The Leader of British Tamils for Labour, Sen Kandiah, on Monday, addressed the annual conference of the British Labour Party, in front of over 10,000 delegates and the British masses viewing the conference on BBC, urging the Labour Party to note with alarm the increase in violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils.

He also urged the party to note that the policies of the successive Sinhala governments and the current Sri Lanka constitution, which was adopted without the mandate of the Tamil people lies at the heart of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

 Mr. Kandiah, who is also a member of the British Tamils Forum, declared that recognising the Tamil people right to self determination is inevitable and essential in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband MP opened the afternoon of the Labour Party Conference on Monday, under the banner of 'Britain in the World Debate' in his speech which amongst others, stressed the moral duty of Britain and her Foreign Policy engagements in other parts of the World.

British Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander and the Defence Secretary Des Browne were at the stage. European Trade Commissioner Hon Peter Mandelson was also amongst the audience including Senior Labour Party Officials, Members of Parliament, Members of European Parliament, Business Leaders, former Cabinet Ministers and dignitaries. Mr. Kandiah was called upon to speak on behalf of the British Tamils and pass a resolution.

"I am a British Tamil,” said Mr. Kandiah. “In the last two years four democratically elected Tamil members of Parliament have been shot and killed by the Sri Lankan government. Not long ago, seventeen aid workers, who worked for the International Aid Agency, were gunned down by the government troops.

"What action did the government take? None!

"In Northern Sri Lanka the Government is carrying out genocide, uprooting and causing unexplainable pain and suffering. Tamils are internally displaced, living in fear without food, medicine or shelter. The eyes of the world are not looking and no one is telling this tragic story.

"The government of Sri Lanka is continuing this military strategy to resolve what is, fundamentally, a political problem. Our Tamil struggle for justice and equality began with non violence. When our cry for justice and equality through non-violence was met with violence and oppression, the call for the independent homeland for Tamils became louder and louder. When it became apparent that non violence means were not working the Tamil people were left with no choice other than to pursue an armed struggle. More than one hundred thousand Tamils lives have been lost the last three decades.

"Therefore, I ask you to back the resolution that calls for the conference to note with alarm the increase in violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government against Tamils living in north and east of the country” he said.

"Secondly, we want the conference to note that the policies of the successive Sinhala governments and the current Sri Lanka constitution, which was adopted without the mandate of the Tamil people lies at the heart of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

"Thirdly, to acknowledge that the time has come for the labour Government to recognise the Tamil people right to self determination is inevitable and essential in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka” he concluded.

The Sri Lankan Government  told thousands of people living in its capital "without any valid reason" to return to their villages, calling them a national security threat and ordered Tamils originating from the north and residing in Colombo for the last five years to register themselves with the police.

The registration process took place on Saturday September 20 and Sunday September 21 at police stations and selected public premises in the city.

The citizens were required to submit a one page declaration giving details of their origin and purpose of their current stay in the capital city.

The move came days after Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa expressed concern over the sharp increase in exodus from northern region to the national capital and its surrounding areas in the last few weeks.

Whilst on one hand, due to international pressure, the Sri Lankan government dropped leaflets in LTTE administered territories requesting the civilians in those regions to move into government held territory on the other hand Rajapakse does not want them to move out of the conflict zone and reach Colombo.

Ignoring the fact that Colombo being the commercial and administrative capital with many government department offices and the only international airport in the island would naturally attract people from other provinces, Rajapakse said that presence of such a large number of outsiders was not normal.

"In August, 6950 people have come to the Colombo police division and are temporarily living in lodges, houses and various other places. This is not normal," the defence secretary said.

"Among other things it causes a lot of security risks."

Rajapakse told the Daily News that thousands arrive in Colombo each month from other parts of the war-torn nation, many of them ethnic Tamils fleeing fighting in the north.

"I prefer most of these people who had come from other areas to Colombo and suburbs and who are staying here without any valid reason to go back to their areas," Rajapakse was quoted in the state-run Daily News.

Police Spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera speaking to reporters said there has been an exodus of civilians from areas such as Jaffna, Vavuniya, Kilinocchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar as the army made inroads and liberated areas that were under the control of Tamil Tigers.

"These civilians fleeing from uncleared areas are also arriving in large numbers to the western province especially to the Colombo district," Gunasekara said.

Gunasekera further said the police force has decided to obtain the details of such arrivals for maintaining records in different police areas of the western province.

Colombo came under intense pressure from international human rights activists in June last year, when hundreds of Tamils were evicted from the city and told to return to their villages, some in conflict areas.

They were later bused back to the city after the Supreme Court intervened and rapped the government.

Rajapakse, who is President Mahinda Rajapakse's younger brother, said 6,950 people had come to Colombo in August alone and are now living in lodges and houses. He called the situation "abnormal" and "alarming."

"If some people have come from the east or any other place to Colombo and if they are staying here without any reason they should go back to their places," he said.

"That is the most preferable thing."

Tamils have to obtain police permits to travel to the rest of the country under a system put in place to prevent the separatist rebels infiltrating the capital following a series of attacks.

The Tamils, mainly from the north and east, come to the capital in the hope of obtaining passports to travel abroad and escape the war.

Police Spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera told reporters inc Colombo that the move was aimed at protecting the people at large and the government did not intend to harass any one.

However observers see this as another step by the Rajapakse government to intimidate and drive out Tamils from Colombo.

In June last year the Sri Lankan government started forcibly evicted Northeast Tamils staying in Colombo and driving them out to conflict zone in bus loads. The action was only halted following an international outcry.

At the time, international governments including the US, the EU, and India along with opposition politicians and number of international human rights organisations expressed their concern and condemned the exercise.

The US led the condemnations saying the "action can only widen the ethnic divide."

"The United States condemns the forced removal of Tamils from Colombo. Such measures violate the Sri Lankan Constitution's guarantee that every citizen has the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence within Sri Lanka," the US embassy said in a statement.

