Forced starvation constitutes an act of Genocide - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 04:53 GMT]
Commenting on recent reports that Colombo is withholding food supplies forcing into starvation the more than 300,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the war-zone, Prof. Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet said, "[I]n the context of longstanding Sri Lankan genocide against the Tamils, this recent GOSL atrocity also constitutes an act of genocide as defined, prohibited and criminalized by Genocide Convention Article II (c):"Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
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Acid test for international actors

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 02:36 GMT]
It is clear that the Colombo government is waging a direct war on unarmed civilians with the intention of intimidation and subjugation of them. The hard truth is that for chauvinistic Colombo war with Eezham Tamil civilians is more important than its war with the Tigers. The war with the LTTE is only a part of the agenda aimed at making the Tamils orphans first. India and the Co-Chairs countries have a direct responsibility in perpetrating the present war leading to the genocide of Tamils. They cannot dodge their responsibility accusing the LTTE or saying it is internal affair of Sri Lanka and citing Russia and China possibly vetoing a move in the UN. Their immediate responsibility now is providing food and medicine at the doorstep of the civilians, unconditionally, even if it is going to be against the wishes of Colombo, writes an IDP activist in Vanni.
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No democracy in Sri Lanka – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 15:06 GMT]
“Abductions and other humanitarian violations in Colombo, the North and the East are escalating at an alarming rate which indicates that Sri Lanka is not a democratic country,” TNA member for Batticaloa district, Ms. K. Thangkeswari said speaking on the motion to extend the state of emergency for another month in Sri Lanka parliament, Wednesday. Another TNA MP, Sivanathan Kishore asked: “How can the International Community believe Sri Lanka government’s version of what is happening in Vanni is true when it has effectively expelled the international human organizations and media from there?"
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Perpetrating civilian starvation is violation of all norms of war: LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 13:51 GMT]
"The brutalities committed by Colombo's armed forces on civilians have no precedence in any conventional war," said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiuruppu area political head C. Ilamparithy on Wednesday describing that the offensive by the Sri Lankan government denying food and medicine to civilians whom it claims as its citizens as an "abnormal violation of all norms of war." He urged direct presence of the International Community to witness the gravity of the situation by itself and urged the Tamil diaspora to engage with the IC in order to make it look at the crisis through the perspective of the affected people and to work for sending international journalists to visit and report the plight of the civilians besieged in Mullaiththeevu.
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SLA fires cluster shells near hospital, scores wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 07:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army has fired shells in the close vicinity of the makeshift-hospital at Maaththa'lan causing injuries to several civilians. A cluster shell that exploded 500 meters from hospital caused injuries to 37 civilians in tightly populated IDP area, according to medical sources. So far, 126 civilians were rushed to hospital on Thursday.
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SLA shelling kills more children, carnage in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery fire Wednesday inside the 'safety zone' killing 78 civilians. 21 of the victims are children, according to emerging details from various settlements. 23 civilians were killed in artillery barrage in the morning from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. and 47 in the evening between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. 182 civilians have sustained injuries. High number of casualties were reported in Pokka'nai and Maaththa'lan within the security zone. An ICRC worker, who was returning to his tarpaulin tent after transporting wounded civilians to ICRC ship was killed in Pokka'nai. A pregnant mother was also among the victims.
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SLN arrested Vanni civilians held back in Point Pedro

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 16:08 GMT]
Only five of the 92 civilians fleeing war in Vanni and arrested Tuesday by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on the seas of Point Pedro have been handed over to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp in Kodikaamam Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS) while the fate of the rest 87 civilians remains unknown, Kodikaamam sources said. None of the arrested civilians has been produced in Point Pedro Magistrate Court either until Wednesday evening. Independent sources in Jaffna said that civilians fleeing war from Liberation Tigers held areas coming into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna peninsula and arrested are subjected to intensive screening by the SLA and that many of them have disappeared without any trace, a trend that continues.
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SLA in killing spree in the 'safety zone', 73 killed, 160 wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 02:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells and air attacks by the Sri Lanka Air Force have claimed the lives of at least 73 civilians, most of them inside 'safety zone' on Tuesday in Mullaiththevu district, according to the details from medical and local aid workers in the district. More than 160 civilians have sustained injuries. Around 35 cluster-fitted artillery shells were fired within the last 3 days. 15 cluster shells were fired into civilian areas Tuesday alone. 11 children below age 10 have been killed, 4 in the morning, 5 in the night and one of the two children missing in morning was later identified as the child's mother recovered a fragment of its head. Maaththa'lan hospital was full of weeping mothers who were begging the doctors to save their wounded children from death.
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Shell landed on a civilian saves others

