Lord Naseby, Conservative Peer and Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka said on Wednesday (March 11) that if there is any genocide in Sri Lanka it is by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who hold civilian Tamils by force as a human shield in the war.

By Nacholibre

(Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A few years ago, it was the popular opinion that Sri Lanka is besieged by an invincible liberation force (LTTE), which the former has no way of defeating other than to yield to the latter’s demands and surrender. Successive governments had failed miserably in their endeavors to solve this menace by adopting a mixture of military operations against the LTTE punctuated by ceasefires and negotiations. None ever worked to bring any settlement to the conflict; they only brought disappointment and more destruction to the lives and property of this country in the Indian Ocean.

Members of the European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution "condemning the LTTE's violence and intimidation which are preventing civilians from leaving the conflict area", and "callings for an immediate ceasefire by the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE in order to allow the civilian population to leave the combat zone".

Once again the International Crisis Group has pronounced on Sri Lanka, bang on cue after the other usual suspects. Most negative of these was Human Rights Watch, which is a specialist, along with ICG, in purporting to be balanced. In fact they both persist in treating an elected government on a par with the terrorists they thus privilege.

Intervention of Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, in the Interactive Dialogue on the Reports of Special Rapporteurs under Item 3 of the Agenda of the UN Human Rights Council

By Nilantha Ilangamuwa reporting from Puthukudiyiruppu

(Puthukudiyiruppu, Sri Lanka Guardian) Brigadier Shavendra Silva is the rising new hero among the heroes of the current Eelam War, not that the word Eelam War or cause has any meaning except for those who want to find something from it. This is a war against terrorism perpetrated by what is considered the most brutal and ruthless campaign against a state by a band of terrorists headed by Velupillai Prabhakaran who has no political ideology at all but a dream to create a mafia state in South Asia.

Sri Lankan soldiers of Army 57 Division on Tuesday, the 5th of March found a large stock of gas masks and chemical resistant costumes from a captured LTTE camp in Udayarkattukulam North. According to the defence experts' view, the discovery exposes a possible terrorist plot for a mass scaled chemical attack against Sri Lankan soldiers.

The suicide bombing — which killed 15 civilians and injured 45 others, including a Minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government — outside a mosque at Akurassa in the Matara district of Sri Lanka’s Southern Province is yet another act of desperation by a terrorist outfit fighting for its life. Cornered by the Sri Lanka military in an area of about 45 square kilometres in the Mullaithivu district in the North, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is demonstrating afresh that there is no question of its changing its stripes.

By Scott McDonald, Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The Sri Lankan army Thursday seized the last remaining medical facility held by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the island, a military official said.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said the troops took the facility near Puthukkudiyiruppu after launching an operation Wednesday.

COLOMBO (IRIN) - The UN has deplored the diversion of high-energy therapeutic food supplies intended for severely malnourished children to Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam (LTTE) fighters in combat zones in Sri Lanka’s north.  

A statement released on 11 March by the UN country office in Sri Lanka said that BP-100 high-energy biscuits found in the possession of a dead Tamil Tiger came from supplies targeted at severely malnourished children.

President the Mackenzie Institute 

Entrenched in palm-log bunkers, with a human shield made up of tens of thousands of kidnapped Tamil civilians, the LTTE remains at bay. Worse, Prabhakaran is said to be trapped with them; it seems he didn’t run away after all.

by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha 

Secretary General 

Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

British parliament held one and a half hour debate on Sri Lanka on 5 February 2009 and members of all parties demanded a ceasefire in Vanni, demanded justice for the Tamil people, and demanded that humanitarian assistance be allowed through. They emphatically stated that there cannot be a military solution, and that there needs to be a political one. They suggested appointing a special envoy to report back directly to the Prime Minister, going to the United Nations Security Council, and also suspending the Sri Lankan Government from the Commonwealth.

Picture shows the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann and Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, in conversation. The President of the UNGA was in Geneva to address the High Level segment of the UN Human Rights Council. Miguel D’Escoto, a Roman Catholic priest and liberation theologian, was the Foreign Minister of the Sandinista government after the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 and remains a staunch supporter of President Daniel Ortega’s FSLN.

By Kelum Bandara  

Around 300 ex-LTTE combatants who arrived in Vavuniya along with the internally displaced persons are to be rehabilitated and re-integrated with their families  under a programme to be implemented within the camps where they currently stay, a Government official said yesterday.

The Indian Government’s offer of medical assistance to treat Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North is an example to western countries who dictate terms to Sri Lanka on humanitarian issues and how to prosecute the war against terrorism, Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva said.

COLOMBO (AFP) — The United Nations on Wednesday accused the Tamil Tigers of siphoning off food meant for severely malnourished children in Sri Lanka's embattled north.

 The UN said a high energy food supplement known as "BP-100" found on a Tamil Tiger rebel killed in ongoing fighting was sent for children in the region in June 2007.

The High Commissioners for Bangladesh and Malaysia, as well as the Indonesian Ambassador on behalf of their respective Governments, have strongly denounced the suicide bomb attack carried out by the LTTE yesterday (10 March 2009) at the Godapitiya Jumma Mosque in Akuressa, targetting a peaceful procession led by Government Ministers to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday, held under State patronage.

(Colombo, Lankapuvath) Another 378 civilians have reached the Sri Lankan troops deployed in the Mullaittivu area yesterday (10). 

According to the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS), the civilians who sought refuge with the troops were from the non liberated areas of Ampalavanpokkanai in Mullaittivu and Vethalakerni in Jaffna.

By C. Bryson Hull 

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Nearly 400 people fled Sri Lanka's shrinking war zone and a wounded cabinet minister regained consciousness after a suicide bombing blamed on the cornered Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said on Wednesday.

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith has thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for facilitating the safe return of 3 Australian members of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, which came under attack by terrorists in Lahore last Tuesday(3rd March 2009).The Minister conveyed the Australian Government's deep appreciation ,when he telephoned his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama in Colombo today(7th March 2009).He also expressed his sympathy and concern for the members of the cricket team and their families who had been traumatised by this ordeal. He informed the Sri Lankan Minister that he had spoken to Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and had offered assistance in the investigation into the incident, including the provision of forensic experts. Minister Smith also conveyed his Government's gratitude to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister for having facilitated the safe passage of an Australian national, who had been trapped in the uncleared areas in the North in a food convoy earlier this year.