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31-08-2006 President
meets British prime minister 31-08-2006 Lankan air force bombs outskirts of LTTE HQ town PK Balachandran The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) bombed the outskirts of Kilinochchi, the northern town which houses the headquarters of the LTTE, as ground troops, supported by artillery and the air force, moved two kilometers into Sampur in Trincomalee district.[More] 31-08-2006 Sri Lanka President to meet British PM today Aug 31, Colombo: Visiting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London today. Sri Lanka’s President’s office said that during the meeting with the British Premier the visiting President will discuss issues related to Sri Lanka’s faltering peace process. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera also will join the President for today’s meeting with Mr. Blair. President Rajapaksa is also scheduled to meet senior British government officials as well.- Source-Colombopage 31-08-2006 Government
Rejects Speculative Conclusion by The Government regrets the unprofessional and rather irresponsible stand taken by the Head of SLMM with regard to the incident in Muttur concerning the death of 17 aid workers. The Head of SLMM has derived specific conclusions even before investigations and forensic examination of evidence has been concluded.[More] 31-08-2006 Sri Lanka: Govt. slams Ulf Henricsson's ruling on killing of aid workers in Muttur The Government today vehemently denied, condemned and regretted the rulings made by the outgoing Head of the SLMM Ulf Henricsson, regarding the assassination of 17 civilian aid workers in Muttur on August 4, 2006. The Head is scheduled to leave the SLMM tomorrow due to an LTTE deadline.[More] 31-08-2006 Blair meets Sri Lanka leader amid Tamil turmoil LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for private talks on the political situation in Sri Lanka, a spokeswoman for Blair has said. [More] 31-08-2006 Shiv Shankar Menon named Foreign Secretary Barkha Dutt
Shiv Shankar Menon, who is presently India's High Commissioner to Pakistan, will be the next Foreign Secretary of India. He takes over from Shyam Saran, who will now be a special envoy on the Indo-US nuclear deal, on October 1.The announcement of Saran's name as the special envoy is no surprise as he's been the top negotiator for India.[More]
31-08-2006
31-08-2006 11,000 Tamils flee to India to escape Sri Lanka fighting CHENNAI, India, Aug 31, 2006 (AFP) - More than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since January to escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and separatist rebels and more are likely to come, officials said Thursday.[More] 31-08-2006 UN suspends relief aid to Sri Lanka PK Balachandran The United Nations has said that it will not give Sri Lanka the $37.5 million earmarked for the resettlement of 220,000 war refugees until Colombo adequately explains the killing of 17 workers belonging to the French relief agency "Action Against Hunger" in Mutur earlier this month.[More] 30-08-2006 Tamil group faced suspension Student club broke University of Waterloo rules with memorial to fallen Tamil rebels in 2004 BRIAN CALDWELL Students at the University of Waterloo didn't account for money collected at an event honouring rebels killed in the struggle for an independent Tamil homeland. Held in November 2004, the memorial led to the suspension of the Waterloo Tamil Student Association as a sanctioned group on campus.[More] 30-08-2006 Sri Lankan flow to India tops 10,000 mark By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) The number of anguished Tamils fleeing to India to escape violence in Sri Lanka has crossed the 10,000-mark, and a leading activist says the refugees will keep coming unless fighting halts in the island. A total of 477 Tamils landed on Tamil Nadu's coast Monday and this rose to 491 Tuesday. Indian authorities have opened about 15 new refugee camps on top of the 100 already in the southern state to accommodate the rush.[More] 30-08-2006 Violence continues to rock Balochistan Nirupama Subramanian Family, supporters take part in funeral prayers conducted in Quetta; four killed in bomb blast ISLAMABAD: At least four persons were killed in a bomb blast as violence rocked the Balochistan province of Pakistan for the third straight day on Tuesday after funeral prayers for the slain Jahmoori Watan Party (JWP) leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The blast in Hub, an industrial town close to the Sind border and its capital Karachi, also left several people wounded.[More] 30-08-2006 Missing Tamil journalist freed in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ An ethnic-Tamil journalist believed abducted for his radio station's reports on human rights violations during Sri Lanka's long-running ethnic conflict was released Wednesday, police said. Nadaraja Guruparan, 39, the news manager for privately owned Tamil-language radio station Sooriyan, or Sun FM, disappeared as he was driving to work early Tuesday in the Sri Lankan capital.