SLA bombs child nutrition centre in safety zone, 258 including 100 children wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 April 2009, 11:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit a child care centre and milk powder distribution centre at Pokka'nai, killing at least 40 civilians and causing injuries to more than 258 including 100 children. The SLA has stepped up indiscriminate bombardment, according to latest reports. At least 25 dead bodies have been brought to the hospital and 13 of them were identified by medical authorities at the makeshift hospital. More than 100 civilians have been killed and at least 422 wounded within the last 3 days, including Wednesday.
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I can't cause miracles: Erik Solheim

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"I can understand the level of desperation among the Tamils in Norway. But, I can't cause miracles," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian international development minister and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitation to the peace process in the island of Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. Responding to Mr. Erik Solheim, Mr. Ki Pi Aravinthan, a veteran former Tamil militant of the 1970's and a well-known Tamil writer in France said that Solheim may not be able to perform miracles, but at least he should have refrained himself from committing knowing blunders. "Diplomacy may be the art of the possible, but a liberation struggle is to make impossible, possible. Norway failed in grasping the point," he said.
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Colombo uses chemical weapons: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 20:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army extensively used chemical weapons on LTTE combatants at Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) during the weekend, according to Lawrence, a senior commander of the LTTE, who personally encountered the attack and escaped, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has claimed that it has killed hundreds of Tiger combatants including senior commanders in PTK last weekend. The use of chemical weapons were the suspicion of many who have seen the photographs released by the SL Defence Ministry, but now the accusation comes from the LTTE. The Tiger sources neither confirmed the type of the chemical weapon nor said anything on the casualties claimed by Colombo.
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SLA takes away 65 detainees including students to Thellippa’lai Camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers forcibly took away Saturday and Sunday 65 detainees including students from three SLA detention centres in Jaffna district where civilians fleeing war in Vanni were held, sources in Jaffna said. The soldiers took away the 65 detainees to the SLA Special Rehabilitation Camp (SRC) in Thellippa’lai claiming they were involved in terrorist activities. Though this matter was expected to be raised in the Tuesday meeting in Jaffna Secretariat held to discuss the problems faced by the inmates in the SLA detention centres, none of the representatives of the local and international organizations serving the interests of children, including UNICEF and the education officials, had mentioned the abduction of the detainees by SLA soldiers during the week-end, Jaffna Secretariat sources said.
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Colombo turns firepower onto 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 09:51 GMT]
Civilians inside the so-called safety zone have been forced to remain under bunkers as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up shelling and long-distance gunfire since Monday morning. Those who move on the road have come under long-distance gunfire by the SLA. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets were seen flying over the safety zone and carrying out air attacks. Local humanitarian activists in Vanni said that this is the last opportunity for the civilised world to uphold human values by taking immediate action of protecting the civilians from falling into the hands of an 'avowed genocidal government'.
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No more excuses in waging the war - Protestors in Oslo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 08:09 GMT]
"Colombo, which wages a brutal war, and its main war-partner, the Indian Establishment, which sets the agenda and the International Community that viciously abets the war, have no more justification or excuses in continuing the war," said T. Raju, a young Tamil diaspora activist who talked to media while hundreds of Norwegian Tamils gathered Tuesday in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo to protest against the Sri Lankan war. "Only a few hundred LTTE cadres remain in Vanni was the estimation of Colombo’s military, a few weeks ago. Colombo claimed that nearly 500 LTTE cadres were killed this weekend. Therefore any further war only means open genocide of people," he said.
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British Tamils block Westminster Bridge, demand ceasefire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 01:16 GMT]
More than 5,000 British Tamils on Monday launched a sit in outside the House of Commons in London demanding an immediate stop to Sri Lanka's "genocidal war" against Eezham Tamils. The protest, led by youth, started in the green opposite the British parliament Monday noon and the demonstrators moved to Bridge Street blocking all traffic through Westminster Bridge and Victoria Embankment around 3.00 p.m. The protesters waved hundreds of Tamil Eelam national flags and carried signs and placards depicting the plight of civilians being killed in the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces and demanded an immediate ceasefire.
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Jaffna youth reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 15:31 GMT]
A Tamil youth returning from an Arab country had gone missing since 20 February in front of Fort Railway Station as he was about to travel to Trincomalee to board the ship to Jaffna from Trincomalee harbour, according to a complaint made to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office by his wife.
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Medical official reports on pattern of shelling inside safe zone

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 April 2009, 02:48 GMT]
"It has become a routine for the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan to receive high number of civilian casualties each time after the ICRC ship has transported patients from here, on the same evening or the following day, " observes K. Tharmakulasingam, an administrative officer of Mullaiththeevu Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) Sunday told reporters at the hospital. "The people who come here ask as why they are being attacked within the safe zone," he said after witnessing at least 20 seriously wounded civilians to succumb to their injuries at the hospital Sunday morning alone.
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Mangled bodies, torn limbs litter Safe Zone - medical official

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 22:29 GMT]
"Death in most brutal form has become common within the Safety Zone. The area littered with mangled bodies, torn limbs, and blood soaked soil appears more horrific than what one finds inside a butchers shop," a lady medical staff working out of a school-building converted into the temporary primary surgical care centre at Puthumaaththa'lan, told TamilNet Sunday. She also pointed out that a great number of small children have died in the last few days because of the SLA's ceaseless shelling and firing.
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SLA intensifies attacks on Safe Zone, 71 civilians killed, 143 wounded

