Japan’s aid for Tamils’ rehabilitation will not reach them – TNA tells Yasuhi Akashi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 10:02 GMT]
”Japan’s 480 million aid to Sri Lanka government to rehabilitate displaced Tamils will only help the government’s aims to segregate the traditional home lands of the Tamils converting Vanni into a military zone”, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, Suresh Premachandran told Japanese Ambassador, Yasushi Akashi when the TNA delegation led by Iraa. Sampanthan, TNA parliamentary group’s leader, met the Ambassador Saturday, TNA sources said. Yasushi Akashi, in response said that the Sri Lanka government which was elected by the people of Sri Lanka has pledged to him that the displaced Tamils will be gradually resettled and was told by Iraa. Sampanthan that Sri Lanka government will never keep to its pledge, the sources added.
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Children faint from hunger, starvation deaths reported in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 07:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan on Sunday blamed the Sri Lankan government for deliberately carrying out "horrendous act of genocide" by denying food and humanitarian access to the civilian population. Mr. Nadesan pointed out the imminent danger of starvation escalating exponentially and urged the International Community not to fail in its duty to ensure humanitarian access to the civilian population under siege by the Sri Lankan military. Meanwhile, health officials in Vanni report that several children faint from hunger within the so-called safety zone every day. Deliberate denial of food by Colombo, especially milk powder for children, have caused severe malnutrition and starvation as local media reported at least 9 starvation deaths in recent days.
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Jaffna DDC meeting postponed again

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 18:00 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh informed that the Jaffna District Development Committee (DDC) meeting scheduled to take place 5 May has been postponed indefinitely. This is the second time the DDC meeting is postponed during the current year. The DDC, comprised of Sri Lanka Minister, Douglas Devananda, Governor of Northern Provincial Council and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirajah, is responsible for the planning and implementation of development projects of Jaffna district.
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LTTE urges UK, French Foreign ministers to continue initiatives

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 17:59 GMT]
The LTTE’s Head of the Political Division on Saturday appreciated the attempts of the UK and French foreign ministers for visiting Colombo to address the dire humanitarian crisis faced by the Tamil people. In his letter to the ministers, the LTTE political head clarified the situation of IDPs in LTTE control areas in Vanni and invited international monitors to assess the civilian situation. Further, he concurred with the Foreign Ministers’ assessment of the situation by stating that ‘Should the Sri Lankan regime be permitted to continue with its ultimate objective of imposing a ‘final solution’ through military means, we have no doubt that it will destabilize the region’.
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Family man knifed to death in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 15:26 GMT]
Unidentified persons knifed to death a family man in Thurkkaapuram, a village close to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thellippazhai Thursday night during curfew hours, sources in Jaffna said. The victim had been sleeping outside his house and his family members saw his body Friday early morning and informed Thellippazhai police.
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Prof. Boyle calls for humanitarian airdrop to starving civilians in 'safety zone'

[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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7,000 Tamils in Vanni killed, 14,000 injured in 3 months, TNA tells David Miliband

[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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U.S. Government program to strengthen local authorities in the East

[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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Events unfold typical of Nazi concentration camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 10:13 GMT]
Food parcels were thrown to people after making them run like dogs, and two children were killed in the melee in the barbed-wire camp at Menik Farm, Vavuniyaa. A 12-year-old boy on Monday and a 7-year-old boy on Tuesday were crushed to death in the melee, media sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, around 300 Tamil youth from several camps in the area were forcefully taken by the Sri Lanka army, in the name of arrest, amidst protests of family members on Tuesday. Recently, 60 people have died of sickness in the camps, the sources further said. A total of 154,368 Vanni civilians are in captivity by the SLA up to Wednesday and out of them, 90, 181, were captured after 20 April.
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Rehabilitation symbols: How minds work in naming barbed-wire camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Four major internment camps meant for the civilians of Vanni and envisaged as long-term detention-villages as a part of Colombo’s structural genocide of Tamils, have been named after Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnampalam Arunachalam, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Lakshman Kadirgamar. All four of them belonged to two aristocratic families of Jaffna that had settled in Colombo. They served more to Colombo than to Tamil homeland. Two of them never spoke Tamil, but all of them in some way served Sinhala interests. The message is subtle: Look upon the supremacy of the Colombo-centric system and be subservient, never think of your own system, writes TamilNet’s regular political commentator in Colombo.
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300 feared killed, worst spurt of massacre imminent as UK, France fail

[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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SLA arrests 98 youths in Vavuniyaa detention centre

[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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15 Tamil civilians arrested in Trincomalee

[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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Students of schools used as SLA detention centres in Jaffna affected

[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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500 grams rice, 20 grams sugar per person to reach Vanni

[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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SLA fired 5,600 shells within 15 hours: LTTE

[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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Unprecedented carnage unfolds in Vanni

[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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Vanni civilians held in Jaffna schools lack electricity

[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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SLA suspends locating Vanni civilians in Vavuniyaa, Jaffna

[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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IC has been duped by Colombo: Prof. Ramasamy

[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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