Tamils' massacre made possible by West's ideological blindness and hubris - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 17:19 GMT]
“Those who think that the LTTE will be destroyed in the coming weeks and that then it is a question of 'peace building' and 'development' for the next few years are gravely mistaken,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper’s editorial argues this week. “[Instead] the foundations for a cataclysmic civil war are being inexorably laid today. The kind of polarisation that sustain not decades, but generations of struggle has become widespread and embedded.”
Full story >>

7,000 Tamils in Vanni killed, 14,000 injured in 3 months, TNA tells David Miliband

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Trincomalee district MP and parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, and parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, that 7,000 Tamils in Vanni have been killed and 14,000 injured in the last three months, but the International Community has remained inactive without taking any action to stop the killings, TNA sources said. The TNA parliamentarians also told Miliband that more than 300 Tamil youths in Vavuniyaa detention centre have been arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and that the SLA has not revealed the whereabouts of the arrested youths to their parents.
Full story >>

China's 'anti-people' stand handicaps UN action

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 03:45 GMT]
China’s anti-people stand to consider the war in Sri Lanka as internal matter, despite open massacre and imprisonment of the Colombo government of its own civilians using even prohibited weapons, will block formal discussions taking place in the UN Security Council Thursday, news reports indicate. The stand of China and Russia sitting on UN security Council, shielding Colombo’s genocide, exposes the ultimate results of the West's 'self-trap’ by tilting the military and diplomatic balance between Tamils and Sinhalese through twisting an ethnic war as war on terror, political observers said. The only possibility now for the West to save its credibility is revising its faulty policies and acting outside of the UN, they said.
Full story >>

Miliband's statement obligates UK to take immediate UN action - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 03:42 GMT]
Pointing to the latest statement during the visit to Sri Lanka by British Foreign Minister, David Miliband that ""[t]his is a civil war that does have regional and wider ramifications...," Professor Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, said that Miliband's statement obligates Britain, as a Permanent Member of the Security Council, under U.N. Charter Article 35(1) to bring this "civil war" and genocide in Sri Lanka "to the attention of the Security Council" for the purpose of obtaining remedial action under Chapters VI and/or VII of the Charter."
Full story >>

Rehabilitation symbols: How minds work in naming barbed-wire camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 02:25 GMT]
Four major internment camps meant for the civilians of Vanni and envisaged as long-term detention-villages as a part of Colombo’s structural genocide of Tamils, have been named after Sir Ponnampalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnampalam Arunachalam, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Lakshman Kadirgamar. All four of them belonged to two aristocratic families of Jaffna that had settled in Colombo. They served more to Colombo than to Tamil homeland. Two of them never spoke Tamil, but all of them in some way served Sinhala interests. The message is subtle: Look upon the supremacy of the Colombo-centric system and be subservient, never think of your own system, writes TamilNet’s regular political commentator in Colombo.
Full story >>

Ratnapura Saiva temple festival suspended due to threats

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
The trustee board of the 200-year-old historical Rakkuvaanai Sri Muththumaariyamman temple in Ratnapura district has been forced to suspend the annual festival of the temple due to death threats by Sinhalese youths of the area who went to the houses of the trustee board members and warned them of severe consequences if they conduct the festival that was to be held from 28 April to 10 May, sources in Ratnapura said. Rakkuvaana police too had denied permission to conduct the festival as the Buddhist Vesak festival is to be celebrated from 4 May to 10 May, the sources said.
Full story >>

Legal challenge to block IMF loan, charges UK's complicity in Genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 13:35 GMT]
In a "letter before action" sent to high level British Government officials, Public Interest Lawyers, a group of attorneys representing a Tamil activist group in UK, charge that in light of the Sri Lankan Government's systematic and gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law "the UK under international law has various obligations, namely, to denounce and not recognise the situation in Sri Lanka as lawful [and] not to render aid and assistance to Sri Lanka," the UK Government's response thus far has been "woefully inadequate and does not comply with its obligations under international law." The group will file legal action in the British High Court if the UK Government fails to respond satisfactorily to the charges.
Full story >>

