities rejected the accusations.
     
    An advisor to the Sri Lankan embassy in France, Himalee Arunatilaka, spoke of "confusion" about documents NGOs needed to provide and said that "security reasons" were behind stringent checks in affected areas.
  • Violence in the NorthEast, week ending December 3
    December 3

    ● A SLA trooper was seriously injured in a sniper attack on the Vavunativu SLA sentry post in Batticaloa. In a similar sniper attack on Vavunativu SLA camp Friday a paramilitary cadre named M. K. Rajan was seriously injured.

    ● Armed men shot dead Pakkianathan Calista Nirmala, 42, in her house at Antony Road, Palaiyootu, Trincomalee. The men had forcibly opened the doors of her house and shot her.

    December 2

    ● At least one civilian was wounded and three houses were damaged when SLAF Kfir bombers hit a civilian area providing temporary settlement for the tsunami-affected in Mullaithivu district. Another village, Vadduvahal, was attacked within the hour in another sortie, while two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) were engaged in a reconnaissance mission over Kilinochchi. 2 Israeli built Kfir bombers dropped 8 bombs in Thevipuram.

    ● SLA DPU attackers exploded a claymore mine, damaging a Road Development Authority vehicle at Moonru Murippu in Liberation Tigers controlled territory in Vanni. No casualties were reported in the attack.

    ● The owner of a vehicle repair facility in Dutch Road, Chavakacheri, was shot dead by two gunmen riding a motorbike. Mylvaganam Thavarajah, 28, was on his way to open his garage located near the Chavakachcheri District Court when he was shot. He was earlier arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and threatened following a claymore attack near the Chavakachcheri Court premises but was released.

    December 1

    ● Two Sri Lanka Police constables were killed when assailants triggered a claymore mine fitted to a motorcycle parked near the junction of Clock Tower road and Hospital road in the security reinforced HSZ near Jaffna town. The victims were walking towards the Police station located on the Clock Tower road when the attack happened.

    ● Three civilians abducted by armed men from their houses at Vinayagapuram, Thirukovil in Amparai, were found shot to death by Vinayagapuram residents at a junction near Vinayagapuram Tamil Maha Vidyalayam, around 200 meters from their houses. The victims were identified as Sabarathinam Raveenthiran, 31, a father of one, Mylvaganam Arulananthan, 28, and Kanthasamy Kantharoopan 35, father of five.

    ● Sritharan Kannan, 22, who was returning after a painting job, was abducted in Mallakam by SLA soldiers on motorbikes. Kannan was displaced from Valigamam North and was residing in Konappalam Lane in Mallakam. Officials at the Alaveddy SLA camp had told Kannan's parents that they had no information of any arrests.

    ● SLA soldiers travelling in a white van abducted Valyutham Gajendran, 27, a library employee at the Valigamam North Pradeshya Sabha. The soldiers entered Gajendran’s home, near the SLA camp in Mallakam Courts Road, and took him.

    ● Gunmen shot and killed S. Ramachandran, 36, a farmer, at Menkamam, a Tamil village in SLA controlled Muthur region in Trincomalee.

    ● A Sinhalese civilian, Waduge Karunaratne, 58, was found dead near Chinabay Railway Station, Trincomalee, with his throat slit and gun shot wounds on the body.

    ● Thevathasan Vimala, 56, from Oddumadam, in the suburbs of Jaffna, was called out of her residence in Araly Road, Oddumadam by a group of armed men who shot her dead on the spot.

    ● Due the death threats of the Sri Lanka forces and collaborating paramilitaries stationed in the peninsula, increasing number of youths fearing for their lives have been surrendering at the Jaffna office of the SLHRC seeking protection for their lives. Twenty eight youths are currently in protective custody at the Jaffna prison and more youths are surrendering each day.

    ● A SLA soldier was seriously injured in a sniper attack inside Vavunathivu camp in Batticaloa. The injured soldier was identified as Hettiarachi Sripala, 34. The SLA launched retaliatory mortar attacks against Liberation Tigers controlled areas close to Vavunathivu.

    ● Unidentified men triggered a claymore device along Udupiddy-Valvettithurai road killing a SLA trooper belonging to a unit returning to Valvettithurai SLA camp in Jaffna after constructing sentry posts near Ellankulam Heroes Resting Home. The SLA opened fire on the attackers and there was an exchange of firing for nearly 5 minutes but no one was injured.

    ● A young Kayts woman was injured by a stray bullet fired during SLN combat training at the Kayts SLN base. Following landing of LTTE cadres in Mandaitivu on 11 August and subsequent alleged preparations for war, SLN fears a large-scale attack by the LTTE on Jaffna Islets, and has been conducting combat rehearsals near the Kayts SLN camp the past two days, Kayts residents said. Yogan Thiruvarudchelvi 31, of Camp Road in Kayts was injured during this exercise and is recovering in Jaffna Hospital with a bullet wound in her upper body.

    November 30

    ● Three policemen, including a woman police constable, and two army troopers were killed and four wounded when a SLA truck packed with soldiers collided with a train as it crossed a railway crossing in Enderamulla, northeast of Colombo. There were 10 police and military personnel in the truck. One trooper escaped without injuries. The woman police constable was identified as Nishanthi Luxica. The other victims were an Inspector of Police Methagoda, Constable Ratnayake and army troopers Gunapala and Eranga. The troopers were returning after a cordon and search operation.

    ● Two fisher families, comprising eleven members, arrived in government controlled Kothaipiddy seashore, Mannar, by boats from Vidathaltivu village in LTTE held area. They left their village due to constant air strike and artillery attack by the SLA towards the LTTE held area. The families said that there was severe shortage of supply of food and other essentials.

    ● Ten SLA soldiers were injured when two buses carrying troopers collided near Kantalai, southwest of Trincomalee town. One bus was transporting a group of soldiers on leave and the other was taking soldiers to Trincomalee from Colombo to report for duty near Kantalai town.

    ● The Head of Vavuniya Institute of Education, K. Bernard, said that 115 Sinhalese students of the institution had complained that armed men had come to the institution asking for them. As the students said they feared for their lives, arrangements were made with the Vavuniya SLA to protect the students overnight and they were escorted to their homes Thursday. Mr. Bernard said that he will be investigating the threats posed to his students.

    ● Two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed Grama Sevakar Gilbert Anandarajah, 45, of Gurunagar West, Jaffna. Mr. Anandarajah is the third Grama Sevakar to be slain in Jaffna during the months since hostilities resumed in Jaffna on August 11. Mr. Anandarajah, father of two, was shot and killed at his office.

    ● A farmer was critically injured when a group of SLA troopers in ambush fired at him at Poonagar village in Eachchilampathu division. Muththar Kathiresan, a father of two, had gone to the area in search of his cattle.

    ● Armed men killed Jeyakumar Thiriyan, 24, of Madduvil South, Chavakachcheri in Thenmaradchchy area after he was ordered to come out of his home.

    ● The headless body of a youth of Naranthanai who was abducted from his home on Wednesday by unidentified men was found at Nerunchimunai area in Kayts in the islets of Jaffna, which is under the control of the SLN. Daniel Quinton, 24, was identified by his relatives and later taken to the hospital for an autopsy, which found he had most likely been shot dead first, and later beheaded. His head has not yet been found.

    November 29

    ● The SLA bulldozed the Alankulam Heroes' Cemetery in Muthur East, on November 25, said LTTE's Trincomalee District Political Head, S. Elian. "Sri Lankan military has once again desecrated a war cemetery. No military in the civilized world, would engage in such an act," charged Mr. Elilan. Headstones were bulldozed away and the resting place was destroyed by the military two days ahead of Heroes Day, he further said.

    ● Sri Lanka Police officials produced two catholic priests and two youths before a judge, accusing the four of indulging in activities defaming both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka military. Allen Vinoja and Marianayagam Godfrey Morris Gnanageethan, were arrested Friday in Passayoor by SLA troops and were later handed over to the police. On the same day two catholic priests Fr. Francis Xavier Jeyasegaram, and Fr. Jesuratnam Bernard were arrested by police.

