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Please comment on this. We need 10,000 comments to beat Singhalese people's comment. A major battle field where Tamils are losing. We were shouting "media media break your silence". But we have to note that around 30,000 singhlase condemn the article saying "supporting terror" and this is one of the reason media are scared to raise their voice. Please we need 10,000 comments by today!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...rike/article.do

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***** Please note categories include UN/Intl' Community/ Tamils&Tamil Tigers/ Media/ Human Rights/ Intl' Community. Scroll down to see them all ***** v 200905010900EST

[intl' Community]

President Barak Obama’s Administration released on 24 April 2009 a nuanced "White House Statement on the Situation in Sri Lanka". It concluded with the following comment: "It would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future." It is crafted to convey the message that the US may consider Tamils’ struggle to be legitimate if President Mahinda Rajapakse does not come forward with a political solution. Embedded in it is an apparent warning to the Rajapakse regime by way of a comforting allusion directed towards Tamils of possible US support for some form of autonomy or independence to the Tamil Homeland.

[Aid] No aid to Sri Lanka!

The Sri Lankan government is happy to buy state-of-the-art military hardware to shell Tamil civilians to oblivion, but won't provide help to the 200,000 civilians it has so called "rescued"? The more 'aid' we pump into Sri Lanka, the more the Sri Lankan government is free to spend the rest of its budget on its killing machines.

[Aid] No aid to Sri Lanka!

Sri Lanka has the audacity to scold the West for not giving them handouts. It is like the beggar scolding the person who s/he is begging from. Unbelievable.

[Dirty War] There are three main rules

The First (and most important) Rule: Conduct the War Without Witnesses. Ensure that the theatre of war is out of bounds for the media, international monitors and aid agencies.

The Second Rule: Give the Army a Free Hand. Do not constrain them with rules and international conventions.

The Third Rule: (In the absence of witnesses), Don’t Worry About Human Rights Violations.

Why Kosovo and not Tamileelam?

Why should the International Community which had successfully made Kosova an independent state for the killing of 1500 people remain passive though more than 7,000 Tamils have been killed in the last three months alone?

[sOS appeal to powers]

On behalf of over 160,000 civilians still in the area, I am making this appeal to the the international community to stop the slaughter of Tamil civilians in the so-called ‘safe zone’.

The UN, US, India, EU, UK, Russia and China must all put pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately stop all military attacks and enter into an immediate, UN monitored cease fire.

It is time not to be missed by the IC to directly intervene in order to restructure state in the island. But whether the IC is going to be successful or not has become a matter of hours now.

IC’s future in the island, its interests in the region of South Asia, and its international ideological credibility hang in balance.

Winning battles and terminating the war will not solve the factors that motivated Tamil youth to opt for armed militancy in the first place. Discrimination must end. Minorities must enjoy equal rights and privileges.

Without recognizing the struggle for freedom from oppression and without taking initiatives which would lead to permanent solution to the ethnic problem, UN and the IC are trying to close the chapter with the death of hundreds of thousands of Tamil.

UN is encouraging the genocidal onslaught for the sake of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lankan state. It has let the people and their aspirations to die. UN has sadly failed in its mandate to uphold the aspirations of a people who are oppressed grossly and consistently for the last 60 years.

The intermittent physical attacks on Tamils now have culminated in extensive massacre by military onslaught.

A victory by the Sri Lankan state at this juncture is no victory even for that state.

Such military ends were accomplished only in feudal times and in the colonial times.

If the Sri Lanka state aims for feudal or colonial ambitions, it may have justifications in the war, but this will not serve the interests of the international community.

Colombo could never end the actual war in this way. The LTTE and the struggle are not only sure to survive but will find resurgence in a more severe form.

The current military operations and the possible incompleteness of them in the annihilation of the LTTE leadership, which Colombo is soon going to realize and going to complain about, will serve only for its excuses of not agreeing to meaningful political solutions.

Unless and until all Sri Lankans are able to live side-by-side in trust and confidence, in peace and harmony, with justice and dignity, there lurks the danger of a resurgence of armed insurrection.

Progress back to square one must be avoided. This God given opportunity for re-structuring sustainable national unity must figure as a national priority.

6,432 civilians have been killed in the fighting since Jan. 20 and another 13,946 have been wounded- UN (Jan –Mar 2009)

[uN & Intl' Community] “HRW's Anna Neistat posed a question that remains to be answered:

‘how could Sri Lanka so intimidate the UN, when it has so little leverage? She said she doubts Sri Lanka can even afford to throw out humanitarian groups. Why did the UN back down so cravenly?’ This remains to be answered”. – Inner City Press – 22/04/09

[uN & Intl' Community] The world allows tragedy of epic proportions

The LTTE is banned as a terrorist organisation in some 30 countries. That has given the Sri Lankan government global sanction to destroy the LTTE. But in doing so, the international community has allowed a disaster of epic proportion to unfold. This is not an LTTE, but a Tamil tragedy. Nowhere in the world has a government been continuously bombing its own civilians for over a year.

[uN & Intl' Community] UN says Sri Lanka commits "War Crimes"

Given the government's stated objective of "wiping out" the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan, this malevolent collapse of civilians and "terrorists" does seem to signal that the government is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide. According to a United Nations estimate, several thousand people have already been killed. Thousands more are critically wounded. And Yes, Sri Lanka is committing War Crimes!

