12:24 PM

SL to counter US Resolutions 1338

Sri Lanka is planning to launch a counterattack against the recent United States Resolution 1338, which calls for an international Human Rights (HR) monitoring mission to help maintain law and order in the embattled island. This is apart from several other demands, which include an end to the ongoing military onslaught and the culture of impunity in the face of growing HR violations.

Highly placed sources said that, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry officials have already started to counter the recent Resolution tabled in the US Congress on Sri Lanka, and is hoping to approach US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee members to present the Sri Lankan government’s point of view on the recent Resolution against the island.

Despite attempts by the US Congress to impose the Resolutions, Foreign Ministry officials claimed that it was unlikely that there would be any ‘real’ impact on the country by the motions.
However, it is learnt that pro LTTE lobby groups and activists in the US, have received a significant boost from Resolution 1338, which urges the Sri Lankan government to pursue a political solution, rather than a military one, tabled in the US Congress , last week.

Resolution 1338 has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a powerful legislative body charged with oversight of US government policy concerning foreign relations issues.
The Nation learns that pro LTTE lobby groups have been working for months, campaigning for such a Resolution.
Pro LTTE groups such as “Tamils for Justice” have already declared that Resolution 1388 is a huge setback to the Sri Lankan Government.

Resolution 1388 on Sri Lanka, sponsored by Congressman Brad Sherman of California and co-sponsored by Congressmen Frank Pallon Jr. of New Jersey and Jerry Weller of Illinois, called on the United States Government and the international community to support a transition to sustainable peace in Sri Lanka, by encouraging an International HR Monitoring presence, protecting the work of civil society and media, facilitating access of humanitarian operations, and retaining democratic principles in which rule of law and justice pervades.

12:23 PM

LTTE terrorists use INGO vehicles

It is reliably learnt that the LTTE is using vehicles recently obtained from an International Non-Government Organization (INGO) operating in the North for its military operations in the North, and intends using them for disinformation activities, too.

Defence.lk, through reliable sources in Wanni, learns that the LTTE terrorists have obtained a large number of vehicles belonging to an INGO operating in the Kilinochchi district, for its use. According to our sources, the terrorists had obtained these vehicles from the office of an INGO named Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) in Kilinochchi, early this week.

The vehicles, which the INGO claims was taken over by the terrorist outfit, included a few heavy earth moving vehicles, four trucks, a tractor, several land cruiser jeeps and a number of motor cycles, the sources said. According to these sources, the INGO had taken this fleet of heavy vehicles to the areas under terrorist control stating they would be used for Humanitarian Aid work in the area. The vehicles are now being used by the terrorists, to build bunkers, trenches, terror camps , and to transport terror leaders as well , the sources added.

Observers of LTTE activity have expressed concerns over the likelihood of the LTTE using these INGO vehicles to enact another "massacre" or bloody act to gain propaganda mileage. According to them, the LTTE has been very effective so far in engineering such crimes by attacking civilian targets in Wanni to point fingers at the Armed Forces. "An INGO vehicle attacked by the armed forces" would be a great headline for the terror propagandists to earn sympathy for the terror outfit, they said.