Thalaiyaa'li-veddai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2011, 16:35 GMT]
The open land of the deity Vairavar holding a head on his hand
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Resettlement worker injured in Vanni explosion dies at Jaffna hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 January 2011, 18:46 GMT]
An unidentified device exploded Friday evening at Tharmapuram in Visuvamadu seriously injuring two young housing workers from Vavuniyaa. One of them, 20-year-old Selvarasa Rathan succumbed to his injuries at Jaffna Teaching Hospital around 8:30 p.m. The doctors at Jaffna Teaching Hospital are trying to save the life of the other victim, 19-year-old Nedungncheliyan Ramanan at the intensive care unit of the hospital, medical sources in Jaffna said.
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SL military, southern traders, encourage child labour in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2011, 07:57 GMT]
Children have become scavengers of scrap metal for their livelihood in the war ravaged Vanni and this ‘economic activity’ finds the blessings of occupying military and re-cycling metal traders coming from the south. Damaged and abandoned vehicles, fittings of un-resettled houses and other buildings, and other vestiges of war are targeted for this trade that actively deploys children to collect the metal. Such conditions of child abuse is a direct result of international community conceding a nation ‘conquered’ in a civil war to the genocidal conquerors and its military. None of those who were talking of ‘child soldiers’ earlier come forward to help the situation now, commented an NGO worker in Vanni. He made a particular note of UNICEF inaction.
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Spill water from reservoirs deluge villages in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 January 2011, 09:40 GMT]
With the opening of the floodgates of hundreds of reservoirs, the second largest river in the island, Aruviyaa’ru in spate has deluged many villages in the Mannaar district. Three villages in Madu division, Kugnchukku’lam, Maathaa-kiraamam and Periya-mu’rippu are completely cut off, marooning nearly 1230 villagers of 300 families. A cable-bridge, the only link of the villages with outside is completely inundated in the floodwaters. This never happened before in the last 50 years, people in Mannaar said. The new Government Agent for Mannaar arranged supplies to reach the village through a jungle track, but the crew was yet to reach the villages at the time of this report Thursday night.
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LTTE former commander Yaan's wife witnesses on SLA war crime

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 06:39 GMT]
Bearing witness in front of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) in Maanthai West in Mannaar on Sunday, Mrs R. Mironio, the wife of LTTE's former Mannaar commander Antony Rayappu alias Yaan, said she has not heared from her husband or not told of the whereabouts of him after he surrendered in front of her in SLA controlled territory in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. The surrender was facilitated by facilitated by Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, she said. The priest was also taken with her husband, but noone have heared about them, she said.
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Eyewash LLRC makes even the commission members to doze off

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 January 2011, 03:55 GMT]
LLRC commission members, tired and perhaps sleepless over their own pretentious exercises, were seen dozing off during the session in Mannaar Saturday, when more than 500 gathered to give evidence and many more could not attend due to lack of space in the hall. People were waiting from 8.30 in the morning, the announced time for the session, but the commission members came only at 10.30. The hearing was over by 2.00 PM for the three AGA divisions of Musali, Naanaaddaan and Mannaar Town. 8 witnesses gave evidence and 250 remaining were asked to give their submissions in writing. Meanwhile, representative of Mannaar Tamil Association, V. S. Sivakaran, while giving evidence said that people have lost faith and are suspicious of exercises like LLRC that do not go hand in hand with political initiatives, but on the contrary coupled with more oppression.
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Sinhala encroachment unabated in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2010, 10:36 GMT]
Encroachment of lands belonging to Tamil people goes unabated in several villages in Batticaloa district despite assurances given by M.L.A.M.Hisbullah, a deputy minister for women affairs who also holds the post of chairman of the Batticaloa District Development and Coordinating Committee, and Deputy Minister for Resettlement Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan that they would take immediate action, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP P. Selvarasa charged at the District Development and Coordination (DDC) meeting, sources in Batticaloa Thursday said.
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World Bank backs Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 December 2010, 19:12 GMT]
The Managing Director of the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Saturday said she was granting Sri Lanka with an annual funding of US$465 million from 2011, increasing around 300 million of annual grants by the World Bank. Meanwhile, Political observers in Colombo described the offer by Washington-based Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was attending Central Bank of Sri Lanka's 60th anniversary celebrations, as an attempt by the West to win Colombo that has been extensively borrowing from China. The visiting World Bank director also paid a courtesy visit to the Eastern University in Batticaloa and to Thiraaymadu, a Tamil village affected by 2004 Tsunami, with Sinhala dancers from South.
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Police confirm arrest of two Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 17:22 GMT]
Batticaloa Police said the two brothers, Perinparasa Thavaseelan, 20, and Perinparasa Thirukeswaran, 38, taken into custody by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on Saturday afternoon around 12:30 pm on an allegation that they had hidden weapons in their land at Ma'nippuram-Katpaanaikulam in Aayithimalai Police Division are now detained in Earaa’voor Police Station. Thavaseelan was arrested while he was staying in his house and his brother Thirukeswaran while returning home after handing over milk to the Ilupaiyadichchenai milk collecting centre the same day at Keluthimadu village.
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Iluppaik-kadavai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 01:32 GMT]
The Iluppai tree locality to pass through
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Tamil woman reported missing in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 December 2010, 14:35 GMT]
Jeyaseelan Praveena, 27, of Kuruma'nkaadu in Vavuniyaa district has been reported missing since Tuesday morning. Praveena who was employed as a management assistant in the Vavuniyaa District Secretariat, left for work on Tuesday morning but her mother was informed by the Secretariat officials that her daughter had not reported for work till 9.30 am the same day, according to the complaint lodged with the Vavuniyaa Police by her mother, Mahendrarani Jeyaseelan.
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More than 100,000 persons affected by rain in the North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 13:39 GMT]
More than hundred thousand people were affected by rain in Jaffna, Mannaar, Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu district, according to civil society sources in the Northern province. Menik Farm camp used as an internment camp to hold Tamil civilians, is surrounded by flood. More than 20,000 remaining refugees have been struggling with toilets submerged in flood. Dengue and malaria are spreading rapidly, according to medical sources.
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Colombo’s heritage minister sees ‘multi-religious’ institutes in Trinco, Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2010, 22:55 GMT]
Hindu temples like Thirukeatheesvaram in Maanthai, Mannaar and Thirukoa’neasvaram in Trincomalee were identified as multi-religious institutes and steps were being taken to name them as World Heritage sites, said Colombo’s National Heritage Minister Jagath Balasuriya, addressing officials of the five departments under him and media in his ministry Tuesday, according to Daily News. Colombo is yet to declare the Dalada Maligawa complex in Kandy where temples for Siva, Vishnu, Murukan, Ka’n’naki and also Dadi Mu’nda are found as a multi-religious institute. There are a large number of sites in the south, such as Devinuvara (Dondra Head) waiting to be declared as multi-religious institutes.
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Ira'naimadu tank spills due to heavy rain

