Sri Lanka III

thanks thirusuj for the article at the toronto sun (#46) http://www.torontosun.com/comment/2009/04/24/9225931-sun.html

"SIMPLE MESSAGE

The message is quite simple. Canada must do something to prevent this sinking ship, the Government of Sri Lanka, from taking hundreds of thousands of innocent lives along with it.

Canada could easily use its influence in international forums such as the United Nations and the Commonwealth to pressure the government of Sri Lanka to engage in an immediate ceasefire and begin negotiations with the Tamil Tigers to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict respecting the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people.

The frustration of many Tamil Canadians is that as we cry for help, we see potential rescue planes circling overhead; however, these planes are unable or unwilling to rescue our loved ones from a doomed ship."

SLA opens fire on all fronts of safe-zone

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 April 2009, 22:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) began firing from all points along the north, west and south of safe-zone in the early hours of Monday around 3:45 a.m., according to initial reports. Heavy gunfire was reported in the north and south of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. The aggression by the SLA comes a few hours after Sri Lanka rejected LTTE announced unilateral ceasefire.

Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal area is densely populated with tens of thousands of civilians, who are already starving due to the denial of World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations.

The LTTE has estimated the number of civilians still located in the territory as more than 160,000.

"If the expected offensive goes forward there will be more than 10,000 casualties as the area is densely populated and there is no cover from bombs, shells, and bullets," said a press statement issued by the head of the field office of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) in Vanni.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29191

the Sri Lankan government rejected the LTTE's ceasefire, and has commenced an aerial, naval, and ground assault on over a hundred thousand people which the Sri Lankan army has trapped in an area few km across.

situation report on Sri Lanka's massacre of Tamil civilians today:

"Heavy gunfire coupled with cannon fire from sea and aerial bombing reported from Mullivaikkal where an estimated 160,000 civilians are held up.

The battle erupted at the early hours of today when Sri Lankan Army tried to move forward towards Iraddaivaikkal under the cover of heavy shelling and air attacks.

The LTTE also retaliating fiercely, the fighting is going on in both ground and sea. Sri Lankan Navy ships are firing cannon missiles towards the shore, while large number of fishing boats and ships are seen in the mid sea carrying troops.

The Sri Lankan Forces are continuously shelling on Mullivaikkal seafront to reduce the resistance and then to land the troops that are waiting in the mid sea.

Sri Lankan Air Force and ground troops are also engaged in the firing in support of the Sri Lankan Navy. Sri Lankan air force carried out 14 sorties within one and half hours (9.00am to 10.20 am)

The fierce battle may be one of the worst in recent times and expected to take tens of thousands of lives. People inside safe zone were sending SOS from yesterday night saying that the Sri Lankan Forces have encircled the safe zone and are engaged on a massive preparation for an onslaught and called international community to intervene and save the people.
 
While the attack on the seafront continues, ground troops are trying to breach a bund at Vadduvaikkal area and using all heavy weapons in the offensive. In the third front, Sri Lankan Army is trying to move forward through Iraddaivaikkal from early morning today.

People captured in earlier attacks are being used as human shields to move forward.

Earlier too there were reports of using the captured people as human shields during the attack on valaignarmadam and Pokkanai.

Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) was sending a SOS from last night to UN Security Council members and to international community.

In their urgent appeal they said "as we write this appeal there is a build up of Sri Lanka Armed Forces in the areas surrounding the so-called ‘safe zone’ and an offensive via land, sea, and air is only a few hours away."

They further said that was their final appeal to the international community to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians in the so-called ‘safe zone’. They made the appeal on behalf of the 160,000 people still in the safe zone.

On Sunday 26 April, the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed the Valiaganmadam village, the only village with sea access, 39 times and on Saturday 25 April there were at least 25 attacks which killed and injured hundreds.

Based on their previous experiences over the past three months TRO officials in the ‘safe zone’ have predicted that if the expected offensive goes forward there will be more than 10,000 casualties as the area is densely populated and there is no cover from bombs, shells, and bullets...."

http://www.tamilnational.com/news-flash/806--attack-on-mullithivu-commen...