    The priests and the two youths belong to Commission Justice of Peace (CJP), an organization directly under Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Savundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna, and were arrested for possessing pre-printed post cards to be distributed to the public. These cards detailed the current situation prevailing in the peninsula, including atrocities of the Sri Lanka military, the closure of A9 Highway, and disappearance of youths. The four were planning to obtain signature and opinions from 5000 members of the general public and forward them to the Secretary General of United Nations requesting early action to bring back normalcy to the Northeast.

    November 28

    ● Sri Lankan security forces must immediately stop assisting abductions of boys and young men by the Karuna Group and help those abducted return safely to their families, Human Rights Watch said (see separate story).

    ● Unidentified persons shot and killed a Tamil civilian and injured two others at the sixth milepost north of Trincomalee. The dead man was identified as Somasuntharam Inban, 25, a mason of Nilaveli. The two injured men were identified as Satheeswar and Suthahar, both aged 25, and residents of Sambaltivu village. All three were returning home after work when they were shot at.

    ● Unidentified gunmen following Uthayakumar Rajitha, 34, on a motorcycle, shot her dead on Aathisoody Road in Thirunelveli, Jaffna, as she was on her way out of her home.

    ● Key SLA commanding officers were said to have visited Palaly Military base as the SLA resumed reinforcing security arrangements in the Jaffna peninsula. Private air crafts flying between Ratmalana and Palaly, avoided using the regular air routes.

    ● Sounds of shell and artillery fire were heard from the Thenmaradchi Forward Defence Lines throughout Monday night, with Urumpirai residents reporting that a shell fell within the populated area in Urumpirai, but fortunately did not explode.

    November 27

    ● SLA troopers from Meeravodai SLA camp lay in ambush and shot dead Rasiah Manickavasagam, 59, a fishmonger and father of five at Meeravodai, a Tamil village in Valaichenai. Manickavasagam was shot dead on his way home after visiting his relatives. The SLA then arrested C. Yogan, a 27 year old youth from Meeravodai, implicating him in the killing of Manickavasagam, Meeravodai residents told TamilNet, adding that the Meeravodai SLA had warned three days earlier that anyone found on the roads after 7:00 p.m. would be shot.

    ● The Sri Lankan police force and LTTE exchanged mortar fire for 45 minutes in Murunkan, east of Mannar. 6th Mile Post and 17th Mile Post sentry posts manned by military trained policemen were attacked by LTTE mortar fire, according to police officials, who claimed that they launched mortar fire in retaliation. Civilians who reached Mannar from LTTE controlled areas above Murunkan said around 10 mortar shells hit civilian settlements. No casualties were reported.

    ● Armed masked men robbed cash and other valuables worth many hundreds of thousand rupees from 8 houses in Batticaloa town and its suburbs at gunpoint. The men forcibly entered the houses of A. Velmurugu, M. Letchumy, K. Perinpanayagi, K. Shanthakumari and V. Vijayaranee in Eravur Kurichi and robbed cash, jewellery, hand phones and other valuables worth around 800,000 rupees, according to complaints made by those robbed with Eravur police. Later armed masked men stole cash, jewellery and other valuables from the houses of Subramaniam Parameswary, Gnanasekaram Kumutha and Justice of Peace Ariyanayagam Kanagasundram in Mamankam, also at gunpoint.

    ● Unidentified persons lobbed hand grenades at a SLA sentry post near Puthur junction, Jaffna, injuring two SLA troopers. The SLMM in Jaffna visited the site of the attack and conducted investigations.

    ● Jaffna police recovered the bodies of two youths with knife wounds and cut injuries on throats and hands, dumped in a deserted plot of land at Thavadi North, Valigamam, Jaffna. Residents of Inuvil said the youths are suspected to be from Kodady and Kondavil and were the accused in criminal cases in Mallakam District Courts.

    ● The body of a youth who disappeared from Irupalai Saturday was found with gunshot wounds along the Stadium Road in Irupalai. K. Senthurchelvan, 23, disappeared after venturing out from his home in Milkfarm area in Thirunelvely to run personal errands.


  • Colombo bombing exposes security failings
    A daring suicide bombing against Sri Lanka's top defence official has exposed gaping security gaps, stoking fears that the Tamil Tigers could resort to more spectacular strikes, officials and analysts say.
     
    The driver of an auto-rickshaw breached the tightest security and detonated explosives packed into his three-wheel contraption Friday as defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse drove past in a heavily armed convoy in Colombo.
     Police blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
     
    The attack was along a street where plain-clothed intelligence agents had been deployed to check for “suspicious activity.” It is also regularly patrolled by troops, a security official told AFP.
     
    Def. Sec. Rajapakse's bulletproof BMW was damaged, but he was unhurt. Photo TamilNet.
    Two motorcycle outriders and the bomber were blown to pieces while 14 others were wounded in what the security official described as a well-planned operation.
     
    “A big question is, if there was inside information, there will have to be a re-think of what has been done so far,” the official told AFP, declining to be named.
     
    Friday's attack was the latest in a string of suicide bombings over the past few months.
     
    In April, a woman pretending to be a soldier's pregnant wife infiltrated the army headquarters here in a suicide attack in which army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka was seriously wounded.
     
    Two months later, the army's number three officer was killed by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle.
     
    At least 116 people, mostly sailors, were killed while boarding buses when a suicide bomber exploded a truck full of explosives in October.
     
    The government is worried that there may have been inside help to carry out some of the previous attacks.
     
    An army officer is currently being held for allegedly providing information to the Tigers in connection with at least two attacks since April, officials said.
     
    The latest target, the defence secretary - who is also President Mahinda Rajapakse's younger brother - is accorded protection reserved for a head of state. Hitting his convoy is a serious blow to the security authorities.
     
    He travels in a convoy of several identical cars which have their windows tinted. He is also provided protection by army commandos riding open jeeps and motorcycles. Yet Friday's bomber managed to hit the right car.
     
    The bullet-proof BMW limousine saved Rajapakse, who suffered only a minor gash above his right eyebrow, but it rocked the entire government.
     
    “The government considers this suicide bomb attack by the LTTE as a serious challenge posed to the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Sri Lankan state,” the cabinet of ministers said in a statement.
     
    The Tigers are known for trademark suicide bombings. On Monday, they honoured 299 suicide bombers, or Black Tigers, who have died while carrying out audacious strikes since 1987 along with over 18,000 other fighters killed in three decades of civil war.
     
    Assuming the Tigers carried out Friday's attack, their failure to hit their mark was unusual, AP reported, quoting analysts.
     
    "The LTTE is known for its efficiency, (but) these days targets are very closely guarded," Retired Air Marshall Harry Goonetilleke told AP. "You can't get at these people very easily."
     
    In April, escort personnel saved the Army Chief from the full force of the blast.
     
    Similarly on Friday, Rajapakse's guards had been vigilant and shielded him from harm, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapakse (r) hugs his brother, Gothabaya, after the Def. Sec's escape. Photo TamilNet
    But the Tigers boast of an efficient intelligence wing that they say can infiltrate the government at anytime to obtain the itineraries of would-be targets, AP reported.
     
    Friday's bombing came despite thorough car-by-car checks carried out by police and security forces, causing motorists to languish in traffic for up to six hours.
     
    “What the attack showed on Friday is that all the checking and posting guards at frequent intervals along main roads has not helped,” said freelance defence writer Namal Perera. “What is needed is better intelligence.”
     
    “One could argue that the Tigers failed to get their target and it means they will try again, go for another target or adopt different tactics.”
     
    Retired brigadier-general Vipul Boteju said the defence chief was lucky to have escaped, and believed the Tigers would try to carry out more strikes.
     
    “If the explosion took place a little closer to the BMW, it would have been a different story,” Boteju told AFP.
     
