Sri Lanka’s rehabilitated ex-combatants struggle to adjust

PUTUKKUDIYIRUPPU, 4 July 2014 (IRIN) - Five years after the end of a 26-year civil war, most former combatants from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in northern Sri Lanka have been rehabilitated and re-entered civilian life, but whether war-disabled or not, many are finding genuine integration difficult, according to rehabilitees, government officials and humanitarian workers.

Lanka accuses US, UK of LTTE links

Minster Pavitra with Prez MR

The Government claims the United States and British Governments are influenced by the votes they receive from LTTE supporters in their respective countries. Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, speaking at an event today, claimed that US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron had secured votes from LTTE supporters to come to power. She claimed that now Obama and Cameron are working according to the agenda of the LTTE supporters against the Sri Lankan Government.

United Nations Investigation is against both the Crimes of the LTTE and the Crimes of the Regime”- TNA

Moon backs UNHRC investigation

Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P.

I wish to make a statement to place on record the position of the Tamil National Alliance regarding the Motion that has been put forward for debate and related matters of public importance. It is indeed ironic that the government now at this late stage seeks the imprimatur of Parliament for its own dire failings. This government, which has so brazenly turned Parliament into an object of ridicule – by enticing unscrupulous members of the opposition to cross over for personal gain and by providing executive posts to almost half the members of the house – now turns to Parliament on a question of fundamental importance to the country.

"Start accountability with former LTTE leaders KP & Karuna"- UNP tells govt

Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan,

The United National Party has urged the government to start the accountability process by taking action against Kumaran Pathmanathan, who was at one time the main arms procurer of the LTTE, and Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, who was technically the second in command of the terrorist organization.

Both of them have shifted their allegiance to the government and Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman holds a ministerial position in the government while being a 'Vice Chairman' of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

5 years after war's end: Prioritising reasons for LTTE’s defeated

 Dr Kumar David

It is natural that many reasons are ascribed for the defeat of the LTTE; none is exclusively true, they are interconnected, some more significant than others. After five years it is timely to sift the wheat from the chaff and reflect upon their relative importance and gain some perspective.

Most oft proclaimed in Sinhalese society is that a determination of leadership (funding, unflagging political support, military strategy, and resisting foreign pressure to compromise) decided the issue; yes this is partly true.

India extended the ban on LTTE for five years

Banned for 5 years!

Devesh K. Pandey

The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday issued a fresh notification extending ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in India for five years. “The Government of India, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an ‘Unlawful Association’. The declaration of LTTE as an ‘Unlawful Association’ has been extended for a further period of five years with effect from May 14, 2014,” said an MHA notification made public on Thursday.

Sri Lanka: ‘Executed’ director of Vanni project in Indian custody: SL seeks access to him

The couple

The chance arrest of Kathiravel Thayapararajah (33) by Indian authorities could help Sri Lankan security services to identify a network of human smugglers with possible connections to the overseas LTTE rump, official sources said. Authorities would explore the possibility of having access to Thayapararajah, whose arrest during the first week of May this year could be one of the most important breakthroughs made in investigations into bogus disappearances since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

The LTTE revival and Gopi's death: answered questions

Udaya Perera                        Gopi

Sunanda Deshapriya

On 11^th April 2014, the government of Sri Lanka announced that three former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters were killed by the security forces. A press release of the Ministry of Defence stated that ''in the early hours of 11 April 2014, three armed suspects who attempted to escape the area confronted the troops in the cordon. All three were killed and two of the dead were later identified as Sundaralingam Kajeepan Thevihan, and Selvanayagam Kajeepan aka Gobi. The third is yet to be identified, but is believed to be that of Navaratnam Navaneethan aka Appan.''

US Bureau of Counterterrorism report 2014: Sri Lanka Chapter

Overview: The Sri Lankan government defeated the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. Concerns remain that widely reported allegations of atrocities and violations of international law committed by both the government and the LTTE during the civil war have not been addressed. Partly as a result, counterterrorism cooperation and training with the United States was limited in 2013. No arrests related to terrorism were made, but the Government of Sri Lanka remained concerned that the LTTE’s international network of financial support was still functioning.

No room For LTTE To Regroup In Sri Lanka Or Overseas – Suresh Premachandran

S. Premachandran (© S.Deshapriya)

With the military claiming to have shot dead Selvanayagam Kajeepan alias Gobi and two others who were said to be attempting to revive the LTTE in the North, several Tamil political parties and civil society organisations have raised doubts on the possibility of any such rebellious activities. According to some, the whole incident seems like an attempt by the government to maintain a strong military presence in the North. While the government says there is a fear of the LTTE regrouping in the country, TNA MP Suresh Premachandran speaking to The Sunday Leader insisted that there was absolutely no space for the LTTE to regroup in Sri Lanka or overseas.

Sri Lanks briefs diplomats on action taken against terrorist funding .

The briefing

External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris today briefed the Colombo based diplomatic community regarding the action taken by the Sri Lankan government against groups and individuals involved in terrorist funding and other activity connected with plans to revive terrorism.  The Minister said that the government’s action in designating 16 groups and 424 individuals had been taken under United Nations Security Council Regulation1373 which not only empowered governments to resort to such measures but imposed on States an imperative duty to effectively suppress terrorist funding.

