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These children have lost their parents in the ethnic conflict or the tsunami in 2004. The Orphanage was ran by the Tamil Tigers rebels and it was a desperate attempt to provide education and future for the orphaned children.

However, that is a reason enough for the the Sri Lankan Security Forces target the Orphanage since it stood for the hope that the these Tamil orphans will emerge with school education and future.

However, UNICEF has refused the claim these school children are Tamil Tigers.

In a press release in 2006, the TNA condemned the pre-meditated attack of Sri Lankan Security forces on these Tamil School Children.

Remembering the first anniversary of the attack, August 14, 2007, the PEARL websit stated the following:

After three years have passed of such masscre innocent School children, the Tamils in Sri Lanka are facing worse living conditions with no hope for recognizition of freedom and equality in Sri Lanka.

There will be a Sencholai Massacre - Memorial Candlelight vigil at Dundas square and walk to Nathan Phillips square on August 14, 2009 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The event is organized by the Canadian HART team.

NowPublic.com

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61 schoolgirls killed, 129 wounded in airstrike

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 04:15 GMT]
At least 61 schoolgirls were killed and 129 were wounded when Sri Lankan Kfir jets bombed a children's home compound in Mullaithivu district Monday morning where schoolgirls were attending a residential course on first aid, LTTE officials at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi said. Ambulances were rushing the wounded, many of whom are bleeding badly, to hospitals, sources said. Officials of the LTTE, briefing reporters in Kilinochchi, described the attack as “a horrible act of terror” by the Sri Lankan armed forces. UN’s child agency, UNICEF, and international truce monitors have visited the scene of the carnage.



Four Kfir jet bombers of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) dropped 16 bombs on the premises of the Sencholai children’s home in Vallipunam on Paranthan-Mullaithivu road, killing at least 61 schoolgirls who were attending

33 bodies have been taken to Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. Other bodies, in severely damaged state, were being identified.

More than 400 schoolgirls were staying in Chencholai. Kfir bombers were flown to the target without circling over the attack site, civilian sources said.



52 wounded girls were rushed to Mullaithivu hospital. 13 were admitted at Puthukudiyiruppu hospital. At least 64 wounded were taken to Kilinochchi hospital.

Girls from various schools in the Mullaitivu district were staying overnight at the compound, attending a course in first-aid, LTTE officials in Kilinochchi said.

The officials at the LTTE Peace Secretariat denounced the Sri Lankan airstrike as “a horrible act of terror.”

They condemned the “deliberate, cold-blooded and inhumane” targeting of the schoolgirls compound by the daylight air raid.

The LTTE Peace Secretariat urged representatives of international agencies in Kilinochchi, including UNICEF, to visit the site of the bombing.

They also urged the international Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), overseeing the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) to attend the site.

In September 1999, SLAF jets killed 21 people in a similar daylight raid.

Commenting at the time, in 1999, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said: “We can confirm that 21 civilians were killed consequent to the air strike at Manthuvil junction …The ICRC deplores the fact that the air strikes were carried out in a civilian area.”

The ICRC is yet to comment on the Sencholai bombing.



---------------

Sencholai attack "pre-meditated, deliberate and vicious"- TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 11:23 GMT]
The parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) condemned Sri Lankan government’s attack on Sencholai childrens' home as "not merely atrocious and inhuman - it clearly has a genocidal intent...The heavy aerial bombardment on the premises clearly indicates that the attack was premeditated, deliberate and vicious," and appealed to the International Community "to take the earliest possible action to stop the Sri Lankan State from proceeding with its genocidal program," in an urgent press release issued in Colombo Monday.


Full text of the press release follows:

URGENT PRESS RELEASE

According to reports received thus far 61 children – all girls – students in GCE (O/L) and GCE (A/L) classes in different schools in Mullaitheevu have been killed as a result of heavy aerial bombardment by Kfir jet bombers of the Sri Lankan Air Force, around 7am this morning on the premises of the “Senchcholai” at Vallipunam, on the Paranthan – Mullaitheevu Road, at Mullaitheevu. Over 150 other children, all girls, also students in GCE O/L and GCE (A/L) classes in different schools in Mullaitheevu have been seriously injured in the course of the same aerial bombardment at the same place. It is feared that the number of deaths would increase.