[More] 30-08-2006 Restart Sri Lanka Negotiations U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Steven Mann met with Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the upsurge in fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Sri Lankan security forces. More than seven hundred people have been killed this year, despite a cease-fire negotiated in 2002.[More] 30-08-2006 Tamil Canadians stand against Terrorism Roy Edwards from Toronto., August 28. A Canadian Tamil group says that a Majority of Tamil Canadians do not support terrorism and criticized the LTTE front organizations in Canada for misleading the Tamils living in the country. In a statement released to the press here, Canadian Tamils for Democracy said that despite the ban on the LTTE as a terrorist organization, LTTE continues to operate via new front organizations and exert control over Tamil Canadians through threats and intimidation.[More]
30-08-2006 Doctors fear monsoon epidemics in Sri Lanka camps By Simon Gardner KANTALE, Sri Lanka, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Doctors treating hundreds of sick and injured war-displaced in northeast Sri Lanka worry the arrival of monsoon rains could trigger epidemics such as chicken pox in overcrowded refugee camps. Staff at hospitals and camps clinics in and around the town of Kantale, around 125 miles (200 km) northeast of the capital Colombo, are already stretched trying to cope with diarrhoea, respiratory problems and wounds.[More] 29-08-2006 Sri Lankan Tamil radio manager abducted in capital By Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police said on Tuesday they suspected a missing ethnic Tamil radio station producer had been abducted, prompting new fears over press safety with at least five media workers killed so far this year[More]
29-08-2006 Senior Tamil scribe abducted in Lanka PK Balachandran Nadarajah Guruparan, News Editor of the Colombo-based Tamil radio station Sooriyan FM was abducted by unknown persons in Colombo on Tuesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. Guruparan, a print medium and radio journalist of 25 years' standing, was kidnapped as he was going to office in his self-driven van, FMM's convenor Sunanda Deshapriya told Hindustan Times. "Guruparan had left his house early to work on the 6.30 am news bulletin. When he did not reach office at the usual time, the staff called his house to enquire. A search quickly revealed that his van lay abandoned a short distance from his house. The engine was on, the mobile phone was there, but the man was missing," Deshapriya said. According to the FMM, Guruparan had been receiving death threats from the "paramilitary groups". The threats had increased in the past two weeks, but Guruparan told the callers that he could not be browbeaten. The war in Sri Lanka is now not just between the government forces and the LTTE's combat units, but has spilled over to other sectors. The media is divided into the Sinhala-nationalist media and the pro-LTTE media. Such tags are attached to individual journalists creating fears among them in the context of the armed conflict involving shadowy killer squads besides regular troops of the government and the LTTE. Source-Hindustan Times 29-08-2006
29-08-2006 India for immediate truce, Sri Lanka says 'no' By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) India and the rest of the international community are seeking an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka, but Colombo is saying 'no' until it retakes a strategic region overlooking the eastern port of Trincomalee. [More] 29-08-2006 Norway, India discuss Sri Lanka situation B. Muralidhar Reddy Exchange views on possible ways to de-escalate the crisis
COLOMBO: Worried over the violence in Sri Lanka, Norway, which is facilitating the peace process there, and India are engaged in quiet consultations to defuse the situation. Officials here confirmed that Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was in Oslo a few days ago for an exchange of views on the situation in the island nation and to discuss possible ways to de-escalate the crisis.[More] 29-08-2006 REPORT
ON FIELD VISIT TO KANTALAI AND SERUNUWARA: Introduction: On Monday
August 21, 2006, a team consisting of representatives from Among the centres for IDPs visited were: - in
Kantalai: Aysha College and 6 related sub-camps Al Najah, Al
Husna, 29-08-2006 Barbarism in War By Jayadeva Uyangoda Despite the government’s claims to the contrary, Sri Lanka is back at war, in earnest. The theatre of war has shifted from the Eastern province to the Northern Province, to the town of Jaffna and its outskirts. It may now shift to the Eastern Province, again. Two weeks of heavy fighting has caused the loss of life among large numbers of combatants as well as civilians,[More]
