Sri Lanka

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  • Tiger planes change war dynamics

    Apr 30

    The new capability of the Tamil Tigers to carry out airborne attacks has not only made them a rarity among the world's guerrilla outfits but has also badly shaken an entire country.

    Sri Lanka's defence ministry has acknowledged that the Tigers may be operating at least five light aircraft, used in three headline-grabbing raids against military and civilian targets over the past month.

    The Tigers already possess an effective naval unit known as the Sea Tigers.

    The Tiger air force may be minuscule compared with Sri Lanka's fleet -- which comprises supersonic jets, spy planes and helicopter gunships -- but so far government forces have failed miserably in countering the flying Tigers.

    "You can understand that the Tigers will use a light aircraft once, but there is something wrong when the air force is not able to take it out after three attacks," said retired brigadier general Vipul Boteju.

    The authorities switched off power to the capital of one million people when the Tigers carried out their third bombing raid here on Sunday, targeting two oil depots. The city was thrown into a state of panic.

    In the wake of the attack, several international airlines announced they were cancelling or altering their flights to the island's only international airport, whose runway is also used by Sri Lankan air force jets -- a prime target for the LTTE.

    The Sri Lankan military, however, is insisting that the Tiger air threat is a "joke."

    "These light planes can't do much damage," said army chief Sarath Fonseka, who appeared on national television shortly after the LTTE bombed the main military complex in the north of the island last week.

    "It is a joke. You can drop a bomb from any flying thing. Even tossing a grenade while riding a swing is an 'air attack,'" Fonseka said.

    "The maximum damage that the Tiger planes can do is equivalent to two mortar bombs hitting a bunker," Fonseka added, asserting that the armed forces were capable of taking care of the LTTE's new air wing.

    Pictures released by the Tigers indicate they operate Czech-built Zlin Z-143 single engine, four-seater light aircraft modified to carry four bombs mounted on the undercarriage.

    According to Morovan Aeroplanes, which manufactures the Zlin, the Z-143 is a versatile airplane designed "for the pilots who want more than straight flying from point A to point B."

    "Night and IFR (instrument flight rules) training and flying and great flight characteristics and additional instruments make the ZLIN easy to fly at night or (in) low visibility conditions," according to Morovan.

    It is not clear whether the Tigers have extensively modified the aircraft, which military sources believe may have been bought from a source in South Africa, but the standard version has a wing span of just over 10 metres (33 feet) and an endurance of up to five hours and 10 minutes.

    It has a maximum level cruising speed of 260 kilometres (162 miles) an hour and cannot be intercepted by the supersonic jets of the Sri Lankan air force, which are too fast and do not have air-to-air attack capability.

    The two passenger seats can be removed to give room for extra fuel and a bigger payload. It can take off and land from unprepared surfaces, needing only 640 metres to take off and 765 metres to land.

    Shortly after the first Tiger attack on its main airbase, which shares a runway with the international airport, the air force said it failed to bring down the Tiger aircraft because it did not have night flying capability.

    A week later the government announced it was carrying out night time air raids against suspected Tamil Tiger positions to demonstrate it was by then able to fly at night. But the Tigers have flown two more night sorties unchallenged.

    The only time a Mi-24 helicopter gunship was scrambled to intercept the flying Tigers, the chopper developed engine trouble and crash landed.

    Sri Lanka's military was aware of an air strip built by the Tigers for several years and in 2005 the government lodged a formal complaint with Nordic truce monitors who are observing a now moribund ceasefire.

    It is not clear if the Tigers use the clearing in Iranamadu, which can be clearly seen on satellite images, as the base for their Zlin aircraft. The clearing has been bombed by the air force several times.

    Military sources believe that the Tigers smuggled in the aircraft in knocked-down form two years ago and assembled them in territory held by them.

    The lax supervision soon after the December 2004 tsunami may have helped the Tigers, according to defence sources.

    Speaking to Colombo-based diplomats, a top military officer on Monday admitted that security forces were "still learning" how to deal with the new threat from the Tigers.

    (Edited)

  • Tiger planes bomb Palaly base
    Tamil Tiger aircraft bombed Sri Lanka's main military complex in the Jaffna peninsula Tuesday, inflicting heavy damage and casualties.
     
    In their second air strike in as many months, the LTTE said two light aircraft flew over the Palaly air field just after midnight and bombed military locations.
     
    The Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) bombers had hit an Engineering Unit of the complex and a military storage at 1.20 am, the LTTE said.
     
    Continuous explosions were heard from inside the High Security Zone for five hours after the air raid, fuelling speculation that stored ammunition had been set ablaze.
     
    After the air raid, power supply was shut down for more than 3 hours and cell phone links were cut off, civilian sources told TamilNet.
     
    The Sri Lankan military initially denied the attack, then admitted the raid had taken place but there had been no losses, and finally said the bombs killed six soldiers and wounding 13.
     
    However residents along the road between the Colombo and Ratmalana airbase saw more than fifty trips by various ambulances shuttling between the military hospital in the city and the military airport.
     
    Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said their pilots saw flames after dropping bombs on the sprawling Palaly air field.
     
    "We have carried out our second air attack... on the Palaly air field and their military stores," he said.
     
    The government flew a group of photographers to the area and showed them three out of 22 places said to have been hit by Tiger shelling as well as the pre-dawn air strike.
     
    But the ammunition dump at Myliddy said to have been destroyed by the LTTE air raid was not on the tour.
     
    "Six of the soldiers who were killed are those who fired at the Tiger aircraft which flew at 100 metres (330 feet)," the region's top military commander Major General G. A. Chandrasiri told reporters.
     
    The latest Tiger air raid was an embarrassment to the air force, which announced last week it had acquired night-attack capability of knocking out LTTE aircraft.
     
    The Tigers staged their first air strike on Sri Lankan forces on March 26 using what were believed to be two single-engined, Czech-made Zlin Z-143 training planes.
     
    Sri Lanka's military operate a fleet of supersonic jets as well as Mi-24 helicopter gunships in addition to spy planes.
     
    The first Tiger air attack saw the guerrillas drop six bombs on the island's main military air base - which shares a runway with Sri Lanka's only international airport - and get away unchallenged.
     
    The government said the second Tiger air attack inflicted little damage.
     
    "The security forces acted promptly, alerted through the air defence systems, and launched a counter air offensive at a suspected aircraft... forcing it to change course immediately," the defence ministry said.
     
    Sri Lanka Army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, however, said the LTTE aircraft changed course to bomb a nearby army detachment from where the military casualties were reported.
     
    Fonseka said the military switched off lights, rolled out heavy guns and opened fire. However, the guerrilla aircraft managed to escape.
     
    The defence ministry said the Tigers were believed to have five light aircraft which they had smuggled in since a Norwegian-arranged truce went into effect in February 2002.
     
    The LTTE, outlawed in the United States and EU, is believed to be the only armed group possessing both naval and air capability.
     
    Palaly is the main military complex in Jaffna, a former Tiger bastion captured by government troops in December 1995.
     
    The military depends on air and sea transport to ferry supplies to 40,000 security personnel and more than 350,000 civilians living in government-held parts of the peninsula.
     
    "I spoke to the pilots after the attack and they said they did not come under any kind of fire," Ilanthiriyan said, denying government claims that ground fire forced the low-flying aircraft to change their target.
     
    "They had a cool flight," he added, but stressed an immediate repeat of the air strike was unlikely as the Tigers would be watching Sri Lanka play New Zealand in the semi-finals of the World Cup cricket tournament in Jamaica.
     
