'I'm only 16. They gave me a rifle. It was heavy. They said we had to go forward. If we came back, they would shoot us'

Tamil children as young as 11 were forced at gunpoint to fight for the Tigers in Sri Lanka's civil war. Survivors talked of their ordeal to Gethin Chamberlain in Ambepusse

Gethin Chamberlain The Observer, Sunday 31 May 2009

Darchiga Kuken was sheltering in a bunker in the Mullaitivu area when a group of about 20 Tamil Tiger soldiers arrived and demanded that she went with them.

"I was sick with chicken pox. My mother and father were screaming and crying, saying that I was sick and pleading with them not to take me," she said. The men went away. And then at 5pm on 14 March they came back. They called me to come out and then they grabbed me and put me in a jeep. I started to cry. I was shouting: 'Mother, father, help me.' "

The 16-year-old is now being held in what the government describes as a "rehabilitation centre", a jungle camp built on a hillside outside the town of Ambepusse in the south of the country. Here children like her, who were forced to fight on the front line in the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka, gave the Observer compelling evidence of war crimes committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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In Sri Lanka: A U.S. Congressman Gets It

Jim Luce

Jim Luce (www.jimluce.com) writes and speaks on Thought Leaders and Global Citizens. Posted: May 30, 2009 11:07 AM

Colombo, Sri Lanka. At a press conference at the Colombo Hilton this morning, North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler was flanked by the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Washington and the Sri Lanka Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The American Congressman stated boldly, "I would like to congratulate the government of Sri Lanka in their victory over terrorism. We are seeing peace today for the first time in 26 years"

I could not have been more elated. It was the first time I have heard an American elected official seem to understand what has transpired here in Sri Lanka. As the only American journalist in the room, I was unsure if those gathered grasped the significance of his statement.

Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya, whom I interviewed last week from New York, and Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona, looked as if they understood this was an important moment.

"The situation here on the ground in Sri Lanka is much different than has been reported in the U.S.," Congressman Shuler said.

"I have had open access to the government and the camps for internally displaced people, and commend the government for allowing me to come into this country and to see what I needed to see.

"At this point, Sri Lanka has such an incredible opportunity to move forward, economically, towards prosperity. Of overcoming the challenges of war, and now, embracing the possibilities of moving forward.

"I was able to go to the refugee camps, to move freely there, and to speak with the people staying there.

"I spoke to one 18 year-old Tamil woman who explained to me how she had been used for the last eight months as a human shield by the Tamil Tigers, and how she was looking forward to the opportunity to return to her home.

READ THE STORY

Sri Lanka wards off Western bullying

By M K Bhadrakumar

As soon as Colombo declared victory in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu took friendly note of it. "As a friendly neighbor, China has kept a close eye on how the Sri Lankan situation developed. We sincerely hope Sri Lanka will make efforts to accomplish national reconciliation, social stability and economic progress," Ma said.

Equally, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko "welcomed" Colombo's success in "restoring control over the entire territory of the country" and liberating the civilians held hostage. Russia "supports the fight of the Sri Lankan government against terrorism and separatism and for state sovereignty and territorial integrity" and stands ready to "strengthen further its cooperation [with Sri Lanka] ... both in a bilateral format and in regional and international organizations on counter-terrorism and on other themes of mutual concern".

China and Russia will ensure that the "international community" cannot torment Colombo. They have invited Sri Lanka to come close to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a "dialogue partner". In essence, Sri Lanka is transforming as the theater where Russia and China are frontally challenging the US's incremental global strategy to establish a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence in the Indian Ocean region.
READ THE STORY

A right to defend Sri Lanka

While we shouldn't be surprised by yet another biased report/opinion in the Toronto Star, this particular opinion accuses our Consul General for interfering in Canadian Politics. It's bad enough LTTE fronts like CTC wants him out of Canada, now so called "journalists" have joined in too. Below is the link to this article, but more importantly read the reply from Mr. Bandula Jayasekera on the author's dubious allegations! - Sinhaya

Re:Why all the fuss over Tamil street protests? Opinion May 21

Haroon Siddiqui says that I have interfered with Canadian domestic politics by saying that Canada is a haven for foreign terrorist groups. First, let me tell you it was said by a Canadian journalist/author in his book Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism to the World. I only repeated what he said.

Second, I wonder why in all these years Mr. Siddiqui failed to ask opposition Canadian politicians not to interfere with Sri Lanka merely to please their constituents. Where was he when Tamil Tiger supporters sent nearly $3 million (Canadian) to Sri Lanka to kill my people?

