'Immediate ceasefire is the only way' - Jayalalithaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
"I strongly insist that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to save the Tamil civilians in the safety zone," said AIDMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a signed statement in Tamil, issued on Wednesday. Ms. Jayalalithaa in the strongly worded statement blamed Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Central Government of India for the current plight of Tamil civilians. "People of Tamil Nadu will wash their hands off of such elements whose hands are jointly at work causing misery to the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," she said.
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SLA bombs child nutrition centre in safety zone, 258 including 100 children wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 11:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit a child care centre and milk powder distribution centre at Pokka'nai, killing at least 40 civilians and causing injuries to more than 258 including 100 children. The SLA has stepped up indiscriminate bombardment, according to latest reports. At least 25 dead bodies have been brought to the hospital and 13 of them were identified by medical authorities at the makeshift hospital. More than 100 civilians have been killed and at least 422 wounded within the last 3 days, including Wednesday.
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I can't cause miracles: Erik Solheim

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"I can understand the level of desperation among the Tamils in Norway. But, I can't cause miracles," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian international development minister and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitation to the peace process in the island of Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. Responding to Mr. Erik Solheim, Mr. Ki Pi Aravinthan, a veteran former Tamil militant of the 1970's and a well-known Tamil writer in France said that Solheim may not be able to perform miracles, but at least he should have refrained himself from committing knowing blunders. "Diplomacy may be the art of the possible, but a liberation struggle is to make impossible, possible. Norway failed in grasping the point," he said.
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SLA takes away 65 detainees including students to Thellippa’lai Camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Saturday and Sunday 65 detainees including students from three SLA detention centres in Jaffna district where civilians fleeing war in Vanni were held, sources in Jaffna said. The soldiers took away the 65 detainees to the SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) in Thellippa’lai claiming they were involved in terrorist activities. Though this matter was expected to be raised in the Tuesday meeting in Jaffna Secretariat held to discuss the problems faced by the inmates in the SLA detention centres, none of the representatives of the local and international organizations serving the interests of children, including UNICEF and the education officials, had mentioned the abduction of the detainees by SLA soldiers during the week-end, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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'It is not the way for post-conflict ambitions,' say London protestors

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 16:33 GMT]
“The spontaneous demonstrations that are taking place in world capitals are a result of the failure of deliberations between community elders and the ruling circles of the International Community," said 17-year-old M. Kavitha who got injured in police charging during the protest in London on Tuesday. "The younger generation of the diaspora, disillusioned over the elder’s faith in the IC governments, has taken to the streets now,” she said commenting on the continued agitation taking place outside the Houses of Parliament in London since Monday by angry Eezham Tamil protestors demanding Britain to act immediately to bring in ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The protestors defied normal British procedures of getting prior permission in staging their demonstration.
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Colombo turns firepower onto 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 09:51 GMT]
Civilians inside the so-called safety zone have been forced to remain under bunkers as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up shelling and long-distance gunfire since Monday morning. Those who move on the road have come under long-distance gunfire by the SLA. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets were seen flying over the safety zone and carrying out air attacks. Local humanitarian activists in Vanni said that this is the last opportunity for the civilised world to uphold human values by taking immediate action of protecting the civilians from falling into the hands of an 'avowed genocidal government'.
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No more excuses in waging the war - Protestors in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 08:09 GMT]
"Colombo, which wages a brutal war, and its main war-partner, the Indian Establishment, which sets the agenda and the International Community that viciously abets the war, have no more justification or excuses in continuing the war," said T. Raju, a young Tamil diaspora activist who talked to media while hundreds of Norwegian Tamils gathered Tuesday in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo to protest against the Sri Lankan war. "Only a few hundred LTTE cadres remain in Vanni was the estimation of Colombo’s military, a few weeks ago. Colombo claimed that nearly 500 LTTE cadres were killed this weekend. Therefore any further war only means open genocide of people," he said.
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24 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested 24 Tamil youths Saturday and Sunday in the suburbs of Colombo city, according to complaints made to Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan by the youths’ relatives. Meanwhile, security measures in Colombo have been strengthened on the assumption that Liberation Tigers may launch attacks in Colombo during the forth coming New Year celebrations, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said.
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Threat of starvation haunts "Safe Zone" families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 00:56 GMT]
Subasan, a 24-year-old fisherman originally from Muzhangkaavil in Naachchikkuda, displaced at least 29 times to date and now wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling inside the so-called safe zone, told TamilNet correspondent in Vanni Sunday, that his family is traumatized by the daily hardships, and that his family faces starvation due to shortage of food. Subasan said his family lead a reasonably comfortable life from his earnings from fishing. His dire economic situation has forced his pregnant wife to now sell their tarpaulin sheet for Rs.1,400 to take care of him.
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SLA abducts 11 students from Koappaay detention camp

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Sunday eleven students held along with their parents in the SLA detention camp in Koappaay Teacher Training College hostel, according to Education officials who visited the detention centre Monday. The students were taken to the SLA Rehabilitation Camp in Thellippalai, the parents of the students told the officials. This incident has created shock and fear among the detainees held in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna and Thenmaraadchi, sources in Jaffna said.
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17 Tamil youths abducted, gone missing in Trincomalee, Ampaa’rai

