அண்மைய சில வன்செயல்கள் குறித்து மோதலில் ஈடுபடும் இரு தரப்பினர் மீது கண்காணிப்புக்குழு கண்டனம்
இலங்கையில் அண்மையில் இடம்பெற்ற சில முக்கிய வன்செயல்கள் குறித்து அறிக்கை ஒன்றை வெளியிட்டுள்ள இலங்கை போர் நிறுத்தக் கண்காணிப்புக் குழுவினர், மூதூரில் 17 நிவாரணப் பணியாளர்களின் படுகொலை தொடர்பில் இலங்கை அரசாங்கப் படைகள் மீது குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ள அதேவேளை, அநுராதபுரம் கெப்பிட்டிக்கொல்லாவவில் பொதுமக்கள் பேருந்தின் மீது நடத்தப்பட்ட தாக்குதல்கள் தொடர்பில் விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அமைப்பினர் மீது குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ளனர்.
மூதூரில் 17 சிவிலியன் தொண்டர் நிறுவனப் பணியாளர்கள் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்ட சம்பவம் தொடர்பில் தமக்கு சம்பந்தம் ஏதும் கிடையாது என்று இலங்கை அரசாங்கப் படையினர் மறுக்கின்ற போதிலும், அந்தச் சம்பவத்தில் அவர்களது தொடர்பைக் கோடிகாட்டும் பலமான குறிப்புகள் உள்ளதாக தாம் கண்டுபிடித்துள்ளதாக கண்காணிப்புக்குழு கூறியுள்ளது.
கெப்பிட்டிக்கொல்லாவ தாக்குதலில் அகப்பட்ட பயணிகள் பேருந்துஅந்த படுகொலைகள் இடம்பெற்ற சமயத்தில் மூதூர் பகுதியில் பாதுகாப்புப் படையினரின் பிரசன்னம் இருந்த காரணத்தால், வேறு குழுக்கள் மீது இவை தொடர்பில் குற்றஞ்சாட்டுவது பெரிதும் பொருத்தமற்றது என்றும், அத்தோடு அந்த வேளையில் அந்தப் பகுதிக்குள் ஆட்கள் செல்வது கட்டுப்படுத்தப்பட்டமைக்கான காரணம் எதனையும் தம்மால் காணமுடியவில்லை என்றும் கண்காணிப்புக்குழு சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளது.
அநுராதபுரம் மாவட்டம் கெப்பிட்டிக்கொல்லாவ பகுதியில் பொதுமக்கள் பயணம் செய்த பேருந்து மீது நடத்தப்பட்ட தாக்குதல் குறித்து கருத்து வெளியிட்டுள்ள கண்காணிப்புக்குழுவினர், தமது விசாரணைகளின் அடிப்படையிலும், விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அமைப்பினர் செயற்படும் விதத்தின் அடிப்படையிலும் பார்க்கும் போது, குறிப்பாக அரசாங்கக் கட்டுப்பாட்டுப் பகுதியில் விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அல்லது அவர்களுடன் சேர்ந்து செயற்படுபவர்களை விட, வேறு எவரேனும் அந்த தாக்குதலை நடத்தியிருக்கக் கூடிய சாத்தியத்தை தம்மால் காணமுடியவில்லை என்று கூறியுள்ளது.
மூதூரில் கொல்லப்பட்ட ஒரு உதவிப் பணியாளரின் இறுதி ஊர்வலம்தமது பெயருக்கு களங்கம் ஏற்படுத்துவதற்காக கருணா அணியினர் இந்தத் தாக்குதலை செய்திருக்கலாம் என்று விடுதலைப்புலிகள் கூறியிருப்பது குறித்து சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ள கண்காணிப்புக்குழுவினர், பல அடிப்படைகளில் பார்க்கும் போது கருணா அணியினர் அதனைச் செய்திருப்பார்கள் என்று கூறுவதற்கான உண்மையான ஆதாரத்தை தம்மால் காண முடியவில்லை என்றும் கூறியுள்ளது.
அதேவேளை மன்னர் மற்றும் வவுனியா மாவட்டங்களில் விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் கட்டுப்பாட்டுப்பாட்டில் உள்ள பகுதிகளில் ஏப்ரல் முதாலாம் திகதி முதல் ஜூன் 15 ஆம் திகதி வரைலான காலப்பகுதியில் நடத்தப்பட்ட விடுதலைப்புலிகளுக்கும், பொதுமக்களுக்கும் எதிரான கிளெமோர் தாக்குதல்கள் தொடர்பில் இலங்கை அரசாங்கப் படையினர் அல்லது அதன் அநுசரணையுடனும், ஆதரவுடனும் இயங்கும் ஆயுதக்குழுக்களின் மீது கண்காணிப்புக்குழுவினர் குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ளனர்.
அதேவேளை இந்த முடிவுகள் கண்காணிப்புக்குழுவின் பதவி விலகிச் செல்லும் தலைவர் மேஜர் ஜெனரல் உல்வ் ஹென்றிக்ஸன் அவர்களினால் நடத்தப்பட்ட மிகவும் ஆழ்ந்த விசாரணைகளின் பின்னர் எடுக்கப்பட்டவையாகும் என்றும் கண்காணிப்புக்குழுவின் சார்பில் பேசவல்ல தோபினூர் ஒமர்சன் கூறுகிறார்.
இவை போர் நிறுத்ததை மீறுகின்ற செயல் என்றும் அவர் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
ஆனால் தம்மீது கூறப்படும் குற்றச்சாட்டுகளை இலங்கை அரசாங்கத் தரப்பினரும் விடுதலைப்புலிகள் அமைப்பினரும் மறுத்துள்ளார்கள்.
bbctamil, 30.08.2006

