LTTE light aircraft dropped two bomb targeting Mannar Army area headquarters on today, Tuesday Oct 28th night, Sri Lanka military spokesman said.
News sources say later Kelanitissa power station near Colombo was also bombed by LTTE and Fire brgade is attending to put out the fire.
Lights in parts of Colombo and adjoining areas were put off as a precaution following LTTE air raid in Mannar, Defense sources said.
Casualties have been reported in the aftermath of Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacking two civilian settlements in Kilinochchi and Paranthan on Tuesday October 28th, premier Tamil Daily Virakesari said on its website.
The victims were Internally Displaced Persons from Mannaar and Kilinochchi districts.
750 school children and 17 teachers were attending classes at Paranthan Hindu College at the time of the SLAF air-strike. The college is located 750 meters from the attack site in Kumarapuram.
The reported casualties come within 24 hours of, Advisor to Sri Lanka President Basil Rajapaksa’s return from India, assuring safety of civilians while in India over the weekend.
“We will look at the humanitarian needs and every assurance has been given” to India, Basil Rajapaksa, senior adviser to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said of a meeting he held in New Delhi with Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The midday bombing sent scores of fearful school children and market goers to the road, seeking shelter and looking for safety. Several houses in the vicinity sustained heavy structural damage.
Pictures: By Puthinam.com
144 members of 44 internally displaced Tamil families, who had fled from Muthur east in Trincomalee district in 2006 due to military operations of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), were transported in six state sector buses on October 22nd from several welfare centres in Batticaloa district for resettlement in their village Cheanaiyoor, a once flourishing town and now deserted, civil society sources in Trincomalee said. The buses traveled via Vaakarai, south of the Trincomalee district, with police protection.
The families were temporarily sheltered in the abandoned buildings of the Cheanaiyoor Central College. The buildings of the college have been damaged due to the April 2006 military operation of the SLA.
All houses and properties have been damaged and abandoned due to military operation.
Cheanaiyoor is located in the Muthur east next to the village Kaddaiparichchaan.
Resettled IDP families have been provided with relief and cooked meals until they clear their damaged dwellings and wells which have been abandoned for more than two years, divisional secretariat sources said.
However, several recently resettled IDPs in their villages and officials from Trincomalee District Secretariat have complained to K. Thurairatnasingham, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP from Trincomalee, that adequate clean drinking water, and latrine facilities were lacking, civil society sources said.
The IDPs have also complained during the period they were displaced the homes haven broken into and the windows, doors and tiles have been removed, but the local officials have not taken any steps to renovate the damaged houses or provide assistance, K.Thurairatnam added.
Several IDPs who fled Muthur East still continue to languish in temporary shelters, due to creation of High Security Zones and restrictions. The schools in the area are not functioning as IDPs have taken shelter in many schools, according to Tamil daily Thinakkural.
How IDPs in Muthur East found their houses on return after two years living in camps in Batticaloa:
Pictures by Doctorandus Sarajevo
Deputy Director of Chenaiyoor school in his office two year after he had to flee from the area
Structural destruction in Muthur East
Assembly hall of the school in Kaddaiparichan North two years after the people fled from the area.
“We strongly support the presence of the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human rights in Sri Lanka with a full mandate to report on the human rights situation”, said The Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean on the occasion of the presentation of credentials by Daya Perera, the new High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Canada, on Wednesday. “It is important to ensure that civilians in conflict zones are protected, that they have access to humanitarian organizations, and that their human rights are respected”, she said while conveying deep concern of her government “over the future of the Sri Lankan people”.
The Governor General of Canada is the Head of State of that country, who is formally appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, who is Head of Government.
Mr. Daya Perera is a President’s Counsel lawyer who earlier served as Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the UN in New York.
[Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada inspects an Armed Forces parade at the Ottawa International Airport, July 2, 2008-Pic: Bruce MacRae]
The Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, born in Port au Prince, Haiti, immigrated to Canada in 1968 with her family fleeing the dictatorial regime of the time, was a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs at Radio-Canda and CBC Newsworld. She has won numerous honours for reports of journalistic investigation. Michaëlle Jean became Canada’s 27th governor general in 2005.
Full text of the official news release by the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General follows:
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean Speech on the Occasion of the Presentation of Credentials (Sri Lanka, Moldova, Andorra)
Rideau Hall, Wednesday, October 22, 2008
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Rideau Hall, especially at this time of the year, when the vibrant colours of fall are on such brilliant display.
We have come together this afternoon in the spirit of sharing, dialogue, and reconciliation among peoples, and I am delighted to be here with you.
Our perspective—long limited to our own village, region or country—has now expanded to global proportions. This openness calls for greater solidarity and more co‑operation and opportunities for partnership. The actual economic crisis calls for more solidarity than ever and shared perspectives on possible solutions.
Furthermore, through our membership in the Commonwealth, Canada and Sri Lanka have strong bilateral ties.
In fact, Canada is home to 200 000 Canadians of Sri Lankan descent who are helping to make our society more dynamic and prosperous.
Of course, our friendship with the Sri Lankan people extends far beyond the diplomatic arena. Following the tsunami that devastated the region in December 2004, Canadians reached out to your people, offering unprecedented levels of assistance to support the relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts.
