No welfare for Sri Lanka's Tamils

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The latter stages of the war in Sri Lanka have been carefully choreographed and hidden from the outside world, with the voices of victims silenced through fear and insecurity. There are allegations of war crimes, rape and torture, summary executions and prolonged bombardments by a government which, it is believed by human rights organisations, killed thousands of its own civilian citizens. Al Jazeera has conducted its own investigation into the conflict and spoken to Tamils who have suffered and aid workers who have remained silent until now, revealing testimonies that call into question the version of events Sri Lanka's government wants the world to believe.

Dept. of International Relation of LTTE launches official website

Department of International Relation of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has launched its official website on Saturday, 04th of July, Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan, Head of the Department of International relation said in a press statement.

"It is important to inform our people and the International Community about the political position of the LTTE and the activities of the Department of International Relation at this crucial juncture of Eelam Tamils fight for right to self determination” he further said in the statement.
With the objective of having close contacts with our people and keeping exchange of ideas with them, a special column called ’Pathmanathan Pages’ has been introduced in this website as a blog posting, Pathmanathan further said.
"From July 04 onwards, for a certain period, my views are being registered in this column in Tamil on every Saturdays and in English on every Wednesdays. The first English version of the “Pathmanathan pages” is to be published on 08th of July." he further said in his communiqué.
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The URL address of the website: www.ltteir.org

Free detained Tamils for Marian feast, bishop urges

The bishop of Mannar in the country’s Northern Province has called for displaced Tamils to be allowed to leave government camps to celebrate the feast of the revered Madhu Marian shrine.

“Allow all to the shrine, including refugees detained in camps,” Bishop Rayappu Joseph demanded on July 2, speaking to reporters in Mannar the day another religious celebration at Madhu was cancelled for security reasons.
Catholics and people of other religions venerate the 400-year-old Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, which served during the civil war as a "safe haven" for people fleeing fighting but was also caught in crossfire between Tamil rebels and government troops.The government recently announced it would allow the celebration of the Assumption, a major Marian feast, on Aug. 15. The bishop, however, maintains his diocese cannot make necessary arrangements unless the government lifts restrictions.
“More than 300,000 Tamils now held in welfare centers would be denied the opportunity to attend the feast day,” he said. The government has not allowed them to leave since it announced the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and end of the 25-year civil war in mid-May.
Several of the camps are only 40 kilometers from the shrine.
Bishop Joseph is also calling for people from the south to have easier access to the shrine, 220 kilometers north of Colombo, than they did last year. The Church wants the government to allow vehicles coming to Madhu to proceed without being stopped.
“All vehicles should be allowed to proceed,” the Tamil prelate said.
Last year about 540 pilgrims were allowed to attend the August feast, but only by traveling on military-guarded buses. They were forced to leave the shrine on the same evening.
Under current arrangements, private vehicles will again not be allowed to go to the shrine area due to security concerns.
“It will be happy news if all devotees are allowed to the feast,” Father Surenthiran Ravel Leenus, Bishop Joseph's secretary, told UCA News.
He especially hopes that more than 30,000 people who fled the shrine area, including Church workers, will be released from the camps before the feast.
“It is an opportunity to reunite family members,” the priest said.
Government troops wrested the area surrounding the shrine from Tamil rebels last year but officially returned control of the shrine to the Mannar bishop in early August.
However, the military says it is still clearing mines from the surrounding area and has yet to open the road to the shrine.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs expects nearly 400,000 devotees to travel to Madhu for the August festival and security in the area has been strengthened.
Father Desmond Fred Kulas, administrator of the Madhu shrine, told UCA News he is eagerly anticipating the August feast despite cancellation the celebration on July 2, the traditional date of the feast of the Visitation. This feast commemorating Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant at the time with John the Baptist, was moved to May 31 in the new liturgical calendar that Pope Paul VI introduced in 1969. (Source: UCAN)

Vanni Doctors were brought before the press conference at MCNS

The five doctors who stayed in the conflict zone till the end of the war and subsequently arrested by Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Division (CID) on an allegation of giving false civilian casuality figures to the media were brought before a press conference at the Media Centre for National Security Wednesday.

Speaking at the press conference the Doctors said that only 300 civilians were killed during the last leg of the war in Vanni, Northern Sri Lanka. They said they gave false information about casualties and food and medicine shortages due to pressure from the LTTE and now they are free.
Though it cannot be confirmed explicitly that the doctors were speaking to reporters on the pressure of the government authorities, this is what Tamils and human rights activist expected as the motive behind the detention of these doctors.
The five doctors, V. Shanmugarajah, Thurairaja Varatharajah, Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi, Sivapalan and Ilancheliyan Pallavan are in custody for nearly two months now, and no charges have been lodged against them.
The doctors were the main source of contact for the media and international organizations during the conflict. UN officials earlier said that the doctors were conservative with casualty figures, and John Holmes, the humanitarian Chief praised them for their heroic services to the suffering civilians inside the no fire zone.
'We regret that we provided false information,' Dr Illancheliyan Pallavan said at the press conference.
'The LTTE was fighting a useless war in which civilians suffered. It was heartbreaking to see those between 14 and 15 injured in the conflict,' Dr S Sivapalan said.
Dr Thurairaja Sathiyamoorthy said rebels seized Red Cross food shipments by land and sea, and forced the doctors to claim that there were food shortages.
According to UN estimates, over 7,000 civilians were killed from January to April, there after they said extremely high number of civilians died, but a French and British tabloids estimated the figure as more than 20,000. The Sri Lankan government continued to maintain that they rescued civilians without any civilian casualties.

File photos taken at the Mullivaikkal hospital in May

US never threatened to block IMF loan to SL

Mr. James Moore, chargé d’ affaires of the U.S. Embassy called at his request on Dr. Palitha Kohona, Secretary, Foreign Affairs today and wished to clarify the U.S. position regarding the IMF loan facility to Sri Lanka, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Mr. Moore stated that the U.S. government has on no occasion, either publicly or privately, threatened to block the IMF loan to Sri Lanka on political grounds.
He explained that the decision will be taken by the Executive Board of the IMF, of which U.S. is a member, based only on economic criteria and not political factors. He also added that the U.S. Government and other members of the Board will review and consider the loan on financial and economic criteria after such time when the Government of Sri Lanka submits the Letter of Intent to the IMF.