Govt ready to shelter civilians fleeing Wanni battle

As fighting intensifies and the security forces move forward in the Wanni to capture the LTTE’s heartland, the government said it was fully geared to provide facilities for an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 civilians trapped in uncleared areas.

Despite food and medicine going into the hands of the LTTE, the government will continue to supply essential food items for civilians in the Wanni.

Government Agents of Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar have been instructed by the Senior Advisor MP Basil Rajapaksa and Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasinghe to prepare an assessment to expedite the humanitarian assistance for those who flee uncleared areas.

Over 12,000 civilians who fled uncleared areas during the past two months have been provided with all basic facilities.

The Wanni Security Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Jagath Jayasooriya said that arrangements had been made to provide facilities for civilians fleeing uncleared areas and the sites to set up new IDP centres had been already earmarked.

“We have instructed the GAs to inform civilians that the security forces are moving into the Wanni and asked them to abandon the uncleared areas as facilities have been arranged to welcome them”, he said.

He said that there would not be a food crisis in the Wanni as the government sent all essential food items through GAs, NGOs and INGOs.

“The GAs have confirmed that there is no scarcity of food whatsoever in these areas”, he said.

Maj. Gen. Jayasooriya said that civilians who come to government controlled areas would initially be sheltered in schools and religious places while they would be provided all basic facilities and housed in IDP centres to be set up soon. “We have facilities to accommodate all new IDPs”, he said.

Read more,
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/08/17/pol01.asp

Cheap Kills

The LTTE is losing the support of expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils. Even in India, where the Tamils originally came from, more and more LTTE operatives are being hunted down and arrested. In the last two years, India has arrested 55 LTTE operatives. In the last week, key members of a gunrunning operation were arrested. In Europe, there are now public demonstrations against the LTTE, something that would have been impossible a few years ago, because LTTE enforcers were present to punish those Tamils who were "unpatriotic."

The casualties have been low this year (a few hundred dead and wounded a week), but consistently in favor of the army (about ten LTTE dead for each government one). Every week, the LTTE loses ground. Three years ago, the LTTE controlled over fifteen percent of Sri Lanka, now they have only about six percent (4,000 square kilometers). The Tamil population in this area numbers about 200,000 (a little over one percent of the national population).

The government continues to allow food and other supplies to pass into LTTE controlled territory, as it always has, and the LTTE tries to force civilians to move with them when the army advances into LTTE territory.

Read more,
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/srilank/articles/20080810.aspx

“Cut off NGOs’ aid to LTTE”

Sri Lanka on Thursday reasserted there was no question of holdings talks or declare a ceasefire unless the LTTE lays down its weapons and demonstrates its genuine interest to negotiate.

Minister and spokesperson Keheliya Rembukwella said at a news conference “rumours” were spread during the recent SAARC Summit that security forces had halted the offensive in the north. “There is not an iota of truth in these rumours. As a matter of policy, the government is determined to weaken the LTTE militarily.” He claimed the police and security forces were engaged in a “humanitarian mission with a great determination to liberate Kilinochchi and Mullathivu...”

“The government has taken a policy decision to continue this humanitarian mission until all the innocent Tamil civilians are liberated from the LTTE. Till that [goal is achieved], the government will never go for negotiations or accept the conditions put forward by the terrorists,” he said.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara claimed the forces are advancing into the LTTE’s remaining strongholds in the north. In multiple assaults on LTTE strongholds, at least 10 LTTE cadre and one soldier were killed, and 36 Tigers injured. Separately, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said “denying LTTE access to INGO [International NGO] and NGO material” is a critical element in Sri Lanka’s efforts to destroy the group. In an interview to an English daily, he referred to concerns over the “use of heavy vehicles belonging to the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) by the LTTE for terror activities.”

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080856891500.htm

Probe INGOs with terror links

It is thanks to help from foreign governments and their INGO tentacles that the LTTE has evolved into a formidable terrorist group. Since the LTTE severed its umbilical cord with Mother India, several 'responsible' members of the world community have come forward to keep it going, while feigning abhorrence of its terror. But for their assistance, the outfit may not have been able to raise funds to finance its terrorism in this country.

