LTTE reiterates need for permanent ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 17:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Division, in a statement issued in Tamil on Monday called the Sri Lankan announcement of restricting military operations for two days as an eyewash to create an impression of engagement on false premises. Condemning the move as a "political drama" aimed at "deceiving the International Community and the Tamil people", the LTTE said the Sri Lanka Army was continuing indiscriminate shelling and gunfire on civilians. The LTTE statement categorically stated that the Tigers were calling for a politically and militarily meaningful ceasefire with humanitarian considerations.
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Nalloor Religious Head appeals Tamils to abstain from New Year celebrations

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 16:59 GMT]
“Celebrating New Year will not be appropriate while thousands of Tamils in Vanni are subjected to immense humanitarian agony and the proper thing to do is to pray for all parties involved to pursue a path to reach a good solution,” Nalloor Aatheenam (mutt) Chief Incumbent Srilasiri Somasunthara Paramaachchaariyaar Suvaamika'l, said in his New Year message to the press Jaffna Monday.
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Sri Lankan soldiers sell jewelry pilfered from battle areas

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 11:57 GMT]
Jewelry shops in Anuradhapura in the north central province are reportedly busy purchasing gold items from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who return home from Wanni battle field on leave. Three-wheel drivers are allegedly working in hand in glove with SLA soldiers in disposing these items to jewelry shops in Anuradhapura town, according to media reports.
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SLA attacks kill 23 Tamil civilians within 12 hours

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells and gunfire killed at least 23 civilians within the last 12 hours from 8:30 p.m. Sunday to 8:00 a.m. Monday, according to TamilNet correspondent reporting from the safety zone in Vanni. Most of the killings, numbering between 15 - 20, occurred in the early hours of Monday when SLA stepped up a fresh ground push to advance into the safety zone. The SLA is trying to advance during the night aiming for bifurcating and capturing northern or southern part of the so-called safety zone contradicting the announcement by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he had instructed his ground forces to "restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature."
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SLA steps up ground offensive targeting 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 08:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has begun advancing its fighting formations from Puthukkudiyiruppu targeting Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the early hours of Monday. The SLA launched the fresh move around 12:15 a.m. The offensive, contradicting the announcement by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he had instructed his ground forces to "restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature," comes a day after a similar move was reported in the early hours of Sunday.
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Fast against genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka held in Zurich

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 09:39 GMT]
Four Tamil youths ended their hunger strike protest in Zurich Saturday which they had begun on 6 April in a series of protest demonstrations launched by Tamils in various parts of Switzerland against the continuing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. More than a thousand diaspora Tamils of all ages participated in the above protest carrying banners and photographs depicting the sufferings of Tamils being killed, maimed and injured in Sri Lanka government’s shelling and bombings on Vanni which continue unabated.
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Protests in Paris against genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
The protests against the carnage of innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni held in order to draw the attention of the International Community (IC) by French diaspora Tamils, launched in several popular places in Paris, reached its sixth day Saturday. Four Tamil youths are fasting unto death in the protest demonstration being held for the last two days near the Wall for Peace in Paris near the French Military Academy, the sources added. Members of Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) in France distributed pamphlets describing Sri Lanka government’s genocide of the Tamils to the tourists who visit the Wall for Peace monument from all over the world.
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SLA embarks upon capturing attack on civilians, 300 shells explode within 45 minutes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 23:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) embarked upon intense attack on the 'safety zone', in the early hours of Sunday, targeting a place called Pachchaip-pulmoaddai, aiming for bifurcating and capturing the northern part of the 'safety zone', initial reports from Vanni said. Heavy shelling and gunfire by the SLA started around 3:15 a.m. in the morning, and within 45 minutes, more than 300 shells exploded inside the civilian area of the safety zone around Pachchaip-pulmoaddai. Heavy civilian casualties are feared. Because of the rains, people are even unable to hide in the bunkers which are flooded, reports said. Meanwhile, since Friday, the SLA was building up heavily on the other side of the lagoon in Maaththa'lan, close to the makeshift hospital.
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Ottawa protest continues for Fifth day

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:45 GMT]
Protest by Canadian Tamil expatriates continued Saturday with several thousands joining the protest, CTV news broadcast announced. "The demonstrators, who arrived largely from Toronto and Montreal, are part of worldwide Tamil protests against what they describe as a deadly military offensive by the Sri Lankan military. Shouting "Tamil Tigers, freedom fighters," the protesters called on Canada to reverse its 2006 decision to list the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist entity under the Anti-Terrorism Act. They are also calling for an immediate ceasefire," Canadian daily Globe and Mail reported.
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Halt mass murder of Tamils, South Asians appeal to UN, India

