500 Vanni IDPs to be settled in the islets of Jaffna against their wish

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 05:05 GMT]
500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vaviniyaa were brought to Jaffna Monday and efforts are being made to settle them in the abandoned houses in the islets of Jaffna that are in the full control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), sources in Jaffna said. In the name of resettlement Vanni IDPs are being just relocated from the internment camps in Vavuniya against their wish to another area which is strictly controlled by another armed force, the SLN, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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Unsuitable food for malnourished children in Vavuniyaa camps – Indian doctor

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 September 2009, 11:13 GMT]
Malnourished children in the camps for the Internally Displaced (IDPs) from Vanni and held in the camps in Vavuniyaa are being provided with unsuitable food for consumption, which could make their condition deteriorate further, according to Dr. Bose, an Indian doctor providing medical assistance to the IDPs, sources in Colombo said.
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US bemoans Sri Lanka inaction on camps, reconciliation

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 09:02 GMT]
The United States this week criticised the Sri Lankan government’s continued internment of hundreds of thousands of Tamils and Colombo’s not taking steps towards a political reconciliation. “President Rajapaksa did meet on Monday with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance, but in general there have been few other concrete steps to re-unite the country and begin to heal the wounds of a long war in such a way that all Sri Lankans feel they enjoy equal rights and opportunities,” US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said Wednesday.
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Remove SLA camps, HSZ, checkpoints from NE - Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 September 2009, 05:19 GMT]
R. Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), told parliament Thursday that the government could not cite any reason for the delay in resettling hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Tamils in their own places in Vanni region. "High Security Zones (HSZs) should be removed from the north and east. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and check points should be dismantled immediately to restore normalcy in the provinces," Mr.Sampanthan said while speaking in parliament Thursday opposing the motion moved by the Government of Sri Lanka to extend the State of Emergency for another month.
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TNA's meeting with Rajapaksa fails to resolve IDP crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 September 2009, 12:24 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ministers Monday evening at Temple Trees on the issue of resettling Vanni IDPs in their own places, said that the talks ended in failure as Mr. Rajapaksa evaded the main issue by saying resettlement of Vanni IDPs is not immediately possible as demining in Vanni has to be completed before resettlement. The urgent request to resettle the Vanni IDPs in Vavuniyaa internment camps before the monsoon rains was not given any due consideration by Rajapaksa and his ministers, TNA parliamentarians said.
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Continuing misery of Sri Lanka's camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 17:16 GMT]
Two months after Aljazeera compiled a dossier of information highlighting what the broadcaster described as “shocking and disturbing” conditions in Sri Lanka’s militarised internment camps, nothing has changed. Reporting in late July, Aljazeera noted that what the Colombo government calls “welfare camps”, critics have called “the world’s biggest open air prison”. TamilNet is revisiting Aljazeera’s July report, which set out the substantial material about camp conditions compiled by the broadcaster despite the govenrment’s restrictions, to highlight the ongoing misery of the camps’ inmates.
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3 foreign Bishops visit Vavuniyaa IDP camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 11:44 GMT]
Bishop Monsvlovnni Battista from Italy and Bishop John Stanley Arnold and Bishop John Anthony Rawsthrone from the United Kingdom (UK) during the weekend visited the camps in the Menik farm and in Cheddiku'lam in Vavuniyaa where hundreds of thousands internally displaced people are held. The Caritas of Sri Lanka had organized the visit.
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Monthly 400 births in Vavuniyaa Menik IDP camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:04 GMT]
Four hundred babies are born every month in the internment camps at Menik Farm where nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians are held in Vavuniya district, and they are in need of considerable assistance and care, according to Sarvodaya leader Dr A. T. Ariyaretna. He presented the statistics when he was making a commemorative address in honour of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, at the SEDEC centre, Colombo Saturday.
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Vanni IDPs in camps seek HRCSL help to locate missing relative

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 14:09 GMT]
Vavuniyaa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) receives twenty-five to thirty written complaints daily by post from internally displaced inmates held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, according to an HRCSL official. The official further said IDPs held in camps or members of public who are expecting the services of his institution regarding locating missing relatives in the final stages of the war could write to HRCSL office located along Railway Station Road in Vavuniyaa or by telephone. The telephone number is 024-2222029.
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Liam Fox meets Mahinda Rajapakse, Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 11:35 GMT]
The government of United Kingdom (UK) is seriously involved in finding a political solution to the legitimate aspirations of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the early resettlement of the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced as well as ensuring a better future for them, Mr. Liam Fox, British Conservative Party parliamentarian, is reported to have told President Mahinda Rajapakse when he met the latter on Saturday.
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Colombo suspends releasing Trinco internees from Menik farm

