Sri Lankan police impose curfew on Muslim town after 5 killed

Police imposed a curfew on a predominantly Muslim town in eastern Sri Lanka on Thursday after five people died in retaliatory killings.

Police spokesman N.K. Ilangakoon said the violence started when two men from a pro-government ethnic Tamil militia were shot to death in eastern Kattankudy town.

Later, men believed to be from the militia stormed the town and killed two Muslims and wounded four others, Ilangakoon said.

Police declared a curfew to prevent more violence, he said.

However, Dr. K. Murugananthan of the government hospital in nearby Batticaloa town said there were five bodies — three of them Muslims — in the morgue.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/22/asia/AS-GEN-Sri-Lanka-Violence.php

Political crisis in Lanka's Eastern Province ends

The political crisis in the newly-established Eastern Provincial Council ended on Thursday, when the dissident Muslim leader, MLA M Hisbullah, joined the government as Minister of Health, Youth and Women’s Affairs.

Hisbullah had threatened to walk out of the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) with two other councilors and reduce the government to a minority, if he was not made Chief Minister after the UPFA won the provincial elections on May 10.

But the head of the UPFA, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, stood firm on his decision to appoint TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, as the CM in order to help solve the long-standing Tamil problem.

Hisbullah was willing to reconsider his threat if he was offered important portfolios like Health, Education and Land, but Rajapaksa offered only Health and stuck to his stand. It is believed that Muslim religious leaders urged Hisbullah to accept the President’s offer and not precipitate a Muslim-Tamil communal problem.

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

LTTE accused of continuing to recruit child soldiers

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit and use children, despite repeated commitments not to do so, a global report on child soldiers released on Tuesday (May 20) said.

Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 published by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, a non governmental organization based in London, UK said that the LTTE, which had recruited under-age fighters for many years, pledged on June 18 2007 to rid its ranks of all under-18s by the end of 2007.

Despite the pledges LTTE had not committed to the full release of children under 18, it said.

“The LTTE consistently denied that it knowingly recruited children and it claimed that children sought to join by disguising their age. However, there is overwhelming evidence of recruitment, often forced, throughout areas under LTTE control as well as from government-controlled areas in the north and east.

The recruitment of children typically followed a pattern of increased recruitment during the season of temple festivals and a fall during periods of international condemnation,” the report noted.

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http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/May2242537JV.html

SLT upgrades bandwidth, announces IPVPN system for schools

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has upgraded its international internet backbone network, which now has 2.2Gbps of international IP broadband capacity, and plans to upgrade to 3.5Gbps or more within a year, the company said in a statement. SLT claims that its ISP unit SLTnet has a 60% share of the country’s residential and business internet user market.

In another announcement, SLT says that its IPVPN solutions will connect schools island-wide to a new IP network, named SchoolNet, providing voice, video, broadband internet access, other network services and web hosting. A total of 1,100 schools are to be connected under the first phase of the project, with 5,000 schools to be on the network by 2010.

SchoolNet has been designed as a secure and fully managed system. SLT’s IPVPN technology will allow all establishments to access a centralised IT network at any given time, which will enable them to communicate with a Network Operations Centre (NOC), located at the University of Moratuwa.

Extracted from,
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=23237

Desmond Tutu criticised by Church of England cleric for his comments on Sri Lanka

A well-respected Church of England priest and a British citizen told Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a hard hitting letter that it was matter for utmost regret that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) described as the “the most evil terrorist organization in the world” was possible to secure the Archbishop’s apparent support to denigrate Sri Lanka.

Rev. Tony de Alwis of the Church of England Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham replying about Tutu’s alleged campaign against the re-election of Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council of the UN told the Archbishop that his action has become “a matter of the utmost regret that such an organization has found it possible to secure Your Grace’s apparent support in its unrelenting propaganda campaign to denigrate Sri Lanka on the international stage.”

Rev. De Alwis, an avowed campaigner against terrorism all over the world said that it had been a significant coup for the terrorists to be enabled to proclaim support for their demented cause from someone of the Archbishop’s undoubted stature and moral authority in the world.

So, he wondered in his letter whether Archbishop Tutu received information from independent sources or his sole source is the “very active cabal of supporters of this criminal organization, the LTTE, in South Africa. He said the unbalanced and unfair nature of his purported comments point to the latter. “If that is the case,” Rev. Alwis said, “then I wonder whether Your Grace would be open to learning the truth about Sri Lanka’s terrorist problem from less biased sources.”

