srilanka1998
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Anti-personnel mines in Sri Lanka kill 2 navy sailors, wound 2 commandos Ground strikes against LTTE possible
[ CNN-IBN ] [ 00:35 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Even as air strikes continued against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India on Wednesday hinted that ground operations could also be carried out against the Tigers, if necessary. He said his country was keen on procuring arms from India. But until now, there's been no progress on the bilateral defence cooperation agreement. It appears India is dragging its feet given the political implications in Tamil Nadu of selling arms to Sri Lanka, arms that could well be used against Tamils.
Sri Lanka Tamil Rebels Denounce Air Raids as `Genocidal' Attack
[ Bloomberg ] [ 01:11 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lankan rebels appealed to the international community to press for a halt to air attacks on Tamil areas carried out in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Colombo that wounded the country's army commander. The government of Sri Lanka has ``openly declared war'' and countries are turning a blind eye to its actions, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement late yesterday. ``We call on the international community to strongly condemn this genocidal attempt on the Tamil-speaking people.'' Air force planes and navy vessels fired missiles at rebel- held areas in Muttur after the April 25 bombing in Colombo. The attack showed the LTTE has ``broken all the efforts toward peace,'' President Mahinda Rajapakse said.
Thousands fleeing air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka: UN
[ AFP ] [ 01:56 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Government air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka have caused thousands of people to flee their homes, the United Nations refugee agency said. UNHCR spokesman Lyndon Jeffels said UN staff could not confirm local government figures in the district of Trincomalee that 40,000 had been driven from their homes by two days of air strikes against Tamil Tiger rebels. But he said it was clear that many thousands of frightened people were on the move. "Certainly it seems that there is a very significant displacement as a consequence of the aerial bombardment," Jeffels told BBC radio.
TRO makes urgent appeal to the International Community for Humanitarian Assistance to the War IDPs
[ TRO ] [ 03:47 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Thousands of persons from Ralkuli, Kadakaraichchenai, Senaiyoor, Sampoor, Ilakkanthai, Sudaikuda, Paddalipuram and Upparu in the Trincomalee district have been displaced due to the ongoing air, sea, and ground attacks by the Security Forces of Government of Sri Lanka. The IDPs affected by the previous week’s communal violence are also streaming into LTTE controlled areas from the government controlled areas. The number of IDPs has passed the 30,000 mark and continues to rise. Due to extensive and continuous shelling and bombing the relief and rescue efforts are being severely hampered and travel to the affected areas to carry out humanitarian work has been nearly impossible. The disaster management structure of the TRO, though it has been severely impacted, has responded to this emergency and the TRO staff and volunteers are assisting the IDPs.
RCMP raid deeply hurts local Tamil community
[ Inside Toronto ] [ 03:54 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Scarborough's Tamil community is deeply hurt' by RCMP raids on Scarborough offices of the World Tamil Movement, Canadian Tamil Congress spokesperson David Poopalapillai said yesterday. Boxes were reportedly taken away Saturday from the WTM building at 39 Cosentino Dr., as well as from a second building downtown. It was not known yesterday if another WTM building at 1231 Ellesmere Rd. was raided. The RCMP raided Montreal offices of the WTM earlier this month, just days after the federal Conservative government added the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to Canada's list of banned terrorist organizations. It has been alleged that the WTM in Canada acts as a fundraising arm for the Tamil Tigers, most recently in a Human Rights Watch report, Funding the Final War, whose conclusions about intimidation of the community by Tiger fundraisers were denied by the CTC and other Toronto-area Tamil groups.
