Fraud alleged in victory by Sri Lanka governing party
[May 11, 2008, 19:25], [IHT]
BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka: The governing party of Sri Lanka won control of the country's tense Eastern Province on Sunday after an election that monitors said was marred by voter intimidation and fraud.
The election commission said that the United People's Freedom Alliance coalition won 52 percent of the vote in the balloting Saturday, giving it 18 seats - plus two bonus seats given to the winner - on the province's 37-member council.
The opposition United National Party won 42 percent of the vote and captured 15 seats, while two smaller parties won one seat each, the commission said.
The opposition condemned the results of the election, saying they were the outcome of an irreparably flawed vote.
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Sri Lanka: Armed Resistance or Terrorism?
[May 10, 2008, 16:08], [Dissident Voice]
BATTICALOA — When the state is involved in demolishing peace in the country there then is a serious problem. Furthermore, when the state forces are caught planting bombs and claymore mines then it calls for serious action. Sadly, that is the state of affairs in Sri Lanka.
State terror is a reality. That is something that the international community has chosen to ignore. When a state is hell-bent on ‘secret’ ethnic cleansing, head-hunting human rights activists, journalists, intellectuals, parliamentarians, vocal clerics and witnesses of state crimes then what is the duty and responsibility of the citizens?
It is in this context one has to review the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. The struggle for liberation against the Sinhala hegemony is seen by the West-dominated international community as terrorism.
Rappers Little Empire raise awareness about turmoil in Sri Lanka
[May 10, 2008, 15:42], [Toronto Star]
Little Empire is more than just a music group. It's a movement spearheaded by five Canadians of Tamil descent committed to raising awareness about the oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka, running a community basketball league and mixing hip hop, Tamil, rap and reggae.
Sanskrit, tha REAL, Milan, 6ix Facist and DNA Blitz, the group's five members who range in age from 22 to 32, sing about religious strife, the impact of the tsunami on Sri Lanka and Tamil identity in Canada.
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Sri Lanka: (Breaking News) Troops Carrier Ship sunk -- LTTE
[May 10, 2008, 01:42], [TNS]
Killinochchi - The Sri Lanka Navy supply ship and troops carrier was attacked and sunk on Saturday early morning 2:33 am by the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) .
The Ship Carrier named A-520 involved in naval service between KKS and Trincomalee by the Sri Lanka Navy.
Fighting has flared in recent months across the many front lines area in the north bordering the De Facto state of the LTTE. Sri Lankan government early this year unilaterally scrapped the truce pact which was signed between the LTTE and the GoSL in February 2002 under the Norway sponsor.
Stop blocking a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka
[May 10, 2008, 00:29], [Reliefweb]
The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly supports the call for a human rights monitoring mission by the United Nations as a measure to resuscitate the severely damaged criminal investigation capacity of the Sri Lankan policing system.
The state, as the sovereign, owes an obligation to investigate into all crimes irrespective as to whether these are done by organised criminal gangs, terrorists or state agencies themselves. This obligation implies that there needs to be a competent and impartial criminal investigation branch within the policing system which has not been corrupted or impaired by political interference. There is consensus within Sri Lanka that the capacity of the police investigation system has been gravely diminished due to political interference over several years and that its internal capacity for investigations has become extremely limited. When it comes to organised crimes, acts of terrorists and also extrajudicial acts of the military and the police, the police investigation system has not demonstrated any capacity for effective investigations in recent years.
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Clashes Between Sri Lanka Military and Tamil Tigers Continue
[May 9, 2008, 17:03], [Enews20]
Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry informed of the capture of Adampan town in northern Mannar district as a result of the two-hour fighting that took place Friday. There were seventeen casualties, among which fifteen Tamil Tigers rebels.
"They had built fortified connected bunkers in the area. The area had to be liberated for people to settle down there," said brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, as cited by BBC News.
Officials assert this is an outset in defeating and stopping guerilla actions in the area, because this capture will block guerilla movement and will harden their transportation of arms and supplies. They foreshadow to succeed annihilating rebels’ intentions and undertakings by the end of this year, as the International Herald Tribune informs.
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Sri Lanka: Bomb Blast in Ampaarai
[May 9, 2008, 16:34], [TNS]
Colombo - A powerful bomb exploded inside a restaurant in Ampaarai, in the eastern Sri Lanka just 12 hours ahead of the eastern Sri Lanka go for the provincial election killed 8 and over 30 were injured according to the report from Ampaarai.
The explosion has taken place on Friday evening 6:00 p.m. Bomb explosions are increasing in Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka stepped up military operations in the north.
Sri Lanka: Heavy Fighting in Manaar Kills 30 - LTTE
[May 9, 2008, 14:50], [TNS]
Manaar - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan security forces (SF) clashed in Karukaikulam area in Mannar, when the SF troopers tried to advance into the LTTE held area using heavy tanks, artillery and mortars. At least 30 SF troopers were killed and large number of SF troopers were wounded, five dead bodies of the SF troopers recovered along with large quantity of war materials and attacks by the SF completely thwarted, according LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan.
Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) carried out indiscriminate bombing in Mannaar area using Kifir, MIGs and helicopters. SF troopers also lost an Armored Personal Carrier (APC) and towed the burnt APC by SF.
Sri Lanka military seeks funds from Sinhala Diaspora
[May 9, 2008, 04:20], [TN]
The Sri Lankan government has launched a fundraising drive amongst Sinhala expatriates in support of its military. The initiative was formally launched Tuesday at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London and is to be continued in other capitals with Sinhala Diaspora. Several businessmen came forward to contribute towards the UK target of GBP 100,000, press reports said. The Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London, Mrs. Kshenuka Seniwiratne, bought the first ticket in a raffle for the project.
Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the Defence Attaché of the London High Commissioner launched the Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsored “Api Wenuwen Api” initiative on May 6th.
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Unidentified Armed Men Abducts a Family Man in Eastern Sri Lanka
[May 8, 2008, 17:12], [TNS]
Ampaarai - A 27 year old family man had been abducted in Ampaarai today by the unidentified armed men who have arrived in the white van.
On Tuesday, Mr. Velmuruku, a victim of chronic asthma, was abducted near the bus stand in Akkaraippattu around 6:45 a.m. while he was on his way to work.
Tthousands of people were abducted or disappeared or violently killed in this year alone in the North and East (N&E) of Sri Lanka.
Hundreds of civilians have been surrendered to various Human Rights Commission (HRC) offices for past two years fearing for their safety and their lives as they continue to receive death threats from armed forces and aligned paramilitary armed men operating with Sri Lankan Security Forces (SF).
Sri Lanka links conflict to war on terror
[May 8, 2008, 16:55], [Toronto Star]
Returning to Colombo after several years, one is struck by the military checkpoints at key crossings where visitors are waved on but young Tamil males are not.
The fortified capital is pasted with war posters – a map of Sri Lanka, with an eye in the middle and a caption: "Are you alert? If you are, your village and your country are safe."
The media are uniformly bellicose: "Military makes advances." "There's no unwinnable war: Only a mission to crush terrorism." "The LTTE must be defeated at all costs."
The army is on the march, again, against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been seeking independence for the northern part of the island nation.
But the latest round of the 25-year-old conflict between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils – it has already claimed 70,000 lives and sent hundreds of thousands of Tamils into exile, including Canada – is being billed as part of the worldwide war on terror.
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Burma cyclone: up to 50,000 dead and millions homeless, but still no call for aid
[May 7, 2008, 18:40], [Timesonline]
Even before you set foot in Burma, as the aircraft begins its descent towards Rangoon airport, it is obvious that something appalling has happened. Usually, the Irrawaddy delta is a land of deep and varied greens — the rice and vegetable fields, the river banks and the tropical trees that shade the towns and villages. But today the landscape is dominated by a different colour — the thick enveloping brown of river mud.
It fills the swollen rivers and creeks and lies in a sticky blanket over vast areas of rice paddy. Ponds have been turned into brown lakes, meadows have become marshes and somewhere down there are millions of people whose lives were overturned on Saturday by a rising tide of brown water.
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NGOs say five nations unfit to serve on UN rights body
[May 7, 2008, 17:38], [France24]
Gabon, Bahrain, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zambia do not deserve a seat on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations' top rights body, two non-governmental organizations said Tuesday.
In a joint report, UN Watch and Freedom House, which champion human rights worldwide, lamented that Gabon and Zambia were guaranteed seats on the council because of a lack of competition from more democratic countries in their African group.
Their report was unveiled here as the UN General Assembly is set to elect 15 new members of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) -- one third of its membership -- on May 21.
"Democratic countries are squandering a golden opportunity to promote human rights through this important UN body," Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, told reporters.
"Instead they lend international credibility to repressive governments that routinely violate the rights of their own citizens."
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Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka
[May 7, 2008, 06:58], [HRW]
Major hostilities between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resumed in mid-2006 and in January 2008 the government formally withdrew from the ceasefire in place since 2002. Since then the fighting has claimed hundreds of civilians lives, and tens of thousands more have been displaced. Human Rights Watch has long documented serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both parties to the conflict. We are deeply concerned that with the ceasefire’s end, abuses will intensify.Human Rights Watch reiterates its call for the urgent deployment of a United Nations human rights field operation in Sri Lanka with a strong mandate to monitor abuses by all sides, publicly report its findings, and act to promote respect for basic rights at the local level. Further recommendations are provided at the end of this submission.
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Sri Lanka: Heavy Fighting Flares in Manaar
[May 7, 2008, 05:51], [TNS]
Manaar - The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fiercely attacked the Sri Lankan security forces (SF) when they tried to advance into the Forward Defense Line (FDL) from Thirukkeatheesvaram towards Veaddaiyaamurippu in Mannaar area on Tuesday 5:30 a.m. SF troopers sustained very heavy casualties. Another attack was carried out by the SF from Karukkaikulam targeting Vadakandal area at 8:15 a.m. A armoured personal carrier was completely destroyed in the mine attack at least 9 SF troopers were killed while many SF troopers were injured in the attack, according to the sources in Wanni.
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