LTTE contracts underworld to kill Prisons Chief

TID to question LTTE suspects, prison guards

After the discovery of a 200 metre long tunnel from Kalutara Prison to the Kaluganga, a police probe has revealed of a plot by the LTTE to assassinate the Commissioner General of Prisons Major General Vajira Wijegunawardane by contracting the underworld

A top official of the Terrorists Investigations Department (TID), who is investigating both the discovery of the tunnel and the murder contract confirmed to the Daily Mirror the LTTE had given a 2.5 million rupee contract to kill the former top military officer.

“Already five lakhs had been given to a Colombo based notorious underworld figure to carry out the assassination,” he said. The TID is to question 53 LTTE suspects who were earlier at the Kalutara prison as well as 170 prison officials in connection with the discovery of the tunnel.

He also said that last week, the TID informed the Commissioner General of Prisons about the latest threat. Information that the LTTE is planning to kill Major General Wijegunawardane is what led the police to conduct a search in the Kalutara Prisons area leading to the discovery of the secret tunnel.

Meanwhile, special police teams are working round the clock to arrest the underworld figures, who had been given the contract to kill Major General Wijegunawardane. They also said that so far police were able to gather important information about the assassination attempt.

The discovery of a tunnel last week at the Kalutara prison, believed to have been dug by LTTE detainees has led to more startling revelations and investigators are now pointing fingers at some prison officials who are believed to have been directly involved in the attempted prison break out.

Investigations suggest that large sums of money could have been offered to the prison officials to ensure that some guards were not permitted to visit the particular cell from where the inmates planned their daring escape before they were transferred to another prison. It has now been revealed that the LTTE had managed to smuggle blunt implements, baskets and fertilizer bags into the cell with the assistance of some prisons officials.

In scenes reminiscent of the TV series ‘Prison Break’ officials of the Kalutara Prison on Horana Road discovered the nearly 200 metre long tunnel, complete with electqicity for lighting, leading towards the Kalu Ganga, dug by Tiger suspects in custody over a period of one year.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/news/06.asp)

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The price and addiction of war too high

Sri Lanka is missing out on a great development opportunity in Tourism

When the creator designed the world he gave some countries a dollop of oil. Others got gold and silver and mineral deposits and to some he gave great scenic beauty. Every country to make its people progressively better off has to develop the natural resources it has inherited. We got great scenic beauty. A country like no other as we say in some tourist brochures. Sadly we have been able to gain only a small fraction of the potential. What the creator gave lies undeveloped and generates a mix of anger and sadness. To get the missed opportunity into a realistic perspective we should look at what some other countries who got the same goodies of great scenic beauty have done to exploit the opportunity. A good comparison is Thailand. They got the same cocktail of sandy beaches temples, ancient civilisations beautiful green countryside and friendly people. Our cocktail is more accessible, as the distances between our attractions are shorter. We are arguably ahead of Thailand as a destination.

The Sri Lankan experience

“Sri Lanka’s tourism industry a casualty of the civil conflict could become a principal beneficiary of a sustained peace. After facing promising prospects in the 1970’s, with yearly growth in tourist arrivals surpassing 20%, tourism collapsed with the onset of the civil conflict.”(source ADB) In 1982 tourist arrivals were a little above 400,000. “And while Sri Lanka drew about half a million tourist arrivals in 2003 Malaysia had reached 10 million in 2000 and Thailand the same number in 2001-even though all three countries had started from a similar base in the 1970’s.” source ADB

The sad story continued and in 2006 tourist arrivals we claimed were 559000. (This number is an exaggeration as it includes all foreign passport holders who came and this will include Sri Lankans, NGO’s and other non tourist visitors) Our foreign exchange earnings were 410 million US dollars.

The story in Thailand

In 2005 tourist arrivals were 11.6 million. This meant they had 20 times the number that visited Sri Lanka.

Thailand earned 9.2 Billion US dollars from tourism in 2005.This was 22times what Sri Lanka earned in 2006.Thailand’s earnings from Tourism WAS GREATER than Sri Lanka’s total exports which were 7.2 Billion Us dollars in 2006!

The Thai experience relates an interesting story. They offer tourists a very similar mix of attractions. This basket of sights as a destination attracted visitors from all over the world. It is by no means a destination mainly oriented to Western Europe. The number of visitors from East Asia was more than double the number from Europe. The visitors from the Americas was nearly double the total number of tourists to Sri Lanka What all this means is that we have a great hand as a destination, as what we have to offer is relevant to people in all parts of the world.

It was war that ruined it all

Our pattern of arrivals over the years is like a temperature chart of a patient who every time he gets better has a relapse and gets worse. Every time the civil conflict scenario deteriorated the arrivals declined. This sensitivity to conflict was demonstrated this year in Thailand. The political turmoil in that country resulted in a massive 15% decline in tourist arrivals in the first 8 months of this year.

