45,685 sick civilians treated by LTTE - radio

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 February 2002, 13:33 GMT]
Mobile medical units of the Liberation Tigers treated 45,685 civilians in the Vanni last year, according to a Voice of Tigers report this week. The civilians were mainly from the remote parts of the region, with little access to the mobile medical services of the ICRC. The largest percentage of these patients was treated for anaemia, the report said. Malnutrition and anaemia are rampant among children and adults in Vanni, induced by the decade long embargo clamped on the region by successive governments in Colombo and the acute shortage of food, medicines and drugs, including aspirin.
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‘Basket of humanitarian issues remain’ - PM

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2002, 21:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister last week acknowledged that more needed to be done to alleviate the considerable difficulties of the Tamils living in areas not controlled by the Sri Lanka Army, the state press reported Saturday. Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Thursday that while food and essential items were reaching the people of Wanni there was yet “a basket of humanitarian issues that needs to be addressed by the government to alleviate the conditions of the Northern citizens,” the Daily News reported.
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War strategy flop costs thousands their hospital

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2002, 15:09 GMT]
The bombed out shell of the Kilinochchi District hospital stands mute witness to a failed Sri Lanka army strategy. The hospital was the largest government medical facility in the Vanni until Sri Lanka Air Force jets destroyed it in bombing raids in early 1996. Dr.S.Vigneswaran, the District Medical Officer, says rebuilding the Kilinochchi hospital would cost more than 150 million rupees (approx- 1.6 million USD. 1 USD = 93 LKR). He now runs the hospital out of a small medical centre in the interior village of Akkarayan south of Kilinochchi.
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Northeast GAs brief Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 January 2002, 14:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe held discussions Thursday with the government agents of the north and east about situation in their administrative districts in the context of easing the economic embargo on the Vanni and relaxing the restrictions on Tamil civilians in other areas, including Jaffna. The Government Agents for Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu told the PM that there has been no significant improvement yet in the supply of essentials and medicines on which the decade long embargo was lifted earlier this month.
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Kilinochchi struggles to limp back to life (photos)

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 January 2002, 01:16 GMT]
The TamilNet correspondent for Vavuniya visited the Vanni recently after the Sri Lankan government eased the ban on local and foreign journalists visiting the LTTE held region. The following are a glimpse of the war-devastated land and its battle scarred life.
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Ex-garrison town schools await succour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 January 2002, 13:31 GMT]
More than forty schools in the Kilinochchi education zone were damaged by floods in the region during the recent monsoon, officials said. Most of these schools were functioning in temporary sheds as their permanent structures have been destroyed in heavy bombing and shelling since 1996 when the Sri Lanka army captured and garrisoned the town. Education officials said they have not received funds for repairs although damaged to the temporary shacks and partially destroyed buildings in which children study has been estimated at 5 million rupees (53,000 USD). The Liberation Tigers overran the large SLA garrison in Kilinochchi in September 1998.
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(Photographs) Tigers release 10 POWs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2002, 08:59 GMT]

Ms. Vishaka Dharmadasa, the leader of the organisation for women affected by the war, speaking to one of the released men at the LTTE's political wing office. (Photo:TamilNet)

The Liberation Tigers released 10 prisoners of war as a good will gesture towards strengthening the peace process with the United National Front government on Monday in the northern town of Kilinochchi.
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LTTE for strengthening UNF peace initiative -Thamilchelvan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2002, 11:45 GMT]
"We respect the reasonable feelings of the Sinhala people. We only want our people to live in their land with honour and freedom and to enjoy all their rights sans military restrictions and intimidation. We want our people to have the freedoms and rights which the Sinhala people are able to enjoy now.
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Vanni flooding misery continues without relief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 January 2002, 20:22 GMT]
(News Feature) The effects of heavy flooding two weeks ago in the Mullaitivu and Kilinocchi districts of the Vanni are still being felt across the regions, with roads rendered impassable, schools and settlements flooded out and residents suffering a lack of support from the government and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) based in the area, Tamil press reports this week said. Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected, with many being displaced from their homes and refugee camps as a result of the deluge. Vital supply routes have been cut, aid workers said.
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Provincial ministry officiails to visit LTTE held areas

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 January 2002, 18:33 GMT]
North-East provincial ministry secretaries and heads of departments have decided to tour the Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi districts in the Liberation Tigers held Vanni region to obtain first hand information about the sufferings of the people. At the last meeting of the Provincial Planning Council of the Northeast Province (NEP), its chief secretary Mr.G.Kirushnamoorthy tabled a resolution to this effect.
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Results of Jaffna electorates

