There is a saying that has become common amongst those in the United Nations Human Rights Council. When a tense stand-off arises someone will say "Let’s not play the naming and shaming game – let’s try and work together." Perhaps this "game" played in the most elite policy circles is counter-productive – but it does allow history to identify those in positions of power who were complacent, cowardly, and indecisive at a moment when hundreds of thousands of civilian lives were on the line. In the case of Sri Lanka, there is no shortage of those to blame, and the footage from the civilian carnage in recent weeks should put all of us to shame.

The Government of Sri Lanka, representing the majority Sinhalese community in Sri Lanka, is calling its most recent operation a "Hostage Rescue Mission" – claiming to have evacuated 30,000 civilians from the minority Tamil population from an active fighting zone. They say they are nearing the end of their hard-line military campaign to eradicate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a guerilla group who has been fighting to carve out a separate Tamil state within Sri Lanka for nearly three decades. As they recaptured formerly LTTE-held districts in the North East of the island, Government forces have trampled on international humanitarian law, any semblance of free press, and committed human rights abuses on a scale that can be categorized as crimes against humanity.

As we receive daily reports of civilian casualties, the international community continues to listen to briefings, debate, and make "strong" statements of condemnation which will not jeopardize the delicate geopolitical balance that the Sri Lankan Government is relying on. Developing world nations have rallied around Sri Lanka's cry of neo-colonialism against western nations who highlight human rights abuses. Some simply vote alongside Sri Lanka, while nations like Libya, Pakistan, and Iran, have given hundreds of millions in aid along with substantial military training and technical support. While the U.S.A has limited its support to only "non-lethal" weapons (since the Leahy amendment) and India provides mainly intelligence support (radars, patrol boats) – both are warily monitoring the growing influence and involvement of China and Russia on the island.

It seems that economic woes in the Western world have not only affected consumer confidence, but has sparked a crisis of confidence amongst policymakers who now hesitate to challenge countries like China. Some prefer to hide behind the safety of the War on Terror, promising to take on a more active role in Sri Lanka once the "end of terrorism" has been achieved. This week there will be a Tom Lanton Human Rights Commission hearing on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress will hear from Human Rights Watch, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Sri Lanka NGO Counsel. They will again detail gross human rights violations, the conditions in internment camps, and the concern for the lives of journalists and human rights workers.

When approximately 1,000 civilians die in one day of shelling, are Special Representatives appointed and condemning statements made our only option? Is every international institution and powerful nation so restricted by geo-political and financial realities that any sort of meaningful action becomes impossible-and worse, something we can no longer expect of them? In the last few days 68,000 civilians have entered into internment camps where they join nearly 200,000 others recently from the conflict zone; 57,000 are being "processed" with no outside monitoring; 600 injured are waiting for ICRC transport to the only remaining hospital in the area which was recently hit by a rocket-propelled grenade; and 50-100,000 remain trapped inside and active warzone. Since January of 2009, the International Community and the safeguards designed from lessons learned elsewhere have failed 5,000 civilians in Sri Lanka. The loss of the next 5,000 may come quicker than the first – and history will claim Sri Lanka as yet another case of lessons learned by a failure to act.

Nimmi Gowrinathan is the Director of South Asia Programs at Operation USA and a Phd Candidate in the Department of Political Science at UCLA, writing her dissertation, "Why Women Rebel? State Repression and Female Participation in Sri Lanka."

Received wisdom for some years has been that Washington has developed a close understanding with Delhi on security issues relating to Lanka, and to put it loosely, had subcontracted its interests in this respect to India. It was assumed that the two countries had a working relationship, a similar understanding of terrorism and an adequate consultative process. American foreign policy, with its hands full in Iraq, Afghanistan-Pakistan, Iran and North Korea was glad to have a surrogate manage this theatre. Norway’s role as honest broker was different; India has a deep ‘own country’ interest, and recently, this partnership with the US.

The Indo-American understanding commenced before the Great Crash of 2008 which demanded Washington’s priority attention. And when the crash did come America should have been pleased to have a satrap deal with the mess in Lanka. But the Delhi government proved visibly incompetent in handling its delegated authority, failed to exercise power, lost control of events and allowed conditions that are acutely embarrassing for the Western powers to develop. Therefore, America and the Europe have clearly sidelined India on the Lanka issue. I give more weight to this thesis than the alternative that the change follows an Obama Administration decision to jettison the ‘global war on terror’, deeming it oversimplified paranoia. There has indeed been a shift in American foreign policy on this insane ‘war on terror’ posture, but Delhi was booted out on the Lanka issue for sheer incompetence; it was unable to forestall one mess after another.

The Indo-US partnership

First let me recount how significant the strategic partnership between the United States and India has become using a recent publication. The emergence of a new phase in this partnership is best outlined in a recent paper ‘War on Terror in South Asia’ by Dr. Ninan Koshi which appeared in several places and most conveniently on the website Lines: (http://lines-magazine.org/). The core of Dr. Koshi’s argument is that a fundamentally new phase in Indo-American relations commenced with the nuclear deal and a new partnership that places emphasis on strategic matters. A single extract from the paper conveys it.

