Gun Battles Kill 25 Tamil Tiger Rebels, 7 Soldiers

Twenty-five Tamil rebels and seven soldiers were killed during gun battles in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, the Media Centre for National Security said.

Sri Lankan soldiers and members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam clashed in the regions of Mannar, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Welioya yesterday and early today, the government's Media Centre said in a statement on its Web site. Six soldiers and four rebels were injured in the battle, it said.

The military is staging almost daily attacks on the northern region, the only area controlled by the rebels since they were driven from Eastern Province in July. The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983 in an insurgency that has left more than 70,000 people dead. The rebels are designated a terrorist group by the U.S., the European Union and India.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has vowed to eradicate terrorism on the South Asian island while seeking a settlement with all Tamil groups. It ended a 2002 cease-fire with the LTTE in January, prompting the United Nations to call on the government and Tamil Tigers to prevent an escalation of violence against civilians.

A group of rebels ambushed an army post in Mannar, killing a soldier, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com said in a statement on the Web site. Another soldier was seriously injured in the grenade attack, it said.

The Sri Lankan military killed 68 civilians, including seven children, during its offensive in May, the LTTE said in a statement on its Web site. Another 44 people ``disappeared,'' the group said.

Source: bloomberg

Malaysian Govt will crack down on Tiger link

The Home Ministry is investigating claims that Malaysians were working with Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger terrorists to carry out a bomb attack in Colombo.
This followed the arrest of six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Saturday in Wattala, Sri Lanka where the authorities also seized 2.7kg of high-powered C4 explosives.

According to a Sri Lankan news report, the suspects under interrogation (by Sri Lankan government troops), said they were waiting for instructions from some Malaysians - via the telephone - to launch the attack.

Commenting on the report, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the government would not hesitate to act against Malaysians linked to the LTTE.

He said his ministry would contact the Sri Lankan government to clarify the allegations and seek its assistance to obtain information on the Malaysians said to be involved.
"I have checked the report. Malaysia will never tolerate any type of terrorism. If it is true that Malaysians are involved, we will find them and take severe action.

"There have always been allegations that some Malaysians are involved with the LTTE," Syed Hamid said after the opening ceremony of the Eighth Asean Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (8th-SOMTC) here yesterday.

The report in the Sri Lankan online daily, The Daily Mirror, stated that six LTTE suspects, allegedly responsible for the recent bomb blasts in Colombo and its suburbs, were taken into custody by a special police team on Saturday.

Police investigations revealed these suspects, five men and a woman from Welikanda and Vavuniya, had been living in Wattala in a rented house for a long period.

It was also revealed this group had planned to explode a bomb in Colombo on Saturday but police foiled their plans.

The report also stated the suspects had been given directions to carry out attacks from Malaysia over the phone.

A senior police official was quoted as saying: "They were awaiting orders from Malaysia to carry out the attack on Saturday."

Meanwhile, a top LTTE operative, who masterminded an international LTTE credit card scam, was nabbed on the same day by police in Wellawatte.

At the time of arrest, the suspect had in his possession a large number of personal identification numbers (PIN) and bank receipts issued by both local and Malaysian banks.

Source: nst

Italian police arrest 28 Tamils on terror charges

Italian police arrested 28 Sri Lankan Tamils on Wednesday on charges of aiding and abetting the outlawed Tamil Tigers group fighting a separatist insurgency against the government in Colombo.

Some 200 police were involved in the operation which saw raids across the country from Naples in the south to Bologna in the north, and also on the island of Sicily, an official with the police counter-terrorism cell told AFP.

The 28 people arrested were suspected of membership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and of providing funding for the group, the official said.

The LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka since 1972. Tens of thousands have died in the conflict.

Source: AFP

UTStarcom wins SLT IPTV contract

UUTStarcom Inc. said Tuesday it has signed a new contract to supply its Internet protocol television equipment to Sri Lanka Telecom Public Ltd. Co.

The Alameda company's "multi-million dollar" agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom partner Just In Time Holdings Pvt. Ltd. will eventually support the delivery of voice, Internet, and television services to Sri Lanka Telecom's 1.3 million customers on the south Asian island.

The initial rollout of UTStarcom Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) equipment is designed to support about 100,000 subscribers over the next two years. It will also enable the company to provide video services to future subscribers over copper lines in the next three to four years, it said.

