At least 40 Tamil Tigers killed in Sri Lanka clashes

At least 40 Tamil Tigers and one soldier were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's restive northern region, officials here said on Saturday.

While five rebels were killed in Kolmoodi area in Vavuniya on Friday, another five were gunned down in Mannar, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

One LTTE cadre was killed in Madhu in Vavuniya on Friday, it said, adding another guerrilla was fatally shot during clashes in Periyavalandikulam area of Mannar.

Separately, one rebel was killed in Periyavalandikulam area in Mannar on Friday, the defence ministry said adding two LTTE cadres were shot dead in Thirukeeswaran.

One soldier was killed in a claymore mine explosion in an army tractor by suspected LTTE rebels in Buttala on Saturday morning, the MCNS said.

Meanwhile, the LTTE claimed in a statement that four army personnel were killed in Monragalla district in southern Sri Lanka.

Source: Times Of India

Tamil MP seeks lifting ban on LTTE

Appealing to India to recognise the struggle by Tamils in Sri Lankan for a separate Tamil homeland, a Tamil MP from the island nation today called for the lifting of the ban on LTTE in India.

"India should recognise the struggle (by the LTTE as well as the Tamils for a separate homeland). As a first step towards that, the ban on the outfit in India should go as it portrays them as terrorists," M K Sivajilingam of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), part of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka, told reporters here.

He was responding to a query on the clampdown in India, especially by the Tamil Nadu government, against the members of the proscribed outfit and its supporters.

When asked about the LTTE's alleged role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said, "we have apologised a number of times to India on behalf of the Tamils of Sri Lanka."

He also cautioned India against supplying arms to Sri Lanka, as it could be used on the minority Tamils in the island nation.

"A government which has the duty of protecting its subjects is actually killing them," Sivajilingam said.

He said the Tamils in the island nation were "waiting for the right time" to declare independence, on the lines of Kosovo, which declared itself independent recently.

Referring to a recent statement by C R Jayasinghe, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, admitting that Pakistan was supplying arms to Sri Lanka for the latter's "internal security," Sivajilingam said it could be a dangerous trend for India.

Source: outlookindia.com

Prabhakaran 'hale and hearty', says Tamil MP

Tamil Tigers chief V Prabhakaran is "hale and hearty and ruling skillfully", a lawmaker of pro-LTTE party has said, rejecting claims that the elusive rebel leader was injured.

"Incorrect statements are being made saying Prabhakaran is injured in an air-attack," MP Selvarajah Gajendran of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the LTTE proxies in parliament, said.

"He (Prabhakaran) is quite healthy and ruling skillfully," the lawmaker from strife-torn Jaffna told the House earlier this week while speaking on a motion to extend emergency in Sri Lanka by one month.

The Sri Lankan military had earlier claimed that Prabhakaran may have been injured in a November air raid. The military has intensified its offensive against the rebels after scrapping a tattered 2002 ceasefire in January.

Gajendran also demanded more supplies of food and other essential commodities for the people of Northern Sri Lanka where the military is battling the LTTE.

"If the abductions and murder (of Tamils) are to continue. We will separate ourselves (from the country)," he said.

Gajendran sought enhanced electricity supply to the main hospital in rebel held Kilinochchi saying the vaccines and other drugs were getting spoilt in the refrigerators due to lack of power supply.

Source: Hindu

Prabhakaran accuses Lankan govt forces of 'terrorism'

Breaking his silence amid claims that he was injured in a Sri Lankan Air Force raid, elusive Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran has awarded one of the LTTE's highest honours to a slain Tamil lawmaker and charged the government forces with "terrorism."

51-year-old K Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP from Jaffna district, was killed along with his driver in a roadside bomb attack on Thursday. While the LTTE claim that he was killed by army's Deep Penetration Unit near Mankulam area, defence officials insist that he died in the rebel-held Wanni.

Honouring Sivanesan with the title of 'Mahamanithar' or a great man, the LTTE chief said in a letter signed by him that "freedom of the Tamils and the liberation of the Tamil homeland are his life goals."

