Sri Lanka’s ruling party will finally present its proposals for resolving the island’s ethnic conflict to an all-party forum on May 1, but contrary to media hype, the move does not herald a major step towards peace.

 

The General Secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Mithripala Sirisena says the party will submit its proposals for consideration by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on May 1.

 

Sections of Sri Lankan media have hyped the importance of these proposals, but the optimism is misplaced: these are only the proposals by one of the APRC’s members, albeit the ruling party.

 

And with the main opposition UNP and Sri Lanka’s third largest party, the JVP, having pulled out of the APRC, the committee is long way away from finalizing a set of proposals to for negotiations with the Tamil Tigers.

 

And there is no reason to believe a southern consensus is in the offing amid Sri Lanka’s continuing fractious politics.

 

Moreover, the state owned Daily News this week quoted Sirisena, who is also Agriculture Minister as saying the SLFP’s proposals will be based on Mahinda Chinthana, the hardline Sinhala nationalist manifesto on which President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected in November 2005.

 

“Mahinda Chinthana accepts the devolution of power within one country and the proposals will be entirely based on Mahinda Chinthana and formulated within Mahinda Chinthana,” he said.

 

According local media the SLFP proposals are based on the existing provincial system. It proposes the province as the basic unit of devolution with some power to be devolved to provinces and others to district divisions.

 

In addition, the SLFP also proposes the abolition of the executive presidency and solely an executive parliamentary system with a prime minister.

 

In recent weeks the Sri Lankan government has widely publicized the imminent publication of its proposals with the President Rajapakse and his foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama , repeatedly promising the international community that a proposal to resolve the conflict would be available “within weeks.”

 

But with the main opposition UNP (United National Party), and the nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) boycotting the APRC, the whole process is seen as an exercise by President Rajapakse to buy time for his military onslaught against the LTTE to progress.

 

Future steps regarding the SLFP proposals will be decided after presenting them to the APRC and obtaining the opinion of all, Sirisena added.

 

The Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil political party wasn’t even invited to the APRC till several months after it began meeting.

 

With the publishing of the ruling party proposals on May 1 the President would be in better position to deflect international pressure for his government to pursue a political solution and instead blame the boycotting opposition parties for the delay in coming up with southern consensus to resolve the conflict.

 

The UNP put forward its own proposal to the APRC in January this year but in February announced that it would not participate in further APRC deliberations following President Rajapakse’s engineering of the cross-over of 17 MPs from its ranks to the SLFP.

 

President Rajapakse heads the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which has a slender majority in Parliament, having cobbled together a mammoth alliance with other smaller parties and several defectors from the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

 

Even whilst announcing the SLFP’s imminent submission, Sirisena attacked the UNP.

 

“At the moment the UNP and [its] Leader are trying to weaken the Government but we will not let them do it and it will remain only a dream. We will walk forward with the UNP group that joined with us and will take forward this county and its people,” he said.

 

In December 2006 the JVP also withdrew from the APRC after a panel of experts associated with the APRC unveiled a number of reports, including one which suggested a federal model.

 

The JVP says it is boycotting the APRC as it is not interested in formulating a political package based on federalism. The JVP wants the current unitary state to be the basis for any political solution to the conflict.

 

So does President Rajapakse and the SLFP.

Despite its stated intent to the contrary, the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) is proving an effective means by which the Sri Lankan government can avoid coming up with a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

 

And the international community is going along with this delaying strategy.

 

Soon after Mahinda Rajapakse won the 2005 Presidential elections vowing to defend the unitary nature of the state and defeat the LTTE, the international community put intense pressure on him to forge a southern consensus with the main opposition UNP on the ethnic question.

 

The objective was to come up with a position on which to negotiate an end to the conflict with the Tamil Tigers.

 

Rajapske neither wanted to negotiate with the LTTE nor, for that matter, with the UNP. Rather he wanted to weaken both – the LTTE by renewed military action and the UNP by political maneuver.

 

In a bid to escape international pressure, President Rajapakse setup the APRC in early 2006.

 

He rationalized the move through the logic of ‘inclusiveness’ – now a popular term amongst international actors in Sri Lanka.

 

The APRC included all the Sinhala parties including the centre-right UNP and the ultra-nationalist JVP as well as anti-LTTE Tamil party-cum-paramilitary groups. (The TNA, which swept the elections in the Northeast, wasn’t even invited.)

 

But Rajapakse knew full well that bringing together parties with such diverse and hard-line views would make the exercise of consensus building a futile one.

 

It would, however, buy him time to pursue a military onslaught against the Tigers.

 

Rajapakse knew that as long as the LTTE was being gradually weakened, international pressure to negotiate with it would decrease accordingly.

 

In fact, he correctly guessed, there would be increasing international support for his military project instead.

 

Prof. Tissa Vitarana of the LSSP, an ally of Rajapske’s ruling SLFP, was appointed chair of the APRC.A panel of constitutional experts, appropriatedly including Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, was also formed to support the APRC.

 

However, whilst the UNP put forward its proposals to the APRC for solving the Tamil question, the SLFP has pointedly desisted from providing its own.

 

As if to underline that the whole exercise is to buy time, the SLFP’s submission, whilst being repeatedly promised, has been postponed numerous times.

 

Meanwhile, as Sri Lanka has slid ever deeper into all out war, there have been a chorus of international calls for the government to come up with a political solution to form the basis of peace talks.

 

During his visit to India last year Rajapakse promised restless Indian leaders that his government’s proposals would be produced within two months.

 

Four months later, when Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama visited Washington he made a similar promise to the US leaders saying that the government’s proposals to resolve the conflict would be put forward “within a few weeks.”

 

Rajapakse made an identical promise to South Asian leaders at the SAARC summit last week.

 

One of the first tasks the APRC participants undertook was to visit India to study the governance model there. Not the power-sharing model between the Centre and the States but, rather, India’s third tier of governance – the Pachayat Raj. A village level governing body.

 

As he has repeatedly indicated, this is Rajapakse’s idea of a solution to the decades long ethnic conflict.

 

Meanwhile, after a year of deliberations, the APRC is nowhere near a consensus.

 

Even the seventeen member expert panel tasked with producing a set of proposals to form the basis of discussions for the APRC could not agree on the fundamentals of the Tamil question and ended up releasing four separate sets of recommendations last December.

 

One of the reports signed by the 11 members of the expert panel – and hence called the ‘Majority Report’ - called for asymmetrical devolution through legislative provincial council system.

 

A provincial level power sharing falls far short of the federal solution that the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE agreed to explore during the much celebrated peace talks in 2003.

 

But even this suggestion proved too much for the Sinhala nationalist parties. The JVP walked out of APRC and even the government quickly distanced itself from the reports- Rajapakse himself lambasted the experts for releasing their report to the press.

 

Meanwhile, the UNP, for its part, wants hold on to its position as the favourite of the West-led international community in Sri Lanka and has been lackadaisically attending APRC.

 

Even this month, the United States, once again, publicly put its hopes in the APRC producing a negotiating position to put before the LTTE.

 

It is in this context that the SLFP General Secretary, Mithripala Sirisena, announced last week that the ruling party’s proposal would be put forward on May 1.

 

But he warned that the proposals would be in keeping with President Rajapakse’s hardline election manifesto - ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ (Mahinda’s Thoughts).

 

That nationalist manifesto denies the existence of a traditional Tamil homeland in the island’s Northeast and espouses a strong unitary state.

 

Simply submitting ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ to the APRC is not a step towards negotiations with the Tigers. In fact the submission is neither a proposal for talks nor is it likely to unite the APRC into a consensus around one.

 

But in the past year, Rajapakse has been aggressively pursuing his main project: the renewed war against the LTTE.

 

The recent military offensives which led to the LTTE withdrawing from large swathes of the east has not only convinced many Sinhalese that a military solution is feasible, but many key international actors too.

 

There is a big difference between an end to a war and a just solution to one.

 

The international community is not interested in a just solution per se. It is primarily interested in stabilization of the region and the state prevailing over its non-state actor challenger. This is the basic logic of ‘fighting terrorism.’

 

So the international community is tacitly backing Rajapkse’s war against the LTTE while loudly calling for a negotiated solution - and, tellingly, endorsing the manifestly ineffectual APRC.

 

The Sri Lankan state’s engineering of mass displacement of the eastern Tamils through indiscriminate bombardments is an integral part of this internationally-backed strategy.

 

The Tamils are being forced to a point where any solution, no matter how unjust, is preferable to the deprivations of war.

 

Irrespective of the contents of the proposal that Colombo finally puts to the Tamils, whether it satisfies even the basic demands of the Tamils or not, the international community will in all likelihood express support for it and encourage the Tamils to accept it.

 

According to international community’s calculations, a weakened LTTE will either have to accept the proposals as a basis for talks or reject it and invite further deprivations on the hopefully war weary Tamils.

 

Knowing full well that the LTTE will not accept any proposals that do not satisfy core Tamil demands, Sri Lanka is expecting to receive continued assistance for its renewed war.

 

The recent comments attributed to Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse – the President’s brother - that the war will continue for another three years should be seen in this context.

 

Even if the LTTE agrees to discuss the proposals that the APRC may one day produce, the Tigers will undoubtedly demand the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) be fully implemented to ensure normalcy for the Tamils is first restored.

 

But President Rajapakse, who has been opposed to the CFA from the outset, has ensured the truce’s irrelevance since coming to power.

