Sri Lanka's president is as "mindless" as any bus bomber.

[narathar]

UN urged not to ignore Rajapakse regime

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 February 2007, 12:58 GMT]

The UN security council working group which is set to study underage recruitment in Sri Lanka later Friday should not ignore the practice of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse’s regime in the practice, a senior columnist with The Guardian newspaper wrote in Friday’s edition on Guardian's 'Comment is Free' section. And condemning political movements for the violence they turn to, “whilst ignoring their complaints and the degree of support they command leads only to political stalemate and more bloodshed,” Jonathan Steele said in his column. He criticised President Rajapakse for destroying the 2002 truce by trying to reoccupy the areas recognised as under Tiger control.

The full text of Mr. Steele’s column follows:

The roadblock was unexpected. Driving to Colombo along Sri Lanka's south-west coast, we were forced on to a sidestreet by police in Hikkaduwa, one of the island's main tourist centres. There must have been a multiple crash, we assumed, as the detour along narrow village lanes took us past rice paddies shimmering in the afternoon sun. Back on the coast road, fleets of ambulances racing south seemed to confirm our suspicions.

Later we discovered the problem was a bomb. Eleven people had died when a rucksack detonated in a crowded long-distance bus. Although not targeted at foreigners, the site chosen for the atrocity was in part a blow at the country's weakened tourist economy which has not yet recovered from the 2004 tsunami. Buses have never been hit in tourist areas before. Along with a bomb on a bus going east out of Colombo the previous day, the explosion was also designed to strike fear into every Sri Lankan traveller.

Like terrorist attacks on civilians anywhere in the world, this one was "mindless", to use the epithet that politicians and editorial writers always employ on these occasions. Killing people who have no connection to political decision-making is never right. But the bus bombs did not happen in a vacuum, according to analysts in Colombo. They were a predictable stage in the cycle of violence involving the Sri Lankan government and its guerrilla opponents that is making a mockery of Sri Lanka's so-called peace process.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate homeland for decades. As usual, they denied responsibility for the bombs, but it is assumed this was their answer to an escalating military campaign by the most hardline government since independence.

Sri Lanka has long been a test case for the complexity of dealing with political movements that turn to terrorist methods, almost always as a last resort. Condemning their choice of targets while ignoring their complaints and the degree of support they command leads only to political stalemate and more bloodshed. Northern Ireland, the Basque country and the Palestinian issue show it is better to talk to terror users who have significant popular backing than to isolate them.

Sri Lanka's Sinhalese elite seemed to know this. Under Norwegian mediation the then government made an interim peace deal with the LTTE four years ago. Although the EU listed the Tigers as a terrorist organisation last year (a badly timed and stupid move), it still urges the new government to go on talking. So does the US, in spite of its war on terror. The Tigers are not Muslim. They have a local, not global, agenda, so any attempt to link them with an anti-western jihad is laughable.

It is equally absurd to use war to disarm them. Yet this is what President Mahinda Rajapakse is attempting, perhaps motivated by revenge after his brother, the defence secretary, and his army commander survived assassination attempts. Rajapakse's picture bedecks hoardings around Sri Lanka in an unprecedented cult of personality. He has taken to visiting Buddhist shrines on state occasions in a chauvinistic sop to the most dominant of Sri Lanka's four religious communities.

Worst of all, he is destroying the peace deal by trying to reoccupy the areas recognised as under Tiger control. Almost 4,000 people have died since fighting resumed last year; tens of thousands are homeless after government artillery and air attacks in the east of the island. The government has succeeded in capturing most of the Tiger areas there, and now appears to want to hold provincial elections and install a puppet ruler. Rajapakse's chosen candidate would be Colonel Karuna, a commander who broke from the LTTE three years ago and was quickly recruited by the Sri Lankan army to work with them. The government initially denied this, and because of heavy censorship local media had difficulty reporting it. But visitors to Batticaloa in the east now say no attempt is made to hide it. Karuna's camps are close to army bases and police checkpoints, and his ground attacks coincide with government offensives.

