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  • India in duplicitous, murderous collaboration with genocidal regime - SA Post

    Noting that the "shelling of safe areas, the genocide massacre of the elderly, innocent women, and children," are war crimes "on a par with the worst of Nazism," an article in South Africa's popular daily, The Post, accuses India that it "has revealed a duplicitous and murderous collaboration with the genocidal regime in power in Colombo.
     
    Not only deaf to the pleas and cries of its own Tamil population to intervene in this murderous onslaught, it actively assists the regime in the supply of military hardware, the training of strike-aircraft pilots, the supply of military expertise, and the provision of military advisors on the ground."

    Full text of the article follows:

    Disunited in Diversity
     
    Recently, there was much fanfare over the Republic Day celebrations of India and reports and protests on the ongoing atrocities in Sri Lanka. Writers sang the praises of India, referred to Gandhi, and with the pride to India becoming a super power.

    Modern India is really a hotch-potch of different kingdoms, principalities, princely states, often with very little in common. Like Sri Lanka, the British welded these disparate entities into one state under one flag. In keeping with the dream of being superpower, India is now quickly learning how to throw its weight around and support a genocidal cause that flies in the face of its stated claim to human rights, its pioneering of non-violence; in short its boast of unity in diversity is little more than just that.

    In the Sri Lankan genocide currently underway, India has revealed a duplicitous and murderous collaboration with the genocidal regime in power in Colombo. Not only deaf to the pleas and cries of its own Tamil population to intervene in this murderous onslaught, it actively assists the regime in the supply of military hardware, the training of strike-aircraft pilots, the supply of military expertise, and the provision of military advisors on the ground. With an almost unprecedented black out of news by Colombo, and a rather surprisingly tolerant acceptance of this restriction by international media, it would come as no surprise if India’s role is discovered to be more than what has been outlined.

    The close cultural and ancestral heritage shared by the Sri Lankan Tamils with the Tamil population of India is of no consequence to India. In fact, it appears as if the Indian government is encouraging Colombo to wipe out the Tamils; media reports indicate that aid has been promised by this budding superpower to Sri Lanka to rebuild the North the dust has been settled (read after its devastation), and, by implication, the wiping out of Tamils.

    Recently, the Foreign Affairs Minister, one Mr Pranab Muckerjhee, on an unscheduled visit to Colombo, stated with much aplomb that a military victory should precede a political solution. His visit appeared designed to reassure Colombo that it could do as it pleased, and came immediately after widespread protests in Tamil Nadu, and pressure on New Delhi. Perhaps, he was reaffirming Delhi’s ethnic alliance with the Sinhalese and Delhi’s contempt for Tamils. Incidentally, the Sri Lankans, who follow a perverted form of Buddhism, are reported to regard the Tamils, original inhabitants of India, as sub-humans.

    Sadly, though, a country forever boasting it gave the world Gandhi, bears little resemblance in its deeds to the vision of the great humanist. This modern India is intent on playing a dangerous in the South, and, by its alliance with murderous regime in Colombo, might come to rue its role in the ethnic cleaning. Perhaps India, following a certain other superpower in whose camp (and clutches) it is now firmly in, has adopted that declining super power’s overriding motto: might is right.

    The shelling of safe areas, the genocide massacre of the elderly, innocent women, and children, then wanton murder of Tamil youths simply because they are Tamils, is akin to war crimes on a par with the worst of Nazism, and perhaps, when these atrocities are ended, a more just world will bring to book all responsible for ethnic cleansing, as well as others, including India, who have overtly and/or covertly supported this annihilation of the Tamil people.

    Therefore, the celebrations are somewhat out of place – India is a house divided!!!!

    Author, Abbey Naidoo is a Durban-based attorney
  • Friends protect Sri Lanka at international level
    While world powers look apparently condemning Colombo for its culture of impunity allowing armed forces and other elements to commit human rights violations, some among the very powers are engaged covertly in ensuring international impunity to Colombo's war crimes by dodging discussion on Sri Lanka in the apex international security system.
     
    During the closed-door meetings of the UN Security Council this week, when Mexico moved for briefing on Sri Lankan situation, Russia reportedly blocked it saying it was not in the agenda.
     
    Indian interests being looked after in the UN Security council by Russia is a long convention.

    Even as official reports put the daily civilian death count at 40 a day in the conflict zone, at UN, Russia's Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said "we believe the Security Council must stick to items on its agenda." and added there are "other fora" for information about the fighting in Sri Lanka.
     
