Sri Lanka President leaves on a foreign tour in domestic political rift

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday started a 3-day tour to the Maldivian Islands amidst an internal political rift.

The Sri Lankan President is expected to hold talks with his Maldivian counterpart, Abdul Gayoom, the Colombo foreign ministry said.

Rajapakse on Friday sacked Anura Bandaranaike, Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Suriyarachchi from ministerial positions, in a controversial move.

Addressing his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the dominant party of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, here Saturday, the Sri Lankan President said that the three sacked ministers had plotted to destabilize his government.

The SLFP's executive committee had approved the removal of three ministers.

Sri Lanka military: 2 Tamil Tiger rebels killed in clashes with army

Associated Press, Sun February 11, 2007 01:34 EST . COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan troops clashed with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, leaving two of the guerrillas dead in the country's volatile north, the military said Sunday.

The Tigers attacked army troops on a foot patrol Saturday in Welioya, about 255 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo, said senior Defense Ministry official Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse.

The soldiers retaliated and two insurgents were killed in the fight, Rajapakse said.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels.

The tigers have fought government troops since 1983 in an attempt to create an independent homeland for minority ethic Tamils after decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The fighting has killed more than 68,000 people, including about 3,600 fighters and civilians who died after violence began escalating in late 2005 despite a cease-fire brokered by Norway in 2002.

Both sides claim they are still adhering to the truce.

The Tigers have recently suffered a series of defeats, with government troops capturing several of their strategic eastern enclaves since September.

On Jan. 19, Sri Lankan troops in the east seized an eastern coastal strip that the military says was a main base for the Tigers' naval activities.

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Why Mahinda sacked his top ministers

By sacking top line ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Anura Bandaranaike and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi on Friday, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has sent out a clear warning that he will not tolerate the formation of any group in the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which owes allegiance to his main rival, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Samaraweera, Bandaranaike and Sooriyarachchi are closely identified with Kumaratunga, who Rajapaksa sees as a threat to the emerging order in the SLFP, though she no longer holds any political office and does not even reside in Sri Lanka.

Bandaranaike, who is Kumaratunga's younger brother, had been constantly talking of his being a scion of the Bandaranaike clan which founded the SLFP.

Samaraweera had been in touch with Kumaratunga. And his Sinhala paper Mawbima had been attacking Rajapaksa for the past one year.

All this did not fit Rajapaksa's plan to build an SLFP whose leaders would owe everything to him; depend entirely on him; and who would under no circumstances, hark back to the days when they were with Kumaratunga.

In the process of building a new-look SLFP and government, Rajapaksa had brought in his brothers, Basil Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

It is this troika which has been running the party and the government.

The move to alienate the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and admit a large number of defectors from the opposition United National Party (UNP) into the government was essentially meant to discard the old props and put up new ones.

The admission of 33 defectors, including 18 from the UNP, has lessened Rajapaksa's dependence on the Kumaratunga faction and the JVP, both of which could legitimately act as a check on him.

These moves were slammed by Samaraweera in a recent letter to Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa reacted by downgrading Samaraweera and Bandaranaike in the last cabinet reshuffle, virtually asking them to go.

But Samaraweera intensified the conflict by trying to garner support among partymen.

Bandaranaike charged that some people close to Rajapaksa had threatened to skin him and Samaraweera alive and hang them.

In an angry retort, Rajapaksa said that nobody had a birth right to lead the SLFP and that he would establish that it belonged to the man in the street.

Warning that he would deal with dissidence with a heavy hand, he used a Sinhala expression which meant that he could be as hard as a village toughie if he wanted to.

The very next day, the dissident leaders were sacked.

Hindu priest gunned down in east Sri Lanka , military blames Tamil rebels

Associated Press, Thu February 8, 2007 01:51 EST . DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Gunmen shot dead an ethnic Tamil Hindu priest who had publicly welcomed Sri Lanka's president to a strife-torn eastern village after the military drove out Tamil Tiger insurgents, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. The government says it is willing to give limited autonomy to areas where Tamils live, but the rebels want to secede from Sri Lanka.
The military has managed to push the rebels out of their bases in some parts of east.

Sri Lanka attacks rebel training base in the north

COLOMBO, Feb 8, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) - Sri Lanka Air Force on Thursday carried out air raids against Tamil Tiger rebel training facilities in the north, defense officials said.

Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the military spokesman, said that Air Force helicopters had dropped bombs around 10:00 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) sea wing training base in Mullaitivu, an area under Tiger control.

Samarasinghe said that the Air Force on Wednesday had similarly air raided LTTE facilities in the eastern port district of Trincomalee.

"We had heard that LTTE rebels were increasing their fighting cadre recruitment in the area," Samarasinghe said.

