Abductors release TNA MP's brother Raveendran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 05:14 GMT]
Selvarajah Raveendran, a lecturer of Jaffna University and the brother of Jaffna District TNA MP S. Kajendran was released Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m. at Wellawatte in Colombo, media sources in Colombo said.
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SLA shelling kills ICRC Team Leader in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:25 GMT]
One of the three Team Leaders of the ICRC in Vanni, 47-year-old Sinnathurai Kugathasan, was killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on Wednesday inside the 'safety zone', according to rescue workers. Mr. Kugathasan, also known as Ramanan, was from Kollangkaladdi in Valikaamam North, Jaffna. At least 2 ICRC officials have been killed and three reported wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling within the so-called safety zone so far.
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I can't cause miracles: Erik Solheim

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"I can understand the level of desperation among the Tamils in Norway. But, I can't cause miracles," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian international development minister and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitation to the peace process in the island of Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. Responding to Mr. Erik Solheim, Mr. Ki Pi Aravinthan, a veteran former Tamil militant of the 1970's and a well-known Tamil writer in France said that Solheim may not be able to perform miracles, but at least he should have refrained himself from committing knowing blunders. "Diplomacy may be the art of the possible, but a liberation struggle is to make impossible, possible. Norway failed in grasping the point," he said.
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SLA takes away 65 detainees including students to Thellippa’lai Camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Saturday and Sunday 65 detainees including students from three SLA detention centres in Jaffna district where civilians fleeing war in Vanni were held, sources in Jaffna said. The soldiers took away the 65 detainees to the SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) in Thellippa’lai claiming they were involved in terrorist activities. Though this matter was expected to be raised in the Tuesday meeting in Jaffna Secretariat held to discuss the problems faced by the inmates in the SLA detention centres, none of the representatives of the local and international organizations serving the interests of children, including UNICEF and the education officials, had mentioned the abduction of the detainees by SLA soldiers during the week-end, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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Colombo turns firepower onto 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 09:51 GMT]
Civilians inside the so-called safety zone have been forced to remain under bunkers as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up shelling and long-distance gunfire since Monday morning. Those who move on the road have come under long-distance gunfire by the SLA. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets were seen flying over the safety zone and carrying out air attacks. Local humanitarian activists in Vanni said that this is the last opportunity for the civilised world to uphold human values by taking immediate action of protecting the civilians from falling into the hands of an 'avowed genocidal government'.
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No more excuses in waging the war - Protestors in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 08:09 GMT]
"Colombo, which wages a brutal war, and its main war-partner, the Indian Establishment, which sets the agenda and the International Community that viciously abets the war, have no more justification or excuses in continuing the war," said T. Raju, a young Tamil diaspora activist who talked to media while hundreds of Norwegian Tamils gathered Tuesday in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo to protest against the Sri Lankan war. "Only a few hundred LTTE cadres remain in Vanni was the estimation of Colombo’s military, a few weeks ago. Colombo claimed that nearly 500 LTTE cadres were killed this weekend. Therefore any further war only means open genocide of people," he said.
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Threat of starvation haunts "Safe Zone" families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 00:56 GMT]
Subasan, a 24-year-old fisherman originally from Muzhangkaavil in Naachchikkuda, displaced at least 29 times to date and now wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling inside the so-called safe zone, told TamilNet correspondent in Vanni Sunday, that his family is traumatized by the daily hardships, and that his family faces starvation due to shortage of food. Subasan said his family lead a reasonably comfortable life from his earnings from fishing. His dire economic situation has forced his pregnant wife to now sell their tarpaulin sheet for Rs.1,400 to take care of him.
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Recognize our freedom: Vanni civilian leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
How can a people trust a government that has instructed them to get into a safety zone and then kills, maims and starve them continuously for months now, asks Pararajasingam Kanagalingam, president of the Vanni People Welfare Organization (VPWO), in a recorded affidavit on the civil situation of Vanni sent to TamilNet Wednesday. “ Right to live is the most fundamental right guaranteed by the UN. But, even after assurances, people are killed here everyday by government forces. Is it a government that can’t guarantee the fundamental right? If the government can’t care for us it should leave us free. What is wrong if the Tamils think of self-determination? Even now the people of Vanni are firm in this aspiration for freedom”, said Mr. Kanagalingam.
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Eyewitness reports horrific experiences at makeshift hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 08:00 GMT]
“What’s happening here is something that has not happened anywhere in the world,” says, Theyva, a local humanitarian worker, who has been attending the admittance of seriously wounded civilians being brought to the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan within the so-called 'safe zone' for 48 days. Sharing some of his horrific experiences with TamilNet Vanni correspondent on Wednesday, contributing his record of the gruesome effects of the carnage by the attacks of the Sri Lankan forces on civilians amidst prevailing starvation, Mr. Theyvendran asks: “How can the outside world keep on watching these things? Do they want the Tamil people to perish completely?”
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Swiss representatives visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 04:25 GMT]
Two officials representing Switzerland were on a visit to Jaffna to assess various development projects carried out by the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Jaffna peninsula and to consider further development schemes, sources in Jaffna said. The officials will be submitting a report to their government on the progress made in the development projects SDC is engaged in and on the planning and feasibility of future projects.
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Jaffna Univeristy students continue boycott, demand Raveendran’s release

