Najib frees ISA detainees, lifts paper suspension

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — malaysianinsider | By Lee Wei Lian

New prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak tonight freed 13 ISA detainees and lifted the suspension of two opposition papers — Harakah and Suara Keadilan.

He also told Malaysians in his maiden address that the Barisan Nasional will comprehensively review the Internal Security Act.

“These decisions are timely as we move to enhance the confidence of our citizens in those entrusted with maintaining peace, law and order, while recognizing the need to remain vigilant of the very real security threats we continue to face as a young nation,” Najib said.

Najib had come into office under intense speculation that he would be more authoritarian than his predecessor and would crack down on the democratic space in the country.

In response, the then deputy prime minister appealed at the close of the Umno general assembly last Saturday to be judged by his actions.

His first announcements as prime minister tonight have defied earlier expectations. It may even take the wind out of several opposition sails as the abolishment or comprehensive review of the ISA is one of the main thrusts of the opposition and the suspension of the two party newspapers was also one of their main grouses against the government.

Najib had promised a lot of reforms but only in the days ahead will the nation get to see the full extent of changes under the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister.

But for tonight, his speech hit the right notes, as he stressed that nobody in the country, regardless of ethnic background, should feel marginalised or left behind.

“We must draw on talented people across our nation, regardless of their position or background, to re-energize a passion for public service. We must sow the seeds of goodwill and understanding in every corner of this land, so that we continue to harvest the fruits of progress and prosperity for all Malaysians,” he said.

He also said he will be seeking to engage people from around the country in formulating the priorities of the government. The nation’s youth, who have long felt disaffected by the veterans in the government, were given a special mention.

Najib, who takes office in the midst of one of the worst economic slowdowns the world has seen, promised to work hard to steer the country through the current crisis.

The new prime minister did take one swipe at the opposition: “We must reach out to the many who may have been disaffected and left confused by political games, deceit and showmanship,” he said.

But overall, the tone of the speech was hopeful as he stressed that he will work hard to realise the full potential of the country and committed himself to meet the needs, aspirations and concerns of all Malaysians.

He ended on a high note as he invited Malaysians to join him in renewing the country and build a “One Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”

“Let us begin this great journey together.”

In a separate telephone interview with RTM, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said that Hindraf leaders, V.S. Ganapathy Rao and R. Kengadhedharan were among the 13 ISA detainees that would be released.

Others detainees to be released included Jemaah Islamiah members and foreigners.

Hamid said that the foreigners will be deported.

> See full text of Najib’s maiden speech as prime minister

01 April 2009 - AlJazeeraEnglish MOBILE BULLETIN 2

The latest news from Al Jazeera.

While the differences between the big G20 players were quietly discussed behind closed doors, out on the streets of London there was real anger.Thousands crowded into London's financial centre to make their protests heard.

Hamish MacDonald was there.Follow Al Jazeera's G20 coverage on twitter @ajeg20

According to Israel's new right wing foreign minister, he declared that the US sponsored Annapolis agreement with the Palestinians is not binding to israel for the Knesset had not endorsed it.

01 April 2009 - AlJazeeraEnglish MOBILE BULLETIN

The latest news from Al Jazeera.

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Israel soldiers tear gas al-Khalil demo

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:50:46 GMT

Israeli soldiers use tear gas and shock grenades to disperse demonstrators protesting against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers dispersed the Palestinian and Israeli protesters in al-Khalil's (Hebron) Old City on Saturday after they disturbed public order in an area under Israeli control.

A video footage from the scene showed Israeli soldiers pushing demonstrators, including Israeli Arab lawmaker Mohammad Barakeh. A number of foreign peace activists were also present at the protest, Reuters reported.

Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators said the protest was part of several events aimed at marking Land Day, the annual commemoration of protests in 1976 against Israel's occupation of Arab-owned land in al-Jaleel (Galilee).

The demonstrators were also demanding that Palestinians be allowed to use a road in the old town of al-Khalil after they were denied access by the Israeli military for what it called 'security reasons'.

