More than 1,000 wounded, Mullai RDHS urges IC to send medical teams

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 16:27 GMT]
The Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Mullaiththeeev district, Dr. T. Varatharajah in an urgent appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), ICRC, the United Nations and the International Community has urged to send medical supplies and medical teams to the district to assist its medical staff.
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Germany calls for Ceasefire between GoSL, LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 January 2009, 01:51 GMT]
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Thursday for an immediately negotiated ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), stating that the ceasefire should enable aid deliveries and medical care for the civilians in the disputed areas.
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'Lives lost yielding nothing to Colombo'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
"It is not a question of whether Tamil Eelam will become independent. Rather, it is a question of how many lives, on both sides of the Tamil Eelam border, the Sinhala regime(s) are prepared to waste in the process," writes a reader, Mr. Poulson, in response to TamilNet's call for opinion last week. "The Sinhala polity is not interested in a ceasefire and nor are the strategic partners. Hence it must be forced upon them," he writes further in his situation analysis.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop Sri Lanka's genocidal war in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 January 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Nearly three hundred Norwegian Tamils, along with Norwegian Members of Parliament and political leaders, gathered in the premises of Norway Parliament Friday between 11:00 a.m till 1:30 p.m, and appealed to the Government of Norway to save the Tamils in Vanni in from the genocidal war waged on them by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), This is the third such demonstration by Norwegian Tamils in this week.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 18:24 GMT]
More than five hundred members of Norwegian Tamils' Federation (NTF) protested in front of Norway Foreign Ministry, Tuesday from 2:00 p.m til 3:00 p.m, demanding Norway to immediate intervene to stop the war waged on the people of Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). "Norway has the moral responsibility to stop the war on the Tamil people in Vanni," the protestors shouted during the demonstration.
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Pressure Colombo to stop attacking civilian targets, TRO appeals to India, UN, US

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 13:55 GMT]
In an urgent press released issued Monday, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), appealed to the Government of India, President-Elect Obama, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and the international community, to pressure "the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to cease attacks on civilian targets; allow unfettered humanitarian access to the Vanni by the UN and international NGOs; and to allow all necessary essential humanitarian assistance into the area."
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Sri Lanka bans LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 January 2009, 17:01 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), one year after it unilaterally withdrew from the February 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the Tigers. The LTTE was banned in 1998, for the first time before Colombo embarked on the futile military exercise of 'Operation Jayasikurui' (Victory Assured) on Vanni mainland. Colombo had to lift the ban in 2002 before entering into the CFA agreement with the Tigers.
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17-year-old SLA soldier killed in Vanni battlefront

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2008, 16:14 GMT]
One of the Identity Cards recovered with a dead body of a young Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier revealed that the SLA trooper killed in the offensive forefront in Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday was a 17-year-old boy. LTTE officials displayed photos for reporters in Vanni on Sunday. According to the Article 1 of the the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, signed and ratified by the Sri Lankan government, the government (State Party) should ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.
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UNICEF: GoSL, TMVP bound by action plan to end child recruitment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 16:16 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka, the TMVP, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) signed an Action Plan on Monday to ensure that the recruitment and use of children by the TMVP comes to an end, and that all children currently with the TMVP are released and provided with reintegration assistance, UNICEF said in a press statement on Thursday. “This agreement shows a clear political commitment and is a very important step in putting an end to the recruitment and use of children by the TMVP,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Sri Lanka, Mr Philippe Duamelle.
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TRO issues details of cluster-bombed IDP camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 December 2008, 09:15 GMT]
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), in a press release disseminated on Wednesday said the IDP camp subjected to cluster bombardment by the Sri Lanka Air Force at Uzhavanoor in Vanni was located within the area declared by the Government of Sri Lanka as "safe zone" and that the IDP camp was constructed and maintained by the TRO and local NGO REERDO for families that had been displaced due to the Government of Sri Lanka's ongoing military offensive into Vanni.
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75% of confiscated funds belong to INGOs, says TRO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2008, 12:03 GMT]
Responding to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) press release that the State has confiscated Rs. 71m from Tamil Rehabilitation Organization’s (TRO’s) bank account, TRO reiterated its denial of allegations that funds were “mainly used for terrorist activies,” and pointed out that the “GoSL has never produced any proof of these allegations in a court of law and has not brought any criminal charges against TRO,” and that Colombo has consistently denied TRO opportunity to defend against the allegations in the courts of law.
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ICJ has jurisdiction to hear Genocide claims against Serbia