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this followed another tactical lie from Rajapaksa Inc. : the"Sri Lankan Government took an astute move to avert the pressure from the international community by ordering to stop heavy weapons instead of announcing ceasefire...Tamil National Reporter speaking from conflict zone said despite the government order the gunfire and air strike continues and the death toll keep on increasing."

http://www.tamilnational.com/news-flash/809-army-to-stop-using-heavy-wea...

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apparently a politician from Tamil Nadu had gone on a hunger strike, but stopped his fast when he heard Sri Lanka had 'stopped' shelling.  In coming out with it's lies, repeated by international perjury printers,  Sri Lanka is playing political games using the blood and suffering of the Tamil people. 

The blood of the Tamil people is on the hands of the international 'media', political, and economic leaders who are profitting from this misery. 

The blood of the Tamil people is a condemnation of the out-of-control private systems which are running rampant in destruction of people and planet.

This destruction will spread unless people around the world, including in this country, demand economic and political systems that put nature and human beings first.

contrary to gov't spin, Sri Lankan army continues shelling civilians Monday afternoon and evening with hundreds injured and dead.
http://www.tamilnational.com/news-flash/811-latest-situation-report-apr2...

and reading the reports in Canada, maybe the protests today in Toronto and elsewhere will give commuters pause to think what it's like without sufficient medical care, FOR MONTHS ON END, with limbs shredded or amputated and no painkillers, nor food either.  sheesh. 

thanks for those articles.

there continues to be a strange incongruency- i keep reading in mainstream media that the ongoing government shelling massacres of civilians 'can't be confirmed'.

yet, tens of thousands of the relatives of the maimed and slaughtered have been protesting in our streets for months, all quite accessible and willing to talk to interested inquirers.   when i was at the March 16th protest in Toronto, many carried signs and had stories of their family and community members who had been bombed and killed by the Sri Lankan army.  yet, oddly, few if any of these stories made it to Canadian media with details of who did the killing.

independent videographers and photographers have and continue to capture the ongoing events visually, circulated all over the internet.

Hospitals and community centres have been bombed, their staff injured and killed, their operations forced to move.  these details are not difficult to confirm by any serious reporter.

yet still, inconceivably, some 'media' persist in pretending that there is still some 'question' about the fact of mass government massacre of civilians.

the silence on the most salient aspects of the slaughter is deafening.

which says " Sri Lanka army 'halts heavy combat' "

SRA still bombing, photos of bombs and bodies:

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29203

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Chamberlain at the guardian somewhat improved:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/28/sir-lanka-air-attacks-hospital

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also the toronto star mid-day yesterday included more useful direct quotes from protesters in their updated report at the link provided in #58 which hadn't been in their first version. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/624852

e.g."Pillai said it is critically important that media are allowed into the region or the atrocities against civilians at the hands of the Sri Lankan government will remain unchecked."

*please note however that this report at the star has changed again, updated to last night, using the same link.  the original story is no longer available.  this is one reason, at least in tracking mainstream media, why it's important to include more text.

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Tamil community enraged with international community for its complicity

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=29204

But yet the National Pest, performs as per usual and writes this:

Quote:

the Liberals of today are night-and-day compared to their 1990s-era forebears. And nowhere is this more apparent than in regard to the party's relationship with the Canadian Tamil community.

One of the great low points for the Liberal Party of Canada

came in May, 2000, when two Liberal MPs-- Mr. Martin, then the finance minister, and Maria Minna, then the minister of international co-operation-- were caught attending a fundraising event for a group that had been described by intelligence officials as a front organization for the Tamil Tigers, an insurgent group that uses hideous terrorist tactics in its long-running campaign to carve out a separate Tamil state in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka. Yet when confronted about this episode in Parliament, the Liberals refused to apologize, and instead accused their critics of organizing a "lynch mob."

Even after 9/11, the Liberals refused to put the Tamil Tigers on the government's list of banned terrorist organizations. As a result, Tigers bagmen continued to raise funds among Canada's large Tamil community. The Liberals' primary concern was retaining votes from militant Tamil nationalists who live in contested ridings on the periphery of Toronto.

Fast forward nine years, and the difference is striking. Following on the Conservatives' courageous and groundbreaking decision to ban the Tigers in 2006, Michael Ignatieff has signalled a clear break on the issue within his own party.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of Tamil Canadians have demonstrated in Ottawa, protesting the Sri Lankan government's successful military campaign against the Tigers, and the cornering of over 100,000 Tamils in a small area in the country's northeast. While many of the protesters no doubt harbour good-faith humanitarian concern for innocent civilians caught up in the fighting, the appearance of Tamil Tiger flags has discredited the protest.

