Tragedy of civilians as international mechanism backs out

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 12:33 GMT]
Eight died and forty injured among fleeing civilians, reportedly caused by a human bomb according to news released by Sri Lankan military Monday. 15 military personnel also died and 24 injured in an 'IDP rescue centre' north of Visuvamadu, the military said. There were children among the dead as seen in the video released by the Sri Lankan military. The US Embassy in Colombo was quick to condemn the LTTE, based entirely on the Sri Lankan military version of the story.
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80 killed, 200 wounded, carnage continues inside 'safe zone'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 19:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continued indiscriminate barrage of artillery shelling on the 'safety zone' killing more than 80 civilians and causing injuries to 200. Most of the casualties were reported along the roads. Every single shell fired by the SLA was exploding in densely populated civilian area and people were forced to stay inside bunkers. However, as people feared ending up in the hands of the SLA which is close to Chuthanthirapuram, they were fleeing in thousands further into LTTE territory amid shelling, facing deaths and injuries on their way, said TamilNet correspondent in Vanni. According to eyewitness reports, 40 dead bodies of civilians, including children and women, were seen along the 2.5 km stretch of Paranthan Puthukkudiyiruppu Road between Chuthanthirapuram and Theavipuram.
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Russia, UK protect Colombo's international impunity

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 06:00 GMT]
While world powers look apparently condemning Colombo for its culture of impunity allowing armed forces and other elements to commit human rights violations, some among the very powers are engaged covertly in ensuring international impunity to Colombo's war crimes by dodging discussion on Sri Lanka in the apex international security system. During the closed-door meetings of the UN Security Council this week, when Mexico moved for briefing on Sri Lankan situation, Russia reportedly blocked it saying it was not in the agenda. When the British Representative to the UN was asked why Sri Lanka was not in the deliberations, while Sudan was in, the answer was that the situation was entirely different in Sri Lanka where "proscribed" Tamil Tigers were long "blighting" the government and that has to be brought to an end.
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Colombo needs military victory before economy sinks - Aussie Don

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 05:58 GMT]
Asserting that Tamils have suffered "systematic discrimination practised against them," by past Sinhala Governments, Prof. Sisira Jeyasuriya, associate professor of Economics at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation last week said that Colombo's military victories are unlikely to bring violence to an end, as the Tigers will resort to guerrilla warfare, and added that the Government is engaged in false propaganda to ensure its survival. The recent news stories of 300 Tamil civilians killed in the safe zone are likely true despite Colombo's denials, Prof. Jeyasuriya told the ABC.
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American Tamil youths "starve for peace"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 05:24 GMT]
Eight American youths have begun a hunger-strike campaign calling on the United States Congress and the Obama administration to provide relief to the 300,000 Tamil civilians caught up in the war in Vanni. The youths urge members of the diaspora to pledge sacrificing a meal to show solidarity with the campaign, and each pledge, the participants said, will result in e-mail notes delivered to the pledger's Congressional Representatives notifying the suffering of civilians, and urging the congress persons to take immediate action.
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More than 180 killed in Sri Lankan bombardment within 48 hours

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 04:00 GMT]
More than 120 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling Friday and Saturday inside the safety zone in Chuthanthirapuram, Iruddumadu, Udaiyaarkaddu and Theavipuram within the last 48 hours. At least 59 civilians were killed Friday and more than 62 killed on Saturday. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed Puthukkdiyiruppu (PTK) Ponnampalam hospital killing 61 patients on Friday. Casualty figures from SLA shelling in Puthukkudiyiruppuu were not available.
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SLA traps hundreds of civilians in safety zone border

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 February 2009, 03:05 GMT]
Around 4,000 civilians, fleeing intense shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) have been caught by the SLA that entered a bordering area of Chuthanthirapuram safety zone Friday, according to initial reports. The SLA soldiers opened fire on the civilians, instructing them to walk deeper into SLA controlled territories carrying white flags with them, according to youths who managed to escape.
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SLAF bombs Ponnampalam hospital, 61 patients killed

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2009, 13:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers on Friday bombed and fully destroyed Ponnampalam Memorial hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), killing scores and wounding many, according to initial reports received from PTK. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched indiscriminate artillery barrage on the hospital, totally disabling the rescue of the surviving patients. 61 patients were killed in the air attack. The bombardment comes after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urging the warring parties not to attack medical facilities both within and outside the safety zone following the claim by SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya that hospitals outside safety zone were legitimate targets.
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CNN edits out Genocide charges against Sri Lanka, complains M.I.A

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2009, 04:54 GMT]
Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Eezham born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam, uses "her fame to shed light on a growing international conflict" CNN says in its website. During an interview with CNN's Kareen Wynter, Friday, pointing an accusing finger at the Government of Sri Lanka for killing Tamil civilians, Maya says, "Tamils who are a bunch of people in Sri Lanka, are being wiped out; I am one of those people who made it out. My school got bombed, people in my village are getting killed," and adds that she needs music to get all this information out. Reliable sources told TamilNet that the singer accused CNN for editing out her references to Sri Lanka's Genocide, and for attempting to associate her music with violence.
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Fonseka, Gotabaya Genocide charges filed with US Justice Dept

