Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

where was the hero's at that time...why they didn't stop it? which kind of hero's are they ,than the useless dead body's of bunch of Tiger Terrorists.

NEW DELHI: 'We had straightforward talks ? one to one,' Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said after his discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.

Describing the talks as very cordial, Mr. Rajapaksa told The Hindu in an interview, 'I had the chance of explaining my position and the situation there .'

'The Prime Minister also made his comments and his concerns about the humanitarian issues and the refugees that had come here ,' the President said at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel just before leaving for Colombo.

Asked whether the issue of India sending humanitarian assistance came up during the discussions between the two leaders, Mr. Rajapaksa responded: 'It was not discussed there because it was arranged earlier with the officials. They have discussed it.'

Apart from India sending humanitarian assistance (which has been announced both for the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka), the Sri Lankan President revealed that his Government wants to purchase food and groceries from Tamil Nadu and transport it to Jaffna.

'Easiest way'

'This is the easiest way. It is faster,' Mr. Rajapaksa said, adding that the food items and groceries would be transported by ship from Chennai to Point Pedro.

Some letters of credit had already been opened for the purpose, the President maintained.

Asked whose ships would be used to transport the material, Mr. Rajapaksa said his Government would hire the vessels needed for the purpose.

On whether the Government of India was willing to supply non-lethal items to the Sri Lankan military, Mr. Rajapaksa pointed out that 'from the start' the Sri Lankan Government had been buying 'some' of these items from India. 'That will continue I suppose.'

When asked if Dr. Singh had raised the issue of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka, Mr. Rajapaksa replied that he had explained what had happened. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was using civilians as human shields, he claimed.

Asked if he had instructed the Army to avoid excesses against civilians, he replied, 'Yes. We have said that.'

When asked if Dr. Singh had raised the issue of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka, Mr. Rajapaksa replied that he had explained what had happened. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was using civilians as human shields, he claimed.

Asked if he had instructed the Army to avoid excesses against civilians, he replied, 'Yes. We have said that.'

Sri Lanka Army bulldozes Heroes' Cemetery in Trincomalee - Elilan

The international group Human Rights Watch has urged the Sri Lankan government to stop its forces helping the breakaway group Karuna faction recruit child soldiers.
?The Sri Lankan security forces must immediately stop assisting abductions of boys and young men by the Karuna group and help those abducted return safely to their families?,Human Rights Watch said.

In their news release Jo Becker, children?s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch said ?We have clear and compelling evidence that government forces are helping Karuna forces abduct boys and young men?.

Earlier this month, the United Nations advisor on children and armed conflicts Alan Rock made a simliar allegation of government?s involvement in Child recruitment.


We have clear and compelling evidence that government forces are helping Karuna forces abduct boys and young men


Jo Becker, Child Rights Advocate at Human Rights Watch
Sri Lanka monitoring mission supported the allegations made by Alan Rock and stressed that SLMM has sufficient evidence to prove the government forces are involved in child recruitment.

The government denied these allegations made by the United Nations special representative.

The Chairman of the Child Protection Authority Padmini Wettawa told Sandeshaya that she could not belive that the government is recruiting child soldiers. 'We are investigating on the issue but there are no evidence to suggest the Government is assisting Karuna Group', she said.

The full report of the Human Rights Watch is due to publish next month and the news release stated that Sri Lankan military and police are complicit and, at times, directly co-operating with the Karuna group.

It also claims that Karuna?s group has abducted hundreds of boys and young men in eastern Sri Lanka this year.

However, the Child Protection Authority chairman Wettawa has rejected these allegations.

TAMIL NADU CHIEF MINISTER FINALLY says

Report backs Rock on child soldiers

(LeN-Nov. 30, 3.00pm) There is 'clear and compelling evidence' that Sri Lankan government forces are helping guerrillas to kidnap boys and young men to turn them into child soldiers, says Human Rights Watch.