"On the eve of his leaving the ambassadorial post in India, Robert Blackwill wrote in a leader page article (U.S. India Defence Cooperation) in The Hindu on May 12, 2003: ‘Taken together our defence cooperation and military sales activities intensify the working relationship between the respective armed forces, build mutual cooperation for future joint military operations and strengthen Indian military capability which is in America’s interest. …An Indian military that is capable of operating efficiently alongside its American counterparts remains an important goal of our defence bilateral relationship. What we have achieved since 2001 builds a strong foundation on which to consummate this strategic objective which will promote peace and freedom across Asia and beyond".

It was instability in the Afghan-Pakistan region that really worried America; loss of nuclear-armed Pakistan to Islamic fundamentalists with close ties to global jihadists was unthinkable, and a new relationship with India was developed to project American power in an unprecedented way. As Dr Koshi says: "(T)he US has been engaged in a monumentally flawed and destructive campaign that President Bush described as "all-out effort against terrorism and terrorist groups of global reach" with devastating consequences for South Asia and West Asia in particular".

We need to supplement Dr. Koshi’s argument with a shared US-Indian economic objective as well, containing the other elephant in the global economy, China. Appointing Delhi as Washington’s satrap to deal with the war in this bothersome island was a by-product of these two objectives. It was also fair recognition that India, as the regional power, had special concerns and firsthand involvements.

How India screwed things up

The government in Delhi, egged on by the reactionary Madras Hindu, and not even abetted by the rightwing BJP, screwed things up almost from day one. Why, I cannot detail here, but only make passing mention of Premier Manmohan Singh’s monumental incompetence, the Sonia (Rajiv) factor and India’s legitimate odium for the LTTE, underestimating the effect of Lanka’s war on South Indian politics, but perhaps most important of all, a naïve inability to read how clever Colombo could be in taking Prime Minister, Home Minister, Chief Minister, High Commissioner and National Security Advisor, all for a right royal ride. Look, lets give the devil its due; the Colombo Administration has proved infinitely cleverer, craftier and cockier than the aforementioned Indian worthies – poor sods are in a daze; don’t even know what hit them!

India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee declared for the umpteenth time last week: "Continuation of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable". His colleague Home Minister Palaniyandi Chidambaram referring to a decision made by the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister and Home Minister was quoted in the Hindu as follows: "It was decided to make a demand to Sri Lanka to announce ceasefire immediately. A ceasefire was not a demand or appeal, but a need of the Government of India". A few days earlier an anguished (about the prospect of losing his seat) Chidambaram told a Tamil Nadu election rally: "India would urge Sri Lanka to extend the ceasefire beyond April 15. The 48-hour ceasefire announced by the Sri Lankan government was a success for India’s external policy. But it was only a small development". And so they have gestured and gesticulated and gyrated for the better part of a year. Colombo responded by treating them all like a bunch of jokers from Jhansi and Jaipur.

The fact of the matter is that India has lost the plot; obvious, if one compares its present paralysis with the authority it seems to have had to call the shots a while ago. As recently as during preparations for the SAARC meeting in Colombo, and more so throughout 2008, GoSLwas anxious what conditions India might impose. It could indeed have had its way to a considerable extent, but rather, chose to allow Colombo a free hand, carte blanche, little realising that the genie once out of the bottle would be much craftier than the dumb master. De facto there are massive asymmetries of power between countries of such gigantic difference in clout as Lanka and India.

A situation such as now, when GoSL can give Sonia, Singh, Mukerjee, Chidambaram, Narayanan and Alok Prasad the two fingers up, with jolly impunity and positive conviviality, is really quite funny but for the humanitarian disaster, shockingly only on the sidelines as it were. Yes, this Indian government is caught by the short and curlies; it has no clout in Colombo anymore. Let us await the next thrilling instalment after the Indian general elections; things may change, who knows.

For the time being, Delhi has got itself discarded by both Colombo and the West and even Karunanidhi has begun to beat a retreat.

On April 17 the wily Tamil Nadu Chief Minister sent the following telegram to Sonia, Singh and a whole lot of others. "India should snap all ties with Sri Lanka, including diplomatic, if a ceasefire is not announced by the Sri Lankan government by tonight". Undoubtedly this is an election gundu (Tamil Nadu polls on May 14), but not only; the DMK is also buckling under the intense mass pressure building up in Tamil Nadu against GoSL and Delhi (for near unconditional support for GoSL in the war).

What’s new?