    When the British Representative to the UN was asked why Sri Lanka was not in the deliberations, while Sudan was in, the answer was that the situation was entirely different in Sri Lanka where "proscribed" Tamil Tigers were long "blighting" the government and that has to be brought to an end.

    “What the UN-UK position is on that? Why hasn’t it been raised in the Security Council”, asked an Inner City Press reporter.
     
    “Well, the situation in Sri Lanka is entirely different. We do have concerns about the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. We have urged the government of Sri Lanka to have everything in count to bring an end to the hostilities so that humanitarian relief can be extended to the civilians.. (a word not audible).”
     
    “The Tamil Tigers are a proscribed organisation and the government of Sri Lanka has long been blighted by the activities of the Tamil Tigers. We want these to be brought to an end. And we want the people of the affected areas in Sri Lanka to be able to have full access to the humanitarian relief”, replied the British ambassador to the UN.

    The British position of sidelining the gravity of current genocidal situation faced by Tamil civilians as an internal affair, not needed to be brought to the attention of UN has caused serious concerns in Tamil circles.

    “In fact, barring the tone, mannerism and choice of words, the British ambassador to UN says exactly the same thing what Colombo’s Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said to BBC on Tuesday that the war in Sri Lanka is only between ‘terrorists’ and the people who fight against terrorists”, he added.

    The Colombo government’s open contempt and ridicule to international concerns about the human rights situation in the island as demonstrated in the Tuesday’s interview of Rajapakse to BBC is widely seen as arising from the international impunity enjoyed by it, thanks to the British government and many others.
  • US imposes sanctions on Tamil charity
    The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on a Tamil foundation in Maryland, accusing it of being part of a support network for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
     
    In recent weeks thousands of American Tamils have participated in protests across the United States denouncing the killing of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan forces and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
     
    Tamil political observers see the US government’s move as being aimed at frightening the Tamil Diaspora and curbing their political activities.
     
    The sanctions against the Tamil Foundation, which Treasury said was a front for the Sri Lanka-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, allows the U.S. government to freeze assets the foundation may have in the United States and prohibits U.S. banks and consumers from conducting business deals with it.
     
    "The LTTE, like other terrorist groups, has relied on so-called charities to raise funds and advance its violent aims," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
     
    The head of the Tamil Foundation is also president of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization in the United States, which was named in 2007 as a terrorist support group under a White House executive order.
     
    Over the course of many years, the Tamil Foundation and TRO have co-mingled funds and carried out coordinated financial actions, Treasury said. Additional information links the Tamil Foundation to the TRO through a matching gift program, the department said.
     
    In the US, TRO has raised funds for the LTTE through a network of individual representatives the organisation is the preferred means for sending funds from the US to the LTTE in Sri Lanka, the department claimed.
     
    The US Department of State designated the LTTE a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on October 8, 1997 and named it an SDGT on November 2, 2001.
  • India changes language with measured ambiguity
    India has changed its stand on Sri Lanka, no longer insisting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lay down arms as a pre-condition for negotiations with the Sri Lankan government for a political settlement.
     
    The subtle change in India's stand was reflected in President Pratibha Patil's address to Parliament in New Delhi on Thursday, February 11.
     
    Indian President Prathiba Patil in her address to the joint sitting of Indian Parliament declared that India continued to support a negotiated political settlement in Sri Lanka within the framework of an undivided Sri Lanka acceptable to all the communities, including the Tamil community.
     
    Ms. Prathiba Patil urged Colombo and the Tigers to return to negotiating table, seen as another change of stance.

    Addressing the members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Ms. Pratibha Devisingh Patil said:

    "We are concerned at the plight of civilians internally displaced in Sri Lanka on account of escalation of the military conflict. We continue to support a negotiated political settlement in Sri Lanka within the framework of an undivided Sri Lanka acceptable to all the communities, including the Tamil community. I would appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka and to the LTTE to return to the negotiating table. This can be achieved if, simultaneously, the Government of Sri Lanka suspends its military operations and the LTTE declares its willingness to lay down arms and to begin talks with the government."

    The address of the President of India in the joint session of the Parliament is a declared official position of the Government of India (GoI).

    Even though the relevant part of the declaration began saying "we continue to support," the nuances of Indian position have changed significantly.

    Instead of silently allowing the continuation of war, the GoI has asked the Parties to return to the negotiating table.

    India has also taken a position that the LTTE is a partner in the negotiations.