    "This (is) not at all a dilution of their (Tigers) capabilities. They are being unlucky," Iqbal Athas, a top defense journalist and analyst in Sri Lanka told AP after Friday's bombing.
     
    "They are being hampered by the security preparations. Despite the failures they are not going to give up the modus operandi," he said.
  • Sinhala leaders' duplicity has left Tamils with no choice but independence - LTTE leader
    LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan honoured fallen fighters on Nov 27,2006, when he delivered his annual Heroes' Day address. Photo LTTE
    The leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Velupillai Pirapaharan, in his annual Heroes’ Day statement, expressed extreme frustration at the unchanging attitude of successive Sinhala regimes towards resolving the burning Tamil national question and, in particular, at the deceitful handling of the current peace efforts by three successive Sinhala regimes.
     
    “Both our liberation movement and our people never preferred war to a peaceful resolution. We have always preferred a peaceful approach to win the political rights of our people. We have never hesitated to follow the peaceful path to win our political rights. That is why we held peace talks, beginning in Thimpu right through to Geneva, on several occasions, at various times, and in many countries,” he said.
     
    The LTTE leader went on to say that President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected his final call in his Heroes’ Day statement last year to find a resolution to the Tamil National question with urgency. He said that President Rajapakse had instead intensified the war on the one hand and whilst on the other hand talking about finding a peaceful resolution. The LTTE leader said that this dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed. “It is not possible to find a resolution by marginalizing and destroying the freedom movement with which talks must be held to find the resolution. This is political absurdity on the part of the Sinhala leaders.” Due to this strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the CFA has become defunct, he said.
     
    The LTTE leader said that the present regime, which is denying food and medicine to the people to the extent of starving them, cannot be expected to show compassion and give the Tamil people their political rights. He said that the Sinhala nation, eternally trapped in the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa, has failed to think afresh and has left the Tamils with only one option, political independence and statehood for the people of Tamil Eelam.
     
    The full text of the official translation of his speech follows:
     
    “We are at a cross roads in our freedom struggle. Our journey has been long and arduous, and crowded with difficult phases. We are facing challenges and unexpected turns that no other freedom movement had to face. Unprecedented in history, we are dealing with war and peace talks at the same time.
     
    Six years have passed since we dedicated ourselves to find a solution to the ethnic conflict through peace talks. In this long time span, has a solution been found to the burning Tamil national question? Was there any visible change in the mindset of the Sinhala leadership that continues to inflict unrelenting cruelty on the Tamil people? Were any of the justifiable requests of the Tamils been fulfilled? Were our people able to find relief from the daily harassment and misery at the hands of the occupying military? Were the daily basic problems of our people resolved? None of these has happened. Instead, death and destruction were heaped on the Tamils who hoped that they would receive justice.
     
    While the countries that preached peace maintain silence without conscience, a great tragedy is unfolding in the Tamil homeland. The Sinhala government has imprisoned the Tamils in their own land after closing its main supply routes. Having removed their freedom by restricting their movement and constrained their lives, it is inflicting great suffering on them. It has split the Tamil homeland, set up military camps, bound it with barbed wire, and has converted it into a site of collective torture.
     
    The Sinhala government has unleashed a two pronged war, military and economic, on our people. Our people are subjected to unprecedented assaults. Arrests, imprisonment, and torture, rape and sexual harassment, murders, disappearance, shelling, aerial bombing, and military offensives are continuing unchecked. At the same time our people are subjected to an inhuman economic embargo on essential items including food and medicine.
     
    Even after the ceasefire, negotiations and the five years of patiently keeping peace, the dividends of peace have not reached our people. Instead our people are faced with unbearable burdens in their daily lives. Thousands of our people have been forced out of their homes and are languishing with disease and hunger in refugee camps. No one should expect that this Sinhala government which is denying food and medicine to our people to the extent of starving them would show compassion and give them their political rights.
     
    The monumental growth in knowledge and the resulting global outlook is taking humanity into a new era. Ideas, views and philosophies are changing in tandem with this growth in knowledge and this is resulting in changes in society. Yet, within the Sinhala nation, there is little change in its ideas and philosophies. The Sinhala nation is refusing to broaden its thinking and take a new approach. The Sinhala nation remains mislead by the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa and remains trapped in the chauvinistic sentiments thus created. Unable to free itself from this mindset, it has adopted Sinhala Buddhist chauvinistic notions as its dominant national philosophy. This notion is spread in its schools, universities and even its media. The domination of this Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is preventing its students, intellectuals, and writers from stepping out of and thinking free from its domination. This, unfortunately, is preventing the Sinhala nation from undertaking a genuine attempt at resolving the Tamil national question in a civilized manner.
     
    Both our liberation movement and our people never preferred war to a peaceful resolution. We have always preferred a peaceful approach to win the political rights of our people. We have never hesitated to follow the peaceful path to win our political rights. That is why we have tried to hold peace talks beginning in Thimpu right through to Geneva on several occasions, at various times, and in many countries. The current peace efforts, with Norwegian facilitation and with the blessings of the international community, taking place in the capitals of various countries are unique.
     
    This peace journey began on 31st October 2000, when the then Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim visited Vanni and met us. This peace journey is taking place in a unique period, under unique historical conditions, in a unique format and on a unique path. It is moving on two fronts, peace talks, on one hand, and a war of occupation by the Sinhala government, on the other.
     
    During the six years when we kept peace, we were sincere in our efforts. Indeed, we initiated the peace efforts. We created a strong foundation for peace efforts by unilaterally declaring a ceasefire. We refrained from putting conditions or time limits for peace talks. We did not undertake these efforts from a position of weakness. We had recaptured the Vanni mainland and the Iyakkachchi-Elephant Pass military complex. We had beaten back the ‘Operation Fire’ of the Sinhala military. We carried out great military feats in the history of our struggle. It was from this position of strength that we undertook this peace effort.
     
    The situation was just the opposite in the south. The south had faced defeat after defeat and was losing its will to face war. Its military had lost its backbone. The economy was very shaky. It was only under such conditions that the Sinhala nation agreed for peace talks. In this five years since the peace efforts began, three governments have come to power, that of Wickremasinghe, Bandaranayake and Rajapakse. Each time the government changed, the dove of peace moved from one cage to another but it was never able to fly freely. Stabbed many times, the dove is now struggling for its life.
     
    We held talks with the Wickremasinghe government for six months after signing the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with him. Like all previous Sinhala regimes, the Wickremasinghe regime dragged time without implementing the clauses in the CFA and the agreements reached at the talks. Its military failed to move out of people’s homes, schools and hospitals and instead declared these vast areas of land as military security zones and permanently prevented the people from returning to their land. The sub-committee for De-escalation and Normalization became dysfunctional. The sub-committee created to solve immediate humanitarian needs of the people also become defunct due to planned sabotage by the government.
     
    The Wickremasinghe government that refused to solve the humanitarian problems facing our people, secretly worked to marginalize our movement on the world stage. Even before setting up a working administrative structure in the Tamil homeland, it conducted donor conferences to obtain aid for the south. By failing to facilitate our participation in the donor conference held in Washington, it marginalized and humiliated our movement. As a result we were forced to stay away from the Tokyo conference. The Wickremasinghe regime did not stop with this. It plotted to trap our freedom movement in an ‘international safety net’ and destroy us.
     
    When we put forward the proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), startling changes occurred in the southern politics. The Kumaratunge government took over the reins of power. While refusing to hold talks on the basis of our proposal, her government, using the paramilitary phenomenon, intensified the shadow war against us. The paramilitary factor turned the Tamil homeland into a violent blood stained theatre. Intellectuals, political leaders, journalists, LTTE members, supporters and civilians were all murdered. We were forced to halt the political work, carried out according to the CFA clauses by our members in Sri Lankan military occupied areas of the Tamil homeland. As a result, our people were left alone in the cruel grip of the occupying military. Finally the Kumaratunge regime failed to implement even the Joint Mechanism (PTOMS) agreement signed by her regime for tsunami rehabilitation. The Supreme Court, unable to step outside the Sinhala chauvinistic notions, rejected this purely humanitarian focused agreement citing the unitary constitution.
     
