As Sri Lanka makes headway against Tamil Tiger rebels, Tamil lawmakers urge India to intervene in the name of Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire, but New Delhi feels its hands are tied, Ravi Prasad writes for ISN Security Watch.

By Ravi Prasad in New Delhi for ISN Security Watch

Sri Lanka is pressing ahead with its military campaign in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation to vanquish the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The troops have made considerable progress and are almost knocking on the doors of LTTE's political headquarters, Kilinochchi, a town almost 300 kilometers north of the capital, Colombo.

Colombo, (IANS) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to brief Indian leaders on the progress made by an all-party committee on devolution of powers to the provinces during his visit to India to attend the second BIMSTEC summit starting Nov 13.The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) was set up in 2006 by Rajakapsa and is tasked to suggest a system of devolution of powers to end Sri Lanka's bloody ethnic war.The state-run Sunday Observer, quoting APRC chairman Tissa Vitharana, said that Sri Lanka was happy with the progress made by the committee and the Indian leaders would be briefed about it.

There is a widespread belief that India is forcing a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the chief minister of the eastern province said.

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, widely known as Pillayan, told a gathering in Kalmunai that such a scenario would create a 'disastrous' situation in the east. "The details of the development in the eastern province are not being brought to the notice of the Indian politicians and the lack of complete understanding by politicians in India, the changes that are taking place in the East are not being projected properly.

In this background, there is a big expectation that a ceasefire has to be announced due to the pressures from Indian people or other outside forces," he said. The chief minister was addressing a cultural festival organised by the province's education ministry.Politicians in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu earlier called upon the Indian government to broker a truce between the LTTE and Sri Lankan government. However, Tamil Nadu politicians did not implement the threat to resign from parliament in the event of the central government failing to broker a deal.

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI, Associated Press Writer  

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's government said Monday that Tamil separatists must lay down their arms before cease-fire negotiations can begin, as the military continued heavy ground and air attacks on the guerrilla de facto state in the north."We can't trust them with arms in their hands," government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said, accusing the Tamil Tiger rebels of using a previous truce to rebuild their strength.

On Sunday, a rebel-affiliated Web site reported that the Tigers were willing to consider a cease-fire. The government has recently stepped up an offensive aimed at ending the group's 25-year-old civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people.

by: Dr. Tissa Abeysekara

“Behind the fear were the hunger and the thirst, and behind the hunger and the thirst was fear again.”

Much has been said of how DA followed SWRD Bandaranaike across the well of the House of Parliament when the latter crossed-over into the Opposition ranks. For me there was a deep significance in that move. In that historic photograph, which I first saw as an unknowing little boy, D.A. Rajapaksa seems to follow Bandaranaike, effortlessly.

For him, it was coming home. Perhaps he was never easy within the ranks which represented the privileged class. With that memorable line opens Leonard Woolf’s novel, Village in the Jungle, which according to the great Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda is a masterpiece ‘both true to life and literature’. Woolf’s line as quoted above sums up with almost clinical precision the harsh and brutal nature of life in the arid deep south of Sri Lanka at the turn of the last century.

The president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has expressed great pleasure at the success of the US president-elect Senator Barack Obama at the Tuesday’s elections.

The Sri Lankan president said he has been following Mr. Obama’s election campaign ‘closely’."I have been impressed by the freshness and candour that you introduced to the US political landscape and the hope that you generated in the United States, in particular, and the wider world, in general.

I am convinced that under your leadership, the United States, which has always been a beacon to the world on many an issue, will continue to provide that leadership in a re-invigorated manner,” a statement issued by the presidential secretariat quoted Mr. Rajapaksa.

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka, November 6 (UNHCR) –

As the tide of people uprooted by fighting in northern Sri Lanka continues to swell, there's overlooked good news in the east of the country: internally displaced people (IDPs) are returning home with help from the government, UNHCR and its partners.Some 230,000 persons are said to be displaced in the Kilinochchi and Mullativu districts as a result of intensified military operations to regain the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Humanitarian agencies have sent emergency supplies to feed the IDPs, most of whom are accommodated in the Mullativu district.

More humanitarian convoys carrying food and shelter material are planned during the coming weeks.Sri Lanka's east experienced a similar wave of displacement two years ago when government forces regained LTTE-held territories in the region. By the end of March 2007, some 170,000 people were reportedly displaced across the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts.All but 11,000 IDPs in Batticaloa and more than 4,500 persons in Trincomalee have returned home since the start of the government-facilitated process last year, which has seen substantial improvements thanks to interventions by the UN refugee agency and other humanitarian agencies operating in the east.

by:C. S. Poolokasingham  

SCOPP Deputy Secretary General remembers 

The late Dr. Premasiri Khemadasa, fondly known as ‘Master’, passed away at the age of 71 on October 24th at a private hospital in Colombo. He had been ailing for some time.
Recognising his contribution to the art world in Sri Lanka, the Government organised a funeral with state honours at Independence Square. Dr. Khemadasa’s remains were brought in a procession from his home in Rajagiriya, taking almost two hours to cover the short distance with many thousands of his followers accompanying the cortege.

I was asked to give the funeral oration in Tamil, having known and closely associated with Dr. Khemadasa and his family over the last 15 years. 

Sri Lanka tourism has designed a 'Ramayana tourist package' for the benefit of the travellers, especially from India, to visit more than 50 sites associated with the Ramayana epic in Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India C.R. Jayasinghe said. The package was officially launched in New Delhi in January this year. 

The enumeration of Ramayana sites in Sri Lanka is expected to spur thousands of Indians to visit Sri Lanka this year, especially since the Ramayana tourist package is an attractive travel package for such tourists.Sri Lanka is developing some of these places to narrate to the world the story of the revered epic and attract tourists from abroad, especially India, as Sri Lanka is the proud custodian of more than 50 sites related to the epic Ramayana.

The Navy rescued three Tamil families with their toddlers and teenage children accompanied by a male adult in the Eastern seas off Pulmudai in the wee hours of Wednesday. The group numbering 13 which includes 8 males and 5 females, had been fleeing from LTTE captivity in Mullaitivu on board a fibre glass dinghy flying a white flag for protection, evading the hawkish eyes of the LTTE cadres on the prowl, when they were encountered by the naval personnel who are exclusively deployed in the Northern seas as a part of the Navy’s humanitarian mission to rescue the fleeing innocent Tamil civilians, the Navy said.

The first family consisted of a father aged 47 and his two teenage children -a son aged 13 and a daughter aged 18. The second family comprised of two young parents -a father and a mother, both aged 22- and their baby son who is just 02 years of age. They were also accompanying their teenage brother aged 15 who was living with them for protection. The third family, which also consisted of young parents, a father and a mother aged 29 and 23 respectively, have two young daughters, of whom one is just five years and the other is barely one and half years of age.