Sri Lanka Watch, News and Discussions

S.A.T.A

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India's strategic establishment will welcome the demise of the LTTE for more than one reason.The LTTE had longed ceased to be of any value to our strategic interests.Infact in the recent years they have been the impediment to our positive involvement in the Lankan crisis.................

When we trained the Tamil insurgents,they were meant two serve two purposes,first to put the Sinhalese Chauvinist,who dominated the national politics in the post independence period(JVP representing its most extreme version)in their place and also to force Jayawardene to rethink on his pro American policies,at a time when post Nixon USA was decidedly anti India..........

India managed to achieve both the goals and this achievement culminated in the Indo-Lankan accord of 1987.That's when LTTE and Prabhakaran began to play spoil sports.First he started eliminating other militant groups who were close to Indian establishment who had supported the Indo-Lanka accord and had begun the process of disarming(this was a tactical mistake on our part,which allowed LTTE to emerge powerful)but LTTE also started targeting the TULF leadership(popular but moderate Tamil party),who were our lynch pin on the entire peace process.

I think now India will be in a better position to resume its active involvement in the peace process,without any guilty conscience that it had abandoned in 1991.
 

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TNA asks India to play 'important role' in resolving conflict

The Hindu News Update Service


Colombo (PTI): A pro-LTTE Tamil party on Thursday met Prime Minister's Special Envoys M K Narayanan and Shivshankar Menon asking India to play an "important role" in resolving the ethnic strife through an "acceptable" political solution to the Tamil question.

A delegation from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which has 22 MPs in the Sri Lankan Parliament, met the National Security Adviser and the Foreign Secretary and conveyed their viewpoints about India's role in the reconstruction of the northern war zone and rehabilitation of the displaced civilians.

"We told the Indian envoys that it should play an important role in the rehabilitation and reconstruction activitities. We also appealed to them to help in resolving the ethnic conflict," TNA MP Suresh Premachandran told PTI.

R Sampanthan, Parliamentary Party leader of TNA, said they feel that India will have a role in the negotiating process in some or the other way. "That is really encouraging."

Mr. Premachandran said the crisis should be resolved through a political solution which is "durable and acceptable" to the Tamils.

"Our main demand to India is that it should tell Sri Lanka to remove all the military tents, camps and other infrastructure in six months so that people can resume life in their areas," he said, adding that "the Tamils should be given equal rights like other communities."

The TNA MPs also told India that the Sri Lankan Government should set up a monitoring committee to oversee how the administration spends the funds alloted to it by India for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

"We don't trust the Sri Lankan Government. We asked for a monitoring committee which oversee the activities.

There should be a representation for TNA also in the panel," Mr. Premachandran said.

He said Sri Lanka should accelerate the resettlement process immeidatly and freedom should be given for the Tamil people to live in their own areas.

"Normal life should resume. It will help people to forget past wounds," Premachandran, who was part of the delegation, said.

The TNA MP said people currently lodged in camps in the country should be treated properly and rehabilitated as soon as possible.

This is the third time Indian Government is holding talks with the TNA, which is considered close to the LTTE, to get its views on the conflict.

A TNA delegation had met Indian officials in New Delhi last month.
 

Pintu

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Sri Lanka accused of 'ethnic cleansing' of Tamil areas - Telegraph

Sri Lanka accused of 'ethnic cleansing' of Tamil areas

By Dean Nelson in Trincomalee
Last Updated: 9:14PM BST 25 May 2009

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of launching a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" following its victory over the Tamil Tigers in the country's 26 year civil war.

Aid officials, human rights campaigners and politicians claim Tamils have been driven out of areas in the north-east of the country by killings and kidnappings carried out by pro-government militias.

They say the government has simultaneously encouraged members of the Sinhalese majority in the south to relocate to the vacated villages.

One foreign charity worker told the Daily Telegraph the number of Tamils disappearing in and around Trincomalee, 50 miles south of the final conflict zone in Mullaitivu, had been increasing in the last three months.

He claimed to have known 15 of the disappeared, three of whom had been found dead. He said all three bodies showed signs of torture, while two were found with their hands tied behind their backs and single bullet wounds in their heads.

