UNP lends support to GoSL's war effort

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 2008, 09:02 GMT]
United National Pary (UNP) Senior Party Member and Colombo district parliamentarian, Ravi Karunanayake, accompanied by several of his supporters, visited injured Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers at the Colombo Jayawardenepura Hospital and wished speedy recovery, political sources in Colombo said. The MP handed over essential goods to the injured, and complemented the officiers for the victories they have accomplished in the NorthEast battlefield, sources added.
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Compulsory registration of Tamils, another act of oppression - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Compelling all Tamils from North and East currently residing in Western province to register with police is another act of oppression, and has caused fear and apprehension, stated K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a media communique released Thursday.
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Britain to aid displaced through functioning NGOs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 16:29 GMT]
Representatives of British Tamils Forum who met the British Minister for the Department for International Development (DFID) Shahid Malik, on Tuesday in London, quoted the Minister as saying that the British Government did not agree with the general assessment of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) that all local Tamil NGOs, which are currently working within the Vanni area were all controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The British aid would be channelled through local and international NGOs to the displaced civilians in Vanni.
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British statement fails to condemn Sri Lanka - BTF

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 10:43 GMT]
The Tamils in UK feel confused by a British statement that acknowledges the apparent recognition by the GoSL of its responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by the conflict and its continued co-ordination with humanitarian agencies, at a time when foreign aid workers of the UN and International Non-Governmental Organisations have been expelled from Vanni by the government of Sri Lanka, said a statement issued by the British Tamils Forum (BTF) on Saturday.
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British PM meets Rajapaksa, conveys acute concern

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 September 2008, 15:01 GMT]
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Secretary of State for Department for International Development Douglas Alexander met with President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka in New York Friday to discuss the situation in Sri Lanka. "The recent increased hostilities in the north of Sri Lanka are of acute concern to the UK Government," said a joint statement from the British International Development Minister Shahid Malik and Lord Malloch Brown, calling on both the parties, the GoSL and the LTTE, to respect their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to enable free access for humanitarian agencies. The statement also urged LTTE to take urgent action to allow free movement of civilians.
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Rally at UN against Sri Lanka's genocide draws over thousand protesters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 September 2008, 16:56 GMT]
Over one thousand American Tamils, Canadian Tamils and friends of Tamils protested Wednesday in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York to draw attention of the United Nations, demanding sanctions against Sri Lanka, and advocating to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a means to halt what the protesters alleged "genocide of Tamils." The protesters also denounced the visit to the UN by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. About 20 Sri Lankan Government supporters, including Buddhist monks, showed up briefly for a counter protest.
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Fuel shortage threatens provision of drinking water in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 September 2008, 10:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has instructed the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) not to allow Humanitarian Convoys to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Ki'linochchi district with food items provided under the United Nations World Food Programme, as a "punishment" for the people of Ki'linochhci district for not "obeying" its instruction to leave Ki'linochhi to Vavuniyaa, according to an official attached to Vavuniyaa District Secretariat. Meanwhile, North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) in a press statement issued on Saturday said fuel shortage has severely affected the provision of drinking water to the internally displaced civilians.
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British FM meets Tamil expats in London

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 13:17 GMT]
During a community meeting attended by over one thousand British Tamils, UK Foreign Minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown, said: "UK Government believes that minorities in any country must have their right to practice the fullest and free to expression of self determination. "We are extremely concerned about how this government behaves and treats the Tamil community, and we are using all the means available to us to press the government to do otherwise."
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History rejects military defeat of liberation movements- Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2008, 18:22 GMT]
Responding to a question on year-end dead line set by the Government of Sri Lanka to defeat the Liberation Tigers, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Jaffna said, "We have been told many times and by many governments of Sri Lanka that the war will be won and that the LTTE will be defeated...I am yet to come across an instance when a national liberation movement in any part of the world has been militarily defeated," in an interview published in Colombo weekly the Sunday Leader 14th edition.
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Australian NGO Director warns of Humanitarian Disaster in the absence of foreign aid workers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 September 2008, 09:42 GMT]
The extreme humanitarian situation of Internally Displaced Persons, including thousands of children, who are already malnourished, would deteriorate dramatically as clean water is not available for all the IDPs and they have been deprived of medicine by the Sri Lankan government, said Executive Director Paul O'Callaghan of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), which has 25 member organisations working in Sri Lanka over many decades. He has expressed fear of a blood bath as foreign aid workers of UN agencies and NGOs packed their bags following the orders by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to leave the Vanni region last week.
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TNA condemns expulsion of foreign aid workers from Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 September 2008, 11:49 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Thursday condemned the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) for instructing the foreign NGOs and aid workers to leave from Vanni and urged the International Community to prevail upon the GoSL to recall its decision.
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Tamil Diaspora must act to prevent humanitarian tragedy - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 09:39 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament from Jaffna District, Selvarajah Gajendran, on Tuesday, urged the Tamil Diaspora to provide assistance to local aid agencies working among the IDPs in Vanni and to campaign in their host countries to exert pressure on the GoSL to remove restrictions on the transport of emergency supplies to Vanni and urge the International Community to support the Tamil people's right to live in peace in their homeland. The Sri Lankan government has ordered Government Agents to operate from Vavuniyaa and has actively discouraged even UN agencies from entering Vanni, the MP said.
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Catholic commission in Vanni highlights IDPs plight

