Hospital attacked, 7 killed, dozens wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2009, 09:42 GMT]
The only remaining hospital in Udaiyaarkaddu within the so-called safe zone has again come under heavy shelling by the Sri Lanka Army on Thursday. At least 7 civilians were killed and 27 wounded in the close vicinity of the makeshift hospital functioning at a school. 2 ambulances were destroyed and the medical store of the hospital has been completely destroyed. The attack comes a day after US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urging the warring parties not to fire out of or into the safe zone and in the vicinity of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital or any other medical structure.
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Deliberate massacre, not 'crossfire' killing Tamil civilians - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 18:33 GMT]
Criticising international media reports for suggesting Tamil civilians are caught in a ‘crossfire’, TNA MP for Vanni S. Kanagratnam Wednesday said the Sri Lanka Army was shelling deep into Tamil Tiger controlled territory and deliberately targeting hospitals and internally displaced people. “Scores of Tamil civilians are being killed every day. But the civilian victims are not on or near the frontline as some international media is reporting. These people, inside safety zone, away from the frontline and they are being deliberately targeted by the Sri Lankan military,” he said.
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South Africans demonstrate against Sri Lanka's Genocide of Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 17:19 GMT]
Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) Wednesday took part in a demonstration that called for an immediate end to the Sri Lankan military aggression against Eezham Tamils. The demonstration was held around the Durban City Hall on February 04, 2009, coinciding with Sri Lanka’s independence day. South African Muslim Network, Minority Front and members of the South African community also rallied against the war in Sri Lanka.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 16:48 GMT]
A Tamil civilian Velupillai Suntharajah, 47 has been reported missing after he left by train from Colombo to Bandarawela, his home town on 17th January, according to complaints lodged by his relatives with the Bandarawela and Colombo police on Monday.
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Australian Tamils mark February 04 as Black Day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 16:31 GMT]
Upto 5000 Tamils rallied during peak hour traffic through Sydney City, Australia on Wednesday 4 February to urge the Australian government to support international calls for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka as well as highlight the need for an independent Tamil homeland in response to continued acts of genocide by the Sri Lankan army upon Tamil civilians. "For 61 years the Tamils have lived without peace, justice or freedom," says Lakshmi Kathir, a high school student. "Today maybe Sri Lanka's Independence Day, but for the Tamils it is the day we lost our liberty," she added.
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Delhi based human rights centre condemns Tokyo Co-chair stand

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 15:46 GMT]
Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a New Delhi-based human rights watchdog headed by Suhas Chakma, in a statement issued on Wednesday said the Tokyo Co-chairs (Norway, Japan, USA, EU), instead of mediating between government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to declare indefinite cease-fire, have failed to reflect the ground situations and remained silent on the need for ensuring respect for the laws of war. The ACHR on Wednesday issued a review titled "Mullaitivu Vs Gaza: The Tokyo Co-Chairs fail on the responsibility to protect".
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Pope appeals for an end to fighting in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 15:31 GMT]
"News of the worsening conflict and the growing number of innocent victims induces us to address a pressing appeal to the combatants to show respect for humanitarian law and for people's freedom of movement, said Pope Benedict XVI at the end of Wednesday general audience held in Paul VI Hall, in an appeal for an end to the ongoing fighting in Sri Lanka.
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Tokyo Co-chairs' stand fails in fundamentals - TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 14:35 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance, responding to the controversial statement by the Tokyo Co-chairs, which called on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and surrender to the Sri Lankan government, said it has been the firm and consistent position of the Tamil people that the island of Sri Lanka is inhabited by the Tamil nation and the Sinhala nation. "It is on the basis of recognising this reality and by the respective authentic representatives of these two nations, namely the LTTE and the Sri Lanka State, engaging in negotiations on how these two nations shall associate with each other for the future security and mutual benefit of both nations, can a just and sustainable solution to the Tamil National Question be found."
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Sri Lanka's scorched earth offensive must be stopped - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 12:41 GMT]
Pointing out that "the shelling of a hospital pediatric ward Sunday in Sri Lanka gave the world a glimpse of the scorched-earth offensive Sri Lanka's government has been conducting against the secessionist Tamil Tigers," the Boston Globe, in an editorial that appeared Wednesday, said the "war has to stop," and Obama administration ought to ask for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire, and the Asian powers providing military assistance to Sri Lanka - China, India, and Pakistan - should exert their influence on the government to halt the shooting." The globe reiterated its long standing position that "[t]he only true solution must be political: some form of confederal autonomy for the Tamil regions."
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Hillary Clinton, David Miliband urge to halt attacks on PTK hospital, Safe Zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 10:06 GMT]
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday jointly called on the warring parties in the island of Sri Lanka to "not to fire out of or into" the safe zone and in the "vicinity of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital or any other medical structure". The statement has come, following the claims of Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that PTK hospital was a "legitimate" target, delivering a clear message to Colombo saying that the parties "must respect the international law of armed conflict. 12 people have been killed and several wounded in the attacks on the hospital so far. Meanwhile, reports from PTK said Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army was continuing to fire artillery shells on the hospital. A UN official in Colombo said Wednesday that cluster bombs have been fired on the hospital.
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Top US Senator calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 06:34 GMT]
In a statement issued Tuesday, U.S. Judiciary Committee Chairman and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said that "it is imperative that the government and the LTTE agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid further loss of life, permit access to UN monitors and humanitarian organizations, and permit civilians to leave for areas of safety. The Obama administration, the British, Indian and other concerned governments, should be publicly urging the same," and added that "over the longer term, if lasting peace is to come to Sri Lanka, the government must effectively address, in negotiations which include all the main Tamil and Muslim parties, the core issues that have fueled the conflict including laws and policies that unfairly discriminate against Sri Lanka’s minorities."
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"Tamils under existential threat"

