Sonia says war is over while 1200 civilian bodies are counted in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 23:56 GMT]
Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi, sharing a platform with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said: "Our government had done everything possible to bring an end to the hostilities and it was due to our resolute efforts that Sri Lanka announced conclusion of combat operations and people moved to safer places," PTI quoted Ms. Gandhi saying. Meanwhile, the same day has seen a massive massacre of civilians in the no-fire zone by the Sri Lanka Army using all kinds of heavy weapons and aerial bombing. Around 1200 bodies were counted so far and 1125 injured managed to reach the makeshift hospital.
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Tamil families to be evicted to settle injured Sinhala soldiers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2009, 14:42 GMT]
Mano Ganeshan, leader of the Democratic Peoples Front and Colombo district parliamentarian in an urgent letter faxed to Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse, urged him to stop moves to oust sixty two Tamil families residing in Vavelkanthura GS division in Ratnapura district and to settle injured soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Colombo said. The said Tamil families have owned and been living in their homes for the past seven decades, according to local sources.
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Why information sabotage, UN questioned

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 01:52 GMT]
Why the UN withheld casualty figures and satellite information on the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka, while it released such information on Gaza was the question put to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Tuesday, by the Inner City Press (ICP). The Secretary General’s reply not touching the question reflected his continued hopes in private deal with the Colombo government. Tamil circles find it strange, that a UN that accepts its inability to send its team or life-saving food cum medicine supply to the no-fire zone, and unable to guarantee the human rights of the civilians already moved, is showing keenness only in further ‘evacuation’ of civilians and in helping Colombo in ‘any post-conflict facilitations’. While the ICP hints at hidden Indian hands behind the UN, the Tamil circles wonder whether the UN stand is the stand of the US also.
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‘State terror’ waging ‘racist war’ - Sonali Wickrematunge

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2009, 18:57 GMT]
The UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize 2009 has been awarded posthumously to Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, assassinated by a government death-squad in January. Wickremetunga, long-standing editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper, was one of the few journalists who continued to criticise the militarist, hardline government of President Mahinda Rajapakse. In a statement marking the award, his wife, Sonali Wickrematunge, described the government’s military campaign in the north as a “racist war” in which future charges of genocide would not be surprising and pleaded for international action.
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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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Ocampo urged to investigate Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2009, 22:12 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for a US-based Tamil activist group, in a letter sent to Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Hon. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and made public Monday, urged him to open investigations for war crimes, crimes against humanity and war crimes against four high-level officials of the Sri Lanka Government. Fein said he had sent copies of the Model Indictment for Genocide currently being reviewed at the U.S. Department of Justice, to Ocampo's office.
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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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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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SLA massacres patients with targeted shelling, 64 killed in hospital

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2009, 08:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday attacked the only remaining makeshift hospital twice, killing 64 patients and attending relatives, and causing injuries to 87. Two artillery shells fired by the SLA hit the hospital at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal around 9:00 a.m. killing 23 and maiming 34 and later several shells were fired at 10:30 a.m., killing 41 and maiming 53. The attack has taken place, after the Sri Lankan military was provided with the exact coordinates of the hospital premises three days back through the ICRC, and as Sri Lanka Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was monitoring the hospital area. The massacre is calculated to coerce the civilians said a rescue worker citing leaflets air dropped Friday with Mahinda Rajapaksa's message asking civilians to come to the SLA side.
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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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Events unfold typical of Nazi concentration camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 April 2009, 10:13 GMT]
Food parcels were thrown to people after making them run like dogs, and two children were killed in the melee in the barbed-wire camp at Menik Farm, Vavuniyaa. A 12-year-old boy on Monday and a 7-year-old boy on Tuesday were crushed to death in the melee, media sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, around 300 Tamil youth from several camps in the area were forcefully taken by the Sri Lanka army, in the name of arrest, amidst protests of family members on Tuesday. Recently, 60 people have died of sickness in the camps, the sources further said. A total of 154,368 Vanni civilians are in captivity by the SLA up to Wednesday and out of them, 90, 181, were captured after 20 April.
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300 feared killed, worst spurt of massacre imminent as UK, France fail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army is expected to embark upon the worst phase of massacre any time soon in the narrow stretch of land, 5 km long and 1.5 km wide, remaining in the so-called safety zone congested with nearly 120,000 civilians, sources in Vanni said. SLA attacks normally begin in the early hours. Heavy 100 mm cannon fire and machine gun fire from naval craft of the Sri Lanka Navy already began around 4:00 p.m. A total of 300 are feared killed in the latest use of heavy weapons. Meanwhile, reports from Colombo indicate that 'ministerial diplomacy' of UK and France failed to bring in ceasefire or in sending international observers to the war front. The latest phase of Colombo's spree of carnage escalated after discussions with two Indian bureaucrats last Friday.
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Hospital attacked, SLN naval crafts fire artillery pieces