    GoI now requests both parties to act simultaneously: Colombo to suspend military operations and the Tigers to declare its willingness to lay down arms, which allows room for both parties to actually end the war only after reaching a mutually accepted position in the political negotiations.

    Laying down arms is specifically understood as surrender in the usage of English language (The Concise Oxford Dictionary). But, "declare its willingness" provides space for conditional engagement.

    The statement 'within the framework of an undivided Sri Lanka acceptable to all communities, including the Tamil community,' is ambiguous and could mean acceptance coming from the Tamil people is a precondition for an undivided Sri Lanka.

    However, in the wake of Colombo's rejection of the British attempt to appoint a Special Envoy to Sri Lanka to help seek a political solution, it remains to be seen how Colombo will respond to the changed nuances in the stance of the Indian government.

    PTI reported members of PMK and MDMK, wearing black shirts, rose at one point during her 80-minute long speech and shouted: 'Your Highness, please stop the war in Sri Lanka'.
  • Tamil Nadu needs to go beyond demonstrations'
    If at all there is any positive impact of the unprecedented uprising and demonstrations, staged spontaneously by the masses of Tamil Nadu and the diaspora, it is the inward awakening of global Tamils to the forces of oppression and to the defiance of the oppressors, whether domestic or international.
     
    A historic responsibility lies on the leaders of Tamil Nadu and on those who uphold the struggle of the oppressed, to channel the positive energy generated from the uprising to achieve its goals rather than allowing it to be carried away by the machinations of the oppressors.
     
    The crises in Afghanistan and in the island of Sri Lanka may have originated for different reasons, and may have different attributes, but they are being made use of by powers for the same goal of economic and strategic interests.

    They are the north-south axis for brutally setting a cruel global order in the region of South Asia and ‘strategic partners’ are invited from within the region as well as from outside.

    The national liberation struggle of Eelam Tamils, arising from irrefutable realities of incorrigible ethnic oppression and was denied of any space other than an armed struggle, became labeled and sabotaged by the above forces as it was seen as the only ‘fighting sprit’ and a stumbling block for their greed.

    This happened despite favourable disposition of those who were spearheading the struggle towards every power of regional or global imperialism.

    The ultimate aims of the powers now playing the Sinhala ultranationalist card and the repercussions are not going to stop with the island of Sri Lanka. Next in the frontline are the southern states of India that have shown remarkable development potentiality in recent times.

    Drunk with delusions of victory, the Sinhala state is going to be actively engaged as an agent of destabilization of the region.

    LTTE is merely a name. But, the resolute and unshakeable spirit behind it in fighting oppression is a larger phenomenon. It is not the time to lose the sight of the larger phenomenon in the arguments over its ways and means.

    Rather than achieving space to evolve and shape the spirit behind the LTTE, silently or helplessly watching it being vanquished by those who don’t righteously deserve a victory and by those of the ‘international community of global greedy’, doesn’t augur well for South Asia.

    The immediate task of the leaders of Tamil Nadu is to grasp the spirit of the mandate given to them by the masses of Tamil Nadu in their uprising and finding ways of disseminating its larger message and its proper perspectives to the rest of India.

    Tamil Nadu alone cannot tackle the impending phenomenon engulfing the region.

    The peoples and leaders of the neighbouring states, beginning from Kerala, need briefings first, about the larger issues involved in the Eelam struggle that go beyond ethnonationalist competitions and interstate issues.

    The national parties such as CPI and CPI (M) have a crucial role to play in this regard, is a comment heard from Tamil Nadu circles.

    The umbrella front formed recently to protect Eelam Tamils should rise up to the occasion in conceiving and undertaking structured moves, since the noble task they have embarked upon is overarching - finding ways leading to the protection of Eelam Tamils permanently.

    Unfolding situation may demand a multifaceted expansion of its role.

    On a war footing it may perhaps ideal to invent ways of keeping the front above party politics but at the same time engaging the active function of all political parties.

    The umbrella front may even have national as well as global councils and diplomatic corps of its own deployment to deal with the unfolding scenario which is in fact international.

    It is soul satisfying to note that the real vanguard of a society at any time - students, lawyers and media of Tamil Nadu are showing unswerving solidarity with the aspirations of the oppressed Eelam Tamils.

    But a section that needs to come to the forefront or perhaps needs to be mobilized is the English-using Tamil intellectuals, academics and professionals. One finds them everywhere, at the top echelons all over the world.