“Senchcholai” is an institution housing a girl’s home caring for children rendered orphans by war. The children were attending a seminar on First-Aid.

These were all unarmed and innocent children engaged in an educational program related to humanitarian aid.

The heavy aerial bombardment on the premises clearly indicates that the attack was premeditated deliberate and vicious. The heavy repeated aerial bombardment of the same premises clearly indicates the bombing was definitely not accidental. The ferocity of the attack clearly indicates that its objective was to cause the maximum possible casualties. The objective was to kill the maximum number of Tamil children. It is significant that thus far there are no reports of adult casualties.

This attack is not merely atrocious and inhuman - it clearly has a genocidal intent. It is yet another instance of brazen State Terrorism.

In yet another incident, displaced Tamil civilians who had taken refuge at the Philip Neriyar Church at Allaipiddy came under heavy artillery fire around midnight on Saturday the 12th of August 2006. Over 25 Tamil civilians were killed by this attack and over 50 other Tamil civilians grievously injured.

In both these instances, the Government Military Forces were definitely aware that the victims would be the Tamil civilian population. The attacks were nevertheless carried out with callous disregard to the sanctity and security of Tamil civilian life.

The government’s indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery shelling has in the recent past caused heavy civilian casualties in several parts of the Tamil speaking Northeastern region.

We appeal on behalf of the Tamil speaking civilian population to the International Community particularly to India, to take the earliest possible action to stop the Sri Lankan State from proceeding with its genocidal program.

We strongly condemn the massacre of innocent children at “Senchcholai” Mullaitheevu and innocent civilians at Philip Neriyar Church at Allaipiddy.

"While the LTTE’s propaganda machine continues to spin its lies, and such lax standards of journalism continue to prevail in the west, the narrative on Sri Lanka may continue to be obscured by vicious falsehoods," says Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary in a media briefing convened in Colombo in a frontal assault on confronting the damage inflicted on Sri Lanka by the Channel-4 video, UN war-crimes report, and the Rights NGOs calling for International Investigations into war-crimes. The underlying moral question in discerning the truth of what happened in the final months of the war is laid by British philosopher Bertrand Russell in his advice to the future generations: "...never let yourself be diverted either by what you would wish to believe or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed, but look only and solely at what are the facts...."

Both the adversarial parties, the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers, have been accused of committing war crimes.

Bertrand Russell's advice
to future GenerationsWhat the international NGOs, civilized governments of the West, and the active Tamil diaspora which Colombo is keen labeling as "LTTE rump," is what Russell appeals to the intellectual integrity of living and future generations: "Establish the facts, and let the facts bear out the truth."

Sri Lanka has been allegedly involved in erasing any evidence of mass killings. However, with the technology available, Russell's facts will unlikely to be completely erased, and even if, the full extent of the facts of the war cannot be ascertained, future generations will have to continue to seek to expose the truth.

Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), established by the Sri Lanka Government, and touted by Colombo as the appropriate mechanism to establish the "truth" without external infringement of its sovereignty, has been rejected as lacking independence and will not satisfy international standards to "establish the facts," NGOs and Governments calling for independent investigations have said.

Here, Foucault's analysis on "truth" is also relevant. Foucault while asserting that "each society creates a "regime of truth" according to its beliefs, values, and mores, cautions that individuals would do well to recognize that ultimate truth, "Truth," is the construct of the political and economic forces that command the majority of the power within the societal web, and explains:

'Truth' is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements.

'Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A 'regime' of truth.

With uncontested supreme power in the hands of the ruling Rajapakse family, Foucault's explanation of tight linkage of production and establishment of "truth" with the systems of power appear to explain the dynamics of the Rajapakses' attempts at "producing and sustaining" of "truth" such as "zero civilian casualty" in the last phases of war, not withstanding the presence of imagery, videos, UN internal reports, and other emerging testimony that close to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed.

The Foucaultian regime of truth developed by Rajapakses to insulate themselves from the consequences of violating international laws, during and after the war, is most visible in Sri Lanka media community. State use of violence and the culture of impunity, through attacks by State agents on dissident voices, shape the climate of censorship and self-censorship in the media community which in turn define the contours of "regime of truth" in the trilingual media.