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2001, 10:21 GMT]
The TNA got more than hundred thousand votes in the eleven electorates of the Jaffna electoral district. The southern sector of the electorate of Chavakachcheri is under the control of the Liberation Tigers. Kilinochchi, an administrative district in north which is an electorate of Jaffna, is under the total control of the Liberation Tigers. Only a few persons displaced from Kilinochchi by the war since 1996 were eligible to vote. The EPDP scored highest in the Kayts electorate, which comprises all the islands under its military influence. The ballots of Jaffna voters displaced in Puttalam and Colombo are yet to be counted.
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Rigging feared in 'clustered' polling centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 December 2001, 13:24 GMT]
Journalists, civil society leaders and politicians in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka island told independent and European Union polls observers to pay special attention to 'clustered' polling booths where thousands of Tamil voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers will have to cast their ballots Wednesday.
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SLA arrests Jaffna university student

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 November 2001, 04:16 GMT]
The Sri Lanka army arrested an undergraduate of the Jaffna University in Tinnevely Saturday morning around 8.30 a.m. Arumugam Sutharsan, a second year student who is following a course in management was arrested by the SLA at the house near the campus where he was boarded.
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Embargo, war caused 13, 379 civilian deaths - report

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2001, 03:05 GMT]
Thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts due to the war and the economic embargo imposed by the Sri Lankan government from 1990 to 1999, according to a press report in the Vanni published this weekend. Most of the deaths, destruction of civilian property and mass displacement tool place after the People's Alliance came to power in 1994, the report said. Four thousand eight hundred and seventy nine civilians died in the Mullaithivu district between 1994 and 1999 due to the direct impact of the economic embargo on the Vanni, particularly due to the severe restrictions on medical supplies.
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Sea battle off Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 October 2001, 21:44 GMT]
A sea battle broke out in the seas off Mullaithivu in the north-east of Sri Lanka when Sea Tigers engaged Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) patrol boats, Sunday morning, the Voice of Tigers radio said this evening. Two SLN crafts were damaged and five LTTE members died in the battle, the radio said.
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Thileepan commemorated in areas under SLA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, 16:43 GMT]
The commemoration of Thileepan, a senior member of the Liberation Tigers who fasted unto death on 26 September 1987, was observed Wednesday in many parts of the northeastern province of Sri Lanka which are under the control of the Sri Lankan army.
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Dialogue with LTTE vital for humanitarian ops. -ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 September 2001, 16:51 GMT]
"The LTTE is a major party to the conflict. As such the present dialogue with the LTTE is vital for the continuance of the ICRC's humanitarian services to the people in Vanni and the rest of the country," said Mr.Harasha Gunawardene, the ICRC's press officer, addressing a press conference held Wednesday morning at Trincomalee Seven Islands Hotel.
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Kilinochchi rising from rubble

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2001, 13:53 GMT]
The Kilinochchi St. Theresa’s Girls’ School will start functioning in its former premises in the northern town after a gap of four years when the third term begins next week, education officials in Vavuniya said. St. Theresa’s is one of the two schools in the town that escaped complete destruction during Sri Lankan security forces operations and bombing five years ago. Kilinochchi was abandoned when the Sri Lanka army captured this once bustling town in August 1996. The Tigers overran the base and recaptured Kilinochchi in September 1998. A program to gradually rebuild and resettle the destroyed town began early this year. A project to remove thousands of anti personnel mines and mine fields left behind by the SLA was launched by the White Dove Movement (WDM) after the garrison fell. More than 50000 APLM’s and explosive booby traps have been recovered by the WDM in the Kilinochchi town and its environs so far, western aid agency sources in the Vanni said.
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Student killed, houses destroyed in SLAF bombing

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 August 2001, 19:19 GMT]
A student was killed and a girl was seriously injured in a heavy bombing raid by the Sri Lanka Air Force on villages in Kilinochchi south Monday, the night news broadcast of the Voice of Tigers said. Tharmakulasingham Jegathees, 22, was blown to pieces when his village was hit by the air strike, the radio said. The student was killed when the SLAF’s Kfir fighter jet bombers bombed the village of Puthiya Punnaineeraavi, Monday, according to the radio. The SLAF has stepped up heavy bombing raids in the north and east of the island.
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Vanni schools make do with fewer teachers

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2001, 15:03 GMT]
There are only 2079 teachers to teach 86177 school children in the Vanni, according to officials of the Northeast Provincial Ministry of Education. “The shortage is more than 52 percent. There should be at least 4020 teachers for this number of children as stipulated by the Ministry of Education. The actual shortage is much higher when we take into account the number that is at Teachers’ Training Colleges,” an official said. “This puts tremendous pressure on children and teachers alike as the education system in the Vanni is struggling hard to survive under the economic embargo,” he added.
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