Sri Lanka not worried about possible Indian intervention

The Sri Lankan government said Thursday it was not worried about the resolution passed by an Indian state to intervene in Sri Lanka's escalating conflict between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman was reacting to a resolution adopted by the Indian state of Tamil Naducalling on the Indian central government to play a proactive role in Sri Lanka.

Rambukwella told reporters that Sri Lanka understands the political compulsions in neighboring India in getting drawn into action with regard to the conflict in the island, "but the Indian government stands supportive of our campaign to eliminate terrorism," Rambukwella said.

India's Tamil Nadu state assembly headed by its Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi adopted the resolution on Wednesday.

"India should arrange for talks between the two parties and help arrive at a political solution," the resolution said.

Tamil Nadu, the southern Indian state across Sri Lanka's northern border, is home to over 50 million Tamils with ties to Sri Lankan Tamil community.

Read more,
http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-04/24/content_8044537.htm

SLAF bombards Black Tiger training facility- Mankulama

Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets made precision air sorties this morning (Apr 24) at what was identified as a 'black tiger' training facility, located at Pannikkankulama, North West Mankulama junction, in Mullaittiuvu district.

Speaking to defence.lk Air Force Spokesperson Andrew Wijesooriya said, the target was engaged by SLAF fighters at around 6.20a.m. According to defence sources, the air raids were conducted on reliably obtained information of intensified terrorist activities in the area.

Extracted from,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080424_04

Heavy casualties in Muhamalai battle

Both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have suffered heavy casualties in the fighting that raged along Muhamalai and Kilali defence lines since yesterday (23rd) dawn.

Nearly 120 SLA soldiers have either been killed or gone missing in the operation that lasted for 10 hours. 370 soldiers are reported to be wounded. Around 250 of the wounded are in P1 (Seriously wounded) and P2 (Less seriously wounded) categories. In addition to these casualties, 4 main battle tanks (excluding the T-55 that was lost on the 22nd) of the army have also sustained damage. LTTE casualties stand at 52 killed and an unknown number injured.

SLA soldiers who valiantly battled it out on a terrain which the enemy had the advantage, even managed to storm the first LTTE defence line on two fronts. The LTTE, employing a similar tactic it used back in 2006, withdrew to secondary lines and brought a large volume of artillery fire on the troops consolidating newly captured positions. It was this rain of artillery shells that caused most of SLA casualties.

Extracted from,
http://defencenet.blogspot.com/2008/04/

LTTE offensive attempt thrashed: 52 LTTE killed, many injured - Jaffna

Jaffna theatre of battle heated up since early this morning (April 23), as Sri Lanka army 55 and 53 divisions put- on stiff resistance to an LTTE embarked fresh offensives at the Army forwards defences on the Muhamalai and Kilaly frontiers. According to the defence sources in Jaffna heavy fighting broke out between troops and LTTE since 2 am this morning, as troops mounted retaliatory attacks at the offensive LTTE formations.

According to latest information LTTE suffered severe beating and were pushed some 500m back from its initial positions. Seizing the opportunity SLA broke the LTTE's first line of defence in the Muhamalai front, and are now engaged in consolidating the defence lines, security sources said.

So far, 15 soldiers have laid their lives while 74 suffered injuries and some of them have been air lifted to Colombo national hospital. Meanwhile, monitored radio communications and ground sources have confirmed that 52 LTTE terrorists have been killed and many injured in the latest skirmishes in Jaffna, Military Spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Extracted from,
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080423_03

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

Priyanka –Nalini Meet May Provide LTTE Advantage on Local Support Issue

Priyanka – Nalini recently held meet has strained in Murugan and Nalini marital relations.

The scheduled permitted meeting under prisons rules was fixed between husband wife facing death sentence in Rajiv Gandhi assassination April 19, could be made possible because refusal of both to meet each other.

It is to remember here that jail authorities have allowed both to meet once in every fortnight and in last meeting after much publicized Priyanka – Nalini meeting on March 19, both were seen in full fight mood with heated word exchanges.

Nalini has declined even to meet Murugan’s London based brother Arputham Kuildasan and mother Perarivalan on April 15.

Read more,
http://abclive.in/abclive_national/priyanka_nalini-ltte.html

Sri Lankan military battle tank destroyed in north: LTTE

The Tamil Tiger rebels Tuesday claimed to have destroyed a main battle tank of the Sri Lankan Army during a clash with advancing government troops close to their forward defences in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

'A Sri Lankan Army tank was fully destroyed at Muhamalai Forward Defence Line (FDL) Tuesday morning around 7.30 a.m. when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) anti-tank unit confronted the army soldiers who attempted to break the Tiger FDL,' pro-LTTE Tamilnet website reported, quoting LTTE sources.

'The Sri Lankan Army has sustained heavy casualties in Muhamalai,' the Tigers said, giving no details of their own casualty figures.

The LTTE's fresh claim comes in the wake of escalating clashes between the advancing government troops and the fighting formations of the LTTE in the northern Wanni, Jaffna and northwestern Mannar region, leaving thousands of combatants killed and wounded over the past year.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, however, denied the latest claims by the rebels and said that 'the military have never used battle tanks in these areas'.

Read more,
http://www.indiaenews.com/srilanka/20080422/113017.htm

Bhagwati panel exit won't affect Commission's work: Lanka govt

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said the exit of the International Group of Eminent Persons appointed to monitor a Commission looking into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka would not affect the functioning of the panel.

"The departure of IIGEP does not in any way adversely affect the ability of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to carry forward its inquires and investigations in keeping with international standards," the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters.

However, the IIGEP head and former Chief Justice of India, P N Bhagwati told reporters that the CoI had been slow to respond to the panel's recommendations.