Colombo has shown Oslo the door, why? Science fiction fans were awaiting a Norwegian aurora borealis, that is, secret negotiations leading to safe passage and security for the LTTE leadership. (The Norwegian Ambassador has responded: "This is, with all respect, pure and simple rubbish. Neither Norway nor any other actors have to my knowledge been involved in such talks."). The more likely reason is that the United States has been using Norway as a conduit for contacting the LTTE about the humanitarian situation of the IDPs. Colombo is livid, but for obvious reasons reluctant to play hardball with the US, so it sent a signal, it shot the messenger. It is backing up this diplomatic message with a barrage of crudities about US ambassadorial romps with LTTE socialites and undiplomatic sniffing of e-substances (leaked by "top intelligence sources" in Colombo to the Asian Tribune 16 April). In tandem, the diaspora is boiling and pressure on GoSL from the West is becoming increasingly tough, nay hostile.

The first startling change was the Hilary Clinton-David Miliband joint statement which departed from previous practice by putting both the LTTE and GoSL in the crosswire. Then there was the EU Parliament’s demand for a ceasefire followed by similar demands from Canada, US Congressmen and British MPs. US State Department releases are becoming more strongly worded and calling upon "GoSL and the LTTE to immediately stop hostilities, and to respect the right of free movement of civilians in Mulaitivu area". The State Department quote given next must be giving GoSL goose pimples as such pronouncements are being made with increasing and strident frequency. "Durable and lasting peace will only (be) achieved through a political solution that addresses legitimate aspiration of Sri Lankan communities. . . . Further killing will stain any eventual peace … GoSL (must) employ diplomacy to permit a peaceful outcome of the conflict".

The UN Secretary General has sent seasoned diplomat Vijay Nambiar to the region. Gordon Brown appointed Des Browne, the former defence minister, as a special envoy to the island in consultation with GoSL - the latter, under pressure from its chauvinist constituents, denied any such consultation, but this regime, within three years, has a longer inventory of lies to its debit than any previous Administration. Then there was the videoed meeting between Boucher, Blake and the Tamil diaspora – come on, all this must add up to something! Maybe, but my view is that the international response to the humanitarian situation is so half hearted, lethargic and lacking in robustness, that maybe these most honourable gentlemen will all, only be just in time to close the coffin lid on the IDPs. Maybe toothless India will have the last laugh after all if Colombo succeeds in taking the West as well for a well-earned right royal ride.

The Sri Lankan military is killing hundreds of Tamil civilians each day. Last Sunday alone, a thousand people were killed by cluster bombs, artillery and machine gun fire. On Monday, hundreds died when Sri Lankan forces used them as human mine-sweepers and human shields to advance against the Tamil Tigers.

This "slaughter" of civilians, as Human Rights Watch has condemned it, has intensified since January. Over 5,000 Tamils have been massacred in the past three months alone.

Crucially, this genocide by the Sri Lankan state has been enabled by the international community, including Britain. This is why tens of thousands of British Tamils have been protesting outside Parliament here for several weeks.

We are British citizens, but our government is ignoring us and turning a blind eye to the ongoing massacres of our relatives and community in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka as a country was evicted from the UN human rights council last year for its gross violations of the human rights of its people. Sri Lanka does not let independent journalists report freely. The current government has been accused of being complicit in many abductions and killings of journalists and others.

The UK and other western states have suggested that by destroying the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka can be made peaceful. This is a profound misunderstanding of the state-racism and ethnic supremacy at the heart of the Sri Lankan crisis – a crisis that has now become genocide.

Britain is deeply implicated in this crisis.

When in 1948 Britain, the colonial power, granted independence to Sri Lanka, the Westminster-style democracy London set up allowed a pernicious Sinhala chauvinism to capture the state and begin the 60 years of violence and oppression the Tamils have now endured.

In 1977, after three decades of discrimination and state-backed mob violence, the entire Tamil political leadership united behind a demand for an independent state comprising the Tamil homeland as the only way to escape oppression.

The Sinhala-dominated state responded with violence, and a few years later, in 1983, a Tamil armed struggle emerged in response. This resistance to the Sinhala state is led by the Tamil Tigers or LTTE – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Until 1983 Tamils have tried through many of their democratically elected leaders and parties to resolve this injustice by negotiations and peaceful means. Even during the armed struggle, LTTE has many times attempted to negotiate with successive Sri Lankan governments. As recently as 2002, a ceasefire agreement was negotiated between the government and the LTTE by the international community. Just as before, the Sri Lankan state abrogated from this agreement unilaterally in January 2008.

Since 1983, the problem in Sri Lanka has been characterised by western states as conflict, rather than state chauvinism. They have sought to support the Sinhala-dominated state and pressure the LTTE to "make peace".

The Tamils in Sinhala-dominated Sri Lanka face the same crisis as the people of Kosovo under Serbian rule. The international community could not make the Serbian state led by Milosovic cease its attempts to wipe out the people of Kosovo, and ultimately Kosovo was granted independence to assure their safety.

Having abandoned the Tamils to majoritarian tyranny, Britain has consistently ignored the Sinhala chauvinism deeply embedded in the Sri Lankan state. The UK has cynically sold weapons to the Sinhala military and tried to pass off the agitation by Tamils as one of poverty, merely requiring "development".

