EU must investigate Sri Lanka war crimes - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been claiming a glorious total victory - and denying allegations from doctors on the scene that tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been the victims of indiscriminate artillery fire and scorched-earth tactics," said Boston Globe in Tuesday's editorial, adding "the European Union must follow up on its call for an investigation of war crimes against civilians." The editorial also said that "the United Nations adopted a resolution in 2005 on the "responsibility to protect" populations that are not protected by their own governments. The massive killing and wounding of civilians on Sri Lanka represents exactly the sort of case that resolution was meant to address."
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Karunanidhi should bargain exit of habitually biased

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 02:04 GMT]
It is a well-known fact that certain elements, belonging to a clan operating from Nehru’s time bringing in disasters to India’s foreign policy, were responsible for the second time in India committing war crimes on Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. In forming the next government, chief minister Karunanidhi should use all his bargaining power to see that these elements never play a role again in Tamil affairs, said a Tamil journalist in Chennai. This is more important than bargaining ministerial portfolios, considering national interests of India and peace of the Tamil people, he said.
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War crime in the massacre of LTTE officials

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 01:52 GMT]
While rejecting Colombo's claim of the killing of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan and assuring his safety and well-being, LTTE's International Relations Head S. Pathmanathan Tuesday accused Colombo of treachery in the killing of the political wing leaders B. Nadesan and S. Puleedevan. Mr. Pathmanathan said it is a crime against humanity that needs to be investigated. Meanwhile, informed sources told TamilNet that what happened in the early hours of Monday was a well-planned massacre of several unarmed civil officers of the LTTE with the aim of annihilating its political structure. At the orders of a 'top defence figure,' an international arrangement involving ICRC, European diplomats and a Colombo government diplomat to arrange safe exit to the civil officers was defied, the sources said.
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'EU should consider justice, not investigations'

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 20:58 GMT]
The EU foreign ministers Monday called for the investigation of war crimes committed by ‘both sides’ in the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka. Responding to the news, TamilNet political commentator in Colombo said that what happened and what is happening in Sri Lanka is a unique case in contemporary human history in which the war crimes are ‘multilateral’, involving the UN, India, China and the Co-Chairs, involving even the EU. “The investigations have to be comprehensive sparing ‘nobody’, but where on earth to find such a neutral body, he asked. Rather than giving importance to post mortem in which the winners always have a better say, the EU has to urgently prevent further war crimes by immediately recognizing the Tamil independence and sovereignty in the island”, he said.
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Jaffna University students suspend educational activities

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 18:19 GMT]
Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) said that it is suspending all educational activities for a week from Tuesday as the students are undergoing severe mental stress and grief on account of the carnage of innocent Tamil civilians in Vanni, in a statement to the media Tuesday. Outstation students are unable to know the fate of their parents, relatives and others who had been caught in the war in Vanni and this affects them so badly that they are unable to follow lectures, JUSU said.
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Lies, deceptions, hallmark of Sri Lanka war- Telegraph

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 11:14 GMT]
"Chinese weapons, Indian intelligence, Sinhala Armed personals and racist Sri Lankan leaders came together to perform one of the most cruel war that has cost the lives of many thousands innocents," says Richard Dixon, a columnist in London's Telegraph. While "Tamils all over the world are mourning the death of their loved ones back home," and "[b]irds have now stopped singing in a land called Vanni," Dixon writes, "[l]eaders of Sri Lanka and some responsible officers in the UN, should be questioned in international courts in order to find out if they were responsible for the deaths of innocent Tamils."
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SLA spree of massacre in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:43 GMT]
In a spree of massacre, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is killing the wounded civilians in large numbers in the so-called safety zone, according to a reliable telephone call from Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Monday forenoon. There are still civilians hiding in the bunkers the phone call said.
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Mahinda’s accounts crime

