Defence Secretary says no room for LTTE revival in Sri Lanka

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse says there is no room for the LTTE to revive in the country. He said all the leaders of LTTE have been killed by the armed forces and the organisation has been totally defeated.

The explosives and weapons collected by the LTTE during past 30 years are now in the hands of the security forces, he said.

The Defence Secretary says the international community should act against the pro-LTTE groups as they are part of an illegal organisation.

The Defence secretary further said that some human rights groups who were active inSri Lanka in the recent past were keen on saving the LTTE leaders not the displaced civilians. However he said the government identified their real objectives and acted accordingly.

He added that threats to the lives of the President, himself, and the commanders of the three armed forces are still likely and that there are reports about taking the defence secretary to an international war crime tribune.

He said however, he is not afraid of such propaganda created by pro-LTTE elements.

He reiterated that the government will never disturb media freedom in the island.

He also added that more than five thousand LTTE carders have surrendered to the security forces. Out of them who are responsible for criminal acts will be dealt with the prevailing law and the rest will be rehabilitated.

Sri Lanka Wants Partners Not Monitors for Post-War Development

Sri Lanka said it needs partners, not monitors, in the international community to help the South Asian island nation rebuild after the end of a 26-year conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Assistance must be “according to the wishes of the people of Sri Lanka,” Basil Rajapaksa, senior presidential adviser, said, according to the government’s Web site. “We don’t want ‘monitors,’ we need partners.”

“The international community must understand that it is we, the people of this country, who had to endure this problem” of terrorism, Basil Rajapaksa said in an interview. “There is nobody else who understands the repercussions and the sufferings.”

The government has a “good record” dealing with displaced civilians in the past, he said. It is committed to returning people who fled in recent months to their homes.

“We will ensure that when everybody in the north returns to their homes, they will go back to a place where there is security,” he added.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Malaysia backs Sri Lankan resolution

Malaysia has expressed support for a draft resolution introduced by Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, in pursuant of Malaysia's principled position with regard to non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said the members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the HRC had also expressed support for the Sri Lankan draft resolution based on the same principle. 

The draft resolution relating to the situation in Sri Lanka reaffirmed the principles and purposes of the United Nations (UN), including the principles of non-interference in matters which were essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of states, he said in a statement. 

"This is precisely the case with Sri Lanka, and it has the sovereign rights to undertake appropriate means in dealing with the internal situation, without the interference of other countries or the UN," Anifah said, adding that this important principle had been endorsed by NAM as well as OIC. 

It was issued following MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu's statement on May 23 asking Malaysia not to support the Sri Lankan draft resolution calling for UN member nations not to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. 

He had said Tamils in Malaysia constituted 1.4 million of 1.8 million Indians in the country and as such, their feelings had to be respected. 

According to Samy Vellu, there had to be a war tribunal in Sri Lanka to bring people who perpetrated crimes against the Tamil community there in their war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

Anifah said the Sri Lankan government had undertaken efforts, on its own and together with the UN and other international organisations, to extend humanitarian assistance as well as promote and protect human rights. 

The Malaysian foreign minister said this included the visit by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to Sri Lanka on May 22 which reflected that Sri Lanka was extending cooperation to the UN and other international organisations.

"We are hopeful that the Sri Lankan government would further undertake concerted efforts to bring about a conducive environment for all segments of the people of Sri Lanka to come and work together towards finding a fair and comprehensive political solution which is acceptable to all parties, besides contributing positively to promoting lasting peace and stability in Sri Lanka," said Anifah. 

Source: News Strait Times

International community tried to save LTTE chief at the last moment, Sri Lanka government says

Sri Lanka government today disclosed the details over the appeal made by foreign powers to save the former LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran at the last stages of the war.

Speaking at a function held in Matara this morning Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said that a foreign country has appealed the Sri Lanka government at the last moment.

According to the Minister, this country has handed over to the authorities a list of 50 names of LTTE leaders seeking to escape.

However, Minister Alahapperuma did not disclose the name of this country, but he said that the entire nation would know who it is in the near future.

He said this appeal clearly showed that certain foreign powers have supported the LTTE during the last three decades to fight against Sri Lanka government and its people.

According to a recent column by a Tamil journalist in a Sri Lankan daily, LTTE's chief negotiator Kumaran Padmanathan alias 'KP' was in constant touch with the 'diplomats of at least four western nations, UN functionaries in Geneva and New York, a foreign cabinet minister and a few prominent western journalists' trying to get the LTTE leaders out at the final moment.

