CNN Video: Humanitarian plight in Sri Lanka North
Civilians pay the price in fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan military. CNN’s Ram Ramgopal reports:
Robert Wood, Acting Department Spokesman, Office of the Spokesman of the US State Department said on Thursday, April 16th:
“The United States calls upon the government of Sri Lanka to assist its Tamil citizens by halting shelling of the safe zone, permitting international monitors to ensure the safe exit of the civilians. The government of Sri Lanka should also enforce international humanitarian standards in IDP camps, grant visas to international aid groups and permit entry into Sri Lanka of international monitors and media access to those camps.
The Sri Lankan government, as the legitimate sovereign power, has before it an opportunity to put an end to this lengthy conflict. A durable and lasting peace will only be achieved through a political solution that addresses the legitimate aspirations of all Sri Lankan communities.”
Tamil humanitarian groups say Sri lanka has been uprooting Tamils from the island under various guises ever since Britain left in 1948. “War on terror” is a cover for ethnic cleansing, they point out.
Tharma Segar said,
April 19, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Very Very Bad The Govt. of Sri Lanka killing their own people for the last 40 years also Distroing the Tamils property & the worst situation Raping Tamil women. A nother serious offence by the Govt. Soldiers is allowing the men and women Naked in between the war zone. Unless the International Comunity and the UNO, US, European Union not involving our community will be wiped out. The only solution is to declare by the International community for self rule by Tamils in the Nort & the East. Please Act for the sake of God.
Sam said,
April 20, 2009 @ 5:24 am
Please read the UN reports and feed back from UN reps.
(how easy to differentiate in a battle field). With all these complications the SL army is fighting a very discplined battle. So don’t talk about genocide when civilians are crossing in to government controlled ares in thousands (30,000 this morning!!!). By the way all the Pro LTTE comments I see in all these forums are by Diaspora Tamils. They do not know whats going on in Sri Lanka (they don’t even know where SL is in the map).
I live in Sri Lanka. If there is ethnic cleansing here then the first to go should be the tamils in Colombo. Most of the Tamils live in Colombo and that is in the heart of the South. And in the east all Tamils Sinhalese and Muslims have been resettled. So how can you say there is any form of Genocide. The chief Minister of Easter province is also a tamil (a former child soldier of LTTE) So how can you say there is Genocide??? The Army could have completed this final phase of the battle in ten minutes using Multibarrel Rocket launchers. Why is the SL Army dying in scores sacrificing their live and fighting with only sniper guns and LMGs….. Purely to make sure civilians are not harmed. So how can you say there is Genocide? Army could wipe out the entire area in minutes and say that they killed all LTTE carders. But these are our people and we are not ready to kill them off like flies. However we all know that the ones left in the NFZ are mostly members of the Mahaveer families and they are very much strong LTTE supporter. However we believe any civilian without a weapon is a civilian and any civilian with a weapon is a terrorist
karikalan Nava - Canada said,
April 21, 2009 @ 11:04 pm
If the LTTE had allowed the civilians to leave, the carnage would have been avoided.
Shame on you Velu Prabaharan.