The Lanka Academic
 
MARCH 1, 2009 EST, USA
 
QUAERE VERUM
 
VOL. 9, NO. 329
TLA FORUM

Express your opinions, meet others at the TLA Forum!
TLA FEATURE CORNER
Headline Summary
www.MyNetResearch.com
F R E E      C L A S S I F I E D S
T  O  P      H  E  A  D  L  I  N  E
Excl: LTTE warns India over displaced Tamils
Time Now, March 2. The LTTE is not pleased with India's demands for a safe passage of civilians from the trouble-torn region of Sri Lanka. LTTE is clear that the civilians caught in the turmoil must not be uprooted from their land.

In an exclusive e-mail interview to TIMES NOW, first to the Indian media since the war intensified with the Sri Lankan army, the political head of LTTE - B Nadesan - has warned New Delhi to back-off. Nadesan has called the eviction of people from their homeland 'a monumental blunder'.

The LTTE calls this a calculated ploy by the Lankan government to uproot Tamils from their traditional habitat.

Nadesan writes: "I ask if the UN, or India, or any other country would ever promote uprooting and relocating the people of Gaza as a solution? And the Tamil people are expected to willingly rush to these barbed wired internment camps in these surrounding situations? Is this what UN, India and other nations are envisioning for Tamils? The human shield term is a propaganda used towards uprooting the Tamil people from their traditional habitat. The Tamil people have lived here for generations and want to continue living here and make a livelihood in these lands. The Sri Lankan Government, UN and other international community's statements that claim to seek the well being of Tamil people - in uprooting them to forcibly and put them in barbed wired military run camps is unprecedented." More...Discuss this story
Published: Sun Mar 1 23:14:28 EST 2009

Sri Lanka dispatches more food to displaced civilians
Xinhua, march 2. COLOMBO. The Sri Lankan government said yesterday it has dispatched more food to the displaced Tamil civilians trapped in the island's northern battle zone.

"We sent 90 tonnes of food yesterday (Saturday) by sea to Mullaittivu," Rishath Bathiyutheen, the minister of Resettlement told reporters.

Bathiyutheen said the food would be distributed among the civilians by the Government Agent’s network.

Some 70 000 civilians are believed to be trapped in the Mullaittivu area, the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Meanwhile, the Navy said that it ferried another lot of over 100 sick civilians from Mullaittivu to the eastern port of Trincomalee by the ship "Green Ocean" Saturday night. More...Discuss this story
Published: Sun Mar 1 21:33:48 EST 2009 Back to the top

Journalists in the cross hairs of Sri Lanka war
LAT, March 2. Reporting from Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The news editor at Sri Lanka's investigative Sunday Leader newspaper was driving to work in January when she ran into a traffic jam a few hundred yards from the office.

Naturally, she investigated. Almost immediately, she saw the body of her boss, friend and editor in chief, Lasantha Wickrematunge, being loaded into a white van near his battered, bloodstained car. Witnesses later reported that several gunmen on motorcycles had carried out the attack.Wickrematunge, an uncompromising journalist known for his hard-hitting articles on corruption and military accountability, had many powerful enemies. But the 52-year-old had survived attacks before.

This time, his luck ran out.

"Walking into the office the next day was so hard," the news editor, Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, said, sitting at her computer beside a picture of him. "All we could do was hug each other." More...Discuss this story
Published: Sun Mar 1 12:48:22 EST 2009 Back to the top

Karunanidhi warns political detractors on Sri Lanka
 IE, March 2. CHENNAI: DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi here on Sunday said that the National Security Act would be invoked to deal with those indulging in the burning of effigies of our national leaders under some pretext or the other... Back to the top
Lanka virtually rejects India's appeal for ceasefire with LTTE
 PTI, March 2. COLOMBO: Virtually rejecting India's appeal to "pause" hostilities with the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government on Sunday said the conflict will "stop immediately" when the Tamil rebels lay down their arms... Back to the top
Pottu Amman in direct charge of LTTE
 rediff, March 2. With the Tamil Tiger territory fast shrinking in northern Sri Lanka , the LTTE's second-in-command and spy chief Pottu Amman has assumed direct charge of the battle against the Sri Lankan security forces... Back to the top
Lanka asks LTTE to lay down arms for safe exit of civilians
 HT, March 2. Buoyed by string of recent military success against the LTTE as the Army has pushed them from nearly all their strongholds, Sri Lanka has once again asked the beleaguered rebels to surrender to facilitate the safe exit of Tamil civilians... Back to the top
Sri Lanka should seize LTTE's ceasefire offer: India
 The Hindu, Saturday, February 28, 2009. New Delhi (PTI): Noting with grave concern the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, India on Saturday asked Colombo to seize the opportunity provided by LTTE's ceasefire offer to bring about a pause in hostilities and work for safe passage for trapped civilians... Back to the top
UN urges Sri Lanka rebels to let civilians leave
 Associated Press, Feb 27, 2009. UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The chief of U.N. humanitarian efforts urged Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday to let tens of thousands of civilians leave the war zone, saying there are "credible reports" that some people trying to flee have been shot... Back to the top
© Copyright 2000-2005 Lanka Academic Network.