PRESS STATEMENT (21st April, 2009)

Contents of Appeal from concerned citizens of South Asia to halt the mass murder of Sri Lankan Tamils in the Vanni Area of North Sri Lanka.

An Open Appeal to all Heads of States in South Asia to intervene STOPPING a 'Humanitarian Carnage' in Vanni, Sri Lanka The final warning by the government of Sri Lanka to the Tamil Tigers engaged in a last ditch fight with the security forces to surrender, as we all know is one that would accompany a huge massacre of innocent civilians with the next onslaught by the SL security forces. The SL government is being accused of using heavy artillery aimed at their own declared "no fire zone" to which the civilians were repeatedly asked to move in. Despite the SL government's claim that over 35,000 were rescued yesterday (20 April), International agencies still claim around 100,000 civilians caught in the line of fire in that "no fire zone". The situation is extremely grim, to tell the least. We representing a large collective of concerned citizens from South Asia, as you would know from our previous statement (13 April, 2009), offered our resources to oversee the 48 hour truce declared by the President of Sri Lanka during their Sinhala and Hindu New Year, whilst stressing that 48 hours was not adequate a time period for civilians to move to safe places of their choice and away from the conflict zone.

We stressed that for a truce to have its desired positive impact; it would have to be monitored independently.

Since then, we have heard of very distressing stories about the plight of the civilians, while the government of Sri Lanka and its Defence Secretary keeps rejecting any more halts to armed hostilities, called for by the UN Secretary General, the EU, the UK and the USA from among other noteworthy humanitarian calls for a longer truce.

UNICEF's Executive Director Ann M. Veneman meanwhile say, "Hundreds of children have been killed and many more injured as a result of the conflict in Sri Lanka. Thousands are now at risk because of a critical lack of food, water and medicines."

A UNICEF news report on their web says, "This (the govt declared no fire zone) is a 14sq km strip of coastline, home to an estimated 150,000 people, of which around one third are children. Despite the Government's declaration of a no fire zone, shells continue to fall inside the densely-packed area, exacerbating the high casualty rate." We are aware of far more severe and tragic situations the Tamil civilian population caught in the conflict is going through within this extended war, while most SA countries have not taken any humanitarian step to help bring the conflict in our own region to an end.

We wish to stress and note with all seriousness that the government of Sri Lanka is not deciding on its own. It is being bullied into decisions by its own stubborn military establishment. It is this voice that is represented by the Defence Secretary when he says in his latest interview with the BBC, "I told him (Mr. Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) that we cannot extend our decision to restrict offensive military operations because there was no result during the previous halt in the fighting,"

Its time the South Asian heads of States call an immediate meeting with the government of Sri Lanka to effect a humanitarian pause to this bleeding conflict. What the SL Defence Secretary says about humanitarian missions like the, hostage rescue operation, something like the Entebbe rescue mission," would be a complete lie, after refusing to halt or even restrict "offensive military operations" and could result in a human carnage before long, as he also says,the "government did not want a prolonged operation because that will give more time for the rebels to regroup." What all of it actually means is very clear.

We believe the South Asian heads of States have an higher responsibility to intervene in effecting a humanitarian pause in the conflict, under independent supervision. No truce would work without any mechanism to help civilians have trust and confidence in the truce that is offered. Obviously "there were no results in the previous halt in the fighting" and perhaps the military was not interested in results of that nature either. It is to have results that we as South Asians offered our resources to monitor the truce.

And we still hold that offer valid

Appeal is jointly issued by:

K.G.. Kannabiran, National President, PUCL, Hyderabad; Justice Rajinder Sachar, former chief Justice, Delhi High Court, Arundhati Roy, New Delhi, Pushkar Raj, General Secretary, PUCL; Pamela Philipose, Women's Feature Service; Swami Agnivesh, New Delhi, Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Rt Rev. P J Lawrence, Bishop of Church of South India, Diocese of Nandyal, Praful Bidwai, Columnist, New Delhi, Sumit Chakravorty, Editor, Mainstream Weekly, New Delhi; Tapan Bose, New Delhi; Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Nepal; Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy, School of International Studies and President, JNU Teachers Association, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Ernest Deenadayalan, Bangalore; Pradip Prabhu, Kashtakari Sanghatana, Dahanu/Mumbai; Prashant Bhushan Advocate, Supreme Court, New Delhi, M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd), Chennai, Sukumar Murlidharan, Journalist, New Delhi, Rev. Dhyanchand Carr, Madurai, Henri Tiphagne, People's Watch, Madurai, MSS Pandian, Chennai, Sushil Pyakurel, Former Commissioner, Human Rights Commission of Nepal, Kathmandu, Mubashir Hasan, Lahore, Pakistan and others

The Statement of Concerned South Asian Citizens is being released to the press in Chennai by ,

Dr. V. Suresh, President, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) - Tamil Nadu/Puducherry,

Chennai Contact Details: +91-94440-83494; rightstn@yahoo.com

Delhi: Sahana Basavapatna (+91 9968296202); Bipin Kumar (+91 9868280198), The Other Media.