[uN & Intl' Community] Sri Lanka's designated "No Fire Zone" = largest death chamber

Sri Lannka's own declared "No Fire Zone" has turned into a vast death chamber for Tamil civilians, trapped between the LTTE and the attacking army. Nowhere else in the world is a war being waged without outsiders and independent witnesses, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Gaza. But in Sri Lanka, the media and NGOs have been banned from the war zone, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, among the lone relief workers there, has described the civilian situation as catastrophic. A quarter of a million Tamils uprooted. Tens of thousands imprisoned in refugee camps. Thousands killed and maimed.

[uN & Intl' Community] Sri Lanka's broad daylight GENOCIDE

For the Tamileelam as for many organizations worldwide, despite the best of timely and thorough documentation, the international community has failed to take action to mitigate the misery and suffering of the thousands in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government is getting away with broad daylight murder and mayhem.

[uN & Intl' Community] The Indifference by UN and International Community

In the last few days 68,000 civilians have entered into internment camps where they join nearly 20,000 others recently from the conflict zone; 57,000 are being "processed" with no outside monitoring; 600 injured are waiting for ICRC transport to the only remaining hospital in the area which was recently hit by a rocket-propelled grenade; and 100-200,000 remain trapped inside and active war zone. Since January of 2009, the International Community and the safeguards designed from lessons learned elsewhere have failed 5,000 civilians in Sri Lanka. The loss of the next 5,000 may come quicker than the first -- and history will claim Sri Lanka as yet another case of lessons learned by a failure to act.

[uN & Intl' Community] 'Ostriches can never be right'

The ‘strategic partners’ have deliberately decided to be ostriches and have made the UN also to be so, in order to keep the solutions under their armpits. May be they are right in the given global scenario, but fooling around with truth is not the right strategy. It is time for the strategic partners and the international community to call a spade a spade, and to explore solutions to the ethnonational question from an ethnonational perspective.

Nothing can be done without deconstructing the Sri Lankan state.

UN funding detention camps in violation of international humanitarian law

[uN & Intl' Community] Tamils will never forget what they received when asked for justice!

All this time UN and others were indirectly approving the killing of civilians by shelling and starvation to lead to their capture. By twisting the ethnic-oriented humanitarian situation as an issue of ‘terrorism’, the UN is approving the genocide. This attitude will never resolve the crisis.

[uN & Intl' Community] UN, this time we can't say "We Didn't Know"!

Two years ago, with the election of Rajapksa as President, on the platform of the " final solution of the Tamil people..... the genocide was sealed. Shame of the power brokers and the " civilized" Govts. that have sacrificed the Tamil people to genocide for their own benefits. Where is President Obama? What happened to change? New values in our foreign policy? Oh I forgot , China owns us now.. I guess they dictate our foreign policy too.

[uN & Intl' Community] The Sri Lankan government apologizes to no one.

They openly say they will incarcerate Tamils for years in the camps. They do not say civilians are “collateral damage,” nor do they apologize for shelling hospitals, using cluster bombs on Tamil civilian areas, incendiary bombs on densely packed civilians, threatening doctors to leave, ordering the UN and all NGOS to leave, closing off the whole area under attack from journalists or observers. Yet, it seems the civilized world agrees with Sri Lanka!

[uN & Intl' Community] International community must Support Self Determination for the Tamils in their homeland, not Slavery!

MUST WE WITNESS A HOLOCAUST AGAIN, AND WRING OUR HANDS LATER?

After the Govt. of Sri Lanka kills all the Tamils, the Tamil Diaspora will never stop fighting this atrocity! The similarity to the Nazis killing the Jews is chilling!

[uN & Intl' Community] Tamils do not apology after the fact, we want action NOW!

When eventually the peace-keeping force is sent in, we fear that they will find an ethnically cleansed, evidence-free cemetery that will require very little 'keeping'.

United Nations by taking a stance of appeasing the Sri Lankan Goverment is unfortunately now setting the scene for Thousands of Disappearances in Sri Lanka as the entire Vanni Tamil population falls into the hands of the Sri Lankan Army in a government controlled region where there is NO media, NO UN or Aid agencies to report on war crimes.

[uN & Intl' Community] Where is the "right to protect (R2P)"?

At a time when 100,000 refugees need medical care, food, and shelter, and another 200,000 are under shelling in a five-square-mile war zone, the international community has proved impotent to live up to the UN's 2005 adoption of a "right to protect" civilians who are not protected by their government.

[uN & Intl' Community] Tamil Diaspora holds Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Mr. Nambiar and Mr.Holme accountable for aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes in Sri Lanka.

UN officials have failed to report the true situation. "This same type of deliberate stalling, delaying and obfuscation by United Nations Officials preceded and occurred during the course of the genocidal massacre at Srebrenica” said Prof. Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, commenting on the denial at the United Nations to have Security Council hearings on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.

[uN & Intl' Community] “UN Officials are all guilty of aiding and abetting Sri Lanka's genocide against the Tamils in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention”

"Under the terms of the United Nations Chapter XV, the UN Secretariat and thus these UN Officials are legally independent of the United Nations Security Council. These UN Officials have a separate and independent obligation to uphold the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter no matter what the U.N. Security Council Members might tell them to do.” - - Prof. Francis Boyle, International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law.

[uN & Intl' Community] UN Approves Tamil Genocide??

Statement diplomacy and behind the screen deliberations of Colombo, India, and the International Community are heading for tacit UN approval for the Tamil genocide in the island of Sri Lanka. The stand taken by the UN Security Council, and also echoed by the US state department Wednesday, welcoming the capture and detention of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka Army is the first step of direct approval for the genocide. All this time they were indirectly approving the killing of civilians by shelling and starvation to lead to their capture. By twisting the ethnic-oriented humanitarian situation as an issue of ‘terrorism’, the UN is approving the genocide?

