While conveying his love and gratitude to the people and leaders of Tamil Nadu and leaders of India who have grasped the heartbeat of Eezham Tamils and have come forward with timely support, the LTTE leader V.Pirapaharan in his Hero’s Day speech on Thursday requested them to voice firmly for Tamil Eelam and to undertake conducive measures to remove the ban, a great hindrance to amicable relationship between India and the LTTE. “At no stage did we ever consider India as an enemy force. Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian super power will take a positive stand on our national question”, he said. The LTTE leader also requested the world powers to remove the ban on it, citing that the LTTE never schemed any act against any country and the Tamil struggle is not against the geopolitical, national or economic interests of any country.

A journalists’ body urged the Sri Lankan government to release a Tamil radio station manager who was arrested in Colombo on November 15 on allegations of having ‘links with terrorists’ and ‘aiding terrorist activities’.

The allegations against A R V Loshan should be “based on evidence and not on simple conjecture”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, said in a statement on November 17.

The senior radio presenter and current manager of FM Vettri was picked up by Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) agents.

"The growing number of arrests by the authorities of Tamil journalists under the anti-terror law gives currency to the common rumor that many of them are Tamil Tiger agents, but also undermines the anti-terror law itself", the organisation added.

A colleague of the journalist told Reporters Without Borders that his mother had been allowed to visit him. He is in good health and hopes to be quickly released.

Police questioned another journalist at Vettri FM before arresting the director.

The 32-year-old with more than 10 years radio experience has worked for five years for the station, which is owned by the ABC press group.

Reporters Without Borders pointed out that two other Tamil journalists - J. S. Tissainayagam and Vettivel Jasikaran - are already being held under the anti-terror law.

Jasikaran’s fiancée, Valarmathi Jasikaran, has also been imprisoned in Colombo under very harsh conditions.

Stuck for ideas as their administration becomes increasingly bankrupt, the Rajapakses have taken to asking the Sri Lankan people to dig deep into their collective bosom and come up with some patriotic fervour to help offset the spiralling cost of living, rising unemployment, ubiquitous corruption and that long-forgotten ideal we used to call human rights. The idea of whipping up patriotic passion when in dire straits is not new: it is as old as the hills, and certainly as old as Rome, as told by Julius Caesar himself :

"Beware of the leader," said Caesar, "who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry who, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar."

Mahinda Rajapakse may not be the most erudite politician this country has known, but even his worst enemy would concede that he is not altogether witless. Despite the economy collapsing about him thanks to unprecedented ignorance, waste and corruption of the crassest kind, he has single-mindedly prosecuted a military campaign that he says will solve the Tamil Question. While that remains to be seen, there can be no doubt that for a section of Sri Lanka's Sinhala majority (the folks who turned the page), the idea of whipping Tamil ass - excuse the metaphor: Hollywood's influence is everywhere - has taken precedence over all else. The idea that capturing the territory of the north and east, and subjugating its people to the iron boot of the central government's remit, has become the cornerstone of the Rajapakse Doctrine.

But as Karuna himself has now come to admit, the east is far from secure. With the TMVP deeply divided, the LTTE has again infiltrated the region, spawning a fresh wave of terror. And without a package on the table, the government cannot muster the moral authority to stamp them out, as they must be. According to Rajapakse, the government will spend Rs 170 billion in the coming year to wipe out the remaining 5,000 LTTE cadres: that is Rs 34 million per militant. It is difficult to imagine that if that colossal sum were to be offered to develop the north and east, with a credible package of reforms on the table, the Tigers would find themselves isolated and without popular support. And a lot of young servicemen would live to see their children and families again.

For all Velupillai Pirapaharan's bravado, there can be no doubt that the Sri Lankan armed forces can capture the north if they set their minds to it. Capturing territory, after all, is simply a matter of bombs and bullets, and with Rs 500 million being spent every day of the year towards that end, sooner or later the government will be able truthfully to claim that the north has fallen. That much is written, and no serious observer has questioned the inevitability of such an outcome should the war be prosecuted indefinitely at its present intensity.

The question we beg to ask is, What happens afterwards? Just like in the east, the government will have no choice but to establish a network of (Sinhala) security-forces encampments so as to ensure that the local Tamil population doesn't try any hanky-panky. If they do, we shall have to incarcerate them or shoot them. When we do, it is most unlikely that the rest of them will be content with pursing their lips and muttering unsavoury epithets under their breath. They will fight. And then we're all back to quadratio unis or, if you didn't take Latin at school, Square One.

