LTTE not opposed to individual right of a civilian to flee combat zone - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 11:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan said Thursday that the Tigers have been urging the UN, ICRC and other international actors through all available offices to facilitate transportation for the wounded civilians in need of medical treatment to the Vavuniyaa Hospital. Blaming that there were elements seeking to feed false reports to tarnish the image of the Tigers, Mr. Nadesan revealed that, a UN 'security officer' who accompanied the WFP humanitarian convoy, had attemptd to pressure the Tigers on "completely wrong moral grounds," to organise an "exodus of the family members of the local staff of the UN," leaving behind the remaining civilians in the 'safety zone' to be subjected to "genocidal attack" by the Sri Lankan military.
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10,000 French Tamils demonstrate in Paris

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 03:48 GMT]
More than 10,000 French Tamils participated in a demonstration protesting against the killing of several hundred civilians by Sri Lanka military in the past week, and urging Pakistan to stop military and other assistance to the Sri Lanka Government to prosecute war against Tamils, sources in Paris said. The protest was organized by the World Tamil Coordnating Committee (WTCC), in the historic Etuval area of France in front of Embassy of Pakistan Wednesday between 2:00 p.m and 5:00 p.m. The demonstration follows a spontaneously organized protest by an activist segment of French Tamils in the La Chappelle area Tuesday.
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Police recover anti-aircraft gun bullets in Rajagiriya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 20:31 GMT]
Colombo police Tuesday recovered live bullets for anti-aircraft guns and a parcel of live bullets for T15 rifles from a drainage in the Rajagiriya area in Colombo district on a tip-off from a civilian in the area, sources in Colombo said.
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LTTE denies reports of preventing patients leaving combat zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 19:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE)'s Political Office on Wednesday categorically denied a news originated in Colombo government's media, the Daily News, and was highlighted in the International media that LTTE prevented UN convoy transporting injured patients from Mullaiththeevu district to Vavuniyaa hospital. Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan described the news as mischievous.
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British duplicity of proscribing LTTE, inaction to Colombo’s war questioned

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 18:55 GMT]
When the British Foreign Minister, Lord Mark Malloch Brown told a room-packed audience of the British Tamil Forum on Tuesday that the British government cannot interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, a member of the audience asked him then why did they proscribe the LTTE, which did nothing to Britain. The Minister had no answer. The British Foreign Secretary Mr. Miliband who attended the gathering reiterated the British Prime Ministers assurance two weeks ago to work for an immediate ceasefire and said that he would speak to EU foreign ministers in the next few days. He also said that Britain would consider sending a Special Envoy to Sri Lanka.
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Jaffna Catholic community appeals to stop killing of Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 14:03 GMT]
“We are deeply grieved of the silence of the International Community and the world humanitarian agencies disregarding the great human tragedy that continues in Vanni in Sri Lanka. Will this silence be broken only after the total annihilation of the Tamils in Vanni?”, said the memorandum sent by the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna (CJPCD) at the end of the first day of the protest fast launched Wednesday morning in front of St. Mary’s Church, Jaffna led by Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Jaffna Bishop, sources in Jaffna said.
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Colombo's war crimes turn to rape of the fleeing - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Civilians who have been caught by the Sri Lanka Army recently in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna and from Murasumoaddai in Ki'linochchi district, who are confined to the 'detention camps' run by the Sri Lankan military, have complained to their relatives that the Sri Lankan soldiers have taken several women into their custody and were sexually abusing them, said Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Gajendran on Wednesday. Those who continue to justify and abet the on going war against Tamils and those who directly or indirectly advocate surrender of Tamil civilians to their adversaries are a party to war crimes, he further said.
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Hospitals, ambulances hit by shelling, hundreds killed - ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 10:20 GMT]
"Hundreds of people have been killed and scores of wounded are overwhelming understaffed and ill-equipped medical facilities in Sri Lanka's northern Vanni region," said the ICRC. hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded. "The violence is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from operating in the region," said Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia in Geneva.
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Tamil leaders label Pranab visit futile

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 07:32 GMT]
Frontline leaders in Tamil Nadu, including Dr.S.Ramadoss, Vaiko and Thirumavalavan have expressed their disappointment that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee never pressed for an immediate ceasefire when he met Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa during his emergency visit to Colombo Tuesday night.
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2 Tamil civilians reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 18:42 GMT]
Two Tamil civilians residing in Colombo have been reported disappeared since January 11 with the van they were traveling, according to complaints lodged with the Kotahena and Borella police by their wives on Monday.
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300,000 civilians face hunger, Colombo, abettors re-enact African scene in South Asia

