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  • ‘International efforts to weaken Tigers fuels war’

    May 22
    LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan
    Full text of the interview Sunday with the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan follows:
     
    TamilNet: Talks in the past were held in an environment of military balance of power between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka. However, the South’s current military aggression appears to be exploiting the West’s assumption that only a weakened-LTTE will be prepared to compromise on its political stand. Can you comment?
     
    Thamilchelvan: This is total fallacy. Since the time of independence in 1948, Tamil people took part in many negotiations to reach at agreements with the Sri Lankan Government. The armed struggle was born as a result of successive Sri Lankan Governments abrogating several such agreements, and continued ethnically motivated killing. Armed struggle born as self defense shattered the confidence of the Sinhala leaders that Tamils cannot be beaten militarily, and brought them to the talks. Therefore, only when Tamils are strong, there is a chance that the Sinhala leadership will come forward for a negotiated solution. The latest peace talks too occurred under such circumstances.
     
    This latest tactic by the Government of Sri Lanka is also to persuade the international community to help subdue the Tamil people and commit ethnic genocide against them. LTTE and the Tamil people under no circumstances will come to the table in a position of political and military weakness.
     
    TamilNet: South has rejected one key principle of Thimpu talks, the concept of Tamil homeland. The world powers also seem to experiment if the Government of Sri Lanka is capable of creating conditions for peace talks under such environment. What is your view of this approach?
     
    Thamilchelvan: Sinhala leadership ought to develop a profound understanding of the aspirations and the demands of the Tamil people. Tamil people have put forward their rights for the last several decades. They took up the armed struggle for a separate state only when their demands were consistently rejected. This is the reality. Therefore, it is only when the Sinhala leadership respects the Tamil people's rights and proposes a just solution, there is a chance for moving towards an agreement. But, the ruling Sinhala elite continues to put forward unacceptable solutions that aim to exercise power over the Tamil people and maintain subservience. These acts are frustrating the Tamil people and are destroying their confidence in a negotiated solution. The latest proposal, which is the same as the one rejected and defeated by the Tamil people thirty years ago, makes it abundantly clear that the Sinhala leadership still balking at proposing a just solution. Through these actions Sinhala leadership is destroying any remnants of hopes the Tamil people have in a peaceful solution.
     
    TamilNet: Colombo is attempting to impress upon the international community that its war is a "war on terrorism" to justify its military "needs". International community "appears" to be supporting this. This approach can also be viewed as an attempt to apply pressure on the LTTE. What do you like to tell those who think this approach will succeed in bringing about a solution?
     
    Thamilchelvan: While the International community relies on the Sinhala leadership to take forward the peace process, Sinhala leaders have repeatedly failed to make use of the many opportunities to resolve the ethnic conflict, and has instead adopted tactics to carry out genocide against the Tamils. Sri Lankan Government is attempting to exploit the changed environment in the international scene and tarnish the Tamil people's struggle as a phenomenon of international terrorism to undermine the struggle’s moral validity. It is distressing to the Tamil people that the international community is indirectly giving support to the Sri Lankan Government that is committing ethnic genocide. International community through the involvement in the peace process during the last five years clearly knows that the Sri Lankan Government has never been ready to provide a reasonable solution to the Tamil people. Sri Lankan Government has through many attempts destroyed the foundations of the peace talks and eliminated all efforts towards peace. This good foundation for peace was laid after a long time with the facilitation of the Norwegian Government. It resulted in the signing of a ceasefire agreement. The Sri Lankan Government has destroyed this ceasefire agreement and poisoned the climate of peace. While this remains the reality, it is futile for the international community to apply pressure on the Tamils. This has encouraged the Sinhala Government to intensify its ethnic genocide. The recent banning of the LTTE in Canada and the European Union has only encouraged the Sri Lankan Government to pursue a military solution. The expectations of the Tamil people are that the international community will pressure the Sri Lankan Government to pursue peace, and will act to bring justice to the Tamil people.
     
    TamilNet: What should the Sri Lankan Government do to convince you of its bona fides in pursuing peace?
     
    Thamilchelvan: If there is to be a solution to the ethnic conflict then the genocidal war on the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan Government must first end. Extrajudicial killing and disappearances of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan Government forces must come to an end. The restrictions on travel by Tamils and economic blockade must be removed. The human misery caused by the militarization must end.
     
    The war must be halted and a peaceful environment must be created. In my view, the full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) reached by both sides with the assistance of the international community is the most suitable path to achieve this.
     
    TamilNet: Do you think the International powers, by not applying pressure to abandon Sri Lanka Government’s war efforts, are indirectly supporting the war?
     
    Thamilchelvan: Definitely. Some of the decisions taken by the international community, trusting that the Sri Lankan Government will act in a certain way have indeed encouraged the Sri Lankan Government to act in exact opposition to what was expected. These decisions have resulted in Colombo intensifying the war. The decisions to ban in various countries, and some of the actions to restrict the political work of the LTTE, are interpreted by the Sri Lankan Government as endorsing its military approach. The international community has created the view that it is supporting Colombo’s war. I think the international community, by realizing this and by recognizing the Tamil people's struggle for their rights and by coming forward to support that struggle, can create a situation conducive for negotiations.
     
    TamilNet: Will gentle pressures and democratic methods useful, when past successive governments have only tried to search for a solution within its constitution?
     
    Thamilchelvan: The truth is that successive Sri Lankan Governments have conducted in various ways a genocidal war on the Tamil people. It implemented many oppressive laws and laws to deny their basic rights. It is these actions that lead the Tamil people to lose confidence and forced them to conclude that they can no longer live with the Sinhala nation. As long as the members of the majority Sinhala community hold views that are ethnically biased they will continue to vote against Tamil demands. They are continuing to adopt a stance that is also oppressive to the Muslim people. Therefore, only a solution that respects all the nations and ethnicities will make peace possible. Further, no acceptable solution can be found under the parameters of the current constitution. In recent times, in many countries, many ethnicities have been respected for their uniqueness and their rights; solutions have been put forward resulting in peaceful solutions to ethnic conflicts. The genocidal war of the Sri Lankan Government that has failed to recognize these developments cannot be the path to find a solution. In my view a solution can be found with the efforts of the international community only if it accepts the balance of power of the two sides.
     
    TamilNet: When will the violence end?
     
    Thamilchelvan: When the ideals of peace, self-respect, rights, and freedom respected in the civilized world as essentials for the betterment of the human race are accepted. When, on this basis a just and honorable solution is reached for the Tamil people who have been subjected to oppression and Tamils gain the confidence that they too can live in freedom and with self respect. That day will mark the emergence of two peaceful, individually strong and economically powerful nations in this island.
     
    International community must understand this reality and take constructive steps to bring the Sri Lankan Government back to the path of peace.
     
  • Sri Lanka sinks into lawlessness
    Sri Lankan police searching bus passengers.

    Cases of murder, abduction, disappearance and intimidation surface almost daily in Sri Lanka as the South Asian nation appears to be sliding into lawlessness and war.
     
    With a truce between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in tatters and peace talks long since abandoned, rights workers and the media fear the situation is spiralling out of control.
     
    The government is pressing for a military victory over the Tigers, and a series of tit-for-tat clashes have left heavy casualties on both sides -- as well as discrepancies over the true body count.
     
    But away from the front lines, bloodshed is just as frequent and usually involves civilians, although it is seldom clear who is behind the day-to-day violence.
     
    "The situation is out of control," said Sunander Deshapriya of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a private think tank.
     
    "What we are seeing today is uncertainty. We do not know who is doing what. It is very difficult to find out who is responsible, violence is so widespread," Deshapriya said.
     
    "It is also very difficult to see the situation improving."
     
    Almost 5,000 people have been killed since December 2005, according to the defence ministry.
     
    And more than 700 people are reported to have "disappeared" in the past year in Sri Lanka, where at least 60,000 people have been killed in the Tamil separatist conflict since 1972.
     
    Such a climate of fear has not been seen on the island since 1987-1990, when the army crushed a Marxist Sinhalese uprising at the official cost of 16,750 dead and thousands more missing.
     
    Britain halted debt relief this month in anger at the government's human rights records, and major donor Japan is reviewing its position. Germany stopped aid last December.
     
    The United States has also dropped the usual diplomatic niceties, publicly accusing Sri Lanka of reneging on promises to protect human rights.
     
    "People are more fearful and face more difficulties. Overall, there has been a deterioration in Sri Lanka's human rights record," said US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher on a visit to Sri Lanka this month.
     
    He travelled to the northern Jaffna peninsula, where 350,000 civilians and 40,000 government troops have lived under virtual siege conditions since the army closed the only land access in August after Tiger attacks.
     
    Laxman Gunasekera, president of the South Asian Free Media Alliance (SAFMA) in Sri Lanka, said abductions were rampant - "but not a single government authority is prepared to acknowledge abductions and give us a figure."
     
    "We have an impression of a lack of control by the state itself," he said.
     
    Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told AFP the lack of official figures was a "lacuna" and said the government was battling to ensure a human rights commission functioned independently.
     
    This involved setting up a witness protection scheme and safe houses, and arranging for political asylum in the West when necessary.
     
    "It's a serious situation we have to grapple with," he said. "I know it's hard for people to understand that we are making progress."
     
    The minister pointed to the ongoing return of thousands of refugees to eastern areas where troops have captured territory from the LTTE.
     
    But journalist groups accuse authorities of trying to silence anyone who dissents from the official line.
     
    "Journalists face public abuse, violent physical assault, threats, deaths, abduction and murder ... in all parts of the country," including LTTE-held areas, said SAFMA's Gunasekera.
     
    "The picture is not one of improvement, but worsening conditions," he said. "The reality is bleak."
     