    It is time for them to realize, through the evidence of what is happening to the Eelam Tamils, that doom for them and to their posterity are the designs of the system they toil for in India or abroad. A little time and initiative they could afford to the interests of their own people would make a big difference.

    The tendency in a section of the above group to dodge political and social responsibilities, citing the LTTE and for that sake, abetting reactionaries, is not a positive approach. When nobody was there to address the crux of the matter the LTTE did it, facing the entire world, armed with only its local genius. Since no solution is the solution Indo-international system is imposing on Eelam Tamils, the LTTE will continue the struggle in its own ways.

    The genuine efforts of those who may not agree with the LTTE in the struggle against the oppression of Eelam Tamils need not interfere with each other and can be complimentary, if the aims are beneficial to the oppressed and not in anyway to the oppressors.
     
  • Congress feels the heat in parliament
    The Congress led UPA government came under severe criticism from inside and outside of the Parliament, for its continued support for Sri Lanka’s war and for being indifferent to suffering of Tamils in the neighbouring island.
     
    Cutting across party lines, members in both Houses of Parliament voiced serious concern on Friday, February 13, over the spiralling death toll of Tamil civilians and India’s inaction.
     
    Raising the issue in Rajya Sabha, BJP leader S Thirunavukkarasar said
    the Sri Lankan army was killing innocent Tamils in that country and India was helping the Sri Lankan government.
     
    Accusing the Indian government of inaction, Thirunavukkarasar added nothing was being done to alleviate the suffering of people. He urged the government to take up the matter in the United Nations and work for ensuring a ceasefire.
     
    He also demanded that the Indian Government should not help the Sri Lankan government and stop military aid.

    D. Raja of CPI said a genocide was going on in the island nation and described the situation there as very disturbing.
     
    Charging that India was providing radar expertise and naval cover to the Sri Lankan army thereby giving it a tactical edge in the ongoing strife, he demanded that the government reconsider the existing policy.
     
    Accusing the UPA government of failing to safeguard the lives of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Raja said:  "India cannot treat this as an internal problem of Sri Lanka,"
     
    V. Maitreyan of AIADMK assured the government of his party's support in whatever it did to stop the war.
     
    Sharing their concern, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayansamy said, “The President of India made it very clear about the Indian Government’s policy on Sri Lanka”.
     
    Raising the issue in Lok Sabha during zero hour, BJP member Santosh Gangwar said the government should take appropriate steps for the safety of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    PMK leader Ramadoss said that it was a clear case of genocide of the Tamil population.
     
    Taking strong exception to the argument of the Indian Government, Ramadoss said "Tamilians issue in Sri Lanka is an Indian issue. We should not keep silent by saying that it is an internal matter of Sri Lanka," 
     
    Rupchand Pal (CPI-M) suggested a peaceful resolution of the issue.
  • Vanni Tamils face starvation
    The United Nations has warned hundreds of thousands of people, living in the war zone in the north-eastern Sri Lankan region of Vanni, are facing a food crisis.
     
    World Food Programme (WFP) says about one-quarter of a million people there are totally dependent on international aid agencies who are unable to gain access to the area.

    Sri Lankan military has sealed off Vanni to the outside world. The United Nations says about 250,000 civilians are trapped there. Aid agencies say they are unable to bring essential relief supplies to the people.

    Hundreds of civilians have been killed and many wounded in recent days
    and several Western countries have pressed the Sri Lankan government to declare a cease-fire to allow emergency relief to be provided to the people caught in the fighting and the injured civilians to be transported for treatment.
     
    Amnesty International has also called on both sides to declare a humanitarian cease-fire to allow civilians out and to let food, water and medical supplies be delivered to those who can't leave.

    "A quarter of a million people are suffering without adequate food and shelter while shells rain down upon them. Most of those who have managed to escape the conflict have not received adequate hospital treatment," said Yolanda Foster, a researcher at the London-based rights group.

    But the government has ruled out a cease-fire.

    The World Food Program has said that the entire population of the Vanni is facing a food crisis. Some 250,000 people there are completely dependent on humanitarian aid, but WFP said it has not been able to get a supply convoy into the conflict zone since January 16.

    "At present, the entire population of the Vanni is facing a food crisis due to continuous displacement, crop failure and recent floods," World Food Program spokeswoman, Emilia Casella said.
     
    "Their livelihood is almost completely lost, exacerbating the food insecurity and their coping mechanisms have been exhausted. There is complete dependency on humanitarian and food assistance for their survival."  