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) attack crafts fitted with 100 mm cannon began firing artillery pieces along the shore of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Wednesday around 4:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal was hit by artillery shells. 9 patients were killed and 15 sustained injuries as many of the remaining patients had to seek shelter elsewhere, according to initial details. The attack comes after the ICRC visited the hospital in the morning and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo Wednesday. Both the ministers had urged for immediate ceasefire earlier in the day.
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'Explicit international deceit on Tamils'

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 20:03 GMT]
“What is the limit of IC’s appeasement with Colombo and what is the limit of IC in cheating Tamils,” asks Sri Navaratnam, on the 8th day of his hunger strike in Oslo, furious at the news of Colombo’s all out attack on Tamil civilians Monday night. “To facilitate the international community to deceive Tamils, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday announced the halt of the use of heavy weapons in the safety zone of more than 165,000 civilians. Everybody welcomed it as though killing the civilians by small weapons is acceptable. It was a joke, the UN begging ‘Sri Lanka must respect heavy weapons pledge’, as though they are prepared to act if Sri Lanka breaches it. Colombo, which was already aerial bombing the civilians started with intense barrage of heavy weapons Monday night”, he cited.
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Sri Lanka continues air strikes violating own announcement - Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 07:45 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks as pressure mounted from the International Community. LTTE's Director of Peace Seceratariat, S. Puleedevan, when contacted by TamilNet told that SLAF bombers were attacking civilian targets at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal at 12:50 p.m. and again at 1:10 p.m. despite the announcement to cease such attacks. He blamed Colombo for "attempting to deceive the International Community, including the people of Tamil Nadu," with the announcement.
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Western Province elections endorse Tamil genocide

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 16:37 GMT]
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA, standing on the electioneering platform of eliminating ‘Tamil Terrorism’ secured Sunday clear majority of 64.7 percent in the elections for the Provincial Council of the Western Province. Rajapaksa’s victory is a clear mandate given to him by the Sinhala ethnic majority to go ahead with the genocide of Tamils; is well timed for him to convince the IC of his ‘democratic’ necessity to proceed with the final onslaught on Tamil civilians in the safety zone and sets clear the way for his long-term genocidal agenda and denial of any political solution, political observers in Colombo said. Meanwhile, the elections also clearly evidence that the ethnic crisis in the island can never be resolved within the Sri Lankan state system or through mandate of the majority Sinhalese, for anyone who wants to see an end to the conflict, they pointed out.
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Demand for separate state can intensify, says Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 11:50 GMT]
Pointing out that "[f]or more than a quarter century, successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to grant ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast of the country some form of autonomy or self-rule in a confederal state," the Boston Globe in an editiorial said Saturday that "[i]f the Tamil populace sees no hope for autonomy within Sri Lanka, it may come to demand a separate state." The Globe said, "[t]he Tigers have committed terrorist acts. But the overwhelming majority of the victims in the Rajapaksa brothers' war have been Tamil civilians."
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Sri Lanka intensifies bombardment, 'safe zone' bombed 25 times Saturday

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 09:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) unloaded bombs in four sorties on Saturday, intensifying bombardments in the northern and southern parts of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal inside the safety zone. The bombers hit several locations, 4 times around 10:15 a.m., 12 times at 2:00 p.m. 4 times around 4:15 p.m. and an hour later five times, bringing to total 25, the number of times the SLAF hit targets inside the "Safe Zone" where tens of thousands of civilians have sought refuge. The attacks intensified a day after Indian diplomats visited Colombo and discussed the war with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Rajapaksa appoints notorious commander to head IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan President and C-in-C of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.
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'Ostriches can never be right'

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 11:46 GMT]
It is as obvious as one’s palm that the crisis in Sri Lanka is ethnic. It is not just a story of today or yesterday. In contemporary politics it is dated back to 1931, ever since universal suffrage was introduced, paving way for ethnic majority rule. Sinhalese historians believing in Mahavamsa may trace it back to more than 2000 years. Contemporary history of the island is nothing but an ethnic bloodbath. But in the ‘most compassionate’ Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time, it is no more ethnic but only terrorist. People say he has been successful in convincing the international community so. The recent stand taken by UN and certain countries reducing the crisis to a humanitarian issue caused by ‘terrorism’, make observers only dumb-founded. Might, may be the supreme right, but however mighty, ostriches can never be right, said, a political analyst in Colombo on Friday.
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