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:33 GMT]
Before his murderous assault on the so-called safety zone, Mahinda Rajapaksa has always been maintaining that the number of civilians there was only 70,000. But after the first bout of the capture of civilians last month, until Thursday, 247,908 civilians from the safety zone were registered in the internment camps of Vavuniyaa, Pulmoaddai, Mannaar and Jaffna. After the first bout, the Sri Lanka president was saying that only 15 to 20 thousand were remaining in the safety zone. Sunday evening Colombo’s militarised civil administration head of internment camps, Chandrasiri admitted more than 80,000 crossing after the latest onslaught. According to aid officials, some more thousands are still remaining.
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Colombo 'ended' the battle with a massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:25 GMT]
Monday early hours around 3:00 a.m. Vanni local time, the LTTE Political Chief B. Nadesan and LTTE Peace Secretariat Director S. Puleedevan telephoned their contacts in Europe and informed them to tell the ICRC Head Office that only around 1,000 wounded cadres, civil officials of the LTTE and civilians remained in the so-called safety zone and there was no firing from the LTTE side. They urged the ICRC to evacuate the wounded. A few hours later, Colombo's Defence Ministry website claimed finding the dead bodies of Mr. Nadesan, Mr. Puleedevan, Mr. Ilango (Tamileelam Police Chief), and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan's son Mr. Charles Antony. The LTTE is yet to confirm, but initial reports indicate a determined massacre by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Ship on Mercy Mission crosses Suez Canal en route to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 22:23 GMT]
Mercy Mission ship, “Captain Ali” set sail from Fos-Sur-Mer, France on the 2nd leg of the mission, carrying approximately 884 metric tons of food, medicine, and other essential humanitarian relief items destined for the Tamil civilians in the Vanni area of Northern Sri Lanka displaced by the war just entered the Red Sea after traveling through the Suez Canal, a press release issued by the organizers of the mission said. The ship began the 1st leg of its journey from the Port of Ipswich, UK on 20 April 2009.
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'Long live human dignity; shame on international community'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 18:37 GMT]
While the so-called international community is "exposed of its shameful conning," thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants are laying down their lives to "uphold Tamil dignity, and human dignity," says a Tamil academic in Colombo. Those who blame the LTTE for bringing in the disaster know well that Colombo always had the option to negotiate or to come out with a political solution convincing Tamils not to continue the conflict. But Colombo’s aim is not power sharing but genocide and subjugation of Tamils by forcing war on them. "The only way now for the IC to come out of the colossus shame is direct intervention and recognition of the justification for Tamil Eelam," the academic said.
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Vanni detainees in Jaffna relocated to permanent camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 15:58 GMT]
The civilians fleeing war in Vanni detained in schools converted into Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Chaavakachcheari Hindu College and Kodikaamam Thirunaavukkararsu M. V. have been moved Saturday to the permanent SLA internment camp constructed in Raamaavil, Kachchaay in Kodikaamam, a press note by Jaffna Government Agent (GA) said.
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10 Tamil civilians arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 13:29 GMT]
Twenty five civilians including ten Tamils were arrested in cordon and search operation conducted in Gampaha town from Thursday evening to midnight by the police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA). The arrested are being detained in police station for further inquiry as they failed to establish their identity by providing national identity card, according to the Police.
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Tamils need to be heard - John Pilger

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 12:24 GMT]
"In order to conduct a slaughter, you ensure the pornography is unseen, illicit at best. You ban foreigners and their cameras from Tamil towns such as Mulliavaikal, which was bombarded recently by the Sri Lankan army, and you lie that the 75 people killed in the hospital were blown up quite wilfully by a Tamil suicide bomber. You then give reporters a ride into the jungle, providing what in the news business is called a dateline, which suggests an eyewitness account, and you encourage the gullible to disseminate only your version and its lies," says award winning documentary maker and popular journalist John Pilger in a recent report in the New Statesman on Sri Lanka war. "History teaches us that when no one listens, tragedy ensues. Sri Lanka’s Tamils face terrible suffering. They urgently need to be heard," adds the author.
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South African Tamils protest Sri Lanka gencide, block highway

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 11:18 GMT]
The South African Tamils along with human rights activists and peace loving citizens gathered in numbers Friday to support the call for immediate ceasefire from the Sri Lankan Government and humanitarian access to Tamil civilians in the conflict zone. The banners carried by the protesters accused the Sri Lanka Government of genocide, and the international community for inaction despite the large-scale killing of Tamil civilians within the safety zone. The event was organized by the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee of South Africa (TCCSA).
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25,000 civilians injured to death while IC watches: Soosai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 09:14 GMT]
Sea Tiger Special Commander of the LTTE, Col. Soosai Sunday noon said that around 25,000 civilians injured in the artillery attack of Sri Lanka Army are dead and dying now without receiving medical attention. The LTTE has repeatedly requested the ICRC through Mr. Pathmanathan to evacuate the injured through Vadduvaakal or Iraddaivaaikkaal, but there was no IC response. Within a 2 square kilometre area, there are dead bodies everywhere while the remaining thousands are in bunkers amidst the use of every kind of weapon by Colombo's forces. The SLA is not even allowing the people to flee but prefers to fire at them, Soosai said.
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Dignity and respect for our people is all we ask – Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 08:22 GMT]
“Despite our plea to the world to save the thousands of people in Vanni from the clutches of death, the silence of the international community has only encouraged the Sri Lankan military to execute the war to its bitter end. In the past 24 hours, over 3000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention. To save the lives of our people is the need of the hour. Mindful of this, we have already announced to the world our position to silence our guns to save our people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE’s International Diplomatic Relations has said in an urgent statement issued Sunday.
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White House protest to continue into next week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 02:31 GMT]
The protest rally which started this Monday, in front of the White House along the closed section of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., has been continuing for the last six days, and the organizers said, due to the unprecedented humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sri Lanka where the State's Army is slaughtering thousands of civilians, the organizers said, the protest will continue into the next week. Assembled American Tamils urged U.S. to act immediately to prevent a whole sale massacre of more than 150,000 civilians still holed up in the Safety Zone in Sri Lanka's north.
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Doctors quit safety zone, volunteer medics remain with injured

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 23:48 GMT]
Medical Superintendent Dr. Shanmugarajah who was attending the wounded at the makeshift hospital at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal junior school, his family, Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) doctors, Dr Varatharajah and Dr Sathiyamoorthy, and three other doctor,s have entered the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled checkpoint at Omanthai. Dr Varatharajah has been seriously wounded during his passage out of the Safety Zone, and reports from Vanni say, he has been air-lifted for medical treatment. His whereabouts are not known.
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SLA continues intense barrage of heavy weapons

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 23:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued intense barrage of heavy weapons into civilian congested area throughout Saturday night, killing and maiming hundreds of civilians, according to latest details from Vanni Sunday morning at 5:00 a.m. There has been no pause from continued cannon and heavy mortar fire. Thousands of wounded have not been treated and the victims are let to die, initial reports said Sunday morning.
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