SLA blocks oxygen cylinders urgently needed by hospitals in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 15:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa has held back for weeks the vehicle bringing 52 oxygen cylinders from Colombo to Ki'linochchi public hospital urgently needed to save the lives of the Internally Displaced Persons, increasingly subjected to indiscriminate shelling, air attacks and road accidents. Although two of the three lorries with medical supplies that were waiting for weeks were allowed to reach the hospital on Monday, the lorry with oxygen cylinders was not allowed to cross the Oamanthai entry point by the SLA. There is acute need for oxygen cylinders at Ki'linochchi hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assisting Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH).
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Wind of Change in Maldives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 07:14 GMT]
As the counting is over for the elections that took place in Maldives on Tuesday, Mr. Mohamed Nasheed, popularly known 'Anni' has secured 54.21 percent of votes and is expected to assume power as president of the republic on November 11th. Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the present incumbent ruling the country for 30 years since 1978 trailed behind with 45.79 percent. The voter turnout in the first ever elections in that country based on multi party system was a very high 86.58 percent.
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Turbines damaged in TAF airstrike on power plant, one killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 05:45 GMT]
A turbine operator of the Kelanitissa power plant was killed due to the impact of the explosion and two turbines and air coolers sustained damage when Tamileealm Air Force (TAF), the air wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked the powerplant Tuesday night, according to the sources in Colombo. The air-strike was carried out on the target in Colombo, after attacking the Tha'l'laadi garrison of the Sri Lankan forces in Mannaar, inflicting heavy damage to the Tha'l'laadi base, which functions as the rear station for the Sri Lankan military operation on Vanni from the Mannaar front.
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Anni heading for victory in Maldives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 01:11 GMT]
Mr. Mohamed Nasheed, popularly known 'Anni' has made a clear lead in the presidential elections of Maldives against Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the present incumbent ruling the country for 30 years since 1978. With just five boxes to be counted, Anni has already secured more than 50 percent of the total votes polled. Following Nepal and Bhutan the tide in South Asia seems to be in favour of structural changes, deconstructing establishments.
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Tigers launch airstrike in Mannaar, Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 18:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) carried out an air attack on Tha'l'laadi military base, the main artillery and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) launchpad of the Sri Lanka Army in Mannaar Tuesday around 10:30 p.m., dropping three bombs on the base. The Tiger aircrafts then proceeded to Colombo and dropped two bombs on Kelanitissa power station, while Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) bombers were searching for LTTE aircrafts in skys over Ki'linochchi between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. Latest reports from Vanni said the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) aircrafts were flying over the suburbs of Mullaiththeevu and Puthukkudiyiruppu with para lights focused on the ground from 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
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Colombo soft launches FM channel in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 17:15 GMT]
Sri Lanka government resumed its broadcast to 'Listeners in All India', with a newly adopted name, diplomatically aiming at dampening the emotional upsurge of sympathy and support expressed all over Tamil Nadu State, sources in Chennai said. The Tamil Nadu media reports related to the Sri Lankan government's war on the Tamils in Vanni being unfavorable to it, the resumption of the broadcast from Colombo appears to be a propaganda measure adopted by Sri Lanka government, the sources added.
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3 IDPs wounded in SLAF attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 15:51 GMT]
A 50-year-old mother of three, a 38-year-old father of one and a 41-year-old father of two, were wounded Tuesday morning around 11:00 when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked two civilian settlements in Ki'linochchi and Paranthan, medical sources at the Ki'linochchi hospital said. The victims were Internally Displaced Persons from Mannaar and Ki'linochchi districts. 750 school children and 17 teachers were attending classes at Paranthan Hindu College at the time of the SLAF air-strike. The college is located 750 meters from the attack site in Kumarapuram where three houses and three huts were fully destroyed, according to TamilNet correspondent who visited the attack site at Kumarapuram and the hospital.
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Food to hoodwink, war to continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2008, 01:00 GMT]
The voice of Tamil Nadu people has certainly shaken the power centres of India, but what they really heard or orchestrated was the US ambassador's voice. The establishments are not prepared to change course immediately either on stopping war and military assistance to Colombo or on coming out with meaningful political solutions to Eezham Tamils, but rather the 'machinations' are to bring in a wedge between the suffering people and their fighters, said a Colombo based political analyst. Only a resolute Tamil people and ground realities in Sri Lanka may able to convince the 'strategic partners' of the futility of going against the aspirations of the oppressed, observed the analyst.
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French Tamils protest against killing of Tamils by Sri Lanka State

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 13:30 GMT]
Hundreds of French Tamils in the east of France assembled in front of the European Parliment in Strasbourg between 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Friday, and demonstrated against the killing of Tamils, and aerial bombardment in the civilian settlements in the North East, sources in France said. The demonstrators carried pictures of tamils killed by aerial bombings and artillery attacks. The Mayor of Strarsbourg, represented by the Deputy Mayor, Mr Eric Elkouby, showed his support for the demonstration by standing amidst the protesters under heavy rain, attendees to the protest said.
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SLA turns away 26 lorries with humanitarian supplies at Omanthai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 13:06 GMT]
Though the officials in Colombo claimed that 54 lorries were sent to the Wanni on Friday, only 28 WFP supply lorries entered the LTTE controlled Vanni. Other lorries were turned away at Oamanthai. These include two lorry loads of medical supplies and eight carrying kerosene.
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Time for Colombo to defeat LTTE with political solution: U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 October 2008, 10:16 GMT]
"The U.S. view is that the [Sri Lankan] government could further isolate and weaken the LTTE if it articulates now its vision for a political solution," said U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake while addressing an interactive session at the University of Madras on Friday, The Hindu reported. While ruling out the military option, Mr. Blake has alluded that the U.S. position was to militarily weaken the LTTE to defeat it politically. The United States has been a key player of the Co-Chairs for the Sri Lankan process, which has been managed by the facilitation of Norway till Sri Lanka unilaterally withdrew from the ceasefire.
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Colombo to avoid reporting casualty figures on Vanni fighting

