The Tamil homeland is witnessing one of the worst human tragedies of the 21st century said the Political Division of the Liberation Tigers in a statement issued in Tamil on Wednesday, February 11.

THE of media reporting of the grim conflict in Sri Lanka has captured popular imagination, but has overlooked the grisly Sinhalese Buddhist genocide of innocent Hindu or Christian Tamil civilians by a US dual citizen and US green card holder. The two should be investigated and prosecuted in the United States.

Noting that the "shelling of safe areas, the genocide massacre of the elderly, innocent women, and children," are war crimes "on a par with the worst of Nazism," an article in South Africa's popular daily, The Post, accuses India that it "has revealed a duplicitous and murderous collaboration with the genocidal regime in power in Colombo.

Shortly after Sri Lanka’s 61st independence day celebrations on February 4 and his rousing speech on the occasion, President Mahinda Rajapakse was photographed intently watching a snake-charmer at an exhibition in Colombo.

While world powers look apparently condemning Colombo for its culture of impunity allowing armed forces and other elements to commit human rights violations, some among the very powers are engaged covertly in ensuring international impunity to Colombo's war crimes by dodging discussion on Sri Lanka in the apex international security system.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) welcomed the appointment of Des Browne as Special Envoy to Sri Lanka by the British Prime Minister on Thursday, February 12.

Sri Lanka reacted with fury over Britain’s appointment of a special envoy to the country, labelling the appointment as ‘tantamount to an intrusion into Sri Lanka's internal affairs’ and warning of ‘major repercussions’ for relations with Britain.

After not taking up the violence in Sri Lanka in Security Council briefings and avoiding calls for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, the United Nations on called for a halt to ‘indiscriminate fighting’.

The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on a Tamil foundation in Maryland, accusing it of being part of a support network for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

India has changed its stand on Sri Lanka, no longer insisting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lay down arms as a pre-condition for negotiations with the Sri Lankan government for a political settlement.

The Congress led UPA government came under severe criticism from inside and outside of the Parliament, for its continued support for Sri Lanka’s war and for being indifferent to suffering of Tamils in the neighbouring island.

In one of the biggest hospitals in Sri Lanka's north, many women patients wonder why they survived the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the military that killed so many of their friends.

* 36 civilians killed and 76 wounded in latest attack on ‘safety zone’

Sri Lankan government last week unveiled plans to detain a large proportion of the Tamil civilian population of Vanni for at least three years in concentration camps which it calls ‘welfare villages’.