U.N. threatens to halt Sri Lanka work
Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:43pm ET
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - The United Nations threatened overnight to suspend aid operations in Sri Lanka after truce monitors accused the security forces of executing aid workers.
Nordic truce monitors on Wednesday formally accused the security forces of being behind the execution-style murders of 17 local staff of aid agency Action Contre La Faim earlier this month in the northeast.
The government denies it.
"We have no independent information ourselves in the U.N., but I say we cannot continue in this area unless people will be held accountable for the execution of 17 of our colleagues," the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, told reporters in New York.
The victims, mostly Tamils, were found shot dead in their compound in the northeastern town of Mutur, around 135 miles
northeast of the capital Colombo. It was the worst mass murder of aid staff since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad.
The Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees a 2002 truce that now only holds on paper, says Sri Lankan authorities have obstructed their efforts to investigate, and says it is convinced no armed groups other than the security services could have been responsible.
The last of the SLMM's European Union members are due to cease work on Thursday, the deadline of a rebel ultimatum for them to leave the island after the 25-nation bloc banned them as a terrorist organization. Many have already left, sharply reducing staffing levels.
The military said the north and east had been relatively quiet overnight, with no major attacks reported.
But the government is insisting that the Tigers must relinquish a town near the mouth of the strategic northeastern harbor of Trincomalee, which is a key supply route to the besieged Jaffna peninsula at the island's far north.
The Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east refuse and vow to retaliate with all their might, and analysts expect renewed war to rumble on as long as each side believes it has the upper hand.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, meanwhile, prepared to meet Tony Blair in London and diplomats said they would discuss what lessons Sri Lanka can learn from Northern Ireland's peace process.
Britain has previously called on Sri Lanka's government to ensure it upholds human rights, but it was not clear whether Blair would address the issue of the slain aid workers.
"It's certainly a good thing the President wants to discuss Northern Ireland," said a western diplomat. "But I wouldn't describe it as anything close to a breakthrough."
The government does not rule out a meeting with London-based Tiger ideologue Anton Balasingham, but diplomats say it looks unlikely.
(With reporting by Matthew Verrinder at the UNITED NATIONS and Peter Apps in COLOMBO)

Monitors blame Sri Lanka forces for aid massacre
Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:25pm ET

By Peter Apps
COLOMBO (Reuters) - International cease-fire monitors blamed Sri Lankan troops on Wednesday for the killing of 17 aid workers during fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels this month.
The victims were working on tsunami relief projects for international aid group Action Contre La Faim in the northeastern town of Mutur, where government troops were fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"SLMM is, with the obtained findings, convinced that there cannot be any other armed groups than the security forces who could actually have been behind the act," said a statement from the Nordic-staffed Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM).
The government has denied troops were involved in the execution-style killings and promised an investigation.
"What disturbs me is the speed with which SLMM made this ruling," said head of the government peace secretariat Palitha Kohona. "Why was the SLMM in such a hurry when there is still a judicial inquiry going on?"
In New York, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland threatened to end aid operations in the area unless the government disclosed what it knew about the killings.
"We have no independent information ourselves in the U.N. But I say we cannot continue in this area unless people will be held accountable for the execution of 17 of our colleagues," Egeland told reporters at U.N. headquarters.
The victims, all but one of them ethnic Tamils, were found shot dead and lying face down in the compound of their office. The killing was the worst mass murder of aid staff since a 2003 bomb attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad, Iraq

Many aid staff and some of the families blamed the military, who have also been accused of other killings.
LEARNING FROM NORTHERN IRELAND
The SLMM statement came as a delegation headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse left for London. Rajapakse is to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday for what officials called "substantive talks" to discuss the ongoing open warfare between the government and the rebels.
The key issue is likely to be lessons learned from the Northern Ireland peace process. Former senior Irish Republican Army member Martin McGuinness has met Rajapakse twice, and the rebels once this year, to discuss the same issue.
Diplomats say Sri Lanka's interest in discussing Northern Ireland is a positive sign, but a 2002 truce with the rebels has been shattered and remains only on paper.
The SLMM statement came days before outgoing Swedish mission head Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson steps down because of demands from the Tigers that all European Union monitors quit.
The demand came after the EU declared the Tigers a terrorist organization. Monitors from non-EU members Norway and Iceland will remain in Sri Lanka after the rebels' September 1 deadline.
SLMM also ruled that the Tigers breached the cease-fire in an attack on a civilian bus in June that killed almost 70 people, while blaming the government for a string of similar attacks in rebel areas. Each deny the charge.
Hundreds of troops, rebels and civilians have died in the past month, and more than 200,000 people have fled their homes. The army said 13 soldiers have been killed in action and 79 wounded in the area since Monday.

