LTTE ready for talks if Lankan govt halts attacks

The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka have expressed readiness to hold talks with the government in Colombo if it halted the military operations against them, but warned that the offer should not be seen as "any desperation" on their part to stop the war.

"The LTTE is prepared to commence negotiations with the Sri Lankan government if the government security forces are ordered to halt their military operations. It was the government which started the war," the LTTE political head P Nadesan told a group of Parliamentarians from the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Wanni recently.

"The offer of the LTTE for a ceasefire and talks should not be construed as any desperation on our (LTTE) part to stop the war. The ball is in the Sri Lankan government's court. It was they who started the armed attack," Nadesan was quoted as saying by Suresh Premachandran, a TNA MP from Jaffna District who was present at the meeting.

Nadesan had held lengthy discussions with the 13 TNA MPs who had gathered for the funeral of their colleague K Sivanesan, who was killed in a roadside bomb attack on March 6 in Wanni.

"The (LTTE) political chief Nadesan said the LTTE can reciprocate if the Sri Lankan government offers a ceasefire but if they want to continue with the attack, the LTTE is fully prepared for it," Premachandran said.

Source: Times Of India

Sri Lanka Military: Fighting Kills 30

Suspected separatist Tamil rebels killed a police officer and a soldier in separate attacks in northern Sri Lanka on Sunday, the military said, taking the death toll from two days of violence to 30.

Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed a motorized rickshaw with a roadside bomb in Vavuniya district, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the military said in a statement.

Also Sunday, guerrillas shot dead a police officer in northern Mannar district, the statement said.

Seven other soldiers and 21 Tamil rebels have been killed in clashes across Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Welioya regions since late Friday, the military said.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.

However, the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said the rebels beat back advancing troops Friday on three fronts in Mannar and Welioya regions, killing 22 soldiers.

It was not possible to obtain independent accounts of the battles because reporters have been barred from the war zone. Each side routinely exaggerates the other's casualty figures while underreporting its own.

The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by governments controlled by majority Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Source: AP via GOOGLE

Anura Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka's famous political dynasty dies at 59

Anura Bandaranaike, a former Sri Lankan foreign minister and member of the country's famous Bandaranaike political dynasty, died Sunday after an illness, a government spokesman said. He was 59.

Both his parents and his sister led Sri Lanka, but Bandaranaike's own political ambitions were frustrated by political battles within his family.

Bandaranaike was first elected to parliament in 1977 and served as minister of higher education, speaker of parliament and opposition leader, but he was never able to rise to the highest office in this Indian Ocean island nation.

He died Sunday, said government spokesman Anusha Pelpita.

Bandaranaike was appointed foreign minister after his predecessor Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated in 2005. He lost the post in a Cabinet reshuffle a few months later, however.

Just a few months before his death, Bandaranaike quit the Cabinet and joined the opposition over differences with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Bandaranaike's father, Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, founded the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and served as prime minister from 1956 until his assassination three years later. His mother took office soon after her husband's killing and ruled for a total of 12 years.

His mother chose his sister, Chandrika Kumaratunga, as her political heir instead of him and she ruled the country from 1994 to 2005.

Sunethra, the eldest Bandaranaike sibling, did not take part in politics.

Bandaranaike was born on Feb. 15, 1949.

Source: IHT

Groups of LTTE sympathisers exist in TN, Kerala

Small groups of people who sympathise with Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers exist in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said on Sunday.

"We have reports about pockets in both these states helping the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). The state intelligence agencies and the Intelligence Bureau are working on this information," Narayanan told reporters here.

Early this month, the Tamil Nadu police seized a boat from a boatyard in Kerala that was being manufactured for the LTTE

Source: sify.com

Ahmadinejad to visit Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan official sources declared the Iranian president is to trip to the country in April.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also slated to scrutinize projects which are to be carried out by the two countries.

Iran has agreed to fund projects worth about 1.9 billion dollars in Sri Lanka following the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa tour to Tehran in November 2007, Sri Lankan official sources said.

Source: isna.ir

Sri Lankan military says 5 Tamil rebels, 3 soldiers killed in fighting in the north

Clashes in Sri Lanka's embattled north killed five Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers, while air force jets bombed a rebel training camp, the military said Saturday.

The combatants were killed Friday in four separate clashes in the Jaffna, Mannar and Welioya regions, the military said in a statement.

On Saturday, fighter jets bombed a rebel training camp near their de facto capital of Kilinochchi, the statement said. It did not give details on any damage or casualties.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.

It was not possible to obtain independent accounts of the battles because reporters have been barred from the war zone. Each side often exaggerates the other's casualty figures while underreporting its own.

Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state in the island's north and east for ethnic minority Tamils who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Source: IHT

Rebels Reeling From High Losses

The pace of combat has increased, with over a thousand weekly casualties, most of them on the rebel side. The government believes it has killed over 2,000 LTTE fighters so far this year, while losing fewer than 200 military personnel. This rate of loss by the LTTE, along with lost fortifications, weapons and territory, indicates that LTTE control of the north will not last much longer. Unless, of course, the LTTE can put together one of the surprise offensive operations they have used in the past, to push back government forces.


Another sign of LTTE desperation is the selling of stolen cars, to raise badly needed cash. In the past, LTTE operatives had stolen cars and trucks in government territory, then moved them north or east into LTTE territory. But the situation is so desperate in the north, including fuel shortages, that these stolen vehicles are being driven south and sold.