Let me also bring to his notice (since he is an ardent cricket fan) that the Sri Lanka cricket team may never tour Canada again after the harassment, threats and intimidation from the Tamil Tigers right under your nose.

I would also like to remind him that I have a right to defend my country at all times as a Sri Lankan diplomat.

Bandula Jayasekara,

Consul General for Sri Lanka, Toronto

So, the Tamil Tigers were mortals after all

IANS First Published : 25 May 2009 02:43:00 PM IST

The steady revelations about the final moments of the LTTE leadership speak poorly of the Tigers who declared a sudden love for peace when their own lives were at risk, after contemptuously dismissing all past efforts at peace making.

When they were repeatedly called to go for negotiations, they decided to settle for nothing less than independence. Those who wanted to shake hands with the Sri Lankan state were dubbed traitors and killed.
READ THE STORY

India, Pakistan back Lanka in 'rights battle'

READ THE STORY

Tamil Tigers admit leader is dead

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have admitted for the first time that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead. A statement issued by the Tigers said their "incomparable leader" had "attained martyrdom" and declared a week of mourning.

We have already announced that we have given up violence and agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the Tamil (self) determination of our people

Selvarasa Pathmanathan

A spokesman for the group also told the BBC that it would now use non-violent methods to fight for Tamils' rights. Sri Lanka's army last week released pictures it said showed Prabhakaran's body after its final offensive.
READ THE STORY

Since BBC is one of the main mouth pieces for the LTTE, I guess this report should finally put an end to any "is he dead or not" conspiracies.-Sinhaya

Tigers begged me to broker surrender

As the Sri Lankan army closed in, rebels made a desperate plea to a Sunday Times correspondent to help stave off annihilation

Marie Colvin,
From The Sunday Times
May 24, 2009

IT was a desperate last phone call but it did not sound like a man who would be dead within hours. Balasingham Nadesan, political leader of the Tamil Tigers, had nowhere to turn, it seemed.

“We are putting down our arms,” he told me late last Sunday night by satellite phone from the tiny slip of jungle and beach on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka where the Tigers had been making their last stand.
READ THE STORY

Reading this article shows why GOSL banned the bleeding hearted western journalists likes of Marie & Jeremy from the conflict zone. Just imagine as a supposidely "unbiased" journalist if this is what she did from out side (negotiating for the "jolly" terrorist friends) what she would have done if she was inside. Also if these guys were really political leaders, what were they doing in the battle field in the first place? - Sinhaya

Healing the wounds in Sri Lanka

By Kenneth J. Cooper
May 21, 2009

SRI LANKA'S government was right to finish off the Tamil rebels, despite the risk to and ultimate loss of civilian life. Decisively ending the civil war, which lasted 26 years and killed more than 70,000, will save more lives than were lost in the final assault.

United Nations officials, Western leaders, and human rights groups had called on Sri Lanka to agree to a cease-fire to allow civilians to flee the shrinking enclave where government forces had finally hemmed in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Complying with the request would have been a major strategic mistake.
READ THE STORY

Lankan restaurant in Toronto set on fire by LTTE supporters

Tamil Tigers to blame for fire: Sri Lankan official

By BRETT CLARKSON, SUN MEDIA

BRAMPTON – A suspicious overnight fire that gutted a Sri Lankan restaurant is evidence that the Tamil Tigers are "on the rampage in Toronto," charged Sri Lanka's consul general, who said the Sinhalese eatery had been previously targeted and harassed by Tiger flag-waving motorists.

Consul General Bandula Jayasekara arrived at the Lanka Gardens restaurant at 220 Wexford Rd. to survey the damage caused to the restaurant, which sometimes caters Sri Lankan consular events in Toronto.

The Sri Lankan diplomat said Lanka Gardens owner Ranjith Tilakaratne told him in a 4:30 a.m. phone call that people waving Tamil Tiger flags had driven around his restaurant in previous weeks, honking their horns and shouting out the window.

READ THE STORY

LTTE upto old forgeries AGAIN!

Looks like that opening for a good Photoshop retoucher job in LTTE land hasn't yet been filled. While we are not surprised by the lack of any interested candidates for the job, we are a bit worried that with Prabhakaran's demise, the quality of their fake propaganda has also slipped to rather embarrassing depths. Below is a picture of the LTTE leader, allegedly sitting with a Tamil newspaper in hand and watching his own funeral on television. Wow, what an amazing feat! After all he is the "Sun God" and rising from the dead is nothing new. So, they'd have you believe. Well, not really as we found out when we examined the image. -Sinhaya

(please click on the image to enlarge)

No Perspective: The perspective lines on the Cabinet doesn't seem to match the perspective lines of the very floor it's kept on (see the yellow lines extending behind Prabhakaran. Next the perspective lines of the Television (HiDEF one too!) are totally crooked to the cabinet or the floor lines. Their vanishing point (where the lines meet) occurs somewhere closer to Prabhakran. This is not only against all creative rules, but against the laws of physics too. This can only happens in a surrealistic Salvador Dali painting.

