Tamil rebels, Sri Lankan troops exchange mortar fire after airstrikes kill six insurgents

Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka - 's military exchanged mortar fire Friday, a day after the air force bombed rebel-held areas, killing six insurgents and wounding five others, as the country teetered toward full-scale war.

In the latest violence to menace the island nation, the Tigers fired mortar rounds on government positions early Friday, the Defense Ministry's media unit said. The volley came from an area where tensions are high over a rebel blockade of a key source of water for 15,000 people in government-held villages in the northeast.

The army retaliated with its own mortar fire, but no other details were immediately available, said an official who cannot be named because of military regulations.

The pro-rebel Web site TamilNet said six rebels were killed and five others wounded when airstrikes Thursday hit a camp in Kathiraveli 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Trincomalee town close to the water facility.

Three civilians also were hurt in the attack, it quoted rebel official S. Elilan as saying. The report gave no further details. In a separate air raid on the rebels' unfinished runway, the government said it had acted on information that the insurgents had cleared forests and had already built an unpaved air strip.

On Wednesday, the military launched airstrikes on the rebel-controlled area the scene of the water dispute saying insurgents were blocking the flow of water from a plant there. The Tamil Tigers justified their action by saying the government had reneged on a promise to build a water tower for areas under rebel control.

The government said the rebels' water blockade had affected 15,000 families living in government-controlled villages, many of whom are without water to irrigate rice crops. Local television showed some of the villagers calling on the government to take punitive action against the Tigers.

Meanwhile, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said a foot patrol discovered a 10 kilogram (22 pound) bomb in Trincomalee district late Thursday. Roadside bombs, which can be detonated by remote control, have been the favored weapon of the rebels.

The rebels started their Tamil homeland campaign in 1983, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. In 2002 a cease-fire halted the conflict, but subsequent peace talks broke down on rebel demands for sweeping autonomy.

In recent months, however, an escalation of violence has threatened a return to all-out war with more than 750 people half of them civilians killed since December.

Finland, Denmark withdraw from Sri Lanka cease-fire monitoring team amid rising violence

Finland and Denmark, two of the five countries in the European monitoring mission overseeing the shaky cease-fire between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels, have decided to withdraw because of inadequate security, a spokesman said Friday.

Sri Lanka - Monitoring Mission acting spokesman Robert Nilsson said the two countries notified the group that their monitors will withdraw on Sept. 1.

``The foreign ministries back home feel that they don't get proper security guarantees for their monitors, that why they are withdrawing,'' he said.

``This is quite worrying, we will end up with a much smaller SLMM. In the end it's the Sri Lankan people that will be affected by it,'' Nilsson said.

Finland has deployed 12 monitors and Denmark eight, he said.

The 57 members of the mission come from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland.

Norway formed the monitoring team after brokering the 2002 truce, which stopped the civil war between the rebels and the government.

The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have opposed the inclusion of European Union members in the team since the EU designated the rebels a terrorist group in May.

At a June 8 meeting, the rebels said they would give the mission one month to withdraw EU members, but later extended the deadline until Sept. 1.

Of the five countries in the monitoring mission, only Norway and Iceland are not EU members.

On July 21, Swedish diplomat Anders Oljelund met with top Tamil Tiger officials but failed to persuade the guerrilla leadership to drop the demand.

The LTTE demand comes amid a surge in violence between the insurgents and the government, threatening the four-year cease-fire and raising the threat of all-out civil war.

The rebels are already banned in the United States, Canada, Britain and in neighboring India.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils since 1983. The conflict left more than 65,000 people dead before the 2002 cease-fire

Death toll from airstrikes rises to six in Sri Lanka ; powerful roadside bomb found

Sri Lanka - 's air force bombed rebel-held areas, including an unfinished runway and a rebel camp, killing six insurgents and wounding five others, a pro-rebel Web site reported Friday, in the latest violence to menace the island nation.

Tensions also were high over an alleged rebel blockade of a key source of water for 15,000 people in government-held villages in the northeast.

The pro-rebel Web site TamilNet said six rebels were killed and five others wounded when airstrikes Thursday hit a camp in Kathiraveli 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Trincomalee town close to the water facility.

Three civilians also were hurt in the attack, it quoted rebel official S. Elilan as saying. The report gave no further details.

In a separate air raid on the rebels' unfinished runway, the government said it had acted on information that the insurgents had cleared forests and had already built an unpaved air strip.

On Wednesday, the military launched airstrikes on a rebel-controlled area in the northeastern Trincomalee district, alleging insurgents were blocking the flow of water from a plant there. The Tamil Tigers justified their action by saying the government had reneged on a promise to build a water tower for areas under rebel control.

The government said the rebels' water blockade had affected 15,000 families living in government-controlled villages, many of whom are without water to irrigate rice crops. Local television showed some of the villagers calling on the government to take punitive action against the Tigers.

Meanwhile, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said a foot patrol discovered a 10 kilogram (22 pound) bomb in Trincomalee district late Thursday. Roadside bombs, which can be detonated by remote control, have been the favored weapon of the rebels.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for more than two decades for a separate state in the northeast, which they consider to be the historical and cultural homeland of the ethnic Tamils. They already control swaths of the region, but are intent on capturing all of what they refer to as ``Tamil Eelam,'' or the Tamil homeland.

About 65,000 people were killed before a Norway-brokered 2002 cease-fire halted full scale hostilities. In recent months, however, an escalation of violence has threatened a return to all-out war.

More than 750 people half of them civilians have been killed since December

News Today

ASEAN agrees to let Sri Lanka participate in Asia-Pacific security meet

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will let Sri Lanka take part in future meetings of Asia's largest security conference, Malaysia's foreign minister said Tuesday.

