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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 19:10 GMT]
 Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, on Thursday called on India, the United States,
Britain and France to fulfil their obligations under the Geneva
Conventions and Protocol, and under the Genocide Convention by
launching an immediate humanitarian air-drop relief operation for the starving Tamil civilians within the so-called safety zone, who are suffering without adequate humanitarian supplies for weeks. In a note sent to TamilNet, Prof. Boyle said starvation of civilians, as a method of warfare, can also constitute an act of genocide as defined by Article II (c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 17:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) authorities in Trincomalee imposed additional restriction on fishing barring fishermen from engaging in deep sea fishing. The fishermen are allowed only around three hours of fishing close to the coast in early mornings, fisheries society sources in Trincomalee said. Meanwhile, patrolling in coastal areas has been stepped up to prevent infiltration by strangers from sea side, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 17:19 GMT]
“Those who think that the LTTE will be destroyed in the coming weeks and that then it is a question of 'peace building' and 'development' for the next few years are gravely mistaken,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper’s editorial argues this week. “[Instead] the foundations for a cataclysmic civil war are being inexorably laid today. The kind of polarisation that sustain not decades, but generations of struggle has become widespread and embedded.”
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:57 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) continued to attack Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal shore since Wednesday 4:00 p.m., killing and maiming many. Meanwhile, Liberation Tigers of Tamlieelam (LTTE) Sea Tigers confronted the SLN vessels sinking a water jet gun-boat and Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC) around 2:45 p.m. Thursday.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Trincomalee district MP and parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, and parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, that 7,000 Tamils in Vanni have been killed and 14,000 injured in the last three months, but the International Community has remained inactive without taking any action to stop the killings, TNA sources said. The TNA parliamentarians also told Miliband that more than 300 Tamil youths in Vavuniyaa detention centre have been arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and that the SLA has not revealed the whereabouts of the arrested youths to their parents.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
 The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding a two-year program called Supporting Regional Governance (SuRG) to strengthen local governance in conflict-affected areas of the East. Participating local authorities from the Eastern Province recently signed a memorandum of understanding with SuRG to launch the partnership.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:42 GMT]
Students and public continued their agitation for the second day Thursday in Batticaloa town and its suburbs demanding the immediate release of the eight-year-old girl student of Batticaloa Koaddaimunai Junior Viththiyaalayam who had gone missing mysteriously Tuesday, sources in Batticaloa said. Students of all the schools in Batticaloa town and its suburbs have boycotted classes in protest against the suspected abduction of the girl student.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:01 GMT]
 A report by United Nations Institute for Training and Reseach (UNITAR) surfaced on April 27th confirmed the heavy use of artillery and aerial bombing of civilian safety zone (CSZ) by the Sri Lankan armed forces. The 10-page document, initially made public, was later blocked by UNITAR for preventing incriminating evidence of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling of civilian areas. Several organizations, including Inner City Press, however, have archived a local copy of the now officially unavailable report.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 03:45 GMT]
China’s anti-people stand to consider the war in Sri Lanka as internal matter, despite open massacre and imprisonment of the Colombo government of its own civilians using even prohibited weapons, will block formal discussions taking place in the UN Security Council Thursday, news reports indicate. The stand of China and Russia sitting on UN security Council, shielding Colombo’s genocide, exposes the ultimate results of the West's 'self-trap’ by tilting the military and diplomatic balance between Tamils and Sinhalese through twisting an ethnic war as war on terror, political observers said. The only possibility now for the West to save its credibility is revising its faulty policies and acting outside of the UN, they said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 03:42 GMT]
 Pointing to the latest statement during the visit to Sri Lanka by British Foreign Minister, David Miliband that ""[t]his is a civil war that does have regional and wider ramifications...," Professor Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, said that Miliband's statement obligates Britain, as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, under U.N. Charter Article 35(1) to bring this "civil war" and genocide in Sri Lanka "to the attention of the Security Council" for the purpose of obtaining remedial action under Chapters VI and/or VII of the Charter."
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna said that a number of youths held in the SLA detention centre in Nelliyadi Maththiya Mahaviththiyalayam escaped Monday and Tuesday into residential areas in Vadamarraadchi. SLA is engaged in announcing over loudspeakers fitted to vehicles instructing the escapees to surrender, informing that the escapees would be granted general amnesty, since Monday in Vadamaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army is expected to embark upon the worst phase of massacre any time soon in the narrow stretch of land, 5 km long and 1.5 km wide, remaining in the so-called safety zone congested with nearly 120,000 civilians, sources in Vanni said. SLA attacks normally begin in the early hours. Heavy 100 mm cannon fire and machine gun fire from naval craft of the Sri Lanka Navy already began around 4:00 p.m. A total of 300 are feared killed in the latest use of heavy weapons. Meanwhile, reports from Colombo indicate that 'ministerial diplomacy' of UK and France failed to bring in ceasefire or in sending international observers to the war front. The latest phase of Colombo's spree of carnage escalated after discussions with two Indian bureaucrats last Friday.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 14:39 GMT]
 Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the Buddhist monk political party of the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of Sri Lanka, staged a protest demonstration against the visit of British and French foreign ministers Wednesday in front of British High Commission office in Colombo, sources in Colombo said. JHU parliamentarians shouted out slogans accusing the visiting emissaries as spokesmen of the Liberation Tigers and condemned International Countries for trying to save the Liberation Tigers, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 12:17 GMT]
 When Inner City Press asked French Ambassador to UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert on the European Union's leverage over Sri Lanka on the "pending request for $1.9b loan from the IMF," the Ambassador replied, "[t]he Americans want to play with the question of the IMF loan....[US's] commitment is to get the [loan] commitment to stop." Meanwhile, Bruce Fein, counsel for a Tamil activist group that filed for a declarative judgment to block the US vote, said that he expects the US Treasury to respond to the law suit before a vote is taken, and the Treasury has not submitted a motion or answer to the law suit yet.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 11:21 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) attack crafts fitted with 100 mm cannon began firing artillery pieces along the shore of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Wednesday around 4:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal was hit by artillery shells. 9 patients were killed and 15 sustained injuries as many of the remaining patients had to seek shelter elsewhere, according to initial details. The attack comes after the ICRC visited the hospital in the morning and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo Wednesday. Both the ministers had urged for immediate ceasefire earlier in the day.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10:50 GMT]
Hundreds of men, women and children displaced from Champoor East and West, Kooniththeevu and Kadatkaraicheanai Village Officer divisions in Trincomalee district gathered in Batticaloa Koaddaimunai Methodist Church premises Wednesday on completing the third year of their forced displacement due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives in 2206, to pray and fast from morning till evening in an effort to draw the authorities' attention to their plea to be resettled in their original villages, Moothoor East Internally Displaced Peoples’ Welfare Association, which organized the event said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
The trustee board of the 200-year-old historical Rakkuvaanai Sri Muththumaariyamman temple in Ratnapura district has been forced to suspend the annual festival of the temple due to death threats by Sinhalese youths of the area who went to the houses of the trustee board members and warned them of severe consequences if they conduct the festival that was to be held from 28 April to 10 May, sources in Ratnapura said. Rakkuvaana police too had denied permission to conduct the festival as the Buddhist Vesak festival is to be celebrated from 4 May to 10 May, the sources said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 04:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence unit officers arrested and took away Tuesday 98 youths among the civilians from Vanni held in SLA Ne'lukku'lam detention centre in Vavuniyaa despite the strong protest of the detainees numbering more than 3,000, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The enraged detainees attacked the government and other offices and employees in the centre, the sources added. The SLA officer-in-charge of the detention centre said that he has no information of the 98 youths taken away, the sources further said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 17:22 GMT]
The abductors of a technical officer of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) Jaffna office released him Monday night at his house in Moo’laay road in Vaddukkoaddai, according to information given by his family members to the head of the SLIC office. The officer, who had been abducted 22 April, had been held and interrogated in a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp, the family members told the chief officer.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 17:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police jointly conducted several cordon and search operations in the Tamil villages of Chaampalththeevu, Nilaave'li, Chelvanaayakapuram, and Kanniyaa in Trincomalee district Tuesday. Police said the operations were conducted to check infiltrators entering Trincomalee town and its suburbs.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 14:34 GMT]
The students of the schools in Jaffna district, converted into Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres, are forced to continue their studies in private education centres, private buildings and schools located near the SLA detention centres, sources in Jaffna said. The reopening of all schools in Jaffna district had been postponed for a week they being used by SLA to detain the civilians from Vanni. Though other schools reopened Monday for the second term the children of the schools used as SLA detention centres could find alternate places for studies only Tuesday, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 14:31 GMT]
 Despite the shelling, an ICRC ship which arrived to transport the wounded civilians brought 30 MT foods with rice, oil, and sugar to Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Tuesday morning around 7:00 a.m., according to medical officials at the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. Another 30 MT is promised to be brought in Wednesday and Thursday. If the 60 MT was divided to the remaining 165,000 people, each civilian would get only 500 grams of rice and 20 grams of sugar, health officials complained, urging the authorities to allow shipment of more food items. 204 civilians were admitted at the hospital on Tuesday. 29 of them died at the hospital.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 14:22 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired at least 2,600 Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets, more than 1,000 artillery shells and at least 2,000 heavy mortar shells from 6:00 p.m. Monday till 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, LTTE officials in Vanni told TamilNet. Most of the shells fired by the SLA hit civilian shelters in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, Thaazhampan, Ottaip-panaiyadi and Iraddai-vaaykkaal areas.The Tiger officials put civilian casualty figures at more than 200 killed and said three medical centres treated hundreds of wounded civilians throughout the day. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Ottaip-panai and iraddai-vaaykkaal areas by deploying cluster bombs, LTTE officials further said.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 13:35 GMT]
 In a "letter before action" sent to high level British Government officials, Public Interest Lawyers, a group of attorneys representing a Tamil activist group in UK, charge that in light of the Sri Lankan Government's systematic and gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law "the UK under international law has various obligations, namely, to denounce and not recognise the situation in Sri Lanka as lawful [and] not to render aid and assistance to Sri Lanka," the UK Government's response thus far has been "woefully inadequate and does not comply with its obligations under international law." The group will file legal action in the British High Court if the UK Government fails to respond satisfactorily to the charges.
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[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 08:15 GMT]
 Medical sources in Vanni reported Tuesday morning "mad shelling" by the Sri Lanka Army into civilian areas in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal north, forcing everyone under the bunkers. Several civilians have been killed. The wounded are let to die as people are not able to move out of the bunkers due to the unprecedented barrage by the SLA from 4:30 a.m. The SLA deployed 'scorched earth' barrage using all kinds of weapons from 6:00 p.m. Tuesday in Valaignarmadam breaking the LTTE defence line. As the shelling by the SLA started to target civilian areas in Tuesday morning, the southern part of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal has become completely congested and roads are blocked with civilians who managed flee from the northern areas.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 18:34 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers continued heavy bombardment on Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in five sorties unloading bombs 23 times, completely disregarding the announcement by the Colombo government that its armed forces were instructed to halt the deployment of heavy weapons. Latest reports indicate heavy barrage by the SLA targeted Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal area since 7:00 p.m., when the SLA started firing artillery shells fitted with cluster munitions, Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire and heavy mortar fire from many directions on the northern side of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in the so-called safety zone, signalling a ground offensive. Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gunboats have also started firing in the evening, the reports further said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 17:57 GMT]
Attempts made by Sri Lanka Electricity Board (SLEB) in Jaffna peninsula to supply 24 hours electricity supply to the schools where civilians from Vanni are brought by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and detained have failed due to the inability of the Chinese firm, ‘Northern Power’, which had entered into a contract with the Sri Lanka government to supply electricity to the entire peninsula for 24 hours to fulfill its obligation, sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 17:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) key officials informed Jaffna Secretariat that the possibility of bringing civilians from Vanni to Jafnna peninsula for detention appears limited, Jaffna Secretariat (JS) sources said. Action is being taken to detain Vanni civilians instead in the SLA occupied areas like Ki’linochchi, Ka’ndaava’lai and other indentified places constructing big concentration villages, sources in Jaffna said. JS officials, recently taken by SLA to gather particulars of the civilians from Vanni held without being sent either to Vavuniyaa or Jaffna peninsula, refuse to reveal the information for security reasons.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 16:07 GMT]
 The Tokyo-Co-chairs and other international actors have been duped in supporting the war aims of the Sri Lankan government, says Professor P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet. “The LTTE is expression of Tamil discontent of the Sri Lankan government and the way the latter has dealt with the Tamil national question. In so far as the conflict in Aceh was concerned, the international community was much neutral in providing the political circumstances for peace to be achieved. However, in the Sri Lankan conflict, the international took a biased stand. The current issue is not one of positions between the warring parties, but one that re-focuses attention on the fallacy of the international community in searching for a just solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka”, he says.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 13:26 GMT]
An unidentified armed gang shot and killed Monday noon a Tamil youth employed in a hotel in Monaragala town, Monaragala police said.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 12:53 GMT]
A gang of unidentified armed men entering the fishing harbour area in Paanama Ukanthai in Ampaa’rai district Sunday morning shot and killed five Tamil fishermen who had gone there Saturday night in their motor fishing boats, sources in Ampaa’rai said. Meanwhile, Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested 12 Tamil youths including students in a search conducted in Thirukkoayil, Akkaraipattu and Nochchikku’lam in Ampaa’rai district Monday, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 11:54 GMT]
In a press release issued Sunday, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) said that the "final onslaught" in the safe zone by the Sri Lanka Government will result in "carnage if unimaginable magnitude," and appealed to "Her Majesty's Government, NGOs, and Governments around the world, to act immediately to prevent this devastation."
