Maldives defence minister visits Jaffna

Maldivian Defence Minister, Thalhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu, visited Sri Lanka’s occupying Army in the country of Eezham Tamils in Jaffna on Wednesday. His visit follows Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s unhindered support to genocidal Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa in shielding the latter from international war crimes investigation. The ‘hundred per cent Islamic country’ Maldives in recent times has entered into a number of agreements with Israel, the secret protocols of which are yet to be known to the public. However, the new friendship and the lease of one of the islands to Israel for ‘agricultural development’ are much talked about in Maldives. The support of US Asst Secretary of State Robert Blake to Nasheed’s Maldives in the international organisations is not without reason, political observers say.

The Maldivian Defence Minister, received at the Palaali Airport by the occupying SL military’s Brigadier Piyal wikramaratne, was first briefed at the SL military’s Headquarters Auditorium.

Later, he was taken around Jaffna to showcase the military’s ‘development’ work such as the 100 houses built ‘within 8 days’ at Keerimalai and a three storied building being constructed for Mahajana College, Thellippazhai, with the financial assistance of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, according to SL military news.

He also visited the Dutch Fort where Rajapaksa plans building a presidential mansion, the Public Library and Kurunakar Jetty, along with the SL military.

Maldivian President Nasheed claims that his government is an elected democracy. But his Defence Minister’s visit to Jaffna was like a military to military visit and not like the visit of a minister of a civilian government. Tamils are hurt by the gesture, news sources in Jaffna said.

Nasheed’s predecessor Gayoom’s guided democracy was strictly neutral in foreign and military relations.

Within month’s of Nasheed coming to power by changing the political system with Western help, his government sent a military delegation, along with the US, the UK, Japan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to Vanni, to give moral boost to Colombo’s genocidal war at its height.

Source: http://www.tamilnet.com

Marines teach martial arts to Maldivians

Six Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructors and one instructor trainer from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) recently trained soldiers from the 20th Special Task Force, Maldives National Defence Force, here.

The MNDF soldiers from the island nation got a rare opportunity to build their martial arts skills and warrior ethos by learning from Marine martial arts instructors Dec. 15-22.
Sgt. Gustavo Terrazas, a MCMAP instructor trainer and Santa Ana, Calif. native, was tasked with tailoring an intensive martial arts course for 60 MNDF soldiers.

“I had to design a training schedule that would give them the most tools in the least amount of time,” he said.

Terrazas said he started with a tan belt base and added selected gray and green belt techniques throughout. To train their mental discipline, Terrazas taught MNDF instructors how to build a soldier’s warrior ethos.

“One thing that makes MCMAP successful is the three disciplines it contains,” Terrazas said. “They are mental, character and physical discipline, also called the MCMAP synergy. The only way to build a complete warrior is to practice all three disciplines.”
In addition to basic throws, punches and kicks, the students were introduced to boxing, pugil sticks and a cohesion room, an intense circuit training course that focuses on team work and unit cohesion.

“It was a new experience fighting the way (Marines) do,” said Sgt. Yoosuf Rasheed, a 20th STF instructor who attended the course. “The intensity of the fighting adds a different dimension to the training. The students said they found the fights realistic and gained confidence in themselves.”

The Marine instructors also threw some drills at the soldiers to challenge their abilities and push their mental and physical limits. One such drill was the cohesion room.

“The purpose of the cohesion room was to build unity within a squad and for the soldiers to be able to fight in a combat engagement when completely fatigued,” Terrazas said.
Working as a team, each individual squad had to complete a certain amount of time in the room before they could leave. If one member did not complete a specific exercise, more time was added.

“The cohesion room was a great experience and really built our mental strength,” Rasheed said. “The room worked and we really came together to do our best.”
Terrazas said he received positive feedback from the instructors at the conclusion of the training and that he is confident that they gained valuable knowledge for future MNDF soldiers.

“I know this training is going to help them,” Terrazas said. “All the NCO’s I’ve talked to already have plans to implement things we have taught them into their training.”

**For more information about the 11th MEU (SOC) visit their website at http://www.usmc.mil/11thmeu.

Source: http://www.marines.mil

Will Maldive be the new terror hub?

The twin blasts at Hyderabad shattered the calm of the city. This the second terrorist strike on the city in the last five months. Proof that the South has become a target for terror activities. As intelligence agencies pieced together the terror plot, a new route for militant activity has been revealed.

The route that starts from Pakistan to Male in Maldives and to the southern cities which have direct flights to Male. The Maldives is an Islamic state and recent evidence points to its traditional tolerant views being undermined.

