LTTE Political Wing responds to John Holmes' briefing

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 April 2009, 08:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Wing on Tuesday released the contents of a letter it recently sent to the UN, where it reiterated that an immediate ceasefire is urgent for the humanitarian aid and relief to reach the affected people. Stating that "no pressure is being exerted on the Government of Sri Lanka to bring an immediate end to the shelling that is slaughtering Tamil civilians in their thousands," the letter charged that "even while the Sri Lankan government is an active member of the United Nations, the UN is unable to rein in its own member state from killing civilians in thousands."
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Apply adequate pressure on Colombo for ceasefire and negotiations: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 01:09 GMT]
The LTTE is not a movement believing that war is the only means to achieve the aspirations of the people it represents. But, political solution needs an environment conducive to it. The IC can play a positive role by adequately pressurizing Colombo for ceasefire and by promoting negotiations between GoSL and the LTTE as equal partners with due recognition, said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. On the issue of civilians, Mr. Pathmanathan said they have already asked the IC, what international instruments now hold GoSL accountable for the denial of basic rights of the people already moved and presently living in the internment camps.
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Arundhati Roy: "Colossal humanitarian tragedy"

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 00:52 GMT]
Pointing an accusing finger at the Indian Government for silence on the unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka, Arundhati Roy, writer and activisit, in an article appearing in Times of India says, "while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country [India]. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late."
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6 STF commandos killed, 8 injured in 3 separate LTTE attacks in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 March 2009, 04:47 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched attacks on Special Task Force (STF) commandos at three separate locations Friday and Saturday in Batticaloa district killing a commando and seriously injuring three in the first attack while killing two commandos and seriously injuring one in the second attack. The third attack was on the STF sentry post in Karadiyanaa’ru police division in which three STF commandos were killed and four seriously wounded, LTTE claimed in a media release Sunday. Meanwhile, two Sri Lankan home guards lost their legs caught in a booby trap set by the Tigers Saturday around 6:30 a.m in the 16th village in Ampaa’rai district, the Tigers said.
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Sydney protest draws more than 5,000

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 March 2009, 11:30 GMT]
More than 5,000 protesters took to the streets of Sydney Saturday demanding action against the Sri Lankan government and the atrocities being committed against Tamil civilians caught up in the war in the Vanni. Sydney's Central Business District suffered traffic congestion and delays as demonstrators took over major city roads as the protesters marched towards the city's Town Hall, participants in the rally said.
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Diaspora conference in London calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 22:27 GMT]
45 Tamil dignitaries from 21 countries gathered in London on Wednesday and Thursday to resolve that an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka was essential and that humanitarian access to the Vanni should be permitted immediately. The delegates also said that the Eezham Tamils should determine their own destiny and emphasized that the people of the traditional Tamil homeland had not only given their democratic mandate to the homeland concept, but they also have reiterated that mandate at every juncture of their political discourse.
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Grasping at straws leaving the tail: diaspora activist on Holmes' brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 16:21 GMT]
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who briefed the UN Security Council for a second time on Thursday "didn’t say anything new in his latest briefing other than reflecting on the escalation of the crisis and the pathetic impotency of the UN in handling the situation," Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU), told TamilNet Friday. He also referred to a recent statement by Professor Francis Boyle, a leading expert in International Law, who said that it seemed as if the UN is now repeating one of the 'most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide.'
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'Coercion is not the beginning for a lasting solution'

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 01:17 GMT]
“Intimidation and coercion of Tamils and their political leaders can never be a good beginning for any lasting solution. The fundamental point is that the powers don’t want to see parity to Tamils in the negotiation. They want to confirm Colombo’s position that there is a post-LTTE phase and the Tamils to negotiate from a post-defeat position. Above all, they don’t want to recognize the national liberation perspectives of the Tamil struggle,” writes an independent commentator in Vanni, who has long been sharing his insight with TamilNet. “What the powers actually expect is TNA disowning the LTTE and joining Rajapaksa club in hoodwinking a solution. The Eezham Tamils were at the receiving end of political deceit for ages and they have a good sense of smelling it out, even if it is international."
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Immediate ceasefire, humanitarian access before political engagement - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 2009, 07:48 GMT]
S. Jeyananthamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Batticaloa district on Thursday said that the TNA had decided not to engage in talks with the Sri Lankan President or anyone representing the SL state before a conducive environment for such political engagement is created by an immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to the suffering people of Vanni. The TNA has clarified the reasons in detail in a press meet in Colombo, he said, condemning the abduction of the brother of Jaffna district MP Kajendran, barely 48 hours before the TNA was to decide its position on accepting an invitation for a meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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25 Tamil civilians arrested in Morawewa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army and Police Tuesday conducted combined cordon and search operations in several Tamil villages in and around Morawewa division in Trincomalee district and took about twenty five Tamil civilians into custody following the attack on a patrolling group of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) that took place in the morning at Veappanku'lam which is located along Trincomalee-Anuradhapura highway about 15 miles from east port town.
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RSF "outraged" at grenade attack on Jaffna Uthayan HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 14:26 GMT]
Reporters Without Borders (RF), a Paris-based media watchdog, expressed "outrage" at the grenade attack at the Uthayan Head Quarters building in Jaffna Tuesday night, and urged "the Sri Lankan authorities to carry out a thorough investigation with the aim of arresting those responsible and bringing them to trial." RSF noted that Senior Sri Lanka Government officials had recently told news organisations not to publish reports about civilian victims of the fighting in the northern district of Vanni or not to reproduce LTTE interviews, but that Uthayan and other newspaper, Valampuri, had nonetheless printed photos of children killed in Vanni.
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'Parliament proposes, Rammell dismisses'

