Stench of dead bodies permeate Vanni, wounded allowed to die without treatment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 10:26 GMT]
An uncounted number of dead bodies between 2,000 and 3,000 are lying all over the places in civilian congested area and the civilians are all struck by a heavy stench of dead bodies, said a volunteer doctor from Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. "Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has destroyed all medical facilities by targeted attacks, and the SLA was continuing inhuman and indiscriminate attacks on civilians providing only two options, death or surrender," he added. The volunteer doctor himself witnessed more than 100 deaths Saturday morning. All the government doctors and the top officials have fled the shelling. Civilians are in shock at the continuing carnage in Vanni.
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LTTE takes heed to Obama's call: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 09:17 GMT]
“The situation in Vanni has reached colossal proportions and what is happening there is unprecedented human carnage. At this juncture we are ready to anything that is necessary to save the Tamil people trapped in the unrelenting war that is waged on them. We heed the call by the US President and are prepared to take measures that will spare the life of our people,” said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE’s head of International Relations, in a statement issued Saturday. "The international community now has to act with fairness and openness and should take full responsibility for the people who are being targeted with no mercy or dignity," he further said.
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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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SLA shelling kills civilian, injures 4 on Mullaiththeevu sea

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 16:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched shells fell and exploded in a boat in which 12 persons from war torn Vanni were fleeing to Point Pedro Thursday night, killing a father while injuring his wife and two children and another woman, sources in Point Pedro said. The woman, admitted to Manthikai government hospital, was transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for further treatment, the sources added.
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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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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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'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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NYT highlights satellite evidence of Sri Lanka's criminal culpability

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 01:33 GMT]
Reproducing satellite imagery and analysis produced by the Washington D.C. based American Association of Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), New York Times in the Thursday edition said the images "show dozens of structures that appear to have been destroyed between last Wednesday and Sunday, and multiple craters that appear to reflect the impact of heavy weaponry," pointing to AAAS analysis. During the said period, local workers reported heavy shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) killing more than 1200 refugees.
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Jaffna GA seeks NGOs’ help to feed Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 17:43 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) said that he was forced to seek the help of private and Non-government organizations to provide food and other necessities to the Vanni civilians held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Jaffna, in a meeting held Tuesday at Jaffna Secretariat with the representatives of the above organizations and government departmental heads. Jaffna Traders’ Union representatives who participated in the meeting assured the GA that they would do their share in providing assistance to the detainees, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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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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LTTE urges IC to save civilians in the name of humanity, SLA attacks kill 1700 in 48 hours

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 12:06 GMT]
The LTTE on Thursday called upon the International Community to protect the civilians from the ongoing carnage by taking whatever measure required. "The LTTE is ready to engage with the International Community in its actions to bring an end to the humanitarian crisis." The statement came as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued its indiscriminate barrage causing untold human tragedy. Initial estimate by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Thursday afternoon was 1,700 civilians killed and over 3,000 wounded within the last 48 hours. The catastrophic situation has been made worse by the acute shortage of food and medicine, the statement said. "Local doctors who are trying to work in these hospitals have decided to hand the hospitals over to the ICRC in the hope that under ICRC management the hospitals may be spared from bombardment."
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JU students held in SLA internment camps seek Jaffna HRC help

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 11:39 GMT]
Fourteen Jaffna University students from Vanni district detained in Kaithadi Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp along with other civilians from Vanni have complained to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) officials that their human rights have been violated by denial of permission to continue their studies in Jaffna University, Jaffna HRC sources said. HRC Jaffna has called for a detailed report on this issue from SLA Jaffna Commanding Officer, Jaffna Government Agent and the Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University.
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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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