Government deeply regrets Erik Solheim's comments on SL

The Government of Sri Lanka refers to the comments made by the Minister of Environment & International Development of the Norwegian Government, Erik Solheim, published in the 'Aftenposten' newspaper website of 28 August 2009, a news release from the Foreign Ministry said today.

It added "The Sri Lanka government deeply regrets the baseless comments contained therein and is perturbed by such statements being made by the Norwegian Minister against a friendly government.

It is unbecoming of Minister Solheim to attribute blame on alleged atrocities, contained in an unsubstantiated video footage, without any recourse to an exchange of views and total disregard to the position of the Government of Sri Lanka on the issues in question.

The criticism by him of a democratically elected Head of State, who is carrying out a vibrant agenda to safeguard the rights of the people of Sri Lanka, while having eliminated the scourge of terrorism, is unacceptable. It would be recalled that Norway continued its facilitatory role in the then peace process, even after the election of His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapakse. The utterances of Minister Solheim have led the Government of Sri Lanka to reflect on his possible partisanship in the facilitatory role.

The Government of Sri Lanka hopes that a formal response would be received from the Norwegian Government with regard to the attributed comments by a Minister of that Government".

Courtesy: Government Information Department

'Channel 4' gets flak for exploiting journalist

'Channel 4' UK , the news network which broadcast the false and unverified video footage on Aug 25 which allegedly showed the summary killing by Sri Lankan troops of Tamil civilians in January this year, has come in for heavy criticism from many quarters for the exploiting of a journalist to obtain a sensational news item.

The Daily Mail, UK said 'Channel 4' "promised to stretch reality television to the limit: one man pitting his wits against the Yukon wilderness with just a camera for company. But hopes for an epic three-month contest between man and nature were dashed when adventurer Ed Wardle failed to go the distance.

Seven weeks after striding out into the rugged forests of western Canada armed with a rifle and a fishing rod, Mr. Wardle had to be airlifted back to civilization suffering from starvation".

It reported that' Channel 4' faced criticism for allowing him to attempt the expedition unaided and apparently unprepared, to entertain viewers. During his adventure, Mr. Wardle, 34, was permitted to send out a daily posting on the Twitter website and transmit a single electronic signal confirming he was still alive.

"This is a pretty foolish enterprise. If Channel 4 is going to send people on this kind of expedition, they really must make sure they are up to it and have the skills necessary to survive," said Director of Media Watch, John Beyer.

"If they first of all did not check that Ed Wardle was competent, then that is the height of irresponsibility on the part of Channel 4, to do that merely to provide entertainment for us all back home to watch this man steadily deteriorate."

Courtesy: PRIU

"Channel 4" video false and fabricated - Govt.

The video footage recently aired on 'Channel 4' UK claiming to display alleged atrocities committed by Sri Lankan forces against Tamils is absolutely false and fabricated. It has been deliberately put together to bring disrepute to the Government of Sri Lanka, states the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

The Government of Sri Lanka will make a strong protest to Channel 4 with regard to the contents of this video and also bring the matter to the notice of the relevant authorities, and seek to pursue remedies available with regard to the distortion of truth.

The Government of Sri Lanka view this unsubstantiated and admittedly unverifiable video footage as an attempt by elements opposed to the success of the reconciliation process under way in Sri Lanka and the ongoing efforts to rebuild the country after nearly 30 years of terror by the LTTE.

The Government has reasons to suspect that those who provided this false and doctored footage are those still supportive of LTTE terror, who failed in their attempts to discredit the Sri Lankan government at the recent UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Courtesy: President Media Unit

It's war crimes stupid!- The Island Editorial

The British media has done it again! Channel 4, which is blatantly hostile to Sri Lanka and partial to the LTTE, has found 'evidence of war crimes' in Sri Lanka--a video footage of a naked civilian being shot dead by a person who looks like a Sri Lankan soldier.

This footage said to be a handout from a collective of 'journalists' from Sri Lanka is being bandied about as solid evidence of war crimes, which Britain, the US and the EU failed to charge Sri Lanka with at a recent UNHRC special session.

It is intriguing that Channel 4 did not care to check the video clip's authenticity before beaming it across the globe and tarnishing Sri Lanka's image. One is reminded of a widely circulated picture that the LTTE released in the aftermath of Prabhakaran's death. It showed a smiling Prabhakaran watching his own corpse on TV, while holding a newspaper. The message the LTTE sent out with that picture was that its leader was alive and kicking and the government's claim that he had been killed was a lie. This newspaper debunked the LTTE's claim by publishing the original picture--of Prabhakaran with Anton Balasingham--which LTTE propagandists had doctored by deleting Balasingham and inserting a TV set and some furniture. A week later none other than KP admitted that Prabhakaran was dead!