IC makes history in experimenting ‘genocide bomb’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 10:14 GMT]
The international community accusing the LTTE all this time for ‘inventing’ human bomb is testing a premeditated ‘genocide bomb’ on Tamils and sets new ‘guidelines’ for global order, says a political commentator, who contributes regularly to TamilNet. “Even though there are many actors, the final responsibility for the experiment and deployment of this worst possible weapon of human civilization squarely falls on Obama’s US administration and on Ban Ki Moon’s UN,” he said adding that they will go down in history for “calculatedly allowing one of the worst ethnic genocides of contemporary history to take its toll in the island of Sri Lanka, in the cruellest and deceitful way.”
Full story >>

'Explicit international deceit on Tamils'

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 20:03 GMT]
“What is the limit of IC’s appeasement with Colombo and what is the limit of IC in cheating Tamils,” asks Sri Navaratnam, on the 8th day of his hunger strike in Oslo, furious at the news of Colombo’s all out attack on Tamil civilians Monday night. “To facilitate the international community to deceive Tamils, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday announced the halt of the use of heavy weapons in the safety zone of more than 165,000 civilians. Everybody welcomed it as though killing the civilians by small weapons is acceptable. It was a joke, the UN begging ‘Sri Lanka must respect heavy weapons pledge’, as though they are prepared to act if Sri Lanka breaches it. Colombo, which was already aerial bombing the civilians started with intense barrage of heavy weapons Monday night”, he cited.
Full story >>

SLA suspends locating Vanni civilians in Vavuniyaa, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 17:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) key officials informed Jaffna Secretariat that the possibility of bringing civilians from Vanni to Jafnna peninsula for detention appears limited, Jaffna Secretariat (JS) sources said. Action is being taken to detain Vanni civilians instead in the SLA occupied areas like Ki’linochchi, Ka’ndaava’lai and other indentified places constructing big concentration villages, sources in Jaffna said. JS officials, recently taken by SLA to gather particulars of the civilians from Vanni held without being sent either to Vavuniyaa or Jaffna peninsula, refuse to reveal the information for security reasons.
Full story >>

IC has been duped by Colombo: Prof. Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 16:07 GMT]
The Tokyo-Co-chairs and other international actors have been duped in supporting the war aims of the Sri Lankan government, says Professor P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet. “The LTTE is expression of Tamil discontent of the Sri Lankan government and the way the latter has dealt with the Tamil national question. In so far as the conflict in Aceh was concerned, the international community was much neutral in providing the political circumstances for peace to be achieved. However, in the Sri Lankan conflict, the international took a biased stand. The current issue is not one of positions between the warring parties, but one that re-focuses attention on the fallacy of the international community in searching for a just solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka”, he says.
Full story >>

British MPs urge World Governments to act immediately

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 11:54 GMT]
In a press release issued Sunday, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) said that the "final onslaught" in the safe zone by the Sri Lanka Government will result in "carnage if unimaginable magnitude," and appealed to "Her Majesty's Government, NGOs, and Governments around the world, to act immediately to prevent this devastation."
Full story >>

Several civilians killed, 200 wounded within 5 hours as SLA launches onslaught

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 22:59 GMT]
Several civilians were killed and more than 200, wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and gunfire, have been admitted at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal hospital in the early hours of Monday as the SLA opened fire from its positions attempting to advance further into the densely populated so-called safety zone (No Fire Zone) from 3:30 a.m. Monday. Heavy exchange of gunfire continued and civilians were forced to stay inside the bunkers as rounds were whizzing over them. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers carried out two sorties of air raids in the morning, according to latest reports from Vanni. The aggression by the SLA comes a few hours after Sri Lanka rejected LTTE announced unilateral ceasefire.
Full story >>

”Break the silence” – diaspora Tamils urge Norway

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 18:03 GMT]
More than 500 diaspora Tamils in Oslo staged a demonstration with their mouths bound in white bands as a symbol of the silence maintained by the Norwegian government in the face of the unfolding genocide of innocent Tamils in Vanni, in front of Norwegian Parliament Sunday from 2:00 p.m till 3:30 p.m, urging Norway to break its damaging silence and to actively engage in finding a justified solution to the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka, sources in Oslo said. The demonstrators appealed to Norway to thrust aside its silence maintained so far and to act before it is too late.
Full story >>