Sivanesan "yearned for a free and honourable life for the Tamil people in their land without the torments that have afflicted them," Prabhakaran said.

"He longed to see free Tamil Eelam. To achieve these goals he accepted our movement, its political aim, the struggle we have launched and served dedicatedly," the Tiger supremo said in the letter released by the LTTE.

"This planned, brutal assassination (of Sivanesan) is the latest cruelty in the ongoing ethnic genocide of the Tamils. This vicious killing ... is another illustration of the Sinhala State terrorism," Prabhakaran said.

His letter follow claims by the Sri Lankan military that Prabhakaran may have been injured in a November air raid. The military has intensified its offensive against the rebels after scrapping a tattered 2002 ceasefire in January.

Rejecting the army claims, TNA MP Selvarajah Gajendran said in Parliament that Prabhakaran was "hale and hearty and ruling skilfully".

Source: Times Of India

Clashes kill 42 in northern Sri Lanka

The military in Sri Lanka said Friday 38 Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers were killed while 20 soldiers were wounded in separated clashes in the north on Thursday.

Officials from the Media Center for National Security said 16 LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels and four soldiers were killed while 15 soldiers were injured in three battles in the Welioya district.

In the Mannar district, government troops killed 12 rebels in Parappakandal area while three soldiers were injured in Adampan area.

In Vavuniya, seven rebels were killed and one soldier was wounded in several battles.

In the Jaffna peninsula, three LTTE rebels were killed and one soldier was injured in two separated clashes.

The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that 104 soldiers and police officers were killed while 822 were wounded in February during the conflicts between government troops and the LTTE.

It also said 80 civilians were killed while 201 were injured in the conflicts.

The military said 871 LTTE rebels were killed in February, in addition to about 500 rebels killed in January.

Sri Lanka's security forces are currently engaging the rebels in the Northern Province with heavy artillery and mortar duels being reported regularly.

Having taken over the control of the Eastern Province last July, government leaders now vow to crush the Tamil Tigers from their last Northern Province bastion.

The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.

Source: reliefweb.int

IPTV finds Cable TV a threat to competition

By Ravindu Peiris

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) introduced to Sri Lanka by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is threatened by the competition offered by Cable TV and Satellite TV providers.

SLT Head of IP and Broadband Networks Division Priyankar Udugodage said that although they can offer IPTV for low prices the Cable TV providers such as Dialog TV are already providing such for low prices. "That is where the issue is, the Cable TV competitors" he said at the Cisco Media Offsite 2008. SLT which has already obtained the license for IPTV can offer it wherever DSL is offered.

A significant feature of IPTV according to Udugodage is that in IPTV the customers decide when to watch the programmes and not the broadcasters. "The copper lines which have been placed can bring high speed internet to your computers as well as DVD quality TV" he affirmed.

Udugodage moreover revealed that if it was not IPTV they could portray higher prices but because it is IPTV they can talk about offering it to customers at a very reasonable cost. He revealed that SLT Broadband is experiencing a 100 percent growth with 60,000 households opting for broadband in the island.

"Although we laid the fibre up to Jaffna it was disconnected but it has been spread even to Vavuniya and they are able to enjoy ADSL" he said.

He confirmed that in the next few years the networking and communication system will be imperative to the Sri Lankans like water and electricity as the network in this country is evolving to an IP standard. "In the future there would be one converged network for broadband be it wired or wireless. Now we have separate lines and fees for everything but in the future it would be only the IP Wide Area Network Broadband" he said.

He pointed out that in those days it was a mere public communication network with just the voice being broadcast.

However now it has transformed in the last 15 years going beyond voice and now offering various multimedia services. He noted that it was Cisco who pioneered the IP routers in Sri Lanka and also supported the SLT to enhance and develop the company's networks.