    It was at this time that the Sinhala nation elected Rajapakse as its new President. Like the Sinhala leaders of the past, he too is putting his hopes in a military solution. He rejected our final call in our last year’s Heroes’ Day statement, to find a resolution to the Tamil National question with urgency. Instead, he intensified the war, on the one hand, with the view to destroy our movement and, on the other hand, he is talking about finding a peaceful resolution. This dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed. It is not possible to find a resolution by marginalizing and destroying the freedom movement with which talks must be held to find the resolution. This is political absurdity on the part of the Sinhala leaders.
     
    The Rajapakse regime hopes to decide the fate of the Tamil nation using its military power. It wants to occupy the Tamil land and then force an unacceptable solution on the Tamils. Due to this strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the CFA has become defunct. The Rajapakse regime, by openly advocating attacks on our positions, has effectively buried the CFA. The Rajapakse regime’s attacks have expanded from land to sea and air. It has given a free hand to the paramilitary groups to kill at will. It has occupied Mavilaru and Sampur blatantly breaking the terms of the CFA. The Sinhala military misjudged our strategic withdrawal from Mavilaru and Sampur. It used heavy firepower and launched large scale offensives to bring Tamil lands under its control. Tamil land was soaked in blood. It is at this time we decided to give a shock to the Sinhala regime. Our forces conducted a massive counter-offensive on the Sinhala forces that attempted to move from Kilali and Muhamalai. The military sustained heavy losses and was forced to abandon its offensive temporarily. This, however, did not persuade the Sinhala regime to give up its military plans. It continues on its military path.
     
    The Rajapakse regime, while conducting genocide of the Tamils, is portraying our movement which is waging a struggle to save the Tamils from this genocide as a terrorist organization. It has launched a malicious propaganda campaign to defame our movement. Ignoring the unanimous opposition of our people and the objection of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the European Union and Canada have yielded to diplomatic pressure from the Sri Lankan government and listed our movement as a terrorist organization. They isolated us as undesirables.
     
    This hasty decision, arrived at without considering the prevailing context, has created serious repercussions. It has gravely disturbed the parity of status and balance of power we held with the Sinhala regime. It encouraged the hard line stance of the Sinhala regime. It weakened the SLMM and facilitated the war plans of the Sinhala regime. Some countries that proclaim to be helping the peace efforts, have not only failed to condemn the genocidal attacks on our people but are also giving military and financial aid to the Sinhala regime to support its war plans. These are external factors that are encouraging the Rajapakse regime to carry on with its brutal military offensives in the Tamil land with absolute impunity.
     
    The Rajapakse regime is not giving due importance to the peace talks because it has confidence in its military approach. The two Geneva talks were unproductive because of its lack of interest in the peace front. At the first Geneva talks, we placed evidence of military-paramilitary cooperation in the form of documents, statistics and incident reports. Unable to reject the solid evidence, the Sri Lankan government agreed to implement the CFA clause by removing the paramilitary groups from the Tamil homeland. After this first Geneva talks, there was only one change. State and paramilitary terror in the Tamil homeland escalated.
     
    The second Geneva talks were also a failure. At these talks, we gave priority to the humanitarian issues facing our people and requested that the A9 road be opened and the SLMM be given freedom to function. The Sri Lankan government, putting military advantage ahead of humanitarian concerns, rejected both requests.
     
    The Sinhala government that failed to show mercy to the people affected by a natural disaster is never going to budge on a humanitarian crisis that it planned and created. How could the peace talks move forward when the peace delegation is made up of people who proclaim that they will wage war and hold peace talks at the same time? How can trust be built? How can peace be arrived at like this?
     
    To improve his posturing as a peace dove, President Rajapakse staged a deceptive ‘All Party Conference’. The Sinhala leaders have practiced this infamous political tradition of initiating commissions of inquiry, parliamentary select committees, all party conferences, or round tables to procrastinate whenever it is unable to face up to a situation and wants to drag time until attention is diverted. This is exactly what he is doing now. Rejecting our call to speedily find a resolution to the Tamil national question, he is hiding behind the All Party Conference. For the last ten months, the all party committee is looking for the Tamil question, like searching for a black cat in a dark room.
     
    Once the All Party Conference lost its deceptive power, President Rajapakse has taken up his next card, the MoU between the two major parties. These two major parties that effectively have hegemonic control over the south are both essentially chauvinistic parties. Both these parties are born of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism and compete with each other to carry out genocide of the Tamils. This MoU is a temporary opportunistic move by Rajapakse regime to avoid the multiple problems of international pressure to find a peaceful solution, the declining economic situation, and the opposition of his political partner, Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna (JVP). There is no sincere motive in this MoU agreement. These two parties will never put forward a just solution to the Tamil issue. Despite this, the Rajapakse regime continues to show interest in keeping the all party conference alive simply to deceive the world.
     
    My beloved people,
     
    A long time has elapsed since we embarked on this journey for peace with Norway’s facilitation. We have tried our best to take forward this peace effort. We have practised patience. We gave innumerable opportunities for finding peaceful resolution. We postponed our plan to advance our freedom struggle twice to give even more chances to the peace efforts, once when the tsunami disaster struck and again when President Rajapakse was elected.
     
    It is now crystal clear that the Sinhala leaders will never put forward a just resolution to the Tamil national question. Therefore, we are not prepared to place our trust in the impossible and walk along the same old futile path.
     
    The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam. We therefore ask the international community and the countries of the world that respect justice to recognize our freedom struggle. At this historic time when the Tamils are recommencing their journey on the path of freedom, we seek the unwavering support and assistance of the world Tamil community. We express our gratitude to the Tamil Nadu people and leaders for voicing their support and ask them to continue their efforts to help us in our freedom struggle. We express our gratitude to the Tamil Diaspora, our displaced brethren living all around the world, for their contribution to our struggle and ask them to maintain their unwavering participation and support.”
  • Rajapakse dismisses Pirapaharan's assertion
    Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday dismissed Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s declaration Monday that Colombo’s intransigence has compelled Tamils no option but to seek an independent state.
     
    Expressing frustration at the intransigence of successive Sinhala regimes towards resolving Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Pirapaharan said this week that there was alternative for the Tamils but political independence.
     
    In his annual Heroes’ Day statement, Mr. Pirapaharan criticised the deceitful handling of the current Norwegian peace efforts by three successive Sinhala regimes.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapakse inspects a Sri Lankan warship. Photo Daily Mirror.
    He said President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected his final call in his Heroes’ Day statement last year to find a resolution to the Tamil National question with urgency.
     
    President Rajapakse had instead intensified the war on the one hand and whilst on the other hand talking about finding a peaceful resolution, he said.
     
    The LTTE leader said that this dual war and peace approach is fundamentally flawed and due to this strategy of the Rajapakse regime, the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) has become defunct, he said.
     
    “It is not possible to find a resolution by marginalizing and destroying the freedom movement with which talks must be held to find the resolution. This is political absurdity on the part of the Sinhala leaders.”
     
    The LTTE leader said that the present regime, which is denying food and medicine to the people to the extent of starving them, cannot be expected to show compassion and give the Tamil people their political rights.
     
    “The Rajapakse regime is not giving due importance to the peace talks because it has confidence in its military approach,” he said.
     
    The Sinhala nation, eternally trapped in the mythical ideology of the Mahavamsa, has failed to think afresh and has left the Tamils with only one option, political independence and statehood, he said.
     
    President Rajapakse, who is visiting India this week, on Tuesday dismissed Mr. Pirapaharan’s comments, saying “I have not taken it seriously. Because he has always been saying these things,”
     
    President Rajapakse’s comments came after belligerent and contradictory responses by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, government defence spokesman Rumbekwella and government Peace Secretariat chief Palitha Kohana.
     