"We call upon the government of Sri Lanka to stop the forcible removal of its citizens from Colombo, to make public the destinations of those already removed, and to ensure their safety and well-being," it added.

The European Union in a strongly worded message issued by the embassy of Germany, currently President of the 27-state bloc condemned the government actions as “blatant violation of internationally recognized human rights”

During my last weeks in Kilinochchi there was a foreboding sense of a massive army approaching from the south-west.

The escalating war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government was bringing fighting closer to the town. It led to a massive movement of civilians in the region, known as the Vanni.

I never heard gunfire or sounds of close-quarters fighting, instead day and night there were constant thuds and booms of artillery and rockets fired from multi-barrel launchers landing in the distance.

Day after day, the constant rumble of heavy artillery got closer and closer. Twenty-four hours a day my office, bedroom, kitchen and bunker would be shaking with the thumps of shells landing. The sensation of the approaching doom was all too real with this kind of warfare.

As an aid worker I had been struggling to provide greatly needed assistance to the ever increasing number of people who had been displaced by the fighting.

They had fled from the unbearable noise and fear of the approaching artillery - at first this was happening mostly in the south-western areas of the Vanni. With few transport facilities families couldn't go far, just a few tens of kilometres, before they sheltered under trees.

As the military advanced the shelling caught up with them and often they had to move again after a couple of days. Many of these areas to the south-west of the Vanni were out of bounds for us as aid workers because of the high danger. But as the military advanced further the people moving ahead of them came closer to Kilinochchi, and we began to meet them and hear their stories of multiple displacements.

They were hungry, tired, afraid and traumatised. The children had not attended school for months, fathers had lost their means of making a living, such as fishing boats, nets and engines. Mothers were dealing with the raw emotion of just not being able to protect, feed and educate their families.

As aid workers we tried our best to provide shelter, water and sanitation facilities to the people; we built emergency camps in areas that we predicted would be safe havens for people to gather, but as the days went by and the army approached Kilinochchi, the distant rumble of artillery rapidly escalated into a constant roar of shells raining down, in and around the town. Our own security was jeopardised and we were unable to continue to provide further assistance.

The security situation spiralled to emergency levels; artillery and air attacks on Kilinochchi became a frequent event. The Sri Lankan government had put pressure on us to leave as they could not ensure our safety any more in the town. We were 10 international staff there by that time and we had to begin the heartbreaking task of trying to close our offices and relocate to government-controlled areas.

Sheer panic

Emotions were very high through those days, we were dealing with the guilt and frustration of having to leave at the time when humanitarian assistance was needed the most by the community that we had all got to know and develop strong relationships with. Stopping our programmes was professionally hard, but our staff became the focal point of our emotional state.

The LTTE has a pass system for those who want to leave the Vanni for government areas. Many of our staff members were simply refused a pass for one reason or another.

The passes are granted to individuals, not families, so those who were granted one had a heartbreaking decision to make, whether to leave their spouse and children behind under a barrage of shells and air attacks to come with us to continue to work and earn money, or to stay behind with their family and face the possibility of being forced to join the LTTE and sent to fight.

To manage, advise and counsel our staff through this process was the hardest thing emotionally I and many of us had ever dealt with. As the roar of the shells got ever closer to Kilinochchi the urgency of the decision-making increased and staff had to begin to move to government areas, leaving their loved ones behind.

I remember one morning when an air attack happened very close to me. I managed to get into the bunker quickly and narrowly escaped being hurt. I will never forget the noise of that fighter jet, the unbelievable sound of the engine as it swooped from the sky and the explosions of the bombs dropped close by.

But the lasting image I have is of the sheer panic and traumatised people when I emerged. As aid agencies we have concrete fortified bunkers, but the population of Kilinochchi has muddy holes in the ground. I saw children shaking with fear and mothers trying to calm them while they themselves were shaking with fear.

We were scheduled to leave Kilinochchi on Friday, 12 September but large-scale protests were held outside our compounds. The people were chanting "Don't Leave, Don't Leave".

The demonstrators were so polite and respectful to us. They were not angry, they were desperate. They understood that we needed to end our operations, and told us that they would manage themselves with shelter and water.

It was the prospect of our physical departure that terrified them. With no international presence and no witness to the conflict, they believed that many atrocities would occur and no one would see this.

For three days the protests continued. We all understood and felt their fear but our hands were tied. The situation was becoming incredibly dangerous; some international aid workers had to leave their compounds and move to "safer areas" as artillery shells were landing within a few hundred metres of our compounds.

For the final two days in Kilinochchi we spent much time in our bunkers as the artillery and air attacks intensified in and around the town. The sound through these days was tremendous, everything would shake and the air implode as the shells landed. In the near distance we could hear the terrifying sound of helicopter gunships, firing rockets.

The residents of Kilinochchi town began to leave, moving further north, away from the approaching artillery. It was clear we would have to go too the following day or we would be stuck there.

Shame

On the morning of 16 September we lined our vehicles up at our compound and under heavy shelling and air attacks, wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets, we drove out of Kilinochchi town and headed for the government areas.

We left a number of our staff, who could not get passes, behind. We shared tears, we shared the feelings of terror and intense guilt, and we left.

I remember feeling deep shame as I drove past civilians who were watching me from the side of the road, in my ballistic vest, heading for safety, as they stood there in their trousers and shirts and saris. We drove through the site of a fresh air attack on the A9 road and once again saw the devastation it caused and understood what may come for Kilinochchi and its civilian population.

Although I appreciate and respect the security rules that govern aid workers and understand why we had to leave, I still have to deal with a great sense that I abandoned those people. There is the pain and guilt of saying goodbye and good luck to our staff who had worked so hard and with such passion for the victims of war in the Vanni - and leaving them behind.

Aid workers fear uprooted civilians in the north of Sri Lanka could become trapped without enough assistance as fighting intensifies between government forces and LTTE.

All relief agency personnel, except local staff from the area and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) left LTTE Vanni.on September 9, after the Sri Lankan government ordered United Nations and international non-governmental organisations to move out of LTTE-held areas in the north, saying it could not guarantee their safety.