According to Unicef, the UN children's agency, the government is complicit in Karuna's abductions of hundreds of children to become soldiers. A UN security council working group will take up the issue of Sri Lanka (and Nepal) in New York today. Sri Lanka is one of several countries under the UN spotlight, and Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary general, has warned of "targeted measures" (ie sanctions) if the practice is not stopped. Ironically, Sri Lanka chose to be on the list that was drawn up when only the Tigers were seizing children.

The government promised to investigate the charges, but abductions continue, says Unicef. The security council must not let Sri Lanka off the hook until proof emerges that it has stopped the practice and got Karuna to release all the children he has seized. The LTTE's use of child soldiers is on a far greater scale than the army's (Karuna was notorious for it when he was still with the Tigers), but elected governments have a duty to show they are not adopting the crimes and brutalities of their opponents. Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, was brave enough to make that point last month. Rajapakse promptly took his job away.

Sri Lanka's humanitarian crisis is dire. Kidnappings and disappearances, apparently by the police and allied forces, have resumed in Colombo. The civil war has made more than 200,000 people homeless in the past year, almost as many in the same period as in Darfur, which gets 10 times the international attention. Like the Sudanese authorities, the government is using its monopoly of air power to conduct a vicious counter-insurgency in the face of lesser rebel provocations.

The outside world can have a role and India may be the most important player. Floods of Tamil refugees are forcing it to take a renewed interest in its neighbour. It has warned Rajapakse against trying to split the east from the north, a device to foreclose a viable homeland for Tamils and reject a federal solution that most independent experts see as the only compromise likely to end the war.

Above all, India is refusing to sell arms that can be used for counter-insurgency. That is the best signal. If he believes he can defeat an enemy as widely supported by Tamils as the Tigers are, Sri Lanka's president is as "mindless" as any bus bomber.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=21205

[கிருபன்]

Sri Lanka's president seems as mindless as any bomber

A four-year-old peace deal has been shattered by a government that has resorted to copying its opponents' brutal tactics

Jonathan Steele in Colombo

Friday February 9, 2007

The Guardian

The roadblock was unexpected. Driving to Colombo along Sri Lanka's south-west coast, we were forced on to a sidestreet by police in Hikkaduwa, one of the island's main tourist centres. There must have been a multiple crash, we assumed, as the detour along narrow village lanes took us past rice paddies shimmering in the afternoon sun. Back on the coast road, fleets of ambulances racing south seemed to confirm our suspicions.

Later we discovered the problem was a bomb. Eleven people had died when a rucksack detonated in a crowded long-distance bus. Although not targeted at foreigners, the site chosen for the atrocity was in part a blow at the country's weakened tourist economy which has not yet recovered from the 2004 tsunami. Buses have never been hit in tourist areas before. Along with a bomb on a bus going east out of Colombo the previous day, the explosion was also designed to strike fear into every Sri Lankan traveller.

Like terrorist attacks on civilians anywhere in the world, this one was "mindless", to use the epithet that politicians and editorial writers always employ on these occasions. Killing people who have no connection to political decision-making is never right. But the bus bombs did not happen in a vacuum, according to analysts in Colombo. They were a predictable stage in the cycle of violence involving the Sri Lankan government and its guerrilla opponents that is making a mockery of Sri Lanka's so-called peace process.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate homeland for decades. As usual, they denied responsibility for the bombs, but it is assumed this was their answer to an escalating military campaign by the most hardline government since independence.

Sri Lanka has long been a test case for the complexity of dealing with political movements that turn to terrorist methods, almost always as a last resort. Condemning their choice of targets while ignoring their complaints and the degree of support they command leads only to political stalemate and more bloodshed. Northern Ireland, the Basque country and the Palestinian issue show it is better to talk to terror users who have significant popular backing than to isolate them.

Sri Lanka's Sinhalese elite seemed to know this. Under Norwegian mediation the then government made an interim peace deal with the LTTE four years ago. Although the EU listed the Tigers as a terrorist organisation last year (a badly timed and stupid move), it still urges the new government to go on talking. So does the US, in spite of its war on terror. The Tigers are not Muslim. They have a local, not global, agenda, so any attempt to link them with an anti-western jihad is laughable.

