The government claims that the tigers have two aircraft.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will undertake a three-day visit to Sri Lanka from Monday. She is expected to visit the north eastern provinces of Sri Lanka -- including Vayunia, Yazhpanam and Trincomalee -- to check the rehabilitation of the Tamil population, who were displaced by the military's offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Rao is also expected to prepare the ground work for the official visit of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to Colombo.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has lost yet another strong bastion to the marauding Sri Lankan forces.
While earlier reports indicated the vessel was carrying 200 Sri Lankan migrants, unidentified Canadian sources say there are at least 500 people on board, including women and children. There are mixed reactions in Canada too. Some say the vessel should not be given nod to anchor on the country's shores, others say it is a ploy of the beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to regroup outside of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan security forces on Saturday captured the strategic northern town of Pooneryn, the last Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam bastion in the west coast, giving the forces a vital land link to Jaffna.
Solheim said the visits were an important part of preparations for a meeting in Tokyo next week of Sri Lanka's key international financial backers who are to review their support of a faltering peace process.
The US and India are in sync with their foreign policy toward Sri Lanka, particularly over the repatriation of the remaining 40,000 plus internally displaced persons after the government's victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the Tamil-populated northern province, said Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Robert O Blake.
Passengers of the Tiruchirapalli-Chennai Rockfort Express had a narrow escape when suspected pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam elements blasted railway tracks at Perani railway station in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu in the wee hours on Saturday.
The Centre has allowed slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Prabhakaran's mother Parvathi Ammal to visit Tamil Nadu for medical treatment on certain conditions, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said on Monday. The Union government's decision has been conveyed through a letter to the Indian mission in Kuala Lumpur where she is staying at present, Karunanidhi said in a suo motu statement in the state assembly.
UPA chief Sonia Gandhi, attended the 61st birth anniversary of husband Rajiv Gandhi with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.
India has been consistently calling upon Sri Lanka to fulfill its commitments to protect the interests of the Tamil community and preserve the island nation's character as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.
The disclosure came as police reported that five more bullet-riddled bodies were found in the north-central district of Anuradhapura on Tuesday, 3 days after 5 other bodies bearing bullet injuries were found near the capital.
Announcing this in the assembly, Public Works and Law Minister Duraimurugan said after a detailed discussion at a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, it was decided to invoke the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967) against those who express support to the banned outfits.
At an all party meet in Chennai on Tuesday chaired by Chief Minister K Karunanidhi a resolution was adopted that if the central government does not ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks, all Members of Parliament from the state would resign. Leaders of the Congress, Communist Party of India and CPI-Marxist were also present at the meet. Opposition parties including the J Jayalalitha-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Vaiko-led MDMK.
Nearly 70 percent voters cast their franchise in Sri Lanka's first post-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam presidential election on Tuesday, expected to be a close finish between incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and his main challenger General Sarath Fonseka.
Sri Lanka's presidential polls on January 26, between incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse and the combined opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, may be surprisingly too close to call, even as it has emerged that Rajapakse did the Congress party a favour during the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu last year by withdrawing the use of heavy weaponry against pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in the last days of the war.
Vice-Admiral Damle said the LTTE, which was facing an 'almost impenetrable situation' on the Tamil Nadu coast, was now beginning to shift its drug trafficking, arms running and other activities to the Kerala coast, especially in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi stretch.
An Indo-Canadian was arrested and asked to leave the country after he allegedly gave an inflammatory speech in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at an event, where the flag of the outlawed Tamil rebel group was also hoisted.
About 300 protestors from parties like MDMK, Indian National League and Tamil National Movement courted arrest along with the two leaders near the Munroe statue in Chennai while trying to go ahead with the rally.
