The article below is compiled from reports from Tamilnet.org.
To express opposition to the Sri Lankan government's genocidal war on Tamil civilians, carried out under cover of a military assault to defeat the armed pro-independence group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and join growing international calls for an immediate ceasefire, send a letter to Sri Lanka's acting consul-general to Australia, Gothami Indikadahena, slcgsyd@bigpond.com.
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More than 49 of the 133 Tamil civilians killed inside a "safe zone" by Sri Lankan Army shelling on March 10 were children and 16 of them were children below the age of three.
The SLA deployed internationally banned cluster munitions and fire-bombs against civilians who were stranded without shelter inside the "safe zone" — which has become a killing field — Tamilnet.org's correspondent reported from Vanni.
The low-lying and inhospitable coastal terrain, bereft of vegetation, was the choice of the government as the safe-zone for herding civilians. The government has now turned it into a killing zone, where civilians every day die in hundreds due to shelling and starvation.
On March 10, 273 civilians, including an International Committee of the Red Cross worker, were also wounded.
A local NGO official, who was coordinating the rescue of the wounded, described the carnage as "Colombo's show of open mockery at international concern", TamilNet's correspondent reported.
"The attack was criminally deliberate as it was timed for the aftermath of a mini cyclone and floods, at the stranded civilians", said the official, who did not wish to be named.
"In a show of open mockery at the mounting international concern for civilians in Vanni, the Colombo government indiscriminately attacked all parts of the 'safe zone' using every kind of lethal shells, some of them banned in many countries."
Commenting further, the official said: "What the Colombo government is committing is not ordinary genocide, but mass torture and genocide."
"Why Colombo is doing this is quite obvious. Because, in truth, the war waged by Colombo is against the Tamil people, aiming at their subjugation", he said.
"Let the criminal-minded international pundits, who argue in favour of the Colombo government for its right to wage this war, tell us in what way the killings in the 'safe zone' are different from the proven genocides elsewhere in the world."
Commenting on the Sri Lankan government's plan of placing Tamil civilians fleeing the conflict into camps, the official argued: "The alternative suggested to the civilians is a worse form of concentration camps intended for years."
A civilian who escaped the shelling, but witnessed people standing nearby killed, stated on March 8 that he considered himself "unfortunate to survive".
The official stated that "the Indian establishment", and other nations supporting the Sri Lankan government, "share responsibility for the genocide and war crimes taking place in the island".
"With a stroke of pen they declared the fighting force of the Tamils as 'terrorists' and tilted the balance in favour of the genocidal government.
"They provided money, weapons and diplomatic leverage to Colombo. The war waged by Colombo is a proxy war [by] all of them.
"All these years they couldn't even lift a finger to all the human rights abuses taking place in the island. What we see even now is only lip services, meaningless statements, sabotage at the UN and dodging tactics."