    President Rajapakse told the CNN-IBN television channel in India that he was ready for direct talks with Pirapaharan instead of involving ‘others’ to end an ethnic conflict.
     
    He also attacked Mr. Pirapaharan.
     
    “He has been talking like this from the start. He has been saying these things even though he came for talks. He always wanted to kill people. He has killed more Tamils than Sinhalese. Just count the number and you will know,” President Rajapakse said.
     
    Asked what can Sri Lanka do to convince the LTTE leader to return to the negotiating table, the President replied: “I don't know.”
     
    “I can talk to him straight. So let us talk,” he then said.
     
    “I always tell him 'why do you want others to get involved in Sri Lanka?'“ President Rajapakse said, without elaborating how this had been done, but referring to Norwegian facilitators.
     
    “I am taking a political risk by offering to negotiate with [him],” the president also said, referring to the Sinhalese-nationalist groups supporting him and which are opposed to peace talks and Norway’s role.
     
    Reacting to Mr. Pirapaharan’s comments earlier, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, who visiting Vietnam, said: “negotiations will go on.''
     
    Norwegian brokered negotiations are stalled amid soaring violence after acrimonious and inconclusive talks in Geneva in October.
     
    “There is terrorism and there is negotiations,'' Prime Minister Wickramanayake said.
     
    “Let the LTTE react in the way they want,” he said. “Terrorism must be stopped by them, not us. We are not terrorists.”
     
    “Ultimately the Tamil people must decide whether they accept terrorism or not, not we,” he said.
     
    Echoing President Rajapakse, the Premier also said: “I am not aware of what the Tamil leader said so far. I haven't read it. I haven't seen it.”
     
    Sri Lankan spokesman on defence matters, minister Keheliya Rambukwella, said President Rajapakse would adhere to the CFA and would continue with the peace process.
     
    Mr. Rambukwella also attacked Mr. Pirapaharan.
     
    “Duplicity is all over the speech. Every word, every sentence is duplicity,” he said of the LTTE leader’s Heroes Day address.
     
    The head for the government's peace secretariat, Palitha Kohona, was the first government official to react Monday to Mr. Pirapaharan’s comments.
     
    “I don't have to listen to a terrorist in the jungle,” he snapped. “If they provoke us, we will take appropriate measures to counter that.”
     
    He then added: “we have said very clearly we want to solve this problem by negotiations.”
  • Lost Point
    The much anticipated annual Heroes' Day speech by LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan has triggered a storm of controversy and speculation. Inevitably, his declaration that the uncompromising Sinhala chauvunism permeating Sri Lanka's establishment leaves the Tamils no option but an independent state has been  widely interpreted as a 'declaration of war.' This analysis is flawed. Not only does it ignore the prevailing ground reality (that a devastating war is already underway), it ignores the central message: in the four years of ceasefire and peace efforts, the Tamil community has repeatedly been treated with callous disregard and contempt by successive Sri Lankan governments. The possibility of Tamil political aspirations being met by such a political establishment is practically nil, leaving the Tamils no alternative except to seek political independence.
     
    To begin with, a devastating and vicious war is already underway. That this war has largely not affected the Sinhala south does not mean it is not taking place. This year alone, thousands of Tamil civilians have been killed, along with 800 LTTE cadres and many Sri Lankan soldiers. Over two hundred thousand people have been displaced. Over 650,000 people in Jaffna and, especially, in Vaharai are suffering as blockaded food and medicine run out. Sri Lanka's air force and artillery blasts LTTE-controlled territory each day. LTTE artillery responds while there are frequent clashes at sea. Is this not war? And this war actually began in 2004, when the Kumaratunge regime escalated its murderous paramilitary campaign against the LTTE and, especially, its civilian supporters. Tamil protests were simply ignored by the international community. The confrontations are now between the uniformed armed forces of both sides.
     
    But it is the nature of the Sri Lankan state's campaign that says it all. The humanitarian crisis engulfing the Tamil people has been deliberately engineered. The mass displacements, the blockades on food and medicine, the targeting of refugee centers and other civilian sites - frequently with horrific casualties, are all premeditated steps to crush Tamil defiance. The question Mr. Pirapaharan posed on Monday is this: Is a Sinhala political establishment which is prepared to do this likely to agree to an amicable powersharing agreement with the Tamils?
     
    Just as it used the suffering of Tamil civilians against the LTTE during the times of war, the Sinhala establishment has done so in times of peace also. The 'peace dividends' which flooded the south were deliberately denied to the north. Rehabilitation and reconstruction aid was made conditional on the shortening of Tamil political goals. Even when the LTTE agreed to explore federalism, the aid did not come - whilst the south thrived. Despite the Northeast bearing the brunt of the 2004 tsunami, it had to struggle to get Colombo's attention. Despite the P-TOMS being signed in 2005, it was promptly discarded by the Kumaratunga regime - and no aid came.
     
    Despite their individual and political differences, all three Sinhala leaders - Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse - used Tamil suffering as political leverage against the LTTE. All three abrogated deals with the Tamils (SIHRN, PTOMS, Northeast merger) and all three oversaw violations of the ceasefire (from sinking LTTE ships to the 'shadow war'). And all this amid a peace process - an internationally brokered and monitored one, at that. The international community has proven unwilling to ensure Sri Lanka honours even international humanitarian law, let alone the micro-deals it has struck with the Tamils. India's impotence over the abrogation of the 1987 Northeast merger says it all. On what basis are the Tamils expected to sign a peace deal with the Sinhala establishment?
     
    This is not to say the peace process, like the truce, is beyond salvage. As the international monitors of the SLMM formally ascertained this week, the LTTE is still committed to the 2002 CFA - something the Rajapakse regime could not bring itself to say at the Geneva talks. But to be revived there have to be concrete changes in the dynamics of the peace process. In short, peace will be possible only if the Sri Lankan state can be held to its pledges. That responsibility lies with the international community, especially Sri Lanka's many donors and military allies. If the Norwegian peace process is to have any prospect of progressing, there must be a tangible reining in of the state. It should now be very clear to the international community that staunchly backing the Sri Lankan state is not going to deter a war, it is going to fuel it instead.
  • It's the global economy, stupid
    Sri Lanka plans to become Asia’s hub port. Photo Sena Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images
     
    The Co-Chairs’ statement of 21 November 2006 was an eyeopener for the Sri Lankan Tamil community.
     
    The international community’s position, attacking the LTTE and defending the Sri Lankan state, was bluntly set out by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs ,Nicolas Burns, with representatives of the other Co-Chairs - EU, Japan and Norway - standing shoulder to shoulder with the US.
     
    Inevitably, as has been noted by Indian analysts amongst others, the Co-Chairs' strong support for the Sri Lankan government has lead to desperation and total disillusionment with the international community amongst the Tamils.
     
    But if the Tamils are bitter, it is about time.
     
    Mr Burns was nothing if not forthright last week. And if they want to understand the international community’s perspective, the Tamils only need pay close attention to his words.
     
    To begin with, for the international community, Sri Lanka is a unique collaborative project. Differences amongst international actors on other issues are set aside in pursuit of a common goal here.
     
    Because that goal is one from which all international actors can benefit: to boost the global economy by turning Sri Lanka into a stable and secure commercial and economic hub.
     
    Thus, from a geopolitical and geoeconomic perspective, the international community’s key objective in Sri Lanka is stability.
     
    Mr Burns was explicit: “the Sri Lankan government has a right to protect the stability and security in the country.”
     
    In short, Sri Lanka is an important site for the global economy. That doesn’t mean Sri Lanka’s own economy is important. Rather, it is what Sri Lanka can contribute to the global economy.
     
    At a crucial location in the Indian Ocean (in the middle of important sea routes), Sri Lanka holds enormous promise for enhancing and enlarging commercial flows between Asia, the Middle East and the West.
     
    If only it were stable.
     
    Without guaranteed stability, Sri Lanka cannot benefit international trade in the long term (the point, again, is not whether Sri Lanka benefits from international trade, though that might be a bonus, expanding, as it does, the global market slightly).
     