For the scenario Mahinda Rajapakse sees for Sri Lanka's north is, quite simply, the same one he sees for the east: an occupied territory governed by a Quisling Tamil government. Au contraire, say we: that is merely a recipe for a new phase of disenchantment and violence. Rajapakse talks glibly of bringing militants into the democratic mainstream. Has he wondered for a moment just what the Tamils were doing since representational government was introduced in 1833, until Independence in 1948? They were in the mainstream. And despite some of their ablest and most moderate leaders having been part of that mainstream, 1958 and 1983 happened. And it was right under their noses that the Sinhala-only 'reforms' of 1956 happened. All this under a Sinhala leadership that was infinitely more centrist than Mahinda Rajapakse, whose favourite bedfellow nowadays is Champika Ranawaka, a man whose political ideals are well known to be slightly to the right of Genghis Khan.

Drive around the byways of Colombo and see for yourself the number of half-constructed multi-storey buildings, standing ghostly and abandoned, as if some grim hand had liquidated their builders. See for yourself how the advertising supplements of Sunday newspapers have fattened over the past year, with people scrambling to sell off their land, their cars, their wealth, just to make ends meet. And yet, listen to the leaders of the chambers of commerce purr reassuringly that all is well, congratulate the government on the budget and talk of blue skies tomorrow. In whose pocket, you wonder, do they nestle? Perhaps you spare a thought for the other newspapers you might read today, obediently beating the war drums and groping for words to fit the Rajapakse tune. How, you wonder, could they be so out of touch? And then you remember nearly everyone in Sunny Sri Lanka has their price, whether a contract to print exercise books or to sell weapons.

Speaking of which, what price the opposition, or what is left of it? At no time of national crisis could an opposition be more at odds with itself as ours is. So long has it been sitting on the fence that it is in imminent danger of developing haemorrhoids. The UNP is yet to decide whether or not it supports the government's military adventure. If it does, and its platform is identical to the Rajapakse-Ranawaka platform, its remaining 43 MPs may as well join the government and be done with it. If it does not, it had better be telling the people why. As it is, we see the UNP, in the guise of its spokesman, Tissa Attanayake, sending mixed and meaningless signals to its constituency. On the one hand it claims that there is no military solution, on the other, whenever the government announces a military success, it is out there congratulating the victorious, heroic armed forces. Somewhere along the way it lost the plot.

Thankfully, Mangala Samaraweera retains his fiercely independent fighting spirit. But for the looks of mute admiration and envy from his bedfellows in the UNP, however, his is a lone voice of reason in the wilderness. Samaraweera has taken to calling the bluff of the Rajapakse regime and the steady stream of fairytales it invents to assuage the concerns of the people. Listen to the Rajapakses, and the LTTE has been destroyed many times over. By amazing happenstance, the army captures key strategic targets to coincide with the army commander's extension, the President's birthday, the budget readings, and so on. Yet the UNP, like Mary's little lamb, follows mutely, clicking its heels and saluting at intervals. It is not for nothing that diplomats now refer to the UNP as Mangala's Dumb Chums. As for Samaraweera, he is coming to discover that in the UNP's land of the blind the one-eyed man is roundly disliked.

The UNP could well take a page from the book of Barack Obama who, having decided that the US presence in Iraq was wrong, made no bones about it. He ran a high risk but was able to swing the American voters to his side. The UNP, however, has opted for a 'wait and see' strategy, the hallmark of the coward. There is no moral justification for prosecuting this war in the absence of a credible response to the grievances and aspirations of Sri Lanka's minorities. And that response should come in the form of a package of constitutional reforms that will assuage the concerns minorities have that they are being excluded from the mainstream. Perhaps the most telling symptom of this ailment is the polarization of political parties by race.

Whichever way one chooses to slice Mahinda Rajapakse's attitude toward the ethnic strife that bedevils Sri Lanka, one saws through to a hard lump of bigotry at the core of the loaf. There is no novelty in that, for all presidents since J. R. Jayewardene have fallen into much the same error.

