TRO Vanni appeals to the people of Tamil Nadu, the Government of India, the international community and international humanitarian organizations for the immediate delivery of medical supplies by land, sea or air within the next 24 hours.
Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation
Head Office: 254 Jaffna Road, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka Ph/Fax: +94 (0) 21 228 3947
Tamils murdered by bombing
26 January 2009
Over the last 24 hours over 300 civilians who were awaiting relief and medical assistance within the “Safety Zone” declared by the Government of Sri Lanka have been killed and several thousand injured in Udaiyaarkaddu, Suthanthirapuram, and Vallipuram in the Mullaitivu District by Sri Lanka Army multi-barrel artillery and mortar shelling by the Sri Lanka armed forces.
TRO Vanni is making an URGENT APPEAL to the people of Tamil Nadu, the Government of India, the Royal Norwegian Government, the international community, international humanitarian organizations and the United Nations for the immediate delivery of medical supplies and medical teams to the hospitals in the Vanni.
These medical supplies must arrive within the next 24 hours if the lives of these injured are to be saved. If these supplies do not arrive immediately there will be a nitarian catastrophe of enormous proportions and hundreds more will die.
The heavy shelling and bombing has caused terror in the civilian population and many have run into the jungles seeking refuge. Many of these people are injured and are in dire need of assistance.
Medical personnel and volunteers are unable to access these areas due to continuous shelling. All of the hospitals in the Vanni, Kilinochchi Hospital and Mullaitivu Hospital, have been displaced and are functioning in schools or other public buildings. These displaced hospitals have been stretched to their limit due to the continuous bombing and shelling of the Vanni over the past few months.
The injured have no access to medical supplies and there are not enough doctors and other medical staff available to treat the population.
The continuing indiscriminate aerial bombardment and shelling by the Sri Lanka armed forces has caused immense destruction and suffering, which has been exacerbated by the Government of Sri Lanka’s draconian embargoes on supplies of food, medicine, fuel, tents, tarpaulins, and other humanitarian relief items to the people. The attacks and the embargoes comprise a callous effort to drive the population of the Vanni, on pain of death and injury, into military-controlled areas.
TRO Vanni appeals to the people of Tamil Nadu, the Government of India, the international community and international humanitarian organizations for the immediate delivery of medical supplies by land, sea or air within the next 24 hours.
Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation
Head Office: 254 Jaffna Road, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka Ph/Fax: +94 (0) 21 228 3947
On April 20, a roadside bomb set off by government soldiers in rebel-held territory in Sri Lanka killed a Roman Catholic priest who was also a human rights activist. Reverend MX Karunaratnam accused the government of committing serious human rights violations in its military campaign against the Tamil Tigers.
gravely concerned following the killing of human rights defender Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam, Chairperson of the NorthEast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), in Vanni on 20 April 2008. NESoHR is a local, independent human rights monitoring body in the North East of Sri Lanka.
Further Information
Posted 20/05/2008 On 20 April 2008, at approximately 12:30pm, Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam was killed in a claymore anti-personel mine attack on Mallaavi-Vavunikku'lam Road in Vanni. Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam used the road regularly to get to his residential prayer and counselling centre in Vavunikku'lam. His vehicle was known publicly.
On this occasion he was on his way to a remembrance event for Mr Sivanesan, an MP for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), who was reportedly also killed in a claymore anti-personel mine attack on 6 March 2008. Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam's car had broken down and he was steering it whilst being towed. The car which was towing him was not targeted.
Some reports have claimed that the Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lankan army was responsible for these killings. Front Line is calling for an immediate, exhaustive, and impartial investigation into the killing of Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam.
In a recent report Rev. Fr. M X Karunaratnam called for a United Nations body to be established to monitor human rights violations in Sri Lanka. He added that Sri Lanka's human rights record was totally unacceptable and that there had been many adverse reports on human rights violations against Tamils.
Wickramatunga is the latest in a long line of Sri Lankan journalists who have been murdered or silenced over the past two decades.
M. X. Karunaratnam was born in Jaffna.He was a officer with the Bank of Ceylon before he was opdained as a priest in 1989.Father Karunaratnam was founder and Chairman of NESHOR.He was also the Chairman of NGO Consortium of Jaffna.He was engaged in relief work for War displaced and worked in the Tsunami relief.
M. X. Karunaratnam was a priest of the Jaffna Diocese and served in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka and worked from the LTTE controlled parts of Sri Lanka. He worked for human rights and called on the United Nations and foreign human rights organisation to monitor the human rights situation in Sri Lanka . [7][8][9] [10]Earlier two other NESHOR members and Tamil National Alliance MPs Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru and Joseph Pararajasingham were killed.He was extremely critical of the Sri Lankan government.
