Champoor families return to shelters in Ki'liveddi transit camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 11:27 GMT]
231 members of 57 Tamil families, who were displaced from their traditional villages in Moothoor division in Trincomalee district in 2006 military operation launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), were transported in 10 buses of the State Transport Board on Thursday via Vaakarai from Batticaloa district where they had been sheltered in welfare centres for resettlement. IDP families of Champoor and Chanthoasapuram in Moothoor east division have been sheltered in Ki'liveddi transit camp. This was in accordance of "their wish," rehabilitation officials said.
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Sri Lanka Police arrests 8 Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 11:22 GMT]
Eight Tamil civilians were arrested in Grandpass area in Colombo Wednesday night and were detained in police station for further interrogation in regard to the recovery of eighteen claymore mines from a motor workshop in the area, according to police sources.
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'Safety zone' in smoke, close-quarter fighting is on

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 05:39 GMT]
The entire safety zone area is in smoke since the early hours of Friday as shelling by the Sri Lanka Army was destroying all the structures within a narrow strip of coastal land which is densely populated with tens of thousands of people. 75% of the population remains under bunkers as close quarter fighting was heard. Hundreds of civilians are being killed and maimed in the carnage caused by the SLA, which attempts to enter the remaining part of the so-called safety zone before the election results are published in India.
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NYT highlights satellite evidence of Sri Lanka's criminal culpability

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 01:33 GMT]
Reproducing satellite imagery and analysis produced by the Washington D.C. based American Association of Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), New York Times in the Thursday edition said the images "show dozens of structures that appear to have been destroyed between last Wednesday and Sunday, and multiple craters that appear to reflect the impact of heavy weaponry," pointing to AAAS analysis. During the said period, local workers reported heavy shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) killing more than 1200 refugees.
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Jaffna GA seeks NGOs’ help to feed Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 17:43 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) said that he was forced to seek the help of private and Non-government organizations to provide food and other necessities to the Vanni civilians held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Jaffna, in a meeting held Tuesday at Jaffna Secretariat with the representatives of the above organizations and government departmental heads. Jaffna Traders’ Union representatives who participated in the meeting assured the GA that they would do their share in providing assistance to the detainees, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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SLA denies permission to Jaffna HRC to visit Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna denied permission to the local officials of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office to visit Thellippazhai SLA Rehabilitation Camp where more than 600 young men and women from Vanni are detained, sources in Jaffna said. The officials routinely visit the above camp to attend to matters related to human rights violation like torture. SLA said that only on permission from the Justice Ministry in Colombo the officials would be permitted to visit the said Rehabilitation camp, HRC Jaffna sources said.
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LTTE Political Head welcomes Obama's attention on Tamils' plight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 14:13 GMT]
"We thank and welcome the categorical calls by President Barack Obama for the Sri Lankan Government to take toward alleviating the humanitarian crisis," said B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE in a statement issued from Vanni Thursday. "The United Nations Organization and the Security Council has held back in their traditional humanitarian leadership role to take prudent measures and bring about a truce and safeguard Eelam Tamils. Now, the Eelam Tamils earnestly look forward to President Barack Obama to lead the humanitarian intervention," Mr. Nadesan said in his response to US President's statement on Wednesday.
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LTTE urges IC to save civilians in the name of humanity, SLA attacks kill 1700 in 48 hours

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 12:06 GMT]
The LTTE on Thursday called upon the International Community to protect the civilians from the ongoing carnage by taking whatever measure required. "The LTTE is ready to engage with the International Community in its actions to bring an end to the humanitarian crisis." The statement came as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued its indiscriminate barrage causing untold human tragedy. Initial estimate by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Thursday afternoon was 1,700 civilians killed and over 3,000 wounded within the last 48 hours. The catastrophic situation has been made worse by the acute shortage of food and medicine, the statement said. "Local doctors who are trying to work in these hospitals have decided to hand the hospitals over to the ICRC in the hope that under ICRC management the hospitals may be spared from bombardment."
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JU students held in SLA internment camps seek Jaffna HRC help

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 11:39 GMT]
Fourteen Jaffna University students from Vanni district detained in Kaithadi Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp along with other civilians from Vanni have complained to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) officials that their human rights have been violated by denial of permission to continue their studies in Jaffna University, Jaffna HRC sources said. HRC Jaffna has called for a detailed report on this issue from SLA Jaffna Commanding Officer, Jaffna Government Agent and the Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University.
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"Klerk risks repeating Netherland's criminality on Srebrenica genocide"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 23:06 GMT]
By dismissing the horrendous rights violations of Sri Lanka in the safety zone of Mullaiththeevu as "not applicable" to providing favorable tariff treatment to Sri Lankan textiles under the GSP Plus Program, Pieter de Klerk, Netherland's Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, is in danger of repeating Netherland Government's history of criminality on Srebrenica genocide again on the genocide currently taking place in Vanni, Sri Lanka, a legal scholar in the U.S. pointed out. Inner City Press which carried the Dutch Representative's statement, mused, "[i]f the killing of thousands of civilians, hundreds in the last weekend alone, does not implicate the EU's [European Union] notions of human rights, perhaps these notions are bankrupt."
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SLA barrage inflicts carnage, makeshift hospital reports disaster