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 15:52 GMT]
Croatia won the right Tuesday to sue Serbia for genocide after the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, based in Hague Netherlands, ruled it has the legal power to decide the case, AP reported. Describing the ruling as "symbolical and just," Croatian President, Stipe Mesic, said the decision came on the 17th anniversary of the fall of the city of Vukovar, where at least 1,500 Croats were killed and thousands expelled by rebel Serbs.
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Announce ceasefire, call back military and commence peace talks - TN Assembly

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 November 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday demanding "an immediate halt of military operations, reverting the Sri Lankan military to old positions and a commencement of political negotiations to find a solution to the Tamil problem." The house of representatives also urged New Delhi to press for talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The resolution comes while the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in New Delhi on an official visit.
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Tigers reiterate consent to ceasefire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 16:42 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan, when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday, following reports of Tamil Nadu leaders seeking clarification on LTTE's stand on ceasefire, said "there is no hesitation on our side to reiterate our position that we have always wanted a ceasefire." It is the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire, Mr. Nadesan said and added that the Tigers were only fighting a defensive war since Colombo has thrust upon Tamils an aggressive war.
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CPI seeks clarification on Tamil ceasefire stand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 13:44 GMT]
Stating that the people of Tamil Nadu state and India were being led to a state of confusion by the calls that demanded both the warring parties in Sri Lanka to announce a ceasefire, the State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Tamil Nadu, D. Pandian, urged in a statement issued from Chennai on Saturday that the Eezham Tamils' political leadership should clarify the Tamil stand on the issue. Consensus of the people of Tamil Nadu is that the Sri Lankan government should immediately stop the war. However, when questions were raised by certain sections, there is a need for clarification, Mr. Pandiyan said.
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Colombo announces another amnesty for deserted SLA soldiers

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 16:56 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka has declared another two weeks' amnesty for deserted soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army to return for duty in battle front. The amnesty period commenced last Saturday and would conclude on November 15, according to a press release by the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry. Fifteen-thousand soldiers have deserted the Sri Lankan military.
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'Political solution, not politics of food': Mano Ganesan to India

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 November 2008, 16:47 GMT]
The leader of the Western Province People's Front (WPPF) Mano Ganesan on Sunday said the need of hour for India was to push the Government of Sri Lanka to fair and reasonable political solution alluding that India was not needed for the job of supplying 800 MT humanitarian supplies. Three basics of the upheavals in Tamil Nadu were: stop the war, stop the military aid to Sri Lanka and send humanitarian aids to the needy in Vanni. "The Indian Government virtually dismissed first two and got hold of the last, comparatively easy one," Mr. Mano Ganesan said in a press statement issued from Colombo.
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TNA condemns forced participation of civilians in Batticaloa paramilitary meeting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2008, 23:47 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a communiqué issued Sunday, condemned the actions of paramilitary factions led by Karuna and Pillaiyan for forcibly transporting Batticaloa residents, who did not extend their support to the meeting conducted by paramilitary groups expressing solidarity with the Government of Sri Lanka, to the venue of the meeting.
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Australians protest against Bogolloagama press club meet

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 20:20 GMT]
More than 600 Australian Tamils protested in front of the National Press Club in Canberra Tuesday while the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama, was addressing an invited audience inside the National Press Club, sources in Canberra said. The protesters highlighted Sri Lanka's escalating human rights violations against the media workers.
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Tamils in UK rally, demand direct British aid to IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2008, 16:46 GMT]
Several thousands, largely British Tamils, assembled outside the British Parliament Monday between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to demand action against indiscriminate aerial bombardment of Tamils by Government of Sri Lanka (G0SL), and to urge the British Government to urgently take direct action to help save lives in Vanni. More than six thousand attended the rally, according to an estimate by the organizers, the British Tamil Forum (BTF).
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