UN to seek security steps before sending relief to Sri Lanka

A major UN food convoy carrying essentials for the internally displaced people in Sri Lanka's restive north was forced to turn back due to fresh fighting between security forces and LTTE in the region, prompting the world body to halt the supplies till the warring sides assure it of security.

The UN will seek renewed security assurances from both sides before attempting to make the route again, the world body's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne, said here after the convoy was forced to return.

The convoy the second to be dispatched in as many weeks had been headed for the northern Wanni in a bid to reach an estimated 230,000 civilians displaced behind the lines of confrontation in the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.

The World Food Programme (WFP) convoy was carrying 750 tonnes of food in 50 trucks when it left the town of Vavuniya on Thursday afternoon and was expected to reach its destination by the evening.

Intensified clashes between the military and LTTE in recent weeks have displaced tens of thousands of people and sparked warnings from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other UN officials about the humanitarian impact on civilians.

According to the officials, the UN convoy loaded with essential food items had crossed the Omanthai entry/exit point but had come under the LTTE artillery fire and a claymore mine attack and had to turn back to Vavuniya.

Officials said the Tiger cadres fired "indiscriminately" at the food convoy meant for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The lorries were carrying a large stock of medicine and essential items such as rice and sugar, officials said adding 18 other food lorries will be sent to civilians living in IDP centres in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

Five of the 18 vehicles will be distributing essential food items coordinating with relevant authorities in Mullaitivu district while the remainder will be distributed in Kilinochchi district.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of Essential Services S B Divaratne submitted a report to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the ongoing operations to supply foods to Wanni.

The report states that the government has been able to continue provision of sufficient food stocks to civilians in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts effectively "despite non- cooperation of some international aid agencies," state-run Daily News said.

"Further, the report recalls that it is the government of Sri Lanka that has been providing food to terror-stricken areas during last 20 years and ... this has been carried out with the utmost commitment to protect its own citizens but not to satisfy any international agency," it said.

Source: Hindu

Human chain protest against Sri Lankan ‘atrocities’

Signalling that he would not be satisfied with expression of concern and wanted some concrete action, Tamil Nadu chief minister Mr M Karunanidhi today announced a human chain protest to press for stopping military aid to the island nation and drastic steps for ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

With AIADMK supremo Ms Jayalalithaa putting further pressure on the DMK by describing the all-party meet as a drama, the chief minister said that the human chain protest would be held in Chennai on 21 October, after consulting the leaders of parties who attended the all-party meet on 14 October. The agitation would demand the fulfilment of the demands including sending food and medicine to the displaced Tamil population through the International Red Cross Society and ending the firing of Sri Lankan navy on Tamil Nadu fishermen. It would be a massive protest expressing the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, since people from all the districts would participate, he added.

Ms Jayalalithaa, meanwhile, said that stopping the training being provided to the Sri Lankan military in India and saving the civilian population was the major concern now and alleged that Mr Karunanidhi was doing nothing about it.
The DMK chief’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Ms Kanimozhi opted to resign first and gave the letter to Mr Karunanidhi, in line with the resolution of the all-party meeting.

Meanwhile, lawyers boycotted the courts throughout the state and conducted rallies in their districts as well as the capital. In Chennai, the lawyers of Madras High Court and other sessions courts took out a rally condemning the “Tamils’ genocide”. Mr VKR Bernardshaw, one of the young lawyers organising the protest, said that they had submitted a petition to the Governor’s office, demanding that the Centre should stop its military assistance to the island nation. The lawyers would boycott courts tommorrow also and observe a fast, he said.

“If the Centre can interfere in the Sri Lankan conflict and assist the island military through funds, personnel, radars, training and intelligence, they can certainly use that influence to effect a ceasefire and save the Tamil population. If they did not want to interfere in another country’s affairs, why did they rush to assist the island nation in the genocidal war? Why should Indian technocrats labour for another country’s war and suffer injuries?” he asked.
CPI state secretary Mr D Pandian today asked the police not to use force against the students who are boycotting classes and burning effigies of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. He charged that 16 college students had been injured in lathi charge by the police in Sholinganallur near Chennai. School students also joined protests by college students in many parts of Tamil Nadu yesterday.
The traders had postponed their bandh to 31 October, in view of the two-week ultimatum given by the parties in Tamil Nadu. Film artistes would hold a separate protest in Chennai on 1 November, as all of them would not be able to participate in the protests in Rameswaram.

DMK MPs resign from Rajya Sabha

Three MPs of Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) have today submitted their resignation from the Rajya Sabha to the party President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai.

The three MPs - Siva, A A Jinnah and Vasanthi Stanley - have resigned following resolution adopted at an all party meeting stating that all MPs from the state would resign if the centre does not intervene and workout a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks.