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2009, 05:16 GMT]
In an interview with BBC's Lyse Doucet in Tuesday's Newshour program, British member of the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Jan Jananayagam, says, "[g]enocide by UN definition is an attempt to destroy in part or in whole an ethnic group. I think that what is going here becomes perilously close to at least destruction at least in part," and adds that the "existential threat to Tamils" in Sri Lanka has to be immediately recognized to avoid mistakes made in Rwanda where obstruction to recognition of genocide early resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.
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Gotabaya should be prosecuted for Genocide, war crimes – Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 22:47 GMT]
Commenting on the interview to the BBC and to the Sky TV by Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Professor Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet that “the deliberate targeting of Hospitals and Civilians by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) violates the Geneva Conventions and is thus a war crime,” and that “as a United States Citizen, Defense Secretary Rajapakse, should be prosecuted by the United States government for violating the US Genocide Convention Implementation Act and the US War Crimes Act.”
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‘For whom the Co-chairs strive,’ asks Tamil parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 21:33 GMT]
The statement of the Co-chairs released Tuesday is “regrettably based on wrong premises and aims at disastrous ends,” Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Kajendren told TamilNet. "It sounds as though the Co-directors of the current war are at a last bid attempt to save Sri Lanka, one of the worst genocidal states of our times, before it collapses under its own burden of militarization, ethnic chauvinism and human rights violations. Their approach would have been different if they really care for the lives and dignity of civilians and if they have any respect for the democratic right of the national aspirations of Eezham Tamils,” he told TamilNet while issuing a statement responding to Co-chairs' stand.
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65 Vanni patients transferred to Mannaar, relatives languish in internment camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 20:43 GMT]
Sixty-five seriously wounded patients brought to Vavuniyaa by the ICRC last week have been transferred to Mannaar hospital and admitted there under strict military surveillance, medical sources in Mannaar said. Meanwhile, twelve relatives of the patients, who accompanied them from Vanni to provide care and separated by the SLA at Oamanthai, are still languishing at Nelullku'lam internment camp. The patients in Mannaar, most of them young children and elderly, who have lost either both legs or both hands and need personal care by close family members, have urged the authorities to allow their relatives to be with them as initially facilitated by the ICRC.
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SLAF personnel being trained in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Eight pilots of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) are presently undergoing training at the Indian Air Force base at Thaamparam (Tambaram) near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, highly placed sources told TamilNet. News of this training spread like wildfire when the Sri Lankan Airforce personnel were taken Monday to the Chealaiyoor (Selaiyur) police-station for visa verification purposes. "People of Tamil Nadu need no further proof that this war of decimating Tamils in Sri Lanka is being undertaken at India's insistence and instructions. This confirms our fears that Indian troops have also been sent to fight there," a veteran Tamil activist told TamilNet.
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Co-Chairs: LTTE surrender will save Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 16:53 GMT]
The Tokyo Co-Chairs (Norway, Japan, US and EU) Tuesday called on the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms surrender to the Sri Lankan government if the civilians of Vanni are to be spared further death and suffering. The Co-Chairs said they would (thereafter) ensure an “inclusive dialogue” that will lead to lasting peace.
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US Senators express concern on humanitarian situation in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2009, 04:08 GMT]
United States Senator and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D - Mass.) and Ranking Committee Minority Member, Senator Richard Lugar, in a press release issued today expressed concern "about the deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Vanni, and urged both parties to provide humanitarian access. The senior Senators condemned the "repeated shelling of a hospital," and added they are deeply troubled by Colombo's threat to expel foreign diplomats, and the brazen assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge.
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'IC should act before it is too late'

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 21:26 GMT]
Colombo is now blackmailing the IC that any effort to stop the war at this juncture would boomerang in the south, destabilizing the system and disappointing the greed of those who want to eat the cake in full and have invested for that purpose in the island. It now doesn’t hide its intention of committing genocide of civilians along with its attempt to crush the LTTE in the next few days, leaving the consequences to be tackled later. Sonia Establishment’s haste is everyone's knowledge. Some powers think that by immediately dumping money for 'development' in the ‘conquered land’, Tamils can be appeased and the investors can find an outlet for the economic recession. But no one is prepared for a political solution, reflects a reader on an article appeared in TamilNet Monday.
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Nurse killed in Udaiyaarkaddu hospital, ICRC staff wounded in PTK

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 February 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells on both the hospitals in Vanni again on Monday. A nurse who was attending a wounded patient at Udaiyaarkaddu makeshift hospital (Ki'linochchi hospital) was killed when 3 shells hit the hospital. 10 civilians, including ICRC/SLRC staff stationed in the vicinity of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), were wounded, according to a civilian source. Hospital authorities were unreachable to verify the details.
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