LTTE propagandists are quite adept at doctoring pictures. The man in it may be an LTTE cadre in an army uniform massacring dissidents or even an LTTE actor playing the role of a soldier. There are thousands of such cock-and-bull videos doing the rounds on the Net and only the na‹ve take them seriously. The most pertinent question to be raised in this regard is whether any filming would have been allowed, if war crimes had been perpetrated in the Vanni.

Technology is so advanced today that we could even produce a short film where 'Miliband' or 'Kouchner' shoots naked men in the back of their heads against the backdrop of streets strewn with dead bodies.

The British government, it may be recalled, stands accused of having 'sexed up' dossiers on Iraq and WMDs by way of a casus belli. So, it is not surprising that the British media has suddenly got hold of a video footage said to have been done in January this year to back the Brown government's anti-Sri Lankan campaign. What on earth took them so long to find that 'evidence'?

A British newspaper once published some pictures of the war zone taken by one of its photographers from a Sri Lanka Air Force chopper days after the final offensive, claiming they were irrefutable evidence of war crimes by the Sri Lanka Army. Would the SLAF have ever flown a group of journalists over the scene of the final battle, if the Sri Lanka military had had anything to hide there? Strangely, the British media has conveniently dropped the issue.

Now that Channel 4 has gone to town on 'evidence of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka', the onus is on it to prove that the video footage in question is authentic and the perpetrator in it is a real Sri Lankan soldier and the victim a Tamil civilian.

Why the British media has suddenly woken up to Sri Lanka's 'war crimes' again is not difficult to see. The EU is scheduled to decide on the renewal of Sri Lanka's GSP Plus concession soon and attempts being made in some quarters to have that facility scrapped are doomed to fail as cases against Sri Lanka presented by some NGOs are seriously flawed. The anti-Sri Lanka forces are looking for fresh evidence to bolster their campaign. The video footage at issue is their latest weapon against Sri Lanka. Unfortunately for them, their war crime project has a foundation of sand!

Courtesy: The Island

"WE fought the terrorists with unity and political will" - General Fonseka

Speaking at a conference at the University of Jayawadenepura in Colombo last week, Sri Lanka's former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka who led the island nation to its historic military triumph said the victory was achieved by adopting guerilla tactics while letting the terrorist group adopt conventional military strategies.

Pakistan, another South Asian country, attacked by guerillas has already expressed their desire to send small groups of combat troops to Sri Lanka to learn from the Sri Lankan experience.

General Fonseka, who has now been elevated to the position of the Chief of Defense Staff by President Rajapaksa described the secret of success of the Sri Lanka Army at as the transformation of the way of going into battle at the Eelam War 4 and reversal of methods both by the army and the terrorists.

General Fonseka said the LTTE as expected behaved almost like a conventional army while his forces stepped into the shoes of a guerilla warfare.

He said the army, as guerillas do, started making incursions into LTTE strongholds in small groups carrying out daring attacks when the terrorists challenged the army inside the jungle.

He described the Sri Lanka resolution to go to war was a political one and said with the other forces, like the navy, air force police and the civil defense force in unity fought the war with that political will.

He said, "Thirty years of war had caused a lot of frustration to the people, who had lost their faith in the Army.... I restructured the entire Army deviating from traditional methods, appointed new people of my choice untainted with corruption and dramatically increased the manpower of the Army with recruitment.

"We commenced our assault from the A9 road, the Maddu road, Mannar and the Mullaittivu jungles. Sometimes it took us four to five days just to take control of one or two kilometres. But the results were good. We minimised our casualties and increased losses of the enemy."

More LTTE war materials recovered

Sri Lanka Army Troops engaging the search and clear operations in war affected areas yesterday (August 25) recovered a haul of war materials hidden by the LTTE in their last moment.

Troops belongs to 57 Division conducted search operations in Kilinochchi area recovered 6 x AP mines and in Visuamadu area recovered 06 x diesel barrels during the same day.

While Task Force 8 troops engaging search operations in general area Puthukkudiyirippu East recovered following list of items yesterday.

In general area Vellamullivaikkal troops recovered following military equipments.