And, the New York-based rights organization says, the conclusions confirm findings earlier this month by Canada's Allan Rock, a United Nations special adviser on children and armed conflict.

'We heard essentially the same testimony that Ambassador Rock reported,' said Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch's children's rights advocate. 'The police and the military are colluding with (the paramilitary faction) Karuna.'

The rights watchdog called for the security forces to 'immediately stop assisting abductions ... and help those abducted return safely to their families.'

The group's full report will be published in December, Becker said. And, she added, statements made to investigators left no doubt about government collusion: 'Families testified that they had seen their children in the offices of Karuna, which were guarded by the Sri Lankan police. How can you take children to those offices without government knowledge?'

During three weeks in October, Human Rights Watch investigated more than 20 child abduction cases, interviewing witnesses and parents of abducted children in government-controlled areas.

Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, a former Tamil Tiger commander now working with the government, heads the Karuna group. The group linked with the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal political party.

In some places, the Human Rights Watch statement said, the political offices where kidnapped children were brought were 'less than 100 meters from a Sri Lankan military camp,' too close for government forces not to see them.
Witnesses said that some children had traveled through more than 10 police and military checkpoints to reach the camps where they were held.

Violence has spiraled in Sri Lanka as a four-year-old truce collapsed, and this week Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran renewed his call for an independent Tamil nation, as hopes were dashed for a negotiated solution to the bloody conflict. In spite of denials by government and rebels, recruitment of child soldiers continues on both sides.

The Tigers have been reprimanded for years for forcing children to fight. However, human rights advocates fear the Karuna recruitment is taking the conflict to new levels of violence.
'The government has known about Karuna child abductions since at least June 2006,' Human Rights Watch said, adding that UNICEF at that time issued a public appeal to protect children from recruitment and investigate abductions.

In July, a group of more than 40 mothers of abducted children also filed a detailed petition to the chief justice of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, the group said.

The Sri Lankan military protested Rock's report issued earlier this month, saying its forces had no connection with child abduction. However, the government promised to investigate cases of child recruitment, and Karuna's political party said it would release any under-age fighters in its ranks and help to trace the whereabouts of any whose kidnappings have been reported to UNICEF.

Becker said she was 'not aware of any action that has been taken to date to find these children, or any move by the government to intervene.'

'Official surprise at Ambassador Rock's allegations is not genuine,' she charged. 'The government had known about the abductions ... and it has failed to stop the kidnappings or investigate the culprits.'

However, she said, it was a hopeful sign that during a visit with Rock, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a pledge to investigate.

A Sri Lankan was hanged in Kuwait

(LeN-Nov. 30, 3.00pm) A Sri Lankan national who was executed in Kuwait for murdering an Asian woman during a robbery remained alive five hours after he was hanged and pronounced dead, newspapers reported Wednesday.

Sanjaya Rowan Kumara was pronounced dead by doctors eight minutes after he was hanged but medics who transported his body to a morgue said they noticed he was still moving, Al-Qabas daily reported.

Forensic experts were immediately called to examine the body and they confirmed that 'there was some weak pulse in his heart,' the daily said.

The examination was repeated several times and each time 'the dead body showed some signs of life,' Al-Qabas quoted unnamed medical sources as saying.

'They eventually pronounced him completely dead at 1400 hours local time,' five hours after his hanging, the sources said.

The justice ministry refused to comment on the report but head of the criminal execution department, Najeeb al-Mulla, who supervised the hanging, told Al-Watan newspaper the report was 'baseless.'

Kumara was sentenced to death by Kuwait's three courts for killing the woman while he was attempting to burgle her house. Four accomplices were sentenced to various terms in jail.
The Sri Lankan was supposed to be hanged with four others on November 21 but the public prosecutor ordered a stay of execution, an interior ministry official said at the time without elaborating.

The hanging took place at the central jail and the public were not allowed to view the body.
Kuwait has executed a total of 71 people, three of them women, since its first use of the death penalty some four decades ago. Most have been convicted murderers or drug traffickers.