SLA shelling blocks ambulances, 2 injured in convoy

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 09:56 GMT]
Two persons who accompanied with the convoy of ambulances from Puthukkudiruppu to Vavuniyaa were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells at Mannaaka'ndal Friday morning, shortly after two ambulances left Puthukkudiyiruppu, medical authorities said. Two ambulances with 13 civilians with serious injuries, being transferred from Tharmapuram and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospitals to Vavuniyaa hospital, after getting clearance through the ICRC, were forced to turn back as the SLA stepped up artillery fire on the road.
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Tharmapuram hospital struggles to cope with victims of air strikes

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 00:32 GMT]
The hospital located at Tharmapuram, the new administrative centre of Vanni, struggles to cope with a high number of patients as Sri Lankan air strikes and artillery barrage on Wednesday and Thursday killed 10 and caused injuries to more than 50 civilians. The hospital, originally a village level hospital, has to cope with the inpatients of Ki'linochchi hospital, with its short space and lack of medical equipment, was forced to dispatch its vehicles on Thursday seeking blood donors to come forward to donate blood as all blood types in were at critical level.
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SLAF bombs Ka'ndaava'lai, Ki'linochchi suburb

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers that attacked Murasumoaddai on Paranthan Mullaiththeevu Road thrice, returned to bomb the next junction, Ka'ndaava'lai, while hundreds of civilians were fleeing the carnage at Murasumoaddai in the evening around 4:30 p.m., on Thursday. Two civilians, a 60-year-old mother and a 20-year-old male were injured in the attack on the densely populated junction. Three shops were fully destroyed and six shops damaged.
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SLA claims occupation of Paranthan junction

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 16:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry on Thursday claimed that its troops reached Paranthan Junction, which is situated north of Ki'linochchi town on A9 Road. Informed military sources said the SLA suffered high casualties as the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) put up heavy resistance. The occupation of Paranthan junction comes after SLA suffering three major debacles in which several soldiers, including child soldiers and young recruits have been killed.
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Civil society decries internment of Vanni families in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 13:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka military and Police in Kopaay are keeping more than 155 members of 60 families who arrived in Jaffna as refugees from Vanni in a newly established camp in Kopaay Teachers Training College without basic facilities and without any freedom of movement, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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5 killed, 28 wounded in SLAF attacks on Murasumoaddai for second day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 09:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers hit civilian settlements three times in Murasumoaddai in Vanni killing civilians and causing injuries to many on Thursday. At least 5 civilians have been reported dead so far by the medical staff at Tharmpuram hospital. 28 civilians, including five children, were admitted at the hospital after the attacks. Civilians were still trapped in the site as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery barrage on the settlement after the indiscriminate air strike. 10 civilians have been killed and more than 50 wounded within 30 hours on Wednesday and Thursday in Murasumoaddai.
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Jaffna Bishop appeals to leaders, foreign diplomats to bring in peace

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 00:01 GMT]
“The Holy See Benedict XVI had urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to stop the war and strive for peace when the president met the Holy Pope at Vatican but the war atrocities have only escalated since then,” Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna said in his New Year message for the year 2009. “The appeal made by the Bishops in Sri Lanka to stop the war too remains rejected, “ the message said.
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5 civilians killed, 16 wounded in air strikes, hospital reports blood shortage

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 31 December 2008, 04:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement near Murugananda school in Murasumoaddai on Paranthan - Mullaiththeevu Road killing two females of a family and a male on the spot. Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 16 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The attack has targeted three civilian settlements in Murasumoaddai Wednesday around 8:00 a.m. The indiscriminate bombardment on fleeing civilians, Internally Displaced Person's huts, close to the ICRC Karaichchi branch office, a school, temple and agricultural lands aims at instilling fear at the minds of the civilians in Vanni, observers said.
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Jaffna SLA, GA accused of delaying HSZ resettlement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 19:03 GMT]
Displaced residents in Jaffna and civil society organizations have accused the Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna and the Palaly Military High command of deliberately delaying implementation of Supreme Court’s order to begin resettlement inside designated areas within the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North, sources in Jaffna said.
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17-year-old SLA soldier killed in Vanni battlefront

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2008, 16:14 GMT]
One of the Identity Cards recovered with a dead body of a young Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier revealed that the SLA trooper killed in the offensive forefront in Mullaiththeevu district on Saturday was a 17-year-old boy. LTTE officials displayed photos for reporters in Vanni on Sunday. According to the Article 1 of the the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, signed and ratified by the Sri Lankan government, the government (State Party) should ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.
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SLAF bombings kill woman, 10 injured, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2008, 10:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfir fighter jets bombed Saturday three civilian settlements killing a 24-year-old woman and seriously injuring ten persons, including an 18-year-old girl who lost both her legs, sources in Vanni said. The bombers first struck Iyakkachchi around 9:20 a.m and attacked the civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi, Ira’naimadu, around 2:10 p.m. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) kept firing artillery shells on Iyakkachchi, Ira'naimadu and Vaddakkachchi, as the jets bombed the areas.
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Large scale search in Colombo, several taken into custody