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 07:47 GMT]
It was the fourth occasion in recent times the British parliament was discussing Sri Lanka. Members cutting across party lines came hard on the Colombo government for nearly one and a half hours on Tuesday, for its attacks on civilians, failure in heeding international calls for ceasefire, humanitarian abuses and blockade of international monitoring. Many members demanded UN action, suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and pressure on India to act in stopping the war. However, Bill Rammell, the British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs came out only with rhetorical assurances, sounded negative to substantial demands and accused the LTTE for preventing people from leaving.
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Uthayan office in Jaffna attacked

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 23:57 GMT]
The main office of Uthayan Tamil daily in Jaffna came under grenade attack Tuesday night around 11:10 p.m., the administration of the paper told media in Colombo. Tamil media circles added that the attack had come after verbal instructions by the top officials of Rajapaksa government not to publish stories related to civilian casualties in Vanni or reproduce the contents of interviews given by the LTTE officials to news agencies and media. Uthayan and Valampuri newspapers have recently printed photos of children being killed in the Sri Lankan attacks inside 'safety zone' in Vanni.
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Expecting hostile diaspora to buttress a collapsing state

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 02:21 GMT]
"Engaging the diaspora for any solution is possible only when humanitarian assistance and protection reach their brethren, war is called off, Tamil self-determination in the island of Sri Lanka is recognized and the LTTE is de-proscribed. Above all, accepting the reality of the crisis that it is a national liberation struggle and seeking solutions not insisting on a united Sri Lanka will tremendously help to ease the situation and even reconciliation," writes Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.
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Colombo, New Delhi fall back on lure in fighting the diaspora

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 20:23 GMT]
Frustration arising from failure in the military annihilation of the Eezham Tamil struggle led by the LTTE, mounting global opinion in favour of the oppressed, determination of the diaspora and electoral urgency in India are impelling the war partners in Colombo and New Delhi to explore alternative tactics in achieving their goals. While conferences are planned in Singapore and Bangalore to hoodwink the diaspora and Indian public, a member of India’s national security advisory panel wants Colombo and the Tigers to be pressurised to declare a ceasefire. “They must be compelled to accept an international mechanism, so that the civilians are rescued from the war zones. And, what is more, these civilians should be settled in welfare centres, manned by the UN agencies”, he said.
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Tigers attack STF mini-camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 March 2009, 09:35 GMT]
Three Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) commandos were killed and five sustained injuries Sunday night when Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) commandos launched a surprise attack on an STF mini-camp on Chengkaladi - Badulla Road, according to a news release issued by the LTTE Political division in Batticaloa.
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US Group to file court action against US vote on IMF loan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, said Sunday that TAG is preparing to file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prohibit the United States Treasury Secretary from voting to support the request by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for $1.9 billion in economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund. TAG’s complaint alleges that a United States vote in favor of the assistance would violate a federal statute, 22 USC 262d, intended to prevent United States financial complicity in harrowing human rights abuses by IMF member governments, Fein said.
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42 civilians killed, 80 wounded in Vanni Saturday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 04:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells into the 'safety zone', also on Saturday, killing 42 civilians and causing injuries to around 80 civilians, including a GS (Village officer), initial reports from Vanni said Saturday. Meanwhile, the SLA and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) were using heavy explosives in their clashes with the LTTE defensive units in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) area. At least 7 civilians who ventured into Iranaippaalai to collect coconuts were reported killed in SLAF air strike.
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SLN obstructs resettlement of IDPs in Allaippiddi in the islet of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 15:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which hold the islets of Jaffna in its control is delaying permission for IDP resettlement in Allaippiddi besides not allowing demining in the coasts of Allaippiddi, according to Jaffna Secretariat officials who had forwarded the applications of 48 Allaippiddi families staying in refugee camps in Jaffna town to SLN officials. Recently, Minister Douglas Devnanda, along with his government, had made much publicity in resettling Allaippiddi IDPs, sources in Jaffna said.
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Tigers seize weapons from SLFP Karuna camp in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 March 2009, 14:14 GMT]
An armed paramilitary person was killed and two T-56 assault rifles were seized Thursday night around 11:00 p.m. when an ambush team of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out a surprise attac on a building at Ku'laththumadu in Vaakaneari in Vaazhaichcheani, according to a news release by the LTTE. The building, used as an office of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was a minor camp of Karuna group, the Tigers said. Dayamohan, the Batticaloa district political head of the LTTE told TamilNet last week that Karuna group had stepped up intimidations against the civilians in Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai districts in recent times.
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