AUSTRALIAN LTTE FRONT TO SCREEN A FILM TO PROMOTE SUICIDE TERRORISM

A Brisbane front organization of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will be screening a documentary film promoting suicide terrorism in the Australian city, the Brisbane Activist Center has announced.

The center announced, “This fascinating documentary is an exceedingly rare, inside look at an organization that most of the world has blacklisted as a terrorist group.”
Made by the Norwegians , who are extremely sympathetic to the LTTE , the film has been described a strong argument for the suicide terrorism, which has been condemned flatly in the other parts of the world.

Entitled ,”My Daughter the Terrorist” the documentary film justifies the existence of the suicide terrorists called “Black Tigers” and is accused of telling one sided story about the most feared walking bombs whose most famous victim had been India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was killed by a woman suicide bomber at a place called Siriperumbudur, in the outskirts of the Tamil nadu city of Chennai.

Many suicide bombers have been found to be former child soldiers who had been kidnapped or taken without the will of their parents from their homes and schools, human rights activists have accused. The desolate children then eventually will be trained to be suicide bombers.

Read more,
http://www.spur.asn.au/

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

4 Sri Lankans arrested, 10 GPS equipment seized -Tamil Nadu

A day after the seizure of satellite phones and other materials at Chinna Erwadi, the police on Tuesday arrested four Sri Lankans, including a hardcore Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militant, and seized 10 Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment and a consignment of other items.

The consignment included 3,360 batteries, a set top box, 11 life jackets, sample pieces of uniform cloth, 10 multi-tester meters, a generator and pistol cover, the police said.

There was also a compact disc, which contained a speech delivered by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko at a conference held in Oslo, Norway. The consignment was meant to be delivered at Mullaitheevu.

Based on a tip-off, a Special Branch police party led by Sub-Inspector G. Manivannan intercepted a van coming from Tiruchi at Uppur, a seaside hamlet near Thondi.

Those arrested were identified as Vijayaneethan alias Naveen (26), son of Sivasekaran of Trincomalee; Rakshanandan (21), son of Sivakumar of Wanni; Ramanan (31), son of Gunaseelan of Valvettithurai; and Sivaraman (23), van driver-cum-owner. Except Naveen, the others were living in a refugee camp in Tiruchi.

Read more,
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/31/stories/2008073155680700.htm

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

Sri Lankan president says action on rebels to continue

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said Saturday that the forward march of his troops will never be curtailed despite calls from interested parties to announce a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels.

"There are calls for a ceasefire when the terrorists face defeat. I will not allow anyone to curtail the forward march of the troops," Rajapakse who is also the commander-in-chief of the island's security forces told a gathering of teachers.

Rajapakse since becoming the president at the end of 2005 has gone on a military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

His troops have captured the entire Eastern Province from the rebels' control and the government now claims the rebels have been limited to just two districts in the Northern Province.

Rajapakse's statement came as the military announced the capture of a major LTTE held area in the district of Mannar Saturday.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman said a key rebel facility in Mannar's Parappakandal area was captured by the troops.

More than 7,000 people have perished in the island's separatist war since the end of 2005.

The Norwegian backed ceasefire which lasted six years was abandoned in January this year.

Extracted from,
http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=312078791

Sri Lanka rebels reject laying down arms for talks

Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels have rejected a request to lay down or decommission their weapons before peace talks, saying they can still win the war against government forces.

The government said last week it would only reconsider re-starting a peace process if the rebels agreed to lay down or decommission their weapons and issued a clear timetable for negotiations.

But Balasingham Nadesan, the rebels' political head, said laying down arms could weaken their bargaining power at any talks.

"Any approach that disturbs the balance of power and parity of status (between the government and rebels) are counter-productive to the peace process," Nadesan said in an email interview with Reuters.

"The balance of power and the parity of status are very crucial for any meaningful negotiations."

The government request came after the rebels said last week they wanted to meet Norwegian peace brokers to resume a stalled peace process.

Read more,
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL308029.htm

NORWAY: Talking Peace, Exporting Weapons

Peace builder Norway is the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons and ammunition, according to recent figures.

There are estimated to be about 639 million small arms and light weapons in the world today, according to the Control Arms campaign coordinated by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). These often end up in the wrong hands, contributing both to wars and violent crime, and hindering development.