Some 600 illegal settlers live under Israeli military protection in the heart of the West Bank city of al-Khalil that is inhabited by 180,000 Palestinians.

Mumbai-like Lahore attacks kill 20

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:05:25 GMT

Pakistani elite forces are engaging gunmen, who took control of the police training center.

An attack on a police training school near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has left around 20 people killed and more than 50 others wounded.

The incident took place early on Monday when gunmen in police uniform broke into Manawan police training school outside Lahore and attacked recruits with hand grenades and random gunfire, Press TV correspondent reported, adding 20 people have so far lost their lives in the attack.

Following the incident, Pakistan's elite squad was called to the scene and the area was cordoned off by the police.

Chief Capital Police Officer (CCPO) Haji Habib-ur-Rahman said 10 to 12 attackers were still inside the school building and shooting was continuing.

Meanwhile, reports suggest dozens of people in the premises have been taken hostage by the assailants and the toll from the attack is on the rise.

On March 3, gunmen carried out another major assault on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, leaving eight Pakistanis dead and seven players and a coach injured.

The attack in the second largest Pakistani city is reminiscent of Mumbai's ordeal last November, where 165 people died in a 60-hour siege of the Indian financial capital.

Critics blame the surge in terror attacks on the US policy in the region and its insistence on military measures in the crisis-hit country.

In 2001, US-led coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 9 attack on International Trade Center in New York city in a bid to oust the Taliban extremist rule in the country.

Terrorist activities and violence, however, has spread to neighboring Pakistan, where US forces keep bombarding tribal regions near the borders, allegedly providing safe havens for militants.

Cambodia's Duch back on trial

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:48:45 GMT | PressTV

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav

Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal has resumed its trial of the Khmer Rouge's prison chief to bring justice for the regime's crimes.

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, appeared in court on Monday to hear charges that include crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions during the Khmer rule between 1975 and 1979.

The former math teacher was also in court to hear charges that he oversaw the deaths of up to 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng, the main prison center for the communist regime.

"Today, in the name of the Cambodian people and the United Nations, the trial chamber... declares open the hearing related to Duch," chief judge Nil Nonn told the court.

Last month, Duch's lawyers said that he would use the court to publicly ask forgiveness for his role in the regime during a few days of preliminary proceedings.

The 66-year-old Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leader facing trials for their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, overwork and starvation.

He faces a maximum term of life in prison by the tribunal, which cannot impose the death penalty.

The first stage of the trial began in February and the current hearing has been scheduled to run for at least the next 40 days.

Erdogan's AKP leads Turkey's local polls

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:08:10 GMT | PressTV

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the polls

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party is leading local elections as poll counting is still going on.

With 50 percent of the Sunday votes counted so far, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ranked first, garnering almost 40 percent of the ballots, AFP reported.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) is following AKP with 20.2 percent and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) is in third place with 16.7 votes.

The election is to choose about 93,000 local representatives in the country's 81 provinces.

Some 48 million people were eligible in Sunday's elections, which turned violent, leaving at least six people dead and nearly 100 others wounded in five different provinces.

Recent polls have predicted that the AKP would keep the control of the capital Ankara and the important city of Istanbul.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power since 2002.

Erdogan's party secured more than 41 percent in the last local polls in 2004 and followed it up with a 46.6 percent win in Turkey's parliament elections in 2007.

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Is the current material prospects of capitalism justification for its brutal methodology. Chomsky talk about Russia, Cuba, Fascist Germany and slavery America..

Americans press Israel for justice

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:23:14 GMT | PressTV

Nancy Anderson reacts to the ongoing tragedy her family suffers while talking about her son Tristan during a press conference in Jerusalem (al-Quds) on March 23, 2009.

The parents of injured American peace activist Tristan Anderson demand that Tel Aviv assume "full responsibility" for shooting their son.

Israeli policeman shot 38-year-old Tristan in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister earlier this month during a regular demonstration against the West Bank segregation wall.

When complete, the wall will further push the 60-year-old Israeli landgrabbing campaign by dividing Palestinians in Nilin from 400 acres of their farmland.