Officials said that a vessel carrying civilians from the northern Jaffna peninsula had arrived in the port of Trincomalee Thursday morning.

The government says the rebel threat is fast diminishing in the Eastern Province with the government's military successes.

In early September last year, the troops took control of Sampur, a key rebel stronghold south of the Trincomalee harbor.

On January 19, the troops annexed Vakarai, another key rebel center in the east.

President Mahinda Rajapakse last week visited both areas and vowed to restore civil administration soon for the first time in over a decade.

Some 40,000 civilians were estimated to have been displaced from Vakarai and the government claimed that they would be re- settled upon action to restore the infrastructure.

Nearly 68,000 have been killed in the island country's ethnic conflict since the mid-1980s.

Over 150 killed in a month's violence in Sri Lanka

Over 150 people were killed in violence over the last one month's period in Sri Lanka's restive north and east zones, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told parliament on Wednesday

Speaking in the monthly parliamentary debate to extend the state of emergency by a further month, Wickramanayake said that some 53 troops and 101 civilians were killed in the escalation of violence.

Some 200 civilians and 181 troops were injured in the clashes, the prime minister added.

He said the state of emergency which gives sweeping powers to government troops to crackdown on terror acts of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) needs to be continued further.

Government troops annexed the key rebel stronghold of Vakarai in the Eastern Province mid-January, putting the area under government control for the first time in over a decade.

President Mahinda Rajapakse who is also the commander-in-chief of the troops visited the area last week and paid tribute to the troops for gaining Vakarai without a single civilian casualty.

Meanwhile the government on Wednesday accused a group of majority Sinhala community activists for working hand-in-glove with LTTE rebels.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and the government's defense spokesman said that a journalist was among the three people arrested for links with the LTTE.

They had confessed to undergoing military training in the rebel held Kilinochchi in the north, Rambukwella told reporters.

He said a large haul of arms and ammunition had been recovered in the possession of the three arrested Sinhalese.

Sri Lankan air force bombs Tamil Tiger positions in northeast

Associated Press, Tue February 6, 2007 07:56 EST . BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan air force helicopters bombed two Tamil Tiger rebel positions near a strategic port and air base in northeastern Trincomalee District Tuesday while in capital Colombo, a bomb on display accidentally exploded, wounding 17 people, military said. There was no independent confirmation of the report and the rebels, who say they are fighting to create a separate homeland for Sri Lanka - 's 3.1 million Tamils, could not be reached immediately for comment.

Samarasinghe said two rebel locations were bombed after surveillance noticed that the insurgents were gathering at the two points.

It was not immediately known if the rebels suffered casualties.

Also on Tuesday, 17 people were hurt at an exhibition when a bomb on display exploded, a doctor and a military official said.

An anti-personnel mine accidentally detonated while officers were explaining to viewers how it works, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior Defense Ministry official.

``We are treating 17 injured persons, including two Buddhist monks and two police commandoes,'' said Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, head of the Colombo's main hospital. Two patients were in critical condition.

The exhibition, organized by the government to commemorate the country's 59th anniversary of independence, had stalls showcasing military equipment, explosives and weapons captured from separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. The exhibition was being held at the capital's main exhibition center.

Rajapakse said the explosion was not linked to the rebel insurgency. Over the last few weeks, security has been tightened in the capital with an increased troop presence on the roads due to Independence Day celebrations.

Meanwhile, Samarasinghe, the military spokesman, visited the scene of the explosion and apologized to the victims.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 to create the homeland. A 2002 cease-fire halted the open war, but last year saw increasing hostility with about 3,600 people dying in violence last year.

The government says it is willing to give limited autonomy in areas where Tamil live, but rebels want sweeping autonomy which the government says will infringe on the island nation's sovereignty

Bomb explosion in capital Colombo wounds at least 14 civilians, military says

Associated Press, Tue February 6, 2007 05:43 EST . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) At least fourteen people were hurt at an exhibition when a bomb on display exploded, a doctor military said.

The bomb was on display at an exhibit in the capital, Colombo, and exploded possibly due to heat, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior Defense Ministry official.

``We are treating 14 injured persons, including two Buddhist monks,'' said Dr. Hector Weerasinghe, head of the Colombo's main hospital. Three patients were in critical condition.

The exhibition, organized by the government to commemorate the country's 59th anniversary of independence, had stalls showcasing military equipment and explosives.

Sri Lankan capital on alert after police seize fake vehicle plates

Associated Press, Mon February 5, 2007 04:42 EST . r COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lankan police seized 91 vehicle number plates from a train in a Tamil-majority northeastern town, the military said Monday, sparking some concern in the capital that Tamil rebels could be planning a car bomb attack.

Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe, however, said it was still unclear exactly where the plates were being taken or what their intended use was.

``We don't know what their plan is, but we are investigating, but the number plates were found in Trincomalee on a train that had originated in Colombo,'' he said, correcting an earlier report that the train was heading to the capital.

The plates were found during a routine check of the train on Sunday evening as Sri Lankans celebrated their 59th Independence Day. Four people _ all ethnic Tamil men _ were arrested after a search of the train, Samarasinghe said.

Although Samarasinghe dismissed earlier reports that the plates could have been used by Tamil Tiger rebels in a suicide car bombing, the news alarmed Colombo, which has frequently been targeted by the insurgents in their decades-long civil war.

Security was tightened in the capital, where there was already an increased troop presence on the roads due to Independence Day celebrations.

Earlier, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed a Sri Lankan soldier during a raid on a northern security post early Monday in Vavuniya, the last government-held town ahead of rebel territory. The Defense Ministry said Tamil Tigers raided the post before dawn, killing one soldier and wounding three.

Meanwhile, an army foot patrol was attacked Sunday night near Trincomalee, a port town. The patrol fired back and a search operation found the body of a rebel. The military suffered no casualties.

The Tamil Tigers, formally called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils after decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

About 3,600 people have died since violence escalated early last year despite a 2002 cease-fire.

The government says it is willing to give limited autonomy in areas where Tamil live, but rebels want sweeping autonomy which the government says will infringe on the island nation's sovereignty.

Refugees refuse to go back without a guarantee on safety

Refugees who fled the former LTTE-stronghold, Vakarai, have urged the Sri Lankan authorities to guarantee their safety before returning home.

The eastern Sri Lankan town was captured by the Sri Lanka security forces in early January.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and armed forces commanders made a surprise visit to Vakarai and other captured areas on Saturday.

Rajapaksa pledged to 'liberate' Tamils and bring normalcy to the captured areas.

17,000 refugees

Nearly 17,000 refugees from over 4000 families are now living in temporary camps or with relatives.

President Rajapaksa made a surprise visit to Vakarai

President pledged to bring normalcy to recently captured areas

The refugees who earlier lived in 37 villages near Vakarai under LTTE-control fled their homes as violence escalated between Sri Lanka troops and Tamil Tigers.

Most of them are willing go back to their homes.

But the government should guarantee a safe return and pledge not to continue with attacks or search operations, they say.

Search operations

"There is no point of going back if we were to be arrested and sent to Boossa detention camp," a refugee told journalist Shanthi Selvadorai who visited a camp in Valaichchenai.

"We need to live a normal life".

Many refugees stressed that no militant group should be given free reign in and around Vakarai.

Presence of the militant groups, whether LTTE or anti-LTTE faction, would create more tension in already volatile eastern district, they said.

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Sri Lanka president courts right-wing Buddhists, offers them environment portfolio

Associated Press, Thu February 1, 2007 06:38 EST COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) President Mahinda Rajapakse cemented his majority in Sri Lanka - 's Parliament by courting a party of hardline Buddhist monks and offering its lawmakers a ministerial office, officials said Thursday. A total of 19 members of the main opposition United National Party crossed over to the government side, while six members from the Sri Lanka - Muslim Congress also joined the administration.

The UNP has said Rajapakse's move to lure its members to defect has effectively ended a previous agreement between them to cooperate in solving the island's two-decade-long separatist war.

A negotiated power-sharing settlement with ethnic minority Tamils could be further hampered by the inclusion of the monks' party in government, as they have stridently opposed any talks with Tamil separatist rebels.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create a separate homeland for the country's 3.1 million minority Tamils, saying that after decades of discrimination, Tamils can prosper only away from the domination of the majority Sinhalese.

About 68,000 people have been killed in the fighting, including some 3,600 fighters and civilians who died last year when the conflict escalated despite a 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire.

Sri Lanka leftist party emerging as main opposition

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Sri Lanka's main leftist party, the JVP or the People's Liberation Front, claimed Thursday that it was fast emerging as the country's main opposition.

Somawansa Amerasinghe, the JVP leader, told reporters that "we are on the way of becoming the main opposition party. That is a wish of the people and it should happen."

The JVP said that the party will have to act as the country's main opposition with responsibility in view of mass defections by the current main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), to the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Some 18 members joined the Rajapakse administration on Sunday with 10 of them becoming cabinet ministers.

Political sources said that more UNP members are to join the government soon.

The JVP has a strength of 38 seats in the 225-member parliament and the UNP is left with just 44 after Sunday's defections.

The JVP leader dismissed government accusations that it was the refusal by the JVP to join the government that had led to the UNP members being accommodated in the government.

