LTTE welcomes appointment of British Special Envoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2009, 19:03 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) has welcomed the appointment of Des Browne as Special Envoy to Sri Lanka by the British Prime Minister on Thursday. In a letter addressed to Mr. Des Browne, LTTE's Head of International Diplomatic Relations S. Pathmanathan said the British government had a moral responsibility to intervene to stop the genocide being committed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) on Tamil civilians in the island of Sri Lanka.
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Herding people by terror: Intense shelling, dead bodies on roadside in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2009, 13:50 GMT]
More than 150 civilians were feared killed Thursday alone and around 90 in the preceding two days in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling in Mullaiththeevu district. Most of the casualties are reported along the sides of two roads through which the civilians are forced to flee in yet another mass exodus to a new 'safety zone' unilaterally announced by Colombo. Dead bodies were lying along the roadside from Theavipuram to Puthukkudiyiruppu and the fleeing civilians were forced to bury their dead along the roadside amid intense shelling, initial reports from Vanni said. The new 'safety zone' declared by Colombo is nothing but an assembling ground to herd 300,000 civilians in a small stretch of land along the lagoon and the sea coast, north of Mullaiththeevu.
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India changes language with measured ambiguity

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 February 2009, 01:30 GMT]
Indian President Prathiba Patil in her address to the joint sitting of Indian Parliament on Thursday declared that India continued to support a negotiated political settlement in Sri Lanka within the framework of an undivided Sri Lanka acceptable to all the communities, including the Tamil community. Ms. Prathiba Patil urged Colombo and the Tigers to return to negotiating table.
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British ex-defence secretary appointed special envoy to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
Britain named a special envoy to Sri Lanka on Thursday to help bring about a political solution to the island’s long-running conflict and to ease hardships to Tamil civilians trapped in the Vanni warzone, UK press reports said. "I've asked Des Browne, our former defence secretary, to be an envoy for Sri Lanka," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a parliamentary committee. Brown said the priorities were to achieve a ceasefire and to get a political settlement, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake was quoted by the Washington Post as saying the Sri Lankan military’s capture of the Vanni region – which he expects within weeks – will not end the LTTE’s armed struggle and that Colombo must reach a political settlement with the Tamils.
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Civilian refugees imprisoned in internment camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 11:55 GMT]
The civilian refugees who either fled the war zone or caught by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are denied not only the freedom of movement to go out of the buildings in which they are detained under 'near-prison' conditions, but are also denied freedom of movement inside the camp itself after 6:00 p.m. by the SLA, even for the call of nature, on grounds of condemnation that they were linked to the LTTE, said NGO activists on condition of anonymity.
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9 Tamils arrested in Gampaha

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 20:24 GMT]
Nine Tamil civilians were arrested in several cordon and search operations conducted in ten police divisions in the Gampaha district Tuesday. Nearly ten thousand residents were subjected to severe interrogation and about 1200 vehicles were searched during the operation, police sources said.
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Sri Lanka engaged in deliberate, systematic act of genocide - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 11:15 GMT]
The Tamil homeland is witnessing one of the worst human tragedies of the 21st century said the Political Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in a statement issued in Tamil on Wednesday. More than one-thousand civilians have been killed and four-thousand are struggling to recover from the injuries amid continuous artillery barrage, air attacks and cluster bombing by the Sinhala state, the LTTE statement said. The LTTE statement categorically denied the Sri Lankan claim that a Tiger human bomb had recently attacked civilians.
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Colombo orders all health workers to immediately leave Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 06:57 GMT]
Health ministry officials in Colombo issued Tuesday a 'final warning' to the 8 doctors and around one thousand medical and health workers of Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi districts, now serving more than 250,000 civilians in the besieged Mullaiththeevu district, to immediately leave the LTTE controlled territory, according to the sources at the District Secretariat in Vavuniyaa. The move comes after military officials warned the medical staff of dire consequences.
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ICRC: Vanni dependent on outside aid, shelling killed 16 patients on Monday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 06:08 GMT]
On Monday, Putumattalan was hit by shelling that killed at least 16 patients. "We are shocked that patients are not afforded the protection they are entitled to," said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC delegation in Colombo, in a press statement issued Tuesday. "Most of the population is now displaced and completely dependent on outside aid, yet none has reached the area since 29 January," the ICRC said adding that it remained extremely concerned about the plight of the civilians in Vanni. "It is imperative that both parties immediately allow food and other urgently needed items to reach those who are trapped."
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IDPs in SLA detention camps lack sufficient food in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 01:35 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) made an urgent appeal Tuesday to local and international non-government organizations in Jaffna to provide food materials to the 2400 detainees held in three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps as the arrangement of supplying cooked food to them has been suspended by the SLA authorities in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The dry food items given to them under the World Food Programme (WFP) are hardly sufficient to meet the food requirements of the civilians detained in the SLA detention centres in Kurunakar, Koaappay and Mirusuvil, Jaffna Secretariat sources added.
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Tigers deny firing at civilians, accuse SLA, urge for international monitors