Rajapakse regime also epitomizes the "Ministry of Truth" and "Newspeak" in George Orwell's "1984."

The endgame appears to be to monopolize control of what version of events are to be publicized, and to erase, suppress "facts" that can expose damaging "truths" on possible war crimes.

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26.06.11 Commonwealth calls for investigation of Sri Lanka war crimes
24.06.11 Work with the ‘other’ International Community: leftist MEP
16.06.11 Britain: UN must investigate Sri Lanka war crimes
11.06.11 War crimes documentary publicity infuriates Colombo
08.06.11 TN Assembly passes resolution to indict Sri Lanka, impose ec..
01.06.11 War-crimes film, Heyns report, drown Colombo theatrics on te..
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25.05.11 Amnesty urges NAM countries to act on Sri Lanka war crimes
24.05.11 HRW: governments should shun Sri Lanka’s whitewash of mass k..
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28.04.11 Accountability needed before lasting reconciliation possible..
27.04.11 UN expert panel’s report: US welcomes, India noncommittal
16.04.11 UN panel admits international failure in Vanni war, calls fo..
29.10.09 Amnesty, CPJ, RSF call for probe into Channel-4 video death ..
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External Links:

Wiki:		Bertrand Russell
CPJ:		Sri Lanka’s war on journalists
CPJ:		Failure to investigate
wdog:		Michel Foucault: Truth and Power
CPJ:		Sri Lankan Embassy denies press freedom crisis
CPJ:		CPJ responds to Sri Lankan defense secretary
CPJ:		Death threats sent to paper of slain editor in Sri Lanka
Wiki:		Michel Foucault
CPJ:		Attacks on the Press in 2008: Sri Lanka
Wiki:		Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

“They [Rajapaksa regime] think they are too intelligent to use the geopolitical equations in South Asia, they think they can manipulate to win the support of China, Pakistan or other countries including Russia, so that India can be pressurised. But India also feels down the line guilty, because India gave all the support for the war against Tamils to Rajapaksa govt. So, if you go by that, then India was also collaborative in the war. So that guiltiness haunts India. So India succumbs to a blackmail or pressure exerted by Rajapaksa govt. So this is what the international community should understand,” said D. Raja of the Communist Party of India, congratulating Headlines Today bringing out the truth about the war to the peoples of India. While the programme focussing on genocidal perspectives of the war is aired Tuesday, Rajapaksa is on his second visit to China within a year.

On the eve of Rajapaksa’s visit, a strategic analyst associated with the foreign ministry of China told The Hindu that China always advocated that others, particularly the Western countries, should not interfere in the internal affairs of countries like Sri Lanka.

China heavily interfered in the civil war against the nation of Eezham Tamils, and is interfering by helping post-war military built-up of Colombo in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, ultimately aiming to destabilise India in its southern flank, political observers in Chennai said.

Speaking to Chinese agency Xinhua on Monday, Rajapaksa said that he appreciated very much “the understanding shown by China on the pressures of the post-conflict period, and the support extended to heal the wounds of war."

China never came out with anything political or humanitarian to ‘heal the wounds’, but contributes in every respect to Colombo’s militarisation and structural genocide of the country of Eezham Tamils. However hard India may try it cannot compete with China by taking the same line, as believed by some diplomats, think tanks and sections of media in India, because as far as China is concerned the genocide and extermination of Eezham Tamils as a nation in the island are actually aimed at destabilising India’s south, political observers in Chennai said.

The Krishna Menon legacy of India’s foreign policy that failed India in the Indo-China war of 1962, once again failed India in the Eezham war, they said.

Sections of politics in India and media that look upon China’s imperialism and state capitalism as models hoped Rajapaksa would serve the bridge for them to score an India-China formula in the island. For that, to the extent of even supporting genocide, they trod on the righteous question of the independence of Eezham Tamils, against which they were already biased due to various other reasons. But now, any face-saving formula of federal solution will not work for Eezham Tamils embedded deep in structural genocide of state in the island. It will be a day-to-day torture. It is high time Tamil Nadu should unambiguously demand the world to concede independence to Eezham Tamils. Only a people’s uprising in India over the issue will make even China to look at it, at least for its own self-interests in the region, political observers in Chennai further said.

