கருணா அணிக்காக சிறார்களை படைக்குச் சேர்ப்பதாக இலங்கைப் படையினர் மீது ஐ.நா குற்றச்சாட்டு
13 நவம்பர், 2006 - பிரசுர நேரம் 16:54 ஜிஎம்டி bbc

இலங்கையில் கருணா அணியின் சார்பில் இலங்கை அரசாங்கப் படையினர் சிறார்களை போர்ப் படைக்கு சேர்ப்பதாக ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ளது.
மட்டக்களப்பு மற்றும் அம்பாறை மாவட்டங்கள் உட்பட கிழக்கு மாவட்டங்களில் கருணா அணியினர் மிகவும் மோசமாக சிறார்களை கடத்தும் நடவடிக்கையில் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளதாகவும், அதற்கு இலங்கை இராணுவத்தின் ஆதரவு இருப்பதாகவும் இலங்கை சென்ற ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் மன்றத்தின் சிறார்கள் மற்றும் ஆயுத மோதல்கள் குறித்த விவகார சிறப்புப் பிரதிநிதி அலன் றொக் குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ளார்.
சில சந்தர்ப்பங்களில் சிறார்களை கடத்தும் கருணா அணியினர் எவ்வித தடையும் இன்றி இராணுவ சோதனைச் சாவடிகள் ஊடாகச் சென்று வருவதாகவும் அவர் கூறியுள்ளார்.
அதுமாத்திரமன்றி சில கிராமங்களை சுற்றிவளைக்கும் படையினர் அங்கு இளைஞர்களைப் படம்பிடித்து, அவர்களில் எவரை கடத்தலாம் என்று கருணா அணியினருக்குக் கூறுவதாகவும் அலன் றொக் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
அதேவேளை விடுதலைப்புலிகளும் தொடர்ந்தும் சிறார்களை கடத்தி வருவதாகவும் அவர் குற்றஞ்சாட்டியுள்ளா.
இது தொடர்பாக விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் அரசியல் தலைமையுடனான சந்திப்பின் போது அவர்களுக்கு சுட்டிக்காட்டியதாகவும் அலன் றொக் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
இலங்கையில் தான் சென்ற இடங்களில் மக்கள் அச்ச உணர்வுடனும், பாதுகாப்பற்ற உணர்வுடனும் காணப்படுவதாகவும், தமது பாதுகாப்புத் தொடர்பில் பாதுகாப்புப் படையினர் மீது மக்கள் நம்பிக்கையை இழந்துள்ளதாகவும் அவர் கூறுகிறார்.
தமது பாதிப்புகளுக்கு நிவாரணம் கிடைக்கும் என்ற நம்பிக்கையை இலங்கை மக்கள் இழந்துள்ளதாகவும் அவர் கவலை வெளியிட்டுள்ளார்.
ஐ.நா அதிகாரியின் இந்த குற்றச்சாட்டுக் குறித்து கருத்துக் கூறிய இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்தின் சார்பில் பாதுகாப்பு விவகாரங்கள் குறித்து பேசவல்ல அமைச்சர் கெகலிய ரம்புக்வெல்ல அவர்கள், இது குறித்து ஏற்கனவே ஜனாதிபதியின் கவனத்துக்கு கொண்டு வரப்பட்டதாகவும், அவை குறித்து விசாரிக்க அவர் உறுதியளித்துள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டார்.
தமது அமைப்பினரின் மீதான குற்றச்சாட்டை கருணா அணியினரும் மறுத்துள்ளனர்.