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 01:06 GMT]
An artillery shell fired by the Sri Lanka Army landed on a civilian standing within 150 meters from Maaththa'lan makeshift-hospital Tuesday, killing her on the spot. However, the shell didn't explode, saving the lives of around 20 civilians who were at the locality, according to medical sources. The hospital is located within the 'safety zone'. The victim was identified as Thangeswaran Neelampikai, 50.
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RDHS confirms 13 hunger deaths, urges officials to act

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Dr. T. Varatharajah, the regional director of health services in Mullaiththeevu in a letter faxed to the Government Agent of the district has stated that his hospital has received 13 dead bodies of civilians who have died due to starvation. Five victims were identified and one of them was a 17-year-old girl. Dr. Varatharajah provides details of the known victims of the starvation and urges measures to address the predicament. The doctor also says people have begun using unusual substitutes like leaves never used in cooking and named six patients being treated at Maaththa'lan hospital after eating such leaves.
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SLA shells hospital environs, 13 killed including 4 children

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 13:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells targeting the environs of Maa'ththa'lan makeshift-hospital within the 'safety zone' from 5:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. The shells hit the IDP settlement, located 200 meters near the hospital, claiming the lives of 13 Tamil civilians. Four of them were children, including a 1-year-old baby. 56 civilians have sustained injuries, according to medical sources. Two children below the age of 10 were reported missing. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force fighter bombers were seen bombing north of the 'safety zone' twice Tuesday morning.
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SLA arrests 10 civilians in Chilaw

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 12:06 GMT]
Ten civilians, majority of them Tamils were taken into custody in a joint cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Police in Chilaw town from dawn to dusk on Monday. Hundreds of houses and vehicles were searched, media sources said.
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Vanni IDPs starving due to acute shortage of food

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 05:04 GMT]
The plight of people herded into the narrow strip of ‘safe zone’ assigned by the Sri Lanka government is growing worse with each day as vegetables, food items, milk powder for babies have become so scarce that they are starving, TamilNet correspondent reported Tuesday from Vanni. Liquid cash is not available as many are unable to withdraw from their savings in the banks, most of them gone out of function due to continuing indiscriminate attacks by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombings.
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U.S. Tamil group urges Pacific Command not to abet Colombo's war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 01:53 GMT]
Citing "credible reports" from Colombo, a U.S. based activist group, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), on Monday said the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) was planning to lead an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Tamil civilians in Vanni. The plan would only serve to "exacerbate the crisis for these civilians and support ethnic cleansing in this region," the statement said and added: "Instead of an evacuation, the 'safe zones' these civilians are currently in should be strengthened, with full access for aid workers, journalists and human rights monitors."
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SLA shelling kills 122 within 3 days in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 22:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells have claimed the lives of more than 45 Tamil civilians Monday within the 'safety zone' at Mu'l'livaaykkaal, Valaignarmadam, Pokka'nai, Maaththa'lan and the adjoining Ira'naippaalai. On Sunday, around 37 civilians were killed and the day before around 40 were reported killed in SLA barrage and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment.
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Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:45 GMT]
A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rachel Joyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. “The Tamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka for millennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory. They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in. In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a self governing nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers – in particular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence,” she said in a meeting held at Harrow, where Bruce Fein, a constitutional expert from the United States was the guest speaker.
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Hunger claims lives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:43 GMT]
Four children below the age of 15 and their parents were admitted to Maaththa'lan makeshift-hospital Monday in serious condition after consuming Adampan leaves (Beach Morning Glory) as nothing else was available for them to eat, according to medical sources. Meanwhile, at least six people have already died due to hunger inside the 'safe zone' in recent days, the sources further said adding that many more are feared dead due to starvation but not accounted for. "What prevents the world powers to set aside their diplomatic maneuvering and arrange enough food and medicine to reach us immediately," ask the people of Vanni reports TamilNet correspondent.
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Colombo killed 700 children in 2 months - LTTE Radio

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 11:36 GMT]
Voice of Tigers, the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam on Sunday said Sri Lankan armed forces have killed 2,018 Tamil civilians in January and February in Vanni and that 700 of the victims were children. The VoT has been airing a program, "Bridging the beloved" (U'ravup Paalam), where civilians have been providing details of their missing family members and whereabouts of the remaining members in the hope of locating their missed ones.
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'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Sivasegaram

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
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New Delhi's stratagem seeking 'pause'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 22:13 GMT]
India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday asked Colombo to 'seize the opportunity' provided by LTTE’s ceasefire offer to bring about a ‘pause’ in hostilities and work for safe passage for 'trapped' civilians. Meanwhile, political observers in Tamil Nadu commented on the move a tactic to nullify their calls for a permanent ceasefire. Vaiko, the General Secretary of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (MDMK) courted arrest with 300 other activists for waging black flags in protest against Mr. Mukherjee, who was on a visit to Thooththukkudi (Tutucorin).
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