Since last July, Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians in similar demonstrations in the village of Nilin where Tristan was shot, according to Guardian.

Tristan, who is in a very critical condition and in a medically induced coma at the Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, has lost the sight in his right eye and doctors had to remove portions of his frontal lobe.

After undergoing three operations, whether he will survive or not remains a mystery.

Activists who witnessed the shooting say the canister -- with a range of 400 meters -- was shot directly at Tristan from a distance of 60 meters and at a time that the crowd had begun to disperse.

Tristan and his immediate companions, according to the peace activists, were far from the segregation wall and were neither throwing stones nor posing any threat to Israeli forces.

"We are horrified and overwhelmed," Tristan's mother Nancy said Monday. "To shoot peaceful demonstrators is really horrifying to us. What we want to ask is that the Israeli government publicly take full responsibility for the shooting of our son."

Nancy, who flew to Israel from their home near Sacramento in California along with her husband Michael to be at his bedside, said no Israeli official even bothered to contact the couple.

Tristan had also been involved in peace demonstrations in Iraq in 2003, El Salvador and Guatemala and also partook in the 2000 demonstrations in Prague against the World Bank and IMF.

Tristan receives treatment after Israeli forces shot him in the head using a teargas canister while protesting against the segregation wall. He has since lost the sight in his right eye and doctors had to remove portions of his frontal lobe.

"Tristan has always been interested in how societies that go through conflict are able to resolve their issues," explained his father. "He came to understand for himself what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was about."

Michael also took Tel Aviv to task for its aggressive policies and moral decay.

"It is ironic that the country in which he was shot is a democracy where it is supposed to be a duty for everyone to follow their conscience. We want to know the truth of what happened and we want justice for our son," he said.

"We want to know what happened and we want justice for our son."

Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard who is representing the Anderson family has revealed that an official complaint demanding an independent inquiry into the incident has been made.

According to Sfard, human rights researchers have evidence that proves the demonstrations to have been peaceful and that at the time of the shooting the border police and the segregation wall were under no threat.

"The policemen involved, both the guy who shot and the officers who gave orders, must take the full might of criminal justice," he said.

Israel has offered no sympathy for the Anderson family and suggests the situation to have been Tristan's fault for participating in the demonstrations.

A Palestinian farmer and his children are forced to pass a gate in an Israeli segregation wall to reach their land in the Jayus village. The wall has been placed strategically to cut Palestinians from their land and block their freedom of movement.

"Israel regrets that the Israeli and foreign nationals cooperate with violent rioters against the building of the security fence, whose purpose is saving the lives of Israeli citizens," an Israeli statement says.

"As such, any Israeli, Palestinian, or foreign national who illegally participates in a violent demonstration takes upon himself the risk of personal harm during the dispersal of these disturbances."

Nearly 120 criminal investigations sought against members of Israeli security forces since the beginning of the Intifada have led only to one conviction -- against an Arab-Israeli soldier who shot British peace activist Tom Hurndall dead in Gaza.

Russia orders major S-400 deployment

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:33:01 GMT

Army trucks moving S-400 batteries

The Russian army has doubled the deployment of its hi-tech anti-ballistic S-400 missiles in the face of its growing concerns of air attacks.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov recently announced that Moscow had authorized a new military division to employ 32 S-400 interceptor missiles capable of hitting low-cruising stealth aircrafts and intermediate-range ballistic missiles to ward off possible attacks.

The S-400, alias SA-21 Growler, enjoys versatile firing facets and can destroy targets flying low at a speed exceeding 2.5 Mach or just over 3,000 km per hour -- a feature lacked by modern US Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Russia hopes to keep its advanced interceptor rockets in service until 2025.

The news comes as the US army has negotiated a new contract with the aerospace and defense corporation, Boeing, to develop state-of-the-art aerial protection systems for the country.

The program will make an "effort to coordinate and fuse multiple types of sensor data in a secure environment for Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) and space situational awareness concept exploration," UPI quoted Boeing's Thursday statement.