Sri Lanka: Terror Interrupted - ( A point of view similer to that of GoSL - SLB)

Gopi ( GoSL photo)

Ajit Kumar Singh

Apprehensions of an attempted revival by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) were proven true when, in the early hours of April 11, 2014, a Security Forces (SFs) team launched a cordon and search operation in the forest area off Padaviya in Anuradhapura District, and was fired upon by militants hiding in the forest. The SFs killed three armed local LTTE leaders, reportedly in retaliatory fire. The dead were identified as Selvanayagam Kajeepan alias Gobi, Sundaralingam Kajeepan alias Thevihan and Navaratnam Navaneethan alias Appan.

Sri Lanka: KP had 200 passports and bank ACs in London, Frankfurt, Denmark, Athens and Australia

KP ( in front) with Praba and Bala

Charges listed against KP amended

KPThe charged under which an INTERPOL warrant was issued for the arrest of Kumaran Pathmanathan, better known as KP, have been amended. As of late last year the INTERPOL website said that KP was wanted by India over crimes, terrorism and the use of weapons and explosives. However most recently the charges listed have been amended and it now says he is wanted over criminal conspiracy, violation of the terrorist Act and violation of the Indian explosives Act.

The editors of Tamil newspapers in Sri Lanka should be held accountable for publishing ''disinformation and misinformation'' - Rohan Gunarathna

LTTE Diaspora (tamilguardian photo)

Q The Government had said the LTTE had been militarily defeated. But, if they are regrouping in Sri Lanka, who is backing them?

A After LTTE's military defeat, the LTTE leader Deivyhan reorganized the network with help from Nediyawan in Norway and Vinayagam in France. Deivyghan set up an operational base in Tamil Nadu exploiting the terrorist-political-criminal nexus. A former bodyguard, black tiger and pilot Deivyhan worked with Gopi and Appan, both of the intelligence wing.

After the end of the conflict in May 2009, the LTTE in Tamil Nadu build a network in the north starting with propaganda and gradually supported the building of cells to collect intelligence and mount attacks.

Sri Lanka's govt obtains Interpol red notices on 40 'LTTE' suspects

Xinhua

Sri Lanka police have obtained 40 Interpol "red notices" flagging foreign operatives of the Tamil Tigers as the government continues to crack down on attempts to revive the organization locally, an official said here on Thursday. Sri Lanka's government ended a 27 year war with the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 but has come under fire from the international community for disregarding allegations of war crimes and undermining human rights.

Establish a national investigative mechanism that could cooperate with the UNHRC-appointed investigative body - NPC

Martin Luther King Jr:  positive peace,
which is the presence of justice

URGENTLY RESUME THE DIALOGUE TO AVOID DANGEROUS BACKSLIDE TO PAST - NPC

Less than five years after the end of the three decade long internal war, the Sri Lankan government has warned that the LTTE is regrouping and plotting to renew its violent campaign for a separate state again.  This warning has come in the context of a shootout reported in the North that led to the killing of three LTTE members by the military who, according to the government, had shot and injured a policeman in the leg.   The security forces conducted extensive cordon and search operations and arrested over 60 persons, including civic activists, prior to the final shootout.  The slain persons are accused of having had connections with the Tamil Diaspora.

LTTE continues to sustain an international propaganda against Sri Lanka through front organisations with a a democratic face - Gotabaya

(MoD photo)

''Mr. Rajapaksa said that a key part of the LTTE's modus operandi was to mobilise support for itself by wiping up ethnic and communal feeling in expatriate Tamil populations all over the world. Extremist elements within the diaspora were mobilised by LTTE operatives and front organisations in more than thirty countries around the world to help fund terrorist activities in Sri Lanka.  ''

Secretary Defence addresses 'Putrajaya Forum 2014' in Malaysia

D.B.S.Jeyaraj and the bogey of the reincarnation of the Tiger: Battle of the Fourth Estate in Post Civil War Sri Lanka

Sivaram and Jeyaraj

''The most notable of the latter are David Buell Sabapathy Jeyaraj (popularly known as David Jeyaraj or DBS in short) and the late Dharmaratnam Sivaram(whose nom de plume was Taraki). Both Jeyaraj and Sivaram have been oscillating as advocates of both the devils in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and civil war (the State and the Tigers) from time to time. During most part of his career as a journalist DBS has been concocting stories on behest of both the devils in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict from over ten thousand kilometres away, while Sivaram has been residing in Sri Lanka throughout his life. ''

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

Sri Lanka: Continuing Detention of Tamil Women and a Girl Child under the Prevention of Terrorism Act

 Jayakumari Balendran and her daughter

In 2009 the government announced that the LTTE has been wiped out from the country with the end of the armed conflict. However, in the past few weeks there have been a number of arrests, including of women under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) supposedly to investigate and counter a renaissance of the LTTE. Most of these arrests were in connection to the search for a man called Gopi who according to media reports quoting  military and police spokespersons was killed along with his two associates on 11 April 2014 and that they  been buried at  state expenses on 12 April in Anuradhapura. Those arrested in connection to these men are still being kept at Boosa camp, in Colombo’s the 2^nd and 4^th floor of the Terrorism Investigation branch, and in the Vavuniya Terrorism Investigation Division (TID). In these TID and military joint operations men, women, the elderly and children have been arrested.

Colombo stages smokescreen operations to divert global focus on crimes: TNA councillor

 Sivagi: killings look
like a political smokescreen

[TamilNet]

The so-called revival or regrouping of the LTTE and the arrests made during the sessions in Geneva, targeting of rights activists, and now claiming the episode over by killing three alleged ex LTTE members under suspicious circumstances, looks operation carefully managed by the Sri Lankan military intelligence, blames TNA councillor and former parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam. The reaction comes after the Sri Lankan military claimed that it had slain three LTTE members who were re-organising the movement.