LTTE Reject laying downs Arms

LTTE reject laying down arms
Wednesday, June 18, 2008COLOMBO:
Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels have rejected a request to lay down or decommission their weapons before peace talks, saying they can still win the war against government forces.
The government said last week it would only reconsider re-starting a peace process if the rebels agreed to lay down or decommission their weapons and issued a clear timetable for negotiations.
But Balasingham Nadesan, the rebels’ political head, said laying down arms could weaken their bargaining power at any talks.
“Any approach that disturbs the balance of power and parity of status (between the government and rebels) are counter-productive to the peace
process,” Nadesan said in an email interview with Reuters.
“The balance of power and the parity of status are very crucial for any meaningful negotiations.”
The government request came after the rebels said last week they wanted to meet Norwegian peace brokers to resume a stalled peace process.
The government formally ended a tattered truce with the rebels in January, ramping up the civil war in which more than 70,000 people have died since 1983.
The government said the rebels use visits by peace envoys as propaganda.
Nordic ceasefire monitors quit the country this year after the collapse of the six-year-old Norwegian-brokered truce. The military says the rebels are
facing heavy losses in the north, while the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, deny they
have been weakened by the surge in fighting.
“The LTTE armed forces are presently only engaging in defensive warfare.... We have full confidence that we will win this war with the help of our Tamil people,” said Nadesan.
He said the government could not defeat the rebels in a conventional war. “I like to remind you a famous quote in this regard, ‘The conventional army loses if it does not win, but a Liberation movement wins if it does not lose’,” said Nadesan.
Analysts say the Sri Lankan army has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war given superior air power, strength of numbers and
swathes of terrain captured in the island’s east. But they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
Military figures show about 5,000 people, most of them rebels, have been killed this year alone, while scores of civilians have died in attacks on buses
and trains blamed on the rebels.

LTTE rejects Sri Lankan government request to lay down arms
Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 3:52 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
June 18, Colombo: Sri Lanka's separatist LTTE rebels rejected the Sri Lanka government's request to lay down their weapons before peace talks.
“Any approach that disturbs the balance of power and parity of status (between the government and rebels) are counter-productive to the peace
process,” LTTE political head B. Nadesan had told a news agency.
He also said that the balance of power and the parity of status are very crucial for any meaningful negotiations.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said last week that his government would consider restarting a peace process only if the rebels agreed to lay
down their weapons.

Canada brands Tamil group as terrorist front for Tigers
Canadian assets frozen after probe finds links to Sri Lankan militants
The controversial World Tamil Movement has been added to Canada's list of terrorist organizations, the latest move in an ongoing investigation that
links the group to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.
The group's assets have been frozen and could be seized by Canada's attorney general, said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who announced
the decision at a Toronto news conference yesterday.
"We want to make sure any group who would help terrorist organizations is prevented from doing that," said Day. The minister would not say whether
charges would be laid against the group or its members, citing a continuing government probe.
In 2006, the RCMP raided the group's office in Scarborough and seized documents that included step-by-step instructions on how to set up a front
organization and indoctrinate children.
About two months ago, the federal police force sought court approval to seize the WTM's bank accounts.
In a 400-page affidavit filed in federal court, the RCMP accuses the World Tamil Movement of orchestrating a complex extortion scheme that targets
Tamil Canadians and pressures them to donate money to the LTTE, a militant separatist group that has been fighting for an independent homeland in
north and east Sri Lanka since the 1970s.
Published reports have previously suggested that as much as $1 million a month leaves Canada to support the LTTE. Day, however, refused to
speculate on the amount when speaking to reporters yesterday.
"They (the WTM) have been collecting lots of funds," said Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekera, describing complaints from community
members who say the group harassed them for money.
"We've known for years they're the front of the LTTE – it's not a secret."
The Toronto-based Sri Lanka United Association of Canada echoed Jayasekera's stance, and said it welcomed the government decision to outlaw the group.
Executives of the World Tamil Movement describe the organization as a community services agency that focuses on settlement assistance, Tamil education and community development, with offices around the world. The terror listing, effective retroactively to June 13, makes it illegal for Canadians here and abroad from knowingly participating in, contributing to or
facilitating activities by the WTM. It also prohibits Canadians from assisting the organization financially.
Yesterday morning, Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions placed the WTM on its terrorist financing watch list, alerting all banks, credit unions and insurance companies operating in this country to scour their client lists and immediately report any findings to the authorities.
Sitha Sittampalam, the movement's Toronto president since 2004, said he is consulting a lawyer about how to proceed with an appeal of the decision,
a process allowed under Canadian law.