On Tuesday, the Liberal party allowed a few leaders from the Tamil community to meet with Mr. Ignatieff after he refused to address the larger Parliament Hill protest. According to a report from a Liberal insider, there were about nine Tamils at the meeting with Mr. Ignatieff, all known as moderates who do not support the Tigers' military and terrorist agenda. Nevertheless, some of the Tamils begged Mr. Ignatieff to come out and address the protest (with one of the visitors apparently breaking down in tears)-- or at least accept a petition from the protesters. Not only did Mr. Ignatieff stand his ground and refuse to do either, he also reportedly declared that no other Liberal MP would do so.

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=1537940

From this there can be doubt that the Liberals and Cons are identical.

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For decades now, it would appear, at least from the outside, that the voice and aspirations of the Tamil people have been carried by the leadership of the LTTE.  Whether this has always been a good thing or not may be set aside for the moment, but Velupillai Prabhakaran and his inner circle have not tolerated dissenting voices within Tamil leadership.

It would appear at this point, that they're going to be handed a pretty significant military defeat, and the rest of the world will do bugger all about it.  The Tamil people however, are still there, and still have their aspirations. The question that I direct at those more connected than I, (hi thirusuj) is who will pick up the torch now?  I am aware that there are a handful of Tamil journalists, some of whom are in jail, who may offer leadership.  Will leadership at least for a time move to the Tamil diaspora?  Is a new guerilla movement not unlike the last one realistic or one focusing on different types of social pressure?

Legal Challenge to block IMF loan, charges UK's complicity in Genocide

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29205

i have to say that this report from the UN, posted above, is very bizarre.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30613&Cr=sri+lanka&Cr1

on the one hand Holmes admits there are a dozen UN staff whom the Sri Lankan army is keeping captive in its Internally Displaced Persons Camps, not letting UN staff leave!

on the other hand Holmes is asking us to celebrate food aid being dropped off in Rajapaksa's capital city...the obvious question is 'how do we know the aid is going to help the people in the camps, and that people in the camps will get their human rights respected, when even UN staff can't get out?'

maybe it's just that Holmes is trying to be 'diplomatic', but his statement just comes across as silly.

if this is all the world has in holding back further civilian massacre, we really do have a very serious problem.

"Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence unit officers arrested and took away Tuesday 98 youths among the civilians from Vanni held in SLA Ne'lukku'lam detention centre in Vavuniyaa despite the strong protest of the detainees numbering more than 3,000, sources in Vavuniyaa said..The SLA officer-in-charge of the detention centre said that he has no information of the 98 youths taken away."

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29212

When the Soviets had members of my family in a Siberian slave camp, they came for the youth one day.  My grandfather's sister and other mothers protested, the fathers had long since been shot, and the women were run over by tanks.  she and others died.  many young people, including my teenaged female cousin, were taken and never seen again.  a younger male cousin, still a child, was the only one who survived. 

We are now seeing new gulags set up by Sri Lanka.  The Tamil people and their future, quite literally, are being disappeared.

And there is continued bombing of civilian areas in the north by the Sri Lankan army today, from other reports, where the UN says are more than 150,000 people.  And still no food and water and medicine for those in the camps.  The sick, injured, and starving are dying, and their youth are being disappeared. 

the families of the dead and dying are crying out in the streets of Toronto for action.

Harper does nothing.  He doesn't even bother to say Canada will withdraw funding from the IMF which is poised to give the Sri Lankan army more money for its massacre.  Instead he and his oil patch backers, now consolidated, are eyeing new transport deals with powers in the region who will benefit from the massacre. More military contractors will get profits in the increasing suppression of the people and their rights.

just as western military contractors benefitted from soviet repression:  they needed an enemy.  one which allowed them to keep profitting.

thanks for collating these articles thirusuj, it's very helpful.

and i just read Judy Rebick's blog that you've got up at the first item in #80.

it's great, and gives some useful things people can do in support.

I just heard on the CBC 5:30 radio news that a young girl was injured by police in Toronto at the Tamil protest- police were pushing protesters back and a horse stepped on her. A police commentator said that there was no need for police to take this kind of action.

