Tamil journalists applaud “Women of Courage” award to Srinithy Nandasekaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 11:46 GMT]
Magistrate Srinithy Nandasekaran, who had served earlier in the courts of Vavuniyaa, Jaffna, and Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts), and currently a Magistrate in the Colombo Juvenile Court, was recognized as a South Asia Regional Finalist for the US Secretary of State's Women of Courage Award by the U.S. Ambassador Blake in Colombo on 24th March. Commenting on the award, a senior journalist said: "Ms Nandasekaran took strong, legally admissible steps to reign in on the Sri Lankan military's attempts to encroach into basic freedom of movement and rights of Jaffna residents. She ruled that the military cannot wear black masks during duty, and was a staunch critic of the road blocks the military forces set up that created hardship to the normal life of civilians."
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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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Youth shot, injured in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 07:19 GMT]
Two unidentified men on motorcycle shot and seriously injured a youth Sunday around 9:30 a.m in front of his house in Church Lane, Kokkuvil West in Jaffna as he was returning home on his motorcycle, sources in Jaffna said. The youth is admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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7th SLA detention centre opened in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 05:49 GMT]
In addition to the existing six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres in Jaffna district SLA has established another in Kaithadi in Thenmaraadchi where there are already four centres, to detain civilians fleeing war in Vanni. Saturday alone more than 200 families arrived in Thenmaraadchi and were placed in temporary makeshift sheds erected in the building complex of Palmyra Development Board (PDB) in Kaithadi, Thenmaraadchi Divisional Secretariat officials said.
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'Global order' experiments with body and mind of Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 01:17 GMT]
To what extent human beings can survive under extreme conditions was a Nazi research on the ‘dispensable Jews’ of the concentration camps, to find out the levels of extremity the human body and mind can withstand. Academic and professional circles raise an alarm that the Colombo government and the abetting powers, in experimenting political cum military effectiveness of their local and global order through a no-witness genocidal war, are probably at such a research with the Eezham Tamils. "Whether a humanitarian catastrophe faced by them is deliberately ignored by the international community and whether the instruments of humanitarian intervention have given up Vanni people for good," ask Dr. J. Sivamanoharan and S. Edmond Reginold, professionals of mental health working in Vanni.
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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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257 Tamils arrested in outskirts of Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took into custody 301 persons including 257 Tamils in a joint search conducted in Gampaha, in the outskirts of Colombo city, from Thursday 6:00 p.m till Friday 6:00 a.m, according to police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekara. 8,830 persons were interrogated in the search, he said. The relatives of the arrested Tamils have lodged complaints with Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan and Mano Ganeshan, leader of Western Peoples’ Front (WPF) and Colombo district parliamentarian.
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4 Tamils arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 04:24 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians who are residents of North and East were arrested by the Katunayake police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in a cordon and search operation conducted on Thursday. The owner of the house where they were boarders was also taken into custody for interrogation, police sources said.
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Diaspora conference in London calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 22:27 GMT]
45 Tamil dignitaries from 21 countries gathered in London on Wednesday and Thursday to resolve that an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka was essential and that humanitarian access to the Vanni should be permitted immediately. The delegates also said that the Eezham Tamils should determine their own destiny and emphasized that the people of the traditional Tamil homeland had not only given their democratic mandate to the homeland concept, but they also have reiterated that mandate at every juncture of their political discourse.
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Slain Lasantha Wickrematunge’s wife complains of inaction to IGP

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 08:35 GMT]
“The statements made by senior members of the government show unequivocally that he (Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella) and the president of Sri Lanka are aware of the identity of the killers,” said Ms. Sonali Wickrematunge, the wife of the assassinated Sunday Leader Editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge on 8 January, in her letter sent to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on 15 March.
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7 Tamils including 3 women arrested in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 07:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested seven Tamils including three women Wednesday in a cordon and search operation conducted in Kamburupitiya, a town in the southern province, police sources said. The arrestees, residents of estates located in Galle and Deniyaa, are detained and interrogated in Kamburupitya police station as they had failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location.
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Grenade attack on SLA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 06:40 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed three hand grenades in succession Thursday night around 7:45 p.m on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at the electricity transformer sentry post on Kaangkeasanthu’rai road in I’nuvil, sources in Jaffna said. Two soldiers may have been killed or seriously injured, unconfirmed reports said.
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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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'Coercion is not the beginning for a lasting solution'

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 01:17 GMT]
“Intimidation and coercion of Tamils and their political leaders can never be a good beginning for any lasting solution. The fundamental point is that the powers don’t want to see parity to Tamils in the negotiation. They want to confirm Colombo’s position that there is a post-LTTE phase and the Tamils to negotiate from a post-defeat position. Above all, they don’t want to recognize the national liberation perspectives of the Tamil struggle,” writes an independent commentator in Vanni, who has long been sharing his insight with TamilNet. “What the powers actually expect is TNA disowning the LTTE and joining Rajapaksa club in hoodwinking a solution. The Eezham Tamils were at the receiving end of political deceit for ages and they have a good sense of smelling it out, even if it is international."
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SLA attacks kill Mullai DS officials engaged in humanitarian work

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 19:37 GMT]
Two of the 131 civilians slain on Wednesday were District Secretariat officials engaged in humanitarian work, according to initial details from the civil sources in Vanni. A 52-year-old female, Mariyanayagam Deisyrany, attached to the registrar section of the Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat and a 27-year-old female, Janoja, engaged in the supply of World Food Program (WFP) delivered humanitarian aid.
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SLA attacks hospital, 5 patients killed, 11 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 16:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacked the makeshift hospital at Puthumaththa'lan with Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in the early hours of Thursday between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m., killing five patients who were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit and causing injuries to 11 including two medical staff. Six patients who were already being treated for their injuries from shell attacks and 3 relatives of the patients were wounded in the RPG attack. The attack also destroyed part of the medicines recently brought to the hospital.
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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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4 home guards shot, killed, 4 injured in Polanaruwa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 07:16 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot and killed Wednesday night four home guards in Welikande police division in Polanaruwa district besides seriously injuring four of them. However, Welikande police claimed that the persons killed and injured are farmers of Manikdeniya village where the attack took place, sources in Polanaruwa said.
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25 Tamil civilians arrested in Morawewa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police Tuesday conducted combined cordon and search operations in several Tamil villages in and around Morawewa division in Trincomalee district and took about twenty five Tamil civilians into custody following the attack on a patrolling group of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that took place in the morning at Veappanku'lam which is located along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura highway about 15 miles from east port town.
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'Parliament proposes, Rammell dismisses'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 07:47 GMT]
It was the fourth occasion in recent times the British parliament was discussing Sri Lanka. Members cutting across party lines came hard on the Colombo government for nearly one and a half hours on Tuesday, for its attacks on civilians, failure in heeding international calls for ceasefire, humanitarian abuses and blockade of international monitoring. Many members demanded UN action, suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and pressure on India to act in stopping the war. However, Bill Rammell, the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs came out only with rhetorical assurances, sounded negative to substantial demands and accused the LTTE for preventing people from leaving.
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