    In the short term, without stability and security the investment atmosphere in Sri Lanka cannot be conducive to the kinds of development needed to turn the island into a commercial hub for global trade.
     
    Thus for the custodians of the global economy – US, EU and Japan, ensuring Sri Lanka’s stability is a pressing priority. The urgency is fuelled by accelerating global trade.
     
    But the Tamil armed struggle violently disrupts this stability.
     
    Indeed, the very existence of the LTTE, an armed non-state actor running a de-facto state in a large piece of the island and fielding a large naval force, is deeply antithetical to the international vision for Sri Lanka.
     
    The resurgence this year of the simmering violence (mistakenly thought to have been banished by the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement), has also disrupted the international community’s hasty efforts also launched that year to resume Sri Lanka’s delayed transformation into a commercial hub.
     
    This is no conspiracy theory. The international community has been always been clear that this is their goal (though of course it is the potential benefit to Sri Lanka that is pointed out, not that to the global economy or the national economies of the major powers).
     
    The frustration for the Co-Chairs is that the Tamils seem oblivious to all this.
     
    In fact, the ignorant Tamils are vociferously demanding things that are antithetical to this goal: asking for recognition of their right to self-determination, for independence, for acceptance of their violence and for the LTTE.
     
    In reality, Tamil protests of oppression by Sinhala-dominated state are largely irrelevant to the international community’s calculations for Sri Lanka.
     
    Asked about suggestions that some US officials sympathised with the Tamil demand for self-rule in their homeland, Mr. Burns replied: “we support the government. The government has a right to protect the [country’s] territorial integrity and sovereignty. [It] has a right to protect the stability and security in the country.”
     
    Stability and security for Sri Lanka essentially means defeating and dismantling the LTTE. A political solution is a secondary issue.
     
    This is also what stability and security mean for the international community: it is the LTTE’s armed struggle which is the prime impediment to Project Sri Lanka.
     
    The oppressive policies of the Sri Lankan state may be distasteful to the international community, but are not necessarily a problem. These are not likely to disrupt the island’s investment atmosphere or disrupt Sri Lanka’s transformation.
     
    When Mr. Burns says “we hold the Tamil Tigers responsible for much of what has gone wrong in the country,” he is thinking of Sri Lanka, the unrealised global commercial hub, not Sri Lanka, the Sinhala-chauvinist state.
     
    In short, the two visions of Sri Lanka –the global trade hub and the Sinhala-Only land – are perfectly compatible.
     
    This is why the Tamils have such a hard time getting their case heard. Indeed, the Tamils and their protests about discrimination are merely a nuisance to the international community.
     
    Whilst we see the racial violence, the deaths of 90,000 civilians by state violence (including by blockade of food and medicine), and the systematic marginalisation of our people as central life-or-death issues, the international community sees these as unfortunate matters to be dealt with (non-violently) on the edges of the main business of facilitating global trade.
     
    A quick overview of international engagement with Sri Lanka in the past three decades demonstrates the point.
     
    In the late seventies it was clear that given its geographical location and strong, social indicators, that Sri Lanka had the potential to contribute to the global economy to an extent that Singapore has, possibly even more.
     
    Sri Lanka’s staunchly pro-West first President, J. R. Jayawardene, visualised Sri Lanka as a free trade hub to rival Singapore. And that was long before China and India mushroomed as drivers of the global economy.
     
    Jayawardene’s embrace of the IMF and World Bank drew in a flood of developmental funds that was proportionately greater than any other developing country, despite the mounting human rights violations, discrimination and repression
     
    Even the state-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, a horrific catastrophe for the Tamils which caused international dismay, did not slow the inflow of foreign aid.
     
    Since then, there has been consistent and ever-increasing support for the Sri Lankan military to wipe out the growing Tamil rebellion. This international support culminated in the endorsement of the ruthless ‘war for peace’ of the late nineties.
     
    But the growth of the LTTE and its armed struggle has made Tamil outrage an unavoidable obstacle for the international community’s efforts.
     
    It was only when Sri Lanka’s military failed to destroy the LTTE that the Norwegian-fronted international peace process was rolled out in 2000.
     
    But even that initiative had containment and dismantling of the LTTE as its primary objective, not resolution of the conflict per se.
     
    Tamil incredulity at international behaviour over the past four years stems from our confusion as to what the international community, led by the Co-Chairs, were focussed on.
     
    Security for us meant protection from the Sinhala armed forces. Security for them meant no more LTTE attacks in the south.
     
    Stability for us meant the return of normal life for our war-savaged community. Stability for them meant no return to violence by the LTTE.
     
    Peace for us meant a lasting just solution. Peace for them meant the permanent disarming of the LTTE.
     
    In short, it is Sri Lanka’s economic potential that matters most to them, not its domestic treatment of the Tamils.
     
    Even despite its civil war Sri Lanka’s economy has expanded given its peerless position right in the middle of the expanding global trade flows.
     
    In 2004, the Colombo port was the world’s fourteenth largest port by volume for transhipment. There’s also Galle and, of course, Trincomalee.
     
    Last month Sri Lanka began expansion of a small airport in the south into a massive site capable of handling the world’s largest commercial jets.
     
    The Malacca straits adjacent to Singapore are the shortest sea route for oil tankers travelling between the Middle East and Asian markets. This route allows shipment of nearly 80% of the oil to China, Japan, and South Korea.
     
    Sri Lanka is halfway between the Middle Eastern oil producers of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Malacca straits.
     
    Even in security terms, Sri Lanka provides an excellent staging post for US or European military powers interested in Asia or Australasia (in the late nineties, fifty British warplanes once transited through Katunayake airbase enroute to exercises in South East Asia).
     
    The United States’ military has for several years been seeking bases across the world from which to project its awesome power, vital to protect global commercial lanes. Places like Sri Lanka are excellent sites.
     
    But even without its potential as an ideal location for US/Western force projection abroad, a stable and secure Sri Lanka invaluable to the global economy and thus to its custodians.
     
    Which explains the manifest lack of international interest in addressing the Sinhala-dominated nature of the Sri Lankan state. It explains the international eagerness to stabilise the state, irrespective of its acts against the Tamils.
     
    In 1983, President Jayawardene infamously said before the July pogrom: “I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people. We cannot think of them. Not about their lives or of their opinion about us.”
     
    In the rush to realise Sri Lanka’s commercial potential, this is also how the international community feels about the Tamils.
     
    And it is the LTTE’s violence, not international goodwill, that, by holding up Project Sri Lanka, keeps the Tamil issue on the international agenda.
  • Dozens of youths seek protection with Rights Council
    Jaffna youths threatened by the Sri Lanka Army SLA and allied paramilitary cadres are increasingly seeking security in the protective custody of Jaffna prison through the offices of the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
     
    At least 24 youths have sought protection with the Jaffna HRC in the past two weeks, fearing their lives are in danger from SLA and collaborating paramilitaries.
     
    Those seeking protective custody arrive at the HRC Jaffna office with their parents and relatives.
     
    They are mostly from the villages of Thirunelveli, Kokuvil, Kondavil and Inuvil villages.
     
    “The majority of the cases of abducted and killed in recent times are from these villages," Thirunelveli residents said.
     
    4 youths from the Kondavil area surrendered to the HRC on Wednesday (Nov 22), HRC officials said.
     
    Earlier six more youths from the Kondavil area surrendered Tuesday (Nov 21), and another four youths surrendered on Monday (Nov 20).
     
    These 14 youths appeared at the Jaffna Magistrates courts Wednesday before being taken to Jaffna prison for protective custody on the orders of the Magistrate, press reports said.
     
    But with Sri Lanka Army and Police personnel assigned responsibility for the security of the Jaffna prison, the danger to the lives of the surrendered youths still remains even inside the facility, rights activists in Jaffna said.
     
    With the additional 8 youths in kept in protective custody earlier, 24 youths are currently held in the prison, HRC officials and parents of some of the youths said.
     
