Nadesan: there will be no post-LTTE scenario

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
Head of Liberation Tigers Political section, B. Nadesan, in an interview to India's weekly magazine Tehelka, said that, "[t]here will not be a post-LTTE scenario. Look around the world, and you will see the desire for freedom and dignity in the hearts and minds of all Tamils. The LTTE is seen as the way to achieve the political aspirations of the Tamil people," and added that the International Community should work towards "fulfilling the political aspirations of the Tamil people by recognizing their struggle for self-determination and a homeland," instead of waiting for a "post-LTTE scenario, which is never going to come."
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Identify with suffering civilians, share their grief – Bishop's Easter Message

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 12:18 GMT]
Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Jaffna Bishop, in his Easter message appealed to the people in Jaffna district to identify themselves with the civilians held in the detention camps, sharing their grief and sufferings, and to be frugal in their daily lives, sources in Jaffna said. Sixteen Catholic parishes in Mullaiththeevu have been forced to close down due to the artillery fire and aerial bombings by the Sri Lanka military, driving members of the parishes into the ‘safe zone’ announced by the government within the LTTE administered area where they continue to spend their lives in the bunkers, Catholic Guardian current issue said.
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599 killed, 3350 injured inside 'safety zone' since last UN statement

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 03:25 GMT]
Hospital records alone have registered 599 civilians killed and 3,350 injured inside the so-called safety zone, since the last UN statement on casualties on 13 March. But, the actual number of civilians killed could exceed 1,500 as many of the bodies were not brought to the hospital to be counted and buried, said medical officials in Vanni on Friday. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is stationed just 800 meters away from the hospital. Even in the other parts of the safety zone, the army is barely 1 - 1.5 km away, the medical sources said.
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New York protest extends to US, Mexico, India missions of UN

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 03:16 GMT]
Three days of hunger-strike and protest against Sri Lanka's egragious rights violations and horrific killings against the more than 200,000 Tamil civilians caught up in the war held in New York from Tuesday concluded Thursday, organizers of the event said. Several hundred protesters from different states took positions in front of the Indian mission from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., protested in front of the Mexican mission from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and assembled to protest in front of the U.S. mission between 3:00 pm and 5:00 p.m. The protesters appealed to the UN missions to take steps to facilitate a ceasefire.
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RSF repeats war-crimes complaint against Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 22:50 GMT]
Reminding Colombo to to fulfill its international obligations to let journalists into the Vanni conflict area where "a major humanitarian crisis in unfolding," Asia-Pacific Desk at Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Friday said, "[t]he death of at least two journalists in the so-called "no-fire" area tends to support allegations that the Sri Lankan security forces are responsible for war crimes against civilians," and that the [Sri Lanka] government is violating UN Security Council resolution 1738 about protecting journalists in war zones."
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Stop shelling say Co-chairs, attack continues amidst heavy rain

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 13:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Friday morning stepped up shelling and firing on the civilian safety zone, causing casualties among civilians and making them continuously stay within bunkers, according to the reports from the makeshift hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan in Mullaiththeevu in the morning. Around 50 wounded civilians were brought to the hospital. The intensification of shelling was taking place as a statement of the Tokyo Co-chairs Friday morning re-affirming its call for the need to stop shelling on civilian zone. Heavy downpour of rain was causing difficulties for the civilians to stay inside the bunkers. The ICRC ship, which went to transport the wounded and sick returned unable to the complete the mission due to bad weather.
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Co-chairs call the fighting futile, stress humanitarian pause

