Sri Lanka to hold local elections in March in restive east

Sri Lanka today announced plans to hold local council polls on March 10 in the country's restive eastern region for the first time in 14 years.

According to the Election Department, polls for the municipal and urban councils will be held on the same day.

Six political parties and 22 independent groups will participate in the elections, media reports said.

The last local council elections were held in the region in 1994. The government has not been able to hold elections in the region due to escalating violence between LTTE and security forces.

Source: outlookindia.com

Grenade attacks on Muslim traders in Vazhaichcheanai

Unidentified persons hurled a hand grenade Friday early morning at 3:10a.m. at the residence of a Muslim business man, located in Semma’nodai, Oddamaavadi within Vazhaichcheanai police division in Batticaloa district, Vaazhaichcheanai police said. In a similar incident Wednesday night 10:45 p.m., residence of another Muslim trader near Hyrath Mosque came under grenade attack, according to police.

The grenade thrown at the residence of K.M.Aatham Bawa, located on Moulana Road damaged a portion of the house and destroyed some furniture. The residents were asleep at the time of the attack, but survived without any injuries, sources said.

Police have commenced investigation to find the motive for the attack and identify the attackers.

No arrests have yet been made related this incident.

Meanwhile, in another attack targeting the residence of another Muslim trader, A.L.M.Ismail, Wednesday in Vazhaichcheanai area, part of the house was destroyed but none of the occupants were hurt, police said.

Ismail is an active supporter of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, (SLMC) and the attack was likely due to political rivalry, regional sources said.

Vaazhaichcheanai police have commenced investigations but no arrests have been made

Vazhaichcheanai is located 32 k.m. North of Batticaloa.

Source: Tamilnet

Air Force targets LTTE base, 50 killed in Lanka clashes

In stepped-up fighting, Sri Lankan security forces gunned down at least 43 Tamil Tigers and lost seven soldiers in the island's restive north, where the Air Force jets today raided an LTTE transport base in the rebel-dominated Kilinochchi area.

The aerial raid targeted the LTTE base located at two kms southwest of the depot junction in Selvanagar in Kilinochchi, the Defence Ministry said.

The raid was launched based on information received through intelligence sources and air surveillances conducted for a long period, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Andy Wijesooriya said.

The pilots confirmed that the target was accurately hit, he said.

In ground clashes, at least nine Tigers were killed in south of Adampan in northwestern Mannar after troops destroyed seven LTTE bunkers yesterday, the Defence Ministry said.

In another incident, troops gunned down five rebels in Muhamale in Jaffna peninsula yesterday, the army said.

One army officer and a solder were killed in Muhamalai yesterday due to an explosion of an Improvised Explosive Device, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

It said that two rebels were killed in Navathkulam in northern Vavuniya yesterday while two women Tigers were gunned down in Kallikulam.

At Periyapandisurichchan in Vavuniya, army snipers deployed in the defence line killed an LTTE cadre.

On the Mannar front, troops stationed at Vannakulam came under heavy mortar shelling by LTTE cadres last evening resulting in the killing of two soldiers and injuries to two others, the Defence Ministry said. In Periyakulam area of Mannar, troops killed at least 10 guerrillas in a fierce battle yesterday, the MCNS said, adding two army men lost their lives in the incident while six others suffered injuries.

On the Welioya front in Jaffna, troops confronted with a group of rebels resulting in death of one soldier and injuries to another, the Defence Ministry said.

In an area north of Janakapura, troops said they killed two LTTE cadres.

In another incident in the north of Kiribbanwewa, one rebels was killed in a clash yesterday, the LTTE radio transmission revealed.

While two rebels were gunned down in Adankulam yesterday, at least six others were killed in the same area later in the day in clashes with the army, the MCNS said.

Separately, an LTTE cadre was shot dead in Pandivirichchan area of Mannar yesterday and two other rebels were gunned down in Marathamodai in Vavuniya, the MCNS said.

