COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lankan soldiers attacked Tamil rebel bunkers in the embattled north on Monday, triggering battles that left 14 guerrillas and one soldier dead, the military said.
Army troops captured six rebel bunkers early Monday in the village of Palaikkuli in Mannar district, southwest of the rebels' northern headquarters, killing seven guerrillas,
a Defense Ministry official said. Fighting killed one soldier.
Hours later in the nearby Adampan village, soldiers clashed with a group of rebels, killing five of them, the official said speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Later, a separate gunbattle killed two Tamil rebels in the same area, he said.
Separately on Monday, fighter jets bombed an artillery position in the northern rebel-held Pooneryn area, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
He did not give details of damage or casualties, but said pilots have confirmed that a target was hit.
The airstrike came after insurgents fired artillery into the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula, he said. Troops did not suffer casualties in the assault.
Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment.
It was not possible to independently verify the military's claims because the fighting took place deep in the northern jungles, where access is restricted. Both sides often release inflated casualty figures for their opponents while lowering their own.
Government troops have opened up four fronts around the rebels' de facto state in northern Sri Lanka, surrounding the territory, while the air force has launched a mission to kill the group's top brass and crush the rebels' decades-old separatist war.
At least 75 rebels and four soldiers were killed in fierce fighting across the north over the weekend, according to the military.
Fighting has raged since the government announced earlier this month that it was pulling out of a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire, which had long been ignored by both sides.
More than 600 people have been killed since the cease-fire officially ended, according to the military.
The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state in the north and east for the country's ethnic Tamil minority after decades of being marginalized by Sinhalese-dominated governments. The fighting has killed more than 70,000 people.
Source: pr-inside.com
Monday, 28 January 2008
Sri Lanka military: Soldiers capture rebel bunkers as fighting kills 14 rebels, 1 soldier
Lankan air force bombs LTTE base, 40 killed in clashes
Sri Lankan security forces killed 38 Tamil Tigers and lost two soldiers in spiralling fighting with the rebels in the island's embattled north, where the Air Force jets on Monday raided an LTTE base.
"Air Force fighter jets on Monday pounded LTTE gun positions located in the Kalmunai Point in Paranthan in Northern Sri Lanka", the Defence Ministry said.
The attack was launched in retaliation to the artillery shelling by the LTTE at the Jaffna peninsula on Monday morning, defence sources said.
Sri Lanka Army responded to the attack with heavy artillery and multi-barrel rocket fire, the army said.
"The air raids were successful," it said. In ground clashes, at least three militants were killed in Alakallapottakulam in Vavuniya on Monday, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.
At Pandirichchan also in Vavuniya, at least 10 militants were killed on Sunday in a clash, it said.
Source: Times Of India
Sri Lanka says weekend death toll 79, 'most rebels'
Sri Lanka's air force bombed Tamil Tiger positions in the far north on Monday and government troops killed 36 rebels in the north on Sunday, the military said.
Including the 36, the death toll from fighting at the weekend reached 79, most of them rebels, according to military figures.
The weekend clashes were on the Jaffna peninsula, the northern districts of Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa and the north-western district of Mannar, and killed a total of 75 rebels and four soldiers, the military said.
A pro-Tiger website said 15 government soldiers were killed in the Mannar fighting.
The military said the Tamil Tiger rebels had fired artillery from the rebel-held area on Monday morning toward the army-controlled northern Jaffna peninsula, separated by rebel territory from the rest of the country, but there were no reports of casualties or property damage.
"There was firing from the ground. To neutralise the fire the air force fighter jets bombed the LTTE artillery gun position in Pooneryn this morning," air force spokesman Wing Commander Andrew Wijesuriya said.
Pilots confirmed the raid was successful, he said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who seek to carve out an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, were not immediately available for comment.
A pro-rebel website said the fighting in Mannar on Sunday killed 15 Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded more than 30. The website gave no details of rebel casualties, but the military denied the claim.
There were no independent accounts of how many people had been killed or what had happened. Analysts say both sides tend to overstate enemy losses and play down their own.
Source: ABC
JVP rejects solution based on Indian model
by Shamindra Ferdinando
The JVP yesterday rejected APRC (All Party Representative Committee) call for a series of measures to achieve maximum and effective devolution of powers to the provinces in the short term.
JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe said that Minister Tissa Vitarana’s so called APRC was no APRC at all. How could they categorise it as an all party committee when the JVP and the UNP weren’t represented. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which recognised the LTTE as the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking people, too, boycotted the committee.
Addressing the press at Savsiripaya auditorium, Amarasinghe asserted that except the SLFP, other parties which endorsed the proposals were in fact no political parties. They were ‘three wheeler’ parties and their endorsement wouldn’t mean a thing, he said.
Severely criticising President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s approach to solve the national problem, the JVP leader accused the government of reviving the long dead Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987. He urged the government not to revive the accord forced on President JR Jayewardene by India at gunpoint as it would never facilitate a negotiated settlement. The president had conveniently forgotten the tough stand taken against the Indo-Lanka Accord by the SLFP, he said. The UNP killed 140 civilians who marched on Colombo against the Accord, the JVP Chief said, emphasising that the need to destroy the LTTE before tackling political issues.
"In our road map for durable peace, the annihilation of the LTTE comes first," he said. Along with that, the restoration of democracy, compensation to victims of violence irrespective of their ethnicity and eradication of the ‘separatist movement’ would be necessary, he said. This could be followed by elections to provincial councils and local bodies, he said, while emphasising the importance of a countrywide census after the annihilation of the LTTE.
Vitarana said that their recently unveiled proposals would be followed by a set of proposals that would be the basis for a solution to the national problem. "After, 63 sittings, over a period of 1 1/2 years, the consensus document is being finalised and it should be possible to hand it over to the President in the very near future. The outcome would be a basis for appropriate constitutional arrangements. Their implementation would of course require amendment of the present Constitution, and in respect of some Articles, approval by the people at a referendum. This would of course take time, once a favourable climate is established"
Amarasinghe strongly rejected the move to establish an Interim Council for the Northern Province in terms of the Constitution. This would cause chaos, he said adding that the JVP was totally in disagreement with the assertion that the Interim Council should reflect the ethnic character of a particular province, in this case the Northern Province.
In short, the JVP would accept the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitition, he said. Vitarana called for maximum devolution of powers to the provinces under the 13th Amendment. Amarasinghe said that the implementation of the amendment in respect of legislative, executive and administrative powers, overcoming existing shortcomings would be detrimental to the national interest and the JVP would do everything possible to thwart the move.
Responding to a query raised by The Island, Amarasinghe said that the JVP’s armed struggle against the State and that of the LTTE couldn’t be compared. The JVP was a democratic party and it never resorted to any illegal activity before the then UNP administration of JR Jayewardene proscribed the party, he said. Applauding the security forces, which twice put down JVP inspired armed campaigns, the JVP leader expressed satisfaction over the status of the ongoing action against the LTTE. He also launched a scathing attack on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Loise Arbour for being biased towards the LTTE. He emphasised that their protests directed against Ms Arbour shouldn’t be construed as anti-UN.
Briefly discussing the humanitarian disaster in US occupied Iraq, Amarasinghe challenged Arbour to criticise the US led allied action there. She was silent on the situation in Iraq, he said.
The JVP would oppose any effort on the part of the UN to bring Sri Lankan security forces before international court for human rights violations.
Source: The Island
Sunday, 27 January 2008
No let up in military offensive against LTTE: Rajapakse
Signalling that there will be no let up in military offensive against the LTTE, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has said the army was trying to liberate the main rebel strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in the embattled north.
''We are trying to relieve the people of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu of terror under LTTE leader V Prabhakaran,'' he said.
''The government is making efforts to allow them to enjoy the freedoms and rights of human beings in a democratic state in the same manner the people of the Eastern Province were now enjoying,'' Rajapakse said at a university function in Kandy, about 80 kms northeast of Colombo, on Saturday.
The president vowed to break the backbone of terrorism, which, he said can not be allowed to prevail but added that political issues cannot be resolved through the gun.
The president said that an environment conducive for children has been created in eastern Sri Lanka after much effort and the same would be done for children of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu after it is liberated.
He sought the cooperation of the common people in this endeavour.
Steps have been taken to restore democratic rights of the people by the elected representatives in the Eastern Province, the president added.
