NorthEast

Taxonomy Color
red

  • Sri Lankan warns civilians, fires 5000 shells targeting safety zone

    Feb 03
    The Sri Lankan government issued a stark warning to Tamil civilians living in Vanni, raising fears that the Sri Lankan military is planning to step up artillery and aerial bombardment leading to even more civilian casualties.
     
    A government statement said the fight against the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was at "the decisive stage" and that it could not guarantee the security of tens of thousands of non-combatants living outside a designated "safety zone" in LTTE-held territory.
     
    "The government calls on all civilians to enter the demarcated 'safety zone' as soon as possible," the statement said.
     
    "The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE terrorists," it added.
     
    Even though the Sri Lankan government unilaterally proposed the safety zone, its military has repeatedly targeted the area in the past week killing and wounding scores of civilians including children.
     
    On Monday February 2, alone Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired More than 5,000 artillery shells and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rockets throughout the whole day from all directions into the safety zone.
     
    At least one hundred civilians could have been killed or maimed in the indiscriminate barrage. The casualties are uncountable as the whole population is forced to reside inside the bunkers throughout the whole day
     
    Furthermore, whilst the Sri Lankan government wants civilians to move into the safety zone, it has prevented international relief agencies operating within the zone.
     
    On Tuesday, January 27 SLA instructed UN and World Food Programme officials to keep away from 'safety zone,' which has been subjected to continuous artillery barrage, denying civilians any meaningful space of refuge, said the latest reports from the offices of the Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) for Kilinochchi and Mullaiththeevu.
     
    "Completely given up by the International Community, the civilians are left to face the fate at the hands of their genocidal killers. Indications are that they would rather choose to die starving rather than getting caught by Colombo's army of predators," said a medical staff at Udaiyaarkaddu hospital.
    "These are people who have maternal attachment to their land and freedom."

    "If the abettors of Colombo's war, India and especially the Co-chairs, do not change their attitude, these people would face hunger and death. The situation is worse than what the world has witnessed in Congo and other countries in the Africa," he said.

    "They think people would walk into the hands of the SLA as they were forced to do in Sampoor and Vaakarai, but they fail to grasp the reality.
  • Rare images emerge of Tamils trapped in war
    A mother and father lay on the floor, their two young children cradled between them. Floral pillows and other bedding were strewn about: They were apparently sleeping when an artillery shell hit their makeshift shelter in northern Sri Lanka, instantly killing them all.
     
    This photo, taken Jan. 23, along with other pictures and video footage taken last week were given to The Associated Press by independent observers. They offer a rare glimpse of the growing toll the civil war has taken on the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the all-but-sealed conflict zone.
     
    The images show that despite repeated government denials, civilians are being killed and maimed in the fighting.
     
    Some of the victims were attacked inside a government-declared "safe zone" in LTTE-held territory and the wounded were brought to the nearby Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, which itself has come under attack.
     
    The hospital, overflowing with wounded civilians, was shelled Monday for the fourth time in two days, killing two patients, said Kandasamy Tharmakulasingham, a government health official. A total of 11 people have been killed since the first attack on the hospital Sunday afternoon, he said.
     
    One of the last working medical institutions in the region, the hospital lies outside the "safe zone" the government established Jan. 21 inside LTTE territory as a refuge for civilians. The government pledged not to attack the safe area during its offensive against the LTTE, but it has come under repeated artillery attack, according to local health officials and human rights groups.
     
    Government troops have brought the Tamil Tigerss to the brink of defeat in recent months, forcing them out of much of the de facto state they once controlled in the north, capturing their administrative capital and shattering their dream of establishing a separate homeland for minority Tamils. The offensive has also raised growing concerns about the fate of civilians in the war zone.
    Journalists and most aid groups have been barred from the area of the fighting, but independent observers shot video footage and photographs over the past week and provided them to The Associated Press. The observers provided the images on condition they not be identified because they feared government reprisal.
     
    The photograph of the slain family was taken in the early morning of January 23 in the village of Udayarkattu inside the "safe zone," according to the observer who took the picture. It showed the bloodied bodies of a woman, two young children and a man lying among brightly colored floral pillows, a green mat, striped sheets and other bedding. A bicycle, stacked blankets and other household items could be seen in the background.
     
    An artillery shell struck between two makeshift shelters where people displaced by the fighting were staying and the family of four was killed instantly, the observer said. A second photo showed the body of a woman wearing a red-and-white checked dress lying face down under debris in another shelter nearby.
     
    The video footage, taken last week, showed Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital packed with dozens of severely wounded people, including many young children. Many of the wounded were lying on mats underneath beds because of overcrowding.
     
    The footage showed young boys and girls with amputated legs and arms, and an elderly woman missing her right leg writhing on a mat on the floor. A toddler, his head bandaged and left eye swollen closed, lay nearby, his gauze-covered hands useless as flies buzzed around his face.
     
    "We were caught in shelling after I unloaded our goods. Both my sisters were killed," a teenage boy with no arms sobbed in despair in the footage.
     
    Nearby, a middle-aged man lay on a bed with one leg amputated above the knee and the other amputated below it. "I was sleeping with my family when the shells fell," he said, gesturing helplessly.
     
    "My wife and two children, aged 7 and 10, were blown to pieces and I screamed."
     
    Another man, his right arm missing below the elbow and his left hand bandage, recalled: "I got caught in a shell attack near my house. That's all I remember. When I woke up, my hand was cut off."
     
    The footage showed young children, including a baby who appeared to be less than 1-year-old with both legs heavily bandaged.
     
    Asked about the video and photographs, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara asserted: "No civilians have been killed."
     
    "There may be civilians injured, but not due to shelling. They may be injured because they have been employed on the construction of (LTTE) defenses. Civilians maybe have been injured due to crossfire," he said.
     
    Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, estimated last week that more than 300 civilians had been killed in the recent fighting, something the government has denied. Varatharajah has not updated his estimate.
     
    The government has accused the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, of holding the civilians against their will as human shields, a charge the LTTE deny.
     
    A government spokesman insisted the civilians move en masse to the "safe zone" immediately. "The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE terrorists," said spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle.
     
    He did not say how the civilians could move if they were being held against their will.
     
    The United Nations said the government could not absolve itself of responsibility for the safety of the civilian population. "You can't cherry pick from the laws of war. The warring parties remain responsible for civilians at all times," U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said.
     
    President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Monday the military was on the verge of ending Asia's longest-running civil war.
     
    "The strongholds of terror once believed to be invincible ... have fallen in rapid succession, bringing the final elimination of terror from our motherland and the dawn of true freedom to all our people well within our reach," he said in a message to mark Independence Day, which falls on Wednesday, February 4.
  • Sri Lanka crisis reveals India not ready for global security role
    The UNSC is the decision making body par excellence. The General Assembly can make collective resolutions, but these are not binding: only the Security Council can make declarations binding on UN member states.
     
    The initial purpose of the UNSC was to prevent the recurrence of war between the world’s most powerful states. The five permanent members, now all nuclear-armed, are those recognized in the aftermath of WW2 as ‘Great Powers’: the United State, Britain, France, Russia (taking over the seat of the Soviet Union) and China.
     
    Ten other seats are available on rotating 2-year terms for the world’s other states, as a way of sharing both responsibility and power over ‘global’ matters.
     
    Each Great Power has a veto on any collective UNSC decision. In other words, even if completely outnumbered by other Great Powers (and/or other states), no action inimical to the interests of a P5 member can be undertaken.
     
    The UNSC is ultimately responsible for keeping the peace around the world, especially when states attack each other – for example when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
     
    However, the ‘rise’ of other states in the past half-century has led to calls for reform of the UNSC, on the basis countries like Germany, Japan, India (also nuclear armed), and Brazil must have a say in global security issues. It is these states (near) great power status that justifies the call for expansion of the UNSC and their seat on it.
     
    However, global security today is not just about inter-Great Power conflict. It is also about the security of humanity. Matters like humanitarian crises, genocide, the HIV/AID global pandemic, and so on are at the centre of UNSC concerns, even if these are, as in any mult-lateral forum, mired in self-interests of individual Great Powers and other states.
     