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http://www.sinhalaya.com/news/english/wmview.php?ArtID=15311

Nobel Prize Winners misled by LTTE sympathisers

Three Nobel prize winners, in a coordinated act, has issued a statement regarding electing Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council. The timing has left the friends of Sri Lanka with very little or no time to respond. I have seen the response of some, to the views expressed by the Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu. The comments are as follows:

How can a person who fought against racism and imperialism support Tamil racism and expansion ?

Another asked the following valid questions, which are relevant to all three Nobel Nobel laureates.

* What are the grounds and facts on which you make this claim. Are your information first hand, second hand, third or otherwise?
* Who are your informers in Sri Lanka ? Or do you have your sources in distant lands ?
* Are these sources ( here or abroad) remote- controlled by hidden hands or hidden and spotted tails ? Clearly if the secondary source of data is incorrect, corrupt or deliberate lies then the receiver of this incorrect data would come to incorrect deductions.

If the citizens of Sri Lanka are worried by the manner in which GoSL deals with human rights, they have a mechanism to get rid of the government. The recent election victory showed that even in the areas controlled by LTTE until recently, the Tamil people elected the Government lead coalition party. This surely must say something. Even the Tamil people have confidence in the Government lead coalition.

The most serious threat to human rights come from terrorists who have taken away the basic human right of right life of many innocent civilians. Sri Lanka is fighting for survival, against a vicious terrorist organisation that is carrying out an undeclared war.

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http://www.spur.asn.au/BS_20080520_Noble_Prize_winners_misled_by_the_LTTE_sympathisers.htm

Two more LTTE cadres arrested in Paris

French police detained two leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who evaded arrest last year and fled the country when police closed in on them during the major round up of top Tigers operating in Paris.

The Sous-Directorate Anti-Terrorism (SDAT) of France announced that two leading LTTE activists Subramanium Muhundan and Yogarasa Sivarasan were apprehended in Paris on May 13 after investigations lasting several months.

Muhundan and Sivarasan were the head of the LTTE political and finance since the arrest of 26 LTTE cadres including top most leaders of all the divisions of the terrorist organisation in April 01, 2007. After preliminary investigations, 11 were released but the top 14 leaders were remanded without bail. The detained include LTTE's French leader Nadaraja Mathinatharan alias Parithi and the Political Leader Aravindan Thuraiswamy alias Metha.

At that time, several LTTE cadres including Muhundan and Sivarasan crossed over to neighbouring countries through open border points.

After the arrest of the top two leaders, the LTTE appointed Stalin Sarvarimuthu alias Ranjan and Ravi Manikkam alias Utha Ravi to the top two posts. But within months, the SDAT arrested them together with three others taking the total LTTE detainees to 19.

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http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/05/22/sec01.asp

JVP’s branch in Japan ceases funding, more to follow "May have to rob petrol sheds again"

The JVP yesterday received a heavy blow to its fund raising on the international front as its branch in Japan, which had poured in billions of rupees, severed all connections with the party over the ousting of Wimal Weerawansa and ten other MPs along with a large number of party members.

"Our comrades in Japan had directed all money they earned to the party fund. They were under orders to send their pay-packets home and were allowed only to keep a meager sum for subsistence. We funded all elections except for the recent polls to the Eastern Provincial Council.

Other than this the Japanese branch had loaned a large sum of money on various occasions at the request of party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe. Not a cent of the loans was repaid and we did not even request that the loans be repaid as we were clear about our priorities. Now we understand that our sacrifices had been misused," organiser of the JVP’s Japan Branch Saman Priyankara said in a letter addressed to JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva.

He said party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe had come under the grip of several top rankers acting like frogs in the well and he had mixed up the party’s priorities and had commenced to silence dissent against it.

"The leader of the party should have acted prudently and respected the opinion of the majority within the politburo and central committee. Instead he gave into several front liners. The end result was a major split in the party resulting in the loss of eleven MPs including Wimal Weerawansa, a large number of provincial and local government level representatives and full timers in almost all districts."

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http://www.island.lk/2008/05/22/news1.html

Sri Lanka to launch its own satellite

Sri Lanka will launch its own first satellite in the near future, an official told the media.

Director General of the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Priyantha Kariyaperuma said a group of local engineers has already gone to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) based in Geneva for registration purposes. “The satellite would be named after science fiction guru, the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke,” he said.

He said the TRC is planning to launch a satellite network within the next two years, though no timeframe has been fixed for the project.

Extracted from,
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/May21151559JV.html