[uN & Intl' Community] But, it is today that is relevant.

Today, we try the henchman of Pol Pot. Fujimori of Peru has just been convicted. Tomorrow, the international criminals in the present Government of Sri Lanka responsible for the atrocities against the Tamils in Sri Lanka will surely be tried for their callous massacre of thousands of Tamil civilians. But, it is today that is relevant. It is today that the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilian lives under the threat of massacre by the Sri Lankan Government must be saved.

[uN & Intl' Community] UN must bring SRi Lanka at the security council

The Sri Lankan government needs to hear loudly and clearly from a concerted international community that they will be held accountable for what happens to the civilians in the no-fire zone. On April 20, 2009, 1496 innocent civilians including 496 children have been killed by the Srilankan Government .

The Sri Lankan government, not Tamil Tigers, that holds the lives of the trapped Tamil civilians in its hands. It is to the Sri Lankan government that international leaders must send their most immediate messages of restraint.

[uN & Intl' Community] International community failed Tamils!

UN and the so called civilized world may not be able to perform miracles in Sri Lanka to save Tamils, but at minimum they should have restrained themselves from committing blunders. Diplomacy may be the art of the possible, but a liberation struggle is to make impossible, possible.

"The Sri Lankan government needs to hear loudly and clearly from a concerted international community that they, just as the Tamil Tigers, will be held accountable for what happens to the civilians in the no-fire zone. It is high time for the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka to be officially taken up on the Security Council's agenda."

- Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, April 20, 2009

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[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Who are defending the Tamils?

LTTE took arms to defend the Tamils when every effort taken by the Tamils to fight for their rights through democratic means had failed to bring results. Democracy never worked in Sri Lanka because the majority are the Sinhalese and they always support the regimes that oppress the Tamils.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Terrorism is the theme of this century

Terrorism is the theme of this century; but does it mean national liberation or humanitarian laws should be discarded to the dustbins?

All freedom struggles in past history were dubbed as terrorism by respective countries. Taliban is for imposing a particular religion on all, and by that yardstick even Sinhalese Government can be named as Sinhalaban, since they want their religion, culture and language thrust on Eelam Tamils.

America views whole world with terrorism yardstick. They are so obsessed with terrorism, naturally because of Taliban attacks. America fails to differentiate between freedom movements and terrorist organizations.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] The tag of Tamil Tigers

The tag of terrorist organization is like crucifying a freedom movement. Nelson Mandela was termed as terrorist, and almost all freedom fighters including India’s Nethaji were branded as terrorist at one point of time, till world revised its view to endorse their struggle. It is a global phenomenon, but to brand the freedom fighters of Tamil Eelam is a grave mistake since they are fighting to protect their kinsmen from genocide.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] World democracies support state terrorism

World democracies fail to probe the mysterious murders of the of Sinhalese politicians and media men, and the brutal murder of Parliament Members like Joseph Pararajasingam and mysterious disappearances caused by white van abductions. If state sponsors such acts, does it mean, world will wait with clean chit. Srilanka is the only country that prevents independent media and UN agencies access to the theatre of war, which itself beyond an iota of doubt will prove that war crimes of gigantic proportions have taken place throwing into wind all international norms and conventions. State terrorism against civilians is more brutal than stray incidents of terrorism in a long drawn freedom struggle.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Why LTTE represent Tamil people

LTTE represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism.

LTTE represents real frustration of Tamils who earlier demanded equal rights through democratic means and resulted in empty promises and broken truces.

LTTE represents hopes as it resists genocide of Tamils in the hands of Sri Lanka.

Finally, the LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] “A liberation movement that is founded from the inner well springs of the people and grounded on the aspirations of the people can't be destroyed”, South Africa's deputy communications minister, Radhakrishna Padayachi

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Definition of terrorism and "Sri Lanka"

‘’ The definition ignores terrorizing, killing, kidnapping, random or targeted assassinations by the state. It is not the act itself but the identity and the legal authority of the perpetrator that counts......The blanket generic definition and the black and white certainties terrorize our hybridity and unity. This blanket certainty has to be questioned and challenged’’'' - World Federation of Scientists condemned ‘’war-on-terror’’ in May 2006:

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] The LTTE cannot be finished as it is a movement in the hearts and minds of the Tamil people.

LTTE represents the strongest commitment to the Tamil right to self determination and Tamil freedom. Even those who disagree with the LTTE`s violent methods or with its political programme for Tamil liberation, still hail it as the most formidable opposition to Sinhala repression.

So, it will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran

In LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's mind-he is fighting to liberate his people. For that principle he lives. For that principle he fights.

Victories and defeats come and go. Territories are lost and won. Cadres die, comrades betray. But to his dying breath, he will remain true to Tamileelam.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Liberations army in post 9/11 era

There is no liberation army in the world that has not faced state terror and in turn used terror as a tactic to pursue its nationalist goals. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh were designated terrorists by the British rulers of India. Until recently, Nelson Mandela was on the list of terrorists.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Sri Lanka destroys Tamils

The LTTE is banned as a terrorist organization in some 30 countries. That has given the Sri Lankan government global sanction to destroy the LTTE. But in doing so, the international community has allowed a disaster of epic proportion to unfold. This is not an LTTE, but a Tamil tragedy. Nowhere in the world has a government been continuously bombing its own civilians for over a year. This is a crime Israeli, India, Pakistan, China American and NATO forces are not guilty of.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Tamils deserve this because they support Tamil Tigers?

