Red alerts go for Kannan and Kiruba of the LTTE

By Walter Jayawardhana

RED ALERTS GO FOR TWO LTTE FUGITIVES KANNAN AND KIRUBA AT TAMIL NADU AIRPORTS AND COASTAL POLICE STATIONS

A red alert has gone across all airports in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to stop a Tamil Tiger fugitive who was trying to escape the law enforcing authorities and go to Sri Lanka.

The man, an important arms buyer for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) named Kiruba alias Kirubhakaran is badly wanted by the Indian law enforcement authorities in connection with the loads of raw materials bought and and shipped from India for the manufacture of deadly claymore mines.

The airports have been alerted since the Police came to know Kiruba was trying to travel unnoticed not through the usual way he comes and goes by illicit boats but by using the passport and by air.

The Indian law enforcement authorities think that he was in charge of procuring explosives, steel balls and metal beams necessary for the manufacture of Improvised Explosive Devices and making payments on behalf of the LTTE.

The Indian law enforcement personnel are also in search of another man named Kannan who was engaged in the same job but Kirubas role in the procurements of IED’s have been well established.

The Police have obtained some photographs of Kiruba who hails from Jaffna, the Northern town of Sri Lanka. The Police obtained the photographs from Dhamodaran another accused in the custody of the police in connection of the same case. Dhamodaran is not from Sri Lanka and he lives in the Tamil Nadu state town of Madurai in India.

Police think Kiruba is a person who has visited India several times and possesses the Sri Lanka passport. He has done business and met with persons across Tamil Nadu in the cities of Madurai, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram, Tiruchi and Chennai. Described as a stocky man in middle age the Police believes he had sent several illegal consignments to Sri Lanka.

The police have come to known both Kiruba and Kannan had been helped by a man named Veluchamy of Ammayapuram near Kodai Road in Madurai to establish the illegal arms network in Tamil Nadu.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police in Ramanadapuram Range, S.S. Krishnamurthy said all police stations on the coast of Tamil Nadu also had been put on alert about these two individuals so that they cannot escape by illicit boats either.

Suicide attack was meant for KKS harbor

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide boat that was kept waiting along Tamil Nadu coast was intended to blow up Northern Sri Lanka’s Kankesenturai (KKS) Harbor, the Hindu newspaper revealed.

Citing unnamed sources the newspaper said, “The target of the suspected suicide mission of the Sea Tiger wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was Kankesanthurai port in Jaffna peninsula.”

Since the KKS Habour is in a high security zone the sources told the newspaper that the two operatives of the suicide boat were in search of a safe route to reach their target of destruction and ventured into Indian waters.

According to the newspaper, the explosives of the boat came from a South East Asian country.

A flotilla of Tiger boats storming into the KKS harbor had been perceived on many occasions, the sources reportedly told the newspaper.

Instructions to move would have come over the satellite phone for the boat operators.
The sources told the newspaer that the instructions to move would have come from Mulathivu or Kilinochchi.

Due to timely intervention of the Tamil Nadu intelligence the high power explosives of the boat, now understood as a mixture of RDX and TNT could be detected. Their suspicions were aroused by the design of the boat. If they did not come it would have been anchored in the port it was found.

The decision to blow up came from the State intelligence and the Q branch of the police.

A senor official was quoted having said, “We did not want to meddle with the boat at the port… Exploding it in mid-sea was the only option left. The decision was taken on safety grounds.”

Two boats carrying arms from India destroyed

By Walter Jayawardhana

SRI LANKA NAVY DESTROYS ANOTHER TWO BOATS CARRYING ARMS AND AMMUNITION FROM TAMIL NADU OFF KALPITIYA

Two more boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carrying arms or ammunition from India were destroyed by the Sri Lanka Navy off kalpitiya off the North Western coast of Sri Lanka killing 9 Sea Tigers who were on board.

The incident occurred at Bathalagunduwa, five nautical miles off kalpitiya, the Sri Lanka Navy sources said.

The incident occurred on the fifth anniversary of the Ceasefire agreement signed by the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran on February 22, 2002 brokered by Norway.

