May 22 (LT) As Sri Lanka has signed extradition treaties with many countries the government will take appropriate action regarding Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingham alias Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, the head of the international section of the LTTE said Minister Anura Priyadharshan Yapa. The minister said KP is warranted by international courts and since LTTE is banned in many countries he would not be able to get any assistance from these countries. more..

May 22 (LNP) Now that the war is over, carrion crows are perturbed. The decimation of the LTTE has shocked them beyond measure, as no longer can they exploit the conflict, which was their Eldorado for nearly three decades. They also came to believe their own lies of Prabhakaran`s immortality and invincibility to such an extent that they cannot still come to terms with his ignominious end. How could the Sun God be found dead in a swamp? more..

May 22 (MoD) The Ministry of Defence Pubic Security, Law and Order under the instructions of Secretary Defence Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has decided to pay tribute to family members of war heroes, commemorating end of the 26 year odd terrorist cause. A medal of honour will be handed over to parents, wife and children as a token of appreciation from Sri Lankans, for the vital contribution made in the successful completion of the humanitarian operation. more..

May 22 (LT) The National War Heroes Felicitation Rally will commence this afternoon around 1.00 p.m. from Campbell Grounds says Minister Susil Premjayantha. “This rally will commence from Campbell Park around 1.00 p.m. and proceed to the Parliament grounds through Rajagiriya. Proceedings will then take place under the patronage of the President. Various persons from numerous fields will be present at the occasion,” more..

May 22 (MoD) Suspected LTTE supporters in London attacked five outlets of a Sri Lankan owned fast food chain called "Sam's Chicken". The owner of the chain Sam Chandrasinha said five of his outlets have been damaged. When requested the Scotland Yard was able to tell about one incident and issued the following statement: "We can confirm that we are investigating an allegation of criminal damage at Sam's Chicken on Kingsbury High Road. more..

May 22 (MoD) Sri Lanka and India are agreed that with the end of military operations in Sri Lanka, the time was opportune to focus attention on issues of relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and re-conciliation including a permanent political solution in Sri Lanka. This understanding was reached when President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with the India Foreign Secretary Mr. Shiv Shankar Menon and more..

May 22 (LNP) The All India Anti Terrorist Front (AIATF) has decided to present the `Rajiv Gandhi` award to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for eradicating terrorism. Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Delhi C.R Jayasinghe confirmed that he was informed by the Chairman of the All India Anti Terrorist Front (AIATF) M S Bitta over this award this morning during a special discussion with him. more..

May 22 (DN) The Government, while acknowledging with empathy the widespread euphoria of the people with regard to wiping out the menace of terrorism and the restoration of peace after almost three decades, reiterates that this victory belongs to all citizens of Sri Lanka, irrespective of ethnicity, religious faith, political affiliation or any other distinction. The Government also notes while celebrating the end of terrorism no one should forget that more..

May 22 (MoD) "At a time when we seek to embrace all of our people as members of a single nation, the celebration of this victory, as deep as it is felt, should be expressed with magnanimity and friendship towards all," states President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the celebrations currently taking place throughout the country. Ensuring that the nation's outpouring of joy at the defeat of terrorism, more..

May 22 (DN) It is understandable that people are overjoyed at the defeat of the terrorist group as they had undergone immense pain of mind and suffering over the past three decades. This reawakening should be enjoyed by people of all groups, casting aside ethnic or religious differences and without hurting the feelings of anyone, Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said. “We have the ability to rise as one nation and we have the political leadership to make our country a paradise,” more..

May 22 (DN) Major General Jagath Dias General Officer Commanding 57 Division: An officer attached to the Gajaba Regiment, Jagath Dias took up the challenge of commanding the 57 offensive Division in the Vanni Liberation operation in the mid of Year 2007 after Brigadier Sumith Manawadu. He commanded his troops to capture sacred Madhu Church in April 25, 2008 the first significant victory achieved by the 57 Division. more..

May 22 (Island) This is good news again. following heavy rains over the hydro power reservoirs, the Ceylon Electricity Board yesterday ruled out any power cuts until the rains fail again. Last week the prospect was different because of the continued drought. There had been unannounced power cuts for periods lasting from half and hour to one hour countrywide. Last week the water levels at hydro reservoirs dropped to a dangerous 16 per cent more..