He would not otherwise comment on the government's move.
In an interview with the Star last month, Sittampalam vehemently denied allegations the group is a front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better
known as the Tamil Tigers, though he supports their political goal of an independent Tamil nation.
Yesterday's announcement brought quiet joy and relief to many of the GTA's Tamil population, although few dared celebrate, said Lenin Benedict,
secretary of the Canadian Democratic Tamil Cultural Association.
The organization promotes pluralism in Ontario's Tamil community and a peaceful resolution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
"Everybody is happy inside, but most people will not come out, frankly, out of fear (of retribution)," he said, noting people's concerns for family
members here and abroad, or for their businesses.
It can be difficult to convince victims of the racket to come forward, he said.
With files from Rita Trichur

Tigers: Neither down nor out
by Maj. Gen. Ashok Kumar Mehta
(June 17, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Never before in the ongoing 30-year-long war have the Sri Lankan Security Forces (SLSF) been better
placed to defeat the LTTE. This has come about by a combination of proactive political, diplomatic and military measures. The war has been
categorised in four phases: Eelam War (EW) One (1983-87), EW Two (1990-95), EW Three (1996-2002) and EW Four (2005 onwards).
The turning point of the war was the split in the LTTE in March 2004, when the LTTE wing in the East under its leader Karuna defected to form an
independent group aligned with the government. The Tamils in the east are different in habit and character from the Tamils in the north. Some of the
LTTE’s best fighting units came from the east and its elite strategic reserves for the storming of Jaffna in 2000 after the fall of Elephant Pass were
under Karuna. That they were never used is another story.
Once Karuna split from the LTTE in the north, the demerger of the north and east and erasing the concept of a Tamil homeland became an achievable
goal. The Sri Lankan government (SLG) began working on this script as soon as the present President Mahinda Rajapakase assumed power in 2005
with the support of the right-wing Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). As is its wont, the LTTE tested the political and military will of
the new President by closing the sluice gates of a water tank in Mawil Aaru in 2006 depriving 30,000 Sinhalese in Trincomalee of water for their
farms.
The battle of Mawil Aaru spread towards the east engulfing the Muslim-predominant Muttur and Tamil-inhabited Sampur, both south of the
Trincomalee Harbour. Major battles were fought and lost by the LTTE in their last foothold in the east, north of the Verugal river in Trincomalee
district. The capitulation in Sampur especially was a big blow for the Tigers as they lost their strategic control of the Trincomalee harbour. From
Sampur they were able to interfere with the movement of shipping in the harbour.
The LTTE’s next defeat was at Vakkarai in early 2007 immediately south of the Verugal river, which is the boundary between Batticaloa and
Trincomalee districts. The mother of all battles was fought around Topigalla, the biggest LTTE base in the east. The fall of Topigalla in July 2007
coincided with what Rajapakse triumphantly called the “Liberation and reawakening of the east”. Without Karuna/Pillayan, none of this would have
been possible.
The loss of the east forced the LTTE to regroup its forces into the three districts under their control — Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu, the last
two comprising the heart of the Wanni jungles. For the LTTE the situation was similar to, but worse than, that during November 1987 after the Tigers
were defeated by IPKF in Jaffna. They pulled out of the Jaffna peninsula and built a new citadel in the Wanni. The difference now is that they have no
fallback base in the east and are hemmed in between SLSF in the north and the east. The Wanni defences were prepared in the late 1980s to fight the
IPKF and have no doubt been significantly fortified.
Two key developments choreographed by the government facilitated a favourable outcome of the military campaign. In late 2006, in response to a
public interest litigation by the JVP, the courts held that the merger of the north and east in 1987 had been illegal. This demerger of the north and east
was ratified on the ground by the military victory in the east. Karuna’s notoriety in extortion, recruiting child soldiers and other excesses in the east had
become such a major international embarrassment for the government that SLSF engineered a split through a rival group led by Pillayan. Karuna
disappeared, surfacing in a British jail on charges of a fraudulent passport.
Local and provincial elections in the east held recently were won by the local alliance teamed with Pillayan who was made the first chief minister of the
Eastern Provincial Council over the head of a rival Muslim claimant. Rajapakse has been successful in manipulating the ethnic conflict into a “just war
against terrorism” but the country’s record in human rights has plummeted. More importantly, he has turned power-sharing between Sinhalese and
Tamils into one between Muslims and Tamils. Buoyed by the political and military success in the east, the war in the north has entered a bloody and
critical phase. Rajapakse’s strategy is to defeat the LTTE in the north and hold elections replicating the east.
