Sydney protest draws more than 5,000

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 11:30 GMT]
More than 5,000 protesters took to the streets of Sydney Saturday demanding action against the Sri Lankan government and the atrocities being committed against Tamil civilians caught up in the war in the Vanni. Sydney's Central Business District suffered traffic congestion and delays as demonstrators took over major city roads as the protesters marched towards the city's Town Hall, participants in the rally said.
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Chilaw police arrest 13 Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 06:26 GMT]
Chilaw police Thursday took into custody thirteen Tamil civilians in cordon and search operations conducted in town area to prevent strangeers from infiltrating the area, police sources said. Majority of the arrested are residents of North and Upcountry areas, and employed in business establishments and factories in Chilaw town, police added.
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4 Tamils arrested in Katunayake

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 04:24 GMT]
Four Tamil civilians who are residents of North and East were arrested by the Katunayake police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in a cordon and search operation conducted on Thursday. The owner of the house where they were boarders was also taken into custody for interrogation, police sources said.
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Tamil civilian arrested in Borella

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 02:22 GMT]
Western province Police Intelligence Unit Thursday arrested a Tamil civilian, who was resident of Jaffna, while he was waiting to board a bus to his destination at Borella bus stand in Colombo. The police said he was suspected to be involved in terrorist activity, according to information they received.
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Diaspora conference in London calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 22:27 GMT]
45 Tamil dignitaries from 21 countries gathered in London on Wednesday and Thursday to resolve that an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka was essential and that humanitarian access to the Vanni should be permitted immediately. The delegates also said that the Eezham Tamils should determine their own destiny and emphasized that the people of the traditional Tamil homeland had not only given their democratic mandate to the homeland concept, but they also have reiterated that mandate at every juncture of their political discourse.
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Grasping at straws leaving the tail: diaspora activist on Holmes' brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 16:21 GMT]
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who briefed the UN Security Council for a second time on Thursday "didn’t say anything new in his latest briefing other than reflecting on the escalation of the crisis and the pathetic impotency of the UN in handling the situation," Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU), told TamilNet Friday. He also referred to a recent statement by Professor Francis Boyle, a leading expert in International Law, who said that it seemed as if the UN is now repeating one of the 'most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide.'
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7 Tamils including 3 women arrested in South

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 07:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police arrested seven Tamils including three women Wednesday in a cordon and search operation conducted in Kamburupitiya, a town in the southern province, police sources said. The arrestees, residents of estates located in Galle and Deniyaa, are detained and interrogated in Kamburupitya police station as they had failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location.
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SLA denies permission to Vanni IDP children to attend normal schools

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 04:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna refuse permission to the children held in two SLA detainment centres in Kaithadi to attend normal schools near the centre despite efforts by educational officials and UNICEF readiness to offer financial assistance, sources in Jaffna said. The SLA authorities say that there are security problems in transporting the children to the schools and back, the sources added.
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'Coercion is not the beginning for a lasting solution'

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 01:17 GMT]
“Intimidation and coercion of Tamils and their political leaders can never be a good beginning for any lasting solution. The fundamental point is that the powers don’t want to see parity to Tamils in the negotiation. They want to confirm Colombo’s position that there is a post-LTTE phase and the Tamils to negotiate from a post-defeat position. Above all, they don’t want to recognize the national liberation perspectives of the Tamil struggle,” writes an independent commentator in Vanni, who has long been sharing his insight with TamilNet. “What the powers actually expect is TNA disowning the LTTE and joining Rajapaksa club in hoodwinking a solution. The Eezham Tamils were at the receiving end of political deceit for ages and they have a good sense of smelling it out, even if it is international."
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SLA attacks kill Mullai DS officials engaged in humanitarian work

