Chellach Channithi Temple Chariot festival held

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 August 2010, 07:35 GMT]
Thousands of devotees from all parts of Sri Lanka took part in the annual Thear (Chariot) festival Monday of the historic Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru Chellach Channithi Murukan temple located to west of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone in Valikaamam North. During war SLA soldiers had set fire to the properties of the temple worth millions of rupees. The temple had been restored to its original state recently, sources in Jaffna said
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Gangs of thieves from South invade Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 August 2010, 15:45 GMT]
Jaffna district Superintendent of Police (SP), Neville Pathmadeva, said that gangs of thieves and robbers had infiltrated into Jaffna peninsula from the Southern parts of Sri Lanka with the motive of stealing and robing during the Hindu temple annual festival season which has begun in Jaffna peninsula according to information received by him, in a press meet he held in Jaffna town Sunday. Meanwhile, local NGOs circles said that deserters from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are the key persons in these gangs who befriend the SLA soldiers located in Jaffna peninsula to get information and particulars from them to rob houses in the peninsula.
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SLA tightens grip on Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 07:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLN) occupying Jaffna peninsula has begun constructing permanent sentry posts and mini camps on the main junctions along the key roads in Jaffna peninsula in haste, sources said. Meanwhile, the SLA soldiers posted inside Jaffna Teaching Hospital and around it refuse to withdraw despite the requests of hospital administration, hospital sources said. Civil society circles in Jaffna said that SLA intends to keep Jaffna peninsula in its tight grip and is engaged in strengthening its presence in strategic places.
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3 Sinhala traders knifed, injured in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 17:26 GMT]
A gang of eight men arriving on bicycles inflicted injuries with swords on three Sinhala traders Monday around 7:15 p.m. in Kokkuvil in Jaffna where they were selling furniture along Aadiyapaatham road, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna police rushed two seriously injured men to Jaffna Teaching Hospital. The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers who were at the place following the incident told news reporters that the attack was not based on Sinhala-Tamil ethnic rivalry. Meanwhile, unidentified persons had set fire to a shop of a Sinhala trader in the same area recently, the sources added.
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Revisiting Sinhala nationalist mindset

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 00:15 GMT]
As long as Sinhala nationalist mindset deny the antiquity and right of Eezham Tamil nation in the island and unable to come out with appropriate political models, no ‘reconciliation’ will be possible and there will be only subjugation. The Tamils don’t deny the Sinhala nation in the island but they are not reciprocated. It has become a must that the national question be decided with secession for any genuine reconciliation at least in the future. The ‘kohomba kankariya’ model of the past envisaged by some academics, who want to be ‘Tamil and Sri Lankan,’ will not work under current norms of Sinhala nationalism. If the current subjugation of Tamils continues there won’t be anyone in the island in future even to read what these academics have written in Tamil, says an academic of Tamil studies in Jaffna.
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SLA imposes new restrictions on resettled families in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 August 2010, 05:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni has instructed the resettled families not to allow anyone other than the family members to stay with them and not to offer food, sources in Vanni said. The restriction causes great difficulty for the relatives and friends of the resettled families who come a long way from Vavuniyaa, Jaffna and other places to visit them. Meanwhile, a large number of army uniforms had gone missing recently in one of the SLA camps in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, the sources said.
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Youth abducted in Valikaamam escapes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 04:35 GMT]
Two unidentified men stopped a youth on motorcycle Tuesday night in Thellippazhai, located next to the High Security Zone (HSZ) of occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Valikaamam North and abducted him on his motorcycle. The youth managed to escape the abductors and sought protection at Thellippazhai police station, sources in Thellippazhai said. The men could not have abducted the youth without the knowledge of the SLA soldiers present in the place, the sources said.
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SLA in Vanni harass hapless resettled families

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 August 2010, 19:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni are forcibly evacuating resettled uprooted families from their houses and lands on charges that they are supporters of Liberation Tigers and demand money to be allowed to live in their properties which they have managed to make livable, according to many complaints made to Vavuniyaa Human Rights Commission (HRC) office. The complainants, mainly women whose male members of their families had been killed or arrested and detained by SLA, say that members of certain organizations who maintain close relations with SLA soldiers assist them in this racket in which local SLA officers get a major share. In order to exhort money the SLA soldiers claim that the lands are needed for their own use.
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Devotees not permitted to stay overnight to continue rituals in Keerimalai temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 06:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula did not allow thousands of Hindu devotees Monday night to continue the religious rituals to their ancestors in the historically famous Keerimalai Nakuleasvaram temple located in the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North, sources in Jaffna said. The residents of this area, evacuated 20 years ago by SLA have not been permitted to resettle in their own properties which are under SLA occupation. Earlier in April, SLA had put up notices that no one should pollute the temple pond and the seas around as the area has been declared as a tourist spot. This infringement on religious rights had angered the devotees who gather to perform rites which had been observed by Hindus through ages.
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SLA exploits Chinese funds meant for resettlement of uprooted Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2010, 07:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni is exploiting funds donated by China for the resettlement of uprooted Vanni people to construct permanent housing schemes for its personnel, in Kokkaavil, located west of A9 road in Vanni, civil society organizations in K'linochchi said. Uprooted civilians forcibly taken by SLA soldiers to work in the constructions said that even two storey buildings are under construction in an area where new roads have been laid. Meanwhile, around 3,000 uprooted families, brought to be resettled in Vanni by Sri Lanka government, continue to live under trees left abandoned while Sri Lanka government exploits international assistance meant for them to settle Sinhalese families from South, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said.
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Fate of teenage students disappeared during war on Vanni remains unknown