Shadowy work: This is obviously taken with a camera mounted flash, evidenced by the dark area behind Prabhakaran and the sheen on his cheek from the light. Yet the shadows behind the TV and the one on what looks like a book rack, falls to the opposite side of the other shadows. Again cannot happen. The fingers holding the paper seems to be floating above the paper, with no grip. This is because the retoucher created a shadow where the finger tips touches the paper. There cannot be a floating shadow (a shadow sitting in a distance from it's original source) where surfaces meet.

Finally the Prabhakaran seems to be much slimmer than the ones taken closer to 2007-8. It is definitely an older photo of him, retouched with the Cabinet, TV, Newspaper and obviously a bad moustach job. Still don't believe us? Well then take a look at the photo below, taken somewhere around 2005 with Anton Balasingham, which is the original of this "badly" doctored version.

Updated: We just found the picture of the TV set with the Cabinet, book shelf that was used in this forgery. It is obviously scanned in from a furniture catalogue, and inserting the TV image is basic 101 for even for an bad retoucher.

If this is what the LTTE are up to, how can anyone in the international media, politicians and aid agencies believe their claims of Genocide and war crimes? How can a reputed News media carrie this as a news item, without authenticate them (I just watched it on night news on CityTV-same family as CP24)

(please click on the image to enlarge)

Note to the forgerer: Next time, destroy the evidence! If you watched enough movies, you know never to keep a smoking gun. Then get an education on how to use photoshop, and may be an Art class!

Sri Lanka plans to resettle refugees in six months

By C. Bryson Hull
COLOMBO (Reuters)

"The Government of Sri Lanka indicated that it was their intention to dismantle the relief camps at the earliest and outlined a 180-day plan to resettle the bulk of (refugees) to their original places of habitation," a joint statement said.

The Tigers had said the government planned to hold people indefinitely in what it dubbed "concentration camps."

Sri Lanka has said it needs to keep people inside the camps long enough to weed out potential Tiger infiltrators, and the United Nations has since said the camps meet international standards aside from the limited freedom of movement.

READ THE STORY

Sri Lankan ambassador: 'No aid workers in the conflict zone' - 21 May 09

David Miliband's piccolo diplomacy

Blair at least walked the walk. But this foreign secretary can offer only feelgood gestures of episcopal concern

Simon Jenkins

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 May 2009 21.30 BST

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". A group of Sri Lankan MPs would be visiting Britain to monitor developments.

Ridiculous? Yet those are exactly the words and tone of voice used by Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, in his dealings with what seems like half the globe. The Foreign Office wakes each morning and scans the world's conflicts to ponder where it might score a quick headline with a call for peace, reform, a ceasefire or "United Nations action".

I cannot see the point of Britain telling the world that "what we want to see is Russia on a different course". It merely infuriates every Russian. Why does Miliband say of Syria's dictator that "I've been talking for over 18 months to him about his responsibilities in the region", as if he were Lugard addressing a recalcitrant Nigerian chief? Why boast that he is "working on maintaining a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza" when he is doing nothing of the sort?

READ THE STORY

Rajiv, Prabhakaran: Bound by irony

22 May 2009, 0218 hrs IST, K Venkataramanan, TNN

CHENNAI: It was an unusual, but significant gesture, rich in irony, for one of them would order the other’s assassination. At the end of a meeting with the LTTE chief, Rajiv Gandhi asked his son Rahul to fetch his bullet-proof jacket, placed it on Velupillai Prabhakaran’s back, and said with his charming smile: ‘‘Take care of yourself.’’ Later, when officials suggested that Prabhakaran could not be trusted, Rajiv brushed aside the suggestion: ‘‘Prabhakaran has given his word. I trust him.’’ He was referring to the stipulation that the LTTE should disarm to help India find a solution through the accord that was to be signed in Colombo.

For 17 years, the anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination had been a ritual for Congressmen and an occasion for an anti-terrorism pledge by government servants. However, Thursday’s 18th anniversary has been invested with a new significance — the man who ordered his killing is now dead.

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Hell freezes over!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The rise and fall of Prabhakaran

By M K Bhadrakumar

South Asia, May 20, 2009

The Sinhalese are a gifted people. We all know few can never match their terrific skills in media management. They have always lived by their wits.