``ASEAN (has) agreed to admit Sri Lanka as a new participant'' in the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said, adding that it was subject to consensus approval from ARF members.

If ARF members agree during their two-day annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur starting Thursday, Sri Lanka would be the group's 27th member, he said.

Bangladesh will be participating in the ARF for the first time in this week's meeting, Syed Hamid said.

The 10 ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Its other dialogue partners in the ARF are Australia, Canada, China, East Timor, European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Korea, United States.

Petroleum strike ends; Sri Lankan government buys two-week grace period

The Sri Lankan government bought two weeks grace period from petroleum sector trade unions late Tuesday, with fuel stocks expected to hit Colombo city by midnight.

Unions struck work demanding Asantha de Mel, the head of a key petroleum facility is removed, as they feared his appointment was the first step towards privatising petroleum assets.

President Mahinda Rajapakse’s trade union advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra stepped in to resolve the crisis, after petroleum minister A H M Fowzie walked out of heated talks with trade unions earlier in the day.

“Mr. Premachandra promised us in writing that president Rajapakse will look into our grievances within two weeks time. With that assurance we are asking our members to return to work,” A L Ananda, Chairman of the CPC Joint Trade Union Front said.

Union demands agreed to include asking de Mel to stay away from his office and removing his executive powers, Ananda said.

On Monday De Mel took over as chairman of the Common Petroleum Storage Terminal (CPSTL), which is a joint venture between state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp, Lanka IOC and the government treasury.

Fuel sheds usually hold stocks of diesel for about three days and petrol for about five days, but panic buying could deplete stocks faster.

A prolonged strike would also affect supplies at both Ceypetco and Lanka IOC sheds.

Fears of shortages triggered panic buying in filling stations around Colombo, with most sheds in the city running out of stocks on Tuesday.

Public transport was also on a low key, with some companies allowing staff to leave early.

Ceypetco runs over 600 sheds, including dealer owned filling stations, while Lanka IOC owns 100 sheds with 58 dealer owned stations in its network.

Forgotten and forsaken Sri Lankans in Lebanon

THE absolute raw and brutal misery of the Middle East fills us with despair, depression, revulsion and anxiety. Watching the hellish carnage on television is unbearable, but at times it is hard to take our eyes away.

The spectacle of human beings willfully beheading one another like savages is a melancholy reminder that in the absence of universal respect, hatred will spring up in inevitable evil spasms of destruction.

The current misery in Israel and Lebanon was triggered by Arab provocations but the Israeli war machine went into full battle-dress holy-war vengeance. Having a long time ago wandered in the desert themselves, the Israelis are now in the position of making others into today’s wanderers.

Miles underneath the precision aerial bombing and just below the whistling of the rockets from all sides are all manner of human beings struggling to survive — leaving aside the evil terrorists regrouping for the next kill — who deserve a significantly better fate than the hell that’s surrounding them now.

High on the list of the most miserable are the abandoned colony of Sri Lankans — trapped inside Lebanon as of this writing. To be sure, they are hardly the only ethnic group under the gun — consider the broader misery of the innocent, un-terror-affiliated Lebanese themselves. But their plight is especially poignant nonetheless: They are abject and luckless political and economic refugees from the once-idyllic island nation of Sri Lanka, and they are now apparently sliding as irrevocably towards civil-war hell as perhaps now Iraq — not to mention their own home country.

They fled their small native island, off the southeast coast of gigantic India, to escape the violence perpetrated by minority-rebel Tamil extremists and the Sinhalese government majority, and to find such menial jobs as they could in order to survive.

Of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who have fled over the decades, an astonishing 80,000 appear to have clustered around besieged Beirut, mostly women, finding work as maids, as washer-women, as day labours, as the lumpen-proletariat of this large Lebanese metropolis. They have been arriving in waves of about 10,000 a year, over time creating one of the most intense concentrations of the Lebanese diaspora on earth.

The life they were to inherit in Lebanon was hardly more favorable to them than the one they abandoned in their homeless. Their treatment by their employers was often little better than master to slave. Various human-rights group tried to come to the rescue of these homeless and stateless refugees, but it wasn’t until the well-known Sri Lankan actor Ranjan Ramanayka visited Lebanon and drew the media’s attention to the intense abuse of domestic workers in homes and prisons that their plight began to receive official attention.

Now their statelessness and homelessness has been heightened by the general panic in the Middle East that’s generated the sagas of flight that’s all over the world media. European foreigners were among the first to get out, then the Americans. But the 80,000 Sri Lankans — many without proper visa or passports — cower together, many in mountain hide-ways, praying simply that errant Israel bombs — the "dumb bombs," as it were — will not hit them.

The government of Sri Lanka, at this writing, is asking the government of India for help in evacuating at least some of its citizens, and India’s ships have indeed set sail. Whether the fleet will safely arrive and how many Sri Lankans they will choose to take back to South Asia and what will happen to them once they are back in either India or war-torn Sri Lanka, this is a complex puzzle that cannot be solved right now.

The fact is that dilemma may never arise; they may never escape the hell. Surely, the fate of these poor people somehow inspires pity and caring above and beyond all that we feel about the situation in the Middle East in general. These people simply wandered in search of a little tiny piece of life — a job, a shelter, a relief from war. Destiny, as it happened, took them to one of the places on earth that turned out to be as violent as the hell they left.

They wandered in search of a new home and a better future. If there is anyone on earth that should most sympathise with the Sri Lankans caught in the vile vortex of Lebanon, it must be the Jews in Israel. As if only for them — and for them alone — the government of Israel must find a way to stop this bombing and end this hell.

Her job bombarded and her future shattered, this Sri Lankan worker from Lebanon was flown back to Colombo yesterday with a few important belongings hurriedly packed into cardboard boxes. 