Amerasinghe stressed that his party was having talks with President Rajapakse based on a program in order to join the government.

"However the president started talks with the UNP even before our talks came into any conclusion," the JVP leader said.

The JVP was instrumental in ensuring Rajapakse's victory in the presidential election of November 2005 but stayed out of the government on policy differences -- mainly on the issue of peace negotiations with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Although opposing the government in parliament, Amerasinghe said that his party would support the government on its campaign against terrorism in the north and east.

APOLOGIES NOTICE

Opposition defections strengthens Sri Lanka president's hand+

Associated Press, Sun January 28, 2007 03:49 EST . - - COLOMBO, Jan. 28 (Kyodo) Sri Lanka - President Mahinda Rajapakse strengthened his hand in the legislature Sunday by inducting 20 opposition lawmakers into his administration, a spokesman at his office said. Two members from the Sri Lanka - Muslim Congress also joined the government. Party leader Rauff Hakeem was offered a Cabinet ministerial post.

Rajapakse, who previously accommodated a few UNP defectors in his Cabinet, went ahead with the reshuffle and expanded the administration despite opposition from his Marxist electoral ally, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (the People's Liberation Front) and some rumblings from his own Sri Lanka - Freedom Party.

Analysts explained that the president, unsure of continuing support from the JVP which refused to take office in the government despite several offers, wanted to ensure a parliamentary majority independent of the JVP which is the third biggest party in the 225-member legislature.

The UNP, which entered into a memorandum of understanding with the government in October last year to support a peace process to end over three decades of ethnic war, said the MOU was off.

However, analysts do not expect the rightist party, weakened by defections and infighting since Rajapakse defeated its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in the presidential election in November 2005, to present any major obstacles in a search for a negotiated peace process.

Rajapakse, concurrently defense and finance minister, retained the two key ministerial posts in the expanded 52-member Cabinet. But Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was replaced by Rohitha Bogollagama, who defected to the government last year and held the investment promotion and industrial development portfolio.

''Samaraweera was not sidelined,'' the spokesman for the president's office said. ''He was holding two portfolios and he expressed a preference to continue as minister of ports and aviation and give up foreign affairs.''

Although weakened badly by the defections, Wickremesinghe will remain as leader of the opposition in parliament as his party still has more members of parliament than the JVP.

The defectors who do not wish to risk their membership of the legislature by quitting the party on whose ticket they were elected said they will remain members of the UNP and work with the government.

Although this group wished to sign their own MOU with Rajapakse, this had not been done up to Sunday's swearing in of the Cabinet at the presidential secretariat.

Sri Lankan President Names Cabinet With Opposition (Update1)

By Anusha Ondaatjie

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa formed a new Cabinet to accommodate members of the main opposition party who backed his economic and security policies for ending the island's civil war.

At least 18 members of the United National Party have pledged support for Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Freedom Party-led coalition, Lucien Rajakarunanayake, a spokesman for the president's office, said by telephone. Ten UNP members were today sworn in to the Cabinet, he said. President Rajapaksa retained the Finance and Defense Ministry portfolios.

The SLFP and UNP in October signed a cooperation accord to form common economic and security policies. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, a former prime minister and the architect of the 2002 peace agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, has said the agreement would be nullified if the government accepted his party members.

``This move is positive for the government's pro-peace platform,'' said Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan non-governmental peace advocacy organization. ``It will make the government more stable and Ranil has few options, since the cooperation accord hasn't served any evident constructive purpose.''

Sri Lanka's peace process collapsed last year after fighting intensified in May in the east and spread to the northern Jaffna peninsula. Peace talks in Geneva in October collapsed without any progress between the government and LTTE, who are fighting for a separate homeland in areas they control in the north and east of the country.

Reaching a permanent peace agreement with the Tamil Tigers is crucial for Sri Lanka's tea- and textile-exporting economy, which has expanded every quarter since the cease-fire was signed.

Separate Homeland

The Sri Lankan Navy stopped an attack by the rebels on Colombo harbor, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

Rajapaksa in November 2005 beat Wickremesinghe in the presidential election on a pledge to renegotiate the cease-fire accord with the Tamil separatists.

Rajapaksa has said a separate homeland for Tamils is out of the question. Wickremesinghe's UNP supports talks with rebels and devolution of power as a way to end the bloodshed.

Rajapaksa today also swore in Rauf Hakeem, the leader of the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, to the Cabinet, Rajakarunanayake said.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said growth in the $24 billion economy slowed in the fourth quarter as the island grappled with renewed violence. Gross domestic product rose 7.5 percent in the three months ended September from a year earlier following a 7.6 percent gain in the second quarter, the Colombo- based central bank said Dec. 29.

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