UN withheld civilian casualty figures to protect Sri Lankan state - report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 17:01 GMT]
Publishing two leaked documents by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, in an exclusive report on Wednesday revealed that the United Nations office had its own estimates of casualty figures. The UN had internal documentation for 9,924 civilian casualties including 2,683 killings and 7,241 injuries since 20 January to 07 March 2009. "Now it appears that unlike in other conflicts from Darfur to Gaza, the UN withheld the Sri Lanka figures, in effect protecting the Sri Lankan government from criticism," the Inner City Press reported Wednesday. The report comes as the Sri Lankan government was trying to discredit TamilNet figures, fearing that the UN-referred casualty figures were based on TamilNet coverage.
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99 Tamil civilians arrested in Matara district

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 06:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police took 99 Tamil civilians into custody Sunday in a joint cordon and search in Akuressa and Morawaka in Matara district on a tip that the suicide bomber involved in the recent Akuressa bomb blast had spent several months in an estate in the district. Meanwhile, Matara police had earlier arrested 19 Tamils, most of them upcountry residents, in connection with the Akuressa bomb blast,They are being detained and interrogated on Defence Ministry detention orders, Matara police said.
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2 Muslim civilians abducted in Puththa'lam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 22:43 GMT]
Two Muslim civilians were abducted Monday night in Munthal and Kadayamootai in Puththa'lam by unidentified men clad in army uniform. Fifty-four year old S.M.Jamal was abducted by armed gang arrived in white van from his residence in Munthal. Twenty four year old Farook Shan was abducted by army clad men in a white van from his shop at Kadayamootai.
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23 Tamils arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 22:41 GMT]
The Bambalapitya Police in cordon and search operations conducted in Wellawatte in Colombo on Sunday night arrested 23 Tamil civilians, majority of them are residents of North, East and Central provinces. They had been staying in lodges and with their relatives at that time of arrest, police said.
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Rally in New York urges UN, US to intervene to stop genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 19:23 GMT]
More than 200 expatriate Tamils protested in front of the Office of the United States Mission to the United Nations Monday, urging the United States and United Nations stop Sri Lanka military from firing into the ‘safe zone’ on the Tamil civilians. Demonstrators shouted slogans calling upon US Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice, to ensure that refugees fleeing the war zone are given shelter and basic facilities, and not confined to internment camps without any freedom to lead a normal life.
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Detainees in SLA camps in Jaffna lack freedom, facilities - NGO representatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 18:42 GMT]
Representatives of Non-governmental organizations in Jaffna peninsula who visit the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled detention camps in Jaffna district expressed concern for detainees who lack clothes, proper food except the dry food rations provided by the government, besides being denied permission meet their relatives. Meanwhile, Jaffna Government Agent, in his press report Tuesday, has detailed a long list of assistances given by the District Government Secretariat and the Divisional Secretariats to improve living conditions of the said detainees, sources in Jaffna said.
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84 killed, 182 wounded in SLAF attacks, shelling on Tuesday

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment and Sri Lanka Army shelling that targeted Pachchaippulmoaddai, Valaignardam areas within the so-called safety zone announced by the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday killed 52, causing injuries to 182, according to initial reports by the Voice of Tigers (VoT) evening broadcast. Earlier, in the morning, 32 civilians were killed in the shelling in other areas of the 'safe zone', according to independent sources.
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40,000 Tamils stage protests in front of EU, UN in Europe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 16:14 GMT]
More than 25,000 Tamils, especially youth, across the Europe took to the streets of Brussels on Monday demanding EU to de-proscribe the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam, to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government to allow medicine and food to the civilians besieged by its military in all fronts and to demand the Sri Lankan military to pull out from the Tamil homeland. The organisers blamed the EU's misguided policy on proscribing the LTTE as having tilted the diplomatic balance between the parties, causing the war of aggression against the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state. Meanwhile more than 10,000 Tamils staged a protest in front of the UN office in Geneva.
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SLA shoots dead 2 Tamil civilians in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 16:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers shot and killed Sunday two Tamil civilians who had gone to collect firewood in in Mathurangku’lam and Kaddum’rivu jungles in Vaakarai in Batticaloa district, sources in Batticaloa said. SLA claimed that the two killed were Liberation Tigers and that T56 type rifles were recovered from them. The bodies of the victims remain unidentified in Vaakarai government hospital.
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18 civilians reported missing in 'safe-zone' border

