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Sri Lanka Air Force continued to launch air strikes in several areas of Vanni in Northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The army says the assaults are in support of the government troops on the grounds that are encircling key LTTE held towns. But independent reports say civilian areas are continuously being targeted.

[A mother killed in SLAF bombardment on Wednesday, Dec 31st]

Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement near Murugananda school in Murasumoaddai on Paranthan – Mullaiththeevu Road killing two females of a family and a male on the spot. Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 16 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The attack has targeted three civilian settlements in Murasumoaddai Wednesday, Dec 31st around 8:00 a.m. The indiscriminate bombardment on fleeing civilians, Internally Displaced Person’s huts, close to the ICRC Karaichchi branch office, a school, temple and agricultural lands aims at instilling fear at the minds of the civilians in Vanni, observers said.

[S.Ajantha]

Iyakkachci and Iranaimadu areas in the Kilinochchi District, Puthukudiyiruppu (PTK) and Mullaithivu town in the Mullaithivu District saw extensive aerial bombing and shelling on Saturday 27 December 2008, resulting in the death of one 24 year old woman and injury to 15 more civilians. Among the injured are, S. Ajantha (18) who lost both her legs and two children.

by Dr. P. H. D. H. de Silva, Rajagiriya

“Raja Bhavatu Dhammiko.” The government should be the first to set an example to its citizens by abiding by the verdict of the court that is supreme in this country. Prior to this verdict the government by selling a litre of refined petrol at Rs. 122 was imposing government and fiscal levies amounting to over 180% of the actual value of a litre of refined petrol.

By the Supreme Court verdict this has been reduced to 100% from 180%. It is about this substantial tax that the government is crying about and defying the apex court.

Lord Buddha made — according to the scriptures — immense sacrifices both during his life time and in the long journey in sansara. He extolled that example was better than precept.

On Sirasa TV news a few days ago a Buddhist monk admitted that he bypassed the long petrol queue of vehicles, removed the metal barrier and obtained all the petrol he needed. The reason he gave was that this is a Buddhist country and that Buddhist monks do not join queues. What followed next at the petrol shed is now a matter to be dealt with by the law enforcement authorities.

In other countries the petrol pump operators irrespective of the person, would never have entertained anyone who jumped the queue.

How laudable would it have been if the monk joined the queue and patiently awaited his turn sharing the same anxiety, difficulty and tolerance with the others in the queue?

The benefit of the petrol price reduction was to the average citizen of this country. But the government continues to remain stubborn as if in defiance and is acting against the public interest.

No Buddhist monk with honorific titles spoke out for the average citizen of Sri Lanka. Instead they identified themselves in government protests against the Supreme Court verdict. How sad and disgusting.

A letter to the editor, appearing on the Wed Dec 31st edition of themoringleader.lk

B. Nadesan, Chief of LTTE political wing has said no exclusive interview ever took place between the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and Lakbima News.

Lakbima News is published in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. Lakbima News in its edition dated Dec 28th said, “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran gave the interview exclusively to LAKBIMAnEWS via e mail.”

However the LTTE political wing leader confirmed that the weekend interview published in the Newspaper Lakbima News, was actually an email question and answer exchange between him and the newspaper. Mr. Nadesan’s comment on this matter is published in the Tamil News website Puthinam.com.

The interview by Lakbima News was widely quoted elsewhere; including the Colombo Tamil Daily Virakesari, the premier Tamil daily carried a translation of it – as an interview between the LTTE leader Prabhakaran and Lakbima News .

One of the Identity Cards recovered with a dead body of a young Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier revealed that the SLA trooper killed in the offensive forefront in Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday Dec 27th was a 17-year-old boy.

LTTE officials displayed the following photos for reporters in Vanni on Sunday Dec 28th.

Identity card of a young SLA recruit killed in the battlefield of Mullaiththeevu

In an interview published by WSWS.org on Dec 26th, a Sri Lanka Army corporal with 13 years’ service explained the situation on the battlefront. He said that new recruits with only three months’ training were being sent to the battlefront. Commenting on the intensity of the fighting, he said: “During last couple of months, the battalions have had to continuously move forward without any break. We are ordered to ‘Go forward even an inch’.

Identity card of a young SLA recruit killed in the battlefield of Mullaiththeevu

“In some confrontations, we were compelled to leave not only the dead but the wounded too. Their heartrending voices are always echoing in my ears. The Tigers [LTTE] know that they cannot win the war and they are desperate. But it seems they won’t give up. This is the brutality of the battlefield. We want to see an end to this [war],” he said.

