The Ceylon News

Tamil Tigers

A day ahead of an emergency session by the United Nations human rights council on Sri Lanka military authorities announced that over 9000 Tamil Tiger suspects are being held in detention.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told the BBC that 9,100 has been identified as those with LTTE links.

"We have sent the majority of them including child soldiers for rehabilitation," he said.

allegations by Human rights watchdogs

Denying allegations by Human rights watchdogs that some of the suspects have been abducted from IDPs camps in the north, Brigadier Nanayakkara said that these suspects have "surrendered themselves" at screening centres.

These screening centres are used to identify suspected Tamil Tigers leaving the war ravaged Vanni area.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who visited the war displaced in Vavunia in the weekend called for the speeding up of the screening process.

separation of the former combatants

"I sincerely hope that the screening process and the separation of the former combatants will take place as soon as possible, so that the others can return to their homes," he said.

The media centre for national security says that those sent for rehabilitation are held at "Pompemadu, Rambakulam, Omanthai, Pallekale, Ambepussa, Thelippalai, Welikanda, Poonthottam and a few more in the Menik Farm along with their parents".

The announcement comes on the eve of an emergency session held by the United Nations human rights council, which will discuss the situation in Sri Lanka and allegations of violations committed during the conflict.

By VOA News
25 May 2009


Sri Lanka says it will hold elections in northern areas that were caught up in the devastating war between the military and Tamil rebels.

Government officials announced Monday that local council elections will be held inin early August. They will be the first elections in the area in more than a decade.

Parts of the region were held by the rebels before they admitted defeat last week in their quarter-century-long war.

The rebels' chief of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, announced Sunday that the group has given up violence, and will pursue independence through peaceful means.

He told the BBC the rebels have agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the self-determination of the Tamil people.

The rebel spokesman acknowledged for the first time that the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, died last week during the final battles against government forces.

The United Nations estimates that more than 7,000 civilians were killed during the final months of the war. About 300,000 people have been displaced.

The rebels began their fight for a separate homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority in 1983. The U.N. estimates that the civil war resulted in up to 100,000 deaths.

Sri Lanka said it needs partners, not monitors, in the international community to help the South Asian island nation rebuild after the end of a 26-year conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Assistance must be “according to the wishes of the people of Sri Lanka,” Basil Rajapaksa, senior presidential adviser, said, according to the government’s Web site. “We don’t want ‘monitors,’ we need partners.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ended a two- day visit to the country at the weekend with a call to the government to start the process of reconciliation with the Tamil community and for aid to reach an estimated 300,000 people displaced by the fighting in the north.

Sri Lanka’s government said last week its forces defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending their fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the east and north. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said aid workers will be allowed into the conflict zone once the army completes operations to clear rebels hiding among the refugees.

“The international community must understand that it is we, the people of this country, who had to endure this problem” of terrorism, Basil Rajapaksa said in an interview. “There is nobody else who understands the repercussions and the sufferings.”

Good Record

The government has a “good record” dealing with displaced civilians in the past, he said. It is committed to returning people who fled in recent months to their homes.

“We will ensure that when everybody in the north returns to their homes, they will go back to a place where there is security,” he added.

Sri Lanka said last week it intends to resettle the displaced people within 180 days and close the transit camps.

“Whether the government can live up to this promise remains to be seen,” Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan non-governmental advocacy organization, said in an e-mailed statement today. The scale of destruction, the de-mining of villages and building the basic infrastructure needed to enable refugees to return may take “considerable” time, he said.

Ban, at the end of his visit, said there “is a wide gap between what is needed and what is available” for the refugees. “The UN and other international humanitarian agencies need immediate and unimpeded access to the camps.”

Ban called on the government to speed up the screening and registration of civilians.

LTTE Leadership

Soldiers routed the last Tamil Tiger forces more than a week ago, killing their chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran and the group’s leaders, who were holding out in a strip of land near the northeastern port of Mullaitiviu.

The LTTE acknowledged yesterday for the first time that Prabhakaran is dead, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported on its Web site.

The Tamil Tigers will now use non-violent methods in the struggle for a Tamil homeland, the BBC cited Selvarasa Pathmanathan, head of international relations for the LTTE, as saying in a telephone interview.

About 10,000 LTTE fighters, including 1,601 female members, have surrendered to the army and are being rehabilitated, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.

The UN Human Rights Council should use its special session on Sri Lanka tomorrow to seek commitments from the government to address the “disastrous” humanitarian situation, Human Rights Watch said, according to a statement on its Web site today.

“Although the fighting has stopped the humanitarian situation is still alarming and real improvements are needed now,” Brad Adams, Asia director of the group said, according to the statement.

The meeting in Geneva is a “waste of time, energy and resources,” Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka’s minister for disaster management and human rights, said May 21, according to the government’s Web site. Funds would be better used to help the displaced people, he said.

The Sri Lankan government has said it will rehabilitate the child soldiers who were recruited by the Tamil Tigers to reintegrate them into the society.

The announcement comes after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was on a two-day visit to the island nation, conveyed his concerns to the government about the welfare of child soldiers, following the military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka and the UN have recognised that a large number of child soldiers forcibly recruited by the LTTE was an important issue in the post-conflict scenario.

"President (Mahinda) Rajapakse reiterated his firm policy of zero tolerance in relation to child recruitment. In cooperation with the UNICEF, child-friendly procedures have been established for release, surrender and rehabilitation of the child soldiers," the government said in a joint statement at the end of Ban Ki-moon's two-day visit to the island nation Saturday.

"The objective of the rehabilitation process, presently underway, is to reintegrate former child soldiers into society as productive citizens," the statement said.

"The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) expressed satisfaction on the progress already made by the government in cooperation with the UNICEF," it added.

The government said around 10,000 LTTE fighters, including child soldiers, had surrendered to the security forces in the past several months.

During his stay, Ban held talks with Rajapakse, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and other senior leaders.

The UN chief also visited the relief camps for displaced people in northern Vavuniya district and inspected the areas near Mullaittivu, where the government troops and the LTTE fought their final battles.

Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war ended early last week after the defeat of the LTTE.

The LTTE had fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the country claiming discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese dominated governments.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since the conflict started in the 1980s.