Sri Lanka youth 'seized to fight'
Monday, 13 November 2006, 21:18 GMT bbc

Elements in the Sri Lankan military are helping a breakaway rebel faction to abduct children as soldiers to fight Tamil Tiger rebels, the UN has said.
A senior UN official said there was "credible evidence" that troops had rounded up children to fight with the renegade rebel group led by Col Karuna.
His faction split from the Tamil Tigers, long accused of using children.
Sri Lankan security forces say they are "perturbed" by the "completely misleading" allegations.
A Karuna spokesman also denied the allegations, saying his group merely offered protection to children fleeing fighting with the rival Tamil Tigers.
Complicity
But Allan Rock, a special adviser to the UN representative for children and armed conflict, said government forces had forcibly rounded up young Tamil children to fight with Col Karuna's group.
"We encountered both direct and indirect evidence of... complicity and participation," he said of the government security services.
The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra, in Colombo, says the allegation, the first of its kind made by the UN against the Sri Lankan military, follows a 10-day fact-finding mission.
The army has long denied allegations that it actively supports the efforts of the rebel faction led by Col Karuna, following his split from the Tamil Tigers in 2004.
'Corroding law'
Mr Rock spoke of 13 and 14-year-old children being kidnapped from villages, and no arrests or investigation being carried out by the security forces.
He said there was both eyewitness and anecdotal evidence to back up his claims.
In a statement the Sri Lankan Armed forces said Mr Rock's claims that government troops were actively involved in the recruitment of child soldiers were "regrettable".
"Security forces... vehemently deny having any involvement whatsoever with the LTTE breakaway group for abductions in Batticaloa."
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has promised a full investigation into the allegations.
Mr Rock said the fact that Sri Lankan troops were complicit in the recruitment of child soldiers meant that Tamil Tiger rebels would continue to do so, as it corroded the rule of law.
At least 2,000 people have been killed in violence this year in Sri Lanka, the military and ceasefire monitors say.
The Tamil Tigers are fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of the country, and claim that ethnic Tamils have suffered decades of discrimination at the hands of Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority.

Sri Lankan MP killed in Colombo
bbc Friday, 10 November 2006, 16:48 GMT

A pro-Tamil Tiger politician, Nadarajah Raviraj, has died in hospital after being shot by unidentified gunmen in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

He was shot as he left his house in Colombo for work. One of his guards was also killed in the attack.
It is the latest incident in a week of heavy violence in Sri Lanka.
Dozens of civilians were killed by army shelling in the east on Wednesday. The navy and Tamil Tigers fought sea battles on Thursday and Friday.
The US assistant secretary for south and central Asian affairs, Richard Boucher, told reporters in neighbouring India that "we have growing concern" about the situation in Sri Lanka.
'No question'
President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the killing of Nadarajah Raviraj, calling it a "heinous act" by "those opposed to dissent and political pluralism in a democratic society".
Mr Raviraj represented the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) coalition from northern Jaffna district in parliament.
The TNA is linked to the Tamil Tigers.
No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the killing for Mr Raviraj. But his colleagues blamed the government.
"It is government forces or forces aligned to the government, there can be no question," TNA leader R Sampanthan told the Reuters news agency.
"This is an attempt to stifle... and silence those who can justifiably espouse the Tamil cause."
A spokeswoman for the international truce monitors in Sri Lanka, Helen Olafsdottir, told the BBC's Newshour programme that there seemed to be total impunity regarding assassinations in Sri Lanka, which she said occurred everyday.
On Thursday Mr Raviraj, a former mayor of Jaffna, had taken part in a protest against the army shelling of a camp for displaced people in the eastern Vakarai district that led to thousands of Tamils trying to flee from the camp.
The military expressed regret over the deaths but accused the Tamil Tigers of using the civilians as human shields. International truce monitors said there was no evidence that the rebels had launched attacks from the camp.
Another TNA politician, Joseph Pararajasingham, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Batticaloa, 300km (189 miles) east of the capital, Colombo, last December.
Boats sunk
Meanwhile, there have been further clashes at sea between the navy and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, a navy spokesman says.
He said the navy had sunk two Tiger boats, killing a number of rebels, off the eastern district of Trincomalee.
On Thursday, the military said it had sunk 22 rebel boats and lost two of its own off the northern Jaffna peninsula. At least 20 sailors were missing following the clashes on Thursday.
The rebels say they lost five of their members, and that they killed at least 25 sailors and captured four more.

