Crocodile tears from Tamilnet.com

From Ranjit Surendran on the spot in Visuvamadu

(February 13, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) The situation in Wanni is grim and ghastly. There is a bitter civil war on and unlike the brutal Tigers, the government forces have to ensure the civilians are safer, their moves surer and their determination to get rid of the Tiger menace once and for all is not compromised.

In the midst of this, the Tigers as has been their practice all along use civilians mercilessly as human shield. One can therefore see the horrible circumstance that must be prevailing in Wanni at this given moment.

What was presented for several days as 300,000 people caught up in the cross fires, an impossible figure that was globally bandied to damn the government in the councils of the world began to climb down sheepishly to around 100,000 or much less and some international organizations had to meekly accept and even apologize for misleading international opinion.

More and more we learn people at great risks to their lives are seeking desperate exits from the brutal Tigers. In some cases the Tigers are urging the hostages to flee no doubt to help the escape of some Tiger cadres and perhaps even those trained to be suicide bombers. This was how the suicide bomber committed her ghastly act and took some lives with her as well. What if Prabhakaran, as is natural to him, has lined up some more to commit such acts of gorroe?

In this kind of a situation there has to be some order to ensure people who need help are accommodated and also to see that no sneaky elements take advantage of this opportunity. But Tamilnet.com in its typical form comes out with a comment about schools not operating in the surrounds having been turned into camps and people being held.

Where else could the fleeing people be provided with better amenities? Tamilnet.com wants to pluck hairs on egg shells!

They could not get a better news focus for the day and this is what it has been doing all along as the voice of terror. We publish their comment of the day here and the crocodile tears that flow eternally flow from their pens.

Civilian refugees imprisoned in internment camps in Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 11:55 GMT]; The civilian refugees who either fled the war zone or caught by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are denied not only the freedom of movement to go out of the buildings in which they are detained under 'near-prison' conditions, but are also denied freedom of movement inside the camp itself after 6:00 p.m. by the SLA, even for the call of nature, on grounds of condemnation that they were linked to the LTTE, said NGO activists on condition of anonymity.

28,000 civilians who have fled war zone since December 2008 are now housed in the camps heavily guarded by the SLA, where links with the outside world have been denied and even relatives or friends are not allowed to visit the camps. Aid workers have only limited access.

Most of the schools in Vavuniya are now turned into internment camps seriously affecting education of the regular students of those schools.

A principal in the area said that the education has come to a total paralyse in district and they were forced to find private buildings to conduct classes.

The schools that have been turned into camps are Nelukku'lam Mahaa Viththiyaalayam, Vavuniya Mahaa Viththiyaalayam, Gamini Mahaa Vidyaalaya, College of Education, Poovarasangku'lam Mahaa Viththiyaalayam, Rampaikku'lam Convent, Pattanachoor Muslim Viththiyaalayam and Koayilku'lam Hindu College.

Almost all the refugees must be having relatives, friends or even properties outside of Vanni, in the other parts of North-East in the close-knit society of Eezham Tamils. But the civilians are not permitted with the choice.

However, money can buy freedom. A family staying in one of the camps, managed to escape after paying seven hundred thousand rupees to army officers, according to the relatives of the family. The Sri Lankan forces have found a new earning ground in Vanni, in addition to Colombo and other parts of the island, where detaining a Tamil is a profitable business.

Editor: Sri Lanka Guardian – The word pathetic has many dimensions. That of Tamilnet.com is not just pitiably pathetic but horrendously pathetic serving a community of a group extremely rich Tamil professionals who have no heart for Sri Lanka let alone their Tamil kith and kin. It only wants to seed poisonous fungus amidst the Sri Lankan people.

-Sri Lanka Guardian