TRO reports detail struggle for survival

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 02:01 GMT]
In a series of reports Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the travails of daily life of the civilians caught in the war, amidst the artillery fire of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). "From the first shell no one knows how to escape. Before second shell falls all will be in the bunkers. Like parent rabbits and their kids scurrying to a hole when they saw a vulture parents dragging and lifting their children and hurry into the bunkers," Christy says in the 11th March report.
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TNA parliamentarian reiterates his political stance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 08:14 GMT]
S. Vino Noharathalingam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni parliamentarian, released a report to the media Sunday in which he condemns and rejects certain malicious misreporting and misrepresentation of his speech in the Sri Lanka Parliament Thursday, making himself clear on his unwavering commitment to the struggle of the Tamil Nation.
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42 civilians killed, 80 wounded in Vanni Saturday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells into the 'safety zone', also on Saturday, killing 42 civilians and causing injuries to around 80 civilians, including a GS (Village officer), initial reports from Vanni said Saturday. Meanwhile, the SLA and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) were using heavy explosives in their clashes with the LTTE defensive units in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) area. At least 7 civilians who ventured into Iranaippaalai to collect coconuts were reported killed in SLAF air strike.
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Civil war generation documents life amidst death in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 04:49 GMT]
The Odour of Death: An Account of People Devoured by War, a collection of narratives and features of personal experience expressed in the form of short stories by 1983-born T. Agiilan, is a significant example of creative writing coming from first hand impressions of a generation of Eezham Tamils that has seen nothing but war ever since birth. Another importance of the book is its documentation of war-torn Vanni of pre 2002 era from the perspectives of a person of that land.
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SLA deserter from Vanni arrested with jewelry in Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 17:31 GMT]
Thambuthegama police in Anuradhapura district arrested Tuesday evening a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) deserter from Visuvamadu battle front in Vanni with jewelry articles worn by women worth around 3 million rupees at a check point in Thambuthegama, according to media report in Colombo quoting H. W. Kumarasiri, the Officer-in-charge of Thamuthegama police.
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Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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Injured mother, child reported missing after admission to Mannaar hospital

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 19:18 GMT]
A mother and her two-month-old child sustaining injuries in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling in Vanni and taken to Trincomalee by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and admitted to Mannaar government hospital 16 February had reported missing Wednesday night, according to complaints made by her relatives to Vanni Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians.
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Wounded CARE aid worker dies due to lack of medicine in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:20 GMT]
A 24-year-old humanitarian worker of the CARE International has succumbed to his injuries caused by a shell attack inside the no-fire zone (safety zone) in Mullaiththeevu, said Nick Osborne, Country Director for CARE International in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The victims leg had to be amputated following the injury, and he died on Tuesday lacking necessary medical treatment.
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Third ICRC worker wounded in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:15 GMT]
An ICRC worker was wounded Wednesday in Puthumaaththa'lan in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fire within the 'safety zone', medical sources in Vanni said. An ICRC worker was killed earlier this month and two ICRC workers had sustained injuries within the safety zone.
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Socialist Resistance voices for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 02:17 GMT]
“The socialist and labour movement stand against repression and genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in the face of its suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan government”, said Duncan Chapel, member of the Socialist Resistance steering committee, Tuesday, greeting 25,000 strong Tamil demonstration outside of the European Commission. Supporting the demands for sending food and medicine, withdrawal of Sri Lanka military from Tamil homeland and lifting the ban on LTTE, “the legalization of the LTTE has to be the first step towards Tamil peace, freedom and self-determination”, he said.
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US support to IMF's Sri Lanka loan illegal – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:17 GMT]
“Concerning the proposed loan to Sri Lanka by the International Monetary Fund, United States domestic law makes it quite clear that the Obama Administration is obligated to oppose the loan. And given the weighted voting system for the IMF Board of Directors, a United States vote against the loan would be tantamount to a veto,” said Prof. Boyle, Professor at Illinois College of Law, adding, “for the Obama Administration to violate the Statute [22 USC 262d] and vote in favor of the proposed IMF loan to support the GOSL's "policy goals" would render the United States government "complicit" with Sri Lanka's genocide.”
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Speak your language at home: Lee Kuan Yew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:12 GMT]
“My advice is for both parents to speak Mandarin to their children if they can. If one speaks in Mandarin and the other in English, the child will grow up speaking more English than Mandarin”, said Lee Kuan Yew, minister mentor and former prime minister of Singapore, Tuesday, at the 30th Anniversary Launch of Singapore’s language campaign. “Singapore’s multi-racial peoples will never be united if we had used Mandarin as our common language. All non-Chinese, 25% of Singaporeans, will be disadvantaged. The result will be endless strife, as in Sri Lanka, where Singhalese was made the national language and the Tamil-speaking were marginalized”, the senior statesman said further.
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Uthayn editor Vithiyatharan detained for 3 more months

