Casualties cross 1000 in SLA's attempt to capture civilians

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 13:18 GMT]
Hundreds of dead bodies and wounded civilians were still lying in Maaththa'lan and Pokka'nai, and more than 600 seriously wounded have been brought to a makeshift hospital functioning at a school in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in LTTE held area throughout Monday, TamilNet correspondent reports from Vanni. The correspondent personally witnessed nearly 300 dead bodies while fleeing from the area. Cluster shells and smoke or white-dust-emitting shells that made people to faint were widely deployed on civilians by the Sri Lanka Army in its effort to capture them. However, a large majority of the civilians fled towards LTTE held areas while around 8,000 were trapped and captured by the SLA.
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SLA fires cluster bombs on 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 08:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been firing shells fitted with cluster-munitions into civilian areas inside the northern part of the so-called 'safety zone', blocking the people who were attempting to re-locate within the zone and forcing them to get out into the hands of the SLA, according to latest reports from Pokka'nai area.
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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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Chaos and carnage as SLA enters 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 06:19 GMT]
Several hundreds of civilians are feared killed and injured and total chaos prevails among civilians as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) advanced into the so-called 'safety zone' in Pokka'nai Monday morning 11:00 a.m., according to latest reports from Vanni. Heavy fighting was reported along the bunds of the lagoon and patients in the Puthumaaththa'lan makeshift hospital were forced to run away as Rocket Propelled Grenades launched by the SLA hit the hospital. A few medical staff remaining in the hospital are hiding in bunkers. People were seen running in panic as dead and injured were seen lying scattered everywhere, eyewitnesses told TamilNet.
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SLA launches ground push targeting 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched a fresh ground offensive in the early hours of Monday around 2:00 a.m. by opening fire along the stretch from Maaththa'lan to Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, according to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. Heavy shelling, rocket fire and gunfire was reported in Maaththa'lan, Pokka'nai, Valaignarmadam and Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal as SLA continued to fire from its positions. There are civilian casualties. Details are yet to emerge.
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SLA conducts large scale cordon, search in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 16:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna launched sudden large scale cordon and search operations Saturday and Sunday in many parts of Jaffna peninsula, deploying thousands of soldiers, sources in Jaffna said. Nalloor, Chu’ndukku’li areas in Jaffna, Yaakkarai and Kizhavi Thoaddam in Vadamaraadchi besides certain areas in Valikaamam and Thenmaraadchi were subjected to cordon and search blocking all traffic through the above areas, the sources added.
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White van armed men abduct Tamil woman in Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:45 GMT]
An armed gang of men alleged to be paramilitaries operating with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) arriving in a white van Friday around 9:00 p.m broke into the house of a woman at Akkaraipattu and forcibly took her away, according to the complaint lodged with Akkaraipattu police by her children. Her husband had been abducted Monday around 5:00 p.m by armed men in a white van as he was riding home on his motorcycle, sources in Akkaraipattu said.
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French organisations vote, unanimously support Eezham Tamil independence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:41 GMT]
Exercising their right of free expression, 67 registered social welfare organisations of diaspora Tamils in France, took a pioneering democratic step of secret ballot on Saturday and unanimously declared support to the independence war of Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Ki Pi Aravinthan in Paris to TamilNet. The Paris declaration read that in supporting the cause of Eezham Tamils, it has infallibly adopted the will and spirit of the Vaddukkoaddai Declaration of 1976 that was overwhelmingly mandated by Tamil voters in 1977, and was in line with the ideology behind the declaration of American independence, the Republic of France in 1789 and the UN human rights declaration of 1948.
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White van armed men abduct Tamil youth, woman in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 04:32 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van abducted Saturday around 3:00 p.m a 52-year-old Tamil woman from her house at Pankudaave’i in Karadiyanaa’ru after assaulting her and on Thursday armed men in police uniform in a white van forcibly took away a Tamil youth from Ka’napathi Nakar in Chengkaladi, in Batticalao, sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLA attacks continue to target 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 01:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued indiscriminate shelling on the so-called 'safety zone' Friday and Saturday killing at least 60 civilians, according to local NGO workers. The SLA shelling targeted Iraddai-vaaykkaal and Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. Meanwhlie, medical authorities at Puthumaaththa'lan hospital reported that 63 wounded were admitted Friday at the makeshift hospital and 55 on Saturday. Of the 118 injured, 67 were wounded in shelling and 51 in gunfire, according to medical sources. Two died at the hospital Friday. 30 of the wounded are children and two of them succumbed to their injuries Saturday.
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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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Transport of goods through A9 route to Jaffna falters