The same WSWS report also gave the following details about their reporters visiting the family of Lance Corporal G. Suresh in the village of Dunuwila in the central hill district:

Lance Corporal G. Suresh was just 20 when he was killed on November 9 in the battle for Kilinochchi.

Dunuwila is a difficult village to reach. There is no proper road. The villagers do not earn enough through their traditional cultivation of crops such as coffee, cocoa, cloves, and nutmeg. So many young people have been driven to join the military.

Suresh’s parents live in a thatch house roofed with tin sheeting. His father is a carpenter and his elder brother is a construction worker. His two young sisters are still studying. Suresh stopped his studies and joined the army in order to earn the money to build a new house and to enable his sisters to study and marry.

Suresh worked at several places after leaving the school but quit those jobs because the pay was poor. He finally joined the military, ignoring his father’s objections. “Anything might happen to me. But you will get something,” Suresh had told his father.

Suresh joined the army this year, finished his training in October and was attached to the Gajaba regiment. Suresh telephoned his mother on October 24, saying: “We have been asked to go the front lines, but do not know which area I am going to.”

His mother angrily told the WSWS: “Why after such short training like this was he put into the fighting. Even to drive a vehicle one needs some training. My son died young because of this war. The government is responsible for his death.”

People in the Vanni today marked four years since the tsunami devastated the shores of the region.

Thousands gathered at an event in Mullaiththeevu in memory of tsunami victims, presided over by the Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, B. Nadesan. Several observances in the region were disrupted due to nearby bombing by Sri Lankan Air Force.

And four years later the massive reconstruction effort in Sri Lanka is winding down to mixed results.

Sri Lanka government did not allow a much anticipated Joint Tsunami mechanism proposal in the aftermath, to re-build the tsunami ravaged North-East. Several people and dignitaries including President Bill Clinton appealed numerous times that this was in the best interest of Sri Lanka.

President Bill Clinton talking to media in Sri Lanka, Feb 2005

“My experience is, whether it is Middle East or Northern Ireland, whenever people work together on specific issues, it helps to resolve the differences,” President Clinton said in 2005.

According to a recent World Bank report, Sri Lanka’s rebuilding was hampered by ongoing conflict and weak government institutions to carryout re-building.

“Sri Lanka’s tsunami reconstruction was negatively affected by the ongoing conflict. The speed of reconstruction was much slower in the north and east of the country for obvious security-related reasons than in the south and west,” the World Bank reported in a statement to mark the anniversary. The World Bank’s $135 million assistance programme closed in September 2008.

The Bank also said the lack of effective institutions overseeing the reconstruction effort had slowed progress. “Sri Lanka’s tsunami reconstruction was hampered from time to time by the dearth of effective institutions, especially at the central government level, to undertake the huge task of reconstruction.” The Bank said government institutions lacked experience and the capacity to carry out the massive reconstruction effort.

Observances in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaiththeevu district, Dec 26, 2008:

Pic: By Puthinam.com

An independent United Nations human rights expert has called on Sri Lanka to significantly improve access for more humanitarian relief and personnel to reach hundreds of thousands of people displaced in the northern Vanni region by the ongoing conflict between the Government and Tamil separatists.

In a letter to the Government, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), acknowledged Sri Lanka’s continuing efforts to enable humanitarian convoys to reach the estimated 200,000-300,000 IDPs in the region.

[Displaced children in Vanni]

However, he stressed that “current supplies of food, medicine, emergency shelter and sanitation materials are inadequate to meet the severe and increasing needs of the displaced,” according to a news release issued today in Geneva.

Therefore, he called on the Government to “significantly” improve access for more humanitarian relief and humanitarian personnel to reach all civilians in need.

Intensified clashes in recent months between Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group had forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes and sparked warnings from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other UN officials about the humanitarian impact on the people of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Kälin also highlighted the need for screening of armed elements from the civilian population among those who have crossed from the Vanni into cleared areas and are now being held in camps at Kalimoddai and Sirukandal, noting that “IDPs, who are civilians and who retain their right to freedom of movement, must not be detained in camps.”

In addition, he voiced concern by reports that the LTTE is restricting IDPs’ freedom of movement and ability to seek safety in another part of the country.

“Only the most limited and narrow exception would be allowed for a temporary relocation or restriction of civilians, and only then for imperative military reasons or when safety of the civilians so requires,” the news release stated.

The Representative urged the parties to the conflict to agree on a mechanism that will allow safe and adequate access for humanitarian personnel and aid to all civilians in need in the Vanni, and stressed their obligation to “scrupulously” respect international humanitarian law.

[UN News Centre Release]