Now, we hear that the UN has confirmed that the assets of a Norwegian INGO operating in the Wanni have got into the LTTE's hands. It is claimed that the LTTE has commandeered nine heavy vehicles belonging to the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) to fortify its defences in view of the on-going military offensives. The LTTE is busy digging trenches to prevent the army from advancing.

Why didn't the NPA report the seizure by the LTTE of its assets to the Ministry of Defence immediately afterwards? It is unthinkable that the LTTE will ever use force against a Norwegian INGO and seize its vehicles, given its strong ties with Norway.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/08/01/editorial.html

Norwegian explanation raises more questions than answers

The explanation of the notorious Norwegian aid group NPA regarding its heavy equipment and vehicles being used by the Tamil Tigers has given rise to some more questions about their credibility than answers , analysts in Colombo said.

The aid group, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) with a controversial past of receiving allegations of aiding an African insurgency with arms and ammunition has denied it has also given heavy equipment and vehicles to the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) engaged in war and terrorism with the government of Sri Lanka.
According to the Norwegian national news agency NTB, the heavy earth moving equipment and other vehicles now allegedly used by the terrorist group for terrorist and military activities were not given to the LTTE but were stolen by the terrorist group.

Norwegian People's Aid secretary general Petter Eide rejected the allegations, saying 'the trucks were stolen,' Norwegian news agency NTB said in Oslo.

Norwegian television documentary and a Sudanese government record show the Norwegian government used NPA to air drop arms and ammunition to a Sudanese insurgency together with humanitarian aid in the 1990’s.
The controversial use of Norwegian People’s Aid property only came to light only after the Ministry of Defense website revealed the fact and never before that either head quarters of the notorious aid group in Oslo or their counterpart in the LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi had reported the stealing of the property to the government of Sri Lanka letters of the aid group show.

Read more,
http://www.sinhalaya.com/news/english/wmview.php?ArtID=15617

Is it all that important to be seated on the UN Human Rights Council? USA & Israel doesn’t think so – why should Sri Lanka?

Desmond Tutu must be happy, so too must be Adolfo Perez Esquivel & former President Carter & perhaps many more of the human rights activists & NGOs that set in motion an international propaganda to project Sri Lanka as a nation in the grips of anarchy & urged member nations to reject Sri Lanka’s attempt to secure a re-election to the 47 member UN Human Rights Council.

But is this seat all that important? Why is the US & Israel not a member of it since they voted against the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council on 15th March 2006 & why did Venezuela abstain from voting citing that certain paragraphs paved the way for intervention in the internal affairs of States.

There are likely to be many interpretations of the denial of Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council, of course in the world of diplomacy it may be considered a slap to the Sri Lankan Government & possibly a jolt to its ego internationally but then considering the countries that have secured election purely by the structure of the Council, it becomes questionable whether Sri Lanka should feel disheartened at all.

Sri Lanka presently being accused of atrocious human rights abuses must feel quite content for being omitted from a seat in view of the members having to uphold highest standards in the promotion & protection of “human rights” not to mention being subject to periodic review.

Read more,
http://www.sinhalaya.com/news/english/wmview.php?ArtID=15330

Dethroned for violations or...?

Sri Lanka has lost its seat in the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) due mainly to a disrespecting of the world system, arrogance, complete lack of counter propaganda against LTTE and bungling and rantings by a group of theoreticians and technocrats.

International norms dealing with torture, disappearances, and political killings have emerged due mainly to the atrocities committed elsewhere. Human Rights groups, pioneered by the work of Amnesty International have used fact finding, consensus building, principled norm construction, norm application etc paving the way for HR standards and measures broadly described as 'principled norm emergence'.

In times of war, the principle Jus in Bello (Justice in War) is said to apply to regulate the conduct of military forces. The rules of warfare aim to safeguard human life and some other fundamental Human Rights, and to ensure that war is limited in its scope and level of violence. It is the premise that combatants have voluntarily forfeited some of their rights whilst civilians have not and carry at all times the full rights under the UN Charter.

Although international law suggests that the inhabitants of non-occupied territory, who take up arms on the approach of the enemy and resist the invading troops, even if they have not had time to organize themselves, count as armed forces, a guerrilla or insurgent force fighting mostly without uniforms are miles apart and cannot be easily distinguished from unarmed civilians.

Read more,
http://defencewire.blogspot.com/2008/05/dethroned-for-violations-or.html

Gota to UN: Check LTTE infiltration

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday called for stringent measures to prevent the LTTE from using what he called UN cover to mount operations in the South.

