British Foreign Office calls for 'Humanitarian Ceasefire'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 17:24 GMT]
The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday urged the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) to agree on immediate 'Humanitarian Ceasefire'. Mr. Miliband said in his statement that "military advances by the Sri Lankan Government against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have come at a severe humanitarian cost." Humanitarian corridors must now be set up and respected by both sides so that civilians have the opportunity to move away from the conflict area and humanitarian assistance can be safely delivered, he said.
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UN Rights Chief expresses concern at rapidly deteriorating conditions in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 12:48 GMT]
Expressing concern at the "rapidly deteriorating conditions facing quarter of a million civilians" and of "alleged human rights abuses, significant number of casualties, as well as huge displacement," Ms Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a press release issued Thursday said that "[t]he lack of access for independent monitors, humanitarian workers and the media only adds to concerns that the situation may be even worse than we realize." She adds: "a strenuous effort needs to be made to tackle the core problems that have fuelled this conflict for a quarter of a century, in order to bring peace and prosperity and restore fundamental rights and freedoms for all Sri Lankans in all parts of the country."
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LTTE not opposed to individual right of a civilian to flee combat zone - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 11:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan said Thursday that the Tigers have been urging the UN, ICRC and other international actors through all available offices to facilitate transportation for the wounded civilians in need of medical treatment to the Vavuniyaa Hospital. Blaming that there were elements seeking to feed false reports to tarnish the image of the Tigers, Mr. Nadesan revealed that, a UN 'security officer' who accompanied the WFP humanitarian convoy, had attemptd to pressure the Tigers on "completely wrong moral grounds," to organise an "exodus of the family members of the local staff of the UN," leaving behind the remaining civilians in the 'safety zone' to be subjected to "genocidal attack" by the Sri Lankan military.
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15 Tamil youths arrested at Katunayake airport

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 20:30 GMT]
Fifteen Tamil youths were arrested by the police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during cordon and search operations conducted in the Katunayake international airport on Monday and Tuesday. They have been handed over to the Prevention of Terrorism Unit of the Police for further interrogation, police sources said.
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LTTE denies reports of preventing patients leaving combat zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 19:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE)'s Political Office on Wednesday categorically denied a news originated in Colombo government's media, the Daily News, and was highlighted in the International media that LTTE prevented UN convoy transporting injured patients from Mullaiththeevu district to Vavuniyaa hospital. Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan described the news as mischievous.
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British duplicity of proscribing LTTE, inaction to Colombo’s war questioned

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 18:55 GMT]
When the British Foreign Minister, Lord Mark Malloch Brown told a room-packed audience of the British Tamil Forum on Tuesday that the British government cannot interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, a member of the audience asked him then why did they proscribe the LTTE, which did nothing to Britain. The Minister had no answer. The British Foreign Secretary Mr. Miliband who attended the gathering reiterated the British Prime Ministers assurance two weeks ago to work for an immediate ceasefire and said that he would speak to EU foreign ministers in the next few days. He also said that Britain would consider sending a Special Envoy to Sri Lanka.
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Hospitals, ambulances hit by shelling, hundreds killed - ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 10:20 GMT]
"Hundreds of people have been killed and scores of wounded are overwhelming understaffed and ill-equipped medical facilities in Sri Lanka's northern Vanni region," said the ICRC. hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded. "The violence is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from operating in the region," said Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia in Geneva.
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300,000 civilians face hunger, Colombo, abettors re-enact African scene in South Asia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 16:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has instructed UN and World Food Programme officials to keep away from 'safety zone,' which has been subjected to continuous inhuman artillery barrage, denying civilians any meaningful space of refuge, said the latest reports from the offices of the Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu. 300,000 Tamils are denied of even drinking water and are facing hunger, the reports say. "Completely given up by the International Community, the civilians are left to face the fate at the hands of their genocidal killers. Indications are that they would rather choose to die starving rather than getting caught by Colombo's army of predators," said a medical staff at Udaiyaarkaddu hospital.
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Tamil Nadu needs to forge an Eezham front

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 11:46 GMT]
It is time that like-minded political parties, civil groups, social activists, student organizations and cultural institutions of Tamil Nadu jointly forge a mass movement under one umbrella and aim to achieve independence and sovereignty for Eezham Tamils, urged a large number of mails received by TamilNet from India, Eezham and the Tamil diaspora all over the world in the last ten days in response to the call of TamilNet for opinion. "The front should face the forthcoming elections in Tamil Nadu on the question of achieving an independent and sovereign nation state for Eezham Tamils, in no uncertain terms, and get the mandate from the people", the mails further urged.
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Norway breaks silence, condemns war