May 22 (Island) The Government Nursing Officers’ Association urged the Health Ministry to re-absorb all government health workers forcibly retained by the LTTE to run their hospitals. There are over 22 nursing officers and over hundred health workers in this predicament. These health workers who worked at hospitals in LTTE controlled areas escaped to welfare camps along with the IDPs when the military paved the way for them to escape from the LTTE clutches. more..

May 22 (Island) The Pakistan High Commission in Colombo, awarded 158 Jinnah scholarships to students who have passed the GCE Ordinary Level, Advanced Level and Bachelor programmes, at a ceremony held at the Trans Asia Hotel, last week. The Chief Guest on the occasion, Education Minister Susil Premjayanth, thanked the Pakistani government for their unconditional support to Sri Lanka in various fields including education. more..

May 22 (ANN) With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) out of its way, Sri Lanka has assured India that it will implement a law for devolving powers to Tamil-dominated areas and even indicated that it was willing to go beyond the devolution plan envisaged in the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, as both the countries agreed on the need for a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict. more..

May 22 (LG) As the security forces delivered the final blow to the LTTE, capturing the last bit of land held by them, the entire nation celebrated with jubilance. None would be more relieved of the conclusion than the security forces personnel and their commanders who fought continuously over the past three years to bring about this victory. more..

May 22 (Guardian) I hope President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka takes time out today to comment on the resignation of Mr Speaker. What the Sri Lankan government h as "wanted to see", he might say in the jargon of the new interventionism, is clean and transparent democracy in Britain. Speaking for all Sri Lankans, he would regard the affair of MPs' expenses as "unacceptable" and "not living up to their commitments". more..

May 22 (ANN) Following the decapitation of the top LTTE hierarchy in Mullaitivu, a special Police team has been deployed to arrest two Sinhala youth said to be in the South of the country who have had close connections with the Tigers. Their names and whereabouts were revealed to the Police by a Lt. Colonel of the Ratmalana Transit Camp arrested last week for suspected links with the LTTE. more..

May 22 (AP) Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had some advice Thursday for Sri Lanka's government: Reach out and reconcile with the Tamil minority and heal the wounds from the 25-year civil war. Annan made his remarks in a wide-ranging interview Thursday, a day before his successor, Ban Ki-moon, heads to Sri Lanka to meet with officials and visit camps for some of the 280,000 people displaced by the government's offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. more..

May 22 (BBC) The bitter war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan army has left about 275,000 civilians displaced. A Sinhalese doctor who worked at a hospital in Vavuniya tells the BBC about the civilians and rebels he treated and life in the town closest to the former war zone. "I didn't care when I was posted to Vavuniya. I was sent because nobody else was going there. It is still Sri Lanka. I was happy. Most Tamil doctors don't like to go there because of kidnappings and ransoms. more..

May 22 (IANS) Sri Lanka, where a quarter century of ethnic conflict has just ended, is keen to host the secretariat of sub-regional bloc Bimstec. Bangladesh has been wanting to host the secretariat as well. The issue was discussed here at a two-day meeting of the joint working group of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec). more..

May 22 (NYT) Sri Lanka’s government ignored mounting calls Friday by international relief organizations for greater access to the country’s swelling refugee camps, as the military continued to weed out suspected former Tamil Tiger rebels hiding among civilians. Even as the end of the war has brought a new flood of refugees in the north in recent days, the United Nations, the International Red Cross and other groups have said that more..

May 22 (PTI) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday pressed the need for political reconciliation in Sri Lanka after the end of the three decade long civil war in that country. Clinton made a telephone call to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, days after Sri Lanka announced the defeat of the LTTE and the killing of its leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran. She called for political reconciliation in the country marred by decades of ethnic conflict, more..

May 22 (TOI) "When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled" words that sum up the racial conflict that has raged for several decades in the island nation of Sri Lanka; the conflict that has created 75,000 refugees in Tamil Nadu alone. For years now, OfERR, an organisation working with Lankan Tamil refugees in the state, has ridden on the truth of this statement to prevent victims from turning radical. more..

May 22 (Reuters) U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will call on Sri Lanka on Saturday to allow full access to nearly 300,000 refugees who fled during the final months of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels, U.N. officials said. Ban, due to arrive in Sri Lanka later on Friday, plans to meet the country's leaders and visit at least one of the refugee camps where people are being held in conditions that human rights groups have criticised as unacceptable. more..