Earlier, the MP Kanimozhi had also submitted her resignation to the DMK President.

Meanwhile, all the seven DMK ministers in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government are expected to submit their resignation letters to Karunanidhi on Friday to mount pressure on the government.

According to reports, a senior Tamil Nadu minister said that the seven ministers Cabinet Ministers T R Baalu and A Raja, and Ministers of State S S Palanimanickam, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, S Regupathy, K Venkatapathy and Radhika Selvi would hand over post-dated letters addressed to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to Karunanidhi for quitting their parliamentary seats.

On October 14, at an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu, convened by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the Centre was served an ultimatum on the Sri Lankan Tamil problem and warned that all MPs from the state would resign en masse, if the government failed to halt the war in the island nation within two weeks.

In the strongest ever message from a key ally of the UPA regime, the DMK and other parties demanded that India halt all military aid to Sri Lanka, take steps to halt Colombo”’’s military offensive to ensure the return of peace, and come forward to despatch humanitarian aid.

Source: thaindian

Reliance Big TV launched

Reliance Big TV has launched its Direct-to-Home (DTH) services on Tuesday.

Reliance Big TV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, which has now entered in the home entertainment field.

The service would be available on the latest MPEG4 Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform with high picture quality.

Available in 6,500 towns, the DTH service will initially broadcast over 200 channels with digital quality picture and sound.

The CEO of Reliance Big TV, Arun Kapoor said the service will benefit more than 120 million TV households of India. The DTH service will enable users to view high quality pictures and other entertainment stuff. The introduction of DTH by reliance will further increase the competition in already existing media players. Tata Sky, Dish TV, Sun Direct and DD Direct are already providing DTH services in India.

The number of customers is expected to grow to 60 million by 2012. The company is expected to invest 40 per cent share of this market at the end of 12 months. Reliance has started a new call center to handle over 50,000 calls daily. It will provide services in 11 Indian regional languages. The company has equipped with itself to provide 15,000 connections daily within 48-72 hours. The company will sell set top box with Rs. 1490 with three months subscription offer.

Source: topnews

Sri Lanka troops kill 42 rebels in northern battles

Sri Lankan troops killed 42 Tamil Tiger guerrillas in two days of fighting in the north of the island, the military said on Wednesday, pressing on with an offensive against rebel strongholds.

Government jets also bombed a Sea Tiger base in the northern rebel held district of Mullaitivu, destroying two boats.

There was no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils. Independent confirmation of battlefield casualties is not possible, and analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses while playing down their own.

"Troops attacked LTTE forward defence line in Muhamalai in seven directions this morning," said a spokesman at the Media Center for National Security. "Monitoring of rebel communications confirmed five LTTE terrorists were killed and 25 others were wounded in the confrontation."

On Tuesday, troops killed 37 rebels in fighting in the northern region. The army lost four soldiers.

Sri Lanka's government is pursuing a strategy to gradually retake the Tiger's northern stronghold and win the 25-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

Last week the government said troops had entered Kilinochchi district where the rebels' de facto capital by the same name is located.

Source: Reuters

Two more members of LTTE's procurement module held

Two more Sri Lankan nationals, part of an LTTE procurement module, have been taken into custody by the police which recovered some explosive materials from them.

The two were secured on suspicion from the Tirumangalam area after a tip-off, said the Q Branch Police which deals with extremist organisations.

Police recovered a few spark plugs and some potassium nitrate used in explosives from the duo who were staying in a rented house in Tirumangalam.

The capture of the two on Tuesday night is the latest in a series of arrests of LTTE cadres, including its procurement wing chief Thambianna alias Daniel, and Sri Lankan nationals besides local associates in the past few weeks.

A Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, Selvakumar, was arrested from suburban Keelkattalai area on Tuesday evening on charges of trying to supply electronic and communication gadgets to the LTTE.

Police recovered nine internet phone adaptors from a room in Kelambakkam area where he was staying.

Source: Hindu

80 Indian fishermen assaulted by Lankan navy

About 80 fishermen from Tamil Nadu were allegedly assaulted by the Sri Lankan navy in the Palk Straits in the early hours on Thursday, officials here said.

The incident occurred even as political parties in the state staged protests during the past few weeks, demanding that the Centre take up the recurring incidents with the island nation and provide adequate security to fishermen.

Quoting the fishermen, the officials said about 80 of them, sailing in 20 boats, were assaulted with clubs while they were fishing around Katchathivu island, which was ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974.

Many fishermen had to abandon their boats and jump into the sea to escape the assault. They stayed afloat for more than one hour, then got back into their boats and returned to shore.

The ruling DMK and many other political parties, including AIADMK, CPI and MDMK had held protests over the incidents.