The ganja of war

Sri Lanka has suffered from the ganja of war. War is addictive like ganja. Prabhakaran is addicted to it, after all these years it has to be obvious to him that he cannot establish a separate state through war. But he cannot give it up even though this addiction is causing huge hardships to the people in the North. Like all addicts they are blinded to the path and suffering inflicted on others.We also have addicts to the ganja of war in the south. They too are oblivious to the damage caused by war. The combination of these two groups of addicts to the ganja of war has materially harmed the growth and development of this country. A major casualty is tourism a goose that that can lay the golden eggs. It is now being slowly strangled to death.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/feat/05.asp)

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Army captures LTTE’s FDL near Yodha Wewa

The Military on Monday captured the LTTE’s first Forward Defence Lines on the western side of the Yodha Wewa (Giant Tank) in the north of Mannar, in a fresh military operation launched on Sunday to capture the area, military sources said.

They said that on Monday itself the military was able to kill more than 20 LTTE cadres and injure nearly 40. Clashes erupted between the advancing military and the LTTE on Monday on the west of the Yodha Wewa ( Giant Tank).

“During the clashes four soldiers succumbed to injuries while nearly 20 LTTE cadres were killed and 36 injured,” a military official said. He also said that the military established through LTTE radio transmission intercepts that a vehicle belonging to the terrorists had been completely destroyed during the clash.The official also said that there were heavy exchanges of artillery and mortar fire between the two parties for several hours.With the outbreak of fighting people in the area have started to flee and seek refuge at nearby churches and schools. “Only a few families moved from the area,” the official however said.Meanwhile, the LTTE said on Monday that they had thwarted military attempts to infiltrate into areas under their control . “After nine hours of stiff fighting, the Army troops were pushed back to their positions with heavy causalities,” the Tamilnet said quoting an LTTE spokesman.

He said that six Tigers were killed during the fighting.He also said, that the military casualties were airlifted from the battle field in Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/news/03.asp)

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EU defers resolution against Lanka

AI calls for special UNHRC session after Arbour visit

The European Union has decided to defer a resolution against Sri Lanka, an EU diplomat in Geneva told the Daily Mirror even as human rights groups, on Monday asserted that the situation in Sri Lanka had deteriorated to serious levels.

Speaking on condition of anonymity the diplomat said the EU, which under the presidency of Portugal, was contemplating putting forward a resolution against Sri Lanka both at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and the EU Parliament in Brussels had decided to defer the move until the upcoming Lankan visit of Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour.

“The EU has decided to wait till the end of her visit next month and see the outcome before deciding on the next move,” the diplomat said. On at least three earlier occasions in the past two years the EU deferred similar resolutions against Sri Lanka following intense lobbying by the government.

The New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) presented a report to the EU Parliament and the UNHRC

in Geneva on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and subsequently the government carried out its own lobbying by presenting a report to EU countries on the efforts taken to deal with human rights concerns. Meanwhile addressing the UNHRC on Monday Amnesty International representative Peter Splinter urged the council to have a special session following the visit of Ms. Arbour to Sri Lanka early next month adding the government’s denial of the gravity of the situation had not helped improve it.

“The special session will allow it to receive and discuss an urgently needed comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and explore measures that can assist the Government in improving that situation,” he said.

The AI said the severity of the violations and abuses requires that the Government address in the Council itself the need for investigations, prosecutions and other practical measures to end those violations and abuses.

Meanwhile Lukas Machon, of the International Commission of Jurists, also speaking at the session on Monday, said renewed violations by security forces and serious abuses by the LTTE demanded insistent condemnation and that the Human Rights Council should pressurize the Government to agree to establish a human rights presence.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/front/01.asp)

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Govt. team and NGOs in war of words in Geneva

A government delegation attending the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva was involved in a heated debate with NGOs and human rights groups at a briefing organized by the Sri Lankan mission in Geneva on Monday, sources who attended the session told the Daily Mirror.

The debate erupted between Tamil Centre for Human Rights General Secretary S. V. Kirubaharan and Minister G. L. Peiris when Prof. Peiris insisted that the Interim Self-Governing Administration (ISGA) presented by the LTTE in 2003 was purely focused on self rule.

Mr. Kirubaharan recalled the LTTE was ready to discuss the proposal together with a government proposal with the government peace team which was led by Minister Peiris at that time. The government peace team at the time, including Minister Peiris, had acknowledged that the way forward lay through direct discussions of the issues arising from both sets of proposals, Mr. Kirubaharan said.

During the debate the government team was described by the panelists as a ruthless terrorist organization and the worst in the world. Mr. Kirubaharan questioned the panelists if that were the case why was it that America, the EU and the other Co-chairs were insisting on negotiating with the LTTE.