 

Yet he does not want to formally abrogate the pact and openly declare war. Not without an explanation the international community cannot dismiss.

 

This is why the idea of a referendum to nullify the CFA is being floated now.

 

Following a systematic campaign against the CFA and the government’s project of recent territorial gains in the east as major successes in crippling the LTTE, the Sinhala electorate will undoubtedly reject the CFA.

 

Indeed all these calculations by Sri Lankan government and its international allies are based on a growing confidence that the LTTE can be militarily weakened if not destroyed.

 

But this is not the first time this assumption has underpinned strategy in Colombo and other capitals.

 

And when lessons of the past are not learnt, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Tamils in France attend protest in thousands despite authorities refusing permission

Over 2,000 Tamil expatriates gathered in front of the Eiffel Tower Monday, despite the authorities’ cancellation of a planned protest rally to condemn the arrests by French police of several Tamil activists for raising funds for the LTTE. Many other Tamils gathered in nearby public places, blocking traffic.

 

Although the protest’s cancellation had been publicised on Tamil radio and television by the rally’s organisers who told expatriates that permission would be sought anew, several thousand people converged on the city centre, defying orders to disperse, to condemn the arrests on April 1, a week after the LTTE airstrike on Katunayake.

 

French counterterrorism police simultaneously raided four Tamil community organisation premises on Sunday April 1 and arrested 19 individuals on accusations of extorting funds which were sent to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

 

The Paris office of the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee (TCC) was raided in the early hours and arrests made.

 

There were also arrests of individuals from a number of other Tamil businesses and organizations, including the Hindu Amman Temple, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, TTN Television station.

 

On Friday April 6 French anti-terror judges brought preliminary charges against 15 of the 19 arrested individuals and released the other four without charges.

 

Tamils express their anger over French arrests

According to an Associate Press report, the 14 suspects in ‘preventive detention’ face preliminary charges of extortion, financing terrorism and “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise” - a blanket charge often used in France that carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

 

Those arrested allegedly coerced members of France's large Sri Lankan community into giving them money that was then funneled to the LTTE, the report said.

 

Amid shock and anger amongst the Tamil community in France, the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) there had called for expatriates to rally in protest at a Paris city-centre location on Monday at 2:00 p.m.

 

However, the French authorities had refused to allow the protest to go ahead as scheduled.

 

The authorities’ cancellation was, reportedly at their request, widely publicized in Tamil electronic media, including the Paris based Tamil Television Network (TTN).

 

Nonetheless, several thousand Tamil expatriates arrived in Paris Monday to protest.

 

The organisers – the TYO, the India Sri Lanka Business Chamber in Paris and Anthony Russell, a Paris councillor - held a press conference Monday morning at the Novatel Hotel in Paris-12 to announce the cancellation of the planned protest.

 

The India Sri Lanka Business Chamber in Paris has more than 250 businesses as members.

 

The protest organizers urged several thousand people who had taken to the streets to peacefully return and cooperate with their decision to respect the authorities’ orders.

 

Over five thousand people were turned back by the organisers and French Police, according to Tamil electronic media covering developments in Paris.

 

But some two thousand protestors had flocked to the Trocadèro square in front of Eiffel Tower around 3:15 p.m., around 50 meters from the site where the cancelled rally was to take place at 2:00 p.m.

 

Another two thousand people took to nearby public places. In some places large numbers of people sat on roads blocking traffic.

 

But the crowd refused to heed orders by the police to disperse.

 

Police were forced to call on Councillor Russell to convince the angry crowd to peacefully leave the site and attend a rally that would be announced at a later date.

 

Following an address by Mr. Russell, the protestors left the square peacefully at 5:00 p.m.

 

Mr. Russell told French media that he had 400 Tamil families in his area and none of them had complained about forcible fund-raising by the TCC.

 

A spokesperson from the Pondicherry Tamil community, Jean-Marie Julia (Chevalier) said that the Tamil community has been living in France for more than 23 years and respected the laws of the country.

 

The India Sri Lanka Business Chamber chamber released an appeal from over 120 member business establishments (almost all owned by Tamil expatriates) in the La Chapelle area supporting the TCC and rejecting allegations of forcible fund-raising.

 

"The authorities here have been well aware that the TCC has been collecting funds for more than 22 years," said Sivaguru Balachandran, editor of a local Tamil weekly, the Paris Eelanadu.

 

"The EU ban on the Tigers has been criticized by as having a counter-productive effect on the peace process in the island of Sri Lanka," he said.

 

"Again, the timing and aggression by the French counter-terrorism police, five days after the LTTE air-strike on Sri Lanka Air Force base in Colombo, strongly suggests that [these arrests] have been carried out on a similar logic," Mr. Balachandran told TamilNet.

 

Following the EU ban LTTE ban in June last year the French ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jean Bernard de Vaivre, speaking at an event to mark the National Day of France criticized both the LTTE and the government for their violent actions.

 

“Violence and terrorism cannot solve anything. Those in favour of such an approach will never be supported and will never receive the backing either of France or the international community,” he said.

 

“The LTTE was eventually added to the list of terrorist organisations because it consistently refused to change its behaviour despite the repeated communications sent to it over the years” he said

 

“Equally, however, the State should not tolerate any reprehensible actions from few members of its representatives and ought to take exemplary measures against those found to have been responsible for them.”

 

However France, like other leading states involved in Sri Lanka, has pointedly desisted from acting against the Sri Lankan state whilst taking punitive measures against the LTTE.

 

Neither France, nor the European Union more generally, has taken Sri Lanka to task on its human rights violations now widely documented by international human rights groups or restrained Colombo from continuing its military offensives in the Northeast.

 

Many Tamil expatriates feel the French arrests are part of wider plan by some members of the international community to weaken the LTTE and help Colombo secure a military victory over the Tigers.

Amnesty International’s efforts to build support for international monitoring of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka using the topical theme of cricket drew the fury of the Colombo government and, in a rare moment of southern solidarity, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) party joined the Sinhala hardline Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in denouncing the group’s move.

 

Capitalising on the interest around the World Cup, Amnesty last week launched a publicity campaign - using the slogan ‘Play by the Rules’ - to urge Sri Lanka’s warring parties to respect human rights and consent to an international body to monitor abuses.

The campaign, launched in the Caribbean – where the World Cup competition is being staged – as well as in Europe and South Asia (but not in Sri Lanka), envisages getting celebrities and members of the public to sign foam cricket balls bearing the words: “Sri Lanka, play by rules.”

 

Explaining their choice of theme, Amnesty's deputy Asia Pacific director, Tim Parritt said: "just as all cricket teams need an independent umpire to make objective decisions, so too does Sri Lanka need independent human rights monitors to ensure the government, Tamil Tigers and other armed groups respect the rules and protect civilians caught up in the conflict."

 

"Currently all parties to the conflict in Sri Lanka are breaking international law by killing civilians, destroying homes and schools, or forcibly disappearing people,” he said in a statement.

 

“The situation has got far worse over the last year, and we decided it was time to take action.”

 

"The campaign is in no way aimed at the Sri Lankan cricket team," Amnesty also said.

 

Sri Lanka cried foul at Amnesty’s ‘Play by the rules’ campaign

But the hardline government of President Mahinda Rajapakse reacted angrily, denouncing the campaign as essentially an effort to demoralise Sri Lanka’s cricket team.

 

"One expects international human rights organizations to respect the spirit of cricket and not intrude the game with such slurs,"

Lucian Rajakarunanayake, director of the Sri Lankan president's Media Division, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

"One would like to ask Amnesty International whether it plans to take up the issue of human rights violations by the U.S. government in Iraq or in Guantanamo Bay at the Super Bowl match or the National Basketball League championship," he said.

 

And now Sri Lanka’s opposition parties have waded into the fray.

 

The Sinhala ultra-nationalist JVP was the first to raise the issue in Parliament, saying “the aim of this sinister move was to demoralize our cricket team while tarnishing the country’s reputation,” the Daily Mirror reported.

 

The leader of the main opposition UNP, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said his party also “condemned this act by Amnesty International,” the paper reported.

 

Wickremesinghe was quoted as saying, the UNP “however, would not mix politics with the game because cricket is played between teams, and not governments.”

 

Wickremesinghe also attacked the government, saying the UNP and the cricket team “had to undergo such suffering as a repercussion of the government violating human rights as much as the LTTE,” the paper reported.

 

Meanwhile, the JVP’s powerful propaganda secretary, Wimal Weerawansa, alleged Amnesty, along with NGOs depending on foreign funds, “are trying through this act to project the Sri Lankan team as a set of players from a country which does not abide by the rules.”

 

The JVP, Sri Lanka’s third largest party, charged “these foreign NGO activists belong to certain countries that assist the separatist LTTE,” the Daily Mirror reported.

 

Amnesty’s objective is to deny the Sri Lankan government’s right to save the nation from the clutches of LTTE, Mr. Weerawansa, said, calling for a joint effort by all parties to defeat this “conspiracy.”

 

“Lets make use of this opportunity to get together and not allow any one to lay their hands on our country,” he said.

 

Chief Government Whip, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said Mr. Weerawansa had raised an important issue that deserves attention by all parties.

 

Earlier the government vowed to launch a massive effort against Amnesty’s campaign “to demoralize the Sri Lankan cricket team at the World Cup.”

 

“Sri Lankan Cricket has already informed the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe is to inform the United Nations and the international human rights bodies of this unethical move by Amnesty International,” the Daily Mirror Monday quoted “a highly placed government source” as saying.

