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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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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LTTE Political Head welcomes Obama's attention on Tamils' plight

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2009, 14:13 GMT]
"We thank and welcome the categorical calls by President Barack Obama for the Sri Lankan Government to take toward alleviating the humanitarian crisis," said B. Nadesan, the political head of the LTTE in a statement issued from Vanni Thursday. "The United Nations Organization and the Security Council has held back in their traditional humanitarian leadership role to take prudent measures and bring about a truce and safeguard Eelam Tamils. Now, the Eelam Tamils earnestly look forward to President Barack Obama to lead the humanitarian intervention," Mr. Nadesan said in his response to US President's statement on Wednesday.
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Intervene in the name of humanity: Pathmathan calls on IC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 09:20 GMT]
"Every passing day is resulting in the loss of countless number of civilian lives and alienation of the entire Tamil community," said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in a statement issued on Wednesday, and called on the International Community for its urgent and immediate intervention, not based on territorial or geo-political ambitions, but based on basic human values. "It is our firm view that a cessation of all hostilities would be the only mechanism that would prevent further civilian carnage and we remain committed to an immediate and permanent ceasefire."
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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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White House protest accuses Sri Lanka of civilian massacre

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 02:32 GMT]
More than two hundred American Tamils protested in front of the White House in the Lafayette Park Monday 9:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m., accusing the Government of Sri Lanka for slaughtering more than 3000 Tamil civilians crowded into a 5 sq.km. area during Saturday night and Sunday with the use of heavy weapons including multi-barrel artillery directed into the Safety Zone. Holding banners displaying "Stop the Genocide," the protesters called on President Obama to lead an international effort to establish a ceasefire between the two adversaries, Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers.
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Japan urged to act over Sri Lanka crisis

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2009, 19:14 GMT]
Four international organisations - Human Rights Watch, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, International Crisis Group and Amnesty International - released a joint letter to the Japanese Prime Minister Monday, calling on Japan “to play a more active role in confronting the unfolding catastrophe in Sri Lanka.” The four organisations called on Japan “to support efforts for the [United Nations] Security Council to keep the situation in Sri Lanka under close and regular review and to consider the situation in Sri Lanka formally at the Security Council.” Meanwhile, American Tamils after a rally and a night vigil Friday in New York submitted a memorandum to the Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations.
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London protesters want international action, not words, over Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 11:26 GMT]
British Tamils demonstrating outside Parliament are demanding the UK government takes concrete action immediately “to end the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Tamils in Vanni and in the military-run concentration camps.” In a statement to media, Tamil students leading the protests said: “What is needed right now is action by the international community, not merely words of sympathy. Humanitarian intervention has taken place in many parts of the world to save people who have been subject to state violence, ethnic cleansing, and starvation by blockade. Powerful liberal states have acted to save populations being brutalized by their own states, despite the objections and obstructions of other powerful states. The Tamils of Sri Lanka are human beings too.”
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Green light to rid Tigers while 50,000 lives at risk, Boyle faults US, UK

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 04:33 GMT]
"US. UK, France and India appear to have given green light to Sri Lanka to get rid of the Tigers no matter what the cost is to the 50,000 lives of innocent Tamils at risk now. Let's get back to the need to change that green light to a red light, and let's solve the humanitarian crisis first, and then talk about some sort of solution," said Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, during an interview with Aljazeera network Wednesday. Eric Solheim, key architect of the 2002 peace process in Sri Lanka, and Nirj Deva, a Member of European Parliament and of Sri Lankan origin also participated in the discussions.
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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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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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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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IC has been duped by Colombo: Prof. Ramasamy

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 April 2009, 16:07 GMT]
The Tokyo-Co-chairs and other international actors have been duped in supporting the war aims of the Sri Lankan government, says Professor P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia, in an exclusive interview to TamilNet. “The LTTE is expression of Tamil discontent of the Sri Lankan government and the way the latter has dealt with the Tamil national question. In so far as the conflict in Aceh was concerned, the international community was much neutral in providing the political circumstances for peace to be achieved. However, in the Sri Lankan conflict, the international took a biased stand. The current issue is not one of positions between the warring parties, but one that re-focuses attention on the fallacy of the international community in searching for a just solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka”, he says.
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Several civilians killed, 200 wounded within 5 hours as SLA launches onslaught

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 22:59 GMT]
Several civilians were killed and more than 200, wounded in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling and gunfire, have been admitted at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal hospital in the early hours of Monday as the SLA opened fire from its positions attempting to advance further into the densely populated so-called safety zone (No Fire Zone) from 3:30 a.m. Monday. Heavy exchange of gunfire continued and civilians were forced to stay inside the bunkers as rounds were whizzing over them. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers carried out two sorties of air raids in the morning, according to latest reports from Vanni. The aggression by the SLA comes a few hours after Sri Lanka rejected LTTE announced unilateral ceasefire.
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Sri Lankan Defence Secretary rejects ceasefire, calls it a 'joke'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 11:52 GMT]
Sri Lankan defence secretary and the brother of SL president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who responded to the LTTE's unilateral announcement of a ceasefire, announced Sunday has called it a 'joke' and said there was "no need of a ceasefire and that the LTTE must surrender," reported Sky's Asia correspondent Alex Crawford.
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LTTE announces unilateral ceasefire

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 10:38 GMT]
"In the face of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and in response to the calls made by the UN, EU, the governments of the USA, India and others, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has announced an unilateral ceasefire. All of LTTE’s offensive military operations will cease with immediate effect," said a press statement issued by the Political Head Quarters of the LTTE Sunday. "We have taken into account the recent declarations by the G8 nations, the Whitehouse, Indian Ministers and the EU and other members of international community. We are in full agreement that the humanitarian crisis can only be overcome by declaration of an immediate ceasefire," the statement said calling upon the international community to pressure the Sri Lankan Government to reciprocate it.
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Independent Tamil Eelam only solution, we will fight to attain it: Jayalalitha

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 22:13 GMT]
A separate Tamil Eelam is the only solution that will permanently put an end to the problems of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, said Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister and principal Leader of the Opposition, Ms. Jayalalitha at a election rally in Salem city Saturday. In a powerful, moving speech, she resolved to fight to attain independent Eelam.
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Outrageous response of UN to humanitarian crisis: Diaspora scientist

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 April 2009, 14:33 GMT]
Children as young as 12 are forcefully recruited and given with guns to fight on the front line alongside LTTE, Guardian.co.uk reported Saturday, 9.49 GMT, citing Gordon Weiss, UN spokesman in Sri Lanka. “Whom are they guarding”, Tamil circles asked. “It is outrageous that the UN which has no means to stop Colombo’s genocide or immediately take responsibility of the captured and even reluctant to talk about the high casualty but only ‘leaks out’ figures, to raise this matter at this juncture in an imbalanced way, when Colombo is bombarding the remaining civilians in the so-called safety zone”, said Thomas Aloysius, senior scientist in Bergan, Norway. “If what the UN official says is true, it is deplorable, but aren’t they too responsible for the tragedy by their inaction in prevailing upon Colombo to stop the war. The LTTE always ask for ceasefire”, he asked.
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"Inner well springs" of Tamil struggle can't be destroyed, says South African Minister

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 17:36 GMT]
South Africa's deputy minister for Communications, Radhakrishna Padayachie, has reiterated calls for bilateral talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE to establish a permanent peace. The African National Council (ANC) Member of Parliament, citing a "common conviction in the right to people for self determination" as the basis of continued relationship between his party and the LTTE, rejected suggestions that the LTTE can be defeated, and added that a political solution that addressed the "resolution of the minority question" was the only possible way forward.
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