We want Britain to compel the racist regime in Sri Lanka to cease its genocide. As a member of the UN Security Council, a close ally of the US and a member of the EU, Britain has the ability to do this. As the former colonial power that placed the Tamils at risk, and as a state that has sought explicitly to champion democracy and freedom, it has a moral obligation, too.

Remember, most British Tamils have direct relatives – mums, dads, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces – left back in the war zone. They are genuinely concerned for their safety and whereabouts.

That is why Britain's Tamils are protesting outside Parliament day and night.

Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday, April 24, 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.

Three more Sinhalese Government Agents from Kandy, Pollonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts would assist Maj. Gen. Chandrsiri as Coordinating Officers to handle the affairs of the Tamil IDPs.

The only Tamil official to assist Chandrasiri is Vavuniyaa GA Ms. P.M.S Charles. She would help the former commander to liaise with the displaced, according to reports that appeared in Colombo press Friday.

Kandy GA Gotabhaya Jayarathna was appointed to handle construction, shelter, and lodging, Pollonnaruwa GA Lal Wimal to coordinate food, health and sanitation and Anuradhapura GA to handle water supply, electricity and infrastructure, the reports said.

Chandrasiri’s service was extended for a year when he retired from service in 2008, on the recommendation of Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the SLA chief.

His military service was extended for a year when he retired from service in 2008, on the recommendation of Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the SLA chief.

The mass of Tamil women and children struggling to walk out of Sri Lanka's war zone were so emaciated that an aid worker thought he was seeing a horror movie.

Some of them had become so thin that their bones could be seen under the thin layer of fleshless skin. They were in bloodstained, dirty and torn clothes that had not been washed for several weeks.

Many had untreated festering wounds. Some were so sick that they could not stand on their feet. At the first opportunity, they collapsed on bare earth.

Barring a few who were willing to speak, most were too weak to even utter a few words. When they did, they had only one wish: water.

And they were famished. Most of them had not had a proper meal for a long time. Their eyes begged for food.

Countless others never made it out of the shrunken territory the Tamil Tigers still hold in Sri Lanka's war-battered northern coast.

These were people who had retreated along with the Tigers as the military rapidly advanced from January this year, raining shells and mortars, at times tearing apart civilians fleeing with the rebels.

Those who have interacted with the civilians undergoing treatment in hospitals in Sri Lanka's north quote them as saying that innumerable people died like flies as they tried to escape the military's far superior firepower. These sources spoke to IANS on the strict condition of anonymity.

One survivor described horrific scenes she saw in the rebel land. 'People were blown up. People lost legs or hands. Families got separated. There was no one to care for the seriously injured and dying.'

Two small hospitals in Tiger territory inundated with the dying ran out of life saving medicines.

The injured included those shot by the Tigers as they tried to escape.

Food was in short supply. What little was available was prohibitive. A population cowed down by armed combatants lived in bunkers, praying they would live.

The wounded tore parts of their clothes to dress themselves up. If the bleeding did not stop, then they would throw a lump of sand and then do the bandaging. Wounds festered.

Some who barely made it out of the war zone died in buses while being transported.

The blood and gore have driven a handful insane. One Tamil woman has been tied to the hospital bed because she keeps running in the ward topless. 

The Sri Lankan Government which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have the means to feed them when they are captured according to Sri Lankan foreign minister who appealed to the international community for assistance.

On Tuesday, April 22, the Sri Lanka Army, which is still keeping the civilians inside the militarized zone, north of Oamanthai, for its screening, has asked the Tamil people of Vavuniyaa through loudspeaker announcements, to donate cooked-food packets to supply the captured civilians.

"The SLA move asking for food packets from people is seen only as a prelude to Colombo asking for huge international assistance to go ahead with its long-term structural genocide of Tamils and to buttress its sagging economy in the guise of refugee-maintenance and 'rehabilitation'," commented the District Secretariat official in Vavuniyaa.

As predicted by the District secretariat official, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met diplomats on the morning of 23 April, and appealed for more help for the surge of civilians arriving in government controlled areas, after the Sri Lankan Army entered the No Fire Zone following an offensive that resulted in over 1000 civilian casualties.

"With the unprecedented influx of large numbers of people in such a short period of time, obviously we do face an emergency humanitarian situation," he told the diplomatic corps at the ministry, and appealed for urgent supplies for shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation and medicine.

Bogollagama said at a press conference that the US government had pledged to provide a field hospital, and India was sending 40,000 emergency family kits. The European Union had pledged US$22 million worth of assistance and other aid was in the pipeline. The Foreign Ministry had set up a task force to liaise with foreign donors and coordinate assistance.

So far, no civil official is able to confirm the arrival of the new batch of civilians into the internment camps of Vavuniyaa town. The real situation of the civilians in the SLA occupied Vanni territory is not known to any civil sources.

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, Jayalalitha Jayaram at an election rally in Salem city.

