Military end to conflict will end hope for a unified Sri Lanka - Obama White House

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 12:02 GMT]
In a statement issued Friday the Obama White House called on "both sides to stop fighting immediately," and "the Government of Sri Lanka to stop shelling the safe zone and blocking international aid groups and media from accessing those civilians who have managed to escape," adding both sides should "strictly adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law," and that the Obama administration is "very concerned about reports of violations, and take these allegations very seriously." The White House cautioned that, "[i]t would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future."
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Demand for separate state can intensify, says Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 11:50 GMT]
Pointing out that "[f]or more than a quarter century, successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to grant ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast of the country some form of autonomy or self-rule in a confederal state," the Boston Globe in an editiorial said Saturday that "[i]f the Tamil populace sees no hope for autonomy within Sri Lanka, it may come to demand a separate state." The Globe said, "[t]he Tigers have committed terrorist acts. But the overwhelming majority of the victims in the Rajapaksa brothers' war have been Tamil civilians."
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Parameswaran continues fast for the 18th day in London

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 09:56 GMT]
The fast unto death protest by Parameswaran Subramnaiyam observed to draw the attention of the International Community to the ongoing catastrophe in Sri Lanka, reached its 18th day Friday as the diaspora Tamils in Britain continue their protest demonstration in the Parliament Square in London for the 19th day, sources in London said. Many people from various nationalities visit and express their support and sympathy for the cause for which the Tamils are demonstrating, the sources added.
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Physical capture and incarceration of people: latest ways of neo-colonialism

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 06:01 GMT]
"The pundits of political science may have to revise the connotations of the word neo-colonialism as indirect ways of imperialism only operating through economy. The experiment that is taking place with the Tamil question in the island of Sri Lanka indicates that powers of today are bold enough to orchestrate physical capture of people in brutal ways without worrying about casualty and the imprisonment of the remaining indefinitely, in order to achieve their geopolitical goals," writes a regular political commentator to TamilNet. "The manipulations at the UN, open defiance in recognizing the obvious ethnic nature of the crisis, and the outrageous statement diplomacy empty of action in saving the oppressed, but signalling Colombo’s genocide, are clear evidences for the new trends of neo-colonialism, encountered by the world of freedom-loving people," the commentator writes.
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Another carnage imminent as the two Indian mandarins return

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 03:27 GMT]
In lines of precedence with Colombo, which escalates war immediately following consultations with India, another carnage is anticipated with the return of the two Indian mandarins, Menon and Narayanan, from Sri Lanka on Friday, Tamil circles in Colombo said. Earlier, on Thursday, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused the LTTE of "barbaric" attempts. Meanwhile, US State Department Friday asked the LTTE to consider surrendering to a 'third party'. Diplomatic and military preparations are set for another bout of Colombo's genocidal onslaught, observers said.
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165,000 civilians face imminent starvation, LTTE urges IC to act

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 23:52 GMT]
In a press statement titled 'UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger' the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Friday said 165,000 Tamil civilians belonging to 40,000 families within the LTTE controlled area in Mullaiththeevu coast are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate  denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. "The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure  immediate and continuous supply of food to these people.  We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier," the statement released from Vanni said.
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Tamil woman arrested in Kandy

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 21:04 GMT]
A Tamil woman arrested on Wednesday in Kandy by the police in a cordon and search operation has been detained under the detention order served by the Defense Ministry for further inquiry, police said.
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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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'Ostriches can never be right'

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:46 GMT]
It is as obvious as one’s palm that the crisis in Sri Lanka is ethnic. It is not just a story of today or yesterday. In contemporary politics it is dated back to 1931, ever since universal suffrage was introduced, paving way for ethnic majority rule. Sinhalese historians believing in Mahavamsa may trace it back to more than 2000 years. Contemporary history of the island is nothing but an ethnic bloodbath. But in the ‘most compassionate’ Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time, it is no more ethnic but only terrorist. People say he has been successful in convincing the international community so. The recent stand taken by UN and certain countries reducing the crisis to a humanitarian issue caused by ‘terrorism’, make observers only dumb-founded. Might, may be the supreme right, but however mighty, ostriches can never be right, said, a political analyst in Colombo on Friday.
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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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Vithiyatharan released

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 09:38 GMT]
The Chief Editor of the Tamil daily Sudaroli, Nadesapillai Vithiyatharan, who was 'abducted' and later claimed as 'arrested' by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Divison on February 26, was released Friday by the Colombo Magistrate Court after the charges against him were dropped.
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Civilian casualties top 20,000 in Vanni: Leaked UN document