    "There may not be any attacks tonight (Tuesday) because we are also watching the match," Ilanthiriyan told AFP.
  • Sri Lanka peace process, truce in tatters
    Sri Lanka's peace process is in tatters with both the government and Tamil Tigers once again pushing for a military solution, according to diplomats close to efforts to end the conflict.
     
    International sponsors of the peace process are also resigned to Asia's longest-running civil war dragging on for years to come, saying the two sides are only likely to return to talks once they are exhausted by more bloodshed.
     
    “Neither the government nor the Tigers are interested in paying anything more than lip service to the peace process and the 2002 ceasefire,” said one official involved in the Norwegian-led peace effort.
     
    “The Norwegians are only acting as facilitators, not to impose anything. But at the present time, they are not being asked to facilitate anything,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
     
    The ceasefire, along with the peace negotiations, broke down last year -- leaving both sides squaring up for another round in the 35-year-old ethnic conflict.
     
    Last November, Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran declared his people would pursue their own independent state.
     
    Recent months have seen a sharp escalation in the fighting, with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) losing ground in the east in January and the armed forces vowing to clear the entire area of Tigers once and for all before turning their attention to the Tigers' mini-state in the north.
     
    The LTTE's political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan vowed the Tigers would hit back soon, describing the loss of territory for them as a simple change in their tactics.
     
    “We have not withdrawn from the east,” Thamilselvan told AFP in an e-mail interview.
     
    “I believe only our actions in the coming period will answer (government) propaganda whether the Sri Lankan military has won a stable victory.”
     
    The government has jacked up the defence budget by 45 percent to 1.29 billion dollars this year. The talk in Colombo is of war, albeit packaged as a “humanitarian defensive operation”.
     
    “Within the next two to three years we should be able to eliminate them,” a senior government defence official told reporters in Colombo last month.
     
    Although Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse has stopped short of fulfilling his election campaign pledge of expelling the Norwegians, Sri Lankan officials are displaying a thinly-disguised loathing of Nordic truce monitors, international organisations and NGOs -- accused of pro-LTTE leanings and restricted in their scope of operations as a result.
     
    Journalists attempting to cover the conflict are also barred by the government from entering Tiger territory.
     
    Diplomats say their patience has run out, and the peace process has been put on ice.
     
    Even the United States - seen as more sympathetic to Sri Lanka's fight against the LTTE, a designated terrorist organisation - is said to be frustrated that its pleas for a negotiated settlement have been ignored.
     
    Fighting is now expected to intensify in the east while the Tigers will be under pressure to show their reach - something they displayed earlier this month with their first-ever air strike.
     
    “What we can expect over the coming months is more tit-for-tat violence: government forces pushing into LTTE territory and the Tigers carrying out more high-profile attacks,” said the diplomat.
     
    “The feeling now (among international players) is: let the government and the Tigers clobber each other some more, and when they are tired out we can help nudge them back to the table,” said another international official.
     
    At the Colombo office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), caretakers of the truce, the mood is gloomy, but realistic.
     
    According to SLMM spokesman Thorfinnur Omarsson, the 2002 ceasefire still exists on paper and is still being monitored.
     
    “Unfortunately it has been violated constantly, in fact every day in recent months,” he said, adding the SLMM at least continued to provide a “tool to independently document what is going on on the ground.”
     
    “We still hope that this calms down and the parties start talking again, then our work will be of use.”
     
    Defence analyst Namal Perera said the Tigers retained the ability to carry out spectacular attacks despite added military pressure in recent months.
     
    “Their ability to stage attacks and take troops by surprise was also demonstrated with the air attacks last month,” Perera said.
     
    Retired army brigadier general Vipul Boteju lamented the fact that neither side is likely to return to the negotiating table anytime soon.
     
    “This is not something that can be tackled only through military means,” Boteju said.
     
    “There must be a political (devolution) package and the longer we delay it, the more people will get killed.”
  • Majority of Sinhalese back war - survey
    A public opinion survey by Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) a Colombo based think tank indicates a sharp rise in support for war amongst Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese population.
     
    “The February 2007 report captures the public mood at the close of 2006 and the first two months of the New Year, during which time violence and hostilities, particularly in the North and East of Sri Lanka intensified,” CPA said.
     
    This is the 25th Peace Confidence Index published by CPA since the first on in May 2001and polled the Sinhala, Muslim and up-country Tamil community members. It is designed to capture public mood and confidence in the peace process.
     
    “Support for a military solution continues to rise dramatically amongst the Sinhala community, with well over half of those polled (59.2%) in support of a military solution.” the report added.
     
    Compared to the PCI findings of November 2006, Sinhalese support for the government defeating the LTTE has increased by 9% to 35.1% while support for peace talks is down by 10% to 46.3%.
     
    Survey also showed the Sinhala people have lots of confidence in President Mahinda Rajapakse’s ability to wage a successful military campaign against the LTTE whilst Tamil and Muslim communities were skeptical.
     
    “Military offensives and counter‐attacks by the LTTE led to an increase in IDPs and refugees and a worsening humanitarian situation, which in turn had a detrimental effect on human rights across the country,” the report said.
     
    According to the survey there is also a sharp difference of opinion as to whether the Ceasefire Agreement has benefited ordinary citizens, with the Sinhalese of the opinion that it has not whilst the Up - Country Tamils and Muslims believe it has.
     
    This difference of opinion continues with regards to the Government’s commitment to the CFA, with the Up‐Country Tamils expressing their marked dissatisfaction as opposed to the overwhelming percentage of Sinhalese (79.7%) and a majority of Muslims (53.3%) who express their satisfaction.
     
    Majority of Sinhalese people polled were dissatisfied with the role of Norway as facilitator and disapproved the continuation of their role in the peace process.
     
    However majority of Muslim and Up Country Tamil community members polled expressed their satisfaction and support on both counts.
     
    “Significantly, a majority of the Sri Lankan community believe that it is the government who is responsible for protecting human rights,” the report said.
     
    “A majority of the Sinhala community believe that the government has done enough to protect human rights while the Up Country Tamils, on the other hand, do not.”
  • Truth elusive as Sri Lanka slides into war
    Near dusk, men with guns enter the village of Awaranthalawa in northern Sri Lanka, shoot and kill six women and a boy, and withdraw to the jungle.
     
    After that April 12 incident Sri Lanka's military blamed the killings on Tamil Tigers, fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamils along the north and east of the teardrop-shaped island known as the "Pearl of the Indian Ocean."
     
    The Tigers denied involvement, saying the government engineered the attack on non-combatants to make it look like the rebels did it and tarnish their reputation.
     
    Proof may never emerge either way about the tragedy and many others like it, as they are drowned by a growing tide of bad news in a two-decade war that has intensified over the past 16 months.
     
    Violence like the killings in remote Awaranthalawa highlights a worrying axiom of the worsening conflict.
     
    "The more violent it is, the less likely you are to get a true account," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent think-tank based in the capital, Colombo.
     
    Alongside almost daily land and sea battles, propaganda from both sides has proliferated.
     
    "What we really see are two wars. One is the press release war in Colombo and the other is the military war with the [Tigers] in the north and east," said defense analyst Iqbal Athas.
     
    The escalation of violence and an official "state of emergency" have made it harder for journalists seeking independent verification to travel to conflict zones.
     
    After a suicide bomber tried to kill the president's brother in late 2006 the government further tightened restrictions.
     
    Even Nordic monitors of the tattered 2002 ceasefire, who enjoy unparalleled access to the war zones, say it is getting more difficult to determine the truth.
     
    "Increasingly, they are blaming each other for the most significant incidents. In many of the cases we can, from our side, pinpoint who is the most likely perpetrator, but it is getting more and more difficult," said Thorfinnur Omarsson, of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
     
    The execution-style killing of 17 tsunami aid workers last year was another case where the truth has remained elusive.
     