    The independent Sri Lanka Press Institute is creating a safety fund to help journalists facing death threats. It is looking at providing mobile phones to local reporters and running a safe house in the capital.
     
    Tamil journalists have borne the brunt of the onslaught.
     
    Several told AFP they live in fear for their lives and can no longer work normally or risk using their names on air or in print.
     
    In eastern Batticaloa district, only one Tamil journalist remains at work today, several months after the army ousted the LTTE from the Tamil-majority area. Others have fled, among them the president of a Tamil journalists union.
     
    Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, chief editor of the Tamil-language Uthayan newspaper -- the only paper to publish in Jaffna for the last 20 years without interruption -- refuses to back down.
     
    He says he will not close despite a squeeze from the authorities which has resulted in the daily cutting its pages from 20 to four, and printing on any paper it can find. Circulation has dropped from 24,000 to 4,000.
     
    "We have lost five staff in the last 18 months," he said. "I have had grenades tossed into my room, but I am ready for anything."
  • Tigers vow to stand firm
    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) this week urged the international community to abandon its support for the Sri Lankan government’s new war and to play a constructive role towards peace.
     
    In an interview Sunday, the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr. S. P. Thamilchelvan, said the decision to ban the Tigers in various countries and actions which restricted the political work of the Tigers, were being interpreted by Colombo as endorsing its militarist approach.
     
    Mr. Thamilchelvan warned it was a fallacy to think that by weakening the LTTE, the movement could be coerced into compromising on Tamil political goals.
     
    The Sinhala polity was today working on unacceptable solutions that were rejected by the Tamils 30 years ago, he said, implying that the Sinhala leadership had to want a just peace also.
     
    "The Sinhala leadership ought to develop a profound understanding of the aspirations and the demands of the Tamil people," Mr. Thamilchelvan said and questioned whether a conducive environment for a such change is promoted when international players were supporting Colombo’s war.
     
    "The international community through the involvement in the peace process during the last five years clearly knows that the Sri Lankan Government has never been ready to provide a reasonable solution to the Tamil people."
     
    A balance of power and parity of status between the negotiating parties - the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka - are key for successful negotiations to find a sustainable solution to the conflict.
     
    "It is fallacy to think that by weakening the LTTE, the movement can be forced to compromise on its political stand," Thamilchelvan told TamilNet.
     
    "I think the international community, by realizing this and by recognizing the Tamil people's struggle for their rights and by coming forward to support that struggle, can create a situation conducive for negotiations."
  • Flawed Logic
    Sri Lanka’s conflict is arguably one of the most internationalized today. The major powers, especially the Western states, are intimately involved and familiar with the dynamics at play in the island. The Sri Lankan state is integrated into the international system. Yet the Colombo government is today seemingly able to defy international humanitarian and human rights norms with impunity. Growing disquiet amongst some foreign governments is now manifest (after the killings, abductions and ‘disappearances’ of shocking number of innocent Tamils). But the continuing staunch support of a number of states, especially the United States, means Colombo is not unduly worried. The contempt with which the Sinhala government dismisses international concerns about the humanitarian and human rights situation in the island is underpinned by self-confidence that sufficient international support will be forthcoming for a war against the Tamil Tigers, no matter how bloody it is.
     
    Despite claiming commitment to peace, human rights and democracy, with the emergence of a Sinhala-hardline regime under President Mahinda Rajapakse, the overarching international approach is rationalized under the (demonstrably discredited elsewhere) slogan, ‘war on terror.’ The inclusions of the LTTE in international terrorism lists were political decisions. But now these listings are taken as ‘facts’ and used to justify the foreclosure of contact with the Tigers, engagement with the Tamil demand for self-rule and, ultimately, to back Sri Lanka’s military campaign.
     
    From the outset of the Norwegian-led peace process, the international approach to resolving Sri Lanka’s conflict has been flawed: one of carrot for the state and stick for the Tiger. Driven by a misguided belief that the events of 9/11/01 had persuaded the LTTE to seek peace (although the LTTE had offered a ceasefire and called for talks as early as November 2000), the international community has readily resorted to punitive and coercive method to discipline the Tiger. And this is despite the LTTE’s history of resisting any move sought at the point of a gun.
     
    Even today, the international community, led by the US, is relying on ‘pressure’ to force the LTTE to the table (even though no serious analyst thinks negotiations with the Rajapakse regime is a meaningful exercise). If the arrests of Tamil activists in various countries and other forms of pressure are intended to compel the Tigers to talk to Rajapakse on his terms, they will fail. There is a misguided belief that international action can cut the supply of funds and weapons to the LTTE. We believe that as long as the fundamental problem – i.e. the oppression of the Tamils by the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan state – remains, the LTTE will last and thrive. The Rajapakse regime has done much to compact Tamil opinion behind hardline stances.
     
    The international community’s hostility to the LTTE has been amply demonstrated in the past five years. Every act of ‘engagement’ was effectively a moralizing sermon on political violence and human rights. At the same time, the unrepentant Sri Lankan state has been gently chided and cajoled. These dynamics accelerated last year. Even though international ceasefire monitors warned of a ‘cycle of violence’, of a ‘shadow war’ between both sides, the European Union and Canada, following the US approach, singled out the LTTE for blame and banned it. The move emboldened the Sinhala hardliners. It did not tame the Tiger.
     
    The most important consequence of the ‘war on terror’ is that it offers people who have taken up arms against a repressive state Hobson’s choice: fight or perish. From the outset of their struggle, there was a desperate effort by the Tamils to internationalize the conflict (and a reverse determination by the Sinhala state, using the rhetoric of ‘internal affairs’, to foreclose any international involvement, save that which contributed to crushing the Tamils). This dynamic has continued despite international hostility to the LTTE. This is because the Tamil appeal for self-determination is based on the logic of escaping state oppression.
     
    Yet, despite rhetorical commitment to freedom, human rights and democracy, the international continues to ignore the Tamils’ core problem. The logics of ‘conflict resolution,’ ‘peace-building’ and, especially, the ‘war on terror’ all ignore the fundamental problem in Sri Lanka: the Sinhala-dominated state, fashioned on an ethos of racial and religious pre-eminence, oppresses and marginalizes the Tamils. But as long there is Sinhala oppression, there will be Tamil resistance. The current US-led approach, which ignores this basic truth, will not bring peace to Sri Lanka.
  • Can Sri Lanka wage war without US support?
    In early May the Asia Foundation published a report reviewing the United States’ role in Sri Lanka’s peace process from 2002-2006. It was written by Jeffrey Lunstead, who served as the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka from August 2003 to July 2006.
     
    In this retrospective analysis, Lunstead, senior State Department official, now retired outlines what he considers the reasons for US involvement in the Norwegian peace process. He also looks at the relationships the US has with the parties to conflict and other countries involved in the peace process.
     
    According to Lunstead, the degree of US involvement in the peace process was disproportionate as the US has little strategic or economic interests in the island.
     
    Contradicting common wisdom, Lunstead dismisses Trincomalee harbour as a strategic location the US would be interested in. He cites the security threat from the LTTE, a lack of facilities and infrastructure and the harbours distance to major sea lanes as drawbacks. He also points out to the negative effect any US interest in Trincomalee would have on America’s growing strategic relationship with India.
     
    US trade with Sri Lanka at a relatively insignificant US$ 2.3 billion per year, US economic interests in Sri Lanka is also limited, he says.
     
    The reasons the US enhanced its engagement in Sri Lanka in 2001, according to Lunstead were the Bush administration’s global war on terror, the pro-West and pro-free market policies of the newly elected Ranil Wickramasighe government and the personal interest of then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
     
    Whilst the first two elements were considered to be enabling factors the personal interest of Armitage was considered to be the driving factor.
     
    Lunstead says Armitage’s personal interest stemmed from a belief that Sri Lanka’s conflict could be resolved by peaceful political means assisted by the international community.
     
    Essentially the US, he says, saw Sri Lanka as a testbed for a new approach to resolving long-drawn internal conflicts which, if successful, could be applied to other trouble spots around the world.
     
    Lunstead feels the US adopted a nuanced policy in the Norwegian peace process: US offered the possibility of change in the US attitude towards the LTTE if the organisation changed its behaviour and renounced terrorism in ‘word and deed’ whilst encouraging the Government of Sri Lanka to develop a political strategy which included substantial devolution of power to address legitimate Tamil grievances.
     
    Further more, differing from the other Co-Chairs (European Union, Japan and Norway) and taking a hardline position against the LTTE, the US sent a message to LTTE that a return to war would not be acceptable.
     
    This, the US underpinned by strengthening the military capability of Sri Lankan state. However, according to the ambassador, the US also tried to make it clear to the government that the US military support was not an encouragement to seek a military solution.
     
    With hindsight he raises number of questions on the consequence of US approach.
     
    - Did the hard-line US approach to the LTTE have a positive effect, motivating the LTTE toward better behavior in the hope of gaining legitimacy?
     
    - Did it convince the LTTE that it would never be accepted as an equal partner in the peace process?
     
    - Did the LTTE understand the US message that removal of the terrorist designation was possible if LTTE behavior changed?
     
    - Would direct US contact with the LTTE have made that position more clear?
     
    - Did the supportive US military relationship with the Government of Sri Lanka have a positive effect by showing the LTTE that a return to armed conflict would be more costly?
     
    - What effect did it have on the Government of Sri Lanka?
     
    If Sri Lanka’s peace process was to be a testbed, the bloody violence into which Sri Lanka has now descended suggests it was a lesson in how not to do things.
     
    To begin with, the Norwegian peace process was built on delicate military parity between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces.
     
    If the LTTE was to secure a power-sharing arrangement for the Tamils from the Sri Lankan state, it was paramount it was treated as a legitimate, equal partner during the peace process.
     
