'Empty statements of IC evoke fury in the diaspora': Oslo hunger striker

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 14:57 GMT]
The whole concept of peace facilitation will become a mockery and no peace facilitation will hereafter be seen with credibility in the world, if Norway fails in its ‘responsibility’ in stopping civilian tragedy in Sri Lanka, said 51 years old Sri Navaratnam, the leader of Norway Tamil Sangam (association), who commenced an indefinite fast in Oslo, Monday, demanding Norway bringing out immediate ceasefire, negotiations between LTTE and GoSL, not sending civilians to camps but resettling them and Norway recognizing the self-determination of Eezham Tamils. Mr. Navaratnam was furious of empty statements coming from IC and said such statements without action only infuriate the already traumatised people.
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South African group condemns Sri Lanka for killing Tamil civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 14:02 GMT]
South Africa based Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka, which comprises of members from African National Congress (ANC), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African Communist Party (SACP) and Tamil activist groups, on Tuesday condemned the Government of Sri Lanka for the killing of thousands of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan armed forces. "The pursuit of a military solution not in favour of a viable political framework addressing the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and their aspirations for self determination remains the fundamental barrier between permanent peace amid an unfolding humanitarian disaster," the statement further said.
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Tamils blockade London's Parliament Square

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 12:15 GMT]
Thousands gathered around Parameswaran Subramaniyan's tent early Monday morning demanding the British Government to take immediate action against the carnage of Tamils in Sri Lanka to avoid another Tamil life being forsaken at Parliament Square in London, according to sources in London. Parameswaran, 28, on his 14th day of hunger strike, reiterated his calls to the British Government to impose for urgent ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Doctors by his side reported that his condition is critically weak. Dr Arundkumar Velauthapillai said "His condition is deteriorating rapidly. He is not taking enough water but he is stable for now."
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Fr. Karunaratnam remembered on First anniversary

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:24 GMT]
Mr. K.Sivapalan, Deputy Chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), on the first year anniversary of the killing of founder Chairperson of NESoHR, Rev.Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam, recounts his services to the community, and asks why the International Community is standing by as a Rwanda unfolds in Vanni. Father Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on 20th April 2008 while he was driving from his residential prayer and counseling center in Vavunikku'lam.
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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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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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Unprecedented Tamil Protests in Australia

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 April 2009, 09:26 GMT]
The hunger strike by 6 Tamils in Australia, calling for the immediate halt of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka that began on the 11th of April 2009 at 5:00 p.m. was concluded April 17 with an unprecedented rally in the capital city of Canberra where more than 8500 diaspora Tamils took part. A long time peace activist, Lara Pullin, who came to see the hunger strikers said, “The rallies by the Tamils have gathered the same momentum that I saw during pre East Timor independence time and Anti-apartheid movement; one gets the feeling that Tamils have come to a stage where they are saying ‘Enough is Enough’ ”, sources in Canberra said.
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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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'Regular rapes, killings, degrading interrogations in internment camps'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 13:25 GMT]
Tamil IDPs inside the barbed-wire internment camps in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled Vavuniyaa are not only medically underserved, but are subjected to degrading interrogations and there are reports of regular rapes and killings, reveals a well known German writer and Human Rights activist, Thomas Seibert, who recently returned from Sri Lanka after a humanitarian trip, conducting personal interviews that described the plight of civilians kept as near-prisoners under the SLA occupation.
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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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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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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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Holmes needs more homework: Diaspora refugee worker

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 15:06 GMT]
It is unfortunate that UN, the apex body meant to protect the weaker sections of humanity, is on the contrary exploiting the misery of Eezham Tamil civilians to abet the aims of their sworn oppressors, said K.Suthahar, an information counsellor of a refugee reception centre in Norway. "Top UN official John Holmes, would do better by convincing his organisation to first demonstrate that to what extent it can practically defy the genocidal agenda of the Sri Lankan state and in what ways it can protect the concerned civilians particularly, and the Tamil people in general. The first step is to take full responsibility of the civilians who are already in the concentration camps of Colombo. But the UN is unable even to free its own local workers in Colombo’s camps," he said.
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'Permanent ceasefire and not a humanitarian pause': APPG-T

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 April 2009, 13:02 GMT]
"We want an immediate and permanent ceasefire and not a humanitarian pause," said Virendra Sharma MP, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) in a statement issued on Wednesday.
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Mass human tragedy possible any moment in 'safety zone'

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 23:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Tuesday night launched a full scale ground offensive attempting to break the last earth bund of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) situated close to the safety zone on Puthukkudiyiruppu - Mullaiththeevu Road, TamilNet correspondent in Vanni reported Wednesday early hours, Sri Lankan time. When the Co-Chairs countries have asked for the extension of ceasefire, Colombo's defiance and ferocious attack on the civilian safety zone are widely seen by political observers as efforts to fulfil the agenda of India, which is scheduled to receive TNA, Wednesday.
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US should intervene directly with GoSL, LTTE to protect civilians - Professor Boyle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 16:42 GMT]
With Norway's ouster as a third-party engaging with the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), the role of the United States in having direct access with the Liberation Tigers has become critical to negotiating a ceasefire and bring relief to the more than 250,000 Tamil civilians caught in the war. Ambassador Lunstead points out that legal restrictions imposed by US domestic laws do not prevent the U.S. taking that role, and Professor Boyle further asserts that Geneva Conventions of 1949 makes it an obligation for the U.S. to intervene directly with both the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the LTTE in order to protect these innocent Tamil civilians.
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'Powers have to repent for what they are doing': Vickramabhu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 00:17 GMT]
It will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE, writes Vickramabahu Karunaratne in a recent article highlighting the need for alternative thinking. "In the case of the LTTE, it represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism. [...] It was and is wrong to the hilt in hating Tamil society for its demand for equality and self-determination. [...] All global capitalist powers including India will be forced to repent in time to come for their aggressive participation in human suffering of this order. [...] The LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime," he writes.
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LTTE reiterates need for permanent ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 April 2009, 17:52 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Division, in a statement issued in Tamil on Monday called the Sri Lankan announcement of restricting military operations for two days as an eyewash to create an impression of engagement on false premises. Condemning the move as a "political drama" aimed at "deceiving the International Community and the Tamil people", the LTTE said the Sri Lanka Army was continuing indiscriminate shelling and gunfire on civilians. The LTTE statement categorically stated that the Tigers were calling for a politically and militarily meaningful ceasefire with humanitarian considerations.
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