In a powerful, moving speech, on Saturday April 25, she resolved to fight to attain independent Eelam.

"I met Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar who has just returned from the war-zone in the Vanni. He gave me CDs and photographs of the atrocities. My heart boils when I looked at it," the AIADMK leader said. If this pathetic situation of the Tamil people has to be removed, if the problems of the Lankan Tamils has to come to an end, an independent Eelam is the only solution, she added.

"We will fight to attain that independent, separate Eelam. Till today, I have never said that separate Eelam is the only solution. I have spoken about political solution, this and that. But, now I emphatically say, a separate Eelam is the only permanent solution to the Lankan conflict, “she said.

Earlier, Jayalalitha had announced at an election rally in Thirunelveali (Tirunelveli) on April 18 that if elected in all the 40 seats, the AIADMK-led alliance would have a say in the next Union Government and would strive to get Eelam if a fair political solution was not found for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

Jayalalitha, had in the past espoused that a solution to the Tamil problem had to be found within the constitution of Sri Lanka.

Few days earlier, in an interview to a popular Tamil weekly, LTTE political wing head, B Nadesan described the AIADMK led alliance in Tamil Nadu as ‘an alliance of friends of Tamil Eelam’ which was widely interpreted as LTTE’s endorsement of AIADMK alliance in the upcoming Lok Sanha elections in  the southern state.

Protests, hunger strikes and shut downs in support of Eelam Tamils continued and political parties upped their pro-Eelam rhetoric in the southern state of Tamil Nadu amidst election campaigning for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls gained momentum.

As the Sri Lankan Army entered the northern part of the No Fire Zone in Mullaitheevu on Tuesday, April 20, causing large number of civilian casualties, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Muthuvel Karunanidhi called for a general state wide shut down and urged central government to give an ultimatum to Colombo to declare an "immediate and permanent ceasefire" in Sri Lanka.

Issuing a "final appeal", Karunanidhi asked all Tamils irrespective of their political affiliations to join the 12-hour strike.

"I insist that the Prime Minister, UPA chairperson (Sonia Gandi) and external affairs minister give an ultimatum to Sri Lankan government for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and save lakhs of Tamils," he said in the telegrams.

"What we want now is to stop the killings of Tamils there. There should be a permanent ceasefire," he said in the statement.

"We cannot do any thing except crying for the Tamils. It is for the Centre to act now," Karunanidhi, who has come under fire from opposition parties for not doing enough on the Lankan Tamils issue, said.

On the day of the strike, shops and business remained closed in Tamil Nadu and traffic stayed off the road.

Most of the shops, including petty stalls, in the city remained shut till 6 pm. Schools and colleges across the state were closed and exams postponed.

The Tamil cinema industry also came to a standstill with all its activities suspended, including screening of films in theatres.

However, the strike call by the DMK is widely seen as an attempt to garner votes by being sympathetic to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka.

"The strike call is a feeble attempt by Karunanidhi to show the people that he is concerned about the happenings in Sri Lanka," said Cho S. Ramaswamy, a political commentator.

The Sri Lankan war has caught India's ruling Congress party in a bind. It needs to please ally DMK and win voters, without being seen as going soft on the Tamil Tigers who are blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu including the AIADMK and its allies, PMK, MDMK and CPM, questioned purpose of the strike, considering the DMK is part of the ruling coalition in Delhi which backs the war.

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa said in a statement that the shut-down call was bogus, and that a general strike would only worsen the problems of the people. "The AIADMK will go ahead with its election campaign plans on Thursday," she said.

She faulted Karunanidhi for failing to send out a potent warning to the centre to bring about a ceasefire. "If Karunanidhi can't apply adequate pressure on the Union government now, when will there be a ceasefire?" she asked. "And if India, a big power in the region, did not intervene and take strong measures, which other country would do so," she said.

PMK founder S Ramadoss criticised the DMK chief for calling for a strike only to counter a protest announced by the Sri Lankan Tamils' Protection Forum, comprising pro-LTTE parties. The chief minister should take concrete steps instead of engaging in competitive politics on this issue, he said.

Meanwhile, an AIADMK activist on Thursday, April 23, set himself ablaze in protest against alleged failure of both the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments to find a solution to the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

Mani (43), a worker in a dyeing factory in Tirupur, doused himself with kerosene on the Kulathupalayam Main road and set himself ablaze, police said.

He was immediately rushed by the public to the Tirupur government hospital, where he is being treated for 90 per cent burns, succumbed to his injuries later.

A note reportedly recovered from Mani and addressed to AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa stated that both the Centre and state governments have failed to solve the Sri Lankan Tamils problem.

Mani is the 12^th person, to self immolate in the past few months, calling for action on the Eelam Tamils issue.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi said he believed Sri Lankan president Rajapakse would keep his word and not resume combat operations against Tamil Tigers, despite the Sri Lankan military declaring there is no ceasefire in place.

