In 16 Hours in Sri Lanka, UN’s Ban To Overfly Zone of Carnage, Dine with President: In the wake of what UN officials called a bloodbath on the beach, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Press are set for a sixteen hour jaunt around Sri Lanka on Saturday, which some call the victory tour. On military helicopters the entourage will travel to Manik Farm, which the UN’s John Holmes has repeatedly called the largest camp for Internally Displaced People in the world. Only Zones 1 and 4 will be toured. Click here to read full article
Ban Ki Moon stresses freedom of movement, resettlement of IDPs: United Nation Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, while visiting the largest internment camp in Vavuniyaa, Manik Farm, Saturday for three hours from 9:15 a.m., stressed the need for freedom of movement and immediate resettlement of the more than 300,000 Tamils held in camps. The IDPs also told Ban Ki Moon that they would want the U.N. to take full responsibility for the welfare of the refugees, sources accompanying Moon on his visit said. “The UN has failed in several measures in preventing egregious human rights violations by Sri Lanka against unarmed civilian Tamils during the last several months, and this is the last opportunity to take bold action to repair the damage to UN’s reputation. UN should shed its rhetoric on sovereignty and assume full responsibility for the Tamil people,” an aid worker told TamilNet after Moon’s visit. Click here to read full article
Sinhala hoodlums harrass Tamils in Negombo: Tamil residents in Negombo are reported being harassed by Sinhala hoodlums during the ‘Victory Celebration’ held Friday to mark the defeat of LTTE in the war front. Sinhalese youths had visited Tamil houses to demand money under threat to help fund the celebration, and those who declined to give were harassed and in some cases assaulted, media sources said. Click here to read full article
Vanni civilians held back in Ki’linochchi in thousands: Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to detain thousands of civilians in its internment camps in Ki’linochchi without sending them on to the camps in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said. SLA, in its final assault on Mu’l’livaaikkaal, has herded thousands of persons including non-combatants who had been working in the political and judicial wings of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in vast overcrowded camps which lack basic facilities, the sources added. Click here to read full article
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