    The SLMM blamed security forces, but the government has stringently denied that and promised a transparent investigation into the worst attack on humanitarian workers since the 2003 suicide bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
     
    Yet little has come to light in the ensuing months and rights groups have said the probe was beset with shortcomings. No arrests have been made.
     
    In the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated south and west, analysts say, the government is winning the information war.
     
    A poll released this month by the Centre for Policy Initiatives found about 60 percent of Sinhalese backed a military solution to the conflict, while support for peace talks fell to 46 percent from 57 percent in November.
     
    "The vast majority of people are fed government propaganda," Saravanamuttu said. "They have been fed on a diet of victory."
     
    Sunanda Deshapriya, convener of the Free Media Movement, said: "The public is thinking that the government is winning. They think: 'We can win this war'."
     
    That has worrying implications, some say.
     
    Many analysts see no end in sight for the conflict and no clear advantage for ether side in the war, which has dragged on for decades.
     
    The Tigers for their part run a well-oiled propaganda machine too. The group is savvy in the workings of the international media, and pro-Tiger Web sites like Tamilnet are quick to post reports rebutting military claims.
     
    After the attack in Awaranthalawa a spokesman for the LTTE was prompt to call Reuters with their denial.
     
    In areas under Tiger control, analysts say the Tigers keep a tight grip on information through a mix of intimidation and propaganda.
     
    The government has also been accused of threatening journalists.
     
    "I don't think that in general people get the real picture," said Deshapriya.
  • Sri Lanka says ‘final push’ on in East
    Tensions are running high in Sri Lanka's east as government troops fight what they insist is the “climax” of a battle to clear vast jungle areas of Tamil Tigers.
     
    Still trying to recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami, the eastern coastal town of Batticaloa and surrounding areas have become a stalking ground for shadowy death squads and private armies engaged in daily murders, kidnappings and extortion, local officials and aid workers say.
     
    Tens of thousands of people have been displaced, and most expect the situation to get worse before it gets better.
     Sri Lankan soldiers studying the map of the East.
     “It's miserable for the civilian population. There is a climate of absolute impunity. Everyone seems to have thrown aside the rule book,” said a western aid worker based in the Tamil-majority area.
     
    “There's a dirty war being fought here, and there seems to be no end in sight,” said the relief worker, who asked not to be named citing the fear of being targetted.
     
    Since a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement fell apart a year ago, government forces have focussed their efforts on wresting full control of the island's east and eliminating pockets of intensive Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activity.
     
    The Sri Lankan military says success would mean confining the Tigers, who are battling to set up an independent state across swathes of the north and east, to a single area in the north of the island.
     
    While some officials assert that they merely want to bring the LTTE back to the negotiating table, others talk openly of “eliminating” them once and for all.
     
    In January, government forces “liberated” the small coastal town of Vakarai, just to the north of Batticaloa and the last of the Tigers' formalised bastions in the east.
     
    Vakarai is now a ghost town, with many of its buildings flattened by government shelling and strewn with landmines left behind by the Tigers.
     
    Daya Ratnayake, a gung-ho army brigadier in charge of much of the eastern front, prefers to call it a “defensive humanitarian operation.”
     
    “This is the climax. The LTTE are desperate. It's a matter of time,” he told AFP in Welikanda, a leafy garrison town inland from Batticaloa.
     
    “We will not take more than two months to get the east clear of these terrorists. Now the only major concentration of Tigers in the east is just outside Batticaloa, and we know how to get rid of them now,” he told AFP.
     
    The guerrillas who used to run Vakarai as a separate fiefdom, however, appear to have simply melted away into the jungles and rocky outcrops that line the otherwise idyllic east coast.
     
    Formal battle lines have been replaced by a massive security blanket designed to stifle the activities of Tigers who could be anywhere and everywhere.
     
    The entire mobile telephone network has even been shut down to stop the Tigers using phones for communications or detonating one of their favoured weapons -- huge roadside bombs packed with ball bearings.
     
    Checkpoints and machine gun bunkers dot the landscape, although several roads are controlled by the Tigers by night. Even in daylight, senior officials prefer to move around in disguise and in unmarked vehicles.
     
    “The trouble is you don't know who is who. You push the Tigers from one place and they move somewhere else. You push them from somewhere else and they move back here. They could be anywhere,” said a police official, who also preferred not to be named.
     
    A further complication is the presence of the Karuna faction, a group of breakaway Tamil Tigers now allied with central government and -- despite official denials -- widely viewed as guns for government hire.
     
    Human rights groups and even local police -- speaking privately at least -- say both the LTTE and Karuna faction are actively preying on local business for cash and on displaced persons camps for recruits including child soldiers.
     
    Officials also live in constant fear of so-called 'pistol squads', or Tamil Tigers in civvies who can pull out a 9mm pistol and assassinate whenever the ideal opportunity arises -- on a street corner, in a temple, in a restaurant.
     
    The senior police officer in the newly-captured town of Vakarai, U.S.I. Perera, said he cannot even take a morning dip at the beach just a stone's throw away from his heavily fortified police station.
     
    “I don't want to get shot by a pistol squad coming out of the sea,” he said while providing a tour of the town along with several well-armed guards.
     
    Brigadier Ratnayake, however, is optimistic the government finally has the upper hand in Asia's longest running civil war, citing their “hearts and minds” campaign including compensation for people whose houses have been blown up.
     
    “It is all about hearts and minds. We are adopting better methods, and getting the local population on our side.
     
    “When you are fighting guerrillas, terrorists, you can never be sure,” he said. “But we have them on the defensive. We are not working to a timescale, but we don't want it to drag on.”
  • Rights abuses unsettle Sri Lanka’s allies
    As widespread human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan security forces continue, even staunch supporters of the state are unable to disguise their disquiet with many governments now echoing recent protests by international human right groups against the relentless killings and abductions.
     
    However the brazen abuses and ensuing protests right groups have so far not resulted in any significant action against Sri Lanka by the United States or other leading states.
     
    And rather than be deterred, the Sri Lankan government has reacted angrily to protests about its human rights record, refusing permission for international rights groups and threatening to expel foreign organization and diplomats who criticize it.
     
    The international concerns were raised most prominently last week by Pope Benedict XVI when President Mahinda Rajapakse visited him in the Vatican.
     
    They were repeated by the Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, who met with President Rajapaksa afterwards.
     
    “In the course of the talks - and in the light of the current situation in Sri Lanka - the need was reiterated to respect human rights and resume the path of dialogue and negotiation as the only way to put an end to the violence that is bloodying the island,” a statement issued by the Vatican afterwards said.
     
    Even the United States, a strong ally of Sri Lanka in the war against the Tamil Tigers is also openly expressing its concerns at the daily atrocities in government controlled areas.
     
    Last week US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, whilst backing Sri Lanka’s ongoing military campaign, raised his concerns publicly.
     
    “We are very much aware of the fact that this is a democratically elected government that is trying to fight a terrorist organisation,” he told journalists.
     
    “At the same time, we of course continue to be concerned about the killings in government areas and urge the law enforcement authorities to adhere to codes of conduct in carrying out their duties,” he said.
     
    “We are equally concerned about violations occurring in areas under LTTE control,” Boucher, who heads the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs at US Department of State, said.
     
    He said that US would continue to assist the Sri Lankan state and push for independent inquiries to be held into human rights violations.
     
    International human rights groups, which were largely silent as the Sri Lankan security forces stepped up a terror campaign amongst Tamil civilians a year ago have become increasingly critical.
     