Meanwhile, decomposed bodies of at least 16 civilians, hacked to death by suspected LTTE rebels, were found buried in Kriketuwewa area in north central Sri Lanka.

"Police have found several bodies of youth dumped in a swamp at Kiriketuwewa on the Horoupathana - Kebithigollawa road by suspected LTTE militants on Thursday evening," a defence ministry statement said today.

The victims are believed to be a group of civilians who had gone searching for their cattle, it said. Initially the incident was reported to the police by the civilians in the area, the statement said, adding the victims were apparently "hacked to death".

Source: outlookindia.com

Lanka should remove defence system in Palk strait: MDMK

CHENNAI: MDMK leader Vaiko on Friday demanded that the Centre ask the Sri Lanka government to remove the underwater defence system set up across the Palk strait on the International Maritime Boundary Line.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a copy of which was made available to the media, Vaiko said the system would damage and destroy the fishing boats of Indian fishermen.

He said the Sri Lankan navy had communicated to the Indian Navy to inform Tamil Nadu fishermen not to venture out for fishing between Kachatheevu and Neduntheeve in the Palk strait, as mines had been placed.

"This high-handed action of Sri Lanka government is a naked aggression into the domain of our sovereign rights in International waters," he said.

India ceded Kachatheevu to Sri Lanka, which itself was "wrong and unjustifiable", he said, adding when the island was given to Sri Lanka as per an agreement, Indian fishermen were given the fishing rights there.

"But, like a bolt from the blue, the Sri Lanka government has dared to set up an underwater defence system, with malicious aim to curtail the rights of Indian fishermen. There is a sinister design behind this move to threaten and prevent the suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka to reach Tamil Nadu as refugees," he said.

If the Sri Lanka government refused to remove the system, India should take steps to nullify the Kachatheevu agreement, he said.

Source: Times of India

UK jails ex-S.Lanka Tiger Karuna for ID fraud

By Peter Apps

LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Britain sentenced renegade ex-Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel Karuna Amman to nine months in prison on Friday for identity document fraud and now rights groups hope he will face additional war crimes charges. The ex-eastern Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commander is accused by rights groups of torture, abductions, killings and child soldier recruitment both before and after splitting from the mainstream rebels in 2004. Analysts say he switched his support to the government, and rights groups accuse security forces of turning a blind eye to his actions before his own group ousted him last year and he fled to Britain. British officials say they have asked Sri Lanka how Karuna -- real name V. Muralitharan -- was able to acquire an apparently genuine Sri Lankan diplomatic passport under a false name. The Metropolitan police and immigration authorities arrested him in London late last year and he pleaded guilty to magistrates before Christmas. "He has been sentenced to nine months in prison for holding false identity documents," a court official told Reuters. "He has already served 32 days on remand." The maximum sentence would have been two years but rights groups had feared he might just be fined and leave the country. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and others have called for Karuna to be charged in Britain for a variety of war crimes but campaigners say witnesses have been reluctant to come forward. They hope the fact Karuna is behind bars will boost their confidence -- but with extra-judicial killings still widespread in Sri Lanka with the resumption of civil war and international criticism of poor witness protection, many are still seen to be too scared to testify. The Sri Lankan government has always denied links to Karuna and said it was happy for the British legal system to take its course. Officials have furiously denied rights abuse charges and refused calls for United Nations human rights monitoring. Karuna and his group the TMVP -- now under new leadership -- also deny abuse claims and say they are fighting to liberate ethnic Tamils from the clutches of the Tigers, banned as terrorists in Britain, Europe, North America and India. TMVP attacks on the mainstream Tigers were seen as a factor in pushing the island back into an all-out war that has killed more than 70,000 over two decades.

Source: Reuters

Sri Lankan Power-Sharing Plan Proposes Interim Council in North

By Paul Tighe

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka should create an interim council in the Northern Province where the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has its bases as a first step toward settling the issue of Tamil separatism, an all-party forum said.