Those who say the Tamils deserve this fate because they supported Prabhakaran are heartless and blind. There are many who support him and many who don't. Either way, they don't have the power to influence him. Is it then justifiable to punish ordinary civilians? Is it fair to kill Americans for the sin that Bush committed in Iraq, even though they not only elected, but re-elected him? The Sri Lankan army cannot be faulted for trying to destroy the LTTE. But the Sri Lankan government cannot condone or justify destroying Tamils and their homeland in the process.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] You are guilty until proven otherwise!

The Sri Lankan government is working on the principle that every Tamil is a terrorist unless he or she can prove otherwise!

[Tamils & Tamil Tigers] Why Tamil Tigers will exist for a long time to come

The defeat of the LTTE as a conventional force is not the end of them in Sri Lanka.

In the euphoria of the so called military "victory", Sri Lanka has lost sight of the political solution. The current situation definitely does not imply a resolution of general political grievances that the minority Tamil community has.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Racist War!

What we are witnessing - or, rather, what is happening in Sri Lanka and is being so effectively hidden from public scrutiny - is a brazen, openly racist war. The impunity with which the Sri Lankan government is able to commit these crimes unveils the deeply ingrained racist prejudice that is precisely what led to the marginalization and alienation of the Tamils of Sri Lanka in the first place.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Sri Lanka is a rogue state!

Sri Lanka has expelled all UN and other international aid agencies, prevented journalists from visiting war torn areas, blocked basic necessities such as food and medicine, and has been using heavy bombs, including cluster bombs, against innocent civilians. Hospitals and "safe zones" are not spared. The ICRC and UNHCR are very concerned about the mounting civilian casualties. The international community, including my country, has been calling for an immediate ceasefire; but Sri Lanka has rejected it. The root cause of the problem is the failure of the Sri Lankan leaders to offer a decent federal solution to Tamils in Sri Lanka, not the other way around. I challenge Sri Lanka to come out and openly promote a federal model, a viable political solution, and Tamil Diaspora will support it!

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Lift the ban on Tamil Tigers!

The aim and constitution of the LTTE is rooted in secular principles and the right to self-determination—in practice, taking up arms as the last resort. America's founding fathers were not terrorists but revolutionaries. The decision of the United States and other western nations to label the LTTE as a terrorist organization while maintaining its military and political support of the Government of Sri Lanka is a contradiction of their own ideals and history.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Co-existence as equal with the Sinhala nation is not possible.

The Tamil struggle for self-determination is at a crucial moment today. The Sinhala nation is today making its greatest effort yet to annihilate the Tamil nation, politically and physically. Having made this possible, the international community is watching and waiting. This is not about the armed struggle - the will to resist embedded in the Tamil Tigers will ensure that Sinhala hegemony remains an impossibility. Rather, it is about how to the Tamil nation moves beyond the myth we have been laboring under, that of peaceful co-existence as equal with the Sinhala nation being possible.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Let us be fair

It is true that the LTTE has a history of condemnable acts, which receives a lot of attention from the international press, but the Government of Sri Lanka has been much worse, including the deliberate targeting of civilians with heavy force, the use of chemical & cluster bombs, and an officially tolerated practice of rape, among other crimes. Where is the punishment for Sri Lanka?

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Let us take a look at Sri Lanka's sovereignty

Sovereignty implies rights and obligations, and that Sri Lankan state have a basic responsibility to protect its citizens from genocide and mass atrocities. No government has the right to use national sovereignty as a shield behind which it can murder its own people. The challenge for the world community is not only to state this principle, but to implement it!

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Terrorist sympathizers?

On 8 December 2008 the New York based, Genocide Prevention Project released a ''red alert'' list of 8 countries that included Sri Lanka along with Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan. Are all the persons behind this "Terrorists Sympathizers?" I don't think so.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] No devolution = separate state

In Sri Lanka, the Colombo Government will have to genuinely devolve a high degree of political authority to its Tamil minority, if not as a separate state then at least as a genuinely autonomous and unified region. - Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury is associate head (research) of the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University.Jan 6, 2009.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] You cannot lump all terrorists together!

The bottom line is, you can't lump all terrorists together. … what the Tamil Tigers are fighting for in Sri Lanka, or the Basque separatists in Spain, or the insurgents in al-Anbar province may only be connected by tactics." - Ms Hillary Clinton

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Tamils have no place in Sri Lanka - Army commander

"25 years after Genocide'83 - "... I don't think the people in the North and East are subjected to any injustice...In any democratic country the majority should rule the country. This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74 percent of the population..." Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka On Democracy and Sinhala Hegemony - 19 July 2008

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] Long before Tamil Tigers were born.

In its history, Sri Lankan Government failed to implement every single agreements it had with Tamils. After failing all the attempts, Tamils democratically decided to free from the Sri Lanka in 1977. But, Sri Lankan government used force and violence to crush the Tamils since 1948. Sri Lankan government killed Tamils long before Tamil Tigers were born.

[Tamils and Tamil Tigers] A brutal war forced on Tamils

Lest it be forgotten, this is not a war not the choosing of Tamils, but one forced upon them by the murderous ethnocracy the British left behind. Yet Tamils have not been subdued. Tamils have not accepted a place as second-class citizens in our own homeland or surrendered our dignity as a people. No matter what deprivations the Sinhalese and their international allies have visited on our people, no matter how they have sought to erase Tamil national identity, we Tamils have resisted. Tamils have made defiance our hallmark!

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[Human Rights] Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka

* More than 100,000 Tamil men, women and children Killed or Disappeared

* Nearly 1 Million Tamils made to flee the country

* More than 600,000 Tamil Internal Refugees (Internally Displaced or Evicted)

* More than 20,000 Tamil orphaned children

* More than 35,000 Tamil widows

* Thousands of families (including infants) in barbed wire fenced concentration camps operated by Sri Lankan Military.