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 11:29 GMT]
 "Only a joint show of might, without wasting any time by the IC, can stop Colombo. This is the last chance for the IC if it is really interested in seeing a post-conflict Sri Lanka," writes a political commentator in Colombo. "Everybody knows how the current war in Sri Lanka has been perpetrated by the international community through systematic sabotage of the military and diplomatic balance in favour of the genocidal state of Sri Lanka. Initially the IC wanted political solution to go hand in hand with the military option. The IC failed miserably in achieving it and the way the war seems to be ending, political solution will be a mirage for ages. The war doesn’t serve any of the purposes of the IC now and is going to be counter-productive. Now it only consolidates a genocidal state that can never be reformed”, the commentator further writes.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 07:45 GMT]
 Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks as pressure mounted from the International Community. LTTE's Director of Peace Seceratariat, S. Puleedevan, when contacted by TamilNet told that SLAF bombers were attacking civilian targets at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal at 12:50 p.m. and again at 1:10 p.m. despite the announcement to cease such attacks. He blamed Colombo for "attempting to deceive the International Community, including the people of Tamil Nadu," with the announcement.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 07:42 GMT]
The newly appointed Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander who had earlier rejected the recommendation by the committee appointed by the Supreme Court to expedite resettlement of displaced residents in Thellippazhai has allowed demining on both sides of Kaangkeasanththu’rai-Jaffna road so that students and patients to Union College and Cancer Treatment Hospital in Thellippazhai could access the institutions that are located within SLA High Security Zone (HSZ), Jaffna District Coordinating Committee (DCC) officials said. However, it is not known when the said road will be opened for public use, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 22:59 GMT]
Several civilians were killed and more than 200, wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and gunfire, have been admitted at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal hospital in the early hours of Monday as the SLA opened fire from its positions attempting to advance further into the densely populated so-called safety zone (No Fire Zone) from 3:30 a.m. Monday. Heavy exchange of gunfire continued and civilians were forced to stay inside the bunkers as rounds were whizzing over them. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers carried out two sorties of air raids in the morning, according to latest reports from Vanni. The aggression by the SLA comes a few hours after Sri Lanka rejected LTTE announced unilateral ceasefire.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 19:56 GMT]
 In a faint voice barely audible, 28-year-old Parameswaran, on the 20th day of his hunger strike in London said Sunday the world is waiting for right action from the US president. “White house said stop shelling and warned Sri Lanka that a military end of the conflict will end a unified Sri Lanka. But Colombo is air attacking. We are waiting for right action. 10,000 civilians died in three months. Thousands and thousands are suffering in the hands of the Sri Lankan military and in the refugee camps - the barbed wire camps, without international monitoring. This is clearly, without any doubt genocide… I condemn all nations for not condemning. I strongly condemn the Indian government for supporting the war in Sri Lanka”, Parameswaran said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 18:03 GMT]
 More than 500 diaspora Tamils in Oslo staged a demonstration with their mouths bound in white bands as a symbol of the silence maintained by the Norwegian government in the face of the unfolding genocide of innocent Tamils in Vanni, in front of Norwegian Parliament Sunday from 2:00 p.m till 3:30 p.m, urging Norway to break its damaging silence and to actively engage in finding a justified solution to the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka, sources in Oslo said. The demonstrators appealed to Norway to thrust aside its silence maintained so far and to act before it is too late.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:55 GMT]
"On behalf of over 160,000 civilians still in the area, we are making this final appeal to the the international community to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians in the so-called safe zone," appealed Lawrance Christy, head of the field office of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in a SOS message to the UN, US, India, EU, UK, Russia and China adding that "You are our only hope." If the expected offensive goes forward, there will be more than 10,000 casualties as the area is densely populated and there is no cover from bombs, shells, and bullets, he said. "As we write this appeal there is a build up of Sri Lanka armed forces in the areas surrounding the so-called safe zone and an offensive via land, sea, and air is only a few hours away."
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA, standing on the electioneering platform of eliminating ‘Tamil Terrorism’ secured Sunday clear majority of 64.7 percent in the elections for the Provincial Council of the Western Province. Rajapaksa’s victory is a clear mandate given to him by the Sinhala ethnic majority to go ahead with the genocide of Tamils; is well timed for him to convince the IC of his ‘democratic’ necessity to proceed with the final onslaught on Tamil civilians in the safety zone and sets clear the way for his long-term genocidal agenda and denial of any political solution, political observers in Colombo said. Meanwhile, the elections also clearly evidence that the ethnic crisis in the island can never be resolved within the Sri Lankan state system or through mandate of the majority Sinhalese, for anyone who wants to see an end to the conflict, they pointed out.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:23 GMT]
Latest reports from the borders of the so-called safety zone in Mullaiththeevu indicate heavy military build-up by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) despite international calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to cease the attacks on the safety zone and allow access for international aid workers to assist civilians. The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has also deployed several attack crafts in the seas following two days of intense air raids. Thousands of civilians would be killed and maimed if Sri Lanka Army launches its final offensive on the safety zone, local NGO workers said stating that only meaningful international pressure could stop the carnage.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 15:03 GMT]
French medical authorities Sunday took two of the four Tamil youths, Rajkumar and Varunan, observing fast unto death for the last 19 days in Paris in the Tamil diaspora demonstration against the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, for immediate medical treatment as their physical state had deteriorated, sources in Paris said. The other two youths continue their fast until they are given a positive response from the French Government for the demands for which the Tamil diaspora in France has been demonstrating for the 21st day, the sources added. The diaspora Tamils in France are converging in their thousands at the place near the Wall for Peace monument where the fast is being observed, on learning of the situation of the fasting youths.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 14:56 GMT]
Criticizing the policies and efforts of Obama, Hillary Clinton and Eric Solheim, the Washington Times in an editorial Sunday said that the Obama administration should not allow the Tigers to ‘snatch victory from the jaws of defeat’ but should help Colombo ‘by providing military and intelligence support for pinpoint strikes against the terrorist leadership’. Reflecting chauvinistic passion and imitating the style and line of Colombo’s newspapers, the editorial said: "Obama administration should mind its own business. The Sri Lankans are winning; we should let them finish the job". Commenting on the editorial, a political commentator in Colombo said: "Had Bush minded his own business, Tamils would have sorted out the crisis by now and Washington Times wouldn’t have had the occasion to tax itself so emotionally."
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 13:39 GMT]
 "UN is trying to close the chapter with the death of hundreds of thousands of our people. UN is encouraging the genocidal onslaught for the sake of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lankan state. It has let the people and their aspirations to die,” writes Lawrance Christy, the planning director of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) which serves the people inside the so-called safety zone. "UN has sadly failed in its mandate to uphold the aspirations of a people who are oppressed grossly and consistently for the last 60 years. The intermittent physical attacks on Tamils now has culminated in extensive massacre by military onslaught,” he writes giving a firsthand, eyewitness account of the massacre and human tragedy in the safety zone since Monday.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of SL president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who responded to the LTTE's unilateral announcement of a ceasefire, announced Sunday has called it a 'joke' and said there was "no need of a ceasefire and that the LTTE must surrender," reported Sky's Asia correspondent Alex Crawford.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 11:30 GMT]
Thousands of families from Vanni are being held in Ka’ndaava’lai and Ki’linochchi areas, Jaffna Secretariat officials taken to these areas by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) said. The officials who went there to collect details of the civilians from Vanni further said that no decision has yet been taken as to where these civilians will be sent to. Meanwhile, more than 75,000 civilians from Vanni on the way to Vavuniyaa are held back around Oamanthai SLA entry point to Vavuniyaa, NGO sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 11:07 GMT]
 “Lacking independent assessments, journalists repeat Sri Lankan claims that this is the end game, this is Prabhakaran's last stand. Judging from the past, I doubt it”, writes former CNN Bureau Chief in New Delhi, Anita Pratab, in the 03 May issue of The Week. “Nowhere in the world has a government been continuously bombing its own civilians for over a year. This is a crime Israeli, American and NATO forces are not guilty of. Nowhere else in the world is a war being waged without outsiders and independent witnesses, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Gaza. But in Sri Lanka”, she writes.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:38 GMT]
"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the UN, EU, the governments of the USA, India and others, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has announced an unilateral ceasefire. All of LTTE’s offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect," said a press statement issued by the Political Head Quarters of the LTTE Sunday. "We have taken into account the recent declarations by the G8 nations, the Whitehouse, Indian Ministers and the EU and other members of international community. We are in full agreement that the humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by declaration of an immediate ceasefire," the statement said calling upon the international community to pressure the Sri Lankan Government to reciprocate it.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:22 GMT]
The ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) secured 68 seats in the Western Provincial Council (WPC) consisting of the districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutura, polling 1,506,115 votes while the main opposition United National Party (UNP) won 30 seats with 688,253 votes, sources in Colombo said. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) won 2 seats polling 49,388 votes, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) secured 3 seats with 56,384 votes and Democratic United Alliance (DUA) won one seat getting 11,970 votes.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 09:54 GMT]
 Parameswaran Subramaniyam continued his fast unto death undettered for the 19th day Saturday placing five demands including an immediate stop of the inhuman killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces, sources in London said. “I will be happy to lay down my life for the sake of Tamil people,” Parameswaran said. His tent flaps remained closed Saturday due to foul weather and hundreds of people were seen waiting patiently in a long queue to convey their wishes and support to Parameswaran.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 07:20 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police took into custody ten Tamils including two married women in joint cordon and search conducted Saturday early morning in Chinnaththoadam area in Thirukkoayil in Ampaa’rai district, according to their relatives. The arrestees are being detained in Thirukkoayil police station.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 06:54 GMT]
Paramilitary men operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shot and killed Saturday around 8:45 two Tamil civilians including the President of the Nochchiku’lam Peace Committee and a Muslim civilian in Kantha’laay police division in Trincomalee district, sources in Trincomalee said. Meanwhile, paramilitary men gunned down a Tamil civilian Saturday around 9:00 p.m at Shaanthipuram in Kantha’laay police division, the sources added.a
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 06:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets bombed Sunday the so-called safety zone where tens of thousands of civilians have sought refuge at least 39 times in six sorties so far on Sunday. The indiscriminate bombardment by the Sri Lankan state has been intensified despite the call from the White House on Saturday to stop attacking the 'safety zone' and to stop the fighting immediately. Exact casualty details were not available at the moment. Heavy bombardment by SLAF bombers has caused panic and tension among the civilians, who are facing imminent starvation as Colombo has blocked the shipment of humanitarian supplies facilitated by the ICRC.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 22:13 GMT]
 A separate Tamil Eelam is the only solution that will permanently put an end to the problems of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, said Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister and principal Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Jayalalitha at a election rally in Salem city Saturday. In a powerful, moving speech, she resolved to fight to attain independent Eelam.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 20:53 GMT]
 ”The real reason for my arrest was to prevent me from publishing news on the forced displacement of Tamils, its impacts and about the significance of Tamils’ representation in Western Provincial Council elections,” Nadesapillai Vithiyatharan, the Chief Editor of the Tamil daily Sudaroli, who was ‘abducted’ and later claimed as ‘arrested’ by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID), said, after being released by Colombo Magistrate Court Friday, in a media report Friday in Colombo. “I was abducted on the final day of submission of nominations to the Western Provincial Council Election, Vithiyatharan said in the report.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 18:29 GMT]
 No food shipment was sent to the safety zone after 02 April. Even the earlier supplies were pathetically inadequate. The World Food Programme (WFP) shipment that already set sailing with 1,500 MT food items and was scheduled to arrive in Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal has been diverted to Jaffna in the last minute by the Colombo government, citing ‘security reasons’, civil officials inside the zone told TamilNet Saturday. People starve beyond imagination, subsisting just on fish and prawns caught amidst high risk of SLA attack and eating them semi-raw, roasted in fire, as there is no cooking oil.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 17:48 GMT]
LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan on Saturday categorically denied recruitment and arming children as young as 12 to fight alongside the Tigers as alleged by news reports citing the UN Colombo Spokesman Gordon Weiss.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 14:33 GMT]
Children as young as 12 are forcefully recruited and given with guns to fight on the front line alongside LTTE, Guardian.co.uk reported Saturday, 9.49 GMT, citing Gordon Weiss, UN spokesman in Sri Lanka. “Whom are they guarding”, Tamil circles asked. “It is outrageous that the UN which has no means to stop Colombo’s genocide or immediately take responsibility of the captured and even reluctant to talk about the high casualty but only ‘leaks out’ figures, to raise this matter at this juncture in an imbalanced way, when Colombo is bombarding the remaining civilians in the so-called safety zone”, said Thomas Aloysius, senior scientist in Bergan, Norway. “If what the UN official says is true, it is deplorable, but aren’t they too responsible for the tragedy by their inaction in prevailing upon Colombo to stop the war. The LTTE always ask for ceasefire”, he asked.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 13:40 GMT]
Directors of Education in Jaffna peninsula met Saturday to explore possibilities of reopening the schools for the second term and to find alternate arrangements to continue education for the students of the schools where civilians from Vanni are being held, sources in Jaffna said. It was decided in the meeting to reopen all schools in the peninsula on 27 Monday and to enable the students of the schools appropriated, to study in the schools located close by, based on a shift system, Education Department sources said.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 12:27 GMT]
Ten Tamil civilians were taken into custody in several estates surrounding Passara in Badulla district during a cordon and search operation conducted on Thursday from morning till evening. Police said the arrested were detained in police stations and being interrogated as they failed to prove their identity and justify the reason for their presence in the location.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 12:02 GMT]
 In a statement issued Friday the Obama White House called on "both sides to stop fighting immediately," and "the Government of Sri Lanka to stop shelling the safe zone and blocking international aid groups and media from accessing those civilians who have managed to escape," adding both sides should "strictly adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law," and that the Obama administration is "very concerned about reports of violations, and take these allegations very seriously." The White House cautioned that, "[i]t would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future."
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 11:50 GMT]
 Pointing out that "[f]or more than a quarter century, successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to grant ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast of the country some form of autonomy or self-rule in a confederal state," the Boston Globe in an editiorial said Saturday that "[i]f the Tamil populace sees no hope for autonomy within Sri Lanka, it may come to demand a separate state." The Globe said, "[t]he Tigers have committed terrorist acts. But the overwhelming majority of the victims in the Rajapaksa brothers' war have been Tamil civilians."