    A convoy that was supposed to enter during a 4-hour "humanitarian window" on Thursday, February 5, could not go because the agency did not receive the necessary clearance from government officials,
     
    "We don't have any more stocks to be distributed, and our staffs are essentially hiding at the moment," Casella said. WFP has 16 staff and 81 dependents in the Vanni area.
  • In Sri Lanka, Tamil women suffer the worst of war
    In one of the biggest hospitals in Sri Lanka's north, many women patients wonder why they survived the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the military that killed so many of their friends.
     
    A woman in her late 40s frequently breaks down as she lies on a bed in a hospital in Mannar, clutching her son of two-and-a-half years who has lost a leg. Her two other children are missing, residents in the region say.
     
    She was among the large number of Tamils escaping from Kilinochchi, the former political hub of the Tamil Tigers, last month when a shell probably fired by the army exploded, ripping apart her son's leg below the knee.
     
    Losing no time, she handed over her other two children, a six-month-old son and a daughter of seven years, to a friend as she tried to find help to save her bleeding and wailing son.
     
    She managed to reach the hospital in Mannar, where she remains warded. She has no idea where the other children are - and whether she will see them ever again.
     
    She also has no news of her husband, who left their home long ago after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ordered him to serve their civilian militia.
     
    Another patient at the hospital is a girl of 16 years who is left with only her upper torso. A resident of Mullaitivu district, both her legs came off in an aerial bombing seemingly targeted at the LTTE.
     
    There is also a 22-year-old woman, seven months pregnant. Half her body got burnt when her house in Kilinochchi caught fire in aerial bombing. Her breasts are charred.
     
    Remarkably, all these women are officially under detention at the hospital although some cannot even stir on their own. Since they came from areas the LTTE ruled for years, the doctors have been forbidden from discharging them.
     
    Human suffering shows no signs of abating in Sri Lanka's bleeding war. Most of the pain is being borne by Tamil civilians, many of whom are destitute after repeatedly fleeing their homes.
     
    As the Sri Lankan military remains poised to seize the last stretch of land held by the LTTE in Mullativu, civilians are fleeing from there in hundreds, desperate to get away from it all.
     
    Medical personnel say that many of the patients in Mannar are traumatised after seeing scores of bodies along the road as they fled the fighting. Many bodies were torn apart.
     
    Many of the injured, reports say, simply bled to death because no help was available.
     
    One woman told the doctor: 'It is worse than the tsunami. At that time many came to help us. Now there is nobody.'
     
    Hospitals in the northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya every day receive dozens of wounded civilians. The really critical cases are sent to Anuradhapura, at the edge of the war zone.
     
    Most victims are children, women and elderly men. While the Vavuniya hospital has all kinds of patients, the ones at Mannar are mostly amputees - those without hands and legs.
     
    Once out of the conflict zone, and left with nothing but the clothes they are in, the injured are dependent on the military and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for survival.
     
    There appears to be no precise count of how many have been wounded in aerial bombings and shelling. Tamils from outside have no access to army-seized Kilincochi where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Tamils from Mullaitivu have taken refuge.
     
    Civilians who have not been injured are taken to detention centres in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna to find out if they are indeed non-combatants or LTTE fighters in disguise.
  • SLA suffers over 1000 casualties, Tigers seize large weapons cache
    In fighting that lasted five days, over one thousand Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and an arms storage was seized by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to sources close to LTTE.
     
    The fierce fighting followed the pre-emptive strike launched by LTTE commandos on SLA offensive units that were preparing for an all out assault on Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) on Sunday February 1.
     
    Hundreds of SLA crack commandos were drawn into Mannakandal and Keappaapulavu 'boxes' and were cut off from their rear supplies during a pre-emptive strike by the Tiger forces, resulting in the loss of more than one thousand SLA soldiers.
     
    An arms storage, which was full of weapons as the SLA was in full preparation to launch its 'final assault' on PTK was seized by the Tiger commandos engaged in the pre-emptive strike.
     
    The sources further revealed that there were at least 20 mortars, thousands of shells, several hundreds of assault rifles, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), RPG launchers and a conservative estimate of one million rounds were among the arms and ammunitions seized by the Tigers. The Tigers had emptied the store of stockpiled arms and ammunitions by the time the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed the location of its own arsenal.
     
    Three battle tanks, two troop carriers, a military bus and two tractors were fully destroyed in the first day of fighting alone.

    Meanwhile, more than 100 SLA soldiers perished in a Black Tiger attack on Tuesday, February 3, in Keappaapulavu, according to Eela Naatham daily, the only newspaper printed in LTTE controlled territory.