Ethnic Tamil journalist abducted in Sri Lanka , says media rights group Associated
Press, Tue August 29, 2006 02:02 EDT . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP)
An ethnic Tamil journalist was abducted near Sri Lanka - 's capital
early morning Tuesday while he was on his way for work, a media rights
group said. The radio widely reported about the latest conflict between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels and was popular among the people living in war-torn north and east. Source-Lanka
Acadamic 27-08-2006 INTERVIEW-Sri Lanka rights abuses rising, both sides blamed 24 Aug 2006 By Peter
Apps COLOMBO, Aug 24 (Reuters)
- Renegade Tamil rebels allied to Sri Lanka's government are kidnapping
children to fight in the conflict-torn nation, Human Rights Watch
said on Thursday, adding that rights abuses had soared with fresh
violence. The first three weeks of ground fighting between the government
and Tamil Tiger rebels since a 2002 ceasefire has left the north and
east of the country in chaos. But even before that, more than 800
people had been killed since January and kidnappings, murders and
ambushes were common. (More) 27-08-2006 In war torn Sri Lanka, a widow remembers (FEATURE)
By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi,
Aug 27 (IANS)
It is tough to be a widow. Tougher if the husband is gunned down at
your home. Worse, if the frail man had been actually wondering how
to cope if his wife died before him. A fortnight after suspected Tamil
Tigers killed Ketheshwaran Loganathan, his wife of 28 years is still
in shock(More) 26-08-2006 Sri Lanka Police Thwart Capital Attack By BHARATHA
MALLAWARACHI The weapons haul came as the government carried out a third day of airstrikes on rebel positions in northern Jaffna Peninsula and six soldiers died in a mine blast blamed on separatist Tamil insurgents. [More]
26-08-2006 For an indivisible peace By Saatvika Last week we buried Ketheshwaran Loganathan, deputy-head of the government Peace Secretariat, former director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, writer and thinker. In Kethesh’s death, civil society mourns the loss of a mentor, colleague and friend. We mourn the loss of a fine intellectual and an incisive political commentator.[More] 26-08-2006 Joining SL Govt will protect Indian Origin Tamils: CWC PK Balachandran Joining the government as ministers will protect the Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) in a rapidly communalising and worsening security situation in Sri Lanka, says Arumugan Thondaman, the leader of the biggest Indian Origin Tamil party, Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC).[More] 26-08-2006 20,000 refugees 'within a week' The United Nations
refugee agency says that the number of people in Sri Lanka displaced
by continuing fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels
has risen dramatically. The UN agency says more than twenty-thousand
people have been displaced within a week, increasing the total figure
of those displaced since April to more than two-hundred-thousand.
[More] 25-08-2006 Sri Lanka relief supplies arrive
The ship, which docked off Point Pedro on Jaffna's northern tip, is carrying supplies of rice, lentils and sugar. A month of clashes in the country has displaced tens of thousands of people. [More] 25-08-2006 Sri Lankan displaced are distraught B. Muralidhar Reddy 50,000 Muslims from Muttur town languish in makeshift tent camps Muttur continues to be battle zone KANTHALE (TRINCOMALEE DISTRICT): With no end in sight to the over one month old stepped up hostilities between the Sri Lanka military and the LTTE, over 50,000 displaced Muslims from Muttur town languish in the makeshift tent camps dotting this sleepy town. [More] 25-08-2006 7
Canadians among 11 in Tiger net SURYA
BHATTACHARYA AND THULASI SRIKANTHAN Only three months ago, Thirukumaran Sinnathamby was preparing for his wedding to his high-school sweetheart. Yesterday he was identified as the seventh Canadian caught in a joint FBI-RCMP operation this month that led to the arrests of 11 men. Now, the newly married man sits in a U.S. prison with three other Canadians. Authorities link them to three Canadians arrested in Canada under provisional warrants, a first step in the extradition process to the U.S. Four Americans are also charged and being held in the United States.[More]