    That was why the LTTE insisted Sri Lanka lift its ban on the LTTE before talks.
     
    The US disrupted this parity by rapidly arming the Sri Lankan state during the peace process and also by removing the ‘equal negotiating partner’ status of the LTTE by isolating the organisation through hardline ‘anti-terrorism’ driven policies and actions.
     
    In late 2001, when the LTTE entered the peace process, the organisation took a leap of faith and threw itself into an effort to building international legitimacy.
     
    It attempted to engage with number of international organisations, including the United Nations agencies, to ensure its practices were brought inline with international norms. It also set out programs of change in areas deemed problematic.
     
    Significantly, it stated explicitly it would be prepared to compromise on the demand for independence by agreeing to explore a federal solution.
     
    It should be noted that the Sri Lankan government made the same pledge. And its preparedness to abandon a unitary Sinhala-dominated state was accepted. As President Mahinda Rajapakse is now demonstrating, this was never going to happen.
     
    The LTTE during the peace process period behaved in a manner that should have encouraged the US-led international community. But instead of rewarding the LTTE’s tentative steps, the US simply stepped up efforts to isolate and weaken it.
     
    By not inviting the LTTE to the Washington Development Conference in April 2003 US deliberately humiliated the LTTE (and the Tamils it was supposed to be negotiating on behalf of).
     
    The US-led international community made it clear that the LTTE will never be treated as an equal partner in the process.
     
    It should be noted that at the time of the US snub, the LTTE was engaged in a massive effort to win international acceptance. It had, for over a year, observed ceasefire, avoided belligerence and was eagerly exploring several forms of engagement with international actors.
     
    As there were legal restrictions in LTTE members travelling to the US, would it have been difficult to host the conference in a venue that was acceptable to all for the sake of peace? At the time of the conference, was the LTTE showing any form intransigence for US to take a step that would be seen as hostile and detrimental to the sprit of peace building? Not really.
     
    In the context of the present bloodshed and destruction, what would the cost of relocating that meeting have been?
     
    If, as Lunstead argues, the LTTE used the non-invitation to the Washington Development Conference as an excuse to not attend Tokyo donor conference then US, though crass ignorance of the fundamentals of the conflict, paved the way.
     
    In effect, for the Tamils, the US actions were simply an extension of the Sri Lankan state’s second-class treatment of the Tamils since independence.
     
    Fast forward two years to the time after the December 2004 tsunami.
     
    Despite the Northeast having borne the brunt of the tidal wave, the international community was more inclined to not give the region its aid than accept having to direct rehabilitation funds through the LTTE.
     
    Having withheld the desperately needed funds for months, no sooner had the LTTE signed the P-TOMS (Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure) aid sharing mechanism with the Sri Lankan state (which grudgingly agreed to sign after intense EU pressure), the US immediately snubbed the Tamils again, by refusing to send any funds through it.
     
    The US’s public dismissal of the P-TOMS effectively destroyed its credibility and undoubtedly encouraged the state not to aggressively oppose the Sinhala-ultra nationalist JVP’s (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) challenge to the agreement.
     
     
    Then in early 2006, amid what international truce monitors called a ‘cycle of violence’ or a ‘shadow war’ – in other words a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks - the US publicly called for the EU to punish the LTTE by banning it.
     
    At a time when the Sri Lankan state was openly defying international calls to honour its obligations under the truce agreement to reign in the Army-backed paramilitary groups, the EU ban sent a clear signal to the LTTE and the Tamils.
     
    Surprisingly, Lunstead wonders if the LTTE understood the message the US was sending.
     
    Whilst he may argue that the US had a nuanced policy which offered clear incentives to the LTTE for ‘good behaviour’, it is clear no positive signal was sent and, in contrast, a series of humiliating and marginalizing messages were broadcast.
     
    In word and deed, the US spurned LTTE efforts to engage with international demands.
     
    Equally important, the US failed to restrain the Sri Lankan state’s belligerence and instead tolerated and encouraged it.
     
    Whilst making the odd statement that there was ‘no military solution to conflict’, the US provided increased military and financial assistance to the state even when Colombo was stepping up military violence in breach of the ceasefire agreement.
     
    The past eighteen months have made the US’s lack of commitment to a negotiated solution absolutely clear.
     
    In this time, the Sri Lankan state has unleashed a fully fledged war in the Northeast, dismantled previous peace agreements (including the Indo – Sri Lanka Accord) and closed the space for peace actors to work.
     
    The Sri Lankan state has unleashed a military campaign that deliberately targets civilians, killing hundreds and displacing over 250,000 people.
     
    Yet the US has not only failed to pressure the Sri Lankan state to stop, it has also worked to undermine the efforts of other international actors (such as some European countries) to do so.
     
    Analysts are agreed that the US has given a ‘green light’ for Sri Lanka’s violence against the Tamils – in stark contrast to Lunstead’s assertion that the US never encouraged a return to war.
     
    On the issue of direct contact between US officials and the LTTE, restrictions stemming from the FTO designation only apply to US territory. British officials, for example, regularly meet with the LTTE, despite the UK ban.
     
    But US refusal to meet with the LTTE is a minor issue. What is more important is the US’s pursuit of the LTTE’s marginalisation, isolation and destruction in the midst of a fragile peace process.
     
    Despite Sri Lankan state’s historical record of discrimination, racism and violence against the Tamils, the US chose to give Colombo every advantage against the LTTE.
     
    The rationale that Sri Lanka is a state is not tenable. Consider the ongoing case of Kosovo, or in Bosnia before that. Consider developments in Darfur.
     
    Without any effort to understand the long and complex history of ethnic politics in Sri Lanka, the US has sought to impose an inflexible and simplistic ideology on Sri Lanka.
     
    The lack of nuance in US policy was amply demonstrated in comments by US Under Secretary Nicholas Burns in November 2006:
     
    “I'd just say on behalf of the United States that we have faith in the government and faith in the president of Sri Lanka. They do want to make peace. We also believe that the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE, is a terrorist group responsible for massive bloodshed in the country and we hold the Tamil Tigers responsible for much of what has gone wrong in the country. We are not neutral in this respect. We support the government. We have a good relationship with the government. We believe the government has a right to try to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. The government has a right to protect the stability and security in the country. We meet often with the government at the highest levels and consider the government to be a friend to our country.”
     
    It is encouraging that a former US diplomat is prepared to question of the US’s conduct and even accept that perhaps things could have been done differently. But the fact that the realisation has not led to any change in US policy points to yet another shortcoming of the Washington’s inflexible approach to complex conflict.
     
    So, with hindsight, the US role in the Norwegian peace process appears less an effort to resolve the conflict than one to help Sri Lanka achieve what was proving very difficult to achieve on the battlefield: the destruction of the LTTE and the imposition of Sinhala hegemony on the Tamils.
     
    The Sri Lankan state is today, with active US support, unleashing a war that relies on Tamil civilian suffering to break LTTE resistance. The US, according to Burns, believes the government has “a right to try to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.”
     
    But could not the same argument have applied to Saddam Hussein’s efforts annihilate Kurdish civilians in a bid to break their will to fight for an independent state?
     
    It must be recalled how Saddam and Iraq continued to enjoy strong US support even as that genocidal war was unleashed against the Kurds. The parallels to today’s Sri Lanka are striking.
  • Fallen Fig Leaf
    Sri Lanka’s ruling party unveiled its much-heralded ‘power-sharing’ proposals last week, startling even the most cynical of observers with the starkness of its vision of centralized power. They were greeted by a chorus of outrage. But while southern moderates lambasted the Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s (SLFP) proposals, Sinhala nationlists howled that they had not explicitly committed to a unitary state – even though, in effect, it further strips power from minorities. President Mahinda Rajapakse is reportedly going to address the omission before submitting it to the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). Despite the United States’ repeated endorsements of the APRC, it is now universally accepted that it was merely an elaborate device to forestall international criticism. It is, in any case, a dead horse.
     
    With these proposals, President Rajapakse has signaled his wholehearted commitment to the military option. This, in effect, is his vision of Sri Lanka, to be rolled out following the eradication of the Tamil Tigers. In private, international observers admit to being stunned. Even if he was committed to a Sinhala nationalist utopia, some argue, for the sake of keeping up appearances, Rajapakse could have put forward some measure of devolution, no matter how weak. Instead, his proposals have compelled even his Tamil paramilitary allies to protest and embarrassed those in the SLFP who still describe themselves as moderates. And, officially, there has been pin drop silence from the international community, including the United States, the most enthusiastic supporters of the APRC charade.
     
    From the outset, however, the SLFP has been saying that its proposals will be in keeping with President Rajapakse’s 2005 election manifesto, ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ (Mahinda’s Thoughts). It has been true to its word. The surprise therefore comes from a misguided belief that, once safely ensconced in office, President Rajapakse would moderate his position. The simple fact is, he sees, with some justification, no reason to. Firstly, once the LTTE is destroyed, he is confident any damn solution can be imposed on the Tamils and Muslims (whose leaders have grown remarkably quiet once they entered the ruling coalition). Secondly, he is getting every international assistance to do just that. He is, after all, fighting the good fight, the ‘war on terror.’
     
    Sri Lanka is sliding inexorably towards an all out war. Even a superficial analysis of current dynamics shows that President Rajapakse is focusing single-mindedly on a battlefield victory (as, for that matter, is the LTTE). Every action by the government is intended to foreclose the possibility of a peace process and strengthen the war effort. This is why diplomats – including the indefatigable Norwegians – are barred from talking to the Tigers. This is why international NGOs are being harassed into avoiding the Northeast, why peace groups are being stamped on. Sinhala nationalists are being urged to protest against international actors, like Britain, who advocate peace talks.
     
