Mano Ganeshan urges government to publicize details of Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 07:58 GMT]
“The government of Sri Lanka should release all information about Vanni civilians held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps without trying to keep it a secret,” Mano Ganeshan, Colombo district parliamentarian and the leader of Democratic Peoples’ Front (DPF) said in a press meet held in the residence of the leader of the opposition Friday under the title ‘Forum for Freedom’.
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'Our Holocaust and the impossibility of peace in Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 04:17 GMT]
“It is self-evident that the close scrutiny of the international community, the pleas and pointed warnings by powerful states and the disgust of the world has not impressed a Sinhala state, polity and people drunk with racism,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “It is inescapable that whatever the international community does, the Sinhala state will continue to pose an existential threat to the Tamil people, unless we are protected by our own borders and security forces.” The paper added, “[meanwhile] contrary to Sinhala expectations, Tamil militancy will remain central to Sri Lanka’s future. As the LTTE, which has transformed itself – yet again – for a new kind of war, bluntly put it last month: as long as the Tamils are oppressed, ‘Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace’.”
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UN genocide expert wants ceasefire, UN investigators want war probes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 03:26 GMT]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, underscoring the toll the clashes are taking on Tamil civilians, said Friday that “it is not too late” for the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to end the conflict. Francis Deng called for both sides to “pursue a reconciliatory and peaceful path with the ethnic Tamil population.” Three UN special investigators have now called for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the Sri Lankan conflict. Meanwhile, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons called on Colombo to allow the UN and other agencies “full and unfettered access to all civilians and detainees.”
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‘Tigers will regroup with a vengeance’ - FT

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 02:02 GMT]
“The Tamil cause will reignite from the embers of this war unless the Sinhala majority shows magnanimity and gives the Tamils control of their own lives,” the Financial Times warned Thursday in an editorial. Pointing out that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war “has only defeated the resourceful LTTE’s conventional capability,” the paper also warned that “[the Tigers] will regroup – and expand offshore – with a vengeance that will match the government’s vengefulness.”
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Bloodbath will not resolve the conflict: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"Colombo's approach to finish the war in 48 hours through a carnage and bloodbath of civilians will never resolve a conflict of decades. On the contrary it will only escalate the crisis to unforeseen heights. The Sinhala people have a duty and responsibility in stopping it, considering their own interest if not that of the Tamils," said LTTE's Head of International Relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, when contacted by TamilNet on the situation prevailing in Vanni.
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Pathmanathan urges immediate action by IC to protect Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 13:40 GMT]
"If the International community fails to act now, in this most needy hour, it would go down in the history of mankind as the most inhumane, unconscionable failure by the International community, the UN and other powers from their responsibilities to protect innocent civilians wherever they may be subjected to genocide," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued Friday. "Consequences of inaction will reverberate for generations. Inaction by the International community will be construed as its approval of this crime against humanity."
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More than 100,000 civilians in safe zone, ICRC suspends Vanni missions

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 13:04 GMT]
"Unless an external humanitarian intervention is carried out without delay, it would be difficult to avert an inhuman catastrophe," said a volunteer doctor appointed by the LTTE to serve the civilians within the so-called safety zone, Friday afternoon. "The ICRC has abandoned its missions, there is no food, no proper access to potable water to tens of thousands of civilians who are forced to stay under the bunkers, surrounded by dead bodies and wounded civilians who are dying without medical help," the medics doctor told TamilNet through a satellite phone. The Sri Lankan forces are deploying superior fire power and advancing along the coastal line deploying cluster munitions and shells causing immediate fire.
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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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British Tamil contests seat for European Parliament

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 11:20 GMT]
Ms. Janani (Jan) Jananayagam, a Sri Lankan born, and British, French educated young professional, who immigrated with her teacher parents to UK, has submitted her papers to contest for the June 4th elections to the European Parliament (MEP) as an independent candidate for London, campaign organizers in London said. She becomes the first Tamil to aspire for high-level political office in the UK. Tamil political observers in the UK say, the second generation, technology savvy Tamil, with fluency in both English and Tamil, can mobilize the support from the wider Tamil community currently vocal, and engaged in mass rallies and civil action, the immigrant communities, as well as appeal to the broader section of the British public to support her quest for the EU office.
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16 Tamil youths arrested in Matale

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 10:45 GMT]
Sixteen Tamil youths were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Matale Police on Wednesday night. They are residents of Rattota and had gone to attend a funeral held in Nalanda estate in Matale district.
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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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9 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 20:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody nine Tamil youths in a search operation conducted from Thursday morning till evening in Fort and Pettah areas in Colombo city, sources in Colombo said. The youths arrested are from North, East and upcountry provinces, relatives of the arrestees said.
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Tamil youth reported missing in Vaakarai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 15:48 GMT]
A Tamil youth from Maangkea’ni in Vaakarai in Trincomalee district is reported missing since Wednesday after leaving home to his fishing hut in Maavadi, according to complaint lodged by his relatives with Maangkea’ni police.
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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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Britain diaspora Tamils continue protest demonstration

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 05:18 GMT]
Diaspora Tamils in Britain continue their protest demonstration for the 38th day in Parliament Square in London Thursday against the unrelenting carnage of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces targeting makeshift medical centres, sources in London said. The protestors with black bands around their mouths held placards showing their demands. Meanwhile, the protestors engaged in hunger strike for more than 24 hours continue undeterred in an effort to draw the attention of the British government and the world, the sources added.
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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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Police arrest 4 Tamils in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 21:00 GMT]
Munthal Police in Chilaw district Sunday arrested four Tamil civilians including two women in a search operation conducted on receipt of information at Kaddaikaadu village. The police team searched the house where they were staying. They are being detained in the police station for further interrogation, police sources said.
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Will Obama take full responsibility of Tamil homeland, ask Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:57 GMT]
As news reports quote US President Barack Obama saying Tamil Tigers to "free civilians," and Colombo government to stop indiscriminate shelling, Tamil circles in the US asked whether President Obama is prepared to take full responsibility of the Tamil homeland and whether he is prepared to give full assurance to the freedom and the aspirations of the Tamil people.
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Tamil worker shot dead in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:55 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons Tuesday morning shot dead a Tamil civilian at Sirimipiady in Puththa'lam police division. The dead is said to be watcher of a coconut estate in the area.
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