 

“The government is also planning to collect one million signatures from the public against the AI decision, Besides nine floats will be sent across the country and a television and print media advertisement campaign is also to be launched to create awareness about the AI decision,” the paper reported.

 

A chorus of human rights groups appealed last week to Sri Lanka's government and the Liberation Tigers to halt a rash of rights abuses and abductions.

 

Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission says hundreds of people have 'disappeared' so far this year, on top of 1,000 last year.

 

Some see a terrifying parallel between recent abductions in well-guarded, government-controlled areas and a spate of disappearances in the late 1980s when the government crushed an uprising by hardline Marxists.

 

"One worry for many human rights activists is maybe we are back to the dark days of the late 80s, where disappearances torture and all forms of grave abuses have returned with a vengeance," said Ahilan Kadirgamar of expatriate rights advocacy group the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum.

 

Kadirgamar – a cousin of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was shot dead by a suspected LTTE sniper in 2005 – said both sides were violating the terms of a now-tattered 2002 truce, and urged them to find a political solution to a conflict that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983.

 

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission last Thursday published a list of 81 people who have 'disappeared' since August, voicing concern at the state's apparent inaction in addressing the problem.

 

Relatives of disappeared people protested in the capital last week to demand their safe return, many of them accusing the security forces of abductions. Many of those reported disappeared are ethnic Tamils.

 

"Five unknown people came with a white van and took my husband, saying they were taking him for a CID (police) inquiry," said 32-year-old ethnic Tamil housewife Clancy Maxibontan.

 

"My daughter asks every day 'where is my father?'," she added. "I believe the government must take responsibility for my husband's abduction."

 

The government says statistics of disappearances and abductions are overblown, and says many of those alleged are cases of young lovers eloping or other private issues.

 

"Certain people who have come from the north and east, they come from (LTTE stronghold) Kilinochchi and certain places. They stay in Colombo, and suddenly they come and complain that somebody is missing," said Lakshman Hulugalle, Director General of the government's Media Centre for National Security.

 

"We found certain girls going away with a boy ... There are many incidents like that," he said, adding that some people arrested on suspicion of links to the Tigers under anti-terrorism laws were also often erroneously included in lists of abducted.

 

A U.N. envoy has accused elements of the military of helping a group of renegade rebels called the Karuna Group, who analysts say are allied to the government, to abduct children as fighters.

 

UNICEF and other aid groups say both the mainstream Tigers and the Karuna Group continue to abduct children, particularly in the island's restive east.

 

"The levels of killings, disappearances and abductions make clear there is a growing climate of impunity," said Yolanda Foster, Sri Lanka researcher for Amnesty International.

 

Relatives of abducted and disappeared persons protested on March 28, 2006. Photo SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP/GettyImages

The Sri Lankan government is trying to sidestep the international focus on its human rights violations by using an international forum against the Tamil people, a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers charged last week.

 

The government is using the SAARC summit to sidestep the International Community's focus on Colombo's worst record of human rights abuses and institutionalized impunity for crimes against the Tamil people and at the same time use it against the Tamil people's right to defend themselves, the head of the LTTE’s Political Wing, Mr S. P. Tamilselvan said.

 

He had been asked to comment on Colombo's focus shift to LTTE's air capability, prior to the 14th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit in New Delhi.

 

“It is crucial that the voice of Tamil people, be heard when the summits like the SAARC are conducted, as Tamils constitute a people who are highly affected by the oppressive acts and the foreign policy of the Sri Lankan state in the regional and the International arena,” Mr. Tamilselvan told TamilNet.

 

At the Twelfth Summit (Islamabad, January 2004), the then Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga signed the SAARC Social Charter with the heads of states of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Pakistan.

 

According to the Charter, member countries are obliged to observe the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.

 

“Lately, Colombo has been struggling with its worst track record of human rights violations. Its armed forces are complicit in abductions and killings in the areas under the occupation of the Sri Lanka Army. There is a total impunity for the perpetrators of rights abuses,” he said.

 

“As a signatory to the Social Charter, the Sri Lankan state should be given a stern message that no civilized country in the world would extend supporting hands to the oppressive policies of Colombo,” the LTTE's Political Head said.

 

“We also note that the Social Charter gives special focus to the rights of children and women.”

 

“In the occupied territories of Tamil homeland, children are forced to go to schools inside the militarized zones declared as High Security Zones. Abductions and killings have become a daily routine,” Mr. Tamilselvan said.

 

“Although we are primarily concerned of the issues in our homeland, it doesn't mean that we are not concerned about the plight of the children in Sinhala areas. There are reportedly more than 35,000 child sex workers in the Sinhala areas. This is a major humanitarian issue affecting the wellbeing of the children” he noted.

 

“The Sri Lankan state has reached the state of paranoid disorder,” he said.

 

“It has engaged its armed forces and paramilitaries in a genocidal war against the Tamil people. Even the Sinhalese who voice against the abuses or witness the acts of the perpetrators are transferred or silenced otherwise.”

 

“This paranoia has forced Colombo to adopt delaying and diversionary tactics, and to falsely believe that it can successfully exploit the prevailing global atmosphere against the armed resistance by the people who are left with no other alternatives than fight for their rights, to its maximum favour,” he noted.

 

“The LTTE, as a liberation movement and as the movement running a responsible governing body of the Tamil people, is forced to defend and encounter the aggressor. The Tigers are no threat to any others than the oppressing Sri Lankan state,” Mr. Tamilselvan said.

 

A number of incidents have seen Sinhala civilians targeted, with twenty-six killed and a number of others injured in the past fortnight alone. This is an escalation in a war that has, traditionally, seen mostly Tamil civilians targeted.

 

While the government blamed the LTTE for the attacks, the Liberation Tigers have accused the government of deliberately using paramilitaries to target civilians, and then casting the blame on the Tigers.

 

In the latest incident, four Sinhalese paddy farmers were shot and killed at Nidanwala in Dimbulagala, Polonnaruwa, by unidentified attackers last Thursday. Three of them died on the spot while the fourth succumbed to his wounds after being admitted to Polonnaruwa hospital.

 

Earlier, on April 2, at least 16 people were killed and 25 others injured, as a blast ripped through a passenger bus in Kondaivedduvaan, on the outskirts of Amparai.

 

There were ten women among these killed. One female police constable and a SLA trooper were also killed.

 

The blast occurred as the bus approached a security checkpoint.

 

The normal procedure followed by personnel at such checkposts is to disembark all those on board the vehicle, frisk the passengers, and make sure that the vehicle is not a security risk.

 

The bomb, concealed in a bag and placed on the shelf above the seats in the bus, exploded, the police said.

 

A statement by the Defence Ministry said the explosion was the handiwork of the Liberation Tigers and was triggered from inside the bus.

 

The Government denounced the incident as "yet another treacherous act of the reckless terrorist outfit, with callous disregard to civilian lives".

 

The LTTE, however, denied its involvement and accused the Government of indulging in a disinformation campaign.

 

Liberation Tigers military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan, charged Colombo with carrying out a "planned disinformation campaign," by accusing the Tigers of attacks on civilian targets, while encouraging paramilitary elements to carry out such attacks with the "motive of tarnishing the Tiger image."

 

"We note with concern the recent attacks on civilians in areas near the Sri Lankan military camps," Mr. Ilanthirayan told the media.

 

The previous night, on April 1, six Sinhala construction workers were killed and one Sinhala and two Tamil workers were seriously wounded in Batticaloa when attackers took them from their workplace and shot them.

 

Men with guns entered a children’s home under construction, took the workers 200 meters away and shot them.

 

The massacre took place 300 meters from the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency STF camp at Mailampaaveli, Batticaloa.

 

The victims were identified as Welage Chandrasiri, 42, from Kelani, T.M. Dhanapala, 54, and his son Dhanapala Wijetunga, 18, from Mahoya, T. Wijakon, 24, from from Mahiyangana and two brothers from Kurunagala, L.M. Dayananda Kapporal, 33, and Maduranga Kapporal, 30.

 

V. U. Nandanage, 41, from Welimada and two Tamils, Indran Pirapaharan and Maduramuththu Nagarasa from Savukkadi, were wounded and admitted to hospital.

 

The attackers had first shot at the electricity transformer rendering it useless before cutting and shooting the victims to death.

 

The LTTE blamed members of the paramilitary Karuna Group for the attack. The government blamed the LTTE.

 

The construction workers had been hired to construct a Children’s Home capable of housing 40 children for the charity organisation Village of Hope.

 

The men had been in the area for at least the last eighteen months, engaged in constructing the children home for Village of Hope organisation which takes care of tsunami affected children and widows.

 

Six mothers and 40 children are already in the home, where English and computer classes are held along with normal educational activities.

 

The home is located between Mylambaveli STF camp and Eravur police station, about one km from the Muslim area of Eravur.

 

 

A SLA soldier was killed and six others wounded in a claymore attack, when attackers targeted a group of SLA troopers on road patrol near Pandathatharippu in Valikamam, Jaffna. SLA soldiers who cordoned off the area following the road side blast beat civilians. One of the wounded soldiers was in serious condition.

 

 

● A claymore mine in Vavuniya killed at least 7 civilians and wounded 25, including four children. The claymore attack targeted a bus carrying Tamil civilians (see separate story).