    Placing those below 18 years of age in protective custody of Jaffna prison may cause legal complications and many local civil society organisations have requested the Jaffna office of the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, to make urgent arrangements to safeguard the lives of those below 18 threatened by the SLA and paramilitary groups.
     
    "Most of the youths abducted and killed by the SLA are between the ages of 15 to 18, and the Organisations working to safeguard the welfare of children, including UNICEF in Jaffna, are yet to raise alarm, civil society leaders in Jaffna said.
     
    There needs to be awareness of the escalating incidents of abductions and the fear and trauma of parents with teen age children in Jaffna, they said.
     
    "Abductions and killings of the youth in the Jaffna peninsula have increased at an alarming rate. In the last 50 days from October first week to November 20, more than 130 documented cases of abductions and killings alleged to be perpetrated by the SLA soldiers," a local NGO official said on Nov 21.
     
    Escaping a hail of bullets
     
    A youth abducted by Sri Lankan troops at gun point from his house at Sebastian Lane, Kondavil East, Jaffna sought sanctuary Friday Nov 17 at the Jaffna office of the HRC, after surviving their efforts to shoot him.
     
    Abducted on Nov 11 along with two other youths, Thambyaiyah Jegan 26, a bachelor and a painter, escaped from an SLA vehicle and went into hiding for week before surrendering to the HRC officials for safety.
     
    In a statement to the HRC, Jegan said that he and two other youths were abducted by the SLA troopers of the Urelu SLA camp and were tortured at the camp premises for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers.
     
    Later the three were taken in a Buffel armoured car to Anaipanthy, where soldiers opened fire at them.
     
    Jegan had managed to escape amid a hail of gunfire while the other two were shot dead by the troopers, Jegan said in his statement.
     
    During his arrest, armed soldiers had assaulted Jegan's mother when she had tried to stop the soldiers from taking her son.
     
    Jegan was forced to get inside the Buffel armoured vehicle waiting in front of his house, and he saw two neighborhood youths, Ravi Rajivan , 14, and Thankaroopan Jeeva, 21, already held captive inside the vehicle.
     
    The three abducted youths were severely tortured by the SLA troopers at the Urelu SLA camp and then taken to Anaipanthy where the SLA troopers pushed Ravi Rajivan to the ground and shot him with a pistol.
     
    When Jegan was pushed to the ground he managed to free himself and fled the area narrowly escaping several rounds of fire aimed at him.
     
    He took refuge inside a house and went underground till Friday, Jegan said in his statement.
     
    He learnt later that the bodies of other two youths were found near Anaipanthy junction Sunday, where two SLA Intelligence Officers were killed in claymore attack on Thursday November 9.
  • Viral fever spreads in Jaffna, Northeast
    Viral fever, suspected to be Chikungunya, is spreading rapidly amongst people in Jaffna, medical experts said Sunday.
     
    “In Jaffna, this viral fever which has the symptoms of Chikungunya is spreading very fast. I find that more than 5,000 people have been infected," Dr. A. Ketheeswaran, director of provincial health services there, told Reuters. The disease has been confirmed spreading rapidly in Kalmunai, Mannar, Batticaloa, Puttalam and parts of Colombo.
     
    Food and medical supplies are in short supply in the northern peninsula, which remains cut off with the government refusing to open the A9 highway which it closed during heavy fighting in August.
     
    Jaffna residents told Reuters doctors had recommended paracetamol as a fever preventive, but most shops had run out.
     
    An epidemic of the mosquito-borne Chikungunya viral fever has been confirmed elsewhere in the island, a top health official told Reuters Saturday.
     
    Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, director of the state Epidemiology Department, said pockets of the fever had been detected in Sri Lanka's northwest, south and east, but could not say how many cases had been reported.
     
    "We have got some samples down to Colombo and we handed them over to five different laboratories. All five have reported it as Chikungunya," Abeysinghe said. "You could say it is (an epidemic)."
     
    "We have confirmed there is an outbreak going on in Kalmunai, Mannar, Batticaloa, Puttalam and some parts of Colombo city," he added. "It is in densely populated pockets."
     
    Abeysinghe said he believed up to 60 percent of reported fever cases were due to Chikungunya.
     
    "There are several different fevers. Not all fevers reported are Chikungunya," he said, but added that bird flu was "very, very unlikely because there are no respiratory symptoms, no cough or cold or anything like that".
     
    However laboratories had yet to confirm whether an outbreak of viral fever in the northern Jaffna peninsula, cut off from the rest of the country for months was Chikungunya as suspected.
     
    The outbreak comes as Sri Lanka also grapples with a sharp increase in dengue fever cases as monsoon rains create breeding conditions for mosquitoes which carry the diseases, Reuters reported.
     
    Symptoms of Chikungunya include high fever, joint and muscular pain, severe headaches, body aches and a rash similar to that seen in dengue patients.
    While the disease is painful, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says no deaths from Chikungunya have been documented in scientific literature.
     
    Abeysinghe said it was very unlikely that Chikungunya caused the death on the peninsula of a Tamil woman suffering from viral fever on Friday.
     
    "It is very unlikely to be (due to Chikungunya). There may be a lot of other disease conditions associated with these people who are reported to have died due to Chikungunya," he said.

    Chikungunya, Swahili for "that which bends up", was first isolated in the blood of a febrile patient in Tanzania in 1953, the CDC said.

  • STF offensives in the East
    Two artillery-backed offensives by Sri Lanka’s elite Special Task Force (STF) against the Liberation Tigers in the Batticaloa and Amparai districts of the last week were repulsed after major clashes.
     
    On Saturday (Nov 25) STF troop from Kanchirankuda and Sangamankandy camps in Amparai district launched an penetration raid towards Thangaveluathapuram in LTTE controlled part of the district.
     
    Following stiff resistance put up by a guerrilla unit of the Tigers, the STF pulled back, local LTTE political official, Mr. Veeramani said.
     
    Two LTTE fighters and four STF personnel were killed in the fighting, he said.
     
    The LTTE cadres were named as Ilakkiyan, 24, a Sea Tiger and Jeyaprakash, 21.
     
    The STF however said four Tigers had been killed for no STF losses. It said troops seized two T-56 automatic rifles, a pistol and a walkie-talkie when they advanced into LTTE area and launched an ambush on a LTTE position.
     
    Residents said ambulances were observed carrying STF casualties towards Amparai town.
     
    After pulling back, the STF also launched a mortar attack on LTTE Heroes Cemetary in Kanchchikudicha Aru.
     
    A civilian was killed when the STF continued with heavy mortar fire towards Thangavelauthapuram. Residents fled the village following the STF shelling.
     
    Sixteen years ago, on 23 July 1990, the SLA chased away more than a thousand Tamil families from the Tamil villages of Thangavelauthapuram, Sagamam, Kanchchikudicha Aru and Alikambai. After struggling in camps in Thirukkovil for nine years, the families returned to their villages in 1999.
     
    On Thursday (Nov 23), seven STF troops were killed when the Tigers counter-attacked their unit which launched a ground movement towards the 38th Colony in Vellaveli, Batticaloa.
     
    One LTTE cadre, Nathan, was also killed.
     
    A 40 mm grenade launcher and a T-56 rifle were recovered after the battle by the Tigers.
     
    The STF had advanced with heavy artillery and mortar fire support that claimed the life of a 15-year-old female student and wounded 5 civilians including her 2 sisters and a brother.
     
    Kamalaharan Arulchelvi, 15 was killed when STF shells hit her house in Thikkodai, Vellaveli. Her siblings, Kamalaharan Nirusha, 07, Kamalaharan Kalaichelvi, 20, and Kamalaharan Arulrasa, 18, were wounded and were rushed to hospital
     
    Two other women, Thangarasa Chandra, 38, and Kanapathipillai Pakyam, 65, were also wounded.
     
    The victims had displaced from 39th Colony, inside LTTE territory, three months ago due to heavy shelling from the Sri Lankan military camps.
     