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 16:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has instructed UN and World Food Programme officials to keep away from 'safety zone,' which has been subjected to continuous inhuman artillery barrage, denying civilians any meaningful space of refuge, said the latest reports from the offices of the Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu. 300,000 Tamils are denied of even drinking water and are facing hunger, the reports say. "Completely given up by the International Community, the civilians are left to face the fate at the hands of their genocidal killers. Indications are that they would rather choose to die starving rather than getting caught by Colombo's army of predators," said a medical staff at Udaiyaarkaddu hospital.
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TNA calls for shut down in North, East of Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 12:31 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called upon the people in the North and East of Sri Lanka to observe a general shut down on Friday, the 30th of January, to protest against the killing of Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka armed forces. Several hundreds of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) assembled within the Colombo designated "safety zone" have died in the last four days from artillery and air strikes by Sri Lanka military.
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Students in Chennai protest against alleged Indian military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 07:00 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police arrested a group of students in front of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Tuesday while they were attempting to protest against what they alleged as an attempt by the Indian Government to export battle-tanks to the Sri Lankan military, reacting to reports and photographs that have appeared in a largest selling Tamil daily (Erode edition of Dianthanthi). Meanwhle, Tamil political leaders in Tamil Nadu, when contacted by TamilNet said that they were investigating the veracity of the claim that tanks photographed at Erode were destined for the Colombo government.
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Targeting civilians in safety zone, premeditated war crime of Colombo - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 20:12 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan, Monday night told TamilNet that Colombo has committed a grave war crime by asking civilians and their facilities, including the ICRC, to move inside a 'safety zone,' without any shelter or infrastructure support and then by subjecting them to inhumane artillery barrage, killing hundreds and causing injuries to more than one thousand.
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'Biased UN official misleads humanity, safely sitting in Colombo' - Vanni journalist

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 17:59 GMT]
The UN spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, reported by AFP put the number of dead civilians inside safety zone on Monday only at ten, adding that he could not say who was responsible for the civilian casualties. “ We don’t know where the firing came from”, AFP quoted him saying. The UN, which has a universal franchise to intervene on behalf of civilians trapped in war has not only forfeited all its rights, including the right to monitor what is happening, to the genocidal government of Colombo, but also comes out with blatant lies aimed at protecting the perpetrator of war crime, accused Mr. Ravi, a journalist in Vanni.
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More than 300 civilians feared killed, people bleed to death on streets

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 15:30 GMT]
In a scene of carnage of untold proportion on civilian targets hit by hundreds of Sri Lanka Army fired artillery shells, more than 300 people have died and several hundreds are bleeding to death within the last 24 hours, amidst pouring rain inside the 'saftey zone' declared by the Colombo government. Houses and vehicles burn for a stretch of three km between Va’l’lipunam Kaa’li temple and Moongkilaa’ru towards Paranthan road, reports from Vanni said on Monday. Unattended bodies and injured people unable to move are lying around everywhere, while a remaining doctor fled and helpless ICRC officials virtually cried at the scene from their bunkers, TamilNet correspondent said.
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'Their imagination is stuck at the 13th amendment'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:50 GMT]
"All the authoritarians of the world joined hands shamelessly to abet the repulsive Colombo regime in crushing the democratic aspirations of a people to liberate their nation. When the authoritarians gleefully claim success they seem to have forgotten that there is now no excuse of the LTTE for them in coming out with a political solution proving their credentials of liberal democracy, if they practise that at all. But they seem to be having no vision at all other than poking their greedy fingers into the hot pie and their imagination of political solution is stuck at the 20 years old ‘Rajeev Rot’, the 13th amendment," said a Tamil political commentator in Colombo.
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Does IC know no human dignity of civilians, asks a doctor in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11:36 GMT]
"The world is silently witnessing one of the worst massacres of helpless civilians in contemporary times. These civilians know no crime other than not knowing where to go. While the genocidal military of the Colombo government is on the killing spree, India and the international community sadistically expect the civilians to come running out into the hands of their killers. Either way they expect them to perish," a doctor, while attending casualties at the Udaiyaarkaddu hospital, said on Monday.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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What prevents Akashi and his ilk reaching out to people in need, asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 03:48 GMT]
"The Colombo government has claimed that its forces have captured the 'last LTTE town', Mullaiththeevu. Its Army commander has said that 95% of the war is over. Therefore the LTTE must now be powerless in controlling the movement of civilians. But the people every time demonstrate their shudder at the thought of getting into the hands of the invading army and pull themselves into pockets further and further. In such a situation it is nothing but mischief for the visiting Japanese Envoy Yasushi Akashi to talk about the LTTE using civilians as human shield and The Hindu to highlight it," said an IDP activist from Vanni.
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