Equally, they are fantastic practitioners of diplomacy. We suspect that they may in fact have an edge over us on this front, for, unlike us who are dissimulating from day to day as if we're a responsible regional power, and dissipating our energies in pastimes such as hunting down Somali pirates in distant seas, they are a highly focused lot.

They have the grit because they are fighting for the preservation of their country's future identity as a Buddhist nation.

Only last week, they showed their diplomatic skill by getting the Russians and the Chinese to stall a move in the United Nations Security Council to pressure them.

The Europeans fancy they can try the Sinhalese for war crimes. What naivety!

READ THE STORY

The Man Who Destroyed Eelam

Prabakaran had everything: territory, international support and committed fighters. Senior journalist SHYAM TEKWANI, who has covered the LTTE and Sri Lanka for almost three decades tracks the alarming rise and astonishing fall of a man who sought to live to fight another day, but found only death at the hands of his nemesis.

MEETING HIS MATCH
The other factor that led to his precipitous defeat is that Prabakaran did not count on the troika (the President, the Army Chief and the Defence Secretary) calling his bluff. His elaborate deceptions of invincibility had begun cracking — first, with the exit of Karuna and then by the steady inroads that the specially trained units of the Sri Lankan Army’s commandos were making. The chronic political oneupmanship in Colombo over the Eelam war between the two national parties — the UNP and the SLFP — which had contributed largely to the growth of the LTTE and the prolongation of the war, was contained by the Rajapakse administration. The Rajapakse brothers pulled out a page from the Bush counter-terrorism doctrine — niceties be damned.

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Sri Lanka's Victory

A win that vindicates one of the major lessons of Septemper 11: Most of the time, terrorists have to be defeated militarily before political accommodation is possible.

From today's Wall Street Journal Asia.

The war on terror scored a big victory this weekend with the Sri Lankan army's battlefield defeat of the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The event ends one of the world's longest running civil wars. It also vindicates one of the major lessons of September 11: Most of the time, terrorists have to be defeated militarily before political accommodation is possible.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced yesterday that the army had routed the Tigers from their last redoubt in the island's Northern Province, killing Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and several hundred other top militant leaders too. Prabhakaran's apparent demise is the Sri Lankan equivalent to killing Osama bin Laden. Now that the Tiger leadership has been eliminated, it's much less likely the cadres will continue a low-level terrorist insurgency.

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Sri Lanka Triumphant At Last

Jim Luce

Jim Luce (www.jimluce.com) writes and speaks on Thought Leaders and Global Citizens.

The 26-year war against the Tamil Tigers -- the so-called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelamis (LTTE) -- is over and Sri Lanka is at last and thankfully at peace.

In spite of the slaughter, using their own people as human shields, creating the largest, bloodiest hostage drama of modern times, the Tigers have at long last been defeated. Their leader killed. The government in Colombo has finally reasserted control of the nation.

I cheer this because the LTTE had refused to lay down their guns, as I witnessed the Acehenese do in Indonesia after the Tsunami. The Tamil Tigers had refused to become partners with the national government. They would not co-exist peacefully.

READ THE STORY

Prabhakaran: The Life and Death of a Tiger

By JYOTI THOTTAM / NEW DELHI Tuesday, May. 19, 2009

Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE) who was declared killed by the Sri Lankan government on May 18, had decades to think about how his end would come. It could have come from the cyanide capsule that he — like many Tiger fighters — wore around his neck, a pledge to commit suicide in case of capture by the Sri Lankan Army. He had been fighting a war for an independent homeland, or eelam, for the island's Tamil minority since 1983, and the Army pursued him throughout the jungles of the north and east for decades. In 2002, during a press conference near the beginning of a four-year-long ceasefire, Prabhakaran revealed that he had asked his aides to kill him if capture was near and he was unable to kill himself.

READ THE STORY

IT IS OVER! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!

Prabhakaran and all his goons, killed by the SL Forces.

MAY 18th 2009, 4:30 A.M. Totonto time, by Sinhaya.

After 30 years of murderous rampage which started with the killing of Mayor of Jaffna, came to an end with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran shot and killed by the Elite Sri Lankan Armed Forces. This is probably the most significant day in anyone's life who grew up listening to the atrocities committed by this brutal terrorist. Today will be a day the World stand up and salute Sri Lanka's brave "ranaviru" Soldiers. No other force in the world achieved what they did. With all the "they can never do that" nay sayers, pressure from the world, watching and scrutinizeing every one of their moves, they still finished the job. Not only did they defeat the once mighty terrorist force, but also saved innocent civilians from being used as hostages to protect the brutal terrorists leader Prabhakaran.

