India to train Lankan soldiers

Even as it pushes Sri Lanka to renew political efforts towards resolving its bloody ethnic strife, India is virtually throwing open the doors of its different military institutions to train Sri Lankan soldiers.

In 2008-2009 alone, over 500 Sri Lankan officers and other ranks will receive training in institutions ranging from Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte (Mizoram) to School of Artillery at Devlali (Maharashtra), apart from undergoing specialised naval courses in gunnery, navigation, communication and anti-submarine warfare, say sources.

This comes even as India has also stepped up military supplies to Sri Lankan forces, even though they are "largely defensive" in nature, as reported first by TOI.

This twin-prolonged strategy of arms supplies and military training, coupled with intelligence sharing and "coordinated" naval patrolling, is primarily aimed to counter China's ever-growing strategic inroads into Sri Lanka.

In fact, the high-level delegation led by national security advisor M K Narayanan, which also included foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and defence secretary Vijay Singh, to Colombo 10 days ago expressed India's concern over Sri Lanka increasingly turning to China and Pakistan for weapons.

Though India has not gone ahead with a long-pending military pact with Sri Lanka due to domestic "Tamil sensitivities", it has reversed its earlier policy of not supplying arms to Colombo.

The arms transfer process, which really began with a Sukanya Class offshore patrol warship in 2002, has been speeded up in recent times, as has been the case with military training.

Though India trains soldiers from several countries, ranging from Maldives, Mauritius and Mongolia to Botswana, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the facilities extended to Sri Lanka are far ahead of others.

The premier Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, for instance, is running two "special courses" in 2008-2009 for as many as 100 "gentlemen cadets" from Sri Lanka.

Moreover, 39 Sri Lankan officers will undergo courses at College of Military Engineering at Pune, 15 in School of Artillery at Devlali, 29 in Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre at Ahmednagar, 25 in College of Materials Management at Jabalpur, 30 in Electronics and Mechanical Engineering School at Vadodara, 14 at Military College of Telecommunication Engineering at Mhow.

Source: times of india

Army will defeat LTTE in a year

Sri Lankan Army Chief on Monday claimed that the troops had wiped out the "conventional military capability" of the LTTE by inflicting heavy losses on the rebels through a changed strategy that focused on killing as many of them as possible rather than bother about mere territory. He said the Army would "completely" defeat the Tigers in about a year.

"From about the beginning of the year, the LTTE has lost its conventional capability. In less than one year, the LTTE will lose the present capability too," Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told foreign correspondents here. He said the rebels were no longer able to use conventional tactics to resist the advancing troops and were resorting increasingly to hit-and-run attacks.

Gen. Fonseka said for the first time in decades, the Army was working "to an overall military plan" that decimated the rebels like never before and reduced their numbers by over 9,000 since August 2006. In contrast, the Army had lost 1,700 soldiers in the last few years. "We do not just go for terrain, but we go for the kill. This is the difference between the military operations in the past and the present," he said, who had escaped an attempt on his life with injuries when a Tiger suicide bomber hit the army headquarters in April 2006, just four months after he assumed charge.

Source: howrah

6th Sri lankan die: Doha Fire

The death toll from last week's fire tragedy in the Al Asmakh area of Doha rose to six yesterday with one of the injured succumbing to his injuries.

Dulan Salika Rathnasiri, who was in a critical condition at the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of Hamad Hospital, passed away at 9am, Sri Lankan Coordinating Committee (SLCC) President Lenny Cramer informed The Peninsula.

The fire, in a two-storey building on Al Maymoun street, had claimed five lives on June 19.

The Sri Lankan community in Qatar held a religious ceremony at the Sri Lankan Embassy premises yesterday evening to pay its last respects to the six victims — all Sri Lankans — of the devastating fire.

A Tharmakulasingham, Charge d' Affaires at the Sri Lanka Embassy, and his wife Rohini Tharmakulasingham attended the ceremony, which was led by the Sri Lanka Daham Pasala. Sri Lankans of all faiths took part in the ceremony.

Prayers were also offered for the speedy recovery of another of the injured, Vijitha Aluthge, who is recuperating at the Burns Unit of the Rumaillah Hospital.

Source: thepeninsulaqatar

India, Sri Lanka set up a security group

India has set up a mechanism with Sri Lanka to establish contact on the security situation and other bilateral issues.

India and Sri Lanka have formed an informal mechanism to remain in regular touch on the security situation in the island nation as well as on bilateral issues, a foreign ministry official said Friday.

He said the three-member Indian group in the mechanism includes National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Defense Secretary Vijay Singh. The Sri Lankan team consists of the secretary to the president, the defense secretary and the political secretary to the president.