    The international response to President Rajapakse’s all out military drive has been one of total acquiescence. The green light that the US gave Colombo to wage war against the Tigers is visible to everyone. No Sri Lankan government has had it so good in this regard. International criticism is about the widespread human rights abuses – not the recourse to war. And even that criticism is reprehensibly mild. The UK’s much-lauded, but minor cutting of aid last week doesn’t worry Colombo. Why should it - if the block on £1.5 million of aid is intended to express disapproval, what does the recent sale of £7 million of weapons say? And when the other donors, including several European countries, continue their aid programs.
     
    Ultimately, operating with a problem definition that blames the LTTE, rather than the oppressive Sri Lankan state, for the island’s war, international actors are loosely united behind Colombo. It can’t hurt, they say, if the LTTE is weakened, if not crippled. The logic stems from the same naïve belief in the inevitability of liberal compromise pragmatically mushrooming in a post-conflict Sri Lanka that lead to starry eyed expectations of the President Rajapakse’s proposals.
     
    Thus the only check on President Rajapakse and the Sinhala state, is the LTTE’s capacity for resistance. And for some time, the death knell of the LTTE has been sounded by an army of armchair strategists. Some of this insight has been challenged by recent developments, including the military’s lack of traction in western Vanni, the continuing volatility of the newly captured east and, of course, the LTTE’s airstrikes. But much international hope is still pinned on President Rajapakse’s strategy. Which is primarily why all out war is now inevitable.
  • US: ‘no change’ in policy towards Sri Lanka
    Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher toured the Jaffna peninsula yesterday. Picture shows Mr. Boucher and the US Ambassador in Colombo Robert Blake soon after they landed at the Palali army camp. They were met by the Jaffna army commander G. A. Chandrasiri. Photo Daily Mirror

     

    Concluding his visit to Sri Lanka, top US envoy Richard A. Boucher Thursday expressed concern about human rights abuses in the country but backed President Rajapakse’s military campaign against the Liberation Tigers.
     
    Promising international assistance would help Sri Lanka “to face the threat of terrorism,” he called on Sinhala parties to forge a consensus and “show the Tamils they have a role in [Sri Lankan] society.”
     
    Saying “in all this we continue to view the situation with hope,” Mr. Boucher made clear: “I don’t see any immediate changes [in US policy toward Sri Lanka].”
     
    In his opening address to a final press conference Thursday, Mr. Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said Washington has been “closely following” events in Sri Lanka.
     
    In wide-ranging comments, Mr Boucher backed the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to defeat the Tigers whom he denounced as terrorists.
     
    He urged southern political parties to come up with a consensus on the role Tamils would be accorded in Sri Lankan society.
     
    Acknowledging the human rights situation in Sri Lanka had “deteriorated” recently, Mr. Boucher was non-committal on international human rights monitoring, saying instead that this was the responsibility of the government and local institutions.
     
    The transcript of the press conference was released to media by the US embassy in Colombo.
     
    “I am concerned about the way things have been heading [here],” Mr. Boucher said at the outset.
     
    But the prevailing situation “is a consequence of people making difficult decisions because of the security situation, the breakdown of the ceasefire, and the human rights situation on the island,” he said.
     
    “We recognize that the people of Sri Lanka continue to face the threat of terrorism,” Mr Boucher said.
     
    “They face the threat from the Tamil Tigers, an organization that continues to be a terrorist group, continues to be a group that recruits child soldiers, extorts money, kills people, blows up buses, and attacks government facilities.”
     
    “We also know the international community can help in this regard. We are helping, and we will help. We do have defense cooperation with the Sri Lankan military. The international community has been taking action to try to slow the ability of the Tamil Tigers to get supplies, to get money, and to get weapons.”
     
    “There has been a lot of action by the international community to try to constrict the flow of money and arms to the Tamil Tigers because we are opposed to terrorism and stand with the people of Sri Lanka against terrorism.”
     
    Later, when asked about comments from White House that his mission to Colombo was meant to explore new initiatives for peace, Mr. Boucher replied: “You are ahead of me on the White House briefing. I didn’t see exactly what they said or how it is worded.”
     
    However, he said, “we come here knowing that people here are basically committed to the same goals and the same values as we have. and our goal is to work with them to find a way forward, to find the avenues for peace and the basis for negotiations and peace.”
     
    In his opening address, Mr. Boucher said: “we need action to try to move the situation forward -- forward toward peace, forward toward respect for justice for all the people of Sri Lanka.”
     
    He said he’d been speaking with southern leaders about “the prospects of having a set of proposals from this side of the island that can give a perspective to the Tamil community to show them that they have a place of respect, that they have a place on the island, that they have a role in society where they can control much of their own affairs.”
     
    Mr. Boucher welcomed the ruling Sri Lankan Freedom Party’s (SLFP) putting forward a proposal to this end and said “all the parties need to cooperate [to achieve a consensus].”
     
    Going further, he said “it’s important that people put all the parties to work toward a consensus through the All Parties Representative Committee.”
     
    “The other thing that we have talked about quite a bit has been the human rights situation,” Mr. Boucher said, referring to interactions with President Mahinda Rajapakse’s administration.
     
    “And there are two aspects that concern us most. One is abductions and killings, and the second is freedom of the press.”
     
    “We remain very concerned about some of the killings, the killings of aid workers, killings of people at various places on the island that have occurred in the last year or so,” he said.
     
    He hailed the government’s reiteration of the guidelines for arrest and transparency of arrest by the police or the military, saying “It is important that they have asked all people in government employment to respect those guidelines.”
     
    Commenting on US concerns about press freedom, Mr. Boucher said:” We’ve seen a lot of different reports. We’ve seen reports of intimidation, reports of government power being used on newspapers and journalists; and then, of course, we’ve seen killings and violent acts committed against newspapers and journalists.”
     
    Mr. Boucher did not refer to abductions and killings of civilians by Sri Lankan security forces, but urged the restraining of Army-backed paramilitaries.
     
    “It is also important that the government ensures security for everybody. And in the current circumstance that means stopping and controlling the paramilitary groups that have operated in various parts of the island and who are suspected, believed, known to be involved in many of the abductions and killings that have occurred in recent months.”
     
    However asked if the US would outlaw the Karuna Group, a leading paramilitary group blamed for widespread human rights abuses and conscription of child soldiers, as a terrorist group, Mr. Boucher said no decision had been taken.
     
    “As far as whether Karuna could get itself listed for engaging in terrorism, at this point I don’t know what to predict.,”
     
    “Certainly we will look at any group that consistently engages in terrorist activities and we will develop information and determine whether or not they meet our specific legal standards.”
     
    Mr. Boucher said there had been “some reduction of abductions in the Colombo area” but noted two people had been abducted the night before.
     
    “But I don’t think that is true at all in Jaffna,” he said.
     
    “I found a lot of people who are very afraid, a lot of people who are afraid because of the killings and abductions in Jaffna.”
     
    “You have seen journalists killed, we have seen people killed up there, and these are really serious threats to the people in that area, and they feel them very deeply,” he said.
     
    Mr. Boucher was asked by a Thinakkural reporter if “rather than issuing statements, are there any active measures to prevent these abuses, especially abductions, extra judicial killings, and threats to media personalities?”
     
    Mr. Boucher replied: “I’m not quite sure what you are asking for. The United States, I think, has been active. We have been active in looking at these things, looking for solutions. We have appointed and sent experts and representatives for the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons. We have raised these issues in very precise and specific terms with a variety of people on this island who can do something about them.  And that is where things have to be done.”
     
    When the Thinakkural reporter pressed the human rights issue, Mr. Boucher cut him off.
     
    Mr. Boucher also avoided endorsing growing calls for international human rights monitoring in Sri Lanka, saying it was the responsibility of the government.
     
    “As far as calls for international human rights monitoring, we will see where that goes and how the discussion develops. I think the first responsibility for human rights monitoring falls with the government, falls with the country, falls with the people.”
     
    “Free press is a vital part of that, but also organizations like the Human Rights Commission and other organizations on the island need to be active in monitoring the human rights situation. The police and the other groups need to actively investigate, and it should be the government that takes responsibility for monitoring and improving the human rights situation.”
     
    In his opening comments, Mr. Boucher said: “There are a number of committees and proposals operating now, inquiries to try to ensure accountability for things that have occurred in the past. … These committees and groups have an important role to play, and now that they are formed, now that they are working, they need to come up with answers.”
     
    Mr. Boucher refused to be drawn into commenting on Sri Lankan government claims that the LTTE’s newly unveiled aircraft posed a threat to India’s nuclear plants.
     
    Later when he was pressed on US views on the LTTE air strikes which had compelled the closure at night of Sri Lanka’s sole international airport at Katunayake, Mr. Boucher said:
     
    “We think they are very bad. They should not happen. They ought to stop. And the government has every right to stop those airplanes from hurting people and killing people and damaging the interests of the island.”
     
  • Jaffna prison chickenpox outbreak
    Over crowding and poor sanitation have lead to the growth of infections and illnesses among Jaffna residents who have sought protection with civil authorities fearing that they are targeted by Sri Lankan military forces and paramilitaries.
     
    More than seventy civilians have sought refuge with the Jaffna office of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC), fearing for their lives.
     
    They have been threatened by not only paramilitaries working with the Sri Lankan armed forces, but also by troopers in uniform themselves, they allege.
     
    Due to the lack of basic facilities, six men, placed in the protective custody of Jaffna prison, have been infected with Chickenpox.
     
    Jaffna prison is a private house with a capacity to hold less than 100 people, but it is currently packed with more than 200 inmates.
     
    This temporary prison arrangement is entirely inadequate as the private house is not equipped with adequate toilets and other essential facilities, say rights officials who have access to the premises.
     
    The danger of the infection spreading fast among the inmates may spiral out of control due to the seasonal high temperature, the officials fear.
     