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 22:36 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Friday continued in its attempt to advance further into southern Ki'linochchi facing stiff resistance from the Tigers, according to the officials of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Vanni. Fighting intensified as SLA attempted to advance towards Naachchikkudaa on Friday, they said adding that the SLA has suffered heavy casualties. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry officials said they have suspended reporting casualty figures of their side in the offensive that has been stepped up in Vanni.
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Governor General of Canada voices for UN human rights office in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2008, 21:08 GMT]
"We strongly support the presence of the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human rights in Sri Lanka with a full mandate to report on the human rights situation", said The Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean on the occasion of the presentation of credentials by Daya Perera, the new High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Canada, on Wednesday. "It is important to ensure that civilians in conflict zones are protected, that they have access to humanitarian organizations, and that their human rights are respected", she said while conveying deep concern of her government "over the future of the Sri Lankan people".
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Italian Tamils march to raise awareness about Tamils plight in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 20:29 GMT]
More than two thousand diaspora Tamils in Southern Italy marched Thursday from Piazza Politama to the Palermo office of the Internal Affairs Ministry to hand over an appeal urging awareness on the plight of the Eezham Tamils in Vanni and elsewhere in the island of Sri Lanka.
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Address the root cause to end suffering: Vidyananda alumni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 20:13 GMT]
"It is our earnest feeling that the fundamental issue of our status as a nation, precisely on the question of which we are put to untold sufferings for ages by the successive Colombo governments, has to be addressed with priority and with urgency by the Indian government," reads a request from the alumni (Norway) of the Mu'l'liyava'lai Vidyananda College of Vanni, made on Thursday to the political parties of Tamil Nadu. Indian recognition of Eezham Tamil self-determination is the fundamental effective measure to discourage war and to lead to peace negotiations, the request said.
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Thirumavalavan courts arrest with thousands of cadres, asks India to stop proxy war

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 2008, 12:05 GMT]
In a powerful state-wide railway blockade of a scale that has not been witnessed in recent years in Tamil Nadu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) President Thol. Thirumavalavan courted arrest Thursday morning with thousands of his cadres urging the Indian Government to stop the genocidal war against the Tamils within the next twenty-four hours. He said that the ongoing war in the island was "clearly a proxy war being waged by the Indian Government through the Sinhalese forces" and he urged upon New Delhi to put an end to it at the earliest.
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"No Home - Just Hope" photo exhibition of Vanni IDP's woes, in Norway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2008, 08:25 GMT]
Tamil Youth Organization (TYO) of the city of Bergen in Norway launched an exhibition titled "No Home – Just Hope" of photos depicting the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vanni in Sri Lanka, in Hanseatisk Museum in Bergen town, Friday around 6:00 p.m, inaugurated by Eileen, Kolsås Dalen, culture consultant in Bergen Municipality, sources in Bergen said. Friday marked the day when the United Nations was founded.
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Shelling blocks access route, UN convoy returns to Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 13:59 GMT]
28 lorries in a humanitarian convoy that included the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) supplies, which left Oamanthai entry point to Vanni at 2:30 p.m. Thursday returned back to Vavuniyaa, unable to proceed into Vanni due to artillery shelling. Two shells exploded near the convoy, according to the officials who returned back with supplies to Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, humanitarian oficials in Vanni said that the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) Vanni Command were fully aware of the itinerary of the convoy and blamed the SLA for sabotaging humanitarian supplies by firing shells on the access route. The same tactic was adopted earlier by the SLA in Vaakarai in Batticaloa district, they further charged.
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SLAF steps up air attacks in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 13:58 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers dropped more than ten bombs Wednesday around 9:10 a.m. on the civilian settlements in Manthuvil along Puthukkudiyiruppu - Mullaiththeevu road destroying eight houses. The bombers again dropped eight bombs on Keappapilavu civilian settlements along Puthukkudiyiruppu-Mu'l'liyawa'lai around 10:50 a.m destroying seven houses besides causing severe damage to paddy-fields. The attacks caused heavy damage to two roads.
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Medical, health crisis looms in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 12:01 GMT]
120 refugees were admitted after snake-bite during the past 7 days alone in Ki'linochchi district's hospital functioning at Tharmapuram. One of the patients, a girl, has died and another, a 53-year-old woman, was being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assistant Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH) on Tuesday. He said three lorries with urgently needed medicines to treat snake-bite and diarrhea have not entered Vanni despite three repeated attempts to cross the entry/exit point at Oamanthai in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, ambulance-transport for patients in need of urgent medical treatment at Vavuniyaa hospital has become increasingly difficult.
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