It is equally absurd to use war to disarm them. Yet this is what President Mahinda Rajapakse is attempting, perhaps motivated by revenge after his brother, the defence secretary, and his army commander survived assassination attempts. Rajapakse's picture bedecks hoardings around Sri Lanka in an unprecedented cult of personality. He has taken to visiting Buddhist shrines on state occasions in a chauvinistic sop to the most dominant of Sri Lanka's four religious communities.

Worst of all, he is destroying the peace deal by trying to reoccupy the areas recognised as under Tiger control. Almost 4,000 people have died since fighting resumed last year; tens of thousands are homeless after government artillery and air attacks in the east of the island. The government has succeeded in capturing most of the Tiger areas there, and now appears to want to hold provincial elections and install a puppet ruler. Rajapakse's chosen candidate would be Colonel Karuna, a commander who broke from the LTTE three years ago and was quickly recruited by the Sri Lankan army to work with them. The government initially denied this, and because of heavy censorship local media had difficulty reporting it. But visitors to Batticaloa in the east now say no attempt is made to hide it. Karuna's camps are close to army bases and police checkpoints, and his ground attacks coincide with government offensives.

According to Unicef, the UN children's agency, the government is complicit in Karuna's abductions of hundreds of children to become soldiers. A UN security council working group will take up the issue of Sri Lanka (and Nepal) in New York today. Sri Lanka is one of several countries under the UN spotlight, and Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary general, has warned of "targeted measures" (ie sanctions) if the practice is not stopped. Ironically, Sri Lanka chose to be on the list that was drawn up when only the Tigers were seizing children.

The government promised to investigate the charges, but abductions continue, says Unicef. The security council must not let Sri Lanka off the hook until proof emerges that it has stopped the practice and got Karuna to release all the children he has seized. The LTTE's use of child soldiers is on a far greater scale than the army's (Karuna was notorious for it when he was still with the Tigers), but elected governments have a duty to show they are not adopting the crimes and brutalities of their opponents. Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, was brave enough to make that point last month. Rajapakse promptly took his job away.

Sri Lanka's humanitarian crisis is dire. Kidnappings and disappearances, apparently by the police and allied forces, have resumed in Colombo. The civil war has made more than 200,000 people homeless in the past year, almost as many in the same period as in Darfur, which gets 10 times the international attention. Like the Sudanese authorities, the government is using its monopoly of air power to conduct a vicious counter-insurgency in the face of lesser rebel provocations.

The outside world can have a role and India may be the most important player. Floods of Tamil refugees are forcing it to take a renewed interest in its neighbour. It has warned Rajapakse against trying to split the east from the north, a device to foreclose a viable homeland for Tamils and reject a federal solution that most independent experts see as the only compromise likely to end the war.

Above all, India is refusing to sell arms that can be used for counter-insurgency. That is the best signal. If he believes he can defeat an enemy as widely supported by Tamils as the Tigers are, Sri Lanka's president is as "mindless" as any bus bomber.

j.steele@guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,...rticle_continue

[கிருபன்]

Comments

MarkGreen0

February 9, 2007 12:48 PM

It does makes us realise how lucky the terrorists in Iraq have got it; it should give us pride that our government would never resort to such tactics and will always place the human rights and safty of the innocent as its prime concern when confronting terrorists. We maintain a very high standard in comparison to most countries in the world.

peterratna

February 9, 2007 2:14 PM

If the conflict started with inception of LTTE then we can 'wipe out' the LTTE and the conflict will disappear.

What many people fail to note is that the conflict started with Sinhala Only in 1956. LTTE is a product of the conflict, and therefore the only way to effectively get rid of the LTTE is to resolve the conflict.

So what is the conflict?

The Sri Lankan constitution as it is, led to many discriminate laws such as Sinhala Only and Standardisation and several ethnic riots 1956, 1977, 1983 etc which many argue was systematic genocide.

Tamils want constitution changed to a Federal model at the minimum, so that their future on the island would be guaranteed.

Tamils asked for this change through political parties and hunger strikes for 25 years (1956-1981) and have been trying to force this change through violence for 25 years (1981-2006).

