Thursday, July 20, 2006

Claymore explosion kills three Mannar civilians

Three Tamil civilians were killed in a claymore explosion Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. while transporting sand in a tractor from Kallaru located in the Liberation Tigers controlled Musali division in Mannar district, civil sources said.

Saminathan Jacob, 58, Simion Regin, 22, and Simion Antony Gnanapragasam, 17 of Kokupadaiyan area in Musali DS division were returing with their loaded tractor to Kokupadaiyan when their tractor hit a claymore mine buried along the road by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army.

The tractor was destroyed in the explosion. All three occupants died on the spot, civil society sources said.

Their bodies were taken to Silavathurai hospital, hospital sources said.

The site where the explosion took place is located about 30 km off Mannar town.

(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=18657)

4 NEIAP officials wounded in DPU Claymore attack

Three officials of World Bank funded North-East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP) and the driver of their pickup vehicle, belonging to Mannar District Secretariat, were wounded in a Claymore carried out by the Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) attackers in Kokupadaiyan, 28 km southeast of Mannar town, Thursday around 2:45 p.m. The incident took place on Slivathurai - Mullikulam Road between Kallaru and Kokkupadaiyan, civilian sources said.

A lady officer was among the wounded, according to initial reports.

Details of the officials were not available at the moment.

An Ambulance has been sent from Murunkan District Hospital, medical sources said.

Additional Government Agent of Mannar has rushed to the area, District Secretariat sources in Mannar said.

Sri Lankan DPU teams have been active in the area targeting LTTE cadres. 3 civilians were killed in a Claymore attack by a DPU team in the area 20 days ago.

(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=18861)

Three Tamil auxiliarists wounded in DPU Claymore attack

Three Tamileelam auxiliarists who were patrolling in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Semamadu in Vavuniya district, were wounded in a Claymore blast carried out by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army, Tamileelam Police sources in Kilinochchi said. The Claymore attack was reported at 11:45 a.m. Thursday.

One of the three wounded were in serious state.

The auxiliarists were on a regular road clearing patrol, Tamileelam Police sources said.

(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=18858)

'Colombo is procuring weapons from Pakistan'

Sri Lanka is on the brink of civil war. R Sampanthan, secretary-general of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which is Lanka's oldest Tamil political party and now a member of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, indicates that the peace talks are headed nowhere. Sampanthan tells Frances Bulathsinghala that LTTE has realised the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was a mistake:

There have been at least four suicide attacks and hundreds of assassinations in the past months. Is LTTE serious about peace?

Yes. It is up to the government to engage LTTE and reach a solution that is acceptable to the Tamils.

Hundreds of Tamils have been killed by LTTE, including eminent Tamil politicians, at least six of them from TULF.

It is regrettable that these killings occurred. It should not have happened.

Is it fear for your own life that prevents you from criticising LTTE?

No. no.

But other Tamil politicians who criticised LTTE have been killed.

As I said it is regrettable. It is horrible.

Do you think LTTE are the sole representatives of the Tamil people?

They are the representatives of Tamil people in the current negotiations based on the mandate given by the people in the last general elections.

Election monitors from European Union had stated that the elections were rigged by LTTE.

Well, there would have been some overenthusiasm by the Tamils for this election. Tamils in uncleared areas (LTTE-controlled territory) had been deprived of their votes in a number of elections.

How independent of LTTE is TNA? Why does it not tell LTTE to stop the killings?

We have told them. We oppose all killings. We oppose the extrajudicial killings taking place in the north and east. We have indicated this to President Mahinda Rajapakse.

There are people disappearing everyday in the north and east. There have been gruesome killings and there have been no investigations by the government.

But it is LTTE that stands accused of a bulk of the killings which have taken place following the ceasefire.

There are killings and killings. It is not only LTTE which is killing in this country. There are killings from both sides.

How do you see LTTE leader Anton Balasingham's apology for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi?

Well, it's a realisation of the grave mistake that has been made.

LTTE is preparing for war and is giving combat training to thousands of civilians. Aren't you disappointed?

The government too is preparing for war. The government military too is recruiting. It is procuring weapons from Pakistan.