    International organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and Western governments are frustrated by the Colombo government’s refusal to allow independent human rights monitoring in Sri Lanka.
     
    And recently, Freedom House, an influential US-based organization that advocates democracy and freedom around the world, citing Sri Lanka’s human rights abuses, urged the US government to withhold US$590 million assistance through the Millennium Challenge Account.
     
    “The serious human rights abuses and excessive restrictions on freedom of speech and association by the government of Sri Lanka merit the country’s removal from a list of eligible recipients for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) assistance,” Freedom House said in a statement.
     
    “These abuses by the Sri Lankan government merit a suspension of MCA eligibility status,” Freedom House’s Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor said.
     
    “The government’s involvement in extrajudicial killings and disappearances, as well as the crackdown on speech and association, are simply not compatible with the MCA’s underlying criteria of ‘ruling justly,’ and until these deficiencies are repaired, the country should not be considered,” she said.
     
    “Democratic governments have a responsibility - even in the midst of conflict - to respect and protect fundamental individual freedoms.”
     
    Members of US senate and congress have also taken up the human rights abuses by Sri Lanka’s security forces, press reports say.
     
    On March 30, Senator Richard G. Lugar, who sits in Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, conveyed to President Rajapakse in writing that many in the Senate were troubled by reports of a deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
     
    The senator had urged President Rajapakse to take “appropriate action to ensure that neither the government of Sri Lanka, nor any group allied to it, is a perpetrator of human rights abuses.”
     
    Last month Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos from California, who is the co-chair of the human rights caucus and chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, criticised the growing number of disappearances in Sri Lanka.
     
    In the strongly worded statement Lantos called for the resumption of talks under the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).
     
    “Further escalation will only worsen the already gross human rights abuses. I call upon the international community, including Diaspora groups, to push all parties towards dialogue rather than destruction,” Lantos wrote.
     
    Earlier this year, a group 38 US lawmakers led by New Jersey Democratic Representative Rush Holt requested President George W. Bush to appoint a special envoy to help bring about peace in conflict-ridden Sri Lanka.
     
    “We are writing to urge you to appoint a special envoy for Sri Lanka because we are deeply troubled by the ever-worsening situation on the ground there,” they said.
     
    “The renewed violence and rising death toll in Sri Lanka have overtaken the fragile peace process and threaten a return to open civil war,” they said. “Further, we are troubled by the large increase in kidnappings across Sri Lanka, most of which remain unsolved.”
     
    However calls by the Senate and Congress members and international human right organizations have so far not resulted in any significant action against Sri Lanka by the United States or other leading states.
     
    The Sri Lankan government has reacted angrily to criticism of its human rights record.
     
    Colombo was infuriated by Amnesty International’s campaign, using the theme of cricket and the World Cup, to promote independent human rights monitoring mission.
     
    Amnesty international has been refused permission to send a delegation to investigate rights abuses.
     
    In addition according to Sri Lankan press reports the government is planning to throw the German Ambassador for overstepping his mandate.
     
    According to local media the envoy had been a key in garnering international support to target Sri Lanka’s human rights record and pushing for an EU resolution against the country.
     
    Sri Lanka’s Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella warned envoys against interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, saying: “We don’t want to be pushed around.”
     
    Also according to local reports UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) may also be asked to leave Sri Lanka supposedly for “overstaying its mandate.”
     
    According to the Sunday Times the government was angered as OCHA reportedly wanted to play the role of a human rights monitor.
     
    However Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman in New York, said OCHA originally went to deal with coordinating the response to the tsunami and is now involved in helping coordinate humanitarian assistance to people in need as a result of the internal conflict.
     
    In addition to human rights abuses, harassment of the media has become another source of international disquiet.
     
    Last week Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse reportedly threatened the editor of Daily Mirror news paper over an article alleging government collusion with paramilitaries terrorizing Muslims in military-controlled parts of the east.
     
    The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Dominic Chilcott became the target of Gothabaya’s ire when he visited the threatened editor Champika Liyanararchi to express his solidarity.
     
    The British envoy was immediately summoned by the Defence Secretary.
     
    “They talked about the role of the media,” a High Commission spokesman told AFP.
     
    “The high commissioner and the defence secretary agreed to preserve the confidentiality of the meeting.”
  • Politics, Not Morals
    Every international actor involved in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict consistently asserts their unalloyed support for ‘peace’ and a negotiated solution. They also invariably insist that it is up to the protagonists themselves to resolve what is termed ‘their’ dispute. But this pious commitment to the abstract notion of ‘peace’ does not disguise their cynical pursuit of their own substantial interests both through the course of the conflict and shaping of its ultimate outcome. Interests in themselves cannot be faulted. However the preparedness of many international actors to sacrifice the aspirations and the well being of the Tamil people in pursuit of their own interests has served to deepen Sinhala oppression and escalate Sri Lanka’s conflict. These dynamics have been brought into particularly stark focus since President Mahinda Rajapakse came to power in Nov. 2005.
     
    The international condemnation of the Liberation Tigers’ armed struggle as ‘terrorism’ is a political act, not moral truth. When civilians die, what is the moral difference between a bomb delivered by truck and one dropped by a jet? And a cursory survey of happenings in war zones around the world raises the question as to who is entitled to be custodian of such ‘universal’ morality? It is international conduct in relation to the contemporary dynamics of Sri Lanka’s conflict that most underlines the ethereality of international humanitarian norms.
     
    Almost all international observers of Sri Lanka’s conflict are agreed that, from a human rights and humanitarian perspective, this is one of the most repressive periods in the island’s post-independence history. And it is the Tamils who are bearing the brunt of the state’s onslaught. On the one hand, Tamils are being abducted and executed or ‘disappeared’ by the state’s military and paramilitary forces. On the other hand, the Tamils are, as a community, being brutalized through deliberate mass displacement and indiscriminate military violence. True, civilians have died in LTTE attacks too. But even a cursory comparison of the scale of the violence reveals that the Sri Lankan state is responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths. And it is the collective sufferings inflicted on the Tamils such as the manifest deprivations of the displaced people and the food and essentials embargoes on Tamil areas that underlines the racism of the Sri Lankan state. President Rajapakse’s administration might be particularly crude in its persecution of the Tamils, but the machinery of state has been oriented thus for decades.
     
    But it is the conduct of international actors during this phase of the conflict that is truly despicable. President Rajapakse’s government may be more chauvinist than any before, but no government has received as much international support as this one. All international action regarding Sri Lanka since Nov 2005 has been directed at undermining and weakening the LTTE and bolstering the state. In the past eighteen months the LTTE was banned by Canada and European Union (Australia is reportedly preparing its own ban) while the US and French authorities have arrested alleged LTTE agents and known pro-LTTE activists. Even Tamil humanitarian organizations are being harassed. The argument is that the LTTE is hardline and intransigent and needs to be forced to the negotiating table and, in any case, has committed acts of ‘terror.’ Even that intransigence – i.e. a insistence on Tamil independence – is a political label. The international community, led by the United States, stridently asserts Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity is sacrosanct. Yet the same actors insist that Kosovo deserves independence. Politics, not principles.
     
    In the meantime, the Sri Lankan state – a ‘vibrant democracy’ lest we forget - is free to brutalise the Tamils without any restraint. Indiscriminate bombardment has killed hundreds and driven hundreds of thousands of our people from their homes. They languish in refugee camps a few hours drive from Colombo where international diplomats discuss trade and economic cooperation with Sri Lankan officials. Whilst the majority of Batticaloa’s Tamils suffer abuse and deprivation in military-controlled camps, it is the development of Arumugam Bay as a future tourist resort that draws most international attention. As civilians in Mannar cower under military bombardment, the United States’ anxiety is that Sri Lanka does not have the institutional capacity to exploit the oil deposits off that coast.
     
