IDPs identifying LTTE cadres in Lanka refugee camps: Army

October 6th, 2009 COLOMBO - A British cabinet minister began a two-day visit to Sri Lanka Tuesday to assess the government's resettlement plans for an estimated 250,000 people displaced by the country's civil war, officials said. Mike Foster, British Parliamentary under secretary of state for international development, was scheduled to visit refugee camps in the north, a British-funded child soldier rehabilitation centre in Vavuniya and a demining programme also backed by Britain.

September 23rd, 2009 NEW YORK - India has pressed for quicker rehabilitation and resettlement of some 300,000 Tamils displaced in Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S.M.

August 6th, 2009 CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday sent the fourth installment of relief material worth Rs 15 crores for Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, who are confined to displacement camps. More than 2,80,000 civilians are held in sprawling camps in the north since May, when government troops crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year-old war.

May 24th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Government of Sri Lanka on Sunday said that it would allow UN aid workers access to Tamil refugees housed in camps after weeding out elements suspected of links with the LTTE. Responding to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's demand for unhindered access after visiting the Menik Farm camp housing 200,000 Tamils, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa warned of "the likely presence of Tamil Tiger infiltrators among the large numbers who had come to the government areas." The government describes the camps as "welfare villages" and says it wants to resettle all displaced civilians as soon as possible.

May 21st, 2009 COLOMBO - Children are reportedly being abducted from refugee camps in Sri Lanka, apparently with the tacit approval of the Rajapaksa government, human rights groups have claimed. The Telegraph quoted The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers as saying that it had received verified reports of child abductions from camps in the main resettlement area of Vavuniya, often by paramilitary Tamil groups.

May 18th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka on Monday formally announced the end of war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after chief V Prabhakaran was shot dead while trying to flee in an ambulance from the war zone in northern Sri Lanka. The three-decade long fight by the LTTE for a separate homeland for Tamils came to end after the death of Tamil Tigers chief.

May 17th, 2009 COLOMBO - A visibly jubilant President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka from Jordan on Sunday where he announced his military's victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). After arriving in Colombo having cut short his visit, Rajapaksa saluted his country.

May 13th, 2009 COLOMBO - At least 44 LTTE rebels and one International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker are reported to have been killed during fresh clashes between the Sri Lanka Army and the Tamil Tigers. Two divisions of the Sri Lankan Army continue to advance into rebel territory, even as predictions are being made that the LTTE leadership and cadres could be nabbed in the next 36 hours.

May 10th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan police have been ordered to protect the belongings of thousands of war-displaced civilians who escaped fighting between the troops and Tamil Tigers in the island's north and are now housed in refugee camps, a media report said here Sunday. According to government statistics, nearly 200,000 people have fled the war-zone and come to the government-held areas since the beginning of this year.

May 7th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited U N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the island nation to see for himself the situation in the camps where Tamil refugees are lodged. Rajapaksa's invitation came during a telephonic conservation on Wednesday amid concerns over the fate of an estimated 20,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone.

May 6th, 2009 COLOMBO - Amid mounting international concern over the plight of civilians caught in the war between the troops and Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 'to see for himself the situation' in the island's north. 'President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Sri Lanka to see for himself the situation regarding the action for the accommodation and treatment of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have recently come to government controlled areas in such large numbers, and plans for their resettlement,' a statement from the president's office said Wednesday.

April 4th, 2009 COLOMBO - A major sea-borne attack by the Tamil Tiger rebels has been foiled after the navy confronted a cluster of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) boats, killing 18 rebels onboard off the northeastern coast of Mullaitivu, defence sources said here Saturday. According to the sources, the pre-dawn sea battle broke out when the navy's Special Boat Squadron (SBS) engaged a flotilla of 10 LTTE boats, which included three explosives-packed suicide boats, heading towards Alampil and Nayaru areas.

March 30th, 2009 COLOMBO - At least 26 Tamil Tiger guerrillas and a Sri Lankan Navy sailor were killed, and four rebel boats were destroyed in a clash off the coast of Mullaitivu in the island nation's northeast early Monday, an official said here. The pre-dawn sea clash erupted when Sri Lankan Navy patrol boats engaged a cluster of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) boats off Chalai and Mullaitivu areas, where the rebels are now confined to a 21 sq km land stretch.

March 30th, 2009 COLOMBO - At least 44 Tamil Tiger guerrillas and a naval sailor were killed and four LTTE boats were destroyed Monday when the Sri Lankan troops fought fierce battles with the rebels in the island's north-eastern Mullaitivu district, military authorities said here. The pre-dawn sea clash erupted Monday when the Sri Lankan naval patrol boats confronted a cluster of LTTE boats off Chalai in Mullaitivu, where the rebels were now reportedly confined to a mere 21 square km land stretch.

February 22nd, 2009 COLOMBO - The toll in a massacre by suspected Tamil Tigers cadres in a predominantly Sinhalese village in eastern Sri Lanka Saturday has risen to 21 with over 20 more wounded, the defence ministry said Sunday. 'According to latest reports received, the death toll in the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) village massacre at Kirimetiya has risen to 21, while over 20 others, including children, have suffered serious injuries,' the defence ministry said.