    The newspaper displayed photos of Black Tigers with the LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan.

    The Black Tigers rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the SLA installation and the Tiger commandos stormed the 'box' and brought it under their control.

    Reliable sources in Vavuniya, quoting informed Sri Lankan military officials, said an SLA Colonel who had refused to retreat with his soldiers and was insisting his rear command re-establish supply links to his stranded unit, was the target of the Black Tiger attack.

    The sources in Vavuiniya also quoted Sri Lankan military officials as saying that there have been a number of surprise attacks and ambushes by LTTE units operating deep inside the SLA occupied territory in recent weeks.

    Around 20 supply vehicles of the SLA that attempted to link up were destroyed in the attack. The Tigers also seized heavy weapons and military hardware, the sources further said.

    The LTTE has released photographs of female commandos taken before the pre-emptive strike.
  • Hundreds of troopers killed in Kalmadu Tank attack
    In well planned operation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters blasted off the Kalmadukulam tank bund using high powered explosives flooding a large section of A-35 between Paranthan and Visuwamadu and staged a water-bourne attack on the Sri Lankan forces deployed in the area, inflicting heavy casualties, according to media reports.
     
    At least 800 troops from the 57 division who were deployed in the general area of Ramanathapuram and Tharmapuram in preparation for an all out assault on Visuwamadu were killed in the LTTE attack that took place in the early hours of Saturday January 24, according to media reports.
     
    Sea Tigers deployed their attack crafts on flood water to enter military controlled territories of Ramanathapuram and Tharmapuram to launch attacks on Sri Lankan soldiers, according to reports.
     
    Whilst Sri Lankan defence ministry acknowledged the attack, the LTTE has not commented on it.
     
    According to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry website, “the flood waters reached over 4ft and ravaged across the slope land Northwards” and the Sea Tigers “launched the attack following the destruction of the Kalamadukulam Tank bund, onboard 5 boats along the flood channel.”
     
    “Heavy artillery and mortar shells were also fired towards the area subsequently” added the website.
     
    Although the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry report portrayed the attack as a humanitarian catastrophe that affected civilians, Sri Lanka observers pointed out that no civilians lived in the flooded areas as people had moved further east towards LTTE controlled territory.
  • Aid flows in as war rages
    Britain announced that aid to Sri Lanka would be doubled despite the south Asian island’s government refusing to heed to international calls to halt the war it’s waging in which hundreds of Tamils have been brutally killed in the past ten days alone.
     
    Japan’s special envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi during his visit to Sri Lanka in January also provided assurances that his country will continue to provide aid to Colombo’s government despite its poor human rights record.
     
    British aid to Sri Lanka stands at £5 million after the announcement and the UK is to send experts to assess where the extra cash can best be spent.
     
    The extra £2.5 million of help doubles the sum announced in October last year to support the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the International Organisation of Migration and the World Food Programme.
     
    International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander added: "Not enough aid is getting through to those who desperately need it. I welcome the Sri Lankan President's assurance that civilians will have safe passage through the conflict zone to reach a secure environment.”
     
    "I urge all parties to make sure that this safe passage is implemented and that efforts are made to assist civilians to move away from danger. Other donors must consider providing additional humanitarian support for the thousands of innocent civilians caught up in this conflict."
     
    Addressing a press conference at the Colombo Hilton at the end of a brief tour, signalled that Japan was ready to financially back Sri Lanka’s efforts to develop the Eastern Province, liberated by security forces in 2007
     
    Akashi said Japan was aware of the needs of the Eastern Province. Asserting that the East needed urgent assistance, Akashi emphasised that restoration of law and order and good governance would be a requisite for development aid.
     
    Responding to a query raised by The Island, the diplomat said that a USD 4.5 billion pledge given to Sri Lanka at the two-day Tokyo Donor Conference in June, 2003, wouldn’t be denied to Sri Lanka, despite the Sri Lankan government walking out of the ceasefire.
     
    As part of the peace process spearheaded by the government of Norway, international donors pledged USD 4.5 billion over four years.
  • Norway breaks silence, condemns war
    The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, in a statement issued on Tuesday, January 27 said his government condemned the ongoing war in Sri Lanka, which has caused "unacceptable sufferings to the civilians," in the country.
     
    Meanwhile, International Development Minister Erik Solheim called on the parties stressing that all the people in conflict area should be able to move freely and that the civilians who flee the war must be assured a dignified and respectful treatment under the supervision and monitoring of UN and international observers.
     