 

● The Catholic clergy in Jaffna suspect that the mutilated torso found at Punkuduthivu sea on March 14, packed in a military sand bag and tied to a grindstone by barbed wire, likely belongs to the disappeared Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Jim Brown. The church has appealed to the Jaffna Magistrate to facilitate sending blood samples to Colombo to perform DNA tests. Rev.Fr. Thiruchelvam Nihal Jim Brown, 34, Parish Priest of Allaippiddy and his aide Wenceslaus Vincent Vimalan, 38, disappeared on August 20, 2006 after being interrogated by the SLA at Mandaithivu checkpoint. The extra effort taken by the killers to ensure the body remained at the bottom of the ocean have aroused suspicion that the body belongs to a VIP.

 

● The SLA and police arrested 12 Tamil civilians in Uddapu and Munthal, Tamil villages in Chilaw in a cordon and search operation. The arrested Tamils are natives of Trincomalee, Jaffna and Uddapu areas. Seven areas in these villages were cordoned off and a house-to-house was conducted.

 

● SLA troops conducted an extensive cordon and search operation in Vadamaradchchy in the villages of Vathiri, Alvai and Kottavaththai. Hundreds of young family men and women were taken from their homes to a public ground for questioning where they were paraded before masked men and later released.

 

 

● Seven SLN personnel were killed and a gunboat was sunk after a naval clash when three SLN gunboats blocked a Sea Tiger patrol in Mannar. "Our Patrol Unit Commander reported seven enemy casualties after the encounter which lasted for 15 minutes," LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan said. The clash took place inside LTTE's territorial waters, according to the Tiger military spokesman. There were no casualties on LTTE side, he further said. The SLN claimed the clash had taken place 5 nautical miles off Bathlangunduwa. Meanwhile, the SLN in Colombo claimed to have sunk a LTTE boat and said one of the SLN Inshore Patrol Crafts was slightly damaged and a sailor had sustained minor injuries.

 

● A Tamil youth was shot dead by unidentified persons who in a white van at Palaiyootu, Trincomalee. The body was not identified. Earlier, an attempt had been made by unidentified persons to shoot another Tamil youth, but he fled from the scene with injuries.

 

● Three Tamil civilians, including two women, were arrested in a cordon and search operation in Wellawatte, Colombo. They were detained in Wellawatte police station and subjected to interrogation. Police said the three were taken into custody when they failed to prove their identity and the reason for their stay in the locality.

 

● A SLA soldier was killed a civilian seriously injured when two motorbikes collided at Kulappiddy junction, within Jaffna municipal limits. The soldier, L. Ariyadasa, 30, was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. A number of civilians were injured in Sri Lankan armed forces involved traffic accidents in Jaffna Peninsula in the recent past. Over speeding is said to be the cause of many accidents.

 

● A Tamil trader, Paramaguru Ramesh, 36, was shot dead at Puduthukuddiyiruppu in Thampalakamam by unidentified men. The men stopped the three-wheeler in which he was travelling from Trincomalee town to his village and shot him dead.

 

● Armed men in a white van abducted a young Tamil trader in Karaveddy, Vadamaradchchi, Jaffna. Relatives lodged complaint at Nelliady police and at the Jaffna office of the SLHRC. Kandasamy Komaleswaran, 25, a resident of Vigneswara College Road, Karaveddy, was forcibly abducted from his home by the armed gang, and when the family members raised cries, they were threatened at gun point. A white van was seen moving around the area a short while before abduction and the youth was forced to walk up to the vehicle before being taken away in the same van.

 

● Thirty eight persons were arrested in cordon and search operations by the combined government armed forces in Tangalle, a town in Matara district. Of the arrested, nineteen were Tamils, and three Tamil were detained for further questioning.

 

 

● Medical officers of Vavuniya public hospital abstained from duties, going on medical leave, in protest against a paramilitary group demanding money. The paramilitaries had issued death threats if the money was not paid. Vavuniya police said they have received no complaints on the matter. The MOs, however, said that they had reported the matter to the Ministry of Health and its Secretary and to other authorities related officials. "We will continue to perform our duties only if the Health Ministry assures our safety and takes immediate action to investigate the matter," the MOs added.

 

● Raveendran Ravi, 54, and Sindhu Ravi, 42, husband and wife and parents of four recently displaced from Vavuniya, were killed in Paalampiddi, Vavuniya when a SLA DPU triggered a claymore mine targeting the IDP couples' bicycle. They were attacked while they were cycling towards their IDP camp in Thadchanaamaruthamadu.

 

● SLA soldiers stopped hundreds of Catholic worshippers assembled at St James Church in Sillalai Parish, Jaffna, from celebrating Maundy Thursday, and ordered them to leave the Parish because they had not obtained prior permission to hold the ceremony. Rev.Fr. Roshan, the Parish Priest and the Secretary to the Jaffna Bishop, had finished conducting a special sacrament when SLA soldiers ordered a halt to the event. They also ordered the Parish priest to call in at the SLA camp the following morning for an inquiry.

 

● SLAF Kfir bombers flew over Vadamaradchi East and bombed Iyakkachchi and Kaddaikkaadu villages in LTTE controlled Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna. A few houses were damaged in the attack.

 

● The SLA ordered all residents of Thampalakamam, a traditional Tamil village, along Trincomalee-Kandy road, Trincomalee, to register their names, addresses and other related details with the police station in Kovilady.

 

● Armed men shot dead a Tamil youth in Meeravodai, Valaichenai, Batticaloa. The killers shot P. Kokilaraja, 21, at his residence and fled from the scene.

 

● SLA troopers opened fire on two farmers travelling on a tractor to work in paddy fields at Ottuveli, behind Valaichenai Paper Factory in Batticaloa, seriously injuring one of them. The injured farmer, Abubucker Anees, 30, of School Road, Meeravodai, Valaichenai, was rushed to hospital. Valaichenai police claimed Karuna paramilitary group members had been exchanging fire with LTTE and when the farmers happened to pass by later, they were shot at by armed men waiting in ambush. However, local residents in the area said that the SLA troopers shot and injured the farmer.

 

● Attackers shot and killed four Sinhalese paddy farmers at Nidanwala in Dimbulagala, Polonnaruwa (see separate story).

 

● Three passengers were killed and 53 injured when a private bus turned turtle at Teldeniya in Kandy. 20 passengers are in critical condition.

 

● Six Tamil civilians were arrested in a cordon and search operation in Kandy, in the central province. Five of the arrested are natives of Jaffna and one person is from the upcountry. Police said they were taken into custody as they failed to prove their identity with valid documents. They also failed to give reason for their stay in Kandy during the preliminary investigation.

 

● A claymore mine weighing about 10 kg was recovered from the third floor of a building in Wattala, a town in western province. The bomb disposal squad of the SLA rushed to the site and diffused the mine. In a search operation in the area, the police took into custody seven persons, most of them are Tamils.

 

● A fisherman fishing with two others in a fibreglass boat in Talaimannar Sea went missing after unidentified persons fired at his boat. Two other fishermen escaped from the fire and reached the coast safely in the boat. They said Mr. Nelson, 32, had fallen into the sea with gunshot injuries and drowned.

 

 

● Two civilian passengers were killed and four wounded on Kaivaeli - Puthukkudiyiruppu Road in Mullaiththeevu when SLAF Kfir jets bombed the area. B. Pradeep, from Moongilaaru, Mullaitheevu was one of the passengers killed in the air strike and the other was not identified. Luxmanan Kunaratnam, 30, father of two from Vallipunam, Kandiah Anandarajah, 45, from Ampalavan Pokkanai, Amirthalingam Arignan, 27, from Manthuvil in Puthukkudiyiruppu and Sittampalam Tharmasenan, 29, father of one from Visvamadu, were wounded in the attack.

 

● The Puthukkudiyir'uppu office of White Pigeon, an NGO fitting prosthesis, was damaged in the aerial attack on Puthukkudiyiruppu, Millaitheevu. However, the Sri Lankan military in Colombo claimed they had attacked a Sea Tiger base in Mullaiththeevu.

 

● The body of a youth with hands bound and several gunshot wounds was recovered in shrub jungles between Kanagampuliyadi Junction and Puthur in Jaffna. Local residents said there was heavy presence of SLA soldiers in the area the previous night and they heard several gun shots. Residents said that SLA soldiers conducted an intensive search operation near Manthuvil into late evening the previous day. Residents speculate that the youth must have been abducted Tuesday, taken to Meesalai North area and shot during the night.

 

● The bullet ridden body of Theivendiran Sasitharan, 20, a resident of Kondavil was discovered near Station Road in Kondavil, Jaffna. The youth had been forcibly abducted by a group of eight gunmen half an hour earlier near Kondavil Hindu Vidyalayam while returning home after transporting his sister to her school. The armed men on four motorcycles took Sasitharan to an isolated place adjoining the Jaffna Secretariat Store for questioning. While being interrogated Sasitharan broke free from his abductors, but he was chased by the armed gang and shot dead in an adjoining farm land. The motor cycles of the armed group were seen parked for a long time along Palaly Road, near a SLA camp in Thinnavely.

 

● The SLA arrested 15 people after a cordon and search operation in the villages of Siththandy, Morakkoddanchenai and Santhively in Eravur, Batticaloa. After initial interrogation, all the arrested persons were handed over to the Eravur Police for further investigation.

 

● Armed men shot dead a mason at Sunkankerny in Valaichenai, Batticaloa. The killers stopped Kumarasamy Varathan, 42, a father of four and a resident of Valaichenai main street, and his friend as they were riding on a motorcycle along School Road, allowed his companion to go free, and shot the mason dead, killing him on the spot. The victim and his friend were returning home after attending a birthday party.