LTTE admits leader is dead

The LTTE has admitted for the first time that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead. A statement issued by the Tigers said their "incomparable leader" had "attained martyrdom" and declared a week of mourning.

A spokesman for the group also told the BBC that it would now use non-violent methods to fight for Tamils' rights.

Sri Lanka's army last week released pictures it said showed Prabhakaran's body after its final offensive.

The statement from the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) said he was killed "fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan government" last Sunday.

The rebels had made a last stand in the north-east of the island after Sri Lankan troops cornered them in a coastal strip.

The Tigers' defeat brought to an end their 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland.

The statement was signed by the defeated group's head of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. 

It said that the LTTE had declared a week of mourning for their dead leader, starting on 25 May.

The statement called on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief".

In a telephone interview with the BBC, Mr Pathmanathan said Prabhakaran had died on 17 May but did not give details of the circumstances.

Mr Pathmanathan said the Tigers would now use non-violent methods to fight for the rights of Tamils.

"We have already announced that we have given up violence and agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the Tamil (self) determination of our people," he said.

Most of the Tamil Tigers senior leadership is believed to have been killed in the fighting. (BBC)

A special process to resettle Sri Lanka's IDPs

The Sri Lanka government will introduce a special 180-day process to resettle people in the country's North.

Foreign Affairs Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the government expects to conclude resettlements in the region within these 180 days.

According to the minister, the government has already started the process in Mannar District. It has already been able to resettle several displaced families there during the first and second phases of the process.

The only obstacles are the land mines which were buried by the LTTE, Minister Bogollagama pointed out. The Sri Lanka government hopes to begin resettlement of the recently liberated areas in the North soon after demining is complete.

Police find bombs to be used in assassination plot on Sri Lanka minister

Sri Lanka Police have found a massive haul of bombs hidden in a jungle in Vavuniya to be used in an assassination plot on a government minister.

The police unveiled the details of a plan to assassinate the Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare and General Secretary of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Dewananda in Vavuniya.

Vavuniya police said they have found the explosives hidden in a jungle at Kandapuram area in Vavuniya which were to be used for the assassination the minister Dewananda. Police said they have found 15 bombs weighing 131 kilo grams.

According to the disclosed details by the police, this assassination plan is to be carried out next week.

Police are continuing further investigations.

Sri Lanka says no aid access until rebel screening

Sri Lanka said Sunday it would not allow UN aid workers complete access to civilians who remain in camps after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers until rebels hiding among the refugees had been weeded out.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to one camp housing 200,000 Tamils, had called for his staff to be given "unhindered access" to those displaced in the decades-long war that ended a week ago.

Ban, who toured the Menik Farm facility on Saturday, described the conditions as overcrowded and the detained civilians as "badly in need of food, water and sanitation".

The government responded to his appeal for aid agencies to be permitted to help by saying that "as conditions improved, especially with regard to security, there would be no objections to such assistance".

President Mahinda Rajapakse's statement warned of "the likely presence of Tamil Tiger infiltrators among the large numbers who had come to the government areas".

The government describes the camps as "welfare villages" and says it wants to resettle all displaced civilians as soon as possible, but Tamil activists say they are "concentration camps" with inmates penned in behind barbed wire.

Rajapakse told Ban he would address the underlying ethnic grievances that lay behind the war, in which 80,000 to 100,000 people died in years of fighting between government troops and Tamil separatists.

In the final months of battle, Rajapakse ignored the UN's repeated calls for a ceasefire and pushed on with the military offensive that finally brought about the Tigers' defeat.

Campaign groups have condemned both the army for indiscriminate shelling and the Tigers for holding non-combatants hostage and shooting them if they tried to escape.

About 300,000 Tamils abandoned their homes and waded through swamps and jungle to flee the violence, only to be herded into the spartan state-run camps.

"I'm very moved after what I have seen. I've seen so many wounded," the secretary general said after inspecting the mass of makeshift corrugated iron shacks and tents.

The government was "doing its utmost best" but it lacked the necessary resources, Ban later told reporters.

"With this in mind, the UN can help," he said. "The UN must be given immediate unhindered access to the camps, the overcrowding must end and there should be special programmes for pregnant mothers and children."

Aid agencies have complained that even the limited access they had to the detained Tamils had been cut off in recent days.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday the government had stopped it from delivering desperately needed food to the Menik Farm camp, where it said people were still arriving after enduring "unimaginable hardship".

