UNP also against Tamils: Mano Ganeshan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2009, 10:43 GMT]
Mano Ganeshan, Colombo district parliamentarian and the leader of Western People’s Front (WPF) condemned United National Party (UNP) Puththa’lam district parliamentarian, Palitharanga Bandara’s statement that heavy weapons should be used on the ‘safe zone’ to destroy the Liberation Tigers, in a media release Wednesday in Colombo. Palitharanga praised the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for their victories against the war on Tamils besides expressing views revealing racism in the press meet held Monday in the official residence of the Opposition Leader and this shows that UNP too is a political party that is against the Tamils,” Mano Ganeshan said in the press release.
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Minister Chandrasegaran condemns effort to tax plantation workers

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2009, 08:59 GMT]
”Efforts to have deducted a day’s pay from innocent Tamil plantation workers to help people affected by war will only assist the government in its war against the Tamils,” Up-country Peoples’ Front (UPF) leader and Sri Lanka Minister, P. Chandrasegaran said in a press report, condemning demands made by certain trade unions and voluntary organizations on the plantation workers to give a day’s wage to help war affected people, sources in Colombo said.
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US responsible, least humanitarian is dropping food: Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2009, 17:07 GMT]
If there is any meaning for the word humanitarian, the minimum humanitarian act right now is to drop food to the civilians of Vanni without wasting a minute, repeatedly appealed health officials in Vanni on Tuesday, as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe caused by Sri Lankan government enforced starvation engulfs the civilians of Vanni. “The US government and the world should realise that the situation culminating in the most inhuman act of Colombo calculatedly inflicting starvation death on civilians is ultimately a consequence of the lopsided application of a US policy, and the US has every responsibility to remedy it. Failure amounts to connivance to the crime. US has to immediately airdrop food”, said a relief official in Vanni.
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'Drop food now if the concern is humanitarian': Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2009, 01:01 GMT]
“If the Colombo government is starving us, the world should know who is keeping us hostages. If the world’s concern is ‘purely humanitarian’ it should act this very minute to give us our means to keep the body and soul together”, is the voice of the civilian victims of Colombo’s starvation weapon, reported hospital sources in Vanni. Even the meagre food stock of the hospital staff depleted they said. Last Thursday, UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, acknowledging the situation, said the food supply was barely enough only for a day. Five days have gone, and none coming with only statements of humanitarian concerns, has acted on it. Meanwhile, no more food shipments to Vanni is said to be the decision in Colombo.
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Colombo SLHRC restricts its Jaffna office functions

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2009, 14:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Colombo Head Office Secretary, Ms. Chandra Ellawela, has instructed Jaffna office not to admit anyone seeking protection to their lives into the office but to get the assistance of the police to check them and not to take them to Court in HRC vehicles but in private vehicles, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, it has been decided to instruct persons seeking protection to their lives to do so in one of the five Magistrate Courts in Jaffna peninsula, in a high level meeting between Jaffna Additional Magistrate, T. Wicknarajah and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, according to directions released by the Additional Magistrate, the sources added.
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Colombo builds up for imminent massacre

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 13:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) during the weekend has reportedly been engaged in heavy deployment of its troops poised for a major onslaught, reports from Vanni said citing sources close to the LTTE on Sunday. All kinds of heavy weapons, including prohibited ones, are ready for deployment on the 'No Fire Zone', the sources said. Meanwhile, denying the use of heavy weapons Sri Lanka's president and Commander-in-Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa said Saturday that he can't help for the world not believing in him. On Saturday, several artillery shells fired by the SLA on the only remaining makeshift hospital in the 'safety zone' killed at least 64 patients and attendees including a volunteer doctor and wounded 87.
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Children faint from hunger, starvation deaths reported in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 07:56 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan on Sunday blamed the Sri Lankan government for deliberately carrying out "horrendous act of genocide" by denying food and humanitarian access to the civilian population. Mr. Nadesan pointed out the imminent danger of starvation escalating exponentially and urged the International Community not to fail in its duty to ensure humanitarian access to the civilian population under siege by the Sri Lankan military. Meanwhile, health officials in Vanni report that several children faint from hunger within the so-called safety zone every day. Deliberate denial of food by Colombo, especially milk powder for children, have caused severe malnutrition and starvation as local media reported at least 9 starvation deaths in recent days.
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RSF campaigns for release of three women journalists

