By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka plans to open two safe routes to let tens of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone escape and has invited the Red Cross to help, a senior Sri Lankan official said on Thursday.

Sri Lankan soldiers have cornered the Tamil Tiger separatists in an area of less than 45 square km (17 sq miles) in the Indian Ocean island's north-eastern shore, aiming to deliver a final blow to a separatist war that has raged off and on since 1983.

Sri Lankan women get the best prenatal care in South Asia among other countries since Sri Lanka uses its resources more efficiently and equitably, a World Bank report revealed.

Andrew Dismore, Labour Member of Parliament for an obscure suburb in Northwest London, sounds as though he has been sniffing something. In an article described rather hopefully as ‘comment’ on the Guardian website today, he does a very good job of repeating LTTE propaganda, while completely failing to note what are accepted by the United Nations and other international agencies as the essential facts of the Sri Lankan conflict.

Statement by Hon. Mohan Peiris, P.C., Attorney-General of Sri Lanka at the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 5 March 2009  

“Mr. President, 

Madam High Commissioner, 

May I thank you and congratulate you on your comprehensive statement introducing your first annual report dealing with a spectrum of issues both thematic and country specific.    

MULLAITTIVU: A PRE-DAWN escape of nine displaced civilians from the ‘Safe Zone’ area  across Mullaitivu lagoon met with mishap early Tuesday (3) morning, but the quick action of the Army troops rescued their lives and brought them ashore.

3 civilians were killed and 2 wounded following an indiscriminate LTTE gunfire attack this morning (March 6), at a group of civilians who were fleeing from the declared no fire zone at Mullaittivu.

Statement of Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat and Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights and Disaster Management exercising the right of reply at the High Level Segment of the 10th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

By Jamila Najmuddin

Foreign diplomats in Sri Lanka were taken to camps housing internally displaced people in Vavuniya, yesterday, and given a first hand view of the conditions at these camps and the measures taken by the government to assist the displaced people, a foreign ministry official said.  

Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona, Resettlement Minister Rishard Bathiudeen and senior officials from the foreign ministry accompanied the diplomats who were flown to Vavuniya via Anuradhapura last morning.

The airwaves were spinning on Wednesday March 3rd with the claim that the ICRC had said that there was an impending humanitarian catastrophe in north-eastern Sri Lanka. It was highlighted on BBC World and, apart from having to answer various Sri Lankan media outfits who called me about this well before dawn, I even had to face an interview on World Radio Switzerland, with what seemed yet another gung-ho Britisher.

On the second day of the on-going High-Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Sri Lankan delegation led by Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, held three regional group meetings and several bilateral meetings in the Palais des Nations, Geneva.

The delegation comprising Hon. Minister Samarasinghe, Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva H.E. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Attorney-General Hon. Mohan Peiris, P.C., Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha and Dr. Rohan Perera, P.C. met with the Asian, African and Latin American Groups in the UN Human rights Council and briefed them about the present situation in Sri Lanka.

Amrith Rohan Perera 

“Offensives inside the remaining entire un-cleared area of less than 45 sq km, inclusive of the reserved ‘Safety Zone’ for fleeing civilians, should be carried out taking all possible safety precautions with utmost precision, since the number of civilians thronging into the area is now fast swelling,” so said Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, when he met his senior ground commanders Wednesday (4) morning at the Vanni Security Forces Headquarters in Vavuniya.

ISLAMABAD: Sri Lanka has expressed full confidence on Pakistan in connection with investigation into Lahore attacks saying Pak-Sri Lanka friendship journey will continue and no attempt to isolate Pakistan will be allowed to succeed.  

This was said by visiting Sri Lankan foreign minister during a joint press conference along with his Pakistani counter part foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

John Thompson, National Post 

No prolonged violent civil war ends quietly; and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are squalling like, well, a cat on the losing end of a desperate fight.

Throughout the countries that shelter the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, the Tigers' activists are desperately trying to win some reprieve for the last LTTE guerrilla force trapped in Sri Lanka. The problem is that the Tamil Tigers began as a terrorist group; and the two main traits of terrorists are deception and atrocity.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa directed Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama to call on Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and convey Sri Lanka's deepest concerns to the families of the Pakistani security officers and civilians killed in Tuesday's attack.

The government has urged the UNHCR to rethink its policy of designating only International NGOs as its partners as it did in Sri Lanka last year.  

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat and Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said that the United Nations must work with government or with local organisations.

Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Palitha Kohona said that the scourge of terrorism is estimated to have cost the country US $ 200 billions.  

“The LTTE used the tactics of destroying the economy and infrastructure in addition to destroying people and property. These atrocities were backed by a relentless propaganda barrage that painted a hopeless picture of Sri Lanka.” Dr. Kohona said.

By Quintus Perera - Asian Tribune 

Colombo (Asiantribune.com): An old girl of Museus College and a first year undergraduate of the Colombo University, Ms Dilshani Gunawardena is the latest Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) World Prize Winner for Finance Accounting and Tax Principals at the examinations held last November.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday expressed deep concern about the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan, saying the country's frontier regions still is the safe heave for terrorists.

“Government understood that fighting terrorism is a collective effort. Unlike previous defense secretaries, Gotabaya Rajapaksa understood the importance of working with everyone. He built a first rate team drawing the leaders within the army, navy, air force, intelligence, police, foreign ministry and other government agencies and got them to work together. During the past two years sustained pressure was applied on the LTTE crippling the LTTE support and operational networks. It was good government leadership that made the LTTE suffer.”