Source: Daily Mirror

Parappakandal under army control, 23 killed in Lanka clashes

Sri Lankan army on Thursday brought the entire town suburb of Parappakandal in Mannar district under its control even as 22 rebels and a soldier died in clashes in other parts of the embattled Northern region of the country, the army said on Thursday.

"Parappakandal, one of the major town suburbs to the north of Uyilankulam, was completely brought under the troops this morning, giving another severe setback and humiliation to the Tiger militants who had kept the area under siege," an official statement said.

Troops earlier had the control over south of Parappakandal for a long time but the north of the suburban town was under LTTE domination, it said.

"Today's capture of the whole of Parappakandal marks a turning point since the area has been of strategic importance to the troops," the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

Troops are consolidating their position, it said, adding causalities are yet to be reported.

There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE.

In another incident, five rebels and an army officer were killed in clashes at Mantota in Mannar, the MCNS said.

Separately, the army recovered bodies of a male and female rebels today during search operations in Pallaikuli area of Mannar, it said.

While three militants were killed in Andankulam in North-east Welioya, 11 rebels were killed in two separate incidents at Karumpaikulam and Periyapandivirchchan areas of Vavuniya on Wednesday, the MCNS said.

A rebel was killed in Nochchikulam in Vavuniya on Wednesday, it said.

Source: hindu

Sri Lanka accused of creating crisis

Sri Lankan government forces were accused Thursday of causing a national crisis through widespread abductions and "disappearances."

Human Rights Watch, in a 241-page report, urged the government to reveal the whereabouts of the "disappeared," immediately stop the practice and hold those responsible accountable.

The group called also for the establishment of a U.N. human rights monitoring mission to investigate the reported incidents.

Since major fighting between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam resumed in 2006, Sri Lankan security forces and pro-government armed groups have caused "disappearances" or abducted hundreds of individuals, many of whom are feared dead, the report said.

Most of the victims are ethnic Tamils, although Muslims and Sinhalese have also been targeted. In many cases, the security forces reportedly grabbed individuals because of their alleged affiliation with the Tigers Human Rights Watch said. Clergy, educators, humanitarian aid workers and journalists also were said to be targeted.

Source: UPI

Bhagwati-led intl panel terminates operation in Lanka

An Indian-led international panel of experts, constituted to monitor a Sri Lankan government commission probing human rights abuses, today decided to wind up its operations in the island nation, citing limitations to its functioning.

The 11-member International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), headed by former Indian Chief Justice P N Bhagwati, was tasked with observing the functioning of the Commission and commenting on transparency of its investigations and inquiries.

"The IIGEP has decided that it will terminate its operation in Sri Lanka," a statement by the group said, adding the step had been taken after due consideration and for fundamental reasons.

Besides Bhagwati, the IIGEP included experts and professionals from Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, France, the Netherlands and the US as well as the European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in November 2006 had appointed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into 16 incidents of alleged serious violations of human rights that took place in the island country since August 1, 2005. He subsequently invited 11 persons of international repute to form the IIGEP.

Source: PTI

Sri Lankan MP killed in mine blast

A Sri Lankan Tamil lawmaker has been killed in a roadside bomb attack as Colombo faced fresh criticism over its rights record.

A vehicle carrying Kiddinan Sivanesan, 51, a legislator from the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance, was hit by a mine 35 kilometers (21 miles) north of the frontline post of Omanthai in a guerrilla-controlled part of the island.

"The government knew Sivanesan was crossing the Omanthai checkpoint and returning to his home after attending parliament," fellow lawmaker Mavai Senathirajah said.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the attack, which also killed the driver, was carried out by a "deep penetration unit" of the Sri Lankan army.

The defense ministry has reported that security forces have killed at least 1,837 rebels in 2008. The ministry out the government forces death toll at 107. Three Sri Lankan lawmakers have also been killed this year.

The latest violence came as the island's government was accused of being behind hundreds of "disappearances."

Tens of thousands have died since separatist Tamil Tiger rebels began fighting the Sri Lankan government more than three decades ago.

Source: www.presstv.ir