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 19:12 GMT]
Colombo Pettah Court majistrate, Jegan Balapitiya, extended Wednesday the detention period of Uthayan editor Vithiyatharan for 3 more months when he was produced before him by Prevention of Crime Branch police, sources in Colombo said. The police requested the court for the extension of detention of Vithiyatharan on the directions of Gothabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary and the brother of President Rajapakse, the sources added.
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UN withheld civilian casualty figures to protect Sri Lankan state - report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Publishing two leaked documents by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, in an exclusive report on Wednesday revealed that the United Nations office had its own estimates of casualty figures. The UN had internal documentation for 9,924 civilian casualties including 2,683 killings and 7,241 injuries since 20 January to 07 March 2009. "Now it appears that unlike in other conflicts from Darfur to Gaza, the UN withheld the Sri Lanka figures, in effect protecting the Sri Lankan government from criticism," the Inner City Press reported Wednesday. The report comes as the Sri Lankan government was trying to discredit TamilNet figures, fearing that the UN-referred casualty figures were based on TamilNet coverage.
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First ever English novel on Vanni by a writer of Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 00:53 GMT]
Veteran writer Balamanoharan has come out with another first of its kind piece of writing of him recently. His Bleeding Hearts is a first ever novel based on the settings of Vanni, written in English. More than three decades ago, when Balamanoharan wrote Nilakki’li, it was widely appreciated for the ‘scent of earth’ it was emanating and was acclaimed as the first Tamil novel coming from Vanni. Three decades of his maturity and the impact of changes that have taken place during this time in his beloved homeland are obviously perceivable in his latest work.
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Detainees in SLA camps in Jaffna lack freedom, facilities - NGO representatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 18:42 GMT]
Representatives of Non-governmental organizations in Jaffna peninsula who visit the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled detention camps in Jaffna district expressed concern for detainees who lack clothes, proper food except the dry food rations provided by the government, besides being denied permission meet their relatives. Meanwhile, Jaffna Government Agent, in his press report Tuesday, has detailed a long list of assistances given by the District Government Secretariat and the Divisional Secretariats to improve living conditions of the said detainees, sources in Jaffna said.
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40,000 Tamils stage protests in front of EU, UN in Europe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 16:14 GMT]
More than 25,000 Tamils, especially youth, across the Europe took to the streets of Brussels on Monday demanding EU to de-proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow medicine and food to the civilians besieged by its military in all fronts and to demand the Sri Lankan military to pull out from the Tamil homeland. The organisers blamed the EU's misguided policy on proscribing the LTTE as having tilted the diplomatic balance between the parties, causing the war of aggression against the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. Meanwhile more than 10,000 Tamils staged a protest in front of the UN office in Geneva.
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'Safe zone' under encircling fire, 137 killed in 3 days, ICRC worker wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 12:48 GMT]
137 people have died and more than 200 injured since Saturday night in Sri Lanka Army shelling and gunfire inside the 'safe zone' of Vanni. At least 18 of them have died hit by long-range gunfire coming from SLA attacking the civilian zone. Meanwhile, massive bunker buster bombs numbering around 50 dropped by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on the fringes of the 'safe zone' on Tuesday caused untold panic among the civilians.
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ICRC transports 440 wounded to Indian military hospital in Pulmoaddai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 11:18 GMT]
The makeshift-hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan on Monday said 440 patients were taken on board in the ICRC ship "Green Ocean." Meanwhile, sources in Colombo said the ICRC was instructed to transport the patients to the hospital run by Indian paramedics in Pulmoaddai. In the meantime, doctors at the hospital who were on duty on Monday were not able to treat patients as the no medicines at the hospital. A shipment of humanitarian supplies was expected on Tuesday, the officials in Vanni told TamilNet Monday.
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Allow ICRC to transport medicines, RDHS urge Sri Lankan Health Ministry

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 10:40 GMT]
Regional Directors of Health Services for Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts, Dr. T. Varatharajah and Dr. T. Saththiyamoorthy, Monday jointly urged the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to supply medicines intended for the civilians in Vanni at least in the next ICRC shipment. Only 5% of the combined quota of medicine and dressings meant for the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year was earlier transported by the ICRC. "We were shocked and felt very sad when we were informed by the ICRC that no medicines have been handed over by the ministry officials to be taken in the ship," the doctors said. "Many deaths could have been prevented if basic infrastructure facilities and essential medicines were made available."
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