Dr. Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, met with top U.S. State Department officials on Friday 10 April 2009. The end of the 25-year-long conflict with the terrorist LTTE was at the core of the discussions.

The Editor 

The Guardian  

Sir,

Your editorial of 11^th April was right in spirit but wrong as to several facts. The way to end the suffering of the civilians trapped in the no-fire zone is for the LTTE, which trapped them, to let them go.

With my adoration of things British, I had always thought of British Parliamentarians as splendid creatures. And I suppose they are, in a way, in that the latest set of effusions puts any exaggerations our Parliamentarians can manage in the shade. Of course the poor creatures are suffering from that well known disease of Parliamentarians, the need to hang on to one’s seat, and some British Labour MPs have a heightened form of this, given the proximity of the next election and the current state of Labour in the polls. But even so, the hysterical exaggerations they have engaged in recently deserve our deepest admiration, and perhaps emulation, if Sri Jayewardenepura is ever to match up to Westminster. And since it seems that some releases from the Peace Secretariat have contributed to the mania, I suppose we can also take some credit for these latest examples of the bludgeoning that has replaced the cut and thrust of an earlier age.

Visiting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday evening met Libyan President and Chairman of the African Union Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and discussed the ‘international issues of common interest and coordinating stances at international arenas’.  

Reports said that President Rajapaksa has renewed his and his country’s congratulations to the leader for being selected by Africa to be Chairman of the African Union, commending his leading role and several initiatives to bring about security and peace around the world.

by Dayan Jayatilleka

Let me get this right. Two hundred and thirteen years since the first British colonial ships landed in Sri Lanka, a ship is setting sail from Britain, launched at an event with banners and posters (Vanangaman: “Mercy Mission to Wanni”) bearing the map of Tamil Eelam, patronized by politicians and personalities of the former colonial occupier; a ship which hopes to enter the territorial waters of Sri Lanka without our permission and in violation of our sovereignty, at a time when our Navy is involved in the closing battles against a separatist terrorist army.

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) will promote exchanges and cooperation with the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to boost bilateral ties, said a senior CPC official here Thursday.

M.R. Narayan Swamy

New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) Congress president Sonia Gandhi has come under vicious attack in Tamil Tiger media over India's failure to end the war in Sri Lanka, worrying the Indian security establishment.

In media controlled or influenced by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and also in pro-LTTE street protests, fingers are being pointed at New Delhi for the stinging military reverses the Tigers have suffered.

By: Nlantha Ilangamuwa

(Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Top Indian military analyst Col. R. Hariharan has scoffed at the LTTE's claims that Sri Lankan troops had used chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict.

The former head of intelligence to IPKF in Sri Lanka also described the latest LTTE allegations against the military as false propaganda.

Many Sri Lankan expatriates in Switzerland have recently got together to collect and send a consignment of Swiss chocolates to Sri Lankan soldiers of the Special Forces Regiment (based in Mullaittivu) fighting against LTTE terrorists in the northern war front in Sri Lanka.

The expatriate association ‘Sri Lankan Diaspora - Switzerland’ initiated this generous gesture and collected chocolates from Sri Lankan expatriates residing in Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva and Zurich.

Home Ministry issues alert  

Worries are mounting in New Delhi about intelligence reports of the strong prospect of an attack on the Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, her children, and other top political leaders of India by the LTTE, during the current election time in India.

The Governing Board of the SAARC Cultural Centre held its first meeting at Galadari Hotel in Colombo on 6-7 April 2009 with the participation of Members from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and officials of the SAARC Secretariat. 

The Meeting followed the ceremonial opening of the Office of the SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo on 25 March by Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama.

The Government has regretted the statement of the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband in the House of Commons recently, expressing disappointment at the continued rejection of the appointment of the British Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Sri Lanka, Des Browne.  Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama reiterated in Parliament today (07 April 2009), the Government’s position that the British Government had failed to adhere to the time honoured tradition in diplomatic practice of consultation and following the procedure in making the said appointment.  This has been further vindicated by Mr. Browne’s participation in a conference in London recently, organized by a front of the LTTE terrorist group, at which it was resolved to establish a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam – the doctrine of the LTTE, proscribed by the UK – and his utterances in that forum.

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO, (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military on Wednesday broadcast a final surrender offer to Tamil Tiger rebels surrounded in a tiny strip of coast, urging them drop their guns and free tens of thousands of civilians or be destroyed.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday ordered LTTE leader and his remaining cadres to lay down arms, surrender and free thousands of civilians to avoid total annihilation.

Speaking to party supporters at Temple Trees yesterday evening, President Rajapaksa said the LTTE, unable to face the military thrust, was now hiding in the no-fire-zone, holding thousands of innocent civilians as a human shield, a press release issued by the President Media Unit noted. 

The United Nations advocate for displaced persons today called for urgent measures to save civilians trapped in a tiny pocket of northern Sri Lanka by fighting between the Government and the LTTE.

by Rajiva Wijesinha 

Secretary General, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

 Amnesty International, with pertinacity worthy of the LTTE, has once more returned to the charge against the Sri Lankan government. As usual it begins its diatribe with affirming its principled balance between an elected government and terrorists, between legitimate armed forces who do not attack civilians and terrorists who do this as a matter of principle, between those who are seeking to free the trapped people Amnesty purports to care about and those who are entrapping them.

The long displaced persons in the Puttalam settlements are gradually becoming very much a part of the socio-economic structure of the area, and the government is undertaking initiatives to empower them and provide opportunities for income generation. 

Over 112,000 people were displaced from Mannar, Mullativu and Jaffna, due to the ethnic cleansing practised by the LTTE against Muslims in 1990.

Sri Lanka won the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Award, the International Press Prize, 3 Gold medals, 1 Silver medal and 2 Bronze medals for the 7 inventions the country presented at the 37th International Exhibition of Inventions, Techniques and Products of Geneva which was held at Geneva Palexpo (Hall 7) in Switzerland from 1^st to 5^th April 2009.