President Abdul Gayoom is facing widespread opposition to his 29 year rule in 1998 helped by the Indian navy he overcame a coup but now as opposition mounts it is reported that he is using Islam to support his regime.

Some of the 52 madrassas set up under the president's patronage, have been linked to militant Islam in recent years. Human rights activist say the existence of luxurious holiday resorts Is helping radicals recruiting on the islands.

It is this that the militant oragnisations are using to target India as well. With Maldives offering easy entry to visitors Militant groups are able to send activists to Southern Indian cities via Maldives.

Intelligence reports suggest that even the LTTE is using Maldives to ferry arms, run drug smuggling, and send illegal migrants to work as spies. This could also present another threat to India.

For India this represents a new threat in the war against terror as traditional militant routes via Jammu and Kashmir and Nepal are identified. Those who target India are finding newer routes to get to its heart.

Source: Time Now India

Maldives 'not certain' on trawler

The identities of the arrested foreign nationals three days ago off Maldives seas are yet to be determined, authorities in Maldives said.

Maldives government spokesman Mohamed Hussein Sharif told BBC Tamil Service that one person, identified as Simon, is an Indian national probably from South Indian state of Kerala.

Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), together with the police are conducting investigations to verify the identities of other four people captured after sinking their boat, the spokesman said.

"We don't know for certain as yet whether it was a Sri Lankan trawler or whether the persons who are currently in the custody are Sri Lankans," he added.

Sri Lankan detectives

He confirmed that Sri Lankan detectives are also taking part in the investigations.

"The Sri Lankan authorities contacted our foreign ministry and they were given due permission to participate," Mohamed Hussein Sharif said.

Sharif who earlier suggested the arrested were Tamil Tigers told BBC Tamil Service on Sunday that Simon's allegations that other four are Sri Lankan Tamils led to speculations in the media.

Sri Lankan authorities were concerned after media reports that alleged they were LTTE members.

'Arms smuggling'

A Maldivian coastguard vessel has opened fire on a suspected boat and arrested five foreign nationals on board on Thursday.

"They were definitely intruding Maldivian waters but their motive is yet to be determined," the spokesman added.

The chief spokesman for the Maldives government Sharif said on Thursday that nearly 12-hour stand-off between its coastguard forces and the suspected rebel boat happened near an atoll, several hundred nautical miles south of the main archipelago.

He said it may have foiled an attempt by the rebels to smuggle arms to Sri Lanka.

The five people on board the boat were being questioned, the spokesman said.

The Tamil Tigers military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan has denied the rebels were involved in the incident.

Sea clashes

"We are not operating in that area," Ilanthiraiyan told the Reuters news agency from a rebel base in the north of Sri Lanka.

"These guys are not our people."

Earlier this month, a number of rebels were killed in a sea battle with the Sri Lankan navy off Sri Lanka's north-eastern coast.

The navy said it sank two Tamil Tiger boats, part of a flotilla of 26 rebel vessels, and killed at least 10 rebels.

The Tamil Tigers are fighting for an independent state in the north and east.

Clashes at sea and on land are now an almost daily occurrence. Both sides say they still respect the ceasefire and are responding to the other side's aggression.

Source: BBC Sinhala

Maldives probes Sri Lanka LTTE suspects

The Sri Lankan government is closely liaising with Maldivian authorities in the interrogation of five LTTE suspects who were on board an ammunition laden trawler that was destroyed by the Maldivian coast guard on Thursday morning, Foreign Ministry officials said.

The men are suspected to have been transporting weapons to the Tamil Tigers, according to reports from Male.

The trawler had been fired upon by the Maldivian coastguards in the Maldivian waters. Five of the men had jumped over board and were picked up by the Maldivian authorities later on, Foreign Ministry officials confirmed.

The suspected trawler flying the Sri Lankan ensign had allegedly fired upon a Maldivian fishing vessel and had been pursued by the Maldivian coastguards who had ordered the trawler to stop.

The trawler had ignored the orders and started firing at the coastguards which lead to the retaliatory attack.

News reports from Maldives said the five crew members were found to be LTTE cadres after interrogation.

Investigations are in progress to ascertain whether the trawler bearing the name “Sri Krishna” is the same vessel that was reported missing by the Indian authorities since March 12 along with 12 Indian fishermen, reports from Male and Colombo said.