The withdrawal has raised questions about the fate of the 167,000 people who have been displaced in the LTTE-controlled districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi since a shaky truce began collapsing in April 2006, most of whom are sheltering in welfare centres.

"The most pressing concern is the plight of the innocent civilians who are trapped in the region and are unable to leave," said an aid officer who declined to be named. "It is the duty of all parties to ensure that these people are given freedom of movement to allow them to move to places of safety."

In the last three months alone, between 70,000 and 85,000 people have fled their homes as the military pushed into the LTTE territory in the north. The potential humanitarian consequences of civilians being unable to escape fighting in the war zone are enormous, aid workers told AlertNet.

The government has indicated it is prepared for up to 200,000 people to come to Vavuniya, behind the front lines. But aid agencies say there have been no organised efforts to move displaced civilians in Vanni to safer areas.

Even if they reach Vavuniya, it is unclear whether camps will be independently monitored or whether the displaced will be able to move freely, aid workers warn.

The president has said the relocation of most international agencies from the north is a temporary measure. Yet amid uncertainty over when they will be allowed to return, there are concerns over food security, shelter, water and sanitation, and freedom of movement for the displaced population.

Already continuous heavy fighting, including aerial bombardments, in areas close to Kilinochchi town has prompted many to move again, according to the United Nations.

"From our point of view, the trauma of all this for children, to study in an environment where war is going on, is not helpful," said Menaca Calyaneratne, head of communications for Save the Children Sri Lanka.

"For the people as well as the children, the psychological effects will have to be addressed, and addressed very urgently."

Save the Children, which has pulled out staff to Vavuniya, said at least 30,000 schoolchildren are among the displaced.

In response to the growing fears, Jeevan Thiagarajah, executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, an association of relief groups, told AlertNet there are structures in place to take care of civilians following the withdrawal of most international aid agencies.

He said local aid workers could continue to work with relevant government departments as volunteers, and food and other relief items could be provided through government convoys.

But those directly affected by the fighting in Vanni appear to have less confidence in contingency plans to help them.

Anxiety over their future spilled over on Friday when a hundreds of civilians protested against the relief agency withdrawal and tried to prevent a small convoy of U.N. and other agency vehicles from leaving.

"The consequences are serious," said another aid worker who is familiar with the crisis. "And they will be exacerbated by the fact that these agencies who have the capacity to (provide humanitarian aid) have been banned from conducting their operations."

The director of an Australian non-governmental organisation (NGO) has warned of a humanitarian disaster in the war zones of Sri Lanka in the absence of foreign aid workers.

The extreme humanitarian situation of Internally Displaced Persons, including thousands of children, who are already malnourished, would deteriorate dramatically as clean water is not available for all the IDPs and they have been deprived of medicine by the Sri Lankan government, said Executive Director Paul O'Callaghan of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).

ACFIOD has had 25 member organisations working in Sri Lanka over many decades.

Mr. O'Callaghan expressed fear of a blood bath as foreign aid workers of UN agencies and NGOs packed their bags following the orders by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to leave the Vanni region.

"Apart from the direct military conflict we would expect that many, many people will die or be in extreme circumstances if humanitarian workers are not able to access this area," Mr. O'Callaghan told Australia's ABC Radio last week, after Colombo's decision to exclude foreign workers.

According to UN estimates, 40% of all children in the North are currently malnourished and don't have access to any prospect of food, he noted.

In response to the Sri Lankan government’s statement that it did not want to see a repeat of the 2006 massacre of 17 local aid workers employed by French agency Action Contre La Faim, Mr O'Callaghan said the circumstances of that incident were never clear.

He reiterated that by clearing Tamil areas of foreign aid agencies, the Sri Lankan government is also ensuring no independent sources exist to comment on ground realities.

"If you exclude all foreign humanitarian workers then you won't have any, not only the immediate support for those communities but also those who can actually see what's happening on the ground," he said.

Accusing the government of having received the highest number of complaints of any government in the United Nations Human Rights Commission over recent years, O'Callaghan said Sri Lanka had as result been reviewed recently by the commission.

In response, the government had made commitments to the commission only a few weeks ago to protect civilians.

"[Sri Lanka] undertook at that point to make special efforts to ensure that the situation for citizens who are not involved in the conflict would be taken care of, and that those citizens would be able to be safe and obtain food and water and medicine and so on," he told ABC Radio Australia.

He added that it is worrying to see the government’s change in policy after only recently pledging to protect civilians.

"So this does worry us - that we could see very quickly a very large scale disaster occurring, quite apart if you like from what the civil war is directly involved in," he concluded.

ACFID is an independent national association of Australian NGOs working in the field of international aid and development.

Paul O'Callaghan, who is the Executive Director of ACFID, also serves on the Foreign Minister’s Aid Advisory Council, is a member of the National Nonprofit Roundtable and the Australian Collaboration and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

While in government (1982–2000), he served as Australia’s High Commissioner in Samoa (1997–2000) and had earlier diplomatic appointments in Malaysia and Thailand.

At first glance, Sri Lanka's vicious civil war might appear to have little consequence beyond the island's own teardrop-shaped shores.

But the conflict has rapidly come to reflect tectonic shifts in global power.

Since hostilities resumed in 2006, Sri Lanka's brutal attempts to crush the Tamil Tigers have brought its government into open confrontation with traditional Western allies and trading partners.

For the last two years America, the UK and the EU have all loudly decried Sri Lanka's atrocious record on human rights, repeatedly accusing the government of failing to live up to basic international obligations.

Last March a US State Department report accused the government, dominated by ethnic Sinhalese, of attacking civilians and practising "torture, kidnapping, hostage-taking, and extortion with impunity".

All requests to allow the UN commissioner on human rights to set up a mission in Sri Lanka have simply been shrugged off by Colombo, which was last May voted off the UN's high commission for refugees.

There was a time when such stinging rebukes from America and its Western allies in the international community would have forced restraint on a small, aid-dependent country like Sri Lanka. Not any more.