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 15:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka authorities, without prior notice and without citing any reason, have suspended Saturday, a planned release of a group of 600 persons out of about 3,000 internally displaced persons who are residents of Trincomalee district and fled from Vanni and currently being interned in military supervised Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa to their own villages, civil sources in Vavuniyaa told media. More than 300,000 Tamil civilians are currently being held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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IDPs from the islets of Jaffna allowed to resettle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 06:20 GMT]
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Veala’nai, Allaippiddi and Ma’nkumpaan in the islets of Jaffna displaced due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives in 2006 and presently staying in Jaffna town had to wait for a long time at Duraippah Stadium Thursday as Basil Rajapakse, Senior Advisor to the President, failed to turn up as scheduled to participate in the event of resettling the IDPs in their own villages, sources in Jaffna said. Local government officials later sent the IDPs to their villages in buses.
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British Conservative party MP Liam Fox visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 05:44 GMT]
Liam Fox, British Conservative Party shadow Defence Secretary accompanied by his advisor W. Adams, visited Jaffna Friday where he met the representatives of civil and religious societies at Jaffna Bishop House around 2:15 p.m. “A just political solution to Tamils’ problems should be the first concern and not development,” the representatives told the visiting emissary, sources in Jaffna said. Liam Fox later met Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh at Jaffna Secretariat. The representative who met Liam Fox said that he showed a keen interest in finding out the true situation of the Tamils, the sources added.
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Tamil youth shot, injured identified as an IDP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:44 GMT]
The Tamil civilian shot and injured on Wednesday night in Ka’luwaangkear’ni in Batticaloa district has been identified as 27-year-old Nadarajah Baskaran who returned from Vavuniyaa internment camp for resettlement in his native village.
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Chauvinism and greed 'naked' in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:07 GMT]
It was frightening to see the combined effect of naked chauvinism of Sri Lanka and naked greed of powers, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo responding to the video clip displayed Tuesday. “Such a trend in the establishments is a challenge to every lay human being of the civilized world. While rising up to free people in the internment camps is a spontaneous response, what is of paramount importance is independent political organisation of Tamils in order to meet the challenge of the same forces that are now coercing or enticing them to drop righteous aspirations. Tamils are not asking for other’s land or for empires. They only ask for their own land and there is nothing to get scared or to feel ashamed of. As people of classical heritage, if Tamils fail, they fail not merely their cause but an entire human civilization,” he writes commenting on current Tamil affairs.
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Switzerland ‘deplores’ block on Tamils’ movement, donates essential drugs

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 August 2009, 01:05 GMT]
Announcing its third donation of essential drugs of the Tamils confined in Sri Lanka’s militarised camps, Switzerland Thursday “deplore[d] the continued lack of freedom of movement” for those in the camps and appealed for Colombo to cooperate with the international community and allow humanitarian actors access to the people “rapidly and without hindrance.” Although the press release by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) referred to the people held in the barbwire ringed camps as "Sri Lankan civilians," they are in fact all Tamils - comprising the population of the northern Vanni region.
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Thenmaraadchi farmers to be allowed to resume cultivation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 06:45 GMT]
An event, where the farmers of Thenmaraadchi who had been refused permission to cultivate their lands in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Thenmarraadchi for nearly ten years are to be allowed to resume cultivation Thursday, has been announced by Sri Lanka government. Meanwhile, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Allaippiddi who had fled their village due to SLA artillery attacks in August 2006 and now living in Jaffna town have been asked to be present at Duraippah Stadium Thursday to participate in an event where action will be taken to resettle them, according to another announcement. Basil Rajapakse, parliamentarian and Senior Advisor to the President, Northern Province Governor, G. A. Chandrasiri and Minister of Social Services, Douglas Devananda, will be present at both events, the announcements said.
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Camp children at risk of sexual abuse, trafficking - NGO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 00:38 GMT]
Noting the specific risks faced by children amongst the hundreds of thousands of people confined in Sri Lanka’s militarized concentration camps, ChildFund Australia on Wednesday launched a fundraising appeal to protect the youngsters. "Children who have been orphaned or separated from their families are particularly vulnerable, facing an increased risk of malnutrition, disease, sexual exploitation, abduction and trafficking," ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence said. The money raised by ChildFund Australia's Sri Lanka appeal will be used, among other things, to provide children with “survival skills”, the NGO said: “Children will be taught survival and safety skills to help protect themselves from sexual abuse, violence and life-threatening diseases.”
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Opposition MPs denied access to Vavuniyaa IDP camps due to political motives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 11:45 GMT]
“Government denies permission to opposition parliamentarians to visit the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vavuniyaaa IDP camps as it intends to forcibly get their 175,000 votes in the future Presidential and Parliamentary elections,” members of Human Rights Committee of Sri Lanka opposition parliamentarians said in a press conference held Wednesday morning in Colombo. “Our committee will complain against the government on this issue to the International Committee of Parliamentarians,” they further said.
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Court fixes inquiry into petition by opposition parties to visit IDP camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 17:23 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday fixed the inquiry for September 29 into the petition filed by the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) seeking the court to order the government to allow opposition parliamentarians to visit “internment camps” located in Vavuniyaa where hundreds of thousands of Vanni internally displaced people are detained against their wish.
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