The S-400 is twice more efficient than the US MIM-104 Patriot that can only intercept and annihilate subsonic missiles within a 200 km range.

Hearing into dubious autopsy report starts in Kuala Lumpur

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:37:00 Mahi Ramakrishnan, Press TV, Kuala Lumpur

UK police admit brutality against Muslim suspect

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China to flex naval muscles in disputed seas

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:45:17 GMT | PressTV

The US has released this picture, claiming Chinese vessels were harassing its surveillance ships, the USNS Impeccable.

China has decided to step up naval patrols in the waters of the South China Sea, following a confrontation with a US naval ship.

Fisheries department director Wu Zhuang said the motive behind the decision is that illegal fishing has increased and "unfounded territorial claims" have been raised in seas China sees as its own, state media reported Thursday.

"Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries' unfounded territorial claims... it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration's patrols to protect China's rights and interests," the China Daily quoted the official as saying.

China sent a fisheries patrol ship to the South China Sea last week and said it could deploy other similar vessels.

The patrol operations come after a fresh claim on the chain of islands by the Philippines and a confrontation with a US navy ship patrolling the waters. Beijing has criticized both incidents as illegal.

In early March, the Pentagon said five Chinese ships harassed and maneuvered dangerously close to the unarmed USNS Impeccable as the ocean surveillance vessel was some 75 miles south of the Chinese island of Hainan.

The US claimed the incident took place in international waters after several days of increasingly aggressive acts by Chinese ships in the region.

On March 13, the US Navy dispatched a guided-missile destroyer to the China Sea after the tense naval standoff between two countries.

The arrival of the destroyer underscored a determination in Washington to continue with the surveillance mission in spite of Beijing's assertion that the operation amounts to an illegal military activity.

Chinese sources have said that the concerned US navy vessel had been consistently conducting illegal surveying in China's special economic zone.

Many have viewed China's stepped up patrols as a move to flex its increasing military muscles against the US -- which is critical of Beijing over a number of issues that include Tibet and human rights allegations.

Unemployment among black Americans hits quarter-century high

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:56:47 Colin Campbell, Press TV, Washington

The President Elect of Salvador.

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Opposition Leader Takes Power in Madagascar

18/03/2009 | AlmanarTV

Madagascar's youthful opposition leader Andry Rajoelina sought to consolidate his grip on power on Wednesday after the military named him president in a move that flouted the Indian Ocean island's constitution.

President Marc Ravalomanana resigned on Tuesday, but analysts said he had effectively been given no option after the security forces backed his foe, who has led weeks of anti-government strikes and protests.

The nation's worst unrest in years killed at least 135 people, devastated a $390 million-a-year tourism sector and worried multinationals in its mining and oil industries. The outcome was a slap in the face for the African Union (AU), which has censured recent violent transfers of power that damage the continent's reputation with investors.

Ravalomanana's whereabouts were unclear, while Rajoelina supporters planned a big party in the city's May 13 square. They had accused Ravalomanana of losing touch with the majority of the population who eke out a living on less than $2 a day.

Rajoelina says his priority will be to address social needs in Madagascar, which lies off Africa's east coast and won independence from France in 1960.

The AU had demanded the constitution be respected "scrupulously." But the fact the army refused to take over on Tuesday, as Ravalomanana had requested, means the AU may not brand the events a coup which would have meant suspension.

After recent coups in Mauritania and Guinea as well as the killing of Guinea-Bissau's leader, Ravalomanana's fall raises doubts over the durability of democracies elsewhere in Africa.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is chairman of the SADC regional trade bloc, denounced the change of power -- underlining the diplomatic difficulties Rajoelina may face.

