No democracy in Sri Lanka – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 15:06 GMT]
“Abductions and other humanitarian violations in Colombo, the North and the East are escalating at an alarming rate which indicates that Sri Lanka is not a democratic country,” TNA member for Batticaloa district, Ms. K. Thangkeswari said speaking on the motion to extend the state of emergency for another month in Sri Lanka parliament, Wednesday. Another TNA MP, Sivanathan Kishore asked: “How can the International Community believe Sri Lanka government’s version of what is happening in Vanni is true when it has effectively expelled the international human organizations and media from there?"
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Perpetrating civilian starvation is violation of all norms of war: LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 13:51 GMT]
"The brutalities committed by Colombo's armed forces on civilians have no precedence in any conventional war," said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiuruppu area political head C. Ilamparithy on Wednesday describing that the offensive by the Sri Lankan government denying food and medicine to civilians whom it claims as its citizens as an "abnormal violation of all norms of war." He urged direct presence of the International Community to witness the gravity of the situation by itself and urged the Tamil diaspora to engage with the IC in order to make it look at the crisis through the perspective of the affected people and to work for sending international journalists to visit and report the plight of the civilians besieged in Mullaiththeevu.
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Diarrhea claims 13 lives in Vanni within 14 days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 01:32 GMT]
A child and an elderly person died of diarrhea on Wednesday at Maaththa'lan hospital. At least 13 people have died of the disease in the overcrowded 'safety zone' within the past 14 days, according to medical sources.
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ICRC worker killed in SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 17:15 GMT]
A staff worker of the ICRC in Vanni was killed Wednesday around 5:00 p.m. while he was returning after sending some of the seriously wounded patients from Maaththa'lan hospital in ICRC ship, reported TamilNet correspondent from Vanni. The victim was identified as Vadivel Vijayakumar, 36.
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SLN arrested Vanni civilians held back in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 16:08 GMT]
Only five of the 92 civilians fleeing war in Vanni and arrested Tuesday by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the seas of Point Pedro have been handed over to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp in Kodikaamam Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) while the fate of the rest 87 civilians remains unknown, Kodikaamam sources said. None of the arrested civilians has been produced in Point Pedro Magistrate Court either until Wednesday evening. Independent sources in Jaffna said that civilians fleeing war from Liberation Tigers held areas coming into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna peninsula and arrested are subjected to intensive screening by the SLA and that many of them have disappeared without any trace, a trend that continues.
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Humanitarian stocks completely depleted - Rev. Anton Rock

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 14:54 GMT]
“That there is nothing to eat for the next meal is the only certainty for us and we wait with the hope, praying that someone would come to ensure our safety,” Rev. Anton Rock who has sought refuge in Valaignarmadam in Mullaiththeevu with his parish members and other priests, displaced from Vaddakkadchi in Ki'linochchi, said in an interview given to the last monthly issue of the magazine ‘Paathukaavalan’ (Catholic Guardian) published in Jaffna by the District Catholic Diocese. “Burying the dead, dressing the wounds of the injured and wiping the tears of our fellow beings are our daily routine other than praying to God in the hope of someone will come to ensure our safety.”
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Skin rash breaks among children in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 05:22 GMT]
A skin rash that is said to be infected through organisms living in sandy places is spreading fast among the children of the people crowded into the ‘safe zone’ located between Mullaiththeevu sea and lagoon, sources in Vanni said.
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Vanni IDPs starving due to acute shortage of food

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 05:04 GMT]
The plight of people herded into the narrow strip of ‘safe zone’ assigned by the Sri Lanka government is growing worse with each day as vegetables, food items, milk powder for babies have become so scarce that they are starving, TamilNet correspondent reported Tuesday from Vanni. Liquid cash is not available as many are unable to withdraw from their savings in the banks, most of them gone out of function due to continuing indiscriminate attacks by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombings.
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Washington youths launch campaign to woo CNN's Anderson Cooper