Items	Quantity
DZP/PE 98-120 bombs	04
Hand grenades	34
60mm rounds	18
Explosive capsules	250
RPG rounds	07
C-4 Explosive (Kg)	30
7.62 x 39mm ammunition	1500
Micro pistols	03
Pistol magazines	07
Pistol rounds	133
I COM sets	09
GPS (Type 72)	01
Cyanide capsules	02

In general area Puthukkudiyirippu troops uncovered the following list of items.

Items	Quantity
RPG rounds	07
Claymore mines	05
81mm Mortar rounds	02
T-56 Weapon	01
T-56 Magazines	04
7.62 x 39mm ammunition	102

In addition to that, troops recovered 130mm arty gun barrel in Puthukkudiyirippu West and in Sugandipuram area and troops also uncovered 02 x 60mm mortar round and 01 x 60mm mortar fuse.

Meanwhile the Troops of Task Force 2 doing their search operations in general area Puthukkudiyirippu West uncovered 01 x T-56 weapon mark II.

LTTE linked attempt to challenge us law on foreign terrorist groups fails in federal appeals court 9th circuit

An attempt by the Humanitarian law Project, an organization that consists of two listed terrorist organizations, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Kurdistan Workers Party to do away the executive powers of the US President to list certain organizations as foreign terrorist groups was foiled by the 9th US circuit of Appeals.

The court, in San Francisco, decided in 2-1 majority decision the law regulates conduct, not speech and therefore does not violate the US constitution as the petition lawyers argued, court documents show.

The court said, "There is no right to provide resources with which terrorists can buy weapons and explosives."

According to the court decision the current law that allows United States Presidents to designate certain violent foreign groups as terrorist organizations and freeze their assets, and prevent any aid contributed to them was upheld.

Originally a law enacted by Congress in 1977 to impose economic sanctions against foreign nations considered a threat to national security called The International Emergency Economic Powers Act was used by Presidents. The Same law, in 2001, during the regime of President George W. Bush was used to issue executive orders to designate foreign terrorist groups and freeze their assets. Under the executive orders anybody who gives aid to any of the listed terrorist groups will pay twice the money as what is given to the terrorist group or a fine of $250,000 as penalty.

In Los Angeles the law was challenged by Humanitarian law Project that was supported by the LTTE and the PKK. At the initial stages the petition succeeded but the US government appealed against the decision.

Sri Lanka Air Force 'The Best Air Force in the World'

Addressing the newly commissioned officers and passed out airmen at the SLAF Base China Bay today (Aug 21), Secretary Defence Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that the Sri Lanka Air Force compared to the rest of the world, could be rated as the best Air Force in operation.

"With limited resources and hi-tech machines, the Sri Lanka Air Force defeated the LTTE, purely using their knowledge, skills, and experience. It is the duty of the new officer and airmen to carry this pride of victory to the future unblemished, he further said.

Secretary Defence Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the chief guest of the commission and wings parade of No: 50 intake officer cadets and passing out parade of No: 136 regular and No: 96 Volunteer Airmen initial recruit course, at SLAF Base Chain Bay, Trincomalee.

Sixteen officer, including six pilots, were commissioned at the event while 329 regular and volunteer Airmen passed out. Officer Cadet WKRPGS Dharmasiriwardana received the 'Sword of Honour' for his successful completion of the training.

Recruit USD Gunawardana was the best all round recruit of No:94 Volunteer intake of Airman, while Recruit DKT Luids was adjuged best all round recruit of the No:136 Regular intake of Airmen.

The Commander of the SLAF Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonatilake and a large number of senior and junior officers participated at the passing out parade. Parents, family members of the passed out officers and airmen were also among the gathered.

Wanted : LTTE Suicide "bomber" Abdul Shalam Fatima Yasmin

The Sri Lanka Terrorist Investigation Division(TID) urgently calls on the public to provide any information to help arrest the above named suicide bomber who according to information frequents the area of Old Moor Street, Colombo 12 to the telephone numbers given below or to an Officer of the Security Forces or Police, or the nearest Police station.

The particulars are given below.



Name : Abdul Shalam Fatima Yasmin

Address : Old Moor Street , Colombo 12

ID No: 857835641 V

Date of Birth : 09.10.1985

Contact :

Police Headquarters : 011-2421111

Terrorist Investigations Division : 011 - 2321839 011- 2451636 011- 2384401

Crimes Investigation Department: 011-2320141

Colombo Police Emergency Operations Room : 011- 2243333

KP arrested

Most wanted LTTE terrorist for International Police (Interpol) and local security divisions Kumaran Padmanadan alias KP has been taken in to custody by Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities, defence sources revealed .

The suspect is known to be responsible for cross-boarder terrorist activities of liberation Tiger of the Tamil Elam (LTTE)