All Sri Lankans have suffered due to the conflict. It is in the majority community's best interest to accept that they should offer the Tamils at least a federal solution.

bamuku

February 9, 2007 2:20 PM

Actually the title of this article should have been "Sri Lanka's bus bomber is as mindless as her President", given that "the bus bombs did not happen in a vacuum, according to analysts in Colombo".

gulfbridge

February 9, 2007 2:49 PM

The point you miss Jonathan is that the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) always wanted Rajapakse to be elected. This is why they actively intimidated and prevented Tamils from voting in the Presidential election. If the Tamils had been allowed to vote, many of them would probably have voted for Ranil Wickremasinghe, the architect of the peace accord who was relatively popular with Tamils and he would probably have been elected. The last thing the LTTE wanted was to have to negotiate with a reasonable government. Making sure a racist lunatic like Rajapakse was elected helps them to keep making the case for secession, rather than having to negotiate seriously about a power-sharing deal with a reasonable President in Colombo.

I’m surprised you do not mention the atrocities that the Tigers committed to start off the current round of hostilities. Of course, Rajapakse was only too happy to oblige them with his concerted campaign for military success, but he did not move immediately. In fact he held off until he was poked and prodded many times. Even during the years of the ceasefire the LTTE kept up a steady stream of assassinations and minor attacks, always pushing things to the limit before pulling back. The EU decision to list them as a terrorist organisation was triggered by these provocations.

Rajapakse thinks he can force some sort of resolution through military means. His problem is that he is facing a bunch of guys who make Pol Pot look like Mother Theresa. Despite your view that the Tigers have widespread support from the Tamils, I have heard that this is only because those who oppose them through peaceful means or even just disagree with them end up shot dead or blown up. No responsible President of Sri Lanka would be, nor should be, able to abandon the Tamil people to the far-from-tender mercies of this bunch of sadistic killers.

Incidentally, you do not seem to be aware of the historical links between the LTTE and Middle Eastern groups. This goes back to the 1970s. In fact the LTTE refined suicide bombing to a fine art and helped export it to the jihadis. Even now they maintain many covert links with their Arab ‘mates’.

India cannot and will not be the most important player in this particular game. They were responsible for helping to create the Tigers many years back, when the LTTE was the creature of the Indian military’s intelligence service. After the falling out between them which ultimately resulted in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination by an LTTE suicide bomber, the Indians have been keeping their distance from the conflict and only making the odd comment to pander to their own Tamil minority.

You should go visit the LTTE high command sometime and have a serious chat with them. I think you will find it a revelation. The good news is they only kill Sri Lankan journalists for asking awkward questions, not Western ones.

Vasanthan

February 9, 2007 2:54 PM

This piece brings out some serious concerns many who wants to see peace in Sri Lanka are worried about. But there are also some misleading statements which need corrections. Earlier, once , Jonathan Steele wrote an optimistic article about the peace process which showed his limited understanding of the situation in Sri Lanka. The peace process was flawed from the start and many Tamils felt that the Norwegians failed to understand the complexities and eventually the process will lead to a tragic war. The LTTE is a totalitarian organization and suppressed all alternative opinion in the Tamil community and espouse a sole representative claim. To claim it has widespread support among the Tamil community needs clarification. It is like that in the Nazi Germany, terror and nationalism together created political phenomena, a fascist in nature, which stifled any rational discussion or alternative for the people.

JS who is a senior journalist failed to see the complexities and hoped that the peace process will lead to a solution. Sri Lanka had many experience in the past and which has shown how the Government and the LTTE enforced each other to avoid achieving a reasonable solution.

Yes, it is true that the present government is widely involved by commission and omission in major human rights violations such as kidnappings, extrajudicial killings and these have increased recently and the state is unwilling or unable to bring accountability. It is trying to buy time by appointing committees to investigate but shown total disregard to have an inbuilt mechanism to restrain the armed forces. This will eventually undermine its recent "military successes" and these need to be exposed. In that sense the article is factual.

But to think that the LTTE will be tamed by purely by political initiatives is a misplaced one. This brutal organization not only killed Sri Lankan political leaders, the Prime minister of India, but large number Tamils including intellectuals and political leaders. The Tamil community paralysed by its internal terror and unfortunately many Tamils who left the shore used its terror to build their life in the western countries and continues to support this brutal organization for their own selfish reasons.