In 1983, even as his government presided over a breathtaking economic recovery, so acute was Jayewardene's myopia that he stood idly by as the island's Sinhala majority unleashed a pogrom of biblical proportions on the Tamil citizenry to avenge the deaths of 13 servicemen at the hands of the LTTE. It dawned only slowly on Jayewardene that by doing so he had shot himself in the foot. Ever since the pogrom of 1958, the Tamil community had been wary of its Sinhala brethren. Then, just 25 years later, Jayewardene made it abundantly clear that no lessons had been learnt; indeed, this time the violence was even more brutal.

Since then, 18 servicemen (give or take a few) have, on average, died at the hands of the LTTE every week. The Sinhalese have grown accustomed to this unrelenting attrition and no longer does a fallen soldier stir untoward emotion in the Aryan breast. As for the Tamils, in the name of reining in the LTTE, they have fallen victim to death by a thousand cuts. Those who could flee have fled; those who have money have bought or bribed their way to security; and those with neither - the preponderant majority - find themselves wedged between a rock and an exceedingly hard place.

Mahinda Rajapakse does not tire of telling the world that he and his Sinhala brethren have nothing against the Tamils. Indeed, it is a constant refrain that it was he who was first to address the UN General Assembly in Tamil. This, however, is about as empty as Chandrika Kumaratunga asking how her government could be accused of racism when her Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, was himself a Tamil. To be fair, the LTTE have not made it easy for Rajapakse. To start with, they have systematically decimated not only Sri Lanka's Tamil political leadership, but also the elite Sinhala leaders. With the A-team safely dead on both sides, it is the B-teams that now confront each other across the aisle of parliament. No surprise then, that there is a dearth of political imagination.

Rajapakse simply fails to see that his equation of the cause of Tamil liberation with the elimination of the LTTE simply will not wash. Indeed, it is no different from Sirimavo Bandaranaike equating the case for southern emancipation with the military elimination of the JVP in 1971. The causes of militancy need to be separated from the militants themselves. Sadly for Sri Lanka, this subtle but important distinction eludes Mahinda Rajapakse.

Today, Sri Lanka's Tamil community finds itself increasingly under suspicion. Tamil journalists are arrested and incarcerated on the flimsiest of pretexts. Tamil citizens must carry national identity cards in Tamil, immediately causing them to be singled out and harassed at security checkpoints. And the indignities are often even more pervasive. For example, when the security forces fought their way into Pooneryn last week, the government made this out to be an event comparable with the conquest of another country. It demanded that the country endorse its hysterical euphoria by displaying the national flag, sending a clear message to the Tamil citizenry that Sinhala troops had conquered the Tamil homeland. In many cases, Tamil's too, had to adorn their homes and businesses with the lion flag - now reduced to little more than a symbol of Sinhala supremacy - in order to avoid ostracism. But despite endless television appeals, the paucity of homes and offices that followed Rajapakse's dictates must have sent a message to the Brothers that at least some people in this country are alive to their bluff.

Earlier this month President Mahinda Rajapakse unveiled a budget comprising of tax rises and heavy borrowing to support the government’s war efforts against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and declared that offensive operations in the country's north would continue.

Noting that the war and its success appeared to be the lynchpin of the budget, observers point out that a quick victory is crucial.

Neither the island’s already frail economy nor the Sinhalese people, who are facing one of highest inflation rates in the world – 23.4% in October, would take the burden of an expensive war for long.

“If they can finish the war soon then people may bear with them, but not forever” the country manager of a leading multi-national firm in Colombo told IPS.

Observers feel that Sinhalese public will only tolerate the economic hardships they are facing provided there are regular success stories from the battle front.

Whilst Sri Lankan military has managed to capture territory from the LTTE, its goal of destroying the outfit continues to be a distant dream.

Sri Lankan military chief has had to revise his timeline for wiping out the LTTE many times over the past two years.

As defence expenditure continue to rise and casualty numbers continue to mount, Sri Lanka is desperately in need of a quick win.

Sri Lankan eeconomists are concerned that the government has got the war euphoria mixed up with economic management.

Whipping up patriotic fervour in expectation of military victory may indeed distract attention from the worsening economic outlook. But that strategy needs victory to come soon, said the Economist in a recent article published on Sri Lanka’s budget.

Economist Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar at George Washington University, commenting on the budget reflected similar views and said that as long as the military maintains its successes in the northern battles, Rajapakse would be able to muster public support despite the country's economic woes, reported IPS.