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 09:56 GMT]
The fast unto death protest by Parameswaran Subramnaiyam observed to draw the attention of the International Community to the ongoing catastrophe in Sri Lanka, reached its 18th day Friday as the diaspora Tamils in Britain continue their protest demonstration in the Parliament Square in London for the 19th day, sources in London said. Many people from various nationalities visit and express their support and sympathy for the cause for which the Tamils are demonstrating, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 09:21 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) unloaded bombs in four sorties on Saturday, intensifying bombardments in the northern and southern parts of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal inside the safety zone. The bombers hit several locations, 4 times around 10:15 a.m., 12 times at 2:00 p.m. 4 times around 4:15 p.m. and an hour later five times, bringing to total 25, the number of times the SLAF hit targets inside the "Safe Zone" where tens of thousands of civilians have sought refuge. The attacks intensified a day after Indian diplomats visited Colombo and discussed the war with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 06:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) setup a new check point at Mannaar Fort in place of Vankkaalai check point since Tuesday and are currently subjecting passengers to and from Mannaar to severe search and interrogation, sources in Mannaar said. State buses and private buses leave the passengers at Mannaar Fort check point and return to their depots without providing further transport to continue their journey to their destination.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 03:27 GMT]
 In lines of precedence with Colombo, which escalates war immediately following consultations with India, another carnage is anticipated with the return of the two Indian mandarins, Menon and Narayanan, from Sri Lanka on Friday, Tamil circles in Colombo said. Earlier, on Thursday, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused the LTTE of "barbaric" attempts. Meanwhile, US State Department Friday asked the LTTE to consider surrendering to a 'third party'. Diplomatic and military preparations are set for another bout of Colombo's genocidal onslaught, observers said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 23:52 GMT]
In a press statement titled 'UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger' the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Friday said 165,000 Tamil civilians belonging to 40,000 families within the LTTE controlled area in Mullaiththeevu coast are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. "The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure immediate and continuous supply of food to these people. We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier," the statement released from Vanni said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 21:04 GMT]
A Tamil woman arrested on Wednesday in Kandy by the police in a cordon and search operation has been detained under the detention order served by the Defense Ministry for further inquiry, police said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:32 GMT]
 Sri Lankan President and C-in-C of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:08 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities have instructed Jaffna Government Agent to have the mines sown in SLA 55th Division main artillery base located at Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi removed as the first step to hold nearly eleven thousand Vanni civilians, now held in various SLA detention centres in Jaffna, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. Danish Demining Organization (DDO) has already begun clearing land mines and the debris from artillery and Multi-barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire, the sources said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:45 GMT]
The extension of Yaazhtheavi express train from Vavuniyaa to Thaa'ndikku'lam with effect from Thursday was cancelled last minute due to security reasons. Sri Lanka Railways inaugural event was arranged by the Transport Minister Mr. Dallas Alahaperuma. Thaandikku'lam is located about 3 km north of Vavuniyaa. Yaazhtheavi currently runs between Colombo and Vavuniyaa.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:26 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has been systematically limiting, delaying and blocking humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Vanni committing a serious crime of war said a statement issued by the Political Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Friday. Questioning why the International Community has failed to demand the Sri Lankan government to allow humanitarian supplies reaching the civilians of Vanni, the LTTE statement issued in Tamil said it was condemning Colombo in strongest terms for using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians and for violating the Geneva Conventions.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 09:38 GMT]
The Chief Editor of the Tamil daily Sudaroli, Nadesapillai Vithiyatharan, who was 'abducted' and later claimed as 'arrested' by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Divison on February 26, was released Friday by the Colombo Magistrate Court after the charges against him were dropped.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 09:31 GMT]
A new document originating from the UN and circulated among the diplomatic missions in Colombo this week has put the figures of the civilians killed in Vanni since January as at least 6,432 and 13,946 wounded, according to a news report by the Associated Press Friday. "The casualties were reported as 'verified data' in the document," the AP said. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been firing thousands of artillery and mortar shells, including internationally banned cluster munitions and chemical warheads, into the so-called no-fire zone or 'safety zone' killing and maiming thousands of Tamil civilians, constituting a grave war crime and crime against humanity.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 00:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have enough means to feed them when they are captured, said a District Secretariat official in Vavuniyaa. The SLA, which is still keeping the civilians inside the militarized zone, north of Oamanthai, for its screening, has asked the Tamil people of Vavuniyaa through loudspeaker announcements, to donate cooked-food packets to supply the captured civilians, the official speaking in condition of anonymity told TamilNet Thursday. So far, no civil official is able to confirm the arrival of the new batch of civilians into the internment camps of Vavuniyaa town this week.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 17:06 GMT]
A bomb exploded with a loud noise Wednesday around 7:30 p.m during power-cut in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp located in Vi’laan, I’lavaalai in Valikaamam, sources in Jaffna said. Though it is said that three SLA soldiers sustained injuries no official report has been released by SLA authorities in Jaffna. Meanwhile, SLA soldiers engaged in road patrol near Jaffna University opened fire Thursday afternoon on some youths riding bicycles, claiming that the youths refused to be checked.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 16:53 GMT]
An officer of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) Jaffna office has gone missing since Wednesday while returning home after duty along Kallu’ndaay Veethi in Jaffna, according to information given by his relatives to SLIC Jaffna office and Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office. Meanwhile, a family man from Achchuveali sought protection to his life in Jaffna Magistrate Court due to death threats, sources in Jaffna said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 16:36 GMT]
A woman brought from Puthu Maaththa’lan in Mullaiththeevu with gunshot injuries by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to Point Pedro succumbed to her wounds on the shores of Point Pedro Munai, sources in Vadamaraadchi said. Point Pedro Magistrate conducted the inquest into the death on the beach and directed the police to hand over her body to Manthikai hospital mortuary.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 16:19 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent requested immediate assistance from the local Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna to help meet the basic needs of the civilians from Vanni placed in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres in Jaffna, in a meeting held with the representatives of local and international NGOs, due to government’s failure to offer any assistance, local NGO representatives said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:45 GMT]
One Tamil youth was abducted in Vavuniyaa, and two Tamil youths were reported missing in Mannaar since last Tuesday in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged by their relatives in respective police station.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:31 GMT]
Tamil traders in Kandy town are reported to have been threatened by paramilitaries of Karuna group by telephone, demanding extortion from one hundred thousand rupees to five hundred thousand rupees per head, according to media reports quoting Kandy Tamil Traders’
Association. Kandy Tamil Traders’ Association held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to explore ways to respond to the threats.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:29 GMT]
A young Tamil couple was taken into custody Tuesday by the Nallathanni Police in Ratnapura district while they were staying in a house at an estate in the area. Police said they were detained on detention orders by the Defence Ministry for further inquiry.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 06:10 GMT]
Many Dvora Fast Attack Crafts of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have surrounded the ICRC ship which was approaching Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal to transport the seriously wounded patients Thursday morning, according to latest reports from Vanni. The SLN attack crafts were also firing cannon shots towards the shore. The hostile presence of the SLN attack crafts have hampered the medical transportation of seriously wounded patients from the makeshift hospital where 700 patients are waiting to be transferred.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 05:40 GMT]
 Rev. Fr. T. R. Vasanthaseelan, the director of Human Development Centre (HUDEC) of Caritas Jaffna, the social arm of the Catholic Church in the Jaffna Diocese, was seriously wounded Thursday morning around 7:30 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells on Our Lady of Roses Church in Valaignarmadam for the second day. 14 civilians who had taken refuge at the church were killed. The shelling on the church, which is the main centre for people seeking refuge in Valaignarmadam, comes a day after Rev. Fr. James Pathinathar was wounded in a similar attack. The SLA has attacked the church despite repeated calls from Jaffna Diocese not to target the church where 17 priests and 22 nuns were continuing to serve their congregations.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 20:16 GMT]
 While talking about rebuilding the society afterwards, US efforts right now are not matching the emergency of the situation described as a catastrophe by the ICRC, was a question of journalist, Mr. Arshad, put to US spokesman Robert Wood, when he came out with a statement on Sri Lanka, during the daily press conference of the State Department Wednesday. The spokesman agreed but placed the blame on the defiance of the parties to the conflict to the calls of the international community. Another question was on the US presumption that the conflict is coming to an end by Sri Lankan military action. “Is it not quite conceivable that the level of violence that is now occurring will simply sow the seeds for continuing or renewed conflict”, Arshad asked Wood. While agreeing that violence is at an unacceptable level, Wood said that he couldn’t make that kind of judgement.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 19:58 GMT]
A special meeting on the situation in Sri Lanka was convened at the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi Wednesday night. At the end of the urgent meeting Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying: "We are very unhappy at the continued killing of innocent Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka. These killings must stop." PTI also reported citing Mr. Pranab Mukherje that India asked LTTE to stop "barbaric" attempt to hold civilians hostage.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 17:55 GMT]
Contrary to Colombo’s propaganda, major part of the civilians who escaped capture by Sri Lanka Army are moving towards the LTTE side from Valaignar Madam to Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal, in large numbers, Tiger officials told TamilNet Wednesday. LTTE’s Political Division official C. Ilamparithi said almost 200,000 civilians are still in the LTTE area. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister has convened an emergency meeting of ministers and officials to discuss Sri Lankan situation, BBC reported Wednesday. Same day, the US government has urged Colombo to allow international observers to the battlefront and UN access to all points of civilian movement, said a State Department spokesman in a press conference. Unless there are significant changes and swift action from the side of the US, positive developments can hardly take place, Tamil circles commented.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 16:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is said to be holding civilians from Vanni in Iyakkachchi without permitting them to enter Jaffna, since Monday, according to reliable sources in Jaffna. So far, only 4,325 civilians who were brought to Point Pedro in fishing boats by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) have been placed in the SLA 'detention centres' in Thenmaraadchi, according to Divisional Secretariat sources there. Several thousands of civilians were caught by the SLA on Tuesday when it advanced its troops into the 'safety zone'. Exact number of civilians in SLA custody is not known. The SLA has been accused for separating females, males and elderly and for subjecting the separated for 'filtering' before placing them in separate internment camps.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 16:19 GMT]
 "This same type of deliberate stalling, delaying and obfuscation by United Nations Officials preceded and occurred during the course of the genocidal massacre at Srebrenica. Of course these UN Officials were then (and are still today) acting at the behest of the Permanent Members of the Security Council, who supported Serbia taking over the Srebrenica "safe-haven" as designated by the Security Council, no matter what the cost to the innocent civilians seeking refugee there," said Prof. Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet, commenting on the denial at the United Nations to have Security Council hearings on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 11:08 GMT]
Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, who was sent to Sri Lanka as the United Nations envoy to report on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the beaches of Mullaiththeevu has expressed reluctance to have "even a closed door briefing" on the crisis, Inner City Press reported Tuesday. Nambiar's refusal to brief is likely have been influenced by Indian officials during Nambiar's stop-over in India after his three day visit to Sri Lanka, political sources in Colombo said.
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[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 10:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) started cannon fire from Manthuvil in Puthukkudiyiruppu across Nanthikkadal lagoon towards the coastal stretch of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Wednesday afternoon as local ICRC workers were providing coordinates to the ICRC ship to come close to the shore to transport the severely wounded from the makeshift hospital, according to latest reports from the medical sources in Vanni.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 08:07 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery and mortar barrage on Valaignarmadam Wednesday killing and maiming civilians who have sought refuge at several locations. Rev Father James Pathinathar, a prominent Catholic priest was injured in SLA shelling that hit the Church in Valaignarmadam Wednesday noon, initial reports said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities have put off the departure of a ship with WFP supplies scheduled to reach Vanni on Tuesday despite the local civil officials in Vanni indicated the coordinates for the new landing point, Vavuniyaa District Secretariat officials told TamilNet Tuesday evening. Starvation-stricken civilians have long been waiting for humanitarian supplies to arrive and the officials urged the WFP to impress upon the government of Sri Lanka not to delay the humanitarian supply ship, the sources further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 15:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and police took into custody Tuesday morning sixteen Tamil youths in searches conducted in the streets of Negombo and Minuwangoda, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan by the youths' relatives.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 14:57 GMT]
 The whole concept of peace facilitation will become a mockery and no peace facilitation will hereafter be seen with credibility in the world, if Norway fails in its ‘responsibility’ in stopping civilian tragedy in Sri Lanka, said 51 years old Sri Navaratnam, the leader of Norway Tamil Sangam (association), who commenced an indefinite fast in Oslo, Monday, demanding Norway bringing out immediate ceasefire, negotiations between LTTE and GoSL, not sending civilians to camps but resettling them and Norway recognizing the self-determination of Eezham Tamils. Mr. Navaratnam was furious of empty statements coming from IC and said such statements without action only infuriate the already traumatised people.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 14:02 GMT]
South Africa based Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka, which comprises of members from African National Congress (ANC), Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African Communist Party (SACP) and Tamil activist groups, on Tuesday condemned the Government of Sri Lanka for the killing of thousands of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan armed forces. "The pursuit of a military solution not in favour of a viable political framework addressing the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and their aspirations for self determination remains the fundamental barrier between permanent peace amid an unfolding humanitarian disaster," the statement further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 12:15 GMT]
 Thousands gathered around Parameswaran Subramaniyan's tent early Monday morning demanding the British Government to take immediate action against the carnage of Tamils in Sri Lanka to avoid another Tamil life being forsaken at Parliament Square in London, according to sources in London. Parameswaran, 28, on his 14th day of hunger strike, reiterated his calls to the British Government to impose for urgent ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Doctors by his side reported that his condition is critically weak. Dr Arundkumar Velauthapillai said "His condition is deteriorating rapidly. He is not taking enough water but he is stable for now."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:24 GMT]
 Mr. K.Sivapalan, Deputy Chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), on the first year anniversary of the killing of founder Chairperson of NESoHR, Rev.Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam, recounts his services to the community, and asks why the International Community is standing by as a Rwanda unfolds in Vanni. Father Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 20th April 2008 while he was driving from his residential prayer and counseling center in Vavunikku'lam.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 10:42 GMT]
Directed by the Ministry of Education, Northern Province Education Ministry Secretary instructed Jaffna Education Officials to postpone the start of the second term of all schools in the peninsula Tuesday for a week so that they could be used to lodge the civilians fleeing war in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. Government officials, directed by their superiors to be ready to receive Vanni civilians in their thousands, had dispatched a large number of buses to bring them to the peninsula Monday. But so far no one has been brought to Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 10:33 GMT]
 The Tamil Natonal Alliance (TNA) MP for Vanni, Sathasivam Kanagaratnam, who talked to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni on Monday blamed the Sri Lankan military for planning to cause a mass slaughter of civilians as Colombo announced a 24-hour ultimatum of surrender to the LTTE. Colombo has warned of concerted attacks into the so-called 'safety zone' starting from Tuesday noon. "The remaining area in the south of safe zone is full of civilians as many more have fled in recent days," Mr. Kanagratnam said fearing an unprecedented civilian carnage.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 09:11 GMT]
A doctor at the makeshift hospital in Valaignarmadam and several other medical staff including civilians were killed Tuesday afternoon when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired cluster bombs on them, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni said citing a fleeing patient who escaped from the attack.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 08:20 GMT]
 Director of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan on Tuesday told TamilNet that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has started to move on two fronts at Valaignar-madam and at Maaththa'lan using a section of the civilians who were caught by the SLA on Monday as human shields. When asked how the SLA was advancing, Mr. Puleedevan said the Sri Lankan military has forced hundreds of civilians to walk through LTTE defece line at gun point and was moving its troops under the cover of the civilians. "These are serious war crimes and the Sri Lankan government and the head of the armed forces are direct responsible for this carnage," Puleedevan said in a statement.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 07:51 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons waylaid a medical specialist of
Vavuniyaa general hospital and shot at him Monday night around 7:00 p.m. when he was returning after attending patients in a private medical institution at Theakkuwathai in Vavuniyaa police division. He was rushed to the Vavuniyaa general hospital in a critical condition, but succumbed to injuries on admission to the hospital, police sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 21:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday morning in a cordon and search operation
shot and killed three Tamil youths at Thevarku'lam area in Vavuniyaa police
division. Their bodies with gunshot wounds on heads and chests were
handed over to the Vavuniyaa general hospital Sunday evening, police
said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 18:23 GMT]
Residents of Pa’ndaarikku’lam in Vavuniyaa police division live in fear due to continuous housebreaks and thefts by unidentified armed gangs during nights, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Police have failed to arrest suspects even after several
complaints lodged by affected residents, allege residents of Pa’ndaarikku’lam.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 17:06 GMT]
Political Head of the LTTE, B Nadesan categorically denied reports in Sri Lankan and
the Indian media that Tamil Tiger human bombs blew themselves up to prevent civilians fleeing the so-called safe-zone. "The LTTE denies these fabricated stories that seek to discredit us and divert attention away from the suffering of the Tamil people," he said when contacted by TamilNet Monday night. Sri Lankan forces have deployed three types of internationally banned weapons such as cluster shells, napalm bombs and phosphorus bombs against civilians, causing heavy casualties among civilians. He said nearly one thousand civilians were killed and many more wounded in SLA attacks.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 14:04 GMT]
Thirukkoayil police arrested Sunday a Tamil policeman attached to Thirukkoayil police and a Tamil trader in Thurukkoayil, in Ampaa’rai district, on suspicion of helping Liberation Tigers, the police said. The arrested policeman had earlier taken into custody some paramilitary men who had tried to extort money form the arrested Tamil trader along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, residents of Thirukkoayil said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 13:18 GMT]
 Hundreds of dead bodies and wounded civilians were still lying in Maaththa'lan and Pokka'nai, and more than 600 seriously wounded have been brought to a makeshift hospital functioning at a school in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in LTTE held area throughout Monday, TamilNet correspondent reports from Vanni. The correspondent personally witnessed nearly 300 dead bodies while fleeing from the area. Cluster shells and smoke or white-dust-emitting shells that made people to faint were widely deployed on civilians by the Sri Lanka Army in its effort to capture them. However, a large majority of the civilians fled towards LTTE held areas while around 8,000 were trapped and captured by the SLA.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 11:31 GMT]
 National Freedom Front (NFF) supporters led by its leader Wimal Weerawansa and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Buddhist Monks political party parliamentarians staged a protest demonstration Monday from 10:00 a.m till 11:30 a.m in front of the Norwegian Embassy in Ward Place in Colombo demanding the removal of the Norwegian Embassy from Sri Lanka and to expel its Ambassador, sources in Colombo said. The demonstrators shouted slogans accusing Norway being partial to Liberation Tigers and that it is trying to save the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is on the verge of being defeated, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 08:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been firing shells fitted with cluster-munitions into civilian areas inside the northern part of the so-called 'safety zone', blocking the people who were attempting to re-locate within the zone and forcing them to get out into the hands of the SLA, according to latest reports from Pokka'nai area.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 06:19 GMT]
Several hundreds of civilians are feared killed and injured and total chaos prevails among civilians as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) advanced into the so-called 'safety zone' in Pokka'nai Monday morning 11:00 a.m., according to latest reports from Vanni.
