A survey conducted by the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation has revealed that several thousands of children were forcibly recruited by the LTTE and thrown into battle in the last two years of the war.  Interviews conducted with over 11,000 detainees on a Justice and Law Reforms Ministry directive have indicated that children were deployed on the Vanni front without proper training.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will commence phase II of the Norochcholai coal power plant next Thursday. The project was estimated to be completed in three phases. But with the encouraging economic atmosphere the CEB is now planning to complete the project in two phases. The total capacity of the Norochcholai coal power plant will be 900 megawatts (MW), a spokesman for the CEB told

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11, 2010 (IPS) - Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world’s most ferocious terrorist organizations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations. The largest single political coalition has, in a rare rebuke, lambasted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his decision to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on "accountability issues" relating to post-conflict Sri Lanka, where the country’s military has been accused of human rights violations and alleged war crimes.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's main ethnic Tamil party on Friday dropped its demand for an independent state and said it is ready to accept regional self-rule, following the defeat of separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in a 25-year civil war. The Tamil National Alliance, which backed the rebels, said in its platform for April 8 parliamentary elections that it would accept a "federal structure" in the north and east provinces with power over land, finance, and law and order. The platform was released Friday.

Sri Lanka's separatist war finally over, Indian experts are in the island nation to provide the Jaipur Foot, artificial legs known to be cosmetically and functionally close to the human limb. Nineteen skilled technicians of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), makers of the famous Jaipur Foot, are camping in northern Sri Lanka to give away the artificial limb to about 1,000 amputees for free.

Sri Lanka's separatist war finally over, Indian experts are in the island nation to provide the Jaipur Foot, artificial legs known to be cosmetically and functionally close to the human limb. Nineteen skilled technicians of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), makers of the famous Jaipur Foot, are camping in northern Sri Lanka to give away the artificial limb to about 1,000 amputees for free.

An internationally backed effort to rehabilitate over 10,000 LTTE cadres in government custody is on track with an ambitious plan to set up special rehabilitation facilities to allow families of the detained to live under one roof. The first such facility is expected to be established in ‘Zone 5’ of Menik farm bordering the Malwattu Oya. The government intends to set up similar facilities in Trincomalee, Jaffna and Batticaloa as part of its overall plan to help ex-LTTE combatants resume civilian life.

Jansila Majeed of Puttalam on Wednesday received the 2010 Woman of Courage award from US First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a function held at the US State Department in Washington. The Woman of Courage award is given to women who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating human rights and women’s equality.

Two Customs officers now in custody for their alleged involvement with the LTTE have revealed that they got millions of rupees from the LTTE to clear without checks the outfit’s lethal cargo. A high ranking police officer attached to the Terrorist Investigations Department (TID) told The Island, yesterday that those Customs men had secured the support of some lower rankers in the department and the police believe that they shared the spoils at the expense of national security.

India and Sri Lanka on Wednesday signed a Line of Credit agreement for $67.4 million to fund the second phase of upgradation of the Southern Railway Line from Colombo to Matara. A statement by the Indian mission here said that the agreement was signed by P. B. Jayasundera, Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning, and Prabhakar Dalal, Executive Director, Export-Import Bank of India, in the presence of Ashok K. Kantha, the High Commissioner of India in Colombo.

The police investigating covert LTTE operations in the city and its suburbs have arrested two Customs officers for their alleged involvement with LTTE intelligence chief Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias Pottu Amman. Acting on information elicited from an LTTE operative, the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) took them into custody. Government sources told The Island last night that the suspects had met Pottu Amman in the Vanni in 2004

 The Sri Lanka Country Director of USAID and Sri Lanka's Commissioner General for Rehabilitation today handed over equipment to help over 550 former Tamil Tiger combatants to start new civilian jobs in eastern Sri Lanka.  The handover in Batticaloa, which included canoes, pumps, engines and tool kits for rice paddy cultivation and fishing, was part of a USAID-funded IOM pilot project to help reintegrate the demobilized former rebels into civilian life.

A SRI Lankan refugee being held on Christmas Island with her two young children after ASIO declared her to be a security threat worked for the legal system run by the Tamil Tigers.  The Australian has learned that the woman, who was rescued by the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking in October, lived and worked in the Vanni district in Sri Lanka's north, which was controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

A Tourism Development Action Plan for Eastern Province has been implemented by the Tourism Ministry aiming to boost the tourism sector in the province. This Action Plan has been signed by a three member committee of the Sri Lanka Tourism Board. The Tourism Ministry will take steps to organise 24 projects which are in the Action Plan into operation.

Among six LTTE operatives, including three German passport holders arrested in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia last Wednesday (March 3) for extorting money from Tamils living in Europe, particularly Germany, is Vaheesan alias Vijikanendra (34), who had received weapons training in the Vanni during the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement between the then UNP-led United National Front (UNF) government and the LTTE.

India today assured Sri Lanka of its support in resettling nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the civil war in the island-nation and pushed for a political settlement when Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.Rao met Rajapaksa over lunch at Janadhipathi Manidiraya and congratulated him on his landslide victory in the Jan 26 presidential polls.