When EU countries, including Britain, tried to pressure Sri Lanka by freezing the development aid on which the country's inflation-wracked economy depends, the government quickly found that less picky friends, in the shape of China and Iran, were only too willing to help.

While Western politicians, like Britain's Lord Malloch Brown, the minister for south Asia, made statements condemning Sri Lanka at the United Nations, Sri Lanka cut the deals which have enabled it to ignore Western opinion.

After a visit to Beijing by the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, last year, China's aid to Sri Lanka increased fivefold to almost £500 million a year, a move which deeply unsettled India which already resents China's strategic alliance with its northern foe, Pakistan.

For America, however, concerns over China's decision to fill the Sri Lankan aid vacuum have been eclipsed by Sri Lanka's blossoming relationship with Iran, which has pledged more than £900m in soft loans, grants and cheap oil, making it Sri Lanka's largest foreign donor overnight.

When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Colombo earlier this year, the Sri Lankan capital was plastered with billboard photographs of the two presidents, smiling beneath the slogans "The Friendly Path to Progress" and "Traditional Asian Solidarity."

"In Asia, we don't go around preaching to our neighbours and our friends," said Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, at the time. "This public naming and shaming process that seems to have become so popular in the West is really not so accepted here."

The message is clear. With friends like China and Iran behind them, Sri Lanka no longer needs to allow the human rights concerns of Western powers to stop it fighting to its bitter end by fair means or by foul.

Tamil Tiger commandos, supported by artillery and airstrikes, devastated the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) installations inside the Vanni Sri Lankan forces Headquarters on Tuesday.

The brazen attack, which lasted two hours, was initiated when three aircraft of the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) dropped several bombs on the base in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Thereafter Black Tiger commandos infiltrated the heavily defended headquarters, called in an artillery barrage from batteries hidden in the Vanni region to the north and then launched a ground attack.

An Indian-supplied and manned radar installation was destroyed at 3.05 am, and thereafter the base’s communication facility with its tower, engineering facility, anti-aircraft weapon and the ammunition store at the Sri Lankan base were completely destroyed, the LTTE said.

Two Indian personnel were wounded and airlifted to Colombo, reports said.

The Sri Lankan military however said the attack was foiled and said SLAF jets had pursued the LTTE aircraft and shot one down over the LTTE-held jungle areas of Mullaitivu district in the Vanni.

The LTTE said all Tamil aircraft returned safely to base.

Ten Black Tigers were killed in the attack, the LTTE said, adding twenty Sri Lankan security forces members were killed and many more critically injured.

There were at least 11 explosions that rocked the town and heavy exchange of gunfire was reported till 5:00 a.m.

The government said they had recovered the bodies of ten Tigers and that eleven of their men had been killed – ten soldiers and a policemen.

The government also said the radar, which reportedly monitors the coastal areas of the Northeast, was not damaged.

"Terrorists, intending to strike on the air force radar station continued to direct artillery rounds on the area, but radars and other vital stations escaped unaffected and remained intact," the Army said in a statement.

However, in parliament Tuesday, the main opposition United National Party said the radar had been completely destroyed and that fourteen soldier and several policemen had been killed.

Reports said 15 soldiers, nine police and seven air force personnel with injuries were taken to civil hospitals and nine of them were admitted to Vavuniyaa hospital.

One civilian, a girl, was wounded and rushed to hospital, medical sources in the town told TamilNet.

Two Indian radar operators were earlier airlifted to Colombo and at least one was taken to India, press report said. However, the Indian High Commission in Colombo was quoted by press reports as saying the two were not seriously injured.

The Sri Lankan military, which has been embarrassed by Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) raids in the north, south and east of the island over the past two years, claimed it had shot down one Tiger plan with an air-to-air missile.

Squadron Leader Sanjaya Adhikari, who coordinated the government air strike, told reporters that fighter pilots had confirmed hitting the Tiger plane but that no video footage was available.

"The (LTTE) aircraft has been shot down in the Mullaittivu skies while running away following a failed mission," the defence ministry said, referring to the district where Tigers operate air fields.

TamilNet quoted sources in Colombo as saying that there were also a few Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel at the base, which serves as the Sri Lankan military HQ for Vanni operations. The sources further alleged that there were also military experts from another country outside South Asia, who used to train the Sri Lanka Army Special Forces (SF) at the base.

In retaliation for the attack, Sri SLAF bombers and surveillance aircrafts stepped up flying missions over Kilinochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts from 4:00 a.m. and attacked two localities.

The first SLAF attack was reported in Puthukkudiyiruppu, three times, between 4:20 and 5:10 a.m. The attack had taken place in densely populated area and the premises of a school, Puthukkudiyiruppu Subramaniya Viththiyaalayam, was among the target, according to initial reports from Puthukkudiyiruppu.

A 50-year-old woman, identified as Ms. Sulojana, was wounded. Shops in the town have also sustained damage in the SLAF attack.

At 6:40 a.m., a locality in Poonakari (Pooneryn) was bombed by the SLAF bombers. Casualty details were not available.

Over 113 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and 326 wounded in the space of four days last week, as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) stepped their resistance against the Sri Lankan military offensive in Vanni.

The fierce resistance, in which a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) regiment was badly mauled, prompted analysts to suggest that the LTTE is permitting the Sri Lankan military to advance in certain areas and putting up stiff resistance at others.

After a brief lull in the Vanni battle front, on Saturday August 30, the Sri Lankan military again attempted to break through LTTE Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) and move towards Aalangkulam in Thunukkaay division.

LTTE fighters confronted the SLA advance from 9:40 a.m. till 4:00 p.m on Saturday and seized 7 T-56 automatic rifles and recovered 3 dead bodies of SLA soldiers after heavy fighting.

According LTTE field officials 20 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 32 wounded in the clashes.

Following the failure of this attempted the SLA opened a new fronts in Naachchikkudaa in Mannaar district and Vannearikkulam which resulted in heavy casualties to the Sri Lankan military.