Heavy fighting was reported along the bunds of the lagoon and patients in the Puthumaaththa'lan makeshift hospital were forced to run away as Rocket Propelled Grenades launched by the SLA hit the hospital. A few medical staff remaining in the hospital are hiding in bunkers. People were seen running in panic as dead and injured were seen lying scattered everywhere, eyewitnesses told TamilNet.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 02:55 GMT]
Doctors working in the remaining area of fighting in Sri Lanka are "worn out," and there aren't enough [medical] supplies to treat the hundreds, or thousands, of injured people, said International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) Country Chief, Paul Castella, according to a BBC report Monday.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched a fresh ground offensive in the early hours of Monday around 2:00 a.m. by opening fire along the stretch from Maaththa'lan to Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, according to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. Heavy shelling, rocket fire and gunfire was reported in Maaththa'lan, Pokka'nai, Valaignarmadam and Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal as SLA continued to fire from its positions. There are civilian casualties. Details are yet to emerge.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 16:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna launched sudden large scale cordon and search operations Saturday and Sunday in many parts of Jaffna peninsula, deploying thousands of soldiers, sources in Jaffna said. Nalloor, Chu’ndukku’li areas in Jaffna, Yaakkarai and Kizhavi Thoaddam in Vadamaraadchi besides certain areas in Valikaamam and Thenmaraadchi were subjected to cordon and search blocking all traffic through the above areas, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:45 GMT]
An armed gang of men alleged to be paramilitaries operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arriving in a white van Friday around 9:00 p.m broke into the house of a woman at Akkaraipattu and forcibly took her away, according to the complaint lodged with Akkaraipattu police by her children. Her husband had been abducted Monday around 5:00 p.m by armed men in a white van as he was riding home on his motorcycle, sources in Akkaraipattu said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:41 GMT]
 Exercising their right of free expression, 67 registered social welfare organisations of diaspora Tamils in France, took a pioneering democratic step of secret ballot on Saturday and unanimously declared support to the independence war of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Ki Pi Aravinthan in Paris to TamilNet. The Paris declaration read that in supporting the cause of Eezham Tamils, it has infallibly adopted the will and spirit of the Vaddukkoaddai Declaration of 1976 that was overwhelmingly mandated by Tamil voters in 1977, and was in line with the ideology behind the declaration of American independence, the Republic of France in 1789 and the UN human rights declaration of 1948.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:26 GMT]
 The hunger strike by 6 Tamils in Australia, calling for the immediate halt of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka that began on the 11th of April 2009 at 5:00 p.m. was concluded April 17 with an unprecedented rally in the capital city of Canberra where more than 8500 diaspora Tamils took part. A long time peace activist, Lara Pullin, who came to see the hunger strikers said, “The rallies by the Tamils have gathered the same momentum that I saw during pre East Timor independence time and Anti-apartheid movement; one gets the feeling that Tamils have come to a stage where they are saying ‘Enough is Enough’ ”, sources in Canberra said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 04:32 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van abducted Saturday around 3:00 p.m a 52-year-old Tamil woman from her house at Pankudaave’i in Karadiyanaa’ru after assaulting her and on Thursday armed men in police uniform in a white van forcibly took away a Tamil youth from Ka’napathi Nakar in Chengkaladi, in Batticalao, sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 03:06 GMT]
Unidentified armed men on motor cycles forcibly took away a youth riding on his motor cycle near Kalladdi Pi’laiyaar Koayil in Jaffna Wednesday, according to the complaint registered with Jaffna Human Rights Commission office by his wife S. Sasibarathi.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 01:11 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued indiscriminate shelling on the so-called 'safety zone' Friday and Saturday killing at least 60 civilians, according to local NGO workers. The SLA shelling targeted Iraddai-vaaykkaal and Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. Meanwhlie, medical authorities at Puthumaaththa'lan hospital reported that 63 wounded were admitted Friday at the makeshift hospital and 55 on Saturday. Of the 118 injured, 67 were wounded in shelling and 51 in gunfire, according to medical sources. Two died at the hospital Friday. 30 of the wounded are children and two of them succumbed to their injuries Saturday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 00:06 GMT]
“We have heard their [Tamil] voice and will keep listening”, said British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, in a statement on Saturday. Saying that the British government is for ‘immediate ceasefire’ and for civilians to be ‘allowed to leave’, and the UN is progressing in making GoSL agreeing to send ‘support to civilians’ and LTTE agreeing to ‘allow civilians to leave’, the Foreign Secretary didn’t fail to mention that this is a stance in unison of Britain, France, US and many other governments. Commenting on his statement, British diaspora circles told TamilNet that the statement didn’t touch the crucial issue of ‘civilians going where’.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 17:42 GMT]
 While around 60 civilians killed Friday and Saturday by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling, civilians have already started dying and many more thousands are at the verge of death due to starvation that is silently taking its toll within the so-called safety zone, TamilNet correspondent reported Saturday. The imminent victims are elderly, children and women. "Gruel has become the staple food to keep soul and body together for a vast majority of the civilians for weeks now. If there is no instant action, more starvation casualties can be expected in the next few days than the hitherto known total of casualties caused by shelling," warns TamilNet correspondent citing health and administrative officials staying inside the so-called safety zone.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 16:03 GMT]
The transport of goods to Jaffna through the newly opened A9 route had only been possible three times, in 56 lorries, since the launch of this procedure amidst much government publicity last month, sources in Jaffna said. The Defence Ministry does not permit the transport through A9 route because of the security risk of the goods and personnel involved, Jaffna Traders’ Union (JTU) sources said. The sources further expressed concern that the goods they wanted to bring from Colombo to Jaffna in lorries had first to be handed over to the SLA controlled Government Stores in Welisara where they have been delayed for weeks.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 15:37 GMT]
Night time robberies in Jaffna town and other areas of the peninsula which is under the complete control of Sri Lanka Amy have escalated markedly in the recent past. Though persons caught red-handed had been handed over either to the police or the SLA most of them have not been produced in the court, civil society sources in Jaffna raised accusation. As the culprits caught operate closely with SLA-backed paramilitary men in Jaffna, they manage to escape prosecution and punishment, the sources alleged.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 13:25 GMT]
 Tamil IDPs inside the barbed-wire internment camps in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled Vavuniyaa are not only medically underserved, but are subjected to degrading interrogations and there are reports of regular rapes and killings, reveals a well known German writer and Human Rights activist, Thomas Seibert, who recently returned from Sri Lanka after a humanitarian trip, conducting personal interviews that described the plight of civilians kept as near-prisoners under the SLA occupation.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
 In one of the largest rallies held by the American Tamils in New York, more than 5000 protesters from different parts of the United States and Canada converged in New York in the park on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues near the UN, and a smaller group in the permitted area 43rd Street park directly across from the Secretariat Building between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Friday, and urged the UN to take urgent steps to stop the carnage unfolding in the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu where the Government of Sri Lanka is slaughtering hundreds of Tamil civilians daily under the pretext of cornering the LTTE leadership. The protesters then marched westward to the Times Square, one mile from the UN, and continued the protest until 5:00 p.m., according to the organizers.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 09:28 GMT]
 The Government of Sri Lanka should not block UN Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar visiting the safety zone and acquainting himself of the conditions of the civilians, said LTTE political head, B. Nadesan when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday after reports of Sri Lanka rejecting UN appeal for ceasefire. "The GoSL is not making arrangements for his visit, to prevent him from knowing the nature and magnitude of its offensive and to prevent first hand verifications of the truth reaching the UN," he said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 07:20 GMT]
Security measures in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Ka’luththu’rai have been beefed up in view of the Western Provincial Council Saturday 25 April, sources in Colombo said. All leaves given to police personnel have been cancelled with effect from 18 Saturday April by the Police Department.
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 04:56 GMT]
Nearly 5% of the children in Jaffna peninsula have either lost one of their parents or separated from, due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) harassment, killings, arrests and forced disappearances, according to the 2008 statistics report submitted to Jaffna Government Agent (GA) by Jaffna District Children Welfare Centre (JDCWC) in Jaffna Secretariat. A total of 9,666 children in Jaffna peninsula have been victimized by the above humanitarian violations in 2008, the statistics revealed. Meanwhile, Jaffna district tops the list of school children drop outs compared to other districts in the country, according to Jaffna GA who commented on the statistics report.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 04:14 GMT]
Galagadera police arrested seventeen civilians, most of them Tamils, in cordon and search operations conducted in Kandy district Thursday. The arrested civilians are being detained by the police as they failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location, Galagedera police said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 19:59 GMT]
Jeremy Page, reporter for the British paper, The Times, was escorted to the detention room on arrival at the Katunayake International Airport last week, locked up for the night, and deported to the UK the next day, says Page in an article in Timesonline. He was denied a journalist's visa for Sri Lanka since August despite multiple applications, and he was identified and deported when he tried to enter Sri Lanka on a tourist visa. "I know why I'm blacklisted: the Government [of Sri Lanka] thinks, or pretends to think, that I support the Tigers. That is nonsense. I have no personal connection to either side of this 26-year civil war," writes Page.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 18:04 GMT]
Tangalle police rushed Tuesday early morning to Polomaaruwa, a suburb of Tangalle town, on a tip off that some strangers were seen moving in the jungle area in the night and took two Tamil youths into custody in a search operation, sources in Tangalle said. The police declined to reveal whether the arrested youths were from North, East or Upcountry.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 17:49 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen breaking into the house of a Tamil labourer at 6th Mile post in Chaampaltheevu in Uppuve’li police division in Trincomalee district Wednesday night shot and killed him, sources in Trincomalee said.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 16:04 GMT]
"The Sri Lankan State's actions establish beyond a shadow of doubt, that the real intention of the Sri Lankan State is the progressive extermination of the Tamil people," said the statement published by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in India on Friday. "The fact that the Sri Lankan State and its Armed forces despite the widest possible international outcry that the safety of Tamil civilians is paramount, have not been deterred even to the slightest degree, in the pursuit of their military attacks in Tamil civilian populated areas, without any regard whatever, for the safety of Tamil civilians, is indicative of the deep hostility that the Sri Lankan State and its Armed forces bear towards the Tamil people," the statement issued by the TNA further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:31 GMT]
Pointing out that UN Security Council's adoption of "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine in 2005 obligates the Council to "act preventively to protect peoples from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, rather than waiting until atrocities have already occurred," the Global Center for R2P, in a letter to the UN Security Council sent Wednesday said, "the Council must be prepared to bluntly characterize the violence in Sri Lanka as mass atrocity crimes; to demand that the government of Sri Lanka grant access to the conflict zone to humanitarian groups and to the media, both of whom it has barred until now; to dispatch a special envoy to the region, and/or to consider the imposition of sanctions. And ultimately, it must help facilitate a durable political solution to the fighting."
