Britain has enabled the violent oppression of the Tamils. Now it must compel Sri Lanka to cease its genocide

Sri Lankan President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday, April 24, appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North.

The mass of Tamil women and children struggling to walk out of Sri Lanka's war zone were so emaciated that an aid worker thought he was seeing a horror movie.

The Sri Lankan Government which was able to fire thousands of shells per day into the so-called safety zone to capture the civilians, doesn't have the means to feed them when they are captured according to Sri Lankan foreign minister who appealed to the international community for assistance.

A separate Tamil Eelam is the only solution that will permanently put an end to the problems of the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, said Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister and principal Leader of the Opposition, Jayalalitha Jayaram at an election rally in Salem city.

Protests, hunger strikes and shut downs in support of Eelam Tamils continued and political parties upped their pro-Eelam rhetoric in the southern state of Tamil Nadu amidst election campaigning for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls gained momentum.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi said he believed Sri Lankan president Rajapakse would keep his word and not resume combat operations against Tamil Tigers, despite the Sri Lankan military declaring there is no ceasefire in place.

Continuing its policy of building relationships with non-western states that are willing to provide aid despite its horrific human rights violations, Sri Lanka has formed full diplomatic ties with Libya and borrowed $500 million.

"Barack Obama's administration has said it is committed to the principals of international law and humanitarian protection. Sri Lanka is the perfect opportunity for the new U.S. president to show that this is not empty rhetoric," according to an influential think tank which played a key role in the formation of Kosovo.

Millions of pounds of British aid are being channelled by the Sri Lankan Government into controversial internment camps where it plans to hold and screen up to 200,000 civilians fleeing the conflict with the Tamil Tigers, reported The Times newspaper in London on Tuesday.

Exercising their right of free expression, 67 registered social welfare organisations of diaspora Tamils in France, took a pioneering democratic step of secret ballot on Saturday, 18 April, and unanimously declared support to the independence war of Eelam Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka, said Ki Pi Aravinthan in Paris to TamilNet.

A hunger strike by 6 Tamils in Australia, calling for the immediate halt of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka that began on 11 April at 5:00 p.m. was concluded 17 April with an unprecedented rally in the capital city of Canberra where more than 8500 diaspora Tamils took part.

Parameswaran Subramaniyam continues his fast unto death undettered, placing five demands including an immediate stop of the inhuman killings of innocent Tamils in Vanni by Sri Lanka armed forces.

In the first official US statement on the Sri Lankan situation, the White House has cautioned that, "It would compound the current tragedy if the military end of the conflict only breeds further enmity and ends hopes for reconciliation and a unified Sri Lanka in the future."