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 15:10 GMT]
“We are reliably informed that the men who took away our lecturer Selvarajah Raveendran in Colombo were in police uniform and we therefore request to reveal the place where he is detained and to produce him in a court of law according to legal procedure. We also request that Raveendran be interrogated decently and released at the earliest,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a report to the media in Jaffna Thursday evening.
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2 more police detainees shot, killed in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 08:12 GMT]
The two suspects in detention in connection with the killing of Varasha, the six-year-old girl, were shot and killed Monday evening in an attack by unidentified gunmen while they were being led by the police to recover weapons hidden in Saradapura jungle near Kanniya on information elicited from the suspects, Trincomalee police said. One of the two suspects arrested earlier and held in police detention in this case was shot and killed by the police who claimed that he tried to escape custody and the other suspect the police claimed he had committed suicide by swallowing cyanide capsule while being taken to another place.
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Erik Solheim discusses Vanni civilians plight with LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 07:27 GMT]
Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister for international development and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitator discussed Wednesday evenng the plight of the civilians in Vanni with B. Nadesan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Revealing the details of the phone conversation that lasted for 30 minutes, S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat told TamilNet that Mr. Solheim conveyed the recent developments in the International arena regarding the Tamil conflict, especially with regards to the latest briefings at the UN Security Council. Solheim was briefed on the grave humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military aggression of the Sri Lankan armed forces, Puleedevan said.
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British celebrities, MPs endorse Mercy Mission to Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 05:34 GMT]
A global appeal event for the "Mercy Mission," a ship carrying relief and medical supplies to Vanni, was held Tuesday at the Royal Horseguards, UK, attended by several British Members of Parliament, celebrities to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka to the public, organizers of the event said. The event was sponsored by "Act Now" and several Tamil charities. A petition addressed to the President of Sri Lanka was signed by the attending MPs and other celebrities, and the organizers said that the petition will be circulated to political leaders and other celebrities in US, Europe, Canada and Australia before the petition is sent to Colombo.
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SLA fired artillery shells create havoc inside safety zone

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 04:46 GMT]
Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the human toll due to indiscriminate firing of artillery shells by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) into the demarcated safety zone where more than 200,000 Tamil civilans have taken refuge. United Nations leaked document listed the number of killed as 2683 and wounded as 7241 between January 20 and March 7. Hundreds have been killed and injured in the last three weeks.
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SL High Commission in UK differentiates Tamil students from Sri Lankans

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 02:20 GMT]
“We are also being informed by Sri Lankan diaspora [in UK] that Tamil students in schools, attended by their children, have made presentations titled ‘Stop Tamil Genocide’ during their citizenship class,” complained a recent letter signed by Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner, Sumith Nakandala, sent to head teachers of schools in Britain. Responding to the letter, the Chairman of British Tamils Forum (BTF) said: “British MPs and even a minister have recently expressed apprehension in British Parliament over impending genocide of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces. But the Sri Lankan High Commission is attempting to bully the democratic rights of the school students in London learning and voicing against the genocide in Sri Lanka.”
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Czech Republic Military Attache visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 13:37 GMT]
Col. Jindrich Hacker, Czech Military Attache to Sri Lanka and India, arrived at Palaali Military airport Tuesday in a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aircraft where he discussed the security situation in Jaffna peninsula with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) key officials, sources in Jaffna said. The Military Attache visited Jaffna town Wednesday heavily escorted by SLA where he visited Jaffna Public Library and the town.
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US envisioning 'post-conflict' period puzzles Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 11:09 GMT]
“The international community has started planning for the post-conflict period”, said a letter written a week ago by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to US Congress members who had shown concern to the humanitarian situation in the island of Sri Lanka. “I emphasized that the Sri Lanka Army should not fire into the areas where civilians are trapped in the conflict zone. I urged President Rajapaksa to devise a political solution to the ongoing conflict”, the letter further said. On the contrary, as civilian killings are only intensified by Colombo and as there are no signs of recognising the long-standing basic Tamil aspiration of self-determination, Tamil circles wonder what is meant by ‘post-conflict’ and by ‘political solution'.
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LTTE Political Wing responds to John Holmes' briefing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Wing on Tuesday released the contents of a letter it recently sent to the UN, where it reiterated that an immediate ceasefire is urgent for the humanitarian aid and relief to reach the affected people. Stating that "no pressure is being exerted on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring an immediate end to the shelling that is slaughtering Tamil civilians in their thousands," the letter charged that "even while the Sri Lankan government is an active member of the United Nations, the UN is unable to rein in its own member state from killing civilians in thousands."
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Apply adequate pressure on Colombo for ceasefire and negotiations: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 01:09 GMT]
The LTTE is not a movement believing that war is the only means to achieve the aspirations of the people it represents. But, political solution needs an environment conducive to it. The IC can play a positive role by adequately pressurizing Colombo for ceasefire and by promoting negotiations between GoSL and the LTTE as equal partners with due recognition, said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. On the issue of civilians, Mr. Pathmanathan said they have already asked the IC, what international instruments now hold GoSL accountable for the denial of basic rights of the people already moved and presently living in the internment camps.
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