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
A TamilNet news report citing political observers in Colombo that appeared Thursday became a ‘view of the LTTE’ for the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Since its inception, TamilNet has been an independent news agency committed to reporting news with a Tamil perspective. However, it has become an objectionable practice with a section of the international media, including AFP, to refer to TamilNet as a pro-rebel, pro-LTTE etc. medium. But, Friday’s reporting by AFP has gone a step further by treating TamilNet report as LTTE’s belief or opinion. TamilNet does not such reporting as just oversight.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 10:32 GMT]
 "LTTE’s armed struggle is the historical product of injustice against the Tamil Nation in the island, and if the International Community could achieve a just political solution to the conflict, the need for an armed struggle would cease to exist," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Friday. Mr. Pathmanathan further said: "We assure the International Community that the LTTE is ready to participate in political negotiations and fight to meet the political aspirations of the Tamil Nation at the negotiating table, through political means, if an immediate and permanent ceasefire is ensured and the human sufferings of the Tamil people are addressed."
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 08:39 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka must extend pause in hostilities to prevent further casualties and enable trapped civilians to leave the area to secure locations, said India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday. "Continuation
of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties
at this time would be totally unacceptable," it further said. The statement came after
India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Mukherjee's statement ended by India reminding Government of Sri Lanka and 'others' concerned that 'Tamils are citizens of Sri Lanka'.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:43 GMT]
All householders in Colombo have been instructed by Sri Lanka Defence Ministry to register their particulars at the nearest police station and that failure to do so may result in punitive measures, according to announcement made over loud speaker in Sinhalese and Tamil from a long white bus bearing the Sri Lanka government insignia, Thursday night and Friday morning. Letting a person live in the house without informing the police is a punishable offence, it was announced.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:25 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van Wednesday night forcibly took away a young Tamil trader from Akkaraipattu in Ampaa’rai district as he was on his way to his shop, according to a complaint made by his wife to Akkaraipattu police.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 00:01 GMT]
 The coercion of the Canadian government withdrawing the release of a statement just because the Canadian Tamil demonstrators refused to lower the Tamil national flag, considered as pro-LTTE flag by the government, is a part of the international conspiracy to break down the Eezham Tamil liberation struggle by isolating and dealing with the three components of the struggle, i.e., the LTTE, the TNA and the diaspora, said Varnarameshwaran, a Canadian Tamil Music Director. "The conspiracy is to abet Colombo to eliminate the LTTE leadership at whatever civilian cost, India to handle the TNA and the governments of the so-called international community to intimidate the diaspora. It is a three-pronged attack," he said.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 23:44 GMT]
In one of the strongly worded press releases United States Department of State called upon the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) to immediately stop hostilities, and to respect the right of free movement of civilians in Mullaiththeevu area. The release further noted that "[a] durable and lasting peace will only achieved through a political solution that addresses legitimate aspiration of Sri Lankan communities. Adding further killing will "stain any eventual peace," the release urged GoSL to employ diplomacy to permit a peaceful outcome of the conflict.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
The observation of UN official Holmes, that a ceasefire is not possible and the LTTE is preventing the civilians from leaving, followed by the chorus of British and French foreign ministers coming out with the same accusation on the LTTE in strong words, signal UN and IC assenting to a civilian carnage in the so-called safety zone, political observers in Colombo said. They also cited Rajapaksa’s visit to Ki’linochchi and unconfirmed reports on the withdrawal of even pro-government media from the battlefront as final preparations for Colombo’s onslaught.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 17:36 GMT]
 While Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Ki'linochchi to boost the morale of his forces, shelling and cannon fire by his troops in Mullaiththeevu district killed more than 57 civilians within the so-called safety zone on Thursday, according to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. Nearly 1,500 shell explosions were registered by the correspondent as fired by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Thursday and around 600 of them hit the safety zone while about 150 cannon shots hit the coastline.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Sinhalese men armed with guns and swords descending on Tamil rubber plantation workers in Monaragala district fired at random on the workers sheds, seriously wounding eleven of them on Tuesday and Wednesday, Monaragala police who had arrested two Sinhalese youths involved in the incident, said. The wounded Tamil estate workers are admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Monaragala government hospital.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 16:00 GMT]
An armed gang of persons alleged to be Buddhist extremists who arrived in a white van Thursday to the 150-year-old Methodist Church in Pepliyana in Dehiwala in the suburbs of Colombo caused damages to the church, according to Fr. Surangitha Fernado, the pastor of the church.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 13:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna has reimposed the ban on outboard motor fishing in Jaffna lagoon for an indefinite period from Thursday, according to Fisheries Society sources in Jaffna. Thousands of families on the coast of Jaffna lagoon are affected by the ban which is said to have been reimposed as a security measure for the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) vessels transporting troops from Kurikaaduvaan in Jaffna to Mannaar, the sources added.
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[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 13:02 GMT]
"We want an immediate and permanent ceasefire and not a humanitarian
pause," said Virendra Sharma MP, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 12:03 GMT]
"All attention must now be directed towards the precarious situation for the civilians trapped in the conflict zone, and to end the fighting without further bloodshed," said a press statement issued by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo on Thursday, stating that Norway strongly condemned and regretted the incident in Oslo where the Sri Lankan Embassy building was subjected to a mob attack on 12 April 2009.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 03:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intensified its offensive targeting to bifurcate so-called saftey zone Thursday at 6:50 a.m. with fire support provided by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter gunships attempting to break the defensive bunds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) for the fourth day. The SLA and the SLAF were deploying maximum fire power in the fighting. SLAF bombers began attacking the bunds at 7:40 a.m. Civilian settlements in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal were being targeted by long-range artillery and cannons.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 22:22 GMT]
The Eezham Tamil organizations in France plan to meet Saturday for discussions on current situation and to take decisions on the future course of the liberation struggle of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Ki Pi Aravinthan one of the organizers of the event to TamilNet.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 19:33 GMT]
Kurunakar fish market in Jaffna town which had remained closed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) for nearly 20 years due to security reasons and occupied by the SLA for the last 15 years was officially reopened by SLA Wednesday for public use, sources in Jaffna said. Fisheries and Marine Resources Ministry, Jaffna Deputy Director, N. Tharmalingam, SLA officials, Fisheries Society representatives and political party persons took part in the event where fishermen sold their catch to public, the sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 19:22 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive units are continuously engaged in an offensive push, targeting Iraddai-vaaykkaal junction from Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) Mullaiththeevu road, amidst heavy resistance by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), according to latest reports from Vanni. Stiff fighting was heard near Iraddai-vaaykkaal junction, close to the entrance of the so-called safety zone. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked the area at least 6 times in the morning and helicopter gunships were seen firing rockets in the evening as Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) shells that hit Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal rocked the safety zone. As dead civilians were buried where they were attacked, only 83 wounded civilians managed to reach the hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan upto 5:00 p.m., according to medical sources.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 11:49 GMT]
 Inner City Press journalists, in a web discussion, say that the imminent "blood bath" of Tamil civilians in the "safe zone" in Mullaiththeevu coast as the first "problem from hell" for Obama administration, and ask why the world has not heard yet any voice on Sri Lanka from Samantha Power, author of a well acclaimed book on genocide and the senior director of Multi-lateral Affairs at the U.S's National Security Council (NSC) where she will have a direct hand in formulating U.S. policy on the United Nations, G-8, and other global forums.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:47 GMT]
 Thousands of diaspora Tamils of all ages took part in the hunger strike protest demonstrations launched by Tamil youths in France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Britain against the unceasing atrocious attacks by Sri Lanka armed forces on innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni. Similar protest demonstrations organized by Tamil Youths Organization (TYO) continue in many other countries in an effort to draw the attention of the International Community to the carnage of Tamils in Vanni that continues unchecked.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday morning turned its artillery, mortar, 40 mm cannon, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) and gunfire ranging from 50 caliber machine guns to LMG fire into the so-called safety zone, causing a carnage within a short period of time between 7:40 and 10:40 a.m. killing and maiming hundreds of civilians, according to the latest update by TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reporting from the area under attack. Civilians were struggling to transport the wounded to the hospital and many of the injured were lying along the roadside as gunfire and artillery barrage by the SLA continues. "It is impossible to assess casualty details, but at least 180 civilians are feared killed within 3 hours in the area between Mu'l'livaaykkaal to Pokka'nai."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 05:13 GMT]
Six Sinhalese prisoners were shot dead by prison guards and another four received gunshot injuries, when they attempted to escape from the Kalutara prison in the early hours on Wednesday, prison officials said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 03:39 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested eleven Tamil youths in a search conducted Wednesday in the suburbs of Colombo on the Tamil Sinhala New Year day, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 23:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Tuesday night launched a full scale ground offensive attempting to break the last earth bund of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) situated close to the safety zone on Puthukkudiyiruppu - Mullaiththeevu Road, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported Wednesday early hours, Sri Lankan time. When the Co-Chairs countries have asked for the extension of ceasefire, Colombo's defiance and ferocious attack on the civilian safety zone are widely seen by political observers as efforts to fulfil the agenda of India, which is scheduled to receive TNA, Wednesday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 16:42 GMT]
 With Norway's ouster as a third-party engaging with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), the role of the United States in having direct access with the Liberation Tigers has become critical to negotiating a ceasefire and bring relief to the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians caught in the war. Ambassador Lunstead points out that legal restrictions imposed by US domestic laws do not prevent the U.S. taking that role, and Professor Boyle further asserts that Geneva Conventions of 1949 makes it an obligation for the U.S. to intervene directly with both the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE in order to protect these innocent Tamil civilians.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 15:38 GMT]
 "Discredited and wrongly applied policies shouldn’t be a hindrance to the International Community in upholding a humanitarian cause. The IC, especially the US should find ways of engaging the LTTE directly in resolving the humanitarian tragedy resulting from the war waged by the Colombo government," said Shan Thavaraja, Switzerland based diaspora and human rights activist, on Tuesday. Striping Norway of its peace negotiation role, reportedly for mediating on behalf of US, was a scheming act of Colombo to keep the IC at bay. Colombo is planning for massive genocide and imprisonment of civilians in the forthcoming days. IC negotiating directly with LTTE only can pre-empt Colombo, he said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 14:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel at the check posts in Jaffna, Vavuniyaa and elsewhere in Vanni subject both men and women coming from Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held areas into SLA controlled areas to naked body checking before entering the check post, according to information given by the women held in the SLA detention centres to women representatives of Non-governmental Organizations in Jaffna. Though there are women SLA personnel at the check posts the women, irrespective of their age, have to undress at a distance from the check posts and walk naked to the check post where they are subjected to body check, the NGO representatives who visited the SLA detention centre in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 13:32 GMT]
As a few hours remained of Colombo's announcement of restricting military operations for 48 hours, sources in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa reported that only 40 civilians were registered as having arrived in SLA controlled territory from the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) held area. 26 civilians arrived in boats to Point Pedro Munai in Vadamaraadchi while 14 civilians had reached Vavuniyaa by land during the said period.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 12:32 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has intensified offensive push at the doorstep of safe zone since Monday 3:00 p.m. firing shells and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) into the civilian zone, according to the latest reports. The makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan reported Tuesday that it admitted at least 43 wounded civilians up to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Many of the wounded had gunshot injuries. More than 240 explosions were registered within the safety zone. At least 25 RPG rockets, 65 shells and 150 canons (40 mm) were fired by the SLA into the safety zone since 3:00 p.m. Monday. Initial reports also said that a 44-year-old Red Cross (ICRC or SLRC) worker had sustained injuries on Monday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 12:09 GMT]
 Noting that Sri Lanka's and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona's statement that Mexico will keep Sri Lanka issues off-the table, and the analogy to Chiapas as inaccurate, the Mexican Ambassador to U.N, Claude Heller, said , "we were clear, in the case of Sri Lanka, there is a concern, there is a 'responsibility to protect' the population that are in very difficult situation," InnerCityPress reported. Mexico will work to assure humanitarian assistance to population, the Ambassador further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Unidentified persons shot dead three Sinhalese villagers including two women Monday night around 7:00 p.m. at Galmadiyawa along Buttala-Moneragala highway in the southern province. Among the injured one is a woman. This was the second attack on Sinhalese villagers in Buttala area since Saturday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 00:17 GMT]
 It will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE, writes Vickramabahu Karunaratne in a recent article highlighting the need for alternative thinking. "In the case of the LTTE, it represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism. [...] It was and is wrong to the hilt in hating Tamil society for its demand for equality and self-determination. [...] All global capitalist powers including India will be forced to repent in time to come for their aggressive participation in human suffering of this order. [...] The LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime," he writes.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 17:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Division, in a statement issued in Tamil on Monday called the Sri Lankan announcement of restricting military operations for two days as an eyewash to create an impression of engagement on false premises. Condemning the move as a "political drama" aimed at "deceiving the International Community and the Tamil people", the LTTE said the Sri Lanka Army was continuing indiscriminate shelling and gunfire on civilians. The LTTE statement categorically stated that the Tigers were calling for a politically and militarily meaningful ceasefire with humanitarian considerations.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 16:59 GMT]
“Celebrating New Year will not be appropriate while thousands of Tamils in Vanni are subjected to immense humanitarian agony and the proper thing to do is to pray for all parties involved to pursue a path to reach a good solution,” Nalloor Aatheenam (mutt) Chief Incumbent Srilasiri Somasunthara Paramaachchaariyaar Suvaamika'l, said in his New Year message to the press Jaffna Monday.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 15:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka in a formal letter handed over to Norway's ambassador to Colombo, Tore Hattrem, Monday, has stripped the peace facilitator of its role in the Sri Lankan process, AFP said in a report Monday. "The government of Sri Lanka perceives that there is no room for Norway to act as (peace) facilitator," AFP quoted an official as saying. The announcement comes following recent reports leaked in Colombo press suggesting that the United States had contacted the LTTE leadership through a third party and that the LTTE, concerned of the security of the civilians, had proposed a longer period of ceasefire. Diplomatic circles in Colombo said that Sri Lanka's action was precipitated by the revelation that the United States Government was using Norway as a third party to facilitate a week long ceasefire.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 11:57 GMT]
Jewelry shops in Anuradhapura in the north central province are reportedly busy purchasing gold items from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who return home from Wanni battle field on leave. Three-wheel drivers are allegedly working in hand in glove with SLA soldiers in disposing these items to jewelry shops in Anuradhapura town, according to media reports.