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 20:16 GMT]
In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Head of UNHCR, Navi Pillay, and to the Indian Priime Minister Manmohan Singh, several rights activists, journalists, and eminent citizens of India and Nepal, expressed concern about report of mass deaths of Tamil civilians in the Vanni region, and demanded that "UN and the International Community immediately intervene to ensure immediate cessation of the brutal and savage war in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka and ensure immediate humanitarian relief to the suffering thousands caught in the middle of the war." The South Asian citizens also urged all "National Governments to oppose all forms of financial aid to Sri Lanka until it ceases the war against its own citizens and ensures humanitarian aid and relief to be reached to the suffering thousands caught up in the Vanni region."
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Detainees displaced again due to floods in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 17:39 GMT]
Around 660 civilians fleeing war in Vanni and held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres in Kaithadi in Jaffna district have been moved by SLA to Chaavakachcheari Hindu College as the detention centres are flooded due to the unrelenting rain that began pouring Friday early morning, sources in Jaffna said. Amidst meteorological department warnings that the rain will continue for two more days Jaffna Secretariat officials are facing a crisis in finding alternate places for the inmates in the detention centres in Mirusuvil and Kodikaamam, in Thenmaraadchi, the sources added.
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599 killed, 3350 injured inside 'safety zone' since last UN statement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Hospital records alone have registered 599 civilians killed and 3,350 injured inside the so-called safety zone, since the last UN statement on casualties on 13 March. But, the actual number of civilians killed could exceed 1,500 as many of the bodies were not brought to the hospital to be counted and buried, said medical officials in Vanni on Friday. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is stationed just 800 meters away from the hospital. Even in the other parts of the safety zone, the army is barely 1 - 1.5 km away, the medical sources said.
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69 percent kids malnourished: Vanni health officials

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 02:52 GMT]
Four years ago, there were only 2 percent of children below 5 years of age, malnourished in Vanni. But, today, 69 percent of them are malnourished, said health officials of Mullaiththeevu working in the so-called safety zone. Mothers are unable to breastfeed due to malnutrition. Presently, only one-month-old babies are given with milk powder due to lack of supplies. No milk powder is available in the market. Older babies have to satisfy themselves with black tea. There are unattended babies whose mothers have been killed. Recently, a baby was brought to the hospital by relatives, because it was given rice to eat and the baby couldn't handle it, the health officials reported further.
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RSF repeats war-crimes complaint against Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 22:50 GMT]
Reminding Colombo to to fulfill its international obligations to let journalists into the Vanni conflict area where "a major humanitarian crisis in unfolding," Asia-Pacific Desk at Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Friday said, "[t]he death of at least two journalists in the so-called "no-fire" area tends to support allegations that the Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for war crimes against civilians," and that the [Sri Lanka] government is violating UN Security Council resolution 1738 about protecting journalists in war zones."
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Canada calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:37 GMT]
"We've asked [the United Nations] for an immediate ceasefire. We're very worried, of course, of the hostilities that are taking place but particularly worried for the civilians that are in the combat zone [in Vanni]," said Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Thursday, according to a report in National Post. The call comes amidst continued Tamil protests for the third consecutive day that have severely disrupted the traffic in downtown Ottawa.
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Stop Shelling ‘No-Fire Zone,' HRW tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:17 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka Government should stop firing heavy artillery into the "no-fire-zone" in the northern Vanni" which has caused "skyrocketing casualties" to civilians, said Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, in a press release issued Thursday. Calling the 'no-fire-zone' one of the most dangerous place in the world, the HRW also accused the United Nations Security Council of "quibling over protocol when it should be acting to bring an end to this ghastly loss of life."
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Tamil hunger strikers' condition deteriorates in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:36 GMT]
Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswarn Subramaniyan, who are on a hunger strike in the Parliament Square since 10:00 p.m. Monday, have refused to consume any food or water until there is a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The hunger strikers have also demanded that food and medical aid should be allowed to reach the civilians immediately with international monitoring committees and to allow "Mercy Mission," the diaspora organised ship carrying humanitarian supplies.
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US Tamil groups meet with State Department on Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
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Carnage continues in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 19:26 GMT]
Indiscriminate shelling and gun fire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued on safe zone Pokka'nai and Valaignarmadam throughout the day on Thursday. Medical officials at Puthumaaththa'lan hospital told media that more than 300 wounded civilians were admitted and 47 of the victims died after admission at the hospital. Many civilians killed in the shelling and gunfire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were not brought to the hospital. Total figure of the casualties were not available.
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Number of civilians fleeing war to Jaffna drops sharply

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 16:26 GMT]
Despite announcement made by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) over loudspeakers in the last few days calling people in Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni to cross over the no man’s land into Jaffna district, only around ten persons had come to Jaffna Tuesday and Wednesday, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. News of civilians in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna district being forcibly taken away to the SLA Special Rehabilitation camp in Thellippa’lai and the restriction to which the inmates are subjected to appear to have discouraged anyone willfully leaving Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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