The New Delhi-based news channel, Headlines Today in its programme on Tuesday highlights the dimension of genocide in the war against Eezham Tamils. The programme is titled ‘I Witnessed Genocide’, Inside Lanka’s Killing Fields.

The Headlines Today programme gains significance, since neither the UN panel report nor the governments in the West that abetted the war have acknowledged Sri Lanka’s decades-long intention of genocide behind the war. Only the Dublin Tribunal touched the issue. The Government of India is yet to acknowledge even the ‘war crimes’.

“I must really congratulate Headlines Today. It is the only channel in India which tried to tell the truth to the people of our country,” D. Raja said on Monday.

On the interview of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to Headlines Today, D Raja said that it shows their arrogance and how desperate they are to hide their guilt, because if there is a fair and open trial on the war crimes they will be the first to be pinned down and brought to justice.

“It shows the arrogance of the Sri Lankan leadership particularly Rajapaksa and his government, because Rajapaksa’s government is also a kind of dynastic regime,” Mr Raja said.

“It is true that the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly reflects the strong feeling of the people of Tamil Nadu […] Ms Jayalalitha being the CM, she understood this. The Central Government cannot ignore the resolution passed by the State assembly,” Raja further said.

The CPI national Secretary and Rajya Sabha parliamentarian said that his party has given notice and all issues related to Tamils in the island are scheduled for discussion in the Indian parliament on Thursday.



Chronology:


Related Articles:
04.08.11 Terrorism was the problem: Krishna; no need of solution now:..


External Links:

HeadlinesToday:		SL war crimes: Gotabaya hits out at Jayalalithaa; confident of Indian support
Headlines Today:		Inside Sri Lanka's killing fields
Headlines Today:		Video: Lanka defence secy slams Jaya

The United States on Monday called again for a “transparent accounting of Sri Lanka’s actions” during the final months of the island’s war. Addressing reporters State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the UN panel of experts is a mechanism “that should be taken advantage of” and that “an international mechanism to look at these is in everyone’s interest.” Mr. Toner made his comments in response to a question by Tejinder Singh, the Washington correspondent of Headlines Today television, part of the India Today group, which is to air on Tuesday a new documentary on Sri Lanka’s war crimes.


The following are extracts from the press briefing:

Tejinder: The defense secretary of Sri Lanka, Rajapakse, in an interview with headlines today, has rejected calls by the UN, U.S., and other international communities calling for war crimes investigation. He said actually, how can an international mechanism kick in? He says we have done nothing wrong. So what is the reaction of the U.S. and the ongoing UN efforts on this?

Toner: Well, we continue to call on a transparent accounting of Sri Lanka’s actions, and we believe the UN panel of experts is a mechanism that should be taken advantage of in order to carry out that kind of examination and accounting. I’m aware that Sri Lanka has also conducted some reporting on human rights abuses, alleged human rights abuses, but we still believe that an international mechanism to look at these is in everyone’s interest.

Tejinder: He – however, but he redefined the international community. He says these are not the international community; Russia, China, Africa, Middle East, and Southeast Asia is the international community, and they are supporting us. So –

Toner: Again, I’ll have to look at his remarks in greater detail, but broadly put, that’s our position.

Chronology:


Related Articles:
04.08.11 Terrorism was the problem: Krishna; no need of solution now:..

Travelling through the Tamil areas in North Sri Lanka, one is shocked to see the changing demography of the land. A land that was once inhabited by Tamils and a land that had a distinct flavor of Tamil culture and heritage is now in the grip of Sinhalese hegemony, seen in the form of Buddhist statues, viharas and stupas dotting the landscape that is also lined by broken Tamil homes and newly built shanties of Tamil refugees.

Sinhala and Sinhalisation are now the watch words in the predominantly Tamil areas of North Sri Lanka. Starting from Vavuniya, the change is perceptible as one enters the Tamil heartland.

