Uprooted Mullaiththeevu detainees in Vavuniyaa demand immediate resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 06:40 GMT]
The uprooted civilians from Mullaiththeevu detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Menik Farm camp staged a protest demonstration refusing food in front of the camp Monday demanding the authorities to immediately allow them to resettle in their places in Mullaiththeevu district, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The situation turned tense when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers tried to scare the protestors away but the situation was brought under control due to the efforts of UNHCR personnel, the sources added. The protesters were forced to demand resettlement as living conditions in the camp had worsened due to problems arising between the government administrators in Mullaiththeevu and Vavuinyaa on the issue of the responsibility of looking after the people of Mullaiththeevu.
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6 Village divisions in Mullaiththeevu district declared as HSZ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 06:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka President’s Action Committee and Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence have declared six Village Officer divisions in Mullaiththeevu district as High Security Zone (HSZ) of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Tuesday evening, according to the officials of Mullaiththeevu Government Secretariat. The above authorities have instructed the officials not to permit resettlement of uprooted families in the areas declared as HSZ. Puthukkudiyiruppu East and West, Mallikaiththteevu, Sivanakar, Aananthapuram and Manthuvil are the village officer divisions declared as HSZ.
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Tamil Nadu daily questions lack of solidarity from Indian opposition on ban controversy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 October 2010, 08:21 GMT]
Dinamani, a leading newspaper in Tamil Nadu in its editorial last Friday crticised major opposition political parties in India for not voicing for the Tamil people as the judge presiding over the last three debating sessions of the Special Tribunal to examine the legality of extension of ban on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had rejected any others except the LTTE to present their case while the ban on the LTTE is continously used as a pretext to arrest Tamil activists. The paper also questioned whether the Indian government would guarantee [former] LTTE members [from other countries] to appear before the Tribunal without facing arrest in India and present their case.
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SLA soldiers chase away resettled Tamil families in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 October 2010, 05:41 GMT]
Nearly a hundred Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers chased away Monday night more than fifty Tamil families who had returned after fifteen years to resettle in their lands in Vasanthapuram village in Ma’niam Thoaddam area located within Jaffna Municipal Council limits, sources in Jaffna said. The Sinhala families from South who had recently come to Jaffna seeking resettlement demand to be settled in Ma’niam Thoaddam which they claim as the lands of ancient Sinhala people, the sources added. The uprooted Tamil families had come to their lands Saturday and begun constructing sheds to live in.
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Only 20% of vehicles abandoned during war can be returned to owners

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 October 2010, 05:36 GMT]
Some of the vehicles abandoned by their owners during the war on Vanni are found fit enough to be handed over to the owners, Ki’linochchi Government Agent (GA) said. A team of motor vehicle inspection has identified 2050 motor cycles and 250 vehicles of other types as fit to return, the GA said. The owners have to produce a copy of the complaint made to local police and the documents of ownership to claim their vehicles.
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Sri Lankan state paper highlights 'return' of Tamil refugees from India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 October 2010, 17:32 GMT]
67 refugees who fled to India during the war, have returned on October 21st, 2010, the state owned Dinamina newspaper said Sunday in a front page article. Meanwhile, Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu say they find themselves in a desperate situation either to face a long term genocide in the island by returning to the island to safeguard their lands from the Sinhala Army of colonisation. Informed media circles in Colombo said New Delhi was negotiating with Colombo on returning Tamil refugees.
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Aayiththiyamalai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 October 2010, 07:42 GMT]
The hill of a kind of mineral-rock
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SLA reluctant to disclose information of LTTE detainees in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 October 2010, 06:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army did not disclose the number of ex-combatants of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) still held in the SLA special detention camp located in its High Security Zone in Thellippazhai in Jaffna when it allowed 23 female Liberation Tiger ex-combatants to join their families Friday evening. Sri Lanka Minister of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms D. E. W. Gunasekara who was the chief guest in the Friday event said that the released ex-combatants had undergone vocational training, sources in Jaffna said. However, SLA is reluctant to reveal the number of LTTE ex-combatants still held in the SLA special detainment camp. Families of the detainees still held in the special camp are in a state of anxiety and fear as they do not know of their fate, the sources added.
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Tissainayagam speaks at 2010 Mackler Award ceremony

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 October 2010, 02:31 GMT]
2009 recipient of the prestigious Peter Mackler Award, Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who was incarcerated in Sri Lanka prison for his writing, and was unable to receive the award in 2009, spoke at the 2010 Award ceremony held Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Tissainayagam was announced as the Award's first recipient on August 31, 2009, the same day he was convicted on terrorism charges relating to his work as a journalist. 2010 Mackler award winner is a 24-year old Russian, Ilya Barabanov, the deputy editor of the New Times, an opposition magazine in Russia. Tissainayagam was previously hailed by US President Barack Obama as an "emblematic example" of journalists who are persecuted for their craft.
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Millennium old Tamil inscription found in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 October 2010, 00:53 GMT]
A stone slab having a Tamil inscription, clearly in the alphabet of the Chola times, was found in Trincomalee while digging for cricket stadium construction work recently. The land where it was found is a part of the esplanade, on the right side of the Koa’neasvaram Road leading to the Siva temple inside Fort Frederick and is adjacent to the bay where the temple’s Theerththam (water cutting) ritual is held. Sometimes back, a Buddhist Vihara and another structure called Sanghamitta Buddhist Rest were constructed at this place. The inscribed slab was taken into possession by the Trincomalee police and was sent to the Department of Archaeology in Colombo.
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2000 sq.kms in North remain to be de-mined - SLA