25-08-2006 Lankan Muslims can now look to India: Hakeem Meenakshi Iyer (HindustanTimes.com) Sri Lankan Muslims can now look to India for the protection of their interest because the Indian view of the Muslim question has undergone a sea change since the India-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987, says Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the island nation's most influential Muslim political party.[More] 25-08-2006 India struggles for coherent Sri Lanka policy There is a sound that forever haunts the Indian diplomatic establishment: the plaintive notes of “Auld Lang Syne” mockingly played by a Sri Lankan military band as a humiliated Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF), leaving at the request of the government in Colombo, set sail from Trincomalee in March 1990. And there is an image: the funeral pyre of Rajiv Gandhi, the youthful and handsome Indian prime minister who took on the thankless task of mediation in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and paid for it with his life the next year[More]. 25-08-2006 186 Sri Lankan refugees arrive Staff Reporter Say ongoing war between army, LTTE "stronger than ever before"
She was one among 186 refugees who landed here on Thursday. They arrived by fibreglass boats at Arichamunai, which has been bustling with refugees for the last few weeks. [More] 25-08-2006 Sri Lankan Air Force Raids Rebel Navy Base; Aid to Reach Jaffna By Anusha Ondaatjie and Paul Tighe Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka's air force raided a naval base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as artillery exchanges briefly closed a crossing point for civilians fleeing more than two weeks of fighting in the northern Jaffna peninsula.[More] 24-08-2006 Accept Muslim leadership, rights group tells Tamils By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS) In a suggestion bound to fuel widespread debate, a leading rights group in Sri Lanka has urged Tamils to accept the leadership of Muslims to struggle against both the government and the Tamil Tigers. [More] 24-08-2006 Aid
agency worker shot to death in eastern Sri Lanka, military says Victim, an assistant office manager of United Office Project Firm, was abducted and shot near his office in eastern Ampara district, said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe. [More] 24-08-2006 10,000 Sri Lankan refugees and counting August 24, 2006 02:35 IST With a spurt in the arrival of Sri Lankan refugees in Rameswaram and other places along the coast in Ramanathapuram district, their number is likely to cross the 10,000-mark soon, officials said.[More]
There
is no room for peace loving persons The Coalition of Muslims and Tamils for Peace and Coexistence in the East joins all champions of democracy, human rights and social justice in condemning the cowardly act of the murder of Kethesh Loganathan by the LTTE. We call upon all peace activists to raise their voices in unison in the condemnation of this champion of peace and human rights. [More] 24-08-2006 BOB RAE AND DAVID CAMERON We learned last week that a distinguished colleague and friend of ours,Kethesh Loganathan, had been murdered in Colombo, in one of the countless acts of violence that have plagued Sri Lanka for decades. To the world, this is just a tiny footnote in an endless tragedy unfolding on a small island in an ocean far away. To us, and to Kethesh's family and friends, it is an immense personal loss.[More] 24-08-2006 Be humane to refugees from Sri Lanka: PUCL Staff Reporter Ongoing war a human rights violation: K.G. Kannabiran Call
for permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka for next five years Coimbatore: The Tamil Nadu Government should deal with the refugees from Sri Lanka who are fleeing the war there with humaneness, K.G. Kannabiran, national president of the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), told presspersons here on Wednesday.[More] 24-08-2006
24-08-2006 Red Cross ship to rescue 100 Britons from Sri Lanka war By Peter Foster, South Asia Correspondent Nearly 100 British citizens trapped on the Jaffna peninsula as fighting rages in northern Sri Lanka are to be evacuated by a Red Cross ship, it was announced yesterday.[More] From
tsunami aid to terror charges Aug.
23, 2006. 05:21 AM A year and a half ago, Sathajhan Sarachandran and Suresh Sriskandarajah travelled to Sri Lanka with a delegation of 26 Ontario students to help victims of the Asian tsunami. Today, they stand accused of supporting terrorist activities. The young men, prominent voices in Canada's Tamil community, are among four Canadians and five Americans arrested in recent days on accusations that they conspired to buy weapons on behalf of the Tamil Tigers, following a joint RCMP-FBI investigation.[More] 24-08-2006 Tigers fighting on Canuck cash? FBI says local arms dealers funding Sri Lankan militants
Three Sri Lankan-Canadians, who the FBI alleges tried to buy up to 100 sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles for the Tamil Tigers last week, are also in close contact with the Tigers' top leaders, court documents say.[More] 24-08-2006 RCMP arrest 2 more in alleged Tigers plot Aug.
