Doctors call for attack free zones surrounding displaced hospitals

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 23:45 GMT]
In a systematic well planned militarily and politically crucial campaign, the Sri Lankan Government directed military forces are pursuing attacks on densely populated areas east of the A9 in Vanni. Often in close proximity to relocated hospitals and camps of the fleeing population, its strategy seems to be one of aerial bombardment followed by immediate ground attacks, involving heavy artillery and mortar attacks that have caused increased civilian casualties. Above statistics and ground reports, echo a plea from government service doctors in Vanni, who have called for 'attack free zones' surrounding displaced hospitals.
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SLA engaged in vacating civilians from Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 21:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers advancing from Ezhuthumadduvaa’l in Thenmaraadchi into areas earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vadamaraadchi are forcibly vacating permanent residents from their villages, sources in Chaavakachcheari said. 208 persons belonging to nearly 50 families brought to Kodikaamam by the SLA soldiers were handed over to Kodikaamam police who produced them before Chaavakachcheari magistrate Tuesday. Directed by the magistrate the vacated civilians have been placed in Jaffna Government Agent’s (GA) special hostel in Koappaay.
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Norwegian Tamils urge Norway to stop war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 18:24 GMT]
More than five hundred members of Norwegian Tamils' Federation (NTF) protested in front of Norway Foreign Ministry, Tuesday from 2:00 p.m til 3:00 p.m, demanding Norway to immediate intervene to stop the war waged on the people of Vanni by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). "Norway has the moral responsibility to stop the war on the Tamil people in Vanni," the protestors shouted during the demonstration.
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Heavy fighting in Mullaiththeevu frontier, Tigers recover 6 SLA bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 17:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an offensive push in Chilaavaththai in Mullaiththeevu district Tuesday. The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) have seized ammunitions and recovered at least 6 dead bodies of the SLA, according to the reports from Mullaiththeevu.
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Pressure Colombo to stop attacking civilian targets, TRO appeals to India, UN, US

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 13:55 GMT]
In an urgent press released issued Monday, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), appealed to the Government of India, President-Elect Obama, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and the international community, to pressure "the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to cease attacks on civilian targets; allow unfettered humanitarian access to the Vanni by the UN and international NGOs; and to allow all necessary essential humanitarian assistance into the area."
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Humanitarian tragedy unfolds in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 12:32 GMT]
If Tamil Nadu fails to exert pressure on New Delhi to stop the Sri Lankan offensive in Vanni within a few hours, there will be no hope left for civilians who fear being subjugated by the Sri Lankan military, say displaced peoples representatives in Vanni as thousands of civilians were fleeing towards Puthukkudiyiruppu from Tharmapuram and the adjoining areas as Sri Lanka Artillery (SLA) shelling intensified Tuesday. Hospital at Tharmapuram has been displaced and the streets were full of vehicles with Internally displaced civilians.
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Ki'llinochchi woman arrested, in Uva Paranagama

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 10:41 GMT]
Uva Paranagama Police in Uva Province Monday early morning arrested a Tamil woman who is a resident of Ki'llinochchi. Police said she was taken into custody on receipt of information that she had been involved in Wattala suicide bomb blast that took place recently.
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Tamil civilian reported missing, in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 10:35 GMT]
A Jaffna born Tamil civilian residing in Wattala in Colombo district has been reported missing since Thursday, according to complaints lodged with Wattala Police Station by his relatives.
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LTTE booby trap kills STF commando, injures 2, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 20:17 GMT]
A Special Task Force (STF) commando was killed Monday around 9:30 a.m and two more injured in a booby trap explosion set by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vavu’natheevu police division in Batticaloa district, LTTE sources in Batticaloa said.
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Thirumavalavan to fast to death, demands New Delhi to stop war in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 20:16 GMT]
Thol. Thirumavalavan, President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), announced Monday that he would undertake a fast-unto-death to pressurize the Indian Government to put an immediate end to the genocide of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, according to media sources in Chennai.
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Police arrest 3 upcountry Tamil youths in Kandy