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 05:20 GMT]
At least a thousand of the persons disappeared during Sri Lanka government’s war on Vanni are students below the age of eighteen and their families, mostly mothers, have begun a desperate search for their children gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the end of the war, Education Department sources in Ki’linochchi said. Sri Lanka government has failed to disclose the particulars of the teenage students who had either surrendered or been arrested while humanitarian organizations responsible for tracing persons disappeared have no information on them, the sources added.
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SLA interrogates resettled people in K’linochchi following JVP delegation’s visit

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 15:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers interrogated the residents of Kavuthaarimunai in Poonakari in Ki’linochchi Friday immediately after a delegation of Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had visited them, Socialist Youth Association (SYA), a front organization of the JVP, claimed in a media statement. The delegation met the resettled people to learn first hand about the true conditions under which they were living.
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SLA conducts search operation in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 16:04 GMT]
Atleast six hundred soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducted a house to house search in Onththachchimadam in Batticaloa district from Sunday morning for several hours. Tension prevailed among residents of the village when the soldiers surrounded the village without allowing any one to leave their houses, sources in Batticaloa said.
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NGOs consider withdrawing from Vanni as Sri Lanka tightens restrictions

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Some International and Local Non-government organizations (NGOs) serving in Vanni consider leaving Vanni as Sri Lanka government’s restrictions to stay and serve in Vanni are tightened. Permission from President’s Task Force (PTF), headed by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother and Sri Lanka Minister, Basil Rajapaksa for NGOs has been a prerequisite to assist the war affected people in Vanni. In addition to this now Sri Lanka government requires the NGOs serving in Vanni to obtain permission from Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence (MoD) and renew same monthly if they wish to be in Vanni and serve its people, a representative of a local NGO in Vanni said.
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SLA soldiers continue to plunder abandoned houses in Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 17:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers continue to plunder the valuable properties abandoned by the uprooted residents of the coastal area from Naakarkoayil to Chu’ndikku’lam in Vadmaraadchi East, a team of officials which had visited the area recently said. Only Naakarkoayil and its surroundings had been affected by war while the people and their properties in the rest of the vast area had not been greatly affected as the war did not take place in their area. These people, uprooted when SLA began to invade Naakarkoayil and Mukamaalai during the offensive on Vanni, had fled leaving all their belongings. It is this area that is now being plundered by SLA soldiers and Southern traders allowed into the area by SLA authorities, the officials further said.
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SLA soldiers sexually abuse resettled women in Mannar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 22:38 GMT]
Young women recently released from Vavuniyaa internment camps and resettled in Mannar district are living in fear of their life, and are living are being sexually abused by members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying the Mannar area, sources in Mannar said.. Parents of the women undergoing harassment are unable to make official complaints because of fear of retribution, and are relocating, in increasing numbers, their daughters to relatives' houses located elsewhere for safety, civil sources from resettled areas say.
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SLA forces resettled civilians in Ki’linochchi to vacate dwellings

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2010, 06:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Ki’linochchi are forcing the resettled civilians in Selvaanakar Eight Houses Scheme to vacate their houses claiming that their houses are built on private land, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni parliamentarian Sritharan said. He added that SLA soldiers entering the Scheme during nights in the last few days have been attacking the men, women and children in the housing scheme indiscriminately. The above families, whose heads are disabled, are so scared and frustrated that they consider suicide to escape SLA intimidation and harassment, Sritharan said.
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SLA soldiers plunder produce of civilians in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers intimidate the resettled civilians in Paduvaankarai area in Batticaloa district and take away their home produce without paying money, according to complaints made by the affected civilians to Sri Lanka government authorities. Despite complaints to government officials the SLA soldiers continue to rob the poor civilians of what they had managed to produce as no action has been taken on them, sources in Batticaloa said.
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SLA installs Buddha statute in Tamil village in Mannaar district

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 July 2010, 15:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers have installed a Buddha statute in Pa’ndivirichchaan, a traditional Tamil village two km from Madu St. Mary’s Church in Madu Assistant Government Agent division in Mannaar district. Residents uprooted during SLA offensive two year back have been recently resettled in Pa’ndivirichchaan.
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SL government intends to keep Jaffna in SLA grip

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 17:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has speeded up constructing several new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and bases around Jaffna town. Hundreds of SLA soldiers are working day and night constructing a big base on the coastal area government land between Pa’n’nai and Kurunakar, sources in Jaffna said. A big SLA base is already under construction in Meenaadchipuram in Pa’n’nai area and another important base in Jaffna Fort. Meanwhile, though it had been announced that the private properties occupied by SLA 512 Division in Jaffna town are to be located elsewhere so far nothing in that direction has been done. Jaffna is being swiftly converted into a garrison town of SLA encircled by camps and bases, the sources added.
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