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Sri Lanka

Former top Lanka rebels in poll alliance with govt

2013-07-16

Three former top Tamil Tiger rebels will support the government in the upcoming crucial provincial council elections in the North which was the former rebel territory. Velayutham Dayanthi better known as Daya Master, who was once Tamil Tiger media spokesman, confirmed that he has been selected as the governing party United People’s Freedom Alliance’s (UPFA) candidate for the Northern Provincial elections. “Only I will be contesting from us,” he said crushing speculations that other top former Tamil Tiger rebels who have been through the government’s rehabilitation programmes will also contest the September elections. Two other key former rebels, the movement’s international fund-raiser and weapons procurer KP or Selvarasa Pathmanathan and former women’s wing leader Thamilini were also tipped to contest the September polls. However, Daya Master in a recent rally in the North confirmed that KP and Thamilini will not contest this year’s Northern elections and instead will stand by him. “All former Tamil Tiger combatants and other members will support me in the fray,” he said. Meanwhile, reports said that Daya Master will help prepare UPFA’s manifesto for the Northern Provincial Council election. Local media said that he had identified issues faced by the Tamil people and the solutions to these issues would be included in the party’s manifesto. Daya Master surrendered to the Sri Lankan army during the last stages of three decades of war against the Tamil Tiger terrorists in 2009. KP was arrested by Sri Lankan intelligence agents in Malaysia a month later. Thamalini crossed over to government-held areas in the guise of a civillian two months before the army shot dead the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, ending the war. Almost all surrendered and captured Tiger cadres have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society by the government. The upcoming elections in the province, which has a Tamil majority population, will be a battle for governance between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The government fears that a win by the former Tamil Tiger sympathising party TNA will hurt the province, which is just 30km away from Tamil Nadu, and bring all reconciliation and development efforts to a standstill.

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Southeast Asia

One month jail and one year rehabilitation for friend of Sri Lanka's slain terrorist leader

2013-05-18

A Sri Lankan court yesterday sentenced a childhood friend of slain leader of the Tamil Tiger terrorist outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to a one month rigorous imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to charges against him. The Colombo High Court Judge Preethi Padman Surasena also sentenced the defendant, Gunasundaram Jeyasundaram, a schoolmate of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, to undergo a one year rehabilitation program at the end of the jail term. The judge handed over the sentence after Jeyasundaram, an Irish citizen, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of charges on supplying arms and ammunition to the LTTE. He was given a jail term of one month for each charge to serve concurrently. Jeyasundaram, who was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Department of Sri Lanka Police in 2007, has been in custody for six years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Confessing to his crimes the defendant, when he was produced before the court last week, appealed for rehabilitation. He has confessed to procuring arms and ammunitions from several countries for the terrorist organization. Making a statement in the court, the defendant has denounced terrorism and appealed the Tamil Diaspora to give up their Eelam concept.