(
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1778792,prtpage-1.cms)

Sri Lanka clash kills 12 soldiers by Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) - At least 12 Sri Lankan soldiers and four Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a firefight in the island's restive east on Friday, truce monitors said, in one of the worst military clashes since a 2002 cease-fire.

Nordic monitors and Red Cross officials said they had seen the corpses, while the military said a 13th soldier was still missing and four others were injured.

The Tigers insisted they had shot dead 22 people in the firefight, and said the balance likely belonged to a breakaway faction of former comrades led by renegade commander Karuna, whom they accuse the military of helping to mount attacks.

Kayal Viliyan, a senior rebel in the Tigers' eastern political office in the district of Batticaloa, told Reuters that around 60 troops had entered Tiger territory and been surrounded by about 200 rebels.

"We have found 22 bodies, and we are still searching," he said by telephone from Batticaloa. "They came into our area and we retaliated ... We have captured one soldier."

"The government does not want to admit the number of Karuna people killed in the attack," he added.

It was not immediately clear why the Tigers did not show the Red Cross evidence of any dead Karuna fighters killed in the clash in Batticaloa, where the dividing line between government- and rebel-held areas is often porous and ill-defined.

"Our patrol was fired upon with heavy weapons and mortars, close to an army camp. Additional troops were rushed to the area, and when they arrived, the Tigers surrounded them," said a military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

"The 22 figure is wrong. Until we recover the bodies we have 13 missing in action."

BODY EXCHANGE

The Red Cross is due to coordinate the handover of the bodies of the slain soldiers on Saturday.

The incident came as Sri Lanka's navy rained mortar shells on Tamil rebel positions in the neighbouring northern district of Trincomalee in a separate incident after suspected snipers killed one sailor and injured one.

On Thursday, suspected Tiger rebels shot dead three soldiers and a political rival in northern Sri Lanka. The ambushes and military clashes have killed more than 700 people so far this year and strained the 2002 truce to breaking point.

Sri Lanka's tortuous peace process is deadlocked and teetering on the verge of collapse. Government and rebels are sharply divided over the Tigers' demands for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.

Diplomats and analysts fear escalating violence could push the island back into a full-fledged war that would punish the $23 billion economy and the tourist industry.

However, in a rare exchange of goodwill, the Tigers said on Friday they would release a policeman they have detained since September 2005, when he entered their territory without permission to track down a suspected foreign paedophile.

Two fellow policemen were earlier released, one in a prisoner swap. The release of the third, due on Saturday, comes after President Mahinda Rajapakse allowed Tiger media coordinator Daya Master to be rushed to Colombo for treatment for a heart condition.

However, many in the Sinhalese-majority south have little compassion for the Tigers after two decades of civil war that have killed more than 65,000 on both sides.

"Why is the government protecting killers?" asked 32-year-old Roshan Chaminda, secretary of the National Movement Against Terrorism, as dozens protested outside the top-end Apollo hospital. "He is a terrorist organisation leader. They kill Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and anyone else against them," he said.

(http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=
2006-07-14T132225Z_01_SP240874_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SRILANKA.xml&pageNumber
=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage3)

12 soldiers killed in Tiger clash

Colombo At least 12 Sri Lankan soldiers and four Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a firefight in the island’s restive east, truce monitors said, in one of the worst military clashes since a ceasefire in 2002.

Nordic monitors and Red Cross officials said they had seen the corpses, while the military said a thirteenth soldier was still missing and four others were injured.

The Tigers said that they had shot dead 22 people in the firefight, and said the balance likely belonged to a breakaway faction of former comrades led by renegade commander Karuna, whom they accuse the military of helping to mount attacks.

Kayal Viliyan, a senior rebel in the Tigers’ eastern political office in the district of Batticaloa, said that around 60 troops had entered Tiger territory and been surrounded by about 200 rebels.

“The government does not want to admit the number of Karuna people killed in the attack,” he added.

It was not immediately clear why the Tigers did not show the Red Cross evidence of any dead Karuna fighters killed in the clash in Batticaloa.

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2270684,00.html)