Report: Sri Lanka 's Tamil Tiger rebels draft 'anti-terrorism law'

Sri Lanka - 's Tamil Tiger rebels, listed as a terrorist organization in many countries, are drafting their own ``anti-terrorism laws'' to deal with government military and police personnel who enter their territory, a news report said Sunday.

The separatist Tigers, who run a de facto state in vast swaths of land in Sri Lanka - 's Tamil-majority northeast, often accuse the military of involvement in ``state terrorism'' in Tamil-majority areas.

Hundreds of Tamils have been killed in shadowy circumstances since December, the start of a surge in violence that threatens to drag the country back into full-scale civil war.

The Tigers put on trial in their own courts any government security personnel captured in their territory. In a faltering 2002 cease-fire agreement, the Sri Lankan government agreed to stay out of rebel-controlled areas.

The anti-terrorism law is expected to be finalized by the year end, the independent Sunday Times newspaper reported, quoting Eliyathambi Pararajasingham, in charge of the rebels own legal system.

At least one government policeman and a soldier are currently held by the Tigers despite repeated attempts by European cease-fire monitors to secure their release.

The guerrillas are blacklisted as a terrorist organization by India, the United States, the European Union and Canada.

Also on Sunday, a Tamil civilian whom rebels labeled a military informer was fatally shot.

Unidentified assailants shot dead Sivaprakasam Thirunavukarasu, 66, in northern Jaffna peninsula, according to an official at the Media Center for National Security.

The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said Thirunavukarasu was a military informant but did not claim responsibility for the killing.

Separately, a sailor was injured when rebels threw a grenade at a guard point in an islet off Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, said the official who requested anonymity because he isn't allowed to speak to the media.

More than 750 people half of them civilians have been killed since December but both sides deny responsibility and blame each other for the violence.

The Tigers began fighting the government in 1983 for a separate state for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.

More than 65,000 people were killed until the 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire

Civilian fatally shot, sailor wounded in latest violence in northern Sri Lanka

A Tamil civilian whom rebels labeled a military informer was fatally shot and guerrillas wounded a sailor in a grenade attack in northern Sri Lanka Sunday, an officials, as the island nation teetered on the edge of full-blown civil war.

Unidentified assailants shot dead Sivaprakasam Thirunavukarasu, 66, in northern Jaffna peninsula, according to an official at the Media Center for National Security.

The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said Thirunavukarasu was a military informant but did not claim responsibility for the killing.

Separately, a sailor was injured when rebels threw a grenade at a guard point in an islet off Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, said the official who requested anonymity because he isn't allowed to speak to the media.

The incidents are part of surging violence in Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil-majority north and east that threatens to destroy a fragile cease-fire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

More than 750 people _ half of them civilians _ have been killed since December but both sides deny responsibility and blame each other for the violence.

The Tigers began fighting the government in 1983 for a separate state for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.

More than 65,000 people were killed until the 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire.

Roads a bridge between North, South - President

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a clarion call to Road Development Authority engineers to commit themselves to merge the gap between the North and the South through the development of road structures in the island.

He was addressing the Road Development Authority Engineers Association Annual General Meeting at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday.

"When the World Bank President came here I spoke to him about the possibility of getting funds to build a highway linking the North and the South. I hope this would materialise as the Road to Peace," President said.

Reiterating the Government's commitment to development against the backdrop of any adverse implications, the President highlighted the importance of developing road infrastructure as a catalyst to development and peace.

"As a Government committed to development we have paid special attention to the development of infrastructure. Our ancestors received world acclaim for their achievements in engineering. Our duty should be to use this as a catalyst in developing a hassle free and development oriented road structure for our future generation," the President said.

"Roads could be used to bridge the gap between village and the city and could be used as a catalyst to prospective investments both local and foreign".

"As the guardians of the roads in our country,the responsibility of future growth is on your shoulders. As such you should take it to your heart to do justice to the free education you received and the faith we all have placed on you with a committed effort to development," he added.

Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle hailed the occasion as a historic one.

"This is the first time a meeting of this nature is being held at the Presidential Secretariat. That in itself shows the Government's stance on the development of roads as a high priority issue".

"Korea has 4,000 km of highways and China has 40,000 km, but we do not even have one kilometre. As such we should all commit ourselves to developing this most important type of infrastructure. We have launched several highway projects," Fernandopulle added.

Both T.B.Ekanayake Minister of Road development and his deputy Rohana Kumara Dissanayake stressed the importance of developing the 64,600 Km road network in the island. Citing a World Bank report Dissanayake said that poverty was prevalent in areas where the road structure was poor. "We should change the trend and use better roads to develop the villagers."

Chairman of the Association Moses Mariyadasan reiterated their commitment to road development behalf of all his colleagues. A web site was launched depicting the work of RDA.

MPs BLAME MANGALA FOR PORT CRISIS

While the port workers' ‘work to rule' protest is continuing for the eighth successive

day, in spite of court enjoining order against the port workers' trade unions, causing losses of hundreds of millions of rupees to national economy each day, Minister of Ports and Shipping Mangala Samaraweera has come under attack from parliamentarians from the opposition parties as well as the ruling party allies.

Former Ports and Shipping Minister and leader of the SLMC Rauff Hakeem MP said in parliament yesterday , July 20, that the demands of the port workers were justifiable in that they were asking for salary increments in keeping with salary increments given to the government employees. They also have demanded that the anomalies on their salary scales should be rectified. The strike which continues for over one week due to the wrong handling of the issue by the present Minister of Ports and Shipping has gravely affected national revenue, he said.

Hakeem said that 19 ships could not berth in the Colombo port due to the current crisis and warned that shipping lines would bypass Colombo port and opt for Singapore or Dubai if the crisis continued. He said this would cause a grave crisis because the Colombo port facilitated 72 percent of transshipment cargo. He also said that the government should take steps to avoid a possible congestion surcharge being imposed on containers at $ 40 per 200 foot container and $ 80 per 40 foot container.