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Sri Lanka

Rebels have been routed for good, says Sri Lankan Tamil MP

2010-07-16

DUBAI — Sri Lanka is finding its feet a year after the rout of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the death of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The sesssionist struggle for a Tamil homeland in the north and east of the country by the Tiger rebels may have come to nought, but many Tamils are happy about the government’s reconciliation efforts with the minorities. With development projects in full swing, there is no indication of the dreaded outfit regrouping, according to a senior Tamil MP. Political will and military muscle may have ensured there are no more tears from terrorists in the tiny tear-drop shaped country, south of India. Critics, however, accuse the government of human rights violations and for the plight of thousands of refugees displaced by war. ‘‘There is no room for violence in the new Sri Lanka, the focus is on growth and civil harmony,’’ said Tamil-Muslim Member of Parliament Abdul Cader of the opposition United National Party, a political veteran of over two decades. Speaking to Khaleej Times, he dismissed reports of an LTTE revival, and of funds flowing in for the group from sympathisers in Canada, the US, India, Britain and Australia. The leading Tamil politician, who has never lost an election, said the Sri Lankan government under Mahinda Rajapaksa was reaching out to the minority Tamils, who make up about 10 per cent of the population. The Sinhalese are in majority with 82 per cent, while the Lankan Moors comprise a little over eight per cent of the populace. Only on Wednesday, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa chaired a cabinet meeting in Killinnochi, where ironically, the slain Tamil Tiger leader held his first and only press conference in April 2002. Speaking in the town, the president, said: ‘‘If not for terrorism the district would have developed long ago. The terrorist who destroyed the northern railway line. We have to obtain foreign loans to restore all this devastation. Who will pay for them? The entire nation will.’’ ‘‘The country comes first, it belongs to everyone, and the president is sending out a message that unity is paramount and we should progress together — Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists...’’ said Cader, who lauded efforts by the government to resettle Tamil refugees. Cader, who claims to be a nationalist above all else, said Tamils and the Muslim minority were fed up by the gory past and the lack of development, a price the country paid during decades of conflict. ‘‘We don’t want to see such violence again. There’s work to be done and countries in the region like India and China will play a major role in reconstruction efforts,’’ said Cader.

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Sri Lanka

Lanka rebels were shot dead after surrender

2009-12-14

[Bangla Daily Star] Sri Lankan troops shot dead surrendering Tamil Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary, the former army chief who is now running for president said yesterday. General Sarath Fonseka said Gotabhaya Rajapakse -- the brother of the current president -- instructed field commanders not to take prisoners in the days before the Tamil Tiger separatists were defeated in May. "Gotabhaya Rajapakse spoke directly with (commander) Shavendra Silva and told him not to accommodate any surrendering LTTE leaders and that they must all be killed," Fonseka told reporters at a meeting of opposition parties. Fonseka said he was away in China and was unaware that Rajapakse was giving direct orders to officers in the field during the final stages of battle against the Tigers, officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He said he only learnt after the war that senior Tiger rebels had used foreign mediators to organise a plan in which they would carry white flags and give themselves up. Fonseka led the army's successful offensive to finally crush the LTTE and end the island's decades-long ethnic conflict, but he later fell out with President Mahinda Rajapakse and the defence secretary. He resigned last month, accusing the government of sidelining him, and is now attempting to unseat President Rajapakse in elections on January 26. Sri Lankan authorities have resisted international calls for a war crimes investigation amid allegations by the United Nations that more than 7,000 civilians were killed during the first four months of this year alone. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara declined to respond to Fonseka's remarks. "This is a comment given by General Fonseka and he will come out with many more," Nanayakkara said. "We will not comment on what he says." The government has previously denied ordering troops to kill Tamil Tiger political wing leader B. Nadesan, senior rebel S. Puleedevan and another Tiger official and their families. The military claimed victory over the LTTE on May 18 after wiping out the leadership of the once-powerful movement, which began its armed struggle for an independent Tamil homeland in 1972. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the group's founder, was killed in the fighting and his body shown on national television. During the war's finale, the United States and other Western nations voiced alarm at Sri Lanka's treatment of non-combatants, along with its internment afterwards of up to 300,000 Tamil civilians. Sri Lanka has said it is now allowing the civilians to leave state-run camps, although human rights groups say that many have nowhere to go with their villages destroyed in the fighting. When launching his election campaign, Fonseka said he was moving into politics because corruption was preventing Sri Lankans from benefiting from the success that military forces had secured under his command. He also surprised critics by agreeing to a possible war crimes investigation.