Sri Lankan national flags flew from buildings and lamp posts and posters covered walls in the capital Colombo and across the south of the island as part of week-long celebrations ordered by the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse to mark the capture of Pooneryn in the north.

''The nation salutes our brave soldiers who once again linked north and south by their victory at Pooneryn," read a poster with silhouetted images of soldiers.

Troops gained control of Pooneryn, a strategic town located on the northern Jaffna peninsula, after a lapse of 15 years on November 15.

The capture of Pooneryn was followed by that of road junction at Maankulam and then, after a bloody battle, of part of the LTTE’s northernmost defence line in the Jaffna peninsula, at Muhamaalai.

The victories have wrapped much of the south in a shroud of euphoria with Radio shows inundated by listeners calling in with congratulatory messages and people lighting fire crackers in the streets.

Land route to Jaffna.

In a special broadcast President Mahinda Rajapakse announced on national television that troops had seized the Tiger-held town of Pooneryn for the first time in 15 years.

The latest military successes allow government troops to open a supply route to Jaffna and other areas in the north for the first time in almost a decade. "Now, we can open a land route to the Jaffna peninsula after many years," the President said referring to the A-32 highway from Manaar to Pooneryn.

Sri Lankan military chiefs tout the capturing of Pooneryn as “turning-point” in the 25-year war bringing the entire western coast under military control and opening up a land route for the transport of troops and supplies to Jaffna peninsula that for years have been sent by sea or air.

However, analysts point out that Pooneryn is more a symbolic victory than a strategic victory as the as the A32 is less use as a supply route at present than the government rhetoric suggests.

The A-32 running between Manaar and Pooneryn is more a wide muddy track than a 'highway' and needs  to be rebuilt before being used as a Main Supply Route (MSR) for military purposes.

Furthermore the causeway connecting Sangupiddy in Vanni to Keratheevu in Jaffna peninsula collapsed many years ago requiring the Sri Lankan military to operate a ferry service to transport men and material between Vanni and Jaffna, the analysts further added.

Lay down arms.

In his televised speech, Mr Rajapakse called on Velupillai Pirapaharan, the Tigers’ leader, to “lay down your arms and come to the negotiation table”.

Commenting on Rajapkase’s call to lay down the arms, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of parliamentarian Senadhiraja Jeyanandamurthi told The Morning Leader newspaper that the security of the Tamils will be under threat if the Tigers disarm.

“The LTTE will come for talks. But, it will not lay down its arms before coming to the negotiating table. The security of the Tamil people will be in question if the LTTE does that. We have seen it in the past as well,” said Jeyanandamurthi.

“Even during the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, the LTTE was asked to lay down its weapons. It was very difficult for the Tigers when fighting resumed. That mistake will not be made again,” the TNA Parliamentarian added.

Kilinochchi elusive

Jeyanandamurthi who returned from Vanni recently also told the Morning Leader that LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan had informed him that the that though the security forces had advanced into areas near Kilinochchi, they will not be able to capture Kilinochchi and the LTTE will give a devastating blow to the government, militarily within the next three months.

Despite territorial gains in recent weeks, Kilinochchi, the Tigers’ administrative headquarters, remains a difficult target. Soldiers have been skirting its fringes for weeks, held back by strong resistance and, at one time, heavy monsoon rains.

The army’s spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, admits it has been taking casualties, but insists it is “on target” to take the town.

Leader of New Left Front, Dr Wickramabahu Karunaratne, in a column that appeared last week in Lankadeepa accused the Rajapakse administration of spending 500 billions of national wealth in its military drive to kill Tamil Tigers.

Accordingly, for each Tiger killed, they have spent 50 millions. All this is wealth of the people. How many thousand Sinhala were sacrificed in this war? Today mounts of Sinhala dead bodies are stacked under Palmyra trees," Karunaratne wrote.

Earlier this month UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake also ridiculed the war expenditure of the Rajapkse administration saying that the government has spent over forty million rupees to kill one member of the Tamil Tigers since 2004.

According to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka at least 13,000 Tamil Tigers have been killed by the security forces since President Mahinda Rajapkase came to power.

Quoting government estimates, Karunanayake said 583 billion rupees were spent for the war since 02 April 2004.

If the Sri Lankan military chief's estimates are to be trusted, Karunananayake said, 42 million rupees were spent to kill one Tamil Tiger.