* Half a million Tamils kept in an open prison in Northern Sri Lanka

* Thousands in custody – detention without trial, other widespread abuses

* Economic embargo imposed on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades

* Supply of food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other essential items controlled by the Military

* Forced Starvation

* Mass Graves and systematic violations of fundamental human rights remain uninvestigated

* No International Media allowed into conflict areas

* Systematic destruction of Infrastructure

* Indiscriminate and wanton air attacks on traditional Tamil areas for more than 2 decades.

* Hundreds of thousands of livelyhoods and schools, hospitals, libraries, temples, churches, houses, villages destroyed

[Human Rights] Sri Lanka: A Mounting Tragedy of Errors

"These provisions (in the Prevention of Terrorism Act) are quite extraordinarily wide. No legislation conferring even remotely comparable powers is in force in any other free democracy operating under the Rule of Law, however troubled it may be by politically motivated violence. Indeed there is only one known precedent for the power to impose restriction orders under section 11 of the Sri Lankan P.T.A., and that - as Professor Leary rightly pointed out in her Report - is the comparable legislation currently in force in South Africa... such a provision is an ugly blot on the statute book of any civilised country." Report of International Commission of Jurists 1984, Paul Sieghart:

[Human Rights] US has added Sri Lanka to GENOCIDE watch list!

The Office of War Crimes Issues of the U.S. State Department has added Sri Lanka under its watch list of Genocide. http://www.state.gov/s/wci/

[Human Rights] Genocide RED alert

In early March, 38 members of the U.S. Congress sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighting the fact that Sri Lanka is one of eight “Red Alert” countries experiencing ongoing or imminent genocide, referencing a ranking produced by the New York-based Genocide Prevention Project. Human Rights Watch had reported that, from early January to the end of February alone, over 2,000 Tamil civilians had been killed and over 7,000 injured. More recently, government forces continue to kill or maim an average of 100 civilians a day.

[Human Rights] It becomes my issue!

Consider the protests organized world-wide in recent weeks in response to the escalating violence, the headlines they made and the message delivered: "Tamils protest 'genocide.'" This is to suggest this is a Tamil issue that pertains only to Tamils. The seeming expression of indifference to the crisis is not intentional. It is the result of unawareness, fuelled by the natural tendency to dismiss all that, which does not "hit close to home." But when 300 000-plus civilians face imminent genocide, it becomes my issue!

[Human Rights] Why INDIFFERENCE in Sri Lanka?

The late great Pope John Paul II wrote, the greatest problem this world faces is "INDIFFRENCE"

Martin Niemoller also wrote, When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

I did not speak out;

I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out for me.

[Human Rights] Sri Lanka = Nazis

At a recent conference held on civil war in Sri Lanka last week in Toronto, Dr. Ellyn Shander, a humanitarian worker from Connecticut, compared the Sri Lankan government's attacks on its Tamil citizens to other genocides such as those committed by the Nazis, former Cambodian leader Pol Pot and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

[Human Rights} A genocide of Tamils has not received the same attention that genocide in Europe or genocide in Turkey or genocide in other part of the world. There is still this kind of basic discrimination against the Tamil people and their problems.

[Human Rights] Photo evidence of genocide (discretion advised)

http://picasaweb.google.com/tamilnational

Some recent photos

http://www.tamilkathir.com/news/genocide-ii-ok.aspx

http://www.tamilkathir.com/news/20042009_genocide.aspx

[Human Rights] TamilNet - complete repository injustice against Tamils

http://tamilnet.com/

[Human Rights] Colossal humanitarian tragedy

"while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country [india]. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late." .Arundhati Roy, writer and activisit, in an article appearing in Times of India.

[Human Rights] Sri Lankan state officials openly reiterates to media that Tamil civilian hospitals are legitimate targets. Sri Lanka uses cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs (for photo evidence see links below) and chemical weapons on Tamil civilians and on the hospitals in which Tamil civilians are treated. Now the Sri Lankan terror state's purpose of not allowing journalists into war zone is solved. Whole world is very merrily watching my people being killed by the Sri Lankan government in 1000's.

[Human Rights] Tamils in Colombo

"A few months ago the government started registering all Tamils in Colombo on the grounds that they could be a security threat, but this could be exploited for other purposes like the Nazis in the 1930s. They're basically going to label the whole civilian Tamil population as potential terrorists." - Mangala Samaraweera, a former foreign minister of Sri Lanka, The Daily Telegraph.

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[intl' Community] Solution was already mandated by the Tamils of Sri Lanka in two democratic elections.

You have struck the nail in the head by saying how little the Tamils and the Sinhalese have in common. This is the reality, both are very distinctive society forced to live together after the independence which never took place before colonization by the British.

Now that we know what the problem is, what viable solution do the Tamils have? Note that I emphasize what solution the Tamils have. This conflict can only be solved through the aspirations of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka. They are fighting for independence. They are not fighting to oppress another state, religion, or ethnic groups. They are fighting for their Right to Self Determination in the form of a separate state.

[intl' Community] Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka’s Srebrenica?

As in the final months of the war in Bosnia, the failure of the combatants to refrain from shelling encircled, densely-populated civilian pockets is producing shocking results. Channel 4’s Alex Thomson wrote on Thursday in an email newsletter, “You have to ask: is Sri Lanka becoming another Srebrenica?”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/1...anka&st=cse

[intl' Community] Why my country has a responsibility?