Fighting has escalated between government troops and the LTTE since Colombo pulled out of the 2002 ceasefire this month, leaving hundreds of people dead.
Source: NDTV
46 killed in Sri Lanka
Colombo (PTI): At least 43 militants, two civilians and a solider were killed in fierce gunbattles between security forces and the LTTE in the embattled Northern Sri Lanka, the army said here on Sunday.
Three militants were gunned down in an encounter with troops at Kokkuthuduvai in North-Eastern Welioya on Sunday, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.
Nine rebels were gunned down by security forces in three separate encounters at Kiribbanwewa in Welioya on Saturday while two others died in a confrontation at Parayanakulam in Vavuniya on the same day, the Defence Ministry said.
In another clash at Muhamalai in Jaffna, security forces lost a soldier, the MCNS said adding troops also killed three Tamil Tigers in an attack in the same area on Saturday evening.
Separately, two rebels were killed in skirmishes with troops in Kokkuthuduwai and Janakapura areas of Jaffna on Saturday, the Defence Ministry said.
Five rebels were shot dead at Vilathikulam in Vavuniya when troops intercepted the LTTE foot movement there on Saturday, the MCNS said.
One rebel was killed at Kallikulam in Vavuniya on Saturday, the Army said.
Earlier in the day, troops hit an LTTE mortar training base North of Palamoddai in Vavuniya with artillery fire.
Source: Thehindu
Bloodying the Tiger’s nose
By Senpathi
The stated military strategy is not to pursue a land grab in the Wanni, as in the East, where the Army took over vast swathes of territory. In the Wanni and the North, the forces have to cope with a less friendly civilian population of around half-a-million people.
And, on top of that, the Tigers are well entrenched in their defences and have proved their conventional capabilities, which they have acquired over the years.
Despite the Military’s superior combat power, it is not easy to dislodge the cadres who have conventional capability including artillery and mortar power and have dug in and mined the area heavily.
The Army has opened up five fronts in the Wanni and the North to draw the Tigers into battle. The Military feels that the way to go about is to destroy the cadres and their strike capability, in an overall war of attrition.
(For its part, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) this week alone, took out two identified targets, including the LTTE’s “X-ray Base” east of Iranamadu Tank in the Kalmadukulama area on Wednesday (23) and its transport base located at Kilinochchi, on Friday (25). In the first air raid, SLAF fighter jets, in a low flying mission, had, with the pin point accuracy, targeted the base that LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was to visit, the SLAF claimed. But, there was no conformation based on ground intelligence, as to the Tiger leader being injured.
The insurgency has grown over several phases and what the Military is doing is to roll back these phases, which, of course, takes time.
Setting deadlines to win the war, is not very practical, on account on the LTTE’s use of conventional force, guerilla warfare and terrorism. We saw how the LTTE continued to make its presence felt in Thanamalwila in the Moneragala district, killing three policemen and injuring two soldiers this week.
The Military is shaping the battle and creating the conditions, until the right time and right place to go for the kill. The last experience at Muhamalai, ahead of the Budget vote, only goes to show that the Tigers expected the operation and dealt with it accordingly. As the soldiers captured the first bunker line and proceeded to get at the second, the LTTE rained artillery and turned the soldiers into sitting ducks. The same mistake was not repeated this time, as troops, this week, destroyed 24 LTTE bunkers and caused damage to the forward defence lines (FDL) at Muhamalai, Nagar Kovil and Kilali.
While mass scale bodies had to be restricted, a few such operations would be in order. Ahead of the country’s Diamond Jubilee of Independence, either side would like to make a dent in the enemy’s lines.
But, until such a large-scale thrust is undertaken; targets in the North and the Wanni were continually under attack by the security forces this week.
According to intercepted LTTE messages, 15 Tigers were killed and double the number injured during the confrontations in Jaffna FDLs. Lt Bopage of the Infantry Regiment and two soldiers were killed. Lt N.M. Rajapakse and another soldier were killed in action in Muhamalai on Thursday (24), while five LTTE cadres were killed during the confrontation.
In another incident, two leading LTTE cadres, including Kengan, who carried out attacks in government controlled areas, were killed.
