Rajapaksa appoints notorious commander to head IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan President and C-in-C of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.
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Colombo uses starvation, denial of medicine as weapons of war: LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:26 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has been systematically limiting, delaying and blocking humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Vanni committing a serious crime of war said a statement issued by the Political Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Friday. Questioning why the International Community has failed to demand the Sri Lankan government to allow humanitarian supplies reaching the civilians of Vanni, the LTTE statement issued in Tamil said it was condemning Colombo in strongest terms for using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians and for violating the Geneva Conventions.
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Deliberations to get UN approval for Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Statement diplomacy and behind the screen deliberations of Colombo, India, and the International Community are heading for tacit UN approval for the Tamil genocide in the island of Sri Lanka, news reports indicate. The stand taken by the UN Security Council, and also echoed by the US state department Wednesday, welcoming the capture and detention of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka Army is the first step of direct approval for the genocide, Tamil circles said. All this time they were indirectly approving the killing of civilians by shelling and starvation to lead to their capture. By twisting the ethnic-oriented humanitarian situation as an issue of ‘terrorism’, the UN is approving the genocide, the Tamil circles said.
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Colombo blocks WFP supply ship scheduled to reach Vanni Tuesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Sri Lankan authorities have put off the departure of a ship with WFP supplies scheduled to reach Vanni on Tuesday despite the local civil officials in Vanni indicated the coordinates for the new landing point, Vavuniyaa District Secretariat officials told TamilNet Tuesday evening. Starvation-stricken civilians have long been waiting for humanitarian supplies to arrive and the officials urged the WFP to impress upon the government of Sri Lanka not to delay the humanitarian supply ship, the sources further said.
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Fr. Karunaratnam remembered on First anniversary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:24 GMT]
Mr. K.Sivapalan, Deputy Chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), on the first year anniversary of the killing of founder Chairperson of NESoHR, Rev.Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam, recounts his services to the community, and asks why the International Community is standing by as a Rwanda unfolds in Vanni. Father Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 20th April 2008 while he was driving from his residential prayer and counseling center in Vavunikku'lam.
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LTTE welcomes US initiative, asks Sri Lanka to listen to IC

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
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'Starvation poised for worse killings than shelling'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 17:42 GMT]
While around 60 civilians killed Friday and Saturday by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling, civilians have already started dying and many more thousands are at the verge of death due to starvation that is silently taking its toll within the so-called safety zone, TamilNet correspondent reported Saturday. The imminent victims are elderly, children and women. "Gruel has become the staple food to keep soul and body together for a vast majority of the civilians for weeks now. If there is no instant action, more starvation casualties can be expected in the next few days than the hitherto known total of casualties caused by shelling," warns TamilNet correspondent citing health and administrative officials staying inside the so-called safety zone.
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'Regular rapes, killings, degrading interrogations in internment camps'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 13:25 GMT]
Tamil IDPs inside the barbed-wire internment camps in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled Vavuniyaa are not only medically underserved, but are subjected to degrading interrogations and there are reports of regular rapes and killings, reveals a well known German writer and Human Rights activist, Thomas Seibert, who recently returned from Sri Lanka after a humanitarian trip, conducting personal interviews that described the plight of civilians kept as near-prisoners under the SLA occupation.
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India asks for extension of 'pause' in hostilities

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 08:39 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka must extend pause in hostilities to prevent further casualties and enable trapped civilians to leave the area to secure locations, said India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday. "Continuation of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable," it further said. The statement came after India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Mukherjee's statement ended by India reminding Government of Sri Lanka and 'others' concerned that 'Tamils are citizens of Sri Lanka'.
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US says humanitarian situation dire, asks GoSL, LTTE to stop hostilities

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 23:44 GMT]
In one of the strongly worded press releases United States Department of State called upon the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) to immediately stop hostilities, and to respect the right of free movement of civilians in Mullaiththeevu area. The release further noted that "[a] durable and lasting peace will only achieved through a political solution that addresses legitimate aspiration of Sri Lankan communities. Adding further killing will "stain any eventual peace," the release urged GoSL to employ diplomacy to permit a peaceful outcome of the conflict.
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US Tamil groups meet with State Department on Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
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Mullaiththeevu wounded die due to lack of antibiotics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 13:40 GMT]
Regional Medical Services Divisions (RMSD) for Mullaiththeevu and Kilinochchi received only 5% of the total allocation of monthly needs of medical supplies for the first three months in 2009, a report from Mullaiththeevu health officials received via Vavuniyaa District Secretariat said. Blood transfusion bags have been depleted and at least one death occurs daily due to the inability for blood transfusion, the report added. Several badly wounded civilians die without antibiotic treatment, health officials document in the report released.
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David Miliband calls for 'humanitarian' ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday renewed his call for an "urgent humanitarian ceasefire" to "allow the remaining civilians to leave the conflict area" and sought unhindered access for humanitarian agencies to the civilians displaced by the fighting, including those, whom he referred as "still trapped" in the conflict area. Mr. Miliband's call comes a day after LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan conveying the Tiger stance to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces on Tamil people aimed at total subjugation of the Tamil nation, and that only an immediate ceasefire could put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Sri Lankan aggression and pave the way for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
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SLA fired artillery shells create havoc inside safety zone