Mindset of Hindu Kush and adjacent peak-dwellers

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:44:12 GMT

The casket-like shape of the historical Hindu Kush is shown on a map. By Mahmood Pervez Alam The ebullient youth in the rural stretches and outskirts of urban areas in Afghanistan as well as the tribal belt in the North-Western Frontier Province in Pakistan and even in parts of Balochistan share a common hate-radiating slogan: "Foreign troops get out of our land; we do not want you here." The inadmissibility of Western uniforms is so staunchly asserted that not only promises but also the introduction of development plans to uplift their traditional patterns of existence and their living conditions are either flatly rejected or dismissively spurned. Traveling on foot long distances seems to be a natural part of everyday life and a necessary assertive adjunct of the robust male ethos. Roads are suspiciously judged as paved arteries that facilitate foreign traffic. Bound by a common ancestral language and dialects, the geographic boundaries imposed by the now defunct colonial masters do not very well fit into the tall attitude of that rough and tough culture. The British, who were in the habit of ruling with roaring guns, were forced to respond more positively to their roar for independence. Whether they controlled the areas as they wanted or willed, they willingly endorsed the independence of Afghanistan in 1919. Encouraged by their victory in World War I in 1918, the British dispatched two divisions to establish their suzerainty in Afghanistan. Sporting rickety tanks and trucks and other impressive weaponry of that time, they proudly pushed their way into the heartland of Afghanistan. When everything seemed accomplished, the massive shroud that time had woven and history had unfolded from time to time closed in upon them from the peaks. Every brave soldier was unrelentingly gunned or gutted; 39,999 of the two divisions, except a surgeon, who after being duly incapacitated was neatly tied to a steed and directed back to the area he had driven from to recount the harrowing tale of the proud British army. Only his picture survives the onslaught. Born with a rugged peak-mentality, efforts to change the socio-cultural and psycho-political framework that history has diligently brewed are deeply resented. Any attempt to change the traditional status-quo is considered an attempt to emasculate their male ethos. The male ego that hovers high, considers such democratic endeavors as a deliberate satanic attempt to undermine the uninterrupted supremacy of the patriarchal dynasty. "War is to man as maternity is to woman" is the order of the day, and any endeavor to change what centuries have deeply delved in their psyche is considered a deliberate attempt to violate what time itself has legislated. Whirlwinds of modernity that claim to enfranchise women are viewed as rude efforts to imbue the minds of females with dangerous, rebellious, revolutionary tendencies. The women have to remain obedient to the dictates of the male mentality. Men eat first is the law that time itself seems to have made. In many places, women themselves seem to be content, and if not so, are forced to remain content by a known authority in the air vouchsafed by custom and tradition. Among these people, it is an accepted norm that women can be changed the way shoes are. He-manship is apparent in the guns they prize. The worth of a man is determined by the gun he carries or owns. Since birth, gun-culture prints on the mind of children the bearing it can have on their social personality. Gun is the symbol of their manhood, freedom and history. The word freedom-fighter reverberates this deep-rooted belief. Gun is not a weapon of defense but a telling reminder of the dominant aggressive male instinct. Boys grow with this elemental pattern of thought into men with this unobtrusive ethos of culture. Freedom, a gift of history and time, has been guarded by all kinds of weapon ranging from stone, steel and guns. They have their own ordinance factories producing a homemade brand of weapons. The quality of high-tech military hardware produced in the West is countered by strengthening prejudice and even fortifying hatred. The willful male ego readily absorbs the aggressiveness native to this attitude. Semiotically, their deep interest in pointed projectiles is embedded in their ferocious masculinity. A monkey is shown in paintings, darting from one peak to another and in the middle of the way without having a solid rock to spring back from changes its mind, and instead of falling down in the gaping ravine below, is able to move back to the place it started from. This feat of extraordinary strength is made possible by a habitual intake of a glutinous black substance that oozes out the mountain peaks. Men become super male studs if they make use of that magical product obtained from the stubborn mountain peaks. A strange lizard found in the mountains is often sported in the alleys. It gives out an oily substance from its mouth when it is swung from its tail and then dashed to the ground. The magical oil that comes out of the dead creature is fabled to have special potency and is an inalienable part of the male superiority and prowess sustaining culture. Knives are loved as they depict