As troops step up pressure on the LTTE on four fronts in the Vanni theatre, the enemy would resort to hit and run attacks in the South, he said, a UN employee apprehended south of Vavuniya could have been on a special mission to destabilise the the souther parts of the country.

"There is no option but to take all precautions to thwart the LTTE’s plan," the Defence Secretary told The Island yesterday asserting the enemy wouldn’t hesitate to manipulate the UN or any other foreign NGO to achieve its targets.

HE said the government wanted all agencies to immediately scrutinise their local employees as there could be LTTE agents on their payroll. "I have repeatedly warned of the LTTE taking refuge in NGOs and using their cover to facilitate clandestine operations but unfortunately they turned a blind eye," he said. He said last Wednesday’s arrest of a Kilinochchi-based LTTE assassin on the payroll of the UN must prompt a thorough investigation.

The Defence Secretary said the on-going UN investigation targeting the suspect Thiagaraja Prabhakaran, a resident of Batticaloa would reveal the real extent of the LTTE infiltration of the organisation. Police took him into custody at Iratteperiyakulam, south of Vavuniya on Wednesday afternoon.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/05/05/news1.html

UNOCHA & several INGOs to recue LTTE from impending defeat

Several UNOCHA (United Nations Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs) representatives have been asked to team up with a few INGOs infiltrated by LTTE agents to carry out a smear campaign against Sri Lanka and its Security Forces.

According to information received by ‘Lankatruth’ LTTE terrorists in two recent meetings with UNOCHA representatives in Kilinochchi and Batticaloa have asked the UN Body to undertake false propaganda against Sri Lanka and its Security Forces stating several INGOs would support such a project.

The LTTE leaders had a meeting with UN officials on 7th April in Kilinochchi and another such meeting in Batticaloa assuring the support of Care (UK), Oxfam (UK), Norwegian Peoples Aid, Norwegian Refugee Council, Forut (EU), MSF (EU), Save the Children (USA & Canada) and World Vision (USA & Canada) for the UNOHA to carry out the ‘project.’

Read more,
http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php?

'There is no military solution': Go tell that to NATO

I might also add "Go tell that to President Sarkozy of France" for, he will be sending additional French troops to Afganistan soon! Every conflict has a solution however long it takes. That end, is the very end of the conflict itself.

The World wars, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese war against Cambodia's Pol Pot, the Peruvian war against the Sandanista did have the end of defeat for the enemy and was followed by the restoration of peace.

Why prevent Sri Lanka from following a similar course especially when the government, the majority of citizens and the soldiers are yearning for the defeat the LTTE and the dawn of peace in the country?

Can our NGO bosses justify the invasion of northern Iraq by Turkey, a member of NATO, with NATO supplied arms and kill Kurds if there was no military solution to their problems?

If there is no military solution why is NATO fighting in Afganistan even after Al Queda extended an invitation to talk peace?

If there is no military solution why are the allied forces fighting in Iraq at enormous cost in men, material and money?

It is not a matter of friendly war games in these two countries. It is of paramount importance to kill as well as debilitate the perceived enemy before he kills others. It is, also propelled by the desire to impose a solution economically and politically favourable to the invaders of both Afganistan and Iraq. We saw this starkly illustrated in Kosovo.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/04/03/features4.html

Rama Mani, NGOs, and Foreign Relations

The main focus of this article is on the external aspect of the Rama Mani case, more specifically on the damage that it can do to our foreign relations. But it is relevant for my purposes to begin with a brief observation on its internal aspect.

Reportedly Ms Mani had received a letter dismissing her with immediate effect from the post of Director at the ICES. Apparently no opportunity was given to her to defend herself against any charges prior to the issue of that letter, which can therefore be taken as outraging the norms of natural justice. However, she was reinstated in her post by a further letter and asked to continue for the full term for which she had contracted.

Worth emphasising is that she had received strong support from the ICES staff, who had given her a grand send-off even though it was known that she was being ordered out of the country by the Government.

