Perfect opportunity for US to prove credentials: ICG, Asia Director

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 12:44 GMT]
"Barack Obama's administration has said it is committed to the principals of international law and humanitarian protection. Sri Lanka is the perfect opportunity for the new U.S. president to show that this is not empty rhetoric," says an article by Robert Templer of the International Crisis Group. "Urgent, determined, and united international action is necessary to ensure the safety of the innocent -- by the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organizations, and individual countries that have relations with Sri Lanka, including India and Japan. Only international supervision, unhindered by the government, can provide the necessary level of protection," writes the author, reflecting the changing and opportunistic perspectives of the IC, but elusive on the crux of the crisis – the Tamil national aspirations.
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TNA MP in Vanni fears mass slaughter amidst starvation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 10:33 GMT]
The Tamil Natonal Alliance (TNA) MP for Vanni, Sathasivam Kanagaratnam, who talked to TamilNet correspondent in Vanni on Monday blamed the Sri Lankan military for planning to cause a mass slaughter of civilians as Colombo announced a 24-hour ultimatum of surrender to the LTTE. Colombo has warned of concerted attacks into the so-called 'safety zone' starting from Tuesday noon. "The remaining area in the south of safe zone is full of civilians as many more have fled in recent days," Mr. Kanagratnam said fearing an unprecedented civilian carnage.
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'SLA advances behind human shield, act fast to rescue civilians,' Puleedevan urges UN

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 08:20 GMT]
Director of Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan on Tuesday told TamilNet that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has started to move on two fronts at Valaignar-madam and at Maaththa'lan using a section of the civilians who were caught by the SLA on Monday as human shields. When asked how the SLA was advancing, Mr. Puleedevan said the Sri Lankan military has forced hundreds of civilians to walk through LTTE defece line at gun point and was moving its troops under the cover of the civilians. "These are serious war crimes and the Sri Lankan government and the head of the armed forces are direct responsible for this carnage," Puleedevan said in a statement.
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ANC calls for ceasefire, supports independent Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 21:58 GMT]
The ruling party of the government of South Africa (ANC) have reiterated calls for a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka and acknowledged the need for an independent Tamil homeland. ANC MP and chairmen of the Solidarity Group of Peace and Equality Sisa Njikelana in an interview with Tamilnet, Saturday, has stressed the need for bilateral talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, an organisation that articulates the aspirations of the people. “This Government believes that by defeating the LTTE, the Tamils will just automatically fall for any offer given. I look at that with a nice cynical smile”, he said.
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SLA shoots dead 3 Tamil youths in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 21:56 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday morning in a cordon and search operation shot and killed three Tamil youths at Thevarku'lam area in Vavuniyaa police division. Their bodies with gunshot wounds on heads and chests were handed over to the Vavuniyaa general hospital Sunday evening, police said.
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Nadesan denies reports of human bomb, blames Colombo for deploying banned weapons

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 17:06 GMT]
Political Head of the LTTE, B Nadesan categorically denied reports in Sri Lankan and the Indian media that Tamil Tiger human bombs blew themselves up to prevent civilians fleeing the so-called safe-zone. "The LTTE denies these fabricated stories that seek to discredit us and divert attention away from the suffering of the Tamil people," he said when contacted by TamilNet Monday night. Sri Lankan forces have deployed three types of internationally banned weapons such as cluster shells, napalm bombs and phosphorus bombs against civilians, causing heavy casualties among civilians. He said nearly one thousand civilians were killed and many more wounded in SLA attacks.
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Casualties cross 1000 in SLA's attempt to capture civilians

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 13:18 GMT]
Hundreds of dead bodies and wounded civilians were still lying in Maaththa'lan and Pokka'nai, and more than 600 seriously wounded have been brought to a makeshift hospital functioning at a school in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in LTTE held area throughout Monday, TamilNet correspondent reports from Vanni. The correspondent personally witnessed nearly 300 dead bodies while fleeing from the area. Cluster shells and smoke or white-dust-emitting shells that made people to faint were widely deployed on civilians by the Sri Lanka Army in its effort to capture them. However, a large majority of the civilians fled towards LTTE held areas while around 8,000 were trapped and captured by the SLA.
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Expel Norwegian Ambassador from Colombo – Wimal Weerawansa

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 11:31 GMT]
National Freedom Front (NFF) supporters led by its leader Wimal Weerawansa and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Buddhist Monks political party parliamentarians staged a protest demonstration Monday from 10:00 a.m till 11:30 a.m in front of the Norwegian Embassy in Ward Place in Colombo demanding the removal of the Norwegian Embassy from Sri Lanka and to expel its Ambassador, sources in Colombo said. The demonstrators shouted slogans accusing Norway being partial to Liberation Tigers and that it is trying to save the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is on the verge of being defeated, the sources added.
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LTTE welcomes US initiative, asks Sri Lanka to listen to IC

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
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Diaspora youth hunger strike ignites mass struggle for Eezham

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 13:05 GMT]
The fast to death protest by Parameswaran Subramaniyan to draw attention of the International Community to the ongoing catastrophe in Sri Lanka, has reached the 13th day on Sunday. Thousands of Tamils of all ages and all walks of life have been pouring into the Parliament Square throughout the campaign, expressing their support to hunger strikers and their demands put forward to the British Government. The hunger strike launched by Parameswaran and Sivatharsan Sivakumaravel has become a key point of confluence drawing not only the first and second generation of Tamils in UK, but also attracting active participation of third generation of Tamils in the Eezham cause.
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British Foreign Secretary listens