Meanwhile, in Mannar, during a confrontation at Periyakulam, two soldiers were killed and six others injured, while 14 Tigers were killed in Pandivirichchan, Anandankulam, Marandamode, and Kallikulam areas. A total of 29 Tigers were killed in all these areas on Thursday (24). At Periyapanchakulam in Vavuniya, on Sunday (20), two LTTE regional leaders were gunned down, according to the Military. The security forces recovered six bodies, including those of Kugan and Manju. Troops from 59 Division, advancing from Weli Oya, killed another two dozen Tigers over the week.
Government military strategists believe that by killing Tigers in small numbers, the Army would be able to unsettle the LTTE, to strike hard later.
Source: nation.lk
Karuna attacked in UK prison
To face war crimes charges
LTTE renegade commander Karuna Amman, who was sentenced to nine months in a British prison after being charged with having entered the country on false travel documents, has been allegedly tortured in the prison, The Nation learns.
Reports reaching Colombo said that Karuna was sent to a maximum security prison as a political prisoner and was to be housed with other Tamil inmates who had been charged with other crimes.
It is said that fellow Tamil inmates had either poured hot water on the former rebel leader or assaulted him with a weapon, compelling the authorities to provide him medical treatment.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Karuna Amman after serving his nine month sentence in a British prison would face charges for war crimes.
Human rights activists told The Nation that once the nine months are completed, it was unlikely that Karuna would actually be deported to Sri Lanka, because several international human rights organizations in the likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are campaigning for the prosecution of Karuna for committing serious human rights violations, including war crimes.
“It is possibile that these organisations would pressure the British authorities to file a case against Karuna, whilst he is in prison.
UK prison If he is found guilty of the charges leveled against him, which includes killings, abductions, torture and child soldier recruitment, he could be locked up again, as soon as he is released, ,” the activists noted.
Meanwhile, Karuna’s legal representative, David Philips, told the BBC after the judgment that the LTTE renegade leader might apply for political asylum, after serving the prison sentence.
“He hasn’t applied for asylum because until the sentencing takes place for a criminal case, no immigration officer will ever entertain an application,” he said.
Mass graves and claymore blasts
By Ranga Jayasuriya
The forth Eelam war is becoming increasingly brutal and dirty. Sri Lanka is sliding back into violence that had been characteristic of the last two decades of its history.
After the failure of a long drawn out effort to seek peace through negotiations, the country is back to the square one.
It was only a week ago that the Tiger cadres massacred 47 civilians in the rural Uva and Deep Down South. A bus full of passengers was blown up in a claymore mine explosion and later the assassins shot dead the survivors at close range.
That is not the end of the story. Grisly scenes of death are becoming synonymous with the Sri Lankan life. More corpses turned up last week and strange enough some government officials wanted to suppress the news.
On Thursday (24), two Muslims in Kirikotuwewa, Kebithigollawa, who went to the jungle to round up their cattle, were the first to see the gruesome sight. They saw a hand jutting out from a marshland. Later, People looked in horror as police unearthed 16 decomposed bodies from two pits. Victims had not been identified as of Saturday. No complaints of the mass disappearance of civilians had been received in Anuradhapura, according to the police.
The bodies were buried 250 metres from the Horowpathana - Kebithigollewa Road, in the jungle.
The government’s Media Centre for National Security blamed the Tigers for the killings.
The MCNS said: “Police have found several bodies of youth dumped in a swamp at Kiriketuwewa on the Horoupathana - Kebithigollawa road by suspected LTTE terrorists this evening, January 24.
Police said the victims are believed to be a group of civilians who had gone searching for their cattle.
The victims were apparently hacked to death, the sources added,” the MCNS said.
An attempt to suppress the news
However, the flipside of the story is that the government tried to suppress the news of the discovery of two mass graves. The Director General of the Media Centre for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalla telephoned newspapers and told them not to publish the story. He said that the young men were killed by the LTTE and that the publication of the news could trigger an ethnic backlash. Hence, the request for the non publication of the story. Some newspapers, indeed, obliged while the others downplayed the story.
That was a peculiar request to make at the first place, what is more astonishing is the rationale behind it.