The Tigers, who want a separate ethnic Tamil homeland in the north and east, vow they will never leave the area around the town of Sampur, a position on the edge of the harbor that allows them to shell the naval base and nearby shipping.
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Simon Gardner in Colombo and Matthew Verrinder at the United Nations)

Failure to get missiles sealed LTTE's fate
PK Balachandran Colombo, August 27, 200617:22 IST /Hindustantimes.com

It is now clear that the LTTE's daring incursions into the Trincomalee and Jaffna districts of Sri Lanka in July-August were blunted by the repeated use of supersonic aircraft by the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF).
But if the LTTE had succeeded in its efforts to acquire 50 to 100 SA-18 shoulder held missiles from the clandestine arms market in the US, the SLAF's supersonic Kfir fighter bombers would not have been able to play the role that they did.
This had been the first time that the Sri Lankans used the SLAF, especially the Israeli-made Kfirs, to such an extent and with such devastating effect against the LTTE.
Previously, the SLAF had had a string of misfortunes. So much so that at a crucial stage in the war in 2000, it refrained from giving support to the beleaguered ground troops.
This led to the loss of most of the Wanni region and Elephant Pass, the latter considered to be the gateway to Jaffna.
On April 28, 1995, the LTTE used a missile to bring down an Avro at the Palaly airbase in Jaffna, killing 50 officers and men. In August that year, an AN-32 transport aircraft was shot down, again by a missile.
Although the Kfirs were acquired in 1996, they were not used in any significant way.
But by 2003, Colombo had realized the importance air power and begun to take steps to augment and improve it.
Pakistani aid
According to the Indian security expert B Raman, since 2003, the Sri Lankan government has been using Pakistani expertise to train its Air Force personnel and also to maintain its equipment (see South Asia Analysis Group Paper No: 1918 dated August 19,2006)
According to Raman, in June 2004, the Sri Lankan government had asked the Pakistan Air Force for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and bunker buster bombs.
Raman even says that about 10 to 15 PAF personnel are currently stationed in Colombo to advice the SLAF.
Pakistan has expertise in the use of air power against insurgents, having been using it in Balochistan, the Chennai-based Indian expert points out.
In this context, the appointment of Air Vice Marshal Shehzad Aslam Chaudhry as Pakistan's as High Commissioner in Sri Lanka is significant, Raman contends.
AVM Chaudhry is an acknowledged expert in using air power against insurgents.
The Sri Lankan media, however, rubbishes these contentions.
"It's a figment of Raman's imagination," says The Sunday Island quoting an un-named Sri Lankan military official.
However, whatever the source, the SLAF had acquired new equipment and skills, which showed results in the recent campaign, independent observers said.
The hawkish Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision to use the SLAF's Kfirs in a big way, and consistently, regardless of possible adverse international reactions, had also been a critical new factor.
LTTE's counter measures
The LTTE was aware of the SLAF's plans to be a significant player in any future conflict, and had been trying to acquire an air capability, both offensive and defensive.
Besides building two airstrips and reportedly assembling five twin engine propeller driver aircraft, the LTTE had been trying to acquire the modern SA-18 "Grouse" missiles from the underground arms market in the US.
The SA-18 is a Russian-made shoulder fired missile with a range of 8 kms. It is useful against fast and manoeuvrable targets and has improved lethality on the target, with a capability to hit the fuselage of the aircraft rather than the jet nozzle.
It also has improved resistance to counter measures (see wikipedia.org).
As revealed by the FBI recently, the LTTE wanted to buy 50 to 100 SA-18s, with 10 being sought for immediate delivery.
Training for their use was to be given to the LTTE in the jungles of Sri Lanka by foreign under cover agents.
In addition, the LTTE was trying to get UAVs for jamming radar and radio transmissions; submarine design software; radio control equipment; air traffic equipment; and Global Positioning Systems.
Sting operation stalls efforts
But the LTTE's efforts to acquire the equipment were stalled by a sting operation conducted by the FBI recently.
The FBI had at long last used the US anti-terror law to bust the racket, reflecting America's new found commitment to curbing terrorism where ever it might be, and implement the ban on the LTTE imposed way back in 1998. Thirteen persons, all Tamils from the US and Canada, were arrested and produced before a judge in Brooklyn, New York last week on a charge of attempting to buy lethal military and dual use equipment for the LTTE and also to bribe the US State Department into lifting the ban on that outfit.
Major blow
The FBI's disclosures and the busting of the clandestine arms procurement ring in North America are a major blow for the LTTE.
To date, the outfit has no answer to the SLAF's Kfirs equipped with a computerized bombing system to ensure accuracy.
The LTTE has had to postpone its plan to capture Jaffna and decommission the Palay air base in Jaffna and the Trincomalee naval base on the Eastern coast.
The plan to encircle the Trincomalee harbour had been foiled.
The LTTE is now trying to buy temporary peace by making friendly overtures to the Sri Lankan government.
It has released the last of the three Sri Lankan policemen it had taken into custody 11 months ago.
Sources say that at the height of the war, when its artillery bases in Sampur across the Trincomalee naval base were being pounded from the air almost daily, the LTTE had offered to demilitarise Sampur in exchange for a ceasefire.
But the government had rejected it and continued the bombing runs.