In the end he did not take the cyanide pill as he ordered the rest of his goons. He did not become a suicide martyr as 1000s of innocent Tamils youngsters who were fooled by him. Instead he hid behind women and children and tried to save his life, calling KP who tried his best till the last moment, to save his boss by influencing their friends in the west. After failing all that he tried to escape with his second in command, and was shot and killed like a stinking rat by the gallant Sri Lanka Army! Ironically we heard the news here in Canada around 4:30 am in the morning, exactly 24 hours after the attempt by the LTTE goons to burn down the Toronto Maha Vihara. To some this is called Ditta Dhamma Vedaneeya Karma.

Whatever one choses to call it, this is the second coming of Sri Lanka, ready to fulfill all that was promised by our ancestors, that we never reached. Not only is it time we finally become free, but also work together to unite our beautiful little island, build bridges of peace and make sure no force within our shores or outside could ever work their way to destroy what we have achieved. Let's honour all who have given their lives for the land by making Sri Lanka the paradise it was once promised.

We will keep you posted as we get more details!

Sri Lankan rebel leader 'is dead'

State TV says Sri Lanka rebel leader killed

by Associated Press.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's state television station announced Monday that Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed and the army commander said the last pockets of rebel resistance have been cleared from the north.

Prabhakaran's death would spell the end of a more than three-decade quest by the rebel leader for a separate state for minority Tamils across northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

Rupavahini television, the state broadcaster, broke into its regular programming Monday afternoon to announce Prabakharan's death.

It gave no details of how he was killed.

The government information department also sent a text message to cellphones across the country announcing Prabhakaran was killed along with his top deputies, who were known as Soosai and Pottu Amman.

Sri Lanka's army chief, Lt.-Gen. Sareth Fonseka, told television his troops routed the last rebels from the northern war zone Monday morning and were working to identify Prabhakaran's body from among the dead.

"We can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism," he told state television.

Sri Lankan government declares victory

Prabha to commit suicide

Source: defencewire.blogspot.com

Prabhakaran and a few of his cohorts are now completely surrounded and are expected to commit suicide within the next 24hrs, thus ending a 30 year-old bloody conflict once and for all.

There is no heavy fighting at this moment as regular troops engage in clearing operations removing civilians from the area. The LTTE has given up the fight!

President Mahinda Rajapakse is expected to make a speech on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning to declare the victory. He is expected to land tomorrow morning.

Middle-level LTTE leaders are surrendering in large numbers. High profile leaders like Poddu, Soosei, Bhanu, Rathnam etc are still alive with their leader and have surrounded themselves with several hundred civilians. They are expected to blow themselves up. The Army expects the civilians to escape before this suicide.

Among those who surrendered today was the wife of LTTE Political Wing Leader Thamil Selvan. She was caught with her new lover while escaping from the LTTE.

The Army has now withdrawn the cream of its fighting units. Yesterday's operation to rescue civilians was conducted primarily by fresh Special Forces recruits from 4 SF who drew a cable and inflated tyre tubes to save trapped civilians crossing the lagoon/sea.

The 59, for example, is operating with a batallion of 4SF but primarily with 1 Mechanized Infantry with two platoons from 3 Mechanized Infantry in the reserve. Since what is left now is a clearing operation, the going is easy for them.

MORE BREAKING NEWS FROM SRI LANKA

Soosai, Pottu and Swarnam in NFZ but no sign of Prabhakaran - Brig. Shavendra Silva

Last call from Prabakaran to KP

(Lanka-e-News, 16.May.2009, 1.30 PM)A source linked to an Italian intelligence firm said that LTTE leader Vslupillai Prabakaran has talked to his right arm associate Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, the LTTE’s international arms dealer, over a satellite phone.

BBC Reports Sri Lankan Forces Victory

Stop the Tamil Tigers

This is a very interesting interview conducted by CBC Radio Host Andy Barrie with Ignatius Selliah, a Tamil Canadian journalist who clearly explains the LTTEs grip on the Canadian Tamil diaspora.