    “They came seeking refuge, but death may still find them here – albeit from illness not a gun,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
     
    Alternative arrangements have to be made to prevent such a dire situation, the SLHRC officials urged.
     
    The SLHRC officials who spoke to the inmates in the prison individually, said that the problem needs immediate attention.
     
    As the number of persons seeking safety with the SLHRC continues to increase at an alarming rate, health hazard at the prison raises concern, civil society advocates in Jaffna told TamilNet.
  • Another Tamil journalist killed to commemorate earlier killings
    Thousands attended the funeral of Rajivarman, allegedly killed by the EPDP. Photo TamilNet
    On the anniversary of the killing of prominent journalists, yet another Tamil journalist was gunned down in the middle of Jaffna town.
     
    Selvarajah Rajivarman, 25, was shot and killed on 29 April by a lone gunman riding a motorbike at Naavalar Road, Rasavin Thoadam junction, Jaffna.
     
    RSF (Reporters Sans Frontiers – Reporters Without Borders), the French based organization of journalists, condemned the killing.
     
    "The people who murder journalists in Sri Lanka feel so well protected that they carry out fresh murders to mark the anniversaries of their preceding ones," Reporters Without Borders said.
     
    "On the second anniversary of the murder of Tamilnet.com editor Sivaram Dharmeratnam and the first anniversary of the murder of two Uthayan employees, the killers struck again, murdering another journalist with impunity in an area controlled by the army. We call on the authorities to identify and punish those responsible."
     
    “Jaffna-based journalists told Reporters Without Borders they suspected that the pro-government Tamil militia, the EPDP, could have been behind Rajivarnam's murder,” the RSF press communiqué said.
     
    “The EPDP criticises Uthayan for supporting Tamil nationalism. EPDP members were suspected in the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan in 2000 and last year's murder of the three Uthayan employees,” the release noted.
     
    Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA ) also appealed to the Sri Lankan government to take immediate action to find those involved in the killing.
     
    “In Jaffna various forms of pressure and threats are being issued continuously on journalists and media organizations,” the SLTMA noted.
     
     “Even though this Alliance has brought to the attention of Media minister Mr. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa regarding the killings of journalists and the various forms of intimidation they are subjected to, we are very concerned to note that no action has been taken to stop these,” the association said.
     
    “The killing of Selvarajah Rajivarman is a clear indication that [the government] did not take any action to protect the media men especially the Tamil media personnel.”
     
    “The killing of yet another journalist has a created fear among Tamil media journalists,” the SLTMA noted.
     
    “We therefore publicly issue an appeal to [the Sri Lankan government] to take steps to arrest the culprits involved in this killing and produce them before law,” the association appealed.
     
    Rajivarman was working as a staff reporter and was on training since he had joined the Jaffna daily 6 months previously.
     
    He used to go to the police stations and hospital seeking information about the many crimes that have been taking place in recent months in Jaffna. He had also been taking an evening journalism course at Jaffna university.
     
    Before joining Uthayan, he had worked for three years for the newspaper Namathu Eelanadu (Our Eelam Nation), whose managing editor, Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, was murdered in August 2006, and for the daily Yarl Thinakural, one of whose journalists, Subramaniam Ramachandran, has been missing since February. Three of Uthayan's employees were killed last year.
     
    Rajivarman was from Aavarangkaal East, Puththoor in Valikaamam, Jaffna.
     
    Thousands attended the funeral of the young Tamil journalist, killed as he was collecting news in Jaffna town.
     
    Rajivarman’s funeral, held the day after his killing, saw most of the residents of his home town turn out to pay their respects.
     
    Media persons, religious dignitaries, and civil society leaders spoke at the event.
     
    Rajivarman's remains were kept at his house, where thousands waited for their turn to see his body covered by flowers, and to pay their last respects.
     
    The presence of a large number of SLA troopers posted on the Jaffna-Point Pedro road, just 400 meters from Rajivarman's house, did not deter the participants at the funeral. Attendees ranged from children to elderly residents.
     
    His body was then taken in a procession to the family’s cremations ground where his body was cremated in the presence of thousands.
  • Violence round up – week ending 29 April
    29 April
     
    ● Two oil storages that supply fuel to SLAF bombers were attacked by the Tamileelam Air Force. Oil and fuel storages in Kolonnawa and Muththuraajawala were attacked after SLAF bombers attacked a suburb of Kilinochchi town in LTTE administered territory.
     
    ● Six youths and a priest were killed in a firefight with the SLN during a cordon and search operation in Velani in the islets of Jaffna. The incident occurred close to the Mudippillaiyar Temple in Velanai west. Ratnasabapathy Aiyar Somaskantha Kurukkal, 60, from Usan Kanthasaami Koaviladi was the priest killed and his body bore injuries at several places. The cordon and search operation followed an attack by armed youth in which a SLN commander was killed. Sri Lanka armed forces barred public from entering or leaving Jaffna Islets. The commander is alleged to have engaged in a spate of killings along with the members of the paramilitary EPDP in the islets of Jaffna. Sri Lanka Military spokesperson said the attackers used the temples sculptured towers as cover to mount the attack when they were killed. Although the SLN did not reveal details of casualties and injuries suffered by its troopers, sources said helicopters were used in transporting the SLN dead and the wounded to the Palaali military hospital.
     
    ● Selvarajah Rajivarman, 25, a young journalist working at Jaffna's Uthayan newspaper, was shot and killed by gunmen riding a motorbike in Rasavin Thoadam junction, Jaffna.
     
    ● Gunmen shot and killed a trader, Nagalingam Tharumakulasingam, 48, a father of four, in a commercial establishment at Manthuvil in Thenmaraadchchi, Jaffna.
     
    ● SLA troopers shot dead a youth at Senthaankulam SLA FDL, within Palaali HSZ. The victim was identified as Sinnathurai Sujijeyanthiran, 19, a mentally ill youth, from Maathahal, who had lost his way when he went out of his house and had accidentally entered the SLA FDL area.
     
    ● SLA troopers lying in ambush along a lake at Sithandi in Earavur, Batticaloa shot dead three IDPs, including a woman, who had gone to check their cultivation. Ponnusamy Sellathurai, 46, from Kudaaveddai, Eeralakulam, Nagalingam Thiruchelvam, 42, and Ms. Poopalapillai Poomani, 30, both from Perumaaveli, Sithandi, were the three shot dead.
     
    28 April
     
    ● The SLA ordered families in Potkerni and other suburbs in Thampalakamam, a traditional Tamil village in Trincomalee, to be present at Kulakoddan Tamil Vidiyalayam to check their identities and to explain the purpose of their stay in the location.
     
    ● A fisherman was killed in the Jaffna lagoon within the perimeters of Jaffna Municipality when SLA soldiers fired artillery from the shores towards waters of the lagoon. The incident happened soon after the SLA relaxed fishing along Paashaiyoor and Columbuthurai, and allowed fishermen to use paddle boats to go fishing in the lagoon. Rasappu Yogendran, 52, a father of three, was killed and an associate in the same boat narrowly escaped injuries.
     
    ● Armed men in a white van following a youth along Point Pedro-Jaffna road, opened rapid fire on him near Karaveddi Kunchar Kadai junction in Vadamaraadchchi and forcibly carried the seriously injured youth away in the van. The white van armed men abducted the injured youth when he fell on the road. He was shot at and abducted within the SLA HSZ and just 200 meters from SLA camps.
     
    ● Armed men shot and injured Thavarasa Dinesh, 23, at his house in Karaveddi, Jaffna, causing serious injury to his shoulder.
     
    ● Armed persons shot dead a Tamil civilian in Pattithidal, Muthur, Trincomalee. A group of armed men had dragged S. Sithiravel, 25, a paddy farmer, out of his house and fired at him.
     
    ● Sixteen civilians, majority of them Tamils, were arrested in a four-hour cordon and search operation in Colombo by Sri Lanka's security forces. Twelve of them were taken into custody for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.
     
    27 April
     
    ● Two youths went missing at Sathira Junction along Hospital Road, Jaffna. Rasalingam Rajaratnam, 27, went missing on his way to college from his house at Palaly Road in Thirunelveli. Theiventhiran Piratheepan, 28, from Kokuvil was reported missing as he was returning home from Jaffna town.
     
    ● A group of armed men waiting in ambush shot and killed three SLN troopers on a road patrol in Kuchchaveli, Trincomalee.
     
    ● Sivaraj Paheerathan, Jaffna university undergrad being detained by the SLA on August 18, 2006, filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court seeking his release. The petition requested compensation of Rs.150,000 as relief. The petition states that the army arrested him for no reason when he was in the office of the Jaffna University Students Union to take a telephone call to his parents in Puthukuddiruppu, Mullaitivu. He has no dealing with any armed group. He has been detained for the last eight months and this has been badly affected his education, the petition said.
     
    ● Two fishermen from Vankaalai, stopped at a SLA checkpost at Thomaspuri on Vankaalai - Naanaaddaan Road were taken blindfolded to Naruvilikkulam coast. Victor Canisius Culas, 39, a family man and Sebamalai Jebatheeswaran Peiris, 30, were riding on a motorbike for a marriage arrangement, according to their families, who complained to the ICRC and the police. Naruvilikkulam villagers who heard unusual vehicle movement during the early hours, witnessed footprints of military boots at the coastal site of Thomaspuri.
     
    26 April
     
    ● SLAF bombers attacked Thiruvaiyaaru, Kilinochchi. Tension prevailed in Kilinochchi hospital and many school children remained at home. Three SLAF bombers dropped around 12 bombs, 200 meters from Thiruvaiyaaru School. A house was destroyed in the attack.
     