45 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and more than 51 wounded in Naachchikkudaa when the LTTE confronted the SLA in a stiff fighting throughout Monday night.

On Tuesday, 40 more SLA soldiers were killed and 50 wounded in another front, when LTTE fighters confronted the SLA units that simultaneously attempted to advance from 8th, 9th and 10th Mile Posts, located between Vannearikkulam and Akkaraayan.

19 bodies, 12 from Vannearikkulam and 7 from Naachchikkudaa, were handed over to the ICRC by the Tigers on Wednesday, September 4. Arrangements were under way to hand over the remaining 10 bodies, on Thursday, according to the LTTE officials.

LTTE defensive formations also seized large number of arms, ammunition and military accessories in the two-days fighting south and west in Kiinochchi district in Vanni.

Seven Light Machine Guns (LMGs), four RPG launchers, more than 25 AK assault rifles, hundreds of LMG rounds, more than 120,000 of 7.62 mm rounds, more than 60 RPG shells, two Light Anti-Tank Weapons (LAWs), around 80 hand grenades and 15 Claymore mines were among the arms being stockpiled by the Tigers, according to the reporters who were allowed to photograph the collection.

Magazines with rounds, booby traps, and military accessories such as bullet-proof jackets, kit bags, helmets and holsters were among the seized items after the clashes in Vannearikkulam and Naachchikkudaa fronts.

A day after the debacle in Vannearikkulam and Naachchikkudaa fronts , the SLA again attempted to move from another front with no success.

LTTE on Wednesday repulsed a ground movement by the SLA at Paalamoaddai into LTTE territory. The Tigers claimed that eight SLA soldiers were killed and more than 14 wounded in their counter-attack.

The SLA had launched the movement, backed by heavy artillery fire, at 7:00 a.m. and fighting went on for 12 hours before the Sri Lankan forces were forced to withdraw, according to LTTE officials.

The fighting in Vanni has intensified as the Tigers, who avoided stiff confrontations against the advancing SLA for a while, stepped up defensive engagement on Monday.

The high toll was not anticipated by the top brass of the SLA, which deployed elite Special Forces (SF) with high-powered rockets and explosives during the offensive push at Vannearikkulam on Monday.

The SLA hierarchy has instructed the field commanders to submit an in depth evaluation of the debacle at Vannearikkulam.

A retired brigadier general, Vipul Boteju, commenting on the current situation told AFP: "They will have to rely more on infantry … We are getting to the stage of close-quarter fighting and that is when we can expect more casualties."

According to press reports, the SLA soldiers were equipped with anti-tank rockets, high explosive anti-tank RPGs and were instructed to use extensive explosive and fire power.

However, the Tigers managed to engage in close fighting, causing heavy casualties.

LTTE laid booby traps have also caused high number of amputations and deaths among the SLA soldiers.

Despite military hospitals in south getting full of SLA soldiers with serious injuries, the Rajapakse administration is intent on continuing the war, the sources further added.

On Thursday, the Sri Lankan Naval Commander, Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, in an interview to the state owned Daily News, claimed that his navy played a vital role in denying the LTTE of their supplies and noted: "if we cannot win this war at this stage, we will never win this war."

Sri Lanka has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars into the war effort this year in a bid to secure a military victory over the LTTE.

In an interview to AFP this week, Gothabaya Rajapakse, the Defence secretary and younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who in the past has given many deadlines for capturing Kilinochchi and wiping out the LTTE, said the military campaign against the LTTE was "on track" but this time refused to give a time frame for capturing Kilinochchi.

"The ground terrain in the north is quite different... it's foolish to give a time frame as to when the operations will end. It depends on the LTTE's breaking point," Rajapakse said.

VANNI is a region blessed with fertile land and sea. Little surprise then that competition for control of this territory has played a major part in both igniting and maintaining Sri Lanka's Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict. Seasoned peacemakers are adamant that restitution and reparations are essential for realising peaceful ends to violent conflicts. Yet, Sri Lanka's government has spent the past week warning the nearly half a million Tamil inhabitants of the Vanni to displace or get killed.

Since independence from Britain, successive governments of Sri Lanka have been attempting, sometimes successfully, to colonise the Vanni at the expense of her native Tamil population. The now-sprawling Sinhala colony of Weli Oya at the south-eastern fringes of Vanni was, only a generation ago, known as Manal Aaru and home to around 75, 000 Tamil-speaking people. Since 16 April 1988, when they were forcefully displaced from their homes, on the back of a government gazette, many of the original inhabitants of Manal Aaru, and their children, have been without any fixed address.

Events witnessed in the east of the island, under the rule of the current regime, only add to fears of a repeat of the era when the state exercised monopoly over violence. According to the UN, some 315,000 people, almost all Tamils, were displaced from their homes in the east of the island between August 2006 and July 2007. There is no comprehensive record of how many have been allowed to return to their homes since military operations came to an end, more than a year ago. One certain fact is that 56, 000 people who were recorded as displaced from Muttur and Sampoor have been denied access to their properties because the state has since declared the areas high security zones.

Events in the north, put in perspective, also make grim reading: an army consisting of 99% ethnic Sinhalese is on a violent march into the Vanni; the region's half a million Tamils are being warned to leave their homes or face death. Abandoning one's land and livelihood, which are - after all - fundamental human rights, for the safety of tents and handouts is no easy option. Given past experiences of grinding colonisation, many Tamils are rightly sceptical of the state's intentions.

International rights groups also have plenty of reasons to be sceptical over the actions of Sri Lanka. Under the UN Charter, there are only two exceptions to the prohibition of displacement, for reasons related to conflict, of a civilian population: their security or imperative military reasons. Sri Lanka's warning to the Tamils in Vanni does not fall under either of the exceptions: the Sri Lankan military is the only threat to civilians' security and the only actor intending on military action.