    The Tamil political struggle emerged from state oppression. The armed struggle emerged from the futility of political agitation against a state and political leadership beholden to majoritarian supremacy. But it also emerged as a consequence of international governments’ refusal to demand the same governance standards of Sri Lanka as their own citizens are entitled to. It sufficed that Sri Lanka was a docile client. Even in the early eighties, it was Sri Lanka’s economic liberalization, not the undisguised persecution of the Tamils that mattered most to the West. The Tamil struggle was merely ‘communist terrorism.’
     
    Nothing has changed. There was a brief period of Norwegian-led surrealism when the Tamils’ problem of racial persecution by the Sinhala-dominated state become transformed into one of ‘conflict resolution’ and ‘human rights protection.’ But when the LTTE refused to do the right thing – i.e. disarm and disband – that project was abandoned and the international gloves came off. The objective remains the same as ever: to force the LTTE to accept the terms Sri Lanka sees fit to offer. The international proscriptions, the highly publicized arrests of suspected LTTE members and activists, the smear campaigns to associate the LTTE with organized criminality are intended to coerce the LTTE to this end.
     
    The LTTE is undoubtedly sensitive to international opinion, but not absolutely so. As much as international analysis may conveniently blame the intractability of Sri Lanka’s conflict on the LTTE leadership’s mindset, there are inescapable realities concerning ethnic relations in this country. And it is the unalloyed international support for the Sri Lankan state that has done most to undermine the moral force on which proscription and other forms of international censure rely. The Tamil struggle emerged and expanded as a direct consequence of rising state oppression. That oppression has continued for decades as a direct consequence of unqualified international support for successive Sinhala governments. The ongoing international actions against the LTTE are not going to promote negotiations, let alone peace. It will spur the state to greater brutality against the Tamils, who will increasingly come to see the LTTE – as even some international actors privately now acknowledge – as the only means of checking the state’s violence. The dynamic of oppression and resistance ensures that it is only when the fundamental crisis at the heart of the chauvinist Sri Lankan state is ended, will the island see peace.
  • Sinhala fury at Tamileelam flag
     A cricket fan waving the Tamil Eelam flag at the world cup.
    The spirited pitch invasion Monday by a Tamil youth carrying the Tamileelam flag during the Cricket World Cup match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Grenada National Stadium, provoked a furious reaction from Sinhala ultra-nationalists.
     
    The text of The Island editorial titled ‘Pitch invasion: Desecration of cricket and hidden danger’ follows:
     
    The dastardly act of pitch invasion by the LTTE on Monday, while the Sri Lanka-Australia match was on in Grenada, must be condemned by the civilised world unreservedly. The LTTE has once again demonstrated its capability to gain access anywhere at will. Luckily, the protester was armed with only a flag. Even if he had been a suicide bomber or a gunman on a mission to create a ‘Munich’ type situation, there would have been very little that the security personnel on duty could do. He would have accomplished his mission with ease.
     
    The Sri Lankan player in the picture of the incident we carry today looks amused but that was no laughing matter, given the macabre mindset of the LTTE. For an outfit that has assassinated an incumbent President of Sri Lanka, made an attempt on the life of another President, killed a foreign minister and blown a former Prime Minister of India to bits, harming a team of cricketers is only child’s play. After all, creating a backlash is its very objective. Even if the Earth were to spin out of its orbit, Prabhakaran would do anything to achieve his objective. Else, would he ever have targeted a chopper ferrying a group of envoys of some powerful nations a few weeks ago in Batticaloa?
     
    The Amnesty International (AI) attempt to make use of the on-going World Cup cricket series to stage a protest against Sri Lanka with dummy cricket balls with the slogan, Sri Lanka play by the rules, may have inspired the LTTE to go a step further and invade the pitch. The LTTE and its sympathisers not only supported the AI campaign but went to the extent of publicly defending it.
     
    In a media release, the AI has sought to justify its ball campaign by claiming that human rights are more important than cricket. How true! Any nitwit knows that. No one can fault the AI for protesting against the human rights violations in this country, as we pointed out the other day in these columns. However, it is not over campaigning for human rights that the AI has drawn heavy flak. It has got into hot water over the timing of its protest and its modus operandi. No one would have minded any number of balls being signed after the World Cup series.
     
    Pitch invasions may be common but this particular incident should jolt the ICC and all the cricketing nations into calling for better security for their players. Terrorists, they should realise, don’t give a tinker’s damn about the consequences of their action as was said earlier. It is only wishful thinking that the England team is safe from Al Quaeda, which is ramming civilian targets with fuel laden jets with thousands of passengers on board and blasting tube stations full of commuters. Remember in the aftermath of the 9/11 incidents, Australia cancelled a meeting of Commonwealth Heads of States fearing terror attacks. An organisation all out to eliminate heads of state, won’t baulk at attacking cricketers. The pitch invader concerned could have been anyone and his mission could have been anything. There lies the real danger! Simply because he happened to be a supporter of Sri Lanka’s terrorism, it shouldn’t mean that the other cricketing nations should turn a blind eye to the incident and get lulled into complacency.
     
    What would have been the reaction of a powerful nation to such an interruption by its terrorists? How would Britain have taken such an invasion by an Al Quaeda activist? And what would have been the reaction of the US to an Al Quaeda operative interrupting a baseball match at home or abroad? The protester would have been reduced to pulp or he would have got his brains blown out in the middle of the ground with no questions asked just like that Brazilian youth who was shot in the head in public following the London attacks.
     
    It is ironical that the LTTE happened to invade the pitch, while Australia were playing Sri Lanka in the West Indies. Australia and the West Indies, it may be recalled, refused to visit Sri Lanka in 1996 on the grounds of LTTE-instigated violence. India and Pakistan pledged solidarity with Sri Lanka by sending their precious cricketers here for an exhibition match, which was played without any untoward incident. Now that the LTTE has demonstrated its potential to do anything in the West Indies, the question is whether Australia is going to run away? And what has the West Indies got to say about the incident, which has exposed a glaring security lapse on its part?
     
    The Sri Lanka Cricket must take up the issue with the ICC and the West Indies Cricket without taking it lying down in typical Sri Lankan style. It must demand that the West Indies ensure the safety of its players by providing them with enhanced security and keeping the LTTE activists at bay.
     
    Let no lame excuses be trotted out!
  • Sri Lanka’s probe of aid workers’ massacre is ‘flawed’ - Jurists
    Seventeen tsunami aid workers were shot dead by Sri Lankan forces in Muttur.
    Investigation by Sri Lanka authorities into the massacre, blamed on government of troops, of 17 aid workers in Muttur last year was seriously flawed, a group of international lawyers said last week.
     
    The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a collection of international legal experts based in Switzerland, accused the Sri Lanka state of a lack of impartiality, transparency and effectiveness in its investigation and warned the rule of law in island was under threat.
     
    "We are very disappointed," ICJ Secretary General Nicholas Howen told Reuters.
     
    "These are grave concerns that are being echoed not only in Sri Lanka but internationally. Clearly this is a great test of the ability of the criminal justice system in Sri Lanka to deliver justice."
     
    Seventeen tsunami aid workers, 16 Tamils and 1 Muslim, from French aid group Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Famine) were found dead with close range gun shot wounds in the northeastern town of Muttur, south of port town of Trincomalee, last August after fighting between the Sri Lankan army and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
     
    Following the discovery massacre, Sri Lankan military forces blocked off the area and prevented ACF officials and international ceasefire monitors from retrieving the bodies of the victims.
     