When Tigers are caged

Staff Writer
13/05/2009 1:00 AM

In a world that has no shortage of ruthless terrorist organizations, the LTTE is without peer for violence. In fact, the 50,000 Tamil civilians at risk in Sri Lanka today are at risk only because the Tigers are holding them as hostages and human shields to stay the hand of government forces. There is strong speculation that the civilian casualties being protested in Ontario and elsewhere are, in fact, being inflicted by the Tigers on their own Tamil people to inflame world opinion.
READ THE STORY

Bravo SLYC & SLUNA!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Armed with a 50 foot banner, placards and posters created by Sandeshaya-Canada, 50-60 group of brave Sri Lanka Youth of Canada along with Sri Lanka United National association (SLUNA) yesterday achieved something many Torontonians have been wishfully thinking, should be done. THEY PROTESTED THE PROTESTORS! Not only did they stood over the DVP catching the attention of all the evening rush hour traffic, but they also got the attention of the "fake" demonstrators at Queen's Park, who were bewildered to find a small Air Plane circling above their heads with a banner clearly giving a message to the Toronto citizens. PROTECT CANADA, STOP THE TAMIL TIGERS.

The plane only did a few circle before the Police head the pilot called off, mostly worried the angry Tamil mob would get out of hand, but by then it had done what it was supposed to do. The plane and the whole demonstration got enough public attention, as media couldn't afford to ignore it. While the LTTE controlled Tamil diaspora puppets conducted a drama on the lawns of Queens Park, our brave Sri Lankans were able to grab a perfect opportune moment to get a clear and strong message to the Canadians. Bravo, you young Lions! Hats off to a well planned actions taken, and winning the hearts of the Canadians as witnessed by some of the "chatter" on the cyber space below. -Sinhaya

A great blog article on the banner! - (LINK)
"To say "protect Canada, stop the Tamil Tigers" is entirely consistent with Canadian values. And even if it wasn't, and indeed there was hate, there should be no reason why someone can't spout all the hate they want so long as they do not advocate violence. That is the key point. Are we so afraid of making a counter argument to stupidity and ignorance that we must criminalize certain thoughts? Are we that intellectually lazy?" ... please follow the link and read the full blog, really interesting Canadian perspective on our banner.

National Post - (LINK)
"...At one point, a plane circled the area with a banner that read: "Protect Canada. Stop Tamil Tigers." Many protesters turned their eyes up and paused their chanting, only to quickly resume with louder voices. Police also shooed away a man sitting across from Queen's Park with a sign that read: "Tamil Tigers, stop terrorizing Toronto."

Toronto Star - (LINK)
"...Members of Toronto's Sri Lankan community used a banner pulled behind a plane in the sky and a banner and placards over the Don Valley Parkway today to express their fear the Tamil community will bring Tamil Tiger violence to Canada.

"We want Toronto to be safe. The Tamil Tigers are controlling the Sri Lankan community in Canada and their agenda is the only one being heard. We feel we are being controlled," said Kumar Gunasekera, one of about 50 people who waved placards and hung a banner over the Don Valley footbridge to Riverdale during this evening's rush hour.

The airplane pulling another banner circled over the huge Queen's Park demonstration, enraging the protesters crowded there.

The banners read: "Protect Canada - Stop the Tamil Tigers." The demonstrators at the Don Valley bridge said they represent more than 50,000, until now, silent Sinhalese Canadians.

"What should be of real concern is the 1,000 cadres of Tamil Tigers in the GTA and the violence we have yet to see here," he added.

The bridge demonstrators were members of the Sri Lankan Youth of Canada and the Sir Lankan United National Association. They said today's airplane message was paid for by private citizens, and neither the Sri Lankan government nor consulate in Toronto.

"We only hear one side of the story and it is the Tamil agenda," said Eranga De-Zoysa, a Ryerson architectural science student.

"They have ruined their motherland and now that Canada has offered them shelter they are ruining it here," added his mother Badra De-Zoysa.

The banners and placards urged Canadians to not accept the Tamil Tiger agenda and not cave into terrorism."

Torontoist -(LINK)
"As members of the Tamil community continue their demonstrations against the conflict in Sri Lanka, a high-flying counter-protest is underway, in the form of a small airplane circling around central Toronto with an anti–Tamil Tigers message in tow. Reader Mark Ostler first noticed the lofty banner, which reads "Protect Canada. Stop Tamil Tigers!", from his office window downtown. Shortly thereafter, Torontoist contributor Jonathan Goldsbie captured the above photo from Kensington Market (flipped here so that the message reads from left to right).

No word yet on who's behind the airborne rhetoric, though it's likely someone—or a group of someones—with a bit of cash: an aerial banner from SkyWords costs more than $500 for a half-hour aloft. Which leads us to ask, wouldn't it be cheaper to simply make a placard out of bristol board and a piece of wood, head out to Queen's Park, and start shouting?"

City TV News -(LINK)

While it was peaceful, the protest hasn't been without controversy. An anti-Tamil protest hired a plane to fly over Queen's Park towing a banner that read "Protect Canada. Stop the Tamil Tigers."