The conflict with the LTTE makes holding elections impossible in the mainly Tamil north ``in the near future'' and an interim council should be appointed by the president that reflects the ethnic character of the area, the All Party Representative Committee recommended.

The proposals are to meet the aspirations of the people and aren't ``aimed at meeting the demands of the LTTE,'' Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said yesterday, according to a statement on the government's Web site.

The Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland, now hold bases only in the north after they were driven from the eastern region in July. The all-party committee said security has improved so elections can be held in the Eastern Province, where the government is seeking $1.8 billion in international aid to develop the region.

A 1987 constitutional amendment on creating provincial councils is the basis for the power-sharing proposals, the APRC said in a report presented to Rajapaksa two days ago, according to the government's Web site. The amendment was part of a peace accord signed with India when it sent peacekeeping soldiers to the island.

The plan ``envisages an interim arrangement pending the restoration of democratically elected provincial councils in the north and east,'' the committee said.

Minority Groups

The government should oversee the passing of laws providing for the protection of the Tamil language and those of other minority communities, by bringing translators and interpreters into law courts and the police force. Ethnic Sinhalese minorities in the north and east should receive the same benefits, the committee said.

Rajapaksa's government rejects any peace settlement that would divide the country of 20 million people where Tamils make up 11.9 percent of the population and Sinhalese almost 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.

The LTTE, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and India, rejected the constitutional amendment in 1988, saying it left too much power with the national Parliament.

India's government said the APRC's proposals are a ``welcome first step'' toward a settlement, according to a statement from New Delhi yesterday.

``It has consistently been our view that a settlement of the issues in Sri Lanka is to be done by the Sri Lankan people themselves in a manner acceptable to all communities within the framework of a united Sri Lanka,'' the Indian government said.

Course of Action

The APRC's proposals identify a course of action to meet the aspirations of minorities through ``maximum and effective devolution of power,'' Bogollagama said in Colombo yesterday.

He earlier briefed the U.S., Japan, EU and Norway, the countries leading a group of donor nations for Sri Lanka, on the APRC's plan, the government said.

The donor nations told Rajapaksa there can be no military solution to the conflict in the South Asian island nation after his government ended a 2002 cease-fire with the LTTE on Jan. 16. Rajapaksa, in a speech three days ago, said he wanted a political settlement. ``However, when it comes to terrorism, I think it is necessary to defeat it,'' he said.

LTTE Attacked

The military has attacked the LTTE's bases in the north since winning control of the eastern region. It has also targeted the LTTE leadership in recent months.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, was wounded in an air raid in November, according to the government, and the head of the political wing was killed in an air strike two months ago. The LTTE military intelligence chief was killed Jan. 6.

The Tamil Tigers said their forces repulsed an army offensive at Ma'nalaa'ru in the north late yesterday, TamilNet reported on its Web site.

Police found the bodies of 17 civilians shot dead near the northern town of Vavuniya yesterday, TamilNet said. The victims were found with their hands tied behind their backs, it said.

The Ministry of Defense said several bodies of young people were found near a road late yesterday and LTTE terrorists were suspected of the killings. The ministry didn't say how many bodies were found.

Source: Bloomberg

Lanka invites Indians to build new airport

Sri Lanka wants builders of Cochin International Airport to construct an airport in that country. Talks on the proposal will begin in Colombo on January 28.

The Cochin airport is India's first airport built under a public-private partnership. The Kerala government and several NRIs hold stakes in Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), which built the airport and operates it.

A seven-member CIAL delegation led by its managing director S. Bharath will hold talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other Lankan leaders on the proposal.

"The invitation for this came from Rajapaksa and we have taken this opportunity with a lot of excitement," Bharath said. The talks will be spread over six days from January 28, he said.

Bharath said CIAL is ready to provide a full turnkey solution for the proposed airport in Sri Lanka.

"If what they want is just the building of the airport, we are prepared for that and if they want us to take care of the operations part also, we are ready for that too. We are ready for what they want," he said.