There is in humanity a deep love of justice. There is also in humanity a deep love of injustice. Otherwise we cannot explain why injustices are committed all over the world practically all the time, and at the same time injustices are corrected.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/02/25/features5.html

The R2P controversy

One event that made front page news last week was the expulsion of Dr Rama Mani the executive director of ICES from the country following an internal crisis within the organization.The faction opposed to Dr Mani had leaked to the press an e-mail written by her to the International Crisis Group wanting to become the local representative to promote the doctrine of 'responsibility to protect' (R2P for short).

That email basically sealed the fate of Dr Mani because no government can possibly ignore an international NGO which seeks to promote foreign intervention in that country. This talk of a responsibility to protect first came up in this country at last year's Neelan Tiruchelvam memorial lecture which was delivered by Gareth Evans, a former Australian politician turned international NGO operative.

According to the website of the International Crisis Group (ICG), which advocates the responsibility to protect, the right to protect concept arose because of the incidents that occurred in Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo.

The first thing to note is that Sri Lanka is not a Kosovo, Rwanda or a Bosnia where a majority community seeks to eliminate a minority through mass killings; a fact which Gareth Evans, the head of the ICG himself has admitted.

What we have here is a counter-insurgency operation against a terrorist outfit that has been listed as a terrorist group by the USA, Canada, India, Australia, and the EU. This year, the FBI categorized the LTTE as the most dangerous and efficient terrorist organization in the world, ahead of even the Al Qaeda - the main bugbear of the west.

Read more,
http://www.island.lk/2008/02/10/politics3.html

Some NGOs providing assistance to LTTE: Sri Lankan PM

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has warned that some NGO activists were assisting the LTTE to save the outfit from defeat.

The Tiger militants are being blamed for the recent spate of attacks on civilians in Sri Lanka on the eve of the Diamond Jubilee Independence Day celebrations of the country.

While the US' FBI had named the LTTE as one of the most dangerous terrorist organisations, there were some elements in the country, including NGOs, that had attempted to supply the Tamil Tigers with highly nutritious food and bullet proof suits to save it from defeat, he said.

Wickramanayake, speaking in Parliament on the motion to extend the State of Emergency in the country for another one month, yesterday said the Tigers are now mainly confined to the small jungle area in the north.

Read more,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/

ICES boss Dr. Rama Mani to be deported

Sri Lanka's Immigration and Emigration Authorities have withdrawn the residential visa issued to Dr. Rama Mani, Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo and ordered her to leave Sri Lanka before Thursday Feb.7.

This follows her unwarranted interference in Sri Lanka's national security matters as revealed in a CID report forwarded to the Government.

An attempt made by a former government official, who closely associated with the LTTE, to prevent Dr. Mani – an Indian National now a French citizen – from being ordered to leave the country has failed.

Read more,
http://www.sinhala.net/LocalNews/SinhalaNet_Full_News.asp?ID=3016#NewsViewBM

INGO/NGO BLOOD-SUCKERS & THEIR DILEMMA

A Joint-Statement titled " Abrogation of Ceasefire Agreement Will Escalate Spiral of Violence" has been published in the English & Sinhala newspapers on 28th & 29th January 2008.(quote): "The government's decision to abrogate the Norwegian-facilitated Ceasefire Agreement(CFA) signed with the LTTE in 2002 is a matter of grave concern to the undersigned civil society organizations."(end quote)

Who may these "civil society organizations" be? They are: Association of War Affected Women; Centre for Society and Religion; Centre for Human Rights and Development, Colombo; Centre for Women and Development-Jaffna; Christian Alliance for Social Action; Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies; Equal Grounds, Sri Lanka; INFORM; Home for Human Rights, Colombo; Human Development Organization, Kandy; International Centre for Ethnic Studies; International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism; Law & Society Trust; Mothers & Daughters of Lanka; Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy; Muslim Information Centre Sri Lanka; Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum; National Peace Council; Rights Now Collective for Democracy; SETIK, Kandy; Women and Media Collective.

Read more,
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/310108-5.html

BUTTALA BUS BLAST – TRIBUTE TO RANIL’S CFA FINALE

On the final day of the ignominious CFA the terrorists murdered 27 innocent civilians and wounded around 67 persons in the Buttala claymore mine blast. Although the United States have condemned this brutal massacre of the terrorist outfit, the Videshapriya media dogs, and NGO vultures who cry foul for everything that affects or disadvantages the terrorist outfit and talk vociferously about humanitarian values and call for respect of innocent civilian life remain totally silent and ignorant of this horrendous massacre as it had happened in some other planet.

