Sri Lanka’s camps ‘most appalling’ in the world – Ban Ki-Moon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 10:53 GMT]
"I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told CNN after visiting Manik Farm, the most presentable of Sri Lanka’s squalid and dangerous internment camps for Tamils civilians. "I sympathize fully with all of the displaced persons," Mr. Ban said Saturday. The UN Chief has also promised international action regarding the heavy shelling of civilian populations during the recent fighting.
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Tamils in Malaysia demand justice for Sri Lanka’s genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2009, 10:50 GMT]
Over 5,000 Tamil Malaysians gathered at one of the country's iconic Hindu temples Sunday to protest acts of 'genocide' against Tamils in Sri Lanka, AFP reported. The demonstration by one of the world's largest Tamil communities outside India and Sri Lanka, followed Colombo's declaration of victory over the Liberation Tigers last Monday, following an offensive in which thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered by what the United States has described as indiscriminate shelling of ‘safety zones’. Federal Territories deputy minister M. Saravanan, who attended, along with Tamil opposition leaders, said Malaysia should not support a Sri Lankan-sponsored UNHRC resolution.
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Sinhala hoodlums harrass Tamils in Negombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 15:51 GMT]
Tamil residents in Negombo are reported being harassed by Sinhala hoodlums during the 'Victory Celebration' held Friday to mark the defeat of LTTE in the war front. Sinhalese youths had visited Tamil houses to demand money under threat to help fund the celebration, and those who declined to give were harassed and in some cases assaulted, media sources said.
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Ban Ki Moon stresses freedom of movement, resettlement of IDPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 11:09 GMT]
United Nation Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, while visiting the largest internment camp in Vavuniyaa, Manik Farm, Saturday for three hours from 9:15 a.m., stressed the need for freedom of movement and immediate resettlement of the more than 300,000 Tamils held in camps. The IDPs also told Ban Ki Moon that they would want the U.N. to take full responsibility for the welfare of the refugees, sources accompanying Moon on his visit said. "The UN has failed in several measures in preventing egregious human rights violations by Sri Lanka against unarmed civilian Tamils during the last several months, and this is the last opportunity to take bold action to repair the damage to UN's reputation. UN should shed its rhetoric on sovereignty and assume full responsibility for the Tamil people," an aid worker told TamilNet after Moon's visit.
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"Accessories after the fact to acts of Genocide"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2009, 02:00 GMT]
Condemning the sponsorship, by twelve states, of a self-praising resolution submitted to the United Nations by the Government of Sri Lanka, before the scheduled UN Human Rights Council emergency session scheduled for Monday, Professor Boyle, an expert in International Law said Friday that these states have become accessories after the fact to the numerous acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that the Government of Sri Lanka has perpetrated upon the Tamils.
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5 Tamils arrested in Kalutara

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 20:51 GMT]
Five Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and police in Arapalakanda Estate in Kalutara police division Wednesday early morning for about three hours. Police said they are detained in the police station for further inquiry as they failed to establish their identity and justify their presence in the location.
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300,000 Tamils held in Nazi-style concentration camps, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 12:30 GMT]
"These Nazi-style concentration camps that the Government of Sri Lanka is now forcibly imposing on at least 300,000 completely innocent Tamil civilians constitute acts of genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party," Professor Boyle who is an expert international law and teaches at the University of Illinois College of Law said.
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'Timely action from Tamil Nadu expected'

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 11:02 GMT]
The Eezham Tamils are ever grateful to all political parties of Tamil Nadu that upheld their cause, irrespective of electoral politics and its outcome determined by national and state level equations. The Eezham Tamils are especially grateful to the two major political parties, the DMK and the AIDMK, for firmly voicing for the creation of Tamil Eelam as the ultimate solution to the crisis. It is now time that a resolution to this effect has to be enacted in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly to inspire course of action in India, international community and in the Tamil diaspora, said veteran liberation fighter Ki Pi Aravinthan in France, Sunday. This is a possible and affordable action Tamil Nadu can undertake immediately to guarantee the future of Eezham Tamils and to respect the thousands laying down their life upholding Tamil dignity, he said.
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IC, India shouldn’t impose 'inclusion' on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 18:23 GMT]
The International Community and India will be contributing to a grave disaster by imposing or enforcing ‘inclusive polity’ on an unwilling Sri Lankan state said the TamilNet political commentator in Colombo Thursday adding that secession is the best option for the island. He cited the events of this week when passions of ‘exclusiveness’ were decisively demonstrated in its goriest possible way by the Sri Lankan state in celebrating ‘victory,’ completely insensitive to the killing, massacres and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Tamils who are supposed to be its citizens. He also cited the way a dead human being was desecrated whether the identity of the person was another one of the dupe of Colombo or not.
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Boycott Sri Lanka – Times newspaper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 09:58 GMT]
“We should boycott the callous Sri Lanka regime,” says the Time South Asia correspondent in an opinion in the newspaper today. Asking whether British shoppers and holidaymakers should “continue to support Sri Lanka's garment and tourist industries?” Jeremy Page answers: “Sadly, the answer must be no.”
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Sinhala hoodlums harass Tamil civilians in the name of victory celebration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2009, 09:04 GMT]
Gangs of Sinhala youths holding Lion flags in hands in the name of victory against LTTE have been on the rampage, day and night, intimidating and harassing Tamil civilians in Colombo and its suburbs for the fourth day. Affected Tamil residents have complained to their respective police station. But the police have failed to take action to stop the harassment, civil sources lament.
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Sri Lanka destroys evidence, prevents ICRC, UN access - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2009, 04:20 GMT]
Noting that the slow genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka accelerated to more than 10,000 killed in the last few months, far exceeding the horrors of Srebrenica, Professor Boyle in conversation with Los Angeles KPFK radio host, Michael Slate, Tuesday, accused Sri Lanka Government of bulldozing and destroying evidence of massacres in the Safety Zone while preventing access to the Red Cross and UN agencies. Boyle added that the United States Government with spy satellites would be knowing exactly what Sri Lanka's actions are in the Safe Zone, and stand implicated along with UK, France, and India in allowing the genocide to happen.
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EU must investigate Sri Lanka war crimes - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been claiming a glorious total victory - and denying allegations from doctors on the scene that tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been the victims of indiscriminate artillery fire and scorched-earth tactics," said Boston Globe in Tuesday's editorial, adding "the European Union must follow up on its call for an investigation of war crimes against civilians." The editorial also said that "the United Nations adopted a resolution in 2005 on the "responsibility to protect" populations that are not protected by their own governments. The massive killing and wounding of civilians on Sri Lanka represents exactly the sort of case that resolution was meant to address."
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IC has to check militarization and Sinhalicisation of rehabilitation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 06:59 GMT]
Serious concerns are raised in the Tamil diaspora circles at the IC’s attempts to pour in rehabilitation aid through Colombo’s rehabilitation structure, which is completely militarized and Sinhalicised. This will only serve Colombo’s next agenda of ‘structural genocide’ of Tamils, the diaspora circles said. While rehabilitation is the immediate need, there will be an irredeemable danger if the IC is embarked upon it without recognition of Tamil status in the island and without involving Tamil hands, they said. Ideally, the IC should at least now exercise its authority to completely take over the camps and do the work with the direction and participation of the people for whom they give the aid, they further said.
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Karunanidhi should bargain exit of habitually biased