The Indian team had visited Colombo last week to meet the Sri Lankan group. Both sides held detailed discussions on the steps being taken by the authorities to ensure an incident-free South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit in August and other related matters. Sri Lanka will hold the crucial meeting of the SAARC, a body of South Asian nations, amid growing incidents of violence.

Notwithstanding repeated requests from Colombo urging New Delhi to help find a solution to its ethnic conflict, New Delhi has refused to intervene in the matter for domestic political reasons.

Source: metimes

Sri Lankan military says it has killed 49 rebels

Sri Lankan forces captured a Tamil Tiger supply center and bombed a rebel training base amid a surge in the island's civil war that killed 49 insurgents and two soldiers, the military said Friday.

"This shows that the soldiers are moving forward, gaining ground," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The army offensives are taking place in areas with a lot of rebel fighters, leading to the high death tolls, he said.

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

The government has vowed to crush the Tamil Tigers and capture the vast area controlled by the rebels by the end of this year.

In the latest fighting, troops seized a key supply base Thursday in the northern Vavuniya district that was used to replenish the Tamil Tigers' front line troops, Nanayakkara said.

The battle, as well as two other clashes in Vavuniya, killed 30 rebels, he said.

Other fighting Thursday along the front lines in the Mannar and Welioya regions bordering the rebels' de facto state in the north killed 19 rebels and two soldiers, he said.

The military said fighting over the past week has killed 180 rebels and 19 soldiers. Analysts accuse both sides of exaggerating enemy losses and underreporting their own casualties.

Meanwhile, air force fighter jets pounded a rebel training base Friday deep inside rebel territory, the army said. Nanayakkara did not provide details of damage or casualties, but said the pilots confirmed that the target was hit.

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

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

Source: AP

SriLankan to fly six times a week to Colombo from Doha

SriLankan Airlines yesterday announced it will be increasing its frequencies to Colombo out of Doha to six times a week with effect from July 15. The airline uses Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft on the route.

The flights will depart from Doha daily except Saturday. Three flights a week will be routed via Bahrain, Mohamed Fazeel, SriLankan Airlines Regional Manager (Middle East, Africa and CIS), said yesterday.

The increased frequencies can be attributed in part to the Sri Lankan government's moves to increase tourism from the GCC. A special promotion is also being offered where two children aged 12 and under will be allowed to fly free. Arrangements have been made with certain hotels in Sri Lanka as well as ground services like airport transfers to ensure the package is carried forward there, Fazeel said.

"We have confidence in this (Doha) market. This has been a profitable route for the airline in comparison to points like Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Muscat. Doha and Bahrain are the only routes on which we have increased frequencies," he said.

Bookings for the holiday package have to be completed by July 15 and the promotion runs until August 31. "We hope to attract more Qataris to Sri Lanka. This is the peak time for Arabs in the region to travel. If all goes well, we may even extend the promotion," said Fazeel.

Last year, 800 nationals visited Sri Lanka from Qatar and another 1,800 residents went to the island-nation last year. SriLankan is also touting its easy connections to destinations in the Far East, via Colombo, to points like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

The airline, like most others around the world, has been hit by the rising costs of jet fuel, forcing it to raise fares by 10 to 15 percent across the board. "We are trying to cut down costs but not in passenger-related areas. There has been staff cuts and e-ticketing has helped us reduces costs in printing tickets," said Fazeel.

Asked about whether Emirates would sell its 43 percent stake in Sri Lanka's national airline, Fazeel said it was up to the Dubai-based carrier to decide. Although Emirates continues to hold on to SriLankan shares, it has relinquished management control.

After Emirates gave up management control, rumours abounded about other carriers moving in to pick up Emirates' shares, including Qatar Airways, which firmly denied it had any interest. Other names mentioned include India's Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.

SriLankan operates a fleet of 14 all-Airbus aircraft. Although no acquisition of jets is planned, the airline is looking to 're-fleet' its Airbus A320 aircraft through leases of jets.

Source: thepeninsulaqatar

LTTE rebels sourcing explosives from India

Indian intelligence agencies said Sri Lanka's rebels are sourcing raw materials for explosives from two major Indian cities.

According to a senior Intelligence Bureau official, armed guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are sourcing raw materials for explosives and ammunition from Information Technology city Bangalore and industrial city Mumbai, previously called Bombay.

India's enforcement agencies seized an important commercial consignment of chemicals, which is used in making explosives, at Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu state last month. It was dispatched from Bangalore and was meant for delivery to the LTTE, who have been waging an armed battle against the island government demanding independence.