    ● Armed men in military fatigues wearing masks robbed cash, jewels and household things in Thamaraikkerny- Hisbullah village, a Muslim resettlement village in Eravur, Batticaloa. A group of around 10 robbers threatened the inmates of four houses, including women and children, at gunpoint and then removed all the jewels they were wearing. They also searched the houses and got away with all valuables. They also robbed a small shop located adjoining the houses.
     
    ● Armed persons wearing masks abducted an IDP, a father of one, from his temporary dwelling in Seddipalayam and shot him dead at Kaluthavalai, a neighbouring village in Kaluwanchchikkudy, Batticaloa. Mahenthirarajah Varathan, 23, of Nagamunai, Ampilanthurai in Paduvankarai, previously controlled by the LTTE, fled home due to the SLA offensive and took refuge with his relatives at Seddipalayam. The masked men went to his place, called him by name and took him away forcefully when he came out. They took him to Kaluthavalai, shot him dead and dumped his body in front of the Nagathampiran temple.
     
    ● The funeral of Mr. Lourdunayagam Princely, 27, the Mannar District Project Engineer of the World Bank funded North East Housing Reconstruction Programme, one of the five civilians killed in the claymore mine explosion targeting a private bus on April 23, was held in the Mannar general cemetery amid a large crowd of people of all walks of life. In the explosion four civilians died on the spot and 37 were injured. Mr. Princely was one of the injured admitted to Vavuniya hospital and later transferred to Kandy general hospital as his condition was critical. He succumbed to injuries.
     
    ● Kodikamam police recovered the body of a family man at Yathali in Varani, Thenmaradchy, Jaffna. Vellupillai Kanagalingam, 45, lived within the demarcated boundary of SLA HSZ, an area where the 52nd SLA division and SLA camps are located. The hospital said he died of poisoning. Kanagalingam was seen buying things as usual from an eating place the previous evening. He had been living alone in his house, which was also used as a motor repair garage. His mother had gone looking for him at the house as he failed visit her in the morning as he does regularly.
     
    ● SLAF personnel at Katunayake airbase fired precautionary shots into the air as an alarm was issued in Colombo that two unidentified aircrafts were observed over Puttalam sea. All flights were grounded and power supply in Colombo city was cut off. Tension prevailed in Colombo city following the false alarm.
     
    ● A SLAF helicopter gunship, MI 24, that took off from Anurdhapura airbase following the reports of unidentified aircraft over Puttalam sea, crashed into a private land adjoining the airforce base but both pilots and gunmen escaped unhurt.
     
    25 April
     
    ● Six youths in the protective custody of Jaffna prison, a private house with a capacity to hold less than 100 but packed with more than 200 inmates, have been infected with Chickenpox.
     
    ● Mannar Police ordered suspension of all state and private sector night bus services to and from Mannar other parts of Sri Lanka along Mannar-Madawachchi and Mannar-Vavuniya roads citing the ongoing state of unrest. State and private sector bus operators were instructed to reschedule their services between 7.30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
     
    ● The body of a youth, estimated to be about 23 years, was found near 8th Mile post in Thalikkulam, Vavuniya. Local residents said the youth did not seem to be from the area, and he may have been abducted, killed and his body dumped in the area the previous night.
     
    ● Twelve SLA soldiers were killed and 33 wounded when a special unit of the SLA launched a fresh offensive amid artillery barrage towards Mullikkulam, northeast of Madu Church in Iranai Illuppaikulam, Mannar.
     
    ● A Buffel APC used by the Sri Lankan STF in Amparai was destroyed in a combined ambush, LTTE military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told media. The Buffel, on its way from Pannalagama to Bakmitiyawa, was rushing to the site of a claymore attack on a STF Road Patrol, where at least two personnel were killed and 3 wounded. The STF claimed the LTTE combatants who triggered the claymore device had fled during its retaliation following the attack.
     
    ● SLA personnel, involved either as the accused or witness in cases of abductions, killings and other such criminal allegations, fail to appear for the scheduled trials in the courts in Jaffna peninsula, causing numerous indefinite postponements of the cases. The SLA troopers are reluctant to appear for the trials in due to fear of their lives under the current volatile situation in Jaffna peninsula, lawyers representing them said. The sensitive trials include those with homicides and suicides among SLA personnel.
     
    ● More than ten masked armed men in civil clothes abducted a fisheries society member from his house at Kerniyady, Mathagal in Valigamam, Jaffna. The abductors had their faces covered by black cloth and spoke Tamil with an accent when they abducted Sellathurai Thavaratnam, 48, father of six, Thavaratnam's wife Rahini said in a complaint to the SLHRC.
     
    ● A bomb exploded in an abandoned plot of land located between Chavakacheri town and Chavakacheri Courts, after SLA personnel had appeared at Chavakacheri Courts and left. The abandoned plot of land had been a motor repair garage earlier.
     
    ● SLA soldiers arrested a teenage girl and a woman at Siththandy in Eravur, Batticaloa, and handed them to Eravur Police for further inquiries. Baby-Shanthiny Vimalanathan, 15, of Siththandy and Mathivathany Kunasingham, 29, of Kannankudah, had undergone arms training after being abducted by an armed group and were arrested while loitering in the vicinity of a Hindu temple in Siththandy having escaped from their abductors.
     
    ● A Tamil family man was killed and two, including a SLA trooper, were injured in an attack on a SLA sentry unit posted near a lake at Sithandy, Eravur, Batticaloa. The attack was launched from LTTE held area across the lake and the civilians were caught in the crossfire. V. Thuraisamy, 45, a family man from Lake Road, Morokodanchenai, was killed and Upali Jeyasinghe, 37, a trooper attached to Morokodanchenai SLA camp, and M. Kanthalingam, 38, from Sithandy, Morokodanchenai, were injured.
     
    ● Gunmen abducted a young Tamil family man from his residence in Vipulanthapuram, Mylampaveli in Eravur, Batticaloa, and shot him dead. Thevathasan Inthirakmar, 28, father of one and a labourer by profession, was forcibly taken out from his residence by the armed gang while he was watching television with his family and then shot dead at a nearby location.
     
    ● The Colombo Chief Magistrate ordered the release of six Tamil civilians and detention of one Tamil woman to a Rehabilitation Centre in the south. They were arrested in a cordon and search operation in Moratuwa in western province two months ago and detained in the Boosa detention centre in Galle. Majority of them were natives of Jaffna district and residing in Moratuwa at the time of arrest. The names of the released are Rajaretnam Gajan, Sivalingam Pirapaharan, Sithambaram Rajaretnam, Ponniah Sathiskumar, Shanmugam Paheerathan and Sakunthala. Rajathurai Vani of Jaffna was sent to a Rehabilitation Centre.
     
    ● The Colombo Additional Magistrate released two Tamil youths, Kanthasamy Ravichandran and Tharmalingam Thirukumaran, natives of Jaffna district, on surety bail when the police informed court that there was no evidence to implicate the suspects in any offence. They were arrested in a cordon and search operation on March 30 at Grandpass area in Colombo.
     
    24 April
     
    ● Armed men abducted a fisherman at gun point from his house in Pesalai, Mannar. The armed men who spoke fluent Tamil and Sinhalese said they were police officials before abducting Francis Thevaraj Fernando, 38, father of four. Fernando had refused to go with the abductors and had been forcibly taken away at gun point from his home.
     
    ● SLAF bombers dropped bombs in various locations in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Kilinochchi. Four bombers dropped bombs near civilian settlements as people sought refuge in bunkers. No civilian casualties were reported.
     
    ● SLA troopers in camps across the Jaffna Peninsula emptied bullets in the air in a barrage of gunfire after the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) attacked SLA's main base complex in the Jaffna peninsula. Tharmalingam Vijitha, 29, a housewife in Eezhaalai, was wounded in Eezhaalai when SLA soldiers opened fire from their positions as the Tiger aircrafts, that completed their mission inside the HSZ of the Palaali garrison, flew at low altitude on their way back to Vanni. SLA troopers in camps located in Varani in Thenmaradchy, Mandaithivu in the islets west of Jaffna, and Atchelu and Uduvil in Valigamam shut off the lights and sprayed gunfire in the air, fearing attack by the TAF aircrafts as the aircrafts returned to their base in Vanni. The military in Colombo confirmed that at least 6 personnel were killed, but said the casualties were due to Tigers' artillery. A defence team comprising high level officials of the SLAF, SLA and SLN were flown to Palaali airbase amid tight security for an assessment of the air attack carried out by the Tigers.
     
    ● The Sri Lankan government refused to provide helicopter transport to the four TNA Batticaloa MPs so they could travel from Colombo to Batticaloa to attend the District Development Council (DDC) meeting held at Batticaloa Kachcheri. The MPs had requested transport help following death threats from the Karuna Group. The meeting was organized to explore solutions to the IDP problems and to endorse the other development activities planned for the current year. As there were no responses, the MPs were unable to attend the key meeting where the problems faced by their constituents were discussed. The TNA said the government is keen to limit access between the Batticaloa TNA MPs and their constituents, to create political space for the renegade paramilitaries.
     
    ● An eighteen year old student from Karaveddy, Vadamaradchy and another 16 year old student from Pokatti, Kodikamam in Thenmaradchy sought protection with the Jaffna SLHRC, along with a young family man from Chavakacheri in Thenmaradchy, all fearing death from SLA troopers and SLA-backed paramilitaries. The student from Karaveddy and the family man from Chavakacheri said that armed men in white van came to their houses during nights several times with the intention of abducting them. They had gone underground and urgently need protection. The 16 year old student from Pokkati said his father was summoned to the SLA civil administration office at Kodikamam and ordered to handover him to the SLA. The SLA personnel had confiscated the National Identity Card of his father, the student added.
     