The CBC further said that the protesters were at a University St. intersection, following news this afternoon that China had blocked a vote on intervention in Sri Lanka at the UN.

Toronto Tamil protest stretches into fourth day

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090429.wtamil0429/B...

thanks thirusuj for posting the satellite photos at #86 via innercitypress http://www.innercitypress.com/UNOSAT19April09.pdf

the second photo at slide 5 is very telling.  lots of bomb craters in the 'civilian safety zone'.

also the summary diagram in 3 is useful.   bombs in many places.

and still no food or medical help.

---

and this article that was at #86, by a Tamil Canadian lawyer is great, including what Canada should do,

"Canada should take a bold step and increase its pressure on Sri Lanka to cease all hostilities. As a first step, Canada should recall its high commissioner to Sri Lanka, and bring this matter to the United Nations Security Council through one of its allies. It should join other foreign governments and impose trade restrictions. Canada can also contribute by offering to be part of a human-rights monitoring mission and certainly will be asked to assist with the humanitarian efforts in the weeks and months to come."

http://www.thestar.com/article/626547

Please forward widely.

Call for solidarity with Tamils

End the killing in Sri Lanka NOW!

Dear friends:

A humanitarian catastrophe is well underway among Tamils in Sri Lanka. Since January, over 6,000 Tamils have been killed in a brutal war of aggression led by the government of Sri Lanka. Thousands more have been wounded, many of them critically. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and remain trapped in so-called "safe zones" where government forces continue to shell civilians, hospitals and schools.

These attacks are part of a decades-long campaign led by the government of Sri Lanka against the Tamil people and their culture. Since 1983, over 70,000 Tamils have been killed in this conflict, which many human rights groups warn could turn into a genocide.

Now more than ever, we need to show our support for peace and justice in Sri Lanka, and to stand in solidarity with the Tamil people.

In particular, non-Tamil allies - both individual activists and organizations - must make an extra effort to show the Tamil community that it isn't isolated. We have mobilized in large numbers for Afghans, for Iraqis, for Palestinians, for Lebanese and for Somalis.

Now it's time to mobilize for Tamils.

The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War is calling on all allies and supporters to take action now to end the killing in Sri Lanka. Please forward this e-mail and follow the steps below to show your support.

Thank you in advance.

In solidarity,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War

Call for solidarity with Tamils

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ACTIONS & EVENTS:
1) Join the protests already underway!
2) Leafleting session: Saturday
3) City-wide rally and march: May 9
4) Sign and circulate the solidarity statement
5) Contact your Member of Parliament
6) Write letters to the editor
NEWS & UPDATES:
7) Sri Lankan Army attacks hospital
8) Sri Lanka's war on the Tigers won't bring peace
9) Reports on civilian deaths from "safe zone"
10) Read up-to-date reports on Tamilnet and other useful sites
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1) Join the protests already underway!

Thousands of Tamil community members and their supporters have gathered in front of the US Consulate in Toronto for non-stop protests since Thursday, April 23. The Toronto protests follow solidarity actions in Ottawa which drew tens of thousands of people to Parliament Hill.

Although police have now moved participants from University Avenue to the sidewalks, the protests are still underway.

It is urgent that as many non-Tamil supporters as possible show their solidarity with the protests. Both organizations and individuals are encouraged to visit the protest. Please bring any banners or placards that show your support, especially if you represent a group.

Toronto rally for Tamils
24 hours daily
United States Consulate
360 University Avenue
Toronto

TTC: St. Patrick or Osgoode

Group on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83321033176&ref=ts
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2) Leafleting session: Saturday

The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War and its allies will join a city-wide leafleting seesion this Saturday to promote the upcoming Tamil solidarity rally and march. Please join us to help promote the event, collect signatures on the Tamil solidarity statement, and raise the profile of Tamil suffering in Sri Lanka.

All are welcome.

Leafleting session
Saturday, May 2
3:00pm to 6:00pm
Southeast corner of Spadina and Bloor West

TTC: Spadina

All materials provided: leafelts, posters, petitions, sample letters, etc. Just bring yourself (and your friends).

