Tamils need to be heard - John Pilger

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 12:24 GMT]
"In order to conduct a slaughter, you ensure the pornography is unseen, illicit at best. You ban foreigners and their cameras from Tamil towns such as Mulliavaikal, which was bombarded recently by the Sri Lankan army, and you lie that the 75 people killed in the hospital were blown up quite wilfully by a Tamil suicide bomber. You then give reporters a ride into the jungle, providing what in the news business is called a dateline, which suggests an eyewitness account, and you encourage the gullible to disseminate only your version and its lies," says award winning documentary maker and popular journalist John Pilger in a recent report in the New Statesman on Sri Lanka war. "History teaches us that when no one listens, tragedy ensues. Sri Lanka’s Tamils face terrible suffering. They urgently need to be heard," adds the author.
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'Responsibility now with US'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 10:37 GMT]
The first act of Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi after the announcement of the election results was an appeal to the Indian Establishment re-elected to power to save the Eezham Tamils. However, the utmost responsibility lies with the Co-Chairs and especially with the US, says TamilNet’s political analyst in Colombo. The US has to either convince India or act alone to save the situation and save its own credibility. Failing, the White House is likely to emerge bearing the major responsibility for conning Tamils to their death and subjugation, and the IC tagged behind it may never be able to justify its credentials in implementing a world order it desires, he further said.
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25,000 civilians injured to death while IC watches: Soosai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 May 2009, 09:14 GMT]
Sea Tiger Special Commander of the LTTE, Col. Soosai Sunday noon said that around 25,000 civilians injured in the artillery attack of Sri Lanka Army are dead and dying now without receiving medical attention. The LTTE has repeatedly requested the ICRC through Mr. Pathmanathan to evacuate the injured through Vadduvaakal or Iraddaivaaikkaal, but there was no IC response. Within a 2 square kilometre area, there are dead bodies everywhere while the remaining thousands are in bunkers amidst the use of every kind of weapon by Colombo's forces. The SLA is not even allowing the people to flee but prefers to fire at them, Soosai said.
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Doctors quit safety zone, volunteer medics remain with injured

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 23:48 GMT]
Medical Superintendent Dr. Shanmugarajah who was attending the wounded at the makeshift hospital at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal junior school, his family, Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) doctors, Dr Varatharajah and Dr Sathiyamoorthy, and three other doctor,s have entered the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) controlled checkpoint at Omanthai. Dr Varatharajah has been seriously wounded during his passage out of the Safety Zone, and reports from Vanni say, he has been air-lifted for medical treatment. His whereabouts are not known.
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Stench of dead bodies permeate Vanni, wounded allowed to die without treatment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 10:26 GMT]
An uncounted number of dead bodies between 2,000 and 3,000 are lying all over the places in civilian congested area and the civilians are all struck by a heavy stench of dead bodies, said a volunteer doctor from Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. "Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has destroyed all medical facilities by targeted attacks, and the SLA was continuing inhuman and indiscriminate attacks on civilians providing only two options, death or surrender," he added. The volunteer doctor himself witnessed more than 100 deaths Saturday morning. All the government doctors and the top officials have fled the shelling. Civilians are in shock at the continuing carnage in Vanni.
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Mano Ganeshan urges government to publicize details of Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 07:58 GMT]
“The government of Sri Lanka should release all information about Vanni civilians held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps without trying to keep it a secret,” Mano Ganeshan, Colombo district parliamentarian and the leader of Democratic Peoples’ Front (DPF) said in a press meet held in the residence of the leader of the opposition Friday under the title ‘Forum for Freedom’.
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'Our Holocaust and the impossibility of peace in Sri Lanka'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 04:17 GMT]
“It is self-evident that the close scrutiny of the international community, the pleas and pointed warnings by powerful states and the disgust of the world has not impressed a Sinhala state, polity and people drunk with racism,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper said this week. “It is inescapable that whatever the international community does, the Sinhala state will continue to pose an existential threat to the Tamil people, unless we are protected by our own borders and security forces.” The paper added, “[meanwhile] contrary to Sinhala expectations, Tamil militancy will remain central to Sri Lanka’s future. As the LTTE, which has transformed itself – yet again – for a new kind of war, bluntly put it last month: as long as the Tamils are oppressed, ‘Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace’.”
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UN genocide expert wants ceasefire, UN investigators want war probes

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 03:26 GMT]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, underscoring the toll the clashes are taking on Tamil civilians, said Friday that “it is not too late” for the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to end the conflict. Francis Deng called for both sides to “pursue a reconciliatory and peaceful path with the ethnic Tamil population.” Three UN special investigators have now called for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the Sri Lankan conflict. Meanwhile, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative for the Human Rights of Displaced Persons called on Colombo to allow the UN and other agencies “full and unfettered access to all civilians and detainees.”
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‘Tigers will regroup with a vengeance’ - FT

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2009, 02:02 GMT]
“The Tamil cause will reignite from the embers of this war unless the Sinhala majority shows magnanimity and gives the Tamils control of their own lives,” the Financial Times warned Thursday in an editorial. Pointing out that Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war “has only defeated the resourceful LTTE’s conventional capability,” the paper also warned that “[the Tigers] will regroup – and expand offshore – with a vengeance that will match the government’s vengefulness.”
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Bloodbath will not resolve the conflict: Pathmanathan