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 00:19 GMT]
Amid pouring rain and thundering blasts of artillery and mortar shells, more than 170,000 Internally Displaced Persons in Vanni are facing a great human tragedy, which is calculatedly concealed from the world outside, said Rev. Fr. James Pathinathan, the president of the Vanni branch of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, in an urgent appeal to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, on Tuesday. "If the International Community doesn't act at once, it will be too late," he told TamilNet after handing over the memorandum to the Residential Representative of the UNHCR in Vanni.
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UPFA victory endorses war - GoSL spokesman

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2008, 06:58 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has claimed that the people of the Sabaragamuwa Province and North Central Province have "fully endorsed" the stand and policy of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in "defeating terrorism" as the ruling alliance won the elections in Sabaragamuwa with a majority of more than 125,000 votes (55.38%) against the UNP, which secured 40.53% of the votes. In North Central Province, the UPFA polled 56.37% and the UNP 37.64%, 100,000 less than the UPFA.
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Sri Lanka officials complicit in Tamil Genocide? - Washington Times

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 01:43 GMT]
Asserting that "[t]here is reason to believe that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been complicit in a Srebrenica-like genocide or worse against Sri Lanka's Tamils on the installment plan. Since entering office in November 2005, he has been witness to the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,500 Tamils, torture, scores of kidnappings, countless arbitrary detentions and displacement of more than 250,000, a staggering percentage of Tamils who have not fled abroad seeking asylum," a commentary in the Washington Times, Wednesday issue, urged the U.S. Justice Department to lead a genocide investigation of Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Lt.Gen. Fonseka, and Basil Rajapakse.
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Fuel crisis cripples IDP movement in Vanni - Ki'linochchi GA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 August 2008, 11:24 GMT]
More than 100,000 Internally Displaced People in Vanni, languishing in dark beneath shrubs, bushes and in public buildings throughout Ki'linochchi district, and affected by various hardships imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has crippled the ability of the IDPs to move themselves and their belongings, according to the Government Agent of Ki'linochchi district. 134,868 IDPs belonging to 35,353 families are heavily affected by the economic blockade in Ki'inochchi district. Meanwhile the rainy season has begun in Vanni and more than 75 percent of the families are getting drenched by the torrential rain.
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GoSL suspends postal service to Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2008, 16:40 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has suspended postal service to Vanni since 8 August, completely cutting off all communications between Vanni and other districts. The GoSL had already suspended telephone connections with Vanni and the suspension of postal service has effectively isolated the LTTE controlled area in Vanni. People displaced in their thousands are undergoing innumerable hardships due to lack of food, shelter and medicine in Vanni and are unable to contact their relatives or friends outside Vanni.
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NPC urges GoSL to relax embargo on peace envoys visit to Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 01:28 GMT]
National Peace Council, a Colombo-based peace group, on Tuesday said that the absence of positive responses by the International Community to the offers of talks and ceasefires was indicative of a credibility problem. Urging both the parties reassess their past behaviour and to find ways to rebuild their credibility, the NPC said the ceasefire offer by the LTTE, regardless of its motivations, is not to be lightly rejected and urged the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to relax its embargo on peace emissaries going into the Vanni.
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Looming humanitarian crisis in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 11:25 GMT]
45,338 additional persons have been displaced in Mannar, Vavuniyaa, Ki'linochchi, and Mullaitivu districts, due to the shelling and aerial bombardment by th Sri Lanka Security Forces in the last four weeks, adding to the Internally Displaced People (IDP) population of 107,048 in Vanni, said a report released by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). The report warned that the restrictions imposed by the Government of Sri Lanka to humanitarian agencies to attend to the IDP needs have created conditions for an imminent humanitarian crisis in Vanni.
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Sri Lanka rejects LTTE truce offer, responses differ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 04:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday rejected the Tamil Tigers offer of a unilateral ceasefire for the period of the SAARC conference (Jul 26 to Aug 4). But senior officials of the Colombo government gave different responses as to the government stance on the truce offer, announced formally by the LTTE Political Wing on Monday.
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