வெளினாட்டு ஆங்கில ஊடகங்களில் வந்த செய்திகளின் தொகுப்பு. இதனை பிறமொழிகள் ஆக்கத்தில் நான் பதியமால் தமிழீழம் பகுதியில் பதிந்ததன் நோக்கம் எல்லோரும் பார்ப்பதற்காக.

Critics say Sri Lanka targeting civilians

USA Today

6/18/2006

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06...ce_x.htm?csp=34

- "I thought they were going to come to shoot us all," said L.R. Peiris, a 58-year-old woman crying hysterically at the thought of government forces returning a day after five villagers were killed by Sri Lankan troops.

- Saturday's killings...critics charge is the brutal treatment meted out to Tamil civilians by security forces of the Sinhalese-dominated government, despite official denials.

- Discrimination against the 3.2 million Tamils, most of whom are Hindu, led the Tigers to take up arms in 1983 in hopes of creating a Tamil homeland. The spark was anti-Tamil riots by Sinhalese, mostly Buddhists who make up nearly three-quarters of the island's 19 million people.

- Officials blame nearly all civilian deaths on the rebels, and Saturday's killings in Pesalai were no different. Cmdr. D.K.P. Dassanayake, a navy spokesman, said the deaths occurred when rebels attacked a police station in the hamlet. "We do not target civilians," he said.

Witnesses and international aid workers told a very different story.

- a 28-year-old fisherman...and numerous others said government forces — a mix of army and navy troopers — then tossed a grenade into the church, killing an elderly woman. Four fishermen were seen shot dead near the boats that line the beach, more than two dozen of which were burned.

The belief in Pesalai is they were killed for being Tamils.

- "To the government, we are all" rebels, said Cruz.

- Another young fisherman contrasted the government response to the killings here and Thursday's bus bombing, whose victims were largely Sinhalese.

- "The president went to the scene of the bombing to survey the damage. The government paid for the funerals of the victims. Nobody has come here," said the 24-year-old, who did not want to be quoted by name, fearing government reprisals.

- Both men were back at the church Sunday, fearing the police patrol. Churches are thought of throughout Sri Lanka as safe havens, and despite Saturday's bloodshed, "this church is still safer than our homes," the 24-year-old said.

- Talk to Tamils around Sri Lanka, and they all share similar fears. They say there have been attacks on Tamil civilians in government-held towns throughout the Tamil-dominated north and east.

But with most killings taking place far from the eyes of outside observers, details are often lost in the fog of charge and countercharge over who was actually responsible.

Earlier this month, for instance, a Tamil family of four was found hacked to death in the northwestern village of Vankalai. The government blamed the Tigers, who in turn accused the government.

Weeks later, the consensus in Sri Lanka is that soldiers or a militia allied to the government killed the family, said a Western diplomat, who agreed to discuss the case only if not quoted by name because he did not want to harm his relationship with the government.

-------------------------

June 18

The Age

Sri Lanka military storm church, kills 5

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Sri-La...0569203528.html

- The government denied the accusation and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels, but numerous witnesses and an international aid worker said Sri Lankan forces were responsible for the deaths

- "We were all inside the church when the navy and army broke in and opened fire. A grenade was thrown inside through a window," said Mariyadas Loggu, 46, who was being treated for hand injuries.

"If this is what the people responsible for security do, where else can we go?"

- One person died in the church and four others were fatally shot while returning from fishing, Loggu and a several other hospitalised villagers said.

- An international aid worker, who said he had visited Pesalai and interviewed survivors, backed their account of the incident...The aid worker also said the military had burned more than two dozen wooden fishing boats.

The military rejected the accusations.

"The LTTE has done it. We do not target civilians," said Cmdr DKP Dassanayake, a navy spokesman.

He said the Tigers had stormed the village in 12 boats, first firing grenade launchers at the police station, which is near the navy base and church.

--------------------

Sri Lanka villagers flee military patrol, mine blast kills three police

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Boston Herald

http://news.bostonherald.com/international...rticleid=144303

- Ethnic Tamil villagers frightened by an approaching Sri Lankan military patrol took refuge Sunday in the same church where they say soldiers fired on them a day before.

- Men, women and children ran from their homes and fled to a Roman Catholic church in the remote northwestern fishing village of Pesalai as word spread of the coming patrol.

- The navy said the troops were in the village to guard against rebel infiltration. "We all know that (the Tamil rebels) often infiltrate among civilians, especially fishermen, and we had to be there to safeguard against that," said Cmdr D.K.P. Dassanayake, a navy spokesman.

Several witnesses and an international aid worker gave near-identical accounts of how Sri Lankan forces fired indiscriminately in the church and around the village, killing five people, including one person inside the church.

The military denied targeting civilians and blamed the rebels for the killings.

- An international aid worker, who said he had visited Pesalai and interviewed survivors, backed witnesses' accounts of Sri Lanka soldiers firing in the church Saturday. The worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to hurt relations with the government, also said the military had burned more than two dozen wooden fishing boats.

An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted 47 wounded villagers.

"All the people now are only in a mood to flee at the sight of uniforms," a fishermen who identified himself as Raja said Sunday. "Although there has been big fighting in the past, nothing of this kind has happened in this church."

- The rebels have been fighting for more than two decades to create a homeland for the country's 3.2 million predominantly Hindu Tamils, a minority that some say has faced decades of discrimination by the largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

-----------------------

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5091320.stm

Sri Lankan forces 'target church'

Last Updated: Sunday, 18 June 2006, 01:08 GMT 02:08 UK

BBC

- Sri Lankan forces have been accused of targeting a church in the north-western district of Mannar.

The government denies this, but eyewitnesses described how the military attacked the church. An international aid worker has confirmed it.

- Some 200 people had been sheltering at the church when a grenade was thrown in, causing death and injury.

- The government says the church got caught in the middle of a firefight.

-----------------------

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/troops...0569212692.html

the age

Troops shoot Tamil villagers

Krishan Francis, Colombo

June 19, 2006

- SRI Lankan forces, shooting indiscriminately, stormed a church where hundreds of Tamils were taking shelter, then opened fire in the surrounding village, killing five people and wounding dozens, according to witnesses.

The Government denied the accusation and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels, but numerous witnesses and an international aid worker said Sri Lankan forces were responsible for the deaths on Saturday

- as talks to build on the truce have faltered, sporadic shootings and bombings in and around Tiger strongholds have escalated into near-daily violence.

- In a hospital in Mannar, near Pesalai, many injured villagers gave near-identical accounts of security forces indiscriminately shooting into the Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church, then opening fire in the village.

"We were all inside the church when the navy and army broke in and opened fire," said Mariyadas Loggu, 46, who was being treated for hand injuries.

Villagers often take shelter from the area's violence in churches, seeing them as havens.

An Associated Press reporter at the Mannar hospital counted 47 Pesalai villagers injured in the violence.

Reporters were unable to reach Pesalai, which was sealed off by Government roadblocks.

------------

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/arti...ling_civilians/

The Boston Globe

Troops accused of killing civilians

June 18, 2006

- Sri Lankan troops stormed a church yesterday where 200 civilians were seeking shelter and opened fire, and then rampaged in the surrounding village, killing five people and wounding dozens more, witnesses said. The military denied involvement and attributed the killings to Tamil Tiger rebels

http://www.yarl.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=11582