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2009, 01:38 GMT]
Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a Paris-based media watchdog, in a press release issued Saturday said it is mounting a campaign for the release of three women journalists, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on a charge of spying for the United States, and two American journalists employed by California-based Current TV, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who have been held in Pyongyang since 17 March. In the 2009 report released earlier in the year the RSF said in Sri Lanka, "[m]urders, physical assaults, kidnappings, threats and censorship are the lot of Sri Lanka's journalists. Top government officials, including the defence minister, are directly implicated in the serious press freedom violations that accompanied the military offensive against the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels."
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LTTE urges UK, French Foreign ministers to continue initiatives

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 17:59 GMT]
The LTTE’s Head of the Political Division on Saturday appreciated the attempts of the UK and French foreign ministers for visiting Colombo to address the dire humanitarian crisis faced by the Tamil people. In his letter to the ministers, the LTTE political head clarified the situation of IDPs in LTTE control areas in Vanni and invited international monitors to assess the civilian situation. Further, he concurred with the Foreign Ministers’ assessment of the situation by stating that ‘Should the Sri Lankan regime be permitted to continue with its ultimate objective of imposing a ‘final solution’ through military means, we have no doubt that it will destabilize the region’.
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Gotabaya's "malice borne of intolerance" cause for incarceration, says Vithyatharan's petition

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 16:27 GMT]
In a Fundamental Rights petition filed with the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka, Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, present editor of the newspapers Sudar Oli and Uthayan, states that he was "victimized as a result of the views and opinions expressed in some of his articles published in the aforesaid newspapers, Sudar Oli and Uthayan, " and adds that Gotabaya's "displeasure and intolerance" towards his articles that criticize the Government, and Gotabaya's "malice borne of intolerance," were reasons for his incarceration.
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Sri Lanka’s democratically mandated genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 15:41 GMT]
"If Sri Lanka has reached the stage of having a 'democratically elected' government mandated for genocide by the ethnic majority, then that is the strongest reason why the country has to be democratically divided", writes TamilNet's political commentator in Colombo, responding to British envoy John Sawers' comment Thursday at UN that "Sri Lanka is a democratically elected government fighting a terrorist organization". Pointing out that this stand, worse than the fallacy of viewing an ethnic war as war on terrorism is not isolated in the IC, the commentator cautioned "as long as the IC, jaundiced in eyesight, fails to acknowledge that genocide and terrorism are 'democratically elected’ in Sri Lanka, they endanger democratic ideals globally” adding that "it is time for Tamil Nadu and the diaspora to demonstrate mandate for secession".
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Paramilitary kills kidnapped girl in Batticaloa after ransom demand

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 11:56 GMT]
Dead body of the 8-year-old Thinusika Satheeskumar, the girl reported missing since Tuesday after going to her school, was recovered inside an abandoned well in the city Saturday morning. The victims' relatives have alleged that the killers were paramilitary operatives who have been demanding 3 million rupees in ransom. Thinusika is the daughter of Satheeskumar Santhirarajah who was abducted two years ago allegedly by Karuna Group paramilitary men demanding ransom. He was reportedly slain in Welikande even after a part of the ransom was paid. Now, a former PLOTE paramilitary operative is alleged to be the man behind the abduction and murder of the girl.
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17 Tamil youths arrested in Colombo on May Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 17:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) and police took into custody 17 Tamil youths in a joint search operation conducted on May Day in Colombo 7, Bambalapitiya, Wellawathe, Watala and Negombo, subjecting hundreds of people going along the streets to severe interrogation, sources in Colombo said. The main political parties did not conduct May Day processions within Colombo city, the sources said.
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SLA steps up attacks, civilian casualties mount amidst starvation, congested life