Sri Lankan observers point out that, in reality, the cost Rs.50 million to kill a Tamil Tiger would be many times higher as the LTTE casualty figures published by the Sri Lankan government are highly exaggerated.

The picture of a fallen top commander of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers is neatly plastered on the wall of a shopping center.

Not far away, a food outlet peddles a crispy savory pancake, "dosa," named after Tamil Eelam, the independent state aspired by the Tigers.

No, you are not in the stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in northern Sri Lanka but in Scarborough, the eastern part of Toronto.

This largest Canadian city is home to about 250,000 ethnic Tamils who left Sri Lanka for Canada to escape the country's 25-year civil war.

They make up the largest diaspora from the South Asian country, with Toronto itself reportedly home to the biggest number of Sri Lankan Tamils in the world.

Though actively involved in the business, academic, political and social fields in their new home, many are still sympathetic to the Tigers' cause for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

Some display their support openly despite the group being labeled terrorists by the Canadian government, which earlier this year for the first time charged a man with terrorism financing for soliciting cash for the Tigers.

Many of the Tamils in Canada have families and relatives in the north and east of Sri Lanka, where the Tigers were experiencing one of their worst setbacks since waging an armed struggle in 1972 to carve out a homeland for minority Tamils in the majority-Sinhalese nation.

"We are psychologically devastated and traumatized by the war because it is in our homeland and there is genocide going on there," charged Canadian Tamil Usha Sri-Skanda-Rajah, the owner of a real estate firm in Scarborough.

"We want the international community to help bring about a settlement to the conflict so that our statehood is recognized," said Usha, 57, who is among an informal group of "concerned" women attempting to highlight to the Canadian authorities what she called "humanitarian catastrophe" in northern Sri Lanka.

Several members in her group have parents and other family members displaced by the fighting and their whereabouts remain uncertain, she said.

Usha's husband, a retired senior banking executive, went on a six-day fast recently to draw attention to the plight of tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting in Sri Lanka.

The Canadian Tamils grasp at any opportunity to highlight the bloody ethnic strife in Sri Lanka.

Recently, when Sri Lanka played Pakistan in a cricket match in Toronto, Tamil groups hired a plane carrying a banner "Stop the genocides in Sri Lanka" to circle the cricket grounds in an aerial propaganda blitz.

Sri Lankan Tamils are "one of the largest growing visible minorities" in Canada, said David Poopalapillai, spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, touted as the largest Tamil group in Canada.

Catering to the bustling community, which has a municipal councillor as its first elected representative, are three 24-hour Tamil cable television networks and about half a dozen radio stations, he said.

The Tamils are aspiring for higher elected offices.

"We consider ourselves as part and parcel of the Canadian fabric and always encourge our people to actively perform their civic duty," Poopalapillai said.

For some however their assimilation in Canada will not be at the expense of foregoing the elusive dream of a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka.

According to Sri Lankan media reports, around 70 cadres of Tamil People's Liberation Tigers (TMVP) have fled the organisation to join the Tamil Tigers in the east during the past few months.

Some of these cadres have killed their colleagues prior to their fleeing to join the Tigers, sources say.

In one incident on Tuesday October 28, LTTE fighters in Batticaloa district attacked a key paramilitary camp of the paramilitary group TMVP in the early hours of Tuesday, killing four operatives and capturing six gunmen from the camp, located at Chengkaladi, 13 km northwest of Batticaloa city.

Some analysts believe that the missing TMVP members could have joined their attackers or may well have carried out the attack themselves before leaving.

Commenting on the matter, a TMVP spokes person said the Tamil Tigers, in an attempt to infiltrate the east, were trying to connect with TMVP cadres in a bid to carry out attacks in the province.

The spokes person further added that several TMVP cadres had complained to the party hierarchy of being confronted by the Tigers who were persuading them to rejoin the organisation.

There are around 1,200 armed cadres of TMVP in the Eastern Province. Plans are afoot to recruit 300 of them to Civil Defense Force and to send another number for foreign employment.

At least 130 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and more than 450 wounded in the space 3 days when they attempted to breakthrough LTTE Forward Defence Lines (FDL) in Kilaali and Muhamaalai fronts, according to a reliable Sri Lankan military source.

29 SLA soldiers lost their lives sustaining sniper fire, the source said and added several soldiers were killed while they were trapped in Tiger minefield.