    ● SLA troopers posted near Kantharodai SLA camp stopped a trader at the sentry, led him blindfolded with hands bounds through a paddy field to a Buffel APC parked at a distance from the camp, and took him to Uduvil SLA camp, his wife said in a complaint to the Jaffna SLHRC. Thiyagarajah Ranjithkumar, 29, of College Road, Kantharodai, a textile trader, was seen by his wife's relatives being taken away in an APC. He had gone out on a personal errand when he was abducted by the SLA, his wife said in the complaint.
     
    23 April
     
    ● Unknown persons shot and seriously injured an EPDP member in Kayts, an islet of Jaffna. S. Sivarasa, 37, was hit by a single bullet from a pistol. He had been going out on personal errand on his motorcycle when the armed men shot at him.
     
    ● A student of Jaffna Technical College went missing. Kanthasamy Purushothaman, 22, from Poovalkarai, Point Pedro, Vadamaradchi, had gone missing on his way to college.
     
    ● SLA troopers on street patrol unit opened fire on unknown persons who refused to obey SLA orders, close to the SLA Intelligence unit camp at Uduvil in Valigamam East, Jaffna. The armed assailants opened fire in retaliation and escaped.
     
    ● The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka police conducted an intensive search in TNA parliamentarian N. Sri Kantha's official residence in Mathivela, Colombo. TNA parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah's secretary Selvarajah Samuel who was at the residence during the search was interrogated for nearly three hours. All the rooms, bathrooms, kitchen and the roof of the residence were searched meticulously. Mr. Sri Kantha was not present when the CID conducted the search and nothing suspicious was found.
     
    ● A leading Tamil businessman in Colombo was abducted by armed persons in a white van in Wellawatte while he was walking along the road. Rajaratnam Rajapathy, 24, owns a textile shop 'Jeyachchandran Textiles' at Galle road, Wellawatte. Eyewitnesses said armed persons in a van with the registration number of 252- 7285 abducted the businessman. Relatives of the businessman informed Mano Ganeshan, Member of Parliament for Colombo district and the Leader of Western Peoples Front, of the details of the abduction.
     
    ● Sri Lanka armed forces in large numbers conducted simultaneous cordon and search operations in Vadamaradchy, Thenmaradchy regions of Jaffna. Key roads were blocked and residents were herded into play grounds and temples in close proximity and interrogated. Armed forces and paramilitaries took cover in many places the previous night, cut off all the leading roads entering the city and did a door to door checking in the areas of Kaladdy, Parameshwara Junction, Muththirai Santhi and Ariyalai within Jaffna municipal limits. All the young men and women were paraded in front of masked men for identification. Young men and women from Ariyalai were led to a church and 'identified' by masked men.
     
    ● Four civilians, including a woman, were killed and 37 wounded when a bus carrying Tamil and Muslim passengers from Mannar to Colombo was hit by a claymore mine at Andiyapuliayankulam along Mannar-Madawachiya road in Vavuniya. Relatives blamed the SLA for the attack on the civilian bus.
     
    ● Villagers in the LTTE held Madhu areas in Mannar have requested the civil and military authorities to re-open the Puliyadyirakkam Road, the gateway to 13 Grama Niladhari divisions in LTTE held territory. Madhu Divisional Secretariat area comprises 17 GN divisions of which four are in the government held territory.
    Puliyadyirakkam Road, the only land route located along Mannar- Madawachchi main road to LTTE held territory has been closed since the outbreak of fighting between government troops and the LTTE in August 11 last year.
     
    ● The owner of an electronics shop was killed and his associate seriously injured in a bomb blast at his shop in Kaluwanchikkudy, Batticaloa. Kaluwanchchikkudy Police and STF started investigations immediately to ascertain whether the bomb exploded inside the shop or somebody hurled it. M. Sarma, 30, an electronic engineer, was identified as the owner of the repair shop. Thamotharam Kiritharan, 21, was the associate injured in the explosion.
     
    22 April
     
    ● An unidentified man of about 30 years was strangled to death a man at Kovilkulam in Vavuniya. His body was found wearing only green coloured underwear.
  • 30-40% undernourished children in IDP camps: UNICEF
    Of 11,200 children under the age of five who are internally displaced and living in camps in Batticaloa, 30%-40% suffer from malnutrition, a survey by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed.
     
    Based on the survey, UNICEF estimates that 3-5 percent of under-five children suffer from severe acute malnutrition (wasting).

    Jaffna students, though still able to attend schools, are facing food shortages and security concerns due to the continuing economic embargo and violence against civilians.

    Photo TamilNet
     
    According to UNICEF Sri Lanka, 175 severely malnourished children are in community-based nutrition rehabilitation programmes.
     
    Accordingly, UNICEF has conducted a series of training programmes among local health personnel and facilitated the implementation of nutrition rehabilitation programmes at community and health facility levels using ready-to-use foods and therapeutic milk.
     
    In addition, high energy biscuits were distributed to under-five children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
     
    “Last month we conducted a training programme for health personnel from Batticaloa and they are carrying out the distribution process. We have targeted children identified with both mild and severe cases of malnutrition and through this programme we hope to prevent them from deteriorating further,” UNICEF Project Officer for Nutrition Dr. Renuka Jayatissa told the Daily Mirror.
     
    “Once these children have been fed the special foods complete with additional vitamins and minerals their condition will improve to the level of being able to subsist on the normal food being given to other camp inhabitants,” she said.
     
    UNICEF has said there was a shortage of milk foods in hospitals in Batticaloa and expects to remedy the problem through distributions made through health officials who took part in the programme.
     
    “We generally do not promote powdered milk to mothers with infants because the nutritional value of breast milk is higher and when preparing it the milk can get contaminated. So instead we will continue to provide special biscuits for the mothers and milk based nutritional supplements for the children. UNICEF hopes to continue this programme until the end of this year,” Ms. Jayatissa said.
     
  • Sri Lanka: Bridging food gap remains a challenge
    Food distribution to the 140,000 displaced people in Batticaloa district has improved; now relief agencies and government authorities are attempting to fill gaps in food availability, principally for those staying with host families.
     
    According to a United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) report for the second week of April: "A gap of approximately 18,000 [displaced people] staying with host families exists."
     
    The IASC report indicated that government authorities planned to target them for food distribution.
     
    The number of displaced in Batticaloa district increased rapidly from 79,000 in February when civilians living in areas under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fled en masse after heavy shelling and fighting between the LTTE and government forces.
     
    By mid-March, there were close to 160,000, according to government and UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) figures. At present, about 140,000 people are displaced in the district. According to the IASC report, more than 50 percent of Sri Lanka's displaced are in Batticaloa, scattered in 87 camps or living with host families.
     
    World Food Program (WFP) Country Director, Jeff Taft-Dick, told IRIN that an appeal for additional food assistance had met with a favourable response and sufficient stocks would be available at least for the next two months.
     
    He noted that the situation had also improved since last month. "There is better balance, greater coordination and we have received additional funding since our appeal last month," Taft-Dick said.
     
    He added that WFP received funding from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Japan. The United States and European Union had also contributed to increase supplies. WFP requires about US$1 million a week to look after the food needs of 400,000 displaced people in Sri Lanka, predominantly in the north and east.
     
    "The supply pipeline appears safe at least until end of June," Taft-Dick said, adding that some of the new funding was in cash, allowing the WFP to procure supplies locally, cutting the time to get food to those in need , as well as helping the local economy.
     
    Taft-Dick said that while WFP was providing 70 percent of food supplies, the remainder was being made available directly by government and local organisations. He noted that all food distribution was carried out under the direction of the Government Agent's office in Batticaloa. WFP is providing about 1,500 tonnes monthly of rice and wheat flour as well as dhal, sugar and cooking oil.
     
    UN and government agencies and non-governmental organisations have also increased staff and resources in an effort to help the displaced.
     
    The high number of displaced in Batticaloa as well as the fact that they are so widely dispersed makes food delivery a logistical nightmare, Basil Sylvester, the coordinator of the Batticaloa office of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), a forum for local and international NGOs and agencies, told IRIN.
     
    Sylvester said that while some camps received only dry rations, others continued to get cooked food. At some sites food was delivered in bulk while at others, families were given food rations.
     
    The CHA coordinator also said people in camps that have been established longer were coping with the food situation far better than the newer ones.
     
    "Those [camps] with people who came from Muttur [in Trincomalee district] in August 2006 are well organised," said Sylvester. "They get their supplies." But, the newer arrivals, such as those from Vavunathivu in Batticaloa district, displaced in March 2007, are still facing problems.
     
    Supplies are getting to all the displaced but at some sites they remain meager, according to Sylvester, with individual rations in some camps of 150 grams or so per day - less than half what they should be. "There's no starvation, but the stocks have not been enough from the time the [displaced] came in March; now after almost one-and-a-half months, the rations have not yet increased," Sylvester said.
  • Civilians worst victims of conflict - SLMM
    The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), in the country to monitor the 5 year old Norwegian facilitated ceasefire agreement, has expressed concern over the escalation of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
     
    The worst victims of the violence have been innocent civilians, SLMM head Lars Johan Solvberg told The Sunday Leader.
     
    "The SLMM has been gravely concerned over the increased number of civilians trapped in the line of fire and becoming innocent victims to the escalating conflict. This year alone hundreds of civilians have lost their lives, which is a tragedy."
     
    Of the more than 4,000 who have died in the fighting since December 2006, 1,500 are estimated to be civilians, the paper noted.
     
    The SLMM head added that the ground situation had changed drastically from the time the 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA) was signed by the government and the Liberation Tigers.
     
    "The most important thing is that the ground situation is not anymore like it was five years ago. It is clear that the CFA was based on a different ground situation, and the fact that the ground situation has changed in the north and the east is a challenge to the CFA and to the SLMM," he said.
     