Since the agreement was signed the LTTE never ceased smuggling in weapons and ammunition. In contrast, then most arms shipments came in to the country from the East coast but the navy then was under the strict instructions of the Wickremesinghe government to keep a low key and not to clash with the Sea Tigers. Later when the imports of smuggled weapons increased the Navy used force and sank the LTTE gun running ships.

But now most of the arms shipments come in smaller boats mostly across the bay of Mannar from India.

The Navy said when the two suspicious boats were approaching the Navy fired two warning shots but the suspected arms carrying boats shot at them with machine guns.

When they retaliated one boat was instantly engulfed with fire indicating it was loaded with explosives.

The Navy said at least nine Sea Tigers were in the boats who perished with them. Two other boats later came to attack the Naval craft but they also fled unable to take the heavy Navy fire.

It was only a day ago, the Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella requested India to intensify the crack down on Tamil Tigers.

At a press briefing he was quoted of having said, “Please, I request them (India) to do more, If you write a headline that India is not doing enough, they will take note of it (in New Delhi).”

Commenting on the crack down on a suicide boat by the coast guard off the coast of Tamil Nadu Rambukwella said he was seeing a new beginning regarding the crack down of the arms smuggling from India by the Indian authorities.

In 1980’s it was India who trained, funded and armed the Tamil Tigers. But in 1991 angered over the Indian Peace keeping Force Tamil Tigers assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Opposition Indian leaders have charged Tamil Nadu Chief minister M. Karunanidhi of secretly accommodating the Tamil Tigers in the South Indian state once again.

Sri Lanka Telephone users rose to 7.3 million last year

By Walter Jayawardhana

The telephone users in Sri Lanka have jumped up to 7.3 million people in the year 2006 Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission statistics indicate.

The increase was mostly caused by mobile telephone users which soared by 59 per cent in that year a report by the Commission, which is the industry’s watchdog said.

The report by the regulatory commission said while there were 366,000 waiting on line for fixed line telephone services even rural residents got mobile phones including GSM and CDMA systems as soon as they wanted them.

The report said the fixed-line subscribers also rose to 1.9 million during the year 2006 from 1.2 million in 2005. That happened after the commission issued CDMA licenses allowing three firms to use the cheaper technology and expand in rural areas.

Due to the reductions of tariffs cell phone users grew from 3.4 million in 2005 to 5.4 million in 2006 it was revealed. The tariffs were reduced by 40 per cent the report said.

The majority of users bought pre-paid cards according to the commission statistics.

India’s largest private phone company, Bharathi Airtel will soon become the fifth mobile company entering the Sri Lankan market. With their entry there would be further price cuts in the rural sector as they would be competing for the untapped 19 million people.

Bharti, which is due to start services by year-end, has promised to invest $100 million within the first year of operation, the report further said.

Tiny socialist party wants to demonstrate for LTTE and Sirithunga

By Walter Jayawardhana

TINY AUSTRALIAN SOCIALIST PARTY WANTS TO DEMONSTRATE FOR FASCIST TERRORIST GROUP WHO KIDNAPS CHILDREN FOR WAR

When Sri Lanka’s Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva visits Melbourne, the city’s tiny Socialist Party, the sister party of Sri Lanka’s LTTE supporter and Trotskyite United Socialist Party wants to picket him February 27 calling him a war monger.

Nimal Siripala de Silva led the peace delegation at the last peace talks between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Australian observers said while de Silva wanted to continue with the peace talks it was the LTTE that ended it abruptly and went home and now the Australian Socialist Party who sides with Velupillai Prabhakaran, a Fascist and one who has officially announced that they would resume war, calls the peace loving minister a war monger.

 
The latest escalation of violence in Sri Lanka started, the observers said, when the friends of the Australian Socialist Party, the LTTE exploded two powerful claymore bombs targeting a morning bus carrying farmers, patients visiting hospital and children going to school and killed 65 innocent civilians including 15 children at a place called Kebithigollewa. The Australian observers said a bunch of people who are calling themselves socialists are not worth that label when they support such glaring terrorism.