A recently constructed Buddhist stupa at Kanagarayankulam

All those entering into the north have to pass through Omanthai - which has been given a Sinhalese sounding name, ‘Omantha’ - check point on A9 national highway. At this place where more than 90 per cent of the travelers are Tamil speakers, one needs to go with a person knowing Sinhala to answer the queries from the Sinhalese soldiers.

Throughout our travel into the Tamil hinterland, we could sense an air of Sinhalese triumphalism.

Military camps and Sinhala soldiers are a common sight in Tamil areas. Out of a total land mass of 65,619 sq km, the Tamils inhabited 18,880 sq km of land in the north and east, but after May 2009, the defence forces have occupied more than 7,000 sq km of Tamil land.

It is estimated that 2500 temples and 400 churches have been destroyed. The Sinhala forces do not permit the people to reconstruct these worship places and many are in a dilapidated state.

On the other hand, even though the only Buddhists who are to be found here are the Sinhalese soldiers, nearly 2500 Buddhist stupas and statues have come up in Tamil areas in the last couple of years, according to the locals.

A huge Buddha statue at Kilinochchi, the erstwhile capital of Tamil rebels

A Buddhist Vihara named Mahatota Raja Maha Vihara has come up within 50 meters of the famous Thirukethiswaram temple in Mannar district. The ancient name for Thirukethiswaram area was Mahathottam.

The government has been making a big hype about a so-called development programme in Tamil areas called Vadakin Vasantham (Uthuru Wasanthaya or Northern Springs).

Infrastructure development, electricity, water supply and sanitation, agriculture, irrigation, livestock development, inland fisheries, health, solid waste disposal, education, sports, cultural affairs and transportation are some of the areas that they claim will be covered under this program.

However, the real beneficiaries of this scheme are not going to be Tamils but Sinhala jobless youth, who would be employed in the projects that have been handed to Sinhala contractors.

The defence forces will be the ones who will be utilizing the newly developed infrastructure as a major chunk of the funds will be allocated towards road development to facilitate easy troop movement.

A Sinhala-only signboard at an important junction in Puthukudyiruppu

In Cheddikulam a housing scheme for Sinhala returnees is underway. One would have welcomed it if it was the same 13 displaced families that were to return. Instead, some 75 new Sinhala families are being relocated in the area.

Already 165 Sinhala families have been resettled in Kokkachchaankulam, which is to be renamed Kalabowasewa.

A grand new Sinhala medium school for new returnees has come up on Madhu road, whereas hundreds of schools for Tamil kids in the vicinity are in a state of disarray.

According to locals, forest wealth in the Tamil areas is looted by the Sinhalese from the south who enter the forest with permission of the armed forces for timber logging.

People also complain that Sinhala Buddhist archaeologists are engaged in nefarious activities of Sinhalization. They are said to be visiting Tamil areas and 'excavating' Buddha statues that they themselves plant earlier. The purpose of this exercise is allegedly to claim that the territory in question had been a Sinhala Buddhist area.

Where there were only a few old Sinhala sign boards pointing directions and mentioning names of places, today one is dumbstruck at the sheer number of new Sinhala name/direction boards in the Tamil areas.

A Sri Lankan defence outpost in Puthukudyiruppu with name board in Sinhalese and English

In Mullaithivu and many other places in the north, Tamils are not allowed to enter the sea, while their Sinhala counterparts from the south are allowed to fish in their areas.

Locals say that all petitions to government services and establishments have to be given in Sinhala only since 2009.

In the heart of Kilinochchi town, the erstwhile administrative capital of Tamil rebels, streets sport Sinhalese names such as Mahinda Rajapaksa Mawatha, and Aluth mawatte (The new road).

Three roads close to the A9 highway in Kanakarayankulam have been given Sinhala names - Kosala Perera road, Anura Perera road, and Rev Yatiravana Vimala Thero Street. The first two names are those of soldiers who took part in the war and the last one is the name of a Buddhist monk.

Where will this all lead to? Only time will tell.

Also Read: Intellectuals and activists support the Tamil cause across the language divide

© The Weekend Leader

By Jhon Heilprin | The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Two advocacy groups asked Swiss authorities Thursday to pursue war crime charges against a former Sri Lankan army commander now serving as a European diplomat, reflecting still-simmering Western concerns about the South Asian island nations' human rights record.