 

● The body of a youth was recovered from the HSZ surrounding the Sapuskanda oil refinery of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation in Kelaniya, Colombo. Sapuskanda Police said the body belonged to a 26-year-old Tamil native of Chavakachcheri, Jaffna, but declined to give his name or other details. No injuries were found on the body but police suspect he had been killed and his body dumped in the HSZ.

 

● Thirteen plantation Tamils, including two women, were arrested in Kataragama, in the south, in a combined cordon and search operation by the SLA and Police. The Tamils were staying with their relatives at Gowthamigama colonisation scheme at the time of arrest. Tamils and Sinhalese families have been residing in the scheme without any differences since the scheme was established. Kataragama Police said the arrested are being detained at the Police station and the police are investigating their background.

 

 

● A man and a woman were killed when a SLA DPU infiltrated into LTTE controlled territory in Samalankulam, Vavuniya North. The DPU attackers knifed the victims after they were injured by a claymore.

 

● Vavuniya police claimed LTTE cadres shot and injured two home guards in an area close to the Mamayilankulam tank area in Vavuniya.

 

● Four civilians were wounded when SLAF Kfir jets bombed Alampil in Mullaithivu. The wounded were identified as Sebamalai Manohararajah, 45, Chinnan Luxmykanth, 57, Deiyvam Sriharan, 28, and Sundaralingam Baskaran, 29.

 

● Two armed men, alleged to be Karuna Group members, shot dead a refugee at the Koralankerny refugee camp in Kaluvankerny, Eravur, Batticaloa. Cithiravel Sivanathan, 28, displaced from Pankudaveli, Paduvankarai, in the LTTE held territory, was taking a bath at a well near the camp when he was shot by the men who were on a bicycle.

 

● Armed men took a labourer from his house for interrogation and shot him dead at Parathipuram, Aiyankerny, in Eravur, Batticaloa. Kanapathipillai Suresh, 21, succumbed to his wounds while being rushed to hospital. He worked as a labourer in rice grinding mill in Kalmunai. Suresh was sleeping at his house when the killers called him out for interrogation and shot him in front of the house.

 

● The SLA arrested more than 35 IDPs who had gone to 38th Colony, Palayadivettai and Nellikaddu villages, located on the border between Amparai and Batticaloa, to inspect the houses from which they had fled. The detained were taken to Kondaivettuvaan SLA camp in Amparai. SLA troopers have been accused of looting properties in the villages of IDPs in LTTE held territories and transporting them openly in tractors and lorries to their camps.

 

● A two-year old displaced child died at Kaluwanchchikkudy IDP Transit Camp by accidentally falling into a small pond while its mother was bathing in the pond. As the IDPs in Batticaloa district face many problems in the Transit Camps including water and sanitation, they are compelled to use water for bathing and washing clothes, from improvised ponds where rainwater is collected. The child fell in such a pit and died. P. Ariyaneththiran, a TNA parliamentarian for Batticaloa said the death could have been avoided if authorities had supplied adequate water to the transit camps.

 

● Two armed youths on a motorcycle opened fire on a Karaithivu STF road patrol unit, killing a STF trooper in Kalmunai town, Amparai. The STF troopers chased the youths trying to escape and shot one of them dead within a short distance. Kalmunai police claimed the youths were LTTE and that the STF had recovered a pistol from the killed youth.

 

● Two gunmen shot dead a motor mechanic at Pandiruppu, Kalmunai in Maruthamunai, Amparai. The killers shot the mechanic while he was standing in front of his motor repair garage located near Maruthamunai on Kalmunai main street. The victim was identified as Arunalsalam Jute Jeyakumar, 29, a father of one child from Manalchenai, Kalmunai.

 

● Armed men shot dead a young married man in Periyaneelavanai, Kalmunai, Amparai. The killers abducted Poopalpillai Kamaleswaran, 22, resident of Mahalingam Road, Periyaneelavanai, from his home while he was with his wife and children, led him towards a nearby beach and shot him at point blank range, killing him on the spot.

 

● Mr. Edward Gunasekara, Gampaha district parliamentarian who rejoined the main opposition UNP, complained to the Speaker that his life was under threat and to take steps to provide protection to him. He said the government should be held responsible if anything happens to him. Mr. Gunasekara was one of the eighteen dissident parliamentarians of the UNP who crossed over to the government and accepted cabinet, non-cabinet ranks and deputy minister posts. Mr. Gunasekara resigned as Deputy Minister for Railways and rejoined the UNP.

 

● A reporter of the Tamil News Information Centre was abducted by the SLA while he was riding motor bike along Uduppiddy road. Kopal Suresh, 31, from Arasady, Karaveddy had been working in the Tamil News Information Centre as an official Reporter.

 

 

● Sixteen civilians were killed and 27 wounded when a bomb exploded inside a bus at the Sri Lankan military check post at Kondaivedduvaan, Amparai (see separate story).

 

● SLA soldiers and Police arrested ten Tamil civilians during a cordon and search operation in Thankalai, Hambantota. All the arrested Tamils were Northeast and the plantation sector.

 

● Kalavanchikudy police recovered the body of a family man with hands bound, multiple stab wounds and severe torture marks, dumped into a well in Eruvil, Kaluvanchikudy, Batticaloa. The victim was identified as Kathiramalai Kanthasamy, 28, a father of one, from Eruvil.

 

● SLA troopers shot dead two youths in Kurukalputhukulam, Vavuniya. The police claim the dead were LTTE cadres.

 

● A person from Anpuvalipuram and another from Ilinganagar in Uppuveli Police division were taken away forcefully by unidentified persons in a van. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

 

 

● Six construction workers were massacred and three seriously wounded when attackers shot them about 300 meters from the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency STF camp at Mailampaaveli, Batticaloa (see separate story).

 

● The naked body of a youth, bound in barbed wire and with several gunshot wounds and deep, extensive torture marks, was discovered inside bush jungles in an isolated area near Kerudavil, Manthuvil in Thenmaradchy, Jaffna. Mahalingam Thavarajah, 26, was from Vembadi, Vadamaradchy, Jaffna, and was living in Meesalai, North Kodikamam, when he was abducted and killed. He was abducted by the SLA along with three other youths in Meesalai.

 

● Sri Lanka Military High command in Palaly military base announced, using the official military radio, that the curfew across Jaffna district has been extended by three hours to last from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Previously the designated curfew hours were from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. All areas in Jaffna including Vadamaradchy, Thenmaradchy, Valigamam and Islet regions are to be affected by the new curfew hours. The SLA command warned Jaffna residents that violators of the curfew will be arrested and punished. The SLA usually extends the curfew hours when it moves heavy equipment and weapons to FDLs or when it is preparing for war.

 

● Kanapathi Sivarajah, 35, a day labourer who earned a meagre living doing manual work to support his family, was abducted by armed men from his home and shot dead near a cemetery in Kaithady, Jaffna.

 

● Gunmen shot dead two men and dumped their bodies in Thirunavatkulam, Vavuniya. The victims were identified as Kulasekaranathan Soumian, 32, and Yogarajan Baheerathan, 27.

 

● A SLN sea patrol unit arrested 30 Jaffna residents in Delft seas trying to flee to Tamil Nadu in South India as refugees. After the SLA’s closure of the A9, the only land route to Jaffna, and the resulting scarcity of essential food and medicine, together with the prevailing climate of terror from being abducted, killed, intimidated and harassed by the SLA and its paramilitary collaborators, many in the peninsula have risked their lives on the perilous seas to seek refuge in Tamil Nadu. Fishermen in Delft, for a payment of 15,000 rupees per person, take the fleeing civilians up to the Sri Lanka-India sea boundary where fishermen from Tamil Nadu take over and help them to reach Tamil Nadu shores. Food, medicine and other essential commodities which are hard to find in the peninsula are available in Delft.

 

● Dehiwela Police and SLA soldiers arrested 7 plantation Tamils, including two women, in a sudden cordon and search in Kohuwela, a suburb of Colombo. All the arrested are natives of Nuwara Eliya and Badulla. Tamil employees of hotels and shops in Kohuwela were rigorously questioned before they were arrested.

 

 

● Armed men shot and injured two Tamil persons, including a woman, in the heart of Trincomalee town. The woman was identified as Shanthi Sivamohan, 32, who works in a non-governmental organization.

 

● Gnanapiragasam Weslie, 36, a resident Kerniyadi, a suburb of Trincomalee town, was injured in a shooting in the heart of the eatern port town and succumbed to his injuries the next day. Unidentified men shot him when he was driving a three-wheeler along Old Moor Street. A Tamil young woman, Shanthi Sivamanoharan, 32, was also injured in the incident.

 

● Six youths staying at the St. Antony's Church Welfare Centre in Muthur, Trincomalee, were arrested by SLA. Although the SLA told the parents the youths were being taken for interrogation, the youths remained in custody. They were handed over to Muthur police six days later to be produced before the courts. The SLA had subjected them to severe interrogation during their detention in the Muttur SLA camp. They were identified as Arulnayagam Joseph Jesuthasan, 25, Sebastian Joseph Jebatheepan, 28, Pushparajah Pushpakanthan, 20, Muharasa Murali, 22, Prakash Sripaskaran, 28, and Selvanayagam Amalraj, 25.