War not the answer, say weary Sri Lankan troops
Reuters, Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:31am ET
By Simon Gardner
TRINCOMALEE DISTRICT, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Scanning the horizon as Tamil Tiger rebels fire mortar bombs toward their makeshift camp, troops in this corner of northeast Sri Lanka say renewed civil war is futile.
"No-one can win the war. It is a guerrilla war, so we can't win," said one officer freshly drafted in with reinforcements to the restive district of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka's northeast as mortar fire boomed from nearby rebel lines.
"They are inside the jungle. If it was a conventional war, then it might be different."
Hundreds of soldiers and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters were killed and many more injured during August, the worst fighting since a 2002 truce halted two decades of civil war. Now there is deadlock.
"The LTTE are attacking us, so we are acting in self defense," the officer said. "We came to protect the people and the peace accord."
Troops approached by Reuters refused to give their names for fear of being disciplined.
As the officer spoke, soldiers bathed in a muddy stream running beside the camp, washing their hair with bars of soap as troops in camouflage body armor and carrying assault rifles jumped out of locally-made armored personnel carriers.
Across the road, hundreds of residents displaced from shelled villages are camped in tents and palm frond-thatched huts. Bunkers made from green sandbags, railway sleepers and palm tree trunks pepper the main supply route leading to the nearby war-scarred eastern town of Mutur, -- now a ghost town on the edge of a strategic harbor 160 miles northeast of the capital Colombo after tens of thousands of residents fled.
SICK OF KILLING
"We don't like fighting. We don't like war. We like to have peace," said another officer who fought a fierce battle for control of a disputed water sluice that triggered the latest fighting, which Nordic monitors say has left the truce dead on the ground. "I'm sick of my boys being killed."
"I carry a Buddha statue with me. I don't like to kill. But we have to fight. I'm doing it on behalf of innocent people, not only the Sinhalese but also the Tamils," he added, sweat beading on his forehead under the burning sun. "But people are now getting water because I fought to open that sluice."
The government and the Tigers each accuse the other of trying to force a full-blown war, and diplomats see little sign of compromise vital to hopes of jump starting peace talks. The rebels, who demand a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, have pulled out of talks indefinitely.
"War is not the solution. We need peace negotiations, a settlement," the officer added.
Sri Lanka's protracted conflict had already killed more than 65,000 people even before the latest bout of war.
Others want to take the war to the rebels.
"It's not the army who started the war. The LTTE made the army fight back. We had to, or we would have been taken prisoner," said one corporal as he patrolled through the ruins of a village the foes battled over for four days
Children picked up bits of mortar bombs which destroyed a local mosque roof and now lie scattered in the dusty street.
"Even during the peace talks army guys were still killed," he added, walking on with his unit. "What talks? We've just got to hammer them," he whispered to a fellow soldier.

Achtung, Germans: Denglisch is here to stay
Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:16pm ET
By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - It is known as Denglisch, a hybrid of Deutsch and English, and cultural purists say it is an insult to the language of Goethe and should be purged from the vocabulary.
Denglisch has spread steadily as Germans adopted American phrases in business, advertising, technology, and everyday speech.
"Brainstorm" has become as common a word in German as "surfen," "chatten", and "shoppen" (for surfing, chatting and shopping).
In Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital, "uptick" and "downturn" are familiar terms and posters listing evening entertainment are headlined "city nacht (for night).
In Berlin, a satirical theater calls itself quatschcomedyclub (quatsch means nonsense) and visitors to the foreign ministry can relax at "The Coffee Shop im Auswaertigen Amt."
"We are colonizing ourselves, voluntarily," complained the German Language Association, a 26,000-strong private group of self-appointed language guardians who want legal protection for the language.
The association has introduced an award for "language adulterer of the year" to shame public figures whom it deems guilty of showing insufficient respect for German.
The leading candidate for this year's prize, to be announced in late-August, is Guenther Oettinger, premier of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
His offence? Saying Germany should adopt English as its working language and use German at home and on holiday. The association called him a "language lackey."
Most Germans shrug off Denglisch and the linguistic invasion of their language as an inevitable consequence of globalization.
But several influential conservative politicians are now campaigning for a law to protect German. A similar campaign, modeled on legislation in France, failed five years ago.
KEEPING GERMAN "PURE"
The renewed effort is led by Erika Steinbach, a member of parliament for the Christian Democratic Union, partners in the ruling government coalition.
She says 30 percent of Germans speak no English at all but are ashamed to admit it.
"How far does your mother tongue take you in your own country?" she asks on her Web site. Her answer: not very far.
"Without English and Denglisch, you are pretty helpless in German everyday life."
Judging from attempts elsewhere to legislate the use of a national language, both English and Denglisch are in Germany to stay
In 1994, France passed a law meant to suppress Franglais, Denglisch's French cousin. The legislation banned the use of foreign words in work contracts, public announcements, advertising and on radio and television.
It said foreign words would have to be replaced by words approved by the Academie Francaise, which serves as watchdog for the French language.
The law had little effect on the use of such words as "le weekend" or "le T-shirt" -- denounced as language contaminants by purists.
Americanisms proved similarly resistant to legislation in Poland, where young people embraced English after the collapse of communism and decades of obligatory Russian studies.
There are no signs that the growing dominance of English around the world -- according to one estimate, almost a third of the world's population has some knowledge of English -- has been affected by growing anti-Americanism in many countries.
Experts say linguistic dominance is largely a function of power.
"A language becomes an international language for one chief reason -- the political power of its people -- especially their military power," said British linguist David Crystal, whose book "English as a Global Language" is considered a landmark study.
But the speed and breadth of a language's universal adoption may also be linked to how difficult or easy it is to learn.
Mark Twain, in an essay entitled "The Awful German Language", quipped that "a gifted person ought to learn English ... in 30 hours, French in 30 days, and German in 30 years."
WHAT NEXT? GLOBISH?
For those in search of shortcuts, there are rival proposals from India and France for simplified versions of English called Globish.
The Indian version, designed by retired engineer Madhukar Gogate, provides simplified spelling and pronunciation to make learning easier for people unfamiliar with Roman script.
The other Globish is being promoted by a retired IBM executive with a flair for publicity, Jean-Paul Nerriere, whose French-language Web site touts his book "Don't Speak English, parlez Globish."
He proposes a 1,500-word version of English with elementary syntax as "the planetary dialect of the third millennium and integrated solution to the problem of international communication."
The idea mirrors the Basic English developed in the 1930s by British linguist Charles Kay Ogden. It has a vocabulary of 850 words and was hailed as an instrument for world peace after the end of World War II.
Legend has it that one of its most prominent advocates, Winston Churchill, withdrew his support after learning that Basic English renders "blood, toil, tears and sweat" into "blood, hard work, eyewash and body water."

