Sri Lanka

[Yrys]

Sri Lanka Ignores Calls by Aid Groups for Better Access to War Refugees, May 22, 2009

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s government ignored mounting calls by international
relief organizations on Friday for greater access to the country’s swelling refugee camps,
as the military continued to weed out people suspected of being former Tamil Tiger rebels
hiding among civilians.

Even as the end of the war has brought a new flood of refugees in the north in recent days,
the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other groups have said
that the military’s new restrictions have curtailed their activities and are endangering the
lives of the refugee population, now estimated at 280,000.
...
Rest of article on above link


Sri Lanka's new chapter, 23 May 2009

The authorities in the capital of Sri Lanka have declared the rebel leader of the Tamil Tigers,
Vellupillai Prabhakaran, dead and the war over. Chris Morris reflects on the life of Prabhakaran
and considers whether there can now be reconciliation.
...
New friends

Beijing has provided huge stocks of weapons to Sri Lanka in the last few years, at the same time
as it has been building a new deep water port on the island's southern coast.
...
Rest of article on above link




Sri Lanka to probe rights claims, 24 May 2009

Mr Ban said conditions for Tamil
refugees were 'very difficult'

The Sri Lankan government has pledged to investigate claims of human rights violations committed
during the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels. The pledge was made in a joint UN-Sri Lankan statement
at the end of a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

But the government rejected UN calls to allow aid agencies immediate unhindered access to Tamil
refugee camps. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the authorities first had to identify any remaining
rebel fighters in the camps. In the past the government has accused some aid agencies of helping
members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sheltering among the refugees. Last week
the government announced that it had defeated the 26-year Tamil insurgency.

Resettlement

International human rights groups have said there are grounds for believing that both the Tamil Tiger
rebels and the government may have committed war crimes in the closing stages of the country's civil
war. They accuse the rebels of deliberately holding people as human shields, and the government of
carrying out indiscriminate shelling. Both sides deny the allegations.

But the final sentences of the joint Sri Lanka-UN statement state that Ban Ki-Moon stressed the
importance of an accountability process for addressing rights violations, and that the government
would "take measures to address those grievances".

However, the UN did not get everything it wanted from the Sri Lankan government.

Mr Ban's visit was aimed at pressing the authorities to allow aid agencies unimpeded access
to the government-run camps. On Sunday Mr Rajapaksa said security had to be assured before
this could be granted, "in view of the likely presence of LTTE infiltrators". "As conditions improve,
especially with regard to security, there would be no objections to such assistance, from organi-
sations that were genuinely interested in the well-being" of the displaced Tamils, he told reporters.

On Saturday, Mr Ban toured Manik Farm refugee camp near Vavuniya, and described conditions
as "very, very difficult". He also took a helicopter flight over the coastal area where the final
battle was fought. "It was a very sobering visit, very sad and very moving," he said.

The government has said it plans to resettle most Tamil refugees with six months.

"We will try to work hard to keep that promise realised," Mr Ban said. "They need to be resettled
as soon as possible." Mr Ban also called for political reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese
and minorities, including Tamils.

Sri Lanka officially announced an end to the war on Tuesday, after its troops took the last segment
of land held by the rebels and killed the Tamil Tiger leadership, including its chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
It is thought at least 80,000 people were killed in the war.

The UN says 7,000 civilians have died since January alone, although the government disputes this figure.

 

[Yrys]

Tamil Tigers admit leader is dead, 24 May 2009

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have 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.

Conflicting reports

Sri Lankan officials gave conflicting reports of the death of Prabhakaran. They initially said he had been
killed in an ambush by commandos as he tried to break through government lines in an ambulance. But
the army later said his body was found on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon and he had been shot in
scrubland - probably during fierce fighting. Tamil Tiger officials at first denied Prabhakaran's death,
insisting that he was "alive and safe".

Sri Lankan officials have said that more than 6,200 security personnel were killed and almost 30,000
wounded in the final three years of the war. Estimates for Tamil Tiger deaths vary from 15,000 to more
than 22,000. About 275,000 Sri Lankan civilians are still displaced because of the fighting, posing a huge
problem for international aid agencies.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday to see the situation for himself. At the
end of his visit a joint UN-Sri Lankan statement said that the government had pledged to investigate claims
of human rights violations committed during the conflict.

But the government has rejected UN calls to allow aid agencies unhindered access to refugee camps.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said authorities had to identify any remaining rebel fighters in the camps.

 

[old medic]

Sri Lanka gov't supporters stone Canadian mission

Wed. May. 27 2009
The Associated Press
copy located at: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090527/srilanka_stone_090527/20090527?hub=World

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Hundreds of Sri Lankans protested outside the Canadian High Commission in Colombo on Wednesday, accusing Ottawa of supporting Tamil Tiger rebels.