The UN chief flew by helicopter over the battlefield in the northeast of Sri Lanka on Saturday, observing a desolate landscape of craters, burnt-out vehicles and charred buildings. (AFP)

Sri Lanka says Prabakaran is cremated Website claims he`s alive

LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakaran`s body has been cremated by Sri Lankan security forces, Army chief Gen. Sarath Fonsekahas said amid claims by the rebels that their chief is alive. 

Fonseka said the identification of 54-year-old Prabakaran`s body came on Tuesday morning after heavy confrontations in the northeastern Mullaittivu district the previous day. 

`We cremated the body in the same area and threw the ashes into the (Indian) ocean,` Gen. Fonseka told the Rivira newspaper in an interview to be published on Sunday. 

`Even before Prabakaran was killed, I knew we had won the war, but I was overjoyed when I had confirmation of his death,` he said. 

Gen. Fonseka said about 170 Tiger cadres were killed together with Prabakaran on Monday. 

However, the bodies of Tiger intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Prabakaran`s wife, Mathiwadini, had not been identified, although Prabakaran`s eldest son Charles Anthony`s body was found. 

The government showed footage of Prabakaran`s body after the pro-rebel Tamilnet Website first claimed on May 18 that he was alive and well. 

Prabakaran`s former deputy, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, who defected in March 2004, and an ex-Tiger spokesman known as Daya Master were flown to the northeast on Tuesday and they positively identified their former boss, officials said. 

On Monday, military sources said Prabakaran was shot dead along with his two deputies as they tried to flee in an ambulance and another van. 

Gen. Fonseka said the information they had initially was that Prabakaran was killed and his burnt body was found near ambulance. However, his body was found in a mangrove a short distance away. 

The Tamilnet Website on Friday repeated its claim that Prabakaran was still alive, but offered no evidence in its support.

"There is a wide gap between what is needed and what is available"

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon following his visit to the Manik Farm welfare village where some of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are sheltered said, while the Sri Lankan government is doing its utmost, it lacks resources.

"There is a wide gap between what is needed and what is available," he stated.

Secretary-General on Friday flew over the devastated former conflict zone in Putumatalam area of Mullaitivu District and toured Manik Farm, one of the major IDP camps in Vavuniya to get a firsthand look on the current humanitarian situation.

Describing the visit to the camp is 'very sobering' Mr. Ban told a news conference later in the day that many of the IDPs told him how hard the life is inside the camps and some even giving him letters.

"I saw for myself the circumstances in which the survivors find themselves, and the suffering they have experienced," he told reporters.

Mr. Ban said he had discussed how to address Sri Lanka's immediate humanitarian needs, and how to promote national reconciliation, during meetings with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

He urged the Sri Lankan President and the Foreign Minister to give UN and other international humanitarian agencies need immediate and unimpeded access to the camps to help the government meet urgent humanitarian needs.

The UN chief welcomed the government's plan to return 80 percent of the IDPs by the end of the year.

Mr. Ban also urged the government to expedite screening and registration processes, and make it easier for families to reunite and to allow people more freedom of movement in and out of the camps.

The Secretary-General also called on the government to initiate a political process of accommodation, dialogue and reconciliation and said the government should also undertake certain confidence-building measures to "clearly and unmistakably" signal its good intentions in addressing root causes of Tamil and Muslim grievances.

He warned that if issues of reconciliation and social inclusion are not dealt with, history could repeat itself.

Tamils gather in Batu Caves to protest lives lost in Sri Lanka war

Malaysian Police have urged the Malaysian public to ignore an SMS asking them to gather at Batu Caves today for a mass rally in support of the Tamil Eelam as it is being held without a permit and so is illegal.

However, Tamil MPs from both sides of the political divide along with hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Batu Caves to protest against the Sri Lankan government and their war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The rally which was organised by the World Tamil Relief and several NGOs was to condemn the thousands of Tamils lives lost in the war in northern Sri Lanka.

Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan, when met at the rally, said that the rally was not in support of any militant group but to show concern for the loss of lives of innocent Tamil civilians.

“We urge the international community, including Malaysia, to not support the actions of the Sri Lankan government and help the Tamil community there to live peacefully,” he said.

Among those present were Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam, Teluk Intan MP M. Manogaran and MIC Youth adviser S. Vel Paari.

The gathering, which began at 10am, ended peacefully around three hours later.

Source: TheStar