The hostages must be released immediately

Extend the humanitarian hands to those who have escaped.

Press statement from the Tamils for Human Dignity (Canada) is follows;

(April 20, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are deeply concerned and saddened by the current humanitarian crisis created by the ongoing war in Sri-Lanka’s Vanni region. Without further delay and excuses, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should release all civilians from the No-Fire Zone. More than one hundred thousand civilians are held against their will in that small piece of land, declared as the No-Fire Zone. This action by the LTTE is shameful and should be condemned unequivocally.

The Canadian government should publicly denounce the barbaric act of detaining civilians to be used as human shields by a psychopath terrorist leader and his armed gang, for their own protection and survival. Canada should use all its powers to put pressure on LTTE to release the civilians unconditionally from the No-Fire Zone.

The civilians trapped in the No-Fire Zone are not only deprived the basic needs of food, clothes and shelter, but also denied the fundamental rights such as the right to live and right to move to safe places to protect their own lives. Canada as well as the humanitarian agencies should demand from LTTE that it should allow the free movement of the Tamil civilians.

The civilians trapped in the No-Fire Zone are under tremendous hardships due to aerial bombardments and artillery shelling and by the lack of food, health and medical facilities. When these civilians try to escape from the misery to safeguard their own lives, they are fired upon by the armed cadres of the LTTE. There are several confirmed reports and first-hand accounts of LTTE cadres firing upon and killing civilians, including children, elderly men and women who fled the war zone

The Sri Lankan government and its armed forces have to understand and accept that the civilians trapped in the no-fire zone may or may not had supported the LTTE in the past, but now are detained and held as hostages against their will by the LTTE. Therefore, the government should stop aerial bombardments and shelling in the No-Fire Zone that would result in indiscriminate killing. We ask the government of Sri Lanka to continue the humanitarian assistance and medical facilities rendered by them to the traumatized Tamil civilians trapped and forcibly held in the no-fire zone by the LTTE.

LTTE never recognized the dignity of human life. The group’s past record of politics is based on the death and destruction of civilian lives. Even at this stage at the verge of their defeat, LTTE is trying to gain political mileage over dead bodies of civilians. The government of Sri-Lanka should understand LTTE's sinister motives and give highest priority to the safe evacuation of civilians. We ask the Government of Sri-Lanka to accept any genuine assistance from the international community to safely evacuative trapped civilians from the No-Fire Zone.



Some pro LTTE Canadian Tamil organizations are openly labeling the Tamil civilians who escaped from the war zone as ‘traitors’ and calling against any help to those traumatized Tamil civilians, just because they escaped from the LTTE control. This statement, coming from those who took to the streets in Ottawa and Toronto, clearly shows that the ulterior motives of the protest rallies and marches in the Canadian soil are to safeguard the LTTE from defeat not the concern for the Tamil civilians’ lives. The rallies and protest marches are held by LTTE operatives in Canada is the desperate attempt to save the lives of the LTTE leaders who got trapped and on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

We humbly request the humanitarian organizations and individuals to provide as much as help and assistance to fleeing civilians. There are many refugee camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar, and Batticaloa districts, and the basic needs are looked after by the authorities. However, many of the civilians are with severe bodily injuries and mental traumas and need much more assistance to get back to their normal lives. We request individuals and humanitarian organizations in Canada to extend the help to these civilians.

-Sri Lanka Guardian