    Sri Lanka’s long running conflict is a quintessential example of international security concerns.
     
    Though dubbed an ‘internal’ conflict, there has been long and heavy involvement – through inflows of development aid, military assistance, attempts at political re-engineering, and so on - of many powerful states including US, UK, China, Japan and of course Pakistan and India.
     
    The exploding humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka is not new. It is the culmination of Sri Lanka’s industrialized violence against the Tamil population (predominantly) of the Northeast.
     
    Indeed, the Northeast Tamils have always – since at least the 1980s - been subject by the Sri Lankan state to starvation by embargo, mass killing by aerial and artillery bombardment, mass forced displacement (often ahead of Sinhala colonization of their villages) and son.
     
    The Sri Lankan state’s industrialized killing and destructive power led the Tamil Diaspora to mushroom rapidly and by the time of the Norwegian peace process began in 2002, to the internal displacement of 800,000 people, predominantly Tamils.
     
    It was said that many such large-scale humanitarian crises and suffering were ignored by the global security establishment before 1990 because of the Cold War stand off between the West an the Soviet Union.
     
    The collapse of the Soviet Union was therefore supposed to free up the UNSC to deal with such ‘internal’ matters.
     
    Indeed, throughout the nineties, humanitarian issues within states increasingly came to be seen – via more emphasis on International Humanitarian Law, for example – as matters for international action.
     
    After the impotent inaction during the massacres in Bosnia (Sebrenica, for example), Rwanda, and so on, the logic of “humanitarian intervention” – international military action to protect civilians from “their” own governments became more common. The logic was crystallized in 2001 in the “Responsibility to Protect”.
     
    In other words, if states did not protect their population – and often states are responsible for brutalizing peoples – the international community would intervene forcefully – if not always by force – to protect peoples.
     
    However, by narrowing global security after 2001 to ‘terrorism’, the Bush administration in the US paved the way for the relegation of humanitarian security concerns – mass forced displacement, mass killings, genocide, and so on – to the distant background.
     
    Yet the eruptions within simmering crises like Sudan and Sri Lanka have increasingly forced humanitarian issues to back to the foreground.
     
    At the same time, in a world where Great Powers are held to have their particular “spheres of influence”, South Asia is seen as India’s preserve.
     
    In other words, when there are crisis here, it is Delhi that is expected to provide leadership and lead international action. This is especially so given India is an aspirant permanent member of the UNSC.
     
    However, the present humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka – which has been completely transparent to international scrutiny for several years, is proving the limits of India’s ability to move decisively on ‘transnational’ security issues.
     
    Even as Sri Lanka’s societal cohesiveness has disintegrated and the state has transformed into what some academics label an “ethnocracy”, India has proven unable to cope.
     
    By clinging to the easy US-led paradigm which reduced regional or global security merely to ‘fighting terrorism’ Delhi’s inability to influence events in India’s “backyard” has been concealed.
     
    However, as the ‘Global’ ‘War on Terror’ disintegrates and ceases to be the cornerstone for global security, Delhi’s inability to uphold International Humanitarian Law in the region, impose peace and security and, above all, ensure the protection of populations, minorities and peoples is being exposed.
     
    This week, amid expressions of alarm and concern by several members of the international community, India’s hesitant and timid response is hardly what might be expected of an aspirant custodian of global security.
     
    Domestic considerations are hardly a consideration, if anything the impassioned appeals from Tamil Nadu, the Indian state with the greatest authority within the Indian federation to speak on Sri Lanka’s Tamil question, has for several months been demanding decisive action by Delhi.
     
    Delhi’s inability to prevail on Sri Lanka’s Sinhala government has long been recognized by the region. It was demonstrated even in 2007 the Rajapakse administration humiliated the Singh administration by pointedly tearing up the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces enacted in 1987 by the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
     
    That Sri Lanka could confidently tear up an international treaty with neighbouring India was underlined by the Indian response. Whilst the conflict in the island has escalated and the humanitarian suffering has deepened inexorably, India has been able to do little more than alternate between entreaties for a solution and expression of concern.
     
    The unfolding disaster in Sri Lanka says much about the Sinhala-Tamil divide, the fiction of the ‘lasting peace’ claimed and promised by the international community from 2002 to 2006.
     
    The United Nations’ Security Council, though initially formed to keep the peace between the post WW2 Great Powers, is today the hub of global peace and security in wider terms. The UNSC’s permanent members are the world’s most powerful states – those capable of decisive leadership and robust action on international peace and security issues. India, along with other rising great powers, has declared its ambitions for a permanent seat in a reformed UNSC. However, the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is revealing the limits of Delhi’s ability to both be decisive and to act on matters at the core of the UNSC’s agenda.
     
    The UNSC is the decision making body par excellence. The General Assembly can make collective resolutions, but these are not binding: only the Security Council can make declarations binding on UN member states.
     
    The initial purpose of the UNSC was to prevent the recurrence of war between the world’s most powerful states. The five permanent members, now all nuclear-armed, are those recognized in the aftermath of WW2 as ‘Great Powers’: the United State, Britain, France, Russia (taking over the seat of the Soviet Union) and China.
     
    Ten other seats are available on rotating 2-year terms for the world’s other states, as a way of sharing both responsibility and power over ‘global’ matters.
     
    Each Great Power has a veto on any collective UNSC decision. In other words, even if completely outnumbered by other Great Powers (and/or other states), no action inimical to the interests of a P5 member can be undertaken.
     
    The UNSC is ultimately responsible for keeping the peace around the world, especially when states attack each other – for example when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
     
    However, the ‘rise’ of other states in the past half-century has led to calls for reform of the UNSC, on the basis countries like Germany, Japan, India (also nuclear armed), and Brazil must have a say in global security issues. It is these states (near) great power status that justifies the call for expansion of the UNSC and their seat on it.
     
    However, global security today is not just about inter-Great Power conflict. It is also about the security of humanity. Matters like humanitarian crises, genocide, the HIV/AID global pandemic, and so on are at the centre of UNSC concerns, even if these are, as in any mult-lateral forum, mired in self-interests of individual Great Powers and other states.
     
    Sri Lanka’s long running conflict is a quintessential example of international security concerns.
     
    Though dubbed an ‘internal’ conflict, there has been long and heavy involvement – through inflows of development aid, military assistance, attempts at political re-engineering, and so on - of many powerful states including US, UK, China, Japan and of course Pakistan and India.
     
    The exploding humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka is not new. It is the culmination of Sri Lanka’s industrialized violence against the Tamil population (predominantly) of the Northeast.
     
    Indeed, the Northeast Tamils have always – since at least the 1980s - been subject by the Sri Lankan state to starvation by embargo, mass killing by aerial and artillery bombardment, mass forced displacement (often ahead of Sinhala colonization of their villages) and son.
     
    The Sri Lankan state’s industrialized killing and destructive power led the Tamil Diaspora to mushroom rapidly and by the time of the Norwegian peace process began in 2002, to the internal displacement of 800,000 people, predominantly Tamils.
     
    It was said that many such large-scale humanitarian crises and suffering were ignored by the global security establishment before 1990 because of the Cold War stand off between the West an the Soviet Union.
     
    The collapse of the Soviet Union was therefore supposed to free up the UNSC to deal with such ‘internal’ matters.
     
    Indeed, throughout the nineties, humanitarian issues within states increasingly came to be seen – via more emphasis on International Humanitarian Law, for example – as matters for international action.
     
    After the impotent inaction during the massacres in Bosnia (Sebrenica, for example), Rwanda, and so on, the logic of “humanitarian intervention” – international military action to protect civilians from “their” own governments became more common. The logic was crystallized in 2001 in the “Responsibility to Protect”.
     
    In other words, if states did not protect their population – and often states are responsible for brutalizing peoples – the international community would intervene forcefully – if not always by force – to protect peoples.
     
    However, by narrowing global security after 2001 to ‘terrorism’, the Bush administration in the US paved the way for the relegation of humanitarian security concerns – mass forced displacement, mass killings, genocide, and so on – to the distant background.
     
