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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
According to an intelligence input, some cadres of the LTTE, who escaped the wrath of the Sri Lankan Army during the all-out operations in the island nation earlier this year, were trying to regroup in India and planning attacks on top political leaders, particularly when they travel in Tamil Nadu.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka were responsible for alleged war crimes and killing of Tamil civilians during the last phase of the 30-year-old civil war, according to a secret United States cable made public by WikiLeaks.
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.
The LTTE chief's parents were settled in Tiruchirapalli.
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.
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.
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.
Lt Gen (retd) Sathish Nambiar will provide a report on de-escalation in the island's embattled northern peninsula of Jaffna, a contentious issue between the Tigers and Colombo.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
About 1,400 people die every week due to water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, at the vast "internment camp" set up in northern Sri Lanka to house Tamil war refugees in an indication of the poor state of affairs of the displaced people, a media report said on Friday.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday described hacking of the ministry of media and information's website as an act of 'cyber terrorism'.
In the wake of the visit of India Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to Colombo for talks with the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Tamilnet, the English language web site associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has disseminated on January 30, 2009, an article attributed to "a political analyst in Vanni," which has accused "the present Indian establishment run by Congress of waging its own proxy war in the island of Sri Lanka, concurrent to Colombo's war
"We are for fight against terrorists and all sorts of terrorism. Therefore, we have no sympathy for any terrorist activity indulged in by any organisation, particularly LTTE (which) is a banned organisation in India," he told media persons. He made the remarks hours before his departure to Sri Lanka, where the government has claimed to have captured Mullaithivu, the last bastion of LTTE.
LTTE leaders has been barred by SL court to travel out of the country
UPA chief Sonia Gandhi, attended the 61st birth anniversary of husband Rajiv Gandhi with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.
Sri Lanka expert M R Narayan Swamy speaks about the impact of Prabhakaran's death on Sri Lanka and India.
Tigers assassinated a senior Sri Lankan army general a day after the government offered a direct deal.
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".
Apparently emboldened by its recent military successes against the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government on Wednesday night decided to terminate the truce agreement with LTTE.
Over 52 militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been killed in gunbattles between security forces and the rebels in Sri Lanka's embattled north, where the Army captured a portion of the rebel-held Thampane area.
Sri Lanka claimed on Wednesday that an inquiry had found no truth in reports that military guards had traded sex for food in welfare camps set up for Tamil refugees during the final phase of the country's war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
He claimed that the LTTE would welcome any initiative taken by the Indian government to solve the ethnic strife in his country.
Sensing an imminent collapse of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lankan forces on Thursday encircled the last 8 sq km patch of area in the northern war zone, where they suspect Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran and his top aides are holed up. A naval blockade was put around northern Mullaittivu close to the areas where LTTE cadres still had access to the sea.
Eight security force personnel were also killed in various incidents in Sri Lanka's north-western Mannar district.
As Sri Lankan troops advance towards the last Tiger bastion of Mullaittivu, Army Chief Sarath Fonseka has said he was not sure whether Velupillai Prabhakaran was on the island nation but felt that it was not possible for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo to find a shelter in India. The Lankan Air Force had destroyed a vessel carrying arms and ammunitions for the LTTE just when it was being offloaded in the rebel coastal area, Fonseka added.
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."
Even if the police step up their vigil against these illegal immigrants, these Sri Lankan youths will find a way to sneak into the country, as they live under desperate conditions.
Police and troops stepped up security on Sunday ahead of next week's traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
Slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran's wife and teenage son had fled to Tamil Nadu last year, from where they were to fly to Singapore and then to an undisclosed location, a key aide of the rebel chief said, amid speculation that the entire family had been wiped out in the conflict.The newspaper did not reveal the name of Prabhakaran's aide in its report, while noting that there were rumours that the LTTE chief's family had been killed.
The Indian elections in no way precluded the United States from working jointly with India to try to alleviate the lot of the affected Tamil civilians caught up in the crossfire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan troops, the outgoing point man on South Asia for the Obama Administration has said.