Government ally JVP's parliamentarian Sunil Handunetti and UNP parliamentarian Dr.Rajitha Senaratne accused Minister Samaraweera of resorting to a blame game with port workers instead of trying to resolve the Colombo port crisis which has cost hundreds of millions of rupees daily.

Sri Lanka evacuates 300 from Lebanon -- 92,700 to go

Sri Lanka is facing a logistical nightmare in trying to contact around 93,000 nationals -- mostly housemaids -- working in Lebanon, and has so far managed to evacuate just 300, officials said on Friday. Around 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, most of them women working in the Middle East as domestic staff, and many are not registered with their local embassies -- which are small anyway and do not have the resources to reach so many people in times of crisis.

There are around 93,000 Sri Lankans currently working in Lebanon, 86,000 of them housemaids, said Jagath Wellawatta, Chairman of Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau. "It is logistically very, very difficult to get in contact with that many people. We have under 500 people waiting to be evacuated, but we hope that number will increase," he said.

"We have very few officials in the Lebanon embassy ... We don't know where people are staying or if they are injured or not," Wellawatta added. "If it is necessary, we are ready to evacuate all Sri Lankan workers."

Sri Lanka has advised all of its nationals to leave Lebanon in the face of deepening conflict between Israel and Hizbollah. Aid groups including Caritas and the International Organisation for Migration are helping to evacuate those who have gathered at Sri Lanka's Lebanon mission to Damascus.

Sri Lankan soldiers escape Tamil rebels' bomb attack in north, says military

A group of 15 Sri Lankan soldiers on a route clearing patrol in a northern town escaped a Tamil Tiger rebels' bomb attack Friday, when the roadside bomb exploded prematurely, the military said. One soldier was, however, sustained minor injuries in the attack near the northern garrison town of Vavuniya, military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.

``The others escaped the attack by the LTTE,'' Samarasinghe said, blaming the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The bomb exploded prematurely, he said.

The failed attack came amid a surge in violence between the insurgents and the government, threatening a four-year-old cease-fire and raising the prospect of all-out civil war.

Sri Lanka 's Tamil rebels stick to their demand for withdrawal of EU peace monitors

A Swedish diplomat met with top Tamil Tiger officials Friday, but failed to persuade the guerrilla leadership to drop a demand for the withdrawal of European Union peace monitors, the rebels said. The issue is the latest flash point in already strained relations between the rebels and Sri Lanka - 's government.

Anders Oljelund met with S.P. Thamilselvan, the political head of the rebels, and Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the head of the rebels' Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi, the rebel stronghold in the north.

After the meeting, Thamilselvan told reporters that there was no change in the rebels' position that EU monitors should leave by Sept. 1.

Earlier, government chief spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, said in Colombo that Oljelund was ``... trying to persuade the LTTE not to insist on their demand that the EU member states should quit the monitoring team.''

The rebels argue that since the EU in May listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, as a terrorist group, monitors from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark could no longer be neutral.

Norway and Iceland are also part of the monitoring mission, but are not EU members.

Oljelund arrived in the capital Colombo on Wednesday. He will return to Sweden on Monday.

During their meeting, Thamilselvan also asked Oljelund to press the government to stop alleged harassment of Tamil civilians living in the northeast, the traditional homeland of ethnic Tamils.

No comment was immediately available from Oljelund.

Earlier, government spokesman Rambukwella said the administration wants the EU to continue its role as peace monitors. ``Our stand is clear that the EU member states should remain in the monitoring team,'' he said.

The Tamil Tigers demand comes amid a surge in violence between the insurgents and the government, threatening the four-year-old cease-fire and raising the prospect of all-out civil war.

More than 750 people have died since December with both sides accusing the other of violating the truce. About 65,000 people were killed between 1983 and 2002, when Norway brokered a cease-fire.

The rebels have fought the government demanding a separate homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.

Associated Press writer Dilip Ganguly contributed to this report from Colombo

Imminent cabinet reshuffle in Sri Lanka -Dr. Palitha Kohona a 20-year veteran of international diplomacy to get the Foreign Ministry portfolio

The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse is considering a major Cabinet reshuffle before the end of the month, according to a reliable report received from Colombo. Several senior Ministers are likely to lose the prominent ministerial positions as they are currently holding but will retain some of the Cabinet portfolios. Former MP Wijedasa Rajapaksa, who resigned from the State Bank Development Ministry, will be offered a Cabinet portfolio and National list MP Dallas Alahapperuma is expected to be appointed as the Minister of Information and Media, sources claimed. The decision on reshuffle was reportedly taken by the President with some disappointment over the activities of some Cabinet Ministers.

Among the major changes to the cabinet structure, the Foreign Ministry portfolio will be given to the 20-year veteran of international diplomacy and the former head of UN's Treaty Section Dr. Palitha Kohona. Dr. Kohona recently left his UN post and taken over the post of Special Advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse on the Peace Process and the Director General of the Secretariat Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP).

Dr. Palitha Kohona received his secondary education in Sri Lanka, at S.Thomas' College Mt. Lavinia, from where he went on to obtain LL.B (Hons) at the University of Sri Lanka and an LL.M from the Australian National University. He obtained a Doctrate from Cambridge University, UK for the work, 'The Regulation of International Trade through Law', subsequently published by Kluwer, Netherlands. He is also an Attorney at Law, of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

Prior to assuming the current position Dr. Kohona was the Chief of the UN Treaty Section in New York. He held this position since 1995. This Section is the largest of five divisions of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which controls a budget US$7.4 million. The Section is responsible for discharging the Secretariat's mandate to register treaties under Article 102 of the Charter and the depositary functions of the Secretary-General for multilateral treaties, e.g. The Land Mines Convention, Kyoto Protocol, Bio-safety Protocol, Treaties on Terrorism and Organised Crime and Human Rights.

