Fr. Karunaratnam and the blame-game

The Sri Lanka army flatly denies the killing of Rev. Fr. M.X. Karunaratnam today. The location of his death is on the Mallavi-Vavunikulam road in Mullaithivu District, which is 30kms from the SLA FDL.

The LTTE has on previous such assassinations claimed that the SLA makes random attacks on its targets in LTTE areas. On Sunday, 06 January 2008, 01:20 GMT, Tamilnet.com claimed that "Col. Charles, Head of Liberation Tigers Military Intelligence, was killed Saturday evening in a random Claymore attack by Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit in Pa'l'lamadu in Mannaar, LTTE sources in Vanni said."

Rev. Fr. Karunaratnam's killing does not, in any way, seem random. His vehicle had broken down midway his journey and had been towed when the roadside bomb (IED) went off around 12.30pm. This clearly indicates the assassins were aware of his journey, planned it then delayed it until his vehicle was towed to the location of the ambush.

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http://defencewire.blogspot.com/2008/04/fr-karunaratnam-and-blame-game.html

EU pressuring Sri Lanka to relent on campaign against LTTE

Sri Lanka’s ongoing military campaign against the LTTE faces stronger objections from the European Union (EU), rather than India, though both are being heavily lobbied by elements sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger rebels, says a top official in the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

“India is too big a power to yield to pressures from a small terrorist group, but the European Union is seeing the Tamils as underdogs persecuted by the Sinhalese majority. There are statements from EU governments and groups calling for talks and an end to the military operations,” the official told this website’s newspaper on condition of anonymity.

“The EU is overlooking the fact that a majority of the Tamils in the island (54 percent) are living in south Sri Lanka, in perfect harmony with the Sinhalese, instead of fleeing to their so-called homeland in the north and east,” he said here on Saturday.

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http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?

Does Priyanka's meeting with Nalini send a subtle message to LTTE?

Ms Priyanka Vadra's sensational meeting with Nalini, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has unwittingly brought to the fore, yet another dimension with larger political implications.

Political circles feel that the hush-hush meeting that took place on March 19 at the Vellore central prison, where Nalini is lodged, was meant to send a subtle message to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The meeting was a symbolic event for the Tamil Tigers to ponder over shedding their residual hatred, they might have towards the Gandhi family, both political and legal circles feel.

Nalini, the ninth accused in the case and the only living person, who had accompanied the squad, which had assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the night of May 21, 1991, had been sentenced to death.

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http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp

Sri Lankan Army sharpshooter to take part in Beijing Olympics

A Sri Lankan Army sharpshooter, who has been a veteran in several battles with Tamil Tiger rebels, has been selected to compete in the Beijing Olympics in August, a local newspaper said on Sunday.

Sunday Island, one of the major English newspapers in Sri Lanka, said Staff Sgt. E. M. Senananayake of the Sinha Regiment excelled in the Free-Style (Open) Pistol Shooting competition at the 11th Asian Shooting Tournament in Kuwait last year.

Senananayke will compete with the world's best marksmen in his favorite events at the Olympics.

A veteran in army operations in the north and east, Senanayake who joined the Army in 1990 and underwent training at the Minneriya Infantry Training Cent was posted to the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment in 1990.

Unlike many other sportsmen and women who had joined services for benefits, S enanayake had faced the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in the battlefield in the north and proved his capabilities as a soldier before he was recognized for his sharp shooting abilities.

Extracted from,
http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/

More foreign jobs for LTTE surrendees

The Foreign Employment and Promotion Ministry has broadened its vocational training programs in the Northern and Eastern Districts from May 1 to grant more foreign employment opportunities to LTTE surrendees.

It has been reported that over 60 LTTE cadres have so far surrendered to three rehabilitation centres, set up by the Security Forces in Jaffna, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.

The centres are operated with the assistance of the ICRC, UNICEF and other local government agencies.

Training programs such as sewing for female LTTE surrendees and motor mechanism, carpentry, plumbing and wiring for male surrendees will be conducted by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) under the guidance of the Presidential Secretariat.

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http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/04/20/new03.asp

Why Priyanka’s Vellore visit is not personal

Trying to gain public sympathy over private grief is a temptation too strong to resist for many political families. Today’s young voters, who are sought to be wooed by the yuvraj in the dynasty-controlled Congress party, need to know of the time in November 1984 when Doordarshan, then the sole TV channel in India, was cynically exploited to serve as the most effective election campaigner for Rajiv Gandhi.