Sri Lankan "boat people" flee war for Indian shore
Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:58am ET
By Simon Denyer
ARICHAL MUNAI, India (Reuters) - They wade through the surf, their suitcases on their heads and plastic bags in their hands, refugees from war in their homeland.
Behind them, the small fishing dinghy that brought them is already speeding away through the waves.
Everyday, boatloads of Sri Lankans arrive on the shores of southern India, leaving their fields and fishing boats behind and even selling their jewelry to pay for the passage.
And as conflict and fear escalate, what started as a trickle of refugees in January is turning into a flood -- about 8,000 this year, including 785 arriving on Sunday and Monday alone on this narrow spit of sand which juts out from a small island on India's southeastern coast.
They are men like Chinnathambi Pakiaraja, cradling his 15-month-old daughter in his arms, overcome with tears as he set foot on the sands of Arichal Munai after a three hour, 29-km (18-mile) boat journey.
"There were 14 of us in the boat, and the waves were high," he said. "We got drenched and the children were crying. We left our relatives and most of our belongings behind."
Everyone has a tale of terror in their homeland, of gunfire and shelling, violence and threats by one side or the other in Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war, which now seems to be raging once again after four years of ceasefire.
"The army told us, if there was any incident, any violence by the militants, they would come and kill my wife, kill my child," said Pakiaraja, a painter from Trincomalee in northeastern Sri Lanka. "How could I take that risk?"
The refugees are from Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority, mostly Hindus heading for the safe haven and relative familiarity of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Many are fishermen, too scared to ply their trade at home after clashes between the Sri Lankan navy and the "Sea Tigers", the naval wing of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who say they are fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland.
On land, night-time was the worst time.
"Six or seven families used to sleep huddled together in the open, the sound of gunfire all around us," said 41-year-old Prinsa Lambert from Vankalai in northwestern Sri Lanka.
"We didn't know who was being killed. I can't remember when I last slept in peace."
Lambert first fled her homeland with her husband Devaraja in 1990. Fourteen years later they took advantage of a ceasefire to return home on a ship provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
They arrived home one day before the Asian tsunami struck.
"We survived the tsunami and for a year we were happy," she said. "But then war started, and it is misery. My children can't study, my husband can't work, his nets and huts on the beach have been burned by the navy."
Refugees pay anything from 5,000 to 8,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($50-80) per person to cross the narrow strait on a fiberglass boat. Most get across safely, but some -- like the family of Pushpam Miranda -- pay a far higher price.
"The boat was hit by a big wave and overturned," she said, a week after arriving in a refugee camp on the Indian mainland. "My husband and the boatman tried to save my sister-in-law's children. But the next wave took them away."
The children were just 5 years old and 18 months. Both of their parents also drowned. Miranda's 22-year-old son Rothman struggled and failed to save his own wife.
"They had been married just the day before we left," she said. "Since we arrived here, he just stares at the sea."

Tuesday, 22 August 2006, bbc
US holds Sri Lanka arms suspects

There has been fierce fighting in Sri Lanka recentlyPolice in the United States say they have arrested a number of people on suspicion of conspiring to buy arms for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels.
The men are accused of conspiring to buy surface-to-air missiles and assault rifles for the rebels.
Some of the arrested are also accused of seeking to bribe US officials to have the rebel movement removed from the US list of terrorist organisations.
The police said the arrests were made in sting operations across the US.
The charges also include using charities sympathetic to the rebels as a front for money-laundering and fund-raising.
There has been no immediate comment from the rebels to these charges.
Tamil Tiger separatist rebels have been engaged in an increasingly violent conflict with government forces in the north and east of Sri Lanka, despite a ceasefire agreed four years ago.
The ceasefire aimed to halt more than two decades of war between the government and the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for the country's minority Tamil people in the north and east, remains officially in effect, despite months of violence.
The Sri Lankan authorities say at least 100 soldiers have died in the recent fighting while it is unclear how many rebels have died.
Sri Lanka's undeclared war is being conducted on three fronts, with air raids, artillery strikes and mortar attacks.
About 100,000 people have now been affected by three weeks of hostilities.

Sri Lankan city, cut off by fighting, stays calm for now
Sat Aug 19, 2006 4:12am ET
By Jonathan Lyons, Asia Security Correspondent
COLOMBO (Reuters) - The government-held city of Jaffna, cut off by fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, faced dwindling food supplies and soaring prices on Saturday but no real panic, aid workers and witnesses from the beleaguered town say.
One city resident told Reuters by telephone that prices for staples were up more than three-fold, with petrol selling for more than four times the going price before the latest fighting began three weeks ago.
A cash shortage also hit the remote northern city, with people rushing to withdraw money from local banks in anticipation of a possible evacuation, he said.
Witnesses and aid workers said gunfire and artillery shelling could be heard throughout the night and into the morning, but authorities eased recent curfew restrictions somewhat.
The Sri Lankan military said it had attacked Tiger naval units from the air along the Jaffna peninsula late on Friday.
"If this continues for another week, there won't be any more food," said Dilan, a pharmaceutical salesman who did not want to give his surname.
"People are withdrawing money from the banks, so there is no money to be had," he said by telephone. Communications with the region have been sporadic at best over the last week.
Police in Colombo, meanwhile, set up checkpoints at all roads leading into the city as part of security for the South Asia Games, being held in the capital, a government spokesman said.
"They have covered all entry points to the city. This is to ensure security during the SAG," he said.
THOUSANDS FLEE HOMES
Across the island, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 160,000 people have fled their homes -- 41,000 of them in Jaffna.
The city has long been a key rebel objective for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, who are fighting the Sinhalese-majority state for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.
Initial reports said things were relatively quiet on Saturday around the eastern port of Trincomalee, just north of where the latest fighting began around a rebel-held water supply.
Analysts say a 2002 ceasefire appears increasingly dead and that a decades-old civil war that has already killed more than 65,000 has resumed.
In what could be a sign of growing self-confidence, government authorities relaxed the curfew in Jaffna, allowing residents to leave their homes between noon and 5 p.m., witnesses said.
Still, no fixed-wing aircraft were flying out of the enclave and sea movement seems to have been curtailed, in large part for fear of the rebels' deadly Black Sea Tiger suicide units.
Aid workers said no deal had been reached with the two sides to allow a relief ship carrying food, medicine and other supplies to reach the city, home to an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people
One aid official said it was still unclear whether any such mission would also include the evacuation of foreign passport holders -- mostly foreign-based Tamils -- on the return voyage. So far, the official said, conditions in Jaffna were difficult but relatively stable.
A decision on a relief ship was expected early next week.
International truce monitors say more than 800 had died this year even before the ground war began. Diplomats estimate that a similar number may have been killed in the last three weeks alone.