At the Treaty Section, Dr. Kohona implemented major managerial changes, including a move to a highly computerized work environment and significantly improved its performance and output earning the UN21 Medal. Dr. Kohona was the Secretary of the UN Inter-Departmental Group established to report on measures to advance the international rule of law and he headed a working group tasked to make recommendations on improving the performance monitoring mechanisms in the Organisation. He led a UN legal delegation to North Korea in 2005 at the invitation of the DPRK government. In February, he was a key speaker at a seminar organized in Canberra by the Australian Joint Parliamentary Committee on Treaties.

Prior to joining the UN, Dr. Kohona was with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia in 1983. Posted to Geneva in 1989, inter alia, he chaired the negotiating group that developed the compliance mechanism under the Montreal Protocol and was closely involved in the negotiation of major multilateral environmental agreements and in the Rio process. Back in Australia in 1992, he was attached to the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations institutional mechanisms and dispute settlement unit and, subsequently, headed the Trade and Investment Section of the Department. Under his stewardship many negotiations on investment protection agreements were initiated, including those with the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea, Argentina and India. He was also responsible for coordinating advice on trade and environment related issues, including those falling under the GATT/WTO.

Sri Lankan government pledges to investigate deadly attack on rebel-linked newspaper

Sri Lanka - 's government promised Wednesday to bring to justice assailants who gunned down two employees at a Tamil Tiger-linked newspaper, describing the brazen assault as an attack on freedom of expression.

Gunmen stormed the office of the independent newspaper Tuesday in northern Sri Lanka - and opened fire, killing two staffers and seriously wounding a third, the editor of the Uthayan newspaper said.

``The government considers this with utmost importance and believes this attack was intended to harm the government's image as a nation with freedom of expression and media independence,'' an official statement said Wednesday.

``The government ... will take every possible step to bring the culprits to book,'' the statement said.

Dressed in black, the attackers broke into the office of the newspaper based in the northern town of Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Colombo and began shooting.

Editor N. Vithyatharan said the gunmen demanded to see three reporters who managed to escape the office. He said the newspaper's editorial manager and a circulation assistant died, and another employee was seriously wounded.

Uthayan is an independent newspaper, but is considered to have close links to Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority.

``I have no doubts that this is a work of armed groups working with the government security forces,'' Vithyatharan said, adding the reason for the attack may have been a cartoon the newspaper published on Monday depicting a former rebel leader prostrating himself before the president.

The person shown in the cartoon, Douglas Devananda, is now a government minister.

Tamil Tiger rebels accuse the government of using other armed Tamil groups to attack the guerrillas. The groups, which once fought alongside the Tigers for a separate state, gave up their struggle after a failed India-arranged peace accord in 1987.

The government has denied backing such groups.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, scheduled to address an international media freedom conference in Colombo on Wednesday, phoned the newspaper publisher and denied any government involvement in the attack, Vithyatharan said.

``His thinking was that the Tigers had done it ahead of his speech to embarrass him. But we clearly told him that the government should bear the responsibility,'' Vithyatharan said.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate nation for ethnic minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese-dominated state of discrimination.

More than 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before a Norway-brokered cease-fire was signed in 2002

Sri Lankan government offers Tamil rebels seaplanes for internal meeting ahead of talks

Sri Lanka - 's government, trying to salvage a fragile truce, said Wednesday it has offered the separatist Tamil Tigers seaplanes to use for the insurgents' internal meeting ahead of planned government-rebel peace talks.

The Tigers have said they must hold a meeting among themselves before they agree to attend the planned peace talks in Geneva.

But the talks, originally scheduled for April 25, became mired in disputes over travel arrangements and spiraling violence, as the country teeters on the edge of a return to civil war.

The Tigers had demanded that government helicopters fly their commanders to the rebels' headquarters for the internal meeting before any future peace talks are held.

The government had instead proposed using private helicopters, but the rebels rejected the idea. The dispute strained relations, and the insurgents pulled out of the talks.

On Wednesday, government peace secretariat chief Palitha Kohona said, ``We have offered them (the Tigers) seaplanes and have agreed on the landing site.''

``On behalf of the peace secretariat, we hope the LTTE will take this opportunity to complete their internal consultations so that (they) could proceed to Geneva for the talks,'' said Kohona, referring to the rebels by the initials of their formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels.

Kohona's comment came a day after President Mahinda Rajapakse urged the Tigers to resume peace talks.

The talks are meant to salvage a 2002 cease-fire that appears to be on the verge of collapse amid violence which claimed about 150 people, including 79 government troops, in April.

The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils, claiming discrimination by the country's Sinhalese majority.

More than 65,000 people were killed in the fighting before Norway brokered the 2002 cease-fire

Sri Lankan elections to judge government's popularity, peace process' direction

At least five people were hurt Thursday in assaults during local elections seen as a referendum on President Mahinda Rajapakse's governing coalition and its support of a peace process with Tamil rebels.

Over 10 million people were eligible to vote in the elections for 226 local councils, which come as spiraling violence threatens a four-year-old cease-fire between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Elections in the north and east where the Tigers operate have been postponed due to security concerns.

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance faces competition from the Marxist People's Liberation Front, a coalition member that backed Rajapakse during the presidential elections but is running its own candidates in the local polls.

The Liberation Front has 40 seats in the 225-member national legislature, and its support is crucial for Rajapakse.

However, a strong showing by the Marxists who oppose Rajapakse's support for Norway's involvement in the island's peace process could compel them to break away from the coalition.

