Sri Lanka turning Manik Farm camp into permanent ‘city’ - report

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 12:11 GMT]
Despite assuring the international community that most Tamils interned in militarized detention camps would be resettled by the end 2009, the Sri Lankan government is turning Manik Farm, the largest barbed-wire ringed site, into a permanent detention centre, The Times newspaper reported Friday. Tamil refugees are being used as forced labour, UN sources told the paper. Aid workers say the site was fast becoming Sri Lanka’s second biggest city after the capital, Colombo. Whilst Sri Lanka blames mines for preventing resettlement, foreign demining agencies say that they have been given access so far to only about 30 sq km of the former Vanni conflict zone.
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Kohona: ‘Victorious soldiers could have raped every single woman’

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials are running a prostitution racket using Tamil women interned in at least one of the militarised camps for displaced people, The Australian newspaper reported Thursday. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the paper. In response to the accusations, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona told the paper: "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped."
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Jaffna residents demand back money, jewelry from Central bank

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 July 2009, 16:30 GMT]
Representatives of civil organizations, NGOs, Traders’ Circle and other participants requested the President of Bank of Ceylon, Dr. Gamini Wickremasinghe, to expedite the return of all the money and jewelry belonging to Jaffna residents taken to the Central Bank in Colombo in 1996 for safe keeping, Wednesday evening at Uroville Hall in Muththirai Chanthai in Nalloor. Mr Wickremasinghe was presiding a seminar titled "The role of Bank of Ceylon in the Development of Northern Province," when the demand was made, sources in Jaffna said.
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3 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2009, 09:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) in Colombo took into custody Wednesday three Tamil civilians staying in a lodge located in Kotahena, sources in Colombo said. The arrested civilians are suspected to be escaped detainees from one of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, the sources added.
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IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area evicted

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living on Sri Lanka government railway properties since they were evicted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) twenty years ago from their residences in Valikaamam North, were forced to leave Tuesday to leave their temporary shelters in railway crossings, stations and officers’ quarters as the dead line to quit being 30 June, sources in Jaffna said. The government officials and SLA officers who were very keen to evict the families had not provided any alternate place for them to move in, the families complained.
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51 Moothoor IDP families return to Killiveddy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 12:48 GMT]
Two hundred and one members of fifty one Tamil families who were displaced from Moothoor east three years ago following a military operation launched on their traditional villages by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), and who stayed in temporary shelters located in Maavadivembu and Palachcholai in Batticaloa district, were brought to Killiveddy via Vaaharai Tuesday morning in seven buses of the government transport service with state security, sources said.
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120 IDP girls handed over to children home in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2009, 15:58 GMT]
One hundred and twenty nine Internally Displaced girls have been handed over to Arulaham Children Home run by Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil management on the orders of Vavuniyaa District Court from one of several camps described by humanitarian agencies as “internment camps” located in Vavuniyaa. These children will be under the direct supervision of the Department of Probation and Child Care, according to the court order.
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Jaffna Muslim IDPs should be resettled soon – Muslim contestant in JMC election

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2009, 15:34 GMT]
“While welcoming the government’s interest in resettling the displaced Vanni civilians in their original places we request that it should also take action to resettle the Muslims displaced from Jaffna soon,” Ahamed Sulthan Subiyan, the president of Jaffna Muslim IDPs Association and the independent contestant in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, said in a press meet held Monday in his newly opened election office in Jaffna town.
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US warns against travel to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 June 2009, 13:49 GMT]
The United States this week Saturday warned “American citizens traveling to or living in Sri Lanka about the potential for continued instability, including possible terrorist attacks.” Despite Sri Lanka’s announcement of victory over the Tamil Tigers, the remnants of the LTTE remained and Sri Lanka’s “security posture remains heightened.” The US especially warned against travel to the North and East, given the “possibility of renewed [LTTE] insurgency” and the continued activity by government-backed paramilitaries in the Northeast. "In some cases, foreigners of Sri Lankan origin may be detained without their embassy being notified," the statement said. "The activities of journalists, researchers, aid workers, and volunteers receive particular attention," the release added.
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Tamil aid ship condition ‘critical’ despite Indian assurance

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 June 2009, 00:40 GMT]
Despite the Indian government’s statement that the Sri Lankan government had relented on its refusal to allow the aid ship sent by Tamil expatriates to dock in Colombo harbour and that the supplies for Tamil refugees would be offloaded by the Indian Red Cross, there has been no action at all, the organisers of the mercy mission said Friday. In an urgent press release, they said the MV ‘Captain Ali’ has been at sea for 51 days and the condition of its crew and passengers is now critical.
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Jaffna GA seeks contesting parties' cooperation in JMC election

