Sri Lanka engaged in deliberate, systematic act of genocide - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 11:15 GMT]
The Tamil homeland is witnessing one of the worst human tragedies of the 21st century said the Political Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a statement issued in Tamil on Wednesday. More than one-thousand civilians have been killed and four-thousand are struggling to recover from the injuries amid continuous artillery barrage, air attacks and cluster bombing by the Sinhala state, the LTTE statement said. The LTTE statement categorically denied the Sri Lankan claim that a Tiger human bomb had recently attacked civilians.
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Colombo orders all health workers to immediately leave Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 06:57 GMT]
Health ministry officials in Colombo issued Tuesday a 'final warning' to the 8 doctors and around one thousand medical and health workers of Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts, now serving more than 250,000 civilians in the besieged Mullaiththeevu district, to immediately leave the LTTE controlled territory, according to the sources at the District Secretariat in Vavuniyaa. The move comes after military officials warned the medical staff of dire consequences.
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World socialists condemn war as Co-chairs’ machination

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 02:32 GMT]
The Co-Chairs have not been helpless, passive bystanders, but active participants who bear political responsibility for the Sri Lankan government's war and the humanitarian disaster now unfolding in northern Sri Lanka, writes K.Ratnayake, tracing the history of Co-chairs involvement in the island, in an article ‘The end of the Sri Lankan Peace Process’, appeared in World Socialist Web Site, Monday.
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IDPs in SLA detention camps lack sufficient food in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 01:35 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) made an urgent appeal Tuesday to local and international non-government organizations in Jaffna to provide food materials to the 2400 detainees held in three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps as the arrangement of supplying cooked food to them has been suspended by the SLA authorities in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The dry food items given to them under the World Food Programme (WFP) are hardly sufficient to meet the food requirements of the civilians detained in the SLA detention centres in Kurunakar, Koaappay and Mirusuvil, Jaffna Secretariat sources added.
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Tigers deny firing at civilians, accuse SLA, urge for international monitors

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 01:15 GMT]
Categorically denying reports by the Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo that the Tigers had fired at the fleeing civilians in Vanni, Puthukkudiyiruppu Divisional Political Head of the LTTE, C. Ilamparithy told TamilNet Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commando teams had entered the 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu and Chuthanthirapuram and had opened fire killing civilians and causing injuries to many in their attempt to forcibly move the civilians into the hands of the SLA. "Sri Lankan military machinery, which has relentlessly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the past four weeks, is now engaged in a propaganda drive to divert the mounting pressure on the Colombo government by the International Community," Mr. Ilamparithy charged.
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250 patients evacuated, return of ICRC to Vanni urged

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 15:21 GMT]
Two foreign officials of the ICRC officials left Vanni Tuesday around 5:00 p.m. in a ship transporting 250 seriously wounded patients, including 50 children, all wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire. The patients were taken on board the ship at LTTE controlled Puthumaaththa'lan in Mullaiththeevu to Trincomalee. The two ICRC officials who were remaining in Vanni had received instructions to be present in Trincomalee and it is not known whether they would return to Vanni, according to informed government officials.
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Land mine blast kills 3 SLA soldiers in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 14:19 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) triggered a landmine killing 3 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and seriously injuring 2 soldiers Tuesday around 1:45 p.m when they were engaged in road patrol at Pannalakamam area in Ampaa’rai district, LTTE sources in Ampaa’rai district said. Meanwhile, a policeman was killed and a home guard injured in a grenade attack on the sentry post located at Veeramunai junction Tuesday around 3:30 p.m in Chammaanththu’rai, the sources added.
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Relentless shelling expels civilians from 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 05:56 GMT]
Thousands of civilians were seen Monday fleeing in all directions from the 'safety zone' as mortar, artillery and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets hit the entire area demarcated by the Colombo government as safety zone. At least 36 civilians were killed and 76 wounded throughout the day in Va'l'lipunam, Chuthanthirapuram and in Maaththa'lan. The entire 100-houses-scheme located in Chuthanthirapuram was burning following MBRL attack with shells that caused immediate fire.
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East Timor President urges ceasefire, offers mediation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 04:00 GMT]
"There will be no long term peace in Sri Lanka if this war is prosecuted by either side to the bitter end," said the President of Timor Leste (East Timor) Jose Ramos-Horta, on Monday, offering his preparedness "to assist in any way that might contribute to a peaceful settlement." Recollecting the experience of East Timor, the Nobel Laureate expressed his fear of immense destruction a civil war can generate and said: " The people already traumatised should not be forced to remain or move against their will." He urged the LTTE to seek a political settlement through dialouge.
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Nordic foreign ministers call for international safeguards

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 21:58 GMT]
Subtly, but significantly differing from Tokyo Co-chairs, the Nordic Foreign Ministers who met in Oslo on Monday came out with a statement not insisting on LTTE's surrender but stressing on the interim no-fire period and a central role for UN and ICRC in receiving the IDPs from the conflict zone, adhering to international standards.
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Civilians killed by SLA gunfire after bomb blast