The Swiss-based groups Society for Threatened Peoples and TRIAL said they filed a confidential complaint with Switzerland's attorney general against Jagath Dias, a former major general in Sri Lanka's final offensive that smashed a 26-year rebellion by ethnic minority Tamils in May 2009.

The United Nations estimates between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the civil war. Dias, whose Sri Lankan forces captured some of the rebel Tamil Tigers' last strongholds, became Sri Lanka's deputy ambassador to Germany, Switzerland and the Vatican in September 2009.

Dias, reached at his embassy in Berlin, said it's easy to make accusations, but he denied being a war criminal.

"Anybody can accuse anyone of anything. I don't see that any of these allegations are well founded," he told The Associated Press. "We did our best to complete the military operation with zero casualties. How could we have released or rescued 300,000 people if we really wanted to destroy them?"

About 300,000 Tamil civilians were caught in the climactic battle. The government then carved camps out of the jungles of northern Sri Lanka to hold them and screen out former rebels who could stir up trouble.

The Swiss groups' complaint — based largely on the findings of the United Nations and other international organizations — says Dias' army division was responsible for massive bombing of civilians and hospitals.

The groups said in a statement that "it is high time that Switzerland gives a clear signal against impunity" by pressing criminal charges against him.

The office of Switzerland's federal prosecutors said it was examining the complaint. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it takes the matter seriously, and has been in touch with Sri Lankan authorities.

Dias also was one of a number of Sri Lankan war leaders given diplomatic status after the war, but Benedict De Moerloose, TRIAL's legal counsel, said that won't insulate him against potential legal action in Switzerland for wartime actions.

"We've made a case based on the credible and serious accusations of international organizations and human rights organizations, and we consider that Jagath Dias may be arrested in Switzerland even if he has diplomatic status," he said.

In May, a U.N. expert called for Sri Lanka to investigate and file charges against soldiers shown in a graphic video obtained by Britain's Channel 4, shooting bound, blindfolded prisoners and abusing corpses in the final days of the war.

Dias — echoing the Sri Lankan government's view — said the video is staged and an attempt by pro-Tamil Tiger groups to undermine its hard-won victory in the country's 1983-2009 civil war.

"It's bogus — there is no fact at all," Dias said, adding that the facts are contained in a documentary called "Lies Agreed Upon" that Sri Lanka's U.S. embassy has posted on its website and on YouTube.

The government insisted after the war ended there was no civilian bloodletting in the last months of fighting, contrary to a partial U.N. count showing at least 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the last five months of the conflict.

U.N.-appointed officials concluded both sides committed atrocities. A recent U.N. report said Sri Lankan government forces deliberately targeted civilians and hospitals, blocking food and medicine for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone, while the Tamil Tigers recruited child soldiers and used civilians as human shields.

Sri Lanka vehemently rejected calls for an independent international probe in favor of setting up a national panel to investigate, while continuing to celebrate its battlefield victory.

© AJC

The closing stages of the Sri Lankan civil war were a story of extreme brutality against civilians by the army. Despite being widely documented, Colombo remains in denial about atrocities on Tamils in the country's north and the east.

The survivors of the war still live in fear, in one of the most densely militarised zones of the world, devoid of any hope of ever getting justice.

videos-- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/video/sri-lankan-war-tamil-survivors/1/147592.html

Headlines Today correspondent Priyamvatha travelled (undercover) to Vanni, the former stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels in north Sri Lanka, to unravel the facts behind the claims and counterclaims in the land that was witness to one of the worst war crimes committed on civilians anywhere in the world.

As Headlines Today reached the Vanni region, it was swarming with soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, made up almost entirely of the majority Sinhalas. There was a soldier on patrol every few meters and there was a check post on every 100 meters.

The army has built major military cantonments across the Vanni on land mostly forcefully acquired from the local Tamil population in what has been recognised in some quarters as the core of the Tamil Homeland.

A sense of fear and insecurity could be seen among the local Tamil population, with very few people agreeing to speak on camera. The people, interviewed at secret locations, feared death if the tapes fell in the hands of the security personnel.