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 02:50 GMT]
An international grassroots effort led by concerned youths in Washington State and Toronto area calls prominent CNN journalist, Anderson Cooper, to visit Sri Lanka and report on the growing culture of impunity towards media freedoms on the island. Driven by Jeffersonian instinct for the freedom of press, the Free-Our-Press website said the petition was inspired by the "call of conscience" of Lasantha Wickramatunga's final essay, where the late editor decried the plight of media freedom in Sri Lanka. The virtual campaign was launched with a new website that chronicles media suppression in Sri Lanka, and calls for 5000 supporters to join the campaign to woo Cooper.
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U.S. Tamil group urges Pacific Command not to abet Colombo's war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 01:53 GMT]
Citing "credible reports" from Colombo, a U.S. based activist group, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), on Monday said the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) was planning to lead an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Tamil civilians in Vanni. The plan would only serve to "exacerbate the crisis for these civilians and support ethnic cleansing in this region," the statement said and added: "Instead of an evacuation, the 'safe zones' these civilians are currently in should be strengthened, with full access for aid workers, journalists and human rights monitors."
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.
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Hunger claims lives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:43 GMT]
Four children below the age of 15 and their parents were admitted to Maaththa'lan makeshift-hospital Monday in serious condition after consuming Adampan leaves (Beach Morning Glory) as nothing else was available for them to eat, according to medical sources. Meanwhile, at least six people have already died due to hunger inside the 'safe zone' in recent days, the sources further said adding that many more are feared dead due to starvation but not accounted for. "What prevents the world powers to set aside their diplomatic maneuvering and arrange enough food and medicine to reach us immediately," ask the people of Vanni reports TamilNet correspondent.
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SLN imposes ban on fishing in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 14:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) imposed new restrictions in Jaffna peninsula banning fishing in seas of the islets as well as in Jaffna lagoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, fisheries society sources in Jaffna said. SLN has warned that fishermen attempting to go fishing on these two days will be shot at and their boats confiscated, the sources added.
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Colombo killed 700 children in 2 months - LTTE Radio

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 11:36 GMT]
Voice of Tigers, the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam on Sunday said Sri Lankan armed forces have killed 2,018 Tamil civilians in January and February in Vanni and that 700 of the victims were children. The VoT has been airing a program, "Bridging the beloved" (U'ravup Paalam), where civilians have been providing details of their missing family members and whereabouts of the remaining members in the hope of locating their missed ones.
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IDP shelters gutted by fire in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 18:34 GMT]
Eight temporary shelters in the welfare centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) located in Unit 11 in Poonthoaddam, Vavuniyaa were completely gutted by fire Saturday noon, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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2 children with their mother reported missing from Mannaar hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 18:32 GMT]
A young mother and her two children, injured in Vanni and admitted to Mannaar general hospital by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) are reported missing from the hospital, which is under strict security measures of the government, since Friday afternoon, according to a complaint lodged with Mannaar police.
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Ghost of Bush wishes 'fight to the end'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 12:56 GMT]
The lessons of history are that actually there is nothing called ethnicities winning and losing. It is always forces of oppression and liberation losing and winning. ‘Fight to the end’ is vantage of the vultures hovering above for the spoils of both losers as well as winners. If ‘fight to the end’ is thrust upon peoples then they can’t help it. They have to fight it until the interests of those who orchestrate it are affected to the contrary or civilized world prevail upon those international belligerents. "Let us hope in the civilized world," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Newborn babies bereft of milk, humanitarian situation worsens in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 02:13 GMT]
Due to acute malnutrition and continued blockade of food thousands of mothers of newborn babies have gone barren to feed babies in besieged Mullaiththeevu. The substitute of powdered milk is also not available, seriously affecting thousands of babies reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni.
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Jaffna University student union appeals to government

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2009, 17:39 GMT]
Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) extended an appeal to the government of Sri Lanka to enable Jaffna University students from Vanni held in the detention camps in Government controlled areas to continue their studies in Jaffna University, in a press report Friday. JUSU also said that though it has been said in the media that a group of Vanni students held in the detention camps had been flown to Jaffna to continue studies so far none of them had come to Jaffna University.
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Slave camp suspected in Ki'linochchi hospital building

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 February 2009, 17:34 GMT]
A slave camp consisting male and female members 'chosen' from the fleeing civilians by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is reportedly setup in the abandoned Ki'lnochchi hospital building, reported TamilNet correspondent in Vanni, citing unverified information reaching Mullaiththeevu from males who escaped from the camp. According to the sources, men are kept at the downstairs for forced labour and women kept in the upstairs for abuse by the SLA soldiers who are on temporary leave.
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