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 19:37 GMT]
Two of the 131 civilians slain on Wednesday were District Secretariat officials engaged in humanitarian work, according to initial details from the civil sources in Vanni. A 52-year-old female, Mariyanayagam Deisyrany, attached to the registrar section of the Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat and a 27-year-old female, Janoja, engaged in the supply of World Food Program (WFP) delivered humanitarian aid.
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SLA attacks hospital, 5 patients killed, 11 wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 16:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacked the makeshift hospital at Puthumaththa'lan with Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) in the early hours of Thursday between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m., killing five patients who were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit and causing injuries to 11 including two medical staff. Six patients who were already being treated for their injuries from shell attacks and 3 relatives of the patients were wounded in the RPG attack. The attack also destroyed part of the medicines recently brought to the hospital.
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Carnage continues, 131 civilians including 32 children killed Wednesday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 15:57 GMT]
131 civilians, including 32 children were killed in various types of attacks carried out by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) inside the safety zone throughout the day on Thursday, according to data collected from various local NGO workers and medical authorities within the civilian pocket besieged by the SLA. 49 of 252 wounded were children. SLA fired RPG shells, deployed long-range gunfire and mortar shells targeting the 4 km stretch from Puthumaaththa'lan to Valaignarmadam. 7 members of a family, including 4 children below the age of 10, were killed in RPG attack by the SLA in Maaththa'lan. 31 travellers were killed in gunfire and mortar attacks on Wednesday. Meanwhile SLAF bombardment claimed the lives of 27 civilians.
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Immediate ceasefire, humanitarian access before political engagement - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 07:48 GMT]
S. Jeyananthamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa district on Thursday said that the TNA had decided not to engage in talks with the Sri Lankan President or anyone representing the SL state before a conducive environment for such political engagement is created by an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to the suffering people of Vanni. The TNA has clarified the reasons in detail in a press meet in Colombo, he said, condemning the abduction of the brother of Jaffna district MP Kajendran, barely 48 hours before the TNA was to decide its position on accepting an invitation for a meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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25 Tamil civilians arrested in Morawewa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police Tuesday conducted combined cordon and search operations in several Tamil villages in and around Morawewa division in Trincomalee district and took about twenty five Tamil civilians into custody following the attack on a patrolling group of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that took place in the morning at Veappanku'lam which is located along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura highway about 15 miles from east port town.
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RSF "outraged" at grenade attack on Jaffna Uthayan HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 14:26 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressed "outrage" at the grenade attack at the Uthayan Head Quarters building in Jaffna Tuesday night, and urged "the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out a thorough investigation with the aim of arresting those responsible and bringing them to trial." RSF noted that Senior Sri Lanka Government officials had recently told news organisations not to publish reports about civilian victims of the fighting in the northern district of Vanni or not to reproduce LTTE interviews, but that Uthayan and other newspaper, Valampuri, had nonetheless printed photos of children killed in Vanni.
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'Parliament proposes, Rammell dismisses'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 07:47 GMT]
It was the fourth occasion in recent times the British parliament was discussing Sri Lanka. Members cutting across party lines came hard on the Colombo government for nearly one and a half hours on Tuesday, for its attacks on civilians, failure in heeding international calls for ceasefire, humanitarian abuses and blockade of international monitoring. Many members demanded UN action, suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and pressure on India to act in stopping the war. However, Bill Rammell, the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs came out only with rhetorical assurances, sounded negative to substantial demands and accused the LTTE for preventing people from leaving.
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19 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 06:43 GMT]
Deniyaya police arrested nineteen Tamil civilians, most of them residents of North and East, in a cordon and search operation conducted Monday in Deniyaya town in Matara district, sources in Matara said.
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Gunmen shoot dead 29-year-old civilian in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 03:40 GMT]
Two gunmen riding a motorbike shot and killed a 29-year-old welding worker on Moor Street in Mannaar city Tuesday around 6:45 p.m., Police said. The victim, Selvarajah Kingsley, was on his way to his residence after the work.
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Uthayan office in Jaffna attacked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 23:57 GMT]
The main office of Uthayan Tamil daily in Jaffna came under grenade attack Tuesday night around 11:10 p.m., the administration of the paper told media in Colombo. Tamil media circles added that the attack had come after verbal instructions by the top officials of Rajapaksa government not to publish stories related to civilian casualties in Vanni or reproduce the contents of interviews given by the LTTE officials to news agencies and media. Uthayan and Valampuri newspapers have recently printed photos of children being killed in the Sri Lankan attacks inside 'safety zone' in Vanni.
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62 civilians killed, SLA, SLAF step up attacks on safety zone

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up shelling on all areas within the so-called safety zone from 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, killing 62 civilians and causing injuires to many. Artillery and mortar shells hit the safety zone killing 27 civilians during the night. Artillery-fitted cluster munitions exploded between Valaignarmadam and Ampalavanpokka'nai causing heavy casualties. The SLA deployed RPG shells, short range mortars and long distance gunfire on the safety zone during the daytime on Tuesday in addition to 12 air strikes in the settlements surrounding the Pachchaip-pulmoaddai junction within the safety zone. More than 70 bombs were dropped by the SLAF bombers that flew at low altitude killing at least 17 civilians.
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