The message did not play well with the crowd below, some of whom roared their outrage. Police radioed the pilot and asked him to leave the area. The same people staged a demonstration of their own an a DVP overpass at Gerrard to make their point. Tamil organizers also tried to rehabilitate their reputations by collecting food for the Daily Break Food Bank from those attending. ... "

CTV -(LINK)
"...That appears to have caused a backlash as a small group hung a banner reading "Protect Canada - Stop the Tamil Tigers" over a pedestrian bridge along the Don Valley Parkway.Those same words infuriated the crowd at the Queen's Park protest, when they were pulled behind a plane that encircled over the demonstration."

Mike Newman's Twitter from Global TV -(LINK)
""Protect Canada - stop the Tamil Tigers!" is being investigated by police after Tamils file hate speech complaint. Toronto is a dumb city."

680 News -(LINK)
"Toronto - While thousands of Tamil-Canadians protested at Queen's Park on Wednesday, a separate group of demonstrators, speaking out against the Tamil Tigers, gathered on a pedestrian overpass across the Don Valley Parkway. Approximately 40 people stood on the overpass, just north of Gerrard, with signs saying "Protect Canada, stop the Tamil Tigers." The sentiment of these protesters was also seen earlier as a plane, carrying the same message, flew over the Tamil demonstrators at Queen's Park. Police will be investigating the airplane message as a possible hate crime."

CBC -(LINK)
"...Wednesday's demonstration was peaceful except for a few tense moments when a small plane flew overhead with a banner attached that said: "Protect Canada. Stop the Tamil Tigers." The sentiment expressed on the banner might have been related to an earlier protest on Sunday in which thousands of demonstrators, including many children, barricaded the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto, shutting it down for several hours..."

THE REAL DRAMA

While the live drama acted out by the Tamil diaspora of Canada continue at Queen's Park, Downtown Toronto, we have found that these "acting" and "creating drama" also takes place in the Vanni as well. These are more situational comedies conducted by the Tamilnet the mouth piece of the LTTE in order to dupe the world and the international media. It actually works sometimes as gullible media giants like BBC even carry their images in their stories. GOSL continues to deny the allegations about shelling on civilians, and we found such a "staged" photo that Tamilnet first published, and later picked up by other international media.

Here's the original picture they published and below is the other. One cropped with what they want you to see, and the other with what really went on. This wasn't the first time that Tamilnet resorted to using manipulated photos, as we exposed their forgeries in a few of our earlier posts. What is amazing is that the so called legitimate media, with journalistic honour continue to pick these without any hesitation. Where is their unbiased reporting that they expact to deliver from the front line? Can anyone blame the GOSL for keeping them away and even kicked a few out of the island?

Please click on the large image with notes and you will see the enlarged version which clearly shows the "drama" acted out by these so called civilians in the safe zone.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Obama: Sri Lanka must end warfare

Amnesty International urged Obama to push for a truce and appealed to the U.N. Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into violations of international law. Outside the White House, protesters have been chanting in recent days of Obama to take action.

Obama urged the Tamil Tigers to stop fighting and release civilians as a first step toward peace. "Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out."
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Schoolgirl recruited to fight for Tigers

Taken from home; Now learning job skills at camp for child soldiers

Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Wednesday, May 13, 2009

AMBEPUSSA, Sri Lanka -- A demure 16-year-old in a pink sweater, skirt and sandals, Darshika Kugandirasan doesn't look like a frontline guerrilla fighter.

She looks like a schoolgirl, which she was until two months ago. She was studying at Malawi Central College, hoping to become a teacher, even though classes were often cancelled because of the war.

As the eldest of three children, she knew the Tamil rebels wanted her to join; every family was expected to hand over at least one child for the liberation cause.

She tried to dodge them by staying indoors and out of sight, but on March 14 they came to take her to the training camp at Mulaivaikal.

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Misguided Tamil protesters

Published: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Re: Expressway March Called Spontaneous; No Leadership Group, Say Demonstrators, May 12.

While all Canadians must be concerned about the killing of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, there should be no misunderstanding about the objectives of the demonstrators who blocked the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto on Sunday. If their primary concern had been the safety of Tamil civilians, they would have been calling on the Tamil Tigers to allow those trapped in the war zone to flee to safe areas, instead of using them as human shields. Clearly, however, the objective of the demonstrators was to bring about a situation that would allow the Tigers to preserve their fighting capability and prolong the insurgency.
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Buddhist Centre in London attacked

The Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre based in Kingsbury North West London was attacked in the early hours of Wednesday says Venerable Galayaye Piyadassi Thero, Head of the centre.