    Yet the eruptions within simmering crises like Sudan and Sri Lanka have increasingly forced humanitarian issues to back to the foreground.
     
    At the same time, in a world where Great Powers are held to have their particular “spheres of influence”, South Asia is seen as India’s preserve.
     
    In other words, when there are crisis here, it is Delhi that is expected to provide leadership and lead international action. This is especially so given India is an aspirant permanent member of the UNSC.
     
    However, the present humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka – which has been completely transparent to international scrutiny for several years, is proving the limits of India’s ability to move decisively on ‘transnational’ security issues.
     
    Even as Sri Lanka’s societal cohesiveness has disintegrated and the state has transformed into what some academics label an “ethnocracy”, India has proven unable to cope.
     
    By clinging to the easy US-led paradigm which reduced regional or global security merely to ‘fighting terrorism’ Delhi’s inability to influence events in India’s “backyard” has been concealed.
     
    However, as the ‘Global’ ‘War on Terror’ disintegrates and ceases to be the cornerstone for global security, Delhi’s inability to uphold International Humanitarian Law in the region, impose peace and security and, above all, ensure the protection of populations, minorities and peoples is being exposed.
     
    This week, amid expressions of alarm and concern by several members of the international community, India’s hesitant and timid response is hardly what might be expected of an aspirant custodian of global security.
     
    Domestic considerations are hardly a consideration, if anything the impassioned appeals from Tamil Nadu, the Indian state with the greatest authority within the Indian federation to speak on Sri Lanka’s Tamil question, has for several months been demanding decisive action by Delhi.
     
    Delhi’s inability to prevail on Sri Lanka’s Sinhala government has long been recognized by the region. It was demonstrated even in 2007 the Rajapakse administration humiliated the Singh administration by pointedly tearing up the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces enacted in 1987 by the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
     
    That Sri Lanka could confidently tear up an international treaty with neighbouring India was underlined by the Indian response. Whilst the conflict in the island has escalated and the humanitarian suffering has deepened inexorably, India has been able to do little more than alternate between entreaties for a solution and expression of concern.
     
    The unfolding disaster in Sri Lanka says much about the Sinhala-Tamil divide, the fiction of the ‘lasting peace’ claimed and promised by the international community from 2002 to 2006.
     
    But it also reveals the limits of Indian power and leadership vis-à-vis the main issues of international security in the 21st century.
     
    The United Nations’ Security Council, though initially formed to keep the peace between the post WW2 Great Powers, is today the hub of global peace and security in wider terms. The UNSC’s permanent members are the world’s most powerful states – those capable of decisive leadership and robust action on international peace and security issues. India, along with other rising great powers, has declared its ambitions for a permanent seat in a reformed UNSC. However, the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is revealing the limits of Delhi’s ability to both be decisive and to act on matters at the core of the UNSC’s agenda.
     
    The UNSC is the decision making body par excellence. The General Assembly can make collective resolutions, but these are not binding: only the Security Council can make declarations binding on UN member states.
     
    The initial purpose of the UNSC was to prevent the recurrence of war between the world’s most powerful states. The five permanent members, now all nuclear-armed, are those recognized in the aftermath of WW2 as ‘Great Powers’: the United State, Britain, France, Russia (taking over the seat of the Soviet Union) and China.
     
    Ten other seats are available on rotating 2-year terms for the world’s other states, as a way of sharing both responsibility and power over ‘global’ matters.
     
    Each Great Power has a veto on any collective UNSC decision. In other words, even if completely outnumbered by other Great Powers (and/or other states), no action inimical to the interests of a P5 member can be undertaken.
     
    The UNSC is ultimately responsible for keeping the peace around the world, especially when states attack each other – for example when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
     
    However, the ‘rise’ of other states in the past half-century has led to calls for reform of the UNSC, on the basis countries like Germany, Japan, India (also nuclear armed), and Brazil must have a say in global security issues. It is these states (near) great power status that justifies the call for expansion of the UNSC and their seat on it.
     
    However, global security today is not just about inter-Great Power conflict. It is also about the security of humanity. Matters like humanitarian crises, genocide, the HIV/AID global pandemic, and so on are at the centre of UNSC concerns, even if these are, as in any mult-lateral forum, mired in self-interests of individual Great Powers and other states.
     
    Sri Lanka’s long running conflict is a quintessential example of international security concerns.
     
    Though dubbed an ‘internal’ conflict, there has been long and heavy involvement – through inflows of development aid, military assistance, attempts at political re-engineering, and so on - of many powerful states including US, UK, China, Japan and of course Pakistan and India.
     
    The exploding humanitarian crisis in northern Sri Lanka is not new. It is the culmination of Sri Lanka’s industrialized violence against the Tamil population (predominantly) of the Northeast.
     
    Indeed, the Northeast Tamils have always – since at least the 1980s - been subject by the Sri Lankan state to starvation by embargo, mass killing by aerial and artillery bombardment, mass forced displacement (often ahead of Sinhala colonization of their villages) and son.
     
    The Sri Lankan state’s industrialized killing and destructive power led the Tamil Diaspora to mushroom rapidly and by the time of the Norwegian peace process began in 2002, to the internal displacement of 800,000 people, predominantly Tamils.
     
    It was said that many such large-scale humanitarian crises and suffering were ignored by the global security establishment before 1990 because of the Cold War stand off between the West an the Soviet Union.
     
    The collapse of the Soviet Union was therefore supposed to free up the UNSC to deal with such ‘internal’ matters.
     
    Indeed, throughout the nineties, humanitarian issues within states increasingly came to be seen – via more emphasis on International Humanitarian Law, for example – as matters for international action.
     
    After the impotent inaction during the massacres in Bosnia (Sebrenica, for example), Rwanda, and so on, the logic of “humanitarian intervention” – international military action to protect civilians from “their” own governments became more common. The logic was crystallized in 2001 in the “Responsibility to Protect”.
     
    In other words, if states did not protect their population – and often states are responsible for brutalizing peoples – the international community would intervene forcefully – if not always by force – to protect peoples.
     
    However, by narrowing global security after 2001 to ‘terrorism’, the Bush administration in the US paved the way for the relegation of humanitarian security concerns – mass forced displacement, mass killings, genocide, and so on – to the distant background.
     
    Yet the eruptions within simmering crises like Sudan and Sri Lanka have increasingly forced humanitarian issues to back to the foreground.
     
    At the same time, in a world where Great Powers are held to have their particular “spheres of influence”, South Asia is seen as India’s preserve.
     
    In other words, when there are crisis here, it is Delhi that is expected to provide leadership and lead international action. This is especially so given India is an aspirant permanent member of the UNSC.
     
    However, the present humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka – which has been completely transparent to international scrutiny for several years, is proving the limits of India’s ability to move decisively on ‘transnational’ security issues.
     
    Even as Sri Lanka’s societal cohesiveness has disintegrated and the state has transformed into what some academics label an “ethnocracy”, India has proven unable to cope.
     
    By clinging to the easy US-led paradigm which reduced regional or global security merely to ‘fighting terrorism’ Delhi’s inability to influence events in India’s “backyard” has been concealed.
     
    However, as the ‘Global’ ‘War on Terror’ disintegrates and ceases to be the cornerstone for global security, Delhi’s inability to uphold International Humanitarian Law in the region, impose peace and security and, above all, ensure the protection of populations, minorities and peoples is being exposed.
     
    This week, amid expressions of alarm and concern by several members of the international community, India’s hesitant and timid response is hardly what might be expected of an aspirant custodian of global security.
     
    Domestic considerations are hardly a consideration, if anything the impassioned appeals from Tamil Nadu, the Indian state with the greatest authority within the Indian federation to speak on Sri Lanka’s Tamil question, has for several months been demanding decisive action by Delhi.
     
    Delhi’s inability to prevail on Sri Lanka’s Sinhala government has long been recognized by the region. It was demonstrated even in 2007 the Rajapakse administration humiliated the Singh administration by pointedly tearing up the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces enacted in 1987 by the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
     
    That Sri Lanka could confidently tear up an international treaty with neighbouring India was underlined by the Indian response. Whilst the conflict in the island has escalated and the humanitarian suffering has deepened inexorably, India has been able to do little more than alternate between entreaties for a solution and expression of concern.
     