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 10:21 GMT]
The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, in a statement issued on Tuesday said his government condemned the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, which has caused "unacceptable sufferings to the civilians," in the country. Meanwhile, International Development Minister Erik Solheim has called on the parties stressing that all the people in conflict area should be able to move freely and that the civilians who flee the war must be assured a dignified and respectful treatment under the supervision and monitoring of UN and international observers. "The sick and the wounded must be given access for treatment and ambulances must be able to travel unhindered, in and out of the conflict area," Mr. Solheim has demanded.
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9 Tamil youths arrested, security tightened in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 04:37 GMT]
Nine Tamil youths were taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Police in Trincomalee town on Friday on suspicion that they had been active cadres of LTTE. They youths are being detained in Trincomalee police station and are being subjected to severe interrogation by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID), sources said.
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Targeting civilians in safety zone, premeditated war crime of Colombo - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 20:12 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan, Monday night told TamilNet that Colombo has committed a grave war crime by asking civilians and their facilities, including the ICRC, to move inside a 'safety zone,' without any shelter or infrastructure support and then by subjecting them to inhumane artillery barrage, killing hundreds and causing injuries to more than one thousand.
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TNA seeks IC to stop carnage, urges medical help to victims

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 15:47 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent press statement has called upon the international community to use all its influence with the Sri Lankan State to bring an immediate end to the massacre of these Tamil civilians. The TNA further appeals that the international community intervenes to secure immediate medical supplies and medical personnel to be sent to treat the affected civilians.
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More than 300 civilians feared killed, people bleed to death on streets

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 15:30 GMT]
In a scene of carnage of untold proportion on civilian targets hit by hundreds of Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells, more than 300 people have died and several hundreds are bleeding to death within the last 24 hours, amidst pouring rain inside the 'saftey zone' declared by the Colombo government. Houses and vehicles burn for a stretch of three km between Va’l’lipunam Kaa’li temple and Moongkilaa’ru towards Paranthan road, reports from Vanni said on Monday. Unattended bodies and injured people unable to move are lying around everywhere, while a remaining doctor fled and helpless ICRC officials virtually cried at the scene from their bunkers, TamilNet correspondent said.
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'Their imagination is stuck at the 13th amendment'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:50 GMT]
"All the authoritarians of the world joined hands shamelessly to abet the repulsive Colombo regime in crushing the democratic aspirations of a people to liberate their nation. When the authoritarians gleefully claim success they seem to have forgotten that there is now no excuse of the LTTE for them in coming out with a political solution proving their credentials of liberal democracy, if they practise that at all. But they seem to be having no vision at all other than poking their greedy fingers into the hot pie and their imagination of political solution is stuck at the 20 years old ‘Rajeev Rot’, the 13th amendment," said a Tamil political commentator in Colombo.
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Does IC know no human dignity of civilians, asks a doctor in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:36 GMT]
"The world is silently witnessing one of the worst massacres of helpless civilians in contemporary times. These civilians know no crime other than not knowing where to go. While the genocidal military of the Colombo government is on the killing spree, India and the international community sadistically expect the civilians to come running out into the hands of their killers. Either way they expect them to perish," a doctor, while attending casualties at the Udaiyaarkaddu hospital, said on Monday.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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What prevents Akashi and his ilk reaching out to people in need, asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 03:48 GMT]
"The Colombo government has claimed that its forces have captured the 'last LTTE town', Mullaiththeevu. Its Army commander has said that 95% of the war is over. Therefore the LTTE must now be powerless in controlling the movement of civilians. But the people every time demonstrate their shudder at the thought of getting into the hands of the invading army and pull themselves into pockets further and further. In such a situation it is nothing but mischief for the visiting Japanese Envoy Yasushi Akashi to talk about the LTTE using civilians as human shield and The Hindu to highlight it," said an IDP activist from Vanni.
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Fleeing civilian youths misused to fabricate SLA propaganda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 13:07 GMT]
Six Tamil youths who recently moved from the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled area to Vavuniyaa were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, taken to a nearby army camp where they were given LTTE military uniforms and were forced to give video and voice cuts saying that they were LTTE cadres, who were fed up with the Tiger hierarchy and decided to hand over themselves to the SLA, legal sources in Vavuniya said. Vavuniyaa Magistrate has instructed the Police to approach the families of the youth through Government officials and to initiate family re-union.
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India, Co-Chairs backing war: Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 16:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka said Friday its military offensive against the Tamil Tigers was supported by India and the Co-Chairs to the donor community – US, EU, Norway and Japan. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the Co-Chairs and Sri Lanka had a common objective of a speedy solution to the conflict. Meanwhile, Japan’s special envoy Yashushi Akashi, was quoted by the Defence Ministry as “expressing satisfaction at the efforts by the Sri Lanka Government to safeguard the civilian population in the north.” Almost a hundred civilians died this week in the military’s deliberate shelling of populated areas, including a ‘safe zone’ Colombo announced.
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