The men, who are Australian citizens, were arrested and released without charge in November 2005.
LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, in an annual speech on Monday, said the 2002 ceasefire agreement "defunct" and vowed to resume fighting.
Twenty-two Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and five soldiers injured on Friday in a major pre-dawn assault by the Sri Lanka Army in the eastern district of Batticaloa.
Jailed former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka, who led the successful battle against the Tamil Tigers, might be released within the next few days, presidential sources in Colombo said.
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.
Nearly 8,000 people were killed in the final phase of Sri Lanka's war against Tamil Tigers in 2009, according to government figure released today.
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.
The cable, dated 15 January 2010, updated the Secretary of State on war crimes accountability following the end of the country's long and bloody conflict.
Clamping down on terrorist funding, a Canadian Court has sentenced a Tamil Tiger fundraiser to six months in jail after the man pleaded guilty to raising funds in the country to help support the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in Sri Lanka. The court in Vancouver sentenced Tamil-Canadian Prapaharan Thambithurai, 46, for raising funds for a banned terrorist organisation. He was the first person to be charged under a new Canadian legislation.
A United Nations human rights expert has claimed that gruesome footage from the final days of Sri Lanka's civil war is authentic and proves war crimes took place there.
Under international flak for his handling of the Tamil issue, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Friday that nations who sympathise with separatism are bound to become the victims of terrorism, as Sri Lanka celebrated with pomp a year of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's military defeat.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday claimed to have found slain Tamil Tiger chief Vellupilai Prabhakaran's personal gun and body armour, seven months after overrunning the last Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam bastion in the decisive battle at Nanthaikadal lagoon off the northern coast.The arms used by Prabhakaran were found buried 15 feet under the ground at Vellamulliwaikkal area in Mulaittivu along with scores of suicide kits and several anti-aircraft guns.
The United Nations has sought an explanation from Sri Lanka on the death of three top Tamil Tiger leaders after former Army chief Sarath Fonseka alleged that surrendering Tamil rebels were killed in cold blood.
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 allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka appear to be unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence. There is a track record of vested interests endeavouring to bring the government of Sri Lanka into disrepute, through fabricated allegations and concocted stories,' The Guardian quoted a Sri Lankan foreign affairs ministry statement as saying.
Scotland Yard's War Crimes Team, which is part of its Counter-Terrorism Command, has launched an investigation into the role of British mercenaries in fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.
The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday allowed nearly 1.30 lakh Tamil civilians housed in refugees camps in northern part of the island country to visit their relatives, as authorities lifted restrictions on their movement.
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.
In a major success, the Sri Lankan troops today seized the strategic Elephant Pass, the gateway to the Jaffna peninsula, dislodging the Tamil Tigers from their key bastion a week after capturing the rebels' de facto capital Kilinochcci in the island nation's embattled north.
The Sri Lankan government on Sunday formally accepted the resignation of General Sarath Fonseka as the chief of defence staff and asked him to retire with immediate effect, rejecting his plea to serve till December 1.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka's resignation has been accepted by the president with immediate effect, rejecting his request to serve for two more weeks, officials said on Friday.
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.
Dismissing as "engineered rumours", the Sri Lankan government's assertion that Vellupillai Prabhakaran had been killed in the fighting in the north, the Tamil Tigers have claimed that the LTTE supremo is alive.
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.
The captured Tiger rebel had arrived in the country on January 10 from Geneva in Switzerland, said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which made the arrest.
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.
Dismissing as 'hilarious' the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's ceasefire offer, the Sri Lankan government termed it a ploy, saying the Tamil Tigers call for a truce whenever they are on the verge of defeat.The LTTE has written a letter to the United Nations, Britain, Japan, Norway and the United States, indicating its readiness to agree to a ceasefire with the government, but refusing to lay down arms and surrender.
After uncovering attempts of Tamil Tigers to build crude submarines, Sri Lankan forces on Thursday said they had unearthed a possible rebel aircraft research wing that apparently studied ways to either repair planes or construct new ones.
Classified as 'Secret' and titled 'LTTE Threat to Canada', the intelligence report said the Canadian Tamil community was among the LTTE's largest sources of funds, having contributed up to 10 to 12 million dollars annually in past years.
The elusive Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is still in Sri Lanka and leading his fighters on the battlefront in Mullaittivu, a top rebel leader has said.Describing as 'malicious propaganda' reports that Prabhkaran has fled the island, B Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said, "Prabhakaran is with our people. He is still leading the freedom struggle".Nadesan's comments came amidst reports about heavy fighting between Tigers & Army
According to the book, 'Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away With War Crimes', authored by UK-based investigative journalist Phil Miller India's secret use of British mercenaries lasted for four months after the Indo-Lanka accord was signed between former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan president Junius Jayewardene in 1987.
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.
Sri Lankan troops are in full control of the airstrip from where Tamil Tigers launched many a surprise air raids deep into government controlled areas including the capital Colombo. Nothing is known about the fate of air force of the LTTE. Sri Lankan army liberated the sensitive Iranamadu, known for LTTE airstrips, located a few kilometers away from its defacto capital Kilinochchi. But apparently the Tigers had moved their Czech made fighters.
Sri Lankan troops on Sunday entered a key town on the road to the last remaining Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold Mullaittivu and were within striking distance of the vital Elephant Pass as the army said the operation to capture Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was on course. Fresh from their takeover of rebel 'capital' Kilinochchi, troops entered the strategically vital Oddusuddan town located along the Mankulam-Mullaittivu main road.
Sri Lankan fighter jets on Wednesday pounded Tamil Tigers position near the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu in the embattled north as the advancing forces killed at least 20 militants in fierce clashes near the de facto capital of rebels, officials said. Lankan security forces yesterday killed at least 20 rebels as troops captured a strategic area near the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi, the defence ministry said.
Disclosing that more than 5,000 LTTE cadres had surrendered before the gvernment, Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa made it clear that criminal elements among the surrendered Tiger cadres would be brought to book while others will be rehabilitated.
Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers are subjecting ethnic Tamils in their northern stronghold, Vanni, to forced recruitment, abusive forced labor, and restrictions on movement that place their lives at risk, the Human Rights Watch said in a report.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Saturday witnessed the conditions of tens of thousands of displaced Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka as he appealed to a triumphant government to 'heal the wounds' left by three decades of ethnic conflict. The Secretary General visited the camps in Vavuniya district today, where more than 300,000 people are staying, after escaping from the battle lines between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
Prabhakaran's body was found near Nandikadal lagoon in the No Fire Zone.
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