In a statement, AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa said she would move the Supreme Court, challenging the validity of ceding Katchathivu, an uninhabited island in the Palk Straits, to Sri Lanka by India.

For its part, the Sri Lankan government has been denying that its Navy has a hand in the incidents and blamed the LTTE for the attacks.

Source: sify

SAARC meeting begins, crackdown on dogs

A meeting of officials of South Asian countries began here on Sunday, after an unprecedented crackdown on stray dogs ahead of the SAARC summit early next month.

A foreign ministry official said that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) commenced its meeting, with Sri Lanka taking the chair from India.

Grace Asirwatham, director general of SAARC and the foreign ministry's South Asia wing, took charge of the 33rd session of the Programming Committee from Indian joint secretary Kheya Battachariya, the official said.

The Sunday meeting of the officials will be followed by a meeting of the council of ministers July 31 and Aug 1.

Heads of state and government from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will gather at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) Aug 2-3 to thrash out agreements on various regional issues, mainly in the spheres of trade, education, cultural and tourism.

The government has deployed 19,000 additional security personnel to provide security cover for visiting leaders and their delegations in the capital of 650,000 people.

The hotels where the VIPs will stay, the convention centre and the roads leading to these venues have been declared high security zones. Shuttle buses will be used to ferry passengers going to these areas.

Meanwhile, local authorities have unleashed a major crackdown on stray dogs in the vicinity of the summit venue. One official said the foreign ministry wants a "dog free zone".

On Saturday, Colombo Municipal Council workers, acting on a request from Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, rounded up stray dogs.

"This is not in view of the security but to keep the venue clean," a foreign ministry official said.
A local official said 24 dogs had been taken to the dog pound. The dogs would be released in the same area after the summit.

"It’s a difficult task to catch street dogs. Even if we remove all in one area, more dogs come there. But for now we are doing our best to take away the ones roaming near the summit venue,” an official said.

Source: indiatimes

Terrorism expected to be high on agenda of SAARC summit

In the backdrop of attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and upsurge of violence in Sri Lanka, terrorism is expected to be high on the agenda of the upcoming SAARC Summit in Colombo.

The two-day Summit from August 2, which will be preceded by official and ministerial level meetings beginning tomorrow, will also deliberate on food security, energy security and connectivity.

The SAARC meet will discuss how to deal with the scourge of terrorism that is affecting several of the eight member countries, particularly India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Besides these countries, SAARC also comprises Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan.

The meet will seek to formalise a regional Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in Criminal Matters as a tool to check terrorism through cooperation in investigation and other aspects.

India has been pressing for the legal framework, particularly in the wake of the July 7 Kabul attack which has trans-national linkages.

The regional MLAT was discussed at the last Summit held in New Delhi in April last year but it could not be finalised because of opposition by Pakistan to the extradition clause.

The Summit will also deliberate on the issues of food and energy security in view of the increasing prices of eatables and fuels.

The upcoming Summit is expected to see progress on the proposal for setting up of a SAARC Food Bank aimed at meeting the requirements of the member countries in the times of need.

The Summit will also deliberate on continued implementation of the connectivity, the theme of the last meet.

Source: outlookindia

Sri Lanka's worsening human rights could hit economy -EU

Sri Lanka's failure to address human rights concerns, including a "frightening" number of abductions, could cost the island nation a lucrative trade concession, the European Union said on Friday.

Concluding a visit to the island nation, an EU delegation for South Asia relations said that the Sri Lankan government needed to do more to address rights abuses.

Human rights groups have said around 150 people, most of them ethnic Tamils, were abducted in the first half of this year, most from the capital Colombo.

"The European parliament delegation urges the government of Sri Lanka, as a top priority, to organise investigations into these cases," the delegation said in a statement, describing the number of abductions as "frightening".

"The widespread belief that the military and police enjoy impunity does nothing to set ordinary people at ease and may even fuel the LTTE," it said, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who are fighting for a separate state for ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.

Rights groups 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 government has admitted there are rights abuses and has said it is doing its best to address them.

The trade concession, called the GSP+ scheme, expires in December. It helped Sri Lanka net a record $2.9 billion from EU markets last year, or 37.5 percent of total export income.

"The European Parliament delegation remains extremely anxious about the impact a possible loss of GSP+ status would have on the economy and employment in Sri Lanka," the EU statement said.

Sri Lanka was one of 15 countries granted GSP+ concessions in 2005 to help it recover from the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The island's garment and textile industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of largely rural poor, would be hard hit if the special trade terms were axed.

The European Commission said last month it would withhold a 70 million-euro aid package unless Sri Lanka removed barriers to humanitarian assistance.

Source: reuters