For more information, please phone 416-333-7567.
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3) City-wide rally and march: May 9

Rally & march
Saturday, May 9
12:00pm
United States Consulate
360 University Avenue
Toronto

TTC: St. Patrick or Osgoode

The Government of Sri Lanka has unilaterally abandoned the internationally mediated ceasefire, and is killing civilians in an intense war on the Tamil minority. Since January, more than 6,000 people have been killed, over 10,000 wounded, and hundreds of thousands internally displaced.

The international community has not stopped this massacre. Join us to demand an end to the killing in Sri Lanka.

Organized by
Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario
Canadian Peace Alliance
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War

For more information or to endorse, please contact the Canadian Peace Alliance:
Phone: 416-588-5555
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.acp-cpa.ca

Event on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=71673383883&ref=mf

Download the poster here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/May9poster2.pdf
Download the leaflet here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/May9Flyer.pdf
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4) Sign and circulate the solidarity statement

The Canadian Peace Alliance has produced a solidarity statement, calling for an end to the attacks on the Tamil people. If your group would like to endorse this statement, please e-mail [email protected].

Stop the attacks on the Tamil people
Solidarity statement by the Canadian Peace Alliance

The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has unilaterally abandoned the internationally mediated ceasefire agreement and has engaged in aerial bombings and artillery shelling of civilians in an intense war on the Tamil minority in the country. This war, which has killed as many as 70,000 Tamil civilians, has become more brutal. In 2008 alone, thousands of civilians were killed.

According to former UN Human Rights Commissioner, Louise Arbour, "The most fundamental rights of people to be secure in their persons and homes are being violated almost daily... There is an urgent need for the international community to monitor the unfolding human rights situation, as these are not merely ceasefire violations, but grave breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law." She went on to say that the "weakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity is alarming."

This devastating war has internally displaced over 500,000 Tamils, and the Government of Sri Lanka has expelled all local and international NGOs from the war-affected areas in the North. They have also placed an economic embargo on all food, medicine, fuel and other essential items reaching the civilians in the affected areas, creating a humanitarian disaster.

The Government of Sri Lanka has banned all reporters from the affected areas and has led a campaign of persecution against journalists. Reporters Without Borders has expressed outrage at the Sri Lankan government after they censored the BBC World Service reporters in the country and after the murder of prominent editor of the Sunday Times, Lasantha Wickrematunga. Wickrematunga, in his last editorial, published after his death, said he knew that he was being targeted by the government: "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me," he wrote. The lack of access to international monitors is making it impossible to know exactly how many innocent civilians are being killed.

We call on the government of Canada to:
» Condemn the Government of Sri Lanka and call for an end to all attacks on Tamils
» Call on the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately allow international aid organizations and NGOs to bring emergency assistance to the civilians affected and to support the internally displaced Tamils
» Call on the Government of Sri Lanka to support the right to a free press and allow journalists into the affected areas

We also call upon the United Nations to condemn the Sri Lankan government's human rights violations and apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government to stop its genocidal war on the Tamil people.

Statement online: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/HART.html
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5) Contact your Member of Parliament

The Canadian Peace Alliance has produced a sample letter that you can send to your Member of Parliament. Download the letter here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/TamilSolidarityletter.pdf

Please copy the letter and circulate to family, friends, co-workers, etc. Remember that no postage is required to send a letter to your Member of Parliament. Just mail your letter to the following address, and it's free of charge:

Member of Paliament (add your MP's name)
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
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6) Write letters to the editor

Please take a moment to send a short letter to the editor in response to any articles you see in the media about the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka or about the ongoing solidarity protests in Toronto and elsewhere.

Even if your letter isn't published, it sends a message to the editorial board that this is an important issue and that support is growing for the Tamil cause.

Please keep your letters short (under 200 words) and concise.
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7) Sri Lankan Army attacks hospital

Hospital attacked, SLN naval crafts fire artillery pieces
By online staff
Tamilnet
April 29, 2009

Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) attack crafts fitted with 100 mm cannon began firing artillery pieces along the shore of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal Wednesday around 4:00pm. Meanwhile, the makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal was hit by artillery shells. Nine patients were killed and 15 sustained injuries as many of the remaining patients had to seek shelter elsewhere, according to initial details...