23, 2006. 09:21 PM Two more
Canadian men face extradition to the U.S. after a joint RCMP and FBI
probe into the alleged activities of the Tamil Tigers, a listed terrorist
organization. “We arrested them on behalf of what’s called a provisional warrant,” said RCMP Sgt. Michele Paradis. “It allows arrests to be made based on charges from countries other than our own.” [More]
Analysis: Tamil terror bust 'shows threat' By SHAUN WATERMAN UPI Homeland and National Security Editor WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The alleged efforts by U.S. and Canada-based supporters of the Tamil Tigers to buy weapons in New York represents an alarming departure from their traditional activities, which have been restricted to raising funds and political support.[More] 24-08-2006 No
End in Sight The fighting is bound to intensify even further as both sides press for military advantage, warns Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive direct of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. The two sides, he says, "are only going to return to negotiations on the basis of a new balance of power or a new stalemate." Indeed, they are both increasingly uncomfortable with the status quo—particularly the Tigers who felt their military and political position was eroding under the government's constant military pressure. Ceasefire violations have risen dramatically this year, and nearly 1,000 people have been killed.[More] 24-08-2006 2 more Canadians arrested in Tamil Tigers investigation Two more Canadian men have been arrested in an alleged conspiracy to buy weapons for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Ramanan Mylvaganam, 29, appeared in a Brampton, Ont., court on Wednesday. He was picked up the previous evening in Mississauga, the RCMP said. Piratheepan Nadarajah, 30, was arrested in Toronto on Wednesday evening and will appear at the Brampton court on Thursday.[More] 24-08-2006 Rebel group funded congressman's trip to Sri Lanka, sources say By Andrew Zajac and Mike Dorning WASHINGTON - Illinois congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law enforcement sources said.[More] 24-08-2006 Lanka leader asks India to intervene By Devirupa
Mitra Condemning both the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the plight of Muslim refugees, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem, is making the rounds of ministers and officials to apprise them about the “serious humanitarian crisis”, as well as lobbying for India to recognise the Muslims in any power devolution formula.[More] 23-08-2006 University Teachers for Human
Rights (Jaffna) Special Report No. 22 Date of Release: 23rd August
2006 CONTENTS
US crackdown a sweeping setback for LTTE By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) The arrest of eight Tamil men in the US on charges of attempting to buy sophisticated weapons marks a new low for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, now battling the most serious military and diplomatic challenges in its three-decade history.[More]
23-08-2006 Accused Tamil Tiger conspirator back in court Friday A Canadian man is scheduled to to make a second appearance in a Kitchener, Ont., court on Friday in connection with charges he was involved in a conspiracy to aid the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, is one of four Canadians among the nine men charged by U.S. officials with attempting to purchase weapons from undercover agents for use against Sri Lankan government forces.[More] 23-08-2006 Sri Lanka's Jaffna quiet By Peter Apps COLOMBO (Reuters) - Fighting on Sri Lanka's besieged Jaffna peninsula appeared to be dying down after more than a week of open warfare there with Tamil Tiger rebels, the army said on Tuesday, but rebel mortars were fired at army camps in the east.[More] 22-08-2006 US arrests over a dozen for Tamil Tiger support By Christine Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than a dozen people have been arrested in the United States on suspicion of trying to provide money and weapons including surface-to-air missiles to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, U.S. officials said on Monday. The arrests were made across the nation -- including New York, New Jersey and Seattle, Washington -- in the past several days following an undercover operation spanning more than 10 countries that probed support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). More arrests were expected.[More]
22-08-2006 Police: Bomb found in Sri Lankan capital Associated Press, Tue August 22, 2006 01:50 EDT . RUWAN WEERAKOON - Police
acting on a tip discovered a powerful bomb planted on a bicycle in
a busy shopping district in the Sri Lankan capital on Tuesday, an
official said. Police and army cordoned off the area and people were evacuated from nearby homes, shops and offices while the bomb squad defused the explosive. The officer who found the device, Constable Ranasinghe, told The Associated Press at the scene that a grocery store owner noticed the abandoned bicycle and alerted police. The constable declined to give his first name. Police also found a remote-control device a distance away from the bomb, said a duty officer at the national security media center. The bomb was planted on a road often used by politicians, and its target may have been a high-profile official, the center said. 22-08-2006 Sri