Sencholai air-strike killed 55, details released
[TamilNet, August 18, 2006 09:25 GMT]

Director of Education for Kilinochchi district, T Kurukularaja, and Director of Education for Mullaitivu district, P Ariyaradnam, have informed their respective Government Agents the details of the 55 victims killed in the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing on Sencholai campus in Vallipunam Monday.
On Thursday, Mullaithivu Principals Association and Kandavalai Principals Association, the organisors of the ten-day program, condemned the aerial bombardment that killed 55 schoolchildren and staffers.
"The residential course progressed to its fourth day, when on 14 August at 7:00 a.m the students were getting ready for the day's program when four Sri Lankan government Kfir jets started showering the area with bombs," the organisors said in a joint press release.
The final tally of those killed in the Vallipunam school camp aerial bombing (55 killed of which 51 are students and four are staff)
Names of students killed and the school they were attending from Mullaitivu district compiled by the Director of Education for Mullaitivu district, P Ariyaradnam, and sent to the Government Agent for Mullaitivu:
1.School: Puthukkudiyiruppu Mahavidhyalayam
1. Thambirasa Lakiya DOB: 26-03-89, Mullivaikal west
2. Mahalingam Vensidiyoola DOB: 07-10-89, Mullivaikal west
3. .Thuraisingam Sutharsini DOB: 28-07-89, Ward 10, PKT

2. School: Visuvamadu Mahavidhyalayam
1.. Nagalingam Theepa DOB: 29-03-87, Puthadi, Visuvamadu
2. .Thambirasa Theepa DOB: 07-02-87, Valluvarpuram, Redbarna
3. .Thirunavukkarasu Niranjini DOB: 29-11-88, Puthadi, Visuvamadu
4. .Raveenthirarasa Ramya DOB: 14-11-88, Thoddiyadi, V. madu
5. .Kanapathipillai Nanthini DOB: 05-10-88, Koddiyadi, Visuvamadu
6. .Vijayabavan Sinthuja DOB: 24-05-88, Koddiyadi, Visuvamadu
7. Naguleswaran Nishanthini DOB: 11-04-89, Thoddiyadi, V.madu
8 Tharmakulasingam Kemala DOB: 09-09-87, Kannakinagar,
9. Arulampalam Yasothini DBO: 18-01-88, Puththadi, Visuvamadu

3. School: Udayarkaddu Mahavidhyalayam
1. Muthaih Indra DOB: 08-08-88, Suthanthirapuram centre
2. Murugaiah Arulselvi DOB: 14-07-88, Suthanthirapuram centre
3. Sivamoorthy Karthikayini DOB: 13-02-88, Vallipunam
4. Santhanam Sathyakala DOB: 20-08-86, Vallipunam
5. Kanagalingam Nirupa DOB: 11-02-89, Visuvamadu
6. Kanagalingam Nirusa DOB: 11-02-89, Vallipunam
7. Navaratnam Santhakumari DOB: 28-05-88, Kaiveli
8. Nagalingam Kokila DOB: 12-02-87, Vallipunam
9. Sivamayajeyam Kokila DOB: Kuravil
10. Shanmugarasa Paventhini DOB:
11. Balakrishnan Mathani DOB: 09-05-88, Vallipunam

4. School: Mullaitivu Mahavidhyalayam
1. Sivanantham Thivya DOB: 30-05-88, Vannankulam
2. Thambirasa Suganthini DOB: 18-02-88, Alampil,
3. S Vathsalamary DOB: 20-11-86, Manatkudiyiruppu
4. Thanabalasingam Bakeerathy DOB: 03-02-87, Mullivaikal west
5. Thanikasalam Thanusa DOB: 02-12-87, Kallappadu
6. Pathmanathan Kalaipriya DOB: 23-09-88, Kovilkudiyiruppu
7. Markupillai Kelansuthayini DOB: 14-07-88, Vannankulam
8. Rasamohan Hamsana DOB: 29-05-87, Alampil

5. School: Kumulamunai Mahavidhyalayam
1. Vivekanantham Thadchayini DOB: 31-01-88, W 10, PTK
2. Santhakumar Sukirtha DOB: 08-08-87, Ward 7, Kumulamunai
3. Uthayakumaran Kousika DOB: 22-08-87, Kumulamunai
4. Nallapillai Ninthija DOB: 03-03-88, Ward 6, Kumulamunai
5. Veerasingam Rajitha DOB: 28-02-88, Ward 5, Kumulamunai