A recent commentary by the ICRC read: "Clearly, imperative military reasons cannot be justified by political motives. For example, it would be prohibited to move a population in order to exercise more effective control over a dissident ethnic group." Even when forced displacements are allowed, International Law requires "the prompt return of the evacuees to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area have ceased"; a measure not taken by Sri Lanka in the case Muttur and Sampoor. Should rights groups bother to take Sri Lanka's current rulers to the ICC, current President Mahinda Rajapaksa will have a lot of explaining to do.

Above all, the effects of forced displacements have been widely studied, and none of the findings bode well for hopes of a lasting solution to the Sri Lankan civil war. Forced mass displacement only adds to the economic, social and cultural woes of the population concerned; these grievances give way to, or maintain the cycle of violent conflict. Given that decades of warfare have cost thousands of lives and impeded a generation from development on par with neighbours, exaberating the causes of conflict may only serve a very few.

Forced displacement of groups of people, be it in their hundreds or millions, is not the resolution to any conflict. The Sinhala-Tamil conflict has been shaped by displacements; a reminder to which will only foster even more resentment. The current Sri Lankan regime is playing with war crimes by its excessive use of force to achieve political ends, to satisfy a tyrannical majority. This strategy may yet backfire by militarising even more Tamils and failing to strike chord with accepted international norms of fundamental human rights.

A Buddhist monk and three of his associates broke into a Hindu temple in Sri Lankan capital Colombo in the middle of the night and desecrated the temple by climbing on the Kopuram and destroying devotional statues.

The monk and his group got into the Sri Muththumariamman Hindu temple at De Mel Mawatte in Grand Pass, Colombo during the early hours of Wednesday, September 5. Climbing on to the roof they defaced and damaged the newly built Sivalingham and statuses of Amman and Vishnu.

On Tuesday, the consecration (Kumpaapisheakam) ceremony was held in which hundreds of devotees took part. During the night that followed, the Buddhist monk and three of his associates got into the temple through the roof and smashed devotional statues.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Ajith Anawaratne Wednesday ordered to remand the Chief Incumbent of Grandpass de Mel Watte Buddhagaya Viharaya, Sri Sapugasyaye Dhammanada Thero and three of his associates for destroying the adjoining Sri Muththumariamman Hindu temple.

The Sri Muththumariamman temple is located in highly Muslim populated Khettarama in Grandpass.

Tamil Tiger commandos, supported by artillery and airstrikes, devastated the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) installations inside the Vanni Sri Lankan forces Headquarters on Tuesday.

The brazen attack, which lasted two hours, was initiated when three aircraft of the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) dropped several bombs on the base in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Thereafter Black Tiger commandos infiltrated the heavily defended headquarters, called in an artillery barrage from batteries hidden in the Vanni region to the north and then launched a ground attack.

An Indian-supplied and manned radar installation was destroyed at 3.05 am, and thereafter the base’s communication facility with its tower, engineering facility, anti-aircraft weapon and the ammunition store at the Sri Lankan base were completely destroyed, the LTTE said.

Two Indian personnel were wounded and airlifted to Colombo, reports said.

The Sri Lankan military however said the attack was foiled and said SLAF jets had pursued the LTTE aircraft and shot one down over the LTTE-held jungle areas of Mullaitivu district in the Vanni.

The LTTE said all Tamil aircraft returned safely to base.

Ten Black Tigers were killed in the attack, the LTTE said, adding twenty Sri Lankan security forces members were killed and many more critically injured.

There were at least 11 explosions that rocked the town and heavy exchange of gunfire was reported till 5:00 a.m.

The government said they had recovered the bodies of ten Tigers and that eleven of their men had been killed – ten soldiers and a policemen.

The government also said the radar, which reportedly monitors the coastal areas of the Northeast, was not damaged.

"Terrorists, intending to strike on the air force radar station continued to direct artillery rounds on the area, but radars and other vital stations escaped unaffected and remained intact," the Army said in a statement.

However, in parliament Tuesday, the main opposition United National Party said the radar had been completely destroyed and that fourteen soldier and several policemen had been killed.

Reports said 15 soldiers, nine police and seven air force personnel with injuries were taken to civil hospitals and nine of them were admitted to Vavuniyaa hospital.

One civilian, a girl, was wounded and rushed to hospital, medical sources in the town told TamilNet.

Two Indian radar operators were earlier airlifted to Colombo and at least one was taken to India, press report said. However, the Indian High Commission in Colombo was quoted by press reports as saying the two were not seriously injured.

The Sri Lankan military, which has been embarrassed by Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) raids in the north, south and east of the island over the past two years, claimed it had shot down one Tiger plan with an air-to-air missile.

Squadron Leader Sanjaya Adhikari, who coordinated the government air strike, told reporters that fighter pilots had confirmed hitting the Tiger plane but that no video footage was available.

"The (LTTE) aircraft has been shot down in the Mullaittivu skies while running away following a failed mission," the defence ministry said, referring to the district where Tigers operate air fields.

TamilNet quoted sources in Colombo as saying that there were also a few Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel at the base, which serves as the Sri Lankan military HQ for Vanni operations. The sources further alleged that there were also military experts from another country outside South Asia, who used to train the Sri Lanka Army Special Forces (SF) at the base.

In retaliation for the attack, Sri SLAF bombers and surveillance aircrafts stepped up flying missions over Kilinochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts from 4:00 a.m. and attacked two localities.

The first SLAF attack was reported in Puthukkudiyiruppu, three times, between 4:20 and 5:10 a.m. The attack had taken place in densely populated area and the premises of a school, Puthukkudiyiruppu Subramaniya Viththiyaalayam, was among the target, according to initial reports from Puthukkudiyiruppu.

A 50-year-old woman, identified as Ms. Sulojana, was wounded. Shops in the town have also sustained damage in the SLAF attack.

At 6:40 a.m., a locality in Poonakari (Pooneryn) was bombed by the SLAF bombers. Casualty details were not available.

The most decisive phase of Eelam War IV began last week. The Security Forces and Tiger guerrillas fought some of the bitterest battles on Monday and Tuesday. Guns have fallen silent since then. Both sides are reviewing their options.