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 14:21 GMT]
18 civilians who had gone to pluck coconuts in I'ranaippaalai area taking risks amid shelling and firing are yet to return, according to their relatives inside the 'safety zone', TamilNet correspondent reported Tuesday morning.
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'Safe zone' under encircling fire, 137 killed in 3 days, ICRC worker wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 12:48 GMT]
137 people have died and more than 200 injured since Saturday night in Sri Lanka Army shelling and gunfire inside the 'safe zone' of Vanni. At least 18 of them have died hit by long-range gunfire coming from SLA attacking the civilian zone. Meanwhile, massive bunker buster bombs numbering around 50 dropped by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on the fringes of the 'safe zone' on Tuesday caused untold panic among the civilians.
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Allow ICRC to transport medicines, RDHS urge Sri Lankan Health Ministry

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 10:40 GMT]
Regional Directors of Health Services for Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts, Dr. T. Varatharajah and Dr. T. Saththiyamoorthy, Monday jointly urged the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to supply medicines intended for the civilians in Vanni at least in the next ICRC shipment. Only 5% of the combined quota of medicine and dressings meant for the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year was earlier transported by the ICRC. "We were shocked and felt very sad when we were informed by the ICRC that no medicines have been handed over by the ministry officials to be taken in the ship," the doctors said. "Many deaths could have been prevented if basic infrastructure facilities and essential medicines were made available."
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Parents, son fleeing war in Vanni, shot dead on Vadamaraadchi sea

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 06:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry reported that government forces opened fire Sunday early morning on civilians fleeing the war in Vanni in four boats from Puthumaaththa’lan in Mullaiththeevu to Vadamaraadchi, killing a 9-year-old boy and his parents. Point Pedro police recovered the body of the boy and handed it over to Manthikai government hospital mortuary but the fate of the bodies of his parents, who were first reported injured and later reported dead by the Defence Ministry remains unknown, sources in Point Pedro said.
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Tamils jam Toronto, demand Sri Lanka to stop genocide

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 03:14 GMT]
More than 100,000 expatriate Tamils crowded downtown Toronto between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday to raise the plight of the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the war in Vanni, and subjected to continuous artillery attacks and aerial bombardment by Sri Lanka military. Cries of 'genocide' and accusations of human rights abuses were heard throughout the protest, as the protesters held a giant hand-in-hand human chain that stretched along Bloor, Yonge, Front and across to University Avenue. Police officials said this was the largest ever rally held in Toronto.
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Cruelty of disinformation

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 14:29 GMT]
TamilNet Sunday published news and photographs on the plight of pregnant mothers, newborn babies and babies in the wombs affected by the inhuman shelling and bombing by the Colombo government on the 'safe zone' declared for civilians. This information on hard truth has stirred Colombo's disinformation agencies to discredit TamilNet by bringing in trivial matters such as the camera time-settings of the photographs taken in the makeshift-hospital.
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Boyle warns UN repeating Srebrenica debacle in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 03:41 GMT]
Pointing out that “in 1995 the United Nations Organization as a whole was fully complicit in Serbia's genocidal massacre of 8500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in violation of Article III (e) of the 1948 Genocide Convention that prohibited, criminalized and required the punishment of: 'Complicity in genocide'," Professor Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at Illinois College of Law, said that it looks as if "the United Nations 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 against the Tamils there.”
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Makeshift-hospital struggles without medicines

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 15:57 GMT]
"Due to exhaustion of stocks of important medical supplies and the demonstrated inability of the District officials to resupply essential medicines, we are unable to operate the hospital. We are saddened that many sick and wounded who need immediate attention, including children and new borns have to suffer serious consequences because of this action," said Dr T Varatharajah, in a letter sent to the Provincial Commissioner of Health Services for the North and East provinces.
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Nadesan urges UN to investigate Colombo's War Crimes

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 08:19 GMT]
B. Nadesan, the political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Sunday said the Tigers had "plenty of evidences" to document that the Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaksa was "intentionally directing attacks against civilians," committing war crimes and crimes against humanity when asked to comment on the recent statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The UN High Commissioner had warned that the actions by the warring parties could amount to war crimes.
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Civilian casualties mount as intense bombing and shelling continues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 01:45 GMT]
69 civilians were killed, including 19 children, and scores wounded within the safe zone in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardments Saturday in Mullaiththeevu. The SLAF bombers have been attacking the zone continuously for the 5th day, despite the call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the SLA "should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone."
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Ask people their choice - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 18:04 GMT]
Have those who advocate evacuation ever cared to ask the concerned civilians whether they want to leave? What will they do if people refuse evacuation? Will they allow them to be killed, asked Yogaratnam Yogi, LTTE military advisor in Vanni in a speech given by him to the LTTE broadcast, Voice of Tigers, Thursday. Why are the governments reluctant to ask our people whether they want to live under the Sri Lanka government or under their own government? They don’t ask because they know the answer. Our request to the world is to pose this question to the people and make decisions rather than attempting through murder and denial of food, in the belief of forcing the people to accept the Sri Lankan regime, Yogi said.
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