Another aid worker said the killings were part of a strategy to drive out the Tamils.

"Eastern province is vulnerable, there's cleansing by the Sinhalese. There will be more problems with land grabbing. The demography changes and the Tamils who are the majority will soon become a minority," he said.

He claimed many villagers had moved out after the army declared their land to be part of a 'high security zone' and Sinhalese had been given incentives to move in to provide support services to new military bases.

Many Tamils sold their homes and land at below-market prices after members of their families had been killed or had disappeared, he said.

One western human rights advocate said Tamils in and around Trincomalee were terrified because they believed the police were either complicit in, or indifferent to, the numbers disappearing or found dead. "There's no investigation. It's a climate of terror and impunity," he said.

A local campaigner for the families of the disappeared said the killings were speeding the flight of Tamils from the area. "When there's a killing other Tamils move out. Who goes to the Sinhalese police? You either live under threat or you move out," he said.

He said much of the "ethnic cleansing" was being done in the name of economic development in which Tamil villagers were being moved out to make way for new roads, power plants and irrigation schemes, while Sinhalese workers were being drafted in with incentives including free land and housing.

"Thousands of Sinhalese are coming in, getting government land and government assistance from the south. It's causing huge tensions," he said.

He and others fear this model will now be applied to the north where the final army onslaught to defeat the Tamil Tigers left 95 per cent of the buildings demolished or heavily damaged.

Since the victory earlier this month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government has been under pressure to 'win the peace' with a generous devolution package for Tamils in the north.

Ministers have said they want to break the identification of the Tamils with the northern and eastern provinces and integrate them into the Sinhalese majority population throughout the country.

In Colombo, billboard posters have contrasted the "divided" pre-victory Sri Lanka, with the Tamil north and east shaded red, and the "united" post-war island.

Ministers have said billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild the area's roads, buildings, schools, hospitals and water, electricity and communications infrastructure. Community leaders and Tamil politicians fear this will mean a further influx of Sinhalese.

R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary leader of the Tamil National Alliance and an MP for Trincomalee said he shared these fears. A new road being constructed from Serubilla, a Sinhalese village in Trincomalee district to Polonaruwa, a Tamil village, was under construction and Sinhalese families were being settled on either side of the road as it snakes further north-east.

"It's ethnic cleansing, and we're concerned that this is what they will also do in the north," he said.
 

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INDIA-PAKISTAN UNITE IN THE UN


India, Pakistan and China rallied behind Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last night to block a European move for an international probe into alleged war crimes during Colombo’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

Rejecting the probe call by Switzerland, which was backed by most European countries including France, Germany and UK, the council passed a counter-resolution 29-12 with six abstentions, endorsing Colombo’s fight against terrorism and commending “measures taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to address the urgent needs of the internally displaced persons”.

The US, elected to the council for the first time earlier this month, was not present since its term starts June 19.

India, Pakistan and China, who in their own separate ways assisted the Sri Lankan government in its fight against LTTE terror, got together along with countries like Russia, Brazil and South Africa to ensure Colombo was not censured for alleged rights violation in the war zone and denial of access to the conflict area.



India, Pak unite to block anti-Lanka move at UN
 

A.V.

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INDIA-PAKISTAN UNITE IN THE UN


India, Pakistan and China rallied behind Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last night to block a European move for an international probe into alleged war crimes during Colombo’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

Rejecting the probe call by Switzerland, which was backed by most European countries including France, Germany and UK, the council passed a counter-resolution 29-12 with six abstentions, endorsing Colombo’s fight against terrorism and commending “measures taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to address the urgent needs of the internally displaced persons”.

The US, elected to the council for the first time earlier this month, was not present since its term starts June 19.

India, Pakistan and China, who in their own separate ways assisted the Sri Lankan government in its fight against LTTE terror, got together along with countries like Russia, Brazil and South Africa to ensure Colombo was not censured for alleged rights violation in the war zone and denial of access to the conflict area.



India, Pak unite to block anti-Lanka move at UN
 

A.V.