The majority from both sides wants peace and the Sinhalese have shown again and again that they are for peace. But narrow political interests of Sinhalese leaders and LTTE intransigent continue to trap the people in to tragic war. The primary responsibility for the failure of the peace process lies with the LTTE which used the time to carry out large scale violations of the Cease Fire Agreement and half way through left the process and always aimed at achieving total control of the Tamil community rather than achiving a political solution. It is important that the paper like Guardian needs to expose both the LTTE and the Government.

Bananas

February 9, 2007 3:04 PM

Just because war is the least sensible option does not make it the least likely, quite the opposite. Nobody learns. I wonder how much of our pension funds support the arms industry in Sri Lanka?

Turtleheed

February 9, 2007 3:09 PM

Having lived in Sri Lanka for five years during the early '90's I agree that the only way forward is a Federal state, however there is possibly to much bitterness on both sides for this to be a viable option. Couple of points I disagree with however, I do not think the President is doing anything new, I think you'll find he's simply re-adopting the policies of President Premadasa, whose picture was anywhere and everywhere, so the idea that the cult of personality is something new in Sri Lankan politics is complete nonsense. During his time in office Premadasa led a very aggressive campaign against the LTTE and took part in the same posturing and appearances at Buddhist temples that you appear to think are unique to the current incumbent.

RoyalMoo

February 9, 2007 3:31 PM

Although Jonathan Steele is a Guardian columnist his articles are bias towards the LTTE. He is blindly calling the EU listing of Tigers as a terrorist organization last year a badly timed and stupid move. He has repeatedly accusing the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka of being on the offence. As most of the foreign journalist are guided by the tiger organization, I was wondering his one-sided article is also influenced by the Tigers?. As a US citizen, I am appalled to hear him condemning the ‘War on Terror’ by the US and this shows how misinformed he is about the international implications of a terror organization like the LTTE. With the help of EU countries, US is waging War with the International Terror organizations and LTTE is one of them.

Shan72

February 9, 2007 3:38 PM

Well put article.

The Srilankan government needs to understand that the 95 % of Tamil population is behind the LTTE. Once you have that kind of support it is impossible be to defeat the LTTE militarily and only way to resolve the ethnic issues is to accept the LTTE as the sole Tamil representative and have a dialogue with them to resolve ethnic the issue.

The Srilankan government believes it can defect the LTTE by killing innocent Tamil civilian and occupying the Tamil land. It is a foolish thinking of a Sinhala politician. It did not work in Israel - Palestine conflict and it will never work in Srilanka.

Every day a Tamils is been killed or arrested in Srilanka. The People in Jaffna are treated like cattle in a farm. Theses inhuman act by Srilankan forces will only increase the support for the LTTE. The Srilankan government can hide the fact from the International community but can’t hide it from The Srilankan nor The Tamils.

CommanderKeen

February 9, 2007 4:12 PM

Tamils in Sri Lanka live all over the Island and not just in the North. Their actual support for the LTTE is debatable and in places the conflict is more about religion than ethnicity (Hindus vs Buddhists). The Sinhalese worry (quite reasonably) that if a Tamil state was established in the north then millions of Tamils from India would flock to the country and the Sinhalese would become a minority. Also, the Sinhalese were settled in Sri Lanka long before the Tamils. Without question the Tamils are muderous terroists using both child sodiers and suicide bombers and it has taken a huge amount of provocation to get the Sri Lankan government to respond as they have done.

Kuna

February 9, 2007 4:14 PM

I wish to express my sincere thanks to you for your balanced coverage on February 9, on Guardian. The human rights violation by the state and its armed forces against the Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka only worsening as every single day pass by.

I wish to draw to your to urgent attention some of the recent human rights violations against the Tamils by the Sri Lankan state and its paramilitary forces.

• The Sri Lankan armed forces and its paramiltary abducted three youths from their homes in Jaffna Peninsula on February 7, 2007.