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Sri Lanka

Tamil Tigers demand probe into leader's 'abduction'

2009-08-10

Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger rebels on Sunday demanded an investigation into how their new leader was detained in Malaysia and flown home for questioning. Investigation? It's obvious, isn't it ... Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a senior Tiger, said Malaysia must release details on the "abduction" of Selvarasa Pathmanathan. Officials in Colombo have declined to say how Pathmanathan was detained, but the Thai government said he was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and transferred to Sri Lanka through Bangkok. "If the government of Malaysia does not have any information on the matter, we demand an inquiry into the whole episode," Rudrakumaran said in an emailed statement. Why don'tcha take a pill? Preferably your cyanide pill. Pathmanathan, who took over as head of the Tamil Tigers after its founding chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the final stages of fighting in May, was trying to revive the rebel group from overseas, the group has said. A Sri Lankan Defence Ministry spokesman told reporters on Friday that Pathmanathan was being interrogated in Sri Lanka, but declined to explain how he had been detained. Pathmanathan is wanted by Interpol on gun-running charges and by the Indian government in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil suicide bomber in 1991. He was thought to have fled to Malaysia from Thailand two years ago.

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Sri Lanka

Tigers name new chief: Selvarasa Pathmanathan

2009-07-28

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have a new chief. Its former head of arms procurement, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, has been named as successor to the slain Velupillai Prabhakaran, according to a statement issued by its Executive Committee. Fifty-four-year old Pathmanathan, aka Kumaran Pathmanathan or "KP", was serving as the LTTE's chief of international relations before rising to the top post. The Executive Committee has said he will lead the LTTE into the "next steps of the freedom struggle". The announcement comes a little over two months after Prabhakaran and his family - as well as the entire LTTE top brass - were killed by the Sri Lankan army. Prabhakaran's death and the military defeat of the LTTE plunged overseas Tigers and the Tamil diaspora into a state of shock. They went into denial over the death of their leader, as well as the LTTE's future. Sections within the LTTE even claimed Prabhakaran was alive and would emerge "when the right time comes". Pathmanathan has had a long association with the LTTE and Prabhakaran. He was a close confidante of the Tiger leader and functioned as the chief of the LTTE's arms procurement network. His first big arms purchase on behalf of the LTTE is believed to have taken place back in 1984.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Targets Tamil Tigers' Overseas Support Network

2009-06-11

COLOMBO -- After routing the Tamil Tigers at home, the Sri Lankan government has set its sights on destroying the group's network overseas -- an effort that involves working closely with countries that were critical of Sri Lanka's tough tactics during the war. In recent weeks, Sri Lankan officials have been sifting through computer files, business cards and daily schedules taken from Tamil Tiger offices in the country's north during this year's military offensive. The intelligence haul, officials say, is helping pinpoint sources of financial support and weapons that flowed to the separatist rebels from overseas. That supply network appears in some disarray after Tiger leaders in Sri Lanka, including chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, were killed, say two Sri Lankan officials involved in the investigations. Now, top members of the Tamil diaspora are jockeying to take the reins of the movement, the officials say. "Everything will be focused on the international arena," said one Ministry of Defense official. "They are losing control of their activities."

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Sri Lanka

Fate of Tamil Tiger intelligence chief unclear: report

2009-06-01

The Sri Lankan military is probing the possibility that the Tamil Tiger's spy chief may still be alive, despite testimony that he was killed with the rest of the rebel leadership. "The military is still investigating Tiger intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman's death as they could not find his body among the top level Tiger leaders," the state-run Sunday Observer said. Amman was seen as the number two in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) hierarchy after rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and was believed to have masterminded the 1991 assassination of Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi. The newspaper, which reflects government policy, said the military had testimony from a surrendered Tiger cadre who claimed that the spy leader had been killed before the final battle in which Prabhakaran perished. However, no body was ever found. Amman is the subject of an international arrest warrant for the Gandhi slaying as well as the 1996 bombing of the Sri Lankan Central Bank, which killed 91 people.