May 22 (PTI) Relieved after winning the battle against LTTE, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he wished Tiger supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran had been caught alive so that he could have faced trial in India for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. "I wish we had captured him alive. Then we could have sent him to India to face trial for killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi," more..

May 22 (AP) A top U.N. official appealed to Sri Lanka on Friday to begin a process of national reconciliation following its war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but also cautioned that investigations into war crimes allegations remain possible. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was traveling Friday to Sri Lanka to discuss the conditions of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians displaced by the war and to urge the government to work to heal the nation's ethnic divisions in the wake of the conflict, more..

May 22 (CTK) The Czech government rejected several requests for licences for export of military material to Sri Lanka in 2007 though military material worth over 630,000 euros was exported there, the Industry and Trade Ministry told CTK Wednesday. The ministry was reacting to the EUobserver server's criticism of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and several other EU member states for continuing exports of arms to Sri Lanka in breach of the EU's code of conduct on arms exports. more..

May 22 (IANS) Sri Lanka is confident of resettling and providing a new lease of life to the 2.5 lakh Tamils displaced by war in the north by the year-end, Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa said on Friday. Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the government had the experience and ability to undertake the massive exercise because of what Colombo achieved after the killer tsunami. more..

May 22 (Reuters) Sri Lanka has for the first time made public its heavy casualties from the last phase of the 25-year war, as the U.N. chief flew to the island on Friday to push for a rapid end to a lingering humanitarian crisis. Officials said over 6,000 soldiers were killed and nearly 30,000 injured since a battle in July 2006 that the military marks as the start of "Eelam War IV," more..

May 23 (wsws) More than 2,000 students from seven medical faculties in Sri Lanka held a protest in Colombo on May 7 against the establishment of two private medical colleges. Students chanted: “Stop selling education, Abolish private medical colleges.” After a march, the Medical Faculty Students Action Committee (MFSAC) sought to hand a petition to the higher education minister, Vishva Warnapala, but he was “not available”. more..

May 23 (AFP) Fifty-five Sri Lankan migrants have launched a hunger strike in Indonesia after being moved from a warehouse to a prison while their asylum status is being assessed, officials said Friday. The men were intercepted off the coast of Sumatra on May 14 as they tried to reach Australia. "Since they were relocated to a local prison on Wednesday, they have been on hunger strike," provincial immigration official Suryo Santoso said. more..

May 23 (GV) On the 19th of May 2009, the Sri Lankan president announced that the 27 year old civil war was finally over, that the LTTE as a military entity ceases to exist. This sparked feverish celebrations all over Sri Lanka last seen when Arjuna Ranatunage scored the winning run against Australia to win the World Cup in 96. The defeat of LTTE, the world’s 2nd most dangerous terrorist organisation, more..

May 23 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's rupee held flat as the central bank bought up dollars to stop appreciation, and the stock market rose marginally after investors booked profits, traders said. The rupee retreated to 115.00 a dollar early this week after hitting a record low of 120.80/121.10 on April 23, as the central bank stopped preventing the currency depreciation amid discussions for a $1.9 billion IMF loan. more..

May 23 (LG) Following the killings of the entire LTTE leadership there is a strongly expressed feeling among Sri Lankans, within the country or outside, that their deaths particularly that of the leader, Prabakaran, should not be a matter for mourning. I beg to differ! That there were the most extreme forms of violence practiced by both the rebels and the state forces is the issue of real concern. more..

May 23 (IL) In 2008 Nalanda College Old Boys Association of America (NCOBAA) in association with Seva Vanitha Army Branch in Sri Lanka launched Ranaviru Kids Fund in USA to offer financial assistance for the education of needy children of disabled or deceased Armed Forces Veterans. A committee of Seva Vanitha Army Branch selects the most deserving eligible children. Last year we offered sixty (60) scholarships and more..

May 23 (GDI) First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa visited Manik Farm in Chettikulam today to look into the welfare measures for civilians who are temporarily housed in several camps setup by the Government. The First Lady during her visit exchanged views with the IDPs in the Zone 4 relief village. Madam Rajapaksa handed over a consignment of emergency aid including dry rations to these civilians. more..

May 23 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the mammoth gathering at the Parliament esplanade today (22) to mark the National War Heroes commemoration event said the great force of the gallant troops combined with the great five forces (Sangha, Veda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru) have today realized as a strong force to take the country forward. An unprecedented crowd ever witnessed in Colombo joined long procession that more..