What are we waiting for? The Sinhala Government of Mahinda Rajapakse has started the 'Final Solution'
[ TamilCanadian ] [ 03:59 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
It is over 60 years ago that the German Nazis engaged in the execrable 'Final Solution' of what they termed the Jewish problem in their midst. It was no more and no less than the savage annihilation of the Jews who had been settled in Europe for over a thousand years. The gas chambers of Auschwitz and Buchenwald that are still standing are macabre testimonies to the evil of racist superiority propounded and practiced by the butchers of Nazi Germany. In a similar manner, the fate of the Tamils too is unquestionably sealed if left any longer in their hands of the Sinhala government. The genocidal ethnic cleansing undertaken by successive Sinhala Sri Lankan governments resulted in the killing of nearly 100,000 Tamil civilians and has driven nearly two million Tamils into traumatic internal exile in the Vanni and family-rending exile in foreign lands. The Sinhala psyche is such that there can be no room in their minds for the continued existence of a Tamil nation within the present state of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka faces a problem far greater than the escalation of violence
[ AHRC ] [ 04:07 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Violence is escalating in Sri Lanka, with an attack by a suicide bomber in Colombo on the army headquarters that has seriously injured the army commander and killed many others. In retaliation, the Government of Sri Lanka has ordered air and naval attacks on LTTE strongholds. The international media is announcing a “return to war” in response to this escalation of violence. The lower level of violence that prevailed during the cease fire is now being pushed higher. However, the problem Sri Lanka faces is much worse than a mere escalation of violence. A country that is already facing a collapse of its basic institutions and living at the lowest ebb of the rule of law is now plunging deeper into an abysmal crisis in all areas of life. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has warned of this situation for a long time.
Amnesty International calls for respect for human rights in escalation of violence
[ Amnesty International - USA ] [ 04:26 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
The suicide bombing and retaliatory action in the form of aerial bombardments and shelling by the Sri Lanka joint armed forces in Trincomalee district against LTTE positions may signal a return to full-scale war which would be likely to have devastating consequences for the human rights of civilians in Sri Lanka.It has been reported that at least twelve civilians were killed during the attacks and counter-attacks in LTTE controlled areas in Muttur East in Trincomalee district in the past two days, although this has not been independently verified.
Tigers condemn 'genocidal' attack
[ BBC ] [ 04:46 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused the government of carrying out "genocidal" attacks on people in areas in the north-east under their control. And they criticised the international community for failing to condemn the two days of airstrikes by the military, in a statement on a pro-rebel website. Thousands of people fled their homes on Wednesday to escape the strikes. The attacks were in response to a suicide attack on army headquarters, which killed at least eight people. The heavy firing has now eased, but both sides have vowed to retaliate if they are attacked again. Many fear further violence could shatter the fragile four-year-old ceasefire. In its statement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the Sri Lankan government, "has violated gravely and totally the ceasefire agreement".
40,000 Tamils 'flee rebel area'
[ CNN ] [ 04:50 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Some 40,000 civilians fled homes in northeastern Sri Lanka to escape government airstrikes on Tamil rebel areas in recent days that have killed at least a dozen people, the rebels said Thursday. No new strikes were launched Thursday, the Defense Ministry said, following two days of air attacks near the northeastern port of Trincomalee that constituted the government's biggest military operation since its 2002 cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels. The strikes followed a suicide bombing targeting the top Sri Lankan army commander on Tuesday and attacks on navy craft the following day, military officials said, in a spasm of violence that had brought the country perilously close to a return of civil war.
Anti-personnel mines in Sri Lanka kill 2 navy sailors, wound 2 commandos
[ AP ] [ 10:40 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Mine attacks killed two navy sailors and wounded two commandos in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday in the latest in a barrage of violence posing the biggest danger yet to the country's 4-year-old cease-fire. This week's bloodshed, including two days of government air strikes against Tamil rebel positions, threatens to wreck a 2002 truce that ended two decades of fighting between the government and rebels seeking a separate state in the north of the island. While both sides in the conflict and the European team overseeing the agreement say it still holds, analysts predict that more violence in the coming days could lead to its total collapse.
Open warfare erupts in Sri Lanka
[ WSWS ] [ 10:41 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
After weeks of escalating violence in a murky, undeclared war in the North and East of Sri Lanka, the Colombo government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have resorted to open hostilities. While the immediate trigger was a carefully-planned suicide bombing at army headquarters in central Colombo on Tuesday, the responsibility for the conflict rests squarely with successive Sri Lankan governments which for more than three years have refused to enter into meaningful negotiations. Tuesday’s attack involved a female suicide bomber, dressed as a pregnant woman, who pretended to be visiting the army hospital near the heavily-guarded, high security zone.
