Holmes whitewashes Sri Lanka’s ‘slaughter’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:44 GMT]
Within a day of Human Rights Watch’s damning report stating that “Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there,” the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, went out of his way to avoid criticising the hardline Mahinda Rajapaksa regime and instead praised the “good cooperation” between the government and the UN agencies vis-à-vis the needs of the displaced Tamil population. Instead, he blamed the LTTE for the continuing suffering of the Tamil civilians in Mullaiththeevu.
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Holmes relies on SL Minister to translate IDPs' complaints

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:42 GMT]
Visiting UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, visited displaced camps in Vavuniyaa on Friday, accompanied by the Minister of Resettlement, Rishard Badurdeen and his security detail. Moreover, Sir Holmes relied on the Minister to translate the complaints of those people brave enough to speak up, humanitarian sources in Vavuniyaa said. When one woman complained her sons had been abducted by the Army, Minister Badurdeen told Sir Holmes that she said LTTE had abducted or shot her sons. Meanwhile, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had also protested the matter to Sir Holmes, sources said.
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Black Air Tiger urges Vanni youth to join for final battle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 20:45 GMT]
Col. Rooban, one of the two Black Air Tigers who flew LTTE aircrafts hitting Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters and the SLAF base at Katunayake Friday, in a letter left behind, urged the Tamils in Vanni to join the Liberation Tigers and strengthen the LTTE's military forces in the fight against the Sri Lanka Military forces.
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KwaZulu condemns genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 11:58 GMT]
The Speaker of Kwazulu-Natal legislature, the provincial government of the South African region inhabited by the largest ethnic group of the country, on Friday condemned the genocide of Tamils and expressed his support for the Tamil freedom struggle, accepting a memorandum on behalf of the premier of Kwazulu Natal, Sbu Ndebele, from the demonstrators in the city. More than 1500 South African participants marched approximately 2 km through the city’s main street to Freedom Square urging India to stop sending arms, Sri Lanka to stop the genocide of Tamils and the international community to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka.
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U.S. rally exposing Colombo's genocide draws 7000

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Nearly seven thousand U.S. and Canadian Tamils filled the Ellipse at the southern perimeter to the White House, as a show of solidarity with the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians undergoing daily aerial bombardment and artillery attacks herded within a 100 sq.mile area in Vanni. The rally, organized jointly by the US-based activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and several local organizations, drew a record crowd, dewarfing the "hurriedly arranged" counter-rally organized by supporters of Colombo, an AFP report said.
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SLA barrages Mullaiththeevu after Tiger air attack on Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery barrage towards IDP settlements located in Ampalavaanpokka'nai and the area located between Ira'naippaalai and Maaththta'lan Friday night from 9:30 to midnight. Casualties are not known.
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Sri Lanka forces 'slaughtering' civilians – HRW

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately cease its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there," James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Sri Lankan forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately shelled areas crowded with displaced persons. This includes numerous reported bombardments of government-declared "safe zones" and of the remaining hospitals in the region,” HRW said. “The plight of the region's civilians has been made worse by the government's decision in September 2008 to order most humanitarian agencies out of the Vanni.”
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LTTE: Black Air Tiger attack on Colombo's Air Force HQ, Air Base

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 22:55 GMT]
The LTTE Friday claimed two aircraft of Black Air Tiger mission diving into Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters in Colombo and into the SLAF base at Katunayaka, carrying out successful air raids. The Tigers also released photograph of the two Black Air Tigers, Col. Roopan and Lt. Col. Siriththiran with LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan before embarking on their mission.
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Tiger aircraft bomb Colombo, 2 killed, 51 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 16:25 GMT]
Two LTTE aircrafts hit two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) installations in Colombo, the Slave Island area where the SLAF Headquarters is located and the SLAF base at Katunayake between 9:20 and 9:45 p.m. Friday. 47 persons, including Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airmen, were rushed to hospital from Slave Island. Several of the wounded have sustained serious injuries, the sources said. Two of them succumbed to their injuries. At least 6 persons were wounded inside Katunayake airbase. Two of the aircrafts have come down on their targets, according to available details from Colombo.
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Tamil Murasu comes out with corrigendum

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 11:42 GMT]
The Tamil daily of Singapore, Tamil Murasu, on Thursday published a corrigendum in its front page for a headline that appeared in the newspaper on 05 February. The headline cited a TamilNet article of 30 January as the source. The corrigendum consents that TamilNet is not a website of the LTTE and provides a Tamil translation of the concerned lines of the article, conceding that the Tamil Murasu headline did not accurately capture the thrust of the article.
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"Flames on my body will guide to liberation"