Norway, a country which prides itself on its peace building credentials, was the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons components, ammunition and tanks in 2006, according to recent figures based on earnings from Norway's Central Statistics Bureau (SSB).

In 2007 Norwegian weapons exporters earned 425 million dollars -- an 18 percent increase on the previous year, and the largest in Norwegian history. This was 3.5 percent of the global weapons trade, although the secretiveness of the global weapons industry and the illegal weapons trade makes exact measurements impossible.

According to the Norwegian foreign department's legal guidelines, weapons should not be exported to countries at war, where there is a threat of war, or where there is a civil war. But a recent report from the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) lists a series of controversial arms and ammunitions transfers from Norway in the past two decades.

read more,
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42650

No talks without Norway – LTTE

LTTE Peace Secretariat Head, S. Pulidevan said while the organization had been in close contact with key Norwegian figures such as Erik Solheim and the Norwegian Ambassador, it would wait for the facilitators to be granted access to Kilinochchi to further discuss issues relating to future peace talks with the government.

“There are several issues we want to discuss with the Norwegian facilitators before discussing peace with the Sri Lankan government. We want to hold a meeting with the Norwegians. However the facilitators are not being granted access to enter Kilinochchi by the Sri Lankan government,” Mr. Pulidevan told the Daily Mirror in a telephone interview from Kilinochchi.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona had told the media in Singapore, where he is on a visit with the Foreign Minister, the government was looking for a

negotiated end to the conflict but stressed that so far the LTTE had not shown an interest to enter into such constructive dialogue.

“The LTTE is free to come back to the negotiating table but it must do so genuinely with a commitment to negotiating a sustainable peace and for that it must also leave aside its weaponry,” he said.

Read more,
http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=134265406

Sri Lankan PM says no more truce with Tamil rebels

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said here Tuesday the government would never enter into any more cease-fire agreements with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Wickramanayake said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had exploited cease-fire agreements with the government in the past.

"I will tell you one thing for sure. There will never be anymore cease-fire agreements in the future with the LTTE", the prime minister said.

Wickramanayake's government in January this year unilaterally withdrew from the February 2002 cease-fire.

The Norwegian backed cease-fire held until the end of 2005 when violence escalated. The new wave of violence in the island's long drawn out separatist armed conflict has so far cost over 7,000 lives since December 2005.

Read more,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/14/content_8164083.htm

Once again, LTTE with Qatar, Libya & Eritrea against Ethiopia & Sri Lanka

Funny how we never realize the inside international politics until some major event happens, like the Ethiopian closure of diplomatic ties with the Qatari royal government. A few months ago, no one knew (at least i didn't) if the Norway-LTTE-Eritrea link existed until Ethiopia told six Norwegian diplomats to leave the country.

A brief research allowed us back then to see Eritrea's role and Norway's symapthy for separatist movements that isolated Norway's pro-LTTE policy from the rest of the European Union (EU). Norway's sympathy for OLF and ONLF (and its Eritrean financers) got it kicked out of Africa's capital - Addis Ababa. Now yesterday's top news brings us to another interesting connection. That is between , the LTTE and Libya, Qatar, Eritrea against Ethiopia & Sri Lanka.

This time, it takes us back 8 years to the Eritrea vs Ethiopia border war. When Ethiopia used its coffee income and hardwon money to buy weapons and tanks from China and other countries.

Guess what? Eritrea was getting everything FREE from Libya and Qatar ! Apparently, both Eritrea and Ethiopia also bought military stuff from Russia. But again, the difference is Eritrea gets its funds with no sweats from Qatar and Libya. Eritrea also forces its Diaspora to pay large amount of tax...while Ethiopian government asked for Ethiopian Diaspora volunteers.
Read more,
http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=4519

Sri Lanka ready to talk with rebels but no contact with facilitators

The Sri Lankan government said Thursday that it will be ready for talks with the Tamil Tigers if they eschewed terrorism but has not made any formal contact with the Norwegian peace facilitators on resuming the process of stalled negotiations.

"Our doors are always open to start talks provided they give up terrorism," Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman and the minister of Foreign Employment told reporters.

Rambukwella was responding to media speculation that his ministerial colleague Rajitha Senaratne had talks with Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim in Oslo.

"His talks may have been private discussions but the government has not made any official contact (with the Norwegian government)," Rambukwella said.

