Commonwealth ministers’ silence, Colombo’s membership questioned

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 20:21 GMT]
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on Thursday condemned the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) for not reviewing the situation in Sri Lanka in its meeting in London, Wednesday. CMAG, a body of nine ministers, is mandated to check persistent violations of the ‘Fundamental Values and Principles of the Commonwealth,’ including democracy and human rights. Contrary to the norm that limits each country to two-consecutive sittings, Sri Lanka is currently serving its third consecutive two-year term. Sri Lanka‘s membership has become particularly controversial as its own credentials as a guardian of these values become increasingly questionable, read a statement from CHRI.
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Press Freedom Group calls for unconditional release of Tissanayagam

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 19:31 GMT]
In a press release issued to mark the first anniversary of incarceration of Tamil journalist on unsubstantiated terrorism charges, the International Press Freedom Mission, a group of international media watchdogs including Article 19, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), is “calling for the unconditional release of Tissainayagam, who has been subjected to arbitrary court adjournments and is suffering ill health.” First anniversary of arrest and imprisonment of Tissanayagam fell on 7th March.
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‘True friends’ coordinate prodding civilians into barbed wires

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 13:50 GMT]
Colombo plans to open two routes to prod Tamil civilians chose to stay under the protection of the LTTE into its barbed-wire internment camps, according to news reports, Friday. One route will be leading to north towards Chalai and the other towards south through Mullaiththeevu, the reports indicated. Meanwhile, India is likely to establish a field military hospital at Pulmoaddai, in the coast south of Mullaiththeevu to treat evacuated civilians Bernama.com reported, quoting Xinhua news agency.
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Police arrest 3 Tamils in Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 10:19 GMT]
Police arrested three Tamils including two women Wednesday in a house at Athurugiruya in Colombo district suspected to be supporters of Liberation Tigers, according to police spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara. The three arrested are being detained in the police station and interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division of Sri Lanka police.
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Doctors warn severe shortage of medicines in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 07:56 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lankan and its armed forces have systematically blocked medical supplies, causing several patients to die at the hospital and inflicted slow death of patients dependent on medications. The makeshift-hospital at Puthumaaththa'lan is struggling to cope with the situation. On Thursday, Dr. Saththiyamoorthy, the Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) of Ki'linochchi district, in his situation report, said medicines for four months have not arrived in Vanni.
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Forced starvation constitutes an act of Genocide - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 04:53 GMT]
Commenting on recent reports that Colombo is withholding food supplies forcing into starvation the more than 300,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the war-zone, Prof. Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet said, "[I]n the context of longstanding Sri Lankan genocide against the Tamils, this recent GOSL atrocity also constitutes an act of genocide as defined, prohibited and criminalized by Genocide Convention Article II (c):"Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
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Nanthikkadal

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 02:40 GMT]
The sea / lagoon of conches (Turbinella pyrum)
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Acid test for international actors

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 02:36 GMT]
It is clear that the Colombo government is waging a direct war on unarmed civilians with the intention of intimidation and subjugation of them. The hard truth is that for chauvinistic Colombo war with Eezham Tamil civilians is more important than its war with the Tigers. The war with the LTTE is only a part of the agenda aimed at making the Tamils orphans first. India and the Co-Chairs countries have a direct responsibility in perpetrating the present war leading to the genocide of Tamils. They cannot dodge their responsibility accusing the LTTE or saying it is internal affair of Sri Lanka and citing Russia and China possibly vetoing a move in the UN. Their immediate responsibility now is providing food and medicine at the doorstep of the civilians, unconditionally, even if it is going to be against the wishes of Colombo, writes an IDP activist in Vanni.
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Media activists in Colombo fear reprisals, keep away from protest

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 01:12 GMT]
Around 25 media persons, mostly leftist oriented, took part in a demonstration Thursday noon at Colpetty junction in Colombo, protesting against the manner in which Vithyatharan, the editor of ‘Sudaroli’ Tamil newspaper was 'arrested' by the Sri Lankan Police. Many media activists and journalists kept away from demonstration fearing reprisals by the Colombo government, concerned activists told TamilNet. Colombo Crime Division police personnel, disguised as media men, took photographs of the protesters, according to the participants in the protest.
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Police arrest owner of Poobalasingam Book Depot in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 21:10 GMT]
Prevention of Terrorism branch police arrested the owner of Poobalasingam Book Depot, Sritharasing, for sending Tamil Nadu ‘Ananda Vikadan’ weekly magazine to Ratmalana Air port to be sent to Jaffna branch of Poobalsingam Book Depot when the police at Ratmalana air port found articles and photos in ‘Ananda Vikadan’ in favour of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sritharasing’s relatives in Colombo said.
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No democracy in Sri Lanka – TNA parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 15:06 GMT]
“Abductions and other humanitarian violations in Colombo, the North and the East are escalating at an alarming rate which indicates that Sri Lanka is not a democratic country,” TNA member for Batticaloa district, Ms. K. Thangkeswari said speaking on the motion to extend the state of emergency for another month in Sri Lanka parliament, Wednesday. Another TNA MP, Sivanathan Kishore asked: “How can the International Community believe Sri Lanka government’s version of what is happening in Vanni is true when it has effectively expelled the international human organizations and media from there?"
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Perpetrating civilian starvation is violation of all norms of war: LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2009, 13:51 GMT]
"The brutalities committed by Colombo's armed forces on civilians have no precedence in any conventional war," said LTTE's Puthukkudiyiuruppu area political head C. Ilamparithy on Wednesday describing that the offensive by the Sri Lankan government denying food and medicine to civilians whom it claims as its citizens as an "abnormal violation of all norms of war." He urged direct presence of the International Community to witness the gravity of the situation by itself and urged the Tamil diaspora to engage with the IC in order to make it look at the crisis through the perspective of the affected people and to work for sending international journalists to visit and report the plight of the civilians besieged in Mullaiththeevu.
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Arrests of Tamil young people in Colombo escalate