My country should take measures to protect Tamil civilians, as we pledged to do when adopted the “responsibility to protect” or "R2P" at the UN World Summit in 2005.

At the core of this norm is the obligation to protect peoples from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, rather than waiting until atrocities have already occurred, as states have too often done in the past. There can be little doubt about either the magnitude, or the imminence, of the peril Tamil civilians now face in Sri Lanka. Why my country is ignoring its obligation?

[intl' Community] Why do the Tamils want a separate state?

Solution was already mandated by the Tamils of Sri Lanka in two democratic elections, in 1977 and 2004.

Tamils and the Sinhalese have very little in common. This is the reality, both are very distinctive society forced to live together after the independence which never took place before colonization by the British. This conflict can only be solved through the meeting the aspirations of the Tamil nation. Their Right to Self Determination must be accepted.

[intl' Community] Srilanka has a lot to hide from the international community!

Before Ceylon was invaded and ruled by European Colonisers, there existed at least two sovereign states one belonged to Sinhalese and other belonged to Tamils. It is the British who forcibly merged the two nations in the island and ruled it as a single state. On leaving the island in 1948, British handed over the whole country to Sinhalese. Because of this blunder, ever since British left the Island, Sinhalese started exercising ethnic Cleansing of Tamils in a very systematic way using their 100% Sinhalese military. Tamils have paid enough price to end this "forced marriage"! Let them go free!

[intl' Community] Possible Solution from Tamil perspective

The question is not weather LTTE is doing terrorist activities or SriLankan government is doing genocide. The question is can international community or SriLankan government force a nation (a race of people who have lived in the same land for centuries) to stay within a country against their will for their own interest? How long can stay as second class citizen? Let me ask differently: If Tamils were subjected discrimination and killed because they are Tamils how can they live under the same country?Even more accurately how many years can they live with the fear that they may be killed one day because they are Tamils.

[intl' Community] Peace building

Hatred feeling along ethnic lines should not be tolerated. One clear example today is Sudan. After killing 300,000 civilians, Sudan claims rebels started it.

No sustainable peace is possible when people are in detention camps, refugees spread all over world and Tamils who live in other parts of the country are living under intimidation-ethnic identity checks, enforced disappearances etc. Need of the hour is to stop this human slaughter. Allow media, aid groups back there.

Above all, this war should not get any assistance from anybody( India, China, Iran, Libya..)

[intl' Community] Do international community still want Tamils go into the hands of Sri Lankan terror state??

Sri Lankan government doesn't allow independent media to meet injured civilians brought from war zone - it fears its "human shield" theory will be proved wrong.

[intl' Community] Why do the Tamils want a separate state?

To my understanding, the Tamils have fought to have equal rights in the island since independence in a Gandhian way. The concept of Eelam(Tamil occupied area) has been in existence for centuries. As the Gandhian way progressed Tamils were ethnically cleansed for many years. Vaddukoddai Resulation was drafted by the Tamil Democratic Leaders in 1976 under the leadership of Mr. Chelvanayagam. In 1977 Democratically elected Tamil leaders under the leadership of Mr. Chelvanayagam set out the concept of “Tamil Eelam”.

1977 TULF election manifesto: “The Tamil Nation is at a turning point in its history. The unity we have achieved has made the Sinhalese imperialists take a fresh look at the situation. In this background, as a fi rst step towards the realisation of the freedom of the Nation, the unanimous verdict of the Tamil speaking people is indispensable. Hence we appeal to you to set aside your passions for, or prejudices against, individual candidates, to forget differences of caste or religion and, with the one and the only determination of making the Tamil Nation master of its Destiny to VOTE for the Tamil United Liberation Front, for the emancipation of the Tamil Nation, for the Freedom of Tamil Eelam.

TNA Election manifesto 2004(extract) Find a political solution to the Tamil national problem based on the acceptance of the fundamental proposals regarding (Tamil Nation’s) Tamil homeland, Tamil Nation, Tamils’ right to self-government. Accepting LTTE’s leadership as the national leadership of the Tamil Eelam Tamils and the Liberation Tigers as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people, let us devote our full cooperation for the ideals of the Liberation Tigers’ struggle with honesty and steadfastness.

In the 1977 general elections, the TULF sought and received an overwhelming mandate from Tamils for the establishment of the Tamil nation; Tamil Eelam.

In the 2004 general elections, the TNA which accepted the LTTE as the sole and authentic representatives of Tamils sought and reiceved an overwhelming mandate from the Tamils

Don’t you think the solution is already there and the only remaining work to be done is to recognize it?

[intl' Community] Only if the SL government recognize Tamils to self determination

I think 2 state 1 country is best solution for both Tamils/Sinhales, But this solution should come with International gurantee, because Tamils were disappointed by Srilankan Sinhala governments so many times in the past since 1948. Also this solution should come through Tamil's primary representatives LTTE. If anyone think solution after the defeat of LTTE, I just want to tell those guys following;

1) There won't be any solution, I really don't think Sinhala politicians/monks will allow that. Look at our 60 years of history of SL state Terrorism. Tamils will be treated like second class citizens as now. 2) Tamils, themself will feel that they got defeated/not respected, They will always has feelings as second class citizens in SL. (Thats what Srilankan sinhala governments want) I just want repeat the state ment from LTTE Political cheif B. Nadesan again, who is against peace in SL???????

"when a permanent political solution is reached for the Tamil people, with the support and the guarantee of the international community, the situation will arise where there will be no need for the arms of the LTTE."