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 12:12 GMT]
During a conference call Friday morning among the co-chairs, Norway, U.S., EU and Japan, "the members expressed urgent concern for the safety of more than 100,000 people trapped by the conflict," and "stressed the importance of a humanitarian pause and of ensuring that adequate supplies of food, water and medicine reach the civilians in the zone," a release issued by the U.S. in the U.S. Colombo embassy website said. Assistant Secretary Boucher and the other Co-Chair representatives discussed how to best end the futile fighting without further bloodshed.
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219 civilians arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 09:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Police conducted dusk-to-dawn cordon and search operations in several parts of Gampaha town and its suburbs on Tuesday through to Wednesday and arrested about 219 civilians majority of them Tamils from North East and upcountry Tamils working in business establishments and other private sector institutions.
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Canada calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:37 GMT]
"We've asked [the United Nations] for an immediate ceasefire. We're very worried, of course, of the hostilities that are taking place but particularly worried for the civilians that are in the combat zone [in Vanni]," said Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Thursday, according to a report in National Post. The call comes amidst continued Tamil protests for the third consecutive day that have severely disrupted the traffic in downtown Ottawa.
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Stop Shelling ‘No-Fire Zone,' HRW tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:17 GMT]
"The Sri Lanka Government should stop firing heavy artillery into the "no-fire-zone" in the northern Vanni" which has caused "skyrocketing casualties" to civilians, said Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights group, in a press release issued Thursday. Calling the 'no-fire-zone' one of the most dangerous place in the world, the HRW also accused the United Nations Security Council of "quibling over protocol when it should be acting to bring an end to this ghastly loss of life."
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Tamil hunger strikers' condition deteriorates in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:36 GMT]
Two British Tamils, 21-year-old Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel and 28-year-old Parameswarn Subramaniyan, who are on a hunger strike in the Parliament Square since 10:00 p.m. Monday, have refused to consume any food or water until there is a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. The hunger strikers have also demanded that food and medical aid should be allowed to reach the civilians immediately with international monitoring committees and to allow "Mercy Mission," the diaspora organised ship carrying humanitarian supplies.
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US Tamil groups meet with State Department on Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 02:17 GMT]
A group of American Tamils representing different diaspora organizations met with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, (via video link) on 8th April in Washington, D.C., to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups pressed for an immediate ceasefire and pointed out that no durable political solution is possible without the participation of the LTTE, and told the State Department officials that "...[N]egotiations should not preclude separation as a solution, and that confederation with power sharing at the center may be a viable alternative to total separation."
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In the name of its civilization IC is answerable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 20:11 GMT]
"If the refusal of the Sri Lankan state to mend its ways and the violence it perpetrated have made the Tamil youth of the 1970s to get into militancy, it is the stubbornness of the International Community in not rectifying its blunder of perpetrating a genocidal war against Tamils in Sri Lanka that has now made the diaspora youth to take to streets defying procedures," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi. "The older generation which initially raised eyebrows at the outcome of the youth initiative that defied community elders and formalities, has subsequently started appreciating the spontaneous spirit in the youth in taking up community responsibility at a time of emergency. It is the duty of the community elders to take the message to the ruling circles of the IC that its venture in the island without a viable roadmap and responsibilities had led to the crisis.
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Carnage continues in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 19:26 GMT]
Indiscriminate shelling and gun fire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued on safe zone Pokka'nai and Valaignarmadam throughout the day on Thursday. Medical officials at Puthumaaththa'lan hospital told media that more than 300 wounded civilians were admitted and 47 of the victims died after admission at the hospital. Many civilians killed in the shelling and gunfire by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were not brought to the hospital. Total figure of the casualties were not available.
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Number of civilians fleeing war to Jaffna drops sharply

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 16:26 GMT]
Despite announcement made by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) over loudspeakers in the last few days calling people in Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni to cross over the no man’s land into Jaffna district, only around ten persons had come to Jaffna Tuesday and Wednesday, Jaffna Secretariat sources said. News of civilians in the SLA detention centres in Jaffna district being forcibly taken away to the SLA Special Rehabilitation camp in Thellippa’lai and the restriction to which the inmates are subjected to appear to have discouraged anyone willfully leaving Liberation Tigers held area in Vanni, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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Nadesan denies LTTE 'threat' to Sonia and her children

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 12:39 GMT]
Political Head of the LTTE, B. Nadesan rubbished reports in a section of the English media in India that there was a Tamil Tiger threat to top politicians including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. According to reliable media sources in India, B Nadesan had categorically denied Thursday that there was an LTTE threat to Indian leaders.
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RSF: Colombo blocking investigations into Lasantha murder

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 09:22 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Wednesday, accused the Government of Sri Lanka authorities for "blocking investigations into the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga," and urged Sri Lanka's President Rajapaksa to "assign members of the criminal investigation police to the case and to formally request the help of international experts in solving the murder." Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index, the lowest ranking of any democratic country, the release added.
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Ramsey Clark to address New York protest

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2009, 04:52 GMT]
Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General in President Lyndon B Johnson administration, is to attend a protest fast by five American Tamils in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York Thursday to conclude the protest campaign. The protest is organized as part of a world-wide diaspora campaign to highlight the horrific killings of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka military in a near genocidal campaign in Mullaiththeevu district, organizers of the protest said.
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SLA attacks kill 129 civilians, 282 wounded in 'safety zone' on Wednesday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 20:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells claimed the lives of 129 civilians inside the so-called 'safety zone' throughout the day on Wednesday, according to the latest reports. Three artillery shells targeted a child care / nutrition centre at Pokka'nai Wednesday morning where many civilians were waiting to obtain humanitarian milk rations for children. The shelling on child care centre was the single "most cruel carnage" on civilians within the safety zone, a rescue worker at the makeshift hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan said adding that exact casualty figures of children were yet to be reported from the site of the carnage, due to continued attacks till the evening.
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'Immediate ceasefire is the only way' - Jayalalithaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 12:35 GMT]
"I strongly insist that an immediate ceasefire is the only way to save the Tamil civilians in the safety zone," said AIDMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a signed statement in Tamil, issued on Wednesday. Ms. Jayalalithaa in the strongly worded statement blamed Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Central Government of India for the current plight of Tamil civilians. "People of Tamil Nadu will wash their hands off of such elements whose hands are jointly at work causing misery to the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka," she said.
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