LTTE Weapon Hauls Further Explored
NORTH & EAST: TROOPS recovered nine pistols, one light pistol, one 40 mm grenade launcher, one T-81 weapon, four T-56 weapons, three shotguns, three .22 rifles, one modified weapon, one repeater shot gun, one Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launcher, seventy RPG rounds and ten chargers from the general areas of WALAYANMADU, RAMANADANPURAM and VISUAMADU during search and clear operations on Saturday (13). Meanwhile, a special Police team from SERUVILA Police on a tip-off, conducted a search operation in THONITHOTTANMADU area, SERUVILA and uncovered .....
FOR decades, I grew up with the Tamil and Sinhala politics. I went through high and low emotions with the political and military events that took place in my country. I experienced people divided Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims. Finally, I have seen the war, violence, destruction, human loss and loss of the Tamil humanity through the Eelam wars. Always, in my inner mind, I was asking myself a question, that is, if the billions of Indian people can live together under the banner of a federated democracy as Indians within India, why cannot the Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims live under the banner of a united Sri Lanka?
ARUNACHALAM CHRISHANTHAKUMAR, 52, the founder of the British Tamil Association was jailed for two years for supplying equipments for terrorism to the LTTE. Three other men, who were tried with him, were cleared. Sentencing Chrishanthakumar, who is also known as A. C. Shanthan, Justice Saunders said, "This was a protracted, deliberate breaking of the law. These are very serious offences which warrant substantial sentences. The anti-terrorism law has to be obeyed as part of our obligations internationally."
THE Kandy-Jaffna A-9 highway will be opened for the first time in several years. Private traders will be permitted to operate their lorries and other convoys to the Northern peninsula from Thursday, a well-informed Government source said. Up to now only State-owned vehicles were operating services on the A-9 highway transporting food, medicines and other essential items to the North. With this new arrangement, the prices of essential commodities are likely to come down sharply in the North.
THREE wheeler drivers yesterday took their turn to honour the war heroes with a massive procession comprising several hundred tri-shaws. The procession which began from the front of the Art Gallery late afternoon proceeded to Temple Trees where three representatives of the Combined Three Wheeler Drivers’ Association handed over a memorandum and a plaque to mark the occasion..jpg)
DEFENCE SECRETARY Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that an influential section of print and electronic media which worked overtime against the ruling SLFP-led coalition as it battled the LTTE during the past three years, had now switched sides. "They are playing a different tune now," he said, accusing them of being a critical element of the overall strategy directed against the state. Nothing could be as ridiculous as what they say now if one bothered to check their background, he said. In an interview with The Sunday Island, the veteran soldier said that they had no option now but to play ball with the government following the defeat of the LTTE. They wouldn’t have quit what he called the LTTE’s macabre cause, had LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his chief lieutenants survived the armed forces onslaught, he said.
MULLAITTIVU: THE FIRST ever fully-geared LTTE submarine that had been submerged in the sea water a few metres off the coast of VELLAMULLIVAIKKAL was found by the Task Forces 8 troops Sunday (14) afternoon following a piece of information given by a terrorist in custody. The complete submarine with one seat is about 24 ft in length and 4 ft in height. It had reportedly been used by the LTTE, most probably their senior cadres, for clandestine sea movements before the LTTE was wiped out from the soil. It is further believed that the submarine found closer to the former location of the FARAH-3 ship had been made ready for LTTE leadership to escape via sea. However speedy advance of the troops did not permitted the terrorists to put the plan into action.
MULLAITTIVU & EAST: DURING search operations conducted on Sunday (14) in the general areas of VISUAMADU, HARAKULAM and AMPAKAMAM in MULLAITTIVU, troops recovered two Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), two Rocket Propelled Grenades, one PRC 1077 tape antenna, ninety-nine rounds of 9 mm pistol ammunition and thirty-one G3 and A3 ammunition. Meanwhile, troops unearthed a massive stock of T-56 ammunition kept buried in THONNITHOTTAMADU area in BATTICALOA on Sunday (14).
NEW Delhi, Jun 14 (PTI) Velupillai Prabhakaran was waiting for the results of Indian elections to plan his next strategy in the 30-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka and had apparently hoped that either the NDA or the Third Front would come to power in New Delhi, but the army there had different plans. It has now emerged that the 54-year-old slain guerrilla leader was waiting till May 16, the day results of Lok Sabha elections were known, to decide on his and the outfit's future, but it was too late as the Sri Lankan Army had by then cut off.....
UNDER the advice of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Government has eased the restrictions imposed on fishing time yesterday. As a result of the humanitarian mission to free the country from the LTTE clutches, the Government has decided to allow fishermen to fish during the whole day in the Eastern sea except the Trincomalee harbour area. The Government's decision was conveyed to the fishermen in the East by Senior Advisor to the President, Parliamentarian.....