    The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) later investigated the murders and said the evidence pointed to government troops being responsible.
     
    “When NGO employees are targeted, the whole humanitarian community is directly affected. If the independence and neutrality of humanitarian workers is not respected, then their activities are undermined,” the SLMM said at the time.
     
    The massacre was the worst attack on humanitarian workers since a suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 killed 22 UN staff.
     
    Later, under intense international pressure the government invited Australian forensic experts to carry out investigations. After two visits to the island the forensic experts complained of unnecessary hurdles by authorities and returned without concluding their investigations.
     
    The French aid agency at the time lamented the delays and hurdles in the investigation and warned that if a thorough investigation is not conducted it would pull out of Sri Lanka.
     
    In a final attempt to see an end to the ongoing case, ACF have requested another “ballistic investigation” be carried out, but this time around though with the presence of the Australian observers, The Nation newspaper reported.
     
    “We have discussed pulling out of the country, and halting the work of our mission here, which is definitely a possibility, if nothing comes out of these investigations,” said Lucile Grosjean, ACF’s Communication Officer.
     
    According to an agreement signed between the governments of Sri Lanka and Australia, Sri Lankan experts should have conducted a ballistic examination in the presence of Australian observers, however the investigation had been carried out without the latters’ involvement.
     
    “The Australian observers were in the country during the previous investigation but were not allowed to participate [in the tests] and so left the country,” Ms. Grosjean added
     
    ACF also expressed strong concerns that the Sri Lankan CID did not always follow the orders given by the investigating judge and appealed for a closer adherence to the court requests in the future to pave way for an open and proper proceedings.
     
    The ICJ report, compiled by senior British barrister Michael Birnbaum QC, was highly critical of the authorities.
     
    "Collection of evidence has been incomplete and inadequate. In particular, the CID has not interviewed any member of the Sri Lankan security forces, nor any Tamil, apart from the family members of those killed," the report said.
     
    "The observer made a detailed analysis of the relevant documents and reports and found many apparent inconsistencies,"
     
    In his report Mr. Birnbaum urged the authorities to seriously consider reforms to the criminal justice system "to ensure impartial and effective investigations and independent decisions as to prosecution".
     
     
  • University students abducted, tortured
    Two Jaffna University students have been abducted and tortured, allegedly by SLA military intelligence, in the last two weeks.
     
    Vijayarajah Vijayarooban, a native of Kachchai in Kodikaamam, was abducted on April 13 at a private tuition centre near the A9 road, inside the SLA militarized HSZ in Chavakacheri town, where he was working as a part time teacher.
     
    He was allegedly taken by SLA Military Intelligence stationed at Post Office Road in Chavakachchaeri, who were dressed in civil cloths and were driving a white van.
     
    Vijayarooban was released on April 16 after severe torture for three days.
     
    He was pushed out of a white van at around 11:00 a.m. near the place from which he had been abducted three days earlier.
     
    The director of the private tuition centre had been abducted earlier and Vijayaroopan had been performing the duties of the abducted director, according to the family of the missing director, who lodged a separate complaint with the Jaffna office of the SLHRC.
     
    Separately, another Arts Faculty student of Jaffna University, abducted in Jaffna city on April 9, was released the next night along a desolate roadside after severe torture.
     
    Nagenthiram Rajaluxman, 25, told hospital authorities that he was waylaid outside his home and abducted by SLA military intelligence operatives travelling in a white van and later interrogated and tortured in a military camp before being released.
     
    Rajaluxmanm, a resident of Naavalar Veethi, Ariyaalai, is a 3rd year art student of Jaffna University.
     
    Another Jaffna University final year student was recently shot and killed in Chavakacheri hospital surroundings.
     
    Separately, an appeal has been lodged with Sri Lanka's Attorney General to release Selvarajah Paheerathan, 26, another Jaffna University undergrad, who was arrested by the SLA eight months ago in a cordon and search operation in the premises of the Jaffna University and later handed over to the Jaffna Police.
     
    Paheerathan has been detained since October last year under the PTA and has not been charged in courts.
  • Violence round up – week ending 22 April
    21 April
     
    ● The SLA launched artillery barrage on the villages of Paalamoaddai, Kunchukulam, Navvi, Puliankulam and Semamadu, in the Vavuniya district. No civilian casualties were reported.
     
     
    20 April
     
    ● A SLAF Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was reported missing while on a reconnaissance mission over Kokkilai, Mullaitheevu. The UAV made a forced landing between Pulmoaddai and Kokkilai, but the SLAF failed to identify the location.
     
    ● Relatives of Gopalasamy Kosalan, 20, a fisherman from Swamiyar Veethy in Columbuthurai, Jaffna, who went missing on 13 April after being abducted by four unidentified men on motor cycles, say they saw him detained inside a SLA sentry post on Kandy road in Chundukuli, clad in army fatigues. The SLA's 51-2 brigade headquarters in Jaffna town, however, told the SLHRC that they had not detained any such person.
     
    ● The SLAF has stepped up bombardment on LTTE territory in Mullaitheevu and Kilinochchi districts. Ilankeswaran Pavusnila, 32, a female civilian, was wounded when SLAF bombers bombed Puthukkudiyiruppu 9th Division.
     
    ● Gunmen waiting in ambush after penetrating into SLA territory in Welikanda, on the Batticaloa Polonnaruwa border, triggered a claymore mine and killed two SLA troopers and wounded five. A SLA tractor transporting sand to fortify bunkers was damaged in the ambush. The SLA soldiers were returning with sand from Mahaweli River bed to fortify their positions.
     
    ● Armed men abducted a Tamil youth from his residence, took him to Valaichenai, Batticaloa, and shot him dead. Thangarasa Vinoth, 27, a carpenter by profession, was abducted from his home at in School Road, Peththalai, about 2 km from Valaichenai. Police alleged that the man was a member of the LTTE’s intelligence unit.
     
    19 April
     
     
    18 March
     
    ● Following a fire fight between SLN and Sea Tigers in the lagoons south of the Jaffna Peninsula the previous afternoon, the SLN imposed a fishing ban on fishermen from coastal areas of Pashaiyoor, Gurunagar, and Navanthurai. More than 3000 fishermen are affected by the ban. They were blocked from entering sea at the sentry points along the shores of the littoral villages at the southern shores. The SLN has informed that the ban will be in effect until further notice.
     
    ● Unidentified persons lobbed three hand grenades on SLA troopers posted near a fuel station at Iratperiyakulam, Vavuniya, killing a SLA trooper, injuring two troopers and a home guard.
     
    ● A Tamil youth allegedly killed himself taking cyanide after being arrested by the SLA in Mannar. He was identified by his National Identity Card as Vaithilingam Roshan, 27, of Muttur in Trincomalee. SLA soldiers took the youth into custody when he was travelling in a three-wheeler along Vankalai-Nanattan road. Later he was admitted by the SLA to the Mannar general hospital on a report that he had consumed cyanide when being interrogated. He died while undergoing treatment.
     
    ● Armed men shot dead a Muslim civilian at Poovarasanthivu in Kinniya, Trincomalee. A group of unidentified persons entered the house of Abdul Hassan, 48, a cattle trader, called him out and shot at him, killing him on the spot.
     
    ● A SLA soldier, S. Samankumara, 29, attached to 51-4 Brigade, shot himself at the Ariyalai FDL. A [perceived threat of imminent attack by the LTTE on targets in Jaffna has prompted SLA command to impose severe restrictions on soldiers visiting their families in the south and extended the stays of many. The suspension of vacation time for SLA soldiers and the resulting psychological impact is said to have resulted in an escalating number of deaths due to suicide among junior officers and soldiers.
     