    "Compared to the situation in the early days of the CFA, both parties seem to have escalated their military efforts, adding new capacities to their operations. This is a negative development to the conflict, which worries the SLMM," he said.
     
    The changing ground situation has brought pressure on the monitors themselves to adapt.
     
    "The SLMM is challenged to adapt to the changing nature of the conflict, in order to serve the parties as well as possible under the changing circumstances."
     
    Solvberg feels that though both parties indicate their willingness to resume communication with the monitors, both were hitching the resumption of talks to conditions.
     
    "Both parties have expressed their will to talk, but both of them have conditions connected to actions taken by the other party. This complication is an ongoing challenge, but it is not too late for the parties to recommence,” the paper quoted him as saying.
     
  • Violence round up – week ending 6 May

    In recent weeks many civilians have been abducted and their bullet riddled bodies dumped, like this civilian found in Vavuniya on 2 May.

    Photo STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images
    4 May
     
    ● Ten civilians were arrested at Valaithodam and three at Wellawatte, both in Colombo city, as they reportedly failed to prove their identity and provide satisfactory reason for their stay in the location. Most of them were arrested while staying in lodges and with friends' houses.
     
    ● Three students studying advanced level in two prominent high schools in Jaffna were forcibly abducted from their homes by armed men in white vans. Suntharalingam Yasotharan, 17, from Kokuvil East, and Nagarajah Venukanthan, 18, from Brown Road Jaffna are students at Jaffna Hindu College and Kugarajan Kannan, 17, attends St. John's College. Yasotharan's father is a principal at the American Mission College in Thamatti in the islets of Jaffna, and Venukanthan's father is a high level official at the Jaffna branch of the International Committee of Red Cross. The abductors forcibly entered the students' houses by breaking open the entry doors.
     
    3 May
     
    ● The LTTE repulsed a fresh offensive by the SLA along the Vavuniya Mannar border, LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan told media in Kilinochchi. 2 bodies of SLA soldiers were captured with arms and ammunition by the Tigers when the SLA offensive towards Palmpiddi by more than 300 SLA troopers was thwarted, Mr. Ilanthirayan said. A Tiger fighter was killed in the action. The bodies of the two soldiers were handed to the ICRC on Friday.
     
    ● One Sri Lanka Police constable was killed when gunmen fired at the sentry point in Pampaimadu in Vavuniya. The gunmen escaped amid a hail of return fire by the police.
     
    ● Three bodies of civilians were recovered in two sites in Vavuniya. Partially burnt bodies belonging to two males were recovered by Vavuniya police in Povarasangkulam- Cheddikulam junction area. And a third body of a male victim with several gunshot wounds was recovered near Kallaathu bridge. Vavuniya police said that the three victims were probably killed elsewhere and their bodies dumped at the two sites.
     
    ● A cordon and search operation in Velanai, Jaffna, by the Sri Lanka security forces continued for a second day.
     
    ● Two members of the Karuna group were shot and injured in an internal strife at the camp near Toddy Tavern junction on Muhathuvaram Road in Batticaloa. An auto rickshaw driver passing close to the camp, U. M. Nazoordin, 55, a father of four, was caught in the cross fire and was injured.
     
    ● Twenty-two civilians were arrested in Wellawatte, Colombo, and six of them were produced in court and remanded. Others are being detained in police stations for further inquiry.
     
    2 May
     
    ● Two SLA troopers were injured when a claymore device hidden in an empty building along Vathiri-Udupiddi road in Navindil, Vadamaraadchchi, Jaffna, exploded as the troopers tried to remove it. One of the troopers is seriously injured while the other sustained minor injuries.
     
    ● The LTTE launched heavy artillery fire on SLA FDL positions in Maravanpilavu, Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. Three SLA troopers were seriously injured in the shelling which lasted for about ten minutes.
     
    ● Kodikaamam police recovered the body of a male, estimated to be between 35 to 40, with gunshot wounds in Kottiyaathoo cemetery in Chanthirapuram, Madduvil, Thenmaradchi, Jaffna. Police found one bullet wound on the head, one on the chest, and another on the leg. The body, clad in blue and black pants with a white shirt with blue and green stripes, is suspected to have been dumped at the site at least a week earlier. The man may have been abducted elsewhere and taken to the cemetery where he was shot, police speculated.
     
    ● SLN soldiers arrested the chief priest and the Temple Trustee Board Chairman of Perunkulam Muththumaariamman Hindu temple at Velanai in Kayts, an islet of Jaffna, along with three workers, when the temple authorities informed the SLN of explosives found in the temple building site. The temple is located close to Mudippillayar Temple in Velanai west, where the chief priest was one among the six shot dead during SLN search the previous Sunday morning. Two of the five were released the next day.
     
    ● Armed men opened fire on a police jeep at Punnaikuda in Eravur, Batticaloa, killing a home guard who drove the jeep to the service station at first mile post. Shajahan Fowmi, 28, of Meerakeni, was identified as the home guard killed. Fowmi had driven the jeep with a policeman to the service station where the armed men opened fire.

    ● Two youths on their way to the temple for prayers were gunned down by men riding a motorbike Wednesday in Velanai east in the Jaffna Islets. Sivapalan Gajendrapalan, 21, and Kandaiah Kannathasan, 28, were relatives, and were riding a bicycle towards the nearby temple when they were shot.
     
    1 May
     
    ● Sri Lanka government armed forces arrested two Tamil civilians in Puttalam during the cordon and search operation. The two had failed to prove their identity and the reason for their stay in the location.
     
    ● Armed men shot dead a fifty-eight year-old civilian at Menkaamam, a Tamil village in SLA controlled Muthur, Trincomalee. The armed gang had forcibly entered the victim’s house and fired at him.
     
    ● A bail application has been filed in Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal seeking the release of Sebastiampillai Vethanayagam, 40, a minor employee of the Murungkan government hospital in Mannar. Vethanayagam has been detained under the PTA since his arrest on October 5 last year. Police had arrested him while he was cleaning fish, charging that he was providing "secret signals to the enemy" while he cleaned and threw away the refuse.
     
    ● The LTTE fired artillery shells on areas within the SLA HSZ in Palaali and military helicopters were seen flying about.
     
    30 April
     
    ● Thampalakaamam Police arrested a Muslim teacher after recovering a hand grenade and a T 56 rifle magazine with 27 live- bullets hidden in the roof of his house at Mullipothanai, Trincomalee. The police searched the teacher's house on a tip-off.
     
    ● A SLAF aircraft on a bombing raid south of Iranaimadu in Vannai spewed a large cloud of smoke after a explosion and the jet suspended the bombing raid, struggling to maintain height. Unconfirmed reports from Colombo said a Israeli-built fast attack Kfir which took off from Katunayake Air Force base failed to return. Military officials of the Liberation Tigers told TamilNet that their anti-aircraft defence system automatically activated when an intrusive aircraft was detected in the Iranaimadu area.
     
    ● Sri Lanka military forces arrested three Tamil civilians in Gomarankadawela village in Morawewa, Trincomalee, during a cordon and search operation. They were taken into custody as they failed to provide satisfactory explanation for their stay in the area.
     
    ● Armed men shot dead a youth at Dutch Road in Meesaalai, Themaraadchchi, Jaffna. Rasamuthu Kiritharan, 25, may have been abducted elsewhere, brought to Meesaalai and shot dead.
     
  • ‘Come on you Sri Lankan Lions!’ – UK
    The British diplomatic mission in Colombo shed diplomatic neutrality on Friday to support Sri Lanka's cricket team in their World Cup final against Australia, AFP reported. "We're hoping for a repeat of the 1996 World Cup final result. Come on you Sri Lankan Lions. Let's hear you roar," a message from the UK High Commission said.
     
    British High Commissioner Dominick Chilcott led his mission’s staff in signing greetings to skipper Mahela Jayawardene and his team-mates ahead of Saturday's game in Barbados.
     
    "The British High Commission wish the Sri Lankan cricket team the best of luck in Saturday's cricket World Cup final," the High Commission said in a statement signed by all its staff.
     
    "We're hoping for a repeat of the 1996 World Cup final result. Come on you Sri Lankan Lions. Let's hear you roar," the message said, referring to Sri Lanka’s surprise win in that competition, which was held in Britain.
     
    The lion is the symbol of the Sinhala community in the island which has been torn by ethnic strife since independence from Britain in 1948. Sri Lanka’s flag features a golden lion brandishing a sword.
     
    It was introduced in 1972 as the government of the time changed the country’s name from Ceylon and introduced a majoritarian constitution, dumping the safeguards for the island’s minorities in the British-inspired Ceylonese constitution.
     
    In an interview last year, Mr. Chilcott observed: “Britain thought that the rights of the Tamils in particular would be safeguarded by these arrangements. However history has proved otherwise that these safeguards were inadequate and not robust enough. I regret that Britain’s policies have to such an extent been the cause for the problems.”
     
    Noting that “in over half the number of countries in the world the British colonial rulers adopted a ‘divide and rule’ policy,” he also said “In that regard this policy was not unique to the island alone.”
     
    On Friday Mr. Chilcott, dressed in the Sri Lankan team's blue and yellow T-shirt, raised his hands in the air with 52 staff members in support of the Sri Lankan team, AFP reported.
     
    Last week Mr. Chilcott become embroiled in controversy last week when he visited the officers of Daily Mirror editor, Ms Champika Liyanarachchi, after she received a threatening phone call from Sri Lanka’s hardline Defence Secretary, Gotathabaya Rajapaksa, over reports in her paper.
     
    Mr. Chilcott was summoned by Mr. Rajapaksa to his offices the following day. Both men agreed to keep the contents of their discussion out of the press.
     
    The UK High Commission subsequently denied a report in the state-owned Daily Mirror that Mr. Chilcott had admitted he had been misled about threats to the editor.
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