Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, K. Sivanesan, was killed in a Claymore attack on his vehicle carried out by a Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka Army lying in ambush along the A9 highway in Tamil Tiger controlled Vanni.

His driver was also killed in the attack in which the DPU soldiers exploded four Claymore mines in a row, Tamileelam Police officials said.

Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) posthumously conferred the title of Maamanithar (Great human being), the highest national civilian honour of the LTTE, to K. Sivanesan.

The text of the LTTE statement announcing the decision follows:

Amid numerous reports of small victories and LTTE casualties—all undoubtedly exaggerated—the military has failed to gain a great deal of ground.

“They started beating Thiyagarajah. They took his T-shirt off and stuffed it into his mouth. The neighbors came out to help, but they pushed them away. His wife was crying and shouting, and they hit her with a gun butt. She was nine months pregnant. They were accusing Thiyagarajah of having bombs in the house, and forced him to dig the ground around the house. They searched the house, turning everything upside down, but didn’t find anything.

International Human Rights Monitoring Mission Urgently Needed

Britain will be pressing Sri Lanka’s hardline government for greater access for senior UN officials and would join European allies in taking a stronger position against Colombo over human rights abuses.

In a meeting with Tamil Diaspora representatives at the British Foreign Office on February 25, Foreign Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said he would personally be attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva to press the point.

Why should the Tamils expect a change in international conduct?

Why has this conflict proven impossible to ‘resolve’?

Chinese aid grew last year to nearly $1 billion, eclipsing Sri Lanka’s longtime biggest donor, Japan. India’s aid reached $500 million.

Tamil leaders of Sri Lanka have rejected the island nation government’s devolution package aimed at ending the 25-year-old ethnic conflict saying the move was ‘a joke played on Tamils’.

The All Party Representation Committee (APRC), formed by the Mahinda Rajapakse government to counter LTTE’s struggle for separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka, had submitted its report to the government last month.

Demands for self-rule and independence stem not from isolationist tendencies, but a desperation to escape state repression.

Imagine a country whose greatest asset truly is its people. A country in which over a third of its citizens speak fluently one or more of English, French, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Creole, Zulu and many more, in addition to speaking the worlds oldest living classical language, Tamil.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi wrote to the central government February 10 urging it to negotiate with neighbouring Sri Lanka on behalf of Indian fishermen.

Drawing the union government's attention to the 'indiscriminate' firing by the Sri Lankan Navy that killed an Indian fisherman the day before, the chief minister asked the government 'to take up the matter with the Sri Lankan government,' a press statement said.

Sporting red T-shirts, with an Eelam map Australian Tamil youth from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne gathered on February 12 in the Australian capital, Canberra, to voice support for the Tamil struggle and to highlight the worsening humanitarian situation in the northeast of Sri Lanka.

The 200 fans arrived wearing red "Voice of Tamils" T-shirts bearing the slogan "Where is the Humanity", and set up a party outside the gates with drummers, dancers and whistles before play.