The war escalated more, the observers said when the terrorists of the LTTE blocked an irrigation canal depriving 20,000 families drinking and farming water in an arid area and engaging in an attempt of ethnic cleansing in an Eastern seaport. The observers said it was funny friends of socialists engage in such barbaric and racist acts.

“Next Tuesday, the pro war and anti democratic campaigner,” said the Australian Socialist Party website, “ Nimal Siripala De Silva will be in Melbourne as part of a visit to Australia. Siripala De Silva is a senior government minister in the ruling party of Sri Lanka. He looks after the portfolio of Healthcare but has blood on his hands as he has supported recent killings and abductions.”De Silva who is a lawyer by profession has never been accused of such crimes and is having a clean record despite the Australian Socialist Party accusations.

The Australian observers said it was funny that a so-called Socialist Party supported LTTE kill other Tamil leaders in order to build a one party state and a Minister who believes in a parliamentary democracy and free elections is called anti-democratic.

“The situation in Sri Lanka at the moment is escalating into civil war. Hopes were raised four years ago that an agreement could be arrived at between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end the suffering of both the Sinhala and Tamil people. However, since then the ‘peace process’ has periodically been punctuated by armed exchanges between the Sri Lankan armed forces and Tiger fighters in the north and east of the country, the Australian Socialist Party website said.

The Australian Socialist Party website said, “In November last year a high profile Tamil MP was shot dead and members of our sister organization in Sri Lanka, the United Socialist Party (USP), are receiving death threats on a daily basis. On one occasion in early January, the General Secretary of the USP, Sirithunga Jayasuriya, escaped with his life when over 300 armed thugs, led by a deputy minister, raided the place where a public rally against the war was due to be held.” It is now believed by the close friends of the assassinated MP and police officers that the execution style killing was done by assassins of the LTTE after the dead MP was critical of the LTTE leadership for sending his children for higher education in England while the Tamil children are being constantly being kidnapped to be conscripted in the LTTE guerilla army.

“The Socialist Party calls on all concerned members of the community to join us and protest the visit of this war monger and abuser of human rights. The Hon. Consul Dr Rodney Arambewela, who also supports the killings and abductions in Sri Lanka, has arranged for the minister to address a public meeting in Melbourne.

The Socialist Party will be picketing this event highlighting the war in Sri Lanka, the gross violations of human and democratic rights and repression of the Tamil people.

Join us 6pm Tuesday February 27th, Deakin University Burwood Campus, lecture theatre LT7 on the second floor of building W (Psychology Department),” the website said.

85 Sri Lankan asylum seekers intercepted on their way to Christmas islands

By Walter Jayawardhana

SHIP CARRYING 85 SRI LANKAN ASYLUM SEEKERS INTERCEPTED IN A BOAT CARRYING THEM TO REMOTE CHRISTMAS ISLANDS

The new Zealand television reported that a ship heading with 85 Sri Lankan asylum seekers was intercepted.

The report revealed, an Australian naval ship intercepted a boatload of 85 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on ThursdayFebruary 22 heading for Australia’s remote Christmas Islands in the Indian Ocean, quoting Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.

The report said Australia’s Border Protection Command had been monitoring the boat since a naval aircraft first spotted it on February 19, further quoting Andrews.

The 85 men were picked up about 50 nautical miles off Christmas Island, which has Australia’s main illegal immigrant detention centre.

In the early hours of Thursday the Sri Lankans were taken off their boat, which was deemed un – seaworthy, and were now undergoing health checks on the Australian naval ship, HMAS Success.

“The passengers identified themselves … as being Sri Lankan nationals. They indicated their intention to reach Christmas Island,” Andrews said.

The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been embroiled for months in a new chapter of a separatist war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983, and which analysts fear is set to escalate.

“Because of fears for their safety if they remained on the un-seaworthy vessel, the group agreed to come aboard the HMAS Success last night,” Andrews said.

The report further said, “Though a nation built on migrants, Australia has one of the world’s strictest policies against illegal arrivals, who are detained in razor-wire camps, often for years.

“Australia cracked down on illegal arrivals from 2001 after thousands of illegal immigrants, many who had come through Indonesia after paying people smugglers, targeted its vast coastline and islands in often unseaworthy boats.

