12 Tamils including 2 women arrested in South

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Police from outstations arrested twelve young Tamil civilians including two women in Moratuwa, Panadura and Kalutura in the outskirts of Colombo city in a cordon and search conducted Sunday morning, the relatives of the arrested said.
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50 Tamil civilians killed, 130 wounded within 48 hours

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery barrage has killed 33 civilians on Saturday and 73 were brought to the makeshift hospital at Maaththa'lan with injuries. 14 deaths were registered by the hospital. On Sunday, around 20 civilians were killed in the SLA barrage and 60 wounded were brought to hospital, according to medical sources.
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LTTE denies civilian killings in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 12:01 GMT]
Nakulan, one of the commanders of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Ampaa'rai district on Sunday denied allegations by the Sri Lankan military that Tigers were behind the slaying of Sinhalese Chena cultivators at Karametiya village at Rathmalgaha Ella in Iginiyagala, an area that borders Ampaa'rai and Moneragala districts.
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Holmes u-turns minutes after TNA meeting

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 11:41 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan has told the visiting UN Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes, that there is an urgent need for the international community to act decisively to stop the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Vanni. However, in the press conference he gave minutes afterwards, Sir Holmes lauded the Sri Lankan government’s conduct vis-à-vis the humanitarian situation and said there was “good cooperation” between UN agencies and the Mahinda Rajapakse regime.
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Jaffna Saiva Mahaa Chapai announces special prayers for Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 11:25 GMT]
Saiva Mahaa Chapai in Jaffna is to observe special prayers during the forthcoming Sivaraathiri religious event for the sake of the Tamil in Vanni whose sufferings continue and urging the warring parties to stop the war at once.
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Passenger ship services to Jaffna to be reduced

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 2009, 11:04 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh informed Saturday that the number of passenger ship services between Trincomalee and Kaangkeasanthu'rai harbour are to be reduced also in March. Most of the residents in Jaffna peninsula depend on the passenger ships to travel out of the peninsula as they cannot afford to travel by plane, the only other alternative available and the reduction in the above service has hit them hard, sources in Jaffna said.
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Holmes whitewashes Sri Lanka’s ‘slaughter’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:44 GMT]
Within a day of Human Rights Watch’s damning report stating that “Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there,” the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, went out of his way to avoid criticising the hardline Mahinda Rajapaksa regime and instead praised the “good cooperation” between the government and the UN agencies vis-à-vis the needs of the displaced Tamil population. Instead, he blamed the LTTE for the continuing suffering of the Tamil civilians in Mullaiththeevu.
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Holmes relies on SL Minister to translate IDPs' complaints

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 23:42 GMT]
Visiting UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, visited displaced camps in Vavuniyaa on Friday, accompanied by the Minister of Resettlement, Rishard Badurdeen and his security detail. Moreover, Sir Holmes relied on the Minister to translate the complaints of those people brave enough to speak up, humanitarian sources in Vavuniyaa said. When one woman complained her sons had been abducted by the Army, Minister Badurdeen told Sir Holmes that she said LTTE had abducted or shot her sons. Meanwhile, parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had also protested the matter to Sir Holmes, sources said.
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SLA motorcyclist kills Muslim civilian in accident in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 16:18 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers riding a motorcycle accidentally knocked down a Muslim civilian riding bicycle, seriously injuring him, Friday evening along Batticaloa-Vaazhaichcheanai main street, sources in Ea’raavoor said. The injured man was first rushed to Ea’raavoor District hospital and later transferred to Batticaloa Teaching Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
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SLA arrests 10 Tamil civilians in Kalmunai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 16:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested 10 Tamil labourers 16 February in a cordon and search launched jointly with the police in Kalmunai police division in Batticaloa district, according to their relatives who had lodged complaints to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Batticaloa. Only seven of the arrested Tamils were produced in Batticaloa court Friday while the fate of three of them is not known, the relatives said.
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13 civilians killed, 70 wounded in SLA barrage Friday night

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 14:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery barrage on civilian targets in Vanni Friday night causing severe injuries to more than 70 civilians within the 'safe zone' and the adjoining areas. 13 of the 70 wounded civilians rushed to Maaththa'lan hospital died, according to medical authorities.
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U.S. rally exposing Colombo's genocide draws 7000