Lanka: Warring Sides Must Let Aid Reach Civilians (Colombo,
August 21, 2006)
– The Sri Lankan government and the armed
22-08-2006 Government
seeks clear commitment to truce by LTTE COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a meeting with Donor Co-Chair representatives yesterday said the Government will seriously consider any initiative 'incorporating a clear commitment to a comprehensive and verifiable Cessation of Hostilities by the LTTE Leader.' [More] 22-08-2006 Jaffna-bound ship to sail today
Military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the ship would leave for Jaffna this morning and reach the destination after a 50-hour journey. President Mahinda Rajapaksa last night made a surprise visit to the port to check the process of loading of the essential goods.The disaster relief centre said the ship that would sail under a Red Cross flag would carry some 3800 tonnes of essential food items including 10,000 tonnes of rice, 500 tonnes of sugar, 1000 tonness of flour, 300 tonness of dhal, a stock of essential commodities, ten tonnes of milk food, 25 tonnes of canned fish, ten tonnes of big onions and a stock of medicinal drugs to Jaffna. These essential items would be distributed among civilians in the Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, it said. On Sunday Jaffna Government Agent K. A. Ganesh said there was sufficient food till Thursday and claimed there would be no shortage of food items since the shipload of essential food items was due to reach Jaffna before Thursday. However reports from Jaffna said prices of
essential food items were skyrocketing with shopkeepers reportedly
hoarding the goods. SJ -Source-Daily
Mirror
Nation pays homage to Rajiv Gandhi Staff Reporter Various functions mark the former Prime Minister's 62nd birth anniversary NEW DELHI:(The Hindu) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the nation in paying homage to the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, on his 62nd birth anniversary on Sunday. Mr. Singh visited Vir Bhoomi, samadhi of the late leader, here and paid floral tributes. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra were present. Many Union Ministers and senior Congress leaders also paid homage.[More]
21-08-2006 Diplomats in new push to save Sri Lanka peace bid
Diplomats from the United States, the European Union, Norway and Japan met Rajapakse at his official residence to discuss the worsening security situation in the island's embattled northeast, officials said on Monday. "The discussions
focused on the peace process and the current security situation in
Jaffna and elsewhere in the northeast," an official in Rajapakse's
office said.[More] 21-08-2006 Sri Lanka's Jaffna battles tough times JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - The shops are nearly empty, electricity is available for an hour a day and only a few telephone lines work in the besieged Sri Lankan town of Jaffna. 21-08-2006 The unending war in Sri Lanka B. Muralidhar Reddy A political initiative to resolve the grievances of all ethnic groups along with an effective strategy to take on the LTTE is the best way out. SRI LANKA is on the boil. Apart from the daily diet of killings, bomb blasts, and targeted assassinations, the dimension of the unfolding humanitarian disaster is alarming. [More] 21-08-2006 India to help Lanka resolve political crisis NEW DELHI: With bloody conflict raging in Sri Lanka between the government forces and the LTTE, India has pitched in to help by offering a political formula to resolve the crisis. India has offered a devolution formula, based on the Sarkaria Commission's recommendations, which could take care of the interests and aspirations of all sections of the society of the island nation, official sources said. [More] 21-08-2006 'No formal SL request yet for Indian aid to Jaffna' PK Balachandran India is yet
to receive any formal request from the Sri Lankan government for emergency
humanitarian assistance for beleaguered Jaffna, according to well
placed sources in the Government of India.[More] 21-08-2006 Create peaceful environment to resume talks-Socialist Alliance The left party combine, the Socialist Alliance yesterday called on the people to act with restraint and create a peaceful environment that is conducive for the resumption of peace talks. Alliance’s General Secretary Raja Collure also appealed to people to defeat the maneuvers of war mongers and racists to fan the flames of war that can only lead to destruction and disaster for our country and the people.[More] 20-08-2006 Today Rajiv Gandhi's 62th Birthday
While we have given the highest priority in our development to the war on poverty, we cannot afford to ignore all the other aspects that go with the development of the country. Development cannot mean merely economic development. It must include social, cultural, political and human development. Unless we are able to develop in all these spheres also, we will find it very difficult to fight this battle against communalism. Secularism is the bedrock of our nationhood, secularism as defined not in the English dictionaries, where it is defined as ‘non-religious’ or ‘anti-religious’, but secularism the way Panditji defined it as Sarva Dharma Samabhava which allows every religion to flourish in our country. [More]