    "The sick and the wounded must be given access for treatment and ambulances must be able to travel unhindered, in and out of the conflict area," Solheim has demanded.

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement to this effect in Norwegian language on Tuesday.
     
    The Norwegian Minister for International Develoment, Erik Solheim, who re-established his position in the Norwegian politics following his active engagement in the Sri Lankan peace process, said: "I am deeply distressed to learn the situation of the civilians who are trapped inside the conflict area in the North of Sri Lanka."

    He called on all efforts to be focused on stopping the sufferings of the civilians.

    "We are receiving information that the number of civilian casualties are ever- increasing and that the civilians are caught up in the crossfire between the parties. This is very serious. Both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) have a responsibility to protect the civilians and to avoid further civilians getting killed."

    "All the people in conflict area should be able to move freely. Both the parties must respect this. Civilians who flee the war must be assured a dignified and respectful treatment under the supervision and monitoring of UN and international monitors," he said.

    "In addition, both the parties must ensure that food and other humanitarian supplies reach the civilians in need. The sick and the wounded must be given access for treatment and ambulances must be able to travel unhindered, in and out of the conflict area," Solheim further demanded.
  • IC in disarray over war and casualties
    As the number of Tamil civilian deaths mounted inside the government proposed safety zone due to artillery bombardment by Sri Lankan forces, the co-chairs and India reacted with varying responses showing disarray within the international community on Sri Lanka’s ongoing civil war.
     
    The Royal Norwegian government, which facilitated the latest peace process between Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), condemned the war whilst the European Union and the United Kingdom demanded a humanitarian ceasefire to supply food and medicine and create a safe passage for civilians.
     
    Over 500 civilians died last week in the military’s deliberate shelling of populated areas, including the ‘safe zone’ Colombo announced.
     
    The United States and Canada limited their reactions to merely expressing their concern but India and Japan remained unmoved by the plight of the Tamils caught in the war.
     
     
    Humanitarian ceasefire
     
    EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel on Thursday, January 29 called for a ceasefire between Sri Lankan forces and LTTE to allow food and medical supplies to be sent to the civilians living in the LTTE controlled territory in Vanni.
     
    "This is an escalating humanitarian catastrophe. We are extremely worried about the terrible situation facing people trapped in the fighting," in the combat zone in the northeast of the island, Michel said in a statement.
     
    "Everything must be done to prevent the suffering of the population and stop further bloodshed and I therefore urge that a window of cessation of hostilities be agreed by the parties to allow civilians to leave the combat zone," he urged.
     
    Michel said that "many civilians have died and hundreds of wounded people are deprived of adequate medical care."
     
    The EU's Michel said the top priorities at the moment were the safe passage for food convoys organised by the World Food Programme, and full access for medical staff and life-saving medicines.
    On the Same day, the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to agree on immediate 'Humanitarian Ceasefire'.
     
    Miliband said in his statement that "military advances by the Sri Lankan Government against the LTTE have come at a severe humanitarian cost."
     
    Humanitarian corridors must now be set up and respected by both sides so that civilians have the opportunity to move away from the conflict area and humanitarian assistance can be safely delivered, he said.

    Political observers, commenting on statements made by the UK noted the adjective of the nuanced statement 'Humanitarian Ceasefire', and said that it may imply allowing Colombo government to continue its war while separating civilians from the LTTE.
    No ceasefire
    However, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's human rights minister, rejected calls for a ceasefire, vowing to continue the military offensive against the LTTE.
    "There will be no ceasefire," Samarasinghe said.
    "We will continue with our military operations and we will continue to liberate areas which had not been liberated so far."
    US Saddened
     
    On Friday January 31, the United States expressed its concern over humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka and hoped the 25-year old civil war would soon come to an end, without urging the Sri Lankan government which is waging the bloody war to end it.

    "We're very concerned about the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka," State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, told reporters at his daily press briefing yesterday when asked about the worsening humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.

    Wood said the US is working through UN organisations to try to provide whatever help it can.

    "It's a very sad situation, especially some of the attacks against the media. We've been very concerned about that," he said.

    Terming it as a longstanding conflict, Wood said the US would like to see a better outcome of this civil war in Sri Lanka.

    "Hopefully at some point, you know, this war will come to an end and, the Sri Lankan people can begin to think about a better life for themselves and their children," he said.
     