“The attackers threw stones at the front windows and fled away” said Piyadassi thero.

The attack was blamed on the LTTE by the head of the centre who said that although no one was harmed the loss incurred is heavy.

"This is the ninth occasion where the Buddhist Centre has been attacked."
He further said that so far no one has been arrested by the police.

“The police came to the scene within a few minutes but they couldn’t find the culprits," said Piyadassi thero in an interview with BBC Sandeshaya.

A spokesperson from the Brent Police said that the case remains open and the police will launch an appeal for witnesses to come forward.

“ We have increased patrols in the area” said the spokesperson.

Sorry, but they are not Canadians

The actions of the LTTE diaspora have been escalating steadily, and one cannot help but think that the opponents of multiculturalism are right after all: if you don’t force your immigrants to integrate fully - again, “melting pot” - you’re just asking for trouble, such as foreign conflicts, and even wars, being imported from overseas, because the immigrants’ loyalties don’t lie with the host country that was generous enough to let them in - a privilege, and not a right - but, instead, with the old country. Columnist Christie Blatchford argues, correctly, that the Tamils “somehow breached the covenant, unwritten but understood, they have or ought to have made with their new country.”

At the current rate of escalation, it might just be a matter of time before these terrorists start bombing and killing in Toronto. They have lost the battle, and the war, in Sri Lanka, and it seems more than likely that they’re now trying to establish some sort of bridgehead in Toronto from which to continue their fighting.
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U.N. Spokeman Gordon Weiss will be summoned to explain about the "civilian bloodbath"

Andrew Buncombe: Two Asian conflicts, two different responses from the West

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Two South Asian military operations. Two conflicts to get rid of two well-trained, well-armed militant groups that the governments say are threatening the very survival of the countries. Yet, seemingly, two very different perspectives from the West.

To Sri Lanka, where the government is battling to end a three-decade-old civil war and crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the international community has expressed serious concern about the civilian death toll – estimated to be 6,500 and rising. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, is just one of a series of foreign envoys to have personally visited Colombo to urge the authorities to enact a ceasefire and allow civilians to escape safely. Diplomats have also appealed to the Sri Lankans not to use heavy weapons as they close in.

The concern is well placed. Just yesterday, after a weekend in which hundreds of Tamil civilians were said to have been killed by government artillery shelling, there were reports of another 47 deaths after a shell hit the sole remaining field hospital in the war zone. The government again denied the claims, as they have denied every previous report that civilians have been killed by their shells. The UN has warned of a "bloodbath".

In Pakistan, by contrast, the operation to drive the Taliban from the Swat valley has been welcomed in the West. US officials have expressed a hope that it represents a "new determination" in Pakistan's government to finally confront militants. Indeed, many observers have remarked on the happy coincidence that the operation began the very week that President Asif Ali Zardari found himself in Washington seeking billions of dollars in aid and military support.

Can this different approach be explained away entirely by self-interest? Is the West less concerned about Pakistan's civilian casualties simply because it sees the Taliban as a direct threat to US and Nato troops in Afghanistan? Can it afford to care more about the Tamil civilians because the LTTE is not a threat to the West?

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Only cowards use kids as shields

By JOE WARMINGTON
Last Updated: 12th May 2009

"It's an extremely dangerous situation to put children on the front line of a protest in that way" Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair

It takes a special kind of gutlessness to use children and their mothers to do your dirty work for you.

Somebody out there knows exactly who it is, ordering women and children to be at the forefront of Tamil protests and putting children in so much danger.

"I think it puts them at tremendous risk," Chief Bill Blair said Sunday night of the children on the Gardiner Expressway. "We are trying to ensure that our response is proportional to the threat that currently exists ... we are trying to find ways to solve this as peacefully as we can, using a minimal amount of force."

The translation should have been "we are handcuffed because of all the kids up there and we can't be hurting kids."
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Tamil protest on Gardiner was criminal
By SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 12th May 200

It's hard to imagine anything more irresponsible than the actions of thousands of Tamil protesters who rushed onto the Gardiner Expressway Sunday under the apparent delusion this would influence Canada's foreign policy towards Sri Lanka.

They endangered themselves -- including the children they unbelievably conscripted into this criminally reckless action -- along with innocent motorists and police officers, who had to restore order.

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Mayor slams Tamil protest

'What they did ... was wrong'

By BRYN WEESE AND ANTONELLA ARTUSO, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 12th May 200

Tamil protesters who shut down the Gardiner Expressway Sunday night incurred the wrath of politicians yesterday who decried their actions as "unlawful" and "unacceptable."

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