The worst fighting was in the western flank of the Wanni. Troops that had re-captured vast chunks of territory further north and east of Mannar in the past many months and weeks are now on the doorsteps of guerrilla strongholds. They are meeting with stiff resistance on two important fronts.

One is a column of troops from the Army's Task Force 1 trying to break through fortifications south of Nachchikuda, until recent weeks, home for a major Sea Tiger base. In the light of the Security Forces' advance, the guerrillas had, weeks earlier, dismantled equipment and removed all their logistics supplies to Kilinochchi.

Since the re-capture of Vidattaltivu in July, where a Sea Tiger base existed, the one at Nachchikuda had gained greater significance. It was the transit point for landing military and medical supplies across the Gulf of Mannar from secret bases in Tamil Nadu.

With the loss of the two bases, the guerrillas have been denied the use of any coastal facility for unloading and distributing supplies to their cadres from India. However, unconfirmed reports spoke of small cargo boats unloading unknown contraband in a coastal area south of Devil's Point (located north of Nachchikuda) last month.

Troops have seized control of parts of the guerrilla outer defences at Vannerikulam on the southern outskirts of Nachchikuda.

Their advance beyond Nachchikuda, if successful, would bring Pooneryn within their reach. It is from here that a ferry service operated at one time from Sangupiddy to Karativu. Years ago, that was a popular mode of transport from mainland Sri Lanka to the Jaffna peninsula. A re-capture of the area would mean a military controlled land based route to the Jaffna peninsula all the way from Mannar.

This is why the guerrillas have offered stiff resistance on this front pushing back attempts by the troops to advance at least on two different occasions. The confrontations in this area led to a considerable number of casualties and loss of some military hardware.

Fighting in this terrain in the coming weeks will become more difficult with the full onset of the North-East monsoon in the next few days.

The other significant achievement for the Security Forces is the re-capture of Tunnukai, and more importantly Mallawi. From 1996 to 1998, Mallawi and its environs including Tunnukai was the nerve centre of all military, political and economic activity of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Colombo based diplomats, UN officials and International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) then visited Mallawi to meet LTTE leaders.

Kilinochchi was captured by the Security Forces in 1996, soon after wresting control of the Jaffna peninsula in 1995 through a string of operations codenamed Operation Riviresa. The military offensive to take control of Kilinochchi was codenamed Operation Sath Jaya.

The fall of Kilinochchi to guerrilla hands came on November 26, 1998 when they launched Operation Oyatha Alaikal (Unceasing Waves).

Since then, the guerrillas have retained Kilinochchi as their centre of power.Using the town as a major sphere of activity, the LTTE set up headquarters of its own organisations such as "police, courts, prisons, revenue collection, telecommunications" etc.

From Mallavi, the Army's 57 Division has moved to the outer areas. In a bid to stall their advance further the guerrillas offered stiff resistance this week. Thus, besides the troops of Task Force 1, personnel of this Division fought bitter battles with the guerrillas on this sector before it ceased temporarily.

Amy sources say the guerrillas were making defensive preparations including the laying of mines to stall their advance on a number of fronts.

This included the Mallavi-Mankulam Road and the Mallavi-Kokavil Road. A troop advance on these roads would take them to the main A-9 highway. From there, it would be a short distance northwards to Kilinochchi.

Independent of the 57 Division's move, troops of Task Force 2 were also advancing in an easterly direction from Moonrumurippu towards the A-9 highway. They had already seized the village of Palamoddai forcing guerrillas to back out from their fortifications there.

Besides the western part of Wanni, the other main theatre of battles is the area north of the Weli Oya sector. In this sector, troops of the Army's 59 Division have made gains. This is by extending the new areas seized on the western flank up to the southern edge of Thannimuruppukulam.

On the east they have moved to the coastal area of Kokkutuduwai located north of the Kokilai lagoon.

However, the troops would have to advance a considerable distance northwards, traversing thick jungle, before they reach the fortifications of the guerrillas that lay beyond Olumadu, Odusuddan, Kumalamunai and Alampil axis.

Advancing troops in this sector have only confronted smaller groups of guerrillas, some of them using hideouts to conduct surveillance on troop movements and on their gun positions.

Here again there were reports this week of guerrillas laying mines and other booby traps to stall troop advance.

It is of interest to note that the flight path used by Tiger guerrilla aircraft to attack the Navy's eastern naval area headquarters in Trincomalee on August 26 was over these re-captured areas. This is both to carry out the bombing raids and to return. However, being a cloudy night visibility over the area was very poor.

This week's battles have clearly defined locations now being held by the Tiger guerrillas. To the north, they still hold the heavily fortified Muhamalai defences. The east is flanked by the Indian Ocean and largely secured both in land and at sea by the Sea Tigers.

This week's battles have shown that on the western fringes troops are just outside the general areas of Mallavi, Velankulam, Murkandi and Akkarayankulam. To the south, the troops are yet to reach the LTTE's heavy fortifications. It is this landmass the guerrillas have to defend with their fighting cadres and resources now.

In any protracted war, the fact that a vast amount of men and material are lost by the warring sides is no secret.

The Army launched the battles in the Mannar sector on July 2, last year. Since then, it re-captured the area in an around the Madhu Church in April, this year. Thereafter, it seized control of the Vidattaltivu area, where a Sea Tiger base was located, on July 16. Since then they continued their advance to seize control of areas in and around Vannerikulam (south of Nachchikuda), Tunnukai, Mallavi and villages adjoining them.

The military offensive north of the Weli Oya sector began on January 7, this year and led earlier to the re-capture of a vast extent of land, most of them a stretch of "no man's zone." Now, the 59 Division has added more areas earlier dominated by the guerrillas.

Though the guerrillas fought a delaying battle in the past many months avoiding any major close quarter confrontations with a conventionally much more superior Army, they did lose some cadres and military hardware. So did the Security Forces.

The fact that the guerrillas threw in their hard core cadres to delay a troop advance on two flanks in the in the Wanni this week raises some pertinent questions. This is both in the zone south of Nachchikuda and in areas outside Mallavi, Tunnukai and Yogapuram.