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 17:38 GMT]
”If the contestants in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election need security measures for their safety they can request the Jaffna Secretariat authorities and the requests, if deemed genuine, will be considered favourably in consultation with the Election Commissioner,” Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, informed in the press meet held Thursday evening following the submission of nomination lists. “Our aim is to conduct the election in an independent and free atmosphere and we request the contesting parties to immediately notify of any election violence so that we could take necessary action,” the GA added.
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9,247 Vanni elderly IDPs handed over to Social Welfare Ministry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
The Ministry of Social Welfare Monday took over the maintenance and care of nine thousand two hundred and forty seven elderly internally displaced persons of over sixty years of age from Vanni from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa. The lists of names of these elderly IDPs are now exhibited in the offices of the Ministry of Social Offices located in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa, media reports said.
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IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area ordered to leave

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 17:26 GMT]
The president of the Federation of Jaffna Non-government Organizations (NGOs), C. V. K. Sivagnanam, requested Jaffna Government Agent (GA) not to evict immediately the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), numbering around a hundred families, living in camps on the railway track area in Jaffna since the time they were thrown out of their residences in Valikaamam North which were declared High Security Zones (HSZ) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in 1990, sources in Jaffna said.
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Lifting curfew in Jaffna peninsula not possible – SLA Commander

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 June 2009, 12:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander of Jaffna, Major Gen. Mendaka Samarasinghe, in response to a request made in the conference held Saturday at Minister Douglas Devananda’s office in Jaffna, said that it is not possible to lift the night curfew imposed in Jaffna peninsula immediately as it would affect law and order, sources in Jaffna said.
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Police collect details of Eastern province IDPs staying in Vavuniyaa camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 15:15 GMT]
Special police teams have been collecting names and other details of internally displaced persons who are permanent residents of three districts of the eastern province- Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai and currently being kept in internment camps located in Vavuniyaa. Hundreds of IDPs of eastern province have been held captives by the Sri Lankan forces in Vanni at the end of the war.
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Outbreak of chicken pox, hepatitis reported in internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 15:12 GMT]
Outbreak of chickenpox and hepatitis reported from internment camps located in Vavuniyaa where hundred of thousands of internally displaced people from Vanni have been sheltered. More than twelve thousand inmates are reported to have been still suffering from chickenpox. 40 to 50 fresh cases of chickenpox are reported daily.
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25 elderly refugees sheltered in Vavuniyaa Home die in one month

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 10:47 GMT]
Twenty five elderly Tamil refugees affected by the war and the conditions prevailing in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa died in one month after being shifted to an elders’ home run by Vavuniyaa Koayilku'lam Sivan Koayil administration. Two more IDPs have been warded in the Vavuniyaa general hospital due to deterioration of their health, according to the sources at the District Secretariat.
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CPA’s FR petition regarding IDPs fixed for further inquiry

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 11:25 GMT]
The Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the curtailment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) interned in the camps located in Vavuniyaa was listed for further inquiry on July 10 following the application made by the State Counsel that he needed more time to obtain instruction from the Attorney General. The FR petition came up for inquiry Thursday before a three member Bench of the Supreme Court, legal sources said.
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Basil's Jaffna meet fails to discuss people in internment camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:02 GMT]
The meeting meant to explore possibilities of the resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 13,000 Vanni civilians held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Jaffna, held under tight security in Jaffna Public Library Thursday ended without any significant decisions regarding the issue concerned, Government officials who attended the meeting said. The venue of the meeting which was to be held in Jaffna Secretariat was changed at the last moment to Jaffna Public Library due to security reasons, the sources said. Even the pens carried by the officials were subjected to checking.
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Court directs Colombo to grant permission to camp visit by MPs

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 03:28 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Supreme Court directed the State Counsel to seek permission from the Defence Secretary to grant permission to Members of Parliament to visit the camps occupied by the internally displaced persons in a Fundamental Rights petition filed by members of SL Parliament. The petitioner MPs said that they had sought permission from the relevant authorities to visit the IDP camps and the hospitals in Mannaar, Vavuniyaa and other places that house the civilians who had fled the war zone and surrendered to the Sri Lankan forces, but permission has not been granted.
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