[intl' Community] Unitary Srilanka was an error and the cause of all the destruction

Unitary Ceylon was an error: British Politician. A Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom, Dr. RachelJoyce, apologised Sunday for the error of Colonial Britain in making a unitary Ceylon out of two nations, the Tamils and the Sinhalese. TheTamil people have lived on the island currently called Sri Lanka formillennia - in their own contiguous, distinct, geographical territory.They lay claim only to the territory they have historically lived in.In fact, the 3 million Tamils of the island constituted a selfgoverning nation until invaded and occupied by Colonial powers inparticular Britain, who amalgamated them with the Sinhala nation purely for convenience. In retrospect, this cultural naivety was a mistake that has caused problems since independence"

Nothing will heal this deeply divided wounded communities other than 2 seperate nation.Continuous attempt of the Srilanka military solution is actually putting salt on those wounds.

[intl' Community] We should understand the root cause

The Tamils grievances is over 60 years old, while the arm struggle has been going on only for the last 30 years. Soon after the Sri-Lankan independence, the Sri-Lankan government was quick to implement anti-Tamil policies, making the Tamils feel aliens in their own native land, and depriving them of basic rights. Tamils were protesting against the discrimination in a Ghandian way (that is what people do in democratic countries), but the Sri-Lankan government chose violence as a weapon to suppress the Tamils legitimate aspiration, and force them into submission.

[intl' Community] Separate state for Tamils is the only solution!

People around the world should understand that the LTTE are freedom fighters. They are forced to arm by the Sri Lankan governments who ruled the country for the past sixty years. The LTTE is the one and only real representative of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The world should understand the truths that happen in Sri Lanka now. The North and East are the Native of Tamils; they don’t like to leave from their origin. Sri Lanka Government never ready to give the freedom to Tamils; so LTTE should get it by fighting. LTTE are not terrorist; they describe like this by Sri Lanka Governments. Actually Sri Lankan Government is doing the genocide in North. No media, no humanitarian organization is allowed to go to the place where the war is happening. And the Government is senses the numbers of dead and injured. When you look the numbers of injured people coming to Trincomalee with the help of ICRC; world could understand the truth. The people who are living in that area are like to live in their own area. The war never ends in Sri Lanka until a solution is given by the Government. So, the International community should Help Tamils to get a permanent political solution that guaranteed by UN.

[intl' Community] Sri Lanka rejects the international community

UN, US, UK and EU are unable to prevent the abduction and extra judicial killings of journalists in Sri Lanka. They are unable to pressurize the Sri Lankan terror state to bring the perpetrators into book. Worst part is no investigation is conducted on these incidents.

The reason is these killings are designed by the state and carried out by military and para-military forces.

If the International Community cannot stop these atrocities and persuade the Sri Lankan terror state to allow independent international media and international aid agencies into the Tamils (Tamils are minorities who are recklessly killed by government for over 7 decades) region, how will they prevent the killings and disappearances Tamils in so called "rehabilitation camp".

These information about Sri Lanka may be new to international community which until recently was not willing to listen to the sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka, but Tamil people are quiet aware of what will happen to them once they are put in the barb wired concentration camps run by Sri Lanka state (as they have faced the Sri Lankan state brutality for decades). That is the reason Tamil civilians took refugee under Tamil Tiger's territory. But Sri Lanka with its well funded, powerful propaganda machinery, made the world believe that the Tamil civilians are used as "human shield". International media very enthusiastically writes about this "human shield" theory just adding "reports cannot be independently confirmed as journalists are not allowed near the war zone".

[intl' Community]Only Solution is a Separate country, Tamil Eelam

The leadership of the Tamil people before independence demanded a power sharing to protect the minorities and put forward proposals like 50/50. The 50/50 demand was that Sinhalese people would have 50% of the power and the rest of the minority groups combined will have 50% of the power (Tamil speaking people, Malay, Burgers, etc). If there was a move by the Sinhalese majority to enforce laws that favoured them the minorities would combine together to face it using the 50% power invested in them. But the British rejected it; they did not even think to make it a federation before they exited the island putting the minorities at the mercy of the majority.

Independence was granted, the Tamil leadership and the Tamil people continued to embrace the Ceylon identity even when the Sinhalese brought in laws that made the country into a Sinhalese nation. Malay, Burgers, and few Tamils saw the disastrous future and have begun to exit the island. Tamils in the plantation area were disfranchised leaving them stateless. Tamils people were subjected to rape, murder, colonization scheme organized by the government, etc. Even then the Tamil people could not even dream of an armed struggle and continued with the fruitless political struggle with a repressive majority who knew nothing but violence.

Tamil leader Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayagam negotiated a pact on July 26th 1957 with then Sinhalese Prime Minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike. The pact did not ask for a separate state in any form and only asked for the regional council as well as the Tamil language to be treated as equal. Buddhist monks and extremist protested outside of the Prime Minister’s residence and demanded the agreement to be torn, which the Prime Minster gladly did as violence on Tamils and colonization of Tamil areas just continued without any question.

Since independence to 1976 the Tamil leaders were cheated by the Sinhalese leaders who would agree to pacts and tear them apart or never implement them. The Tamil leaders foolishly followed the Ghandian path of non-violence who was meet with police, Sinhalese thugs attacking them, beating them and humiliating them in front of the Tamil people specially the youth. Tamil political leaders could not stop the violence on the Tamil people, colonization of Tamil area and they couldn’t even get justice to the victims that had all the evidence required to get the culprits convicted. In 1976 they came together and created the Vadukoddai resolution (exercising the Tamil people’s right to self-determination) that put forward Tamil Eelam as the only way for the Tamil people to live with dignity and peace. The following year, an election gave the Vadukoddai resolution the legitimacy it required from the Tamil people who overwhelmingly endorsed a separate nation. The mandate given by the Tamil people were thrown in the Trash by the Sinhalese and unleashed even more violence including unprecedented colonization of the Tamil areas as never before.