6. School: Vidhyananda College, Mulliyavalai
1. Thamilvasan Nivethika DOB: 02-12-88, Ward 2, Mulliyavalai
2. Suntharam Anoja DOB: 12-09-89, Kumulamunai
3. Puvanasekaram Puvaneswari DOB: 06-06-89, W 4, Mulliyavalai
4. Kiritharan Thayani DOB: 28-12-89, Thannerutru, Mulliyavalai

7. School: Chemmalai Mahavidhyalayam
1. Mahalingam Vasantharani DOB: 23-03-88, Alampil, Chemmalai
2. Thuraisingam Thisani DOB: 06-12-88, Alampil, Chemmalai
3.Vairavamoorthy Kirithika DOB: 12-07-87, Alampil, Chemmalai
4. Chandramohan Nivethika DOB: 04-01-89, Alampil, Chemmalai

8. School: Oddusuddan Mahavidhyalayam
1. Sellam Nirojini DOB: Koolamurippu, Oddusuddan

Names of students killed and the school they were attending from Kilinochchi district compiled by the Director of Education for Kilinochchi district, T Kurukularaja, and sent to the Government Agent for Kilinochchi.

9. School: Muruhananda Mahavidhyalayam
1. Tharmarasa Brintha DOB: 06-01-89, 189/1 Visuvamadu
2.Thevarasa Sharmini DOB: 09-03-89, 90, Periyakulam, Kandavalai

10. School: Tharmapuram Mahavidhyalayam
1.Varatharaja Mangaleswari DOB: 24-07-89, 577, 13 U, T.puram
2.Rasenthiraselvam Mahilvathani DOB: 04-12-88, Tharmapuram
3. Nilayinar Nivakini DOB: 04-04-89, Kaddakkadu, Tharmapuram

11. School: Piramanthanaru Mahavidhyalayam
1. Kubenthiraselvam Lihitha DOB: 05-02-87, Kalaveddithidal, Puliyampokanai

12. Names of staff killed
1. Chandrasekaran Vijayakumari (Age 27)
2. Kandasamy Kumarasamy (Age 48)
3. Solomon Singarasa (Age 65)
4. S Jeyarubi (Age 20)

ஓமந்தை சோதனைச் சாவடி மீண்டும் திறப்பு
[வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 18 ஓகஸ்ட் 2006, 17:14 ஈழம்] [ம.சேரமான்]
puthinam.com
தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் நிர்வாக வன்னி பிரதேசத்துக்குச் செல்வதற்கான வவுனியா ஓமந்தை சோதனைச் சாவடி இன்று வெள்ளிக்கிழமை பிற்பகல் 2 மணிக்கு திறக்கப்பட்டது.
260 பொது சேவையாளர்கள் உள்ளிட்ட 800-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட தமிழ் மக்கள் வவுனியா- ஓமந்தை சோதனை சாவடி மூடப்பட்டமையால் பாரிய துன்பங்களுக்கு உள்ளாகினர்.
இன்று வெள்ளிக்கிழமை மாலை வவுனியா மாவட்ட செயலகம் முன்பாக ஒன்று திரண்ட இந்த மக்கிள் தங்களை விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் வன்னி பிரதேசத்துக்குச் செல்ல அனுமதிக்க வேண்டுமென்று வலியுறுத்தினர். வவுனியா மாவட்ட அதிகாரிகள் அலுவலகத்தை விட்டு வெளியே வர விடாமல் அவர்களை முடக்கினர்.
சம்பவ இடத்துக்கு வன்னி நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் கிசோர் சிவநாதன் சென்று நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பதாக கூறினார். கண்காணிப்புக் குழுவினரும் அங்கு சென்று விசாரணைகளை நடத்தினர். அதன் பின்னர் போராட்டம் கைவிடப்பட்டது.
அரச அதிபரால் ஓமந்தை சோதனைச் சாவடிக்கு மக்கள் செல்வதற்கான ஏற்பாடுகள் செய்யப்பட்டன. ஆனால் தாண்டிக்குளத்தில் சிறிலங்கா இராணுவத்தினரால் இப்பேரூந்துகள் இடை மறிக்கப்பட்டன. இதனால் அங்கு இரு மணித்தியாலம் மேலும் காத்திருக்க நேரிட்டது. அதன் பின்னர் விடுதலைப் புலிகள் தரப்பிலிருந்து சர்வதேச செஞ்சிலுவைச் சங்கத் தரப்பிலும் பதில் அனுப்பி வைக்கப்பட்டது. தொடர்ந்து பிற்பகல் 2 மணிக்கு ஓமந்தை சோதனைச் சாவடி திறக்கப்பட்டது.

Aid plea after Sri Lanka clashes
(news.bbc.co.uk / Friday, 18 August 2006)
Aid workers have been locked out of several areas in Sri LankaAid workers need urgent access to parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka that have been cut off by recent fighting, the UN's refugee agency has said.
Thousands of people are suffering from food and water shortages because of road blocks and fierce clashes.
Sri Lankan officials in Jaffna and Kilinochchi have requested that at least 5,000 tons of essential food items be sent to each area immediately.
Intense fighting has been going on in northern Sri Lanka for the past week.
The Sri Lankan authorities say at least 100 soldiers have died in the fighting.
It is unclear how many rebels have died.
'Alarming' shortages
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva said the key access road to the northern Jaffna peninsula through a rebel-held district was closed.
"We call on the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Tamil Tigers to urgently allow access for humanitarian aid workers so vital supplies can reach those in need," said UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis.
Food and water supplies had fallen to "alarmingly low levels" in many areas, the agency said.