     
    Deep concern
     
    Canada also reflected similar sentiments, in a statement of its own, expressing its deep concern by the ongoing unrest in northeast of Sri Lanka.
     
    "Recent developments underline the urgent need for progress toward a meaningful and durable political solution," Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said.
     
    "Canada calls on all parties to allow full, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian workers, and ensure the safe and voluntary movement of civilians from combat zones," said Cannon.
     
    The Canadian government, added that it continues "to deliver strong messages to all parties to the conflict about the importance of a return to the peace process and the need to promote and protect the values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law."
     
     
    Unmoved
     
    India which sent its Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, did not release any statements demanding a ceasefire or condemning the killing of civilians.
     
    Japan, which is the second largest aid provider to Sri Lanka, after Iran, was also not concerned with the civilian casualties.
     
    Japan’s special envoy Yashushi Akashi, was quoted by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry as “expressing satisfaction at the efforts by the Sri Lanka Government to safeguard the civilian population in the north.
  • Karunanidhi falls inline with Delhi, Abandons Tamils
    Backing Delhi's stand on Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, ruling Dravida Muneetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, February 3 urged the Sri Lankan government to ‘extend its full cooperation’ to ‘work out a permanent solution which will ensure full devolution of powers and autonomy to Tamils living in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka’ while washing its hands off the ceasefire demand saying the state government had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of a foreign country.
     
    Spelling out DMK’s stand on the issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said he wanted a solution to the issue in "a democratic way", effectively distancing the party from Tamil freedom struggle.
     
    It is for the first time that the DMK had openly backed autonomy and devolution of powers as a solution to end the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka.
    The party had earlier rejected the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord which envisaged the concept of devolution of powers. The LTTE and the Tamils and rejected the accord.
     
    Commenting Karunanidhi’s change of stance, Paataali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder-leader Dr. S. Ramadoss criticized the DMK Executive Council resolutions for not containing any ceasefire demand.
     
    "Does Karunanidhi not know that ceasefire is a prerequiste for peace-talks? Does this omission not reveal that the Rajapakse Government and the Karunanidhi Government are no different at the ideological level?" he said.

    The PMK leader said that the DMK Government had "washed his hands off" the Eelam Tamils. The creation of a welfare organization for Lankan Tamils was done as early as 1958 by the DMK. Ramadoss wondered why the DMK was pulling the Eelam struggle back by half a century.
  • Tamilnadu erupts over Eelam
    Tamil Nadu prepared for a total shut down on February 4, Sri Lanka’s Independence Day to protest against the killing Tamils in Sri Lanka. The general shutdown, called by the newly formed Eelam Tamils Protection Movement (ETPM) comes amidst widespread public anger at Delhi’s continued support for Sri Lanka’s war.
     
    In the past week, 2 people have committed suicide by self-immolating themselves in protest of Delhi’s continued support to Sri Lankan state. A third person who jumped from a 100-metre high telecommunications tower protesting against Indian inaction against Sri Lanka’s brutal war against Tamils.
     
    Businesses associated with Sri Lanka, including Bank of Ceylon and Sri Lankan Airlines, were attacked and destroyed.
     
    Across the state, students observed fasts and trade unionists, womens organisations and lawyers took to the streets against the continuing killing of Tamils in the neighbouring island.
     
    Student uprising
     
    On January 23 200,000 students from various schools and colleges took part in a state wide boycott in support of Eelam Tamils. Students of more than five colleges in the state are on indefinite hunger strike and in various parts of the state, students are indulging in road-blockades and are taking out processions to show their solidarity with the Eelam Tamils.

    As means of diffusing the student uprising, the government of Tamil Nadu on Saturday, January 31 announced an indefinite closure of all state-aided, state-run and private colleges in the state.
     
    "This reminds us of the 1965 anti-Hindi agitations that rocked Tamil Nadu. At that point of time too, colleges were indefinitely closed that lasted well over three months," said a senior Tamil activist.
     
    Advocates in indefinite boycott
     
    Demanding the International Community to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka and calling for the resignation of Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee for his approach to the Tamil issue, the Madras High Court Advocates Association Thursday, January 29 called for an indefinite boycott of courts.
     
    The Tamil Nadu Advocates Association, the other major lawyers collective, has also asked its members to abstain from court proceedings for a week.

    Madras High Court Advocates Association President Paul Kanagaraj has called for an association meeting Tuesday to chart out the future course of action.

    Likewise, the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association President S Prabakaran has urged the Center to take steps to stop the genocide of Tamils.
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