Karunanidhi had gone on a six-hour fast on Monday, April 27 to demand a truce.

He ended the fast after India said that Colombo had announced a halt in strikes against the LTTE – a claim which the Sri Lanka government completely denied.

"I'm totally satisfied with the Sri Lankan government's response to the fast I undertook on Monday. After a heavy shower there will be a drizzle that cannot be avoided and the present Lankan move of continuing the war is akin to it," Karunanidhi told reporters at a news conference at the party headquarters at Anna Arivalayam.

"I believe that Rajapaksa will keep his word. But I insist and urge that he must do as promised on Monday. In fact, I had offered to go on a fast nearly two months ago. VCK's Thol Thirumavalavan, DK's Veeramani and PMK's Ramadoss were present when I made that offer. But they prevented me from doing so," Karunanidhi told reporters.

Asked whether the peace talks could be held in Lanka without the involvement of the Tigers, as they were on the verge of a collapse, Karunanidhi indicated that a solution to the ethnic crisis was not possible without the LTTE.

“Even if you remove the vegetation from a land, it will blossom again by virtue of the fertility of the soil. This is evident from many freedom struggles.”

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalithaa pooh-­poohed the fast observed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sri Lankan Tamils issue as a mere drama which was enacted to divert the attention of the people.

“It is obvious India is providing the support to Lankan army in the ongoing war. Then whose attention Karunanidhi wants to grab by observing the fast?,” she questioned.

She charged that the Lankan army had exposed the help rendered by India to them in the war.

“The geographical sketch of the Tamil people living there has been provided by the Indian army to their Sri Lankan counterpart. That is why their army has succeeded this far in the war,” she said.

“Therefore, in such a scenario, it is evident that the fast observed by the DMK is just a diversionary tactic to fool the electorate,” she said and added that “it was staged by Karunanidhi to escape the people’s wrath.”

Despite Sri Lanka’s indifference to international calls to not fire at civilians and mounting civilian casualties, China has publicly declared its support for the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

China supports the efforts of the Sri Lankan government to safeguard national integrity while ensuring security and political stability, said Jian Yu, spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a press briefing on Tuesday April 21, in Beijing.

She was responding to a question about the end of the24-hour deadline for surrender given to Pirapaharan by the Sri Lankan government, the Hindustan Times reported April 22.

According to Hindustan Times, China's declaration of support for the Sri Lankan government against the LTTE and in the process, extending its influence in the Indian Ocean, has further fuelled India’s mortal distrust of its largest and most powerful neighbour.

According to Indian government sources, Beijing's support to Colombo cannot be viewed in isolation because it follows a series of initiatives aimed at influencing the Sri Lankan government. These include selling huge quantities of arms to Colombo last year and boosting aid almost five times to $1 billion. In fact, China is now the largest donor to Lanka. Its Jian-7 fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns and JY-11 3D air surveillance radars played a key role in the Sri Lankan military successes, said the Hindustan times.

China came to rescue of Colombo after the US stopped direct aid to Sri Lanka because of its dismal human rights record. What's worse, said strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, Beijing has also roped in its ally Pakistan for providing military assistance to Sri Lanka. Pakistan's own economy is in tatters, but it has increased its annual military assistance to Sri Lanka to $100 million at Beijing’s behest. It is also well known that its air force trained its Sri Lankan counterpart in precision-guided attacks, add the Hindustan Times.

"The Chinese are courting Sri Lanka because of its location in the Indian Ocean -- a crucial international passageway for trade and oil. Chinese engineers are currently building a billion-dollar port in the country's southeast, Hambantota, and this is the latest `pearl' in China's strategy to control vital sea-lanes of communication between the Indian and Pacific Oceans by assembling a `string of pearls' in the form of listening posts, special naval arrangements and access to ports,'' Chellaney told the Hindustan Times.

The Chinese are building a highway, developing two power plants and putting up a new port in the hometown of President Mahinda Rajapakse. Delhi is also feeling hard done-by by Beijing's support to Colombo over the issue of LTTE because it believes China is driving home an unfair advantage it has over India in the crisis.

"Unlike in our case, there is no moral dimension to the crisis for China. We have to think about the humanitarian situation and conditions after the offensive is over. There is no domestic compulsion for China but our involvement is much more intricate,'' Hindustan Times said quoting an unnamed source.

China, in fact, continues to aggressively pursue its strategic interests by building ports in the Indian Ocean rim, including in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. According to Chellaney, Beijing has sought naval and commercial links with the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar. "However, none of the port-building projects it has bagged in recent years can match the strategic value of Hambantota,'' Chellaney further told the Hindustan Times.

Continuing its policy of building relationships with non-western states that are willing to provide aid despite its horrific human rights violations, Sri Lanka has formed full diplomatic ties with Libya and borrowed $500 million.

Following a visit by President Rajapakse in early April to the North African country, the two countries agreed to have full diplomatic relations. According to latest media reports, the Sri Lankan Government has selected the Chief of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry Sudantha Ganegama Arachchi as Sri Lanka’s first Ambassador to Libya.

