6 upcountry Tamils arrested in Talawakelle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 13:28 GMT]
Six upcountry Tamils were taken into custody Friday by Sri Lanka Police in Talawakelle in Kandy district. Police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara said they were suspected to be supporters of LTTE and all were residents of Talawakelle.
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Tamils need to be heard - John Pilger

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 12:24 GMT]
"In order to conduct a slaughter, you ensure the pornography is unseen, illicit at best. You ban foreigners and their cameras from Tamil towns such as Mulliavaikal, which was bombarded recently by the Sri Lankan army, and you lie that the 75 people killed in the hospital were blown up quite wilfully by a Tamil suicide bomber. You then give reporters a ride into the jungle, providing what in the news business is called a dateline, which suggests an eyewitness account, and you encourage the gullible to disseminate only your version and its lies," says award winning documentary maker and popular journalist John Pilger in a recent report in the New Statesman on Sri Lanka war. "History teaches us that when no one listens, tragedy ensues. Sri Lanka’s Tamils face terrible suffering. They urgently need to be heard," adds the author.
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'Responsibility now with US'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 10:37 GMT]
The first act of Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi after the announcement of the election results was an appeal to the Indian Establishment re-elected to power to save the Eezham Tamils. However, the utmost responsibility lies with the Co-Chairs and especially with the US, says TamilNet’s political analyst in Colombo. The US has to either convince India or act alone to save the situation and save its own credibility. Failing, the White House is likely to emerge bearing the major responsibility for conning Tamils to their death and subjugation, and the IC tagged behind it may never be able to justify its credentials in implementing a world order it desires, he further said.
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25,000 civilians injured to death while IC watches: Soosai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 09:14 GMT]
Sea Tiger Special Commander of the LTTE, Col. Soosai Sunday noon said that around 25,000 civilians injured in the artillery attack of Sri Lanka Army are dead and dying now without receiving medical attention. The LTTE has repeatedly requested the ICRC through Mr. Pathmanathan to evacuate the injured through Vadduvaakal or Iraddaivaaikkaal, but there was no IC response. Within a 2 square kilometre area, there are dead bodies everywhere while the remaining thousands are in bunkers amidst the use of every kind of weapon by Colombo's forces. The SLA is not even allowing the people to flee but prefers to fire at them, Soosai said.
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Dignity and respect for our people is all we ask – Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 08:22 GMT]
“Despite our plea to the world to save the thousands of people in Vanni from the clutches of death, the silence of the international community has only encouraged the Sri Lankan military to execute the war to its bitter end. In the past 24 hours, over 3000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention. To save the lives of our people is the need of the hour. Mindful of this, we have already announced to the world our position to silence our guns to save our people," Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of LTTE’s International Diplomatic Relations has said in an urgent statement issued Sunday.
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White House protest to continue into next week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 02:31 GMT]
The protest rally which started this Monday, in front of the White House along the closed section of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., has been continuing for the last six days, and the organizers said, due to the unprecedented humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sri Lanka where the State's Army is slaughtering thousands of civilians, the organizers said, the protest will continue into the next week. Assembled American Tamils urged U.S. to act immediately to prevent a whole sale massacre of more than 150,000 civilians still holed up in the Safety Zone in Sri Lanka's north.
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LTTE takes heed to Obama's call: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 09:17 GMT]
“The situation in Vanni has reached colossal proportions and what is happening there is unprecedented human carnage. At this juncture we are ready to anything that is necessary to save the Tamil people trapped in the unrelenting war that is waged on them. We heed the call by the US President and are prepared to take measures that will spare the life of our people,” said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE’s head of International Relations, in a statement issued Saturday. "The international community now has to act with fairness and openness and should take full responsibility for the people who are being targeted with no mercy or dignity," he further said.
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'Our Holocaust and the impossibility of peace in Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 04:17 GMT]
“It is self-evident that the close scrutiny of the international community, the pleas and pointed warnings by powerful states and the disgust of the world has not impressed a Sinhala state, polity and people drunk with racism,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “It is inescapable that whatever the international community does, the Sinhala state will continue to pose an existential threat to the Tamil people, unless we are protected by our own borders and security forces.” The paper added, “[meanwhile] contrary to Sinhala expectations, Tamil militancy will remain central to Sri Lanka’s future. As the LTTE, which has transformed itself – yet again – for a new kind of war, bluntly put it last month: as long as the Tamils are oppressed, ‘Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace’.”
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UN genocide expert wants ceasefire, UN investigators want war probes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 03:26 GMT]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, underscoring the toll the clashes are taking on Tamil civilians, said Friday that “it is not too late” for the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to end the conflict. Francis Deng called for both sides to “pursue a reconciliatory and peaceful path with the ethnic Tamil population.” Three UN special investigators have now called for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the Sri Lankan conflict. Meanwhile, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons called on Colombo to allow the UN and other agencies “full and unfettered access to all civilians and detainees.”
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‘Tigers will regroup with a vengeance’ - FT

