Denial, bravado, defiance cannot erase Rights issues – Saravanamuttu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 17:56 GMT]
Noting a number of rights violations for which Sri Lanka is under scrutiny by the international community, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, writes in a Daily Mirror column: “Human rights issues are stubborn ones. They will not go away. They cannot be dealt with by denial, bravado, defiance, conspiracy theories or neglect. Moreover they are indubitably in the national interest and to the detriment of no one other than the perpetrators of violations. At the same time, foreign policy cannot be conducted through allegation and counter allegation, shrill incoherence and what increasingly looks like incomprehension and incompetence. Most importantly governance cannot be served or sustained by conflict and conspiracy, fear, paranoia and insecurity.”
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Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:22 GMT]
If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons.
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In Orwellian Sri Lanka 40 civilians disappear from camps daily - Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 11:49 GMT]
“In George Orwells 1984, the Ministry of Peace dealt with war, and the Ministry of Love with torture. Likewise we witnessed in Sri Lanka how the Peace Secretariat justified excesses carried out in the name of war against terrorism. And the so-called welfare camps are virtual prisons,” Daily Mirror said quoting Mangala Samaraweera's charge against the Sri Lanka in the parliament Tuesday, adding that about 30 to 40 persons are abducted on a daily basis from IDP camps in the North,
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Political motive behind bringing Vavuniyaa IDPs to the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has political motives in detaining afresh the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, in the islets of Jaffna in new camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), so that these IDPs could be made to vote for it in the general election next year, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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“No IDPs but FDDPs, in Vavuniyaa camps” - Mangala Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:51 GMT]
“Today barbed wire internment camps are euphemistically called “Welfare Camps” and the 280,000 people incarcerated there are called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) while in actual fact that these people should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained Persons)”, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the dissident group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
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UNDP to give identification documents to IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 08:01 GMT]
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has initiated a project to provide important legal documents the displaced people lost due to the conflict or the tsunami, sources in Colombo said.
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SLN constructs new internment camps in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 05:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) stationed in Kaarainakar, Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai are hastily engaged in constructing new internment camps to detain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets. Around 1500 IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa in two stages and handed over to SLN are undergoing untold difficulties being held by the SLN, sources in the islets said.
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UN envoy Kalin to arrive in Colombo Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:30 GMT]
Mr. Walter Kalin, Human Rights envoy of the United Nations is scheduled to arrive in Colombo late Wednesday on a five-day visit that includes a tour to Vanni IDP camps holding tens of thousands of refugees. "Mr. Kalin will meet with senior government officials, international aid agencies, including UN staff, and also visit some sites holding internally displaced people (IDPs)," UN sources said.
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SLA refuses permission to Jaffna University students in camps to attend lectures

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 10:15 GMT]
Despite efforts made by Jaffna University Students’ Union (JUSU), University Administration and other interested parties, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to detain 74 university students from Vanni districts held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa and brought to Jaffna, in the SLA detention camp in Kaithadi, a press notice released by the JUSU said. JUSU accused the government for its continued reluctance to allow the detained undergrads to attend university, in the press notice.
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‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]
Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.
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Continued detention of IDPs endangers future political stability: Pascoe

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 04:11 GMT]
“Keeping these persons in the camps is breeding resentment and endangering the future political stability of Sri Lanka,” United Nations Under Secretary General of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told reporters Friday night in Colombo after meeting President Mahinda Rajapakse, sources in Colombo said. The UN too reflected the same sentiments saying that the political stability of Sri Lanka is jeopardized due to rising resentment among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps, the sources further said. While Mr. Pascoe was expressing his concerns of future stability of the [unitary state of] Sri Lanka, the UN administration of Ban Ki-moon in New York, was seeking to control its message and limit questions, to turn the tide of negative coverage of its handling of Sri Lanka, Inner City Press reported.
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UN envoy Lynn Pascoe insists on early release of IDPs

