Another batch of IDPs from Vavuniyaa brought to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 October 2009, 07:47 GMT]
Around 2068 persons of 699 families from Jaffna peninsula were brought to Jaffna Sunday from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa. Though nearly 20,000 IDPs have been brought to Jaffna until now none from Themaraadchi or Vadamaraadchi are among them. There are about 10,000 persons of Jaffna origin still being detained in Vavuniyaa camps and they will be sent to Jaffna before 15 November, according to SLA Vanni Commander, Major. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne.
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15 IDPs abducted from transit camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 15:50 GMT]
Fifteen Internally Displaced Tamil men were abducted by a group of unidentified persons clad in army uniform Saturday evening from the transit camp located in the complex of Eachchilampathu Sri Shenpaga Maha Vidiyalayam in Seruvila division in Trincomalee district. Abducted IDPs are married and in the age group 25-45, according to complaints filed with the police and the civil authority by abductees relatives, civil sources in Trincomalee said.
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Singapore Foreign Minister visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 October 2009, 09:07 GMT]
Foreign Minister of Singapore, Mr. George Yeo, paid a visit to Jaffna peninsula Saturday where he went to the Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) held in Koappaay Teachers’ Training College buildings accompanied by Northern Province Governor and former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander G. A. Chandrasiri, Minister Douglas Devananda and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh, sources in Jaffna said. The Governor extended a request to the visiting Singapore Defence Minister to help develop computer technology education and related activities in the North, the sources added.
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SLA obstructs journalists meeting IDPs brought to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 October 2009, 09:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials in Jaffna did not allow media in Jaffna to meet and interview the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) brought to Jaffna from Vavuniyaa SLA internment camps Friday. The officials who had warned the IDPs of severe consequences should they meet or say anything to media persons said that they have been directed by the Ministry of Defence not to allow the media to meet the IGPs. Meanwhile the fate of two female undergrads who were among 28 women undergrads brought from Vavuniyaa internment camps to Jaffna, is not known, according to University officials in Jaffna. The two undergrads were taken for interrogation by the SLA from Kaithadi detention camp. The others have been handed over to Jaffna University administration.
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Tree falls on internment camp, seriously injuring 3 IDPs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2009, 15:31 GMT]
Three inmates of one family detained in the Cheddiku'lam internment camp in Vavuniyaa were seriously injured when a huge branch of a tree fell on their hut Tuesday evening following heavy shower. Tension prevails in the camps as the inmates fear flooding during the imminent monsoon season.
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Stop transferring IDPs from Vavuniyaa to camps in other areas - Bishop urges govt.

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2009, 07:38 GMT]
Rev. Duleep de Chickera, Anglican Bishop of Colombo has urged the Government that if IDPs said to be released from Vavuniyaa are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop. Reports of the lack of co-ordination amongst State Authorities are disappointing, and all those responsible for implementing this decision should be required to ensure co-ordination, compassion and speed.
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Government merely relocating IDPs instead of resettling them

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 October 2009, 07:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in merely relocating Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from one internment camp to other camps instead of resettling them in their own places, IDP Welfare Organizations in Jaffna raised concern. The government, in an attempt to ward off pressure from International Community to speedily resettle the IDPs in their original villages, is putting up an appearance of resettling IDPs and it is suspected it is intentionally dragging its feet in resettling the residents of Vanni in their villages, they further said.
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UNICEF urged to explore direct assistance to IDP education

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 22:01 GMT]
UNICEF has recently announced an emergency programme to assist Colombo’s Ministry of Education implementing Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) to an estimated number of 85,000 IDP children. According to a UNICEF advertisement, seeking experts to work with Colombo’s ministry, the programme will begin from January 2010 and 2000 teachers are to be trained for this purpose. Over the years the so-called national education in the island has been thoroughly Sinhalicised with scheming perfection, so that education of Tamils is now completely ‘directed’ by Sinhalese from concept and management to curriculum and textbooks. The ‘core curriculum’ in the mind of Colombo is structural and cultural genocide, commented academic circles in the island, adding that the UN agency should explore ways of handing over the education of Tamils to Tamils.
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150 IDP families to be resettled in Trinco villages after screening

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 16:09 GMT]
One hundred and fifty members of forty-nine IDP families detained in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa were brought by state buses to Trincomalee Saturday and are lodged in Aalangkea’ni Vinaayakar Maha Vithithhiyaalayam in Ki’n’niyaa Divisional Secretary division. Civil authorities say that they would be resettled in their villages Thampalakaamam, Kii’n’niyaa and Kantha’laay, in Trincomalee district after being screened by government armed forces to find whether they were involved in terrorist activities in past.
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IDPs brought to the islets of Jaffna starve