They pelted the mission with stones, sprayed graffiti on the wall and painted over a security camera.

Sri Lankans have reacted angrily to perceived international support for the rebels, especially from countries that pushed the government for a ceasefire in the final days of the war to rescue tens of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire.

The protest came a week after Sri Lanka declared victory in its quarter-century war with the Tigers.

The demonstrators said they were protesting against what they called Canada's support for the insurgents and its alleged failure to protect Sri Lankans and their property from pro-rebel groups in Canada.

However, many Tamil Canadians say the federal government has ignored their plight.

They have protested across Canada recently, calling for government intervention in the war, which ended with the killing of the Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Canada, along with several other countries, lists the group as a terrorist organization.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't  :

Ah well, C'est la vie... C'est la guerre...

 

[Rinker]

seems to be a lot of that going around (the english part)

 

[old medic]

Liberal MP Bob Rae denied entry into Sri Lanka
Updated Wed. Jun. 10 2009 9:54 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090610/rae_entry_090610/20090610?hub=World

Liberal MP Bob Rae, an outspoken critic of Sri Lanka's recent crackdown on the Tamil Tigers, was blocked from entering the country Wednesday.

Rae, who only had a one-way ticket to Sri Lanka, was detained at the Katunayaka International Airport and forced to leave on another flight.

Immigration Commissioner P. B. Abeykoon said Sri Lanka's intelligence services deemed the Liberal foreign affairs critic's visit as "not suitable."

"We got information from the intelligence services that his visit to the country was not suitable," Abeykoon said, according to The Associated Press.

Abeykoon told AFP that the government had information that Rae "is supporting the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."

Last month, Tamil Tiger rebels offered to lay down their arms after a bloody conflict with Sri Lanka's military. According to a United Nations tally, more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the conflict.

In a May 19 blog posting, Rae took aim at how the Sri Lankan government handled the conflict.

"'The war is over,' the crowds will shout," Rae wrote.

"But there is a difference between a war ended by agreement and a war ended by death and destruction.

"If there is no magnanimity in victory there is no victory. I think of the possibilities of peace in the years after 2000 and I weep at the lost opportunity, the lost lives. So many dead now that were once alive, debating the possibilities of peace."

During the conflict, Rae had called on the Canadian government to become involved in negotiating a peaceful end to the conflict.

In an April 27 posting, Rae called Canada's absence a "disgrace."

During the conflict, thousands of Tamil-Canadians protested in Toronto and Ottawa calling on the Canadian government to get involved. During one protest, thousands flooded onto Toronto's Gardiner Expressway, shutting down one of the country's busiest freeways.

So far this year, Canada has donated a total of $7.5 million in humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka.

With files from The Canadian Press

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Well the Liberals marched in parades with LTTE supporters spouting their flags, what did he expect the Sri Lankans to think?

The world is changing, the governments of countries like Sri Lanka are no longer beholden to the West, they prefer the support of China and others.

 

[CougarKing]

Seems there are still some holdouts/remnants out there... 

Sri Lankan Tamil rebels say new leader arrested
AP


By KRISHAN FRANCIS, Associated Press Writer Krishan Francis, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lankan authorities questioned the new leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels Friday after he was arrested in Southeast Asia and flown to this island nation.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the insurgent group's former chief arms smuggler, assumed the leadership of the Tamil Tigers after government forces routed the rebels in May in northern Sri Lanka and killed their revered leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Pathmanathan was believed to be based in Southeast Asia in recent years and was one of the few rebel leaders to survive the government offensive that demolished the separatists' shadow state in northern Sri Lanka and ended the quarter century civil war.

But as Pathmanathan, known by his nom de guerre KP, worked to revive the Tamil Tigers, the government pushed for his arrest.

The rebels said in a statement that Pathmanathan was arrested Wednesday near a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A pro-rebel Web site said Pathmanathan had gone to the hotel to meet relatives of the group's slain political leader, Balasingham Nadesan. He left the room to answer a phone call, but did not return, it said.

A Malaysian Defense Ministry spokeswoman said the ministry has no information about the reported arrest, and that it would have been handled by the police. She cannot be identified under the ministry's briefing rules.

Malaysian national police chief Musa Hassan said he knew nothing about an arrest and declined to comment further.

Sri Lanka's Island newspaper, quoting anonymous sources, said Pathmanathan had been captured in Thailand.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn denied he was arrested there but said there were "reports that he has been traveling in and out of Thailand."

A Thai military intelligence official said Pathamanathan had been hiding in northern Thailand under a false identity in recent months. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the government did not want to acknowledge his presence in the country.

Sri Lanka's military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said Pathmanathan — who was wanted by Interpol — had been brought to Sri Lanka and was being interrogated. He refused to say where Pathmanathan had been arrested or whether the military or police had custody of him.