DD almost completely blacked out the massacre of 3,000 innocent Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, but its non-stop beaming of the image of a grieving young man, until then unsullied by any political controversy, beside the body of his assassinated mother, was enough to create a sympathy wave so powerful that Rajiv, a greenhorn in politics, won more seats for the Congress in the Lok Sabha than even his mother or grandfather.

As L.K. Advani has described in his recently released autobiography, My Country, My Life, it was not a Lok Sabha election but a ‘Shok Sabha’ election, whose outcome was so abnormal that the BJP could win only two seats. How Rajiv frittered away the huge mandate, and how one of the biggest blunders of his premiership — sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka to fight the LTTE — ultimately claimed his own life, is, of course, another matter.

Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka Vadra recently visited Nalini Sriharan, now serving a life-term in Vellore Central Prison for her role in his assassination in May 1991. “Meeting with Nalini was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

As the daughter of India’s former prime minister who became the victim of a terrorist act, she and the other members of her family naturally had the sympathy of the nation. And if it indeed was “a purely personal visit”, as Priyanka has claimed, it can even be viewed as an admirable act of human bonding that transcends a terrible tragedy, a reminder that time is the greatest healer in all tragedies.

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http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/299101.html

Why Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was assassinated? Reveals Pro-LTTE Weekly

Creating a niche in Sri Lanka’s politics by presenting himself as a leader of a minority community and mixing his religion , Roman Catholicism with politics with ambitions to become the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka as a close confidante of the President is one of the main reasons former Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was assassinated says, a pro-LTTE weekly printed in Canada and distributed all over Europe.

TheParaparappu, the pro-LTTE political and Tamil language weekly distributed widely among expatriate Tamil communities in Canada, Britain, Switzerland, Australia, France, Nederland, Norway, Demark and Germany says in its cover story that undoubtedly he was the closest man to the President and was keeping his eyes on the chair of the Prime Minister.

Ethnically belonging to a Tamil group who mingles well with the Sinhalese, Fernandopulle a church going Roman Catholic excelled in his public relations with Buddhist temples in his electorate so well that at least one temple is named after him. A report said, before the LTTE suicide blast that killed him, “ he had his breakfast at the near by Buddhist temple after visiting the chief monk Venerable Alubovila Dhammarathana. Subsequently he also visited the Fernandopulle Asapuwa, named after him.”

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http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10647

Weerawansa gets security boost

Controversy rigged former Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) strongman Wimal Weerawansa, who is now residing in an undisclosed location, has been given a security boost by the government.

Reports claimed that Weerawansa had shifted houses owing to security concerns.
“Only his close confidants are aware of his exact location now,” sources said.
“Weerawansa, his wife and their children have all shifted to a safer place,” the sources said.

Weerawansa was reportedly residing in Nugegoda before moving to the secret relocation, although his Parliamentary records state that he was re siding in Malabe.
Several other JVP Parliamentarians, now in the Weerawansa camp have also been given a security boost, it is learnt.

Extracted from,
http://www.nation.lk/2008/04/20/news12.htm

Sri Lanka Marxist party says government is behind the internal rift of JVP

Sri Lanka's Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government was behind the conspiracy in creating an internal rift in the party.

JVP Secretary Tilvin Silva had told media that “It is Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government who is behind this. They wanted to put the JVP in their pocket for their own benefit.”

Quoting Mr. Silva, media reports said that however, instead of joining the government for a few ministerial portfolios, the JVP presented a set of policies consisting of 20 proposals.

Through the ousted party member Wimal Weerawansa, the government attempted to drive the JVP according to their own preferences, in a way that would not pose a threat to them. After using Wimal to know of the JVP’s plans, they sought to act accordingly, he said.

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http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/April19151013JV.html

Agreement reached on power plant site in Sri Lanka

India has finally agreed to locate the 500 MW coal-based thermal plant of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in Sampur town in Trincomalee district.

The town was wrested by the Sri Lanka military from the LTTE in September 2006,

According to reliable sources, the decision was conveyed by New Delhi to the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Though India and Sri Lanka signed an agreement in December 2006, there was no unanimity between the two sides on the exact location of the plant.

Sri Lanka identified Sampur as a possible location, though an NTPC team preferred a site near the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) oil complex, close to Trincomalee harbour.

The move locate the power plant at Sampur triggered a controversy with the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance raising political and environmental objections.

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http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/20/stories/2008042055430800.htm