March 11, 2008: A bomb went off in the capital, killing one and wounding six. The LTTE was suspected, as they have been notably more active lately in trying to carry out terrorist attacks in government territory.


March 10, 2008: For the first time in 14 years, elections were held in eastern Sri Lanka. As expected, former LTTE members, who had led a rebellion against the mainline LTTE leadership, won in the predominately Tamil area.


March 6, 2008: For a year now, the government has been negotiating the purchase of five MiG-29 jet fighters, for about $15 million each. Some legislators believe this purchase involves bribes, although the price is a bit below what MiG-29s are going for these days. The MiG-29 is sought because its radar can pick up small aircraft flying close to the ground. This is the kind of air force the LTTE still has, and the MiG-29 is the kind of aircraft that can deal with this threat. However, it has been nearly a year since the LTTE has sought to use these small, single engine commercial aircraft in an attack. The LTTE "air force" may well have been destroyed in one of the increasing number of attacks the air force has been making on rebel targets.


Source: strategypage.com

Sri Lankan state TV employees on work stoppage

The employees of Sri Lanka's state television Rupavahini said Friday that they have stopped work after one of their colleagues was attacked Friday morning on his way to work.

Anurasiri Hettige, an assistant director and the president of the staff union, was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital with neck cuts, the hospital Director Hector Weerasinghe said.

Hettige became the fifth Rupavahini employee to be under attack since Dec. 27, 2007 when Deputy Minister of Labor Mervyn Silva stormed the television station premises to attack a news editor.

The irate employees assaulted Silva leaving him in hospital following his attacks on the news editor.

Reports said that Silva attacked the news editor because the state television failed to broadcast his speech.

The employees alleged that Silva's men were responsible for all five attacks against their colleagues.

They said that the station transmission will carry on as usual despite the work stoppage but with pre-recorded programs.

Source: xinhuanet.com

Hearing set for alleged Tamil Tiger conspirator

A Malton man charged in connection with a North American network that police allege provides weapons and other materials to a terrorist group in Sri Lanka has had a date set for his extradition hearing.
According to Justice Canada officials, Ramanan Mylvaganam, 30, will appear June 10 before a Federal Court judge as American authorities attempt to have him brought to the U.S. to face charges. Mylvaganam is expected to fight extradition.
Mylvaganam was arrested by RCMP on Aug. 22, 2006 at his Derry Rd. E. apartment. He was picked up on a provisional warrant at the request of U.S. authorities. One month later, he was granted bail.
"This whole ordeal has been a total shock to my family, especially my mother; she can't stop crying," Mylvaganam's brother, Raghu, said in an earlier interview.
Mylvaganam and four other Ontario men have been charged with one count each of conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Tamil Tigers, a political/military organization that has been waging war with the government of Sri Lanka since the 1970s. The group is trying to secure a separate state for the Tamil regions of the country.
In April 2006, the Tigers were added to Canada's official list of terrorist organizations.
In total, 12 men have been charged in the joint FBI-RCMP investigation into the alleged criminal organization.
The sweep also included arrests in Buffalo, San Jose, Seattle and Connecticut.
Mylvaganam, a computer engineering student at University of Waterloo, came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1992. He served as vice-president of the university's Tamil Students Association in 2004.
According to his brother, Mylvaganam was supposed to start a job at Microsoft's international headquarters in Redmond, Washington in late 2006. But those plans were put on hold when he was arrested, his brother said.
U.S. prosecutors say the arrests are in relation to a network in which men in Canada and the U.S. allegedly used their post-secondary studies as a cover for terrorist activities.
Officials say the group kept in contact with top Tamil Tiger operatives in Sri Lanka and the United States. It tried to obtain equipment such as compasses, computers and night-vision goggles for the Sri Lankan group, but also had bigger plans that included the purchase of aviation equipment, according to American prosecutors.

Source: mississauganews.com

Stop Indian military aid to Sri Lanka: PMK

The PMK, an ally of Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, Thursday demanded a halt to all Indian military aid to Sri Lanka following the “genocide” of Tamil people in the island nation. “India should ensure this genocide stops, and halt all military aid to the Sinhalese chauvinist regime in Sri Lanka which has directed its entire strength in a barbaric manner against the Tamil race in the island,” Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss said here at a meeting to express solidarity with the minority in the neighbouring country.

“The Lankan navy is mercilessly mowing down innocent Indian Tamil fishermen in the Palk Strait. To effectively combat this, our central government must reclaim the Kachchatheevu atoll without any delay,” Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan said at the meeting.

The islet situated in the narrow expanse of water between India and Sri Lanka was ceded to Sri Lanka in the mid-1970s.

Addressing another function, Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police P. Rajendiran said: “Everybody is talking about the increased activity of the (Liberation) Tigers (of Tamil Eelam) in Tamil Nadu. Anyone pointing them out to me would be welcome.”

“Everyone knows how many smuggling craft have been seized at sea by our Coast Guard. Further, our vigil on the shoreline has been considerably increased,” he added.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland since the late 1970s in northern Sri Lanka. Over 70,000 people have perished in the civil war so far. A ceasefire agreement with the LTTE in January 2002 was abrogated by the Sri Lankan regime in January this year.

Source: thaindian.com