High Commissioner Perera, we are deeply concerned over the future of the Sri Lankan people. We hope to be able to continue supporting your government in its efforts to find viable solutions to the ongoing conflict, solutions that will fulfill the aspirations of your fellow citizens, regardless of language, religion, or ethnicity.
Canada believes it is important to ensure that civilians in conflict zones are protected, that they have access to humanitarian organizations, and that their human rights are respected.
We strongly support the presence of the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human rights in Sri Lanka with a full mandate to report on the human rights situation.
It is my understanding, Excellency, that your government is preparing to offer Sri Lankans services in Sinhalese and Tamil.
Canada has a great deal of experience with bilingualism, and I can assure you that we would be more than happy to share that experience with you during your mandate here in Canada.
Each of our countries could benefit from the best practices of the other as your country begins to make these services available.
The French language took root in Canada and is one of our official languages, which is how we came to be a part of the extended family of La Francophonie, to which Moldova also belongs.
Canada is delighted to have hosted a delegation from the Republic of Moldova at the Sommet de la Francophonie, which was held in the City of Québec as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations and which just came to a close.
Ambassador Chirtoaca, Canada enjoys a solid bilateral relationship with the Republic of Moldova and hopes to strengthen its ties with your country, notably within the context of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
And like the OSCE, we hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Transnistria.
We are certain that multilateral efforts like those deployed by the OSCE are the best solution.
I believe that the time has come to rethink the world in terms of the values we share and stop focusing on the borders that separate us.
The collaboration between Canada and the Principality of Andorra is an example of that willingness to share.
Ambassador Font Rossell, we are so pleased that a delegation from the Principality of Andorra also took part in the Sommet de la Francophonie this past weekend.
We are delighted to be able to work with you as part of that organization and to know that we can count on your support in various international forums, including the United Nations.
Moreover, we are grateful for the Principality of Andorra’s support for Canada’s membership on the United Nations Human Rights Council, the nomination of Ambassador Philippe Kirsch to the International Criminal Court, and Vancouver’s bid to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For its part, Canada is pleased to have supported the Principality of Andorra’s bid to become a member of La Francophonie and is proud to support its bid to join the World Trade Organization.
I have no doubt that each of you will inject new vigour into the trade, diplomatic, cultural and social relations that unite us. You can henceforth count on the friendship and support of Canadians to forge and facilitate what we hope will be lasting ties. And so I urge you to take the opportunity to meet with them. You will find that they are open and share your hopes for peace, freedom and prosperity.
And you will discover that Canada contains the world and that we Canadians treasure our diversity, for it brings us unlimited possibilities.
You will see that the rule of law, respect for human dignity, equality between men and women, freedom of speech and the responsibility to act, good governance, and sustainable development are all values that we are committed to promoting, here at home and around the world, and that they are part and parcel of what our citizenship means to us and the role we want to play in the world.
Continuing our dialogue, strengthening our ties and working together toward a common goal: this is what we should focus on throughout your mandate, strong in the friendship that binds us.
I believe profoundly in diplomacy at the human level, in friendship, dialogue, sharing and solidarity.
So let us work together on these premises, guided by the friendship, dialogue, sharing and spirit of solidarity that unite us.
Those who speak of separation of Tamil Nadu are opposed to the Tamils in Sri Lanka, L. Ganesan, President of Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) state wing said today in a press release.
The BJP chair, commenting on the day of MDMK leader Mr. Vaiko and others being arrested, added that people of Tamil Nadu seeing these separatist maneuvers by certain leaders will distant themselves from the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. This is will be harmful only for the Tamils of Sri Lanka, he said.
[BJP Tamil Nadu State leader L. Ganesan]
BJP Tamil Nadu State leader L. Ganesan reiterated it is true that majority of the public in Tamil Nadu sympathize with the plight of suffering Tamils in Sri Lanka. But separatism has long been dropped out by DMK in the political sphere of Tamil Nadu since its early days in the 1960’s. He said few leaders are now trying to make political mileage and re-ignite separatism issue in Tamil Nadu.
He said BJP stands for Tamils of Sri Lanka to live there with equal rights, without any misery and difficulties and wants the Government of India to reiterate to the Government of Sri Lanka to take measures towards this.
PTI reports the Mr. Vaiko was arrested on Thursday Oct 23, based on the speeches at a party meeting on the Sri Lankan issue in Chennai on October 21. Mr. Vaiko warned that extending help to protect Sri Lanka’s integrity would jeopardise the unity and integrity of India. He said he would be ready to take up arms and fight for the Tamils in the island nation. Mr. Kannappan, who presided over the meeting, warned the Centre not to force Tamils in Tamil Nadu to struggle for a separate country.
Shiv Sena, representing Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kanchipuram district organizations held a day log fast and protest today, condemning the “killing and disappearances of innocent Tamil civilians” in Sri Lanka.
‘Veea’ Sri P. Karnanji, the state chair of Shiv Sena presided over this event, called for halting of Indian military assistance to the government of Sri Lanka. Shiv Sena also condemned ‘inaction’ by Tamil Nadu State Govt. on the matter concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, according to a report on Colombo Tamil daily Virakesari website.
The fast was held in Thiruvotriyoor.
Shiv Sena (Army of lord Shiva) emerged out of a movement in Bombay, favouring increased influence of Marathis in Maharashtra. Although still primarily based in Maharashtra, the party has expanded branches throughout India.