He was killed in the Mallaavi-Vavunikku'lam Road in Vanni after he was returning from a Sunday mass and going to a remembrance ceremony for a Tamil National Alliance MP a pro LTTE party Kiddinan Sivanesan who was also killed similar fashion.He killed by a claymore blast carried out allegedly by a Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,USDOS,,LKA,,48d5cbf9c,0.html
2008 Report on International Religious Freedom - Sri Lanka
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
In April 2008 the Bishop of Mannar moved the historical statue of Our Lady of Madhu from Madhu Church to St. Xavier's Church in Thevanpiddy to protect it from increasing hostilities between government security forces and the LTTE in the area. The Bishop of Mannar asked the Government and the LTTE to stay at least 1.2 miles away from the church to enable civilian access.
In April 2008 Pastor Huthin Manohar from Mannar was released from custody after 48 days in detention. Manohar's name was given to police by Pastor Nahulan from the Foursquare Church who was arrested in February for transporting LTTE equipment and explosives in his van. Police appear to be investigating all pastors who may have been closely associated with Nahulan or who may have used his van. Six other pastors from the Foursquare Church were arrested and later released.
In April 2008 a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claymore antipersonnel mine allegedly killed the Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, Father M. X. Karunaratnam, in Vanni (Northern Province).
In March 2008 the Foursquare Gospel Church in Kelaniya, Gampaha District was informed by the Chairman of the Pradeshiya Sabha that the approvals for constructing a new church building were revoked and that work must stop immediately. No reason was given for the reversal.
In January 2008 UNP parliamentarian T. Maheswaran was killed at a Hindu temple in Kotahena. The main suspect is a former member of Maheswaran's security detail who has connections to the progovernment Tamil party Eelam's People Democratic Party. However, the Inspector General of Police stated the LTTE was responsible.
In October 2007 the bodies of Vavuniya Pastor Victor Yogarajan and his two sons were found buried near Negombo. The three had been missing since March 2007.
In September 2007 an SLA claymore mine killed Father Nicholaspillai Packiyaranjit, Mannar Coordinator of Jesuit Refugee Service, in Mannar.
In September 2007 unidentified men abducted, severely abused, and killed Hindu priest Subramaniasharma Ketheswara Kurukkal in Jaffna as he was traveling to visit relatives. His body was found on the road.
In September 2007 the chief monk of the Boddhirukkaramaya Temple led a protest against expansion work being performed on a Catholic church just north of Colombo. Protesters demanded that construction stop immediately, warning lives would be otherwise lost. A judge told Father Susith Silva to suspend the church expansion. In October 2007 police interrupted mass at the same church and sent worshipers home. The chief monk stated that Buddhists in the area do not want a church nearby and would not allow the building to proceed.
In April 2007 an exchange of fire between the Sri Lanka Navy and a group of youths during a cordon and search operation killed Hindu priest Ratnasabapathy Aiyar Somaskantha in Velanai, Jaffna.
In January 2007 government security forces shot and killed Reverend Nallathamby Gnanaseelan of the Tamil Mission Church of Jaffna.
In August 2006 Father Thiruchchelvan Nihal Jim Brown and his assistant, Wenceslaus Vinces Vimalathas, disappeared after six armed men followed them from a security forces checkpoint near a predominantly Catholic neighborhood near the Jaffna peninsula. In March 2007 local press reported that DNA tests confirmed Father Brown's death; however, in June 2007 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the opposite.
In August 2006 government troops were accused of firing into Philip Nerean Church in Allapiddy, Kayts Island (Northern Province), Father Jim Brown's church. Approximately 30 civilians died.
In June 2006 in Pesalai, government troops were accused of opening fire at a Christian church where hundreds of civilians, including both Christian and Hindu Tamils, were seeking shelter from an exchange of fire between the Government and the LTTE.
In May 2006 eight Tamil men were abducted from a Hindu temple in the north as they were decorating the temple for a religious festival. Eyewitnesses claimed the eight men were taken away by Army personnel. However, at the end of the reporting period, no action had been taken by the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna in response to petitions filed with the UN Special Rapporteur for Extra-Judicial Killings by the next of kin of the abducted. The whereabouts of the missing individuals remained unknown.
In 2005 Joseph Pararajasingham, a Member of Parliament for the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and a Christian, was assassinated while attending midnight mass at a church in Batticaloa in the east.
Wickramatunga
He also blames Sri Lanka's [[Deep State]] with his murder and regular [[Gladio]]-style bombing of its own citizens.{{citeweb|url= http://u2r2h-documents.blogspot.com/2009/01/bbc-censors-deep-state-example.html|title= BBC actor reading Wickramatunga's last article (audio download and transcript) }}
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