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Economy

LTTE fall will alter drug trade in India

2009-05-30

From the Dept. of Unintended Consequences MUMBAI: The defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the death of its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran will change the dynamics of drug trade in the subcontinent like never before, say experts. Mumbai was a key link in this supply chain as LTTE's conduits often used the city to bring in drugs from Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, and the Rajasthan and Punjab border. The consignments were then transported to coastal towns in Tamil Nadu such as Tuticorin, Rameshwaram, Ramnad, Nagapattinam, Kochi and a host of localities inhabited by fishing communities on the south-east coast. From there, the drugs would be shipped to Velvettiturai, a township located along the northern coast of Sri Lanka and formerly under LTTE control. Thus, over the years, drug enforcement agencies in Mumbai have arrested several Sri Lankan Tamils, and charged them with smuggling narcotics. "The accused were found to be highly motivated. They were taking the risk not just for the money, but because they believed in the LTTE's cause," said a public prosecutor. "The LTTE started using the revenue from narcotics to finance its armed struggle ever since the conflict started in 1983,'' said intelligence expert B Raman. However, the LTTE's role in the narcotics business was different from other international gangs such as the `D' Company, which indulges in direct selling of drugs. Prof G H Peiris, a Sri Lankan security expert who writes for the US magazine 'Jane's Defence Weekly', believes that the LTTE's involvement in the international drug trade was largely in the form of bulk delivery of heroin and cannabis from producing areas in Asia to consuming countries. He said that there did not appear to be any extensive involvement of the LTTE in drug 'peddling' in the retail market or participation in opium growing and refining of heroin. According to Raman, the LTTE's capabilities have been hit hard since last year when the Sri Lankan navy destroyed the vessels it used to ship drug consignments to other countries. He also added that despite the LTTE's involvement in the narcotics-trade, Prabhakaran remained a strict disciplinarian as far as his own cadres were concerned. "The complete annihilation of the LTTE is definitely going to affect the dynamics of the drug trade in this part of the world in a big way,'' said an official from Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). "The group was a major player for decades and only time will tell how its sudden collapse is going to change the modus operandi of local gangs in India,'' he added. Interesting. The LTTE conduit shut down, America is destroying opium in Afghanistan, but if I recall correctly things are going gangbusters in Latin America. Hope and change, my dears!

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Sri Lanka

Britain: ŽMore than 20,000 Tamils killedŽ in Sri Lankan war

2009-05-30

[ADN Kronos] More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the Sri Lankan military's final assault on separatist militants this month, a British newspaper said on Friday. The London Times said the figure was three times the official casualty figures released by the government. Fighting ended in the country's troubled north east when Sri Lankan troops crushed Tamil Tiger separatists accused of holding tens of thousands of civilians as human shields, said The Times. Citing its own investigation, the paper said most of the 20,000 deaths were caused by the government. Sri Lanka has insisted its forces stopped using heavy weapons on 27 April and respected a no-fire zone where 100,000 men, women and children were sheltering, the newspaper reported. Government officials blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians. Confidential UN documents indicated 7,000 civilians died in the no-fire zone up to the end of April, The Times said. But citing aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony, the news report said the death toll rose. It claimed that 1,000 civilians were killed each day until 19 May, the day after the death of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabhakaran. A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London dismissed the report. "We reject all these allegations. Civilians have not been killed by government shelling at all," he told the paper. "If civilians have been killed, then that is because of the actions of the LTTE who were shooting and killing people when they tried to escape," he said. The government last week announced the end of its 25-year civil conflict with Tamil separatists after the death of Prabhakaran.

