Only the demonstration of military strength by the Tigers can bring clarity to the situation, for the international community to correctly relate their interests, and assertively engage, says Mr. K. V. Balakumaran.

The Sri Lankan government managed to pass its war budget in the third and final parliamentary vote on Friday December 14. To do so, it depended on the support of the (ultra-Sinhala nationalist) Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which came to the rescue of the shaky ruling coalition by abstaining rather than voting against the budget, as it had done in the second round.

Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Basheer Wali Mohammed said in Islamabad last week that he had "convincing evidence" that a powerful regional intelligence agency, rather than the Tamil Tigers, was behind the August 2006 bid to assassinate him in Colombo.

An Indian defence delegation visiting Sri Lanka has offered assistance in the form of "joint air-defence exercises" to face any threats posed by the aerial capability of the Tigers, press reports in Colombo said.

India which has stepped up its military support to the Rajapakse administration in recent months sent a high level delegation to Colombo to review the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation.

The Pakistan Government is considering another US $31 million military assistance to Sri Lanka for its fight against the Tamil Tigers, apart from the US $ 50 million assistance to the Sri Lankan Government to purchase military hardware.

The announcement was made Pakistan Foreign Minister Inam ul Haque when he met a visiting Sri Lanka media delegation in Islamabad.

Sri Lanka last week continued its hostile stand against UN institutions by charging UNESCO of issuing ill-advised statements and summoning and telling off the UNICEF country representative for meeting the LTTE’s political head.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) officials currently touring the United States lobbying for a UN mission to monitor human rights violations in Sri Lanka, told the Chicago Public Radio that their current focus is on the "shocking" disappearances and killing in Sri Lanka where the Sri Lanka Government has done "shamefully little" to investigate the cases.

‘Anyone can come into your home and kill you, or shoot you while you are out on the street.’ ‘The authorities maintain that the Tamils of Jaffna are all members of the Tigers’

While the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Britainb, Ms. Kshenuka Senewiratne, toils hard to extricate the Government of Sri Lanka from the diplomatic bungle it made in issuing a diplomatic passport under false name to fugitive Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, human rights organizations accused Karuna of "war crimes," and urged British Government to try him in Britain.

Sri Lanka's militaristic government said last week it had hauled in the envoys of countries calling for UN human rights monitoring of the island's dirty war against the Tamil Tigers, AFP reported.

The ambassadors of the United States, the European Union, France, Korea and Sweden were summoned for a dressing down by foreign ministry secretary Palitha Kohona, AFP quoted the ministry as saying.