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 19:48 GMT]
Reports from Vanni indicate that the civilian casualties at the military checkpost claimed as 'IDP rescue centre' by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was in fact due to gunfire at the civilians by the SLA after a bomb blast, according to civilians who escaped the scene back to LTTE territory.
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Tragedy of civilians as international mechanism backs out

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 12:33 GMT]
Eight died and forty injured among fleeing civilians, reportedly caused by a human bomb according to news released by Sri Lankan military Monday. 15 military personnel also died and 24 injured in an 'IDP rescue centre' north of Visuvamadu, the military said. There were children among the dead as seen in the video released by the Sri Lankan military. The US Embassy in Colombo was quick to condemn the LTTE, based entirely on the Sri Lankan military version of the story.
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3 STF killed in mine ambush in Ampaa'rai - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 10:31 GMT]
Three Sri Lankan Special Task Forces (STF) commandos were killed and the tractor in which they were transporting military hardware from Ukanthai to Paanama, was destroyed, the Tigers have claimed according to LTTE media reports. The STF has not issued any details on the ambush.
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80 killed, 200 wounded, carnage continues inside 'safe zone'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 19:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued indiscriminate barrage of artillery shelling on the 'safety zone' killing more than 80 civilians and causing injuries to 200. Most of the casualties were reported along the roads. Every single shell fired by the SLA was exploding in densely populated civilian area and people were forced to stay inside bunkers. However, as people feared ending up in the hands of the SLA which is close to Chuthanthirapuram, they were fleeing in thousands further into LTTE territory amid shelling, facing deaths and injuries on their way, said TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. According to eyewitness reports, 40 dead bodies of civilians, including children and women, were seen along the 2.5 km stretch of Paranthan Puthukkudiyiruppu Road between Chuthanthirapuram and Theavipuram.
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3000 Tamils protest in Canberra

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 16:50 GMT]
More than 3000 Tamils from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra attended a rally at the Lawns of the Parliament House in the Australian capital Canberra on the 5th of February 2009 to raise the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Vanni, calling the Australian Government to stop the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The rally was organized by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), an umbrella organization representing the Tamil Australians.
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Colombo needs military victory before economy sinks - Aussie Don

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 05:58 GMT]
Asserting that Tamils have suffered "systematic discrimination practised against them," by past Sinhala Governments, Prof. Sisira Jeyasuriya, associate professor of Economics at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation last week said that Colombo's military victories are unlikely to bring violence to an end, as the Tigers will resort to guerrilla warfare, and added that the Government is engaged in false propaganda to ensure its survival. The recent news stories of 300 Tamil civilians killed in the safe zone are likely true despite Colombo's denials, Prof. Jeyasuriya told the ABC.
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Missing SLA soldiers' parents urge ICRC to approach LTTE

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Parents of missing Sri Lankan soldiers this week urged the ICRC to approach the LTTE to check whether their sons were in Tiger custody as reports appeared in Colombo media of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) overrunning an LTTE detention camp in Visuvamadu area. The association of missing soldiers parents, based in Kandy, has sent a letter to the ICRC in Colombo urging it to take up the issue with the LTTE as they feared 750 Sri Lankan soldiers were in LTTE custody.
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Tigers seize SLA arms storage in PTK

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 16:02 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) this week seized an arms storage from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), sources close to LTTE told TamilNet Friday. Hundreds of SLA crack commandos were drawn into Mannaka'ndal and Keappaapulavu 'boxes' and were cut off from their rear supplies during a pre-emptive strike by the Tiger forces, resulting in the loss of more than one thousand SLA soldiers since February 01. An arms storage, which was full of weapons as the SLA was in full preparation to launch its 'final assault' on PTK was seized by the Tiger commandos engaged in the preemptive strike.
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Sinhala mob stones ICRC office in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 10:03 GMT]
Unruly mobs surrounded and stoned the main office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the capital Colombo on Friday afternoon. The attack comes hours after a pro-government politician called for the expulsion of the ICRC chief Paul Castella following recent statements made by him on the ongoing conflict in the north between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE).
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Minister, members come hard on Colombo in British Parliament

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 08:04 GMT]
The situation in Sri Lanka is nothing short of shocking. Any attempts, including by representatives of the Sri Lanka government to defend the shelling of the [Puthukkudiyiruppu] hospital are frankly unacceptable. Such attacks are serious violations of international humanitarian law, said Bill Rummell, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in the British Parliament on Thursday. “The statement made by the Sri Lankan Government on Tuesday—that civilians should move out of the conflict area because they could no longer guarantee their safety—was extraordinarily worrying. […] The call for a temporary no-fire period by the [British] Foreign Secretary and Hillary Clinton this week should be acted upon immediately," he said.
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