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Prabhakaran was tortured before being killed, says report

New Delhi: Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was tortured by the Sri Lankan military before being killed, a leading human rights body said in a report released on Wednesday.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) quoted high-level military sources as saying that Prabhakaran was tortured in the presence of "a Tamil government politician and a general".

The torture, it said, took place probably at the headquarters of the army's 53 Division, which battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before crushing it last month.
Prabhakaran was tortured before being killed, says report - National News ? News ? MSN India - News
 

A.V.

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New Delhi: Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was tortured by the Sri Lankan military before being killed, a leading human rights body said in a report released on Wednesday.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) quoted high-level military sources as saying that Prabhakaran was tortured in the presence of "a Tamil government politician and a general".

The torture, it said, took place probably at the headquarters of the army's 53 Division, which battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before crushing it last month.Prabhakaran was tortured before being killed, says report - National News ? News ? MSN India - News
 

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India sends medicines, another medical team to Lanka

23 May 2009, 0338 hrs IST, TNN




NEW DELHI: India on Friday dispatched another medical team and around 30 tonnes of medicines to Sri Lanka on board a heavy-lift IL-76 military aircraft to provide relief and assistance to the war-hit Tamil population in the island nation.

India has been running a self-contained 110-bed field hospital in Pulmoddai town on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka since March, and is now going to shift it to Menik farms area in Vavuniya district, which has a significant "internally-displaced people'' population in need of medical care.

The medical team, including a surgeon and paediatrician, and the large consignment of medicines sent on Friday will replenish the field hospital. "To further augment our effort in light of the large number of civilians evacuated from the conflict zone, the PM has approved a grant of Rs 100 crore for humanitarian assistance,'' said an official.

"Separately, the Tamil Nadu government has also pledged Rs 25 crore. The Union government is also working on a rehabilitation and reconstruction package for northern and eastern Sri Lanka,'' he added.

Since November 2008, India has provided 1.7 lakh family relief packs, which include dry rations, personal hygiene items, clothes, utensils and water-purification tablets, for the affected people in the island nation.

"Shelter material worth Rs 15 crore will also be dispatched to Sri Lanka shortly to provide temporary housing for the affected people. Further relief assistance is in the pipeline, including help in demining, provision of civil infrastructure and reconstruction of houses,'' he added.


India sends medicines, another medical team to Lanka - India - The Times of India
 

Pintu

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BBC NEWS | South Asia | Sri Lanka rejects torture claims

Sri Lanka rejects torture claims

Sri Lanka's defence secretary has rejected claims that the army tortured Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran before killing him.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said there was "absolutely no truth" in reports the rebel leader had been captured alive.

He was responding to a recent report from a Sri Lankan human rights group which cited unnamed army sources saying Prabhakaran had been tortured.

His death came at the end of a 26-year war between the army and Tamil rebels.

The report, issued by the Sri Lankan human rights group, University Teachers for Human Rights, included an investigation into the likely scenarios of the Tamil Tiger leader's death.

"These sources said that Prabhakaran was tortured probably at Division 53 HQ in the presence of a Tamil government politician and a general," it said.

The report added that its sources were confident the information was correct "unless officers at the highest level are fibbing to one another".

It also said that the military carried out a politically-ordered massacre of surrendering Tamil Tiger fighters.

The report was also profoundly critical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), accusing the rebel group of murder, torture and the conscription of children.

The army maintains the rebel chief was killed during a confrontation in the Nanthi Kadal lagoon area.

Sri Lanka's Island newspaper reported Defence Secretary Rajapaksa, the president's brother, as saying there was "absolutely no truth in claims of Prabhakaran or any other hard core being taken alive".

According to the newspaper, a senior army officer who was present when the rebel leader's body was recovered called the claims in the report "ridiculous".

Court petition

Meanwhile two petitions have been filed asking Sri Lanka's Supreme Court to rule that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other senior officials are violating the fundamental rights of displaced Tamils by detaining them in government-run camps.

The complaints were filed last week by the public policy group, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), which says that people are being held in overcrowded camps and have been refused permission to leave or meet relatives regularly.

"We recognise that there could be genuine national security concerns," Rohan Edirisnha, a CPA director told the BBC.