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 16:03 GMT]
The transport of goods to Jaffna through the newly opened A9 route had only been possible three times, in 56 lorries, since the launch of this procedure amidst much government publicity last month, sources in Jaffna said. The Defence Ministry does not permit the transport through A9 route because of the security risk of the goods and personnel involved, Jaffna Traders’ Union (JTU) sources said. The sources further expressed concern that the goods they wanted to bring from Colombo to Jaffna in lorries had first to be handed over to the SLA controlled Government Stores in Welisara where they have been delayed for weeks.
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Night robberies escalate in Jaffna despite SLA presence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 15:37 GMT]
Night time robberies in Jaffna town and other areas of the peninsula which is under the complete control of Sri Lanka Amy have escalated markedly in the recent past. Though persons caught red-handed had been handed over either to the police or the SLA most of them have not been produced in the court, civil society sources in Jaffna raised accusation. As the culprits caught operate closely with SLA-backed paramilitary men in Jaffna, they manage to escape prosecution and punishment, the sources alleged.
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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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Largest UN, New York rally fills Times Square

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
In one of the largest rallies held by the American Tamils in New York, more than 5000 protesters from different parts of the United States and Canada converged in New York in the park on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues near the UN, and a smaller group in the permitted area 43rd Street park directly across from the Secretariat Building between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Friday, and urged the UN to take urgent steps to stop the carnage unfolding in the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu where the Government of Sri Lanka is slaughtering hundreds of Tamil civilians daily under the pretext of cornering the LTTE leadership. The protesters then marched westward to the Times Square, one mile from the UN, and continued the protest until 5:00 p.m., according to the organizers.
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Colombo shouldn’t block UN visiting safety zone: Nadesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 09:28 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka should not block UN Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar visiting the safety zone and acquainting himself of the conditions of the civilians, said LTTE political head, B. Nadesan when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday after reports of Sri Lanka rejecting UN appeal for ceasefire. "The GoSL is not making arrangements for his visit, to prevent him from knowing the nature and magnitude of its offensive and to prevent first hand verifications of the truth reaching the UN," he said.
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9,966 children in Jaffna victimized in 2008, Jaffna tops in school drop-outs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 04:56 GMT]
Nearly 5% of the children in Jaffna peninsula have either lost one of their parents or separated from, due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) harassment, killings, arrests and forced disappearances, according to the 2008 statistics report submitted to Jaffna Government Agent (GA) by Jaffna District Children Welfare Centre (JDCWC) in Jaffna Secretariat. A total of 9,666 children in Jaffna peninsula have been victimized by the above humanitarian violations in 2008, the statistics revealed. Meanwhile, Jaffna district tops the list of school children drop outs compared to other districts in the country, according to Jaffna GA who commented on the statistics report.
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AFP puts spin on TamilNet report

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
A TamilNet news report citing political observers in Colombo that appeared Thursday became a ‘view of the LTTE’ for the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Since its inception, TamilNet has been an independent news agency committed to reporting news with a Tamil perspective. However, it has become an objectionable practice with a section of the international media, including AFP, to refer to TamilNet as a pro-rebel, pro-LTTE etc. medium. But, Friday’s reporting by AFP has gone a step further by treating TamilNet report as LTTE’s belief or opinion. TamilNet does not such reporting as just oversight.
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LTTE envisages ceasefire, political solution ending armed conflict

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 10:32 GMT]
"LTTE’s armed struggle is the historical product of injustice against the Tamil Nation in the island, and if the International Community could achieve a just political solution to the conflict, the need for an armed struggle would cease to exist," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Friday. Mr. Pathmanathan further said: "We assure the International Community that the LTTE is ready to participate in political negotiations and fight to meet the political aspirations of the Tamil Nation at the negotiating table, through political means, if an immediate and permanent ceasefire is ensured and the human sufferings of the Tamil people are addressed."
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UN and IC signal civilian carnage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
The observation of UN official Holmes, that a ceasefire is not possible and the LTTE is preventing the civilians from leaving, followed by the chorus of British and French foreign ministers coming out with the same accusation on the LTTE in strong words, signal UN and IC assenting to a civilian carnage in the so-called safety zone, political observers in Colombo said. They also cited Rajapaksa’s visit to Ki’linochchi and unconfirmed reports on the withdrawal of even pro-government media from the battlefront as final preparations for Colombo’s onslaught.
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