Geneva’s Sri Lankan Ambassador Dayan Jayatilake responded saying it was the views of the Co- Chairs and did not necessarily reflect the views of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.

A similar heated exchange of words erupted between the government delegation and human rights groups at the UNHRC last week as well as the government attempted to clear what it termed were misrepresentations made about the situation in Sri Lanka.

The most heated arguments took place during the session, titled ‘Misrepresentations of Sri Lanka: A Briefing on Human Rights’, between an HRW representative and government peace secretariat chief Rajiva Wijesinha.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/front/02.asp)

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Karuna flees to Britain?

Former LTTE eastern commander Karuna Amman has fled to Britain, well informed sources told the Daily Mirror adding that it followed the escalation of the split within the Karuna faction also known as the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP).

Amman had reportedly fled around four days ago after receiving his visa from Colombo and is now with his family who have been in Britain for more than a year, the source said. His mobile phone is however on roaming for him to be in contact with his close associates in Sri Lanka.

The Daily Mirror learns that financial irregularities within the TMVP which resulted in the split forced Amman to flee the country until the situation was resolved. More cadres loyal to Amman are said to have offered allegiance to Pillayan who moved to Trincomalee from Batticaloa together with more than 100 cadres earlier this year resulting in both sides carrying out tit for tat killings which still continues. Some Pillayan cadres have now infiltrated Batticaloa, sources said.

Besides this development, there was also pressure from government circles with persistent allegations being levelled against the TMVP over intimidation and harassment of Tamil political parties operating in the East including the EPDP led by Minister Dauglas Devananda.

However when contacted by the Daily Mirror TMVP spokesman Azad Maulana, who himself was not contactable for several months following the reported split within the TMVP, dismissed reports of Karuna fleeing the country and declined to comment further on the issue.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/front/04.asp)

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Tamil Tigers call for international pressure on Sri Lanka

Tamil Tiger guerrillas called Tuesday for international pressure to be cranked up to force the Sri Lankan government to halt military operations and return to peace negotiations.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly referred to as the Tamil Tigers, accused Colombo in a statement of pursuing a military campaign and committing human rights abuses.

The timing of the statement was intended to coincide with President Mahinda Rajapakse’s address to the United Nations in New York later Tuesday.

The LTTE wants the international community to push the Colombo administration to honour a 2002 ceasefire arranged by peace broker Norway. The truce is in tatters after an escalation of fighting since December 2005.

“Whereas the LTTE continued to respect and urge for a full implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the Rajapakse regime eventually embarked on its war of occupation,” the LTTE said.

“The government of Sri Lanka must end its deceptions, halt its military oppression, ethnic cleansing, and serious human rights violations, accept the aspirations of the Tamil people and come forward to find a resolution that is based on the right to self-determination of the Tamil people,” the statement said.

“The international community must rein in the government of Sri Lanka to bring it in line.”

It added military operations by Sri Lankan forces continued in the island’s north and east, but said that the LTTE “continued to restrain itself, confining only to defensive operations.”

The statement came a day after the Sri Lankan military said that at least 27 people, including 23 rebels, were killed in clashes over the weekend.

The fighting came despite an offer Sunday by the government’s top defence official to halt military action in exchange for a resumption of peace talks, which stalled last October.

Troops would not go on the offensive if Tamil rebels agreed to talks, defence ministry secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told a newspaper amid pressure from the island’s key foreign backers to halt the carnage.

Rights groups accuse the government and Tamil rebels of extra-judicial killings and scores of disappearances of civilians and political activists.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka’s long-running Tamil separatist campaign.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070925/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrestuneutigers_
070925050804&printer=1;_ylt=At7Vvt_FCftUq3nHfdO6AOfuOrgF)

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Sri Lanka violence leaves 16 more dead

Sixteen people were killed and 39 others injured as security forces clashed with Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka’s embattled north and east, the two sides reported.

Four soldiers died in the northern district of Mannar early Tuesday when the rebels tried to breach a security line, the military said placing guerrilla losses at nine killed and 36 injured.

A road-side bomb killed a university lecturer and a civil servant in the northern district of Jaffna also on Tuesday, the defence ministry said blaming the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The ministry said the rebels had targeted soldiers on foot patrol. Three soldiers escaped with injuries while the two civilians died in the blast.

And a farmer was shot dead by unknown gunmen late Monday in the eastern town of Akkaraipattu, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said.

More than 60,000 people have died since the LTTE launched a military campaign for an independent state for minority Tamils in 1972.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070925/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunresttoll_
070925152631&printer=1;_ylt=At7Vvt_FCftUq3nHfdO6AOfuOrgF)

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