• The Legal Advisor of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SL-HRC) Jaffna office, Mudiyapu Remedias, an Attorney-at-law, was severely assaulted by the Sri Lankan security forces on February 2nd 2007 while another human rights activist Mr. Surenthirarajah from SLHRC death threats by the state forces and armed goons.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/20...rremedias.shtml

• Seven youths were abducted by Sri Lanka Army troopers and collaborating paramilitary in Jaffna on February 4th, 2007, have been reported as missing by their relatives with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna offices

• Sri Lankan army abducted a youth who was later found dead in Jaffna on February 01 2007. The abduction of the youth has been reported to the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SL-HRC) Jaffna office earlier by his loved ones.

• The only elected Tamil member of the Urban Council of Kinniya,Trincomalee, Thangarajah Ithayarajah, a Tamil National Alliance Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) member, was shot and killed Friday around 10:30 a.m. (January 26, 2007) by the state's armed forces.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=21035

• Sri Lankan armed forces shelling on January 18, 2007 in the Vaharai hospital and surrounding areas killing many Tamil civilians and wounding many are amounted to “war crimes”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?News...i&Cr1=lanka

• A 38-year old Nallathamby Gnanaseelan, who leads the Tamil Mission Church in Jaffna was reportedly shot and killed in an execution style on January 13, 2007 by the Sri Lankan security forces.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/chri....lanka/9170.htm

• January 8th, 2007 two of the “Hello Trust” employees Mr. Seevaratnam Niranjan and Poobalasingham Rameshkumar were abducted by the Sri Lankan military.

• The Sri Lankan government and its forces pounded the innocent Tamil civilians including children in Vaharai area killing and wounding many of them.

http://www.tamilnation.org/indictment/warcrimes/index.htm

• ZOA (INGO) has been baselessly accused by the Sri Lankan government and its minister with the Grand agenda of destroying, dismantling and effectively shutting down the humanitarian operations for the unfortunate and helpless Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

http://www.zoa.nl/Page/sp23/ml1/from_sp_id...=212/Index.html

• On August 6, Seventeen workers of the French aid agency Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger, or ACF) were executed at close range by the Sri Lankan armed forces in Muthur, Trincomalee.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...8/31/wsri31.xml

• September 2006, false allegations had been systematically leveled in the Sri Lankan media with the tacit support of the government, accusing MSF teams of participating in the conflict and assisting the LTTE.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/.../10-19-2006.cfm

• A peace rally in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, was abandoned after it was attacked by a government minister and his supporters on January 9th 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6245929.stm

• Two Tamil Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were killed and 9 others including two children were wounded in artillery fire by the Sri Lanka Army towards Verugal, in the Eastern Sri Lanka on January 9th 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6244307.stm

• 650, 000 Tamils in Jaffna and Vaharai are starving to dreadful deaths by the severe embargoes enforced by the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces for last six months.

http://www.ahrchk.net/ahrc-in- news/mainfile.php/2006ahrcinnews/957/

• Sri Lankan Armed forces Shelled Vaharai hospital today killed 3 and seriously wounded 11 others on January 8th 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6229175.stm

• The Cruel aerial attacks by the SLAF killed 15 Tamil Civilians Including 8 Children while severely wounded another 35 of them on January 2nd, 2007 in Mannar district in the North West Cost of Sri Lanka.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southas...cle_1239170.php

• The Vice Chancellor, Prof S Raveendranath of Eastern University had been abducted in Colombo on December 15th, 2006 by the Sri Lankan armed forces in collaboration with its paramilitary goons.

http://www.nearinternational.org/alerts/sr...nka42007103.php

• The Tamil civilian IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in the Vaharai of Eastern Sri Lanka are being repeatedly shelled by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Numerous shells were landed in the IDPs camps in that area killed 41 IDPs and over 100 badly wounded in December 9 & 10th 2006.

http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=1028

• Hundreds of Tamil civilians who are IDPs taking refuge in schools and temporary shelters were indiscriminately shelled by the Sri Lankan Army Personals (SLA) on December 9, 2006 and killed 15 of them while severely wounding 35 of them in Vaharai, Eastern Sri Lanka.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6190340.stm

• Since the re-introduction of this draconian measure, in Jaffna alone, there were about 19 Tamil male and female youths who were abducted by the State goons and paramilitary. Their whereabouts and fates are still unknown.

[url="http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/index.php?action=con_all_full&id=37§ion=news_press"]http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/index.php...