    The unfolding disaster in Sri Lanka says much about the Sinhala-Tamil divide, the fiction of the ‘lasting peace’ claimed and promised by the international community from 2002 to 2006.
     
    But it also reveals the limits of Indian power and leadership vis-à-vis the main issues of international security in the 21st century. 
  • New movement to protest Eelam Tamils
    Concerned by New Delhi's inaction and driven by the need to bring about change in the prevailing tragic scenario in Vanni, five leaders of prominent Tamil Nadu parties, Vaiko, Dr. S. Ramadoss, Nedumaran, Thirumavalavan and D. Pandian, jointly launched the Eelam Tamils Protection Movement (ETPM) following a consultative meeting in Chennai Wednesday. Top leaders of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Tamil Nationalist Movement held closeted discussions on how to save the Eelam Tamils.

    Tamil Nationalist Movement leader Nedumaran has been chosen as the convenor of this front. As the first step, the ETPM has announced a silent black-flag protest near the Gandhi Statue on the Marina beach in Chennai on Friday, Jan 30, Gandhi's death anniversary.
  • Sri Lanka targets Diaspora, but Tamils resist
    Following the capture of Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass Sri Lankan defence establishment started psychological operations targeting the Tamil Diaspora spread across the globe, according to informed sources.
     
    But the result has been the opposite of what the Sri Lankan government hoped, with an increasing number of Tamils taking to the streets in support of the liberation struggle and those dying in the Tamil homelands.
     
    Expecting the Tamil Diaspora to be demoralised by the Sri Lankan military’s territorial gains, and in an attempt to further demoralise the Tamils living in North America, Europe and Australia, the Sri Lankan military has been portraying a bleak picture of the fortunes of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE).
     
    Whilst political leaders and the military chiefs are claiming the end of LTTE and projecting total victory within weeks, the defence establishment has been leaking stories of disarray, defection and discontent within LTTE ranks, hoping these messages would alienate the Tamil Diaspora and the LTTE, say informed sources.
     
    Sri Lankan military spread rumours include LTTE leader Velupillai Puirapaharan escaping Mullaitheevu, LTTE Commanders Bhanu and Theepan defecting and LTTE Intelligence wing head Pottu Amman being imprisoned by the LTTE.
     
    However, Tamil sources say that Sri Lanka efforts have not had the anticipated impact on the Tamil Diaspora.
     
    Instead of being demoralised by false stories being propagated by Sri Lanka, Tamil communities across the globe are actively engaged in highlighting the plight of fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka.
     
    They have also stepped up shows of solidarity with the liberation struggle through protests and vigils, with younger Tamils at the forefront of organising events.
     
    In London, more than 9000 Tamils gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s residence on January 17, urging British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to exert pressure on the governments of Sri Lanka and India to call for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
     
    ‘Stop the war!’, ‘Stop Tamil genocide!’, ‘Mahinda! Stop the war!’ and ‘We want Tamil Eelam!’ were some of the slogans shouted during the protest, along with the beat of drums.
     
    "The worsening humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Vanni where Tamil civilians are pounded with indiscriminate artillery barrage and aerial strikes killing even infants and children has energized the Tamil Youths in UK to rise in protest," protestors said.
     
    This was the third of a series of events organised by the the Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) in United Kingdom as part of an ‘Awareness Campaign’.
     
    The protesters said they hoped the campaign would grow into force that will bring British Tamils to act in unison to find a just and honourable solution to the Tamil struggle.
     
    In a similar series of events, nearly 300 Norwegian Tamils, along with Norwegian Members of Parliament and political leaders, gathered in the premises of the Norway Parliament on January 16, appealing to the Norwegian government to save Tamils in the Vanni.
     
    The demonstrators urged Norway and the International Community to immediately act to bring about a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.
     
    Separately, on January 20, around 400 Norwegian Tamils gathered in front of United States Embassy in Oslo, urging the U.S. Government to help stop the genocidal war on the Tamils in Vanni in Sri Lanka.
     
    They also urged the US to exert pressure on the Sri Lanka government to bring about an immediate cease fire. A memorandum submitted by the demonstrators was accepted by a representative of the American Embassy.
     
    ‘Bring about a ceasefire in Sri Lanka!’, ‘Urge the Lankan govt. to stop the genocide!’, ‘Help us Obama!’. ‘Work for paradigm shift in Sri Lanka!’, ‘Focus on Tamils’ plights!’, ‘Act promptly!’ and ‘End Tamils’ sufferings!’ were the slogans the participants kept shouting throughout the demonstration, which was timed to coincide with the swearing in of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States
     
    Meanwhile, in Sydney, the TYO there organised a token fast in support of those starving in the Vanni, and to highlight the facts of occurrences in the Vanni for the local population.
  • Traumatised children and a disordered society in Tamil Eelam
    As the fireworks thundered above our heads welcoming 2009 in Sydney, despite the magnificent display, my three year old son was terrified – clutching my shoulders and burying his head – only occasionally having the courage to look up while his older sister looked on gleefully.
     
    I remember him being terrified at the age of one when we had brought him along to watch the fireworks - but he still seemed very fearful of sudden large noises.
     
    Standing under that colourful night sky, I felt sad thinking about the outcomes of traumatised children in war situations.
     
    How many bombs Sri Lanka would have dropped in Tamil territories since I first saw an aerial bombing back in 1986, I wondered.
     
    A day later when the Army entered Kilinochchi, I plunged further into depression and had to remind myself of the power of proactive deeds of individuals and positive visualisation.
     
    One cannot fathom the hardships that the Tamil youth would have endured in fighting a highly equipped army that advanced from many sides, backed by Pakistani and Chinese weaponry and Indian radar operators!
     
    It’s almost like, it is the rest of world vs. Tamil Eelam. If only India had done something.
     
    These kind of “if only” scenarios ache our hearts. One simply cannot eliminate the sick feeling of having Kilinochchi - a prototype of a free and fair Eelam of the future, an infant model of our statehood - crushed before our own eyes.
     
    Anyway, leaving political and military outcomes aside, in this article I have attempted to highlight two long felt concerns of mine – disorder in society and the effects of trauma in children.
     
    While lamenting about the loss of land, we need to focus on the survivability and wellbeing of future generations in Tamil areas.
     
    In this article, I am not talking about the relatively small middle class populations, but the vast majority of poverty stricken people in the war torn Tamil areas - the poor or those who have become poor, keeping in mind the many years of medical and economic embargo and the prolonged war.
     
    What are the future outcomes for a young IDP (Internally Displaced Person or Refugee) child who has been a refugee for most or whole of his/her life? What are the outcomes for children living on hand-outs or in prolonged poverty and insecurity?
     
    What will happen to children with interrupted schooling or no schooling? What about the subset of children who are more timid in nature and have less coping skills? Add to that, the trauma of a physical injury or losing a parent? These are some of the questions that come to mind.
     
    First of all, when looking at trauma in children, one can acknowledge that given the right support systems, many children have good chances of bouncing back to their normal physical, emotional and cognitive developmental milestones.
     
     Many of us have grown up to be well balanced individuals even after experiencing traumatic aspects of the war. But, what about repeated and prolonged exposure to traumatic events? 
     
    The traditional society of Ilankai Tamils has had many support systems or “safety nets” such as: the extended family system; strong religious beliefs, strong spiritual beliefs and de-stressing techniques and rituals; an ecologically friendly way of living or living off the land with a great awareness for environmental conservation and sustainability.
     
    But, prolonged unrelenting war can pound and pound until holes are created in these safety nets! Children are especially prone to the disorders associated with trauma.
     
    Maybe excepting teenagers, many children neither have the cognitive ability to make sense of why the war is happening nor the emotional ability to cope up with family, social break down and disruptions to normal way of living, normal education etc.
     
    The intensified horrific war that we are seeing now in Tamil areas, has reached new levels in the destruction of society.
     
    While Singhalese children wake up to go to schools, the scared, displaced Tamil child rotting away without schooling in a dismal shelter, wakes up to the sound of shells in the middle of night.
     