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 02:04 GMT]
It is a well-known fact that certain elements, belonging to a clan operating from Nehru’s time bringing in disasters to India’s foreign policy, were responsible for the second time in India committing war crimes on Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. In forming the next government, chief minister Karunanidhi should use all his bargaining power to see that these elements never play a role again in Tamil affairs, said a Tamil journalist in Chennai. This is more important than bargaining ministerial portfolios, considering national interests of India and peace of the Tamil people, he said.
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War crime in the massacre of LTTE officials

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 01:52 GMT]
While rejecting Colombo's claim of the killing of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan and assuring his safety and well-being, LTTE's International Relations Head S. Pathmanathan Tuesday accused Colombo of treachery in the killing of the political wing leaders B. Nadesan and S. Puleedevan. Mr. Pathmanathan said it is a crime against humanity that needs to be investigated. Meanwhile, informed sources told TamilNet that what happened in the early hours of Monday was a well-planned massacre of several unarmed civil officers of the LTTE with the aim of annihilating its political structure. At the orders of a 'top defence figure,' an international arrangement involving ICRC, European diplomats and a Colombo government diplomat to arrange safe exit to the civil officers was defied, the sources said.
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Sri Lanka lost confidence of Tamils: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 21:36 GMT]
Stating that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Mr. V. Pirapaharan is alive and well, Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE's international relations, told TamilNet Monday that it was very unfortunate that many of its senior members and leaders have either given up their lives or have been treacherously killed. "The Sri Lankan Government may have declared a military victory. But it does not realize that it is a hollow victory. It has completely lost the trust and confidence of the Tamils in Sri Lanka," he further said in an exclusive interview.
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'EU should consider justice, not investigations'

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 20:58 GMT]
The EU foreign ministers Monday called for the investigation of war crimes committed by ‘both sides’ in the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka. Responding to the news, TamilNet political commentator in Colombo said that what happened and what is happening in Sri Lanka is a unique case in contemporary human history in which the war crimes are ‘multilateral’, involving the UN, India, China and the Co-Chairs, involving even the EU. “The investigations have to be comprehensive sparing ‘nobody’, but where on earth to find such a neutral body, he asked. Rather than giving importance to post mortem in which the winners always have a better say, the EU has to urgently prevent further war crimes by immediately recognizing the Tamil independence and sovereignty in the island”, he said.
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Lies, deceptions, hallmark of Sri Lanka war- Telegraph

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 11:14 GMT]
"Chinese weapons, Indian intelligence, Sinhala Armed personals and racist Sri Lankan leaders came together to perform one of the most cruel war that has cost the lives of many thousands innocents," says Richard Dixon, a columnist in London's Telegraph. While "Tamils all over the world are mourning the death of their loved ones back home," and "[b]irds have now stopped singing in a land called Vanni," Dixon writes, "[l]eaders of Sri Lanka and some responsible officers in the UN, should be questioned in international courts in order to find out if they were responsible for the deaths of innocent Tamils."
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'Long live human dignity; shame on international community'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 18:37 GMT]
While the so-called international community is "exposed of its shameful conning," thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants are laying down their lives to "uphold Tamil dignity, and human dignity," says a Tamil academic in Colombo. Those who blame the LTTE for bringing in the disaster know well that Colombo always had the option to negotiate or to come out with a political solution convincing Tamils not to continue the conflict. But Colombo’s aim is not power sharing but genocide and subjugation of Tamils by forcing war on them. "The only way now for the IC to come out of the colossus shame is direct intervention and recognition of the justification for Tamil Eelam," the academic said.
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