As part of its psychological war, the government has claimed several times in the past that the legendary LTTE supremo Pirabhakaran had been killed
or incapacitated. Intelligence-driven targeted assassinations of top LTTE leaders have certainly increased but Pirabhakaran has remained elusive. The
LTTE used to believe it was invincible and its leader Pirabhakaran immortal. Both convictions have been bruised though neither has faded. Even if
Pirabhakaran is taken out by precision bombing or disease or sickness, LTTE as an entity will remain.
The contagion of dynastic rule has spread to guerrilla forces too. Pirabhakaran’s son Charles Antony, named after the outfit’s leader of Special
Forces, who is an aeronautical engineer and commands the Tamil Eelam Air Force is likely to take over. Any transition in this monolithic organisation
will not be entirely non-violent but the outfit will neither disintegrate nor disappear. Under a new leadership the LTTE can either opt for dialogue or
keep fighting till they are in a better bargaining position. The balance of military advantage at present is on the side of the government.
The Tigers are fighting on the ground of their choosing with some of their best fighters, the hard core of suicide bombers and the air force, intact. They
have already made good some of their losses in shipping and shortfalls in artillery and mortar ammunition. Rough equivalence will be restored once
they acquire air defence weapons. The bloody nose given to the SLSF in the battle of Muhumalai in April and the precision of their suicide attacks in
land and under water show they are neither down nor out. And there is life after Pirabhakaran.- Sri Lanka Guardian

WB and GSP+
by Jehan Perera
(June 17,Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The World Bank’s decision to provide Sri Lanka with USD 900 million over the period 2008-2011 would
come as a morale booster to the government. Sri Lanka’s inability to retain its seat in the UN Human Rights Council despite intense lobbying by the
government has been generally seen as a vote of no confidence on account of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. However, the
World Bank’s willingness to commit itself to a significant level of developmental support to Sri Lanka for a three year period suggests that the
international community is reluctant to penalize the country, and the masses of its poor people, on account of the human rights situation.
The World Bank decision would encourage the government to view its forthcoming application to renew the favourable tax concessions from the EU
in terms of the GSP+ facility with a greater measure of confidence. Economists have pointed out that Sri Lank’s exports to the EU, particularly from
the apparel industry, are crucially dependent on the favourable import duty reductions that the GSP+ facility makes possible. Due to the fact that over
100,000 jobs are believed to be at stake, even the main opposition party has pledged to support the government’s efforts to enact and implement the
necessary requirements to retain the facility.
Obtaining the GSP+ facility is likely to prove harder than obtaining economic assistance from the World Bank. The World Bank is first and foremost a
bank, and its decision making processes are primarily driven by economic motivations. From an economic point of view Sri Lanka is an attractive
investment option, in comparison to many other third world countries. It has an educated population, a comprehensive social welfare system and a
dense network of governmental institutions that operate in the remotest villages. Further, responsible fiscal management by successive governments
has ensured that Sri Lanka has never defaulted on its international financial commitments.
On the other hand, the GSP+ facility is only partly an economic contract. Countries that are entitled to receive its benefits need to demonstrate their
commitment to international law and to practices of good governance that are consistent with upholding the rule of law. Accordingly, countries that
seek to obtain the GSP+ facility need to show their adherence to 27 international agreements, which include protection of human rights and labour
rights. Reports submitted by UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, and the International Labour Office, influence EU decisions
in this regard. Unfortunately the escalating war that the country is presently experiencing has made the fulfillment of these criteria problemmatic for the
government.
Centre stage
Any country that is fighting a war will sooner or later find that the war has taken centre stage in the affairs of the country. The nature of violence, like
that of fire, is to expand and spread. This means it is difficult to fight a limited war in which human rights are protected and the rule of law prevails. This
is true of Sri Lanka’s war as well as international wars. Even the US, which seeks to ensure human rights compliance worldwide stands accused on
this count. There has been a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States permitting those incarcerated in US prisons in the war against
terror to file Habeas Corpus applications in the regular civilian courts of law, rather than be restricted to military tribunals.
In a similar way, the war against terrorism that the Sri Lankan government is fighting against the LTTE has led to serious human rights violations. The
worst manifestation of these is the targeted killing of civilians by bombs placed on buses and trains and remote-controlled claymore mines in different
parts of the country. There has also been a long list of political assassinations, abductions and intimidations that have targeted a range of actors,
including the media. Addressing the inaugural convention of the breakaway faction of the ruling SLFP, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga is
reported to have said, “It is not right for a government which is fighting against terrorism to act like terrorists. It will not be successful. There should be
alternatives to end terrorism. The only solution to terrorism and terror is freedom and democracy.”