Race to save Sri Lanka ceasefire
[ BBC ] [ 10:42 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Truce monitors have travelled to Trincomalee in north-east Sri Lanka to try to ease tension after two days of government air strikes on Tamil rebels. The strikes were called after a suicide bombing on army headquarters in Colombo on Tuesday left at least eight dead and the army chief seriously wounded. The Tamil Tiger rebels called the air strikes "genocidal" and said tens of thousands had fled their homes. The violence has cast serious doubts on the future of the 2002 ceasefire. There have been no new government attacks since the air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sri Lankan peace deal in danger
[ Mail&Guardian ] [ 10:56 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Mine attacks killed two navy sailors and wounded two commandos in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday in the latest in a barrage of violence that is posing the biggest danger yet to the country's four-year-old ceasefire. Meanwhile, police found five headless corpses near the capital, Colombo, and said they were investigating whether the deaths are linked to the recent upsurge in fighting with Tamil rebels.This week's bloodshed, including two days of government air strikes against rebel positions, threatens to wreck a 2002 truce that ended two decades of fighting between the government and rebels seeking a separate state in the north of the island. While both sides in the conflict and the European team overseeing the agreement say the ceasefire still holds, analysts predict that more violence in the coming days could lead to its total collapse.The chief ceasefire monitor, Ulf Henricsson of Sweden, travelled on Thursday to those areas to inspect damage caused by the air strikes and meet with local rebel leaders, spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir said. She gave no further details.
Masked gunmen bring death to a Sri Lankan village
[ AFP ] [ 12:31 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
The two men who came to kill her and her family wore masks and spoke Sinhalese, a wounded Josep Devi, wincing in pain, said from her hospital bed in this northeastern Sri Lankan town on Thursday. “I managed to save my baby by rolling on her as I fell when a bullet hit me,” Devi, a Tamil speaker, told AFP through an interpreter. She said she fell into a river after her legs were smashed by bullets from an automatic weapon that two men sprayed at her cowering group. Her husband, brother and uncle -- all farm workers -- were less fortunate.
Sri Lanka: Ethnic melting pot on the boil
[ AFP ] [ 12:31 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist conflict is rooted in the nation's history, but the past three decades have been the bloodiest on an island colonised by Europeans and invaded by Indians. At least 60,000 people have been killed since minority Tamils took up arms in 1972, about 24 years after the Indian Ocean island won independence from Britain. The British, the last in a long line of imperialists, dominated the island for 133 years with a policy of "divide and rule" among the majority Sinhalese and ethnic Tamils. Moves by the Sinhalese to retake key state jobs that had been controlled by the better-educated Tamils brought communal tensions into the open. But folk stories have long been told of ancient wars between Tamil and Sinhala kings. Many believe the state
[ CNN-IBN ] [ 00:35 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Even as air strikes continued against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India on Wednesday hinted that ground operations could also be carried out against the Tigers, if necessary. He said his country was keen on procuring arms from India. But until now, there's been no progress on the bilateral defence cooperation agreement. It appears India is dragging its feet given the political implications in Tamil Nadu of selling arms to Sri Lanka, arms that could well be used against Tamils.
Sri Lanka Tamil Rebels Denounce Air Raids as `Genocidal' Attack
[ Bloomberg ] [ 01:11 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lankan rebels appealed to the international community to press for a halt to air attacks on Tamil areas carried out in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Colombo that wounded the country's army commander. The government of Sri Lanka has ``openly declared war'' and countries are turning a blind eye to its actions, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said in a statement late yesterday. ``We call on the international community to strongly condemn this genocidal attempt on the Tamil-speaking people.'' Air force planes and navy vessels fired missiles at rebel- held areas in Muttur after the April 25 bombing in Colombo. The attack showed the LTTE has ``broken all the efforts toward peace,'' President Mahinda Rajapakse said.
Thousands fleeing air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka: UN
[ AFP ] [ 01:56 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Government air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka have caused thousands of people to flee their homes, the United Nations refugee agency said. UNHCR spokesman Lyndon Jeffels said UN staff could not confirm local government figures in the district of Trincomalee that 40,000 had been driven from their homes by two days of air strikes against Tamil Tiger rebels. But he said it was clear that many thousands of frightened people were on the move. "Certainly it seems that there is a very significant displacement as a consequence of the aerial bombardment," Jeffels told BBC radio.
TRO makes urgent appeal to the International Community for Humanitarian Assistance to the War IDPs
[ TRO ] [ 03:47 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Thousands of persons from Ralkuli, Kadakaraichchenai, Senaiyoor, Sampoor, Ilakkanthai, Sudaikuda, Paddalipuram and Upparu in the Trincomalee district have been displaced due to the ongoing air, sea, and ground attacks by the Security Forces of Government of Sri Lanka. The IDPs affected by the previous week’s communal violence are also streaming into LTTE controlled areas from the government controlled areas. The number of IDPs has passed the 30,000 mark and continues to rise. Due to extensive and continuous shelling and bombing the relief and rescue efforts are being severely hampered and travel to the affected areas to carry out humanitarian work has been nearly impossible. The disaster management structure of the TRO, though it has been severely impacted, has responded to this emergency and the TRO staff and volunteers are assisting the IDPs.