Meanwhile, the Government Information Department in a statement released on Friday April 24, announced that during a special telephone conversation held with President Rajapaksa, the Libyan leader had promised to grant a loan of $500 million immediately. The loan was promised to Sri Lanka during a recent visit by President Mahinda Rajapakse to Libya.

Further to the statement, the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi believes that the efforts of the President to bring about peace in the country would be fruitful and he praised the steps taken by the Sri Lankan government to defeat terrorism in the country completely.

In recent months Libya has opened its employment market to Sri Lanka offering as much as 100,000 jobs there to Sri Lankans.

Millions of pounds of British aid are being channelled by the Sri Lankan Government into controversial internment camps where it plans to hold and screen up to 200,000 civilians fleeing the conflict with the Tamil Tigers, reported The Times newspaper in London on Tuesday.

Britain has donated 5,000 tents – worth £500,000 – and more emergency aid worth millions of pounds could follow soon, according to Mike Foster, Minister for International Development, who visited Sri Lanka, the paper said.

Mr Foster visited two camps and met Sri Lankan officials to urge them to call a ceasefire and allow aid agencies to help tens of thousands of civilians still stuck on the front line or on their way to the camps.

The government officials told him that aid agencies could help the civilians once they were inside the barbed wire enclosures – which some Tamil activists and Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil MPs have likened to concentration camps.

“It’s not an ideal situation but it’s important that we do this to help people who’ve been living in awful circumstances,” Mr Foster told The Times.

He said that the British tents, able to shelter 20,000 to 30,000 people, had been given to the United Nations refugee agency to distribute in the camps, which are already holding an estimated 113,000 refugees.

 “We made the case for a humanitarian ceasefire,” he said. “It was noted.”

The UN says that there are 50,000 inside, and tens of thousands making their way to the camps, which are already severely overcrowded.

Mr Foster said that he had visited two transit camps where 6,400 civilians were being held before being moved into internment camps, where they are to be screened to make sure they are not Tigers.

He was not taken to the three main camps in Vavuniya – called Zone 1, Zone 2 and Zone 3 – where an estimated 80,000 civilians are being held, according to aid workers there.

Conditions in those facilities are far worse, with drinking water in short supply, according to Lisabeth List, the medical co-ordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières, the medical aid agency.

“They’re desperate for water – it’s extremely hot so more and more people are severely dehydrated,” she said.

“Because there are so many elderly and children, at any moment somebody could die because of this lack of water.” She also said that there was insufficient food in Zone 2 and Zone 3.

“People are getting so desperate they’re having to throw food off the back of a truck and people are getting trampled,” she said. “We’re in full blown emergency mode now. We still expect a lot more people to come.”

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, had made a personal appeal for a humanitarian team to enter the no-fire zone but the Government has said repeatedly that it would be too dangerous.

Meanwhile, children are being separated from their families, reported The Independent newspaper in Britain.

An eight-year-old girl, who had witnessed her father and sister die from shelling in Vanni, and then seen her mother shot, was separated from her brother – her only remaining relative – at the camps the Sri Lankan government is using to screen and inter civilians, the paper reported an aid worker as saying.

“A fifth of children in the camps where we're providing aid are either missing or separated from one of their parents,” a Save the Children worker was quoted as saying.

“Those who have reached safety speak vividly of the terror of separation from their families, while others describe the horror of fleeing from the "no-fire" zone. Many youngsters are trying to cope with the trauma of what they have experienced entirely on their own.” 

A hunger strike by 6 Tamils in Australia, calling for the immediate halt of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka that began on 11 April at 5:00 p.m. was concluded 17 April with an unprecedented rally in the capital city of Canberra where more than 8500 diaspora Tamils took part.

A long time peace activist, Lara Pullin, who came to see the hunger strikers said, “The rallies by the Tamils have gathered the same momentum that I saw during pre East Timor independence time and Anti-apartheid movement; one gets the feeling that Tamils have come to a stage where they are saying ‘Enough is Enough’ ” reports from Canberra said.

The youths on hunger strike had put forward four basic demands:

·         Immediate ceasefire

·         Allow food, medicine and aid into the conflict zone

·         Allow medical & other vital services into the conflict zone

·         Allow the Tamil people, both in the conflict zone and those indefinitely detained in concentration camps, to decide independently where they wish to reside.

The hunger strike and the continuous protest started in Parramatta, Sydney and then proceeded to Prime Minister’s residence where hundreds of protesters stayed the whole night outside Kiribilli House without relenting to police pressure.

After receiving unprecedented media coverage, the hunger strikers and protesters moved to Canberra where they were joined by hunger strikers from Melbourne.

During the rally in Canberra, the extremely weakened hunger strikers in wheel chairs and more than 8500 protesters coming from more than 5 different states marched to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Following a visit by Senator Bob Brown and assurances from the DFAT of the hunger strikers and protesters concluded the 6 day protest.