Senaratne, the minister of Engineering Services recently met Solheim, who was previously the Norwegian special peace envoy on the process of negotiations between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Read more,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/18/content_7999063.htm

VAIKO MEETS ERIC SOLHEIM AND BEGS OF HIM TO GIVE LIFE BACK TO THE ABROGATED CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

India’s maverick politician Vaiko has begged of Norway’s most controversial peace negotiator and International Development Minister Eric Solheim who has been charged by non-tiger Tamil groups as a pro-LTTE man, to give life to a dead cease fire agreement that has been violated thousands of times by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) itself.

LTTE news sources revealed that the two controversial men met recently at Oslo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vaiko requested Solheim to help revive the Norway brokered abrogated Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed between Ranil Wickramasinghe government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

A close personal friend of the late Tamil Tiger “peace negotiator” Anton Balasingham, Soheim has been publicly attacked as a “White Tiger”, and enjoys very little credibility in Sri Lanka. He has been criticized by anti-LTTE Tamil groups and pro-Sinhala groups in the country as a non acceptable man.

Pro LTTE news sources said, Vaiko expressed his “gratitude on behalf of the Tamils in India to the Royal Norwegian Government for its engagement as facilitator to the CFA ..” when the two controversial politicians met each other in Oslo in Norway few days ago.

Read more,
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/140408-1.html

Norwegian Government Funding for LTTE Film - My Daughter the Terrorist

The 50 minute documentary Min Datter Terroristen (my Daughter the Terrorist) attempts to glorify the motivations of two Black Tiger women. The documentary follows the training and indoctrination of Dharsika and Puhalchudar (possibly not the real names) for a suicide mission against the Sri Lankan state.

The main emphasis of the documentary is to give some pseudo-justification to the act of suicide terrorism by the LTTE. Sections of the documentary are narrated by Maria (actor playing the role of Mother).

The documentary has been produced/co-directed by two Norwegian nationals Mr.Morten Daae and Ms. Beate Arnestad. Interestingly, Ms Arnestad states that she used a false name Ms Smith when she traveled to Sri Lanka to make the film. Ms. Arnestad has blatantly breached Sri Lankan immigration regulations and also media guidelines for visiting journalists as prescribed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The camera crew was led by Norwegian Frank Alvegg. The Production Company is Snitt Film Production based in Oslo , Norway .

The international rights for the documentary is managed by TV2 World ( Denmark ), Rugaardsvej 25, 5100 Odense , Denmark . As at December 2006, the broadcasting rights to the documentary have been purchased by Radio-Canada Television ( Canada ), TV2 ( Denmark ), Al-Arabia (Satellite Television covering the Middle East), NHK-BS1 ( Japan ) and TV2 ( Norway ).

Read more,
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10537

Tamil rebels seek Norway help to stop Sri Lanka offensive

Tamil Tiger rebels asked peace-broker Norway on Tuesday to pressure Sri Lanka's government to stop a military offensive in the island's north, saying a venerated Catholic church was at risk.

Government forces backed by artillery are pushaing into territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Wanni region, and the guerrillas said the Roman Catholic church of Madhu was in the line of fire.

The Tigers asked Norway's International Development Minister, Erik Solheim, who was also the top envoy involved in the failed peace efforts, to pressure Colombo to halt the offensive.

"We would like to place a request through you ... to the Norwegian government to take steps to immediately end the military assault of the holy Madhu shrine," the LTTE's political wing leader, B. Nadesan, wrote to Solheim.

Sri Lanka's military has denied engaging in operations in the Madhu church area, but security forces have maintained that they want to push into the Wanni region where the guerrillas maintain a de facto mini state.

Read more,
http://afp.google.com/article/

Top UN official arrives in Sri Lanka

Angela Kane, UN assistant secretary general for political affairs arrived in Sri Lanka today following a request from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for a weeklong fact finding mission, Foreign Ministry announced.

“The top UN official will come here for a week for primarily to review the work of the UN Country Team in the South Asian nation in all key areas,” a statement said.

“The visit is part of her regular consultations in the areas of her responsibility,” it added.

Foreign Ministry said that Ms. Kane will hold talks with the Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona and envoys from the European Union, Norway and India. She will also meet the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe. The top UN official is expected to meet leaders of the All Party Representative's Committee (APRC) during her weeklong visit from Feb 20 through 26.