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[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 11:39 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police Sunday from morning till evening conducted cordon and search operation covering the entire bazaar area of Vavuniyaa town. Civilians were not allowed to enter or leave bazaar area till the operation was completed. People in the bazaar area were taken to a location close to the police station where they were subjected to severe interrogation and their identities were checked. Those failed to prove their identity were taken to the police station for further inquiry, sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells and gunfire killed at least 23 civilians within the last 12 hours from 8:30 p.m. Sunday to 8:00 a.m. Monday, according to TamilNet correspondent reporting from the safety zone in Vanni. Most of the killings, numbering between 15 - 20, occurred in the early hours of Monday when SLA stepped up a fresh ground push to advance into the safety zone. The SLA is trying to advance during the night aiming for bifurcating and capturing northern or southern part of the so-called safety zone contradicting the announcement by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he had instructed his ground forces to "restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 08:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has begun advancing its fighting formations from Puthukkudiyiruppu targeting Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the early hours of Monday. The SLA launched the fresh move around 12:15 a.m. The offensive, contradicting the announcement by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he had instructed his ground forces to "restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature," comes a day after a similar move was reported in the early hours of Sunday.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 16:11 GMT]
Five Sinhala villagers were killed by unidentified persons at Mahagodaya in Buttala area in Moneragala district Sunday evening around 7:00 p.m., according to police spokesman in Colombo.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 09:59 GMT]
 A 20-days old baby succumbed to injuries of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on Sunday in the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan within the safety zone. Recently, a pregnant mother whose abdomen was torn open and in the condition of the hand of the foetus coming out was admitted to the hospital, after the SLA shelling. Meanwhile, as a result of the food shortage, children were seen standing in a long queue to receive gruel from a distribution centre run by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation on the Easter Sunday noon. The photos published here are self explanatory, but we caution readers of their strong content.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 09:39 GMT]
 Four Tamil youths ended their hunger strike protest in Zurich Saturday which they had begun on 6 April in a series of protest demonstrations launched by Tamils in various parts of Switzerland against the continuing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. More than a thousand diaspora Tamils of all ages participated in the above protest carrying banners and photographs depicting the sufferings of Tamils being killed, maimed and injured in Sri Lanka government’s shelling and bombings on Vanni which continue unabated.
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[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 09:11 GMT]
At least 31 civilians were killed throughout the day on Sunday inside the 'safety zone'. Exact figure of wounded civilians was not known, but at least 36 injured were rushed to the makeshift hospital at Puthumaththa'lan Sunday morning as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was embarked upon concerted attacks on the zone since the early hours of Sunday. 30 of the victims were wounded in shelling and 6 in gunfire, medical sources said. Two of the victims had succumbed to their injuries at hospital.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
 The protests against the carnage of innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni held in order to draw the attention of the International Community (IC) by French diaspora Tamils, launched in several popular places in Paris, reached its sixth day Saturday. Four Tamil youths are fasting unto death in the protest demonstration being held for the last two days near the Wall for Peace in Paris near the French Military Academy, the sources added. Members of Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) in France distributed pamphlets describing Sri Lanka government’s genocide of the Tamils to the tourists who visit the Wall for Peace monument from all over the world.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 07:18 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent statement issued on Sunday pointed out the dramatic rise in Tamil civilian casualties over the last two weeks and said over 4,100 Tamil civilians have been killed and over 8,800 gravely injured within the four months of this year. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the TNA, in the statement said that 707 Tamil civilians have been killed within the last 9 days alone and over 1,000 gravely injured. Sri Lankan State's armed forces were deliberately targeting Tamil civilians and that the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka are clearly being subjected to Genocide, the TNA said. It urged the International Community to compel
the Sri Lankan Government to stop all military operations immediately and to bring about an immediate ceasefire between the Sri Lankan State and the LTTE.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 02:51 GMT]
Three Tamil youths from Vavuniyaa who left to Colombo Thursday morning and interrogated by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Oamanthai check post are reported missing with Colombo Human Rights Commission office by the their relatives. The youths had travelled up to Madawaachi SLA check post where they had gone missing, the relatives said in the complaint.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 23:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) embarked upon intense attack on the 'safety zone', in the early hours of Sunday, targeting a place called Pachchaip-pulmoaddai, aiming for bifurcating and capturing the northern part of the 'safety zone', initial reports from Vanni said. Heavy shelling and gunfire by the SLA started around 3:15 a.m. in the morning, and within 45 minutes, more than 300 shells exploded inside the civilian area of the safety zone around Pachchaip-pulmoaddai. Heavy civilian casualties are feared. Because of the rains, people are even unable to hide in the bunkers which are flooded, reports said. Meanwhile, since Friday, the SLA was building up heavily on the other side of the lagoon in Maaththa'lan, close to the makeshift hospital.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:52 GMT]
 Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General and counsel for a Washington-based Tamil activist group, responding to a "white paper" on the current situation in Sri Lanka written and distributed to the media by Patton Boggs LLP, the Washington Law firm retained by the Government of Sri Lanka for advocacy work in the U.S., said, the "[p]aper is a collection of lies or misrepresentations calculated to conceal the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated against Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s armed forces," and "fails to discredit a single one of the more than 1,000 genocidal incidents marshaled in the model genocide indictment."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:45 GMT]
 Protest by Canadian Tamil expatriates continued Saturday with several thousands joining the protest, CTV news broadcast announced. "The demonstrators, who arrived largely from Toronto and Montreal, are part of worldwide Tamil protests against what they describe as a deadly military offensive by the Sri Lankan military. Shouting "Tamil Tigers, freedom fighters," the protesters called on Canada to reverse its 2006 decision to list the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist entity under the Anti-Terrorism Act. They are also calling for an immediate ceasefire," Canadian daily Globe and Mail reported.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 20:16 GMT]
In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Head of UNHCR, Navi Pillay, and to the Indian Priime Minister Manmohan Singh, several rights activists, journalists, and eminent citizens of India and Nepal, expressed concern about report of mass deaths of Tamil civilians in the Vanni region, and demanded that "UN and the International Community immediately intervene to ensure immediate cessation of the brutal and savage war in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka and ensure immediate humanitarian relief to the suffering thousands caught in the middle of the war." The South Asian citizens also urged all "National Governments to oppose all forms of financial aid to Sri Lanka until it ceases the war against its own citizens and ensures humanitarian aid and relief to be reached to the suffering thousands caught up in the Vanni region."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
 In a historic show of solidarity, more than 200,000 British Tamils, nearly two thirds of Tamils resident in Britain, marched through the streets of London Saturday demanding immediate ceasefire and recognition of Tamil Eelam. Sparked off by the initiative of second generation diaspora Tamil youth and students four days earlier, the Saturday's march became an unprecedented rallying point for the entire community, attracting the old students associations of the educational institutions of Eezham Tamils, functioning in London. The spirited participation of teens and mothers with babies in pushchairs significantly marked the level of community involvement in the agitation.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Sri Lanka Police from Thursday till Friday morning conducted several cordon search operations in Colombo, Ampaarai, and Vavuniyaa. About 50 civilians, including 40 Tamils were arrested in Colombo division and detained in respective police stations for further inquiry. Police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media that detained civilians had failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location. Most of the arrested Tamils are residents of Jaffna. 14 Tamil youths were taken into custody in Wellawatte area, he said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 17:39 GMT]
Around 660 civilians fleeing war in Vanni and held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres in Kaithadi in Jaffna district have been moved by SLA to Chaavakachcheari Hindu College as the detention centres are flooded due to the unrelenting rain that began pouring Friday early morning, sources in Jaffna said. Amidst meteorological department warnings that the rain will continue for two more days Jaffna Secretariat officials are facing a crisis in finding alternate places for the inmates in the detention centres in Mirusuvil and Kodikaamam, in Thenmaraadchi, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 15:46 GMT]
 The security of the main route running along the lagoon, linking the various villages of the safety zone within the stretch between Maaththa'lan to Valaignarmadam, has been compromised by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) buildup since Friday. At some points, the SLA has put up military posts 200 meters closer to the road. The SLA was seen heavily engaged in positioning its troops, eyewitnesses said Saturday. 16 of the 38 civilian victims killed on Friday had succumbed to injuries caused by gunfire in Valaignarmadam and Pokka'nai areas as SLA snipers shot at civilians inside the safety zone.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
Head of Liberation Tigers Political section, B. Nadesan, in an interview to India's weekly magazine Tehelka, said that, "[t]here will not be a post-LTTE scenario. Look around the world, and you will see the desire for freedom and dignity in the hearts and minds of all Tamils. The LTTE is seen as the way to achieve the political aspirations of the Tamil people," and added that the International Community should work towards "fulfilling the political aspirations of the Tamil people by recognizing their struggle for self-determination and a homeland," instead of waiting for a "post-LTTE scenario, which is never going to come."
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[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 12:18 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Jaffna Bishop, in his Easter message appealed to the people in Jaffna district to identify themselves with the civilians held in the detention camps, sharing their grief and sufferings, and to be frugal in their daily lives, sources in Jaffna said. Sixteen Catholic parishes in Mullaiththeevu have been forced to close down due to the artillery fire and aerial bombings by the Sri Lanka military, driving members of the parishes into the ‘safe zone’ announced by the government within the LTTE administered area where they continue to spend their lives in the bunkers, Catholic Guardian current issue said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Hospital records alone have registered 599 civilians killed and 3,350 injured inside the so-called safety zone, since the last UN statement on casualties on 13 March. But, the actual number of civilians killed could exceed 1,500 as many of the bodies were not brought to the hospital to be counted and buried, said medical officials in Vanni on Friday. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is stationed just 800 meters away from the hospital. Even in the other parts of the safety zone, the army is barely 1 - 1.5 km away, the medical sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 03:16 GMT]
 Three days of hunger-strike and protest against Sri Lanka's egragious rights violations and horrific killings against the more than 200,000 Tamil civilians caught up in the war held in New York from Tuesday concluded Thursday, organizers of the event said. Several hundred protesters from different states took positions in front of the Indian mission from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., protested in front of the Mexican mission from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and assembled to protest in front of the U.S. mission between 3:00 pm and 5:00 p.m. The protesters appealed to the UN missions to take steps to facilitate a ceasefire.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 02:52 GMT]
 Four years ago, there were only 2 percent of children below 5 years of age, malnourished in Vanni. But, today, 69 percent of them are malnourished, said health officials of Mullaiththeevu working in the so-called safety zone. Mothers are unable to breastfeed due to malnutrition. Presently, only one-month-old babies are given with milk powder due to lack of supplies. No milk powder is available in the market. Older babies have to satisfy themselves with black tea. There are unattended babies whose mothers have been killed. Recently, a baby was brought to the hospital by relatives, because it was given rice to eat and the baby couldn't handle it, the health officials reported further.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 22:50 GMT]
Reminding Colombo to to fulfill its international obligations to let journalists into the Vanni conflict area where "a major humanitarian crisis in unfolding," Asia-Pacific Desk at Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Friday said, "[t]he death of at least two journalists in the so-called "no-fire" area tends to support allegations that the Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for war crimes against civilians," and that the [Sri Lanka] government is violating UN Security Council resolution 1738 about protecting journalists in war zones."
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[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 20:51 GMT]
 Member of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Ex-Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka, Mr Eelaventhan, on his second day of hunger-strike in South Africa's Sri Mariamman Temple, in a press release, said that the "slight hunger pangs I feel now are nothing compared to the pain that pierces my heart when I see the needless suffering of my people," and echoed Tamil diaspora in demanding the international community to bring about an immediate and permanent ceasefire. 'He [Eelaventhan] is also calling for humanitarian aid, supervised by INGO's, to be allowed to reach the Tamil people affected by the war. He asks that local and international NGO's be granted unrestricted access to the detention camps,' the press release further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 13:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday morning stepped up shelling and firing on the civilian safety zone, causing casualties among civilians and making them continuously stay within bunkers, according to the reports from the makeshift hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan in Mullaiththeevu in the morning. Around 50 wounded civilians were brought to the hospital. The intensification of shelling was taking place as a statement of the Tokyo Co-chairs Friday morning re-affirming its call for the need to stop shelling on civilian zone. Heavy downpour of rain was causing difficulties for the civilians to stay inside the bunkers. The ICRC ship, which went to transport the wounded and sick returned unable to the complete the mission due to bad weather.
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[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 12:12 GMT]
During a conference call Friday morning among the co-chairs, Norway, U.S., EU and Japan, "the members expressed urgent concern for the safety of more than 100,000 people trapped by the conflict," and "stressed the importance of a humanitarian pause and of ensuring that adequate supplies of food, water and medicine reach the civilians in the zone," a release issued by the U.S. in the U.S. Colombo embassy website said. Assistant Secretary Boucher and the other Co-Chair representatives discussed how to best end the futile fighting without further bloodshed.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 09:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police conducted dusk-to-dawn cordon and search operations in several parts
of Gampaha town and its suburbs on Tuesday through to Wednesday and arrested about 219 civilians majority of them Tamils from North East and upcountry Tamils working in business establishments and other private sector institutions.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 08:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army conducted a cordon and search operation covering Second
Cross Street in Vavuniyaa town Wednesday from morning till afternoon.