    17 April
     
    ● Four armed men shot dead a woman and a young man in a house at Kovilkudirruppu, Vaharai, Batticaloa. The men, who had come to abduct the young man, had shot dead the two when the victims had argued with them. The victims were identified as Ms. Muthaia Sivamany, 58, and Muthaia Baskaran, 27, a farmer by profession.
     
    ● Gunmen waylaid and shot dead a Samurthi Development Officer on duty at Urani in Pothuvil, Amparai, while he was riding his motor bike. K. Suthakaran, 27, attached to Pothuvil Regional Secretariat, was originally from Kalmunai, and was married in Komari.
     
    ● Kalmunai police arrested a Muslim youth who had in his possession a T-56 rifle that had gone missing when a police constable was shot dead at Kalmunai by unidentified persons late last year. M. M. Sarban, 27, of Division 4, Kalmunai, was arrested at his home.
     
    ● The parents and two younger brothers of Suntharampillai Ravikumar, 28, who was arrested last Friday and is detained at Kankesanthurai Special Police detention camp, sought protection with SLHRC in Jaffna, but the SLHRC took steps to place only the 16 year old brother in protective custody. Their parents and another brother had to return home to Kachai. Ravikumar's parents, farmers by profession, said they were subjected to continuous intimidation and death threats at their home by the SLA troopers following the arrest of their son.
     
    ● A Batticaloa man, who married and was living in Pokadi, Jaffna, has sought protection with the Jaffna SLHRC, fearing for his life at the hands of the SLA.
     
    ● Gunmen shot dead a motor mechanic near his house at Arumgathan Kudirrupu in Eravur, Batticaloa, while armed men shot, injured and abducted his brother-in-law at another place in the same village. Kanapathipillai Vasanthakumar, 25, a father of one and a motor mechanic employed at a motor repair shop on Eravur Main street, was shot dead about 50 meters from his house while he was returning from work on bicycle. He fled up to his house with gunshot wounds where he fell dead. His brother-in-law, Amshath, 27, a father of one, was shot injured and abducted. Originally from Kalmunai, he was married to Vasanthakumar's sister and living in Armugathan Kudirruppu.
     
    ● Armed men in a white van abducted Visuvalingam Mahendran, 27, of Mavadivembu area, a father of two and a labourer, between Mavadivembu and Kommanthurai in Eravur, Batticaloa, according to a complaint lodged with Eravur police.
     
    ● The parents of two men complained to Eravur police that their sons had gone missing after going to Eravur market last week. Armed men on a motor cycle abducted friends Subramaniam Sasikumar, 18, and Thanikasalam Mathurathurai, 19, of Vipulanandapuram, Mylambaveli, labourers by profession, as they were making their way to purchase goods at Eravur public market.
     
    ● SLA troopers at a sentry post in Allaipitti, Jaffna, shot dead a fellow trooper who was approaching their sentry post. They claimed they mistook him for a Tiger fighter on a recon mission who failed to respond to their queries. The troopers manning the sentry post were suspicious of the victim advancing towards them and had called for identification. The victim had continued to approach silently and the fellow troopers had opened rapid fire, killing him on the spot.
     
    ● Five civilians, including a school girl, died when the boat in which they were travelling capsized due to heavy wind in Valaichchenai lagoon near Santhively, Eravur, Batticaloa. The bodies of Ms. Maheswary Rasarathinam, 38, and Mrs. Puspharani Ailesapillai, 42, and school girl Ropathy Ganeshamoorthy, 13, were recovered. The incident happened when the victims, all from Santhively, were travelling in a fishing boat to visit relatives in the village of Thihiliveddai across the lagoon.
     
    16 April
     
    ● An unidentified aircraft flew over parts of government-controlled Jaffna just after dusk. The aircraft passed low over Jaffna city centre and parts of Vadaramadchchi North and Valikamam. Sri Lankan troops in some areas doused the lights of their camps as the aircraft approached, fuelling suspicions it was one of those operated by the LTTE. Residents said the aircraft was different to those customarily operated by the SLAF and others said its flight route was one not usually flown by SLAF craft.
     
    ● Thirteen Tamil fishermen who went fishing in Mannar Sea are missing. Of the 13, eleven are from Vidaththalthivu and two are from Pallimunai. Relatives lodged complaints at Konthaththivu Police in Pallimunai that they went for fishing in the morning as usual but failed to return.
     
    ● The SLA in Valikamam west, Jaffna, conducted an intensive search, blocking all the roads in the villages of Pandaththarippu, Sillalai, Ilavalai, Vadaliyadaippu, Mareesankoodal, Saanthai and Piranpathai. No-one was allowed to move out of their house and all young men and women from the villages were taken to a public ground and paraded before masked men who identified them by nodding their heads.
     
    ● The SLA blocked all the key roads in Jaffna, including Palaly road, Kankesanthurai road, Kandy road and Point Pedro road, for nearly two hours and moved heavy military equipments and personnel to its FDLs.
     
    ● An appeal has been lodged with Sri Lanka's Attorney General to release Selvarajah Paheerathan, 26, an undergrad who was arrested by the SLA eight months ago in a cordon and search operation in the premises of the Jaffna University and later handed over to the Jaffna Police. He has been detained since October last year under the PTA. He has not been charged in courts.
     
    ● A pedestrian was killed, knocked down by a speeding SLA vehicle along Batticaloa Valiachenai Road at Maavadivaembu, Eravur. S. Kanthalingam, 66, of Uma Mill road, Kommanthurai was killed when a speeding SLA vehicle hit him. In a separate incident, a cyclist identified as Iqbal Sugumar, 28, a father of two, from Vishnukovil road in Kiran, died on the same spot when a motorbike collided with him. Another cyclist, Nagalingam Sureshkumar, 28, was injured.
     
    ● Four armed men, conversing in Sinhala and Tamil, entered the house of Chandrabose Suthahar, 32, a former editor of a Tamil magazine in Thirunavatkulam, Vavuniya, and shot and killed the father of one.
  • Gothabaya threatens Mirror editor over Karuna story
    Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse threatened the editor of a leading English daily on April 17, saying the paper’s coverage of actions of the Karuna Group had angered the Army-backed paramilitaries, a media watchdog said.
     
    And the British envoy to the island became embroiled in the matter after visiting the journalist the day after the story of the threats broke.
     
    Rajapakse, brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, had last Tuesday morning telephoned Ms. Champika Liyanarachchi, editor of the Daily Mirror to say she should not be surprised if the Karuna Group turned its violence against her and if so, she shouldn’t expect government protection, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said.
     
    In an article titled ‘Karuna faction running its writ in Pottuvil’ on April 16, the Daily Mirror reported the paramilitary group “is creating havoc in the Muslim-dominated Pottuvil town in Ampara, moving around freely with weapons in government-controlled areas while law enforcement authorities are allegedly turning a blind eye.”
     
    The Defence Secretary had told Ms. Liyanarachchi her paper’s story had angered the Karuna faction and, furthermore, was written against the Government, the FMM said.
     
    In the eventuality of Karuna Group violence against her, Rajapakse had said Ms. Liyanarachchi should not expect any security from the government to protect her, the FMM said.
     
    Sources close to the Daily Mirror said Rajapakse had been explicit.
     
    Speaking in English, the incensed Defence Secretary vowed to Ms. Liyanarachchi: “I’ll exterminate you!”
     
    He had also attacked another journalist with the Daily Mirror, Uditha Jayasinha, describing her as “a prostitute whose mother has been sleeping with the Tigers.”
     