 

● Fighter helicopters of the SLAF attacked a Multi Purpose Co-Operative Society lorry and two other lorries belonging to private traders parked near the Puliyangkulam LTTE checkpoint on the A9, north of the Omanthai SLA checkpoint. Following the night mission airstrike by the LTTE on Katunyake airbase, the SLAF has been engaging its bombers and helicopters in late night attacks.

 

● SLA soldiers extended a fishing ban in Vadamaradchy north, affecting more than 4 000 fishing families living along the coastal villages from Valvettiththurai in Vadamarachchy North to Manatkadu in Vadamarachchy East. SLN gunboats fired at fishing crafts in the seas off Jaffna and chased away the fishermen. The armed forces manning checkpoints and bunkers along the coastal area too fired at the fishermen engaged in fishing without any prior warning.

 

● Armed men in a white van abducted Suvaikeenpillai Vayooran alias Balachandran, 39, a father of 6 from Pasaiyoor in Jaffna.

 

● Gunmen in a white van abducted Francis Segar Amilton, 16, of Koiyathottam in Jaffna town from his house.

 

● Sinnathamby Shanmugalingam, 35, a family man from Poonari Madam in Kokuvil was reported missing after going to his neighbouring village of Nachchimarkovilady.

 

● Sinnakandu Jegaseelan, 27, the owner of a cycle repair shop on Main street, Jaffna, was reported missing after going to the SLA civil administrative office at Colombuthurai to obtain permission to leave Jaffna.

 

● Jeyarasa Jeyatheleepan, 19, a student was reported missing after leaving his house at Colombuthurai on personal errands.

 

● SLA troopers took away a youth staying at Kambarmalai in Vadamardcy, according to local residents.

 

 

● M. K. Sivajilingam, a TNA parliamentarian for the Jaffna district, was interrogated by Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) for nearly 10 hours for alleged links with the Liberation Tigers. The TID accused the MP of alleged involvement in procuring a vehicle for the LTTE. Sivajilingam said that Colombo is planning to interrogate other TNA MPs with similar concocted false accusations with the intention of suppressing dissent and stopping the MPs from highlighting the human rights abuses of the government. He added that Colombo may be planning to arrest him under false charges when he returns to the TID for further interrogation.

 

● Police recovered the body of a labourer in front of Peoples' Bank, V. C. road, Valaichenai, Batticaloa. Vinayagamoorthy Vijayanathan, 30, a father of and a resident of Shanmugalingam Road, Karuvakerny, in Valaichenai, had left home to buy provisions in Valaichenai town the previous afternoon and failed to return. Relatives said he was abducted and then killed.

 

● Unidentified persons triggered a claymore device at Parayanalankulam in Vavuniya killing five SLA troopers travelling in a tractor.

 

● A young IDP was killed by a stray bullet believed to be fired by the SLA at Manatkadu in Vadamarachchy East, Jaffna. G. Manoharan, 24, from Mantkadu, succumbed to his injuries at hospital. He had been displaced by 2004 tsunami and was staying in the Transit camp when the bullet hit him. The SLA and SLN had been conducting joint military exercises in the coastal areas of Vadamarachchy, including the populated Manatkadu and other villages.

 

● Two armed men on a motorbike followed a family man cycling along Palaly road at Punnalikaduvan, Valigamam, Jaffna, and shot him. N. Krishnarajah, 38, of Old Police Station Road in Chunnakam remained unattended on the roadside until he was taken to hospital in a critical condition by local residents. The incident occurred within the SLA HSZ close to Palaly SLA main base.

 

● Two armed men on a motorbike assaulted an elderly man, held a pistol to his head, and robbed nearly half a million rupees off him on Stanley Road in Jaffna town, within the SLA HSZ. R. K. Sellathurai, 68, of Masiapitty in Sandilipay, Valigamam, was admitted to hospital. Stanley road lies close to Subash and Gnanams hotels where Jaffna SLA 51-2 brigade has its head quarters. One end of Stanley Road is sealed off for public use and guarded by SLA troopers 24 hours a day.

 

● Dehiwala Police took eleven Tamil civilians, including two women, into custody in a sudden cordon and search operation in Kohuwela, a suburb of Colombo. All of the arrested are natives of the NorthEast, and had been staying with relatives and friends. They were detained and questioned to find out the reason for their stay in Kohuwela.

 

● Two Tamil youths were taken into custody by the SLA in a cordon and search operation at Eechantivu, a Tamil village in Kinniya, Trincomalee. They have been identified as Sellathurai Gnanasegaram, 27, and Pirapaharan Jeyenthiran, 23.

 

 

● Eight civilians, including four children, were killed when the SLA fired mortars from Murakkoddaanchaenai SLA camp towards Siththaandi 3rd division. One of the wounded succumbed to injuries at Batticaloa hospital. Two 2-year-old girls and 2 boys under 18 were among the victims. Three of the children were from a single family. Six shells were fired towards the civilian settlement and eight houses were damaged. The mortar attack on the civilian settlement followed a LTTE raid on SLA positions in the area on 21 March. There were no LTTE units firing mortars from Siththaandi towards SLA positions.

 

Nallam Thavamani, 30, her daughter Nallam Niroja, 2, three children from a single family – Perinparajah Ranjitha, 2, Perinparajah Sasikumar, 15, and Perinparajah Vasanthakumar, 18 – and Alagaiah Vijalaluxmy, 42, Nagamani Thambithurai, 42, and Ilayathambi Sinnaththurai, 50, were killed straight away. The name of the wounded person who died in hospital was not released.

 

● Two civilians arrested by the armed forces at Alankerny in Kinniya during a cordon and search remained in custody, with no word of their whereabouts.

 

 

● LTTE forces thwarted a pre-dawn attempt by SLA troopers and paramilitary cadres of the Karuna Group from Chenkalady Black Bridge SLA camp in Batticaloa to advance into Koduvamadu area in LTTE held territory. The LTTE recovered the bodies of two paramilitary members and eight T-56 rifles. The four injured paramilitary cadres – identified as Thutchan, Varman, Nesan and Thevikan – were rushed to hospital. The SLA and the Karuna Group personnel withdrew to their camps following the failed attempt.

 

● The SLA in Batticaloa launched MBRL fire from their camps towards LTTE held territories in Batticaloa, forcing government offices and schools to close. The SLA launched MBRL fire from the 23rd Brigade in Batticaloa, Sathurukondan, Mylambaveli, Kommanthurai, Murakottanchenai, Kumburumoolai and Valaichenai brigade camps. More than 80% of residents in LTTE areas have already been displaced by the unrelenting artillery and mortar fire launched by the SLA. Their properties have been badly damaged by the shelling.

 

● Armed men shot dead an elderly couple at their house, 300 meters from Palaly Road in the HSZ that is always guarded by SLA troopers. Vairamuthu Sivaganeshathasan, 59, a trader and his wife Sarojini Sivaganeshathasan, 53, were killed, but their grandson, Sivakumar Kapilan, 9, escaped injury. As there were no near neighbours, Kapilan spent the whole night crying beside his grandparents' bodies. Villagers became aware of the killings only when he came out at dawn. A van and lorry belonging to the trader, who is said to be a millionaire, were found in his compound.

 

● Sinnaththurai Rajendra, 34, of Ilanthaikkulam road, Kolumbuththurai who went to Jaffna city on 25 March, was reported missing by relatives.

 

● Gunasegaram Kunaharan, 19, from Bharathy road, Chankanai East, who went to buy provisions, disappeared on 3 March, his relatives said in a complaint lodged at the SLHRC in Jaffna.

 

● A young family man from Kankuveli in Muthur, Tricnomalee, was abducted by two persons on a motorbike. They blindfolded Munusamy Kalirasa, 34, and took him on the motorbike towards Thehiyaththakandiya, a neighbouring Sinhala village.

 

 

● Two SLA troopers and four Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP) members were killed at Kommanthurai SLA camp in Batticaloa when explosives in a tractor blew up when the troopers opened fire as the driver of the tractor failed to stop on orders. Two SLA troopers, two policemen and five civilians were injured.

 

M. A. Piriya Banda, 23, of Methirigiriya, and Punchi Banda, 34, of Polanaruwa were identified as the SLA troopers killed. The EPDP members killed were Velautham Thayaparan, 25, of Thimilaitheevu, Sachithananthan Vigneswaran, 25 of Kommanthurai and Kovinthan Mathanarajah,12, of Kommanthurai, all three from Batticaloa district. Yamuna, 42 and Sinthuja, 03 were the two civilians injured.

 

Following the explosion, SLA launched heavy rocket fire on LTTE held territories. Almost 90% of the EPDP office located near Komanthurai SLA camp was damaged in the blast while the army commander's office suffered minor damages.

 

● A youth on motorbike threw a hand grenade at a group of Sri Lanka police officers on road patrol in Arayamapthy, Kathankudy, Batticaloa, injuring two policemen. Sergeants Karunaratne, 36, and Veerasinghe, 33, were the two police personnel injured. The police opened fire but the youth escaped unhurt.

 

● Exchange of heavy mortar and artillery fire and MBRL fire occurred between the LSA and LTTE along the FDLs from Muhamalai to Kilali in Jaffna. Beginning Monday night, the firing continued until Tuesday evening. The SLA launched mortar and artillery fire from Thenmaradchy south, west, Kokilakandy and Thanankilappu areas towards LTTE held positions. Hundreds of fishermen fishing in the Jaffna lagoon narrowly escaped when shells fell and exploded in the lagoon.

