General Sarath Fonseka may have violated the official secrets act by accusing Sri Lankan Defence Secretary of ordering the killing of surrendering Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders, a presidential legal adviser has said.
Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department has arrested the head of the finance division of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, a front organisation for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in Jaffna.He is alleged to have provided millions of rupees to the Tiger rebels for their war efforts. Investigations have claimed that he had provided TRO funds to slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, its political head S Thamil Selvan and several key members.
Sri Lankan forces eliminated surrendering Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary who had instructed that 'all Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders must be killed,' ex-army chief General Sarath Fonseka has claimed, prompting the government to describe it as a 'great betrayal.'
The Sri Lankan government has formally communicated to India the proof and details of the death of Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, a move expected to help New Delhi to close the investigations into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
"All of the displaced people have been registered and therefore the diaspora should be able to contact their relatives through relevant Sri Lankan authorities and overseas missions of Sri Lanka," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on Thursday.
Expressing that he was "very fond" of India, Fonseka, who is being endorsed as the joint opposition candidate to challenge the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, said he was looking forward to support from India during his future plans.
Sri Lanka's former top general Sarath Fonseka, who resigned last week following a spat with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has vowed to protect democratic freedom and human rights, amid reports that he may contest the presidential polls as an opposition candidate.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka, the architect of the military offensive that led to the annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, quit his post on Thursday and is widely tipped to be the opposition candidate for the presidential elections next year.
V Anandasangaree, president of the Tamil United Liberation Front has asked Karunanidhi to convince the Indian government to suggest this as a solution to Sri Lanka, to protect the rights of the ethnic minorities of the country.
Having spent months in refugee camps, the homecoming to northern Sri Lanka is turning bitter for nearly 1,500 war-displaced Tamil families, as their houses have been unlawfully occupied allegedly by Sinhalese people.
Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka, who presided over the military offensive on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has been asked by the United States authorities to testify before them against Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse over allegations of widespread human rights abuse during the war.
In a bid to strengthen Indo-Sri Lankan defence cooperation, warships and navy personnel of the two countries have begun a joint sea exercise off the western coast, to train Lankan cadets on-board Indian warships."As many as 95 Sri Lankan officers under Trainees and 141 Indian officers under Trainees, cadets and midshipman participated in the exercises," Sri Lankan Navy spokesperson Commander D K P Dasanayake said. The exercises and training would continue till Thursday.
Over 6,000 Tamil youths, including 1,000 women, have responded to a recruitment drive for the ethnic community in the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold Jaffna for the first time in three-decades.
Hoping that Sri Lanka would allow displaced Tamil civilians to return to their homes soon, India has said a "broad-based" political solution to the Tamil question will enable "more effective" utilisation of the Rs 500 crore aid given by it for rebuilding war-ravaged areas.
Pathmanathan, better known as 'KP' or Kumaran Pathmanathan, was flown to Colombo on Thursday night following his arrest in Bangkok, the Thai capital, the Island newspaper reported on Friday.
Vowing to pursue its campaign for 'Tamil Eelam', the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has named alleged arms smuggler Selvarasa Pathmathan as its new chief to succeed Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was slain along with the entire rebel leadership in Sri Lanka two months ago. The Tamil separatist outfit, which was virtually annihilated by Sri Lankan troops in May, said it will 'modify' the strategies of its struggle but will continue to work for a 'free Tamil Eelam'.
A perfect strategist who undertook operations against the Sri Lankan army methodically, Velupillai Prabhakaran provided Tamil translations on English language books on war strategy to his cadres to take on the government forces.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he had never met slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and would have preferred to chat with him."I would have preferred to bring him here and have a chat with him. I have never seen this man," Rajapaksa said. The President also said he was not at all interested in knowing how the LTTE chief had been killed.
Doctors treating displaced Tamils in the government-run welfare camps in Sri Lanka's north have written a letter to Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa complaining about the inadequate facilities and shortage of medical staff.
"The need of the hour is to go back to the man-centred economics, the village-centred approach that forms the core of the Gandhian philosophy. This means following the Gandhian ethic based on simplicity, self-sufficiency and self-reliance to be achieved through gram rajya, sarvodaya and satyagraha, which has ahimsa as its core," Professor Veena Sikri, former Indian high commissioner to Malaysia and Bangladesh, said in a lecture organised by the Mahatma Gandhi Centre.
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