"We don't see a point of carrying on our role further," Bhagwati said.

Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200804222074.htm

Nedumaran holding multiple Indian passports

According to sources close to former LTTE international finance head Emdon Seevaratnam, the seventy five year old pro LTTE activist in Tamil Nadu Pala Nedumaran is in possession of multiple Indian passports. He had applied to the British High Commission in Chennai with one passport for entry clearance to the UK which was refused on the grounds of his involvement with the proscribed LTTE. A refusal stamp had been duly placed in the passport preventing him entry to the country.

Pala Nedumaran had used another Indian passport to apply for visa to enter France at the same time. The French Embassy in Delhi without assessing his bona fides granted him the Schengen visa. Schengen visa facilitates the traveller to freely visit any European Union countries without further visa’s or entry clearance from the visiting EU country within the duration of the visa given by one Schengen country.

Having visited France and participated in political activities of the LTTE, the controversial leader arrived at the Heathrow Airport with the Schengen visa. Pala Nedumaran is on the Immigration alert system due to his involvement with the LTTE and when he reached the Immigration desk at the airport the computer alerted about him. He was said be taken in for questioning and held for three hours.

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

Catholic Bishops ask LTTE to vacate Madhu precincts

The Security Forces have not engaged in any offensive within the area of the sacred Madhu shrine but the LTTE had taken control of the Madhu church and removed the statue of Our Lady of Madhu into an uncleared area.

The Security Forces’ operations map to liberate the Wanni front does not include the sacred Madhu area considering the security of the Madhu Shrine, Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

He was responding to a statement by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CBC) requesting the Forces not to enter into the sacred area of the Madhu shrine.

The CBC in a press release appealed to the LTTE to adhere strictly and observe International Law regarding sacred places of worship and asked the outfit occupying the sacred precincts to vacate the premises forthwith.

“We, the Catholic Bishops of Sri Lanka are concerned about the grave situation prevailing in the Madhu sanctuary and in its sacred area, where the LTTE and the Security Forces are engaged presently in military operations and demand that both parties adhere strictly and observe the International Law regarding the sacred places of worship,” the statement said.

Read more,
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/04/22/sec02.asp

"Father Keeli" was with ex Sea Tiger leader at the time of explosion

Army Spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara blamed the LTTE for the murder of Rev Fr Karunaratnam, a Catholic priest and Chairperson of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), in a claymore attack, on the Mallavi– avunikkulam Road, in Killinochchi.

Brig. Nanayakkara speaking to news.lk today (21) stated that the murder has occurred in an uncleared area which is 30 km ahead of the battle fronts and in LTTE-controlled territory and rejected allegations by the LTTE that the deep penetration units of the Sri Lanka Army were responsible for the murder since the Army does not send cadres to the area where the murder took place.

He further stated that the security intelligence revealed that the murdered Father Karunaratnam was suspected to have been an LTTE sympathizer and opined that it was a deliberate and even predictable move by the LTTE to bring the security forces into disrepute and win international sympathy for their murderous cause.

It has been revealed that the murdered priest was working as the chief for the LTTE Peace Secretariat and he was well known as 'Father Keeli'.

Read more,
http://www.news.lk/index.php?

Famous LTTE’s “Lima Base – 3” Falls on Troops

MAKING FURTHER STRIDES in the war for liberation of the masses under terrorist grip, troops of the Sri Lanka Army in another pre-dawn attack on Monday (21) on the so-called LTTE’s “Lima Base – 3”, East of KATTANKULAM, MANNAR eliminated seven terrorists and brought a stretch of about 1300 meters under troop control.

The troops’ sudden roll on to the LTTE’s stronghold at about 4.35 a.m. took the enemy by surprise and panicking terrorists went on directing fire on advancing troops.

Four valiant soldiers received wounds in the enemy fire.

The fall of the LTTE’s famous “Lima Base – 3” in MANNAR comes in the wake of a string of military setbacks to the LTTE in the area where at least 13 Tiger terrorists died on Sunday (20) during clashes with the troops in KATTANKULAM, VEDDAYAPIRU, VEDDAYAMPURAMKULAM, ADAMPAN and MALIKATTIDAL areas.

Those clashes included sniping and heavy machine gun firing. Troops also recovered 91 anti personnel mines and 3 booby traps from those areas while conducting de-mining work.

Extracted from,
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=12559

SLAF destroys 3 LTTE sea tiger boats - Mullaittivu

Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets bombed at three sea tiger boats in the Alampil area in Mullaittivu this morning, April 21.

The Air Force spokesperson, Wing Commander Andrew Wijesooriya, said that the air sorties were launched around 9.30 am based on information on suspicious LTTE boat movement provided by the Navy units patrolling in the area.

Two heavily armed fast boats located in Alampil beach were destroyed due the bombardment carried out by the SLAF fighters after verifying the navy's information observing dynamic pictures taken through a surveillance aircraft.

Meanwhile, another LTTE fast boat detected off Alampil seas was destroyed by the SLAF fighters during this mission. A huge explosion was also observed following the bombardment, spokesperson further added.

Extracted from,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080421_04

New Joint Operation Commander appointed for Sri Lanka's Central Province

Sri Lanka Army has appointed a Joint Operation Commander for the Central Province to coordinate the security related activities in the area with immediate effect. All security forces including police will be placed under his command.

Major General Lawrence Fernando, took over his duties of the new post yesterday and visited the Temple of Tooth and Chief prelates of Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters today.

Sir Lanka is to host SAARC summit next year in Kandy, where leaders of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan are to visit. Government is concerned over the rise in terror activity lately seen in the Kandy area.

Extracted from,
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/April2133308JR.html