 

● A youth from Navalar Road, Jaffna, disappeared after being stopped at Arasady Junction in Nallur for interrogation by SLA soldiers. Lakshumanan Nishanthan, 23, a businessman, was travelling towards Nallur in his van when he was stopped at the checkpoint. Local witnesses saw the van being driven by another driver without Nishanthan about an hour later. Relatives said SLA officials admitted they were holding Nishanthan and had told them he would be released after questioning, but they have not had any additional details on his whereabouts, and fear for his safety. His van was found abandoned about a hundred metres from the checkpoint.

 

● Two armed men on a motorbike shot dead a minibus driver who was having tea at a cafe on Jaffna-Kachcheri road behind Jaffna Secretariat. L. Chandranath, 23, was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his wounds. Chandranath, who had earlier functioned as the time-keeper for private buses in Jaffna town, was working as the driver of a minibus plying between Jaffna town and Kachcheri area. He was having tea while his minibus waited for passengers near the cafe.

 

● Two members of the Socialist Equality Party, Nadaraja Nimaleswaran, 27, of Velanai in the Jaffna Islets, and his friend, Yuganathan Mathivathanan, 23, disappeared on 22 March their way to Punkuduthivu, according to a complaint filed with the Jaffna SLHRC by their relatives.

 

 

● The SLA and SLN conducted war rehearsals from Palaly military base to Kankesanthurai naval base, suggesting an imminent escalation of conflict between the LTTE and Sri Lanka Armed Forces in the north. The exercises also took place in the seas of Valvettithurai, Myliddy and Kankesanthurai and the adjoining coastal areas, lasting for more than an hour.

 

● Armed men on motorbike shot dead a family man while he was eating at a food stall opposite Jaffna college, Vaddukodai. The killers, entering the food stall pretending to be normal customers, opened fire on Murgesu Sangarapillai, 45, from Karainagar. Sangarapillai, on his way to Jaffna town from his home in Karainagar on his motorbike and had stopped midway to have breakfast at the food stall.

 

● An employee of Jaffna Municipal Council, shot and injured by SLA troopers in front of the Jaffna SLHRC in an earlier incident, sought safety. SLHRC officials took steps to place Mr. Baskaran, a resident of Sirupitty, Vadamaradchy east, under the protective custody of Jaffna prison after he surrendered at their offices fearing for his life. After the shooting, Baskaran had gone home, but on being continuously threatened at Sirupitty and scared of being killed by the SLA, he sought refuge at the SLHRC.

 

● Sri Lanka Police took two Tamils, one woman and one man, into custody in Seeduwa, near Colombo, in cordon and search operations following the air strike on Katunayake air base by the LTTE. One of the arrested is a native of Jaffna and the other is from Batticaloa.

 

 

 

● Three troopers from Kanthuvil STF were injured when unidentified men attacked a road patrol unit at Sankaman on the border of Amparai district. Two of the attackers were killed when the STF retaliated. Amparai police claimed that the two youths are LTTE cadres and they recovered their bodies following the search after the exchange of gunfire. The police also claimed that a T-56 rifle and two magazine rounds were recovered from the bodies of the two youths.

 

 

● Gopalapillai Illankumaran, 27, a family man, went missing without a trace after he left to his spouse's house in Nunavil Chavakachcheri from his mother's residence in Vellanai, an islet of Jaffna. Illankumaran had recently come from Vanni with identity documents showing his Vanni address and SLA troopers checking him on his way to Jaffna may have abducted him, his family members claimed. Many, coming from the islets on personal errands to Jaffna town, have gone missing, according to media reports.

Sixty-seven people were killed and twenty-nine abducted by armed men, while sixty-eight were reported missing in the Jaffna peninsula during the period from January to March 2007, according to a report by the Jaffna SLHRC.

 

Though complaints had been made about these human rights violations to the law enforcing authorities in the peninsula, no one had been arrested by the authorities in connection any of the complaints, the human rights body said.

 

The killings and abductions were carried out during curfew hours in the nights, as well as in broad day light by armed men in white van, gunmen in military uniforms and men on motorcycles.

 

The following particulars are found in the report compiled by the human rights organisation in Jaffna:

 

● Armed men killed 20 people in January, 8 in February and 39 in March, making a total of 67.

 

● Gunmen in white vans, SLA soldiers and SLA-backed paramilitaries abducted 10 civilians in January and 19 in March, altogether 29.

 

● A total of 68 civilians, 20 in January, 31 in February and 17 in March, have been reported missing. These persons went missing after leaving their homes on personal errands or business related travel inside the peninsula.

 

● More than 18 persons have sought safety through SLHRC Jaffna office, complaining that they feared being killed by the Sri Lankan military forces and the paramilitary personnel operating with them in the Jaffna peninsula.

 

● Two bodies of persons shot and killed between January and March remain unidentified in the Jaffna Teaching hospital mortuary.

 

The report, which does not include any statistics from Sri Lanka’s armed forces, was compiled from data registered with the SLHRC and the media in the peninsula.

 

One of thousands of Tamil families driven from their homes by Sri Lankan bombardment this year

Despite urgent appeals by aid agencies, over 200,000 Tamil people who fled their homes last month following intense Sri Lankan bombardment of their homes in Batticaloa district continue to languish in squalid refugee camps.

 

The international donor community remains indifferent to the plight of the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) even as Sri Lankan and international media have both ceased reporting on the escalating humanitarian crisis.

 

A lack of facilities in the makeshift shelters, a growing shortage of food, torrential rain and over-crowding are making living conditions unbearable and has turned the refugee camps into breeding ground for disease, aid workers say.

 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned last week that human faeces, garbage and over crowding were creating serious health hazards in the camps.

 

“The grounds are littered with faeces and great patches of urine. Children urinate against walls, on tents and near water sources. School furniture has been burned for firewood,” UNICEF said in a statement.

 

The recent torrential rain has worsened the situation with several temporary shelters in Mankadu, Erivil, Kaluvanchikudy, Thethathivu and Vedar Kudiruppu collapsing.

 

According to the Kaluvanchikudy Regional Secretary heavy rain continuing for the third day collapsed temporary shelters in interim camps creating additional hardships.

 

Absence of proper drainage system has led to puddles of water inside tents in make-shift refugee camps.

 

Relief agencies say their operations in the war-torn eastern district lacks tents, medicine, baby food and clothes for the IDPs.

 

The scarcity of sheltering space has often resulted in three families having to share one tent.

 

In one location, only a hundred tents have been provided by the Government Agent Batticaloa where 700 are required to shelter the IDPs, the Regional Secretary added.

 

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) last month made an urgent appeal for funds describing the situation ‘urgent and critical’.

 

According to Tamil media, with a ration of between just 100 and 200 grams of rice per family per day refugees are struggling to have even one square meal per day and shortage of milk food is severely affecting children.

 

According to WFP it can only look after the food needs of 100,000 IDPs through April and there are an estimated 240,000 IDPs in the district.

 

WFP said a lack of commitment to the Tamil refugees’ welfare from the Sri Lankan government has left thousands of others without food supplies.

 

“The district still awaits food to cover the government commitment of 40,000. Currently there is enough food in the district to cover 70,000 with the remainder being sent next month. However, some 30,000 people are still without food,” the Inter Agency Standing Committee, a combine of UN and other relief agencies said last month.

 

Mass displacements of people and the subsequent use of schools as refugee camps has disrupted the education of over 30,000 Tamil students.

 

“The sound of multi-barrel rockets being launched is just terrible. We know parents and children are staying away from school because they are too scared to go,” UNICEF Batticaloa Head Christina de Bruin said.

 

Squalid living conditions are not the only worry the IDPs in eastern Sri Lanka have. They are also living in fear of roving gunmen from the paramilitary Karuna Group and Sri Lankan soldiers.

 

Karuna group cadres are roaming the refugee camps intimidating and abducting refugees, aid agencies say.

 

In March Amnesty International raised the alarm about armed paramilitaries operating in refugee camps in government held territories but the practice continues.

 

Purna Sen, Asia Pacific director at Amnesty International said: “The Karuna faction appears to operate throughout Batticaloa town with the complicity of the Sri Lankan authorities.”

 

“The people who have been forced to flee the fighting are in an extremely vulnerable position: they have left behind their livelihoods and their homes, they may not know the area and they are likely to be very scared. The government has a responsibility to ensure that camps are safe and civilian in nature - it is unacceptable for men with guns to be wandering around as if they are in control,” She added.

 

Adding to the woes of the refugees, the Sri Lankan army has been forcefully resettling refugees in recently captured Vaharai, effectively using them as human shields, creating a buffer zone to protect themselves from any LTTE attacks.

 

Aid agencies have protested against this action by the security forces and UNHCR has reportedly withdrawn from all resettlement operations in the East.

 

“Any return to places of origin in accordance with the guiding principles of internal displacement should be voluntary, in safety and with dignity. UNHCR and other agencies have not yet done in-depth assessments in Vakarai. This is linked to sustainability and safety of return,” a statement issued in March by UNHCR said.

 

“The presence of TMVP [Karuna Group] armed cadres is reported in Vakarai and this may lead to security problems similar to those IDPs faced in the Batticaloa displacement sites,” the UNHCR added.

 

The overall security situation in Batticaloa district remains volatile with frequent clashes between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE, according to aid workers and refugees.

 

“It is still very difficult to operate, the roads are closed, no communications and there is more fighting,” UN Spokesperson Orla Clinton said.

The Presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse has primarily been one of renewed war in the Northeast and repression in the south. Whilst the Tamils have borne the brunt of state violence in the past 18 months, the tide of rabid Sinhala nationalism that has emerged in that time has cowed the southern liberals and the Left. Nothing has contributed more to the all-pervasive sense of fear than the ceaseless killings and disappearances that have come to mark President Rajapakse’s rule above anything else. Of course, the ‘shadow war’ began littering Sri Lanka’s roadsides and fields with bound and mutilated corpses well before ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ became the state philosophy. But human rights abuses became common place only afterwards.

 

What has been striking, however, is the feeble response of the international community, led by the West. The 2002-3 Norwegian peace talks were heavily laced with the liberal ethos of human rights. Indeed the pressing humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of Tamils – the stated primary concern of the LTTE were marginalized by the internationally backed peace process whilst human rights protection was held aloft as the magic pill for Sri Lanka’s ethnic crisis (a quick read of the joint statements issued after the last four of the six rounds will illustrate our point). So what happened to that international commitment to human rights when President Rajapakse resumed the war? The international indifference to the cascade of bloodied corpses speaks volumes: the priority is to ensure Sri Lanka defeats the LTTE and ends the Tamil challenge to the state. Which is why, apart from occasional handwringing, there is no credible effort to restrain the Sri Lankan state.

 

But amid this inaction, a curious international campaign is underway: a call to establish an international human rights monitoring body. For much of the past year a coalition of international and local human rights groups, including the recently unfairly vilified Amnesty International, and activists have been agitating for such an independent body. They argue, correctly, that the Sri Lankan state cannot be entrusted with monitoring. This pressure compelled President Rajapakse last year to appoint a Commission of Inquiry (COI) and accept the appointment of a panel of international observers, the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP). A number of international actors- including the European Union and India - have appointed prominent individuals to it.

 

But that has been the sum total of international action. The COI itself is an eyewash, as any seasoned observer of Sri Lanka’s politics will attest. The IIGEP has been inaugurated, but its profile is so low-key as to be almost invisible. For the past two decades, the primary driver for continuing abuses by the state armed forces has been the heavily institutionalized culture of impunity in Sri Lanka. In short, the security forces are certain that anything goes in the name of national security. Their confidence is entirely justified. Not only is the Sri Lankan state unconcerned, provided the war is won, neither, really, is the international community. Whilst doing nothing else and simply appointing an individual to the IIGEP, the leading states involved in Sri Lanka have effectively (and knowingly) provided Sri Lanka with a fig leaf behind which to approach international fora like the UN Human Rights Council.

 

In the meantime, the campaign to establish international human rights monitoring meanders along making much noise but little progress against effective resistance by the Sri Lankan state. This resistance has less to with Sri Lanka’s arguments (indeed the country with the second most recorded disappearances after Iraq doesn’t really have a case) than lacklustre international commitment to protecting rights against this state. In a despicable appeal to the Sinhala chauvunism now riding high in the south, some advocates such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), have even argued that a monitoring mechanism would be primarily be useful in cornering the LTTE.

 

The assumption that the Tamil liberation movement is antithetical to international human rights protection is erroneous. The central Tamil grievance is state oppression. For decades we have argued ourselves hoarse that it is the slow genocide by the state that we are resisting. Any mechanism that will effectively restrain the Sinhala dominated state from continuing its violence against our people would be welcome. As such, an effective independent monitoring mechanism would be an important first step. But beyond monitoring lies the true problem: the lack of commitment by leading international states to restrain friendly states crushing rebellious peoples, no matter how brutally.

 

 

The death of Mr. T. Jeyakumar was mourned in the Vanni and marked by a parade there, while his public funeral was held in Melbourne, Australia. Photo TamilNet

Tamils in Australia and across the Pacific last week said farewell to a stalwart of the Diaspora Community, Mr. Thillainadarajah Jeyakumar, 54, who died unexpectedly on March 29 at his home in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Over 3,000 Tamils from across Australia and the Pacific filed past Mr. Jeyakumar’s body at a state funeral held in Melbourne on April 3.

 

Many mourners broke down in tears as they said farewell to a man they had come to know over the past 20 years as a Tamil nationalist and strong advocate for the Eelam cause.

 

During his 20 years at the head of the Tamil Coordinating Committee in the Asia Pacific, Mr. Jeyakumar united the Tamil Diaspora in the region behind the Tamil cause and built such a momentum that when the tsunami struck the Tamil homelands in 2004 Australian Tamils flew to the island in unprecedented numbers to assist their people.

 

Tributes were also received from India, Sri Lanka, UK, and other locations where Mr. Jeyakumar’s services to his people had taken him.

 

(top) Several thousand people filed past Mr. Jeyakumar's casket in Melbourne, Australia; (above) the long-serving Tamil activist is survived by his wife, Yoga, and son, Karthic. Photos TamilNet

Mr. Jeyakumar’s casket was taken to the hall at 3:00 pm and people gathered outside started filing past the coffin. The funeral concluded at 8:00 pm, after everyone had had the opportunity to file past the coffin and pay their respects.

 

With an LTTE flag draped over the body, thousands of Tamils paid floral tributes with red and yellow roses. Many wreaths and bouquets brought by mourners were also placed behind the casket.

 

A service was also held in the Vanni, with the head of the LTTE’s political wing, Mr. S. P. Tamilselvan lighting the ceremonial flame.

 

The leader of the Liberation Tigers, Velupillai Pirapaharan, conferred the Maamaniathar (Great Human) award on Mr. Jeyakumar.

 

The humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka’s embattled eastern province continued to deteriorate this week as hundreds of thousands of displaced Tamils there faced growing shortages of food and shelter.

 

Displaced by successive Sri Lankan military offensives over the past few months, an estimated 200,000 people are living in squalid conditions without adequate sanitation and security.

 

International aid organizations and United Nations agencies working with the IDPs in the East have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis and made urgent appeals for international support.

Refugees collect food handouts for their families. But supplies are runnning out. Photo TamilNet

 

As yet, however, there has been no response from the international donor community.

 

The Common Humanitarian Action Plan for Sri Lanka has only received 33 per cent of its required funding for food aid and has called the latest influx a major humanitarian challenge.

 

But Sri Lanka Government spokesperson K. Rambukwella dismissed the severity saying only 52,000 are displaced, contradicting his own administration's official figures.

 

Meanwhile, the government, whilst not providing assistance is forcibly returning refugees to areas considered unsafe against their wishes and the advice of refugee agencies.

 

"Sri Lankan authorities are using threats and intimidation to force civilians who fled recent fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war to return home," Human Rights Watch (HRW), a rights watchdog, accused Colombo in a press release issued 16 March.

 

Just over two weeks ago, a staggering 130,000 people fled their homes in LTTE controlled Vavunatheevu and Karadiyanaru to escape from a renewed Sri Lankan military onslaught on their villages.

 

They took refuge in already overcrowded refugee camps in Army-controlled territories pushing the total number of IDPs in the Batticaloa district to well over 200,000.

 

"There is no room for thousands of new war-displaced in crammed refugee camps in Sri Lanka's east, so many are sheltering under trees or in schools and churches," Reuters report, datelined 13 March, said.

 

Many of the camps are in local schools, preventing the education of ten thousand more Tamil children.

 

“Because of the new influx of IDPs, 110 schools remain closed in the district. Around 23,000 students from Paduvankarai are not attending schools,” Batticaloa Zonal Director of Education, A. M. E. Paul said.

 

“Students in 18 other schools face difficulties as they witness the daily trauma of IDPs and fellow students staying in the premises as refugees,” he said.

 

The World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal for funds to support its operations, described the need for international assistance as “critical and urgent.”

 

Meanwhile, accusing the Sri Lankan state of forcibly resettling IDPs to recently captured areas north of Batticaloa town without considering their safety and wishes, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has ceased all operations relating to resettlement of refugees.

 

The UNHCR pull out comes following protests from the UN agency echoed by the international human rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), against the government decision to forcefully resettle IDPs in Muttur and Vakarai.

 

Reports have said of government officials denying aid to refugees who refuse to board buses taking them to their former homes in areas that are still volatile.

 

On February 15, the WFP Regional Director for Asia Tony Banbury said “unless we receive new funding very soon, we will run out of food supplies by the end of April.”

 

“After all the suffering endured by the victims of the fighting in Sri Lanka, they should not be hurt further by a lack of international support and concern,” he added.

 

“We will do everything we can to ensure that all these victims of the conflict – many of them women and children – get the assistance they so desperately need,” he said.

 

The international community including the co-chairs of peace process, USA, European Union, Japan and Norway have been silent on the continuing military offensive and indifferent to the resulting human suffering.

 

A delegation of members of Parliament from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have met foreign ambassadors and sought urgent help.

 

Thangeswari Kadiraman, TNA MP for Batticaloa said "There are 89 refugee camps, but still, many thousands are living outside with only trees for cover. And the rains are complicating the situation."

 

However, there has been no international response.

 

Whilst there has been no response to the international aid agencies’ appeals, neither has there been condemnation of the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency strategy of driving hundreds of thousands of Tamils from their homes by indiscriminate bombardment.

 

In some districts, WFP has already been forced to put on hold its Mother and Child Nutrition and school feeding programmes in order to re-direct its limited resources towards the newly displaced.

 

It has also suspended most food-for-work rehabilitation projects in districts ravaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

Following several months of government embargoes on LTTE-controlled areas, WFP said it “urges the Government and the LTTE to guarantee unimpeded access by WFP and other humanitarian organizations to the displaced people.”