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Sri Lanka

Tamil Tigers acknowledge death of Prabhakaran

2009-05-24

COLOMBO: Ending its stoic silence over the death of Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE on Sunday said the top rebel leader was killed in last week's final battle with the Sri Lankan military in the north. "We announce today, with inexpressible sadness and heavy hearts that our incomparable leader and supreme commander (Prabhakaran)... attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression," the LTTE's head of international relations Selvarasa Pathmanathan said in a statement on Sunday. "For over three decades, our leader was the heart and soul and the symbol of hope, pride and determination for the whole nation of people of Tamil Eelam," Pathmanathan said. The Sri Lankan army had on Monday last said it has killed Prabhakaran when he tried to flee in an ambulance. But, the LTTE immediately rejected the army claim, saying Tamil Tiger supremo was alive and safe. The Tigers had dismissed the announcement by the Sri Lankan government about Prabhakaran's death as "engineered rumours". "These rumours have been set afloat to confuse the global Tamil community which has been voicing support for the liberation of Tamil Eelam," a pro-rebel website had said, quoting Arivazhakan, the 'head of international secretariat of the intelligence wing' of Tamil Tigers. However, in today's statement, Pathmanathan said 54-year-old Prabhakaran died fighting military but did not give details of the circumstances that led to his death. He also announced a week of mourning for their dead leader, starting on Monday. The statement calls on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief." "Since the failure of the peace process and the escalation of the war forced upon the Tamil people, the LTTE was faced to confront the Sri Lankan military that was supported by the world powers.This deliberate bias and position taken by the international community severely weakened the military position of the LTTE," he said. "Our leader confronted this threat without any hesitation. He would not waver in his desire to be with his people and fight for his people till the end," he said. "His (Prabhakaran) final request was for the struggle to continue until we achieved the freedom," Pathmanathan said, adding "his legend and the historical status as the greatest Tamil leader ever are indestructible." The Sri Lankan troops recovered Prabhakaran's body near a lagoon in the 'no fire zone' in the Wanni region. The army had on Saturday said that they have cremated the body. Pathmanthan said the Tigers would now use "non-violent" methods to fight for the rights of Tamils.

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Sri Lanka

Britain: Tamils arrested as Sri Lankan army declares victory

2009-05-21

[ADN Kronos] British police arrested 10 people after a protest by Sri Lankan Tamils in central London turned violent on Tuesday. The demonstrators had gathered to protest in front of the parliament building in support of the Tamil minority targeted by the government's military offensive in northeast Sri Lanka. That's not the same as the Tamil minority that's represented in parliament... The protest occurred as Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa declared the country "liberated" from Tamil Tiger militants after a 26-year war. He declared them 'liberated' after Porky was 'dead'. Rajapaksa made the announcement in a speech to the country's parliament, a day after the military said that rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed. Anybody want to bet that six months from now somebody's looking into charges of government involvement in Porky's "murder"? Hundreds of Tamils have been calling on the British government to do more to stop the war in Sri Lanka. It's stopped now, so shuddup. Now the government has declared victory over Tamil militants after a 25-year separatist war. That's what I just said. Only I thought it was 37 years. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan television channels broadcast footage of a body purported to be that of Prabhakaran, the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. But Tamil media outside Sri Lanka have denied the army's claims that their leader is dead. "Lies! All lies! He's had that hole in his forehead for years!" Pictures broadcast on Tuesday showed the top half of a body clad in the Tigers' uniform. The forehead was covered by a cloth, the eyes were open and the face was bloated. It wasn't bloated. He was a big fat guy. BFGs look like that. The footage also showed a copy of a military ID tag written in Tamil, bearing the number "0:01", and what appeared to be a Tamil Tiger identity card bearing Prabhakaran's photo. Somebody lifted his wallet at the bus station? Earlier, in a nationally televised live broadcast, President Rajapaksa claimed that the government's victory marked "a day which is very, very significant - not only to us Sri Lankans but to the entire world". It shows that the Peace Processor® isn't the path toward solving a problem involving people who use assassination and intimidation as favored political tools, and who've set up an armed organization within your country, complete with suicide boomer corps, cyanide capsules worn as talismans, extensive child conscription, and corvee labor. "Today we have been able to liberate the entire country from the clutches of terrorism," he said. "We have been able to defeat one of the most heinous terrorist groups in the world." "The EU will probably try to put our leadership on trial for it, but after the Tigers the EU doesn't really scare us a whole lot." After speaking in his native Sinhala, President Rajapaksa switched to the language of the Tamil minority, saying ethnic and religious divisions should end. "We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities." "With justice for all and malice toward none..." The government is facing a humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations estimating that 8,000 people were killed and another 250,000 displaced in the past four months of the conflict. The government and the Tamil Tigers alike were criticised by the UN and other aid organisations for not allowing civilians to leave the conflict zone.

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