India reconfiguring its military policy toward Sri Lanka

India's renewed focus on relations with Sri Lanka appears to be a course of action designed to strengthen Indo-Sri Lankan ties due to an expanding Chinese presence in the South Asia region.

The country is reconfiguring its military policy toward Sri Lanka and is exhibiting a more supportive stance toward the government's efforts against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In March, India invited Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka to visit and tour Indian operations along the India-Pakistan border. The Sri Lankan general also met with Indian Army General Deepak Kapoor as well as Defense Minister AK Antony, and there was discussion on security measures to eradicate terrorism as well as talks on possible cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.

The visit promoted India's anti-insurgency capabilities while highlighting the common themes and culture that the two militaries share.

Fonseka also visited with India's Lieutenant-General KS Yadava, commander of the Indian Infantry School and both leaders shared information on new warfare strategies. Prior to his departure, Fonseka visited with Sri Lankan Army Officers involved in training at India's Army War College in Madhya Pradesh.

Due primarily to reported human rights violations and a large and supportive Tamil population within its own borders, the Indian government has refrained from directly supporting the Sri Lankan military with offensive weapons systems for use against the LTTE. Instead, it has chosen to provide Sri Lanka with certain defensive military capabilities such as critical intelligence information and radar systems for use in detecting LTTE aircraft.

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http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=18942

LTTE breakaway party should not be forced back to the jungles, say Sri Lankan ministers

Several ministers of the Sri Lanka government said today that the Pilliyan group, a LTTE breakaway party that "came out of the jungle", must not be forced back into the jungle.

Speaking at a press briefing at the parliamentary complex today, a group of senior government ministers said that the allegations leveled against the Pilliyan group are false and fabricated by the United National Party (UNP) to justify its “inevitable” electoral defeat.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said that the two victims of election-related murders that have been reported so far were also Pilliyan supporters. Therefore, he said it was not the Pilliyan group that committed violence but was subjected to violence. He added that the election itself is a great victory for the government.

Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa charged the UNP with setting up a bogus election-monitoring mission to spread fallacy on election violations. He alleged that the said group, which is comprised of fulltime UNP supporters, is trying to hoodwink the world as an independent group and is engaging in false propaganda.

Extracted from,
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/May6191928JR.html

Voters lists 'most disturbing' items seized in Tamil raids, documents say

Precisely how Elections Canada voters lists ended up in the offices of an alleged terrorist front group is a lingering mystery that Canadian officials say they will likely never solve. But privacy officials now say they are auditing federal practises with an eye to plugging such leaks.

An RCMP affidavit revealed this week in Federal Court states that federal voters lists were among the "most disturbing" items seized in raids on the World Tamil Movement's Toronto offices in 2006. Police said the lists were the type that are sent to federal candidates and ministers for elections, and yet they turned up in the office of the non-profit group, the surnames of ethnic Tamils highlighted in yellow.

Such lists were once publicly posted, but they are now distributed only to Elections Canada officials and candidates' campaigns. They are released expressly to help advance Canadian democracy, and misusing them is an offence under the Elections Act that can lead to a $1,000 fine or three months in jail.

The RCMP investigation seeks to prove the non-profit was a fundraising arm for foreign rebels who have been known to use child soldiers and suicide bombers in their bid for a separate state in Sri Lanka.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080507.wxtamilssb07/

LTTE forced Canadian Tamils to sign pre-payment forms

Canadian police have seized documents showing Tamil Tigers leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran soliciting money from Tamils here for his armed struggle in Sri Lanka.

The documents, seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in raids on the offices of the World Tamil Movement in Toronto and Montreal, show a 2002 letter by Prabhakaran, asking Tamils in Canada to send him 15 of the ``100 crore'' rupees he needs for his armed struggle. Fifteen crore Sri Lankan rupees is equal to about three million Canadian dollars.

The World Tamil Movement (WTM) is the alleged front organization in Canada for raising funds for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE).

Apart from coercing the local Tamils to pay it, the WTM (read the PTTE) also made Canadian Tamils visiting the LTTE-held territory in Sri Lanka to sign pre-payment forms.

The WTM first came under the scanner in 2002. After a long probe, its offices were raided in 2006. The police also raided its Toronto and Montreal offices last month after a Toronto-based Tamil Prapaharan Thambithurai was held in Vancouver for raising funds for the LTTE.

The RCMP produced the seized documents in a federal court seeking forfeiture of the WTM's funds and assets as it raised funds for terrorist financing which was banned in Canada in 2001.

The documents, which made public Friday, show that the WTM serves as a foreign branch of the LTTE for raising money for it.

Listing how the WTM raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and sent them abroad for buying weapons for the LTTE, the police also revealed its modus operandi.

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http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=77058

wanni oparation 04.05.2008

Source,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fs2z4FmYXw

RCMP has 'definitive evidence' of group's links to Tamil Tiger

The RCMP has uncovered what it calls "definitive evidence" that money collected in Canada is bankrolling guerrilla violence in Sri Lanka, according to newly-unsealed police documents.

Tuesday, Crown prosecutors handed defence lawyers hundreds of pages of documents and photos outlining the results of an RCMP investigation into alleged Tamil Tigers fundraising around Toronto.

Included among the papers was a letter seized from the Toronto office of the World Tamil Movement. Written by a senior Tamil Tigers official, the letter is a thank-you for earlier donations it says were "invaluable in retaining our military strength."

"Every cent you gathered by going house to house enabled us [to] defeat the enemy in the battlefield, and we look up on you with gratitude," says the letter, on Tamil Tigers letterhead and signed by V. Manivannan, who heads the rebel group's International Secretariat.

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http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=496633