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 21:16 GMT]
"Colombo's approach to finish the war in 48 hours through a carnage and bloodbath of civilians will never resolve a conflict of decades. On the contrary it will only escalate the crisis to unforeseen heights. The Sinhala people have a duty and responsibility in stopping it, considering their own interest if not that of the Tamils," said LTTE's Head of International Relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, when contacted by TamilNet on the situation prevailing in Vanni.
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More than 100,000 civilians in safe zone, ICRC suspends Vanni missions

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 13:04 GMT]
"Unless an external humanitarian intervention is carried out without delay, it would be difficult to avert an inhuman catastrophe," said a volunteer doctor appointed by the LTTE to serve the civilians within the so-called safety zone, Friday afternoon. "The ICRC has abandoned its missions, there is no food, no proper access to potable water to tens of thousands of civilians who are forced to stay under the bunkers, surrounded by dead bodies and wounded civilians who are dying without medical help," the medics doctor told TamilNet through a satellite phone. The Sri Lankan forces are deploying superior fire power and advancing along the coastal line deploying cluster munitions and shells causing immediate fire.
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Sri Lanka Police arrests 8 Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2009, 11:22 GMT]
Eight Tamil civilians were arrested in Grandpass area in Colombo Wednesday night and were detained in police station for further interrogation in regard to the recovery of eighteen claymore mines from a motor workshop in the area, according to police sources.
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9 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 20:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka police took into custody nine Tamil youths in a search operation conducted from Thursday morning till evening in Fort and Pettah areas in Colombo city, sources in Colombo said. The youths arrested are from North, East and upcountry provinces, relatives of the arrestees said.
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SLA denies permission to Jaffna HRC to visit Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna denied permission to the local officials of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office to visit Thellippazhai SLA Rehabilitation Camp where more than 600 young men and women from Vanni are detained, sources in Jaffna said. The officials routinely visit the above camp to attend to matters related to human rights violation like torture. SLA said that only on permission from the Justice Ministry in Colombo the officials would be permitted to visit the said Rehabilitation camp, HRC Jaffna sources said.
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Will Obama take full responsibility of Tamil homeland, ask Tamil circles

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:57 GMT]
As news reports quote US President Barack Obama saying Tamil Tigers to "free civilians," and Colombo government to stop indiscriminate shelling, Tamil circles in the US asked whether President Obama is prepared to take full responsibility of the Tamil homeland and whether he is prepared to give full assurance to the freedom and the aspirations of the Tamil people.
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“SL government conceals true picture of “Vanni safe zone”-UNP charges

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 20:49 GMT]
Dr.Jayalath Jayewardene, Deputy Secretary of the main United National Party (UNP) and parliamentarian made a scathing attack on the government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse that it is rejecting all statements made by the United Nations regarding the immense sufferings of Tamil people trapped in Vanni region without verifying the true picture. The government is committing blatant treachery by concealing the true situation in Vanni, he added at a press briefing held Tuesday in Colombo.
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TNA warns of more bloodshed in the coming days

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 12:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has pointed out that 3000 Tamils have been killed and more than 1000 have been wounded in the last 3 days in the Vanni region, in a press conference held in Colombo on Tuesday night. Tamil National Alliance leader MP R.Sampanthan states, “The Government of Sri Lanka is mass killing Tamil civilians after denying them food and medicine. This is the reality. More bloodshed can happen in the next few days. We appeal to the International community to immediately stop this systematic slaughtering of civilians.”
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Tamil trader shot dead in Mukaththuvaaram

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 11:11 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons in army uniform shot dead a Tamil trader Kamalaeshan Yogeswararan, 32, Monday early morning at Kimbulawela in Mukaththuvaaram in Colombo police division. The armed gang entered the house, shot dead the owner, and fled from the scene when neighbours rushed to the site following cries for help by his relatives, sources said.
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US, UK want UN to facilitate 'safe evacuation' of civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 23:37 GMT]
The United States and Britain on Tuesday jointly called on the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers to end fighting to allow a UN humanitarian team to visit the conflict zone to facilitate safe evacuation of civilians. However, the statement, which failed to stress ceasefire, was interpreted by Tamil circles as providing tacit approval for Colombo to continue its deployment of infantry support weapons. While asking the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to lay down their arms, the joint statement has urged Colombo to abide by its commitment of April 27 to end major combat operations and the use of heavy weapons.
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UK: Sri Lanka belongs on UN Security Council agenda

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 19:19 GMT]
Britain’s Foreign Minister David Miliband said Monday he is “appalled” by reports of mass civilian casualties in Sri Lanka. Saying that he believed “very very strongly” that the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka merits the attention of the United Nations Security Council, he noted: “the civilian catastrophe in the North East of Sri Lanka speaks for itself and the international humanitarian law to which we all sign up needs to be followed in spirit and in letter.” Speaking at the UN in New York, Miliband also suggested Sri Lanka should not qualify for the $1.9m IMF loan Colombo is seeking.
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