One of the hunger strikers collapsed during the rally and was taken away in an ambulance.

The hunger strikers and protesters vowed more action to come.

Parameswaran Subramaniyam continues his fast unto death undettered, placing five demands including an immediate stop of the inhuman killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces.

“I will be happy to lay down my life for the sake of Tamil people,” Parameswaran said.

Protestors also continue their stance in front of the UK parliament at Westminster, having been there over three weeks, since 6 April.

The protest demonstration against the relentless attacks on the Tamils in Vanni has drawn media coverage in Britain and several countries of the world.

‘The South Korean Times’ media persons met Parameswaran and stood bearing placards with slogans against the genocide of the Tamils, in Parliament Square.

Hundreds of foreign nationals participated in the protest demonstration launched Saturday by the London branch of the International Committee against the Disappearance of Tamils in Trafalgar Square to draw the attention of the International Community to the continuing disappearance of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Tamil diaspora protestors also staged a protest in front of a Mark and Spencer establishment last Saturday distributing handbills calling the boycott of Sri Lankan produces sold in the department store.

On Monday, 27 April, some protestors went to the Sri Lankan and Indian High Commissions, where clashes with the police ensued. Early in the morning, about 300 protestors gathered at each of the High Commissions, but numbers soon swelled to the thousands, with the Times of India reporting that there were 3,000 estimated to be in front of the Indian High Commission at one stage. By 9am, windows at the Indian High Commission were damaged and 6 people had been arrested, three at each embassy.

Meanwhile, Parameswaran continues his tiring and in many ways lonely vigil. In a faint voice barely audible, 28-year-old Parameswaran, on the 20th day of his hunger strike in London said last Sunday the world is waiting for right action from the US president.

“White house said stop shelling and warned Sri Lanka that a military end of the conflict will end a unified Sri Lanka. But Colombo is air attacking. We are waiting for right action. 10,000 civilians died in three months. Thousands and thousands are suffering in the hands of the Sri Lankan military and in the refugee camps - the barbed wire camps, without international monitoring. This is clearly, without any doubt genocide… I condemn all nations for not condemning. I strongly condemn the Indian government for supporting the war in Sri Lanka”, Parameswaran said.

"I am on hunger strike. I want an answer, otherwise no one can stop me," Parameswaran told TamilNet.

The demands put forward by Parameswaran are:

·         Immediate and permanent ceasefire

·         Food and medical aid should be allowed to reach the civilians immediately with international monitoring committees and allow “Mercy Mission to Vanni”

·         UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, arrange to meet our representatives.

·         Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are our sole representatives and UK government should lift the ban on LTTE.

·         UN should call for an immediate referendum to the Tamils regarding whether they want separate nation or to remain as Sri Lanka.

Students are actively promoting the campaign by attending protests as a student group, uniting to organize an awareness week aimed to draw and educate non-Tami students. Each university also held a 24 hour fast where a rota system was maintained to facilitate students to attend the ongoing protest outside Westminster.

"This shows the third generation of Tamils is also continuing aims our elders have laid out for us," Gayathirie Sooriyacumar, a dental student born in UK, told TamilNet.

"Other young members of the Tamil Diaspora, and I, used to feel that the suffering of Tamil people in Sri Lanka seemed so far away, and so distant," Gayathirie admits.

"However, after attending this protest and speaking to fellow protesters, I now believe, I too have a responsibility to my suffering brothers and sisters in the national liberation struggle."

"I see the struggle as one that has been suppressed for long and is ready to burst. As I learn more and more about the struggle my people face, I am frustrated of how the rest of the world ignores the genocide that is happening right now in the ‘beautiful country of white sandy beaches, lush greenery, where all communities live in harmony side by side,' which is the image the Sri Lankan Government tries to project to the world. However, these protests aim to raise awareness of the truth and encourages the use of free media into the war stricken areas," she says.

The chants and slogans continue throughout the day into the night, stopping only every 3 hours for 2 minutes in order to respect and remember those suffering on the ground in Mullaiththeevu.

"This minute helps us meditate on the many innocent lives of the citizens as well as those who have sacrificed their lives in this war. The 2 minutes pause is ended by all repeating, ‘ 'Thamizharin thaakam thamizh eezhath thaayakam', meaning Tamils’ yearning is for Tamil Eelam," Gayathirie said.

"Although Parames Anna knows the consequences, he believes that he is now the British government’s responsibility. He is determined to continue his campaign for a cause, however, I can't imagine how the expatriate Tamils will respond if he carries out his threat and loses his life if the British government fails to act to intervene in the Sri Lankan conflict," Gayathirie continues.

"I support and look up to his determination, but find it difficult to watch him slip away in front of the Houses of Parliament, in the eyes of the general public and surrounding supporters, with no interference or promises made to fulfil their main requests of immediate and permanent ceasefire, food and medical aid allowed to reach the civilians and lifting the ban on LTTE."