Meanwhile, the main opposition United National Party, or UNP, which signed the Norwegian-brokered cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers in 2002, also faces internal rifts following its defeat in the last presidential election. The UNP currently holds a majority of local councils.

The polls closed at 4 p.m. (1000 GMT) and voter turnout was estimated at about 50 percent, said a government official who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. Results were expected early Friday.

Upali Ratnayake, a spokesman for The Peoples' Action for Free and Fair Election, said the poll monitoring group has received reports that five people were injured in election violence around the country. No other details were available.

Police spokesman Rienzie Perera confirmed that five people were injured and said authorities were investigating the incidents.

The local elections come as spiraling violence threatens the truce between the government and the rebels. More than 166 people, including 87 government security personnel, have been killed since December.

The rebels began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. More than 65,000 people were killed before the cease-fire.

Both sides agreed in Geneva, Switzerland last month to scale down violence and meet again for talks next month.

Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka navy exchange gunfire; no known casualties

) Tamil Tiger rebels in a boat fired at a Sri Lankan navy post in the port town of Trincomalee on Thursday but retreated when the navy retaliated with gunfire, a navy spokesman said. Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, whose peace efforts led to a 2002 cease-fire in Sri Lanka - , is scheduled to visit Colombo April 6 to meet with President Mahinda Rajapakse, the Norwegian Embassy said in a statement.

Solheim's trip will be preceded by a visit by another peace envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, starting Monday. He will look after the day-to-day issues relating to the peace process.

The truce has come under severe strain due to spiraling violence, with more than 166 people, including 87 government security personnel, killed since December.

Both sides agreed in Geneva, Switzerland last month to scale down the violence and meet again for talks in April.

The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils, claiming discrimination by the country's Sinhalese majority. The conflict has cost an estimated 65,000 lives.

KATTANKUDY MOSQUES AND MUSLIM INSTITUTIONS LETTER TO ELECTION COMMISSIONER

Commissioner of Elections
Elections Secretariat
P.O.Box- 02
Sarana Mawatha
Rajagiriya
Sri Jayawarthanapura.

Through : Divisional Secretary, Kattankudy

Honoured Sir,

Postponement of election for Kattankudy Urban Council

Our federation is an organization representing 40 Mosques and 84 social service institutions. Our Kattankudy town has a population of 45000 people and this town is supposed to be the

most thickly populated town in the whole of South East Asia. First of all let us express our vehement and sorrowful protest against your decision to postpone the election to our Urban Council.

The decision that you have taken is a denial of the basic democratic rights of the Muslims living in Kattankudy as well as in Batticaloa district. Moreover, it is very biased, unjust and unfair.

Therefore, we urge you to reconsider your decision and to take early action to conduct the election to our Urban Council. In support of our request we, in addition to various other obvious facts, urge you to consider the following facts as well.

Kattankudy town consists of 100 percents Muslims population and comes under complete government control.

As elections were not held for the last 9 years instead of being administered by Kattankudy Muslims, this town is run by officers who are non-Muslims.

As the representatives of the people are not governing the Urban Council, many basic problems such as non availability of pure drinking water, continues piling of garbage all around the town, very badly damaged roads, no proper drainage systems, frequent flooding of the town after every rain, remain unsolved, uncared and un attended for the last so many years.

In-sufficient staff to run the council also could be added to the list.

No development programmes for the town is put forward or planned or under taken by the officers of the council for many years.

Sir, your decision to postpone the election..

will deny the opportunity to our people to rule themselves and will make our people the slaves of those superior officers who are keen to block the development of the Muslims in the district.

will prevent us from placing our urgent needs and requirements and will make us depend on the bones thrown by the officers who are biased against Muslims.

our town which has not seen development for a long time will fall definitely to the bottom very soon.

Further, we categorically state that no officer in this district or party has the moral right to make recommendations that will deny our community it’s life and development.

And also if the general election, presidential elections could be held without any disturbance why not local body election in an exclusive Muslim town?

Therefore, we earnestly request you reconsider your decision and hold elections to our Council.

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely

(Moulavi AJM Ilyas-falahi)

Secretary

24^th March 2006

Mr.John Cushnahan , Chief Observer for the EU Election Observer Mission (EOM) hand over his final Report regarding the Presidential Election held last year to the S.L.M.C. National Leader Rauff Hakeem at his residence today . 

SLMC to seek relief from Court of Appeal to accept their

SLMC intends to file applications in the Court of Appeal tomorrow to get an order from the court instructing the elections commissioner and the returning officers, especially in the electoral districts of NE and Puttalam to accept the nominations submitted under the party symbol Tree.

The decision to file this application was taken after the SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem accompanied by his Secretary General and other official had met the elections commissioner yesterday to discuss the course action to be taken lift ban on the nomination lists by the party under its symbol, consequent to an order by court suspending the restraining order issued against the party, its leader and the secretary general on the eve of the local government elections.

During the meeting the commissioner has regretted to the SLMC delegation for having rejected the nominations by the party under its symbol the tree in accordance with the enjoining order issued on February 15. He had also appraised the party officials that in order to accept the rejected nominations a court order was required and the commissioner had assured them that his department had no objections whatsoever in the SLMC getting a court order to the effect and it will not interfere in any move by the party.

This decision was also endorsed at the meeting of the High Command of the SLMC held last night at Party's head-quarters Daarussalaam.

New moderate Tamil party recognized in Sri Lanka

Munza Mushtaq in Colombo, March 23, 2006, 1.29 p.m.. A new Tamil party, consisting of some very senior Tamil politicians has come into being. The party, Akhila Illankai Tamil United Front (AITUK) has also been given recognition by the Commissioner of Elections.

The party which aspires to be a driving force against all anti democratic Tamil political parties also envisages that the country's two decade long ethnic conflict should be resolved through a federal solution in a united Sri Lanka.