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 06:01 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh, extended an urgent call to local and International Non-government Organizations (NGOs) in Jaffna to provide food for the IDPs brought to the islets of Jaffna from Vavuniyaa internment camps, now detained in Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) special camps and other places in the islets of Jaffna. The dry food rations given to the IDPs under World Food Programme (WFP) are insufficient to meet the needs as no food is provided by the government to them, the GA said in an urgent meeting held with the representatives of NGOs in Jaffna Secretariat, Tuesday.
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Miliband cosmetically presents catalogue of failures

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 01:18 GMT]
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband on Tuesday presented a written statement to the House of Commons on the 'developments' in the island of Sri Lanka since his last visit in April in response to his concerns on minimising humanitarian impact, strengthening of the rule of law to address human rights and on setting out a political process to address the grievances of 'minorities'. Tamil circles find nothing worthy has been achieved in the last six months but the cosmetic presentation of the catalogue of failures by Mr. Miliband raises concern in them whether the British government is up for appeasement with the aggressive elements in the island.
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SLA forcibly takes 99 IDPs from Pulmoaddai to Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 15:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forcibly took away ninety-nine internally displaced men between the age of 40 and 50 detained in camps located in Pulmoaddai to Vavuniyaa internment camp in eight vehicles without prior notice. SLA soldiers arrived at Pulmoaddai camp Friday night around 8:00 p.m and through public address system called out the names of ninety-nine IDPs. They were bundled into the vehicles when they came out of the camp in response to the call. They are all heads of families. They are now held in Ne’luku’lam camp in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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No signs of resettlement of IDPs in KKS

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 07:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has announced its intention of opening Kaangkeasanthu’rai (KKS) Road for public in view of the reopening of KKS cement factory located in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ). Mere opening of KKS road is meaningless while more than 100,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) evacuated from their residences 20 years ago are still languishing in camps and in relatives’ houses without being resettled, IDP Welfare Organizations in Jaffna said.
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IDPs in Pulmoaddai camps suffer without enough water

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 16:52 GMT]
Hundreds of Vanni internally displaced families held in two camps in Pulmoaddai in Trincomalee district are undergoing untold hardships due to acute shortage of drinking water. Until last week each camp was supplied with two hundred thousand liters of water for drinking and other purposes. Now the quantity has been reduced to fifty thousand liters.
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SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna turned down the request of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Tamil Nadu Parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Kadchi (VCK) Party, to meet the public in Jaffna when the delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs was taken to Jaffna Public Library for a meeting Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Students expressed their strong protest against India for having let down the Eezham Tamils and for deceiving them continually, when the MPs met students in Jaffna University Sunday, the sources added.
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SLN holds IDPs as prisoners in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 17:49 GMT]
Nearly five thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) brought to the islets of Jaffna from Vavuniyaa camps are being held by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) within newly constructed internment camps without allowing them to go out of the camps or to meet their relatives, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, some of the IDPs handed over to their relatives and held in abandoned houses too are not permitted by the SLN to leave their places or to meet their relatives, NGO representatives in Jaffna said.
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Tamil Nadu MPs delegation to see IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Eight Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, from the ruling Congress Party and its supporting political parties Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (DMK) and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal (VCK) are expected to arrive in Colombo Sunday and from there they will be taken to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vannin IDPs are detained, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and India including Communist Party have expressed their strong protest for not having included any MP from the opposition or prominent leaders who had stood up for Eezham Tamils for many years. Sri Lanka government intends to take this delegation on a ‘guided tour’ to ‘selected spots’ in an effort to hide the true conditions under which the IDPs are suffering, representatives of IDP welfare organizations said.
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Disabled IDP youth gains admission to Jaffna medical faculty

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 12:46 GMT]
An Internally Displaced Tamil youth who lost both legs during the final battle launched by Sri Lanka Army against Liberation Tigers in Vanni region and held in Vavuniyaa internment camp had gained admission to the medical faculty of the Jaffna University. He has been admitted to the medical faculty and is attending lectures, according to Vice-chancellor Professor N. Shanmugalingam.
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Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 21:19 GMT]
Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Leoni Cuelenare and an official, Gerrit Noordam from the Embassy were in Jaffna Wednesday where they held detailed discussion on matters related to the rehabilitation of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, Director of Planning, Pratheepan and high SLA officers took part in the discussion.
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Acute health problems among children in Vavuniyaa IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 14:23 GMT]
Twenty-five percent of children in IDP camps in Vavuniya suffer from acute malnutrition while 40 percent of them are anaemic, according to a report on Nutrition Among Post Conflict Displaced Children in Vavuniya. The report further says that 41.9% of the children have diahorreal diseases and 17.2% are low weight babies.
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