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery, mortar and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire on Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, causing panic among civilians in a heavily congested village of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Friday from 9:30 a.m. Friday. Many civilians were killed as the shelling has continued for hours throughout the evening. Medical staff at the makeshift hospital were only able to report the deaths of those who succumbed to the injuries. 110 wounded civilians were admitted up to 4:30 p.m. at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal hospital which came under attack on previous two days. 27 of the wounded have succumbed to their injuries. Many more, killed in the SLA barrage were buried or burnt by their kith and kin.
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'One-man hunt excuse to nullify a national question'

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 08:04 GMT]
Contrary to what is said outside, the real focus of the UN Security Council deliberations is not on the plight of the Tamil civilians, but using their plight as a shield and by manipulating it, the thrust is actually for the hunt or deposition of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan, in order to blunt the Tamil struggle, news reports hinted Thursday. Inner City Press quoted a senior advisor of Ban Ki-moon saying that the UN Secretariat’s hope was to arrange amnesty to the remaining LTTE cadres in the conflict zone, except Mr. Pirapaharan. When asked about his son, the advisor said, “That’s what negotiations are for”. While Colombo’s ambassador at UN said the matter is being considered, according to the UN advisor cited above, the Three Brothers have shown little interest as they feel they are about to win. Tamil circles smell Indian hand in such a line of deliberations.
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Hurdles remain on IMF Sri Lanka loan

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 03:51 GMT]
While the mandate of the IMF is to assist member countries facing Balance of Payment crisis, regardless of the military or human right situation, the loan to Sri Lanka can be stopped if the law suit filed by the Tamil diaspora is successful or if the members of the Executive Committee vocally campaigned against the loan, congressional sources said.
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Miliband, Kouchner make progress in grasping the problem

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2009, 02:15 GMT]
“What was positive about the visit of the foreign ministers of Britain and France to Colombo was the two showing much progress in grasping the nature of the crisis in the island”, said Tamil political circles in the diaspora, responding to a joint statement of the ministers, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner Thursday. But how the belated realisation is going to be translated into timely action – first to come out of the shackles they were tricked putting onto themselves, and then to handle the Frankenstein monster before it is too late, is what really matters and is an acid test for the claimed changes if any in paradigm”, the diaspora circles said. Echoing a White House statement last week, pointing out slipping possibilities for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka, Miliband and Kouchner said Thursday that “chances of any kind of political settlement recede”.
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Tamils' massacre made possible by West's ideological blindness and hubris - paper

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 17:19 GMT]
“Those who think that the LTTE will be destroyed in the coming weeks and that then it is a question of 'peace building' and 'development' for the next few years are gravely mistaken,” the Tamil Guardian newspaper’s editorial argues this week. “[Instead] the foundations for a cataclysmic civil war are being inexorably laid today. The kind of polarisation that sustain not decades, but generations of struggle has become widespread and embedded.”
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7,000 Tamils in Vanni killed, 14,000 injured in 3 months, TNA tells David Miliband

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Trincomalee district MP and parliamentary group leader, R. Sampanthan, and parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, that 7,000 Tamils in Vanni have been killed and 14,000 injured in the last three months, but the International Community has remained inactive without taking any action to stop the killings, TNA sources said. The TNA parliamentarians also told Miliband that more than 300 Tamil youths in Vavuniyaa detention centre have been arrested by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and that the SLA has not revealed the whereabouts of the arrested youths to their parents.
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U.S. Government program to strengthen local authorities in the East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 11:53 GMT]
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding a two-year program called Supporting Regional Governance (SuRG) to strengthen local governance in conflict-affected areas of the East. Participating local authorities from the Eastern Province recently signed a memorandum of understanding with SuRG to launch the partnership.
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