Source: bizjournals

UTStarcom

Fortune 1000 company that specializes in IP-based networking products for telecommunications companies and service providers. Its core markets are multimedia communications and broadband, including IP communications and entertainment (IPTV), next generation broadband networks and optical network solutions. It also sells handsets and other consumer products including DSL modems and voice over IP terminal adapters. It has a large customer base in Asia, particularly in China, where it manufactures the majority of its products and where most of its employees are located. It also has business operations in the United States, India and Japan as well as research and design operations in the United States, China, Korea and India.

History of UTStarcom

The company was founded in 1991 by Lu, a China-born, US-educated entrepreneur, as Unitech Telecom. In its early years, the company was focused on the telecommunications markets in China. In 1995, Unitech merged with Starcom Networks to form UTStarcom. After several years of trying to build its business in China, UTStarcom launched the Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), also known as the Personal Access System. PHS is a scaled-down version of a cellular network and has 56 million subscribers in China. UTStarcom went public in March 2000. The IPO and a series of acquisitions helped the company expand its business and technology beyond its base in China to other emerging economies in Asia and Latin America as well as to Japan, the United States and Europe. Acquisitions Between 2002 and 2004, UTStarcom acquired several companies to expand its technology portfolio and market opportunities in areas such as handsets, CDMA technology, broadband and IP-based communications.

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Stock is doing well this year

Stock up 100%

Note: i do not own UTStarcom(NASDAQ:UTSI) or SLT(COL:SLTL) shares

Norway to continue promoting peace in Sri Lanka

The Norwegian government said on Sunday that its policy towards Sri Lanka remains unchanged and it will continue promoting the peace in Sri Lanka, according to reports reaching here from Oslo.

"The policies guiding our engagement with Sri Lanka remain firm and will not change," Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway Raymond Johansen said in a statement.

Norway is committed to assisting Sri Lanka in finding a solution to the ethnic conflict while respecting the country's territorial integrity, he stressed.

Norway will support a negotiated solution that addresses the legitimate grievances of the Tamil speaking communities and is acceptable to all communities, the official added.

The Norwegians facilitated six rounds of direct talks between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) between September 2002 and March 2003. But its facilitation role in Sri Lanka had reached a dead end following the government decision in the beginning of this year to formally withdraw from the six-year-old ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians.

Source: xinhua

20 killed in Lanka clashes, jets destroy LTTE facility

Sri Lankan Air Force jets destroyed a key LTTE combat logistic facility in a rebel stronghold today as fierce ground clashes killed 17 Tamil Tigers and two soldiers in the island's embattled north, the military said.

One civilian was shot dead in eastern Trincomalee by an unidentified assassin yesterday, the police said.

Giving details of the airstrike on the rebel stronghold, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the facility was used to maintain and service LTTE's combat vehicles.

"Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets launched precision air sorties destroying a key LTTE combat-logistic facility located at Venavil in Mullaittiuvu district this morning," Air Force Spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said.

Large explosions were observed from the target site, Nanayakkara said quoting fighter pilots. He said the facility was used to convert, maintain and service LTTE's combat vehicles.

The spokesman said the workshop at this site was used to modify, maintain and service combat transport vehicles for the LTTE.

It is also believed to be a prime logistic and combat supply storage for the outfit militants, he said.

"According to latest information, the LTTE site is still burning following a series of explosions that were reported immediately after the air raid this morning," he said.

"This strategically important facility also consisted a large fuel dump," sources said.

In ground clashes, troops killed eight rebels in fierce clashes in Periyamadu tank in North-western Mannar yesterday, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

Source: pti

Dozens killed in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka: military

At least 13 Tamil Tiger rebels and sixgovernment troops have been killed in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Friday's fighting, which was centred around the Mannar, Weli Oya, Vavuniya and Jaffna regions, also wounded 27 combatants on both sides, the military said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made no comment on the government's statement.

Fighting is now concentrated in the island's north after government troops ejected the LTTE from its eastern stronghold last July.

Friday's fighting raises the number of rebels killed by security forces to 4,222 since January while 369 soldiers have died in combat during the same period, according to the defence ministry.

The ministry does not allow media and rights groups to travel to the frontlines, making its claims impossible to verify.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community in the island's north and east since 1972.

Tens of thousands of people have died in one of Asia's longest-running conflicts.

Source: AFP

Lankan Foreign Minister to visit India from Sunday

The situation in Sri Lanka, which has been witnessing a spurt in violence recently, will come up for discussion here next week when Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama undertakes a visit here.

The Indian side is expected to convey its worry over the situation in the island nation when Bogollagama holds talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.

India has been closely watching the situation in Sri Lanka where violence and clashes between army and LTTE have marked a substantial increase.

The Sri Lankan army has said it has launched a major operation to capture LTTE chief V Prabhakaran "alive".

