Sri Lanka's new Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, who visited Washington, DC last month, feels the tensions that existed in the United States and Sri Lanka during the height of the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, when Colombo refused to acquiesce to a ceasefire, have been repaired.
The International Crisis Group, an advocacy group based in Brussels and Washington, said despite its promises to protect civilians and aid workers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present. ICR said it has reasons to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the attacks, but failed to protect the civilians.
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.
Notwithstanding the demise of the mercurial leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Velupillai Prabakharan, who was killed by the Sri Lankan security forces over a year ago, , the pro-LTTE lobby in the United States has remained active, particularly in the US Congress.
'Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following US Acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells's stormy visit to Colombo last month where she read the riot act to Sri Lankan leaders to sign the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The president has agreed to call a parliamentary session on November 5, officials at Rajapaksa's office said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now the only person to be protected by the about-4,000-personnel-strong SPG.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam maintains a hostile approach towards the exodus of civilians from the Wanni region, and the casualties caused by it is under-reported, Sri Lankan government told a high-level United Nations delegation on Monday.
Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday accepted defeat in the parliamentary elections even before the announcement of the final results.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
Though dubbed as the 'war hero', the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
In a significant move coinciding with the visit of a top United States official probing war crimes, the American embassy in Colombo on Thursday posted pictures of places where civilians had died allegedly during Sri Lanka's final war against rebel Tamil Tigers four years ago.
Talking tough, the United States on Friday told Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to immediately end the war in the island's north and cautioned Colombo that its unity and reconciliation could be at stake if it continued with its current endeavours to end the ethnic conflict 'militarily'. The White House said it was taking 'very seriously' the allegations of violations of international humanitarian law by both sides.
As the Sri Lankan army prepares for a final assault against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the United States on Monday expressed its deep concern over the humanitarian situation in the conflict zones there, saying 'it is in a terrible condition'."We are very concerned about the humanitarian situation there. It is dire," State Department Acting Spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
Concerned over the 'hostilities' towards civilians in the conflict-hit northern part of Sri Lanka, the United States has asked the island government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to hold negotiations to end the fighting. "We want the government and the LTTE to discuss ways to end the hostilities," said Robert Wood, acting spokesman of the State Department. He said one of their primary concerns is the humanitarian situation in the country. "
Concerned over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, United States and Britain have asked both the island nation and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to agree to a 'temporary no-fire period' to allow civilians and the wounded to leave the conflict zone. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also called for a political resolution to the decades-old ethnic conflict in the country.
The 74-year-old leader, who describe himself as "a rebel with a cause", earlier served as the country's president from 2005-2015, becoming South Asia's longest-serving leader. He was also prime minister for a brief period in 2018.
The United Nations believes that the civilian death toll in the final war between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam might have been exaggerated in the media reports and were 'not necessarily correct'. But the UN "does not think that the figure quoted in the press is necessarily correct," highly-placed sources said, adding that though the media had quoted UN as the source for the shocking figure, the UN had no idea where the figure had come from.
The LTTE has quietly established a presence in the United States as part of its global expansion plan to raise funds and procure anti-aircraft weapons and other military equipment on a massive scale, the Washington Times reported. The group's political wing has established 'branches' in at least 12 countries as part of a global expansion to purchase millions of dollars worth of weapons, ammunition and other military equipment.
On the verge of annihilation, the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam announced an unilateral ceasefire on Sunday, saying that that the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka's war zone can only be overcome by a truce, but the Lankan government quickly rejected the offer and instead asked the rebels to surrender.
On the verge of total defeat, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Thursday said that nearly 165,000 civilians in the areas controlled by it were close to starvation and accused Sri Lankan authorities of blocking food and humanitarian supplies to the area. Comparing the humanitarian crisis in the 10 sq km swath of coastal land in Pudukudiyyiruppu to the Dafur crisis in Sudan, the LTTE in a statement asked the United Nations and other international aid groups to intervene.
The United Nations on Friday said that more than 50,000 civilians were still trapped in Sri Lanka's war zone and renewed its call to Colombo to allow an assessment mission into the area to facilitate relief operations and evacuation procedures. The Sri Lankan government had said that an estimated 15,000 people still remained in the war zone.
As suspense grows about the whereabouts of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran after the capture of the last bastion of the outfit, the Sri Lankan army chief on Monday said he believed the guerrilla leader could be in an underground bunker or in the no-fire zone.It is widely believed that both Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony could be in the 20 sq km no-fire zone, where the rebel remnants are said to be holed up after they were pushed out.
The UN says that if permission is granted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and if a lull in fighting permits, the convoy will cross the frontline on Thursday noon, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said.
Sri Lanka on Monday accused human rights watchdog Amnesty International of joining hands with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathizers, as the death toll from fierce weekend clashes rose to 95 in the embattled north. The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said that the London-based Amnesty had organised a demonstration in front of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York on Friday.
It is unprecedented in the history of United States-Sri Lanka relations that a US President goes out on the South Lawn of the White House to make remarks expressing his deep concern over the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka and berates both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government for their actions that have led to tens of thousands of innocent civilians being caught up in the cross-fire.
Brushing aside opposition from the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and other parties in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa but did not give him any assurance on which way India will vote on a the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution for an independent international probe into rights abuses during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Saturday sunk a Sri Lankan naval logistic ship at the Trincomalee harbour with the Tiger rebels claiming it was the handiwork of their commandos from 'Kangkai Amaran unit'. "An under-water explosion damaged and caused logistic vessel A-520 (MV Invincible) to sink at 2.15 am on Saturday while moored at the Ashroff jetty in Trincomalee harbour," a Sri Lankan Navy statement said.
Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar alias A C Shanthan, the de-facto leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Britain, was arrested on Tuesday for a second time in less than a year in connection with fund-raising and procurement activities for the militant outfit.Shanthan was allegedly operating with LTTE leader Anton Balasingham and trying to build up the outfit in London. He had accompanied Balasingham for peace talks in Geneva in 2006.
A number of children were reported to be among the killed and at least 35 other civilians were injured.
During the 30-minute meeting between Samaraweera and Rice, the peace process in Sri Lanka and the current security situation came up for discussion.
Political analysts said Sirisena's move to install Rajapaksa as the prime minister could lead to a constitutional crisis as the 19th amendment to the Constitution would not allow the sacking of Wickremesinghe as the premier without a majority.
'In times of recovery, we may see a rural-urban divide with the urban pockets affected more by COVID-19, but the MFI business model should encourage banks to handhold them in this hour of crisis,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The two brothers led a decisive campaign that helped end the island nation's three decade long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Over 4,000 people have died since December 2005 in a new wave of fighting despite a truce which is in place since February 2002.
Mahinda Rajapaksa completed 50 years of parliamentary politics in July this year. He was elected as a Member of Parliament at the young age of 24 in 1970. He has since been elected president twice and has been appointed prime minister thrice.
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