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 19:39 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for US-based group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Thursday afternoon 3:00 p.m. submitted to United States Attorney General, Mr Eric Holder, the Model Indictment charging U.S. citizen and Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and U.S. green card holder and Sri Lanka's Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka, for genocide, war crimes and torture against Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Counsel urged the Department to open a grand jury investigation into the crimes, based on evidence amassed in the three volume 1000-page document which the Counsel said "amply satisfies the Department's threshold for commencing a criminal investigation."
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Minister, members come hard on Colombo in British Parliament

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 08:04 GMT]
The situation in Sri Lanka is nothing short of shocking. Any attempts, including by representatives of the Sri Lanka government to defend the shelling of the [Puthukkudiyiruppu] hospital are frankly unacceptable. Such attacks are serious violations of international humanitarian law, said Bill Rummell, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in the British Parliament on Thursday. “The statement made by the Sri Lankan Government on Tuesday—that civilians should move out of the conflict area because they could no longer guarantee their safety—was extraordinarily worrying. […] The call for a temporary no-fire period by the [British] Foreign Secretary and Hillary Clinton this week should be acted upon immediately," he said.
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Emergency session of Canadian parliament discusses ceasefire, political solution

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 08:00 GMT]
Amidst demonstration and vigil of thousands of Canadian Eezham Tamils outside, and against the backdrop of Canadian government’s call for ceasefire coupled with 3 million dollars aid to the affected, the Canadian parliament had an emergency debate on the crisis in the island of Sri Lanka Wednesday that lasted four and a half hours. Cutting across party lines members were vocal in stressing the need for immediate ceasefire and federal perspectives of political solution. The balance of the debate was heavily against the Colombo government.
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Civilian sufferings unacceptable – Danish FM

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 06:31 GMT]
“The Danish government, greatly concerned about the situation of the civilians in the conflict areas in North Sri Lanka, is following the situation closely as well as is engaged in exerting pressure on the parties in conflict through institutions including the EU,” Denmark Foreign Minister, Per Stig Møller, said in a report 3 February. Around 4000 Tamils staged a demonstration 4 February starting from Copenhagen Town Hall to the entrance of the Danish Parliament, sources in Copenhagen said.
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Indian Home Minister, Foreign Minister differ on Colombo's war

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 02:17 GMT]
"We are not happy that the Sri Lankan government has resumed hostilities," said India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who said the LTTE must lay down arms and come to the negotiating table. However, within a few hours after his statement, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the Sri Lankan military offensive by saying: "Along with military offensive, the Sri Lankan government should ensure that the lives of innocent civilians should be protected."
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SLA attacks 'safety zone' using short-range mortars, gunfire, claiming lives

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 20:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Thursday shell-attacked saftey zone in torrents not allowing people to come out of bunkers throughout the day in Chuthanthirapuram and Iruddumadu civilian refuges. Two of the sixteen dead bodies of civilians brought to hospital had gunfire injuries, according to medical sources. More than 6,000 shells exploded inside the safe zone, reported TamilNet correspondent amidst shelling audible throughout reporting. The SLA has deployed several short and medium range mortars to fire shells on Chunthanthirapuram and Iruddumadu.
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U.S. Tamils urge Ambassador Rice to intervene in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 17:01 GMT]
More than 300 Tamils from New York/New Jersey area held a rally Wednesday afternoon in front of the U.S. Mission to U.N. to highlight the plight of Tamil civilians subjected to daily intense artillery attacks in Vanni, and the persistent human rights violations of the Sri Lanka military. The representatives of the awareness rally in a memorandum addressed to U.S. Ambassador to U.N., Susan Rice, noted her "passion and commitment to prevent genocide," and urged U.S. to "take immediate action to halt the genocide against the Tamils."
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IC abandons hope in liberal peace, seeks to live with Sinhala chauvinism - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 15:53 GMT]
The Co-Chairs statement this week marks the final collapse of the international liberal project in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Guardian newspaper’s editorial said this week. “The international actors who swaggered up in 2001 to make liberal peace in Sri Lanka never had the stomach to take on the Sinhala state's chauvinism. Instead they long pretended it doesn't exist, even as the signs were all around. Now, when it's in their faces, they simply bow to its ferocity - and ask the Tamils to do the same,” the paper said.
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‘Choices limited for the World of Authorities’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 15:44 GMT]
“A major problem with the world authorities today is that they live in their own world and try to look at the crisis in the island through their eyes. This is neo-Orientalism,” writes a New Delhi based scholar of South Asian studies in response to the recent stand of Tokyo Co-chairs. The way the world authorities have been grooming the situation in the island of Sri Lanka, they have narrowed down their choices. Either they have to separate the two ethnicities deeply divided by a protracted war by accepting the two nation states in the island, or allow the Sinhala nation’s attempt of genocide and total annihilation of Tamil identity, facing consequences of protracted turmoil coupled with global Tamil backfire. It is for the world authorities to decide whether their interests in Colombo are that worthy or important, he writes.
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Sri Lanka rejects Co-Chairs’ call for surrender negotiations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:56 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government has rejected the call by the Co-Chairs (US, EU, Japan and Norway) for the Tamil Tigers to negotiate terms of surrender with Colombo. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that the government would accept only "unconditional surrender".
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India's top lawyers condemn Sri Lanka's genocide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 10:45 GMT]
India's Supreme Court Bar Association based in New Delhi has condmned the genocide on the tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka Government and the Security Forces. In an excutive meeting held Wednesday, the association also called upon the Goverment of India and UN to take steps to ensure ceasefire.
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