The SLA soldiers who were sent on offensive mission into the no-go zone in Kilaali and Muhamaalai were trained for a 'do-or-die mission,' the source claimed hinting that the SLA soldiers of divisions 53 and 55 were under tremendous pressure from Jaffna command of the SLA as the Sri Lankan Vanni Security Forces Head Quarters was set ready to link up with the Jaffna peninsula from Pooneryn.

Meanwhile, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the SLFP-M wing said Thursday that 200 SLA soldiers were killed on Tuesday alone and more than 700 had sustained wounds in the recent fighting in various fronts in Vanni.

"I know that by last Tuesday, 235 injured soldiers were brought to Colombo National Hospital. It was reported that 85 were brought to Kalubowila, 90 to Jayawardenepura and more than 300 to the military hospital. Also, the bodies of more than 200 brave sons of this country were brought to Jayaratne Funeral Directors," he said.

Samaraweera, who held the portfolio of the Foreign Ministry under Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after the latter assumed power said this was not the first time the SLA captured Pooneryn.

First line captured

Sri Lankan army on Thursday November 20 claimed that after four days of continuous intense fighting the 55 and 53 Divisions of the Sri Lanka Army based at Muhamaalai and Kilaali managed to capture the first FDL of the LTTE in Muhamaalai.

Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara announced that the military completed capturing the 800 metres long 5 kilometres wide defence line on Thursday evening. The LTTE still maintain two more defense lines.

"They had a lot of casualties and we are going toward the second line of defense," Nanayakkara said.

In April this year the LTTE fighters killed scores of Sri Lankan troops along the Muhamaalai FDL when they feinted an attack on government positions, quickly retreated and then pounded the pursuing soldiers with artillery when they reached the LTTE FDL.

Hundreds of Tamils across Sri Lanka have been arrested in recent months, as the government gets increasingly mired in the ongoing war with the Liberation Tigers.

Across the country, Tamils are picked up on the grounds of security concerns, mainly for ‘failing to prove their identity.’

In the last two weeks alone, nearly 150 Tamils were arrested across the country, mainly on questionable charges of failing to prove their identity or failing to provide a ‘satisfactory’ reason for their presence in a particular area.

While some of them are released soon after, many disappear into Sri Lanka’s moribund legal system, while some just disappear all together.

In Eravur, 12 Tamils were arrested after a Sri Lankan Army intelligence officer was shot dead in Punnakkudaa area of Eravur last Saturday. M Ibrahim was shot dead while he was riding his motorbike by armed men who followed him on another motorbike.

Twenty Tamil civilians were arrested by the paramilitary Special Task Force (STF) in a cordon and search operation in Eechchantheevu, Vavunatheevu, Batticaloa last Tuesday (18 November). Every house in the area was searched, and contents were subjected to close check. The national identity cards of the residents were checked. The search operation was conducted following the killing of a Sinhalese medical officer in Navatkudaa.

Twenty five Tamil civilians between the ages 16 and 30 were arrested in a cordon and search operation by the STF in Vinayakapuram, Thirukkoayil, Amparai, last Monday (17 November). Students who were among the arrested were not released though they proved their identity as students.

Three Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Navy and police in Puthalam on November 12. While several were taken into custody and later released, these three were detained for further interrogation by the police intelligence unit.

In the southern part of the country, five Tamil youth, originally from Jaffna but working in commercial establishments in Chilaw, were taken into custody last Sunday on charges of failing to prove their identity and of being suspicious.

Twenty four Tamils, including two women, who were all previously from the northeast or upcountry, were taken into custody when the SLA and police cordoned off a prawn farm in Marawila-Lungsima in Chilaw last Wednesday (November 19). The victims were subjected to severe interrogation during the search. Police said they were taken in for questioning and later detained in the police station as they failed to produce their residential certificates. The owner of the prawn farm was also taken into custody later for employing persons without valid residential certificate.

The SLA and police took fourteen Tamil civilians into custody in a lightning cordon and search operation last Saturday on charges that they failed to prove their identity or justify their presence in that location.  The search, covering Obeyasekara area in Rajagiriya, Colombo, targeted mainly Tamils from the northeast and upcountry who had all been working at several business establishments and staying lodges.