As a Tamil I wished the earlier generation of Tamil leaders would have picked up the arms and showed the Sinhalese thugs/armed forces the exit door from Tamil Eelam rather than participating in a fruitless political drama with the Sinhalese which only dragged the Tamil people down. The only thing the Tamil political leaders have done well for the Tamil people is the Vadukoddai resolution and the mandate for a separate state in the election of 1977.

[intl' Community] The Sinhala Nation is not for any political solution!

Enough is enough. It is about time that the carnage and destruction taking place in the island, now called Sri Lanka, is stopped. All Sinhala majority governments that have carried out genocidal attacks against the Tamils say that they are going to 'liberate' the Tamil people from the Liberation fighters, as if any Tamil had requested them to do so, other than a few bootlickers who are doing so for personal benefit.

Tamils first tried non-violent Satyagraha and parliamentary methods to redress their grievances, to no avail. Repeated pogroms against Tamils were part of life, and lasted till the genocidal attacks of 1983, after which the war started. It should be noted that ever since liberation fighters started fighting, the pogroms, as such, have stopped.

Whenever a new Sinhala majority government has come to power (which was all the time), it promised to solve the issue, but never got down to it. Some times, they point to the constitutions, saying that they do not permit action. Constitutions, which are man-made, can be amended. It is a well known fact that Tamils did not participate in the drafting or approval of either of the two new constitutions implemented after independence. Protections provided in the original constitution for minorities were omitted in the latter ones. The 13th and 17th amendments to the constitution have not yet been implemented in full.

Communalism has gone very deep, and - left to themselves - Sinhalese and Tamils will never, ever, find a solution. If Sinhala nation is sincere about resolving politically it would have done long time ago!

If separation is good in between Czech and Slovaks ; East Timorians and Indonesia; Kosovo from Yougoslavia, then it is good for Tamileelam and Sri Lanka as well.

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  • கருத்துக்கள உறுப்பினர்கள்

Plese find below the e-mail that my friend received accidently from a s. guy..... see how they are working against us...please counter attack them....

To: The Oprah Winfrey Show

Dear Ms. Winfrey:

We are greatly concerned over published reports that the Oprah Winfrey show is being co-opted into supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by way of a publicity stunt launched by its supporters in Canada. (www.oprahgiveusavoice.com)

Sri Lankan Tamil men, said to be ‘students’ living in Canada, are walking from Ontario to Chicago with the purpose of appearing on the Oprah Show to air their views of the situation in Sri Lanka. Your producers may already be aware of this and they may have done their own research into this group and its motives. In which case they would realize that the real purpose of the walk is to motivate foreign intervention in Sri Lanka in order to rescue the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, ‘Tigers’), a brutal terrorist group, from inevitable defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan military. While the Sri Lankan community in the US has the highest

confidence in your good judgment, we wish to inform you of the following.

• The LTTE has committed gross crimes against humanity, including child molestation, recruitment of child soldiers, and indiscriminate suicide bombings as part of its strategy to carve out a separate fascist, mono-ethnic state, purely on racial lines. Designated a terrorist organization by the US and banned in several countries, it has a vast network of drug runners, human traffickers, and money launderers. It has assassinated a Sri Lankan president, an Indian prime minister (Rajiv Gandhi), several Sri Lankan leaders, and many Tamil leaders opposed to it. All Tamils working abroad MUST pay dues to the LTTE (or face the consequences of having family members killed in Sri Lanka). Even the proposed ‘walk to the Oprah Winfrey’ show’ bears all the hallmarks of such organization: a website with a manipulated poll to show there’s overwhelming public support for the appearance on the Oprah Show; wide press coverage; and, very likely, lobbyists working to gain access to the Oprah Show.

• Having turned its back on numerous opportunities for peace talks and opted to use nothing but violence, the LTTE is now on the verge of being totally wiped out. Currently, the remaining fighters in the group have crept into the designated No-Fire Zone (NFZ) and are holding an estimated 40,000 civilians as hostages. The Sri Lankan military has launched a massive humanitarian operation to rescue these hostages, putting the lives of thousands of soldiers at stake to save these civilians. Already, about 50,000 civilians have escaped and recount horrible tales of how the LTTE cadres shoot and burn publicly those who try to escape.

• Tamil diaspora groups as well as Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka have called for an end to LTTE propaganda stunts, such as the ‘walk to the Oprah show,’ which do not help the cause of the civilians trapped by the LTTE. Any attempt at resolving the humanitarian crisis must be directed to its very source – the LTTE – not the viewers of an American TV show. Very simply, if the LTTE were to let the civilians go, there would be no ‘humanitarian crisis.’ The United Nations, the US, and several other nations have joined in the call for the LTTE to free their captives. The walkathon ‘students’ and those sponsoring them should be adding their voices to this call, instead of resorting to publicity stunts.

We want peace and harmony in Sri Lanka and the way to go about doing it is to defeat the LTTE (which does not represent the Tamil people in the first place) and help in the healing and rehabilitation of the Tamils who were under LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s mad rule for nearly two decades. Such results are already evident in the eastern province, liberated from the LTTE, where former LTTE cadres who have renounced violence are now part of mainstream democracy.

We trust that you will not allow the Oprah Winfrey show to fall prey to the manipulations of the LTTE and its front groups.

Sincerely,

http://www.petitiononline.com/slp2opra/petition.html

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