May 23 (AFP) Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday brushed off calls for an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by government troops in their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels. "There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals," Rajapakse said in a speech to tens of thousands of supporters outside the national parliament. more..

May 23 (Teleghaph) The LTTE's political chief B Nadesan and 'peace secretariat' head S Puleedevan had attempted to surrender, a senior United Nations official disclosed yesterday. The men were subsequently later found dead amid claims that they were shot while waving a white flag, and Western diplomats have warned the government could face war crimes investigation of the incidents. more..

May 23 (TA) The Sri Lankan Government told a top UN official it could not guarantee the safe surrender of two Tamil Tiger political leaders who were subsequently shot dead this week, reportedly as they approached troops waving a white flag. The revelation from the hazy last days of the civil war coincides with a push for Sri Lanka to face a UN war crimes investigation over reports it deliberately bombed unarmed civilians caught in the conflict zone more..

May 23 (TA) December 23, 1987, was a warm, clear day, and I was hiding under a lantana bush with eight of my comrades in a village north of Jaffna. With our rifles cocked and our cyanide capsules clenched between our teeth, we awaited the soldiers who had been scouring the area for us for several hours. Our orders were to empty our magazines into them before biting into the glass capsules we called "kuppies" that hung on a thread around our necks. more..

May 23 (TA) Mahinda Rajapakse, Sri Lanka's President, has done what no Western leader has so far done. He has inflicted a devastating, presumably final, defeat on a terrorist organisation. The LTTE have been militarily crushed and its leadership killed. The Tamil Tigers' quarter century of rebellion and terrorism is at an end. What did it achieve? The Tigers will be remembered for their savagery and their cruelty. more..

May 23 (Times) In The Times yesterday, correspondent Jeremy Page argued that Britons should not visit Sri Lanka. In his article Defeat of the Tigers is welcome: the conduct of the war is not, Page said: "Britain has helped to rebuild Sri Lanka's tourist industry: Britons accounted for 18.5 per cent of the foreigners who visited the former colony's famous beaches, wildlife parks, tea plantations and Buddhist temples last year. more..

May 23 (VOA) Sri Lanka's military victory over a 26-year long insurgency has come at a high cost to the nation's economy. With the war over, many Sri Lankans are now turning their attention to rebuilding the country's battered economy. A high-end fashion store in the heart of Colombo once thrived on the thousands of foreign tourists who came here every year. Now, the only foreigners browsing the clothing racks are usually aid workers, diplomats or journalists. more..

May 23 (TA) THE guns have been silenced and peace has returned to her homeland, but the celebrations have been muted this week for Sri Lankan expatriate Niromi de Soyza. The Sydney mother of two was once a member of the Tamil Tigers, the feared guerilla insurgency that has finally been crushed after a bloody 37-year campaign to create an independent Tamil state. Trained in combat and armed with a rifle and cyanide capsules, more..

May 23 (Independent) In a world where people had lost everything, she held up the photograph as if it were the most precious thing imaginable. It showed a young boy, no more than three years old, dressed in a blue and white outfit. It was Shanmugam Saraswathi's grandson Manimaran, and she had no idea where he was. "Please help me find him," she said, as she held up the picture. more..

May 23 (BL) The Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brothers, the Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, and adviser Basil Rajapaksa deserve credit for a determined campaign to eliminate the terrorist LTTE. The top leadership of the LTTE, including Velupillai Prabhakaran, its supremo, has been eliminated, but elements of the organisation remain abroad, along with its supporters in the diaspora community, especially in the UK and Canada. more..

May 23 (AT) Chandrika Kumaratunga, former President of Sri Lanka has congratulated Mahinda Rajapaksa her successor, the Government and the people of Sri Lanka on the recent military victories over the LTTE and its forces of terrorism. In a letter to Sri Lanka President, she wrote, "I join the Nation in paying homage to the courage and dedication of the men and women of our Armed Forces and to their Commanders." more..

May 23 (Hindu) India on Friday dispatched a team of 27 doctors and paramedics to the war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka for helping the Tamil civilians. An Indian Air Force Il-76 left New Delhi for Colombo with the medical team, which included a surgeon and paediatrician. The team is also carrying 30 tonnes of medicines, worth more than Rs.3 crore, for replenishing the stores at the field hospital run by the Indian Armed Forces in a camp for the IDPs, more..