Commenting on the developments in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister said on Monday that the conflict in the neighbouring country "has given a lot of worries because many times it happens that when ethnic tensions increase, there is a tendency of increased inflow of refugees in our country".

It also creates "both domestic problems as well as foreign policy problems," he said.

Bogollagama will extend a formal invite to the Prime Minister for the 15th SAARC Summit to be held in Colombo in August.

The Summit was originally scheduled to be held in the Maldives but the venue was shifted to Sri Lanka after security concerns following a bomb attack in Male.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in December 1985 by heads of state or government of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal and Maldives. Afghanistan was inducted as the eighth member of SAARC last year.

Source: Hindu

Fighting in Sri Lanka kills 11 rebels, 4 soldiers

A wave of battles broke out between government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists in Sri Lanka's north and east, killing 11 rebels and four soldiers, the military said Friday.

Fighting erupted Friday in northern Vavuniya district when insurgents fired at a group of soldiers, killing two of them, the military said in a statement.

Several other clashes took place Thursday, with most centered along the front lines separating government troops from the rebels' de facto state in the north.

In Vavuniya, five rebels were killed in two battles, while in the Welioya area, five rebels and two soldiers were killed, the military said.

Meanwhile, police in Trincomalee killed a suspected rebel after he threw a grenade at them, the military said. Trincomalee is a town in eastern Sri Lanka, a region the government wrested from rebel control last year.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not immediately be reached for comment.

The two sides routinely exaggerate their enemy's casualties while underreporting their own.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims because journalists are banned from the jungles where much of the fighting takes place.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for the island's ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Source: AP

Stop Tamil Tigers raising money in UK, says President Rajapaksa

Britain stands accused of applying double standards to its counter-terrorism policy because a banned Tamil militant group is being allowed to raise money among expatriates in London.

President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka said that supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were able to raise millions of pounds each year from the Tamil community in Britain, some of whom were coerced into donating the money.

“You can't have two different attitudes towards terrorism,” he told The Times this week during a visit to London for a Commonwealth meeting, where he raised the issue with Gordon Brown. “I don't agree that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists. There is only one kind of terrorist.”

There are about 150,000 Tamils living in Britain, mostly in North London. The Sri Lankans estimate that £70million is sent home every year.

“These are not voluntary contributions, the money is taken by force, usually a percentage of their income,” said Mr Rajapaksa, who attracted Tamil protesters during his stay. “The money is sent back to buy weapons. London is not the only place; money is also sent from Europe, Canada and other places.”

The Sri Lankan leader, who has earned a reputation as a hardliner, came to power nearly three years ago when a fragile ceasefire brokered by Norway was still in place. After a series of clashes — including suicide attacks against the head of the Army and Defence Minister, who is the President's brother — the simmering 25-year old conflict erupted into fresh violence.

Over the past two years government troops have been successful in retaking some rebel-held areas to the east and north of the island, but at a heavy cost. Several Sri Lankan sailors and Tamil guerrillas were killed yesterday when the “Sea Tigers”, the rebel naval wing, attacked a navy base on the island of Mannar. So far this year an estimated 4,000 Tamil Tigers and 357 government troops have been killed.

Many of the casualties are civilians and government troops have been accused of widespread human rights abuses and of allowing a pro-government paramilitary force to commit atrocities.

Mr Rajapaksa said that he was taking steps to protect human rights. He blamed his Government's poor international reputation on “clever propaganda” by the Tigers.

“We have failed in the propaganda fight,” he said.

Mr Rajapaksa insisted yesterday that in spite of the cost in lives and damage inflicted to Sri Lanka's tourist trade he would not resume peace talks with the Tamil Tigers until the organisation agreed to disarm.

“When they are weak they call on the international community to arrange a ceasefire. During this period they train and rearm and then fight back. This time if they want to talk, they should disarm first,” he said.

Even if the Tigers were to meet his preconditions it seems unlikely that he would ever be able to conclude a peace deal with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the charismatic rebel commander.

“This man and the three or four henchmen around him are blood-thirsty killers,” said Mr Rajapaksa. “They have no feelings. It is very difficult to deal with them.”

In another development, Sri Lanka has refused to let a team of Norwegian peace mediators visit rebel territory without a clear “road map” for a democratic solution, fearing a visit coud be used as propaganda. The military said yesterday that it was closing in on the Tamil Tigers' leader.

“The security forces are attacking Mullaittivu, Prabhakaran's hideout, from several directions. The army's aim is to capture Prabhakaran, who is holed up in a bunker, alive,” Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka said.

Source: times