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Nearly seven thousand U.S. and Canadian Tamils filled the Ellipse at the southern perimeter to the White House, as a show of solidarity with the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians undergoing daily aerial bombardment and artillery attacks herded within a 100 sq.mile area in Vanni. The rally, organized jointly by the US-based activist group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and several local organizations, drew a record crowd, dewarfing the "hurriedly arranged" counter-rally organized by supporters of Colombo, an AFP report said.
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Sri Lanka forces 'slaughtering' civilians – HRW

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 23:07 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately cease its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there," James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Sri Lankan forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately shelled areas crowded with displaced persons. This includes numerous reported bombardments of government-declared "safe zones" and of the remaining hospitals in the region,” HRW said. “The plight of the region's civilians has been made worse by the government's decision in September 2008 to order most humanitarian agencies out of the Vanni.”
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"Flames on my body will guide to liberation"

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 11:30 GMT]
"We Tamils, displaced and all over the world, loudly raised our problems and asked for help before [the] international community in your own language for three decades. But nothing happened ... So I decided to sacrifice my life ... The flames over my body will be a torch to guide you through the liberation path," said British newspaper Guardian quoting British computer graduate, Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, who immolated to death in Geneva last week.
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30 families wiped out in massive attack Wednesday, shelling continues

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2009, 18:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fired 32 bombs, both cluster and bunker busters and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired more than 200 artillery shells, wiping out more than 30 families along the Iranaippaalai Ananthanpuram Road where humanitarian institutions including orphanages, houses of displaced and elders were located, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported on Thursday. More than 180 huts were destroyed in the massive bombardment. Meanwhile, 24 civilians were killed in Puthukkudiyiruppu in SLA artillery barrage in the early hours of Thursday. 10 more civilians were killed in Ira'naippaalai, Aananthapuram and Valaignarmadam villages.
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SLA arrests student in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2009, 14:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers took away a 16-year-old school student from his house in Aavarangkaal in Valikaamam east in a search conducted in the area Wednesday claiming that they had found medicinal items including glucose from his house, sources in Jaffna said. The boy’s mother took kerosene oil in an attempt to kill herself while his father is said to have gone into hiding. This incident is related to the killings of two youths shot by SLA soldiers recently in Aavarangkaal, residents of Aavarangkaal said.
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UK's Frontline Club suppresses genocide debate

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 2009, 07:20 GMT]
Reinforcing the growing evidence of systematic attempts at suppressing debate on genocide in Sri Lanka, one of London's well known media avenues, the Frontline Club, Wednesday withdrew invitation to a Tamil genocide legal advocacy group to participate in a panel discussion on the crisis in Sri Lanka scheduled to take place on the 24th February. The reason given for Wednesday's decision not to include Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), by Frontline Programme Manager, Deborah Dwek, was that Frontline felt the discussion wouldn't be balanced without a spokesperson for the Sri Lankan government being on the panel.
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38 civilians arrested in Gampaha town

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 17:18 GMT]
Thirty eight civilians were taken into custody in cordon and search operations conducted in Gampaha town from Sunday evening till Monday evening. 25 of them are Tamil civilians, majority of them are residents of North and East, sources said.
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Students in detention camps to attend schools under SLA control

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Students of the civilians brought from Liberation Tigers held territories and held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Mirusuvil are to attend a temporary school in Kodikaamam, taken to the school and back to their camp each school day by SLA soldiers, Thenmaraadchi education office sources said. Students held in similar detention camps in Koappaay Government Teachers’ Training College and in Kurunakar are to attend school under SLA surveillance, the sources added.
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India offers ‘final thrust’ for ‘subjugation’ of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 16:40 GMT]
Accusing the Tigers for committing damages to the Tamil community and calling them for laying down arms and releasing the civilians, the Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Indian Parliament on Wednesday offered India’s facilitation to evacuate civilians, working along with the Colombo government and the ICRC, who would be responsible for the security, screening and rehabilitation of them, BBC reported. This offer without taking responsibility, neither to the future plight of the civilians nor to the political consequences that would follow, is the 'best of its abetment' India is rendering to Colombo in the subjugation of Tamils, according to Tamil political observers.
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