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 02:02 GMT]
“The Tamil cause will reignite from the embers of this war unless the Sinhala majority shows magnanimity and gives the Tamils control of their own lives,” the Financial Times warned Thursday in an editorial. Pointing out that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war “has only defeated the resourceful LTTE’s conventional capability,” the paper also warned that “[the Tigers] will regroup – and expand offshore – with a vengeance that will match the government’s vengefulness.”
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Bloodbath will not resolve the conflict: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"Colombo's approach to finish the war in 48 hours through a carnage and bloodbath of civilians will never resolve a conflict of decades. On the contrary it will only escalate the crisis to unforeseen heights. The Sinhala people have a duty and responsibility in stopping it, considering their own interest if not that of the Tamils," said LTTE's Head of International Relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, when contacted by TamilNet on the situation prevailing in Vanni.
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Pathmanathan urges immediate action by IC to protect Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 13:40 GMT]
"If the International community fails to act now, in this most needy hour, it would go down in the history of mankind as the most inhumane, unconscionable failure by the International community, the UN and other powers from their responsibilities to protect innocent civilians wherever they may be subjected to genocide," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued Friday. "Consequences of inaction will reverberate for generations. Inaction by the International community will be construed as its approval of this crime against humanity."
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More than 100,000 civilians in safe zone, ICRC suspends Vanni missions

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 13:04 GMT]
"Unless an external humanitarian intervention is carried out without delay, it would be difficult to avert an inhuman catastrophe," said a volunteer doctor appointed by the LTTE to serve the civilians within the so-called safety zone, Friday afternoon. "The ICRC has abandoned its missions, there is no food, no proper access to potable water to tens of thousands of civilians who are forced to stay under the bunkers, surrounded by dead bodies and wounded civilians who are dying without medical help," the medics doctor told TamilNet through a satellite phone. The Sri Lankan forces are deploying superior fire power and advancing along the coastal line deploying cluster munitions and shells causing immediate fire.
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LTTE Political Head welcomes Obama's attention on Tamils' plight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 14:13 GMT]
"We thank and welcome the categorical calls by President Barack Obama for the Sri Lankan Government to take toward alleviating the humanitarian crisis," said B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE in a statement issued from Vanni Thursday. "The United Nations Organization and the Security Council has held back in their traditional humanitarian leadership role to take prudent measures and bring about a truce and safeguard Eelam Tamils. Now, the Eelam Tamils earnestly look forward to President Barack Obama to lead the humanitarian intervention," Mr. Nadesan said in his response to US President's statement on Wednesday.
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LTTE urges IC to save civilians in the name of humanity, SLA attacks kill 1700 in 48 hours

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 12:06 GMT]
The LTTE on Thursday called upon the International Community to protect the civilians from the ongoing carnage by taking whatever measure required. "The LTTE is ready to engage with the International Community in its actions to bring an end to the humanitarian crisis." The statement came as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued its indiscriminate barrage causing untold human tragedy. Initial estimate by the LTTE Peace Secretariat Thursday afternoon was 1,700 civilians killed and over 3,000 wounded within the last 48 hours. The catastrophic situation has been made worse by the acute shortage of food and medicine, the statement said. "Local doctors who are trying to work in these hospitals have decided to hand the hospitals over to the ICRC in the hope that under ICRC management the hospitals may be spared from bombardment."
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Will Obama take full responsibility of Tamil homeland, ask Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:57 GMT]
As news reports quote US President Barack Obama saying Tamil Tigers to "free civilians," and Colombo government to stop indiscriminate shelling, Tamil circles in the US asked whether President Obama is prepared to take full responsibility of the Tamil homeland and whether he is prepared to give full assurance to the freedom and the aspirations of the Tamil people.
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SLA shells hospital again, several killed including doctor, ICRC worker

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 10:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hit the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal East, killing at least 38 patients who were waiting for treatment at the hospital, a medical staff told TamilNet. "There are many more killed inside the hospital premises, but I can only confirm that 38 casualties that I have witnessed near the main theatre upto 2:53 p.m.," the medical staff told TamilNet. Many shells have hit the makeshift hospital premises across the road. Meanwhile, a patient who reached an administrative office put the casualty figures at 100 and said he had witnessed that an ICRC worker was killed. Meanwhile, LTTE's Director of Peace Secretarait S. Puleedevan when contacted by TamilNet said 39 female patients at a counselling aid center for mentally ill women were massacred by targeted SLA shelling in the morning. More than 40 patients were feared wounded, he said.
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Intervene in the name of humanity: Pathmathan calls on IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 09:20 GMT]
"Every passing day is resulting in the loss of countless number of civilian lives and alienation of the entire Tamil community," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Wednesday, and called on the International Community for its urgent and immediate intervention, not based on territorial or geo-political ambitions, but based on basic human values. "It is our firm view that a cessation of all hostilities would be the only mechanism that would prevent further civilian carnage and we remain committed to an immediate and permanent ceasefire."
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SLA conducts search operation in Polonnaruwa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 16:20 GMT]
Police and Sri Lanka Army Sunday evening conducted a cordon and search operation in Polonnaruwa town and took about fifty Tamil civilians including women for questioning. Except two, others were freed after preliminary inquiry. Two are being detained for further interrogation, police sources said.
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US violates Geneva Convention by permitting Sri Lanka to commit slow-motion genocide - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 04:26 GMT]
Pointing to the statement issued by the U.S. Department of State that after an informal meeting at the United Nations that "[t]he United States is deeply concerned by the continued unacceptably high levels of civilian casualties," expert in International Law, Professor Francis A. Boyle said, the Obama administration is violating the 1948 convention for continuing to give "green light" to the Government of Sri Lanka to destroy the LTTE no matter what the cost to innocent Tamil civilians. Lawrence Christy, the head of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) Field Office on Monday put the death toll of civilians at more than 3,200 killed during the weekend.
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