Are they now using their hard-core cadres to fight intense close quarter battles to prevent the fall of their remaining strongholds? That naturally raises questions on their role in the past months in the western part of the Wanni. Here, they avoided major confrontations largely fighting artillery and mortar duels. Was it a "delaying war" which they could not sustain for long? Was this the reason why they ceded important locations like the Madhu Church or Vidattaltivu without last-ditch battles?

That is not to say the guerrillas did not suffer damage, both in terms of men and material. They lost substantially though some of the cadres were said to be new recruits, both young boys and girls. A large number of injured have also been left out of battle. Exacerbating those losses were the vast number of air attacks carried out by the Air Force, some of them on their weapons and fuel storage facilities. It is known that the guerrillas have launched a hurried recruitment campaign in the past weeks and urged civilians to prepare air raid shelters in their homes.

For the Security Forces, the question of deserters has assumed some importance. Whilst the Police have begun arresting them, military courts sitting at a hall in the Army's Volunteer Force Headquarters in Pelawatte, Kotte, have been sentencing them to jail terms. Some have already been moved to the Welikade Prison. Security sources say a few thousand deserters would be arrested to deliver a strong message to their colleagues to return to service.

Besides those killed in action or injured and left out of battle, there was a new development this week over others. Those who are marginally injured in infantry units have been re-inducted to service. This saw the creation of a new Vanni Re-inforcement battalion this week. They are being deployed for non-direct combat related tasks in the Wanni sector.

In this backdrop, both the Security Forces as well as the Tiger guerrillas are now poised for fiercer offensive roles. For the former, it would not only be re-capturing guerrilla strongholds and dealing a blow to their leaders. Besides those in the military, to most Sri Lankans and even some in the Colombo based diplomatic community, this is now a matter of weeks than months. They strongly believe the guerrillas would be defeated. But a trillion dollar question remains.

For the LTTE, defending territory encompassing Muhamalai, the outskirts of Mallawi, Tunnukai, Yogapuram, on the west, Odusuddan, Kumalamunai, Alampil axis on the south and the Indian Ocean in the east is a sine qua non for its survival. Ceding those areas would be anathema to them.

Since the separatist campaign by the guerrillas exacerbated after the ethnic violence of July 1983, successive Governments have fought military campaigns to defeat the guerrillas. This time, they face a new challenge with their strongholds surrounded on three different fronts on land and one at sea.

If the guerrillas have retained their hard-core cadres for fierce battles that are looming, their sea going arm, the Sea Tigers, remains almost intact. So is their primitive air capability demonstrated again last month amidst all sophisticated counter measures.

Thus, in the coming weeks they will have to throw all their lot to ward off defeat. On the other hand, the Security Forces will also have to overcome the final obstacles to achieve their goals. How this will play, only the coming weeks will show.

(Edited)

Iqbal Athas is the Defence columnist of the Sunday Times, and a contributor to Jane’s Defence publications.

As fighting rages on in the north of Sri Lanka, LTTE units in the Eastern province have stepped up attacks against Sri Lankan forces in the region, with several ‘friendly fire’ incidents adding to the death toll.

Tuesday this week LTTE guerillas triggered a landmine at Sri Lankan soldiers on road patrol in Bakmitiyawa, 30 km southwest of Ampaa'rai Tuesday morning around 9:05 a.m. Two were killed and six wounded, three seriously.

On Saturday, three Special Task Force (STF) troopers were wounded in an LTTE booby trap explosion when they were on a search operation in Kagnchikudichchaa'ru area.

On Friday night, a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers lying in ambush in Vadamunai village in Koaralaippattu South District Secretariat’s administrative area, mistaking another group of SLA soldiers as Tamil Tigers, fired at the troopers, killing four of them.

The confrontation took place near Miniminththave’li, a border village in Batticaloa.

In August, 23 SLA troops were killed when LTTE cadres triggered a claymore device targeting troops traveling in a military vehicle in the same area.

Unidentified armed men in STF uniforms abducted Friday four Sinhala villagers who had gone to collect honey in Paa’namai Aa’lavai jungle area in Poththuvil police division in Ampaa’rai district, according to the complaint made Sunday to Poththuvil police by one of the four abductees who had managed to escape.

The jungle where the abduction took place is an area frequented by both STF commandos and Liberation Tigers, Pohthtuvil residents said.

Last week at least 10 Sri Lankan security personnel were killed and another 16 wounded in attacks carried out by LTTE forces in different locations.

On Thursday September 4, a claymore fragmentation mine wasexploded around 5:00 p.m at Aayiththiyamalai in Vavunatheevu police division in Batticaloa district, seriously injuring an STF commando, attached to 3rd Mile Post STF camp, who had gone to bathe in a well 200m from his camp.

A day earlier, two units of STF commandos, who were deployed in a search operation after an STF commando was slain on Tuesday by a LTTE laid booby trap at Udumpangkulam in Kagnchikudichchaaru area, mistakenly fired on each other. Three STF commandos were killed and four wounded.

The booby trap explosion, which took place around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, also caused injuries to 3 STF commandos.

The same day, four STF troopers were killed and two wounded at Sannasi Malaiyadi near Ukanthai, bordering Ampaarai and Hambantota districts in an LTTE ambush.

According to LTTE officials in Amparai, a Colt Commando rifle and a T-56 assault rifle with ammunition were seized by the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan police said one STF sergeant and a home-guard were killed at a police point at 10th mile post in Paanama area.

In the latter attack, the Tigers said four hand grenades, four T-56 magazines, five Colt Commando magazines, 180 rounds for Colt Commando rifle and 150 rounds for T-56 rifles with Holsters and water cans were also seized by their fighters.

There were further STF casualties on the same day when STF commandoes got caught in the booby traps of the LTTE in Kanchkudichchaaru jungles in Ampaarai district

One STF commando was killed and three injured Monday morning. Another two were injured in the same manner the previous Monday evening, sources in Ampaarai said.