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29215
(If you can't click on the link directly, please cut-and-paste the URL into your address line)
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8) Sri Lanka's war on the Tigers won't bring peace

Why battering the Tamil Tigers won't bring peace
By Mitu Sengupta
Counterpunch
April 27, 2009

Over the course of a long and brutal war with Sri Lanka's armed forces, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE) emerged as one of the world's most formidable insurgent groups. Besides engaging the Sri Lankan government in a bloody battle for more than 25 years, the LTTE (or, more informally, the 'Tamil Tigers') managed to seize substantial chunks of government territory, and operated these as a quasi-state for well over a decade. Today, however, the mighty Tigers are on the verge of  total military defeat. Will their demise bring peace to Sri Lanka?

http://www.counterpunch.org/sengupta04272009.html
(If you can't click on the link directly, please cut-and-paste the URL into your address line)
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9) Reports on civilian deaths from "safe zone"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
18.30 hrs
27 April 2009
Mullivaikal, Mullaitivu

ALL OUT ATTACK ON 'SAFE ZONE' - HEAVY WEAPON USAGE CONTINUES

At 3:45 am, 27 April 2009 the Sri Lanka Armed Forces commenced their attack on the so called Œsafe zone¹ with heavy land based artillery shelling followed by ariel bombardment and shelling from off-shore ships.

The SL Armed Forces continue to shell and bomb the civilians in the so-called 'safe zone' / 'no fire zone' in contradiction of statements to the international media by the Government of Sri Lanka on 27 April 2009 (today) that they would no longer use ariel bombardment or heavy artillery.

The fact of the matter is that government spokespersons have been denying that they were using these weapons for the past one month. How is it that they are stopping the usage of weapons that they had previously stated there were not using anyway?

So far today there are reports of 500 civilian casualties with approximately 100 of those having died or are dying due to a lack of treatment. The true numbers are likely to be higher, but due to the continuous shelling from the direction of Puthukudiyiruppu, Ianaipalai and Oddusuddan and aerial bombardment by the K-FIR jets, which re-started at 15.00 - 16.00, on two of the sorties "delay bombs" were dropped in the Rattai Vaikal area, it is difficult for TRO volunteers and medical staff to collect the injured and dying.

The shells are still raining down on us as these words are being written in a bunker in the so called 'safe zone'. The government is keeping the eyes of the world off of the genocide they are committing here. Will it be too late for the Tamil civilians when the world finally awakes to the atrocity that they allowed the Government of Sri Lanka to commit in their "war on terror" while they international community willfully looked the other way. Is this President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton's Rwanda or Srebrenica?

We, the civilians in the 'safe zone', implore the international community and the Tamil Diaspora to push the government of Sri Lanka to enter into a ceasefire. The government has silenced our voice, we have no voice, you must be our voice.

Laurence Christy
Head of Field Office
'Safe zone' / 'no fire zone'
Mullivaikal, Mullaitivu
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10) Read up-to-date reports on Tamilnet and other useful sites

TamilNet
http://tamilnet.com/

LankaSri News
http://www.lankasrinews.com/

Tamil National
http://tamilnational.com/

Tamil Canadian
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/news/

Tamil Eelam News
http://www.tamileelamnews.com/

EuroLive TV (WARNING: Raw unedited footage)
http://eurotvlive.com/

(If you can't click on the link directly, please cut-and-paste the URL into your address line)
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The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War is Toronto's city-wide anti-war coalition, comprised of more than 70 labour, faith and community organizations, and a member of the Canadian Peace Alliance. www.nowar.ca | [email protected] | 416-795-5863

Please donate! Send a cheque or money order payable to TCSW Canada to:
TCSW, 427 Bloor St W, Box 13, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1X7

the first photo here on just-bombed hospital. 

the report from aj here is better than some of their earlier, but still way too much use of words like 'alleged' . BS.

A satellite photo is a satellite photo.  and from the UN ! what does it take ! i note another article linked from rabble main page says rajapaksa admits bombing civilian areas.  well we knew that already when he said he was going to tell his brother's army to stop bombing. even the BBC had the satellite photos up on last nights news.  a civilian massacre is a civilian massacre. 

and it's still going on. 

all the best to Tamil demonstrators and allies in the streets today.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/20095285641256234.html

India, Sri Lanka and Question of Censorship

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/wsubcontinentalblog0115/

- interesting reflection