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 04:46 GMT]
Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the human toll due to indiscriminate firing of artillery shells by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) into the demarcated safety zone where more than 200,000 Tamil civilans have taken refuge. United Nations leaked document listed the number of killed as 2683 and wounded as 7241 between January 20 and March 7. Hundreds have been killed and injured in the last three weeks.
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SLA attacks kill 88 Tamils, including 21 children on Monday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 16:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on Monday claimed the lives of 70 civilians as Fifty Caliber gunfire from the SLA positions across the lagoon also killed 18 civilians on the road, which links the makeshift hospital with IDP settlements. 21 of the slain victims and 31 of 156 wounded civilians were children. 63 tarpaulin huts were destroyed in SLA attacks. TamilNet correspondent witnessed that four children were orphaned as they lost both their parents and siblings. The civilians were struggling to take their wounded to the hospital as the entire stretch of the road has come under 50 Caliber machine gun fire. Four civilians, including a worker of the fishing union that arranges boats to transport the patients from the coastal point Thidal to the ICRC ship, were wounded in SLA gunfire.
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Elderly detainee in SLA detention centre dies in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 09:01 GMT]
An elderly civilian held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centre in Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchi died Saturday night in Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) due to delayed medical treatment, sources in Jaffna said. Regional Health Service sources said that there is an acute scarcity for ambulances to transport patients in need of urgent treatment from the SLA detention centres to hospitals. Besides, SLA soldiers do not permit the civilians held in the detention centres to go out for early treatment when they are infected and sick and the life of the elderly man may have been saved had he had proper treatment in time, the sources added.
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179 civilians including 76 children killed within 3 days inside 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 20:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacks have claimed the lives of 179 civilians within the three days of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, according to the casualty figures collected by TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. At least 76 of the slain victims were children below the age of 15. At least 16 pregnant mothers were among the slain. More than 109 children below the age of 15 have sustained injuries. Around 45% of the thousands of shells fired by the SLA have hit the safety zone. Meanwhile, a foreign staff of the ICRC, who came in the ship on Saturday to transport the wounded civilian had a narrow escape when the ship was hit by long distance gunfire by the SLA damaging a window of the ship. On Friday, a local ICRC worker, P. Satheeskumar, was reportedly injured in SLA shelling.
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Grasping at straws leaving the tail: diaspora activist on Holmes' brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 16:21 GMT]
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who briefed the UN Security Council for a second time on Thursday "didn’t say anything new in his latest briefing other than reflecting on the escalation of the crisis and the pathetic impotency of the UN in handling the situation," Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU), told TamilNet Friday. He also referred to a recent statement by Professor Francis Boyle, a leading expert in International Law, who said that it seemed as if the UN is now repeating one of the 'most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide.'
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SLA denies permission to Vanni IDP children to attend normal schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna refuse permission to the children held in two SLA detainment centres in Kaithadi to attend normal schools near the centre despite efforts by educational officials and UNICEF readiness to offer financial assistance, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA authorities say that there are security problems in transporting the children to the schools and back, the sources added.
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Carnage continues, 131 civilians including 32 children killed Wednesday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 15:57 GMT]
131 civilians, including 32 children were killed in various types of attacks carried out by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) inside the safety zone throughout the day on Thursday, according to data collected from various local NGO workers and medical authorities within the civilian pocket besieged by the SLA. 49 of 252 wounded were children. SLA fired RPG shells, deployed long-range gunfire and mortar shells targeting the 4 km stretch from Puthumaaththa'lan to Valaignarmadam. 7 members of a family, including 4 children below the age of 10, were killed in RPG attack by the SLA in Maaththa'lan. 31 travellers were killed in gunfire and mortar attacks on Wednesday. Meanwhile SLAF bombardment claimed the lives of 27 civilians.
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