20-08-2006 Indian President calls for eradication of terrorism
Describing the issue of terrorism as one of national concern, 75-year-old President Abdul Kalam of India in his address on the eve of 60th Independence Day said, "We should transcend individual differences of opinion and address it with a sense of unity.[More]
20-08-2006 Suicide bombers - weapon of choice for Sri Lanka rebels By Jonathan Lyons, Asia Security Correspondent COLOMBO (Reuters) - Long associated with sectarian violence in the Middle East, the suicide attack has been refined by Sri Lanka's secularist Tamil Tiger rebels into a sophisticated weapon of war.[More] 20-08-2006 Jaffna back to the grave Battered people thrown into hell hole: Rice, flour and dhal each Rs. 100 a kilo, sugar Rs. 150, petrol Rs. 300 a bottle By Chris Kamalendran
20-08-2006 Kethesh Loganathan: He made the supreme sacrifice by Ajith Samaranayake Kethesh Loganathan who was brutally gunned down by the LTTE outside his home in Dehiwela last Saturday night could have had few illusions about his personal safety.[More]
20-08-2006 Collectors told to accommodate Sri Lankan refugees in camps C. Jaishankar Government directive following sudden influx from the island nation The Revenue officials on Saturday shifted 83 refugees to camps functioning in other districts in the State RAMANATHAPURAM: The Government has issued a directive to all District Collectors to take steps to accommodate refugees arriving from Sri Lanka in the camps functioning in their respective districts, according to the Collector, K.S. Muthuswamy. [More]
19-08-2006
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj The Country is
going mad with venomous hatred! Highly educated 19-08-2006 India, Lanka agree on aid to Jaffna PK Balachandran India and Sri Lanka have agreed on a plan to send emergency humanitarian supplies from India to beleaguered Jaffna by sea, according to the Sri Lankan government's Defence Spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella. This has been necessitated by the absence of a safe air or sea route between Colombo and Jaffna.[More] 19-08-2006 Sri Lanka: Amnesty International calls for urgent action to protect civilians Amnesty International is alarmed that escalating fighting in Sri Lanka has resulted in the death and injury of scores of civilians, the displacement of more than 160,000 people, and the destruction of homes, schools, and places of worship. [More] 19-08-2006 Humanitarian crisis looms large in the Jaffna peninsula B. Muralidhar Reddy Colombo appeals to Government of India for supply of relief goods COLOMBO: With curfew in force for the eighth successive day and no end in sight to the fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE, a humanitarian crisis seems looming large in the Jaffna peninsula. [More] 19-08-2006 Rebel positions targeted in Jaffna Sri Lanka's Air Force launched fresh airstrikes on rebel positions in the north, an official said, even as the government promised to send aid to hundreds of thousands cut off by the fighting. The strikes on rebel lines at the southern end of the Jaffna Peninsula continued for most of the afternoon on Friday, Air Force Group Cap. Ajantha Silva said. He refused to provide details about the number or exact location of the strikes.[More]
19-08-2006 Sri Lanka: UN agency calls on both sides of conflict to allow urgent aid to get through 18 August 2006 – Aid workers need access to deliver vital humanitarian supplies to thousands of Sri Lankan civilians who are running short of water and food after their communities were cut off by fighting between the Government and separatist Tamil Tigers, the United Nations refugee agency warned today. [More] 19-08-2006 Tigers heavily dependent on child combatants By Harischandra
Gunaratna 18-08-2006 India in a dilemma over Sri Lanka By M.R. Narayan Swamy, Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) India finds itself in a bind vis-a-vis Sri Lanka's collapsing peace process, unable to prevent the outbreak of another war that is bound to have major strategic, diplomatic and political fallouts. New Delhi is painfully realizing its limitations in the island, where the government is refusing to pay heed to Indian pleadings to go for a political and not military solution to the dragging ethnic conflict.[More] 18-08-2006
18-08-2006 Five
refugees drowned
18-08-2006 U.S., EU, call for end to Sri Lankan fighting, as death toll mounts By CASSIE
BIGGS Sri Lanka not at war: Rajapaksa PK Balachandran The fighting going on in North-East Sri Lanka was not "war", but only a series of "retaliatory" attacks to check the LTTE, the country's President Mahinda Rajapaksa said here on Wednesday.[More] 17-08-2006 Shortage of manpower in LTTE may halt war: Expert PK Balachandran The crippling of the Sri Lankan Air Force's airbase in Palaly in Jaffna, and the shortage of manpower in the LTTE's ranks, may combine to bring about a temporary halt to the war in Sri Lanka, says Col (Rtd) R Hariharan, a former Indian Army intelligence officer, who served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s.[More] 17-08-2006 Nearly 100 rebels killed in fresh Sri Lanka fighting COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lankan troops have beaten back a fresh attempt by Tamil Tigers to overrun the main defences of the northern peninsula of Jaffna and killed at least 98 guerrillas, media minister Anura Yapa has said. More than 100 rebels were wounded in the close-quarter fighting in the early hours of the morning, the minister told reporters here Thursday.[More] 17-08-2006 Sri Lankan civilians urgently need protection-ICJ Sri