The arrest was expected to give President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his allies a boost ahead of local government elections Saturday in the northern towns of Jaffna and Vavuniya, just outside the rebels' former heartland.

The government said the polls proved it was returning democracy to the region, but it has been criticized for banning foreign media from traveling to the towns to cover the elections.

The Sri Lankan authorities planned to hold a news conference Friday to discuss the arrest, a major blow to the rebel group's efforts to regroup after its devastating battlefield defeat.

Soon after the defeat, Pathmanathan declared himself the new leader of the Tamil Tigers, swore off violence and worked to transform a group shunned internationally as a terror organization into a democratic movement for Tamil statehood. He cast himself as a defender of the nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting and held in government detention camps in the area.

However, some Tamil expatriates were furious with Pathmanathan for so swiftly acknowledging Prabhakaran's death in battle in May while many of the rebel chief's followers insisted he still lived.

In a sign Pathmanathan was having trouble uniting the Tamil community behind him, the rebel-linked TamilNet Web site did not even report his arrest.

Pathmanathan rose to prominence as the architect of the group's vast international smuggling ring of arms, drugs and possibly even people that Jane's Intelligence Review estimated earned the rebels up to $300 million a year.

Sri Lankan officials have told The Associated Press that Pathmanathan traveled with dozens of passports — including Indian, Egyptian, Malaysian — and bought weapons from countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Bulgaria and South Africa.

The rebels had fought a 25-year battle to carve out an independent state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.

Between 80,000-100,000 people were killed in the violence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090807/ap_on_...ka_rebel_leader

 

[CougarKing]

Meanwhile, back in Sri Lanka...

Sri Lanka Military Boss to Run for President: Report
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 8 Nov 2009 14:27 

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's sidelined military chief, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, will stand against President Mahinda Rajapakse in elections to held before April, a press report said Nov. 8.

The Sunday Times newspaper here said Fonseka, who is credited with crushing Tamil Tiger separatists earlier this year, had been chosen by a consortium of opposition parties to be their presidential nominee.
Fonseka has been at loggerheads with the government in recent months after he was removed as army chief and made chief of defense staff, a more ceremonial post with no command responsibilities.

"Constituent parties of the newly formed [opposition] United National Front reached consensus this week that Gen. Sarath Fonseka should be their common candidate," the Sunday Times said.

There was no immediate comment from Fonseka, who returned to the island last week after a controversial visit to the United States where the Department of Homeland Security wanted to question him about alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Fonseka announced during his U.S. visit that he was willing to shed his uniform and take up "social work" if politicians did not take advantage of the end of the decades-old separatist conflict to ensure economic revival.

Sri Lanka's main opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, declined comment on the news report, but said his alliance was keen to abolish the executive presidency.

The government announced last month that it would hold early presidential and parliamentary elections as the ruling party moved to gain from strong public support after its defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in May.

Rajapakse narrowly won the November 2005 presidential election on a pledge to abolish the presidency, but has since said he wanted to contest for a second term.

(...)

A pledge to abolish the presidency? 

 

[x512er]

More good news :    2 Canadians jailed for trying to help Tamil Tigers.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=23317774

 

[CougarKing]

Sri Lanka military to share war tips at forum

AFP

– 1 hr 18 mins ago

COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka's army Wednesday announced plans to share with other countries its success in crushing ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels and ending the island's 37-year-old separatist war.

Army chief Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said they were inviting heads of military and defence establishments in 54 countries to a three-day forum starting in Colombo from May 31.

"After the war ended many countries have requested us to share some of our strategies with them," Jayasuriya told reporters in Colombo. "They want us to share our experience and expertise with them."

Many field commanders will make presentation at the forum titled "defeating terrorism -- the Sri Lankan experience," Jayasuriya said.

"The objective is to tell the whole story to the world. We have nothing to hide," he said.

Sri Lanka's military campaign has been marred by allegations of war crimes by both sides and provoked US-led calls for an independent international investigation.

The United Nations has estimated that at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of fighting while three international rights groups have placed the figure at more than 30,000.

Sri Lanka insists that it was involved in a "humanitarian operation" to free Tamil civilians dominated by the Tiger rebels and claims that no civilian was killed by its forces.

Colombo has refused to allow any foreign investigation into the military crack down. Fighting between 1972 and May 2009 is estimated to have claimed up to 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.

AFP link


Wasn't the recent Sri Lanka conflict against the Tamil Tigers more of a conventional, civil war though instead of COIN? I seem to recall that the LTTE mainly occupied northern camps and territories instead of waging an all-out guerrilla war.

Furthermore, the LTTE used both naval and air means to attack the Sri Lankan armed forces, as exemplified by the discovery of Tamil Tiger home-made subs mentioned earlier in this thread. As well as converted civilian planes used in attacks on Sri Lankan Air Force bases.

pics of one of the captured Tamil Tiger subs: