SLN misappropriates outboard motors of Vanni IDPs in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel in Vadamaraadchi are forcibly confiscating the boats with outboard motors in which civilians flee the war in Vanni to Vadamaraadchi from areas like Mullaiththeevu, fisheries society sources in Vadamaraadchi complained. Some SLN officials who had taken away the outboard motors in their vehicles had tried to sell them in the black market, the sources alleged.
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Sri Lanka guilty of Genocide - Prof. Sornarajah

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 11:20 GMT]
"Every indicia of genocide is satisfied by the conduct of successive Sri Lankan governments, the oppression accentuated in intensity by the present government which has unleashed immense terror through its armed forces on a people in the name of suppression of terrorism. The chauvinism of successive Sri Lankan governments since independence targeted the Tamil people for oppression. These acts supply the objective factors necessary for the satisfaction of the crime of genocide," says Professor Sornarajah, Pierre Genest Visiting Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, in a position statement released this week, adding "there is a duty incumbent on every state to ensure the protection of the Tamil people. It is important that this duty be taken seriously so that such scourges on humanity are not repeated elsewhere."
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Expecting hostile diaspora to buttress a collapsing state

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 02:21 GMT]
"Engaging the diaspora for any solution is possible only when humanitarian assistance and protection reach their brethren, war is called off, Tamil self-determination in the island of Sri Lanka is recognized and the LTTE is de-proscribed. Above all, accepting the reality of the crisis that it is a national liberation struggle and seeking solutions not insisting on a united Sri Lanka will tremendously help to ease the situation and even reconciliation," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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SLA attacks kill 128 civilians in 48 hours

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 01:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army short-range mortar shelling, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attacks and gunfire killed 96 civilians, including 19 children within the 'safety zone' Monday. 32 civilians, including 7 children were killed Sunday, according to local aid workers and medical authorities. Around 160 civilians sustained injuries on Monday when Sri Lanka Army stepped up mortar fire, RPG attacks and opened fire from the other side of the lagoon into Puthumaaththa'lan within the 'safety zone'. Increased and systematic attacks on civilians during the day time was targeting to evict civilians from the so-called safety zone, said TamilNet correspondent who visited the site of the carnage.
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Colombo, New Delhi fall back on lure in fighting the diaspora

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 20:23 GMT]
Frustration arising from failure in the military annihilation of the Eezham Tamil struggle led by the LTTE, mounting global opinion in favour of the oppressed, determination of the diaspora and electoral urgency in India are impelling the war partners in Colombo and New Delhi to explore alternative tactics in achieving their goals. While conferences are planned in Singapore and Bangalore to hoodwink the diaspora and Indian public, a member of India’s national security advisory panel wants Colombo and the Tigers to be pressurised to declare a ceasefire. “They must be compelled to accept an international mechanism, so that the civilians are rescued from the war zones. And, what is more, these civilians should be settled in welfare centres, manned by the UN agencies”, he said.
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TRO reports detail struggle for survival

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 02:01 GMT]
In a series of reports Lawrence Christy, planning director at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) details the travails of daily life of the civilians caught in the war, amidst the artillery fire of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). "From the first shell no one knows how to escape. Before second shell falls all will be in the bunkers. Like parent rabbits and their kids scurrying to a hole when they saw a vulture parents dragging and lifting their children and hurry into the bunkers," Christy says in the 11th March report.
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US Group to file court action against US vote on IMF loan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, said Sunday that TAG is preparing to file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prohibit the United States Treasury Secretary from voting to support the request by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for $1.9 billion in economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund. TAG’s complaint alleges that a United States vote in favor of the assistance would violate a federal statute, 22 USC 262d, intended to prevent United States financial complicity in harrowing human rights abuses by IMF member governments, Fein said.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 05:48 GMT]
A Tamil family man from Paavatkodichcheanai who had been stopped on his way by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Unnichchai 6th Mile Post SLA camp check point in Vavu’natheevu police division in Batticaloa district is reported missing since Friday, sources in Batticaloa said. The missing man was returning home with 100,000 rupees from sales of his cattle and people had seen him being detained at the SLA check post Friday.
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42 civilians killed, 80 wounded in Vanni Saturday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells into the 'safety zone', also on Saturday, killing 42 civilians and causing injuries to around 80 civilians, including a GS (Village officer), initial reports from Vanni said Saturday. Meanwhile, the SLA and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) were using heavy explosives in their clashes with the LTTE defensive units in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) area. At least 7 civilians who ventured into Iranaippaalai to collect coconuts were reported killed in SLAF air strike.
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US Tamils protest against IMF loan to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 11:16 GMT]
Dozens of American Tamils on Friday staged a protest rally in front of the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, urging the IMF to deny funding to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's request for $1.8 billion in loans is under consideration by the IMF. Tamil community fears that the Sri Lankan government would use the funds to perpetuate Tamil genocide while entrenching mass displacement of Tamils confining them to institutionalized internment camps, organizers of the rally said.
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SLA shelling kills 102 civilians within 3 days inside 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 March 2009, 05:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery shelling killed 46 civilians Friday inside the safety zone in the besieged pocket in Mullaiththeevu. SLA-fired shells hit 6 tarpaulin shelters of the IDPs in Maaththa'lan Friday, killing 16 civilians. Meanwhile 4 civilians were killed around 11:00 a.m., 300 meters near the coastal spot, where the ICRC was transporting wounded civilians. On Thursday, 39 civilians including 11 children were killed and at least 17 civilians were reported killed inside the safety zone on Wednesday.
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Tigers seize weapons from SLFP Karuna camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 14:14 GMT]
An armed paramilitary person was killed and two T-56 assault rifles were seized Thursday night around 11:00 p.m. when an ambush team of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out a surprise attac on a building at Ku'laththumadu in Vaakaneari in Vaazhaichcheani, according to a news release by the LTTE. The building, used as an office of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was a minor camp of Karuna group, the Tigers said. Dayamohan, the Batticaloa district political head of the LTTE told TamilNet last week that Karuna group had stepped up intimidations against the civilians in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts in recent times.
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Tissainayagam: always agitated against violence, fought for justice for oppressed

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 12:16 GMT]
In statement made to the Court Friday, senior Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who has been held in detention for more than a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said: "I was and am still an advocate against terrorism. I have criticized terrorism in whatever form. I never advocated violence, my objective was to generate non violent means of resolving the conflict, my research, writings and work was towards achieving this." Many international rights groups have called for the "unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissaianayagam fell on 7th March.
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LTTE urges China to consider Tamils plight at UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 07:31 GMT]
Political Head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), B. Nadesan, on Friday urged Chinese government to allow Tamils plight to be discussed at the UN Security Council for a second time. "The Sri Lankan state is not only denying the Tamil sovereignty, but it is waging a genocidal war against them of catastrophic dimensions," said Mr. Nadesan adding that Colombo was engaged in a propaganda campaign saying that the conflict is an internal matter.
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Indian assistance to children in SLA detention camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 14:08 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) distributed learning materials donated by the Indian Embassy in Colombo to the children held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Mirusuvil and Kodikaamam. The Indian Embassy officials who had discussed the arrangement with Jaffna GA earlier had sent the learning materials through Sri Lanka Army, Jaffna secretariat sources said.
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SLA refuses permission to humanitarian organizations to enter Jaffna detention camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 13:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel at the SLA detention camps for the civilians who had fled war are not permitting representatives of Human Rights Commission and other independent humanitarian organizations in Jaffna to enter the said camps under the control of SLA, sources in Jaffna said. Only the government officials assisting the inmates and a few local and international humanitarian organization representatives are allowed entry into the detention camps, the sources added.
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Wounded CARE aid worker dies due to lack of medicine in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 05:20 GMT]
A 24-year-old humanitarian worker of the CARE International has succumbed to his injuries caused by a shell attack inside the no-fire zone (safety zone) in Mullaiththeevu, said Nick Osborne, Country Director for CARE International in Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The victims leg had to be amputated following the injury, and he died on Tuesday lacking necessary medical treatment.
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Socialist Resistance voices for Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 02:17 GMT]
“The socialist and labour movement stand against repression and genocide. We stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in the face of its suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan government”, said Duncan Chapel, member of the Socialist Resistance steering committee, Tuesday, greeting 25,000 strong Tamil demonstration outside of the European Commission. Supporting the demands for sending food and medicine, withdrawal of Sri Lanka military from Tamil homeland and lifting the ban on LTTE, “the legalization of the LTTE has to be the first step towards Tamil peace, freedom and self-determination”, he said.
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US support to IMF's Sri Lanka loan illegal – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 00:17 GMT]
“Concerning the proposed loan to Sri Lanka by the International Monetary Fund, United States domestic law makes it quite clear that the Obama Administration is obligated to oppose the loan. And given the weighted voting system for the IMF Board of Directors, a United States vote against the loan would be tantamount to a veto,” said Prof. Boyle, Professor at Illinois College of Law, adding, “for the Obama Administration to violate the Statute [22 USC 262d] and vote in favor of the proposed IMF loan to support the GOSL's "policy goals" would render the United States government "complicit" with Sri Lanka's genocide.”
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Uthayn editor Vithiyatharan detained for 3 more months

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 19:12 GMT]
Colombo Pettah Court majistrate, Jegan Balapitiya, extended Wednesday the detention period of Uthayan editor Vithiyatharan for 3 more months when he was produced before him by Prevention of Crime Branch police, sources in Colombo said. The police requested the court for the extension of detention of Vithiyatharan on the directions of Gothabaya Rajapakse, Defence Secretary and the brother of President Rajapakse, the sources added.
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