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 00:06 GMT]
“We have heard their [Tamil] voice and will keep listening”, said British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, in a statement on Saturday. Saying that the British government is for ‘immediate ceasefire’ and for civilians to be ‘allowed to leave’, and the UN is progressing in making GoSL agreeing to send ‘support to civilians’ and LTTE agreeing to ‘allow civilians to leave’, the Foreign Secretary didn’t fail to mention that this is a stance in unison of Britain, France, US and many other governments. Commenting on his statement, British diaspora circles told TamilNet that the statement didn’t touch the crucial issue of ‘civilians going where’.
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Largest UN, New York rally fills Times Square

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
In one of the largest rallies held by the American Tamils in New York, more than 5000 protesters from different parts of the United States and Canada converged in New York in the park on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues near the UN, and a smaller group in the permitted area 43rd Street park directly across from the Secretariat Building between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Friday, and urged the UN to take urgent steps to stop the carnage unfolding in the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu where the Government of Sri Lanka is slaughtering hundreds of Tamil civilians daily under the pretext of cornering the LTTE leadership. The protesters then marched westward to the Times Square, one mile from the UN, and continued the protest until 5:00 p.m., according to the organizers.
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Colombo shouldn’t block UN visiting safety zone: Nadesan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 09:28 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka should not block UN Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar visiting the safety zone and acquainting himself of the conditions of the civilians, said LTTE political head, B. Nadesan when contacted by TamilNet on Saturday after reports of Sri Lanka rejecting UN appeal for ceasefire. "The GoSL is not making arrangements for his visit, to prevent him from knowing the nature and magnitude of its offensive and to prevent first hand verifications of the truth reaching the UN," he said.
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UN should authorize decisive measures to halt mass atrocities- Center for R2P

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:31 GMT]
Pointing out that UN Security Council's adoption of "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine in 2005 obligates the Council to "act preventively to protect peoples from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, rather than waiting until atrocities have already occurred," the Global Center for R2P, in a letter to the UN Security Council sent Wednesday said, "the Council must be prepared to bluntly characterize the violence in Sri Lanka as mass atrocity crimes; to demand that the government of Sri Lanka grant access to the conflict zone to humanitarian groups and to the media, both of whom it has barred until now; to dispatch a special envoy to the region, and/or to consider the imposition of sanctions. And ultimately, it must help facilitate a durable political solution to the fighting."
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AFP puts spin on TamilNet report

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
A TamilNet news report citing political observers in Colombo that appeared Thursday became a ‘view of the LTTE’ for the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Since its inception, TamilNet has been an independent news agency committed to reporting news with a Tamil perspective. However, it has become an objectionable practice with a section of the international media, including AFP, to refer to TamilNet as a pro-rebel, pro-LTTE etc. medium. But, Friday’s reporting by AFP has gone a step further by treating TamilNet report as LTTE’s belief or opinion. TamilNet does not such reporting as just oversight.
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LTTE envisages ceasefire, political solution ending armed conflict

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 10:32 GMT]
"LTTE’s armed struggle is the historical product of injustice against the Tamil Nation in the island, and if the International Community could achieve a just political solution to the conflict, the need for an armed struggle would cease to exist," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Friday. Mr. Pathmanathan further said: "We assure the International Community that the LTTE is ready to participate in political negotiations and fight to meet the political aspirations of the Tamil Nation at the negotiating table, through political means, if an immediate and permanent ceasefire is ensured and the human sufferings of the Tamil people are addressed."
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India asks for extension of 'pause' in hostilities

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 08:39 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka must extend pause in hostilities to prevent further casualties and enable trapped civilians to leave the area to secure locations, said India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday. "Continuation of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable," it further said. The statement came after India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon meeting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members Wednesday and Thursday. Mr. Mukherjee's statement ended by India reminding Government of Sri Lanka and 'others' concerned that 'Tamils are citizens of Sri Lanka'.
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Colombo, India and IC conspire three-pronged attack: Canadian Tamil artist

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 2009, 00:01 GMT]
The coercion of the Canadian government withdrawing the release of a statement just because the Canadian Tamil demonstrators refused to lower the Tamil national flag, considered as pro-LTTE flag by the government, is a part of the international conspiracy to break down the Eezham Tamil liberation struggle by isolating and dealing with the three components of the struggle, i.e., the LTTE, the TNA and the diaspora, said Varnarameshwaran, a Canadian Tamil Music Director. "The conspiracy is to abet Colombo to eliminate the LTTE leadership at whatever civilian cost, India to handle the TNA and the governments of the so-called international community to intimidate the diaspora. It is a three-pronged attack," he said.
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US says humanitarian situation dire, asks GoSL, LTTE to stop hostilities

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 23:44 GMT]
In one of the strongly worded press releases United States Department of State called upon the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers (LTTE) to immediately stop hostilities, and to respect the right of free movement of civilians in Mullaiththeevu area. The release further noted that "[a] durable and lasting peace will only achieved through a political solution that addresses legitimate aspiration of Sri Lankan communities. Adding further killing will "stain any eventual peace," the release urged GoSL to employ diplomacy to permit a peaceful outcome of the conflict.
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UN and IC signal civilian carnage

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 19:14 GMT]
The observation of UN official Holmes, that a ceasefire is not possible and the LTTE is preventing the civilians from leaving, followed by the chorus of British and French foreign ministers coming out with the same accusation on the LTTE in strong words, signal UN and IC assenting to a civilian carnage in the so-called safety zone, political observers in Colombo said. They also cited Rajapaksa’s visit to Ki’linochchi and unconfirmed reports on the withdrawal of even pro-government media from the battlefront as final preparations for Colombo’s onslaught.
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