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2010, 09:20 GMT]
More than two thousand square kilometers (sq.km) of land in the Northern Province have to be cleared from land mines. About 1800 sq.kms have been cleared so far, Sri Lanka’s military spokesman Ubaya Madawela claimed.
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Civilians’ gold recovered from Vanni should be returned to them – Mano Ganeshan

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 October 2010, 05:33 GMT]
Commenting on Sri Lanka government’s claim that its troops collected vast amount of gold jewelry during its war on Vanni, Civil Monitoring Commission chief Mano Ganeshan told AFP that, “We don't know where the military found this gold, but what is clear is that it belongs to Tamil civilians." Chief government whip Dinesh Gunawardena told parliament Wednesday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops had collected gold items worth more than four million USD during the final months of the decades-long civil war last year and that they had been handed over to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. “The rightful owners of the gold are Tamil civilians and they should get their property back,” Mano Ganeshan told AFP.
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Tissamaharama Tamil Brahmi inscription ‘missing’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2010, 19:34 GMT]
The third century BCE potsherd inscription in Tamil language and in Tamil Brahmi script found at Tissamaharama in Hambantota district by German excavators is now missing in Sri Lanka’s Archaeology Department, informed sources said. The inscription found sometimes back was not included in the excavation reports of the Archaeology Department. Photo and decipherment of the inscription was brought out by Iravatam Mahadevan in The Hindu in June this year, followed by TamilNet. Meanwhile, accusing TamilNet for false publications, Dr. Susantha Goonatilleke in an article posted by transcurrents.com and published by Daily Mirror said that TamilNet had recently published inscriptions claimed to be from the South of Sri Lanka, which nobody in the Archaeology Department had seen.
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SL government to build star hotels in Vadamaraadchi coast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 October 2010, 10:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka government which had not allowed families uprooted twenty years ago by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to establish its High Security Zone in Vadamaraadchi North has allocated funds for the construction of a star hotel in Kaangkeasanthurai for tourists from the South, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLA in Vadamaraadchi have begun to warn of landmines in Vadamaraadchi area occupied by its personnel. This new move is a scheme to delay the resettlement of the uprooted families in Vadamaraadchi, the representatives of the Welfare Organizations for the Uprooted Families said.
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SL Muslim devotees on Hajj pilgrimage

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 October 2010, 11:50 GMT]
The first charter flight comprising 357 Muslim devotees from Sri Lanka left for the Hajj pilgrimage on October 17th, the state daily, Dinamina newspaper said. According to the news article, a total of 5800 pilgrims from Sri Lanka will be going to Makkah in Saudi Arabia to perform the religious obligation of Hajj, which is one of the main pillars of Islam. This year, the Sri Lanka government has made arrangements to provide concessionary rate packages for all pilgrims in comparison to other years when each pilgrim had to pay as much as Rs. 525,000+ for the holy trip.
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Vadamaraadchi fishermen complain of intrusion by Sinhala fishermen

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 October 2010, 05:29 GMT]
Fishermen in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupied areas in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna peninsula accused the SLA officials for bringing in Sinhala fishermen from South who catch sea cucumber and conch shells in great quantities in the seas of Kudaththanai and Ma’natkaadu where local fishermen are not permitted to fish freely by the SLA. The Sinhala fishermen, numbering from 600 to 800 occupy the houses of local people who are not allowed to resettle in their houses by the SLA authorities, Vadamaraadchi Fishermen Society representatives said.
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Explosive device found along A9 road in Maangku’lam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 October 2010, 18:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials suspended all traffic along A9 road in Maangku’lam Tuesday from 7:00 a.m to 8:30 a.m on finding an unexploded land mine along Mallaavi road from Maangku’lam junction. The vehicles were allowed to resume their journey after the landmine was exploded by SLA soldiers, sources in Vavuniayaa said. This incident had caused tension if Vavuniyaa where Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa was conducting a meeting in Vavuniyaa Joseph Camp of SLA.
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SL Resettlement minister meets Sinahala families claiming resettlement in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 October 2010, 05:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka minister of Resettlement Affairs, Milroy Fernando, on a special directive of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa paid a sudden visit to Jaffna Monday to meet the Sinhala people brought into Jaffna by Sri Lanka government claiming resettlement in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. The minister assured the Sinhala families now lodged in the old Jaffna Railway Station that their problems will be solved within the next three months. Meanwhile, some of the Sinhala families have been allowed to erect shelters in vacant lands adjoining some of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in Jaffna town, the sources added.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa shuns North TNA parliamentarians

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 October 2010, 05:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has failed to invited the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians of the North to a meeting related to ‘Development of North’ in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Joseph Camp Tuesday, deliberately keeping away the elected representatives of the people from participating in the meeting, TNA parliamentarians of North accused. The participation of the elected representatives is crucial as issues of Sinhala colonization in the North, refusal to resettlement of uprooted Tamils in their own properties and similar matters are to be explored in Tuesday meeting, they said. Purposely shunning the democratically elected representatives from participating in decision making meetings by Sri Lanka government reveals how very much it discriminates the Tamils, TNA MPs said.
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SLA, police harass ex LTTE members in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 October 2010, 15:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police personnel collect details of persons who had been members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and ex-combatants who had surrendered themselves and later released in Batticaloa district and use the information to check on them house by house subjecting them to harassment in the name of interrogation, P. Ariyanenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian said. The families of LTTE war heroes are also harassed by the police and SLA soldiers, according to complaints made to him by the affected persons, the MP said.
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