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe who met Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday to present the letter from UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon outlining the concerns of the international community on the situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other related matters, said that he had raised the issue of the early release of the IDPs and their freedom of movement with the President, sources in Colombo said. "It is frustrating to live in such conditions and therefore the people should be allowed to return to their original homes at the earliest. The security concerns of the government are understandable but at the same time the people must also be taken into serious consideration", Mr. Pascoe said.
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No time frame for resettlement of Vanni IDPs - Media Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 04:48 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) Thursday said a time frame for the completion or partial completion of resettlement cannot be given despite the assurance given to the UN chief that 80 percent of the resettlement will be completed by the end of this year, according to Media Minister and cabinet spokesman, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.
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Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs meets Tamil Diaspora group

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 23:35 GMT]
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Stephen Smith, participated in a meeting organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) with representatives of several Australian Tamil organisations and individuals, chaired by Mr. David Holly, the Assistant Secretary, South and West Asia Branch of the DFAT, sources in Australia said. Minister Smith explained his government’s approach to handling the conflict in Sri Lanka.
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Lynn Pascoe visits IDP detention camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 16:47 GMT]
Mr. Lynn Pascoe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, who was in Jaffna Thursday, visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detention camps in Koapaay and Kaithadi, accompanied by Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Major Gen. Mark and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh under heavy escort. Non-government organizations in Jaffna expressed concern that independent civil society representatives in the peninsula were not given an opportunity to meet the visiting UN envoy and inform him of the true situation in the peninsula.
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Students detained in Vavuniyaa camps to be used as showpieces

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 05:55 GMT]
The students from Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar districts, now detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, are to be taken like prisoners under military and police guard to participate in a Sports Meet that is to be held in Jaffna Alfred Duraippa Stadium from Friday for three days, sources in Jaffna said. The students thus brought to Jaffna will be taken back to the SLA internment camps in Vavuniyaa at the end of the sports meet, the sources added.
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Vanni IDP detainees sent to Ampaa’rai detained again

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 14:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), instructed by higher authorities, is constructing new detention centres to hold the Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sent to Ampaa’rai district recently from Vavuniyaa SLA detention camps while the IDPs are being detained in the SLA camp located on Poththuvil road in Akkaraippattu, sources in Ampaa’rai said. The efforts made by Aalayadiveampu Pratheasa Chapai Secretary to handover the said IDPs to their relatives failed as the local SLA officer refused their release citing orders from above, the sources added.
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SL Government intends to detain IDPs in camps indefinitely

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 10:13 GMT]
Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Minister Douglas Devananda directed government officials in Jaffna to take immediate steps to bring Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Jaffna detained in Vavuniyaa camps to the detainment camps in Jaffna district and to send IDPs from Vanni detained Jaffna district to Vavuniyaa camps, according to the decision taken in the Jaffna District Coordination Committee held Tuesday in Jaffna Secretariat, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, the IDPs from the islets of Jaffna brought to Kaarainakar and Veala’nai Monday, on the assurance that they will be settled in abandoned houses, are kept in school buildings and Saiva temples until new detainment camps are established for them to move in, the sources added.
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Colombo's paranoid secrecy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 16:20 GMT]
"Why must the military be in control of the camps, why not civilian agencies? Why can't visitors enter the camps? Why are journalists barred? Why are international agencies kept out? Why is it taking the courts so long to make a straightforward order to allow members of parliament to visit the camps?" and quoting Mangala Samaraweera, "I can walk into any prison at will and meet any criminal, but I am not allowed to meet these people held in detention for no reason," Prof Kumar David, in an opinion column in Sunday's Lakbima, writes, "[t]he reasons offered for this paranoid secrecy varied from the need to hide human rights violations to calculations relating to the upcoming elections. I think it will be some time before the real reason comes seeping out."
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8 Tamil civilians arrested in Thanthirimalai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 10:57 GMT]
Anuradhapura Police Monday arrested eight Tamil civilians in Thanthirimalai area in Anuradhapura district on suspicion. Police said a police party rushed to the site and took them into custody on information from the Sinhala villagers that some strangers were seen in the area.
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