Exrtacted from,
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/February20124758JV.html

Nobody can touch Prabhakaran: LTTE

Rubbishing frequent claims by Sri Lankan government that the elusive LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been injured in a military raid, his key aide has said the people would soon realise the "futility" of army's claims of success against the rebels.

"A false propaganda saying our leader Prabhakaran is injured is being carried. Nobody can approach our leader," LTTE political head B. Nadesan told the Tamil Daily Thinakkural in an interview yesterday. While the Sri Lankan security forces were claiming success in their clashes against LTTE, Nadesan said the "people of Sri Lanka will realise the futility of such a claim in times to come".

Nadesan accused the Sri Lankan government of trying to sideline the Norwegian mediators besides contradicting the United Nations. "The government is not in favour of peace process," he said. Lankan Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke had said that fighter jets had dropped 20 bombs on Prabhakaran's bunker on November 26, 2007 and had claimed that the rebel leader could have been injured in the attack. The LTTE denied the claim.

Read more,
http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/02/17/0802171801_lanka_prabhakaran.html

Sri Lanka slams Nordic claim that truce saved 10,000 lives

Sri Lanka has slammed a claim by the Nordic countries that the now abrogated Ceasefire Agreement with the Tamil Tigers had saved 10,000 Sri Lankan lives.

The Sri Lankan government peace secretariat Monday described as 'dubious' the claim by foreign ministers of five Nordic countries late last week that the truce pact with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had saved as many as 10,000 Sri Lankan lives in the first three years of its existence.

The Norway-brokered pact was signed in February 2002, and five Nordic countries jointly monitored its working. But last week, the Sri Lankan government unilaterally abrogated it, saying that it was a 'non-functioning' agreement, which facilitated violence rather than peace.

The government statement said that the Nordic ministers showed signs of ignorance of the rulings of the fully Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) as well as the concerted attacks conducted by the LTTE.

Read more,
http://www.indiaenews.com/srilanka/20080107/90226.htm

Is a ban on LTTE Lanka’s next step?

Sri Lanka’s decision to call off the February 2002 ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is at one level a logical move as the truce was only on paper.

In the last two years and more both sides have used air power and artillery in what is virtually a full-fledged war between the two sides.

Yet Wednesday’s move signals the growing confidence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the defence establishment in Colombo that the military has gained the upper hand. The next step could be a ban on the LTTE.

The President’s brother defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had already given a hint in an interview to the government-controlled Daily News last week.

He said the government should officially withdraw from the ceasefire and ban the LTTE for a fresh approach to the Tamil question. The ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway had become a joke in the eyes of the people, he added.

Read more,
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1143105

Tamilnet.com unblocked

Pro LTTE web site http://www.tamilnet.com which has been blocked by all major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sri Lanka since June 2007, is now once again freely accessible.

Users from Sri Lanka who were trying to view the site on the 17th of June were presented with server timeouts. It was initially suspected that the error was a technical fault with Tamilnet's hosting provider. However,later it was evident that Tamilnet was blocked on government orders. It is doubtful whether the ban had any effect as majority of the users seemed to have found a workaround to in the form of 3rd party proxy servers.

Tamilnet, which has been online since 1997, acts as a major propaganda machine of the the Tamil Tigers. Earlier, it was hosted in Norway but the site has now moved to the United Kingdom. UK based ISP "Rackspace Managed Hosting" acts as its current hosting provider.

Extracted from,
http://defencenet.blogspot.com/2007/12/tamilnetcom-unblocked.html

Japanese peace envoy arrives in Sri Lanka

Japan's special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi has arrived in Sri Lanka among escalating violence in the island country, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

Akashi arrived at the Colombo International Airport at around 10:50 p.m. local time (1720 GMT) on Tuesday, officials added.

He is to visit Sri Lanka's northern town of Jaffna on Thursday to attend a two-day inter-religious summit and make a special address.

The two-day event is aimed at finding ways to settle Sri Lanka's increasingly violent conflict through peaceful means, officials said.

Akashi, a former U.N. Under-Secretary General was appointed by the Japanese government in October 2002 to underwrite Sri Lanka's Norwegian backed peace process between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Read more,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/12/content_7234887.htm