by Neville Ladduwahetty  

The 38 House Members of the US who sent a joint letter dated March 9, 2009, have urged the Secretary of State to call the President of Sri Lanka "…and press for the full protection of civilians, authorization for active involvement by United Nations agencies in humanitarian relief, and progress towards political settlement that grants ethnic Tamils meaningful participation in national governance…". Referring to the IDP camps, the letter quotes from a Human Rights Watch report that describes them as "internment centres masquerading as welfare villages".

In brilliant investigative pieces of reporting, London's Daily Mail accused Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) long standing friend and Labour parliamentarian Keith Vaz of "a shameless abuse of power and office."

The newspaper, in two articles and an editorial published on March 16, accused Vaz that he used his position as chairman of the Home Affairs select Committee of the British House of Commons, which has a key role in law and order issues to intervene in a court case looking into the conduct of a conman "lawyer" whose license to practice law was cancelled.

By Seth Mydans  

COLOMBO: Will he kill himself? This is a tactical military question now as the Sri Lankan Army closes in on Velupillai Prabhakaran and the stubborn core of his Tamil separatist insurgency.

There is always the possibility that Prabhakaran, 54, is already dead or that he has fled the military offensive, and those questions, too, are critical as the army seeks a final victory and plans ahead for the aftermath of his 25-year rebellion.

(Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Douglas Devananda, Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare and Chairman of Special Task Committee, Northern Province, visited the “Kathirgamar” Welfare Camp (Menik Farm) on the last 15th and inquired into the health of the internally displaced people temporarily housed in the camp.

COLOMBO (AFP)--Sri Lanka will lodge strong protests with countries where demonstrators have show support for the island's separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, a minister said Thursday.

Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said pro-rebel sympathizers have been staging demonstrations in Australia, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S., using Tiger propaganda.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has refuted the charge made by government doctors in the north eastern war-zone, that there is a severe shortage of medicines and surgical material there, and has contended that the medicines and other materials sent were stolen by the Tamil Tiger rebels to run their own “elite hospitals”.

Challenges, dangers and opportunities

By Dayan Jayatilleka

What is the challenge? To reach the goal of victory and reunification while avoiding the traps set for Sri Lanka. What are these traps and what are our tasks?

Anura MAITIPE  

The Jaffna reawakening project has taken the initiative to rehabilitate the Valukkaiaru scheme at Rs. 268 million to provide clean drinking water for people in Jaffna.  

Valukkaiaru is in the centre of Jaffna peninsula and it is a natural water purification plant.

United Nations (Asiantribune.com): The LTTE websites are propagating a story of a leaked UN document giving a casualty figure of 2863. The UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson today clarified that the so-called leaked document was an estimation done locally and that it was not a verified and published document.

National Post   

As members of this editorial board watched tens of thousands of Tamil Canadians throng downtown Toronto on Monday, we couldn't help but be struck by a curious double-standard that afflicts Canadian ethnopolitics. To wit: Why are Canadian Tamils permitted to express support for terrorism in a manner that would be considered outrageous if the demonstrators were Arab or Muslim? 

by Shamindra Ferdinando 

Angry civilians Tuesday set fire to an LTTE ‘police’ station at Puthumathalan in the civilian safety zone after LTTE cadres shot dead parents of a child whom they made an abortive bid to abduct. They also shot dead the child before retreating amid violent protests, Navy spokesman Captain D. K. P. Dassanayake told The Island last night.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and President Mahinda Rajapaksa had a telephone discussion yesterday evening on the humanitarian situation in the North, efforts of the Government to ensure the supply of food, medicines and other assistance to the IDPs, conditions in the IDP villages, political initiatives by the Government and the recently published statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR).

Some time back I wrote an article about what I termed the interlocking directorates of non-Governmental organizations which, while pretending to be objective assessors of aid work, ended up giving each other lots of money. As it turned out, I did not then know the half of it. Discussing with a distinguished ambassador of another country the changing face of the UN, the preponderance of white as it were, I was introduced to another dimension when he mentioned that, not only were many of our new arbiters from the same set of countries, they also came from the same backgrounds. In short, he said, they came from NGOs, they planned to go back into them, and thus they saw themselves as serving the interests primarily of that particular community.

Sri Lanka Navy saved the lives of 643 civilians who had been fleeing amidst the LTTE's merciless firing. The Navy rescued them on the 18th March 2009 in the Northern seas. The naval personnel who were on the alert swiftly acting on the scene, foiled merciless LTTE motives to kill the fleeing civilians dispersing LTTE carders on board four dinghies.

The Associated Press 

The Sri Lankan military Wednesday accused international organizations of giving false information on the island's civil war, saying rebel sympathizers have "infiltrated" the groups.

by M.S. Shah Jahan 

"Thich Quang Duc self-immolated himself in protest of persecution of Buddhism in South Vietnam in 1963. I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him".

500 metric tonnes of mixed food commodities  

The World Food Program’s second major relief food consignment of 500 metric tonnes of mixed food commodities (rice, wheat, flour, lentils, sugar and vegetable oil) reached Puthumathalan, the Government designated ‘safe zone’ along the North-eastern coast of Mullaitivu, on a Government arranged ship sailing under ICRC flag.

By Jacinta Cruz in California (California, Sri Lanka Guardian)

Written by “Sadith” a letter reproduced below is one of the many reactions to the ultra pro-LTTE demonstration held in Toronto on Monday March 16, 2009. It was reported by the eternal media fraud Tamilnet as attended by 75,000 demonstrators which included a large number of children who are enjoying their one-week March Break holidays.

Thousands cross over daily  

With the territory held by the LTTE diminishing progressively, the number of civilians braving LTTE threats and arriving in Government controlled areas is increasing day by day.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa vouched that his Government would not yield or be subjected to any conditionality to obtain monetary assistance from international agencies.

Addressing a ceremony to present appointment letters to the new Accountants of the State sector at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, the President said that some parties, without aligning with the Government to fight and resolve the crisis, are striving to obtain political leverage.