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 05:55 GMT]
Ira'naimadu irrigation tank in Ki'linochchi district, currently under control of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), has reached 28.6 inches above its spill level of 28 feet following one week continuous rain, sources in Vanni said. Due to efforts taken by the agricultural sector organizations in the district to ensure the safety of the tank, sluice gates had been opened on December 3 to release the excess water.
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Japan provides US$15m grant for Sri Lanka road construction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 12:18 GMT]
Japanese officials signed a 1.2 billion Japanese Yen, approx. LKR 1.6 billion, grant agreement to reconstruct five bridges in the Eastern Province, at the Ministry of Finance on 25 November 2010, Sri Lanka media reported Thursday. Under the grant agreement, four bridges between Padiyathalawa and Ea'raavoor on the A5 in Maha Oya and Ea'raavoorpaththu DS Divisions, and the panichchangkea'ni bridge and causeway on the A15 (Trincomalee-Batticaloa Road) will be reconstructed.
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SLA holds leader of protestors under house arrest in Karaichchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 10:33 GMT]
More than ten Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arriving Thursday around 11:00 a.m at the house of the President of Oottuppulam Rural Development Society (RDS), who led the protest demonstration Wednesday demanding the cancellation of the sudden transfer of Karaichchi Divisional Secretary on the instructions of SLA authorities, continue to hold him under house arrest surrounding his house, sources in Ki’linochchi said. The president who is held under house arrest was to lead a hunger strike in front of Ki’linochchi Government Agent’s office Thursday along with nine other RDS presidents and a large number of civilians until the transfer order issued to the Divisional Secretary was cancelled.
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Kadugannawa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 06:54 GMT]
The fierce mountain pass
The mountain pass at the frontier
The mountain pass to traverse

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I'lavaalai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 23:07 GMT]
The small hamlet
The new hamlet
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Rural dispensaries in Batticaloa district closed

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 08:34 GMT]
Rural dispensaries in Thiraaymadu, Paalameenmadu, Naavatkudaa, Vavu'natheevu, Koaddaimunai, Maiyilaveddavaanan and Unnichchai in the Batticaloa district have been closed due to acute shortage of physical resources. Some of them are located in the resettled villages, Unnichchai, Mailavedduwan and Vavu'natheevu, Vaakarai, Karadiyanaa'ru and Maavadichchenai rural hospitals in the district are also likely to be closed due to lack of physical resources, medical sources said.
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Sarvodaya officials in North accused of swindle

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 08:47 GMT]
The farmers among the resettled families in Vanni accuse the officials of Sarvodaya for having sold them inferior quality seeds at a high price making huge profits for themselves, sources in Vanni said. The Sarvodaya officials buying black grams and other grains whole sale in Colombo market at low prices sell them in packets as quality seeds at high prices, the sources added. Meanwhile, the agricultural implements issued to the resettled people in Vanni are found to be of poor quality and unsuitable for use in Vanni, the sources said. The people of Vanni already rendered destitute by the war on Vanni are further cheated by unscrupulous men in organizations like Sarvodaya, the sources in Vanni said.
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