The military yesterday called on the LTTE cadres to surrender giving up their arms and said action would be taken to rehabilitate them.
We are calling on the LTTE cadres, who were fighting in the northern region to surrender to the military as soon as possible, military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Stewart Bell, National Post  

August 18, 2008TORONTO -- A Toronto non-profit group wired more than $3-million to overseas bank accounts, some of them linked to the Tamil Tigers, before it was shut down by the government in June for alleged terrorist financing, says an RCMP report released yesterday.

Kandy (Sri Lanka), Aug 17 (IANS): Nearly 100 caparisoned elephants, dancers and torchbearers walked down the streets of this central city decorated with colourful lights and flags as the annual Buddhist festival of Kandy Perahera (pageant) was celebrated with great enthusiasm.

The colourful parade began Saturday night from the sacred Buddhist shrine of Dalada Maligawa, showcasing the temple custodians known as Nilames, who were dressed up like ancient kings. The festivities also included traditional Kandyan dancers, fire-juggling acrobats, palanquins, musicians and torchbearers, who followed the elephants through the streets.

'Massage, cola, coconut' - the incessant hassle is gone, thanks to a project to boost hawkers' wages and lure tourists back to this Sri Lankan beach

Peace dividend ... Beruwala beach in Sri Lanka. Photograph: Alamy'

Our job was always seen in negative terms," said Siggi. "But now we can feel some dignity in what we do. And we make more money than before, without fighting over it."

by Dayan Jayatilleka  

I must commence with a self-criticism. I had not thought Batty Weerakoon capable of a demonstrable falsehood in print. I was wrong. In his reply to me entitled ‘Bandaranaike and the Hartal’, in The Island Sat Mag (August 16, 2008), he writes: "So much then for DJ’s suggestion that SWRDB led the Hartal…"  Even the most cursory reading of my article would show that I suggested no such thing, nor anything that could be even remotely interpreted as such. Indeed I specifically said that SWRD and the SLFP did not participate in the Hartal but supported it, adding that the Federal Party and the CWC however, participated.

BY Roland Buerk
BBC correspondent in Colombo

Sri Lanka's military says it has captured a Tamil Tiger training complex complete with a hundred underground bunkers. The military said soldiers captured ‘Jeevan Base’, a rebel training complex in Weli-Oya on Saturday, after Tiger fighters fled the area. The military's spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said it contained lecture halls and a hundred underground bunkers. In fighting elsewhere across the north on Saturday, the military says twenty-seven rebels and seven soldiers were killed.

Sri Lanka’s Peace chief writes to the NPC 

The Peace Secretariat is surprised by a recent release of the National Peace Council in which it seems to suggest firstly that there are insuperable difficulties for citizens in the areas in the North that used to be under the control of the LTTE, and secondly that these are the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government. The statement is replete with misrepresentations, though the tone has a naïveté that suggests its author had no idea he would lend support to the current campaign of the LTTE and other opponents of the elected government of Sri Lanka, to build up the type of verbal assault on that government that seems to be the last string left in the LTTE bow.

 By Shanika SRIYANANDA

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Sunday, 17 August 2008

As fighting intensifies and the security forces move forward in the Wanni to capture the LTTE’s heartland, the government said it was fully geared to provide facilities for an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 civilians trapped in uncleared areas. Despite food and medicine going into the hands of the LTTE, the government will continue to supply essential food items for civilians in the Wanni.

Essential items to be delivered to the displaced people

A high level policy meeting of the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (CCHA) was held yesterday where Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and Senior Advisor to the President, Basil Rajapaksa addressed humanitarian issues faced by the people of the Wanni. While reiterating the continuous commitment of the Government in providing humanitarian assistance to the people in the Wanni, Minister Samarasinghe and Mr. Basil Rajapaksa requested the Government Agents of Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya to assess the current situation for immediate assistance to be provided. Both Government Agents (GAs) of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu said IDPs were housed in schools in areas of displacement with further plans to settle them in shelters during the coming weeks......

To the current conflict  

LTTE has to be militarily weakened to implement political solution - Prof. G.L.Peiris

With the abolition of the by-election system which was prevalent earlier, Governments have found it difficult to test their popular support as well as to gauge the thinking of the people, but with the holding of Provincial Council elections, an opportunity has arisen to get such a feed-back, said Prof. G. L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development and International Trade.