The present government needs to be more mindful of the need for it to balance the competing interests of liberty and security. This is precisely the
position taken by the US Supreme Court in ruling that the US government could not deprive any person, even those arrested in the course of its war
against terror, from knowing the charges against them. The US Supreme Court said, “Liberty and Security can be reconciled; and in our legal system
they are reconciled within the framework of the law.” The majority in the Supreme Court took this decision despite a minority of judges opposing it on
the grounds that the US was at war with radical Islamists, and one judge saying the decision “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”
Strict adherence to the rule of law, even in a time of war, is what makes a country democratic and not fascist.
It is no cause for surprise that attacks in Sri Lanka against media personnel in particular would become well known internationally, as the international
media would rally together to protect its own. The treatment of senior journalist and editor, J S Tissainayagam would be a case in point. He was
arrested over three months ago, on allegations that he was supporting the LTTE. But so far no charges have been leveled against him in open court.
His case has been taken up by the international media, and media organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists. These send
negative messages to the international community.
Unbalanced approach
Underlying the government’s seeming insensitivity to international opinion, appears to be an attitude that there is no greater national purpose than to
remain in power and defeat the LTTE. The government’s decision to dissolve the Provincial Councils for the North Central Province and
Sabaragamuwa Province are pointers in this regard. The government’s attention ought to be devoted to safeguarding civilian life, the spiraling cost of
living and securing the EU’s GSP+ facility. Instead the government appears to be focusing its energies, and the attention of the country, onto elections
that are not essential at this time.
The government has sought to justify its decision to dissolve the two provincial councils on the grounds that they have become ungovernable. The
ruling party has the largest number of seats in the two provincial councils, but it does not have an absolute majority. Until the government suddenly
dissolved the two provincial councils it was not evident that there was indeed a problem of ungovernability. The opposition has taken the issue of the
premature dissolution of the two provincial councils to the judiciary arguing that this action was taken without consulting them.
It appears that the government’s intention is to consolidate its power by obtaining a fresh term of office in the provincial councils, which would further
demoralize and weaken the opposition. But the loss to the country can be as high as the gain to the government. This is on account of the neglect of
the principles of good governance that are crucial to obtaining the GSP+ facility. In addition, the arbitrary dissolution of the provincial councils by
Presidential fiat will undermine confidence in the strength and viability of the provincial council system which the government has been promoting as the
solution to the ethnic conflict.
Despite the problems with these government actions, the underlying strength of international support to Sri Lanka, which is one of the third world’s
oldest democracies, remains intact. French Ambassador Michel Lummaux who speaks on behalf of the EU on account of Slovenia currently holding
the presidency of the EU, has reconfirmed the EU’s commitment to Sri Lanka’s unity and democracy and opposition to a separate state. He also
stated that the grievances of minority communities should be addressed within this contextual framework. This political support of the EU, combined
with the World Bank’s support for economic development, demonstrates the goodwill of the international community in facing the LTTE’s challenge.
But to maximize this support, the government needs to adopt a more balanced approach to conflict resolution.- Sri Lanka Guardian

33 Tigers arrested in Italy ROME:
Italian Police said they have arrested 33 suspected members of Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in pre-dawn raids across the country yesterday.
Police in Naples said the suspects were picked up in 10 cities including Rome, Genoa, Bologna, Naples and Palermo at the end of a two-year investigation. Two more were being sought in Naples.
Some 200 police were involved in the operation which saw raids across the country including the island of Sicily, an official with the police counter-
terrorism cell told AFP.
Police believe the suspects, all Sri Lankan citizens, extorted money from their fellow nationals in the various cities and sent it home to finance the LTTE.
Luigi Bonacura of the Naples police said the operation effectively dismantled the Tiger network in Italy.
“They had formed an organization that was arranging financial support by collecting a tax, or an extortion payment, from Sri Lankans living here,” said
Palermo prosecutor Antonio Ingroia. Investigators will determine if they can also charge the collectors for extortion.
Tamil expatriates in Italy are forced to contribute money to the LTTE, Police said. The funds are taken out of Italy through Swiss banks.
The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says that police swooped at dawn in simultaneous raids on suspected Tiger hideouts in eight different cities.
Police said they have been investigating reports for the past two years that these Sri Lankans had been extorting money from fellow nationals working
in Italy and sending it to Sri Lanka to finance the Tigers.
Three months ago the Italian authorities closed down an illegal Tiger propaganda TV channel operating from Italian territory.
There are an estimated 50,000 Sri Lankan immigrants working in Italy. Many arrived illegally but have since obtained work and residence permits.