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 14:11 GMT]
Seventeen Tamil youths have been either abducted or gone missing in the past two weeks in Moothoor East in Trincomalee district and Thirukkoayil in Batticaloa district, according to complaints made by the youths’ relatives to Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Thurairatnasingam. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and paramilitary military men who operate with them come to the houses of the youths in white vans and forcibly take the youths away, the relatives said in the complaint.
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Mangled bodies, torn limbs litter Safe Zone - medical official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 22:29 GMT]
"Death in most brutal form has become common within the Safety Zone. The area littered with mangled bodies, torn limbs, and blood soaked soil appears more horrific than what one finds inside a butchers shop," a lady medical staff working out of a school-building converted into the temporary primary surgical care centre at Puthumaaththa'lan, told TamilNet Sunday. She also pointed out that a great number of small children have died in the last few days because of the SLA's ceaseless shelling and firing.
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SLA intensifies attacks on Safe Zone, 71 civilians killed, 143 wounded

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), which has been blaming that the Tigers were using civilians as 'human shields' on Sunday contradicted its claims saying that main LTTE fighting formations were inside a territory outside the safe zone, besieged by the SLA and claimed that the area has now been brought under its control, causing heavy casualties to the LTTE. Meanwhile, the SLA has stepped up attacks on civilians inside the safety zone from 8:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the latest reports from the civilian safe zone. At least 71 civilians were killed and 143 sustained injuries and the doctors at Puthumaaththa'lan makeshift hospital were struggling to save a one month old baby, seriously wounded in SLA shelling.
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SLA warns fishermen to avoid fishing in Poonakari area

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 10:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) announced over loudspeaker Saturday in Kurunakar that fishermen should not go fishing or step on the shores in Jaffna lagoon areas in Poonakari East, Kannaatheevu and Ariyaalai as these places are heavily infested with landmines placed by SLA. Fishermen failing to heed the warning will not be given the ‘pass’ (permit) for fishing, the SLA informed, sources in Jaffna said.
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Paramilitary detainee escapes from Jaffna prison

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A paramilitary man alleged to be a person of a prominent Tamil political-cum-paramilitary party in Jaffna, detained for suspected involvement in various robberies, abduction and extortion, escaped from Jaffna Prison Sunday between 4:30 a.m and 4:35 a.m, according to Jaffna Prison officials. The escapee is alleged to have operated along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) elements in Jaffna and the concerned political party refused to comment when contacted for information, sources in Jaffna said.
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Sinhalese mob attacks Tamil demonstrators in Melbourne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 14:55 GMT]
A group of around 50 Sinhala expatriates, some of them allegedly inebriated, attacked a car-rally demonstration organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora in Melbourne Saturday noon protesting genocide of their kith and kin in the island of Sri Lanka and demanding immediate end of the war waged by Colombo government. A few Eezham Tamils were injured and their cars were damaged in the attack. One of the attackers also reportedly got injured in the melee.
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SLA shelling kills 12 pregnant mothers in March in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 12:28 GMT]
Twelve pregnant mothers were killed due to shell blast injuries during March, according to a Mullaiththeevu Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) report, a copy of which was obtained from Vavuniya District Secretariat. One pregnant mother, Jeruban Sathana, 22, died of severe infection without adequate medication (Septicemia) in her second trimester of preganancy, report added.
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Recognize our freedom: Vanni civilian leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
How can a people trust a government that has instructed them to get into a safety zone and then kills, maims and starve them continuously for months now, asks Pararajasingam Kanagalingam, president of the Vanni People Welfare Organization (VPWO), in a recorded affidavit on the civil situation of Vanni sent to TamilNet Wednesday. “ Right to live is the most fundamental right guaranteed by the UN. But, even after assurances, people are killed here everyday by government forces. Is it a government that can’t guarantee the fundamental right? If the government can’t care for us it should leave us free. What is wrong if the Tamils think of self-determination? Even now the people of Vanni are firm in this aspiration for freedom”, said Mr. Kanagalingam.
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SLA attacks kill 90 civililans within 3 days, 195 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 20:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued artillery and mortar shelling during the past 3 days in addition to firing Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) shells and Fifty Calibre rounds inside the so-called safety zone, killing 90 civilians and causing injuries to 195, according to medical and humanitarian workers within the 'no-fire zone'. Medical staff at the makeshift hospital Friday said they still lack many medicines and that only 7 types of medical items were brought in ICRC ship on Thursday.
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42 houses officially handed over to tsunami victims in Nedunththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 15:53 GMT]
An official handover event of 42 houses built by North East Community Restoration and Development (NECORD) organization with Asian Development Bank (ADB) aid was held at Nungkaalai in Nedunththeevu, an islet of Jaffna (Delft), on 30th March. K. Ganesh, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), N. Thirulinganathan, Assistant GA Nedunththeevu, NECORD Manager, S. Sivaroopan and several others participated in the event, sources in Jaffna said. The housing project took nearly 5 years to be completed due to the travel difficulties in transporting building material to the island aggravated by restrictions imposed by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which holds the island in its complete control, the sources added.
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