Only a week ago some 27 passengers were blown up in Buttala. But, the South didn’t erupt in an ethnic backlash. People in this country have acted with restrain in the face of the attempts to trigger communal backlash. This country has been through massacres, bombing and suicide killings perpetrated by the guerrillas, yet never did people go on rampage against fellow Tamils during the last twenty years. The Sri Lankan polity has reformed a lot since its ignominious experiment of the anti-Tamil pogrom in July 1983. However, the media wizards of the MCNS seemed to have thought otherwise. Later, the MCNS declared civilians, who went searching for their cattle, had been killed by the LTTE. However, the nature of the killings has raised more questions.
The victims were killed in execution style. Some were blindfolded and their hands tied to behind. Of the victims, 15 were male and the other was a female.
The developments in the immediate aftermath of the discovery indicated an attempt to downplay the incident. Culprits are at large and probably will never be brought to justice.
The bitter but stubborn truth in the country’s increasingly dirty war is that lines of engagement have become increasingly blurred.
However, the discovery of the two mass graves would like to add further strains on the government’s human rights record. This is not to suggest the culpability of the government’s security apparatus.
It can be the LTTE, or anyone else who is behind the killings. However it is the obligation of the government to probe the killings and bring culprits to justice. Attempts to downplay the killings could only backfire.
Meanwhile the autopsy of the victims was held in Anuradhapura yesterday.
The nation is witnessing a spate of violence, which was largely controlled during the first three years of the truce agreement.
Human rights and civil liberties are increasingly compromised - of course it is accepted that certain civil liberties could be curtailed under extraordinary circumstance, but it is also universally accepted that the right to life is an exception.
This government’s dilemma in fighting one of the most ruthless extremist movements in the world is well understood. Perhaps, the ranking of this government by most rights groups may not do justice to the precarious situation the government had been forced in. However, it must be said that certain highhanded actions and the over reliance on its hard-line allies have contributed to the government’s dilemma.
Forces advance
These developments are taking place as the security forces supported by five offensive divisions are gradually pushing into the Wanni heartland of the LTTE.
Two hours after dawn of Monday (21), Special Infantry troops of the 53 and 55 Divisions sneaked ahead of their forward defence localities in Muhamalai, Elithumattuwal and Nagar Kovil.
Under the cover of darkness, troops advanced cautiously on a land plagued with booby-traps and anti personnel mines. Extra precautionary measures had been taken to avoid mine fields, which had been identified in the reconnaissance missions. During the last major offensive ahead of the Northern defence lines on the eve of the Budget, a soldier, while taking up the assault positions, stepped on a Bangalore torpedo, which alerted the guerrillas.
This time around, when the troops assaulted the enemy positions, it took the LTTE cadres by total surprise.
Guerrillas seemed to have miscalculated the security forces action, said a senior military official.
The LTTE cadres who were manning the forward defence localities were of the impression that the attack was another remote assault. But it took only a matter of seconds for 27 heavily fortified bunkers of the LTTE to come under a heavy volume of fire by troops.
A military official said the primary defence line of the LTTE is sparsely manned. That is a tactic put in place in response to the regular attacks on the guerrilla defence line by Special Infantry Operation troops.
Twenty four bunkers were completely destroyed; this included four bunkers in Nagar Kovil, 12 bunkers on the East of A 9 Road and eight bunkers on the West of A9 Road.
The Army said at least 15 LTTE cadres were killed and 30 wounded. Two soldiers were killed and nine wounded in fighting. This included four soldiers classified as P 1 injuries and five soldiers, classified P 2 injuries.
As troops took over the bunkers, Tigers withdrew to their secondary defence line from where they fought back the advancing troops.
Holding ground has not been the intention of the recent military operations in the Northern theatre. The two main objectives of these missions were: (a) gradual annihilation of the man power of the enemy (b) Keeping the enemy occupied with defensive actions.
Thus, by five thirty in the morning, troops have returned to their original positions. They also recovered a 40 mm grenade launcher.
Indeed, bitter battles are yet to flare up. What troops are engaged now is the softening up of tiger positions through regular limited offensives.
According to the statistics given by the Defence Ministry, 636 LTTE cadres and 26 soldiers have been killed since the start of the new year.
However, these figures could not be verified independently.
What is, however, obvious is that the forth Eelam war is set to unfold with a greater ferocity in the coming months. Public should brace themselves for the inevitable.