    Citing the article by Ms. Jayasinha titled ‘Mutur IDPs: Battling a man-made tsunami in the guise of war’ the Defence Secretary “had continued his vicious tirade by castigating the reporter and expressing his severe displeasure that the article carried negative remarks on the Sri Lankan Army by displaced people,” the FMM also said.
     
    “These statements of the Defence Secretary beggar belief,” the FMM said.
     
    “This gross misconduct of a high-placed public official clearly demonstrates the challenges facing free media in Sri Lanka today. … Given the volatile situation in the country, the FMM also fears that this threat sends a chilling message to the media community at large in Sri Lanka.”
     
    The FMM noted that on previous occasions as well, government leaders had criticized Daily Mirror over is coverage of the conflict.
     
    “It is an open secret that government leaders and close allies are pressurizing independent media to toe its line on war and peace. We see this latest development as a calculated process of coercion by the Government that forces media to abandon its role watch-dog of democracy, and instead adopt the supine role of a lap dog to those in power.”
     
    But the country’s President defended his brother, suggesting the journalist had ‘overreacted’.
     
    Prior to leaving for Italy, President Mahinda Rajapakse telephoned Ms. Liyanarachchi and suggested she had overreacted to the Defence Secretary’s “expressions of concern for her safety.”
     
    The President said that his brother had only wanted to “express his concern for [Ms. Liyanarachchi’s] safety” after her paper published an article on violence by the Karuna Group and suggested the government was complicit.
     
    Ironically, Ms. Liyanarachchi was seen by many as having good links with President Rajapakse’s administration and political camp.
     
    Amid widespread expectation that President Rajapakse’s then archrival, Ranil Wickremesinghe would win the 2005 Presidential elections, she was the first commentator to emphatically argue the opposite, a media analyst said.
     
    And in an interview to the BBC Sinhala service, Laksham Hulugalle, Director General of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS), said of Ms Liyanarachchi: “we work closely work with her and I’m sure the Defence Secretary would never have said those things.”
     
    “He’s not there to threaten journalists but to protect the country from threats,” Mr. Hulugalle said of Gothabaya Rajapakse.
     
    After the story broke in the media, British high commissioner Dominick Chilcott was “invited” to his tightly-guarded office at short notice on April 19, a high commission spokesman told AFP.
     
    The summons came after Chilcott visited Liyanarachchi a day after she said she received a death threat from Rajapakse.
     
    "They talked about the role of the media," the spokesman said. "The high commissioner and the defence secretary agreed that the confidentiality of the meeting would be preserved."
     
    Chilcott's unexpected visit was seen by diplomats as a signal of Britain's deep concern over recent attacks against the freedom of expression in this former British colony.
     
    His gesture of support came hours after the Sri Lankan government accused unnamed diplomats of interfering in the island's internal affairs and warned that those meddling would be kicked out.
     
    Rajapakse denied issuing a death threat, in remarks posted on the defence ministry web site.
     
    "While admitting that he had had a telephone conversation with the said newspaper editor, the defence secretary said that it was just a frank exchange of ideas on two controversial articles published on the said newspaper," the site said.
     
    "He further stated that he did not make any threat to the said editor other than openly expressing his views and was surprised how certain media had exaggerated the issue."
     
    Media organisations have described Sri Lanka, where the government is fighting a bitter war against the Liberation Tigers, as the most dangerous place on earth for journalists after Iraq.
     
    Rights groups say critics of government policy are treated as traitors and enemies of the state.
  • Gunmen kill Tamil journalist
    Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Tamil journalist in Vavuniya in the latest in a string of attacks against media personnel, a rights group said, bringing to 24 the number of people killed in the past two weeks in the northern town.
     
    Meanwhile, the violence in Vavuniya continued unabated, including a 5 hour armed robbery spree that netted the thieves over Rs. 20 million.
     
    Subash Chandraboas, 32, editor of the Tamil monthly ‘Nilam’, was gunned down late evening on April 16 at his residence in Thirunavatkulam, Vavuniya, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. Chandraboas also freelanced for other publications.
     
    Four armed men, conversing in Sinhala and Tamil, entered Chandraboas’ house and shot and killed the father of one.
     
    The killers then instructed his 7-year-old son, at gunpoint, to go to sleep.
     
    The boy waited until the gunmen left the house before seeking the assistance of neighbours to contact his mother, who was out of the house at the time of the shooting.
     
    The FMM, which consists of journalists and rights activists, said it was “appalled by this killing.”
     
    “Although the reason for killing him is not clear, the FMM fears that this could be another attack on journalists and media personnel working in north and east,” where fighting is raging between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, the statement said.
     
    The report on the killing comes after an editor from a national daily said she received a death threat from Sri Lanka's defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a charge denied by him.
     
    Media organisations have described Sri Lanka as the most dangerous place on earth for journalists after Iraq, and rights groups say that critics of government policy are treated as traitors and enemies of the state.
     
    Meanwhile, an armed gang went on an uninterrupted five-hour robbery spree in at Bandarikulam in Vavuniya on the night of April 18.
     
    The gang robbed cash, jewellery and other valuables from several houses to the tune of Rs. 20 million, reported The Island.
     
    The targeted houses belonged to doctors, high ranking government officials and wealthy businessmen, the paper said, adding, “a thorough survey has been done before the robbery and the victims have been predetermined, Police believe.”
     
    “The armed raiders first disconnected the telephones, grabbed the mobile phones, tied their victims to trees and made the victims totally incommunicado before helping themselves,” the paper reported.
     
    “Before fleeing, the gang had warned the victims that if they inform the police or security forces they would have to face the dire consequences.”
     
    Also, at a meeting convened by the Vavuniya District Secretariat on April 18, it was revealed that 24 people have been killed in Vavuniya during the last fortnight
     
    The meeting was presided by the District Secretary and participants included Vavuniya District Judge M. Ilancheliyan, heads of security forces and police in the area, politicians, high ranking government officials and religious dignitaries. At the meeting it was decided to form a 20-member citizens committee that would coordinate with the security forces and the civilians.
     
  • Wickremesinghe slams Rajapakse regime's rights record
    The leader of Sri Lanka’s main opposition party accused the government of responsibility for the country’s worsening human rights record.
     
    United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who attended a gathering of the relatives and friends of missing persons, in Colombo on April 9, charged that the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) regime was responsible for the bad reputation of the Sri Lankan state's Human Rights record.
     
    "The attitude that, if a war is to be waged, all Tamils should be annihilated prevails in Sri Lanka," Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
     
    "All political parties should unite in safeguarding the human rights of all people," he said. "The situation, if allowed to continue, would tarnish the entire image of Sri Lanka."
     
    "We hear that persons abducted from Colombo and its suburbs are being held in Polonnaruwa. The United National Party would not hesitate to do what it can to trace the places where the abducted persons are said to be held," Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
     
    Eighty-eight people have been either abducted or gone missing since August 2006, the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), an ongoing initiative by a few involved politicians to monitor involuntary disappearances, abduction, extra judicial killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions in Sri Lanka, noted at the gathering.
     
    "The President of Sri Lanka has chosen to dismiss the present disappearances as not worthy of local and international attention," said a resolution passed by the gathering.
     
    “We consider human lives as sacred and that no one, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, caste, social status etc., deserves to be "disappeared",” the resolution said.
     
    “We are particularly pained at the inability or unwillingness of the government to adequately investigate this situation and their rejection of our efforts and those of local and international groups trying to help us.”
     
    CMC chairman Sirithunga Jayasooriya, Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran, UNP parliamentarians John Amarathunge and Ravi Karunanayakke, CMC convenor and Western People's Front leader and parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan, and others spoke at the confluence attended by hundreds of relatives and friends of persons abducted or missing.
     
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