Sri Lanka not forgotten.......

Some 70,000 people have died in Sri Lanka's civil war, which began in 1983 after years of marginalization of the Tamil minority by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090210/world/srilanka_unrest_civilians_4

- Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas on Tuesday shot dead 17 civilians and wounded 69 others fleeing the shrinking territory still under rebel control

- Survivors of the attack who arrived at a military position in Iddayarkattu told how Tiger fighters fired on them as they tried to cross the frontlines, Nanayakkara said.

- The group of about 1,000 civilians were carrying 17 bodies, and said the Tigers opened fire to stop them seeking shelter with the security forces, he added.

- Thousands of Tamil civilians streamed out of Sri Lanka's war zone on Tuesday despite a suicide bombing that killed 30 people at a centre for those escaping the fighting, a military official said.

- The government accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- as they are formally known -- of carrying out the suicide attack to halt the flow of civilians out of the jungle territory that the rebels still control.

- Monday's bombing was condemned by the United Nations and the United States, which backed Colombo's stance, saying that it was an "apparent effort by the LTTE to discourage Tamils from leaving the conflict area."

- International governments and the Sri Lankan authorities have accused the Tigers of holding the civilians as "human shields."

- Nanayakkara said 10 civilians were among the 30 people killed in Monday's attack when a female suicide bomber attacked a makeshift shelter where security forces receive internally displaced people.

- Colombo says the number of civilians trapped by the conflict is now less than 100,000, though UN agencies recently placed it as high as 250,000.

- Amnesty International condemned the suicide bombing and said it should not lead to government retaliation.

- "In a war with no witnesses, it is the civilians who pay the price for both parties' disregard for international humanitarian law," it said.

"Laws-of-war violations by one side never justify violations by the other. The government and the LTTE appear to be holding a perverse contest to determine who can show the least concern for civilian protection."






Feb 3, 2009 - There are continuing reports of high civilian casualties in the fighting between government forces and the LTTE in the Mullaittivu district of the northern Vanni area.


http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/03/sri-lanka-disregard-civilian-safety-appalling

Dec. 15, 2008 - http://www.hrw.org/en/node/77143/section/3



Last year they were taking the people born in 1990; now [they are taking] those born in 1991. They look at the family identity cards and take the young ones. If people of military age go into hiding, they will take younger children or the father, until they get the boys or girls they want


....after a significant decrease in reported LTTE use of child soldiers in recent years, recruitment of children under 18 may be on the increase since September 2008, particularly of 17-year-olds. LTTE militants still use schools and displaced person camps to encourage children to join their ranks.


The LTTE continues to force civilians to engage in dangerous forced labor, including the digging of trenches for its fighters and the construction of military bunkers on the frontlines. It also uses forced labor as punishment, often forcing family members of civilians who flee to perform dangerous labor near the frontlines.


.......we found extensive evidence of ongoing LTTE forced recruitment of civilians, widespread use of abusive forced labor, and improper and unjustified restrictions on civilians' freedom of movement.

Sri Lanka Rejects Call for Truce, Saying Defeat of Rebels Is Near


- Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a telephone interview........"“The leaders are still there in that area, and they have that human shield,”..... “Very soon when we overrun this place, we will be able to capture him.”


- The International Committee of the Red Cross, or I.C.R.C., estimates that 250,000 civilians are trapped in the combat zone; the government says there are far fewer. .....backers, including the United States, have urged, to allow the civilians to evacuate. “We had so many cease-fires in the last three decades,” he said. “None of these cease-fires solved the problem. Don’t give them breathing space.”


- President Rajapaksa said Wednesday that it would be just days before the Tamil Tigers were defeated, promising an end to one of the world’s longest-running civil wars.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/world/asia/06lanka.html?ref=world

Sat. Feb 7th, 2009






This undated picture provided by independent observers in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, shows an amputated Sri Lankan girl at a hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu, about 275 kilometres north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)


http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090207/redcross_srilanka_090207/20090207?hub=World&s_name=

Some information from the article follows:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Hundreds of sick and wounded people are stranded in a makeshift hospital in war-wracked northern Sri Lanka, the Red Cross said Saturday.....

The makeshift hospital in Puttumatalan village is the only medical facility available in the region after the war zone's last hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu was forced shut after being shelled for days in attacks the Red Cross said left at least 12 people dead and 30 wounded.

.....some 400 people, most of them lying on the floor in an overcrowded community center and in school buildings turned into makeshift wards, waiting to be taken to better hospitals in government-controlled territory.

The patients are among some 250,000 people trapped inside rapidly shrinking rebel territory.....

The United Nations warned Friday of a food crisis in the conflict zone, saying World Food Program stocks in the area were gone.

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Also today:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090207/world/srilanka_unrest_president_call_1

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse called on cornered Tamil Tiger rebels to lay down their arms and unconditionally surrender to security forces in a public address on Saturday.

"I want to tell the Tigers 'lay down arms and surrender to security forces'," the president said at a public rally in the northwestern district of Kurunegala.

He said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been encircled in a narrow strip of land and had taken thousands of civilians hostage.

"They must let the civilians go and then unconditionally give themselves up," he said.

Hi Dawn,
I just wanted to let you know, I went to the website and sent the letter to Hilary Clinton.

Hi Helen. Thank you. That's terrific! I hope in some small way we can make a difference in getting some aid to the civilians who are trapped and suffering.

You're wel Dawn,
It breaks my heart to see anyone going through with being trapped and suffering of starvation, they should be set free. I agree with you.

Me too, Helen. I did read today that 10,000 of them had made it out of the war zone. I hope the rest of them are soon safe.

That's terrific Dawn, and I hope and pray that the rest of them will be too.

hi dawn how are u im so sad about the people thankz anyways lets pray for them