"But we are asking the court to lay down some criteria so that the whole process is expedited and done according to some kind of criteria, so it is not totally arbitrary and ad hoc," he said.

One of the petitions filed by the group is on behalf of a family member of one of the displaced who wants to be able to meet and take care of their relative.

About 280,000 people were displaced during the final bloody phase of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war. Most of them are being housed in camps in the northern Vavuniya district.

The government has maintained that those held in the camps are being strictly vetted to ensure they have no links with the rebels. Only after that process can their return home be considered, it says.

The Sri Lankan army has also been continuing its search of former rebel-held territory.

During one search, it says it recovered what it believes to be the first submarine actually used by the LTTE.

The army said the submarine had been submerged a few metres off the coast of Vellamullivaikal, close to the scene of the last battles between the rebels and the army.
 

Pintu

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Tamil diaspora rallies around LTTE intelligence wing

Tamil diaspora rallies around LTTE intelligence wing

Express News Service

First Published : 16 Jun 2009 03:38:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 16 Jun 2009 08:19:00 AM IST

COLOMBO: After the death of LTTE chief V Prabhakaran last month, the 800,000-strong Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora has rallied round the intelligence wing of the Tiger organisation, informed Tamil sources in London have told Express.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan, alias KP, the anointed diplomatic representative of the LTTE and its chief fund manager and arms procurer till recently, has been isolated, the sources said. KP has been criticised in diaspora circles for admitting that Prabhakaran is dead, and for calling for a clean break from the policies of the past.

KP had recently issued a statement calling for the jettisoning of the idea that the Sri Lankan Tamils or LTTE can secure self determination for Tamils on their own, without the help of other countries and groups.

In contrast to KP’s thinking, the LTTE intelligence wing (which was set up and run by Pottu Amman, and who is now presumed dead) is of the view that the Tamils need not give credence to the Sri Lankan government’s story that Prabhakaran is dead, and that there is no need for a revision of the LTTE’s ideology, strategy and tactics.

Though KP had control over the international finances of the LTTE, it is now felt that the intelligence wing has its own resources and network. It is said that in London, the wing has over 100 establishments, and the largest, Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (a front for fund collection), is under its control. Now it has the support of the politically influential and financially resourceful Tamil diaspora.
 

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Lanka rejects rumors of arms deal with China

Saturday, July 04, 2009


Rumors that China and Sri Lanka engaged in an arms deal during the southeast Asian country's recent civil war was rejected by visiting Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Friday.

"Sri Lanka and China enjoy a traditional bilateral relationship and have enjoyed a smooth development of cooperation since the diplomatic ties were established in 1957," Bogollagama told China Daily.

He dismissed speculations that China was providing military equipment to Sri Lanka to fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and said the rumors of arms sales are based on "no facts and figures".

The Tamil Tigers were recently crushed after a 25-year civil war with the Sri Lankan military.

Bogollagama, however, lauded China's significant efforts in responding to humanitarian aid calls to Sri Lanka.

China gave $1 million in humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka to help displaced civilians. The Chinese government also provided 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) worth of tents to help the Internally Displaced Persons out of the discomfort after the conflict.

Bogollagama said the post-war Sri Lanka has focused on development and reconstruction, in which China has played an important role.

One of the key aspects of Bogollagama's visit to China is to further their relationship and seek help with future construction projects in Sri Lanka, he said.

There have been speculations in the West on China's funding of the construction of Hambantota port in the southern part of Sri Lanka. Rumors have noted that it is strategically set to be China's overseas naval base and fuel oil bunkering terminals.

"Hambantota port is being constructed for commercial purposes to facilitate the important trade sea route in the Indian Ocean and will be a major source to Sri Lanka's economic development," Bogollagama said. He declined to say that there is any or will be any naval bases of other countries in Sri Lanka.

Bogollagama said Sri Lanka and India boast a unique "productive and healthy" relationship and China and Sri Lanka's engagement is "not a matter of any concern".

Bogollagama said he also looks to see more cooperation with China in economic activities and an exclusive economic zone for China dedicated to attract China's direct investment has been initiated.