The SLA took all occupants leaving a single person in their residents,
business places and other institutions near the Soosai Pillaiyar Kulam
junction for inquiry where they were subjected to severe
interrogation.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:37 GMT]
"We've asked [the United Nations] for an immediate ceasefire. We're very worried, of course, of the hostilities that are taking place but particularly worried for the civilians that are in the combat zone [in Vanni]," said Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Thursday, according to a report in National Post. The call comes amidst continued Tamil protests for the third consecutive day that have severely disrupted the traffic in downtown Ottawa.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:17 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka Government should stop firing heavy artillery into the "no-fire-zone" in the northern Vanni" which has caused "skyrocketing casualties" to civilians, said Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, in a press release issued Thursday. Calling the 'no-fire-zone' one of the most dangerous place in the world, the HRW also accused the United Nations Security Council of "quibling over protocol when it should be acting to bring an end to this ghastly loss of life."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:36 GMT]
 Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswarn Subramaniyan, who are on a hunger strike in the Parliament Square since 10:00 p.m. Monday, have refused to consume any food or water until there is a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The hunger strikers have also demanded that food and medical aid should be allowed to reach the civilians immediately with international monitoring committees and to allow "Mercy Mission," the diaspora organised ship carrying humanitarian supplies.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 19:26 GMT]
Indiscriminate shelling and gun fire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued on safe zone Pokka'nai and Valaignarmadam throughout the day on Thursday. Medical officials at Puthumaaththa'lan hospital told media that more than 300 wounded civilians were admitted and 47 of the victims died after admission at the hospital. Many civilians killed in the shelling and gunfire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were not brought to the hospital. Total figure of the casualties were not available.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 16:26 GMT]
Despite announcement made by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) over loudspeakers in the last few days calling people in Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni to cross over the no man’s land into Jaffna district, only around ten persons had come to Jaffna Tuesday and Wednesday, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. News of civilians in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna district being forcibly taken away to the SLA Special Rehabilitation camp in Thellippa’lai and the restriction to which the inmates are subjected to appear to have discouraged anyone willfully leaving Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 12:39 GMT]
Political Head of the LTTE, B. Nadesan rubbished reports in a section of the English media in India that there was a Tamil Tiger threat to top politicians including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. According to reliable media sources in India, B Nadesan had categorically denied Thursday that there was an LTTE threat to Indian leaders.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 10:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody 14 Tamil youths in a search operation conducted in Wellawathe, a suburb of Colombo city, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan by the youths’ relatives. The arrested youths are from Jaffna, the police said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 09:22 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Wednesday, accused the Government of Sri Lanka authorities for "blocking investigations into the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga," and urged Sri Lanka's President Rajapaksa to "assign members of the criminal investigation police to the case and to
formally request the help of international experts in solving the murder." Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index, the lowest ranking of any democratic country, the release added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 05:14 GMT]
Selvarajah Raveendran, a lecturer of Jaffna University and the brother of Jaffna District TNA MP S. Kajendran was released Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m. at Wellawatte in Colombo, media sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:56 GMT]
Students and their parents of 21 schools in Akkaraipattu and Poththuvil Education Zones in Ampaa’rai district staged a protest demonstration Wednesday against the acute shortage of teachers in the above schools, Ampaa’rai sources said. Hundreds of persons including religious and social dignitaries participated in the demonstration.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:52 GMT]
 Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General in President Lyndon B Johnson administration, is to attend a protest fast by five American Tamils in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York Thursday to conclude the protest campaign. The protest is organized as part of a world-wide diaspora campaign to highlight the horrific killings of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka military in a near genocidal campaign in Mullaiththeevu district, organizers of the protest said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:37 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos and police arrested 26 Tamils Tuesday in a joint cordon and search conducted in Kalmunai and Chammaanththu’rai police divisions in Ampaa’rai district. More than a hundred persons were taken into custody and released after interrogation. 25 of them in Kalmunai police station and 5 in Chammaanththu’rai police station have been detained for further investigation, sources in Ampaa’rai said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:25 GMT]
One of the three Team Leaders of the ICRC in Vanni, 47-year-old Sinnathurai Kugathasan, was killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on Wednesday inside the 'safety zone', according to rescue workers. Mr. Kugathasan, also known as Ramanan, was from Kollangkaladdi in Valikaamam North, Jaffna. At least 2 ICRC officials have been killed and three reported wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling within the so-called safety zone so far.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:19 GMT]
Karadiyanaaru police in Batticaloa district recovered Wednesday the body of a Muslim fisherman with assault injuries at E’rumpuththeevu. The fisherman, a father of ten children, who had gone to fish in Urukaamam tank Tuesday had not returned home.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 20:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells claimed the lives of 129 civilians inside the so-called 'safety zone' throughout the day on Wednesday, according to the latest reports. Three artillery shells targeted a child care / nutrition centre at Pokka'nai Wednesday morning where many civilians were waiting to obtain humanitarian milk rations for children. The shelling on child care centre was the single "most cruel carnage" on civilians within the safety zone, a rescue worker at the makeshift hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan said adding that exact casualty figures of children were yet to be reported from the site of the carnage, due to continued attacks till the evening.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 20:00 GMT]
 More than 4,000 Australian Tamils converged in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney Wednesday, causing police to block Elizabeth Street and bringing evening peak hour traffic to a standstill. The rally which was organised overnight, called on the Australian government to use their diplomatic powers to pressure Sri Lanka into entering a ceasefire.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 18:12 GMT]
 M.K.Eelaventhan, a former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka, in a press statement issued Wednesday, announced he will begin hunger strike on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 8:30 am at the Mariamman Temple, Mt. Edgecombe, South Africa. He said by starting his protest on "the soil from which freedom struggle of South African people was won," he hopes to draw the attention of freedom fighters nobel laureates like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu to recognize the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 17:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) will be operating passenger flights between Ratmalana in Colombo and Palaali military airport in Jaffna in future in place of private air travel firms which had been denied permission by the Defence Ministry to operate the service, according to an announcement made by Sri Lanka government, sources in Jaffna said. Minister of Social Services, Douglas Devananda, informed that passengers can book their travel tickets at his ministry office in Colombo and his Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP) office located in Srithar Theatre in Jaffna.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
 "I strongly insist that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to save the Tamil civilians in the safety zone," said AIDMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a signed statement in Tamil, issued on Wednesday. Ms. Jayalalithaa in the strongly worded statement blamed Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Central Government of India for the current plight of Tamil civilians. "People of Tamil Nadu will wash their hands off of such elements whose hands are jointly at work causing misery to the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," she said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 11:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit a child care centre and milk powder distribution centre at Pokka'nai, killing at least 40 civilians and causing injuries to more than 258 including 100 children. The SLA has stepped up indiscriminate bombardment, according to latest reports. At least 25 dead bodies have been brought to the hospital and 13 of them were identified by medical authorities at the makeshift hospital. More than 100 civilians have been killed and at least 422 wounded within the last 3 days, including Wednesday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 21:16 GMT]
 "I can understand the level of desperation among the Tamils in Norway. But, I can't cause miracles," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian international development minister and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitation to the peace process in the island of Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. Responding to Mr. Erik Solheim, Mr. Ki Pi Aravinthan, a veteran former Tamil militant of the 1970's and a well-known Tamil writer in France said that Solheim may not be able to perform miracles, but at least he should have refrained himself from committing knowing blunders. "Diplomacy may be the art of the possible, but a liberation struggle is to make impossible, possible. Norway failed in grasping the point," he said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 20:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army extensively used chemical weapons on LTTE combatants at Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) during the weekend, according to Lawrence, a senior commander of the LTTE, who personally encountered the attack and escaped, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has claimed that it has killed hundreds of Tiger combatants including senior commanders in PTK last weekend. The use of chemical weapons were the suspicion of many who have seen the photographs released by the SL Defence Ministry, but now the accusation comes from the LTTE. The Tiger sources neither confirmed the type of the chemical weapon nor said anything on the casualties claimed by Colombo.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 19:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Parliament Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the state of emergency for another month by a majority of 81 votes when the House of Representatives met Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. presided by the Speaker of the House, V. J. M. Lokku Bandara. The motion submitted by the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was passed with 92 MPs voting for, and 11 MPs voting against, parliamentary sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:31 GMT]
Vaazhaichcheanai police recovered the body of the Karuna group person shot and killed Friday night by unidentified armed men at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office of Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna in Vadamunai Ooththuchcheanai on the border of Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. The body was recovered near Vadamumani tank with gunshot injuries, the police said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Saturday and Sunday 65 detainees including students from three SLA detention centres in Jaffna district where civilians fleeing war in Vanni were held, sources in Jaffna said. The soldiers took away the 65 detainees to the SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) in Thellippa’lai claiming they were involved in terrorist activities. Though this matter was expected to be raised in the Tuesday meeting in Jaffna Secretariat held to discuss the problems faced by the inmates in the SLA detention centres, none of the representatives of the local and international organizations serving the interests of children, including UNICEF and the education officials, had mentioned the abduction of the detainees by SLA soldiers during the week-end, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 11:43 GMT]
A goldsmith from College Street near Jaffna Hindu College in Jaffna is reported missing since 5 April Sunday night after leaving home to his mother’s house in Nalloor, according to the complaint made to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) by his wife Vimaleswary.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 09:51 GMT]
 Civilians inside the so-called safety zone have been forced to remain under bunkers as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up shelling and long-distance gunfire since Monday morning. Those who move on the road have come under long-distance gunfire by the SLA. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets were seen flying over the safety zone and carrying out air attacks. Local humanitarian activists in Vanni said that this is the last opportunity for the civilised world to uphold human values by taking immediate action of protecting the civilians from falling into the hands of an 'avowed genocidal government'.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested 24 Tamil youths Saturday and Sunday in the suburbs of Colombo city, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan by the youths’ relatives. Meanwhile, security measures in Colombo have been strengthened on the assumption that Liberation Tigers may launch attacks in Colombo during the forth coming New Year celebrations, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 01:16 GMT]
 More than 5,000 British Tamils on Monday launched a sit in outside the House of Commons in London demanding an immediate stop to Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against Eezham Tamils. The protest, led by youth, started in the green opposite the British parliament Monday noon and the demonstrators moved to Bridge Street blocking all traffic through Westminster Bridge and Victoria Embankment around 3.00 p.m. The protesters waved hundreds of Tamil Eelam national flags and carried signs and placards depicting the plight of civilians being killed in the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces and demanded an immediate ceasefire.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 00:56 GMT]
 Subasan, a 24-year-old fisherman originally from Muzhangkaavil in Naachchikkuda,
displaced at least 29 times to date and now wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling
inside the so-called safe zone, told TamilNet correspondent in Vanni Sunday, that his family is traumatized by the daily hardships, and that his family faces starvation due to shortage of food. Subasan said his family lead a reasonably comfortable life from his earnings from fishing. His dire economic situation has forced his pregnant wife to now sell their tarpaulin sheet for Rs.1,400 to take care of him.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 21:43 GMT]
Trincomalee police took into custody ten Tamil youths, majority of
them are youths Sunday in a cordon and search operation in several
areas in Uppuve'li police division in Trincomalee district.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 15:31 GMT]
A Tamil youth returning from an Arab country had gone missing since 20 February in front of Fort Railway Station as he was about to travel to Trincomalee to board the ship to Jaffna from Trincomalee harbour, according to a complaint made to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office by his wife.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Sunday eleven students held along with their parents in the SLA detention camp in Koappaay Teacher Training College hostel, according to Education officials who visited the detention centre Monday. The students were taken to the SLA Rehabilitation Camp in Thellippalai, the parents of the students told the officials. This incident has created shock and fear among the detainees held in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna and Thenmaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Seventeen Tamil youths have been either abducted or gone missing in the past two weeks in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district and Thirukkoayil in Batticaloa district, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Thurairatnasingam. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and paramilitary military men who operate with them come to the houses of the youths in white vans and forcibly take the youths away, the relatives said in the complaint.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 10:35 GMT]
The second flight of Expo Travels to Jaffna from Ratmalana in Colombo Monday has been suddenly cancelled for reasons not known, sources in Colombo said. Jaffna bound passengers travelling from Expo Travels office on Colombo Vivekananda Road to Ratmalana airport had to return to their homes disappointed, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 02:48 GMT]
"It has become a routine for the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan to receive high number of civilian casualties each time after the ICRC ship has transported patients from here, on the same evening or the following day, " observes K. Tharmakulasingam, an administrative officer of Mullaiththeevu Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) Sunday told reporters at the hospital. "The people who come here ask as why they are being attacked within the safe zone," he said after witnessing at least 20 seriously wounded civilians to succumb to their injuries at the hospital Sunday morning alone.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 22:29 GMT]
 "Death in most brutal form has become common within the Safety Zone. The area littered with mangled bodies, torn limbs, and blood soaked soil appears more horrific than what one finds inside a butchers shop," a lady medical staff working out of a school-building converted into the temporary primary surgical care centre at Puthumaaththa'lan, told TamilNet Sunday. She also pointed out that a great number of small children have died in the last few days because of the SLA's ceaseless shelling and firing.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 16:08 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed H. L. Jamaldeen, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kalmunai police division and the Director of Kalladi Police Training College, in Ampaa’rai district, as he was returning from Kalmunai Mosque Sunday around 7:30 p.m, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 15:45 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA), which has been blaming that the Tigers were using civilians as 'human shields' on Sunday contradicted its claims saying that main LTTE fighting formations were inside a territory outside the safe zone, besieged by the SLA and claimed that the area has now been brought under its control, causing heavy casualties to the LTTE. Meanwhile, the SLA has stepped up attacks on civilians inside the safety zone from 8:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the latest reports from the civilian safe zone. At least 71 civilians were killed and 143 sustained injuries and the doctors at Puthumaaththa'lan makeshift hospital were struggling to save a one month old baby, seriously wounded in SLA shelling.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 14:49 GMT]
A 26 year-old married Tamil woman was abducted Thursday afternoon in Mabola area, Wattala in Colombo district by a group of unidentified
men who came in a three-wheeler while she was having a conversation with her co-employees at a bus halt, according to the complaint lodged by her husband S.Thevamanoharan with the Wattala police on Friday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) announced over loudspeaker Saturday in Kurunakar that fishermen should not go fishing or step on the shores in Jaffna lagoon areas in Poonakari East, Kannaatheevu and Ariyaalai as these places are heavily infested with landmines placed by SLA. Fishermen failing to heed the warning will not be given the ‘pass’ (permit) for fishing, the SLA informed, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A paramilitary man alleged to be a person of a prominent Tamil political-cum-paramilitary party in Jaffna, detained for suspected involvement in various robberies, abduction and extortion, escaped from Jaffna Prison Sunday between 4:30 a.m and 4:35 a.m, according to Jaffna Prison officials. The escapee is alleged to have operated along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) elements in Jaffna and the concerned political party refused to comment when contacted for information, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 08:34 GMT]