Shyam Sundar, posted in the Police Control Room in the town, had spoken on the walkie-talkie over the past three days claiming himself to be Prabhakaran and threatened to disturb the conference, saying LTTE had lost respect in Tamil Nadu after the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
India's security authorities have urged the (Indian) government to revamp coastal security mechanisms in the wake of the escalation of fighting between Security Forces and the LTTE, state-owned Daily News reported.
the Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran will find it difficult to survive beyond six months, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has warned, vowing to eliminate the 3,000-strong Tiger rebels from their stronghold of Wanni in the embattled north. "The three armed forces are confident of wiping out the LTTE, which is now smarting its wounds due to the present military operations," Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt by LTTE in April 2006, said.
Peiris reiterated, "We don't want Amnesty International telling us what to do.What is the moral authority of Amnesty International?We do not think that they have any coercive moral authority to tell us what to do."
The Sri Lankan government has ruled out unregulated access to the Internally Displaced Persons' camps in the island nation, arguing that such a step may threaten 'peace and tranquility' in these camps.Thousands of Tamil civilians, who had fled their homes after the fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan army escalated after a decades-long civil war, are still living in these camps.
Sri Lanka on Wednesday rejected the demand for an independent probe into war crimes during the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam conflict, saying it has no "intention to allow an international policeman".
Liberal member of the Canadian Parliament Gurbax Malhi addressed a rally in Ottawa on March 5 against the backdrop of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam flags."I'd like to let you know I'm helping you guys. I'm behind you because you are fighting for a right cause," he said.
Perhaps the Indian establishment do not subscribe to the thesis that un-exhibited power is more potent. Innovative diplomacy and statesmanship with no nonsense approach is the need of the hour.
A Sri Lankan federal minister on Monday alleged that 'certain Indian officials' wanted President Mahinda Rajapaksa to lose the recent polls and worked towards it, but India rejected the claims, saying it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.Minister of Post and Telecommunications Nandana Goonathilake also claimed that the Indian government 'strengthened' Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam could be attempting to revive the organisation amid efforts by the defeated terror group to rescue hardcore cadres housed in government-run refugee camps for Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka's northern Vavuniya district, a top minister has said.Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that though the LTTE had been military crushed, attempts were being made to rescue hardcore fighters, who are living in the refuge camps in the Vavuniya region.
An international airport, a strategic port, communication satellites, road and railway links -- China is spreading its web in the island nation. India has to take decisive steps or else the tide could turn against it, note T E Narasimhan and Veenu Sandhu.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appealed to the Tamil civilians, still trapped in the No-fire Zone, to come over to the "cleared areas" and assured that the government will ensure their safety.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday described hacking of the ministry of media and information's website as an act of 'cyber terrorism'.
"Sri Lanka in its battle against terrorism has set examples and its successes has given other democracies hope that terrorism can be fought and overcome," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said.
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, were taken by the government to Puthumatalan to identify Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body. "The body is of Prabhakaran's, there is no doubt about this," said Karuna, now a federal minister
The committee asked the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw charges against Nedumaran, Suba Veerapandian (then spokesman of Marumalarchi Dravidsa Munnetra Kazhagam), Paavanan alias Pudukottai Paavanan, Thayappan and Shahul Hameed.
Beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran has apparently agreed to a rescue mission by a "western country" to evacuate Tamil civilians trapped in war zone in Sri Lanka's north amid the government's announcement of a temporary 48-hour pause in fighting to enable thousands of displaced persons to move to safer areas.
Vaiko also strongly objected Narayanan's meeting with Douglas Devananada in New Delhi. Devananda is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician who is part of the ruling alliance and a supporter of Rajapakse.
Against the backdrop of hawkish demands and street protests, the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam-led government on Friday lashed out at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, for not responding to the two-day ceasefire by the Sri Lankan government in the northern areas, to enable the safe passage of ethnic Tamils caught in the conflict zone.DMK, which has been turning the heat on the Centre to talk to Colombo to stop innocent Tamils becoming victims in the crossfire.
Suggestions surfacing in United States diplomatic cables leaked by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks that the Sri Lanka government precipitated in war crimes against the minority Tamil population at the height of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has prompted British Defence Secretary Liam Fox to abandon plans for a private visit to the island nation.
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