In another development, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang also met with Bogollagama on Friday.

"We attach great importance to the traditional friendship with Sri Lanka," Li told the guest, adding that China would work with Sri Lanka to promote the comprehensive and cooperative partnership to a new height.

Bogollagama was visiting China from July 1 to 5 at the invitation of Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. (China Daily)



Sri Lanka Breaking News-Daily Mirror Online
 

venom

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Indian Army to help de-mine Sri Lanka

New Delhi: After providing medical services to thousands displaced by war, Indian soldiers will now go to Sri Lanka to help de-mine areas once held by the Tamil Tigers, it was announced on Monday.

The military personnel will be part of Indian experts who will assist authorities in Sri Lanka to detect and defuse thousands of mines laid by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the foreign secretary, Mr Shivshankar Menon, told the media here.

"We will send experts and equipment to Sri Lanka. Yes, this will possibly include army experts," Menon said.

India deployed troops in Sri Lanka's northeast in 1987. The soldiers returned home in 1990 after suffering nearly 1,200 dead in a dragging war against the LTTE.

As the Sri Lankan military battled the Tamil Tigers this year, India sent military doctors to take care of the thousands escaping from LTTE territory. The medical personnel were first based in Sri Lanka's east and are now located in the north.

Menon's comments came shortly after the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, announced in his budget speech that India would grant Rs.500 crore for the relief and rehabilitation of Tamils displaced by the fighting in the island's northeast.
 

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LTTE’s grand plan emerges with discovery of weapons.....

So it wont be wrong to say that LTTE was the most advanced Terrorist organization in the world....
 

hit&run

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Tamil deaths mount in camp

ABOUT 1400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation's civil war, senior international aid sources say.

The death toll will add to concerns the Sri Lankan government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations the government, which has termed the internment sites "welfare villages", has actually constructed concentration camps housing 300,000 people.

Mangala Samaraweera, the former foreign minister and now an opposition MP, said: "There are allegations that the government is attempting to change the ethnic balance of the area.

"Influential people close to the government have argued for such a solution."

News of the death rate came as the International Committee of the Red Cross revealed it had been asked to scale down its operations by the Sri Lankan authorities, which insist they have matters under control.

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said: "The challenges now are different. Manning entry and exit points and handling dead bodies, transport of patients, in the postconflict era are no longer needed."

Yesterday, the Red Cross was closing two offices. One of these is in Trincomalee, which had helped to provide medical care to about 30,000 injured civilians evacuated by sea from the conflict zone in the northeast.

The other is in Batticaloa, where the Red Cross had been providing "protection services". This involves following up allegations of abductions and extrajudicial killings - practices that human rights organisations say have become recurring motifs of the Sri Lankan government.

The Manik Farm camp was set up to house the largest number of the 300,000 mainly Tamil civilians forced to flee the northeast as the army mounted a brutal offensive against the Tigers, who had been fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland for 26 years.

Aid workers and the British government have warned conditions at the site are inadequate. Most of the deaths are the result of water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, a senior relief worker said on condition of anonymity.

Witness testimonies obtained in May described long queues for food and inadequate water supplies inside Manik Farm.

Women, children and the elderly were shoved aside in the scramble for supplies.

Aid agencies are being given only intermittent access to the camp. The Red Cross was not being allowed in yesterday.

Experts suggest that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country's leader, is yet to make good his victory pledge to reach out to the minority Tamil community.

"The discourse used by the government is of traitors and patriots," Paikiasothy Saravanamuthu, of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Sri Lankan analyst, said. "There is no indication that this mode of thinking is slipping."

Mr Rajapaksa is known for not tolerating dissent, a trait that human rights organisations say was demonstrated this week when five Sri Lankan doctors who witnessed the bloody climax of the country's civil war and made claims of mass civilian deaths recanted much of their testimony. The doctors said at a press conference on Wednesday that they had deliberately overestimated the civilian casualties.

As government officials looked on, they claimed Tigers had forced them to lie.

The five men added that only up to 750 civilians were killed between January and mid-May in the final battles of the war.

They were then taken back to prison, where they have been held for two months for allegedly spreading Tiger propaganda.