Kandy Police on Thursday evening arrested a Tamil while she was
waiting near Rupavahini Tower located at Handana in Kandy town for a
bus to her village. The Police said she was arrested on receipt of
information from the residents of area about her suspicious movement.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 19:53 GMT]
Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) is facing a crisis due its unpaid dues to Sri Lanka Electricity Board (SLEB) as the funds allocated to it by Sri Lanka Health Ministry has not been released, sources in Jaffna said. SLEB Jaffna is reported to be taking steps to suspend electricity supply to JTH as nearly 50 million rupees remain unpaid by JTH as dues. Meanwhile, JTH is experiencing severe difficulties due to want of funds as its oxygen cylinder refilling machine and water distilling plant are in disrepair besides the lack of medicines, x-ray films, all in combination, have seriously impeded the efficient functioning of JTH, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 16:01 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) vehicle carrying SLN soldiers along the causeway between Ponnaalai junction and Valanthalai junction in Kaarainakar in the islets of Jaffna lost control and leapt into the water causing injuries to more than ten SLN soldiers in the vehicle, Friday around 6:20 a.m. Some of the injured who were rushed to Kaarainakar SLN base are said to be in critical condition, according to unconfirmed sources in the islet of Jaffna.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 14:55 GMT]
 A group of around 50 Sinhala expatriates, some of them allegedly inebriated, attacked a car-rally demonstration organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora in Melbourne Saturday noon protesting genocide of their kith and kin in the island of Sri Lanka and demanding immediate end of the war waged by Colombo government. A few Eezham Tamils were injured and their cars were damaged in the attack. One of the attackers also reportedly got injured in the melee.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 13:40 GMT]
Regional Medical Services Divisions (RMSD) for Mullaiththeevu and Kilinochchi received only 5% of the total allocation of monthly needs of medical supplies for the first three months in 2009, a report from Mullaiththeevu health officials received via Vavuniyaa District Secretariat said. Blood transfusion bags have been depleted and at least one death occurs daily due to the inability for blood transfusion, the report added. Several badly wounded civilians die without antibiotic treatment, health officials document in the report released.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 12:28 GMT]
Twelve pregnant mothers were killed due to shell blast injuries during March, according to a Mullaiththeevu Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) report, a copy of which was obtained from Vavuniya District Secretariat. One pregnant mother, Jeruban Sathana, 22, died of severe infection without adequate medication (Septicemia) in her second trimester of preganancy, report added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Unidentified armed men opened fire Friday around 10:45 p.m on Karuna group persons in Karuna’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office in Vadamunai Ooththuchcheanai on the border of Batticaloa district, killing one and injuring the person in charge of the office. Two persons in the office at the time of the shooting have gone missing, police sources in Batticaloa said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A 27 year-old Muslim youth, a three-wheeler driver by profession, was abducted in Colombo Thursday morning by a group of men who followed his three-wheeler in a white van, according to the complaint lodged by his pregnant wife with the police and human rights groups in Colombo. One of the abductors had accomapnied the Muslim youth in the three-wheeler when the others in the white van abducted him.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 20:40 GMT]
 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued artillery and mortar shelling during the past 3 days in addition to firing Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) shells and Fifty Calibre rounds inside the so-called safety zone, killing 90 civilians and causing injuries to 195, according to medical and humanitarian workers within the 'no-fire zone'. Medical staff at the makeshift hospital Friday said they still lack many medicines and that only 7 types of medical items were brought in ICRC ship on Thursday.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 15:53 GMT]
An official handover event of 42 houses built by North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD) organization with Asian Development Bank (ADB) aid was held at Nungkaalai in Nedunththeevu, an islet of Jaffna (Delft), on 30th March. K. Ganesh, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), N. Thirulinganathan, Assistant GA Nedunththeevu, NECORD Manager, S. Sivaroopan and several others participated in the event, sources in Jaffna said. The housing project took nearly 5 years to be completed due to the travel difficulties in transporting building material to the island aggravated by restrictions imposed by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which holds the island in its complete control, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 15:22 GMT]
Unidentified persons assaulted Maharajah Organization Ltd. Sirasa TV reporter Susantha Abeyaratne Friday morning, according to complaints lodged with Kiribathgoda police. Managing Director of Maharajah Organization Ltd. said that Susantha Abeyaratne was attacked when he went to cover a protest relating to an incident in a school.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 14:46 GMT]
A fisherman from Kurunakar fishing in Kannaatheevu in Ariyaalai East lagoon lost his leg stepping on a landmine sown by Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) which exploded when he got off his boat. He was rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) by fellow fishermen where he is being treated now. SLA has sown landmines in this area to prevent Liberation Tiger combatants entering Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 11:57 GMT]
Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Mullaiththeevu district, Dr. Thurairaja Varadaraja categorically denied the stories filed in a number of websites stating that he has been suspended from services by the health ministry in Colombo.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 10:09 GMT]
Wellaave’li Predesha Sabah (PS) President V. R. Mahenthiran said in the Batticaloa District Development and Coordinating Meeting, that 42 civilians had gone missing in Wellaave’li police division, held in Batticaloa District Secretariat 30 March, sources in Batticaloa said. Many civilians had gone missing abducted by unidentified armed men in Paduvvankarai area in the past few months and the complaints made by their relatives in the respective police stations have not brought forth any constructive results, he further said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:36 GMT]
“Killings and abductions of media men and threats to their lives which have become daily events in the country have now reached Kaaththaankudi too,” the statement released by Batticaloa District Journalists Union (BDJU) said. The Union staged a silent protest demonstration Thursday in Kaaththaankudi condemning the attack on M. I. Rahamthulla, a Muslim Tamil editor of the Tamil weekly ‘Vaara Uraikal’ Wednesday midnight in his house on Dean Veethi in Kaaththaankudi in Batticaloa district.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 09:07 GMT]
A 71-year-old grandmother, a Tamil, who visited Tuesday her grandson detained in Boosa detention camp in Galle in the south, is reported missing after leaving the camp, according to complaint lodged by her realatives with Pettah police and Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Colombo. Boosa camp officials have reportedly said that she had left after seeing her grandson.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 08:50 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos shot and killed Friday 13 Tamil youths at Paa’nama Laakula in Ampaa’rai district, sources in Ampaa’rai said. Eye witnesses to the shooting said that the victims were innocent Tamil youths who are among others who come to work in the area.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 04:25 GMT]
Two officials representing Switzerland were on a visit to Jaffna to assess various development projects carried out by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Jaffna peninsula and to consider further development schemes, sources in Jaffna said. The officials will be submitting a report to their government on the progress made in the development projects SDC is engaged in and on the planning and feasibility of future projects.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
 British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday renewed his call for an "urgent humanitarian ceasefire" to "allow the remaining civilians to leave the conflict area" and sought unhindered access for humanitarian agencies to the civilians displaced by the fighting, including those, whom he referred as "still trapped" in the conflict area. Mr. Miliband's call comes a day after LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan conveying the Tiger stance to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces on Tamil people aimed at total subjugation of the Tamil nation, and that only an immediate ceasefire could put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Sri Lankan aggression and pave the way for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody twelve Tamil youths in Nuwereliya, Bogawanthalawa, Aniwathe in Kandy where Tamils live predominantly in a cordon and search operation conducted Thursday evening, police sources said. Many more were arrested but were released after interrogation.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Weligama police arrested a young Tamil Teacher who went to the police station to seek permission to travel to his family in Jaffna and sent him to Booza Detention Camp in the South, according to a complaint made to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office by his family members.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:29 GMT]
A fisherman from Jaffna engaged in fishing in Kannaatheevu in Ariyaalai East area unknowingly stepping on a land mine placed by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sustained serious injuries when it exploded, fishermen who admitted him to Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) said. Both hands of the fishermen had to be amputated and he still remains in a critical condition, JTH sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:10 GMT]
 “We are reliably informed that the men who took away our lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran in Colombo were in police uniform and we therefore request to reveal the place where he is detained and to produce him in a court of law according to legal procedure. We also request that Raveendran be interrogated decently and released at the earliest,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a report to the media in Jaffna Thursday evening.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 14:02 GMT]
Kalkudaa police in Batticaloa arrested and detained a husband who is suspected to have abducted and killed his wife. Informed by local residents of Paddiyadicheanai of odour of decomposed corpse emanating from a cremation ground, Kalkudaa police, accompanied by Vaazhaichcheanai magistrate, Manickavasagar Kanesarasa and Medical Officer, S. Atchuthan, went to the cremation ground and excavated the body of a woman, police sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 08:12 GMT]
The two suspects in detention in connection with the killing of Varasha, the six-year-old girl, were shot and killed Monday evening in an attack by unidentified gunmen while they were being led by the police to recover weapons hidden in Saradapura jungle near Kanniya on information elicited from the suspects, Trincomalee police said. One of the two suspects arrested earlier and held in police detention in this case was shot and killed by the police who claimed that he tried to escape custody and the other suspect the police claimed he had committed suicide by swallowing cyanide capsule while being taken to another place.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 07:27 GMT]
 Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister for international development and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitator discussed Wednesday evenng the plight of the civilians in Vanni with B. Nadesan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Revealing the details of the phone conversation that lasted for 30 minutes, S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat told TamilNet that Mr. Solheim conveyed the recent developments in the International arena regarding the Tamil conflict, especially with regards to the latest briefings at the UN Security Council. Solheim was briefed on the grave humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military aggression of the Sri Lankan armed forces, Puleedevan said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 06:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are subjecting the resettled civilians in Koa’ralaippattu South Divisional Secretariat area in Batticaloa district to undue harassment and restrictions accusing them of helping Liberation Tiger combatants who had infiltrated into the area, the civilians said. SLA soldiers intimidate them aimng to to expel them when they have to attend to their seasonal agricultural work, they added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:38 GMT]
The unannounced suspension of flights of Expo Travels between Jaffna and Colombo in the past two days has caused inconvenience to students who were to appear for the entrance examinations of universities in the south and for people from foreign countries who had travelled to Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The other firm that operates flights has increased the fare up to nearly 55,000 rupees to fly from Colombo to Jaffna adding to the inconvenience, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:34 GMT]
 A global appeal event for the "Mercy Mission," a ship carrying relief and medical supplies to Vanni, was held Tuesday at the Royal Horseguards, UK, attended by several British Members of Parliament, celebrities to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka to the public, organizers of the event said. The event was sponsored by "Act Now" and several Tamil charities. A petition addressed to the President of Sri Lanka was signed by the attending MPs and other celebrities, and the organizers said that the petition will be circulated to political leaders and other celebrities in US, Europe, Canada and Australia before the petition is sent to Colombo.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:11 GMT]
A masked gang of five armed men forcibly entering the house of the Muslim editor, M. I. Rahmathulla, of the Tamil weekly newspaper ‘Vaara Uraikal’ on Dean Veethi in Kaaththaankudi Wednesday midnight heavily assaulted him, sources in Batticaloa said. The weekly which comes out every Friday exposes the political malpractice and corruption related to the Government Development Projects, Mosques and government administration in the area, the sources informed. The armed gang burnt the copies of the next issue of the weekly and destroyed the publishing implements including his computer.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 04:46 GMT]
 Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the human toll due to indiscriminate firing of artillery shells by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) into the demarcated safety zone where more than 200,000 Tamil civilans have taken refuge. United Nations leaked document listed the number of killed as 2683 and wounded as 7241 between January 20 and March 7. Hundreds have been killed and injured in the last three weeks.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 02:20 GMT]
“We are also being informed by Sri Lankan diaspora [in UK] that Tamil students in schools, attended by their children, have made presentations titled ‘Stop Tamil Genocide’ during their citizenship class,” complained a recent letter signed by Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner, Sumith Nakandala, sent to head teachers of schools in Britain. Responding to the letter, the Chairman of British Tamils Forum (BTF) said: “British MPs and even a minister have recently expressed apprehension in British Parliament over impending genocide of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces. But the Sri Lankan High Commission is attempting to bully the democratic rights of the school students in London learning and voicing against the genocide in Sri Lanka.”
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 15:01 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Jaffna Bishop, conducted a memorial mass Wednesday morning in Allaippiddi St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic church in remembrance of Rev. Fr. Jim Brown and his assistant V. Vimaladas who had gone missing on their way to Allaippiddi church in the islets of Jaffna at a Sri Lanka Navy (SLA) check post in late August 2006, sources in Jaffna said. The church had been damaged in the Multi-barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire on the people who had sought refuge in it during a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive on 11 August 2006 and was renovated by the efforts of Chaaddi Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Philip Stanislaw, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 13:58 GMT]
 Jaffna University students of Medicine, Science and Agricultural Faculties joined in the boycott of lectures launched by the Arts Faculty students Wednesday demanding the immediate release of lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran, the younger brother of Jaffna District Tamil National (TNA) parliamentarian, Selvarajah Kajendran, sources in Jaffna said. All educational activities in Jaffna University ceased as the entire students joined in the boycott which is expected to continue until the release of Raveendran, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 13:37 GMT]
Col. Jindrich Hacker, Czech Military Attache to Sri Lanka and India, arrived at Palaali Military airport Tuesday in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aircraft where he discussed the security situation in Jaffna peninsula with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) key officials, sources in Jaffna said. The Military Attache visited Jaffna town Wednesday heavily escorted by SLA where he visited Jaffna Public Library and the town.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 12:44 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a hand grenade attack on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers Tuesday around 10:45 p.m near Vaazhaichcheanai bus stand in Vaazhaichcheanai police division in Batticaloa district, killing a soldier and injuring another, Batticaloa district LTTE sources said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 11:09 GMT]
 “The international community has started planning for the post-conflict period”, said a letter written a week ago by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to US Congress members who had shown concern to the humanitarian situation in the island of Sri Lanka. “I emphasized that the Sri Lanka Army should not fire into the areas where civilians are trapped in the conflict zone. I urged President Rajapaksa to devise a political solution to the ongoing conflict”, the letter further said. On the contrary, as civilian killings are only intensified by Colombo and as there are no signs of recognising the long-standing basic Tamil aspiration of self-determination, Tamil circles wonder what is meant by ‘post-conflict’ and by ‘political solution'.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Wing on Tuesday released the contents of a letter it recently sent to the UN, where it reiterated that an immediate ceasefire is urgent for the humanitarian aid and relief to reach the affected people. Stating that "no pressure is being exerted on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring an immediate end to the shelling that is slaughtering Tamil civilians in their thousands," the letter charged that "even while the Sri Lankan government is an active member of the United Nations, the UN is unable to rein in its own member state from killing civilians in thousands."
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 06:16 GMT]
Anuradhapura police arrested Sunday evening two Tamil teenagers on a tip-off that they appeared suspicious while they were waiting at Anuradhapura New Bus Stand to take a bus. The teenagers had come to Anuradhapura via Madawaachi a week ago and been staying in a Saiva temple, the police said.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 04:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Civil Security Coordinator, Berty Perera, is alleged of pressurizing the Assistant Fisheries Director (AFD) of Batticaloa district to implement a plan to colonize the coastal area in Koa’ralaippattu North Divisional Secretariat in Batticaloa, with Sinhalese fishermen from South, sources in Batticaloa said. Earlier attempts made by Berty Perera to colonize Vaakarai with Sinhalese fishermen from South on his own accord having failed the Coordinator is exerting pressure on government officials to realize his intention, the sources added.
Full story >>
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 03:39 GMT]
The suspension of sea passage and very limited air travel have impeded Jaffna University students’ travel to Colombo to sit for examinations or to reach Eastern University to which they have been selected from Jaffna peninsula, Prof. N. Shanmugalingan, Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University said. The VC has requested Moratuwa University VC and the Eastern University VC to help make alternative arrangements, Jaffna University administration sources said.
Full story >>
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