'Show of might only could stop the war'

[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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Several civilians killed, 200 wounded within 5 hours as SLA launches onslaught

[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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World awaits right action from Obama: UK hunger striker of 20 days

[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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”Break the silence” – diaspora Tamils urge Norway

[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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UN abetted genocide aiming to seal liberation: NGO official in safe zone

[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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Thousands of Vanni civilians held in Oamanthai, Ki’linochchi district

[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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Fast unto death, protest demonstration, continue in London

[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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Colombo steps up air strikes, safe zone targeted 39 times Sunday

[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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Independent Tamil Eelam only solution, we will fight to attain it: Jayalalitha

[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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Nadesan denies UN accusation

[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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Outrageous response of UN to humanitarian crisis: Diaspora scientist

[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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Schools in Jaffna to reopen Monday

[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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Parameswaran continues fast for the 18th day in London

[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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Another carnage imminent as the two Indian mandarins return

[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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165,000 civilians face imminent starvation, LTTE urges IC to act

[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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Rajapaksa appoints notorious commander to head IDP resettlement

[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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Plans afoot to establish SLA concentration village in Kodikaamam

[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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Colombo uses starvation, denial of medicine as weapons of war: LTTE

[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.
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Civilian casualties top 20,000 in Vanni: Leaked UN document

[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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'Bountiful in killing shells, but no means for food packets'

[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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