The AITUK's constitution while impressing upon equality of citizens in all parts of the country has also stressed that the rights of Tamils and Muslims must be secured. The party has also vowed to work for the betterment of those who were displaced internally and externally due to the war.

"Recognition for the party by the Elections Commissioner was granted on February 10, 2006," the AITUK General Secretary K. Vigneswaran told the Lanka Academic. Dr. Vigneswaran a former parliamentarian was earlier an advisor to Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda, but broke ranks with him several months ago owing to alleged 'undemocratic' style adopted by the EPDP leader.

Emphasizing why such a party was created, Dr. Vigneswaran pointed out that the aim of AITUK was to rally together democratically minded and likeminded people, as there was a void of such 'democratic organizations' in the country's Tamil political sector.

Meanwhile, it is reliably learnt that many top notch Tamil politicos such as former parliamentarians from the Tamil United Liberation Front, Eelam Peoples Democratic Party, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam,, North East Provincial Council members and several Local Authority Chairmen are said to be part of this new party.

Farwell with LTTE leader 

Welcome at entrance by Anton Balasingham 

European envoy 

During the Peace meeting  

Pleasure moment 

The top level peace meeting between Norwargian envoy and rebel leaders 

Eric Sholhiem with Prabakaran 

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels agree to peace talks in Switzerland

Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday agreed to hold face-to-face talks with the Sri Lanka government in Switzerland, breaking an almost three year deadlock, officials said.

The agreement was reached after talks between Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim and Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the northern rebel-capital of Kilinochchi, officials involved in the talks said.

Solheim is scheduled to meet Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse on his return to Colombo.

The government will agree to the destination, senior presidential sources s aid. Talks are likely to start next month, they said.

Colombo had indicated to Solheim that it was willing to move away from its earlier insistence of an Asian destination and hold negotiations in any destination other than the Norwegian capital Oslo. The 25 European Union nations in which the rebels have been slapped with travel restrictions was also ruled out. The Tigers had earlier continued to insist that talks must be held nowhere else other than Oslo.

Norwegian envoy holding crucial talks with guerrilla leader to save Sri Lanka cease-fire

Norwegian envoy Eric Solheim arrived in northern Sri Lanka - for crucial talks with the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels Wednesday, amid fears the island could return to civil war after four years of relative calm.

Solheim was meeting Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the rebel-held city of Kilinochchi and was expected to deliver a message from President Mahinda Rajapakse. The meeting could help decide whether Sri Lanka - can hold onto the 2002 cease-fire despite increasing violence.

In the latest of a series of attacks blamed on the rebels, a police officer was wounded when a grenade was thrown at a security bunker in the northern town of Vavuniya early Wednesday, the Media Unit of the Defense Ministry said.

Police on Wednesday were also searching for those responsible for a series of explosions in the Sri Lankan capital that caused widespread panic but no known casualties, Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Jayasundara said.

Separately, unidentified gunmen shot and killed two people, believed to be rebel supporters, in the Tamil city of Jaffna, about 40 kilometers (25 mile) south of Kilinochchi on Wednesday, a police officer said.

About 81 government security personnel have been killed in attacks by suspected Tamil Tigers since Dec. 4. The rebels deny involvement. Another 40 civilians have been killed by unidentified assailants, with the government and the rebels blaming each other for the killings.

Solheim played a key role in arranging the cease-fire, halting nearly two decades of civil war that killed 65,000 people from both sides. Subsequent peace talks broke down in April 2003 when the Tigers withdrew demanding more autonomy for the Tamil-majority north and east.

Both the government and the Tigers have said that they are willing to resume talks aimed at proper implementation of the cease-fire to end the violence.

However, disagreement over the venue and the agenda have delayed the resumption of talks. The Tigers want the talks to be in Oslo, Norway, but the allies in Rajapakse's government are against it. But Rajapakse told Solheim that he would not be rigid on the venue.

The rebels want the government to disarm armed groups opposed to the rebels first and then meet. The government, in turn, says the Tigers should stop attacking government forces first.

The rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils accusing majority Sinhalese of discrimination.

Suspected Rebel Ambush on Sri Lankan Navy Bus Kills 2 Civilians, Wounds 12 Sailors

Sri Lanka's military says rebels have ambushed a navy bus in the east of the country, wounding 12 sailors and sparking a gunbattle in which two civilians also died.

Officials blame Tamil rebels for Tuesday's attack in Trincomalee. They say the rebels set off a fragmentation mine as the navy bus passed by, and then opened fire on the bus with small arms. Officials say the sailors shot back, and two civilians were killed in the crossfire.

Sri Lanka's government says at least 69 security personnel have been killed by rebels since early December. The violence has severely strained a ceasefire signed by both sides in 2002.

LTTE 'killed one per day'

Human Rights Watch (HRW) say that Tamil Tiger killings of political opponents reached the rate of one per day by June 2005.

Issuing its world report for 2006 on Wednesday, HRW says that this "alarming rate" owed to to the killing of "particularly of Tamils in opposition to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam".

Stating that "respect for human rights has been seriously eroded" over the past year in several Asian countries, HRW particularly names Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China,

"Tamil Tigers continued to assassinate political opponents with complete impunity," accuses HRW.

Noting that the December 2004 tsunami "wrought tremendous destruction," particularly to the areas already most affected by the country's protracted civil war, HRW says "sectarian interests hijacked aid distribution mechanisms".
Police impunity
The HRW report also says that the Sri Lankan police "continue to enjoy great impunity".
According to this report, since February 2002 Ceasefire agreement, "an estimated two hundred Tamils have been killed for apparently political reasons. Most of the killings have been attributed to the LTTE."

The HRW blames the security forces for extra judicial killings. "While some cases of deaths in custody and torture have been investigated, no one has been prosecuted or punished as yet," the report adds.

