The Indian government extended the ban on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by another two years on Friday, following intelligence reports that remnants of the Sri Lankan Tamil terror outfit were trying to re-group in Tamil Nadu.
Nitin Gokhale, Defence Editor, NDTV, recalls his encounter with then Sri Lankan army chief General Sarath Fonseka soon after the LTTE's defeat last year. A fascinating column on how Velupillai Prabhakaran finally met his nemesis.
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.
Five Tamil protesters forced their way on Monday into the Indian High Commission and smashed bullet proof glasses while thousands agitated against the Sri Lankan military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, prompting the mission to seek "adequate security" to protect its offices.
Prabhakaran's follies which led to the LTTE's downfall are its split with Karuna, the legendary conventional fighter from the Eastern Province and his followers, the increasing reliance on terrorism after the desertion of the conventional fighters led by Karuna and Prabhakaran's working to defeat of former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in the 2006 presidential elections, which were won by Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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.
Sections of top Tamil Tiger leadership on Wednesday began to surrender before rapidly advancing Sri Lankan forces, signalling an imminent collapse of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after a two-decade long relentless battle.
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.
Mirza Himayat Baig, a suspected LeT operative arrested for his alleged role in Pune's German Bakery blast, had been to Colombo for training in bomb making for three weeks in 2008, a senior ATS official said on Thursday.
Sri Lankan troops on Friday captured the strategic town of Ampalavanpokkanai in south of Mullaittivu, after a fierce battle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in which two senior LTTE commanders were killed. Advancing rapidly, the Lankan forces have now virtually encircled Puthukudirippu, the last town held by the Tigers, where LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is reportedly leading the rebels.
Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, who was sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment in Sri Lanka for links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has received two prestigious international awards. Global Media Forum and the US branch of Reporters Without Borders on Monday announced that Tissainayagam has been selected as winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. The award would be presented in October.
The fallout of the spat between two headstrong and powerful personalities like Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka does not augur well for this small and beautiful Island nation struggling to leave the ravages of war behind, writes Nitin Gokhale.
Sri Lankan Air Force pounded identified LTTE hideout located in the jungles south of Puthukudiyirippu, Mullaittivu, believed to be frequented by top Tamil Tiger leadership, including supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran. According to Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara, Air Force spokesperson, the air raids targeted the hideout believed to be frequented by Prabhakaran.
Mahinda Rajapaksa's re-election as Sri Lankan president has come as a disappointment for the Tamil diaspora, which is still reeling from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels' defeat in the country's civil war last year. The influential community of Tamils living overseas now doesn't know about what role it should play in their homeland, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
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.
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.
A pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam parliamentarian has underlined his party's resolve for an 'autonomous rule' for Tamils in Sri Lanka, claiming that Tamil National Alliance's support for opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was extended only after getting him to agree to those conditions.
In a major boost to the presidential campaign of former top Sri Lankan army general Sarath Fonseka, the dominant Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance on Wednesday announced support to him.
The Tamil Nadu police on Wednesday refuted media reports about possible intrusion of Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam cadres in the state following the discovery of some boats with bullet marks along the Rameswaram coast recently.
Sri Lanka on Friday assured India that a devolution package for the minority Tamil community in the country was not out of its radar as it discussed with India the key issue of resettlement of internally displaced people in the post Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -era.
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.
At the Human Rights Councils special session on Sri Lanka last week, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that investigating abuses allegedly committed against civilians by both the Government and LTTE will help the country transition into a new future. "There are strong reasons to believe that both sides have grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians," Pillay had stated.
Sources said Prabhakaran could never have been captured alive because of care he took to have a cyanide capsule on his body 25 years ago. The slain LTTE supremo believed that it was better to commit suicide than to be captured alive and that is why the Sri Lankan army could only recover his body after smashing the LTTE completely.
The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka's rights record, in a setback to Colombo, which made determined efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, vanquished by the Sri Lankan Army in May after a three decade bloody civil war, procured most of their arms from the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine as well as China, a former rebel commander has said.
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday asked the Tamil Tigers to immediately surrender, renounce terrorism and join the political process through dialogue to put an end to the decades old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. "We demand that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism, allow a UN assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process through dialogue," UNSC stated.
Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday said India as a nation cannot forgive Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though personally she and her family harbours no "hatred or anger" against killers of her father.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday appeared to soft-pedal his controversial remarks about Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Prabhakaran, by describing the LTTE as an 'extremist organisation'. A day after his remarks created a flutter, he told reporters that the "LTTE was not started as an extremist organisation like the Naxalite movement. It was started as a liberation movement but down the road it became an extremist organisation."
Rajaratnam, 52, founder of the Galleon Group, was indicted on October 16 for insider trading. The litigants have accused him of knowingly financing the LTTE and providing it with other forms of support through front organisations.
A delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu will be leaving for Sri Lanka tomorrow to get first hand account of the conditions prevailing in the camps housing Lankan Tamil refugees displaced by the war between the island army and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam.
The Obama administration continues to be gravely concerned over the plight of Tamil civilians caught up in the crossfire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan security forces but has no plans to launch a massive military evacuation by the US Pacific Command till there is a halt in the hostilities in the conflict zone, senior administration officials revealed.
Three Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam supporters who admitted providing over one million dollars in cash to the terror group were allowed to walk free on Wednesday by the Australian Supreme Court on bonds to be of good behaviour. The supreme court was told an Australian-based charity was used as a cover to collect and send money to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Herald Sun reported.
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 Home Ministry on Tuesday has issued a Look out Circular (LOC) against a USA-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathiser Dr. Ellyn Shander, who was to have addressed a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, at the India Islamic Culture Centre .Shander has a valid Indian visa, still the LOC was issued.
The situation in Sri Lanka, where thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's strongholds, permeated the 45-minute discussion on Monday between United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. This was the first high-level interaction between India and the Obama administration in Washington.
'Children and their families need to return to their homes and put the pieces of their old lives back together again after the trauma of conflict,' says UNICEF official Sarah Crowe.
On the brink of capturing the entire rebel-held territory, Sri Lankan troops killed at least 150 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres in the island's embattled north, where a ship carrying biggest-ever food supplies for displaced civilians was ambushed by suspected guerrillas, officials said on Sunday.
'Sri Lankan army chief General Fonseka told me that 10 minutes before they were killed, ambassadors were calling up Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse to save Prabhakaran and top LTTE leaders. Fonseka said any fool would have known that a ceasefire appeal was to save Prabhakaran and not the people, because there were no people there,' reveals Nitin Gokhale, author of the new book, Sri Lanka: From War to Peace.
Karuna Amman, a former lieutenant of slain Liberation Tiges of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and now a federal minister favours tapping of moderates among the Tamil Tigers who are "sincerely interested" in a just and peaceful solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.
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