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 19:21 GMT]
"Looking at the hospital and hearing the civilians cry, you feel only disaster," a key medical staff at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal makeshift hospital told media Wednesday. More than 100 civilians, including many children, patients, a medical staff, voluntary doctor and an ICRC worker, were killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery attack that targeted the hospital premises which is a junior school and the surrounding area which comprises many tarpaulin huts. The hospital is struggling with few medical staff as the medical facility has become a prime target for the SLA which has targeted it for the third time within 5 days. Civilians are struggling with starvation and live under bunkers as bullets fired by the SLA from two coastal ends were whizzing across the so-called No Fire Zone, which has been made into a killing field by the SLA, which completely disregards Geneva Conventions.
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South Korean delegation visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 12:28 GMT]
A five member delegation led by South Korean resident representative, Mr. Zong Min Hyeon visited Tuesday Jaffna Technical College where a large building complex is being constructed with South Korean government funds, sources in Jaffna said. The containers sent by the South Korean government which had remained unopened since their arrival in November 2008 were opened in the presence of the visiting South Korean delegation, the principal of Jaffna Technical College and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials, the sources said.
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TNA warns of more bloodshed in the coming days

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has pointed out that 3000 Tamils have been killed and more than 1000 have been wounded in the last 3 days in the Vanni region, in a press conference held in Colombo on Tuesday night. Tamil National Alliance leader MP R.Sampanthan states, “The Government of Sri Lanka is mass killing Tamil civilians after denying them food and medicine. This is the reality. More bloodshed can happen in the next few days. We appeal to the International community to immediately stop this systematic slaughtering of civilians.”
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SLA shells hospital again, several killed including doctor, ICRC worker

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 10:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal East, killing at least 38 patients who were waiting for treatment at the hospital, a medical staff told TamilNet. "There are many more killed inside the hospital premises, but I can only confirm that 38 casualties that I have witnessed near the main theatre upto 2:53 p.m.," the medical staff told TamilNet. Many shells have hit the makeshift hospital premises across the road. Meanwhile, a patient who reached an administrative office put the casualty figures at 100 and said he had witnessed that an ICRC worker was killed. Meanwhile, LTTE's Director of Peace Secretarait S. Puleedevan when contacted by TamilNet said 39 female patients at a counselling aid center for mentally ill women were massacred by targeted SLA shelling in the morning. More than 40 patients were feared wounded, he said.
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SLA conducts search operation in Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 16:20 GMT]
Police and Sri Lanka Army Sunday evening conducted a cordon and search operation in Polonnaruwa town and took about fifty Tamil civilians including women for questioning. Except two, others were freed after preliminary inquiry. Two are being detained for further interrogation, police sources said.
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UNSC impasse no bar to international intervention

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 12:44 GMT]
Opposition from Russia and China to placing Sri Lanka’s humanitarian crisis on the agenda of the United Nations Security is no bar to international action to stop what the UN has called a bloodbath. Since the end of the Cold War, ‘humanitarian intervention’ to save populations being brutalized or subject to genocide by their states has become part of international practice. The United States, Britain, France, Russia have all taken action outside the UNSC, either unilaterally or as coalitions of like-minded states. Intervention is not only by military force, but also economic sanctions and other punitive measures against abusive states.
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SLA attacks hospital, 47 massacred

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 05:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells killing at least 47 civilians, patients and the Administrative Officer K. Tharmakulasingam Tuesday morning around 8:00 a.m. At least 55 patients sustained serious injuries in the attack on the makeshift hospital which was functioning at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal junior school. The attack came while around 2,000 wounded patients within the last 3 days were waiting for the ICRC to be transported in the ship. More than 2,600 civilians were killed within the past 3 days in Sri Lankan attacks in Vanni.
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White House protest accuses Sri Lanka of civilian massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 02:32 GMT]
More than two hundred American Tamils protested in front of the White House in the Lafayette Park Monday 9:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m., accusing the Government of Sri Lanka for slaughtering more than 3000 Tamil civilians crowded into a 5 sq.km. area during Saturday night and Sunday with the use of heavy weapons including multi-barrel artillery directed into the Safety Zone. Holding banners displaying "Stop the Genocide," the protesters called on President Obama to lead an international effort to establish a ceasefire between the two adversaries, Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers.
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Colombo / Kozhumpu / Ko'lumpu / Ko'lamba

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 13:46 GMT]
The point where the land bends inside
The point of the bend
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99 percent Norway Tamils aspire for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 10:51 GMT]
In a secret ballot of universal suffrage, conducted by a Norwegian media simultaneously in 14 centres in the length and breath of the country among Eezham Tamils, 98.95 percent of the voters said that they aspire for the formation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. The voter turn out was a high 89.8 percent in the capital city of Oslo and an average 80 percent for the country, Utrop biweekly that conducted the ballot said. The ballot gains significance not only in democratically and concretely revealing what the Tamils want, but also in telling that the so-called Oslo Declaration that speaks about internal self-determination is not up to their expectations, Tamil circles said. A couple of days before the ballot, Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim advocated a federal solution to the crisis.
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