The definition of terrorism in Article 270 *bis* of the Italian Penal Code has been amended by Law 155/2005, which came into force on 02nd
August 2005, and includes promoting, constituting, organizing, managing or financing organizations which intend to carry out violent activities, or
assisting any individual (excluding a close relative) who participates in such organizations.
Law 438 of 15 December 2001, on Urgent Measures Against International Terrorism, extended the provisions of Art. 270 of the Penal Code to
cover international terrorism. Art. 270 *bis* provides for a term of imprisonment of between seven to 15 years for individuals found to promote,
constitute, organize, lead or finance organizations which promote violence for terrorists ends or to upset the democratic order.
It also provides for imprisonment of five to 10 years for individuals who associate with such organizations. Art. 270 *tris* provides for imprisonment
for up to 4 years for those harbouring or assisting terrorists.
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in its statement pointed out that it will coordinate with Italian authorities for further investigations.
The LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union. The UK and France have already arrested key Tiger operatives and are
also keeping an eye on gangs connected to the LTTE. The Tigers are known to maintain terror cells in many European countries.
The Neapolitan police team has also discovered a kind of intelligence service in the LTTE called TIG, which controls people from Sri Lanka of the
Tamil ethnic group resident in Italy, holding detailed files and photos, both of supporters and non-supporters of the organisation.
Reports on Italian TV speculated that the annual amount extorted from expatriate Tamils in Italy was around four million euros (6.2 million dollars).

French charity seeks international probe into Sri Lanka massacre
Tue Jun 17, 11:16 PM ET
COLOMBO (AFP) - A French charity demanded an international probe into the execution-style killing of 17 of its employees in Sri Lanka in 2006 after denouncing local investigations.
ADVERTISEMENT Paris-based Action Against Hunger, or ACF, asked the French government and the European Union, among others, to set up an international panel to
probe the August 2006 massacre in the Sri Lankan town of Muttur.
"ACF decided to withdraw from Sri Lanka, detach itself from the Sri Lankan legal procedures, denounce the way the procedures have been
conducted in Sri Lanka and request an international investigation," an ACF statement said.
The ACF pulled out of Sri Lanka in March after accusing local authorities of dragging their feet in probing the massacre that took place at a time when
government forces were locked in heavy combat with Tamil Tiger rebels.
"The ACF is launching the 'Justice for Muttur' campaign, which aims at mobilising the humanitarian community, public opinion and international
decision-makers to call for the opening of an international inquiry into the Muttur case," the statement said.
In April, a Sri Lankan human rights group named members of the security forces and police as being allegedly responsible for the massacre, the worst
against aid workers on the island.
University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) accused Colombo of a major cover-up of the killing of local employees of ACF, a charge denied by
the government.
Colombo has come under fire for its rights record with Human Rights Watch saying that at least 1,500 people "disappeared" between 2006 and 2007
-- mostly ethnic Tamils living in the island's restive north and east.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the Tamil rebels launched a campaign in 1972 to carve out a separate homeland in the Sinhalese-
majority island.

JVPers arrested with equipment meant for disabled soldiers
No theft, we bought them with party funds –– Vijitha Herathby Saman Indrajith and Norman Palihawadane
The Welikada Police yesterday recovered a massive stock of crutches, wheel chairs and equipment meant for war heroes allegedly stolen by the JVP
and arrested two party activists.
The equipment was worth over two million rupees and had been sent by Lankan expatriates in United Arab Emirates to the Manel Mal Movement.
Stored initially at the MMM head office , they had been taken away by a JVP member in Rajagiriya.
Following Wimal Weerawansa’s breakaway, the PNM severed connections with the JVP and the MMM requested the JVP to return the wheel
chairs and crutches. Since the requests had been turned down, the MMM’s Chief Executive Officer Anura Atapattu complained to the Welikada
Police last week.
OIC of the Welikada Police CI Neville Silva said the stock of wheel chairs and crutches had been recovered from a house in Obeysekerapura in
Rajagiriya.
The police had also arrested two persons for illegal possession of items belonging to the MMM, and investigations were on, he told The Island.
The suspects were due to be produced before Magistrate yesterday, police said.
JVP Propaganda Secretary MP Vijitha Herath said the PNM, MMM and JVP were the same. Purchase of the stock of wheelchairs and crutches had
been funded by the JVP members in the United Arab Emirates while he was the International Affairs Secretary of the Party. "These items were bought
and stored at a place belonging to JVP members. The owner of the place later wanted them removed for want of space and we shifted them to
another location. But, there was no stealing. They had been sent by our members thus they belong to the party," he said.