War victim Rosy, 45, doesn't want to live. Even after two years, just the word "war" brings shivers and tears for this Tamil woman. Rosy witnessed Sri Lankan air force jets bomb an areas designated as a "Safe zone" by the government.

On May 14, 2009, a day after she moved into the safe zone at Vattuvaha from Killinochi with her husband, a son, four daughters, a son-in-law and 10-month-old grandson, the zone came under attack.

"The bomb fell on the place we were living. These are the silent ones. We realised only after the area was bombarded. There was smoke all around. I didn't know anything. My hand was sliced and splinters lodged in my chest. My son picked me up and hid me. I asked him to look for my daughters. He assured me that everything was fine. But he knew all were dead. All my children died. Nothing is left," said Rosy, adding, "On that day of the war alone I saw 3000 people die before my eyes."

For Rathi, another war victim, that deadly day when she lost her husband and son in the war still brings back the sad events. "I was in the bunker. My son and husband were outside eating food. From the air, the bomb fell and exploded into splinters. Pieces of it killed my son and husband. We heard the sound," says Rathi, as she breaks down.

Rathi's daughter Lavanya says, "Army bombed us at Vallipuna. They used chemical bombs. It fell on the ground from air, went into pieces, but there wouldn't be sound."

Chemical bomb
"I was going to surrender with my family through a priest. But my second child was affected by chemical bomb. It's phosphorous. He was completely affected," said another victim Devi.

"All small children and old people were lying in the hospital without help. In this attack, two children, an old woman and my husband and son died," said Rathi.

Thambi, an eight-year-old victim, who had lost his entire family except his mother, describes how even children were not spared. He was injured in the war. "There was shelling always. There were bombs everywhere. Look at this injury. I had to run for my life," says Thambi.

The civilians had to run from pillar to post for the treatment of the injured. But hospitals were also not safe. Kavya's father, who was injured in the war, later died.

"We had taken father to hospital. That's when the bombardment happened. One girl died and two boys died, with brains coming out from their head," said Kavya.

The cries of these victims say it all.

Torture at secret camp
The list of war violations by the Sri Lankan army extends to the camps where women were harassed. Here is a first hand account of a woman who spent one year at a supposedly secret camp, which was not revealed to the world by the Sri Lankan government.

"It is a torture camp. No basic amenities were allowed. NGOs weren't allowed," said Sundari.

"It is a military camp…for whatever problem we had, we had to approach the armymen right? That was exploited by the army and in the night…we all were together. They misbehaved with some women," says Sandari.

"There have been rapes. Girls are raped. But how will girls tell this out? They would be embarrassed. It is a matter of dignity… what else happened," Sundari adds.

"They would be very violent. They are Sinhalese and we are Tamils. We are scared of everything. We don't know the language. Women were looked at voyeuristically by the army…," she says.

Reporter: There are reports that women were shut in a room without dress?

Sundari: Yeah….they kept harassing us if we were from LTTE. They kept us and harassed us.

Another victim Divya says, "Two or three women were kidnapped. They have taken pictures while taking bath."

The situation was no different for LTTE cadres who were put in camps. Young men, even educated ones, had to swallow the humiliation. Murugan, a former LTTE cadre who was in the intelligence wing, was kept in the camp for almost one year. Now, he is out to be a part of the society. But he finds it difficult to forget the harrowing tales.

"We were kept in a reformation camp to rehabilitate former cadres like me. But more than reforming us, we became more violent. It was beyond torture. We were kept like cattle. Once a major and lieutenant colonel came to meet us. There were 800 of us. They had masked their faces. We were seen as demons," says Murugan.

Rosy adds, "We drank water from drainage, from wells where dead bodies were thrown. I know a mother and a child who fell into well and committed suicide due to hunger. I saw with my eyes."

"Sri Lankan army grabbed our land. They used weapons against us and our people. I joined LTTE in the last phase of war. They called, but I went to save the rights of our people. There was a necessity," says Shiva.

The UN says over 40,000 people were killed during the last stages of the 30-year civil war that ended in May 2009, with a full military victory for the Sri Lanka army. Non-governmental sources put the figure at over a lakh and a half.