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, 01:15 GMT]
Categorically denying reports by the Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo that the Tigers had fired at the fleeing civilians in Vanni, Puthukkudiyiruppu Divisional Political Head of the LTTE, C. Ilamparithy told TamilNet Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commando teams had entered the 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu and Chuthanthirapuram and had opened fire killing civilians and causing injuries to many in their attempt to forcibly move the civilians into the hands of the SLA. "Sri Lankan military machinery, which has relentlessly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the past four weeks, is now engaged in a propaganda drive to divert the mounting pressure on the Colombo government by the International Community," Mr. Ilamparithy charged.
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Relentless shelling expels civilians from 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 05:56 GMT]
Thousands of civilians were seen Monday fleeing in all directions from the 'safety zone' as mortar, artillery and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets hit the entire area demarcated by the Colombo government as safety zone. At least 36 civilians were killed and 76 wounded throughout the day in Va'l'lipunam, Chuthanthirapuram and in Maaththa'lan. The entire 100-houses-scheme located in Chuthanthirapuram was burning following MBRL attack with shells that caused immediate fire.
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East Timor President urges ceasefire, offers mediation

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 04:00 GMT]
"There will be no long term peace in Sri Lanka if this war is prosecuted by either side to the bitter end," said the President of Timor Leste (East Timor) Jose Ramos-Horta, on Monday, offering his preparedness "to assist in any way that might contribute to a peaceful settlement." Recollecting the experience of East Timor, the Nobel Laureate expressed his fear of immense destruction a civil war can generate and said: " The people already traumatised should not be forced to remain or move against their will." He urged the LTTE to seek a political settlement through dialouge.
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UN experts concerned at suppression of criticism, impunity

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 01:57 GMT]
Ten independent UN experts on Monday expressed their deep concern at the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, particularly the shrinking space for critical voices and the fear of reprisals against victims and witnesses which – together with a lack of effective investigations and prosecutions – has led to unabated impunity for human rights violations.
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Wounded civilians treated under trees, warded in bunkers

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 00:58 GMT]
The makeshift hospitals in Vanni that have been forced to relocate amidst artillery and aerial attacks that followed after Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa publicly claimed that the medical facilities outside the so-called 'no fire zone' would be regarded as legitimate military targets by his forces. The hospitals, struggling to treat the wounded, are operating under the trees and bunkers have been turned to wards to treat the seriously wounded.
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TRO recovers 15 bodies in Chuthanthirapuram

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 23:42 GMT]
TRO volunteers buried 15 dead bodies of civilians Monday in Chuthanthirapuram. 12 of the victims were not identified, according to the officials of the NGO.
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ICRC staff escape SLA shelling in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 23:29 GMT]
ICRC staff who went to Maaththa'lan coastal area located north of Mullaiththeevu town, came under Sri Lanka Army artillery fire around 11:00 a.m. Monday, media reports in Vanni said. The ICRC staff had gone there after informing the Sri Lankan defence authorities that they would be present there for the preparatory work to facilitate transportation of the wounded civilians.
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13 Tamil civilians arrested in Chilaapam, Dehiwala

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 22:03 GMT]
Sri Lankan forces have arrested 8 Tamil civilians in two separate cordon and search operations conducted Friday night in Chilaapam (Chilaw) in the northwestern province and in Dehiwala in the western province. The Sri Lankan Police said the arrested persons had failed to prove their identity and justify their presence in the location. Five Tamil youths were taken into custody in Ira'navillu in Chilaapam district. The five youths are residents of Eastern province and Up-country and are being detained in the Chilaapam police station for further inquiry.
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Nordic foreign ministers call for international safeguards

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 21:58 GMT]
Subtly, but significantly differing from Tokyo Co-chairs, the Nordic Foreign Ministers who met in Oslo on Monday came out with a statement not insisting on LTTE's surrender but stressing on the interim no-fire period and a central role for UN and ICRC in receiving the IDPs from the conflict zone, adhering to international standards.
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Civilians killed by SLA gunfire after bomb blast

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 19:48 GMT]
Reports from Vanni indicate that the civilian casualties at the military checkpost claimed as 'IDP rescue centre' by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was in fact due to gunfire at the civilians by the SLA after a bomb blast, according to civilians who escaped the scene back to LTTE territory.
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