The number they estimated was far below the 7000 fatalities estimated by the UN. An investigation by The Times uncovered evidence that more than 20,000 civilians were killed, mostly by the army.

The doctors denied other former testimony, including the government shelling of a conflict-zone hospital in February for which there are UN and Red Cross witnesses.

The statements met with scepticism from human rights campaigners. Amnesty International Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi said they were "expected and predicted".

"There are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary, and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill-treatment."
Tamil deaths mount in camp | The Australian
 

I-G

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Terror alert in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan police on Tuesday urged the public to be vigilant as certain persons “who support Tiger terrorism” could carry out destructive activities in the south, connoting provinces in the island nation outside the North and East.

The Sri Lankan Inspector-General (IGP) called for maximum cooperation from the public for the security programme and said though there were different views among the public on road blocks and search operations, they were being carried out in the public interest.

The government announced that relief material from the Cape Colorado vessel, which was docked in Chennai, had arrived here. The Red Cross said the stocks would be despatched to welfare villages in Vavuniya within this week. “It includes rice, flour, sugar and varieties of grains. The ship, with the 650 metric tonnes worth about 16 million rupees, reached the Colombo Harbour last weekend,” said a statement.

The Hindu : International : Terror alert in Sri Lanka
 

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Sri Lanka cancels defence purchases from China, Pakistan

Sri Lanka cancels defence purchases from China, Pakistan

Colombo (PTI): Sri Lanka has cancelled purchase of weapons and ammunition worth $ 200 million from China and Pakistan as its war against the LTTE has ended, the country's top defence official said on Wednesday.

The government cancelled orders for weapons valued at $ 200 million from China and Pakistan as the war against the LTTE was now complete and Tiger supremo Vellupillai Prabahakaran was dead, the new Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka told reporters after assuming office.

"We stopped the orders of 200 million dollar worth of ammunition from China and Pakistan as the war ended (in May) " Mr. Fonseka, the former Army chief who led the military in the war, said.

Mr. Fonseka also said that 800 former fighters of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) would join the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Currently the Island Nation is seeking $ 1.9 billion IMF loan to shore up its foreign exchange reserves which have come under strain due to the global economic slowdown.

He also said that an Indian contingent of deminers will arrive in the country to clear mines laid down in northern Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan budget for 2009 provides for a record 1.6 billion defence spending, a seven per cent hike as compared to the previous year.

The Hindu News Update Service
 

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Sri Lanka has cancelled purchase of weapons and ammunition worth $ 200 million from China and Pakistan as its war against the LTTE has ended, the country's top defence official said on Wednesday.
Wow, I never guessed Pak had Military exports.
 

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Sri Lanka stops arms deal with China: official

Sri Lanka stops arms deal with China: official


COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka scrapped a 200 million dollar ammunition order from China following the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels two months ago, a senior military official said Wednesday.
General Sarath Fonseka said the order was cancelled because there was no need to stock ammunition for heavy guns after routing the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May.
"We had ordered about 200 million dollars of heavy ammunition from China," Fonseka told local reporters after taking office as the new chief of defence staff. "There is no need for such ammunition any more."
He said the order would have been enough for three to four months of use -- based on the intensity of the final stages of the conflict.
Sri Lanka relied heavily on China and Pakistan for mortar bombs and ammunition for multi-barrel rocket launchers in the battle against the Tigers.
The general did not say if any deals with Pakistan had been cancelled.
Fonseka, who is credited with crushing the LTTE, is now heading a new post formulating strategy and advising the government on weapons procurement.
But, despite the end of nearly four decades of fighting with the Tamil Tigers, the military has announced plans to recruit another 40,000 to 50,000 troops within a year.
The military had already enlisted 80,000 troops in the past two years, boosting army numbers to 200,000.
In the past three years, the army placed its losses at about 6,200 killed and nearly 30,000 wounded. The military said it killed 22,000 Tiger rebels during the same period.
Fonseka said India was sending around 500 de-miners to clear the former rebel-held areas while 800 former Tamil Tiger rebels who defected to the government side five years ago had formally been absorbed into the army.
 

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