The consignment -- 500 kilograms (more than 1,100 pounds) of a variety of chemicals including diphenylamine sulfates, some chlorate salts and acids -- was seized minutes before it was to be offloaded at a transit point, the enforcement department said.

"The seized chemicals can be altered to make explosives. The consignment was marked commercial and was to be handed over to some locals and Sri Lankans, who were assigned with the task of smuggling it to Sri Lanka. "We have arrested some people and are investigating the case," said an official.

Source: upi

Torture endemic in Sri Lanka police-rights group

Torture has become endemic in Sri Lankan police stations and there seems to be no political will to stop it, an Asian human rights group said today.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said torture was standard procedure both in investigating ordinary crimes and as part of the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

The government said the allegations were baseless.

Despite thousands of complaints, the commission said the attorney general's office had only launched three prosecutions against alleged official torturers.

''Torture is a way of life at all police stations in Sri Lanka, whether the alleged crimes investigated are those relating to petty criminal offences, serious crimes or offences under the emergency and anti-terrorism laws,'' the commission said in a statement.

Rights watchdogs have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings blamed on government security forces and Tamil Tiger separatists since a bloody civil war, in which 70,000 people have died since 1983, resumed in 2006.

The commission also said investigations into torture were being politically prevented to protect Sri Lanka's human rights record, and that the lack of political will to eradicate torture affected the entire administration of justice.

International observers quit the island earlier this year, saying a probe into a string of high-profile killings, including the massacre of 17 local aid staff in 2006, was going nowhere.

The UN Human Rights Council has called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of the security forces.

Fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerrillas has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.

The Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island, have hit back with a campaign of suicide attacks.

Source: deepikaglobal

31 LTTE cadres, two soldiers killed in Lanka clashes

At least 31 LTTE cadres and two soldiers were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region where army captured a portion of the rebel-held territory, officials in Colombo said on Wednesday.

As many as ten LTTE cadres were killed in confrontations with security forces as troops brought under their control areas in Mullikkandal, Minnaniranchan and Marattikannadi in Mannar region, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

The army also said it had captured three square kms of area in north of Adampan in Mannar.

Another three Tiger rebels were killed in two different confrontations in Periyamadu in Vavuniya yesterday, the MCNS said.

While three rebels were shot dead in Nedunkandal in Mannar, two others were killed in Anandakulam in the region, the military said.

Two LTTE cadres were killed in Sirimullikulam in Mannar yesterday, the MCNS said, adding another rebel was gunned down in Weerapirayan area in the region.

At least three LTTE cadres were shot dead and 18 others injured in different incidents in Kiriibanwewa in northeast Welioya, the military said.

Separately, troops killed seven rebels and injured nine in confrontations in Welioya, the MCNS said, adding two soldiers also lost their lives.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry said at least 20 civilians fled from the LTTE-held areas in Mullaithivue and Malayanwadu and reached a Sri Lankan army point seeking protection.

"Security forces personnel have provided all the necessities for the escapees and steps have already been taken by the government officials to provide safe shelter for them," it said.

Source: hindustantimes

Karunanidhi, Vaiko protest attacks on Indian fishermen

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing concern over the Sri Lankan navy repeatedly opening fire on Indian fishermen in the waters between the two countries. A copy of his letter was given to the media here by the chief minister’s office.

In his letter, Karunanidhi urged the union government to ensure that the “rights and privileges of the Indian fishermen to carry on their normal occupation of fishing in the waters of Katchatheevu (an island in Palk Strait)) must be recognised and restored”.

Reminding the government of the 1974 and 1976 agreements between India and Sri Lanka, Karunanidhi said, “Fishermen were allowed to dry their nets in Katchatheevu but were prohibited from fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters around Katchatheevu following executive instructions”, which, he pointed out “did not flow from the two agreements”.

“…they were executive instructions and cannot supersede the provisions of the legally valid agreement entered into by the two countries”, Karunanidhi said.

The executive orders have caused a great deal of hardship to Indian fishermen over the years as their “traditional rights” in Katchatheevu have been denied them.

“Time and again our fishermen have been arrested, attacked and shot dead in these waters. Each one of these incidents has shocked the people of the state and rocked the legislative assembly,” the note said.

“I urge the Government of India to take necessary steps to protect the precious lives of Indian fishermen and also to ensure their livelihood,” Karunanidhi said in his letter.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko too wrote to the prime minister Tuesday, urging him to boycott the forthcoming SAARC meeting in Sri Lanka because of the attacks on ethnic Tamils in the neighbouring country.

Source: thaindian