Execution style killings, aerial bombardment of hospitals and designated "safe zones", sexual assaults on civilians and female combatants, use of chemical weapons, cluster bombs, denial of medical aid to injured civilians, illegal confinement without charges - these are some of the many war crimes Sri Lanka is accused of.

Some say it is not just the Sri Lankan army that inflicted atrocities on the helpless civilians. The LTTE also has blood on its hands. Deepan, whose 16-year-old son Rajan was kidnapped from school by the LTTE, is shattered. "My son was 16 years old. LTTE cadres took him away to join their forces. We didn't want to send him. He had big dreams and was studying in school," says Deepan.

indiatoday.intoday.in

By Shihar Aneez | Reuters

Sri Lanka's old war zone has been at peace for two years but the minority Tamils who populate it say they are hungry for jobs, despite the economic revival the government has offered instead of the political powers for which Tamils first took up arms.

In Sri Lanka's north and east, people last week voted for the first time in at least 12 years and as many as 29 to elect local councils, two years after the military wiped out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) swept 250 councils out of 299, but lost miserably in predominantly Tamil electorates, in areas the Tigers wanted to turn into a Tamil-only nation.

Tamils backed a former Tiger proxy political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), with a convincing win.

The elections, analysts said, clearly showed that ethnic polarization between Rajapaksa's Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority remains a fact of Sri Lankan life. Many have warned the tension could spark into conflict again.

"Since the war ended, we feel Tamils are being treated like slaves," Thangarajah Pushparajah, a 60-year old condiment seller in the northern city of Jaffna, told Reuters. "I am not saying the LTTE did better, but we are not comfortable now."

He lost his son, whom he says was forcibly recruited by the LTTE for his swimming skill, in 2000 during a battle with the Sri Lanka navy. He was 17.

Since independence in 1948, Sri Lanka's Tamils have suffered various forms of discrimination, violence and killing under successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority, and oppression under the violently authoritarian Tigers.

E. Saravanapavan, a Jaffna district TNA legislator and a newspaper publisher who has been attacked in the past by pro-government elements, said there are about 100,000 unemployed youth in his constituency alone, in the Northern Province.

"The government has failed to create a single job for these Tamils," he said. "This government is creating room for Tamil people to resort to other ways, like an armed struggle or to bring pressure through the international community."

VIOLENCE TURNS VOTE TIDE

The Northern Province's economy grew 22.9 year-on-year in 2010, but still had the lowest per-capita income in the nation of 21 million, according to central bank figures.

Rajapaksa prioritised economic growth there under a $2 billion plan dubbed "The Northern Spring", mostly focused on infrastructure, but has been slow to give political concessions to Tamils, which could alienate some of his Sinhalese vote base.

However, he is increasingly under pressure as the TNA is backed by India and the United States in its call for an amicable political solution to avert renewed conflict, with calls for a war crimes investigation the leverage.

Many Tamils Reuters spoke to said they were reluctant to vote because they were not confident the government was genuine about reconciliation, in spite of the economic development work.

Others said they opted to vote for the opposition after the government failed to stop elements linked to the military and a militant pro-government Tamil party from carrying out pre-poll violence and intimidation.

But voting for the former Tiger-backed the TNA does not offer much hope for political influence: it has only 14 members in a 225-seat parliament dominated by the president's alliance.

Without the slain LTTE founder Veluplillai Prabhakaran's iron-fisted rule, many of the Tamils Reuters spoke to feel there is still a leadership vacuum.

"I doubt if TNA could win what we want through negotiations with this government," a 32-year old man told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Others were just happy for the end of violence.

"We need freedom to live," 60-year-old Selvam Vallipillai, told Reuters in Killinochchi, the LTTE's former self-declared capital city.

Born in Rajapaksa's native Hambantota in the south of the island, she fled to Kilinochchi in 1958 after ethnic clashes. But the LTTE executed her son publicly on March 18, 2007, accusing him of prostitution and burglary.

"Now at least we have freedom. We don't need the LTTE here after. We all like to live with unity with other communities."

© The Vancouver Sun