India should lift ban on LTTE, says Kuldip Nayar

PK BalachandranColombo, November 2, 2006

Kuldip Nayar, the noted Indian journalist and head of the Indian Peace Mission to Sri Lanka said in Colombo on Thursday, that India should lift the ban on the LTTE and engage it politically in order to bring lasting peace to war-torn Sri Lanka.
"I am of the view that the ban should be lifted," Nayar said when newsmen asked him how India could play a constructive role in the Sri Lankan conflict if it was barred from interacting with one of the two parties in the conflict - the LTTE - because that group was banned in India.Nayar went on to say that banning organisations was no way to solve problems."Problems have to be looked at from the political angle and tackled politically, and the groups involved should be engaged politically," he stressed.
Asked if he would campaign for the lifting of the ban on return to India, Nayar said that the issue would be taken up at a meeting which was being planned.Team-mate Gayathri Singh from Mumbai said that the issue of lifting the ban on the LTTE would be part of a larger campaign to get governments to tackle such issues politically."We are against all bans," added Jatin Desai, also from Mumbai.Nayar said that the A 9 highway linking south Sri Lanka and Jaffna in the north should be opened "immediately" to alleviate the suffering of the common man.The contentious issue of the re-opening of the road had led to the resumption of war in Sri Lanka.Asked what India could do to help Sri Lanka settle the long-standing conflict between the majority Sinhalas and minority Tamils, Nayar said that India should not keep the distance it had been keeping.Gayathri Singh said that India could not be indifferent to what was happening in Sri Lanka because of the possible spill over of the problem into Tamil Nadu.Bhagwati to serve on SL inquiry committeeMembers of the Indian peace mission said that the Sri Lankan government had invited the former Chief Justice of India, PN Bhagwati, to be a member of a new Committee to Inquire into Human Rights violations in the island.The Minister of Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe had told them that Justice Bhagwati had accepted the invitation.Rights situation in SL very worryingThe peace mission members said that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka was causing great worry."Human rights violations here are numberless," Nayar said. "We are very worried and concerned," added Jayasree Velankar."Disappearances and abductions are cruel and intolerable," Nayar said.When asked to rate the countries in the South Asian region in terms of human rights violations, Nayar said that Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were the worst offenders.He was particularly concerned about the bad treatment given to the minorities in the region.The Indian peace group, the nucleus of which is in Mumbai, is planning to be a South Asian body.

Sri Lankan air force bombs rebels' northern stronghold, 5 civilians dead

Associated Press, Thu November 2, 2006 12:42 EST . KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Sri Lankan air force jets bombed the Tamil rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi on Thursday, killing five civilians, a rebel official and European truce monitors said, further deepening a crisis that risk an all out war.
Four bombs were dropped some 600 meters (1980 feet) away from a hospital and destroyed a civilian home, the Tamil Tigers' military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said by telephone from Kilinochchi.
``The bomb smashed the house to bits,'' Ilanthirayan said. ``The deceased were a family of five. The father, the mother, their two children and a grandmother. This is state terrorism. The civilized world should condemn it.''
A rebel Web site reported the bombs that fell near Kilinochchi's main hospital damaged the wards, causing hundreds of panicked patients to flee.
A spokesman for European truce monitors confirmed the air strike and civilian deaths.
``We have our monitors there, they saw the jets and heard bombings,'' said Thorfinnur Omarsson, spokesman for Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
He said five civilians were killed and three others wounded in the bombing just two kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the Tigers' headquarters.
Sri Lankan military confirmed the raids but denied they targeted civilians.
``We have taken two targets,'' military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said _ a base for Sea Tigers near Mannar in the northwest, away from Kilinochchi, and a rebel training area in Kilinochchi.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry Web site accused the rebels of false propaganda on the air raids.
The report said damages to Kilinochchi hospital, as depicted in photographs published in pro-rebel Web sites would have been caused by ``recent monsoonal rains.''
The air raid was the second in as many days after failed peace talks in Geneva between the rebels and the government over the weekend.
Earlier Thursday, Tamil Tiger rebels fired artillery at troops guarding a closed highway in northern Sri Lanka, killing a soldier and wounding two, the military said.
The rebels fired artillery at a military post guarding the A-9 highway, a key artery that cuts through a vast rebel-held territory connecting the army-controlled Jaffna peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka, Samarasinghe said.
The government has refused rebel demands to reopen the road, an issue that led to the collapse of the peace talks in Switzerland aimed at salvaging a 2002 cease-fire threatened by fighting.
Thousands of people in the north are facing severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies due to the road blocks, residents say but the government argues that reopening the road will allow the rebels to freely transport their weapons and fighters.
``Naturally there has to be a calm prevailed in those areas to reopen the A-9. The LTTE is not allowing it to happen,'' Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told reporters on Thursday before the air raids, calling the rebels by the acronym of their formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
``While they are asking us to reopen (the road), in fact, they are sending an artillery barrage into that area,'' he said.
Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka, citing discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. More than 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the cease-fire. Another 2,000 people have been killed this year alone.