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing happened ... So I decided to sacrifice my life ... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path," said British newspaper Guardian quoting British computer graduate, Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, who immolated to death in Geneva last week.
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LTTE identifies Sri Lankan PoW killed in SLAF air attack

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2009, 16:09 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier who was in the custody of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) was killed in the air attack carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force on Aananthapuram on Wednesday, according to LTTE officials.
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30 tonnes of food for 300,000 - Ilamparithi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 18:32 GMT]
Pressurised by international opinion, Colombo government allowed Wednesday transportation of a meager amount of food – 30 tonnes – for a population of 300,000, said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiruppu Political Head C. Ilamparithi. "When distributed the amount each one would be getting is 100 grams: roughly 66 grams of flour, 20 grams of Dahl and 14 grams of sugar per person," he said blaming Colombo for 'eyewash'.
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India offers ‘final thrust’ for ‘subjugation’ of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 16:40 GMT]
Accusing the Tigers for committing damages to the Tamil community and calling them for laying down arms and releasing the civilians, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Indian Parliament on Wednesday offered India’s facilitation to evacuate civilians, working along with the Colombo government and the ICRC, who would be responsible for the security, screening and rehabilitation of them, BBC reported. This offer without taking responsibility, neither to the future plight of the civilians nor to the political consequences that would follow, is the 'best of its abetment' India is rendering to Colombo in the subjugation of Tamils, according to Tamil political observers.
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Sri Lankan government rejects ceasefire call by TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 15:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Wednesday that his government was not prepared to stop the war as requested by the parliamentary group leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, in a press meet in Colombo on Tuesday. "There is no need to stop the war against the LTTE when they are loosing the war," Rambukwella said. The statement of Sampanthan in the Tuesday press meet in the parliamentary complex that people in Vanni are being killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces is not true, he further said.
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SLAF airstrike targeted PoW centre - Vanni Radio

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 12:20 GMT]
Tamileelam Vaanoli, a commercial broadcast of the Voice of Tigers (VoT), in its news broadcast on Wednesday said the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) attack on Aananthapuram near Ira'naippaalai on Wednesday had targeted a rehabilitation centre for Prisoners of War. LTTE officials are yet to confirm the report.
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We are deeply sad, puzzled: LTTE Political Head

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 16:16 GMT]
"We are deeply sad and puzzled at the attitude of the apex institution of humanity, the United Nations, in not taking effective measures to protect the life, security and interests of innocent Tamil civilians," said LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan on Tuesday. "Instead, the UN is engaged in fruitless exercises of accusing the wrong side, without coming and seeing what is happening by themselves," he said. When stopping the war is the need of the hour, allowing it and lamenting civilian sufferings is a faulty policy, Mr. Nadesan said, adding that indicting the defensive LTTE and exploiting the plight of civilians for the agenda of those who are waging the war will not bring in any positive results.
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UNICEF alarmed at plight of children in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 12:23 GMT]
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday that it was extremely alarmed at the high number of children being injured in the fighting in the northern area of Sri Lanka known as the Vanni. “Scores of injured children have been evacuated in the past week,” said UNICEF’s Duamelle. “Children are victims of this conflict by being killed, injured, recruited, displaced, separated and denied their every day needs due to the fighting.” The main injuries to children have been burns, fractures, shrapnel and bullet wounds. UNICEF reiterates the call it has made time and again to Government and the LTTE – civilians, especially children, must be given every protection from the fighting.
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Indian historian intends well but slips in historiography

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2009, 23:21 GMT]
Indian historian Ramachandra Guha intended well in saying if the defeat of the LTTE at the hands of the Sri Lanka army leads to a consolidation of Sinhala chauvinism it will be impossible to defend that. But the categorical statements he makes such as ‘ the Sinhala almost certainly migrated there (to the island of Sri Lanka) from eastern India, Tamil and other cultures influenced the island in later centuries, the LTTE is a terrorist organization, the civil war in Sri Lanka nears its end’ etc are not in accord with historiographical etiquette, says a Tamil academic based in Colombo.
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SLA, SL Police arrest 100 civilians in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 February 2009, 22:43 GMT]
More than one hundred civilians, majority of them Tamils, and residents of North-East were taken into custody in combined cordon and search operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in suburbs of Colombo from early morning till evening on Sunday. The arrested are being detained in police stations in the district and are being interrogated. The armed forces also took about three hundred motor bikes into their custody, police sources said.
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