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 09:31 GMT]
A new document originating from the UN and circulated among the diplomatic missions in Colombo this week has put the figures of the civilians killed in Vanni since January as at least 6,432 and 13,946 wounded, according to a news report by the Associated Press Friday. "The casualties were reported as 'verified data' in the document," the AP said. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been firing thousands of artillery and mortar shells, including internationally banned cluster munitions and chemical warheads, into the so-called no-fire zone or 'safety zone' killing and maiming thousands of Tamil civilians, constituting a grave war crime and crime against humanity.
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'Bountiful in killing shells, but no means for food packets'

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 00:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have enough means to feed them when they are captured, said a District Secretariat official in Vavuniyaa. The SLA, which is still keeping the civilians inside the militarized zone, north of Oamanthai, for its screening, has asked the Tamil people of Vavuniyaa through loudspeaker announcements, to donate cooked-food packets to supply the captured civilians, the official speaking in condition of anonymity told TamilNet Thursday. So far, no civil official is able to confirm the arrival of the new batch of civilians into the internment camps of Vavuniyaa town this week.
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3 youths reported missing in Vavuniyaa, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:45 GMT]
One Tamil youth was abducted in Vavuniyaa, and two Tamil youths were reported missing in Mannaar since last Tuesday in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged by their relatives in respective police station.
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Extortion demands petrify Kandy Tamil traders

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:31 GMT]
Tamil traders in Kandy town are reported to have been threatened by paramilitaries of Karuna group by telephone, demanding extortion from one hundred thousand rupees to five hundred thousand rupees per head, according to media reports quoting Kandy Tamil Traders’ Association. Kandy Tamil Traders’ Association held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to explore ways to respond to the threats.
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SL Police arrests Tamil couple in Ratnapura

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 15:29 GMT]
A young Tamil couple was taken into custody Tuesday by the Nallathanni Police in Ratnapura district while they were staying in a house at an estate in the area. Police said they were detained on detention orders by the Defence Ministry for further inquiry.
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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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Demonising Tamil struggle without citing solutions

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 11:40 GMT]
What the Sinhala government is now trying to do to the Tamil people is nothing new. Exactly the same thing was done in Vietnam by the US army, writes Indian journalist T.G. Jacob from Kerala. “Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are there all over Europe and their number in India is growing. All these factors make the situation even more highly volatile, which in all possibility will create new polarizations. The short term military defeat of LTTE cannot at all prevent the Tamil issue from becoming an international one and change to guerilla war within the island. That is why the Sri Lankan political leadership is talking of ‘protected’ villages. Actually this is exactly what is happening now. The Sri Lankan government through all its barbarity and outrageous double talk is immensely facilitating this process”, he writes.
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SLA shelling on church kills 14, Caritas-HUDEC Vanni director wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 April 2009, 05:40 GMT]
Rev. Fr. T. R. Vasanthaseelan, the director of Human Development Centre (HUDEC) of Caritas Jaffna, the social arm of the Catholic Church in the Jaffna Diocese, was seriously wounded Thursday morning around 7:30 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired shells on Our Lady of Roses Church in Valaignarmadam for the second day. 14 civilians who had taken refuge at the church were killed. The shelling on the church, which is the main centre for people seeking refuge in Valaignarmadam, comes a day after Rev. Fr. James Pathinathar was wounded in a similar attack. The SLA has attacked the church despite repeated calls from Jaffna Diocese not to target the church where 17 priests and 22 nuns were continuing to serve their congregations.
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US questioned for lack in response to match the catastrophe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 20:16 GMT]
While talking about rebuilding the society afterwards, US efforts right now are not matching the emergency of the situation described as a catastrophe by the ICRC, was a question of journalist, Mr. Arshad, put to US spokesman Robert Wood, when he came out with a statement on Sri Lanka, during the daily press conference of the State Department Wednesday. The spokesman agreed but placed the blame on the defiance of the parties to the conflict to the calls of the international community. Another question was on the US presumption that the conflict is coming to an end by Sri Lankan military action. “Is it not quite conceivable that the level of violence that is now occurring will simply sow the seeds for continuing or renewed conflict”, Arshad asked Wood. While agreeing that violence is at an unacceptable level, Wood said that he couldn’t make that kind of judgement.
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