The Sri Lankan police assisted by home guards began a dusk to dawn cordon and search operation in Gampaha last Wednesday (19 November), arresting 37 persons, of whom eleven were Tamils working in commercial establishments and other institutions. About ten thousand persons were subjected to interrogation and about one thousand vehicles were also searched during the operation. While the Tamils were detained for ‘failing to justify their stay in the location', most of the others were picked up on outstanding court warrants in criminal cases.

Twenty seven Tamil civilians, including upcountry and north and east residents, majority of them employed in business establishments and other institutions, were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation by the SLA and police in Gampaha last Monday (17 November). Forty-one people were taken in for questioning during the operation, - the remaining 14 were Sinhala absconders who were avoiding arrest in traffic and illicit liquor cases, and all 14 were produced in court. The Tamils continue to be held for ‘further inquiry’.

Four Tamil youths were arrested on 15 November while they were waiting for a bus at the Gampola bus stand. The men, who were waiting to travel back to their estate in Pupuressa were questioned on the basis of their ‘suspicious movements’ at the bus stand and were arrested for failing to provide a satisfactory reason for their presence at the bus stand.

Four Tamil civilians were taken into custody during a cordon and search operation by the SLA and police in Badulla on 9 November. They were among 16 people arrested on the day, but all the others were released straight away.

The Jaathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all Buddhist monks' party has declared that it severely opposes Tamil National Alliances (TNA), Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party taking part in the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) deliberations.

Narendra Gunatilake, JHU spokesman on international affairs at a press briefing held in Colombo on Thursday, November 20 said inviting TNA to the APRC deliberation is tantamount to allowing the LTTE to participate and therefore it severely opposes the invitation extended to TNA by APRC Chairman Professor Tissa Vitharane.

“Political solution to the conflict should be found within the framework of unitary form of constitution and not on federal concept. JHU would quit the APRC if the government deviates from this position. People also elected President Mahinda Rajapakse to power in 2005 on that basis.

“TNA would not accept a political solution within the unitary constitution. TNA would advocate federal solution. APRC Chairman has invited TNA to participate in APRC deliberation. Now the APRC has been trying to formulate a political solution based on 13th amendment to the constitution due to the pressure by the Government of India. JHU would not allow the government to deviate from the people's mandate given in 2005,” Gunatilake said. 

The Tamil Tigers are likely building up their capacity for receiving weapons shipments with two long airstrips to receive large cargo planes, respected defence analysis group Jane's said on Tuesday, November 18.

Based on analysis of high-resolution, commercially-available satellite imagery, the London-based group said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had constructed two one-kilometre (0.6-mile) paved runways between 2002 and 2007.

Jane's said that one of those runways was being extended to two kilometres.

"While the imagery does not confirm the airstrips are in use, the investment of significant resources suggests the LTTE has developed facilities that can serve air logistics needs at a critical time in its three-decade war with the Sri Lankan state," said Christian LeMiere, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review.

"Jane's can also confirm that the LTTE has made at least one attempt to arrange for a consignment of artillery rounds to be flown in."

According to the defence group that particular shipment remained stranded in an unidentified Central Asian country because Russia had intervened to prevent its delivery.

Jane’s further added that there was no evidence of the airstrip being used by the Tamil Tigers to launch any attacks.

About twenty-five-thousand soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have deserted their ranks since the war began under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, media sources in Colombo quoted reports carried by the Sinhala weekly "Ravaya", published from Colombo. 15,000 soldiers have deserted ranks till January this year, an article based on a survey carried by Ravaya states.

SLA has been strictly enforcing checks on buses and transport services from battle front areas to south to nab deserting soldiers, according to the report.

Those who look like soldiers are also taken in for questioning by military police, the report adds.

About 700 soldiers have deserted from the SLA in two months, August and September, the article further states.

Superiors in the war front are said to be monitoring the activities of the soldiers under their control closely, the article adds.

6,749 SLA deserters were arrested and 1,500 of them had been sent to prison after court martial. Inquiry is being conducted against the remaining, according to Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, who held a media briefing on Thursday, November 13.

The latest amnesty, of two-weeks, for deserted soldiers of the SLA to return for duty in battle front expired on Saturday November 15.

Those who fail to return to their ranks within the stipulated period would be arrested and prisoned after court martial, warned the Sri Lankan military spokesman.

Meanwhile, new recruitment drive to the SLA, commenced on October 1, would conclude on 31 December 2008.

The recruitment is being made in all camps of the SLA in the South.