The Sri Lankan government's most senior representatives in Jaffna and in Kilinochchi have told officials in the capital, Colombo, that there are severe food shortages in the area.
Sivanathan Kishore, an MP of the Tamil National Alliance party, confirmed the reports of shortages.
"Normally, 75 to 80 lorries go through this area. Now, because of the closure of the road, the food situation will definitely worsen in Vavunya" in northern Sri Lanka, Mr Kishore told the BBC.
The government in Colombo has said it is sending 80 tons of aid to the Jaffna peninsula.
The aid will leave Colombo by boat on Saturday and take 55 hours to reach Jaffna, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the Associated Press news agency.
Isolated civilians
Sri Lanka's undeclared war is being conducted on three fronts, with air raids, artillery strikes and mortar attacks. About 100,000 people have now been affected by three weeks of hostilities.
The Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the country, has become the centre of the clashes.
Some 500,000 civilians in the area are living under a government-imposed 22-hour curfew.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Tigers on Friday gave the names of 51 schoolchildren they claim were killed in an air force bombing of an orphanage in rebel-held territory.
The rebels said 51 out of 55 people killed in Monday's air raid were children.
They had earlier said that 61 schoolgirls died in the bombing. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
The government has said it targeted a Tamil Tiger training camp in the attack and has denied killing any children.

Sri Lanka bombs Tigers
Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:54am ET
By Peter Apps
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan jets hit the Tamil Tiger front line on Friday as fighting raged on the northern Jaffna peninsula, cut off by the rebels, and residents with foreign passports begged their embassies to get them out.
Almost three weeks of ground fighting, the first since a 2002 ceasefire, has left the government-held Jaffna enclave largely cut off and areas near the port of Trincomalee under intermittent artillery fire.
"In Jaffna, it's becoming almost a First World War type of battle," said a Western diplomat. "They are sitting in the ground shooting at each other without much real movement."
The military said it had bombed selected targets on the front line where the two sides have now been fighting for a week. Communication with the area is virtually impossible, with curfews in most civilian areas and shortages rising.
Across the island, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says more than 160,000 people have fled their homes -- 41,000 of them in Jaffna. Aid staff say there are queues for fuel, shortages of food and a desperate scramble to get cash from banks whenever the curfew is lifted for a few hours.
Fearing robbery as crime rose along with violence between government and rebels earlier in the year, many Jaffna residents sold their jewelry and valuables and put their money in banks. Getting access to it is now almost impossible, aid staff say.
"We need both sides to stop fighting so we can get proper access to the area," said UNHCR representative Amin Awad. "Food is getting low and we have worries about water and sanitation."
No fixed-wing aircraft are flying out of the enclave and sea movement seems to have been curtailed. Diplomats say Jaffna's airbase is under artillery fire and possibly damaged, leaving the military largely unable to resupply except by helicopter.
WANTING TO GET OUT
Jaffna has long been seen as a key rebel objective in the LTTE's two-decade war for a separate Tamil homeland, but diplomats are unsure whether the Tigers aim to take it soon.
Aid workers say columns of army troops and vehicles have been moving up to Trincomalee, just north of where fighting initially began around a rebel-held waterway. It was unclear whether they would be used in the area or taken by ship toward Jaffna, where the army says more than 100 soldiers died this week.
Truce monitors say more than 800 had died this year even before the ground war began. Diplomats say a similar number may have been killed in the last three weeks alone. The European Union and United States urged both sides on Thursday to stop the fighting.
The EU and the United States will discuss the worsening conflict with the other key donor, Japan, and mediator Norway in Brussels around mid-September, officials said.
There are a handful of Western aid staff in Jaffna, many intending to stay, but embassies say several hundred Tamil residents with foreign passports want evacuation. With road and air links blocked, diplomats hope a Red Cross ship can get in.
"We have British Tamils, German Tamils, Norwegian Tamils, Canadian Tamils," one diplomat said. "They all seem to want to come out."
Some international agencies -- as well as unarmed Nordic ceasefire monitors -- are also moving their staff south out of Trincomalee after artillery fire hit within a couple of miles of the beachfront hotels where many were staying.
After 17 mainly Tamil staff from Paris-based aid group Action Contre La Faim were murdered after fighting south of Trincomalee, few want to take chances. It was the worst attack on aid staff since the 2003 bombing of the United Nations compound in Baghdad.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Hohe Opferzahlen bei Kämpfen in Sri Lanka
.18.08.2006 / Ausland / Seite 2 jungeWelt

Hohe Opferzahlen bei Kämpfen in Sri Lanka
Colombo. Bei schweren Gefechten im Norden Sri Lankas sind am Donnerstag nach Regierungsangaben fast hundert Tamilen-Rebellen von der Armee getötet worden. Weitere hundert Rebellen seien verletzt worden, sagte Informationsminister Anura Yapa in Colombo. Laut Verteidigungsministerium griffen die Befreiungstiger von Tamil Eelam (LTTE) vom Meer aus Stellungen der Armee im Südwesten der Halbinsel Jaffna an. Die Armee habe die Angriffe abwehren können. Aus Militärkreisen verlautete, es seien sechs Soldaten getötet worden. Die Kämpfe zwischen Regierungstruppen und Rebellen im Norden Sri Lankas haben laut Militärangaben innerhalb einer Woche rund 700 Aufständische und 106 Soldaten das Leben gekostet. (AFP/AP/jW)