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 16:53 GMT]
Kandy Police Sunday in two separate cordon and search operations conducted Sunday evening arrested three upcountry Tamil youths. Police said they were taken into custody as their movements caused suspicion.
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SLN arrests 200 civilians fleeing from Jaffna to Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 16:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers arrested Monday around 200 civilians fleeing war from Vadamaraadchi East areas earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to LTTE held Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, in their fishing boats by sea route, sources in Jaffna said. The arrested civilians have been brought to areas in Jaffna peninsula under control of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the government officials are facing a critical situation as no prior arrangement has been made to shelter these refugees, sources close to Jaffna Secretariat said. Meanwhile, the Deputy Ambassador for Britain in Colombo made a sudden visit to Jaffna Monday where he met Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh and key SLA officials, the sources added.
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Pillayan group men abduct Tamil civilian, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 15:52 GMT]
Pillayan group TMVP men, led by its main operative Jenthan, arriving in a white pickup vehicle abducted a Tamil civilian Friday around 2:00 p.m in Karuvappangkea’ni in Batticaloa police division, according to complaints lodged with Batticaloa Human Rights Commission (HRC) office. The abducted civilian is being held and tortured in Thaamaraikea’ni TMVP office and his wife who went to see him was assaulted by the men in the office, according to complaint made to Batticaloa police.
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Tamil diaspora calls off Pongkal, Vanni situation 'precarious'

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 08:45 GMT]
The representatives of Eezham Tamil diaspora organisations in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States on Sunday said they were suspending all Pongkal celebrations as the situation of civilians in Vanni has reached intolerable limits. The announcement came as the Sri Lankan military was preparing for an all out war on densely populated territory in the northeast of Vanni. The diaspora representatives in a joint electronic message said it was "only the pressure from Tamil Nadu that could halt the genocidal onslaught on Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces on Tamils in Vanni."
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6 Tamils arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 16:16 GMT]
Six Tamils were arrested in the Katunayake high security zone in a cordon and search operation conducted by the police Saturday evening. Police took them into custody as they were seen loitering close to the Katunayake airbase, sources in Colombo said.
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Scores wounded in Sri Lankan bombardment on displacing civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 14:37 GMT]
The three armed forces of Sri Lanka have carried out a joint indiscriminate bombardment from air, land and sea targeting the civilians who were displacing from Vadamaraadchi East villages to Vanni mainland, causing injuries to at least 40 civilians, initial reports from the area said. The attack has targeted civilians who have come to Chu'ndikku'lam lagoon to cross over to Vanni mainland as the land route has been occupied by the Sri Lanka Army following the occupation of Elephant Pass. Medical authorities at Kallaa'ru said they were struggling to transport the wounded. Ambulances at Tharmapuram hospital were sent to Kallaa'ru in Chu'ndikku'lam.
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"And they came for me" - Lasantha Editorial

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 14:07 GMT]
"What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall," says late Wickrematunge, in an editorial penned before his death; he adds "It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when."
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3,000 Sri Lankan troops killed in three months, Army to double – newspapers

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 12:37 GMT]
Three thousand Sri Lankan soldiers were killed fighting the Liberation Tigers in the past three months, the Sunday Island newspaper reported this week, quoting government Defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He was responding to opposition charges that 15,000 troops had been killed in the battles since October last year. Meanwhile SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka wants to eventually double the size of the SLA to 300,000 soldiers to hold areas captured from the LTTE. A colonel of the SLA’s Air Mobile brigade was killed in a booby trap explosion in the fighting for Elephant Pass last week, the Sunday Times reported.
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TMVP person killed, another injured, in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 09:52 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched an attack Saturday around 8:45 p.m on the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) office in Ea’raavoor police division killing a TMVP person and seriously injuring another.
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35th anniversary of Tamil Conference victims held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 January 2009, 09:31 GMT]
The 35th anniversary memorial of the eleven Tamils shot and killed by Sri Lanka policemen during the Fourth International Tamil Conference on 10 January 1974 was held Saturday in Jaffna esplanade in front of Veerasingam Hall where the memorial monuments for the civilians who had been killed stand erected, sources in Jaffna said.
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