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 11:05 GMT]
23 Tamil youths including 8 women have been arrested in the past week alone in the city of Colombo and its suburbs and most of the arrested are from the districts of Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, Colombo sources said. Democratic People’s Front (DPF) led by Mano Ganeshan, Colombo District parliamentarian and Deputy Minister, P. Rathakrishnan of Upcountry People’s Front (UPF), said that complaints are made to them every day of arrests of Tamil youths in Colombo, by their relatives.
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SLEB employees demonstrate against passing of amendment motion, in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 03:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka Electricity Board (SLEB) employees staged a protest demonstration in front of Fort Railway Station in Colombo Tuesday against the SLEB amendment bill being passed in Sri Lanka Parliament, sources in Colombo said. The bill, which has been a subject of controversy and vehemently opposed by the opposition United National Party (UNP) and Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), was presented on Tuesday by Sri Lankan Minister of Power and Energy, John Seneviratne, in the parliament where it was debated on before allowed to vote on.
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Sri Lankan cricket team shot in Pakistan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 04:45 GMT]
Sri Lankan cricket team which was on its way to participate in the second day of Test match in Lahore, the eastern city of Pakistan, was shot and six players were wounded in the episode that took place around 9:30 a.m. Pakistan time, according to initial reports in Colombo. Five Pakistani police officials escorting the Sri Lankan team in a bus were killed instantly in the gunfire, the reports said. Four of the players are discharged from the hospital and two are still undergoing treatment.
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U.S. Tamil group urges Pacific Command not to abet Colombo's war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 01:53 GMT]
Citing "credible reports" from Colombo, a U.S. based activist group, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), on Monday said the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) was planning to lead an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Tamil civilians in Vanni. The plan would only serve to "exacerbate the crisis for these civilians and support ethnic cleansing in this region," the statement said and added: "Instead of an evacuation, the 'safe zones' these civilians are currently in should be strengthened, with full access for aid workers, journalists and human rights monitors."
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Police arrest 8 Tamil youths in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 17:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested eight Tamil youths in Kalubovilla and Kohuwella, suburbs of Colombo in a search conducted Monday morning and have detained them in Dehiwala police station, according to complaints lodged with Deputy Minister P. Rathakrishnan by the youths’ relatives.
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Hunger claims lives in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 15:43 GMT]
Four children below the age of 15 and their parents were admitted to Maaththa'lan makeshift-hospital Monday in serious condition after consuming Adampan leaves (Beach Morning Glory) as nothing else was available for them to eat, according to medical sources. Meanwhile, at least six people have already died due to hunger inside the 'safe zone' in recent days, the sources further said adding that many more are feared dead due to starvation but not accounted for. "What prevents the world powers to set aside their diplomatic maneuvering and arrange enough food and medicine to reach us immediately," ask the people of Vanni reports TamilNet correspondent.
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Colombo killed 700 children in 2 months - LTTE Radio

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 11:36 GMT]
Voice of Tigers, the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam on Sunday said Sri Lankan armed forces have killed 2,018 Tamil civilians in January and February in Vanni and that 700 of the victims were children. The VoT has been airing a program, "Bridging the beloved" (U'ravup Paalam), where civilians have been providing details of their missing family members and whereabouts of the remaining members in the hope of locating their missed ones.
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CCD Police interrogates senior Tamil journalists in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 11:04 GMT]
Colombo Crime Division police in Demattagoda interrogated Saturday and Sunday the President of Sri Lankan Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA), Vice President and Secretary in connection with Chudaroli Editor Vithyatharan who was ‘abducted’ first and later claimed ‘arrested’ and now detained at the Crime Division of the police in Demattagoda, media circles in Colombo said. Some Tamil journalists working for the English media too have been subjected to similar interrogation, the sources added.
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