    Take a young toddler who gets scared by the noise of the thunder or fireworks and put him/her in Vanni war zone, and the child would not cope with the bombs, cluster bombs and shells, let alone the constant running from one place to another, lack of food, lack of family and school routines etc.
     
    Now, if there is the added trauma of injury or death – the child’s sense of security and well being is seriously damaged.
     
    For a child, the parents and caregivers are powerful people. Seeing powerful people rendered powerless, can be very traumatic to the young child.
     
    To compound the issue even further, the surviving parent or family member might be occupied with getting or providing very basic needs, that the emotional needs of the child can easily go unanswered.
     
    Brooks and Siegel (1996), two experienced psychologists who worked with traumatised children talk about different kinds of trauma - death, illness and injury, abuse, natural disasters and trauma by proxy.
     
    They talk about children who had been in car accidents who refuse to go back into the car, children who had seen buildings collapse due to earthquakes refusing to be inside buildings etc.
     
    They talk about how different age groups react differently to trauma (see box for summary).
     
    It’s easy to deny or turn away from the psychological and mental problems that can occur in war situations especially since stigma is attached to such happenings.
     
    We need to be aware of these problems among vulnerable groups especially children, just as we are aware of loss of lives, limbs, property and a way of life, that is taking place in the Tamil homeland.
     
    The Singhalese government is well aware of the benefits of creating a disordered Tamil society. One can clearly see it has an agenda of creating “reserve” like areas or pockets of fragmented IDP populations who are often reduced to living on handouts.
     
    It is effectively waging a psychological warfare. It is aiming for breakdown of family, cultural and social structures. This can be seen in all parts of the Tamil homeland.
     
    Coming to the long term effects of disorder in society, some time ago I wondered about the alcoholism and self destructive behaviours found among Indigenous communities in Australia.
     
    In Canada and US, similar problems were seen in “reserves” for Indigenous people. Though some of you may rightfully argue that the indigenous situation was socio-culturally different to Tamils, I think its worth looking at the cycle of events that has contributed to their present social disorder.  
     
    Theoretically, parallels can be drawn with the forced relocation of indigenous people (who were made refugees in their own land), forced removal of indigenous children and destruction of indigenous languages and culture.
     
    The destruction of indigenous cultures also occurred with the trauma due to forced relocations, European renaming of land, losing access to sacred sites and traditional food sources.
     
    In Tamil areas, refugees who are internally displaced or evicted, are herded from one area to another - often aerial bombings and shellings are used to make people flee, to kill them off or to relocate them to suitable positions for the government.
     
    Internment of refugee families and in worse cases, killings of refugees are taking place. Children are being injured or killed in aerial bombings. Teenagers are vulnerable to detention, torture and death in custody.
     
    These are the aspects of war regardless whether the people are in “liberated areas” or war zones. In all these cases, children are put into situations which are very traumatic.
     
    We can see that in the East, destruction of culture is taking place through a gradual process of colonization and “Singhalisation”.
     
    Young students are particularly vulnerable to government propaganda and their version of history based on Mahavamsa.
     
    Professor Tatz (1999) in his report on youth suicide among indigenous communities, talked about how experiencing extreme forms of racism creates a disordered society for the victims. Initially, feelings of frustration are followed by a sense of alienation, of not belonging, then withdrawal from society, and finally, the threat of, or actual, violence.
     
    Tatz mentions that violence could be ‘coercive violence’ or ‘appealing violence’ - ‘Coercive violence’ is when a person uses violence in a premeditated and controlled manner (this could be directed towards the enemy); ‘Appealing violence’ is about harm to self or to kin such as domestic violence and child abuse.
     
    In the case of Indigenous peoples, a society that was living off the land was made to become heavily dependent on handouts and subsequently State Welfare.
     
    A culture that had strict tribal laws on family duties, incest prohibition etc became a common place for abuse of children.
     
    Petrol sniffing, drug addiction and alcoholism permeate day to day living.
     
    Family gatherings and funerals are often accompanied by extensive drinking through the night where children are left to their own devices. The social decay among the youth is heart wrenching.
     
    Loss of culture and loss of a way of life became almost a social suicide in the case of Indigenous societies.
     
    Some of you may claim that the Tamils are more advanced that that, but one would need to consider the poor and the continuously battered people in low socioeconomic conditions.
     
    John Campbell, a World Food Program official, recently got into trouble for comparing the conditions in Vanni to Somalia.
     
    However, interestingly, the Tamils in North East have not yet shown any serious signs of self destructive behaviour – at least within the family unit. But there are warning signs.
     
    Recently, a relative from Jaffna informed me that one green chilli costs 2 rupees there -One green chilli! A meal of bread and sambol would cost about 200 rupees. How can the poor afford it?
     
    My relative also reported that thefts have become so widespread with poverty stricken people stealing coconuts, mango, chicken and whatever they can get their hands on.
     
    Yet these problems sink into background when compared with what the displaced populations in the East and Vanni are going through.
     
    The increase in thefts, increasing number in orphanages, refugee camps and “rehabilitation centres”, prolonged disruptions to schooling, increasing number of armed groups etc are alarming indicators where the once stable Tamil society is heading towards.
     
    The Singhalese government is getting shrewder and shrewder with this kind of destruction to ways of living. In fact, what we are seeing is not just genocide but a well planned genocide.
     
    The “70 million strong Tamil Diaspora” as been in called upon often. This can be a waste of time and wishful thinking.
     
    The bottom-line is that the Ilankai Tamils living abroad are the ones who can’t go back to their home towns; are the one whose brethren are being massacred; are the ones whose unique ancient culture and language form is being destroyed. They are the stakeholders here.
     
    The estimated 1 million Ilakai Tamils living abroad is the current lifeline to Tamils in Sri Lanka. This is the vital connection that can help prevent a disordered Tamil society in Sri Lanka until peace comes.
     
    Recently I met a 2nd generation Tamil youth who is very involved with humanitarian and political work and whose father went back to Vanni few years ago. There is a small dedicated group of volunteers (local and expatriate Tamils) on the ground in Sri Lanka who is willing to take on aid work and rehabilitation work
     
    The effects of post traumatic stress in children can be reversed with proper support, nurturing and debriefing - which consists of four steps: preparing, having the child tell the story, sharing the child’s reactions, survival and recovery.
     
    Sometimes, debriefing could be simple as telling the child that it is not his fault. For example, Brooks and Siegel talk about a 4 year old child who saw his father being shot to death by intruders. The child told the counselor that he had shouted at the men to stop and if he had shouted louder, they might have left. According to his mother, the child had not shouted at all!
     
    To help the child understand that he was not responsible, the counselor had to tell the child that even a grown up might not have been able to do anything.
     
    In the above case, the child was suffering from guilt. Debriefing takes the child through the stages of sadness, denial, guilt and anger, shame or stigma and finally acceptance. Anger towards the enemy is understandable but it should never be fostered on guilt or shame – that kind of anger would be self destructive.
     
    Getting a child to tell the story through play, role play and drawing, correcting misconceptions about the events, providing explanations, providing realistic reassurances and explaining that time would heal, are all effective. However, debriefing can also be complex depending on the trauma.
     
    Children in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, whether it is the North and East or Upcounty or other Southern parts stand exposed in this war on Ilankai Tamils.
     
    Now is the time to refocus. Now is the time for more humanitarian help. The children of Tamil Eelam need our support more than ever before.
     
    It is very impotent to carry on rehabilitation and humanitarian work at grass root levels even while the war is raging on: this could mean helping out a relative in the North East or contributing to the Tamil charities that work at the ground level.
     
    For example, we have medical organisations helping hospitals, alumni associations helping schools, TRO projects etc.
     
    This could also mean helping out with political work and rallying politicians, media, NGOs etc.
     
    This could mean professionals (such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, historians etc) creating support networks. “Siru thuli, peru vellam” - Every thought, prayer, word and action counts. No defeat is greater than a psychological defeat.
     