It was almost two years ago that Rajapaksa mooted the idea of CIAL building an airport in his country when he flew to Kochi en route to Guruvayoor.

Since then CIAL and the Sri Lankan government have exchanged letters on the issue, resulting in a formal invitation from the Sri Lankan president for talks, Bharath said.

CIAL has been making profits since its inception in 1999 and is all set for major expansion with 18 projects, which include a Rs.6.4-billion ($162 million) IT park, an aviation academy, a maintenance and hangar unit, hotels and a golf course. These are to come up on 500 acres in its possession.

The Kerala government holds 35.56 percent in CIAL, the company's directors 37 percent, and public sector banks and public sector organisations like Air India 10.61 percent, while NRIs and the general public have 14.63 percent. Private commercial banks hold a two percent stake in the company.

Source: thepeninsulaqatar.com

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Source: Defencewire

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Source: Percy/lankalibrary.com

Government 'will consider grievances of all Tamils'

By Neena Gopal, Special to Gulf News

Bangalore: A senior minister in Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's cabinet said yesterday his government would "take the grievances of all democratically minded Tamil people on board" in evolving a political solution to the country's war between separatist Tamil Tigers and government forces.

Keheliya Rambukwella, Sri Lanka's Minister for Foreign Employment, promotion and welfare, in the UAE on a visit, was commenting on proposals submitted by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) to the president which recommended the full implementation of the 13th amendment - the setting up of provincial councils and a greater devolution of powers to the provinces.

It has been criticised by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the past as discriminatory.

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The 13th amendment was the brainchild of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Jaywardene and never implemented, he said.

"Although any amendments to the constitution require a two-thirds majority, I am confident it will go ahead," he added referring to the support needed from the opposition United National Party and Sinhala nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya to get the amendment passed.

The APRC proposals are "in the same spirit" as the peace proposals by previous governments headed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, he said.

The Rajapakse government has worked closely with the international community and particularly India on working out power sharing between the centre and the states. "India has a very strong devolution model," he said, adding that "one way or the other we will decide what political and administrative powers must be granted to each. After years of conflict, it is time to join hands, to give and take."

In a nod to addressing the alienation since the fifties of educated Tamils who resented Sinhala becoming the national language he said his government was even willing to re-examine the feasibility of making English the national language alongside Sinhala and Tamil.

The minister's comments come on the back of a sustained war of attrition to reduce the separatist Tamil Tigers' military capability and the controversial cancellation of a five year long ceasefire agreement (CFA) that has seen a spike in violence.

Rambukwella says "the CFA was never what it should have been". He said: "Prabhakaran (the Tiger supremo) used the piece of paper to advantage at various international forums, never intending to adhere to the deal.

"The Rajapakse government decided it would give the CFA a chance. We went in for two rounds of talks at Geneva but when the Tigers made an attempt on the army chief we felt we should get out of the CFA and liberate the Tamils, terrorised by the LTTE as we have done in the east where Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese live in harmony."

- Neena Gopal is an analyst on Asia.

Secretive: Brain trust targeted

"First there were five. Now there are three. I assure you we will get all three, - Prabhakaran, Soosai (head of the Tiger navy) and Pottu Amman," said Keheliya Rambukwella, Sri Lanka's Minister for Foreign Employment of his government's targeting of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam's secretive brain trust.

His famed "there are no good terrorists or bad terrorists, a terrorist is a terrorist" quote when the country's air force killed the head of the Tigers' political wing S.P. Tamilchelvam whom many mistakenly described as a "peace dove", made headlines.

"Why should we spare him [Prabhakaran], has he spared anyone? Not the leaders, nor people of this country, other countries, not respected Tamils, not his colleagues. He must be eradicated."

"If Prabhakaran is caught alive, yes, we will hand him over to India to face charges in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. That is a promise we have made to India, it is a promise we will keep."

Source: gulfnews.com