    The STF, a specially trained and equipped unit of commandos drawn from the Sri Lankan Police, was initially developed and deployed for counter insurgency operations in the eastern province in the 1980s.
     
    The growth of the LTTE's conventional military capabilities had impelled the STF during the Eelam War III to look beyond standard western counter insurgency doctrine and practice, with operational tasks in controlling government held areas in Amparai and Batticaloa districts, reports say.
  • Cool reception in Delhi for Rajapakse
    Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (R) arrives at Indira Gandhi airport in New Delhi on Nov 25, 2006 as Indian Minister of Panchayati Raj Mani Shanker Aiyer (L) looks on. Photo Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images
    President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India this week was overshadowed by Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s Heroes’ Day address declaring a resumption of the struggle for independence.
     
    Sri Lankan and other media have made much of Delhi’s call for negotiations to end Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, suggesting it was a rebuff for the LTTE’s ‘call for Eelam.’
     
    But experienced political journalists saw India focusing on a different set of concerns – that of the hardline Sri Lankan government’s conduct vis-à-vis the Tamil minority.
     
    Delhi’s reassertion of the need for a negotiated solution is a direct rejoinder to President Rajapakse, whose government, expanding its defence budget by a staggering 45% and stepping up its vilification of the LTTE, has publicly taken up a military solution to the ethnic question.
     
    India is particularly frustrated by Sri Lanka’s persistant use of indiscriminate and excessive force resulting in the triggering of a massive humanitarian crisis in the Northeast and the deaths of large numbers of civilians in air and artillery strikes.
     
    Lastly, India is also frustrated at the Sri Lankan government’s uncompromising approach to reaching a political solution with the Tamils
     
    Not only is there no sign of a credible proposal from Colombo to put on the negotiating table, but the Rajapakse administration has actively begun dismantling a cornerstone of a future solution, the merged Northeast province.
     
    The Rajapakse administration’s pointed ignoring of repeated Indian entreaties to preserve the Northeast merger, also a crucial pillar of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, has also irked Delhi.
     
    India’s mounting displeasure on all these scores was conspicuously apparent in the dropping of customary diplomatic practices at the end of President Rajapakse’s three-day visit, which included a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
     
    After the leaders’ meeting there was no photo opportunity for reporters, nor were official photographs released.
     
    Even Sri Lanka’s flagship state-owned paper, the Daily News, had to settle for carrying a picture of Rajapakse’s meeting with Indian Opposition Leader L. K. Advani on its front-page on Thursday.
     
    There was, notably, also no joint statement by the two leaders after their hour-long talk.
     
    It was left to India's External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to make comments to the press and answer reporters’ questions.
     
    Notably, President Rajapakse’s much publicized demand that the Indian Navy should commence joint patrolling with the Sri Lankan Navy was firmly rejected. India was (only) prepared to assist the Rajapakse government with ‘non-lethal’ military assistance, Mr. Mukherjee said.
     
    Moreover, Delhi is impatient for a political solution.
     
    An Indian foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters: “We conveyed our long-standing position on the need for a negotiated political settlement that is acceptable to all sections of society.”
     
    The hackneyed expression – ‘a solution acceptable to all’ – has specific connotations when India reiterated it to President Rajapakse: the solution must be acceptable to the Tamils.
     
    The Sri Lankan leader has repeatedly been making much of his efforts to forge a southern consensus – a euphemism for a solution acceptable to Buddhist hardliners and Sinhala nationalists.
     
    The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between President Rajapakse’s ruling SLFP and the main opposition UNP has not spelled out the terms of a political solution with any clarity – whilst it echoes the hardliners’ rhetoric of defeating terrorism and separatism.
     
    And while the UNP says is it is prepared to support the merger of the North and East, there is no sign the SLFP is going to table the matter in Parliament to allow the proper process for merging to be followed.
     
    The Indian stand is that a referendum can be held in Sri Lanka's northeast to decide if it must remain one or split up into two when there is a conducive atmosphere.
     
    But the Rajapakse government’s position is that there must be referendum in the east before the merger can go ahead (in a reversal of the terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord which says the merger must stand till a referendum on demerging is held).
     
    Seasoned observers could have predicted that a cool reception for Rajapakse was on the cards even before he left for Delhi.
     
    Last week Prime Minister Singh made his sentiments on developments in Sri Lanka clear in a letter to Y Gopalasamy (Vaiko), leader of the MDMK.
     
    The symbolism of the Premier’s letter to the stridently pro-LTTE Tamil Nadu party was itself striking (especially since the letter was undoubtedly intended to be made public).
     
    So was its unmistakable tone and contents.
     
    “The latest incidents in Sri Lanka leading to the loss of many innocent lives, mainly Tamils including women and children, are a matter of the utmost concern and sorrow to all of us,” Mr. Singh said.
     
    “We have consistently pointed out that there is no justification for violence of this kind and that the killing of innocent people, especially of women and children, is not acceptable.”
     
    “We have taken great care not to provide Sri Lanka with lethal offensive items of military hardware, specially of the kind that could be used against the Tamil population.”
     
    “We have, at every opportunity, also impressed upon the Sri Lankan Government to respect the rights and privileges of the Tamils of Sri Lanka as citizens of the country. This is again being conveyed to Sri Lankan authorities.”
     
    “We will reiterate to the Government of Sri Lanka that they must find a political solution through negotiations that would meet the genuine and legitimate rights of the Tamils, rather than adopt tactics that lead to the death of innocent people.”
  • British envoy urges talks, cites Northern Ireland
    Peace talks can succeed only if “everything is on the table and there is respect for all points of view,” Britain’s former Northern Ireland Minister said after meeting Tamil Tiger officials.
     
    Saying there is a “huge comparison” between the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, Mr. Paul Murphy said “no one can win this kind of war.”
     
    “We have the same message for the Sri Lankan government as the LTTE: keep searching for a solution, ensure the ceasefire agreement is one of integrity, renounce violence and ensure there is a proper look at everything that can bring peace.”
     
    Mr. Murphy the former Northern Ireland Minister, is presently Chairman of the British Intelligence and Security Committee.
     
    He spoke to reporters on Nov. 16 after meeting with the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan at the LTTE’s Political Headquarters in Kilinochchi.
     
    “I was asked to come by the Prime Minister of Britain to give our experiences in Northern Ireland where I was Secretary of State for many years to see if people in Sri Lanka can learn from our experiences,” Mr. Murphy said.
     
    “I will be reporting back to Tony Blair on the points that have been made here [in Kilinochchi] – and the points that have been made in Colombo as well.”
     
    Sri Lanka’s conflict can be solved if there is genuine will on both sides, he said.
     
    “There is a huge comparison between Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka,” he reiterated.
     
    The numbers of people killed in the two conflicts are proportionately the same – out of a million and a half people in, 3,000 died and sixty thousand have died in Sri Lanka, he said.
     
    “There were cases of discrimination and real conflict in Northern Ireland [also],” Mr. Murphy, who co-chaired the peace talks there for two years, said.
     
    “No one can win this type of war. Everybody understands that and if there is a will for peace then there are all sorts of ways in which our experiences in Northern Ireland can help,” he said.
     
    “Everything has to be on the table, it has to be an inclusive process, everybody has to be involved and there has to be equal respect for everybody,” he said.
     
    “[In Northern Ireland] we looked at everything - constitutional arrangements, language, human rights, humanitarian issues, equality, police, criminal justice; all those issues were on the table,” he said.
     
    “Above all, equal respect for everybody’s point of view.”
     
    Speaking to reporters, the LTTE Political Chief, Mr. Tamilselvan said the meeting with Mr. Murphy had been interesting.
     
    “The Northern Ireland peace process succeeded because there was patience and commitment by the conflict parties,” he said.
     
    “[But] the Sri Lankan government doesn’t even want to acknowledge and respecting the Ceasefire Agreement we signed in 2002,” he said.
     
    “In the [new] budget, the government has massively increased military expenditure. What does that indicate?”
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