    Reaction to trauma in various age groups
    Summary of Brooks, B. & Siegel, P. (1996) The Scared Child – Helping Kids Overcome Traumatic Events US: John Wiley & Sons Inc
     
    Age group – 0 to 2
    • Are unable to articulate how they feel (limited vocabulary). May fuss more.
    • May lose developmental steps already acquired
    • May fail to learn new and expected developmental tasks
     
    Preschoolers : Age group 2 - 5
    • Preschoolers combine reality with fantasy/make belief. The very self centered outlook at this age may cause them to think that they caused the events.
    • May lose developmental steps already acquired
    • May become aggressive in their interactions with others
    • May express non-realistic ideas about an event (“Father was taken away because I was bad”)
    • May become anxious and clingy
    • Playing the same game over and over again maybe a sign of post traumatic stress
    • May get angry, sullen or intense with play
     
    School age children: Age group 6 -12
    • More realistic thinking of this age group, makes the world a very frightening place for them – “Even Mother and Father can’t protect us”. “Mother and Father are just as frightened and vulnerable”.
    • Tends to put a brave face while still traumatised inside
    • Lack of control over trauma may make them feel that the future is unsure. Hence, some children might engage in reckless behaviour
    • Significant change in School performance – may find it difficult to concentrate and to perform
    • May blame themselves
    • Sleep disturbances, difficulty sleeping
    • May show fear of supernatural things
    • This age group believes in rules. When bad things happen even when they have been good and have obeyed rules, children may become oppositional and defiant
     
    Teenagers
    • They feel whatever they are working for or studying for, can be destroyed in a minute - So planning for the future is pointless.
    • May develop a negative self image because they are not able to avoid or alter a situation
    • Engages on revenge fantasies but then feel guilty about their feelings.
    • May experience a shift (either an intensification or withdrawal) in the normal developmental tasks of their age – such as love, friendship, sense of autonomy ie They can become obsessive or withdrawn 
  • Sri Lanka spends over $1 billion defending the Rupee
    The Sri Lankan government which is adamant that the local currency, Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR), will not be devalued continued spending large sums of its already dwindling foreign reserves trying to prop up the Rupee at its current levels against the US Dollar.
     
    Since peg defence began by selling dollars and injecting liquidity to sterilize cash shortages, a total of 1,182 million dollars had been spent, reports Lanka Business Online (LBO).
     
    In December alone, Sri Lanka spent 125 million US dollars defending the rupee in foreign exchange markets, LBO reported citing the latest data.
     
    In early December the peg was loosened and the rupee moved steadily from 110 to over 113 to the US dollar. However in the latter part of December, the central bank spent 160.20 million US dollars in the month and also bought 34.50 million from the market., LBO reported.
     
    The highest amount of 587.7 million US dollars was spent in October when the rupee was tightly pegged to the US dollar at just under 108 rupees, according to Central Bank data, LBO reported.
     
    In the past week however a new dollar peg had started to develop around 113.87 rupees to the US dollar, and reserve losses have again started to pick up, dealers told LBO.
     
    According to LBO, excessive sterilized intervention of a dollar peg usually snowballs into a severe currency crisis, a process which some monetary economists call 'amplification.'
     
    According to official data end-November foreign reserves were 2,029 million dollars.
    Since the end of November to January 16 the central bank's holding of Treasury bills had increased from 92.8 billion rupees to 151.0 billion rupees or 510 million dollars at an average exchange rate of 113.80 rupees.
     
    The monetary base of the country (reserve money) was at 259 billion last week from 253 billion rupees at the end of November indicating an increase of around 50 million US dollars over the same period.
     
    The increase in the central bank Treasury bill holdings, less the increase in the monetary base indicates an approximate level of sterilization of foreign reserve losses and appropriations, reported LBO.
     
    At the 2,029 million dollars level at end-November, the Central Bank said foreign reserves were enough to cover 1.7 months of imports, reported LBO.
  • Sri Lanka denies FX crisis, banks on 'patriotic Diaspora'
    Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to little more than enough for six weeks of imports. And Japan, traditionally the island’s biggest donor, is cutting aid globally.
     
    But while local economists say the situation is critical government will inevitably have devalue the rupee by 20% this year or accept a conditions-laced bailout package from the IMF, the Central Bank is adamant neither is necessary, the Sunday Times reported.
     
    Instead, the government is to launch a campaign on February 4, Independence Day, to attract Sinhalese expatriates to invest in Sri Lankan treasury bills and bonds.
     
    The Sunday Times quoted a top Colombo economist as saying foreign reserves of around 1.5 months worth of imports was precarious and immediate solutions needed to be found.
     
    “Any level below two months is worrying while three months is the acceptable level,” he said, adding that even if tea prices rise and oil prices continue at low levels, petrol bills have to be paid (at least $2 billion a year) while the CB will be compelled to eat into the depleted foreign resources to defend the rupee in the money markets.
     
    Another economist said Japan, Sri Lanka’s largest donor, was cutting aid globally.
     
    Sri Lanka’s overall balance-of-payments was negative, which the CB was hiding from the public by not disclosing the (correct) figure, according to Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, Principal Researcher of the Point Pedro Institute of Development and currently Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar in the US.
     
    He however feels a depreciation of the rupee at this moment is too little too late and says approaching the IMF is the only realistic option.
     
    The last time Sri Lanka got an IMF standby credit facility was in 2001 which was required to buy costly military equipment after the Elephant Pass military camp was taken over by the LTTE, and due to high oil prices. Last week Elephant Pass was re-captured by government troops.
     
    Most economists contend that the government is left with few options – either devalue by 20%, seek an IMF package or enforce import controls similar to the 1970-77 era, the Sunday Times said.
     
    However, currency dealers told Reuters the central bank called a meeting with bank treasuries on Monday to assure them the rupee will not be devalued and to explain plans to build up reserves and meet its external borrowing needs this year.
     
    Economists and exporters say the rupee should be depreciated to about Rs 128-130 in relations to a US dollar.
     
    It is now around Rs 114, after a marginal float of the rupee some weeks back by the CB. The rupee hit an all-time low of 114.15 a dollar on Jan. 5, while it hit a life closing low of 113.85/114.00 on Friday, Reuters said.
     
    However, Nandalal Weerasinghe, chief economist at the central bank, confirming the meeting with bankers, told Reuters the Times’ report was false.
     
    "There is no necessity for central bank to devalue the currency by 20 percent and this is an erroneous, politically-motivated news report," he said.
     
    The current reserves position is similar to 1975-76 during the controlled economy of the Sirima Bandaranaike regime, when however there weren’t much imports, according to a retired World Bank economist.
     
    However, Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said there was no cause for alarm and thus the need for IMF support did not arise. Instead the government would turn to Sri Lankans abroad, he said.
     
    “The general assessment from our envoys is that with interest rates falling and a patriotic feeling amongst [Sinhala] people, there is a lot of interest to invest,” Mr. Cabraal told the Sunday Times.
     
    “The Tamil diaspora also wants to invest in the north and east,” he said.
     
    The campaign to raise up to $500 million this year will be launched on February 4, Independence Day, in North America, Europe, Asia and West Asia, The Sunday Times reported.
     
    Teams led by CB Deputy Governors, Asst’ Governors and other CB officials along with the six lead banks will go on roadshows across the world with the initial phase in February.
     
    The campaign will take teams to the US and Canada; Qatar & Dubai among others in West Asia; Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands and the UK in Europe; Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Japan in Asia; and Australia and New Zealand.
  • Only 1,000 Tigers left, war almost over – Fonseka
    Sri Lanka Army (SLA) commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka on Sunday January 18 said that as there were only a thousand Tamil Tigers left and they were “boxed” into a small jungle area in Mullaitivu, the war would soon be won.
     
    The Tigers could not resist the 50,000 SLA soldiers surrounding them, he said.
     
    Lt. Gen. Fonseka, who spoke at an annual dinner he hosts for defence correspondents at his residence, joked that he expected most of them "to be out of work by this time next year." He wore a black shirt, adorned with a dragon strangling a tiger, Reuters reported.

    "It would be extremely tough for the 1000-odd LTTE cadres to take on Sri Lankan army of 50,000 personnel, deployed in areas around Mullaitheeivu," Fonseka said.