Inaction may cause 10,000 casualties: SOS appeal to powers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:55 GMT]
"On behalf of over 160,000 civilians still in the area, we are making this final appeal to the the international community to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians in the so-called safe zone," appealed Lawrance Christy, head of the field office of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in a SOS message to the UN, US, India, EU, UK, Russia and China adding that "You are our only hope." If the expected offensive goes forward, there will be more than 10,000 casualties as the area is densely populated and there is no cover from bombs, shells, and bullets, he said. "As we write this appeal there is a build up of Sri Lanka armed forces in the areas surrounding the so-called safe zone and an offensive via land, sea, and air is only a few hours away."
Full story >>

Western Province elections endorse Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA, standing on the electioneering platform of eliminating ‘Tamil Terrorism’ secured Sunday clear majority of 64.7 percent in the elections for the Provincial Council of the Western Province. Rajapaksa’s victory is a clear mandate given to him by the Sinhala ethnic majority to go ahead with the genocide of Tamils; is well timed for him to convince the IC of his ‘democratic’ necessity to proceed with the final onslaught on Tamil civilians in the safety zone and sets clear the way for his long-term genocidal agenda and denial of any political solution, political observers in Colombo said. Meanwhile, the elections also clearly evidence that the ethnic crisis in the island can never be resolved within the Sri Lankan state system or through mandate of the majority Sinhalese, for anyone who wants to see an end to the conflict, they pointed out.
Full story >>

2 Tamil youths fasting in Paris admitted to hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 15:03 GMT]
French medical authorities Sunday took two of the four Tamil youths, Rajkumar and Varunan, observing fast unto death for the last 19 days in Paris in the Tamil diaspora demonstration against the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, for immediate medical treatment as their physical state had deteriorated, sources in Paris said. The other two youths continue their fast until they are given a positive response from the French Government for the demands for which the Tamil diaspora in France has been demonstrating for the 21st day, the sources added. The diaspora Tamils in France are converging in their thousands at the place near the Wall for Peace monument where the fast is being observed, on learning of the situation of the fasting youths.
Full story >>

‘Bush-league’ editorial urges pinpoint strikes at LTTE leadership

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 14:56 GMT]
Criticizing the policies and efforts of Obama, Hillary Clinton and Eric Solheim, the Washington Times in an editorial Sunday said that the Obama administration should not allow the Tigers to ‘snatch victory from the jaws of defeat’ but should help Colombo ‘by providing military and intelligence support for pinpoint strikes against the terrorist leadership’. Reflecting chauvinistic passion and imitating the style and line of Colombo’s newspapers, the editorial said: "Obama administration should mind its own business. The Sri Lankans are winning; we should let them finish the job". Commenting on the editorial, a political commentator in Colombo said: "Had Bush minded his own business, Tamils would have sorted out the crisis by now and Washington Times wouldn’t have had the occasion to tax itself so emotionally."
Full story >>

UN abetted genocide aiming to seal liberation: NGO official in safe zone

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 13:39 GMT]
"UN is trying to close the chapter with the death of hundreds of thousands of our people. UN is encouraging the genocidal onslaught for the sake of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lankan state. It has let the people and their aspirations to die,” writes Lawrance Christy, the planning director of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) which serves the people inside the so-called safety zone. "UN has sadly failed in its mandate to uphold the aspirations of a people who are oppressed grossly and consistently for the last 60 years. The intermittent physical attacks on Tamils now has culminated in extensive massacre by military onslaught,” he writes giving a firsthand, eyewitness account of the massacre and human tragedy in the safety zone since Monday.
Full story >>

Fast unto death, protest demonstration, continue in London

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 09:54 GMT]
Parameswaran Subramaniyam continued his fast unto death undettered for the 19th day Saturday placing five demands including an immediate stop of the inhuman killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces, sources in London said. “I will be happy to lay down my life for the sake of Tamil people,” Parameswaran said. His tent flaps remained closed Saturday due to foul weather and hundreds of people were seen waiting patiently in a long queue to convey their wishes and support to Parameswaran.
Full story >>