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2009, 15:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), which has been blaming that the Tigers were using civilians as 'human shields' on Sunday contradicted its claims saying that main LTTE fighting formations were inside a territory outside the safe zone, besieged by the SLA and claimed that the area has now been brought under its control, causing heavy casualties to the LTTE. Meanwhile, the SLA has stepped up attacks on civilians inside the safety zone from 8:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the latest reports from the civilian safe zone. At least 71 civilians were killed and 143 sustained injuries and the doctors at Puthumaaththa'lan makeshift hospital were struggling to save a one month old baby, seriously wounded in SLA shelling.
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More than 10 SLN soldiers injured in accident in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 16:01 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) vehicle carrying SLN soldiers along the causeway between Ponnaalai junction and Valanthalai junction in Kaarainakar in the islets of Jaffna lost control and leapt into the water causing injuries to more than ten SLN soldiers in the vehicle, Friday around 6:20 a.m. Some of the injured who were rushed to Kaarainakar SLN base are said to be in critical condition, according to unconfirmed sources in the islet of Jaffna.
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Sinhalese mob attacks Tamil demonstrators in Melbourne

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 14:55 GMT]
A group of around 50 Sinhala expatriates, some of them allegedly inebriated, attacked a car-rally demonstration organised by the Eezham Tamil diaspora in Melbourne Saturday noon protesting genocide of their kith and kin in the island of Sri Lanka and demanding immediate end of the war waged by Colombo government. A few Eezham Tamils were injured and their cars were damaged in the attack. One of the attackers also reportedly got injured in the melee.
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Mullaiththeevu wounded die due to lack of antibiotics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 13:40 GMT]
Regional Medical Services Divisions (RMSD) for Mullaiththeevu and Kilinochchi received only 5% of the total allocation of monthly needs of medical supplies for the first three months in 2009, a report from Mullaiththeevu health officials received via Vavuniyaa District Secretariat said. Blood transfusion bags have been depleted and at least one death occurs daily due to the inability for blood transfusion, the report added. Several badly wounded civilians die without antibiotic treatment, health officials document in the report released.
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Recognize our freedom: Vanni civilian leader

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 April 2009, 07:39 GMT]
How can a people trust a government that has instructed them to get into a safety zone and then kills, maims and starve them continuously for months now, asks Pararajasingam Kanagalingam, president of the Vanni People Welfare Organization (VPWO), in a recorded affidavit on the civil situation of Vanni sent to TamilNet Wednesday. “ Right to live is the most fundamental right guaranteed by the UN. But, even after assurances, people are killed here everyday by government forces. Is it a government that can’t guarantee the fundamental right? If the government can’t care for us it should leave us free. What is wrong if the Tamils think of self-determination? Even now the people of Vanni are firm in this aspiration for freedom”, said Mr. Kanagalingam.
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SLA attacks kill 90 civililans within 3 days, 195 wounded

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 20:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued artillery and mortar shelling during the past 3 days in addition to firing Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) shells and Fifty Calibre rounds inside the so-called safety zone, killing 90 civilians and causing injuries to 195, according to medical and humanitarian workers within the 'no-fire zone'. Medical staff at the makeshift hospital Friday said they still lack many medicines and that only 7 types of medical items were brought in ICRC ship on Thursday.
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42 civilians gone missing in Wellaave’li – PS president

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 10:09 GMT]
Wellaave’li Predesha Sabah (PS) President V. R. Mahenthiran said in the Batticaloa District Development and Coordinating Meeting, that 42 civilians had gone missing in Wellaave’li police division, held in Batticaloa District Secretariat 30 March, sources in Batticaloa said. Many civilians had gone missing abducted by unidentified armed men in Paduvvankarai area in the past few months and the complaints made by their relatives in the respective police stations have not brought forth any constructive results, he further said.
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Eyewitness reports horrific experiences at makeshift hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 April 2009, 08:00 GMT]
“What’s happening here is something that has not happened anywhere in the world,” says, Theyva, a local humanitarian worker, who has been attending the admittance of seriously wounded civilians being brought to the makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan within the so-called 'safe zone' for 48 days. Sharing some of his horrific experiences with TamilNet Vanni correspondent on Wednesday, contributing his record of the gruesome effects of the carnage by the attacks of the Sri Lankan forces on civilians amidst prevailing starvation, Mr. Theyvendran asks: “How can the outside world keep on watching these things? Do they want the Tamil people to perish completely?”
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David Miliband calls for 'humanitarian' ceasefire

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 17:29 GMT]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday renewed his call for an "urgent humanitarian ceasefire" to "allow the remaining civilians to leave the conflict area" and sought unhindered access for humanitarian agencies to the civilians displaced by the fighting, including those, whom he referred as "still trapped" in the conflict area. Mr. Miliband's call comes a day after LTTE's Political Head B. Nadesan conveying the Tiger stance to the Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the attacks by the Sri Lankan forces on Tamil people aimed at total subjugation of the Tamil nation, and that only an immediate ceasefire could put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Sri Lankan aggression and pave the way for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
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Erik Solheim discusses Vanni civilians plight with LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 April 2009, 07:27 GMT]
Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister for international development and the topmost representative of the Norwegian facilitator discussed Wednesday evenng the plight of the civilians in Vanni with B. Nadesan, the head of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE). Revealing the details of the phone conversation that lasted for 30 minutes, S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat told TamilNet that Mr. Solheim conveyed the recent developments in the International arena regarding the Tamil conflict, especially with regards to the latest briefings at the UN Security Council. Solheim was briefed on the grave humanitarian catastrophe caused by the military aggression of the Sri Lankan armed forces, Puleedevan said.
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