    At least 200,000 people who fled towards Mullaiththeevu from Sri Lankan Army advances in recent months, along with almost a similar number of residents are enduring relentless and indiscriminate shelling from the SLA’s heavy guns and rocket artillery and the Air Force’s bombing.

    Fonseka said the LTTE now only hold an area of 30 km (18 miles) by 15 km (9 miles). The LTTE controls 40km of coastline, the military says.

    "When the war started, I used 50 map sheets to plan it. Now I only need one sheet to plan it," he boasted.

    Lt. Gen. Fonseka suggested LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan may even have fled the island, unable to face the advancing Sri Lankan army.
  • Vanni humanitarian tragedy getting deadlier
    Indiscriminate fire by the Sri Lanka Army from all corners of a shrinking territory already overcrowded with civilians has worsened the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the Vanni.
     
    Deaths and injuries to civilians fleeing the Sri Lankan military onslaught are daily occurrences, while hospitals to treat the injured are also coming under attack.
     
    The civilians are trapped in territory centering on Puthukkudiyiruppu town, its suburbs and adjoining jungles in the Mullaiththeevu district. This is the same area that the Sri Lankan military is targeting with its shelling, air strikes and multi-barrel rockets.
     
    There are deaths and injuries caused to the civilians fleeing the onslaught of the SLA.
     
    Medical authorities have said the situation was beyond control and that hospitals have come under attack.
     
    Ambulances are also not operating as access route from Vadamaraadchi East have been cut off by the SLA, while the Mullaiththeevu Puthukkudiyiruppu land route has also been blocked by the indiscriminate mortar attacks.
     
    The entire area with civilians has come under artillery range. Gunfire was heard in all the directions.
     
    Unless the shelling is stopped, every shell being fired into the overcrowded area would cause civilian casualties, local reports said.
     
    The access route for civilians to cross over into Vanni mainland from Vadamaraadchi East has been blocked by the SLA, according to initial reports.
     
    Medical personnel at the hospital in Visuvamadu said the situation was pathetic as SLA-fired shells were exploding in the close vicinity.
     
    The hospital at Tharmapuram has been displaced and the streets were full of vehicles with displaced civilians trying to move further away from the attacks.
     
    The adjoining areas of makeshift hospitals in Visuvamadu and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital have also come under artillery fire by the SLA, which is driving civilians away from Tharmapuram and Vaddakkachchi by intensifying bombardment.
     
    Meanwhile, hospital authorities in an urgent appeal issued Tuesday afternoon have urged the ICRC to at least take efforts to safeguard the hospital premises from the Sri Lankan shelling.
     
    28 civilians have been killed from within the 13 days from 01 January and 185 wounded. Blood was not available at Puthukkudiyiruppu and makeshift hospitals, TamilNet reported.
     
    As hospitals were displacing to relatively safer areas, there are more wounded from all corners being rushed to the makeshift hospitals functioning in schools and under trees.
     
    There are reports of civilian deaths and casualties in Visuvamadu town being vacated by the civilians. Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) attacks targeted Athisaya Vinayakar temple area in Visuvamadu, causing panic among the fleeing civilians.
     
    Detailed reporting and verification of casualties have become difficult under the prevailing circumstances.
     
    If Tamil Nadu fails to exert pressure on New Delhi to stop the Sri Lankan offensive in Vanni, there will be no hope left for civilians who fear being subjugated by the Sri Lankan military, say displaced peoples representatives in Vanni.
     
    There have been no reports of fighting in densely populated areas. However, the SLA has been continuing artillery attacks and gunfire.
     
    There have also been reports of civilians moving towards Vadamaraadchi East, recently occupied by the Sri Lanka Army.
  • Army suffers casualties but continues offensive
    The Sri Lankan military continued its military offensive towards Mullaitheevu in Vanni with the support of heavy aerial and artillery fire despite suffering casualties.
     
    Following the withdrawal of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from Elephant Pass and then from southern parts of Jaffna peninsula including Muhamaalai, Kilaali and Naagarkovil, Sri Lankan security forces took control of the whole of A-9 and moved further east of the highway, laying siege to LTTE controlled Mullaitheevu, where over 300,000 displaced Tamils have taken refuge.
     
    With seven Sri Lankan Army (SLA) offensive formations trying to breakthrough LTTE defences in Mullaitheevu, there have been fierce clashes in the past week with heavy casualties to the SLA.
     
    35 SLA soldiers were killed and at least 60 wounded when LTTE defensive formations pushed back the SLA from Neththaliyaattup paalam Monday, January 19, according to LTTE sources.
     
    SLA suffered similar losses few days earlier when its attempt to advance into LTTE territory was thwarted by LTTE defensive forces.
     
    On Friday, January 16, 51 SLA soldiers were killed and 150 troops sustained injuries when the advance by the SLA from Tharmapuram on three fronts were repulsed by LTTE fighters in a confrontation that lasted for 14 hours from the early hours.
     
    Despite suffering losses Sri Lanka is confident that it can take control of the remaining LTTE held territory in the northeast of the island and is continuing its military offensive pouring all its military might into the offensive.
     
    According to Sri Lankan military sources, there are 50,000 troops belonging to seven military divisions and or task forces are deployed around Mullaitheevu.
     
    Meanwhile, on Monday January 19, LTTE Sea Tigers attacked a convoy of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) off the coast of Mullaiththeevu, sinking a Super Dvora Fast Attack Craft Monday around 11:30 p.m., LTTE officials told media.

    A flotilla of Sea Tigers intercepted a convoy of SLN Dvora FACs. Fierce sea battle ensued. One Super Dvora FAC was sunk by Black Sea Tigers, according to the LTTE.
  • Vanni civilians under deadly siege
    "There are no words to describe the plight of the civilians who say that they prefer to face death on the spot rather than succumbing to serious injuries or ending up in the hands of the invading Sri Lankan forces, which many of them regard as genocidal military and fear that their young men and women would be 'filtered' away, tortured or killed by it," reported a TamilNet correspondent from an outskirt of Puthukkudiyiruppu last Sunday evening amid artillery fire.
     
    The indiscriminate fire was targeting areas where there were no hostile military activities. The fighting was going on in a few corners, but the artillery barrage by the Sri Lankan forces was targeting all the areas, threatening to cause civilian carnage, completely ignored by the International Community.
     
    As nearly all of the civilians are displaced, they are unable to conduct proper funeral with rites. There are dead bodies un-attended due to artillery siege, only some of those killed are buried hurriedly before the remaining have to choose fleeing onwards from the onslaught of the indiscriminate shelling.
     
    Ambulance drivers said they spotted at least 10 dead bodies on Sunday. Six of the bodies were transported to hospital mortuary until 3:00 p.m. But, there were reports of more bodies lying in areas un-accessible by the ambulances. The casualties were reported in Va'l'luvarpuram (Redd Barna settlement), Mayilvaakanapuram (2 dead bodies recovered), Thearaavil and Maa'nikkapuram. 12th Mile Post in Visvuvamadu, Punnaineeraavi and areas close to Chu'ndikku'lam, which have come under continuous artillery barrage.
     
    At least 18 civilians were killed within the last 24 hours and 42, including many children, women and elderly, wounded in the indiscriminate artillery barrage by the SLA, according to available data from the medical sources, as reported earlier.
     
    But, many more are feared dead, wounded and trapped in areas not accessible for medical assistance.
     
    On Saturday, the premises of Punnaineeraavi school, one of the few remaining localities where Ki'linochchi hospital is functioning, came under artillery barrage. All treatment at the hospital stalled and there was no medical transport available to approach the injured. Civilians were screaming and running in all directions, confused and shocked by the indiscriminate bombardment.
     
    Medical authorities said they had repeatedly urged protection for medical installations and provided coordinates through the ICRC.
     
    Two civilians were killed and six wounded while they were fleeing from their house in Punnaineeraavi, while the hospital was under artillery barrage on Saturday. Three of the wounded, with serious injuries, had to wait for hours for medical assistance.
     
    Many of the wounded civilians were only managing with the first aid knowledge that they now possess.
     