Releasing another report on the human rights situation in ten Asian countries The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reiterated the allegation by saying, "the Sri Lankan police are granted further impunity to commit abuses".

Without a functioning National Police Commission, AHRC say "criminal elements within the police will be encouraged to blatantly flout legal and disciplinary provisions, while complainants receive threats and intimidation".
Judicial system "Rubbish"
AHRC also says that the new president has yet to put in action any strategies to reform the justice institutions.

"A start can be made by implementing the recommendations of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture."

Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based regional rights body, launching the report said, "When the entire country knows that our judicial system is rubbish the idea of enforcement of human rights standards is ridiculous,"
LTTE 'will not return to war' -Norway
Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka
The Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka says that the Tamil Tigers will not return to war.
Hans Brattskar was speaking to journalists in Kilinoachi after meeting S.P Thamilselvan, leader of the LTTE political wing .

He said that he had no reason to believe that the Tamil Tigers will go to war and was optimistic that the LTTE wants to come to the negotiation table.

Speaking on the scheduled visit of Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim with LTTE leader Prabhakaran on the 23rd of January Bratskar said “the world is not going to change but it will lead to new opportunities”.

Tamil Tiger negotiator Anton Balasinham is also to visit Kilinochchi from London to join in the talks.
Attacks
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) chief Hagrup Haukland who also had talks with the LTTE political leadership said that he is aware who is responsible for attacks against an SLMM office.

He said “it is not the LTTE. It is not the government, but we know who they are”

Howeve,r Haukland did not disclose who is responsible for the attacks.

An explosive devise was set off at the Batticaloa SLMM office on Friday night.

Commenting on the attacks on security personnel in the north and east S.P.Thamilselvan, leader of of the Tamil Tiger political wing said that it was a reaction from the civilians.

“Our people are been handled in a high handed manner and they are reacting ’’ said Thamilselvan.

LTTE kills nine sailors

Nine sailors were killed and eight injured in an LTTE claymore mine blast in Chettikulam on the Mannar-Medawachchiya road at 4.15 p.m. yesterday.

According to the Navy Media Unit, the incident occurred at the 18th mile post in Chettikulam.

The sailors were travelling in three buses from the Pandukabhaya Navy Camp at Punewa towards the Gajaba and Thamenna Navy camps in Mannar when they were ambushed.

The bus carrying 19 sailors ripped apart when the claymore mine exploded. Nine of the 19 sailors were killed and eight others were injured. Two sailors escaped unhurt.

The injured sailors were rushed to the Anuradhapura General Hospital, sources said.

This was the second attack on the Navy in a week following the attack on a Naval Dvora patrol craft in Trincomalee on Saturday where 13 sailors were killed.

Earlier, 13 sailors were killed in a claymore mine blast at Nadukkuda, Mannar on December 23. The sailors killed in the attack were returning to their homes for the Christmas holidays, Navy sources said.

With yesterday's attack, the number of Armed Forces personnel killed during the past one month has gone upto 76 despite the Ceasefire Agreement signed in 2002. Along with the deaths of Armed Forces personnel, 125 people have been killed in a wave of violence which has escalated in the latter part of last year, sources said.

Meanwhile, it was reported that two members of the Denmark Demining Movement 'Dennis' on their way to Jaffna were abducted by the LTTE on Wednesday. The two were identified as Thambiah Thomas and Nagamurthy Kandipan.

Govt condemns attack

The Government yesterday strongly condemning the LTTE attack said this was another in a series of hostile acts mounted on the Security Forces by the LTTE in the North and East over the last few weeks in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.

A release said this attack had come at a time when President Mahinda Rajapakse was making a sincere effort to consult with political parties and the facilitator to move the peace process forward.

The Government also expressed its condolences to families of the Navy personnel killed in the attack.

SLMM questions whether there is still a Ceasefire in Sri Lanka

SLMM strongly condemns the latest attack on Sri Lanka Navy soldiers in Cheddikulam on the 12th of January. Our sympathy goes to the families that have been affected by this brutal murder.

This attack is yet another serious blow to the Ceasefire Agreement and SLMM believes that if such attacks or retaliation of such attacks continue the Ceasefire Agreement will be over. Over 100 people were killed last month half of which were civilians. Killings and serious attacks continue and the situation is getting worse. It is our assessment that if the Parties don’t react immediately they risk going back to war.

Various actors in the international community have blamed the LTTE for attacking Government troops but the LTTE has continuously denied any involvement. The LTTE claims that “the People” are behind the attacks on the military. SLMM finds this explanation unacceptable. It is safe to say that LTTE involvement cannot be ruled out and we find the LTTE’s indifference to these attacks worrying.

It is however clear that people are suffering and unfortunately there have been several reports of civilian harassment by the Security Forces in relation to increased security measures. The harassment often takes a form of harsh treatment of the Tamil population in relation to the attacks. We would like to urge the Government of Sri Lanka and the Security Forces to prevent such actions from taking place.

It is important to emphasise that the current situation also stems from the fact that alternative armed elements have been able to operate freely in the East in Government controlled areas. These forces have destabilised the ceasefire and are one of the major reasons for increased tension between the Parties. We therefore urge the Government of Sri Lanka to face up to its responsibility to disarm these other armed groups so that the rule of law can be reinstated in the affected areas.

Increasing amount of civilians is being caught in the middle leading to major disturbances in the local communities. The conflict between the two sides is hurting civilians and preventing any restoration to normalcy.

We urge both Parties to consider carefully how they can mend the situation instead of merely blaming each other and pointing fingers. The Parties need to come up with firm confidence building measures with the truthful aim of reaching a peaceful solution. Actions speak louder than words and we feel that we need to see more commitment from the two Parties if war is not to break out in Sri Lanka.