RCMP raid deeply hurts local Tamil community
[ Inside Toronto ] [ 03:54 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Scarborough's Tamil community is deeply hurt' by RCMP raids on Scarborough offices of the World Tamil Movement, Canadian Tamil Congress spokesperson David Poopalapillai said yesterday. Boxes were reportedly taken away Saturday from the WTM building at 39 Cosentino Dr., as well as from a second building downtown. It was not known yesterday if another WTM building at 1231 Ellesmere Rd. was raided. The RCMP raided Montreal offices of the WTM earlier this month, just days after the federal Conservative government added the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to Canada's list of banned terrorist organizations. It has been alleged that the WTM in Canada acts as a fundraising arm for the Tamil Tigers, most recently in a Human Rights Watch report, Funding the Final War, whose conclusions about intimidation of the community by Tiger fundraisers were denied by the CTC and other Toronto-area Tamil groups.
What are we waiting for? The Sinhala Government of Mahinda Rajapakse has started the 'Final Solution'
[ TamilCanadian ] [ 03:59 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
It is over 60 years ago that the German Nazis engaged in the execrable 'Final Solution' of what they termed the Jewish problem in their midst. It was no more and no less than the savage annihilation of the Jews who had been settled in Europe for over a thousand years. The gas chambers of Auschwitz and Buchenwald that are still standing are macabre testimonies to the evil of racist superiority propounded and practiced by the butchers of Nazi Germany. In a similar manner, the fate of the Tamils too is unquestionably sealed if left any longer in their hands of the Sinhala government. The genocidal ethnic cleansing undertaken by successive Sinhala Sri Lankan governments resulted in the killing of nearly 100,000 Tamil civilians and has driven nearly two million Tamils into traumatic internal exile in the Vanni and family-rending exile in foreign lands. The Sinhala psyche is such that there can be no room in their minds for the continued existence of a Tamil nation within the present state of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka faces a problem far greater than the escalation of violence
[ AHRC ] [ 04:07 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Violence is escalating in Sri Lanka, with an attack by a suicide bomber in Colombo on the army headquarters that has seriously injured the army commander and killed many others. In retaliation, the Government of Sri Lanka has ordered air and naval attacks on LTTE strongholds. The international media is announcing a “return to war” in response to this escalation of violence. The lower level of violence that prevailed during the cease fire is now being pushed higher. However, the problem Sri Lanka faces is much worse than a mere escalation of violence. A country that is already facing a collapse of its basic institutions and living at the lowest ebb of the rule of law is now plunging deeper into an abysmal crisis in all areas of life. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has warned of this situation for a long time.
Amnesty International calls for respect for human rights in escalation of violence
[ Amnesty International - USA ] [ 04:26 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
The suicide bombing and retaliatory action in the form of aerial bombardments and shelling by the Sri Lanka joint armed forces in Trincomalee district against LTTE positions may signal a return to full-scale war which would be likely to have devastating consequences for the human rights of civilians in Sri Lanka.It has been reported that at least twelve civilians were killed during the attacks and counter-attacks in LTTE controlled areas in Muttur East in Trincomalee district in the past two days, although this has not been independently verified.
Tigers condemn 'genocidal' attack
[ BBC ] [ 04:46 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused the government of carrying out "genocidal" attacks on people in areas in the north-east under their control. And they criticised the international community for failing to condemn the two days of airstrikes by the military, in a statement on a pro-rebel website. Thousands of people fled their homes on Wednesday to escape the strikes. The attacks were in response to a suicide attack on army headquarters, which killed at least eight people. The heavy firing has now eased, but both sides have vowed to retaliate if they are attacked again. Many fear further violence could shatter the fragile four-year-old ceasefire. In its statement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the Sri Lankan government, "has violated gravely and totally the ceasefire agreement".
40,000 Tamils 'flee rebel area'
[ CNN ] [ 04:50 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Some 40,000 civilians fled homes in northeastern Sri Lanka to escape government airstrikes on Tamil rebel areas in recent days that have killed at least a dozen people, the rebels said Thursday. No new strikes were launched Thursday, the Defense Ministry said, following two days of air attacks near the northeastern port of Trincomalee that constituted the government's biggest military operation since its 2002 cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels. The strikes followed a suicide bombing targeting the top Sri Lankan army commander on Tuesday and attacks on navy craft the following day, military officials said, in a spasm of violence that had brought the country perilously close to a return of civil war.
Anti-personnel mines in Sri Lanka kill 2 navy sailors, wound 2 commandos
[ AP ] [ 10:40 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Mine attacks killed two navy sailors and wounded two commandos in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday in the latest in a barrage of violence posing the biggest danger yet to the country's 4-year-old cease-fire. This week's bloodshed, including two days of government air strikes against Tamil rebel positions, threatens to wreck a 2002 truce that ended two decades of fighting between the government and rebels seeking a separate state in the north of the island. While both sides in the conflict and the European team overseeing the agreement say it still holds, analysts predict that more violence in the coming days could lead to its total collapse.
Open warfare erupts in Sri Lanka
[ WSWS ] [ 10:41 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
After weeks of escalating violence in a murky, undeclared war in the North and East of Sri Lanka, the Colombo government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have resorted to open hostilities. While the immediate trigger was a carefully-planned suicide bombing at army headquarters in central Colombo on Tuesday, the responsibility for the conflict rests squarely with successive Sri Lankan governments which for more than three years have refused to enter into meaningful negotiations. Tuesday’s attack involved a female suicide bomber, dressed as a pregnant woman, who pretended to be visiting the army hospital near the heavily-guarded, high security zone.
Race to save Sri Lanka ceasefire
[ BBC ] [ 10:42 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Truce monitors have travelled to Trincomalee in north-east Sri Lanka to try to ease tension after two days of government air strikes on Tamil rebels. The strikes were called after a suicide bombing on army headquarters in Colombo on Tuesday left at least eight dead and the army chief seriously wounded. The Tamil Tiger rebels called the air strikes "genocidal" and said tens of thousands had fled their homes. The violence has cast serious doubts on the future of the 2002 ceasefire. There have been no new government attacks since the air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sri Lankan peace deal in danger
[ Mail&Guardian ] [ 10:56 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Mine attacks killed two navy sailors and wounded two commandos in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday in the latest in a barrage of violence that is posing the biggest danger yet to the country's four-year-old ceasefire. Meanwhile, police found five headless corpses near the capital, Colombo, and said they were investigating whether the deaths are linked to the recent upsurge in fighting with Tamil rebels.This week's bloodshed, including two days of government air strikes against rebel positions, threatens to wreck a 2002 truce that ended two decades of fighting between the government and rebels seeking a separate state in the north of the island. While both sides in the conflict and the European team overseeing the agreement say the ceasefire still holds, analysts predict that more violence in the coming days could lead to its total collapse.The chief ceasefire monitor, Ulf Henricsson of Sweden, travelled on Thursday to those areas to inspect damage caused by the air strikes and meet with local rebel leaders, spokesperson Helen Olafsdottir said. She gave no further details.
Masked gunmen bring death to a Sri Lankan village
[ AFP ] [ 12:31 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
The two men who came to kill her and her family wore masks and spoke Sinhalese, a wounded Josep Devi, wincing in pain, said from her hospital bed in this northeastern Sri Lankan town on Thursday. “I managed to save my baby by rolling on her as I fell when a bullet hit me,” Devi, a Tamil speaker, told AFP through an interpreter. She said she fell into a river after her legs were smashed by bullets from an automatic weapon that two men sprayed at her cowering group. Her husband, brother and uncle -- all farm workers -- were less fortunate.
Sri Lanka: Ethnic melting pot on the boil
[ AFP ] [ 12:31 GMT, Apr. 27, 2006 ]
Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist conflict is rooted in the nation's history, but the past three decades have been the bloodiest on an island colonised by Europeans and invaded by Indians. At least 60,000 people have been killed since minority Tamils took up arms in 1972, about 24 years after the Indian Ocean island won independence from Britain. The British, the last in a long line of imperialists, dominated the island for 133 years with a policy of "divide and rule" among the majority Sinhalese and ethnic Tamils. Moves by the Sinhalese to retake key state jobs that had been controlled by the better-educated Tamils brought communal tensions into the open. But folk stories have long been told of ancient wars between Tamil and Sinhala kings. Many believe the state