The Minivan news Agency that operates from the Maldivian capital Male quoted the

Director General of the Coastguard, Colonel Zakaria Mansoor, confirming at a press briefing on Thursday that the men were involved in smuggling weapons.

“Several large explosions also suggest to us that the vessel was carrying a considerable load of weapons and explosives,” he said.

Source: Lanka Every Thing

LTTE sympathy to erode over fishermen abductions

The dramatic return of 11 of the dozen Indian fishermen abducted from the sea by the Tamil Tigers marks the end of an ugly nearly 70-day saga that is bound to cost the group valuable sympathy in India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, officials say.

Indian officials who closely studied the case say that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has lost face over the episode when it initially denied seizing the men who had done it no wrong until its own cadres arrested in Tamil Nadu spilled the beans.

And with the return to India of the 11 men from Tamil Nadu Friday, soon after the 12th man from Kerala got caught in a battle involving a LTTE vessel and Maldivian security forces, has only deepened the embarrassment of the Tigers and their supporters in Tamil Nadu.

'It is a huge blunder (by the LTTE),' an official here said of the abductions and the commandeering of their vessel, Sri Krishna. The 12th Indian is stated to be in custody in the Maldives now after apparently jumping into the waters.

The bizarre drama unfolded in March when the fishermen who had set out from Kanyakumari to stay put in the sea failed to return home even after weeks, sparking alarm in their families who sought help from the authorities to trace them.

The same month, Tamil Nadu was enveloped in protests over the killings of five fishermen from the state, with most political parties blaming the Sri Lanka Navy for their deaths in the sea at the hands of men from a vessel called Maria.

Early in April, the Coast Guard caught six cadres of the LTTE's Sea Tigers off Tamil Nadu and handed them over to the police after dramatically sighting the Maria floating in the sea sans any occupant.

In revelations that shocked Tamil Nadu and the Indian establishment, the arrested men confessed that it were the Tamil Tigers who had not only shot dead the five fishermen but also kidnapped the dozen men who had gone missing -- in two separate incidents.

The guerrillas - whose confessions were videoed - said that another group of Sea Tigers involved in smuggling weapons ended up killing the five Tamil Nadu fishermen when the latter picked up a row with the rebels thinking they were Sri Lankan fishermen.

One of the arrested Sea Tigers also stated that he had seen the abducted Indian fishermen in LTTE territory.

Officials speaking to IANS gave credit to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for giving the police a free hand to deal with the latest crisis, quite unlike in 1989-91 when his government was dismissed for overlooking similar activities of the LTTE.

The abducted fishermen have stated that they suffered while in LTTE custody, were moved from one place to another and threatened with death if they tried to escape. One of them was asked to sail with a group of Tigers who got hit near the Maldives.

Eventually, the remaining 11 men were taken to the sea and transferred on to two Indian fishing boats Friday when it became clear that the Tigers' complicity in the saga could no more be denied.

The LTTE, which has used Tamil Nadu since the early 1980s in its armed campaign against Sri Lanka, is known to have commandeered Indian fishing boats earlier too. But it is the first time it ended up seizing and holding Indian fishermen this long.

Source: IANS

MNDF says sinks suspected vessel in Maldives Water

The Maldives coast guard opened fire on and sank a vessel carrying suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday after a 12-hour standoff at sea in their southern territorial waters, the government said.

However one man who threw himself overboard before the clash and surrendered spoke the south Indian language Malayalam and not Tamil, and officials were treating the alleged rebel link with caution.

"We have sunk the vessel. We have captured the five people aboard," Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed told Reuters by telephone from the Maldivian capital of Male.

A government spokesman said one of the captured men said four people he believed to be Tamil Tigers had boarded his 80 ft (25 metre) fishing trawler at sea and loaded it with guns and mortar bombs.

He said there was confusion over an initial coastguard report that the man had identified himself as a Tamil Tiger.

"We are now treating this with caution, because the man was speaking Malayalam and not Tamil," said chief government spokesman Mohamed Shareef.

Sri Lanka's Navy has sunk several boats and trawlers in recent months suspected of trafficking weaponry for the Tigers across the Palk Strait that separates Sri Lanka and India.

Maldivians are mindful of an abortive coup attempt in 1988 by dissidents backed by Tamil paramilitaries from Sri Lanka, which ended in the Indian Navy chasing and sinking a vessel the plotters had tried to escape on with hostages.

The Tamil Tigers, fighting for an independent state in neighbouring Sri Lanka, were not immediately available to comment on the incident, which took place several hundred nautical miles off the south of the Maldives archipelago.

Source: Reuters