“The crackdown on boat people helped conservative Prime Minister John Howard win an election in 2001 on a platform of border protection. Since the crackdown Australia has seen few asylum seekers arrive by boat.

“In 2005 Australia passed a law which excised thousands of outlying islands from its “migration zone”, preventing would-be migrants from claiming asylum once they land.”

LTTE officially declares it is resuming war to carve out a separate state

By Walter Jayawardhana

LTTE OFFICIALLY DECLARES IT IS RESUMING WAR TO CARVE OUT SEPARATE STATE FOR THEM BUT DOES NOT SAY IT IS ABROGATING THE NORWAY BROKERED CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

Issuing a statement to mark the fifth anniversary of the controversial and tattered Ceasefire agreement with the government of Sri Lanka the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said it is resuming its war to establish a separate state carved out of Sri Lanka.

The statement also blamed the international community for insisting on a solution that would not infringe on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

The statement that officially declared resuming of war ending the Norway brokered Ceasefire by the LTTE said, “The marginalization of the 2002 CFA….has compelled the Tamil people to resume their freedom struggle to realize their right to self determination and to achieve statehood. “ But at no place it said it is giving notice of the abrogation of the pact as required by the agreement. Such notice has to be given 14 days prior to the abrogation.

The statement said the agreement signed between the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe without the consent of the parliament and the executive head of state recognized the de-facto state of Eelam, the name of the putative state.

The statement said, the CFA formulated with the full support of the international community, had transcended the parameters of Sri Lanka’s majoritarian constitution, recognizing Tamil Eelam’s de facto existence and the balance of power between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the LTTE.

Blaming the international community the statement said,“However, the international community’s insistence on a solution that does not infringe on the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” is deeply frustrating for the Tamil people.”

The LTTE pointed out their frustrations with the International Community as follows: “The international community has not rejected, for example, the South Sudan Machkos Protocol facilitated by US, UK, Norway and Italy on the basis it is affecting the sovereignty of Sudan.”

The LTTE apparently wanted the international community to apply the Sudanese solution in allowing the LTTE to carve out Eelam Further clarifying the their point against the international community the LTTE said, “Nor has the international community questioned the Serbia-Montenegro agreement and the recent proposal on the future of Kosovo on the basis these contravene Serbian sovereignty. The Papua New Guinea- Bougainville Agreement that was not opposed by the international community on the basis of safeguarding territorial integrity and sovereignty. In all these cases the peoples concerned have exercised their right to self-determination and sovereignty.”

The above points on the putative state of Eelam have been long articulated at LTTE sponsored meetings by expatriate Tamil lawyers working for the LTTE in countries like USA and Australia.

The victory of the proxy party of the LTTE, the Tamil National Alliance at the 2004 election , that had been conducted under intimidation of LTTE armed men where any Tamil politician opposed to the terrorist group was not allowed to contest in a lawful and justifiable manner, and ballot box stuffing was openly practiced in favor of the pro-LTTE candidates, was pointed out as a democratic will of the people to carve out a separate state in Sri Lanka, in the statement.

The statement said, “”The landslide victory of the Tamil National Alliance party, which contested the 2004 general election on the platform that LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamil nation, clearly demonstrated the democratic will of the Tamil people.”

The LTTE wants to carve out a mono-ethnic Fascist state encompassing the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. The LTTE guerilla forces have been completely chased out of the Eastern Province except from few jungle enclaves. It is also restricted to Mulativu and Kilinochchi Districts in the North.

“In contrast to current international practice with respect to national conflicts in other parts of the world, the international community’s insistence on a solution that does not infringe on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka is deeply frustrating for the Tamil people”

The declaration of the LTTE came at a time when the pro-Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) organization, of Buddhist monks, National Bhikku Front was performing Sathyagraha in a central Colombo park demanding the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement and protestors of the party were having a demonstration demanding the same.

The Cabinet spokesman, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said the government is contemplating whether to abrogate the CFA or not. Anyway a decision will be taken later he said. Any party who is abrogating will have to give 14 days notice according to a condition of the agreement.