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2008, 12:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Police and Special Task Force (STF) Thursday and Friday conducted cordon and search operations covering Muhathuwaaram, Kotahena, Wellawatte, Rajagiriya, Dehiwala, Kohuwela and Nugegoda in the western province. Several civilians, majority of them Tamil upcountry residents, were taken into custody. Police headquarters did not reveal till Friday evening the number of civilians under custody, civil sources said.
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Sri Lanka Air Force attacks convent in Vanni, deploys cluster bombs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2008, 07:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed a convent named Holy Cross Convent, located on Paranthan Mullaiththevu Road, 600 meters away from Paranthan junction Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m., a day before Christmas. TamilNet correspondent who visited the site Wednesday morning witnessed that the attacked premises was marked with Red Cross on the roof. The nearby church also sustained damage. The SLAF deployed cluster munitions in the bombardment, residents who fled the site said. 85 cows of a herd a few meters away from the convent were killed in the attack.
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Colombo instructs Vanni GAs to refrain from requesting aid from UN Agencies, INGOs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2008, 05:55 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Commissioner General of Essential Services, S.B. Divaratne, in a letter issued to the Government Agents of Vavuniyaa, Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi last month has instructed the GAs to refrain from making any requests for food and non food assistance from INGOs and UN Agencies. "All your requirements should be processed throgh the Commissioner General of Essential Services, even in the event of any urgent necessity," the letter states. The content of the letter, which is interpreted as a threat to the Tamil GAs, is also document of evidence for how a structural genocide is being inflicted upon the Tamil people, an official serving under one of the GAs told TamilNet.
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Weapons seized, fighting continues in Ki'linochchi - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 14:45 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials in Vanni on Tuesday said there were one AK LMG, four Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) Launchers, one Light Anti-Tank Weapon (LAW), five T-56 assault rifles among the arms seized in the clearing mission that followed Monday's clashes in Ki'linochchi. Fighting continues in Pulikku'lam and Kugnchupparanthan on Wednesday.
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14-year-old boy killed, 5 wounded in Sri Lankan bombardment in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 17:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery shelling killed a 14-year-old boy in Vaddakkachchi on Monday around 10:30 a.m. A 32-year-old father sustained injuries in the shelling that continued. In the morning, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets dropped bombs near Ki'linochchi hospital around 6:20 a.m. causing panic among the patients and the staff at the hospital. A mother of 4 children, a male and a 13-year-old boy were wounded in the bombardment. Shrapnels hit the hospital building causing damage. A 56-year-old female was wounded in Vattaappazhai in Mullaiththeevu district. At least 17 houses have sustained damage in the Sri Lankan bombardment on Monday.
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SLA steps up attacks on hospitals in Vanni, disregards Geneva Conventions

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 18:37 GMT]
Mullaiththeevu Government Hospital has come under artillery fire by the Sri Lanka Army despite the Sri Lankan military and civil authorities being repeatedly urged by the medical authorities at the hospital not to fire shells on the civilian medical facility. The government hospital was attacked Monday, Friday and Saturday. Two patients sustained injuries last Monday and two medical staff were wounded in the artillery attack on Friday. The building sustained damage in the bombardment Friday when 5 shells hit the premises. The quarters of the Medical Superintend has also sustained damage for the second time.
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EPDP stages ’protest march’ in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 17:13 GMT]
Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), the paramilitary-cum-political party led by Douglas Devanda, a cabinet minister in Rajapaksa regime, organized a ‘protest march’ in Vadamaraadchi Sunday around 3:15 p.m along Point Pedro-Jaffna road in which hundreds of persons, mostly women, were forced to take part with the armed escort by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers. The marching protestors were instructed to shout slogans calling the SLA to "liberate" the North and to "free" people from LTTE controlled territory in Vanni.
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Slain parliamentarian Maheswaran’s death anniversary held in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 16:24 GMT]
Hundreds of people from different parts of Jaffna peninsula took part in the first death anniversary of Mr. Thiyagarasa Maheswaran held Sunday around 9:00 a.m in the Trustee Board Hall of Kaarainakar Sivan Koayil in his home town. He was gunned down while observing prayers in Colombo Ponnampalavaa'neasvarar Koayil on January 1 this year.
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Douglas, Anandasangari prepare for election campaign in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 December 2008, 12:48 GMT]
Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the Rajapaksa government and the leader of paramilitary-cum-political party EPDP and V. Anandasangari of the TULF, are both busily engaged in preparatory meetings for election campaign in Jaffna, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet. No official announcement, however, has been made by Sri Lanka government on holding elections in Jaffna peninsula.
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