the fundamental roughness of the frontier brag. The murderous knife that tells tales of cold-blooded brutality is whetted by their unrelenting inborn thirst for revenge. Bitter blood feuds keep vendettas alive for centuries. Akin to this culture is what existed in the frontier America about a hundred and fifty years ago. The murderous knife of Jim Bowie and gunslingers like Jack Slade are naked references of the rough cruelty and lawlessness that reigned supreme in America at that time. Smothering life out of a sleeping victim by crushing his head with a big boulder is considered an act of just retribution. The ferocity behind their trigger-happy, gunaholic and knife-thrusting implacable pride is their geographically sustained male ego. The Hindu Kush mountains, which means killer of Hindus, also assert their murderous authority. The casket-shaped depiction of the historical coffin on the map shows that legions that love to flirt with history dig their own graves when they dare challenge the evil ferocity of the saw-shaped peaks that resemble the jaws of sharks. History stands witness to the defeat of invincible empires that tried to crush the ego that thrives within the peaks. The Bermuda Triangle is just an imaginary place not shown on any official map but the Hindu Kush is a living monster that has baited superpowers to their death. About twenty years ago, the ex-Soviet Union died after being bitten by the monsters living in the peaks. The British lost most of their Empire after thirty years of their snobbish thrust into Afghanistan at the end of World War I. The concept and the definition of freedom as envisaged by the West is the main reason of the widening split between their way of thinking and that of Western countries. According to the peak-dwellers, Western countries try to pull wool over their eyes by talking big of their freedom. To them, the Western culture is sick, and it stinks. According to them, the West has exploited both the human and the natural resources and has thus caused the destruction of morals and detriment of nature. Gay marriages officially recognized between same sexes both religiously and socially are a shameless violation of the laws of nature. A man giving birth to a child may be considered a great scientific achievement by some techies but a loathsome opprobrium and insult to the time-venerated concept of woman and especially that of motherhood. The melting ices and the economic-environmental crisis are all due to selfish abuse of human and natural resources. Freedom when applied to women means liberty to do what they desire. The rough easygoing tomboy mentality in girls is seen as an end of the coy revered beloved for whom chivalry demands a treatment par excellence. The evolvement of a male-militaristic mentality in women is debunked outright as a downright violation of the great values associated with the idealistic concept of womanhood. The exposure of young girls to unbridled freedom through the courtesy of satellite dishes stiffens male attitude. It is not surprising to see the Taliban purging the Swat Valley of Western cultural influence, and the Pakistani government tacitly accepting and even approving their demands. Flogging of individuals seems cruel but it is definitely less baneful than the systematic mass encroachment on their ideals of existence leashed out by the propaganda machine on their traditional values and the willful bombardment of civilians by foreign forces. If a lash that punishes an individual for the crime committed is considered barbaric, then what word can be used to describe the slaying of human life on a much greater scale in the name of democracy and the introduction of cheap, ignominious, debasing, immoral rubbish in the name of freedom, which they themselves do not approve of? The mindset of the peak-dwellers counterbalances the idealistic with the militaristic, the propagandistic with the dogmatic, freedom with thralldom and unleashed democracy with absolute theocracy. The West and especially the new administration in the White House will do well to look at the peaks of the Hindu Kush and gaping the caverns below many times before escalating the conflict with death.

Civilians at risk in Sri Lanka, UNICEF says

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:23:54 GMT | PressTV

Children in war-torn Sri Lanka

The UN children's agency UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have warned of the terrible humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.

"Children and their families caught in the conflict zone are at risk of dying from disease and malnutrition," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman in a statement Tuesday.

The ICRC in Colombo said that civilians in rebel-held territory endured daily attacks and an increased danger of epidemics.

"The area is affected by shelling every day, and the cramped conditions and the lack of water and proper sanitation are putting people at risk," the ICRC Colombo office said in a statement.

About 70,000 civilians are trapped in Sri Lanka's northeast along with around 500 Tamil Tiger fighters, according to the Sri Lankan government.

However, the UN said that the number could be around 200,000.

Tamil Tiger rebels have been surrounded by the Sri Lankan military in a small patch of jungle.