Lankan civilians urgently need protection: The International
Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today called on the 17-08-2006 Aid worker killings jeopardise humanitarian work in Sri Lanka Eight British aid agencies working in Sri Lanka condemned the recent brutal killing of 17 aid workers in Muttur and warned that increasing violence in the north and east of the country is threatening their tsunami reconstruction and emergency response work.[More] 17-08-2006 Sri Lanka troops 'kill 75 rebels' Sri Lankan troops have killed at least 75 Tamil Tiger rebels in an overnight offensive in northern Jaffna peninsula, the army says. [More] 17-08-2006 The LTTE's war trap Learning from
history is a phrase that is much used but little practised. The main
lesson Sri Lanka should have learnt from recent history is that war
is a trap by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to further its goal
of an independent Eelam. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the most
visionary of Sri Lankan leaders, realised this too late. [More] 17-08-2006 Sri Lankan forces not to withdraw from Jaffna B. Muralidhar Reddy Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to withdraw from north, east COLOMBO: As the fighting continued between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE, President Mahinda Rajapakse on Wednesday asserted that forces would not withdraw from the Jaffna peninsula.[More] 17-08-2006
17-08-2006 AP Interview: Norwegian peace envoy urges Tamil rebels to stop using child fighters in Sri Lanka By JAIME
ESPANTALEON "There are persons under 18 years of age among the Tamil Tigers, that is true," Jon Hanssen-Bauer told The Associated Press in an interview. "It is important that they stop using children and that they gradually find a way to reinsert those that are in the forces, eventually, into the society." [More]
16-08-2006 Loganthan's contribution to national unity significant - DEW COLOMBO: On behalf of the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration and on my own behalf, I convey to the bereaved family of K. Loganathan our heart-felt condolences, constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister DEW Gunasekera said issuing a statement on the assassination of Kathiswaran Loganathan. [More] 16-08-2006 A salute to Loganathan By Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu For almost three decades, Kethesh Loganathan worked for a just and democratic Sri Lanka in which the rights and aspirations of all its peoples would be protected and advanced. His slaying is a terrible loss to that cause and whilst we mourn his death, it is now more important than ever that we reaffirm the values he represented in his life and work. In honour of his memory, this column reproduces the statement released by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) on his murder.[More] 16-08-2006 Kethesh did not die in vain - Kohona Ananth Palakidnar COLOMBO: We must all ensure that Kethesh did not die in vain, said Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat Dr. Palitha Kohona while paying his last respects to his slain deputy, Kethesh Loganathan, at the General Cemetery, Kanatte yesterday. A large and distinguished gathering of academics, diplomats, politicians and journalists were present at the cemetery. [More] 14-08-2006 SLDF Condemns the Brutal Murder of Kethesh Loganathan
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The
Sri Lankan president had a productive discussion with British Prime
Minister, Tony Blair, said Dr Palitha Kohona, Secretary General of
the Peace Secretariat (SCOPP) on Thursday.
An
aid ship carrying emergency supplies to people trapped by fighting
in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka has arrived in the northern peninsula.
ARICHAMUNAI
IN DHANUSHKODI :
Though she found the journey from Salli near Trincomalee in Sri Lanka
difficult, 40-year-old Shanthini's face lit up with hope immediately
after landing at Arichamunai, the southernmost tip of Rameswaram in
Ramanathapuram district. 
The
FBI fingers Canada as a hub of arms buying and the major source of
illegal fundraising for Sri Lankan rebels, according to U.S. court
documents filed in the terrorism-related arrests of four Canadians.
The
ship carrying a load of essential goods and medicinal drugs worth
some 250 million rupees delayed its departure for Jaffna yesterday
as the loading process was not completed as scheduled yesterday due
to prevailing bad weather conditions.
COLOMBO
(AFP)
- Sri Lanka's key financial backers held talks with President Mahinda
Rajapakse to try to salvage the island's collapsing ceasefire, officials
said. 
UPHOLD
SECULAR VALUES 
Jaffna
city turned into a ghost town with the curfew clamped this week and
the sound of artillery shells bursting everywhere brought back memories
of the pre-ceasefire era when the town suffered heavy damages and
casualties from a protracted war.
Ketheesh:
Champion of Tamil Rights in United Lanka