    At Piramanthanaaru, at least two civilians were killed when their tractor, hit by artillery shelling got fire and burnt down on the spot on Saturday. Also on previous day, the shelling by the SLA killed 3 civilians who were fleeing with their belongings on Piramanthanaaru - Visuvamadu Road.
     
    "Deaths by artillery shells have become all too common."
  • Concerned over the deteriorating situation in east
    UNHCR is concerned over the deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka's east following a significant increase in the number of killings, abductions and injuries in areas of return during the last few months. In November alone, the United Nations recorded 24 civilian deaths in the Batticaloa district.
     
    We're also worried about the negative impact these security incidents may have on the sustainability of the return process.
     
    Most of the more than 200,000 people displaced during fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) in the eastern districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa have returned home over the past two years.
     
    UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies have been supporting the government in reintegration programmes, principally in shelter and quick impact community based livelihood programmes and through the provision of non-food relief items.
     
    But returnees in the Batticaloa area report they increasingly feel intimidated and face restrictions on their movement, which limits their ability to support themselves and their families.
     
    More than 50 families have already left their villages in some of the return areas in Batticaloa due to fear and insecurity.
     
    Others are no longer sleeping in their own homes, but gather several families in one house at night.
     
    UNHCR calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to effectively investigate these security incidents and urges the relevant authorities to provide adequate security to all civilians living in these areas.
     
    We are also concerned over the abduction of four refugee returnees from India in the Trincomalee district.
     
    UNHCR is heartened by the fact that more than 1,500 Sri Lankan refugees returned from camps in Tamil Nadu in southern India in 2008, either spontaneously or with our facilitated voluntary return programme.
     
    We are keen to see this positive trend continue this year.
     
    UNHCR is also closely monitoring the rapidly developing situation in Sri Lanka's north, where some 250,000 people remain displaced due to the ongoing conflict.
  • Delhi ignoring Tamil Nadu's sentiments: PMK
    In a sharp criticism of the UPA regime, one of its coalition partners, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), has accused the government of deliberately ignoring the sentiments of Tamil Nadu by refusing to heed the state's repeated pleas to take steps to end the war in Sri Lanka.

    In a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister, PMK founder S Ramadoss assailed " New Delhi’s mindless and callous attitude" and wondered whether it was silent only because those at the receiving end of "genocidal frenzy" were voiceless Tamils.

    The letter was written two days ago but was released to the press only on Saturday. Coming a day after the PMK decided not to back any party in an Assembly byelection, its strong note of disapproval may mean that it is preparing the ground to reconsider its continuance in the UPA and avoid being on the same side as the DMK in the next Lok Sabha polls.

    "For the scheming bureaucrats and unconcerned decision-makers in New Delhi, are the war-and-genocide-mongers in Colombo more important than the millions of law-abiding Tamilians? Is the honour and self-respect of these millions are of no concern to them?" the PMK leader asked.

    He recalled the state Assembly's resolutions on Sri Lanka and reminded Manmohan Singh of his promise to send external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee to Colombo to persuade the island nation to stop the war.
     
    Nothing had been done by the UPA government on the steps that the PMK had suggested on Sri Lanka. On December 4, Ramadoss had given a note to the Prime Minister when he met an all-party delegation headed by chief minister M Karunanidhi.

    Ramadoss said if India could do nothing directly, it could have acted through the UN Security Council.
     
    "This has not even been attempted despite the fact that Sri Lanka has been listed among the eight red alert' countries where genocide or mass atrocities were either underway or were in the risk of breaking out."
  • Back to the Future
    Sri Lanka banned the LTTE this week. The United States endorsed the move in a statement making explicit its implicit stance for the past few years: "[the US] does not advocate the government of Sri Lanka negotiate with the LTTE, a terrorist organization." The subplot is that the war to crush the Tamil rebellion against Sinhala oppression will soon be won. This very much remains to be seen - though we can confidently repeat our assertion that the Sinhala state will continue to reproduce the existential conditions that compelled Tamils to violence in the first place.
     
    Amidst the myriad aspects of reality that analysts could focus on, it is the map of 'controlled areas' that has curiously come to dominate. Reducing the territory the LTTE controls, it is held, equates to putting down the Tamil struggle for freedom. The capture last week of Kilino-chchi, the former administrative capital of the LTTE, is thus hailed as a watershed in the conflict. This logic is even reflected in commentary by Sri Lanka's political analysts, in whose columns can be found more emphatic military-related assertions than practiced security scholars would dare pin their names to.
     
    In the meantime, crucial changes in   the island’s ethno-political imbroglio, whilst in plain sight, are simply ignored. Indeed, Sri Lanka's future is well signposted for those who care to look. A virulent form of Sinhala chauvinism is now all-pervasive, from the corridors of state power to public streets and chatrooms on the Internet. Rarely in the past, with the exception of the state-backed pogrom of 1983, has the sense of alienation been so acute amongst Tamils. The Muslims, meanwhile, are also waking up to their place in Dutugemunu's realm. What was being described as ethnic 'polarization' a couple of years ago is fast turning into commonsense. Ethnic enmity is now the very fabric of Sri Lanka's social ordering. And no amount of international funding for 'ethnic reconciliation' or 'peace building' is going to change this.
     
    This has nothing to do with the effects of conflict - the violence has, especially in recent years been confined largely to the Northeast and the deprivations of displacement, 'disappearance' and death have been borne overwhelmingly by Tamil-speakers, if not Tamils. Rather, the present is the result of the sixty-year-old Sinhala project to align state, army and citizenry towards a majoritarian vision of the island. This, by the way, is the 'solution' acceptable to the Sinhalese.
     
    Amidst all this the impotence of global liberalism is plain to see. Not that its international proponents recognize this. There is still a belief, for example, that the Sinhala nation gives a damn what the West thinks or says about human rights, democracy, pluralism, tolerance and such like. (Unsurprisingly, the former foot soldiers of global liberalism in Colombo have now either found accommodation with Sinhala chauvinism or, in the case of those who were too far in front of the Norwegian peace initiative, have been reduced to despondency and lament).
     
    For a very long time the international community has been seeing a very different problem to that which exists in Sri Lanka. In trying to solve the former, they have systematically and drastically fuelled the latter. Amid a preoccupation with developmental metrics and civil society, they have failed to see the plain reasons why, when flag waving Sinhala expatriates took to the streets in Canada, Tamil refugees in India despaired when Kilinochchi 'fell'.
     
    The 'concerns', in international parlance, of Tamils and Sinhalese cannot be met within a united Sri Lanka. This is not a question of Tamils' 'trust' in the state or Sinhalese' 'fears' about the country being divided. Rather, it is about what ‘the Tamils’ are. To the Sinhalese, they are the legacy of past invasions who must adhere to their proper (subordinate) place in a Sinhala land. The Tamils see themselves as a collective equal to its Sinhala counterpart, with just as much right to their homeland in the Northeast as the Sinhalese have to theirs in the South. No amount of constitutional 'capacity building', 'conflict sensitive' aid or 'security sector reform' will bridge this divide.
     
    In short, Sinhala chauvinism, emboldened by befuddled international actions, is going to pursue the genocidal reordering of territory, population and security called for by the Mahavamsa. The Tamils, meanwhile, will not go quietly into the night. In past decades they've engaged in some capacity building of their own. As Colombo again bans the LTTE and the Sinhala army once again seeks to put down the Tamil rebellion, there appears to be a return to the past. At the same time, as a racial polarization between Sinhalese and others becomes concrete and commonsense, the future is already here.
Subscribe to NorthEast

Most-Read Articles

test
this is the test artical 
Tamil asylum seekers in Australia mark 100 days of continuous protests for permanent visas
Over 200 refugees and supporters marked a significant milestone by marching 10 kilometers…
Amaran - Problematic propaganda
The genre of war epic makes its grand re-entry to Tamil cinema with director Rajkumar…
UN Special Committee finds Israel warfare methods in Gaza consistent with Genocide
A report released by a UN Special Committee, composed of member states Malaysia,…
India’s High Commissioner congratulates Sri Lanka’s president on electoral victory
Following a historic victory, which secured the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition…

Latest Tweets

Loading tweets...