If the terrorists and the enemies of the nation who earn their livelihood by helping the terrorists and terrorism to prevail in this country hope that this type of inhuman acts and massacres could frighten the masses or open up a communal backlash, they are utterly mistaken. Terrorists and their bootlickers should realize that the people are determined to eradicate terrorism from Sri Lanka and they would confront any and every obstacle in this historical melee daringly and fearlessly, without falling pray to their schemes and strategies.

At the time of the blast, around 7.40 a.m. on Wednesday (16th) the SLTB long chassied bus from Buttala to Okkampitiya is reported to have been carrying over 100 passengers including many school children. There are three school children and 13 women among the dead. The injured have been taken to Moneragala and Buttala hospitals and 5 patients on critical conditions have been airlifted to the National Hospital in Colombo.
Read more,
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/170108-2.html

Berghof chief asked to leave

Hot on the heels of SriLankan Airlines CEO Peter Hill being sent packing, the head of the controversial Swiss and German funded NGO, the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, had been asked to leave Sri Lanka by tomorrow, an immigration official said. He said Berghof director Norbert Ropers had been given about 20 days notice that his visa would not be renewed on security grounds.

Recently, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had made some critical statements against Berghof Foundation, the German based NGO, that came into the country to promote "good governance". The Sunday Times contacted the Defence Ministry several times to ask why Dr. Ropers was being asked to leave the country, but no clear answer was given.

Lakshman Hulugalla, chief of the Media Centre for National Security was contacted by us on Friday and he promised to explain the position yesterday but did not do so. Like the Foundation he headed, Dr. Ropers also had courted controversy. In May this year he was pulled up by the Parliamentary Select Committee probing activities of NGOs for failing to appear before the Committee despite having received three letters to do so.

Read more,
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071230/News/news0001.html

UNESCO's Matsuura -- latest broadcaster for Voice of Tigers

Before condemning the attack on the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio station – an instrument of glorifying terrorism which is forbidden under UN Security Council Resolution 1373 etc -- Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ), should have done his homework instead of being led by the nose of partisan NGOs in Colombo.

His staffers who drafted the statement too should have read the precedents set by UNESCO at the height of NATO bombing of Serbia.

Here are the precedents on which UNESCO was deaf, dumb and blind.

Report No:1 from CNN, May 12, 1999:

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said Sunday that eight radio relay sites and more than a dozen road and rail bridges were hit....

Read full article here,
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/8579

Free media or his master’s voice?

The free media movement and various INGO right organizations have been issuing press releases and statements against government’s intervene in preventing broadcast of Piribaharan’s birthday speech on BBC Sandeshaya Sinhala program.

Sri Lankan armed forces have engaged in full scale battle against the LTTE terrorists in the North and they are at the verge of the overall win after so much of sacrifice and commitment.

Good part of the war is fought in the mind of the troops and support of people and certainly security forces do not want to let their enemy leader’s psychological boosting growl being telecast in high time of the war.

Few hours before the self appointed terrorist supremo deliver his annual speech, the Kaffir and Mig fighter jets of Sri Lanka air force were able to successfully attack and flatten the Voice of Tiger (VOT) broadcasting center in Killinocchi.........

........However, MTV and Sirasa shamelessly came forward to act as Voice of Tiger (VoT) in the south and broadcast Piribaharan’s full speech in a hurry and also they made it their head lines in the prime time news bulletins.

Read the full article here,
http://lankarising.blogspot.com/2007/12/f

Hijacking 'Human rights' to trample others' rights

The tragedy of human rights today is that there is an army of professionals in NGOs and academia labouring to manufacture arguments in defence of terrorism, elevating it to a level higher than that of its victims.

Veteran Journalist and Asian Tribune Editorial Adviser H.L.D. Mahindapala made this observation yesterday (Nov. 29) delivering the D.A. Rajapaksa Commemorative Oration at the BMICH, Colombo today (Nov. 29).

He said:

"Every exploding point on the globe has become the happy hunting ground of these hired professionals in NGOs and academia who are skilled in blurring the lines of human rights. Armed with theories of human rights these professionals trot the globe professing to be holier-than-the state. But their morality is wearing thin because they are seen increasingly as hired agents serving political goals of the power-brokers in the West " .....

Read more,
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/8494